“We are from there. At least me and my family are. You?” Guy asked.
“I am. I have family in New York. I was out here for an audition.”
Ruben looked over to Guy when he heard the words ‘New York’.
Abby continued, “Hopefully I can get close to home. And maybe, like I said, you have a plan?”
“We don’t,” Ruben said. “I believe we will soon.” He pulled the radio from the back of his pocket. “I grabbed fresh batteries. With any luck I can pick something up.”
“I saw the look between you two, I can go somewhere else,” Abby said. “Another part of the airport if you don’t want me to stay.”
“No.” Guy rolled out the word. “Don’t be silly. That look was because we just … we heard things didn’t go well out east. They were hit, too.” He reached out and grabbed her arm. “You are welcome to join us. Go where we go. Stay where we stay.”
“Thank you.”
“I have blankets,” Ruben said. “Help yourself. It’s getting cold.”
“Or you can stand by the fire,” Guy suggested. “I’m going out there for a bit. Carter?”
“Can I sit on the bench by the window?” Carter asked.
“Sure can. Stay where I can see you.” Guy pointed.
“I’ll be in here,” Abby said. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t run off.”
“Much obliged,” Guy said, kissed his grandson and then walked through the open doors.
“How did we not see her?” Ruben asked as he stepped out.
“Poor thing was probably scared to approach us. Felt like maybe she intruded. I don’t know. Do we look unfriendly?”
“You didn’t until you changed out of that mouse t-shirt.”
Guy smiled, then the smile dropped from his face as he stared out.
“You alright?”
“Yeah,” Guy grumbled. “Just worried. No sign of them. It’s night. They left right after us. Where are they?”
“It’s conceivable they had to walk. If they walked they probably stopped.”
“Walked?” Guy asked. “My God there was a wave coming.”
“Yeah, but think about it. It was a tsunami right? We saw them at the convention center. They were already twenty-five or so miles from the shore. Another couple miles they had to be safe from the wave. They got out. They just had to walk. I believe it,” Ruben said. “After all, realistically how far could that wave have really washed in?”
<><><><>
“Fifty-five miles roughly,” Gary explained to Parker and Charles.
“What about the East Coast?” Parker asked.
“About thirty miles. This isn’t a wave, this isn’t something that is going to recede, this is the new coastline. The Atlantic didn’t get hit as hard as the Pacific. They estimated one of the rocks that landed in the Pacific to be about two and a half miles in diameter. That wave is still rolling in toward the west.
“Two miles?”“ Parker asked in shocked. “My God, the one that hit sixty-five million years ago was six miles. It wiped out the dinosaurs.”
“Yeah, in like twenty thousand years,” Gary replied. “Extinctions don’t happen overnight. We’ll be long gone and this extinction event will still be happening.”
“But it’s done? Everything is over, right?” Charles asked.
Gary shook his head. “Two more are due with-in the next hour. One will strike the west coast of Australia, the other somewhere in Northern Africa. The Russians are pretty good with their data. They’re working as hard as they can and are up and running.”
“Of course.” Parker tossed his hands up. “They haven’t been hit.”
“Well, they have. They weren’t spared, they just got hit in places that really didn’t make a big difference. It’s not a bad thing,” Gary said. “They are doing their part of reconnecting the world, doing what they can. Helping out where they can. Unfortunately … or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, they are the only functioning power globally right now. They’re trying their hardest to get information out to everyone.”
“What about our imaging?” Charles asked. “Have you seen it?”
“They’re working on getting connections up enough to send them,” Gary said. “They’re hopeful by morning we’ll have something. However, you need to know, they told me thermal imaging is showing Yellowstone will go, as well. At least one vent.”
“One vent will be all it takes,” said Charles.
Gary nodded. “Right here. Where we are, between Long Valley and Yellowstone, we’re looking at a foot or two of heavy ash. Problem isn’t just the ash, yes, that’s a problem. We need to also worry about what goes up comes down. The ocean impacts blasted water into the atmosphere. You have dirt, debris and ash all up in the stratosphere, as it comes down, it will combine with the gases from the volcanic eruption, mixing up a storm with rain that will be deadly to plant, animal life you name it. From about Chicago to the West coast.”
“Oh my God,” Parker exclaimed.
“What do we do?” Charles asked. “Where do people go?”
“We have to do our damnedest to get the Emergency Alert system running. Advise people of the dangers, I’ll get a list together of them. Let them know what to do. Those migrating from west of the Rockies need to head south before heading east. Those on the East Coast or near to it, can’t stay there,” Gary said. “There’s increased risk of more tsunamis. Safe zones would be east of Indianapolis, but no further north than Toronto, and no further east than Pittsburgh.”
“Jesus, you want me to cram four hundred million Americans into maybe ten percent of the country?” Parker asked.
“Begging you pardon, sir, when this is all said and done, and even before the last catastrophe hits,” Gary said. “There will be nowhere near four hundred million Americans to move.”
TWENTY-TWO
“Never thought I’d see the day when I could hear the ocean three miles away from San Bernardino,” a man said not far from where CJ sat by a small fire.
He never really gave much thought to how far inland they were, nor the fact that the water from the tsunami remained constant. He did, after hearing the man say that.
However, the subtle wave sounds were not the only things CJ heard. He could hear clanking and crashing as items rolled about in the water.
They had finally made it through the water. But the severely overcast sky blocked out most of the daylight and it started to get extremely dark. They needed to use what little light they had left to salvage for supplies to get them through the night. Once the evening fully moved in, it was total blackness outside. The only semblance of light they had was the still red, glowing horizon.
There was a chill in the air, and CJ was only warm when he stayed close to the heat of the fire.
But the man’s comment about hearing the ocean made CJ think. He stood and walked towards the water. It wasn’t that far, maybe fifty feet. He couldn’t see it, but he could hear and smell it. CJ followed that until he saw the reflection off the beam from his small pen light.
It wasn’t reflecting off the water, however, it reflected off the fog or steam.
He crouched down and touched for the water. His hand blindly reached through the fog or steam until he felt the water. It was warm, like bath water. With the lower temperatures in the air around it, the steam now made sense.
Like a little kid only allowed on the edge, CJ kept moving his hand in the water playing with it. He didn’t know why he continued, perhaps it was something mindless to occupy himself with.
“Worried about Carter?” Mindy’s voice came from behind him.
“Huh?” CJ registered what she asked and stood up. “No. No, I’m not. He’s with my father. What’s going on?”
“I saw you. I was worried?”
“Saw me? Boy you must have good eyes.” He lifted the light to shine on her face.
Mindy squinted. “What the hell?”
“Looking at you. Can you please rest? There are some cars. You
can get in one of those.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.” CJ took her arm and walked back toward his fire. “Will you at least sit with me?”
“Yes, I will.”
“Did you eat anything?” He led her by the fire.
“Not much. Apparently someone must have been snack mom for the week at little league. Found a bunch for snacks and stuff. I passed them out.”
“You forgot about me,” CJ said.
“I’m sorry.” She sat down. “I can find more.”
“No. You need to stop. You shouldn’t have been looking around. How’s your stomach?”
“My belly. My stomach’s fine, I injured my belly. Like I said, it must have happened when I squeezed out the window. I’ll be fine.” She looked down at the fire. “You have a new bag,” she said and pointed.
“I do. And look what else I found …” he opened the bag and pulled out a pint of whiskey. “This will hit the spot just about now.” He uncapped it, brought it to his lips and paused. “Oh, shit. Sorry.” He pulled it away. “I remember reading somewhere that you don’t drink and don’t allow anyone to drink around you.”
“You go on. It’s fine. I did have a problem, a bad one,” she said. “I hit the rock bottom of the rock bottom. That was six years ago, I have been sober ever since.”
“That’s great. I won’t drink.”
“I’m fine, really. I can be around it. The whole ‘no booze’ rule was for Raf. My lead dancer. He had issues and needed to stay clean. For himself, his wife and his little girl.” Mindy brought her legs close to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I can handle it. I just didn’t want him to have to handle it.”
“That was nice.”
“I loved Raf. I hope … I hope he made it. I hope he got out of there and is headed home. His family needs him.”
“What about you? Any family that needs you?” CJ asked.
“My mom passed away last year. She was all I had. That and a slew of ex-husbands, three of which need my alimony.” She laughed. “I was so stupid. Never did a prenup. I don’t know what they would have done if I died that night. Then again, one of them I wouldn’t have married if I had died.”
“Was that the rock bottom of the rock bottom?” CJ asked.
“Yep. Ruben saved my life, you know. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be dead. The doctors said that. In fact, he broke my manager’s number one rule. He was supposed to not even look back at me. I think because he didn’t understand English very well that he didn’t know about the rules. Thank God.”
“Oh, Thank … wait.” CJ looked at her. “Ruben didn’t understand English six years ago?”
Mindy nodded. “He’s come a long way.”
“I heard him speak. He doesn’t have a lick of an accent.”
“Nope.” Mindy shook his head. “He is really good now. Still once and awhile he goes quiet, but I made it my goal to make sure he knows the language. He’s with me a lot. I hope his son is okay. He has a son in college. In Texas. I’m sure Ruben is worried.”
“I’m sure,” CJ said.
“I’m glad you aren’t worried about Carter anymore.”
“I mean, I worry about him. But I am sure he’s fine. Like I said, he’s with my dad. My dad raised me. You can’t ask for a better protector.”
“What about your mom?” Mindy asked.
“She passed when I was little.”
“And Carter’s mom?”
CJ looked down to the bottle and took a drink. “We broke up when Carter was two.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. She has a great life now. One I was never able to give her. I’m an independent painter, so I was working job to job, you know.”
“Oh, a painter, How wonderful. A painter like Van Gogh, Picasso? DaVinci?”
“No, a painter like Sherwin Williams.”
“I’m not familiar with his work.”
“It’s a brand of paint. I paint houses.”
“That’s still artistic.”
CJ smiled. “In a way. But I like to be my own boss, sort of like my dad was. He worked as a handyman for hire. I guess Kylie … that’s Carter’s mom, couldn’t take it. She left. If you asked me five years ago, I would have said I was blindsided, but time gives a different perspective. I wasn’t home, and when I was, I wasn’t there. Money was up and down. We were together for so long, it was like … I stopped seeing her, you know?”
Mindy nodded. “I do.”
“But … she’s happy. She got married again, the guy is good to my son.”
“Are you going to try to find her?” Mindy asked.
“Nope.”
“Wait. That was fast. You’re not gonna try to find the mother of your son?”
“It’s not my problem. My son is my concern. She’s not my wife. If she wants to find Carter, she’ll look. I’ll make sure we leave his name wherever we go. It’s not my place to look for his mother. It’s my place to keep him safe. Realistically I won’t find her in all this mayhem. I’m not going to put my son at risk to do so. I just want to find a safe place for him.”
“What about what Carter wants?”
“I’m sure he wants his mom. I’m sure all kids do. But I can’t look for her when I am looking after his best interests.”
Mindy nodded with an ‘hmm.’
“What? What was that for?”
“You talk real tough. But you wanna know what I think? I think in that mind of yours, she’s never far and you’re already trying to figure out how to get them two together.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I could be. I don’t think I am.”
“How do you know?” CJ asked.
“Because you really are a nice person.” After she said that she grimaced and ran her hand over her abdomen.
“What’s wrong?”
Mindy shook her head. “Just a little discomfort. But I am going to try to find a car to sleep. Will you be alright?”
CJ lifted his pint. “I’m be fine.”
“Good night, CJ.”
“Good night.” He watched Mindy stand and then walk off. She seemed to know exactly where she would go, walking directly toward a blue minivan.
After she was out of his sight, CJ lifted the bottle again. He looked at the flames of his fire through the brown liquid and took another sip.
He needed to conserve, it was all he had to make it through the night. It was going to be a long night. CJ didn’t plan on sleeping. He didn’t want to take a chance on something happening.
Daylight wouldn’t be that far away. And though the night seemed as if it would be long, CJ thought about the next day and how after they started walking, it wouldn’t be long at all until he was with his son.
TWENTY-THREE
“Merry Christmas! It’s Christmas!”
Guy knew where the dream came from. Just after he had the deli sandwich and before he settled for the night, he found a Good Housekeeping magazine. The woman on the front wore a gaudy, green, Christmas tree sweater, with the words, ‘Fast Holiday meals for last minute guests’.
It made him think about the time he planned on spending Christmas, just him, with Guy and Carter. Carter was four, excited about Santa, and it was CJ’s holiday turn.
Then shortly after CJ showed up for Christmas Eve dinner, and right before Guy put the fish on the table, Kylie showed up.
He should have seen it coming. She was neurotic and anxious, and with the death of her mother six months earlier, Kylie was out of sorts. She had begged CJ to not take Carter. Guy heard them on the phone and yelled in the back. “Christ, just tell her to come over.’
He guessed she heard it because Kylie did. It ended up being a nice Christmas. She brought him a present, a bag of weed she bought from an undisclosed source. That memory started an enormous chain reaction, leading Guy on a search after Carter had fallen asleep.
Assured by Ruben he’d keep watch until Guy returned, he headed to TSA where he hit the m
arijuana jackpot.
Those vapor pens confiscated at checkpoint. Guy found three of them. After the previous two days he had he needed it, he really enjoyed his vape of weed by the fire.
When the fire died down, Guy slipped inside and was able to rest. He fell fast and hard asleep, dreaming about Christmas and Carter running about announcing to everyone the holiday had arrived.
Until he realized it wasn’t a dream and Carter’s voice woke him up.
“It’s Christmas!” Carter yelled. “Pap, get up. Hurry. It’s Christmas. It’s snowing. If it sticks can we make a snow man?’
Snow in California?
Guy sat up. He didn’t dismiss it. After all the temperature had dropped after the series of events.
At this point, anything was possible. He swung his legs over the bench, sat up and scratched his head. He hadn’t been asleep long, he knew that.
Just when he focused he saw Ruben and another man closing the sliding glass doors. A few blinks of his eyes and sure as hell he saw the flakes tumbling from the sky.
He stood and staggered over toward Ruben.
“Now I’ve seen it all,” Guy said. “It’s snowing in San Bernardino.”
“Look again.” Ruben told him. “It’s ash.”
<><><><>
CJ didn’t sleep. He was up all night. Awake enough to watch what people did and to listen to conversations, to their tears and even some laughter.
One thing resonated among them, a single, simple question, “Then what?”
It was asked in reference to the decision they all had to follow CJ to the airport.
Get to the airport … then what?
A part of CJ didn’t care, he didn’t invite them along. He certainly didn’t have any answers for them at all.
He, himself, couldn’t even answer the ‘then what’ question. Because he didn’t know. He just didn’t know. He hoped his father had answers, maybe knew more than he did. After all, his father was on a bus, perhaps the drivers knew more about the situation.
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