by Vince Byrd
“Well, it is my car.”
“Yeah, but it was partly purchased with my golden P necklace, so technically…”
“I’m still driving.” Paige sat down behind the steering wheel.
Thirty
Jesse Day 7
Thick, dark clouds engulfed the sky, and the sleet quickly turned to rain. The heavy drops splashed upward as they pounded the pavement on either side of the bridge. Water began to puddle, and the approaching car stopped about forty-five yards away from the bridge. The doors flung open on the cream-colored 1962 Mercury Comet. A family of four got out; they were trying to catch the rain in the cups they held out. A boy and a girl a few years younger than Ava stood with their faces toward the sky, their mouths open to get a drink of the shower that was soaking them. The man and woman set their cups on the hood and retrieved several more from the car, lining them up with the other two. The man then pulled out a cooler and set it on the ground to catch as much as he could before it stopped.
Jesse, Kat, and Ava took cover behind their truck. Henry, Larry, and Ginger hid behind a car that had stalled out under the bridge. Ginger had her shotgun in front of her, ready to give Jesse cover if the situation called for it. Jesse had his hand on his pistol, ready to draw it if need be. They slowly dropped their guard as Jesse stood up and walked toward the edge of the rain wall that was formed by the bridge. He watched the family through the downpour. Larry and Ginger joined him. “What the heck are they doing?” Larry asked.
“They’re catching the rainwater,” Jesse answered.
The woman caught a glimpse of them watching. She stopped and yelled at her husband. He turned and saw them also and called to his children. They stopped and just stood there looking with them as well. Several seconds passed as each party watched the other, trying to decide if they were dangerous.
Jesse raised his hand and waved at them. The man slowly raised his hand and waved back. The man and woman poured their cups into the cooler. The man motioned to the two children, and they drank the water they’d captured, and then got back into the car. The woman also got into the car and closed the door. The man turned and looked at Jesse, then back at his wife. He held up his hand, motioning for her to wait there. He walked slowly towards them, and they backed up away from the rain wall so he could come under the bridge without feeling threatened. He stepped under the bridge, his clothes peeing rain from its material. He wiped the water from his face, “Hello, my family and I are just passing through. May we pass under your bridge?”
Jesse looked at him bewildered, “It’s not my bridge. Why would you say or think it was?”
“There are several bridges that are guarded, and they charge a toll to pass.”
“We ran into something like that about a hundred miles back,” Jesse related. “I’m Jesse; this is Ginger and Larry.” He pointed to the others and introduced them as well.
“I’m Theron,” he introduced, wiping the rain from his thick, brown beard.
“Do you need some water, Theron?” Ginger asked.
“Yes, we ran out early this morning and haven’t had any since. My kids were complaining and then the rain came.”
Kat grabbed a bottle of water from the truck, walked over, and handed it to him.
“Thank you,” he broke the seal, removing the lid and took a big swallow. “What do I owe you for it?”
Kat held up her hand, “Nothing. There’s more for your family if you want.”
Theron stared at her for moment, wondering if it was a trick or not. He looked at each one of them, trying to get his gut to tell him if they were good or bad. He eyeballed Ginger’s shotgun. She saw him looking at it, and she shouldered it to make him feel more at ease.
“Where are you coming from?’ Jesse probed.
He took another swig and gulped it down, choking on it, “Atlanta,” he coughed. “We were at a car show with my Comet there when everything went quiet.”
Ginger looked at Kat, realizing he’d just called the event quiet. Kat raised her eyebrows at her and smiled a little. “That was a week ago. Where are you headed now?” Jesse probed further.
“Home. We live in Conover. Where are you all from, and where are you going?” he countered for information as well.
“We’re coming from Virginia, going to Acworth, Georgia,” Jesse looked out at Theron’s family. Do you want to bring them over for some water? Or, you can just take them a few bottles if you prefer.”
“That would be great.”
Kat gave him three more bottles. He ran them out to his family and returned alone. “Thank you very much for the water. I don’t know where Acworth is but try to avoid Atlanta if you can. It’s total chaos there. They shut all the roads down when it happened and left everyone stranded. Everyone was panicking, thinking it was some kind of terrorist attack. People turned on the police and then they turned on each other. After two days, Atlanta looked like a war zone. Everyone turned into animals. When the food got scarce, it got even worse; people started killing each other for what they had, and the looting was everywhere. Gangs claimed a lot of the bridges and were charging for passage. That’s why I thought you’d claimed this bridge. We made it out after five days, after finding a couple of rims to fit my car. Someone knifed three of my tires. It’s taken us two days to get this far without getting killed by someone wanting to steal my car.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Theron. Our travels have not been uneventful either. We came down I-85 without much trouble but was warned about exit 122 and gangs,” Jesse related.
“We’re not going that far. Our exit is a few miles up the road to Conover, Highway 321. If everything goes well, we should be home not long after dark. I don’t know what I’ll find when I get there, though,” Theron worried.
“How far are we from the state line?” Jesse asked.
“It’s only about a mile to Georgia from here.”
Ginger smiled at Larry, “We’re getting close.”
“I hope Doc has a big house.”
“I have a barn for you, Larry,” Jesse looked over at him, and chuckled. Jesse turned back to Theron, and he was holding a pistol pointed at him. “What’s the deal, Theron?”
Ginger reached for her shotgun, and Theron pointed the gun at her, “Don’t! I don’t want to hurt anyone. We just need your water, and whatever food you have.”
“Theron, come on.” Jesse raised his hands so he could see his palms. “We gave you some water. Let us give you some of what we have, and you can put that away. There’s no need for this.”
“I’m sorry. You seem like nice people, but my family needs it.”
“We know you have a family. You said you didn’t have far to go. We have further to go than you, and we’re going to need what we have, but I’m willing to share some of it with you and your family. Come on, let’s be civilized about this. We’re not animals here.”
A drop of water ran to the end of one of Theron’s hair strands and dripped into his right eye, causing him to close his eyes and blink it out. Jesse took the opportunity to reach up and grab the pistol. Theron squeezed the trigger from impulse. Jesse ducked, but he didn’t have a good hold on the firearm and let it go. Theron was stunned that he had fired his gun. He looked over at Ginger and saw her fall back into Larry’s arms as if in slow motion. Larry laid her down on the ground, and she did not move. But it was too late for Theron to say anything. Larry grabbed her shotgun and fired off a rapid three rounds into Theron’s chest, pumping in between each round and pushing him back into the rain. His pistol bounced off the concrete, his body fell to the pavement, making a huge splash. His blood mixed with the standing water.
Kat screamed, “No!” She lunged for Ginger. Rolling her over, she saw the blood oozing from her head. She brushed her hair back to see how bad the injury was. Larry went into a panic that Ginger was shot, and he’d just killed the man that shot her. Jesse m
oved to Ginger’s side. He felt responsible for grasping for the gun and failing. Ava stood there and started to cry. Henry pulled her into a hug and began to console her and quietly pray. Jesse looked out at the Comet and saw the woman charging toward them with a rifle in her hands.
Thirty-one
David Day 1
The old Mustang started to skip and then it stalled out on David and Emily. He stopped the car, got out, and popped the hood. He readjusted the coil wire he had recently fiddled with. “Give it a try!” he watched and waited for Emily to turn the key. “Okay! That’s not going to work.”
“Can you fix it, David? I don’t like it out here all alone.”
“Sparks are flying out of the coil wire, and it can’t get enough juice to the spark plugs. I need something to wrap it with, like tape or something.” He pulled the keys, went around the car, and opened the trunk. He moved their bags around, looking for something to use. “It’s too dark. I can’t see anything.”
Emily stepped out of the car and handed him a book light that Ethan had grabbed for her from her night bag. “Try this.”
Down in the crack beside the fender well and the stained, shag, brown carpet that someone had placed in the trunk was an almost used up roll of black electrical tape. “Bingo! I think this will work.” He wrapped the coil wire with the tape and secured it to the coil. “Cross your fingers.” Three gunshots went off in the near distance and then two more followed. “Let’s get out of here! Those sounded really close.” He turned the key and the Mustang fired up. “We’re in business.”
They crossed into Georgia on Highway 39 without any issues other than moving around stationary traffic. They continued to Highway 27 and then on to the Stewart County Sherriff’s Office. As they got closer to the city of Lumpkin, they passed a few of people walking. One group of four tried to flag them down for a ride on the way, but David kept going. For the most part, the roads were quiet, desolate with just a car here and there for them to avoid. “I got a speeding ticket a year or two ago coming through here. That’s the only way I know where the Sheriff’s Office is. Remember, you were with me, and we were arguing about something?”
“I remember the trip. You had just made a deal on another car lot to buy that was going to take you away from home even more than you already were. I didn’t want to go with you, but it was the only way I was going to be able to spend any time with you.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. You were so ticked off about that. It’s a good thing that deal fell through,” he admitted.
“Yes, it is, or I might have been mad at you for a while.”
“There,” he spotted the Sherriff’s Office. They drove in and parked on the side of the small, red brick building. “There might not be anyone here. I can’t tell with no lights on anywhere.”
“There are some lights on across the street at that house,” she pointed to a small, blue house with candlelight flickering through the window, and someone staring out at them.
They walked around to the front door of the office and tugged on it, but it was locked. “What now?” Emily asked.
“Yoo-hoo! Can I help you?” a voice sounded from the yard of the blue house.
They turned and saw a skinny, elderly woman around seventy years old trotting through her yard toward them. She quickly crossed the road and met them in the small parking lot. “I’m Barbara-Jean. I’m the county dispatch for the Sheriff’s Office. There’s no one here.”
“I’m David, and this is my wife Emily. We need to report a murder.”
“Oh my! A murder?” Barbara-Jean exclaimed.
“That’s right. We found a dead body on the side of the road,” David informed her, glancing at Emily.
“We only have one car that patrols at night and our county cars are down. The Sheriff and the deputy are on the other side of the county and won’t check in for a couple of hours. They’re out checking on a break-in. They’ll want to talk to you. Hang on, let me grab my keys. We can go in, and you can fill out a statement.” She trotted back to her house and went in.
“We can’t wait here for two hours. We have to get home. Like Ethan said, it might not be so safe to travel in the morning. We’ll fill out the statement, and then we’re leaving,” he concluded.
Barbara-Jean came back over, unlocked and opened the door to the office. “Y’all wait here until I turn on a light.” She disappeared into the building and then reappeared with a battery-operated lantern in her hand. “Okay, come on in and follow me.” She led them to two chairs that sat in front of a desk and set the lantern down. “Have a seat here, and I’ll see if I can find you a notebook.” She pulled out a couple of desk drawers and finally pulled out a large, lined notepad with the Stewart County name and logo at the top. She grabbed a pen from the largemouth bass mug that sat on the desk and handed them to David. “Where are you folks from?” she looked at Emily.
“We live in Macon, but we are on our way home from Destin,” Emily answered.
“Oh, that’s nice. I love the beach. It’s so beautiful down there. My grandson and his wife got married on the beach not too long ago. They went to Fort Myers, and oh, let me tell you, it was a dream wedding for sure, right at sunset. I cried like a baby. I’d never seen a couple so in love like they are.”
David cleared his throat, “What do you want me to write down?”
“I’m sorry, hon, we’re going to need your name, address, contact information, and where you found the body. Write down whether or not you moved the body, if you knew the victim, how you found the body, what position the victim was in, and of course a description of the body, race, sex, clothes, and shoes they were wearing. Mention hair color, facial hair, approximate age, things like that,” she explained. “I assume you two were together when you found the victim?”
“Yes, we were,” David agreed.
“Okay then, we only need one statement filled out, but you two should discuss what you write down. If she remembers something that you didn’t, please add that in too. When they investigate, they’ll have everything you know about the crime. The smallest detail can make all the difference. I’ll leave you alone so you can concentrate. I’ll be over here doing some paper work. When you’re done, just holler.” Barbara-Jean went and sat down at another desk and turned on another battery-operated lantern.
After about a half hour and two pages later, David said, “We’re done.”
Barbara-Jean took the notepad and read some of it and said, “Oh my goodness, this was in Florida? Stewart County is in Georgia and out of our jurisdiction.”
“I know, but the way things are with the cars being dead and all, this was the only police station I knew of, so we came here. You have everything we know and your Sheriff can inform Florida or whoever needs to be informed, right? You do have protocols for things like this?”
“We do.”
“We can’t stay. We have to be getting home. You have our names and our address. So if you need us again, we will be available. But tonight, we have to go.”
“The Sheriff won’t like it, but if you have to go, I can’t stop you,” she shrugged. “I’ll relay everything you said and wrote. Let me show you out.” She picked up the lantern and walked them to the door. “Be careful on your way home.”
“Congratulations to your grandson and his wife,” Emily touched Barbara-Jean on the hand.
“Thank you, dear.”
David and Emily left the Sheriff’s Office feeling better about informing someone about Makayla, and the body they’d found in the trunk and left on the side of the road. Miles later after weaving in and out of vehicles, their car was sucking fumes, and they stopped at the next closed service station they came to. David took a short hose from the station’s water spigot and siphoned gas from a stalled car that must have just filled up when the solar storm hit. He topped the tank off because he didn’t know when he would be able to get gas again, a
nd he knew his cars wouldn’t run. They travelled on through the night staying focused on the road. When they finally drove into their own Macon driveway at 3:12 a.m. Monday morning, Emily said, “Home at last. I hope Ethan and Paige made it to her house okay. I’m so worried about them.”
“I don’t think you have to worry. Paige has a good head on her shoulders, and she’ll take care of Ethan. I’m beat. Let’s hit the hay. Then, we can see about tomorrow. I have to figure out what I’m going to do about this Mustang.”
Thirty-two
Paige Day 1
A rush of thoughts flooded Paige’s mind. She tried to concentrate on the darkened road in front of her. She thought of her dad, and her brother. Jacob, who was supposed to be getting on a ship on his way to the east coast, she wondered if she would really get to go see him. Would her dad be home when she got home? “Paige, look out!” Ethan shouted.
Paige stood on the brake pedal of the Duster. The wheels locked, as the car came to a screeching halt just before they slammed into the rear end of another vehicle. Paige relaxed as the Duster came to a stop, “Wow! That was close.”
“Yeah, like NASCAR close.”
“I’m sorry; I was in deep thought.”
“Do you want me to drive?”
“Yeah, you better.”
Ethan got out and walked around the back of the car as Paige scooted over to the passenger side. He opened the door and said, “Wait a second.” He walked to the car in front of them and tried the door, but it was locked.
“What are doing?” she shouted to him.
“Looking for a map.” He tried another car close by, and the door was unlocked. “Ah ha.” He dug around in the glove box but didn’t find a map. He walked back to the Duster. “We need a map so we can go the backroads. I don’t know the way, do you?”
“No, we always took the interstate through Atlanta,” she answered.
“Atlanta,” he paused. “Atlanta is probably on some kind of lockdown or curfew like Dothan. We want to stay away from the big cities like I told Dad.” He sat down, backed the Duster up, then drove around the car they’d almost hit. They drove a few minutes, and he stopped beside a 1990’s Lincoln Continental. “Our map is in that car.”