Joyce managed a smile.
“Gee, thanks a lot. Not much. I’m going to be up anyway. If you want, I’ll relieve you so you can go get some sleep yourself.”
“Thanks, but you know I can’t sleep while he’s out there either. Besides, I need to be here when he arrives so we don’t leave the monitors unmanned when you go running out there to slobber all over him. How about if you pour us some coffee and we’ll wait together?”
“Okay, that’s a deal.”
Joyce went to the kitchen and put a dark hazelnut roast K-cup into the Keurig.
“What are you in the mood for, Linda?”
“English toffee with a teaspoon of sugar.”
Joyce went through a drawer and pulled out Linda’s choice while she listened to her friend try again to raise Scott on the radio.
“Scott, this is Linda. Come in if you copy. And even if you don’t copy, come in anyway. We’re starting to worry a bit.”
Joyce was raised a good Catholic girl, and although she stopped going to mass many years before, she was still a believer.
She crossed herself and looked up to the ceiling and said, “Please, Father. Bring him back safely.”
But there was no answer to Linda’s radio call.
The small desk clock on the security console read 3:22 when Joyce returned with the coffees.
“He should be here by now. Or at least in radio range.”
When he left, he was able to check in when he was ten miles out. Now, she had to assume that he was still more than ten miles away.
Linda tried to calm her nerves.
“He probably saw something he didn’t like and he’s going extra slow. You remember that when we came up here we crept at four miles an hour so the engine didn’t make any noise. And it took us a full two nights to get here. If he’s doing the same thing just as a precaution, he won’t be here until tomorrow night. Or maybe even the next night, considering the late start he got leaving San Antonio. Just do me a favor, girlfriend, and don’t panic.”
“That’s easy for you to say. He’s not your man anymore.”
As soon as Joyce uttered the words, she wished she could take them back. She saw the hurt on Linda’s face. The words weren’t meant to be hurtful, they just came out wrong.
“Oh, my. I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I just meant…”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I know what you meant. And you’re right. Scott and I aren’t married anymore. But we’re still good friends and I still have love for him in my heart. But here’s the thing. I’ve known him a lot longer than you have. And he’s always been an overly cautious man. In everything he does. If he saw something he didn’t like, or sensed some kind of danger, he’s not the kind of guy who would just ignore it and rush back just so he could make it back to a nice warm bed to sleep in.
“He’d take his time. Make modifications to his plans. Maybe even seek an alternate route, just to avoid trouble. And if it took him twice as long to get here, he’d do that. Because in the end he’s a smart man. And he knows it’s better to be extra cautious and show up late, than to be careless and not come back at all.”
“I know. There have been times when I’ve thought him too cautious. But you’re right. He’ll do whatever he can to get back here, even if it takes longer.
“But that doesn’t make it any easier.”
The women turned as they heard the faint sound of an alarm clock going off upstairs. They guessed it was Jordan’s. It was four a.m. now, and everyone had hoped the night before that Scott would be home by then.
Five minutes later Jordan came stumbling down the stairs, still half asleep.
Linda called out, “Hey, baby, what are you doing up so early?”
“Hi, Mom. Hi Joyce. I got up to welcome dad home and find out how everything went. Where is he?”
Joyce smiled and tried to hide the concern on her face.
“He’s not home yet, hon. But he should be calling in anytime. You’re welcome to join us if you want, or we can wake you up when he comes in.”
If Jordan was concerned at all, he didn’t let on. It was possible that he was just too groggy for the implications to sink in.
He yawned and stretched. Then he said, “Okay, then. I’m going back to bed. Don’t forget to have him knock on my door when he gets home, okay?”
“Sure, honey. We’ll do that.”
Linda intentionally waited until she heard Jordan’s bedroom door close before she tried the radio again.
“Scott, this is Linda. Come in.”
She waited twenty seconds for a response while Joyce crossed her fingers.
Then she tried again.
“Scott, please come in so we’ll know you’re doing okay.”
Again, silence.
The back door suddenly opened, and Tom Haskins walked in. He wasn’t in the flannel pajama pants and t-shirt that he had a habit of sleeping in, even in the summertime. He was fully dressed, in jeans and a work shirt, as though he were going somewhere.
He went over to the security console and leaned over to kiss Linda.
“Well, hello, stranger. What are you doing up so early? You’re not supposed to relieve me until six.”
“I’ve been listening to you calling Scott and on the radio and getting no response. Did I do the math wrong? Shouldn’t he be home by now?”
“Yes, but that was the best case scenario. He said from the beginning that if everything didn’t go smoothly he might have to find an alternate route back, or might have to take his time getting back up the mountain.”
Tom eyed both women carefully. He could see the worry on their faces, despite their efforts to hide it.
“Are you two okay?”
Linda nodded her head yes, but not in a very convincing way.
Joyce was more honest.
“I know that he’s probably just being prudent and extra cautious. But honestly, if he doesn’t make it home before sunrise, this is going to be the longest day of my life.”
They all knew that Scott wouldn’t travel in the daylight. It was just too risky. If he couldn’t make it back before the sun came up, he’d hole up in a heavy thicket of brush, or in a cave, or anywhere he could remain unseen until the darkness returned.
Tom tried to come up with some encouraging words.
“Now, don’t y’all go worrying too much. You know how careful he is. I’ll bet it’s nothing more than he’s running behind schedule, and that his radio is acting up. You just wait and see. He never misses a breakfast, and he won’t miss one today either.”
Both women could see, though, that Tom was even having trouble convincing himself.
-5-
By mid day, everyone at the compound was in a full scale panic. The unspoken order of the day was to stay as busy as possible. It was impossible to get their minds off the situation, but they tried anyway. Linda and Sara went for a long walk to gather apples from the old apple tree by the fishing pond. They didn’t need any apples, and in fact knew there probably wouldn’t be any worth picking because they’d harvested all the good ones just a couple of weeks before. But it seemed a good way to kill a couple of hours, and that was their real mission.
They intentionally left their radios in the house so they didn’t have to hear Joyce’s plaintive radio calls every ten minutes. Pleas that had gone unanswered all night and so far into the day.
Tom took the boys and put them to work in the yard, digging fence post holes to reinforce a sagging pig pen. It seemed some of the hogs liked to lean against it while they napped, and parts of it were now leaning twenty degrees.
It wasn’t in danger of collapsing, and in fact didn’t really need repair. At least not for a long time to come.
But Tom knew, and the boys suspected, that make-work details such as this would keep them from looking at the clock every five minutes and going crazy.
Hannah, the new arrival and John’s wife, spent several hours that morning “schooling” her girls.
She’d done her level best to teach them things they no longer had a chance to learn in school, and had done so since the power went out.
Normally the girls hated it. But on this particular day they didn’t seem to mind it.
Even though it was hard to focus.
Hannah had tried hailing someone from the San Antonio Police Department several times on the ham radio. She didn’t know if any of the other officers had such radios, but she figured it was worth a shot. Robbie was in the habit now of calling her every other day to give her the status on John, and to share whatever other news was going on. But they had spoken the day before, to make arrangements for Scott’s medicine delivery. He wasn’t scheduled to report in for another day.
Hannah was hoping against hope that her calls for “any SAPD officer” would catch someone’s attention. Maybe another cop who knew Robbie and could pass a message to him that Hannah needed to talk ASAP.
But she had no luck at all.
Over dinner that evening, the mood was understandably somber. No one wanted to talk about Scott and his reason for not showing. The topic was an eight hundred pound gorilla sitting in the corner of the dining room, eyeing each of them with suspicion and seemingly ready to pounce on anyone who uttered Scott’s name.
And each of them was looking forward to the darkness.
They knew that whatever had delayed him, he wouldn’t travel in the daylight. It was way too risky and he was way too vulnerable.
Nightfall, though, would bring renewed hope that he’d call in on the radio. Say he was sorry for the delay, but that he was getting close to home and would be there soon.
Or, if he no longer had a working radio, nightfall would bring the chance he’d show up on the monitor from the tower cam, and they could rush out and open the gate for him.
After dinner, Hannah organized a “movie marathon” for the three younger kids.
“You can stay up as late as you want watching movies. And you can eat as much ice cream and popcorn as you want. There are only three rules you must abide by.
Rule number one is no arguing about which movie you’re going to watch. You have to decide nicely among yourselves and agree on the next movie before you start it. The first time I hear anyone arguing, the television and DVD player get turned off and everyone goes right to bed.
Rule number two is you can’t fall asleep. If you fall asleep I’ll wake you up and send you upstairs to your bedroom.
Rule number three is that you stay in the den and leave us big people alone.
Zachary said, “That’s only because you don’t want us to hear while you all plot our murders.”
Little Misty’s mouth dropped open.
Hannah said, “Don’t worry, Sugar. He’s only kidding.”
Then she looked directly at Zachary and added, “The only murder I’m planning is his.”
After the younger kids were settled in the den watching The Rugrats Movie, Hannah went to the kitchen to join Linda, Joyce and Tom at the table drinking coffee.
Linda said, “Thank you for taking care of that, Hannah. That was sweet.”
Linda and Joyce knew Hannah’s logic behind the all night movie marathon. Tom had never been a mother, so he was still clueless.
“So, what’s with letting the little hoodlums stay up all night?”
Hannah explained.
“They wouldn’t get a wink of sleep in their beds anyway. They’d just come down here every half hour to ask if Scott was back yet. This way, they’re kind of included in the Scott watch. So they’ll feel like they’re part of the group. If he makes it back tonight, they’ll be up to help greet him.”
“And if he doesn’t make it back tonight?”
“Then they’ll be so tired that they’ll sleep most of the day tomorrow instead of being miserable and thinking the worst.”
Linda looked at Tom and asked, “Tom, what do you think is the most likely scenario?”
He thought long and hard, and chose his words carefully.
“Well, obviously something went wrong. And we can assume it was one of two things. Either he was hurt, or he had trouble with his vehicle. Knowing how careful Scott is by nature, I’d say that the second option is the most likely scenario.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes. You see, those Gators you have out there are a fine piece of equipment. Hell, John Deere has been around for over a hundred years, and they put out some great machines. But the Gator is a utility vehicle. It’s meant for doing odd jobs around a farm or a ranch.
“It’s not made to run at full speed for several hours at a time. That’s very hard on it, and that’s not what it was designed for.
“And it carries no spare parts. If it blows a tire or the water hose ruptures, there’s nothing you can do but walk.
“That’s where I place my money. I think he was on his way back and had a breakdown. And now he’s on foot making his way back up here. And I think that he’s got his radio off to conserve the batteries so they’re still fresh when he’s within range. And then he’s gonna call in and tell us he’s all right.”
“Well, how long do you think that’ll be?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. If he broke down fifteen miles from here, he should be within radio range tonight. But if he broke down seventy miles away, it might be several days. Figure ten to twelve miles a night. I wouldn’t expect any more than that, because of the upgrade. It’s not that noticeable when you’re in a vehicle. But I’ll bet it is when you’re on foot.
“Didn’t y’all have him drop some provisions along the way?”
“Yes. Trash bags placed ten miles apart, with water and granola bars in them. Just in case.”
“Well, I’d say your ‘just in case’ was a smart move. He won’t have to veer off course to look for water or something to eat, and he’ll be able to keep up his strength and keep his wits about him.
“He’ll probably show up tonight sometime. And if he doesn’t, that leaves us with two options.”
“And what are those, Tom?”
“Either we wait him out and give him a chance to get here on his own. Or if he doesn’t show tonight, I can take another Gator and look for him the next night.”
Linda looked suddenly panicked.
“No. I don’t even want to consider that option. I mean, if God forbid, something happened to Scott, we don’t want the same thing to happen to you too.”
“Well then, little darlin’. Let’s just hope he makes it back home tonight so we don’t have to worry about that.”
-6-
The sun set at 7:04 p.m. that night. At 7:10 Jordan made his first radio call.
“Dad, this is Jordan. Come in.”
Silence.
“Dad, this is Jordan. Please come in.”
Still nothing.
He would repeat the process every ten minutes until he went off shift at eight. Then Hannah would relieve him and do the same until midnight, until she swapped out with Joyce.
And each time they made a call, the entire house gave their undivided attention. Even in the den, Zachary hit the pause button to stop whatever movie they were watching every time he heard someone calling out for his father.
And secretly, each one of them was silently praying for Scott’s safe return.
Just after midnight, Misty crashed on the floor of the den, hugging her teddy bear.
Rachel and Zachary made it until a little after three a.m., then fell asleep on the couch, side by side, her head on his shoulder. His head rested on hers.
Linda couldn’t help herself. It was too cute a moment to pass up. She turned on the floor lamps on each side of the couch, turned off the flash on her digital camera, and snapped their photo.
She said, “Someday, if these two just happen to fall in love and get married, this will be their very first ‘together’ pic.”
Hannah whispered to her, “That’s a possibility, you know. Rachel has fallen in love with him. She told me so the other day.”
“He has a crush on her too. I can see it in the way he looks at her. Isn’t puppy love wonderful?”
Tom was skeptical.
“Puppy love. What foolishness. Don’t you women have something worthwhile to talk about?”
“Like what, Tom?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Fishing, or baseball, or sports in general. Anything that doesn’t involve kissing, romance or feelings.”
“Tom, you’re just an old grouch. Love is what makes the world go around. If our mothers and fathers didn’t love each other, then none of us would be here. Including you.”
“Now I know you’re confusing love with something more physical.”
“Whatever. The bottom line is, we happen to outnumber you at the present time, so we get to choose what we want to talk about.”
Tom was unswayed.
“Hey, Jordan. What do you think about all of this?”
“Leave me out of this one, Tom. You dug your own grave, and I’m not going to let you drag me into it with you.”
Hannah looked at Linda and laughed.
“That’s a smart boy you raised there.”
Joyce looked at the kids, sound asleep and dreaming little kid dreams.
“Should we try to move them?”
“No, let’s not. If Scott makes it back tonight, they’ll want to be here to greet him. If not, we can wake them up at sunrise to send them upstairs.”
“They look so peaceful when they’re sleeping. Like little angels.”
“Yeah, well, looks can be very deceiving.”
It was five thirty when Linda thought she heard a squawk on the radio.
“Scott, this is Linda. Was that you?”
Nothing.
“Scott, this is Linda. Did you say something?”
Still nothing.
They weren’t quite sure what the squawk was. A bit of atmospheric interference, perhaps. Or maybe someone else on the same frequency. Perhaps it was Scott, on the outer edges of the radio’s range, trying to get a signal.
In any event, it was a moot point. The sun was breaking over the horizon. If it was Scott, he would be bedding down and waiting for the night to return. He wouldn’t be getting any closer than he was right now, and his signal wouldn’t be getting any stronger.
Rise From The Ashes: The Rebirth of San Antonio (Countdown to Armageddon Book 3) Page 3