by Vince Byrd
“No, I thought that was pushing my believability. Did you tell Thomas?” Henry whispered.
“Yes, I told them. I didn’t want to heap on more grief, but felt like I should.”
“Jesse, they’re lives are shattered now, it would have been a lot worse for them if they didn’t know.”
“I know. All of our lives are shattered. I just want to get home. I can’t tell everyone I come in contact with, though. We have to wonder ourselves how accurate that account really is. I have no idea where Paige is or if she’s even made it home. My son Jacob is God-knows-where overseas,” Jesse shifted to his own worries.
“God does know, and we all have our problems, but didn’t you say, ‘they’re good people’? You done your responsibility,” Henry reminded.
“Yeah, but it didn’t make me feel any better, and I don’t know how many more I’m willing tell.”
“Doing the right thing sometimes is not easy.”
“Preach!” Jesse agreed.
***
Jesse took the yellow paper pad and black pen and wrote down what Sheriff Ted had asked. He explained in detail the events leading up to their meeting. Seven pages later, he dropped the pad on the floor with the pen. He laid down on the metal bench on his side, drew up his knees, and fell asleep. Henry sat down beside him, leaned his head back against the block wall and dozed off as well. Thomas sat on the floor and leaned against the bars staring at the candle’s flame.
A long time had passed, and one of the candles on one of the desks had burned out. Nothing was left but a pool of cooling wax, and after a while, the center turned from clear to white. The room got a little dimmer than it already was. The sunlight square that had shone on the floor from the door window had disappeared completely. Suddenly the office became brighter, and then the light vanished again as the door was opened and closed.
Jesse was startled awake from the noise of the door slamming shut, and he sat up.
Thomas was already standing, peering to see who had entered and hoping it was Ted to come set them free. “Hello!” a girl’s voice sounded.
“Hello!” Thomas called back.
A young girl about ten came into view slowly, as she approached with caution. She looked around the office and didn’t see any officers and asked, “Where’s the policemen?”
“They’re out working,” Thomas answered. “What do you need?”
“My daddy and I found a policeman wrecked, and he needs help. He’s bleeding. My daddy told me run to the police station and get help,” she explained.
Jesse quickly stepped to the bars and said, “I’m a medic, and I can help the policeman, but you will have to find the keys to let us out.”
She just looked at them for a moment and said, “You’re crooks; I can’t let you out.” She turned and ran back out the door.
“It was worth a try,” Thomas noted, patting Jesse on the back. They all settled in again for more waiting. Several minutes later the door opened again.
The little girl ran back in and said, “Where are the keys? There is no one else.”
“Try a desk drawer,” Jesse called.
She turned and saw the guns lying on the desk. She reached out her hand and touched the stock of Thomas’ rifle. “Don’t touch that!” Thomas cautioned. The little girl jerked her hand back and looked at Thomas. “I’m sorry, sweetie, for yelling, but guns are dangerous, and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. Can you just find the keys so we can help the policeman?”
She checked several drawers and found a wad of keys lying in the bottom of one. She grabbed them and brought them to Thomas. He flipped them over and over, hunting the one that he thought might fit the cell door. Jesse and Henry stood there watching him with anticipation. He tried several and then finally one turned the lock, and it clicked open. He pushed the door open, and they stepped out.
Jesse holstered his pistol, and Thomas picked up his rifle. Henry opened a file cabinet drawer and pulled out his 9mm pistol where he saw Sheriff Ted secure it. “Where’s the policeman? Show us the way,” Jesse urged.
The girl ran out the door, and they followed with Thomas bringing up the rear. He stopped and looked back to see if the go-carts were in the parking lot. He saw the radiator and hoses sitting against the wall several feet from the door. “Jesse!” he called.
Jesse and Henry stopped and turned back to Thomas. The girl stopped several yards ahead of them and shouted, “Come on!”
Jesse ran up to the parts and grabbed the radiator. Thomas grabbed the hoses, and they took off again, following the girl. After several minutes of jogging, the girl stopped on the road and pointed. They caught up to her to see Sheriff Ted’s Bronco turned over down an embankment, lying upside down with the tires pointing toward the sky. Ted was lying on the ground next to the car, and the little girl’s dad was on his knees beside him, applying pressure to his upper shoulder and neck area.
Her dad looked up and spotted them, “Hey! Help! He’s bleeding badly! Kennedy, you stay there where I can see you!”
Jesse set the radiator down. Bending at the edge, he carefully scooted on his bottom, sliding down the embankment followed by Thomas. “Is he conscious?” Jesse asked when he reached the bottom.
“No, he’s been out for a while. When I take my hands off, blood squirts out,” the man answered.
Jesse reached over and felt for a pulse on the left side of Ted’s neck. “You can stop now; he’s gone.”
The man slowly removed his hands, watching but no more blood came out. “Oh man, he’s dead? Oh, man.” He frantically started wiping the blood off his hands onto the ground, but it only made the mess worse by collecting up dirt, leaves, and grass. He continued to wipe until the blood just became a dirty brown color, and he couldn’t tell it was blood anymore.
“Did he say what happened?” Jesse asked.
“No, he was talking out of his head, about that plane crash and something about Amherst. I couldn’t really make sense of it,” he explained. He noticed their guns, “Are you two cops or paramedics?”
“Neither, we were at the station when your daughter came in,” Jesse answered, looking at Thomas. “There were no deputies around.”
They climbed back up to the road where Henry and Kennedy waited. “We were just walking up the road when we heard the crash. But, we didn’t see anything until we found these skid marks,” the man pointed down. “I looked over, and there it was. After I pulled him out of the car, I sent Kennedy to go find help. I knew the Sheriff’s office was just up the road. What do we do now?” he asked.
“I guess we go back to the station and wait for a deputy to come back,” Jesse suggested.
“Screw that! I’m going back to the farm,” Thomas hissed.
“Thomas, come on. What about Ted?” Jesse asked.
Thomas leaned into Jesse and said, “You need to go get that paper you wrote and then get the heck out of here. They don’t know who we are. We didn’t fill out anything or get fingerprinted. The other officers only saw our faces. They don’t know who we are.”
“Are you on the run or wanted or something?” Kennedy’s dad asked.
“They’re crooks! I let them out of jail so they could come help the policeman,” Kennedy admitted.
“What? Kennedy!” he turned and gave her a surprised glance. “Look, thanks for your help, but I don’t want any trouble. We’ll be on our way.”
“We’re not crooks or wanted. There’s just been a little misunderstanding. We’ve done nothing wrong,” Jesse explained.
“Okay, Kennedy, let’s go,” her dad commanded. He took her by the hand and started backing away unsure of what their motives really were. He turned and pulled Kennedy with him as he sped up his pace to get away faster. Kennedy turned and waved goodbye to them. Thomas and Jesse waved back.
“Well, that was awkward,” Henry admitted. “He couldn’t get away fro
m us fast enough. I guess the guns scared him. Can you blame him?”
“After what we’ve seen, not really,” Jesse replied.
“I still think you need to go get the paper you wrote on,” Thomas added.
“I think you’re right. We need to add to it, letting them know about Sheriff Ted here,” Jesse acknowledged.
“If that’s what you want, but leave my name out of it,” Thomas insisted.
“We have to let someone know about Sheriff Ted,” Henry agreed. They started walking back toward the Sheriff’s office. “You see that smoke?”
They started trotting toward the office, and as it came into view, they saw it was on fire. Grey smoke boiled into the air from the rooftop, and several people were gathered out front, watching the building burn. “Did we do that?” Henry questioned, as they stopped and watched as well. “Did we knock over a candle or something?”
“I don’t think so. Thomas, you were the last one out…” Jesse recalled.
“Oh, so this is my fault?” Thomas defended.
“No, I meant did you see anything when we left?” Jesse asked.
“No, everything was fine. But now we don’t have to worry about that paper you wrote.”
A deputy drove up to the station in Henry’s Volkswagen. He got out, put his hands on his head, and paced around looking at the door, contemplating to enter or not. He ran around the building, and then came back to the front. They approached him, “Excuse me, Officer,” Henry called. The deputy spun around and looked at them. “It’s about Sheriff Ted; he’s been in an accident,” Henry revealed.
“Was he hurt? Where is he?” the officer questioned, looking at each of them.
“He had us locked up in there,” Henry said, pointing toward the burning building. “That is my VW that he confiscated,” he pointed to his car. “A little girl came in and told us about him. She let us out, and then led us to your Sheriff.”
“Where is he? Where’s Ted? Ted’s my brother, where is he?” the officer strongly questioned.
Henry looked at Jesse and then back to the officer. “I’m sorry, but Ted has died. Jesse…?”
“He bled to death. His Bronco rolled down an embankment, and he was cut pretty deep on his neck. He died before we got to him,” Jesse explained.
The officer hung his head, and then looked up again with tears in his eyes. “Where’s his body?”
“He’s just about mile up the road on the right past the straight away,” Thomas jumped in.
“The keys are in the car. I told Ted we shouldn’t be taking people’s cars. You all are free to go,” the officer said, ripping his badge off his chest and flinging it into the burning building.
Thomas grabbed Jesse’s elbow and tugged on him to go. Jesse motioned to Henry, and they walked to Henry’s pea-green, rusty VW Beetle. “I guess that’s that then. I’ll drive,” Thomas declared, as he opened the door and flipped up the front seat for Jesse to climb into the back.
Fifteen
Paige Day 1
Back at Bud’s, Ethan and Makayla explained what had happed to Tim’s and Levi’s bikes. Ethan offered to pay for them, but Bud wouldn’t take his money. Then when Paige and David got back and told them the story of their bike thievery, he reconsidered and took their money. Paige observed Ethan to see if he was squirmy or nervous about anything. She noticed he didn’t gawk at Makayla anymore, like he did before they left.
Ethan pulled Paige aside, “Paige, I’m sorry. I was a jerk. Nothing happened, but I have to confess. I considered making a move on Makayla,”
“Why didn’t you, then?” Paige asked.
“Guilt, I felt guilty every time I thought about her. You were there in my head. I told her that I was thinking of kissing her, but she shut me down,” he came clean.
Makayla was eavesdropping and stepped closer giving Ethan a look of surprise. “What happened to our little secret?” she blurted. “Paige, I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in Ethan at all. It’s true, nothing happened. He got the wrong impression.”
“I thought she was giving me signals, but she swears she wasn’t,” Ethan claimed.
“I wasn’t. Paige, I want us to be friends. I’m not trying to take your man.”
“I know, Makayla, but he was drooling over you. I had to see where it would lead, for us as a couple. I’m disappointed that he had those thoughts and feelings about you and that he almost acted on them. But I’m also proud of him for fessing up to it as well,” she said. “Now, we can get past this.”
“What if it would have backfired on you, and I would have kissed him?” Makayla asked.
“Then, you both would be in pain right now,” she laughed. “Just kidding, I would have to deal with it like an adult, and then I would hurt him.”
Makayla laughed with her, “I like you, girl.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. I love you, Paige,” he proclaimed reaching for her.
Paige stopped him with her right hand, “You’re not off the hook Mr., but it’s a start,”
“It’s worse than I expected,” Bud silenced everyone abruptly as he stepped to the center of the room.
“What is?” David asked.
“The breakdown of society, this could be it. This is when people will show their true colors. Neighbor will rise against neighbor, and brother against brother. Maybe it wasn’t an EMP. Maybe it was something else, bigger maybe,” Bud rambled on.
“What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense right now,” David questioned with his hands.
“You have to get outside the blast range to see if it really was an EMP, or something else,” Bud asserted.
“What else could it be?” Ethan asked.
“It could be the Russians, an invasion. It could be the North Koreans finally making their move. It could be terrorists. It could even be the apocalypse, God’s final judgment. You know, the end of days—scary stuff, man. You need to find out. If we are on the edge of the EMP and you travel at least forty miles, we’ll even say fifty to be sure, you should be able to tell if it was indeed an EMP or something else. But, you have no transportation, and now we only have one bike,” Bud fretted.
“You think we’re under attack?” Makayla asked. “Our nation’s being invaded?”
“I don’t know. That’s just it, someone has to travel to find out,” Bud insisted.
“Do you believe this guy?” David whispered to Emily.
“It makes some sense. Why is everything not working all at once?” Emily questioned. “We need to go home, David. I don’t like this.”
“What about Paige?” he asked.
“She can come with us. She can go home when all this is cleared up,” Emily suggested.
Paige overheard their conversation and butted in, “I’m going to my home. Dad should have a good idea on what is happening. He’s going to be worried about me. You can go to your house; I can get myself to Acworth.”
“We can all go together until we get to Columbus,” Ethan added. “When we get past Dothan, Alabama, we should know for sure about the EMP. Right, Bud?”
“No, I would say Abbeville would be far enough to know. Dothan is only about twenty-five miles or so,” Bud disagreed. “And, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to keep my bike in case we need it.”
“I don’t blame you, after we lost the other three. Again, I’m sorry about that,” Paige admitted.
“It will take us at least a full day to walk to Dothan and another just to get to Abbeville. We’re looking at a weeks’ worth of walking here. We need to find another way, some more bicycles or something. What else works after an EMP, Bud? Come on, you have to have more ideas?” David asked.
“Older cars should work, anything older than—I think, 1974 maybe, before electronic ignition. Old motorcycles, lawn mowers, outboard motor boats, and old diesels, like tr
actors and bulldozers,” Bud listed off.
“Is there an old car lot nearby, or someone with an old car for sale?” David asked.
“As a matter of fact, Jeremy up the street has an old 1970 Plymouth Duster with a slant six in it, three on the tree. He was going to change it out to a 318, but he couldn’t find one. He lost interest and told me last week he wanted to sell it,” Bud informed.
“Does it run?” David inquired.
“Yeah, it runs, but it doesn’t look so great. He’s primed it in two different colors, brown and gray. The seats are a little ratty too,” Bud described.
“As long as it runs, that’s all I care about at this point. Let’s go see him,” David urged.
Bud walked David, Emily, Paige, Ethan, and Makayla to Jeremy’s house to see if he would sell them his car. Bud knocked on the door. Jeremy opened it with a bologna sandwich in his hand with several bites missing. “How’s it going, Jeremy? These are some friends that are interested in your Duster. You said you wanted to sell it, right?”
“Yeah, man, if the price is right,” he said, stepping out and closing the door behind him. “Hey Bud, is your power out?”
“Yeah, his is out too. Can we see the Duster, Jeremy?” David said, re-focusing the conversation. He thought if Jeremy knew about the EMP, he wouldn’t sell it. “I’m David,” he said, offering his hand to shake. “What are you asking for it?”
“I don’t know, man,” he said, walking to the garage and lifting up the door. “I was thinking three thousand.”
David walked around the car and peeked in the driver’s window. “Can we hear it run?”
“Key’s in the cup holder,” Jeremy answered.
Paige and Ethan walked around the car. “It has good tires on it,” Paige noticed.
“Yeah, I had them put on a couple of months ago. I got a set of slots for it, but I never put them on since I decided to sell it. She’s a good runner, dependable,” Jeremy stated.
David opened the door and sat down behind the wheel. He looked at the beige seat full of rips and exposed foam. He glanced at the torn headliner with stains and the missing door panel on the passenger’s side. The black dash pad had a huge gaping crack in the center with pea-green foam protruding out. The speedometer had a cigarette burn over the number five, and the windshield had a hairline crack down his view. He picked up the key and cranked it up after putting it in neutral. It idled well and the engine sounded good. He dropped it into first gear on the column and slowly let the clutch engage to test it. The car moved slightly with resistance from the emergency brake. He repeated the process for reverse, then shut it off. He got out and closed the door. “Will you take a check for the full three thousand?”