by Lilah Boone
“Yeah well if you’re right, it looks like it might be here now. So I for one am unendingly grateful to that guy for being a loony tunes Kansas militia man.”
Abby chuckled. “Yeah, good point. When Jimmy moved into the place fifteen years ago Mom and I both thought the farm was going to be a massive burden to him. That didn’t stop us from living there with him though. Eventually we both grew to love it too. And now I guess that old farm is turning out to be something of a godsend.”
“Hey, do you think the crazy man left some big guns and stuff in the bunker? Maybe a grenade or two?”
“What would we need guns and grenades for? You planning on starting a one man army?”
“I don’t know. I guess in case things get to looking like a riot and we have to shoot off looters and stuff. Or, in the slim case that computers are taking over the world, we have some way to defend ourselves.”
She gave him a sideways smile. “You watch too many movies.”
Alex pretended to pout for a second and then grinned. “Well, it would’ve been cool to at least get to blow something up. You know, kind of a bad ass bonus to having to live through a real world judgment day.”
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, listening to the static laced broadcast on the radio. The roads were crowded but they were moving at a steady pace. Snow was starting to fall on the blacktop though it wasn’t sticking just yet. Abby turned up the heat a notch as a shiver passed over her skin and wished she hadn’t quit smoking. Her nerves were so frayed at the edges that some nicotine would really hit the spot.
“So, what do you think is going to happen to us Abbs?”
Abby took in a deep breath. “I don’t know. It might have been my idea to take this trip, but I really don’t understand any of this. I have no idea why I got picked to have weird dreams about the end of the world or what exactly is happening to me. But I guess it’s a good thing. I mean, we can’t be sure what’s going to come to pass but if something bad does go down, at least we got the heads up and have time to get somewhere safe.”
“Yeah, thanks to you and some other guy who was afraid of Commies and nuclear fallout we might get to live to see the aftermath. I guess paranoia pays off sometimes.”
Abby huffed out a laugh. Alex might be a pain in the ass most of the time, but it was nice to have him with her. She couldn’t imagine having to make a twenty hour trip to Kansas all alone, especially if the world decided to cave in on itself and turn to molten lava along the way.
Very quickly the snow began sticking to the pavement and coming down much harder than the light dusting it had been before. Abby slipped the Jeep into four wheel drive and gripped the wheel tightly with both hands at ten and two. She was grateful there was still some daylight and hoped that the storm might let up before nightfall when it would be much harder to see the road.
Abby turned down the radio and looked out the window to the sky. “Didn’t that news anchor say something about strange and severe shifts in weather?”
“Um yeah I think so. She said that the weather might be out of whack for a while. Something about the sun having spots, flares, and storms or whatever. I guess that sort of thing directly affects the planet’s climate.” He shrugged. “But what do I know?”
“Okay, well I think this storm might be a problem. I’m not sure if this is possible, but I feel something weird.”
“What do you mean? Weird how?”
Abby glanced at him with worried eyes. “I think this is what a tingling Spidey-sense feels like.”
“What? You think something is about to happen?”
“Yeah, and it’s not good. I don’t know what though. Could be the storm. Could be whatever big thing is coming.”
“Oh that’s just great.” Alex shifted uneasy in his seat. “You know it might not be a bad idea for you to keep some things to yourself. If I’m going to be taken out in your Jeep during a blizzard I’m not sure I want to know about it. I think it would be much nicer to just chit chat, listen to some tunes on the radio, basically just enjoy the ride. And then blam! Dead. No worries, no anticipation. Just done.”
“I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”
They rode for a while without talking much. The snow continued to fall as they moved into the mountains of Pennsylvania. By all accounts it was a nice drive. The mountains were majestic, as mountains tend to be, and the scenery was beautiful. Maybe thirty minutes or so went by before they both drew in their breath in horrified unison.
Alex was the first to react. “Are you seeing this? What the hell? Oh my god. Shit! Do you see that?”
“I see it.” Her eyes darted around, taking in the situation. “Um… you should hold on to something.”
Abby dropped the Jeep out of four wheel drive so she could accelerate faster and pushed the gas pedal to the floor. Ahead of them, about a hundred feet down the road, huge boulders were bounding their way to falling straight onto the traffic below.
“What are you doing?” Alex grabbed the handle above his seat with both hands. “You can’t outrun them.”
“Maybe not, but that’s the plan. Just close your eyes and pray really hard.”
Abby noticed suddenly that the earth was shaking beneath the tires of the vehicle. They were in the middle of an earthquake, which probably hit pretty high on the Richter scale, and was obviously resulting in a legitimate land slide.
She sped down the interstate, weaving in and out along the way and jumping onto the narrow shoulder when necessary. She felt the tires sliding along the snow coated asphalt and fought to keep the back end of the Jeep from fish tailing. Unassuming drivers honked their horns and gave them annoyed looks or flashed middle fingers. Alex tried furiously to point out the boulders falling from the sky, but none of them took the hint. They just kept driving, all the while cursing the crazy blonde in the Jeep.
Smaller rocks pelted the blacktop and shattered to send a hard shower of pebbles onto the roof and windows of the vehicle. Abby held her breath and continued driving, hoping a big piece of stone wouldn’t send the windshield crashing in.
All around them they started to hear the sound of crunching metal. Drivers violently jerked the wheels of their cars in attempts to miss the onslaught of earth falling, only to collide into each other with loud, deadly thuds.
Without warning a huge chunk of mountain fell to the right of the Jeep, landing inches from Alex’s door with a thundering sound. It missed them barely, but managed to take out two other cars before it stopped moving.
“Holy shit! That thing almost killed us.” Alex fought to catch his breath. “Oh god. I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Not in here you don’t. Just keep it together. There’s no time for panic right now and I am not riding to Kansas with vomit scented upholstery.”
“I always loved you Abby. I’m sorry for everything. If you make it out tell my parents that I wish I had been a better son.”
“Are you giving me your last words? Seriously Alex, you are the single most dramatic man I have ever met.”
She swerved onto the grassy median and drove as fast as she could. She glanced down and saw the speedometer read over ninety miles per hour. Out of thin air another car swung in front of her with a hard jerk before the driver hit the brakes and came to a dead stop. Abby squeezed her eyes shut and shifted the wheel with a silent prayer. She heard the distinct sound of metal scraping metal but there was no crash to follow.
They had nearly slammed head on into a white BMW. Instead of becoming human test dummies, they had just grazed the other car leaving a fresh white racing stripe along the green paint job of the Jeep. Abby took a calming breath and pulled back onto the interstate carefully.
As they made it back onto clear roads both of them sat in amazed silence. Then all at once they broke into hysterical laughter. The knowledge of being alive overcame them both as they gripped each other’s hands and breathed in deep sighs of relief. The road before them had cleared. There were no boulders and tr
affic had become lighter.
With the momentarily laughter over, Alex turned back to look at the chaos they had just escaped and saw what Abby could only glimpse from the rear view mirror. Vehicles of all types were tipped over, tangled together, on fire and smoking, or crushed beneath boulders. The site was absolutely terrible and incredible all at the same time – the sort of thing most people only saw in movies.
“Shouldn’t we do something?” Abby looked back through her mirrors.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do.” Alex’s tone was quiet. “I’m sure they will get an ambulance crew up here as soon as possible to save who they can. And if we go back and there’s another tremor, we could just be joining the casualties.”
Abby nodded and did her best to blink back tears. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
While Abby was happy to be alive, the knowledge that people must have been killed in the land slide weighed on her like one of those deadly boulders sat on her chest. A certain amount of survivor’s guilt settled in and rested on her shoulders.
They were still and silent for a few moments, almost as if they were individually saying prayers for each lost soul.
“I still can’t believe that happened.” Alex’s grin removed the stillness and lightened the mood. “And I can’t believe you did that. Man, if I’d known you could drive like that I would’ve pushed you into stock cars instead of art shows.”
Abby gave a little smile, sadness still clinging to her expression. “Yeah, I’m not sure how I did it. It happened so fast. I just reacted.”
“Well bravo girl. We’re still in one piece.” Alex laid his hand on hers and gave it a light squeeze.
“Yeah we are. Let’s just hope that’s the most exciting thing that happens on this trip. We’ve got like nineteen hours to go still and I’m pretty sure I’ve got to pee already.”
“Um, not me. I think I did my share of peeing back there when it was raining rocks.”
Abby looked at him with a disgusted sideways glance and he chuckled wholeheartedly.
“I’m kidding.” He pointed to his pants. “See. Nice and dry.”
Abby laughed and slapped his shoulder lightly. It was good to know she and Alex could be friends after all. This was a new dimension of their relationship and she was grateful to know that he could take her from tears to laughter in a matter of a few seconds.
* * *
Approximately nineteen hours later they were driving down the main street of Clover Lake, Kansas. The modest town was predominantly populated with construction workers, school teachers and their families. When the farmers, shop owners, and everyone else were added in, the overall population only hit somewhere around fourteen-hundred. It was a quiet and quaint town and Abby had always felt pulled to its simple charms.
The center of town was surprisingly empty considering it was lunch time on a Monday afternoon. Apparently the residents of Clover Lake had skipped the news and decided not to loot or riot just yet.
The Connelly farm was only minutes outside of town, nestled comfortably on one hundred and eighty-two acres of open land, forested hills, and planted fields. They would be reaching their final destination in a matter of minutes.
For the most part, their journey had been uneventful, though they had witnessed some unusual things along the way. And Alex, in his typical sarcastic style, had a comment for each of them.
In West Virginia there was a whacky looking street preacher standing on the highway, in the middle of a construction site, wearing an orange hard hat and a sandwich sign around his neck proclaiming that the end was near. He held his hands high enough in the air for everyone to see and stared up into the sky expecting to be beamed up at any minute. They had driven past him with the windows down specifically to hear his fire and brimstone proclamations.
“Hey, what do you know? The Devil is going to ride in on a many headed sea monster and take away all the sinners to Hell,” Alex had exclaimed. “Is that in one of your paintings Abbs?”
In Indiana they saw a line of nuns, black and white habits and all, walking down the freeway with their rosaries in hand. About a dozen or so of them marched in time together with their heads down, apparently deep in contemplative prayer.
Alex had chuckled. “Now there’s something you don’t see every day. Do you think it will get me sent to Hell if I think one of them is hot?”
What followed was an in depth discussion on where in the world those nuns were going and what the earlier street preacher had really been talking about. This then led them to an argument about faith, religion, sin, morals, and everything in between.
Illinois had not disappointed either. From what they could see on Interstate 70, looters were running amok in the streets and several fires were blazing through the smaller towns. When they tuned into the area news station, Abby and Alex found out that a series of spontaneous tornadoes had run through the state on a rampage. Apparently the locals were getting wise to the end of the world rumors and they weren’t too happy.
As they cruised through Clover Lake Alex was at the wheel. Both of them were exhausted but that didn’t stop them from doing some friendly bickering about art. It was by far one of the things they argued about the most.
“Oh please. You’re such an art snob Alex. The reason there are any clichés to begin with is because they resonate with people. Everyone can recognize the theme and they relate to it. Just because something’s been done before doesn’t mean it’s no longer relevant.”
“Yeah, but it’s all old hat. You know? No one wants to see the same regurgitated crap time and time again. There can be original takes on clichés?”
“Oh, I totally agree with you on that point. The problem is, people aren’t as kind to the new ideas. I swear if I have to see one more Van Gogh on the wall of a doctor’s office waiting room I’m going to lose my lunch right on the linoleum. And you know I love Van Gogh.”
Abby usually talked with fervor, gesturing with her hands a lot. At the moment, due to driving straight through half the country, she was too worn out to move much. Her seat was tipped back slightly as she reclined sleepily.
Abby continued, “And what’s with all the Klimt posters pasted to the walls of every college student’s dorm room.”
“Well come on now. It’s not just any Klimt they use for wallpaper. It’s The Kiss specifically.” Alex put up one index finger emphatically.
“Absolutely. It’s like no one even realizes he did anything other than that one piece in his whole entire career. I’d like to pull them all aside and introduce them to something new but it won’t do any good. Because, back to my original point, everyone wants what’s familiar. The cliché.”
“Okay, I get it. But you have to admit Monet’s Water Lilies are still seriously over manufactured pieces of shit. They are freaking everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I can’t get the brakes on my car replaced without seeing one version or another of those things on the dealership wall.” Alex faked a tiny shudder. “I swear they’re haunting me.”
Abby let out a tired laugh. How was it they could talk as friends now that they were no longer having sex? Why hadn’t she noticed that he was witty and clever and always kept her on her toes? When did Alex become the kind of guy she could sit and talk with over coffee all night?
He was the same person he had always been. It was Abby who had changed and suddenly she was beginning to feel something for him, something new that was more real than she had know with Alex before. Or maybe she was just tired and extremely stressed out. She let her mind wander from feelings to more lustful things.
“I know that look,” Alex said, breaking Abby’s train of dirty thoughts.
Abby quickly threw her gaze out the window. “Shut up Alex.”
“I’m not saying a word.” There was a hint of laughter in his voice. “I am no words guy over here. Just taking a leisurely drive through rural Kansas.”
He waited a minute before continuing. “Um, where am I supposed to be going again?”<
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“Oh right.” Abby snapped out of what was going on in her head and looked down to examine the handwritten directions in her lap. “You’re going to turn up here at that stop sign. And then the house is about a mile down on the left.”
“Got it. I guess we’re about to get to our new home then. At least for a while anyway.”
“Yeah. Home sweet bomb shelter.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Monday, December 17th 2012, 12:02pm
The all weather radials on the Jeep crushed loose rock as Alex and Abby pulled into the driveway of James Connelly’s farmhouse. From what Abby could see the house hadn’t changed since she had been there last. After five years the yellow paint still looked fresh and new. Standing on the front porch, painted white to match the shutters of the house, was her Uncle Jimmy.
Some southern rock blared from inside the house as he walked down the steps rubbing his hands on a grease stained rag. True to his obsession with a certain 1980’s TV show, he was working on restoring a 1969 Dodge Charger to mint condition. It sat in disrepair to the side of the double wide driveway with its hood popped up.
Jim was the brother of Abby’s late mother and was only eleven years her senior. He had never been married and had no children. His family consisted of his faithful old hound dogs, Bo and Daisy, or the Dukes as he sometimes called them, and the various animals that lived on the farm.
He was on the taller side with dark blonde hair and a finely chiseled face behind deep-set eyes. Walking towards them in his brown flannel shirt and old jeans, Abby thought he certainly looked the part of a Kansas farmer.
“Hey Jimmy.” Abby smiled as she got out of the Jeep then reached out to offer up a hug. Due to the lack of serious age difference it had always felt a little odd to Abby to call him Uncle Jim. Her mother had always called him Jimmy and it was a name that stuck.