by Dave Bowman
They were safe. And they had crossed the swollen water of the Colorado.
“Wow, I can’t believe we made it,” Charlotte said. “I thought for sure we were going to drown.”
“Thanks for your vote of confidence,” Annie said breathlessly. She leaned against a tree, her legs stretched out before her on the ground.
“No, it just seemed so impossible,” Charlotte said, stretching out on a rock. “I can’t believe you did that. I had no idea you were so strong.”
Annie smiled sheepishly. “I told you I had been a lifeguard.”
Charlotte smiled, then looked down at the bags she had in tow.
“So much for keeping our stuff dry,” she said.
She opened the dripping handbag, removed its contents, and held the purse upside down. Water poured out to the ground.
Annie laughed. “Well, maybe some of the food in plastic wrappers will be okay, at least.”
Annie grabbed her backpack and took their shoes out. Charlotte put the high heels back on her feet. Annie kept her own shoes by her side, preferring to let her bare feet lazily play with the leaves on the ground as she rested.
Charlotte shook the water off the items from her purse as best she could and returned them one by one to her bag. Finally, she leaned back against the rock and closed her eyes for a moment.
“Oh, my medication,” Charlotte said, opening her eyes and sitting up again. “I should probably take a dose now. Thank goodness for waterproof pill bottles.”
She reached for her purse and began to open it.
Suddenly, Charlotte froze. Her eyes grew wide.
“Do you hear that?” she whispered.
Annie stopped rustling the leaves so she could listen. Her stomach tightened. There was movement in the woods nearby.
Someone was coming their way.
9
Naomi watched as Jack stood up, keeping the gun down behind the counter.
The door flew open, and one by one a group of people streamed in.
They were mostly young men with a couple of women with them. They filed in and spread out around the store, barely taking notice of Naomi and the others.
Suddenly, the store was full of them. Most of them were searching for things to steal.
Brent and Naomi looked at Jack. He watched the newcomers tear the store apart for a moment. Then he looked down at the drawer behind the counter.
He quickly rummaged through the drawer. Naomi guessed he was searching for extra ammunition.
The first drawer was empty.
His hand reached for the second drawer when a young guy dressed in a black T-shirt with a baseball cap took notice of Jack.
“Hey! What are you doing back there?” the guy asked.
Jack didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled the drawer open and flipped through the odds and ends of the drawer.
He opened another drawer.
“I’m talking to you!” the guy shouted. He jumped over the gate, entering the area behind the counter, and began walking toward Jack.
Inside the last drawer was the supply of ammunition. Jack pocketed it quickly and headed toward the gate.
The guy puffed his chest out and stood squarely in Jack’s way.
“What did you find back here?” the guy asked. “I’m not letting you pass until you tell me. It’s gotta be something good.”
A second guy looked up from the shelf he was clearing off.
“What’s going on, Carter?”
“This jerk’s got something,” Carter answered, not taking his eyes off Jack. “And he’s not getting out of here until he hands it over.”
“Is that what you think?” Jack muttered, keeping the gun out of sight at his side.
“No, dude, that’s what I know.”
The second guy laughed. “Yeah, you’re outnumbered. So hand it over.”
Jack looked at Brent and Naomi, who had been inching toward the door. But when they heard the confrontation, they stopped and watched, unsure of what to do.
Naomi wondered what Jack would do now. Jack could push the guy out of the way, but then he’d be surrounded by the two of them. He could pull the gun on them, but that might not end so well, especially if they were armed, too.
“Should we do something?” Naomi asked under her breath to Brent.
Brent shook his head slightly. “Just get ready to run,” he muttered.
Jack lifted the gun, aiming it at the guy in front of him.
“Back up,” he said.
The guy in the baseball cap raised his hands defensively. “Whoa, man. Don’t get crazy.”
Jack held the pistol steady in both hands. “Get back on the other side of that gate, and no one gets hurt.”
The kid did what he was told. The second guy stood watching on the other side of the counter.
“You too,” Jack instructed. “Both of you, walk to the far corner of the store.”
The two guys did as they were told.
“Man, I told you we should’ve come here earlier,” the first one said to the second. “That gun could have been ours.”
Jack watched them retreat to the far area of the convenience store. He kept his gun trained on them. Meanwhile, most of the other people in the store took no notice of him.
“Let’s go,” he said to Naomi and Brent. He held the door open for them as he kept an eye on the guys in the store.
Naomi was relieved to be out of the store.
She was still shaken up from the death of the woman she had tried to save. There was just so much blood… She had never seen a dead body before.
And now, this. Another close call.
“You found a gun,” she said, glancing at Jack.
He nodded, sliding the pistol in his waistband. “This might be our lucky break.”
Naomi wasn’t comfortable around firearms, but she thought that it would be good for Jack to have one.
So far, the afternoon had already been a nightmare. Who knew what would be around the next corner?
The three of them walked quickly down the sidewalk. She didn’t know the neighborhood, and she could only hope that they were traveling parallel to the highway.
The sun was getting lower in the sky behind them, so she figured they were probably heading east.
What a crazy day.
When her Honda had suddenly stopped running, she had just narrowly avoided being rear-ended by the car behind her.
Then everyone’s cars stopped. She had never seen anything like it. It was unreal.
Then that big guy approached her. At first, he seemed friendly, like he was trying to help. But once he got closer, she saw a cruel look in his eyes.
She had seen that look before.
Immediately, she had been filled with terror. She knew he was going to hurt her.
She had always sworn to herself she would never be a victim like her mother. She had taken self-defense classes and carried a switchblade knife. She didn’t care that her knife was illegal. She had to protect herself.
She thought she had been prepared.
But when the man on the interstate overpass had grabbed her, he came at her from behind. She already had her knife out, but he grabbed her arms, and she had dropped the knife. Remembering the sound of the metallic clatter of the knife on the asphalt sent a chill up her spine.
But then, someone had saved her.
She couldn’t believe it when Jack had showed up. She had watched with a frantic tension as he took the man down.
And then, she was safe again.
Still, the experience had shaken her up. Her nerves were shattered. Running from the cops and watching a woman die before her eyes, plus watching Jack pull a gun on two guys in the convenience store, hadn’t helped matters.
She couldn’t wait to get home. Safe and sound in her apartment.
She imagined her mother was worried about her taking so long to get home. And about the power outage. Naomi hoped she could get home soon so her mom wouldn’t worry so much. Stress wasn’t good fo
r her condition.
Naomi planned to hunker down at home with her mom until things got sorted out.
Everything would be better when she got to their apartment. Naomi would keep her mother safe. Naomi would take care of everything.
Just like she always did.
For the past year, Naomi had been a research lab assistant at UCLA. Her duties included monitoring the blood work and behavior patterns of mice given various medications.
She loved her work. If all went well, she was hoping to apply to graduate school next year. With an advanced degree, one day she would lead her own research projects.
It was her mother who inspired her to go into medical research. Her mother, Cynthia, had multiple sclerosis. It was Naomi’s dream that her work could help improve the lives of people suffering from terrible illnesses like her mom.
Since age eighteen, Naomi had lived with roommates, first in college, then her first year out of college. But last year, Naomi had persuaded her mother to move in with her.
After years of trying, Naomi had finally convinced her mother to leave Frank, Naomi’s stepdad.
Frank and Cynthia had began dating during Naomi’s senior year of high school. Once Naomi moved away to live in the college dorm, her mother had married him.
And that was when he started getting violent.
The first time Naomi had seen bruises on her mother’s face, she’d urged her mother to leave him. She never bought the excuses Cynthia had made for Frank.
At that point Cynthia had already had the MS diagnosis. But it seemed like the stress of dealing with Frank made her symptoms worse.
As her chronic pain, fatigue, and neurological problems got worse, Cynthia was forced to quit her job. When she finally was awarded disability benefits, she was sad to see that they weren’t nearly enough to live on.
Naomi had begged her mother to leave Frank.
“We can get a one-bedroom apartment,” Naomi had said. “I can swing the rent. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
But Cynthia never wanted to impose on her daughter. So she stayed with Frank. And the beatings became more regular.
One day, Frank had come home in a rage the likes of which Cynthia had never seen before. She didn’t know if he was drunk or high. She only knew that he was out of control.
It was the first time she feared for her life.
He would kill her if she stayed around.
When he was done that day, she knew what she had to do. She packed her bags, taking only her most essential belongings. And she called Naomi.
That had been almost a year ago. Since then, Naomi had welcomed her mother into her apartment, making good on her promise. And Naomi had been happy to have her mother living with her.
The best thing was that they were both safe. Frank had never gotten access to Cynthia’s new address. The divorce had gone through without a hitch. She was free.
Of course, there were still problems. They had had to move to a shabby apartment in a rough neighborhood in East LA. Naomi’s commute to work was long. But it was worth it to keep her mother safe.
They never saw Frank again. But Naomi still had nightmares about him. His face would appear to her. In her dreams, his gray beard had grown long. But he still had that grin that revealed a missing front tooth.
Naomi would wake from these dreams in a sweat, anxious and terrified. She would run to her mother, sleeping in the next room. Finding her safe, Naomi would go back to bed. It hadn’t been real.
In real life, they were safe. Frank couldn’t hurt Naomi’s mom anymore.
Unfortunately, the illness could.
Recently, Cynthia had been having more difficulty standing and walking. Naomi had to take on more and more housework and chores at home to pick up the slack. Her mother couldn’t stand to be a burden, but Naomi never complained. She was happy to help her mom.
After months of fighting with her insurance, they finally got her a wheelchair. Naomi hated to see her mom sick and disabled, but at least Cynthia was safe with her.
Sometimes Naomi wished she could have a life more like her coworkers and college friends. She was only twenty-four, but she almost never went out with her friends. She had way more responsibility than any of them. It had become more and more difficult to relate to them. Most of them had drifted away.
Also, she noticed that she had become less trusting of people. She had Frank to thank for that. Seeing what he had done to her mother had made her wary of people.
In fact, when she first met Jack and Brent, she didn’t even want to trust them. But Jack had saved her, and Brent seemed harmless. She had to push away her doubt and fear in order to walk off with them on that highway overpass.
And now, she was glad that she had been able to trust them. It seemed like since the EMP went off, the world had become even more dangerous in a matter of minutes.
The three of them kept walking in silence for a long time, the city blocks passing by one after another. With each block, there seemed to be more people out on the street. More tension, more aggression, more looting. She saw several instances of people trying to steal vehicles – new vehicles. Somehow they didn’t seem to realize that most cars weren’t running.
Her feet ached. Though the food and drinks they had taken from the store helped curb their thirst and hunger, Naomi still longed to be home.
They moved through one neighborhood after another. The streets started to resemble each other. Everything started to look the same.
Eventually, they stopped worrying about walking in a parallel line with the highway. It had been so long since they had seen a glimpse of the highway, anyway. Instead, they focused on walking east, with the late afternoon sun behind them on their backs.
At times, she almost gave up hope that they would ever make it to her home. What if they were lost completely in the sprawling maze of the metropolitan Los Angeles area? The city was huge and they had no maps.
What if she had delayed Jack and Brent for hours – or days? – on a wild goose chase of her apartment building?
But the two men always assured her that they would be in the same predicament whether or not they were trying to find her house. Stop worrying, they told her.
So she just kept walking. Her only hope was to find some landmark she knew if they kept heading east.
Finally, they got to a neighborhood Naomi recognized.
“We’re getting close!” she exclaimed, beaming.
Once she knew where they were, she guided them through the next several blocks.
And finally, after several long hours on foot since the cars had stopped, they found themselves nearing her front door.
Her heart swelled. She could hardly believe that they had made it to her apartment.
“Won’t you two come in and rest a while?” Naomi asked Jack and Brent in her best hostess voice. “I’m afraid we don’t have a well-stocked kitchen, but I can find something to offer you.”
“It would be nice to sit down for a few minutes,” Brent said. “Get off the street for a while. We have a long walk ahead of us.”
Jack nodded. “And I’d like to make sure you and your mom are okay here before we leave.”
Naomi smiled. Jack was a really nice guy.
It’s good to know there are still some left.
As they approached the front door, she fumbled in her bag for her keys, dropping her bag on the front stoop, then frenetically picking it back up. She felt a mixture of exhaustion and anticipation to see her mother and make sure she was okay.
“Mom! I’m home!” she called as she walked inside. “And I’ve got company!”
Her eyes were used to the bright light on the street. She stood in the entrance and waited as her vision adjusted to the dark room. Brent and Jack came in behind her, shutting the front door.
Naomi let her purse fall to the carpeted floor. This time, she did not pick it up.
She stood staring at the wheelchair in the living room. It was empty.
“What’s the matte
r?” Brent asked.
Why isn’t she in her wheelchair? Why did she leave it in the middle of the room like this?
“Mom?” Naomi called through the small, spartan apartment.
She walked through the living room, passing by the kitchen.
“Mom, are you in the bathroom?” Naomi asked, knocking on the closed bathroom door.
Naomi opened the door. The room was empty.
She was overcome with a sick feeling.
Everything was wrong.
“Mom? Are you okay?” Naomi asked. This time, her voice was shaky.
She gripped the doorknob on the closed bedroom door. She paused a moment, then turned the handle and threw the door open.
Naomi only saw fragments. Just a few jumbled images before she understood.
Her mother’s arm hanging over the edge of the bed. Blood soaking through the mattress. A mess of brown hair covering her face.
There, on the bed, lay her poor, sweet mother.
Dead.
10
Annie and Charlotte froze.
Annie hoped that whoever it was in the woods, they hadn’t heard the two women talking.
But hope was quickly replaced by fear and defeat.
We made it all the way across the river. We went through all that, just to be found by one of those guards.
The rustling in the woods grew louder. It was too late. She and Charlotte were going to be found.
Annie held her breath as three figures made it to the clearing where the women sat on the ground, still soaking wet from the river.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
Annie was surprised to see three teenagers standing before them. A tall, lanky boy, with a baseball bat in his hands, flanked by two girls. None of them looked much older than Annie’s ninth-grade students.
The two women rose to their feet, their bags still in their hands.
“Whatcha got in those bags?” the first girl with short blonde hair asked.
Charlotte put her hands on her hips.
“That is none of your business, young lady,” Charlotte said indignantly.