by Dave Conifer
Nick turned to Matt. “You didn’t tell her I’m staying in Crestview?”
“There wasn’t time, Nick,” Matt replied. “We barely made it here as it was.”
“I wouldn’t argue with him,” Roethke said to Nick as he gestured at Matt. “He’s unstoppable. The military guys are already talking about grabbing him from the water project team.” He pointed at Sarah. “But she’s the one they really want.”
“Nick, you’re not leaving?” Penny asked.
“Not without a full load of Helliksons,” Nick replied. “I already told the boss man a little while ago. He’ll still take the rest of the group. So they’re going and I’m staying.”
Penny walked over to Nick with tears in her eyes. He hoped she wouldn't try to talk him out of it. Her lower lip quivered as she tried to speak. When she realized she couldn’t, she took in a deep breath, trying to stifle her sobs. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you. I’m so scared.”
“Hey,” Matt began. “Maybe I—“
“Don’t even say it,” Nick said, cutting him off. “Same for you, Sarah. You’re not staying, either.”
“But—“
“We’ll get through it,” Nick said, sounding far more confident than he really was. Now that Tom had been shot and two of his kids injured, it was going to be even tougher. But he’d already made up his mind. “They’re going to leave us with a big stash of food and weapons. That’ll help.”
“About those supplies,” Roethke said, cutting in. “We need you back at the office to work a few things out. That’s why I’m here.”
“What do you need me for?” Nick asked. “I already hashed it out with Grover. He said he’d bring my supplies to the door. I’ll just wait here.”
“That’s not happening, my friend,” Roethke said. “Not until you come to the office.”
“What’s the hurry?” Nick asked. “The almighty Grover has nothing on me anymore. I have nothing left to lose. Let him come to me with the supplies, like he said he’d do.”
Roethke lowered his voice as he guided Nick away from Penny. “How about pulling a wounded man off the operating table and marching him right back out the front door? If that’s not okay with you, then I’d say you do have something to lose, after all.”
This was something that was already on Nick’s mind. Grover wasn’t somebody who made decisions based on sympathy or emotion. He would do what was best for his own people. Nick had no idea how serious Tom’s injuries were, but they looked bad. The longer they stayed in the compound hospital, the better, even if it was only a matter of hours. “Okay,” he agreed. “Let’s go.”
Roethke walked out without waiting for Nick to follow. Nick returned to Penny, who’d been watching carefully. “I’ll be right back.” He forced a smile. “Don’t go anywhere without me, okay?”
~~~
“What does Grover want with me?” Nick asked Roethke as they hurried through the compound, which was buzzing with activity. It was full morning now, at least seven o’clock. Exhausted-looking people carrying heavy loads, too busy even to look at Nick and Roethke, were scurrying in all directions.
“Maybe he wants to give you one last chance to save yourself,” Roethke answered.
“He’s wasting his breath,” Nick said. “You know where it stands. So what time is the bugout? I thought you wanted to leave by now.”
“That was the plan,” Roethke said. “Until you threw in a monkey wrench by attracting an army to our front door. We had to pull a couple battalions out of mothballs.” He shrugged. “We were running late already, even before that.”
“So you’re not pulling out yet?”
“They're still talking, but there's no doubt in my mind that it’s been delayed until nightfall,” Roethke said. “A lot of us thought leaving at night was better all along. That way, by the time the sun comes up again, we’ll be far away.” He reached another house and jammed a key into the lock. “Grover’s in here.”
“Where are you going, when you finally do take off?” Nick asked. “Last time Grover said it hadn’t been decided yet.”
“I’m not going to tell you,” Roethke said. “You are trouble with a capital T. The less you know, the better.”
~~~
“I’ll get straight to it,” Grover said immediately. Roethke had been shooed away after delivering Nick to the same basement in which Grover had received him that first night. A weary man in bloody medical scrubs was sent out on Roethke's heels. Grover and Nick sat in armchairs that faced each other.
“Your people arrived. I heard about the battle," Grover continued. "Their entrance could have been smoother.”
“How else were they supposed to get here?” Nick snapped. “They can’t help it if Ryne Cronin attacked them. If you hadn’t sent us into that ambush at the Delaney house, none of that would have happened.”
“Among them are Helliksons," Grover said, as though he hadn’t heard anything Nick said. "Three of whom are in my hospital. I personally removed two hunks of hot metal from Tom Hellikson’s shoulder.”
“Well, thanks for that, Doctor. I don't know why you bothered, since you’re kicking him to the curb as soon as the anesthesia wears off,” Nick said.
“We didn’t use any anesthesia,” Grover said. “It’s all packed up and stored off site.” He paused. “Tom Hellikson is a tougher hombre than I thought.”
“I just learned that, too,” Nick admitted. “He’s done a lot tonight,” Nick said. “He saved my life at the solar job, and then he fought his way here. I owe him a lot. All the more reason not to desert him.”
Grover shook his head with exasperation. "How long will you keep this up?" It was the only time Nick had ever seen the man show any emotion.
"As long as I can," Nick said.
"I had you brought here to see if you'd changed your mind," Grover said. “But I can see there’s no talking to you."
"I'm not going anywhere without the Helliksons," Nick said firmly. "It's not negotiable."
"You're making a foolish mistake," Grover said. "We need people like you. But you need us, too. It's going to be bad here. You won’t survive. Nobody will, for very long. That's what I keep trying to tell you."
"No, that’s what I keep trying to tell you," Nick replied as he stood up to leave. "I’m not leaving him and his family behind to die. Especially after what he did for me tonight. Are we done here?"
Grover eyed Nick without standing, stroking his chin. Just as Nick turned to leave, Grover spoke. “Wait.” He waved Nick back to his chair. Seeing no reason not to, Nick sat back down. He thought he saw Grover nod at somebody, but when he turned and looked, there was nobody there.
“Did you see the man who was in here just before you were?” Grover asked.
“Yeah,” Nick said. “He was a doctor, right?”
“Dr. Gonzalez,” Grover said. “He was briefing me on who’s left in the infirmary.”
“Okay,” Nick said, not sure where Grover was going with this.
"Let’s get something straight,” Grover said. “I’m not saying I’m wrong about Tom Hellikson and his family. But at the same time, I'm troubled by the idea of throwing an injured man out onto the streets when he needs care. It's not my style. I'm a man of medicine. Ever heard of the Hippocratic Oath?"
"Sort of," Nick replied.
"The most important rule in my profession is ‘Do no harm.’ The news from the infirmary wasn't good. So I'm going to allow the Helliksons to join us. We'll have to find a way to feed all those unproductive mouths. After he heals up, he, and of course his wife, will have to work. Just like everybody else."
Nick's mouth fell open as he stared at Grover. "So you're saying that--" He was so overjoyed, confused, shocked and relieved, all at the same time, that he couldn't finish a sentence. “You mean—“
"Good lord," Roethke said. Nick hadn’t noticed that he’d come back in. "Can't you take 'yes' for an answer?"
"All of them?" Nick asked.
"Arrangements are be
ing made now,” Grover said. “Tom Hellikson is being informed as we speak. We'll let him give his family the news himself."
“Then I’m in,” Nick said. A shadow crossed his face. “Wait a minute. You had the hospital update before I even showed up. You knew you were changing your mind before I came in.” He paused. “Was this some kind of test? You like doing that, don’t you?”
“Don’t push it,” warned Roethke. “Declare victory and scram, will ya?”
"Fair enough,” Nick said.
"Now, if there's nothing else, I have a lot to do,” Grover said. “And so do you. So let's get to it."
Twenty-four
The remainder of the day, the first and last that Outhouse Coalition members would spend inside the Water Tower Compound, was difficult for Nick and the others. They knew they were part of it, but none were comfortable with it yet. Nick encouraged everybody who was healthy enough to volunteer for anything they could do to help. In addition, many hours were spent at the side of beds in the infirmary, at least until it was disassembled again late in the afternoon.
“I’m afraid to ask any questions,” Matt said to Nick after checking on Tom late in the afternoon, “but I have no idea what’s going on here. Everybody’s running around like ants, moving stuff around, but where are they taking it? People are disappearing, but where are they going?”
The same questions had been on Nick’s mind. “I’ll find out what’s going on,” he promised.
Two hours later he summoned a meeting of his group in the corner of one of the yards. This included the injured members, now that they were out of the infirmary. “You’re all patched up now, Tom?” he asked before getting started.
“The surgery was worse than getting shot,” Tom said. “Halfway through it they gave me something to bite down on. But it’s all fixed. They gave me a pile of pain pills. It’ll heal up in a few months.”
“Great,” Nick said. “Look, sorry to be rushing things here, but all of a sudden time is tight. I found out how all this works. Turns out they have another place a couple miles down the road. That’s where they’ve been taking everything. And that’s where we’ll leave from.”
“That explains a lot,” Matt said.
“Slowly but surely, everybody is getting shuttled over there,” Nick said as he pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. “We need to be at the gate behind the gray house at three o’clock. That’s less than a half hour from now.”
~~~
Several Sixties-era vans were waiting at the gate when they arrived. Tired men sorted them into the vans without a word, closed the doors, and slapped the windows to signal the drivers to pull out. Five minutes later they rolled up a gravel roadway into an industrial site between four warehouses. Nick knew there were railroad tracks passing through nearby, although they’d fallen into disrepair well before all the trouble started.
“Are these warehouses full?” Tom asked. Nick could hear the pain in his voice. He was going to be hurting for a long time.
“I imagine so, based on everything I’ve heard this afternoon,” Nick answered. “Or at least they were. If we’re really moving out tonight, whatever was in there is probably moving with us.”
“Like, where do we go now?” Dewey asked the driver, who didn’t even turn his head, let alone answer. These people were dog-tired and not looking for conversation.
“Go past that corner building,” somebody else told them after they’d disembarked. “That’s where you’ll load up. You’ll see when you get there.”
After walking only a few yards they came to understand what a huge operation they were now part of. Four semi-trucks were backed up to loading docks spread across the backs of the warehouses. Smaller vehicles were scooting in and out of the warehouses, kicking up gritty dust that Nick could taste. Now he understood why the compound had looked less busy in recent days; the bustle had moved here. His body tingled with excitement.
“I’m guessing that the trucks are for moving equipment and supplies,” Sarah said. “But where are we supposed to go? How are they moving people?”
Her question was answered after they walked past the last warehouse. At the bottom of the hill was a line of buses of disparate types, from Greyhounds to yellow school buses. Jabbing at the air with his forefinger, Nick counted fourteen of them. Clusters of people were scattered alongside each one, some in portable chairs but most lounging in the grass. Nick recognized most of them from the neighborhood.
“I feel like the new kid in school,” Tom said.
“It won’t be so bad,” Nick answered. “A lot of them look familiar, don’t they?” He pulled the slip from his pocket and scanned it. “We’re on bus eight,” he said.
“Should we head down?” Matt asked. “One of those must be ours.”
“Do any among you have a clue about where you’re going?” came a voice from behind.
It was Roethke. Nick had no idea where he’d come from. It was always that way with him. He’d had enough Roethke for now. Maybe forever. “Bus eight,” he answered curtly.
Roethke nodded smugly. “Maybe you know where you’re going,” he said, folding his arms against his chest. “But do you know where you’re going?”
“Away from here,” Nick answered. “That’s good enough for me.”
“I suppose it would be,” Roethke said. He looked down the hill to where people were gathering. The engines of all the buses seemed to roar to life at the same time. “I suppose you think you’re some kind of hotshot, don’t you? Now that you stared Grover down and got your way. Am I right?”
“I didn’t stare anybody down, Roethke,” Nick answered. “And right now, I’m just glad to be a part of this. We all are.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Roethke said. “Save it, okay? You’ll do well to remember you’re lucky to be here.” With that, he turned and walked down the hill.
“Like, what was that all about?” Dewey asked. “Who was that guy?”
“His name is Roethke. He’s a big cheese around here, unfortunately,” Nick explained.
“Charming guy,” Tom commented.
“Better him than Cronin,” Matt said. “I feel bad for anyone who’s left behind.”
“Me too,” Nick said. “But we can’t save everybody. We did our best.”
“The buses are loading now,” Sarah said, interrupting. “I’ll herd everybody over. Do we need some kind of ticket to get on?”
“All we have is this,” Nick told her, waving the scrap of paper he’d been given.
A few minutes later they were all safely on board. Shortly after two tractor trailers rumbled past, the line of buses began to move. Nick counted heads, and then settled back into the seat he was sharing with Dewey. Sleep was coming on fast, and he wasn’t going to fight it. It had been a long night. In fact, it had been a long summer. He could afford a few minutes of down time. Not much though. There was so much to take in. Wherever that bus took them, it was going to be quite a trip.
THE END
If you enjoyed The Grid Goes Black, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. It only needs to be a sentence or two, and will be greatly appreciated by the author!
The Grid Goes Black on Amazon
Other Books by Dave Conifer
Hard Lines
Wrecker
Primary Justice
eBully
Throwback
FireHouse
Snodgrass Vacation
Man of Steel (Cold Cases Book 1)
Zodiac Rogue (Cold Cases Book 2)
Money Down (Cold Cases Book 3)
Dave Conifer is a fitness fanatic living in South Jersey with his wife and three kids. When he's not coaching wrestling or soccer or working as a boy scout leader or girl scout leader, Dave likes to read non-fiction history. He also blogs about the 48 solar panels on his roof and how they generate nearly all the power needed by his family of five.
Contact Dave Conifer by email:
[email protected]
Stay current and sig
n up for emailed Updates about Dave’s new releases at the official website:
daveconifer.weebly.com
Find Dave Conifer on Facebook: daveconiferfanpage
daveconiferfanpage
Dave’s always excited to hear from his readers!