by Caldon Mull
“Will, if you want it, just ask me. I’ll not turn you down... unless, like I’m dead or there’s another good reason.” I stroked his cheek, he leant into it, kissed the palm of my hand.
“Deal. Likewise.” He grinned. His forehead creased. “Hang on there, Andy. I really, really gotta take a shit.”
“What’s the time?” I stood up as he scampered down the passage. “About two.” He called back before shutting the door.
“Ah, damn!” I muttered as I put on the robe, and started braiding my hair back.
The door opened and I heard flushing noises. Will came through shortly afterwards, grinned sheepishly
“Man, my ass has been well and truly dominated. Good job, buddy.”
“Heh.” I shrugged, coy. “Aim to please.” Will laughed.
“I put your kit in the dryer.” He collected his shorts from the floor, tugged them on. “Should be ready in about twenty minutes. If you pull your truck around the back, I’ll swap you jerry cans, full for yours. I got about a dozen or so in the shed you’re welcome to. I didn’t ask, but why you need them.”
I told him about the girls and Storyville’s flood and the hospital. While I was talking, Will moved to a window and looked out at the stream.
“Andy...” Will muttered when I was finished “We’re one hundred fifty miles upstream, and we gonna burst soon. What do you think will happen if all the creeks and streams in the whole catchment area opens up suddenly and fills Storyville’s River?”
“Fuck it! You’re right.” I joined him and looked at the raging stream “I don’t think anyone down Home has given it any thought. Either that or they cut off completely and haven’t warned anyone.”
“You got coms?” Will turned, alarm showing in his eyes. “CB?”
“Yeah, Radio band and other stuff.” I paced, vague panic becoming more focused. “Thing is, no-one in the Town gives me the time of day, or anythin’. I figured they don’t even know I’m set up like that.”
“Where is the nearest High Site?”
“That would probably be the Football Stadium.” I thought hard. “All the other sites are around the river or downstream. How we gonna get word to the State emergency?”
Will grinned. “We got a Base up here. They might only be geared up for special stuff, but you can bet they got an ear in the right places. I can get that sorted. If you get back, do ya think you’ll be able to rouse the alarm and evacuate the Town. We can get Uncle Sam there to ship tents and supplies though to the Stadium.”
“That sounds like a good plan, Will.” I paced in circles “I’ll get back as soon as I can and do the Chicken Licken thing.” I grabbed my keys.
“Whoa, there cowboy.” Will reached up and steered me to the kitchen “First thing we need to get your kit on. I’m far too fond of my Robe and everything in it, to let you go off haulin’ ass in the Rain without a good cup of joe in you and dry clothes.”
“Yeah.” I felt stupid. “I’ll give you my private frequency.” I jotted it down on the glass coffee table with a fibre tip pen.
“Calm before the storm, good buddy.” Will soothed me “Let’s get everything ready, first.” “Right.” I let Will walk me through and took a mug in my hand. I was feeling numb, but his sensible tack on the situation cleared my mind. I downed the coffee, and stepped into the clothes as they were hauled out of the dryer. Will watched me hop into my jeans, leaning barefoot against a cupboard.
“I’d never thought watching a man dress before was sexy.” He chuckled “But there you are, stuffing your cock into your jeans, sliding them up your hard ass and me here watching you with half a mind to pack a boner.”
“Yeah.” I grinned as I did up my buttons. “I felt the same way, first time. It’s like a whole other side of me starts wanting to talk about things I always took for granted.”
“I like it, Andy, this feeling.” Will tugged at his cock through his shorts “Do you think it’ll make me a different person?”
“No, I think it’ll make you a better person, more rounded.” I buttoned up my shirt and pulled on my bomber jacket.
“Yeah, where the sex with that person won’t blind you to who that person really is... or let that persons sex blind you to who they really are.” Will sighed and reached for his mug.
“That’s my theory, at least.” I shrugged into the toasty clothes, let them settle. “I hope it will work for me, seems to be. I hope it works for you, too.”
“We’re very similar, you ‘n me.” Will observed.
“Synchronized, almost.” I agreed. “Especially, y’know... physically.”
“Yeah... I noticed that.” Will beamed “What’s that about, you think.”
“It’d drive me crazy to think about it.” I smiled at him “I’d rather just let it take its course and enjoy it while I can. Hopefully, it’s a permanent... benefit.”
“Heh. Ditto.” Will shrugged “C’mere, gimme a kiss before you go. Plant one on me.”
I moved up to Will and folded him in my arms, and kissed him good. His soft, warm mouth opened under mine and he leaned into the kiss, shifting his balance and his weight until he was kissing me. We broke apart about ten minutes later.
“We dance, you ‘n me. We take turns leading.” Will grinned and nuzzled my jaw. “I don’t feel like I’m losing anything when I give with you.”
“An’ I don’t feel like I’m taking away from you when I take.” I sighed, feeling his hard arms stroking my back.
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” He straightened up and balanced me back on my feet. “Me too. C’mon, let’s get that Diesel loaded, I’ll get to the Base after you’re gone.”
I pulled the truck around the back of the building and reversed up in the pounding rain while Will, in slickers and overcoat pulled the jerry cans off the back and loaded the full ones. There were nine in all, I checked for the first time. He tugged a tarpaulin over the flatbed and tied it securely into place. He pulled the shed doors shut, and splashed around to my window. I wound it down and he planted a peck on my lips.
“All Done. Safe trip, be careful, and... Thanks.”
“Will do, buddy. See ya.” I idled out of the yard, and drove down the hill and joined the National Road. As I drove toward the pass and the Base, I paralleled the stream for about a hundred yard. I looked on nervously as the top of the crests of the stream lapped at the top of the culvert. On the other side of its bank,
I saw a wide field that was mostly water and mud now. There was suddenly an absolute certainty that this was a sign of things to come. I gritted my teeth, put all my lights on and set the cruise control to 45mph, the fastest I reckoned I could make the trip without being reckless. After all, I had promised Will to be careful.
After two hours, I was starting to blink with fatigue, when I pulled into Local Town. The clouds were darker here than when I passed this way this morning. But it was nearly sundown, and I hoped that the lack of rain had not blinded the people to what was happening upstream.
“Mister Finch, howdy.” Pops looked up as I stumbled into the Bar.
“Hey Pops.” I grinned, trying to gage if he was through with his joke for today.
“Did you come right with the Dekker’s?” He poured a mug and pushed it over the counter to where I perched.
“Yeah, yeah... I did.” I grinned tiredly and sipped the steaming brew. “Funny thing was when I was leaving, their creek looked fit to burst its banks, and they said they been pouring buckets for the last six days.”
“Is that right?” Pops’ bushy eyebrows beetled up his brow in surprise. “Their creek runs into the main course past us and into Storyville Valley. That’s not good, son. It means there’s a hundred miles of raging water headin’ our way.”
“That’s really ...not good, is it?” I gulped the brew down and signalled for another.
“No, son.” Pops shook his head, thoughtful. “No, that’s not good at all.”
“How would I let folks know ‘bout this?” I shrugged “I seem to re
call most of the lines are down to Storyville.”
“I guess we could set up a station at the Football ground. They done that in ‘76 as well as in ‘54 when somethin’ like it happened.” Pops rubbed his grizzled cheeks.
“Well, I got a radio, and the Dekker’s are goin’ to their Base. Think I should give you the frequency? Perhaps you could run things from here for Local Town.”
“Yeah, that’d do.” Pops smiled “I also can get the word to Ma Garibaldi. As soon as she knows anythin’ the whole county is sure to hear within the hour.”
I chuckled “She sure makes good meatballs.”
“We all got our special skills, son.” Pops grinned his yellow smile “Just’n matter of knowing when to use them. You’ll find folks round here real gentle with people once they know them well.”
“Well Pops, I’m glad to hear that. I’m rotten with secrets and fed up with them.” I yawned and pressed my eyeballs with my thumbs.
“What do you do then, Mister Finch?” Pops arched an eyebrow.
“Ah... Please call me Andy, Pops. I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, secret stuff.” I grinned. “You got guts asking, though. The Boys near shot the last one that did.”
“Is that a fact?” Pops blanched. “You work fer that fancy-schmancy Company down thar with all those satellite dish-thingies? You a spook, or sumthin’”
“Yeah, those dishes are mine. All mine.” I slipped into my jacket and dropped five dollars on the counter. “It’s exactly what I do with them that I can’t tell you.” I scribbled my private frequency onto a bar counter. “Careful with that, but I think we gonna need it the next few days. Could I have yours?”
“Ok then, son.” Pops shrugged, scribbling on another counter. “But I’ll keep askin’ what you do, Can’t help it, I guess...”
“You do that Pops, don’t mean I’m gonna ever answer, for the record. In the mean time, let’s get ready for that wash.” I waved and headed out towards the door.
“Change, Mist... Andy?” Pops called back.
“Put it on a tab, if you would, Pops. I guess you gonna see a bit more of me this football season, an’ I sure am getting a hankering for your coffee. Say hello to Maggie for me.” I grinned zipping up the bomber jacket.
“She’s in later. I’ll tell her.” Pops looked bemused “What yer doin’ today Andy, not many would. Sure takes big balls.”
“Yeah. Two, an’ they’re hairy, I guess... Jes’ ask your missus, she nearly saw ‘em.” I snorted in mock- indignation and left the Trucker Lounge to Pops’ raucous bellow.
I gunned the truck, glared at the boiling clouds as sunset leeched the last light out of the sky, and turned east out of the little Town cringing from the storm, and headed homeward as fast as I dared.
Chapter Thirteen
I pulled into my drive closer to eight than I had hoped. Dean and Michel scampered out of the front door as I pulled into the shed and nosed the truck next to the Subaru. I checked the tank, it was under a quarter. I guess I would have to fill it up. I had not thought to put any gas into it while I was hunting for diesel. Typical of obsessive behavioural patterns, I suppose. I really had to be more aware... perhaps, just a bit less focused.
“We were starting to worry.” Michel panted as he reached the door, raindrops sparkled in his hair. “The radio started to page us shortly after noon. Somethin’ about a wash...?”
“Yeah, help me unload the diesel, an’ I’ll fill you in as we go.” I undid the tarp and hung it to dry while Dean and Michel hefted the jerry cans into the jenny storeroom.
Later myself, Doctor Mason, Michel and Dean held a war council over a mug of broth and a coffee. “So, the flood that we have here now is not the flood.” Dean’s brow wrinkled. “If the banks of the stream burst in Dry County, we will be having more floods... but proper ones this time. Am I following this so far?”
“That’s about right.” I yawned and sipped the mocha. On impulse I went to the booze cabinet and hefted a slug of single malt into the mug. Better. “Think of it this way, all the water we got in our streets at this moment is local water, from the hills around here. Normally, the streams flow over ridges, wind around bends and so on, feeding the river at a set rate. If we get a lot, then over here, the water rises and dams up. This slows the water pouring into the system...”
“...but if the normal flow is draining away at a set rate, the system just backs up a bit.” Doctor Mason chipped in. “This is fine until the breach above this level breaks loose and doesn’t follow its normal path. If this happens, then all the water from all these areas just flows anyway it can to the lowest point. Us.”
“Ehhh, yeah.” I couldn’t think properly, but there it was, more or less. “I don’t have a map, but you guys know this area better than most. Which ones are lowest and closest to the river?”
“The Compound, for one.” Michel ticked off his fingers “Central town next, including the Hospital, The Mill, but that’s closed, reckon no-ones there. I guess the Town houses are above that, they never been flooded. Some low-lying farms below the Compound, but they scattered and isolated. Shit, Andy...” Michel’s voice trailed off “That’s a huge area.”
“Yeah, it is. What I was thinkin’ was that we split up and meet back here. I’ll go to the Compound and alert the security there and have them truck folks up to the Football Field. There ain’t nothing there yet, but most stuff will be arriving to that point. In town, how many people live around there. Dean?”
“Not many, I got a flat there, but there are p’raps about a hundred folk who live in and around the centre. It’s only a couple buildings. I can walk it in about twenty minutes, no sweat.”
“Doc, how many folks still at the hospital?” I pointed my mug at him. “What’s their condition?”
“Only about twenty, including staff. Mostly broken bones this time of year. Nothing especially dangerous. We got the highest risk patients here, in the shelter. I can load them in the Hospital Bus if we have to.”
“Ok, we know it’s coming, but we don’t know how bad it will be. If we lucky, we looking at another six to eight feet. If not, at least twenty. How deep was the ‘76 flood? Dean, you know stories that were around then. You must’ve heard.”
“Ah, fifteen feet, I guess.” Dean tapped his teeth, deep in thought. “In the fifties it was twenty-eight. I reckon there’s about two, maybe three feet now.”
“Shit, that much? Where am I figuring wrong?” My head swam.
“Mill point, Andy. You know where those big ol’ boulders loosened up and crashed down with Gloria in ‘85. They back the water up for miles. There’s a natural Dam there now.” Michel looked panicky “That means we haven’t had a flood yet. The stuff in the streets is jus’ rainwater.”
“Oh God.” I gulped. “I’ve been worrying about twelve or fourteen feet, max. At... at fifteen feet, which of the farmsteads will be swamped?”
“Shit, the Hoskins spread. Bobby’s alone there now, his folks are in Florida until next week.” Dean eyes widened. “Most others have their back forty on the river. They have their steads at least halfway up the hills. Bobby’s place is on the flat.”
“Ok, here’s what we do.” I ticked off the list. Doc, you go and drop Dean off in the centre of town and go to the hospital and get ready to move everyone, send everyone else back home. Michel, you get to the Mill and then double back to the Mayor’s and the Sheriff’s place and tell them what’s on. Dean, meet him there. We may as well raise the alarm before Hell breaks loose. I’ll go to the Compound and alert Security about pulling the folks out and then stop over and fetch Bobby, bring him back. I got two portable narrow band radios that links in with the baby in the Shelter, who wants the other one?”
“Nah. Give it to Dean and the Doc.” Michel shrugged “I’m traveling light, don’t expect to be out for more than twenty minutes, round trip.”
“Yes please.” Doctor Mason “I’ll take it. The patients will be slow moving, no matter how we hurry.”
“I�
��ll take the Subaru. I can siphon some gas out, I got a full tank.” I rummaged for a proper anorak, grabbed the portables and tossed one to Dean. “You know how this works?”
“Sure.” Dean nodded “I’ll show the Doc.”
“Don’t worry about the truck. I’ll do about fifteen miles. There’s over a hundred left in the tank.” Michel tugged on a slicker. “See y’all soon. I’ll be back first, check the girls and then man the CB.”
I pulled out of the drive as Dean and the Doctor headed off, Michel tailing me as we drove over the gravel and onto the cul-de-sac at the top of the hill. I drove around the Town, angling to bring the car as far as I could to the Compound without having to drown the exhaust in any standing water.
I had the idea to duct tape a hose to the roof, so I could keep the engine running even if there was a couple of feet of water. Michel’s truck could handle the depth easily, but the Doctor would have to drop Dean and let him hoof it through the town centre, his SUV simply would not make the water in the square. The way to the hospital was clear of deep water, luckily.
I pulled up opposite the Compound a few minutes later. Earlier in the week I had been able to drive home, but it didn’t look like I could make it this time. I let the car idle on the opposite bank of the ditch and parked it with the high beams on and waded to the Security Gate over the little bridge. The cold water took me up to my knees, and it was damn cold. I waded over and banged on the glass until a sleepy looking uniformed guard peered at me sleepily and motioned for me to come inside.
“Hey, Mister Finch what’s up?” I knew the middle aged guard from my night shift work. “Hi Joe,” I stamped my feet, but couldn’t get the water out my boots “Listen, what’s the Evacuation policy here?”
“Ah... Don’t know if we got one.” He shrugged “I could check, but I’m pretty sure ‘bout that.”
“I guess this was built after the seventies flood, wasn’t it?” I groaned inwardly.