by Harley Tate
Danny nodded. “Best we can do.” He used his shirt to wipe off his face.
Midge turned to survey the room. They were in the terrace level of the building, that was for sure. It smelled vaguely damp and the exposed brick walls and original windows lining the single above-ground wall let in just enough evening light to see.
“Look at this!” Danny hurried over to the wall beneath the windows. An oversized metal sink with at least six faucets lined the far wall. “They must have done the washing or cleanup for the facility down here before it was converted.” He turned on the faucets one at a time and Midge almost cried at the sight.
Water rushed from every tap. She hurried to help him plug the drains and they stood in amazement as the sinks filled with water. Only when the water began to slosh over the lip and they had drunk their fill did they finally turn them off. The horses pawed at the concrete and Midge closed the distance between them with a smile. “I know you’re thirsty, come on.”
She unhooked the carriage and led Bethel over to the water as Danny did the same with Beatrice. It wouldn’t be an ideal location for the horses, but with plenty of water to drink, they could survive two days trapped inside the building. They wouldn’t break their promise to Max. Not yet, anyway.
As Midge turned around, the sight of Jack and Cassandra stopped her still. The pregnant woman sat on the floor, legs tucked beneath her, hands on her belly. Her face contorted in pain. Midge’s throat turned to sandpaper and she reached for Danny. One motion of her hand in Cassandra’s direction and he took off, rushing to crouch beside the couple.
Midge took her time, walking over with determined steps. “Is everything okay?”
Jack’s face took on an almost green cast in the gloom. “She’s having contractions.”
“It’s probably false labor. It can happen under stress.” Cassandra clutched her belly, wincing as pain tensed her muscles.
Midge didn’t know what to do. She hadn’t a clue how to help deliver a baby and without any type of medical supplies or even a blanket—
“Can you walk?” Danny’s question cut off Midge’s spiraling thoughts.
Cassandra nodded.
“Then we need to find that bomb shelter.”
Midge frowned. They weren’t there already? “This isn’t good enough?”
Danny shook his head. “Not with the gap in the doors and all those drafty windows. The horses have no choice, but if there’s an actual bomb shelter here, it would be further underground.”
And here she thought she’d made it. Midge almost laughed out loud, the stress of the past two days threatening to overwhelm her. She headed toward the rear of the building and farther into the dark, blinking to make out the rest of the room.
Jack noticed the sign for the shelter first. “There it is!”
A door stood out on the brick wall with the radioactive sign and Fallout Shelter written in block letters across the metal. Danny strode toward it. “Here goes nothing.” He yanked on the door and pulled it wide.
Jack fished a phone from his pocket and turned it on to illuminate the space. A narrow set of stairs let down to a small landing and a second door. He turned to his wife. “Can you make it?”
“I don’t see what choice I have. Just hold my hand, will you?”
Danny took the lead with Jack helping Cassandra down each step. Midge pulled the door shut behind them and followed everyone down to the basement landing.
With a deep breath, Danny opened the shelter door. Conversation immediately greeted them and Midge’s hand instinctively wrapped around Max’s gun. The bomb shelter wasn’t empty, far from it.
“Welcome, friends!” An older, barrel-chested man with a tuft of gray hair peeking out of his button-up shirt spread his arms wide. “Come in.”
Jack and Cassandra eased inside and Midge followed with Danny taking up the rear.
A tall blond man dressed like he was about to head out on a run stood up. “I don’t see why we need to let all these people in. We’re full enough as it is.”
“Now, Mark, I don’t want to hear that kind of talk.” The older man shook his head. “Just because you live in the building doesn’t mean you have more of a right to the shelter than they do. It’s a community bomb shelter, remember.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Now let that be an end to it.”
“But there’s not enough—”
“I said I didn’t want to hear it. There may not be limitless supplies, but there are enough to go around. If everyone can stay calm and orderly, we’ll get through this. I promise.”
Mark grumbled but backed down, and Midge released her grip on Max’s gun before taking a look around the room. She counted twelve people not including their little foursome: the man presumably in charge, Mark who stood beside a woman and two children, another pair with a single child, a couple of guys who could have been stragglers from the riot outside, and a pair of older women huddled together on the back wall. They couldn’t all be residents, surely.
Tension hung like a cloud of fallout in the room and Midge suppressed a shiver. The older man who’d welcomed them inside stuck out his hand. “I’m Tito. Welcome to The Heritage Arms. It’s a pleasure to have you here.”
Chapter Eight
MIDGE
Saturday, 7:15 pm CST
The Heritage Arms Apartments
Gary, Indiana
Midge stood inside the doorway staring out at the sea of faces. Some welcomed them with faint smiles and kind eyes. Others ignored their little group, focusing on their own families. A few stared them down like Mark with his perpetual scowl and balled-up fists. Sixteen people in a room that could comfortably fit half that many.
No wonder Mark didn’t like it. Jack ushered Cassandra over to a spot on the far wall and the pair of older women made room, one even offering Cassandra an oversized cushion. The pregnant woman took it with a smile and the group fell into discussion amongst themselves.
Midge wrapped her arms around her middle. She never liked introductions.
Danny closed the distance between the door and Tito and shook the man’s hand. “Thank you so much.”
Tito shook his hand with a smile. “Don’t mention it.” He stepped closer and dropped his voice. “Please don’t let Mark get to you; it’s just the whole thing has everyone on edge. It’ll settle down soon, I’m sure.”
“I hope so. I’m Danny, this is Midge.” He dropped the older man’s hand and pointed toward the couple nestled on the wall. “That’s Jack and Cassandra.”
Midge forced down a swallow and propelled her feet forward. She stuck out an awkward hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too.” Tito shook her hand with a firm grip. “If you don’t mind my asking, how did you two find this place?”
“A man on the street told us about it.” Midge glanced at Danny. “We were trying to head north up to Michigan, but we didn’t make it before the bomb.”
Tito nodded. “Hell of a thing, isn’t it? I was sitting at my kitchen table, minding my own business, when the whole place lit up like the brightest flashbang I’d ever seen.” He wiped his mouth. “Put anything I ever saw in the army to shame, I can tell you that.”
“Did you know the bomb shelter was down here?”
He nodded. “I’m the maintenance guy for the building, so I’ve been around since it was converted a few years ago. They chopped up the basement pretty good, but most of the shelter is still intact. From what I can tell, this room is the most secure, although the doors over there lead off to other areas.” He pointed at the far wall where Jack and Cassandra rested.
A pair of doors flanked their little group and Midge nodded in recognition. “You mentioned supplies?” She thought about the remains of the food and water stuffed inside Danny’s backpack and glanced at him. He wasn’t wearing it. In the rush to find shelter, he must have left it in the carriage.
Tito exhaled and spoke with measured softness. “I’ve been laying stocks ever since the political climate shifted a few
years ago. Started to seem to me that war wasn’t too far away, and look at that, I was right.” He shook his head. “But it’s not enough for everyone for two weeks. If we ration, we should have at least a few days’ worth.”
“The first forty-eight hours are the most critical,” Danny said, nodding. “If we can get through that, we should be able to leave when the supplies run out.”
Danny and Tito fell into easy conversation, sharing their knowledge about nuclear bombs and the effects of radiation. Midge dug her fingernails into her palm and looked around. Forty-eight hours trapped in a single room with a bunch of strangers qualified as Midge’s idea of a nightmare. One she couldn’t wake up from, no matter how much she wished it.
“You two go to college together, or what?”
The question dragged Midge back to the conversation and she shook her head. “We were seat mates on a plane that crash-landed at O’Hare.”
“No way? Really?” Tito laughed and shook his head. “And you banded together to make it to Michigan?”
Midge’s cheeks heated, but she managed to nod. “The EMP took out the electronics on the plane. We were lucky to land at all.”
Tito whistled. “And here I thought the power outage was a local thing. You say it took out O’Hare? Was all of Chicago dark?”
Danny filled him in, explaining everything from the high-ballistic nuclear weapon to Midge’s intel about the top twenty-five cities. When he finished, Tito’s face matched the concrete. “The whole United States? Gone like that?” He snapped his fingers. Before dropping his hand to his side. “What about the government? The president? Is he still alive?”
Midge shrugged. “We don’t know. I haven’t been able to get online to find out.”
Tito motioned to her bag. “Laptop?”
She nodded.
“We’ve had intermittent cell service. I don’t know if it’s because we’re across the lake from Canada or if there’s a functioning tower nearby, but I was able to make a call this morning.”
Midge tried to keep the excitement from her voice. “All the way down here?”
“No.” Tito winced. “That was before the bomb. Sorry.”
Midge focused on the floor. If there was a chance she could get online and find out what happened…
Tito interrupted her thoughts. “I’ve got to get back to inventorying the supplies, but you two are welcome to find a spot and relax. I’ll pass out water in a few minutes.”
Danny shook the man’s hand again before stepping closer to Midge. “We should go talk to Jack and Cassandra. Find out more about them.”
Midge fought back a groan. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and forget the past day and a half ever happened. “Why?”
Danny lowered his voice. “Because they said they had a lake house, remember? Depending on where it is, we might be able to stop there before going all the way up to Suttons Bay.”
Midge chewed on her lip. Danny had a point. She glanced over at the couple. The two women they had been chatting with were now resting against the wall with their eyes closed. It was as good a time as any. She shrugged. “Who needs sleep, right?”
They walked over together. Danny smiled and gave a small wave. “Mind if we sit down?”
Cassandra smiled in kind. “Not at all.” She reached for her husband’s hand and squeezed. “We can’t thank you enough for picking us up. If you hadn’t come along when you did—” She struggled down a swallow and her husband finished her thought.
“We would have never known about the fallout until we got sick.” He glanced at his wife’s swollen belly. “Our little girl would have never had a chance.”
Danny eased down to the floor and after a moment Midge did the same. She crossed her legs and set her laptop bag in her lap, using it as a support for her forearms. “You mentioned you have a place in St. Joseph. Is that on Lake Michigan?”
Cassandra nodded. “It’s about sixty or seventy miles from here. Cute little vacation town on the water.”
“Do you fish or sail?”
She nodded again. “I wish we went out on the water this past week, but Jack here didn’t think a pregnant woman should ride on a catamaran.” She jabbed her husband in the side with her index finger.
He leaned toward her. “I don’t think they need to know the details, dear.”
“Why on earth not? They saved our lives.”
Jack looked Midge up and down. She could imagine what he saw: a girl barely out of high school with dyed black hair, combat boots, and a blood-stained sweatshirt. Not the type of person he wanted around his wife or unborn child.
Midge pulled her bag closer to her body. Jack might not be interested, but Cassandra seemed willing to share. Midge smiled at the woman. “My mother left for Suttons Bay the day the power went out. We’re trying to reach her.”
Danny nodded. “If you two are headed back to St. Joseph, maybe we could go together?”
Cassandra almost beamed. “Of course we can.” She turned to her husband, eyes alive with promise. “If the boat works, honey, we could help them get to Suttons Bay. It wouldn’t take more than an afternoon.”
“Honey,” Jack said with a warning note in his voice. “We don’t know them.”
“But they helped us,” Cassandra said stubbornly.
“That doesn’t mean they can be trusted.” Jack reached up and traced the edge of his black eye with his fingers before turning to Danny. “I’m sorry, it’s just—with the baby coming, we can’t take any chances.”
Midge understood what he meant. If she hadn’t been thrown together with Danny on the plane and if he hadn’t repeatedly proven himself to be trusted, Midge would be headed to Suttons Bay alone. She shifted on the floor, ready to end the conversation and find a place to sleep, when Danny spoke again.
“What happened, really? With the black eye, I mean. Was it someone you knew?”
Jack shook his head. “Our car stalled on the edge of Gary when all the power went out. We tried to get it started but everyone around us on the highway had the same problem. It didn’t make any sense.”
“It was an EMP. Probably from a high-altitude nuclear missile.” Danny said it so matter-of-factly it took Jack and his wife a moment to process the words.
“You mean it was intentional?”
Midge nodded. “It was the first strike. The nuclear bombs were second.”
“Bombs?” Cassandra’s hand wavered over her mouth as she leaned closer. “There was more than one?”
Midge explained as quickly and concisely as she could. Cassandra fell against her husband and shut her eyes. Jack grew quiet and grim.
Danny prodded them to continue their story. “After your car stalled, what happened?”
Jack ran a hand across his mouth. “We tried calling for a jump start, but the car wouldn’t complete the call. Our cell phones kept getting a busy signal. I couldn’t reach anyone.” He glanced at his wife. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she buried her face against his chest. “We were sitting in our car with the doors open when a couple of thugs showed up.”
He swallowed and focused on the wall behind Danny’s head. “One had a baseball bat. The other a pipe. Said they would beat the baby out of my wife unless we gave them everything we had.”
Cassandra opened her mouth and a little cry slipped out. “I managed to slip my wedding band into my pocket, but they took the diamonds. They took everything.” Another cry escaped her lips and she shuddered in her husband’s arms. “Oh, Jack. Think about our families. Our friends. So many people, so many—” She lapsed into a fresh wave of tears and Jack wrapped both arms around her.
Midge tapped Danny on the arm. Jack and Cassandra needed a few minutes alone. She forced her exhausted legs to function and stood up before making her way over to the only secluded corner of the room. Beneath a dusty air duct, it wasn’t the most hospitable location, but Midge didn’t care. She could barely keep her eyes open.
As she slumped onto the ground, Tito dragged a c
ase of water into the middle of the room and motioned toward Mark’s family. “Bobby, come over here.”
A boy of about twelve or thirteen jumped up. Tito handed him a few bottles of water, and together they began passing them out to the group.
“Now, we need to ration our supplies, everyone,” Tito said as he handed out the bottles. “Don’t drink more than you need.”
Midge thanked him, keeping his words in mind as she unscrewed the lid and took a small sip from the bottle. Her throat ached from the terror of the day, but she screwed the lid back on and set the bottle on the floor. Midge leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes.
She almost nodded off when a shout snapped her eyes open.
“That’s my water! Git your hands off it!”
“I ain’t touch none o’ no Fresh Boy’s trash,” a higher voice responded. “Git outta my face before I make you.”
Midge froze. Did he say Fresh Boy? Had they made it inside the room and she didn’t notice? She eased forward as slowly as possible to find the source of the argument. Two men stood in the far corner, chests puffed out and fingers pointing. She didn’t recognize either face.
“You drank my water,” the deep-voiced one said. “I know you did.”
“I told you, I ain’t touch nothin’.” The other man narrowed his eyes and his hands balled into fists. Midge’s breath caught in her throat. “You keep runnin’ yo mouth and Affiliated’s gonna come in here and shut you up.” He made a motion across his neck like a slice. “For good.”
Oh, no. Midge couldn’t believe their luck. Not only was a Fresh Boy inside the bomb shelter, but an Affiliated member, too—the two gangs about to launch into a turf war thanks to the power vacuum caused by the EMP. She glanced at Danny. He sat as still as she did, eyes focused on the pair.
The accuser reached behind him and Midge reached for Danny’s arm. She squeezed as the man produced a gun from his waistband. He pointed it at the Affiliated gang member but the other man didn’t back down. He pulled out a gun of his own.
Midge jumped when Tito’s voice rang out.