Bridgers 3_The Voice of Reason

by Stan C. Smith

  8:30 AM

  In front of Roslyn’s house, Joaquim and Gideon, the two National Guardsmen assigned as escorts, waited patiently in their idling Humvee. They had spent the night at a nearby hotel. Roslyn had invited them to sleep in her house, but there simply hadn’t been room.

  Infinity, Lenny, and Xavier stood awkwardly in the grass beside the silver Grand Cherokee they’d driven to Roslyn’s house. The vehicle was one of several thousand that had been abandoned beside the road near SafeTrek by refugees lucky enough to get a spot in one of the outgoing colonies. As instructed, the colonists had all left their keys with SafeTrek personnel.

  Infinity fidgeted. Desmond had been embracing his mother for a full minute. As they pulled back from each other, Infinity studied their faces. The depth of their relationship was fascinating to her, unlike anything she’d ever experienced—at least for as long as she could remember.

  The mother and son gazed at each other for a few more seconds without speaking. Infinity couldn’t imagine what words would be appropriate at this moment. When she was fourteen, her last words to her parents had been something like, “I hope you both die in pain.” It hadn’t been her best moment. And as far as she knew now, that could very well be what had happened to them. Or, if they were still alive somewhere, it would definitely happen soon. Probably within weeks—a few months at the most.

  Roslyn put her hand on Desmond’s cheek and forced a smile. She moved her hand to the top of his head, caressing the bristle. “You’re still handsome, even without your hair.”

  He forced a smile of his own. “You should probably try to stay in the house as much as you can. Do you have enough food?”

  She waved a hand at the other houses on the street. “I’m fine. We’ve all been watching out for each other.”

  Infinity studied the other houses. Faces gazed back at her through some of the windows.

  “What about quilting supplies?” Desmond asked. “Do you want us to run to Joann’s?”

  She shook her head. “Joann’s closed a week ago. Can you believe that? But I have more than enough to keep me busy for a year. Which, I suppose, is more than I’ll need.”

  They gazed at each other for several more long seconds.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said.

  Again she smiled. She started to say something, but then she just nodded.

  He pulled her to him and kissed her forehead. Then he turned and got into the Cherokee’s back seat.

  Lenny stepped up and gave the woman a brief hug. Xavier did the same. They got in the front seats, Lenny behind the wheel. Lenny and Xavier each still wore a boot on one foot from their weeks-old bridging injuries, but they could get around fine now, and Lenny had insisted on being the driver for this trip.

  Infinity approached Desmond’s mother, unsure what to say. “I’m glad I could meet you, Roslyn.” She stepped closer and spoke softly. “Um, do you happen to have a gun in your house?”

  Roslyn shook her head, frowning.

  “Well, things are falling apart everywhere. We saw some ugly scenes on the drive here. It might get a lot worse. I recommend you and your neighbors get together and make a plan. Choose the largest house and all of you move yourselves and your supplies there. Those who have guns should bring them. Strength in numbers, you know?”

  Roslyn gazed back at her. “Desmond told me you were a survivor—always prepared for the worst.”

  Infinity nodded once. “It comes with the job.”

  “You two take care of each other.”

  Infinity sensed that she should give the woman a hug, but hugging wasn’t really her thing, so she just went to the Cherokee. She pointed to one of the houses on the other side of the street. “That one would be a good choice. The porch is elevated, and the second-floor windows will allow you to spot people approaching. The place is defensible.” Without another word, she signaled to the two escorts in the Humvee and got into the back seat of the Cherokee beside Desmond.

  “Damn, Des,” Lenny said. “Make her get in and come with us. Pick her up and put her in the car if you have to.”

  Desmond ignored this and said, “Let’s go.”

  Infinity had heard him the previous night trying to convince Roslyn to come back to SafeTrek, at least to stay in the guarded refugee encampment outside the facility. She had refused. She wanted to stay in her house until the end, surrounded by her quilts and her memories associated with the place. Infinity didn’t blame her. Who would want to live out their final days surrounded by people who had been selected to survive? Many of them had probably been selected because of their money or positions of power. Definitely not Infinity’s kind of crowd.

  Desmond stared at his mother as Lenny drove the Cherokee away from the curb. Roslyn stood on her lawn, one hand covering her mouth, the other raised in a final wave.

  Saddest damn thing Infinity had ever seen. Maybe she was lucky she didn’t have that kind of relationship with her own parents.

  8:56 AM

  Lexington was better off than many of the other places they’d seen while traveling. Here, most of the houses and businesses were undamaged. Maybe something about this area minimized extreme weather events and earthquakes. But before long the earthquakes would get much worse, even here.

  Infinity gazed through the window as they passed a man walking a chubby, white dog. The dog was squatting in the grass taking a piss, and the guy was patiently waiting—as if everything in the world was completely normal. Infinity supposed if she were able to choose a place to live out her last weeks, she would pick a place like this. Nice houses, each of them a different color and shape, instead of rows of identical clone units. Green lawns with mulched flower beds. And guys who walked their dogs like they had all the time in the world. She imagined that the guy would even say hello to her if she were to walk by him on the sidewalk, maybe even say something pleasant about the weather. Infinity knew Desmond hadn’t grown up here in Kentucky, but she was willing to bet the place where he had grown up was just like this.

  Why in the hell was he even interested in her?

  “You okay, man?” Xavier asked Desmond.

  Desmond wiped his eyes for the hundredth time and nodded silently, still staring out the window. He then turned and faced his two buddies in the front seats. “Thanks for coming along, you guys. I wish we could just keep driving east so you could see your families. I’m sorry.”

  Xavier’s family was in New York, and Lenny’s was in South Carolina. Even if there had been time to drive that far, Armando Doyle, Infinity’s boss, wouldn’t have allowed it. More accurately, that asshole Reece Eagleton wouldn’t have allowed it. Eagleton, a regional administrator for FEMA, had been appointed by the president of the United States to take charge of SafeTrek’s attempts to bridge refugees to alternate versions of Earth, a last-ditch effort to save at least a few human lives. Eagleton was a hard-ass bureaucrat who seemed to take pleasure in passing down inflexible orders from those who had no idea of what bridging was like.

  After several seconds of silence, Lenny said, “My sisters have gathered at Mom and Dad’s house. They’re all going to stay there together until the end. To be honest, bro, I don’t think I could handle going there and looking them in the eye. I just couldn’t. It’s better this way.”

  “Same here, Des,” Xavier said. “I admire you coming here to see your mom, but for me it’s easier this way.”

  Infinity knew they were both lying. Or maybe they weren’t. It was none of her business, anyway.

  They drove out of the city on a six-lane highway, but traffic was almost nonexistent. Weeks ago, the initial waves of panic had resulted in mass chaos, followed by congested roads as people tried to get to their loved ones, or to wherever they intended to spend their final days. But now apparently most people had already arrived at their destinations. Many of the gas stations had been abandoned, which was why Joaquim and Gideon’s Humvee was loaded with full gas canisters.

  Lenny suddenly slowed the Cherokee. “You’ve go
tta be kidding me!”

  Infinity leaned forward to look. Two horses were standing in the middle of the highway. Next to them were the mangled carcasses of two more horses, obviously killed by a large vehicle.

  “Someone let them all loose,” Xavier said. He was staring out to the right. Dozens of horses were moving toward the highway, scattering from a large park-like compound surrounded by a curving white fence.

  “It’s Keeneland,” Desmond said. “It’s a race track. Also the biggest auction house for Thoroughbreds. Those are racehorses. Some of them are worth millions.”

  Lenny cautiously drove forward, and the two horses moved out of the way. More horses were moving toward the highway ahead, so he skirted around the carcasses and sped away.

  1:05 PM

  A storm hit as the Cherokee and Humvee approached the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. It started with a gust of wind that nearly blew the Cherokee off the road. Heavy rain followed, hammering the windshield with massive drops. And then something occurred that Infinity had never seen before—four tornadoes formed in a cluster over the wide expanse of river. Lenny pulled to the shoulder and they watched. The four dark vortexes followed the river for half a mile or so as they moved southeast, swerving around each other and crisscrossing, almost like they were dancing. When they hit land at a bend in the river, they disappeared as quickly as they had formed. As if on cue, the rain and wind stopped as well.

  Without saying a word, Lenny pulled back onto the road, followed by the Humvee. The road ran parallel to the river for a mile or so and then abruptly turned west to a long bridge over the Ohio River. Once on the bridge, Infinity gazed out at the barges jumbled up below. Some were overturned. Others were actually on land, hundreds of yards from the water, as if the area had flooded recently. The bridge was littered with debris from the storm, but they were able to cross it easily.

  Once over the bridge, they were on a flat point of land that was the southern tip of Illinois. Minutes later, they were on another bridge, this one crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri. They were now only a couple hours from SafeTrek.

  But Infinity could see that the far end of the bridge was jammed with vehicles.

  Past the edge of the river but still twenty feet above Missouri soil, they came to a stop behind a dozen or so cars and trucks held up by some kind of blockage at the end of the bridge. Most of the drivers had left their vehicles and were gathered in a mass about a hundred yards ahead where the bridge ended.

  Infinity’s chest tightened. Even at this distance, something about the body language of the gathered people triggered her readiness alarm. “This doesn’t look good,” she said. “We should turn around before we get boxed in from behind.”

  “But this is the shortest way,” Xavier protested. “Surely they’ll have it cleared soon.”

  Two torsos appeared next to the Cherokee, both covered in the operational camouflage pattern of the Army National Guard uniform. One of the torsos belonged to Joaquim, who rapped his knuckles on the driver window. Lenny lowered the window.

  “You folks sit tight,” Joaquim said. “We’ll go see what’s holding things up.”

  “We can just turn around,” Infinity said. “Avoid possible conflict.”

  Joaquim shook his head. “It’s probably just a fender bender, ma’am. Maybe they need a hand to move a vehicle. Just sit tight.” He and Gideon turned and walked ahead toward the crowd of people.

  Infinity sighed loudly. She had nearly forgotten how overconfident these guys could be. Their firearms were sometimes useful, but there was something to be said for caution and strategy. Maybe they just needed to experience a few bridging excursions. She watched the two guardsmen stomping toward the crowd as if they intended to knock some heads together.

  “Goddammit!” she muttered. She threw her door open, got out, and followed the guardsmen. Seconds later, she heard Desmond, Xavier, and Lenny get out to follow her. When she was halfway to the crowd, she noticed several shotgun barrels protruding above the heads of the thirty or so people.

  Desmond was now walking beside her. “Don’t you think we should wait in the car?”

  She kept her eyes on the scene before her. “I think you three should wait in the car.”

  When she got to the crowd, the guardsmen had already pushed their way through to the center. Infinity held back, standing up taller to see over the shoulders of several men and women.

  “You’re not coming in!” a man snarled. “I don’t care who you are or where you’re from.”

  Infinity moved to the side until she could see the person speaking. He was a large man with a buzz cut and wearing a navy blue t-shirt. More importantly, he was holding an AR-15, pointing it directly at Joaquim’s face.

  “You got no business coming to Missouri,” the man said. “None of you do. The bridging center’s got a line a mile long. We live here. If they won’t take me and my family, they sure as hell aren’t taking any of you! Just turn around and go back.”

  “Sir, we happen to be from Missouri,” Joaquim said in a controlled voice. “We just passed over this bridge yesterday, and we’re on our way back. You’re blocking a public road.”

  The man shoved the AR’s muzzle forward, inches from Joaquim’s face. “Oh yeah? Where exactly in Missouri are you from?”

  Joaquim hesitated.

  Don’t say it, Infinity thought.

  “We’ve been assigned to securing the SafeTrek bridging facility.”

  This was followed by silence.

  “Dammit!” Infinity said aloud, and she pushed her way through the crowd until she was standing between the two guardsmen. Both of them were at least four inches taller than her, and the man with the AR was another four inches taller than them. And now she saw that six other men were lined up across the road behind him, all of them holding various firearms.

  The guy’s eyes narrowed when he saw Infinity. He stared at her bald scalp, and then his eyes moved down to the freshly-stitched wounds on her neck and shoulders.

  She raised her right arm so he could see the SafeTrek tattoo on the back of her hand.

  His eyes went from narrow to wide. “Bridger!”

  “That’s right,” she said. “We’re on our way back to SafeTrek because President Millright has ordered us to bridge another colony out. Direct orders. From President Hayley Millright.”

  “I heard Millright was dead,” one of the other armed men said. “Air Force One was knocked out of the sky by a freak storm, like the one that just passed through here.”

  Infinity ignored this. She studied the big man before her. He was obviously leading the others. “You know why I keep working as a bridger while the world is falling apart? Because I can. It’s what I do best. It makes me feel like there is this one goddamn thing I can have some control over.” She let this sink in for a moment. “Maybe that feeling is something you can identify with?”

  The man’s features softened a little, and he smiled slightly. “You nailed it. That’s precisely how I feel. Which is why I’m controlling this bridge. Because I can.” He then gazed at her without moving.

  Well, that didn’t work. Infinity decided to try a different approach.

  Before she could speak, Joaquim said, “Sir, we’re coming through whether you like it or—”

  “Shut up!” the man roared. “You people sicken me. It’s your technology that’s destroying everything in the first place. And now you just wanna keep using it, over and over. Did you ever think that if you just quit bridging people, the world would stop collapsing?”

  The men behind him had raised their guns menacingly. One of them said, “We’re all gonna die because of you.”

  “Let’s go, Sarah,” one of the other drivers said, apparently to his wife. The crowd of drivers and passengers started heading back to their vehicles.

  Infinity realized it was useless to argue with the armed men. “Alright. We’ll turn around and go back.” She grabbed the elbows of the two guardsmen. “Let’s go.”


  “The hell we will,” Joaquim said, reaching for his sidearm.

  The bridge trembled. Everyone froze. Then the bridge trembled again. The tremors intensified and didn’t stop.

  “Everyone get off the bridge!” Joaquim shouted.

  The people who hadn’t reached their cars yet began running back toward the armed men.

  “No!” The big man shouted. He fired his AR three times into the air.

  But now the crowd was panicked, and they kept coming. One of the men fired a shotgun, and Joaquim staggered back, clutching his face. “Aw, shit! They shot me. I can’t see!”

  Desmond grabbed Joaquim and guided him behind an SUV for cover.

  Everything went to hell. A driver in one of the foremost cars punched the accelerator, ramming a car out of the way, and barreled toward the armed men. The men opened fire, and the car suddenly turned, hit the guardrail, and rolled over onto its side, blocking the road. The vehicle rocked back and forth as the earthquake rumbled on.

  Gideon pulled out his sidearm and raised it to fire at the men, but Infinity grabbed his arm. “There’s too many of them!” she cried. “Just take cover.”

  But now the mass of cars had become just as dangerous as the armed men. The panicked drivers were squealing their tires and ramming into each other trying to get turned around.

  A bullet shattered a car window near Infinity’s head, helping her pick between a rock and a hard place. “Back to the vehicles!” she shouted. Gideon helped Desmond guide Joaquim, who was still blinded, and they all headed back toward the river. Infinity ran ahead and waved wildly at the drivers, trying to prevent them from running the group over.

  Some of the cars nearest the bank were just getting turned around when Infinity and the others made it to the Cherokee. While Desmond and Gideon took Joaquim to the Humvee and loaded him in, Infinity, Lenny, and Xavier got in the Cherokee. Lenny threw it into gear and frantically rammed several other cars getting it turned around. He braked beside the Humvee and Desmond jumped in. Another car sideswiped them as they accelerated toward the river and the Illinois side of the bridge, followed by the Humvee.