I led her outside where only more destruction waited. The air was clouded and thick, the roads were ripped apart and falling into bottomless holes. I was certain it was an earthquake, but more than that.
Shifting, tectonic plates across the planet was just the beginning. Magma would bubble to the surface and pour into the oceans. The rapid temperature changes would give rise to catastrophic storms that would only exacerbate the destruction.
I’d spent the better part of my adult life detailing exactly how the Earth would die. It was like I’d made a prophecy and I was watching it all unfold. Everything looked eerily familiar to what I’d described in my paper. It was getting harder and harder to deny the truth and the longer I waited to accept it, the less time I’d have to do anything.
The higher the sun rose the more of the city I could see. Smoke billowed into the air from far away. Buildings crumbled and the towering downtown area looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off. Deep down I knew what was happening, but I didn’t want to believe it.
“Where is everyone?” Cindy asked. “Why is there no one here?”
“Maybe they were evacuated,” Brent replied.
“We need to get moving,” I said sharply. “Doesn’t matter where everyone is, we can’t be here.”
Jake chuckled then held his hands up. “Moving to where Max?”
“I don’t know…north. We just don’t need to be here.”
“Why North?”
“Earthquakes and oceans never really seem to mix, so south just seemed out of the question.”
Jake bit his bottom lip then nodded. He pulled a water bottle from his bag and took a swig then held it out for anyone else. Brent grabbed it and finished it off then tossed the bottle onto the ground.
“What?” he asked as Cindy gave him a look. “It’s not like I’m making it worse.”
Shaking my head I grumbled, “Let’s go.”
We headed off down the road toward an uncertain location. I just hoped if we kept going north we’d run into something, maybe find some answers. I needed to be moving, I needed to keep my mind off of what was really going on.
The city was devastated. Like it had been under siege for weeks. The parts of the street that were intact were littered with rows and rows of cars, empty cars. There were no people, no bags, no clothes, just empty cars stopped in the middle of the road.
It was like everyone had just vanished. Th only thing that remained was a thin, white film that coated everything. The milky residue dripped from the surfaces like water, running down the gutters, forming a stream down the street.
“What is that?” Jake asked and reached out toward one of the cars.
“Don’t touch it!” I shouted.
He froze and looked back at me in confusion.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s probably toxic. Hell, we shouldn’t even be breathing the fumes.”
Jake nodded and fell back in line with the rest of us. We walked for hours, avoiding the cracks and holes in the ground. Hours of marching with no real destination in mind, but hours of the same devastation everywhere we looked.
For the most part, we walked in silence. I was consumed by my thoughts and everyone else seemed in shock, mesmerized by the damage we witnessed. It was hard to believe this had been a bustling city a day ago.
We’d pass houses with the doors left wide open, but not a soul in sight. Besides Herman, we hadn’t even seen another dead body. Everyone was gone and we were the unlucky few left to navigate a dead world.
“This is more than just an earthquake,” Brent said, breaking an hour of silence.
“Yeah, whatever this is, it’s bigger than Atlanta,” I replied.
“What does that mean?” Cindy asked.
“Nothing.”
“What are we supposed to do? Don’t you guys have like some kind of evacuation plan or something?” Brent continued.
“Nothing for this. Nothing for an earthquake, but there’s a satellite office in Marietta. We should be able to find something out if we can get there.”
I knew that was what they wanted to hear, but I already had my mind made up. I was always right, the Neilman Effect was real and the only thing I missed was the timetable.
“We need to take a break,” Cindy groaned as she stopped and doubled over. “My feet are killing me.
Brent and Jake immediately dropped their bags and sat down on the sidewalk. Sighing, I joined them and decided now was a good time to drink some water and try to figure out what to do next. I knew that if anyone at the center had come to the conclusion I had, they would’ve already evacuated. They would’ve taken the helicopters to the transfer station in Calhoun and within the week they’d be on their way to Wyoming. Our only hope was getting there before they left, which meant hanging out here for too long could kill us.
“You guys ready?” I asked after about five minutes.
“Dude we just sat down,” Jake groaned.
“Okay?”
“I need a few more minutes Max,” Cindy added.
I smiled and started pacing the sidewalk. My heart was racing and my mind was spinning itself out of control. This had to be it, this had to be what I’d been planning for the last few years of my life. But somehow here I was with nothing.
I wasn’t ready for this. We were supposed to have years; all the preparations weren’t even complete. I hadn’t been to the site in over six months and there was no telling how far along they’d come with the construction.
Someone touched the small of my back and I whipped around. Cindy was standing behind me with a thoughtful look on her face.
“What’s gotten into you? Talk to me babe,” she whispered.
“Nothing…nothing. I just wanna know what’s going on.”
“Don’t lie to me Max. I know you.”
I looked away and swallowed. She’d just started talking to me again. Now, I was gonna tell her the world as we knew it was ending and I’d known about it for years. No…I wasn’t gonna do that, somethings didn’t need to be shared.
“It’s nothing really, I’m nervous. All of this has me on edge and I don’t like being in this ghost town.”
“Okay…nothing is bothering you. Let’s go.”
I could hear the attitude in her voice, but it was the lesser of two evils. So for now, I’d just deal with it and once we got somewhere safe I’d figure it out. But I was gonna avoid any discussions about my job for as long as I could.
Brent and Jake groaned and stood up. They readied their bags and we started back down the crackled, ruined sidewalk.
We’d been walking for ten minutes when I heard the first sound that didn’t come from us. It sounded mechanical, like a motor, like some kind of truck.
I paused and everyone else did the same, apparently wondering if they really heard something. Straining my ears, I listened, trying to drown out the sound of my own thoughts.
“You hear that, right?” Brent asked. “It’s getting closer.”
“Is that a car?” Jake added.
“Come on,” I said as I grabbed Cindy’s hand and started to jog.
I rounded a corner then sped up as the sound grew closer. It was definitely a truck, probably more than one and they were moving. The rumble of a diesel engine was unmistakable.
“Come on,” I yelled back to Brent and Jake. “Hurry up!”
They were barely walking and I was fine with just leaving them behind. They’d been a pain in my ass since the other night anyway.
We sped up, urged on by the thought that somebody else might be alive. I turned down another street then suddenly screeched to stop.
“Wow!” Cindy exclaimed.
There was a convoy of trucks rolling down the road about a half mile away. They were big and green, Army cargo trucks, but instead of cargo, people were in the back.
“Wait!” I shouted and started to wave my hands.
I took off at a sprint, screaming at the top of my lungs. It was the first sign of life, the first sign of help
and they were driving away.
Cindy started a little way behind, but quickly sped past me, shouting along the way. Brent and Jake had just rounded the last corner and in true fashion were proving to be quite useless. They started a slow jog and screamed like two drunk bar trolls, trying to flag down a woman.
“Hey! Back here!” I continued to yell, but I doubted they could hear any of us over the loud, rumbling engine.
As the last truck rolled past the intersection and vanished from sight, I felt a stab in my heart. There was my hope and it was leaving and suddenly we were alone again. The sensation of defeat made me sick to my stomach.
I came to a stop beside Cindy and put my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. “I thought your feet hurt,” I gasped.
“I’m fine with running. It’s the walking that pisses me off.”
I wanted to laugh, but my lungs burned like I’d swallowed hot coal. I felt lightheaded and I envied Cindy as she stood there with her hands on her hips, barely breathing at all.
“Where do you think they were going?” she asked.
I shrugged then slowly stood up. “At least we know the world still exist and we have a direction to go in.”
“I guess so.”
Brent and Jake finally caught up. They were covered in sweat and looked like they needed medical attention. I wasn’t in the best of shape, but Brent and Jake considered binge drinking a workout.
“They…they see, they see us?” Brent asked in between gulping air like a drowning fish.
“I don’t think so,” I replied.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of an engine again, just as one of the trucks reentered the intersection and started our way. I felt a weight fall off of my shoulders. Cindy whirled around and hugged me then sighed in relief.
“Yes!” she smiled.
As the truck approached I could see inside of the cabin. The driver was young, maybe nineteen, dressed in sand-colored fatigues with a flack vest and helmet on. A man, in identical dress, was sitting next to him. He was probably twice the kid’s age and had the distinguished face of an officer, the look of a man that had seen death and also been at the delivering end of it.
With a screech, the heavy, truck stopped and the passenger door swung open. The older man stepped out and took off his helmet. His black, buzzed hair was peppered with white, same as the scruff on his face. His skin looked hard and weathered, not from age, but from a life spent in the desert, dodging bullets.
“Where are you folks headed?” he asked.
“Not sure,” I replied before Jake could say something stupid. “Some place safe.
“Where you coming from?”
“Atlanta...Bankhead”
“Bankhead?” he echoed. “That place was evacuated.”
“Well, obviously they missed us,” Jake retorted.
It didn’t take him long to start pissing people off. The man tilted his head to the side and gave Jake a stern look. I took it to mean, “I’ll snap your fucking neck son.”
“When did they evacuate?” I asked trying to resolve the tension. “And what is going on?”
“Last night, anyone left behind was as good as dead.”
“Well we made it out this morning. Maybe there’s more survivors.”
“Unlikely, the quake that hit, it was the biggest ever recorded on the east coast and we think it’s just starting.”
“What’s just starting?” Brent asked.
The man ignored him. “Anyone that survived that would’ve been incinerated by the gas.”
“The gas?”
“Came up from the cracks, kinda like steam or something form the lava, at least that’s what the scientists say. Scorched everything, burned people to less than nothing.”
Cindy gasped and covered her mouth. We’d all seen the evidence of that, we just had no clue what we were looking at. But now we knew why we didn’t see anyone.
“Anyway, I’m Captain Estevez. We’re taking people north to Cartersville. There’s room in the truck.”
“What’s going on?” Brent asked as he finally found his voice. “What’s happening to everything?”
“You see it. Earthquakes, as crazy as it sounds, that’s as much as I know. Now, we can’t stay here long so it’s best you come with us.”
“We’re trying to get to Calhoun, any chance you can get us there?”
“Calhoun?” he replied and gave me a strange look
Cindy did the same, but didn’t say anything. I’d planned on telling them later, once I had a chance to make up a believable story, but with everything that was going on I needed to take advantage of having a military escort.
“HSA?” Captain Estevez asked.
“Yeah…yeah I work there. I really need to get in touch with some people.”
He skeptically bored into me. I smiled then reached into my bag and pulled out an ID badge. He took it and looked it over then handed it back to me. Scratching his head, he looked us over then put his helmet back on.
“Hop in the truck. I can get a Jeep to re-route you once we get into Cartersville.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
We headed around the back and climbed into the panel truck. There were fifteen other people, mostly families inside seated on the bench that ran the length of the truck bed.
“HSA?” Cindy asked once we got situated. “You work there? And what is in Calhoun? What happened to Marietta? You better start talking.”
“Yeah,” Jake and Brent added in unison. “This should be good.”
I took a deep breath and cleared my throat. At this point, everything was going to come out anyway. It was time to tell it all…or as much as I could make up.
CHAPTER 9
WE’RE NOT SAFE HERE
The drive to Cartersville was bumpy. The roads had been ripped apart by the quake and we spent most of the time navigating dirt trails and narrow passes through dense forests. I think everyone was a little taken aback by how much damage an earthquake could do.
Cindy gave me the death stare for most of the ride, awaiting my explanation that so far, I’d avoided by listening in on the other occupant’s conversations. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep her at bay, but it was much more pleasant to learn about the truck full of people.
There was a family of five there from Florida. The Jefferson’s, a young couple with teenage triplets. They’d just started their winter vacation and planned on seeing the aquarium when disaster struck. The wife was crying nearly the entire ride, she’d left her mother and father along with their youngest back in Florida. From what they’d heard, that state wasn’t doing too well.
That was the other shock. The earthquakes weren’t just isolated to Atlanta or even Georgia. There was a guy from the National Guard seated back there with us. He was an older guy named Lincoln. According to him earthquakes were popping up all over the country. The earliest started over a week ago. The military had been coordinating evacuations and things were happening so fast news outlets didn’t even have time to report them.
It made sense and my model predicted it, but confirmation of what I suspected was something I didn’t want. For once in my life, I wanted to be wrong, I needed to be wrong.
“Where are they taking everyone?” Brent asked.
“Not sure really,” Lincoln replied. “Just trying to stay a step ahead of it. They’ve got some guys studying patterns, telling them where the next one is gonna be. They just keep pushing north, hoping to outrun whatever this is.”
“They’re not gonna outrun this,” I mumbled.
“What’s that?”
“Never mind,” I replied and turned away.
There was another family seated right across from me. The husband’s name was Phil. He’d been on a business trip in Atlanta and he’d decided to bring his wife and toddler along. They were some of the last people to be rescued from Atlanta and while we somehow survived the worst of it, they were around to see all of the death and destruction. Things like that never went a
way.
“Max,” Cindy said as she nudged me with her elbow. “You’ve waited long enough. Start talking.”
I huffed and looked her in the eyes. I was sure after all of this she was never going to talk to me again. But if she was gonna lose it, it was probably better she did in the back of the truck.
“You can’t be mad at me,” I said. I wasn’t sure why I said it and as soon as I did I realized how childish it sounded.
“I can’t be mad at you?” Cindy echoed. “Are you serious!”
“You’re screaming.”
“So, what if I am. You feed me bullshit and when you decide to come clean you try to tell me I can’t be mad. You’ve got some nerve Max.”
Everyone in the truck was staring at me and I felt like I’d been sent to timeout or something. I lowered my head and scooted closer to Cindy.
“You’re making a scene,” I mumbled through clenched teeth. “Calm down.”
“You calm down!”
“Jesus…I can’t tell you now. You’re already pissed and I haven’t even done anything.”
“Max,” she said sternly.
“Fine…fine. I don’t even know where to start.” I paused and leaned closer to her. I didn’t need the rest of the truck listening in.
“Start by telling me what the hell HSA is?"
Brent and Jake slid closer as well and created a type of semi-circle. We looked like a group of gossiping teenagers.
“Homeland Security Agency,” I said lowly.
“What do you have to do with that?” Brent asked.
“I kinda work for them.”
“No, you work for the National Weather Service,” Cindy corrected me.
“Well, it’s complicated.”
“Max how complicated can it be? You leave every morning and drive into Peachtree where you sit at your desk and tell people about fucking storms. Did I miss something?”
“I wrote a paper,” I said. It wasn’t a defense, but the only thing I could think to say. I felt like I was being interrogated by the KGB.
“What’s in Calhoun?” Cindy asked.
“It’s a satellite office for HSA and emergency management personnel. Everyone will have reported there now that the south is out of range.”
The Mayflower Project: Deconstruction Book Two (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) Page 5