Cry Havoc

by A. American

  “Closer to seven hundred,” Gene said.

  “That presents the first obstacle,” Bob said. “That’s a lot of fuel.”

  Daniel sat down in a chair. “That’s not a problem. My van has an aftermarket tank, a Titan. It holds sixty-eight gallons. I could easily make it to Texas on a full tank.” It was just a natural reply. The van could make it. Not that he was actually considering it.

  Christy looked at him. “You actually want to go to Texas?”

  “But do you have a full tank?” Teague asked.

  Daniel shrugged. “No, only about a half tank.”

  Gene rubbed his whiskers. “Then we need to think about this. If we’re actually going to try and make a run for Texas, we have the fuel on hand.”

  Bob nodded. “We could take it from the generators’ tanks. Good idea, Gene.”

  Daniel stood up. “Wait a minute. What are we talking about here? Why the hell would we go to Texas? I mean, first, it’s seven hundred miles. Fuel aside, do you actually think we’d make it? And if we did, where exactly would we go?”

  “We can’t drive at night. There’s a curfew. It would take forever to get there,” Christy said.

  “Not to mention all the roadblocks we’d probably encounter,” Teague said.

  Bob shook out a cigarette and lit it. Taking a long drag, he thought for a minute. Looking at the smoke between his fingers, he said, “Well, the way I see it, Texas might be the safest place to go. I think things in this country have changed in a major way. I think it will be a long time before they go back to the way they were. You all saw what the government did to those people down below. They went in shooting. Those they didn’t kill, they hauled off to God knows where. I don’t want to end up in either of those situations.”

  “I don’t do FEMA camps,” Teague said.

  “What other option do you have?” Gene asked. “Go home, where there’s no power, no communications? Sit in the dark and wait to see what happens?”

  Staring at the floor, Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know. It just seems a bit rash to run off to Texas. I don’t know.”

  Pulling the comb from his pocket, Gene combed out his mustache. “You better hurry up and figure it out. We’ll run out of fuel in a few hours, and then this place goes dark. Then there won’t be any fuel to put in the van. You’ll be down to only one option, sitting in the dark at home.”

  Christy grabbed Daniel’s arm. “Babe, I’m with you. Whatever you want to do.”

  Daniel looked at her. She was an amazing woman. Maybe he’d been wrong about keeping a little distance between them. He smiled and said, “I know you are.” Looking at Gene, he said, “Let’s go fill the van. That way, we have an option.”

  “We need to start a plan for getting out of here then. We can’t just pile out into the street,” Bob said.

  Daniel nodded. “Alright. You guys work on that while Gene and I go down and fill up the van.”

  It took a little maneuvering to get the van close enough to the diesel tank to transfer the fuel. Gene was an interesting guy and obviously took a lot of liberty with his position in the building. He’d acquired all manner of stuff that would be hard to justify as being needed, but was handy to have. One of those was the transfer pump they were using to move the fuel into the van.

  Both men were wearing earmuffs to protect against the roar of the generators. They were loud as hell and hot. While Daniel watched the van, Gene disappeared and came back riding the forklift. A pallet sat on the forks with four small drums on it. He climbed off the machine and opened the bungs on them, setting the lids on top of each drum. Daniel wasn’t certain what he was doing, but figured it out when the tank on the van was full.

  The two couldn’t communicate due to the level of noise, but when Gene moved the nozzle of the pump into one of the drums, Daniel knew what Gene was up to. The drums were small, fifteen gallons. These would be easier to handle on the road should they need them.

  Gene leaned in close and shouted. “Where do you want to put it?”

  Daniel looked at the van and pointed to the large rack on the roof. “Let’s put them up there. That way we save space inside.”

  After filling the small drums, Gene nodded and hopped back on the forklift, raising the load up. Daniel climbed up the ladder on the rear of the van and got on top. He rolled the barrels onto the rack and laid them down. The rack was large enough to hold them and still had more space. Gene waved at him and tossed up a couple of ratchet straps. Daniel strapped the drums down and hopped off. It was nice knowing they now had over one hundred and twenty gallons of fuel onboard.

  Once the fuel was on the van, Gene waved for him to follow and the two went to Gene’s office. Stepping in, Daniel took the muffs off his ears and wiped sweat from his forehead.

  “Damn, it’s hot out there.”

  Gene tossed his muffs onto his already cluttered desk. “Yeah. Most people have no idea what these buildings are really like. They only know when the elevator stops or the shitter won’t flush.”

  Daniel nodded. “I guess I was guilty of that too.”

  Gene smiled, the ends of his mustache turning up. “Yeah. But you’re learning.”

  Daniel laughed. “Better late than never. You ready to head back upstairs?”

  Gene held up a finger. “Not yet. While we’re down here, I’d like to load some other things we may find useful.”

  Curious, Daniel asked, “Like what?”

  Gene rubbed his hands together, “Oh just some party favors. Follow me.”

  ***

  Bob, Christy and Teague leaned over Bob’s desk. A large map of greater Atlanta was spread out. Bob laid a finger on the map and traced it across the paper.

  Picking up an atlas, Bob opened it. “I think we should take I-20 west. It’ll be the fastest way,”

  Teague nodded. “But we can only travel during the day and need to find decent places to spend the night.”

  “You think with the curfew we could get in trouble if someone finds us at night?” Christy asked.

  Bob shrugged. “Right now, who knows?”

  “The object will be to not to be seen at night. Daniel’s van is a dark olive drab, the perfect color to hide. We’ll find places to pull off in the evening, giving us plenty of time to find a good place to hide. Once we find that place, we’ll have to take care of things like food and whatnot before it gets dark. Once it’s dark, there’s no lights, no sound. We have to just maintain a stealth mode. Sleep in shifts so there’s always someone awake to serve as a lookout.”

  Christy looked at Teague. “You think it’s that dangerous?”

  Bob chuckled. “We don’t know. And I, for one, don’t want to find out the hard way. He’s right. Good thinking, Cousin.”

  Teague pointed at the map again. “We also need alternative routes around all major cities. I’d prefer we didn’t drive through any of them, personally.”

  “That would add a lot of time. I agree we need alternate routes, at least two. But I say we drive through them if there isn’t anything major going on. It will all depend on what the roads are like.” Bob replied.

  Teague nodded. “Agreed. You got a highlighter?”

  The three got to work mapping their routes around larger cities like Birmingham and Tuscaloosa in Alabama. The next major obstacle would be Jackson, Mississippi. Once they cleared those, they’d face Monroe and Shreveport in Louisiana. But there would be countless smaller cities between that they’d have to deal with as well.

  They also mapped out a route that would keep them off the interstate entirely. The thought was that the interstate could either become locked with traffic or simply unsafe. The route off the interstate would take considerably longer. But it was better to have a plan than to go forward blindly and have to adapt on the fly.

 
; “We need to think about food,” Christy said.

  Shaking out another smoke, Bob replied. “Yes we do.”

  Christy looked at Teague. “Come on. Let’s go down to that little café and see what we can scavenge from there. There’s a lot of stuff there.”

  “Good idea,” Bob said with a wink.

  “We can also raid all the vending machines too,” Teague added.

  Christy wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to live on candy bars and chips.”

  Bob pointed at her with his cigarette. “Yeah, but it’d be better than being hungry.”

  Christy shrugged, “I guess.”

  Teague headed for the door. “Come on. Let’s see what we can find.”

  As they opened the door, Bob said, “I’m going to stay here and watch the cameras. We need to know what’s going on outside.” And he turned his attention to the monitors.

  He shook out yet another smoke and put his feet up on the desk and leaned back in the chair. Smoking with one hand, he used the other to manipulate the camera controller. Bringing up the multi-camera view, he examined each for any movement. One view caught his eye and he expanded it to full screen.

  This was a view of Piedmont Road. A block or so down the road was the Piedmont Peachtree Crossing shopping center. It was home to a Kroger, World Market, Starbucks and other trendy shops, all of which were now looted out. The Starbucks had burned and was now a pile of charred ashes. But the plaza had a large parking lot that was filling with people, spilling out onto Piedmont.

  Bob zoomed the camera in. There were no police or any form of crowd control present. As Bob moved the camera around, he began noticing several of the people in the crowd were armed and many of them were wearing masks. He watched as the crowd spilled out onto Piedmont and began making their way both directions, a large portion moving towards Peachtree. This can’t be good, Bob thought as he watched what was growing into a sea of people spread out onto the streets.

  They seemed to come from everywhere and swell in numbers as they filled the streets. While Bob couldn’t hear them, they were chanting and shouting as they moved through the trash-strewn canyons. At intersections, the crowd would break into groups, some staying at the intersection, others moving on. Those that stayed began throwing up barricades, using everything at their disposal from park benches and garbage cans to blocks and tires. This was going to make getting out of the area a real issue.

  ***

  Daniel and Gene finished loading Gene’s party favors into the van. Daniel stepped back, rubbing his head. “You think this is safe having this stuff in here?”

  Gene shrugged. “Eh, just don’t mix ‘em.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I’m going outside to get some air.”

  “I’m headed back up to Bob’s office,” Gene said as he turned away.

  Daniel wanted to be alone for a minute. He took the stairs up to the top level of the garage and looked out across the area. His nostrils were assaulted by numerous smells. Burning rubber, garbage and an odd odor he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It gave the area an overriding pungent smell that wasn’t pleasant. Daniel looked down over the edge of the wall and was surprised to see so many people on the street.

  How the hell are we going to get out of here? He asked himself.

  The enormous mass of people on the road below him were spread out all along Peachtree. Most concerning, they were building barricades at the intersection with Piedmont, their way out. This worried him and he quickly headed back for Bob’s office.

  Daniel was a little excited when he came through the door to the office, and he started talking without looking at the monitors.

  “We’re in trouble. There’s no way we can get out of here with that crowd out there! You should see all the people on the street!”

  Cigarette in hand, Bob pointed at the wall of monitors. “You mean them?”

  Daniel looked over and felt a little silly. “Yeah. Them. They’re building barricades out there.”

  The view on the screen swung around. Again, Bob pointed at the monitor. “You mean those?”

  “Yeah, Bob. Those. What are we going to do?”

  Bob got up and walked towards his office. “We’re going to wait on Gene.”

  Daniel looked around. “Where’s Gene? He said he was coming up here.”

  “He left, saying he would take care of this,” Teague said.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Daniel asked.

  Teague shrugged. “Hell if I know.”

  Christy stood up. “Sit down and have something to eat, babe. We found a lot of food we can take with us. But you should eat something now.”

  “But, what’s Gene doing? We can’t get out of here with that mob out there.”

  Christy pulled him into a chair and said, “Sit down. Gene said he had it. He was actually laughing as he left. Said he’d be back when it was all ready.” She set a large bowl of soup in front of him and some crackers.

  He started to protest but Christy cut him off, telling him to eat. Daniel didn’t understand why no one was concerned. Didn’t they realize what it was like out there? He looked up at the monitor, at the growing crowd on the street in front of the bank. Where are the police or National Guard?

  The day was spent hanging out, watching the growing mobs on the street. Teague disappeared to, as he put it, search the building for anything useful. Daniel took that to mean he wanted to be nosy and probably break into things. He remembered his cousin from his youth having an uncontrollable temptation for locks. If something was locked, be it a door, a gate or, God forbid, a box, he had to get into it. Even now, Daniel could see him prying open file cabinets all over the building.

  After being gone several hours, Gene reappeared. He was dirty and looked tired. Coming into the office, he slumped into a chair and announced. “It’s done.”

  Daniel looked at him. “What’s done?”

  Too tired to smile, Gene replied abruptly. “You’ll see.”

  Not long after Gene’s arrival, Teague showed up as well. He dropped into a chair beside Gene. Bob lit another cigarette. He seemed to have an unending supply. Looking around the room, he cleared his throat.

  “Now that everyone is here. I think we need to talk.” He paused and looked around the room. “We know we can’t stay here. We have to leave.” He pointed at the monitors. “From the look of things outside, we need to get the hell out of the area.”

  Daniel leaned forward in his chair. “But is setting out to Texas the right choice?”

  “And that is the question.” Bob replied.

  “What are our choices?” Teague asked. “Stay in a place that’s burning down around us?”

  Bob shrugged, leaned back in his chair and threw his feet up on the counter. He was wearing two different socks of a loud pattern, both bunched up around his ankles. Christy noticed and giggled. Bob looked at the inch of exposed flesh between the sock and the pants and smiled.

  “We could just try to go upstate. I know a bunch of places up there,” Daniel said.

  Bob nodded. “We could. But Gene here isn’t much of a camper.”

  “I don’t shit in the woods,” Gene replied.

  “Besides. Every place you know of there, so do another couple thousand people. It could get crowded,” Bob said.

  “Not to mention the fact that Texas has held it together. They told the Feds to go pound sand. They have electricity and things there are normal still,” Teague said.

  “I think we should go to Texas, Daniel. I mean, sure this is home, but if it’s too dangerous, I’d rather just leave. Together,” Christy said.

  Daniel looked at her. He was so unsure. There were so many things to consider. So many unknowns. Should he toss in his lot with this group of people he hardly knew? Sure, he really l
iked Christy, maybe even loved her; that was yet to be answered. But he didn’t know Gene hardly at all, only seeing him around the building. Same for Bob, who he had a little more than a passing familiarity with. As for Teague, when they were kids, they played together often on summer breaks. The two would run the woods together and get into the typical trouble boys left unsupervised in the woods would get into. But that was a long time ago and both, now men, had changed a lot.

  Daniel looked around the room. It seemed everyone’s mind was made up and they all were waiting on him. He threw his hands up. “Let’s go to Texas.”

  Christy clapped and jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m so excited. This is going to be so much fun!”

  Teague snorted. “That remains to be seen.”

  Gene levered himself from his chair. “Now that it’s decided, we need to get ready. The generators won’t last more than a couple of hours. I suggest if anyone wants a shower, you get it now.”

  Christy spun around. “That’s me. I’m going down to get one.” Then she had a thought. “Are we going by our places to get stuff?”

  “We’ll have to see what it’s like out there. If it’s safe enough, yes. If not, then we’ll just have to keep moving,” Bob said.

  Daniel stood up. “I guess I’ll go take a quick shower too. Might be the last chance.”

  Christy, Gene and Daniel left the office and headed for the shelter in the basement. As they came out into the mechanical space from the elevator, Daniel stopped in his tracks and shouted. “What the fuck did you do to my van?”

  The van had been pulled up closer to Gene’s work area. It was now adorned with expanded metal mounted to pipe frames and welded to the body of the van over all the windows. The front bumper now sported pieces of pipe welded to it at six inch intervals and very sharp. It had a quite a Mad Max look to it.