EMP: Dangerous Decisions

by Mark Mathews

  “Are you alone?” This was where Wade had to decide if he should risk the girls or if he could trust this young man. He decided to err on the side of caution.

  “Yes.” This much was true for the moment. The girls were still up on the mountain, so it was a temporary truth.

  “Come with me. We have a doctor, and he could take a look at your wounds.” Wade didn’t know if he should trust this person, but he’d told Sarah that maybe they should for the sake of the girls, so that meant he had to do so. He followed the young man, and the two of them left the house, walking deeper and deeper into the little village. The man led him into another building, knocking loudly as he entered.

  “Doc? Are you in?” A muffled voice came through from the back of the house, and the young man made a beeline for it.

  This was it. Wade would find out one way or the other if this was the best thing to happen to him, or the worst. When he walked into the last room, both the young man and an older one were staring at him as if they were waiting for him to come in. Clearly, the young man had explained who he was before he came in.

  “Go ahead and lay down here on the bed and I’ll give you a once-over.” He was smiling at Wade in a friendly manner, but Wade still was wary of the situation. He moved slowly to the bed and climbed on it. The doctor opened up his shirt, pulled out the stethoscope that hung around his neck, and went to work.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  WADE WASN’T QUITE sure he trusted the town or its people one hundred percent yet, but the doctor seemed to know what he was doing when he gave Wade medical attention. It was almost like a child that had to be seen for the first time. Wade made the doctor show him the bottle of everything he used, and he actually knew what most of them did. That helped him trust the man more. If they could have made it here before Tom died, he might have been saved. The thought came unbidden into Wade’s head, and he winced, turning his face away. The doctor froze, thinking he had done something to hurt Wade.

  “Are you alright? Was that too much pressure, maybe?” Genuine concern radiated from the man’s voice, and Wade decided he would bring the girls here once he was all bandaged up.

  It seemed like a quaint little town, and it just might put an end to the idea of going to the Great Lakes. He still didn’t feel all that great about that idea. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he just didn’t feel like the lakes were a good idea. No matter how much he wanted to keep Sarah and the girls happy, he still hadn’t come up with a plausible reason not to go somewhere that they all wanted to go.

  “I’m fine. Just some regrets eating away at me, that’s all.” The doctor frowned, but Wade refused to go into more detail.

  “Do you think I’ll be alright to travel? I know the doc knows best, and it might actually do me some good to listen every now and then.”

  He’d meant that last bit as a joke, but he realized with a jolt that it was true. It didn’t really matter what the doctors told him, he always did what he thought was right and necessary, no matter the cost to him. Granted, the world always had been ready to fix whatever he broke, but now it wasn’t quite so inclined. If ever there was a time to listen and do what the doctor ordered, it was now.

  “What exactly did you have in mind?” The question was gentle, and nonjudgmental, which made Wade smile.

  “Well, I have a group of girls up on the mountain. I wanted to go get them and bring them down here, now that I know this town is safe.” There. It was the truth, and he also showed the man that he trusted the village…a little. The doctor smiled.

  “As long as you don’t go doing any sprints, I think a leisurely stroll up the mountain will be alright. If you overdo it, then just come back down here and I’ll take care of you. I can have someone else go up and collect them if necessary.”

  The man’s willingness to help really meant a lot to Wade. He wasn’t sure yet if he completely trusted his life to the man, but it seemed there still were good people out there in the world. Wade wanted to hop off the bed, but the doctor didn’t want to take any chances. He immediately offered him his hand to help him get up. Wade took it, then made his way out of the clinic and back the way that he’d come. He passed the last house, the one he mistakenly had thought was abandoned, and now saw a woman out on the front porch with a small child in her arms, rocking it to sleep. He smiled. If they had to go back to the times of Laura Ingalls Wilder, then he was alright with that.

  The way up the mountain was a lot more treacherous than it had been going down. The parts that had seemed like easy going coming down now were dangerously steep to go up. He found it took him at least twice as long to maneuver his way back to the girls. Sarah was on watch, and she saw him first. She smiled and ran toward him.

  “You’re alright! There wasn’t any trouble down there?” Her voice was wary, prepared for the worst that he had to tell her. He put a reassuring arm around her shoulders and turned to face the girls.

  “I think this town is going to be a great place to stay. They even have a doctor, and he did a great job helping me out.”

  At those words, Sarah immediately started looking at his injuries, and noticed the fresh gauze and the pungent aroma of some kind of antiseptic. Wrinkling her nose, she took a step away from Wade to go talk to Emily. April was still off in her own little world, and Sarah had come to the conclusion she wasn’t very bright. Good hearted, yes, but not the brains of the operation.

  “Hey. Think you can get a read on the town from here?” Sarah kept her voice low, so as not to attract April’s attention. If Emily said she got a bad vibe from the town, it didn’t matter that they’d patched Wade back up, she wasn’t going. Her sixth sense had saved them all a lot of trouble, and always could predict when something bad was going to happen. Emily closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few minutes, she smiled up at Sarah.

  “It seems like a good place to be. The only thing that I worry about is our future.” That was a little more of a mixed bag rather than a straight answer, and Sarah wasn’t sure if she was happy with it.

  “What do you mean by that?” Emily shrugged, getting her pack and shouldering it.

  “I’m not sure yet. I think it’s a good place to go, though.”

  Sarah took that as the final word and got April up and ready. She took the biggest pack herself, so Wade wouldn’t hurt himself again. Letting him lead the way, Sarah put the girls between them, bringing up the rear in case they ran into any trouble. The one thing she was worried about most, rather than the motorcycle gang, was the wolves. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but maybe someone in the town had seen the gang and would know where they had gone and how many of them were left. As the trees started thinning, and the ground became more level, Sarah could make out an old, dilapidated house. She hoped it wasn’t where they were staying. It looked like the roof would cave in on them any second. Wade started waving to someone, and it snapped her attention back to her surroundings. It was a young man, in what looked to be an old doctor’s coat. Was this the man who had taken care of him? There was someone else with him, a man in jeans and a red flannel shirt. He looked like a smaller version of Paul Bunyan.

  “I thought you’d be coming back this way, so I brought Scott with me.” Wade shook both their hands, then waited for everyone to come up to him before continuing.

  “This is the doctor who did such a nice job on me.” The man in the white coat sank into a mock bow.

  “Pleasure working with you. This here is Scott, and he owns the hotel in town. If you don’t have a place to go, you can stay here with us. He’s offered to give you one of his rooms if you want.” It seemed like a generous offer to Sarah, but when was anything good ever free? She narrowed her eyes.

  “What’s the catch?” Her voice came out a little on the frigid side, and it made both men lose their smiles.

  “No catch. I just have plenty of places to stay, and thought you’d like one.” He seemed a little hurt that Sarah would have thought he had an ulterior motive in offering
them a room. She blushed, feeling like a complete bitch, but she just had to make sure.

  “Thank you. We really would appreciate that. If you could show us the way, we would be grateful.” She switched gears quickly, hoping it wasn’t too late to change the first impression she had given of herself.

  Scott turned around and started walking, bringing them down the village’s main street. Everywhere they looked, people were smiling and going about their daily business, just without any power. It seemed as though the village still was running wonderfully. Maybe this would be a good place to settle down. Sarah found herself warming up to the idea as she watched children playing, women washing clothes in big tubs, and men standing around chatting amiably. This might just be a great place to end up. Scott led them to a quaint little hotel off to the side of the main road, and gave them a key to a room on the second floor. Wade thanked him and led the girls up. He opened the door and strode in, expecting them to follow.

  “Wow! Look at this place! It’s beautiful!” April was excited as she took in the suite.

  There were two doors off to either side of the living area, with a third one right next to the front door. That door was open, and they could see a beautifully tiled bathroom. It was clean of all dust, and it looked as though there was nothing wrong with the room at all. April ran to one of the doors, threw it open, and then took a running leap into one of the twin beds.

  “Dibs! Now let’s get some TV going!” She grabbed the remote and started feverishly punching buttons, but to no avail.

  Sarah frowned. Not only did this confirm her earlier thoughts about April not being too bright, it also showed her the girl wanted to ignore the problems going on in the country right now and pretend as though America hadn’t changed. She decided it would be better to leave the girl alone to find out on her own. Emily curled up on the other bed and did a sort of snow angel on it that made Wade laugh. Sarah and Wade went to the other bedroom door, intending on dropping off their gear. When she opened it, she saw there was only one bed. It was a king size, but still, it made her blush thinking about going to bed that night.

  “Why don’t you girls get some rest while we figure out our next move? It’s been a while since we really have been safe.”

  Sarah’s voice had a cajoling lilt to it, and it didn’t take long for the girls to agree. Emily crawled into her bed and was asleep in minutes. April either had been lulled into dreamland by the thread count or she was doing a great job of pretending. Wade and Sarah left, making their way down the stairs to where the hotel owner had been. He was still there, and he looked up at them with a smile.

  “I can’t say that I can offer you all of our usual amenities, but I’ll do what I can to help you out.”

  “Thank you. Scott, was it?” The man nodded.

  “I just wanted to talk to you about what’s been going on here,” Wade said. He sat down in a chair, watching Scott. He was a kind man, and it was written in every line of his face, in the sparkle of his eye, and the smile he flashed them.

  “I’ll do my best to tell you everything you want to know.” Sarah sat down as well, letting Wade take up the leadership role again by garnering information.

  “We had a run-in a while back with some very unseemly people, and we were just wondering if they happened to pass through here?” Scott frowned, looked down at his hands, then sighed heavily.

  “I won’t lie. We did have a group of ruffians come through here, and they tried to take as many supplies as they could carry. Fortunately, the town banded together and managed to throw them out without them getting anything from us. We lost two men that day, but luckily it wasn’t more than that. The other man that you saw when Doc was patching you up still was hurt from that incident.” Scott looked genuinely sad about what had happened, and it made Sarah wonder if he knew the two men who had been killed.

  She exchanged a look with Wade, and saw that he looked hurt for the man, too. If this town really was what it looked like, then this would be a great place to stay and make a life for themselves and the girls. Sarah opened her mouth to say something, but the lights came on for a brief second or two, and that got everyone’s attention. One of the little lamps on the concierge desk came on, then promptly exploded, letting the glass from the bulb rain down on whatever it pleased. Little screams and shouts came from outside, making them think that lights had flickered and other little explosions had occurred as well.

  “What’s going on in this town, exactly?” Sarah was confused, but she remembered not to put too much hostility into her voice.

  “That happens from time to time. We have a group of men who like to tinker around and see if they can get the power back on, but so far it’s all been extremely short-lived. This happens every week or so. They get it on, then it short circuits and things explode. Personally, I don’t think they’re going to be able to get it back on at all. But if you get caught saying that, they’ll go on a long rant about how wonderful they are, and how a little thing like getting the power back on isn’t even a challenge for them.” Scott’s eyes were twinkling, and it made Sarah smile.

  This was just what she wanted; a nice place with decent people, where she could make a living for herself. Where had this been before the apocalypse happened? By the time they got back up to their rooms, it was dark outside. A quick check revealed that both of the girls still were out cold, and Sarah couldn’t really blame them. The hike down the mountain had taken a lot out of all of them, and now that they had no power, they might as well go to sleep when darkness came. She blushed again, thinking of the sleeping arrangements.

  “I’ll take the couch.” Wade grabbed some extra blankets and pillows, then made his way to the living room before she could say a word. Sarah frowned, but decided to let it be. Once she crawled between the sheets, she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

  The morning sun woke them all as it filtered in through the windows, and Sarah was surprised to see that Emily was standing in front of her, a fearful expression on her face.

  “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” The little girl shook her head.

  “Not yet. I just have a very bad feeling that something will. I think we need to keep moving.” That, more than anything else, got Sarah fully awake. She started to get dressed, then sent Emily to let Wade know what she’d just told her. He came in as she was putting on her shoes.

  “I’ll go down and warn Scott. I’ll tell him what’s going on. If you can just get the girls and the packs ready, then we can get out of here.” Sarah nodded, then watched as Wade walked out of the suite.

  “Hey, Scott! Glad to see that you’re still here. Listen, there’s something I want to talk to you about.” Wade almost had taken the stairs two at a time to get to the lobby. Scott was in his usual spot again when he made it down.

  “Good morning! I can’t offer our wonderful breakfast as I usually do, but there’s plenty of food in general.” Once Wade’s words sank in, he frowned and leaned forward over his desk in a conspiratorial manner. “What’s going on?”

  “I have a girl with me who has a knack for getting premonitions. It’s like a sixth sense in a way. She’s saying that something horrible is going to happen here soon, and that we need to get out of here. If you can get the townspeople ready to leave, they can all come with us to the Great Lakes region that we’re headed to.” Scott laughed.

  “Premonitions? No way. I don’t believe in that kind of thing. If I were to go telling people that, they’d lock me up, thinking I was a loony. No, thank you. We’ll stay right here.” Wade spent another ten minutes trying to convince Scott to get the people out of there, but it was like he was talking to a brick wall.

  Over his shoulder, he heard some commotion, and when he looked, it was Sarah and the girls coming down with all of their things. Sarah met his eyes, raising an eyebrow in question. Wade shook his head once, letting her know they weren’t going to be getting any company on the trip. Sarah had some burning questions for Emily. The most important of whi
ch was why had she felt the town was safe the night before, but now felt there was a sense of impending doom hanging over everything. Yet she couldn’t very well say anything in front of April. She already was slightly off, and Sarah didn’t want to say anything that would upset the girl and send her off into a frenzy.

  “Just tell them then, Scott. Tell them the crazy man from last night says this is happening and let them decide for themselves if they want to listen. Please!” It was a last-ditch effort, hissed through his teeth, but Wade felt as though it wasn’t going to make any difference. Scott’s friendliness had started to wear off the longer Wade tried to push him, and now he simply turned around and went behind a door that said Authorized Personnel Only.

  Wade turned back to his little family and smiled. “If we get a good start now, we might make it somewhere where we can see the lakes by nightfall.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  WADE DIDN’T WANT to give up. Scott and the people of the village had helped him when he was in need, and he wanted to return the favor. Granted, it was a little hard to believe Emily about the whole sixth sense for danger thing, but it had gotten them to where they were. They were alive and safe, so that should speak for itself. Scott wasn’t budging on not going and not telling the townspeople, though, so there really wasn’t much that they could do. Sighing heavily, Wade knew it was up to Scott now, and all they could do was get what they needed and get out themselves before the disaster hit.

  “Alright, I won’t push anymore. But do you have a place nearby that has older cars? We’ve found that the older models still tend to work right now.” Scott frowned, putting his chin in his hand as he thought.

  “You know what? There’s an antique car dealership on the other side of town. They might have something that would work for you.” Sarah brightened. She always felt safer when they were in some kind of vehicle. Wade smiled at the man.