Impact Series Box Set | Books 1-6

by Isherwood, E. E.

The weight of Misha’s pistol filled her front pocket.

  “My days of being a probie are over.”

  Kentucky

  “Unbelievable,” Ezra lamented as he reached the summit of the hill.

  Cars and trucks still sat along the country road where they’d been before, but most seemed to have broken glass on the side facing them. The land next to the cars was stripped bare of leaves and underbrush, and the corn stalks in the nearby field were all gone. No cows were in the pasture, either, though specks of color were all over the muddy ground, likely trash from houses in his subdivision. Most of the big trees had been tipped over by the wind; the few left upright had their tops broken off. He let his eyes drift near and far over the changed landscape until the color pink caught his attention.

  “Holy crap!” he blurted as he got Butch’s attention. “Over there!”

  They ran into what was once a shady grove of trees at the corner of Happy Jack and the county road. The greenery had been replaced by crashed timbers and windblown household garbage. There was also one injured woman on the ground; her pink lounge chair was wrapped around the base of a tree.

  Ezra experienced a moment of indecision about whether he wanted to find Brenda “Babs” Bowden alive or dead. She’d given him nothing but grief over the years, and yesterday he’d been happy to see Susan finally shut her up. It wouldn’t be fair for his wife to die while the terrible neighborhood busybody survived.

  “She’s still alive,” Butch said as if he was under heavy fire on the battlefield. “We have to get her inside and warmed up. She’s been in the rain all night.”

  Of course.

  Guilt coursed through Ezra’s bones. He didn’t really want her to be dead, but there was one tiny, miniscule, part of him… Before he could allow himself to go too far down that path, he imagined Susan clapping one time right in his face.

  Help the poor woman, you fool. You aren’t like her.

  Ezra closed the distance and crouched next to Babs. “We’re here, ma’am. We’ll get you some help.”

  They slid her out of the vines and mud to find her shivering uncontrollably; she spoke with chattering teeth. “So cold. My arm hurts, too. Do you know why? Is Daddy going to pick me up from school?”

  He and Butch shared a bemused look, then he gave her his full attention. “Yes, he’ll be here. Can you get up?”

  The woman mumbled incoherently, which he took as the okay to lift her, but she screamed when Ezra grabbed her arm.

  “I’m so sorry!” he blurted, meaning it. Her arm was broken below the elbow. It bent at an odd angle, like part of her arm was filled with pudding instead of bone.

  On the next try, they lifted her without touching her broken arm. She still protested and cried, but they got her to her feet. Other than the arm, she didn’t seem to be gravely injured, though there were some nasty scrapes and bruises along the side of her neck and shoulder. Her pink slacks were filthy, though still bright enough they’d garnered his attention. If he hadn’t noticed, she might have never been found. Another pang of guilt surfaced for a second, but he pushed it back down, believing Susan helped keep his anger in check.

  “Let’s get her down the street,” he said to his young partner.

  “I can’t walk,” she whined.

  “But you have to move. We can’t carry—”

  “I can,” Butch interrupted. “If you’ll let me.” The big guy held out his hand to the woman.

  “I just can’t walk. You understand? If you can lift me…”

  Butch was built like a freight train. Though he reminded Ezra of a cowboy, complete with black Stetson, blue jeans, and brown cowboy boots, he also could have been a competitor in a weightlifting competition. He hefted Babs like a rag doll.

  “Ooh, please be gentle,” she pleaded.

  Butch flashed Ezra a what-am-I-in-for look, replying, “I will.”

  As they walked, he surveyed the neighborhood, desperate to find somewhere other than Roger’s house where he could take her. There weren’t many houses near the top of the hill, so the first viable place didn’t show up until they were about halfway down. The two-story house was blasted to smithereens, but the owner, Billy Nelson, originally from Indianapolis, once built his two-car garage so it looked like an old-school Quonset hut. It had a curved roof and walls, and it faced sideways relative to the lake, which meant the wind blew over it, rather than face-on. The silver structure sat toward the back of his lot, which had once been blocked out by trees; now it seemed naked and exposed.

  He pointed. “In there.”

  Babs mumbled. “Mr. Nelson is in arrears. He’s never paid his subdivision dues since he moved in.”

  Ezra chuckled with a touch of fatalism. He and Susan had often spoken about not paying their dues, especially as they felt like they’d been singled out for persecution by Babs and the other trustees. However, he never went through with it. He was convinced she would immediately put a lien on his house. Now he found out another neighbor never paid his dues. Nelson had lived in Happy Cove even longer than him.

  When he opened the small access entrance next to the main set of garage doors, he expected someone to pop out and welcome him, but it was empty inside. The sight of it made him realize they could have gotten all the refugees into the hut last night, far faster than going all the way to Roger’s house. If he’d remembered it was there, Susan might still be alive…

  “You okay?” Butch asked, nudging him forward with the woman in his arms.

  “Yeah. Just thinking about what might have been.”

  “Been there, brother. Let’s get her down and then reassess the situation.” Butch walked Babs through the door, ducking a little so he wouldn’t hit his hat on the top of the frame.

  When he made it into the darkened garage, his eyes fell on the only machine still left inside. It was the tractor he’d been thinking about the night before. The same tractor they’d used to clear debris from the road during normal rainstorms. The same one Nelson shared when other residents needed to dig a hole or clear a garden.

  They put Babs up against one of the flat walls and Ezra went right to the next task. He clicked the button for the garage door opener, then hopped on the small four-wheeled tractor. It already had the attachment he needed.

  He motored out of the garage, still fighting against the unfairness of who was taken and who was saved when the asteroid came down.

  “I’ll be back in a few. I’ve got something I need to do.”

  Isla Socorro, Mexico

  After the worst three days of his life, Petteri Tikkanen’s stomach finally unclenched itself, allowing him a rare moment of peace. He stood on the veranda of his fifteen-thousand-square-foot villa overlooking the sparse vegetation of Isla Socorro. He’d arrived there the night before, after escaping mainland USA, and the falling rocks his company had brought to Earth. For a few minutes, he wanted nothing more than to sip on his designer coffee, feel the breeze, and listen to the silence.

  A man caught his attention from the small road fifty yards away, a little beyond the other side of his well-manicured tropical garden. “Señor! ¿Cómo estás? How are you?” The naval attaché stood next to a small four-wheeler.

  Petteri dropped his head in disappointment. There was no peace to be had, even on a remote island three hundred miles off the coast of mainland Mexico. At least the man switched to English, which was one of his demands when he agreed to put one of TKM’s launch facilities there. All the locals were forced to speak it, or Petteri gave himself the right to send them back to the mainland; it only took a couple of examples before everyone got the message. No one wanted to leave the employ of the richest man in the world. The raw power made him feel like one of the drug lords running other parts of Mexico.

  “I’m fine, Alejandro. You’ve done well!” The officer was in charge of the island when Petteri was elsewhere, and he was responsible for keeping things running smoothly when he was present. Other than interrupting his thoughts at that moment, the man had done
well.

  Alejandro also knew better than to press him, so he got back in his all-terrain vehicle and rumbled down the road. His road. The narrow asphalt lane ran between his compound and the port, then over to the airport a few miles inland. That upgraded route was named after him, of course. Reporters always asked if he got tired of hearing his name attached to everything on and above the Earth, up to, and including some of the larger asteroids, but he always told them the same thing. There’s no better way to remind people of the tireless work our company does for the human race. To himself, he admitted he loved hearing it, no matter how many things were named after him.

  Though he hadn’t petitioned to change the name of the island yet, it was effectively his, too. After all the upgrades and money he sank into the fifty-square-mile dot in the middle of the ocean, he figured he deserved it. Isla Socorro belonged to Mexico, legally, but he’d paid off all the right government officials. They encouraged him to build his giant house, upgrade the existing airstrip with modern electronics, and use the tiny one-ship dock whenever he needed it. In return, he’d been given around-the-clock protection by a battalion of Mexican naval commandos; they stayed in the nearby naval station, which he’d also conveniently upgraded for them.

  Plus, he had his own men.

  He’d taken another couple of sips of his coffee when a visitor rang the doorbell to his private wing of the house. If he hadn’t recently watched his asteroid break apart over the United States, he would have ignored the person and continued with his rest. However, he’d sent Dorothy off on a task earlier and he was certain it was her, so he made his way to the door.

  “Come in,” he managed to say.

  She pushed her way inside, anxiously waving a stack of papers. “It’s like you dropped fifty Tunguska events right in the middle of America!”

  He sighed.

  “Good morning to you, too,” he replied sourly.

  Chapter 3

  Yellowstone National Park, WY

  Tessa, the dispatcher, was already at the broken front window when Grace and Asher ran up to the small police station. She waved them in through the mangled doors and rushed over to them. “Did you guys see the falling stars last night? They ripped the place apart. Were people hurt out by you? Have you been able to get a hold of anyone?”

  Grace saw the humor in a police dispatcher asking if she’d made contact. The woman’s job was to talk to other police units on the radio as well as answer the phones from troubled tourists throughout this section of Yellowstone. Looking behind the wild-eyed woman, she saw several of the phones were off their hooks; no one could call in if they wanted to.

  She tried to answer her questions in order. “Yes, we did see the explosion last night, but we were kind of hidden from it. No, we didn’t see any hurt people where we were, though there are some wandering around up by the springs. And, no, I’ve not been able to get a hold of anyone. My phone doesn’t have any signal. I, uh, lost my walkie somewhere yesterday. I don’t remember where it went.”

  She pulled hers out and tried to dial again, as a test. It didn’t even have a tone; the symbol for the network didn’t appear, which meant it was down. She kept it open to the recent calls screen as she picked up one of the landlines, then used it to dial the number where her dad had called from yesterday. When she did, the line didn’t ring. It hissed, like air was leaking out of the handset.

  “Dang it, nothing works,” she exclaimed.

  “Nope. No surprises there. A few people have come in looking for help. I’ve had to turn them away. As you can see, I’m not taking any calls, either. It’s better if people know no one is coming, rather than taking their message and lie about help being on the way.”

  Grace wasn’t sure about that, but she was certain they needed a plan. She glanced over her shoulder to Asher, who used his feet to drag glass out of the main walkway. He was a man who wanted to help, even if he was from the big city.

  Would Mom like him?

  She perked up at the random thought. Would her mother, a woman known for hating big-city life, like a guy who came from that world? Would she approve of her daughter dating such a person?

  Dating?

  “Ha!” she said out loud.

  “What is it?” Asher asked with concern.

  She turned to him again. “Oh, nothing. Half of my brain is still hiding back in the geyser shaft. The other half is thinking at a million miles an hour about all kinds of crazy thoughts. What we need right now is to take control of the crowd. That’s what the, uh, training videos showed us.” Her hesitation stemmed from the fact she wasn’t a full park ranger yet. On the plus side, the training films were still fresh in her mind. If she intended to wear the uniform, she had a duty to put those videos to good use and help the visitors.

  “It would take every ranger in the National Park Service to control the hundreds of people out there.” Asher pointed through the broken windows.

  “Well, I don’t think it will take quite that many, but it doesn’t matter—we don’t have the full force. It’s just going to be the three of us.”

  Asher looked around. “Who are the other two?”

  “Jeez. You two!” Grace pointed at both of them to be sure they understood.

  Asher took it in stride, whereas Tessa didn’t seem overly excited at the prospect. “I’m only a dispatcher. I don’t have any authority other than answering phones.”

  Grace straightened her hat. “As the senior-most ranger in this building, I’m deputizing both of you, so you can help me do my job. We’re going to announce the park is closed for the season and we’re going to push them out of the park.” The northern gate was only about five miles away.

  “Can you do that?” Asher asked with surprise.

  “She can,” Tessa answered.

  “But…aren’t you, uh—” Asher stuttered.

  “I’m on probation, yeah, but I don’t see anyone stopping me. Ask for forgiveness, right? Not permission. I’m giving myself permission to promote myself to full ranger. I’m giving you the authority to be a ranger, too.” She smiled. “Are you in?”

  He shuffled one of his shoes in the shards of glass. “I’d love to help, but I don’t know anything about being a park ranger. You’ve seen me in the wild, right?”

  “Oh, I know your background. To get through it, pretend the trees are buildings, the forest is the city, and the attractions here are fancy museums back there. It’s the people you need to worry about, and they’re the same as anywhere; they’re scared and need the appearance of someone in charge.”

  He scratched the back of his neck. “Well, if you’re asking me to only give the appearance of being in charge, then I suppose I can do that. But what if they ask me tourist questions, like where stuff is or what kind of animal is biting them?”

  She looked at Tessa. “Can I have the keys?” It was understood what she needed keys for. They both looked to the door at the back of the office.

  The dispatcher paused for a moment, then pulled a small ring of keys out of her pocket. “It’s the one with the black markings.”

  Grace ran to the back and got the door open. Before she went in, she looked back to Asher to answer his question. “If you ever get into trouble out there, just do what my dad taught me to do: make it up as you go!”

  She ran into the armory.

  Kentucky

  The soaked ground made it a challenge to operate the tractor off the pavement, and the high water made it impossible to dig in his own yard, but he found a plot in a part of the common ground up the hill from Happy Cove Avenue. Ezra managed to dig a pit about five feet into the loose soil before he hit bedrock. Butch arrived about midway through to help clear some of it with a shovel. Then, before he had a chance to overthink it, Butch lifted Susan’s body, still in the cheery tablecloth, and respectfully walked her over to the edge.

  Ezra’s only pause was to remove Susan’s diamond solitaire wedding ring, which she kept on a chain around her neck. She wore it that way, she’d tol
d him, so if she ever got robbed again, it was harder to see than if she’d kept it on her finger. It was a result of the convenience store theft that so influenced their lives, but Ezra saw it as one of the many quirks he loved about her. He gave Susan a peck on the cheek, weeping openly for a couple of minutes.

  “Thanks, Butch,” he said, to return to something normal. “You didn’t have to help me with this.”

  “It was my honor, sir. I couldn’t bury my mom, so this helps. Sorry about your loss, by the way.”

  “You, too,” he agreed.

  Ezra rewrapped Susan tightly in the tablecloth, disappointed it was the best he could do for her, then fought more tears as he and Butch got her inside the hole.

  Butch seemed to know what needed doing, so he jumped on the tractor before Ezra could get on it again. He looked down at him until Ezra tossed a handful of dirt in the hole. After a final nod, Butch pushed a large shovel-full of mud over the side. While the young man filled the hole, it gave Ezra time to pull himself together. He also latched the small gold chain around his neck, inside his shirt, so Susan’s ring hung close to his heart.

  I’ll never stop missing you.

  When Butch finished, he climbed off the tractor and stood next to the muddy patch of ground. He reverently held his cowboy hat across his chest, as if waiting for Ezra to speak.

  In his head, he thought about delivering a long-winded eulogy to convey the depth and intensity of his love for his wife, but he didn’t have a clue how to do it. Susan was the bright center of his universe. What could he possibly say to do her any justice? Still, he had to try. He spoke quietly, while looking down.

  “I’ve got to leave you, now, Suze, but it’s for a good cause. I’m going to go and see our daughter. I’ll do everything in my power to keep her safe. Someday, if this disaster doesn’t go on for too long, I’ll bring her back to you. I love you, my wife.” For a few moments he stood there staring at the grave, but his eyes filled with painful memories, and he didn’t want to blubber again in front of Butch. A part of him wanted to clap one final time, but they’d already declared a tie in that game, and he didn’t want to go back on their agreement to share the victory. He also didn’t want to have to explain it all to Butch. Not so soon. Instead, he spun around and took charge of the tractor.