AWOL: A Character Lost

by Anthony Renfro

  “No, what?”

  “Look.” Barry pointed towards the TV and the images playing on it. Danny couldn’t believe his eyes. It was an aerial shot of downtown Los Angeles, and the city was burning. “From what anyone has been able to make of it, it appears, suicide bombers unleashed themselves on the city about 6 a.m. west coast time. Reports have been coming in that as many as fifty bombs went off within the span of ten minutes. They were all coordinated, like dominos, designed to do just what you see unfolding.”

  Danny heard what Barry was saying, but he never took his eyes off the screen.

  To put it simply, it looked like the devil himself had come up from hell and turned its fires loose onto the city of L.A. Whole city blocks were engulfed in flames; gigantic sky scrapers had either crumbled from the blasts or were burning from the inside out. Roads had buckled from the heat, and homes and lives were being consumed by the greedy fire as it moved its way out of the city and into the suburbs. People were screaming and fleeing, cars were exploding, anything and everything that could burn was burning, even the palm trees, and the grass itself was on fire. And over all this madness, a thick dark smoke permeated everything.

  The images were bad, sure enough, but something else got to Danny as he stood there watching. It was something just barely audible, coming through the speakers on the TV. It was the sound of the fire eating. You could hear it cracking and popping as it burned through everything with an insatiable appetite. It was like a billion fire termites had descended on the city of Los Angeles, and they had found a perfect place to feast. Fire trucks were out numbered; planes with water were no match, nothing could stop this fire’s relentless hunger.

  “Can’t they do anything?” Danny asked, consumed with anger, and sadness. Anger at those who had done this and sadness for so many lives that were now lost and would be lost as this fire raged.

  “Fire crews are racing in from all over California and the country, but by the time they get there it will be too late. L.A. is going to burn.” Danny just took a moment to take that statement in. Barry continued, “They can’t even get TV crews in there to see what is happening, and we can only get copter shots of the city because the heat of the fire is just too intense.”

  “Has anyone claimed responsibility?” Danny asked, even though he knew who it was, but he just didn’t want to believe it.

  “That Middle East Nuclear Arms Association has claimed full responsibility, and they say they have two more targets after this one. They are saying that today’s attack and the two to come are just a show of force, to show how powerful they are. These three attacks will be just warning shots, Danny, warning shots. That’s what they said. How’s that for your smoke signals theory?”

  Danny thought of the red haired guy and all that he had been telling him. He always hoped the guy was just blowing smoke, and that the guy wasn’t right, that this nuclear scenario wasn’t going to happen; but, deep down, Danny knew that the red haired guy was legit. If he needed further proof, it was now on the TV screen. This was more than he could handle. He felt his legs buckle and his body go limp. A second later, he crumbled to the floor in a heap.

  *

  Danny woke up in his bed later on that afternoon with Barbara standing over him still dressed in her work attire, a pretty blue dress that showed off her shapely legs and firm bosom. He was stripped down to his boxers with the covers pulled up nice and tight to his chest. He was warm, cozy, and confused.

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re at home,” Barbara replied, stroking his hair, fixing the covers so they kept him covered.

  “How did I get here?”

  “You passed out at work. You’ve been out ever since.”

  “The kids?”

  “They were at school when we brought you home.”

  “Who’s we?”

  “Barry and I, along with a professor I have never seen before. He insisted on helping, even talked to the paramedics when they arrived. I heard him say something about you not needing the hospital. He showed them something, they check you out, and then released you. Said you could go home and rest. That you didn’t need to be at the hospital.” She paused and took a seat. “What’s going on, Danny? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m your wife. My wifely instincts are on high alert. They know something’s up.”

  “I’m not sure what I can tell you just yet.”

  “Can you try? It would make me feel a lot better if I knew.”

  Danny took a moment to think about it, before letting these words fall out of his mouth. “There’s something going on that I’m a part of, something that I don’t know if you will be able to handle or not.”

  She touched his hand and prayed he wouldn’t answer yes to the question she was about to ask. “Are you dying?”

  Danny smiled. “No. It’s more about living than anything else.”

  “That’s good; at least I can cross that off my worry list.”

  The bathroom door moved, and Danny’s eyes caught it. Barbara had her back to the door, so she didn’t see it. “Everything’s okay, I promise. Why don’t you go downstairs and get some rest? I’ll call if I need you.”

  “Just don’t shut me out, okay?”

  “I won’t,” Danny replied, as Barbara got up to leave. “How’s L.A.?” He asked, thinking about what he had heard and saw on the TV hours before.

  She stopped and looked down at him. “Contained, but at least half of the city is gone, and the loss of life, property, it’s just un-imaginable. I don’t understand why people have to have so much hate.”

  “I guess when you have that much hate in your heart, cruelty is the next step.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Come here.”

  “What?”

  Danny pulled her down to him and kissed her on the lips. “I love you. I promise everything will be okay. Just trust me on this.”

  She nodded that she would, as soft tears rolled out of her eyes, and cascaded down her cheeks. Danny wiped them away, and kissed her again. She returned it. “Now, go get some rest, I’m fine. We’ll talk later.”

  “Okay,” Barbara replied, as she got up and left the room.

  The red haired guy stepped out of the bathroom once he heard the bedroom door click closed. “Nice dodge,” he replied.

  “I wasn’t happy with putting her off like that. We’ve always had open communication in our marriage.”

  “You could have told her.”

  “Could I?”

  “I know I told you that you shouldn’t spread the word, but if you trust your wife to not blab then I’m okay with that.”

  “Well, as long as you’re okay with that,” Danny replied, sarcastically. “I guess I can thank you for me being home and not in the hospital.”

  “With what is forthcoming, I thought for you to waste any time in a hospital bed would be futile.”

  “I guess L.A. means everything you’ve told me was legit?”

  “I think you knew that before you hit the floor this morning.”

  “Yeah, I guess I did. The bomb wasn’t nuclear though. I thought you said it was going to be a nuclear attack.”

  “The L.A. attack and the next two are warning shots. They are a show of power, nothing more. They just want the world to know how big they are.”

  “Can you stop the other two?”

  “Haven’t we done this dance before?”

  “Yeah, guess so.”

  “What we need to do, Danny. . .” A knock on the door stopped him in mid sentence.

  “Who are you talking to Danny?”

  The red haired guy stepped behind the bathroom door just as Barbara stepped into the room.

  “Nobody,” Danny replied, smiling.

  “I heard voices coming from up here.”

  “It was probably the TV. I just turned it off.”

  Barbara looked over at the dark box, which showed no signs of recent activity, then back to Da
nny.

  “Promise, everything’s okay.”

  She hesitated, eyes scanning the room, sure something was going on.

  “Trust me Barbara, everything’s fine. Go get some rest. I promise we will talk later,” Danny replied, hoping this time she would listen and leave.

  “Okay, you get some rest too.” She gave up her suspicions, closed the door, and left.

  After the door closed, the red haired guy stepped up to the bed and talked a little softer this time. “We need to talk about so much stuff before the big day arrives, but we can’t do it here.”

  “How are the others? The ones you’ve already notified.”

  “I think most of them are in some form of disbelief. Others have passed out like you, and unfortunately a few of them took their own lives.”

  “Nothing you guys can’t handle, right?”

  “I know we may seem a little cold, Danny, but this goes beyond just individual people and lives. We are talking about the human race and the way it will survive. There are going to be missteps like this along the way. It is unfortunate and inevitable, but it happens. We can’t let it derail the plans we already have in place. Why don’t you get some rest and we will talk once you are better?” The red haired guy replied, as he nodded towards one of the shadow guys.

  The shadow guy stepped up to the bed, and pushed a syringe into Danny’s neck. Danny passed out instantly and woke up with the red light of the morning sun casting its maroon rays into the room. It was a doomsday-looking light.

  “Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning,” Danny said this to himself, as his stomach let out a large growl. He was ravenous, and his head was throbbing with a massive headache.

  Barbara couldn’t wake him when she came to bed so she just let him sleep, knowing that his bladder or his stomach would eventually wake him up. The bladder was the winner there. He got up and made his way into the bathroom, almost peeing himself before he got to the commode.

  When Danny was done, he walked back into the bedroom and slid on his pants and shirt. Today was Tuesday, so he didn’t have a class to teach until tonight. He had all day to get in a run and to kind of process the previous day’s events.

  He left Barbara sleeping, stepped out into the hall, closed the door behind him, and made his way down the stairs.

  NUCLEAR WAR

  Danny met Michael as he was trying to quietly make his way into the house. It looked like he had been out most of the night, clothes disheveled, eyes droopy and tired, a few stains on his shirt; and he had that look on his face, the one that says: “I have just been caught red handed and I hope my lie holds up.”

  “Are you just getting home?” Danny asked, anger seething, pushing forth, trying to stay calm.

  “I just slipped out to get the paper before school.” Michael had the paper in his hand. “I thought you would need it when you got up.”

  “Cut the crap, Mike. I know the look of someone who has been out all night. Where were you?”

  “I was just out, okay.” He tried to push past his dad while his dad tried not to wake the rest of the house with his voice.

  Danny grabbed Michael on the arm, stopping him before he could climb the stairs. “You’re not old enough to be out like that, and besides you have school today.”

  “It’s the end of the world, dad. Haven’t you heard? Paris got hit last night. That’s why we went out. What’s the use going home or to school or sleeping for that matter when the world is obviously over?”

  “That still doesn’t mean, wait, what, Paris?”

  “It’s burning just like L.A. It’s a fucking inferno.”

  Danny, stunned at this news, let go of Michael’s arm. He pushed past his dad, heading towards his room, ascending the stairs with rebellion in his stride. Barbara appeared at the top of the stairs just as Michael closed the door to his bedroom.

  “What’s all the commotion?” Barbara asked, wiping sleep from her eyes.

  “I think Paris is burning.” An old Dokken song came to mind when Danny said this. He quickly made his way to the TV.

  “What are you talking about?” Barbara made her way down the stairs, following after her husband.

  Danny was engrossed in the TV when she arrived moments later. His son’s discipline would have to wait for now because Paris was indeed, burning.

  There weren’t fifty bombers this time. There were two hundred, at least, according to the TV news reports; there might have been more. The bombs, when they were detonated, circled the city, one right after another, encasing the people and everything within the city limits in a burning ring of fire. There was no way in and no way out as the fire burned towards the city center.

  “My god Danny, what is going on?”

  Danny looked up at Barbara who was standing behind him. They watched the scene unfold before their eyes, the same scenes the world was currently watching. Churches, homes, buildings, famous land marks and museums, all of it, burning to the ground.

  “Should we be concerned?” She asked, trying to process what she was seeing.

  Her hand was on his shoulder, so he reached up and grabbed it. “You mean here, in little old Apex? I’m sure Raleigh isn’t a big enough place for them.”

  “What if it is though? What if it is our turn? We have the nuclear plant nearby.”

  “Why don’t you make us some coffee? We will have breakfast; maybe go for a run together once the kids go to school.”

  “I have to work today.”

  “Call in.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can. Trust me. It won’t matter if you work or . . .” Danny stopped himself. He hadn’t told Barbara a single thing about the red haired guy or his doomsday warnings; and in a blink of an instant he almost did. It was so easy for Danny to talk to Barbara that he rarely put up a filter. He just let his words flow. However, with this bit of news, he wasn’t sure she was ready for the knowledge he had in his head. He wasn’t sure anyone was ready for it.

  “Can you finish what you were saying?” Barbara was standing there with a confused look on her face.

  “Not sure where I was going with it. I just think we need to take a day together. We need some “us” time.”

  “It’s a work day, Danny. We’re not teenagers skipping school.”

  “I know, but it’s important, for me, please.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Barbara left him alone in the living room and made her way into the kitchen. She now had a decision to make about the day. With all that had been going on in the world, as of late, she really didn’t feel like going into an office and punching keys on the keyboard. She didn’t miss work though, and even when she had the slightest of colds, she went into the office. So playing hooky to her was a big deal, but she wanted to be home, not only with Danny, but with the kids as well. She wanted them all to be together just in case today was the day the world ended; and from the looks of it, that was a real possibility. She made coffee and looked out at the dying maroon sky, which was nearly back to its normal morning color.

  Danny entered the room and wrapped his arms around her. “Have you made your decision?”

  “Not yet. As much as I feel like being home I know they need me at work.”

  “You’ve got a good back up.”

  “I have a meeting and a couple of major things to wrap up today. I just can’t drop everything on a whim.”

  “If you can’t do it, then don’t. I just thought it might be nice for us to have some time together for a change.” Danny opened up a pack of pop tarts and tore into them. The hungry beast in his stomach needed to be satisfied, and sugary pop tarts would be enough for a start.

  “Don’t start with an attitude about this. How about I give them half a day?”

  “It won’t be. You’ll get there and this B.S. and that B.S. will keep you at work. Then before you know it, you will have worked a full day. I’ll be at class, and it will be like every Tuesday since this semester started.”

  “You took on th
e night class for some extra money. Don’t throw me under the bus over it.”

  “I know, and I’m fine with it. I just feel like we need a day together.”

  “How about we do it this weekend?”

  Danny thought about it. Would there even be a weekend this weekend? There were supposed to be three warnings, and that was it. Two had come in the matter of hours and not days or weeks. Tomorrow they could blow up another city, and then the next day set the world on fire. Danny couldn’t pass up today. He couldn’t pass up this Tuesday just in case tomorrow the world ended.

  “It has to be today,” he replied, still hopeful.

  “What are you not telling me?”

  “What do you mean?” Pop tarts done, now onto cereal. Danny couldn’t believe how hungry he was.

  “Finding you passed out, strange situation yesterday at work, sleeping all night. I know how much you like food; and you sleeping through a meal, that isn’t like you.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “I’m your wife, remember?”

  “Yeah I know, but it’s complicated. Trust me.”

  “What’s that saying we had when we first got married and we were trying to learn all this stuff about each other?”

  “Spill the deal.”

  “So spill it already.”

  “Okay, but can we have some coffee first? Get the kids situated.” He thought about telling her about Michael and didn’t, best just to leave that alone for now.

  “Sure.”

  Danny leaned in and kissed her, she returned it. While they were kissing, Johnny entered the kitchen and began searching for his cereal. “Get a room guys.”

  They stopped and went back to their business.

  “How are you today, Johnny?”

  “Fine dad,” Johnny replied, rolling his eyes. He made cereal and then took it with him when he went to watch TV.

  “Keep an eye on the time,” Danny replied.

  Johnny ignored him, as he went crunching into the living room.

  Danny turned from Johnny to Barbara. “I have something I have to do. Can you just think about taking the day off? It’s important.” He kissed her again, and left the room.