Red looked at him, needing to get the words out, but still hesitant to show her tender side. She’d learned over the years that when men saw her tender side, their feelings toward her often changed. She became less one of the guys and more like… someone to pursue.
That was why she took such great care to protect her hard-shell appearance. To help keep men at a distance.
It was the same reason she stopped wearing makeup a long time before.
But then, she figured, what the heck. She’d never seen this man until two days before. She was going to hitch a ride with him and never see him again.
The truth was, she missed the comfort of one-on-one conversation.
“You met her in Blanco. Bonnie. She gave us a ride back here. She’s been my friend since as long as I care to remember. At times I felt she was the only true friend I had in the world. The only one who would accept me on my bitch days. The only one who would never judge me, no matter what I did. The only one I could talk to and confess my sins to.
“The only one who really truly loved me unconditionally.”
“What happened to her? I mean, how did you lose her, exactly?”
She hesitated, as though the question caught her unprepared.
“I… I gave her away. Actually, I loaned her to someone. But I’m pretty sure I’m never coming back to claim her. I think she knows it too. She looked so sad. Those big brown eyes were so full of sorrow.
“I’m afraid I broke her heart.”
“But why did you give her away?”
“Because I’m coming with you. That’s why.”
Dave swallowed hard.
Even that hurt.
“Yeah. About that… do you even know where I’m going?”
“I know you’re going north. That’s good enough for me.”
“I’m going as far as Kansas City. You’re more than welcome to ride with me that far. I owe you that much, for saving my life. But after Kansas City I’m turning back.”
“I’m not going that far. I’m going to Lubbock. It’s up in the Texas panhandle.”
“I know where Lubbock is.”
“I know it’s out of your way. I’m not asking you to take me there. Just take me as close as you can and I’ll walk from there. Or I’ll barter for a horse and saddle.”
“Why do you want to go to Lubbock?”
Red shook her head vigorously.
“Na-uh. If you want to play forty questions, then that’s fine. I’ll play your silly game. But that means I get a turn too.
“Why on earth are you going to Kansas City?”
“My family is there. My wife and two little girls. They were on their way to a wedding when the power went out. Their flight was due to land at almost the exact moment the EMPs hit. After a year I still don’t know if they’re alive or dead. I don’t know if they landed safely just before the world went black. Or if they were still in the air and the airplane lost power and fell from the sky.”
“So, you’re going up there to see if they’re alive?”
“Yes. And if they are, I plan to bring them back to San Antonio.”
“Is that where you’re from? San Antonio?”
“Yes. Born and raised. Lived there all my life, except the four years I was in the Marines.”
“What if your family didn’t make it?”
“I don’t know. I may stay with the relatives up there, if they have the room. But I think I’d rather come back to Texas. I think I’d be more comfortable at home. I really try not to consider that possibility.”
“You have to. No matter how hard it is. If you don’t prepare yourself for it, and if it’s reality, it’ll kill you. Or at least make you wish you were dead.”
“I wish I was dead every time I even consider the possibility.”
“If you found out they were dead, would you kill yourself to join them?”
“I honestly don’t know. That would be the easy way out, I suppose. The problem I struggle with, is they were all three good enough to go to heaven. If they didn’t make it, I know they’re in heaven, waiting for me and hoping I make it too.
“But I’ve always believed that committing suicide is as much a sin as killing someone else. And I don’t like my chances of going to heaven if my last act here on earth is a sin.”
“You don’t think God would forgive you under the circumstances?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“There seem to be a lot of things you don’t know. How did you get your car started?”
“Uh, uh. That’s at least a thousand questions. It’s my turn again.”
“Okay.”
“I know why they call you Red. But how did you come to be so…”
Dave struggled to find the right word.
She smiled and tried to help him.
“Bitchy? Mean? Hard?”
“No. None of those. It’s just that… well, you’re a beautiful and compassionate woman. But it’s easy not to see that because you’re so rough around the edges.”
Red laughed.
“Well, that’s about as diplomatic a way to describe me as I’ve ever heard.
“The truth is, I have a girly side. I just seldom show it.”
“Why?”
“Because it seems that every time a man sees my girly side, he falls for me. Young or old, rich or poor. It doesn’t matter. And I can’t return the emotion. I don’t believe in love anymore. I haven’t in a very long time.
“I just got tired of breaking hearts. It’s easier to keep my hard shell and act like a tough woman. It keeps men at arm’s length. It’s just easier that way.”
“Why are you going to Lubbock?”
“To find the man who murdered my husband and my son.”
“And what do you expect to do when you find him?”
“I don’t know for sure. I’ve dreamed about it a lot. Sometimes, in my dream, I just shoot him and get it over with. Then I keep on shooting him until I’m out of bullets. And sometimes I dream that I reload and shoot him some more. Just for the good feeling I get each time I watch a bullet go into his head.
“Other times, I want to take him alive, so I can torture him a thousand different ways. Make him die a slow and very painful death. Just like my husband and my boy.”
“How did they die?”
Red suddenly grew silent. His question made her think about something she’d been trying very hard to forget. He’d touched a raw nerve.
Finally, she spoke again.
“I’m sorry, Dave, but I’m tired of this game. Let’s continue it another time, okay?”
“Okay, sure. And I’m sorry I made you sad.”
“Oh, you didn’t make me sad,” she lied. “I’m tough as nails. I’m tougher than you ever were, even on your toughest day.”
She thought for a moment, and then added, “And by the way, they didn’t die.”
“Who? Who didn’t die?”
“Your wife and daughters. They didn’t die. At least not in a plane crash. Their plane didn’t fall from the sky.”
Chapter 37
Dave was shocked. He would have sat bolt upright on the bunk, if his body had allowed him to.
He looked at Red in stunned silence, not knowing quite what to say.
“You want to know how I know?”
He managed a nod of his head.
“On the day the lights went out, I walked out of the hardware store where I helped my dad. I wanted to see if one of the transformers on the power poles had blown. That’s what generally caused the blackouts in Blanco. Either that or a car veered off the highway and took out a power pole.
“Everyone else was gathering in the street, too. There weren’t any cars driving down Main Street, because Blanco never did have a lot of traffic. So we still didn’t know it affected the cars too.
“We just figured the electric company would do what they always did, take their sweet time getting out to Blanco, and taking even longer to fix the problem.
“
We’d been through it before, you see. And each time before when the power went out it took at least a full day, sometimes two or three, to get everything going again.
“So everyone was planning what they were doing after the sun went down. Some of my neighbors decided to take all the meat from their freezers, since it would probably spoil anyway. And everybody was going to gather on the town square and have a barbeque and roast marshmallows.
“To most of the townsfolk, it seemed as good a reason as any to have a party.
“Anyway, Dad even came out of the hardware store to join us. He couldn’t do much in there anyway with the lights out.
“Right after he came out, a huge passenger plane flew right over our heads.
“That wasn’t uncommon. Blanco is on the approach path for one of the runways at the Austin airport. When the wind direction called for them to use that particular runway, we’d see them fly over several times a day.”
Dave’s eyes closed.
He finally had verification his theory was correct. The EMPs, when they struck the airplanes in the sky, didn’t short out all their systems and make them fall to the ground. They reacted as though the airplanes were flying Faraday cages. The EMPs merely behaved as electricity would have. Zapping the outer shell, but not penetrating the inner compartment where the electronics were located.
He turned his attention back to Red, who was still explaining.
“Someone in the crowd asked my dad a question, because they knew he was once a pilot. He flew what they called ‘heavies’ in the Air Force. Cargo planes. C-141s, if you know your planes. He also flew passenger planes for Delta for several years.
“Anyway, they asked him what would happen if the power ever went out at the airport. How the pilots could land their planes without their glide slope beacon on, and without the aid of the air traffic controllers guiding them in.
“Dad told them it would never happen, because the airports had backup generator systems that were set up to work independently of the electric company.
“But he said that just in case it did ever happen, that there was no power at the airport, that pilots would be able to land anyway.
“He explained that the FAA required all commercial pilots to stay proficient on emergency landing procedures, which included airports that were blacked out.
“I remember him taking me to the flight simulator building once when I was young, and showing me the simulator. It was a cross between training tool and carnival ride, this great big blue enclosed box that had the very rough shape of the front of an airplane. It was on a dozen hydraulic legs that enabled it to move back and forth in a hundred different directions. Once we were inside, it looked like we were in the cockpit of an airplane.”
She paused long enough to look at Dave, who had stopped listening long before.
He was now staring at the ceiling of the sleeper, tears rolling from his one good eye.
He said, simply, “They’re alive.”
Red smiled and said, “Fine. I’ve been ignored by better men than you, pal…”
Chapter 38
The next day, Dave was getting better, and was also getting antsy.
He sat up on the bunk, albeit with much effort and much pain, and called out to Red. She was sitting in the passenger seat, half reading a magazine and half watching out for trouble.
“Red, I’m tired of sitting here. I want to get back on the road.”
“Well, well… I knew that if we hung out together long enough we’d finally find something to agree on. And I’m way ahead of you. I already cleaned out the passenger side of your front seat. You’re a slob, you know that?”
“Yeah. I know. Sarah was always telling me that. And I think I’ve gotten worse in the last year. It’s just hard to get motivated, you know, when there’s no one around to impress. Or to yell at you for not doing it.”
“I came across a framed photograph, of a woman and two girls. Is that your family?”
“Yes. I brought that along to look at to remind me why I’m out here. And to help me keep going when I want to give up. I figured it would come in handy when I got to Kansas City, too. If I have to search for them, I can show it to people and ask if they’ve seen them. It was in my backpack before I emptied it out to go into town to get the alternator and battery.”
“You left out a word.”
“Huh?”
“You should have said, ‘before I stupidly went into town to get the alternator and battery.’”
“Hey, I needed the alternator. I figured I might never be this close to an auto parts store again. I thought it would be an easy trip.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Dave, the world has changed. Nothing is easy anymore. Perhaps someday it will be. But not now. And probably not anytime soon.”
“True. I can’t argue that. I’ll move those bags in the back seat over to the left side so you can recline the passenger seat. It lays all the way back and you’ll have plenty of leg room. You’ll be quite comfortable.”
Red smirked and looked around the sleeper’s curtain to face him.
“Who said I’m gonna be sitting in the passenger seat? I think you meant you’ll be quite comfortable there.”
Dave had never even considered giving up the responsibility of driving.
And he’d always hated being a passenger.
But he knew he was still in bad shape. So he didn’t press the issue.
Red said, “Look. Maybe after a couple of nights you’ll be well enough to drive. But if you try it too soon, you’ll wince every time you hit a bump and jerk the wheel whenever you feel a stab of pain. I’d rather not be pushing us out of a ditch all by myself because you’re still too broken up to help.”
“Okay. You win. You drive, I’ll navigate.”
“Good boy.”
Then Red changed the subject.
“She’s quite beautiful.”
Dave gave her a puzzled look.
“Your wife.”
“Oh, yes. Sarah was a model in her younger days, until her body changed and they didn’t want her any more. They refused to use any model who looked older than sixteen and weighed more than ninety pounds. But she kept her looks.”
“Your daughters, fortunately, favor her instead of you. In fact, the older one is her spitting image. What are their names?”
“Lindsey’s the oldest one. She’s a sophomore in high school. Beth is my baby. She’s almost thirteen.”
Red eyed him closely.
“You strike me as a good father.”
“I try.”
“Will they expect you to come after them?”
“Yes. But Sarah will keep them from counting on it. She’ll know that it may not be possible. So she’ll be careful to stress to them that Daddy will try his best, and will probably eventually find them, but that it may be awhile.”
“So you think she’ll know that you had to wait until spring to set out?”
“Yes. She’ll have figured it out. In addition to being drop dead gorgeous, she’s also the smartest person I’ve ever met.
“If she had a way to warn me about the escaped prisoners, she’d have told me not to come. But since she couldn’t, she’ll hope they’re all gone by the time I leave, and then pray that I make it to them.”
“What escaped prisoners?”
“From Fort Leavenworth. They had a big prison break when the world went black. They think most of them are still in the area, since there aren’t many transportation options, besides walking and stealing horses.”
“If they’re still in the area, why don’t they just round them up?”
“It’s not that easy. When everybody realized how serious the blackout was, and how permanent, things went to hell. Most of the policemen and state troopers deserted their posts to be with their families. A lot went rogue and started fending only for themselves. A lot eventually committed suicide or were murdered by felons with grudges.
“So now, all of the law enforcement agencies, if they s
till exist at all, are nothing but skeletons of their former selves. Then you have the transportation problem. Without any vehicles, how would they search for them? How would they surround them in sufficient force to arrest them? How would they transport them?”
“So where are they? If they’re all hiding in the woods, wouldn’t they eventually get hungry and go back to the prison?”
“I understand the prison itself is barely functional. They let all but the worst offenders go. The ones left were given a few head of livestock and seeds and told they had to grow their own food or starve. I doubt if they’d let any more people join their ranks and have to feed them too. If they did catch somebody and send him back, he’d probably be murdered by the other prisoners so they wouldn’t have to share their food with him.”
“So what do you think happened to them?”
“The people I’ve talked to say they’ve probably taken over the farms in the area. Maybe even are holding the residents hostage, or making them slaves. Making them grow their food and cook for them.”
Despite the swelling and bruising still very evident in Dave’s face, she could still make out the sadness and concern.
She suspected she knew the answer, but asked anyway.
“The relatives your family went up to Kansas City to visit… where do they live, exactly?”
“On a farm. Not far from Fort Leavenworth.”
Chapter 39
Red thought it wise to change the subject. There were so many questions she still wanted to ask of her new friend.
Like what he expected to do if he encountered an army of convicted felons holding his wife and daughters hostage.
And how in heck he got the Explorer running again.
And, more importantly, could he do the same thing to get other vehicles running as well?
But for now, time for talk was over.
“I need to get some rest so I’m alert tonight. You’ll have the option of sleeping. I’ll be driving all night. Can you scoot back and make some room?”
It took him a minute, but Dave complied.
Red held the bottle and straw to his face so he could get a drink.
Alone, Book 3: The Journey Page 12