Counting Down

by Lilah Boone

  “Hey Kiddo. You finally made it back to Kansas. How was the trip?”

  The two hound dogs came running, plowing into Abby. She laughed, knelt down to greet them with affectionate rubs and pats. “Hey guys. I missed you too.”

  She looked up at her uncle again. “The trip was long. Very long. We didn’t even stop to sit down and eat a proper meal. Dollar menu drive thru all the way.” Abby shifted her glance to Alex, nodded in his direction. “This is my… um friend, Alex.”

  Alex and Jim said their hellos, shook hands, and sized each other up. Her uncle was the only real father figure Abby had ever known, so she assumed it was natural for him to be a bit wary of any man she brought home. Part of her even liked knowing he was protective of her. It made her feel special and maybe even a little precious.

  “Thanks for letting us come out here. We really appreciate it.” Alex took a look around. “This is a great place.” His eyes appraised the land around him, sweeping past the fields and the outbuildings.

  “Thanks, though it’s not like I had a choice.” Jim raised an eyebrow. “When my only niece calls me up and starts talking about the end of the world, I tend to listen.”

  “Right, about that,” Abby began. “Is the shelter all set? I’m not sure yet when we’re going to need it, but I guess it should be ready to go as soon as possible.”

  “Well, straight to business I see,” Jim said. “To be honest I haven’t been down there yet. I had some other things to take care of around the farm. Damn horses are coming down with something. Plus I needed to get the new starter installed on the General.” He patted the front end of the car like it was one of his dogs. “I told my business partner about it our um… situation and he said he would take a look down there, make sure the cobwebs were cleared.”

  Abby looked towards where she knew the bomb shelter was buried beneath feet of soil. “Oh, that’s right. You have a partner now? I remember you mentioning something about that.”

  “Yup, Kyle Windstone. He started here about five years back as a farm hand, just after your mother passed and you decided to try city life. He was my best worker, I trusted him, and he had some old family money that he wanted to invest.” Jim turned back to the engine of the General and wiped off a spot of oil. “Since we had gotten to be good friends I let him buy half the property from me a couple years ago. He built his own place just over there past the corn.”

  Abby followed her uncle’s hand to see a blue house that looked very much like his own, except newer and possibly even a little bigger. She noticed now that the one driveway extended all the way up to Kyle’s house where his cherry red pick-up truck was parked to the side of the porch.

  “Oh, and I see you added some windmills too and are those solar panels?”

  “Yeah. Those were all Kyle’s idea. We don’t have electric bills anymore. He’s got the wind turbines and solar power running the whole farm.”

  “Wow, that’s great Jimmy. Kyle sounds very resourceful. I’m glad you’ve had some help around this enormous place and we can use all the help we can get right now.”

  “Yeah back to that,” Jim began. “Are you going to fill me in a little more at some point? I’m still not sure what you’re thinking is going to happen. I mean, I’ve seen the news and stuff, but I don’t know if we’re really looking at an apocalypse situation. Looks more like some bizarre weather. It will probably pass. And life has been pretty normal around here so far.”

  “I’ll explain everything over dinner. First, let’s get these bags in the house, maybe get the two of us weary travelers a shower, and some time to get settled in. Then we’ll cook up something to eat and have a nice long chat. Sound good?”

  Jim absently toyed with a cable under the hood of the General. “Works for me. I’ve got herb marinated pork roast sitting in the fridge.”

  Alex’s eyes lit up. “Oh god. Food that’s not a cheeseburger served up by a pimply high school kid. I love this guy already.”

  Abby went to the back of the Jeep to open the hatch and grab her bags. “My room still there, Jimmy?”

  “Um… actually I sort of turned it into an office. But your mom’s old room still has a bed in it.”

  Alex joined Abby at the rear of the vehicle, began pulling bags from the hatch back. “I guess I’ll take the couch then.”

  Abby nodded and pretended not to notice the tone hiding in his words.

  Hours later the three of them enjoyed a nice meal of Jim’s pork, fresh cooked carrots, garden salad, and chunky, non-instant mashed potatoes. All the vegetables had been grown on the farm and the meal was nothing short of perfect.

  Throughout dinner they discussed the situation at hand and what they could do to save themselves from what Abby was sure was the certain death of mankind. She knew her uncle wasn’t exactly sold on his niece suddenly being a devastation predicting fortune teller, but that didn’t stop her from relaying to him everything she knew about the dreams or the feeling of impending doom that had warned her of the landslide in Pennsylvania. She pulled out her green laptop and showed off the pictures of the paintings in wide screen, hoping that he would begin to understand the severity of the situation.

  Jim scooped himself up a second helping of potatoes. “This is all a little farfetched, Abby. I mean what’s this Destroyer supposed to be anyway? It sounds like a bad sci-fi flick.”

  Alex spoke up. “I thought the same thing at first. But after the stuff we saw and lived through on our way out here, I’m starting to come around pretty quick.”

  Abby washed down her food with a sip of diet coke before speaking. “Look, whether I’m right about everything or not, how does it hurt us? At the very least we spend some time in a bunker waiting out possible destruction that never comes.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  * * *

  A short time later as Abby stood on the porch having an after dinner cup of tea, she wondered if she could be wrong about everything. Actually, she hoped she was wrong. She didn’t care about looking like a fruit loop. They could lock her up in an asylum and throw a straight jacket on her for the rest of her life if it meant the world wasn’t going to change beyond recognition.

  Her uncle’s plastic Christmas tree stood in the window. Its colorful lights mingled with the white fairy lights strung from the porch as they twinkled back in forth in the light breeze. It seemed unusually warm for the holiday season. She remembered it being colder when she was younger. There was a certain chill in the air that made Abby wrap her sweater tighter to her, but it didn’t feel like winter at all. The Dukes seemed to agree as they slept lazily on the porch floor.

  From the corner of her eye Abby saw a man moving through the yard and crossing to the barn. She assumed it was Jimmy’s business partner, Kyle, but he didn’t look like your average mid-west farmer. She wasn’t sure if it was the light from the strings of electric Christmas cheer hanging above her head or a weird trick of the moonlight, but the man now entering the traditional big red barn was literally glowing. It wasn’t like he was glowing in the dark, but a subtle shine emanated from within him.

  Abby waited without taking her eyes off of the barn until the man came wandering out again carrying three cases of bottled water in his arms. It was then that he saw her. He stopped dead in his black suede work boots before casually walking up to the porch.

  They stared at each other for a few timeless minutes, Kyle at the bottom of the porch stairs looking up at Abby with a curious expression. He set the water down on a step and moved towards her with a hint of wonder in his eyes. The dogs lifted their heads and simultaneously wagged their tales against the porch floor.

  “You must be Abby.” His tone was soft and echoed the awe written on his face.

  Abby was caught off guard, still trying to figure out how he could be glowing if she wasn’t hallucinating. She searched her brain for the right words. “And you’re Kyle.”

  They reached out their hands, Kyle’s covered in a work glove, for an uncom
fortable first shake. They continued to stare silently into each other’s eyes like they were both looking for answers to life’s greatest questions.

  There was something about this man that went beyond his weird internal light bulb. Abby felt like she knew him somehow. His features looked familiar to her, like a painting she had created with her own hands. Each line and crease was something she knew by heart. Even his voice; with what few words she had heard, was something she somehow remembered. Its timbre was as well known to her as a song she had loved since childhood.

  Kyle took a few slow steps up the stairs and stood beside her at the porch railing. “This is going to sound strange…”

  “You’re glowing.” She blurted out the words without thought and prepared herself for accusations of lunacy.

  Kyle looked stunned. After a second or two of thought a realization struck his features and he grinned widely. Eventually that smile changed to a quiet laughter.

  “What’s so funny?” Abby folded an arm around her middle, resting her tea cup on her hip. She pulled on her ear with her free hand and twisted the lobe slightly between her thumb and forefinger. “I know you may have heard some rumors that I’m a tad bit shy of sane, but until now I haven’t been seeing anything weird like this. Well not while I’m awake anyway.”

  Kyle looked over at her with a smirk in his eyes. “You’re glowing too.” He spoke slowly, again throwing that grin her way.

  Abby was completely thrown. Now it was her turn to hear something that would normally not make sense in a rational world. But the world was getting less and less rational all the time and a lot of things didn’t make sense to Abby lately.

  She looked at her hands and examined them thoroughly, bending her fingers and flipping her palms up and down. She didn’t feel like she was glowing. But what did glowing feel like exactly? Aside from the silver rings on her fingers, there was nothing shiny about her.

  Abby chuckled nervously and gazed up at Kyle. She took in his features with an artist’s eye, noting details in an almost clinical way and filing them away in her mind.

  He was almost a foot taller than she was and he looked long and lean even under his jacket. By the lack of line in his face and the texture of his skin she assumed he was about the same age.

  She would’ve used a shade or two darker than sienna or maybe even raw umber to paint his hair. It was longer on the top and sat on his head in natural disarray, trailing down to short sideburns.

  His wide set eyes, topped by prominent brows, were a shade of green that almost matched her own. She mixed colors in her head, planning out the formula for his olive irises. They were darkly rimmed by his lashes and she could see little flecks of gold that caught the light.

  His face was angular, his jaw sharp and shadowed by a day’s growth. She noted the shallow dimple in his chin and left cheek that became more obvious when he smiled. She imagined accentuating his cheekbones with white highlights.

  Kyle Windstone was paintable, she decided. And attractive. In fact, after examining him for a length of time she felt like a million little butterflies were waging a war in the pit of her stomach. But there had been many men who Abby found attractive. What made this one so different? She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about him made her feel strangely pleasant. Like standing on the porch with him was exactly where she was supposed to be.

  Abby pushed those feelings down, mentally chided herself for letting her head get away from her. What she really wanted explained at that moment was why they were both self illuminating like deep sea creatures.

  Well, she also wanted to find out where she knew him from. He hadn’t been at the farm when last she lived there and she was sure they had never met before anywhere else. She would remember a face like that. Yet, somehow she actually felt like she did remember him. Though it didn’t seem possible, Abby was sure she knew the stranger standing in front of her like she knew her own phone number. The familiarity wasn’t a conscious thing. It was just there.

  Kyle’s voice brought her back to the present. “Have we met before?”

  Abby eyes widened a little as Kyle echoed her thoughts. “I don’t think so. Maybe you’ve seen the pictures Jimmy keeps on the mantle.”

  “I think it’s more than that. I seem to remember you in a really intense and weird way that I’m having a hard time explaining.”

  “I think I know the feeling, but we’ve never met.” She shifted her mug of tea into her other hand. “I’m really confused to be honest. There’s been way too much of the strange and unusual going on for me lately. You and the human light show will just be added to a growing list of things covered in crazy-sauce.”

  Kyle grinned, gestured for the two of them to sit on the swing suspended from the ceiling of the porch. After they were comfortable Kyle started talking again.

  “Considering we both appear to be glowing, I’m guessing that everything I’m about to say is going to sound like a rerun.” Kyle took a breath and turned in the bench to face her. “Lately I’ve been having dreams about the end of the world.”

  When Abby said nothing he continued. “After the dreams started I began storing water, food, and all kinds of miscellaneous survival type stuff in the barn, my shed, and just about every empty space I could find. I don’t know why, but I knew I had to do it. That lives, mine included, depended on it. I even had that old bomb shelter upgraded while Jim was away in Topeka.”

  Kyle took a breath and blew it out as though he had been waiting his whole life to get that secret off his chest. “This is all old news to you right? It happened to you too?”

  Abby nodded. She felt a kind of elation at knowing there was someone she could share her unusual world with, someone who could understand and not look at her as though she had three heads every time she opened her mouth. “I started having the dreams last week and I’ve been in hyper survival mode ever since. I even painted the dreams in extreme detail. I probably filled at least fifteen large scale canvases.”

  “Paintings huh?” He thought for a moment, continuing only when Abby leaned in expectantly. “That’s interesting because I wrote them down, told the story from the dreams in the best way I knew how. I felt like I had to keep a record of what I saw. And you’re a painter by profession right?”

  “Yeah, I paint, illustrate, and all that..” She shrugged, took a sip of her tea. “It usually pays the bills.”

  “Huh, that sort of makes sense then.” He paused for a breath. “I’m a writer when I’m not working the farm. Well, I’ve only been published a few times in small magazines, but I was an English major in college and I’ve been writing stories and poetry all my life.”

  Before they could talk any further on the subject Alex came running out the front door and slid to a stop on the porch, startling Abby, Kyle, and the sleeping hound dogs in the process.

  “It’s happened.” He was out of breath with a frantic, wide eyed looked on his unusually pale face. “It happened just like you said it would Abby. I can’t believe it’s all gone.”

  Abby jumped out of her skin and stood up from the swing. “What Alex? What happened?”

  “The City.” He brought his hands up to grip his head, obviously struggling with the news he was about to deliver. “New York just got swallowed up by a tidal wave.”

  “Oh my god.” Abby gasped and covered her mouth in horror. She had been praying that her vision was just a delusion and now the reality of it struck her hard in the chest, taking her breath away.

  “It’s been wiped from the map. California was hit too. They think Hollywood has been sunk under the sea like Atlantis. Your uncle is still watching the news, trying to learn what he can. I am pretty sure he doesn’t think you’re nuts anymore.”

  Abby nearly collapsed on her feet. She heard Kyle move behind her, but Alex was the first one to catch her. She wanted to sob against his chest, but couldn’t seem to find the tears. She simply closed her eyes, leaned against him, and let his arms give her strength. All of their friends
, everyone they saw on a daily basis, were gone. There was nothing left.

  “If it weren’t for you we’d still be there.” Alex rubbed her back absently as he held her. “We wouldn’t have made it out. Not if you hadn’t saved us.”

  Kyle stood awkwardly behind them, cleared his throat politely to get their attention. Abby turned away from Alex, broke free of his embrace to look at Kyle. The gentle glow she saw radiating from the center of his body filled her with a sense of hope. Some of her convictions returned to her and she straightened until she was standing tall.

  “Um… Alex this is Kyle Windstone, Jimmy’s business partner.”

  “Hi,” Kyle said with a quick wave. “Good to meet you.”

  Alex eyed the other man. “Yeah, you too.”

  “Glad you’re here to lend a hand.” Kyle expression turned somber. “We’ve got some serious work to do if we’re going to live through what happens next.”

  Abby felt her stomach flip at his words and she suddenly realized that the two of them had a lot more to talk about. Kyle Windstone was like her; whatever that meant. If she read his look correctly, the time to start fighting for their survival was closer than she had imagined.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Tuesday, December 18th 2012, 6:31am

  Kyle had been out of bed and working since five in the morning. He spent an hour tending to the horses and feeding the chickens before moving on to the task of hauling more water into the shelter.

  The December weather was oddly warmer than usual and he was already sweating through his tee shirt as he transported the cases three at a time. If he had known the sun would be so hot he would’ve worn something lighter than black. He wiped perspiration from his brown and felt it soaking into his dark hair.

  He knew the sun looked different, but he was no expert. It seemed brighter or bigger somehow, but it was hard to tell since he really couldn’t look up for any length of time to study it without threatening his retinas.