In The End: a pre-apocalypse novel

by Edward M Wolfe

  “What? He was alive and you just left him there and didn’t even do anything to help him?”

  “Why would I do that? The bastard wanted to die, and he shot himself, Angela. Do you think he’d appreciate being helped?”

  “Who cares what he wants? He needed help.”

  “Angela, the only help he needed was another bullet to the head. In fact, he was begging me to shoot him.”

  “You didn’t …”

  “Of course, I didn’t. I left him there to bleed out. I wasn’t going to help the asshole.”

  “I’m not getting this. First Hailey and Josh, and now you seem to have lost your mind too.”

  “How have I lost my mind? The guy wanted to kill himself. That’s his right. Who gives a fuck if there’s one less person in the world who can’t deal with life? We’re all better off. But the woman who was with him... she didn’t deserve that shit, so yeah, I left him there to bleed out and suffer. He deserved it for what he’d done.”

  Angela just stared at him. There was too much going on in her mind. Too much to deal with, too soon.

  “Wait here. I’ll just be a minute.”

  Angela waited, hoping it wouldn’t take long for Jim to do whatever he was going to do. He was right when he had said she didn’t want to know what had happened in that cabin. She wished she still didn’t know. And she sure as hell didn’t want to see. She silently asked herself what was wrong with people. Murder and suicide. Shock and denial. She wondered if something was wrong with her and Jim too, or were they the normal ones?

  Jim pushed the front door open and immediately looked at the man who had been slowly spinning like a bug pinned to a board and saw that he had stopped moving. His eyes were open, but glassy and still. He had finally died from his self-inflicted gunshot. Jim was glad. Although he hated the man for shooting his girlfriend and felt that he deserved to suffer, Jim was also slightly freaked out by the macabre scene of the man hanging on to life and trying over and over to move to the gun so he could finish the job.

  He stepped into the room and pulled the door shut in case Angela’s curiosity won out over her fear and caused her to peek inside. He walked across the hardwood floor, making a wide berth to the left of the dead man. He picked up the small, silver gun. It was heavier than he thought it would be. He examined the left side and saw a small tab above a red dot and he pushed the tab downward, concealing the dot. He reached behind himself and slipped the gun into the back pocket of his Levi’s.

  He had only come for the gun, but now that he was here, in an “empty” house, he felt that he should check if there might be other useful items he should take as well. He walked into the adjoining kitchen/dining room area and glanced around. There was an open laptop running on the table against the wall. He stepped closer and looked at the screen. The only program running was a web browser which was at a do-it-yourself stock trading website. Jim shutdown the laptop, closed the lid and put it into the empty carrying bag that was on the floor leaning against a table leg. He didn’t know if he’d ever need it or not, but it was an expensive laptop without an owner and it didn’t make sense to leave it behind. He zipped the case shut and set it down on top of the table to grab on his way out.

  He stood still in the silent cabin and tried to think of what he should be looking for. He thought of the circumstances he was facing. A nuclear weapon had exploded in Denver. There was probably no power. He looked around the luxury cabin and didn’t see anything running on electricity. He flipped a light switch and nothing happened. He stepped over to the fridge and opened the door. It was dark inside and silent.

  He suddenly realized why everything seemed so extraordinarily peaceful. There were no sounds! No motor humming at the bottom of the refrigerator; no ceiling fans or blower from the central heater unit; obviously no TVs or radios. The power was definitely out. Okay, now he had to think.

  He and Angela were indefinitely stranded on top of a mountain. Josh and Hailey had driven away in the SUV. They had enough food for about a week, but even less if you discounted anything that needed to be cooked. That gave him an idea.

  He started looking in cabinets near the stove, hoping to find some Sterno, but there was nothing but pots, pans, glasses and mugs. Other cabinets contained seasonings and food. No Sterno, and no matches anywhere. He’d have to see if either cabin had barbecues.

  Jim decided this was a task better suited for two people. He left the kitchen, crossed the living room, and again steered wide around the dead stock trader and went to the other side of the cabin where there was a small hallway with one door on each side. He picked the room on the left for no reason and pulled the comforter off the bed. The pillows came with it and fell to the floor as he bundled the comforter up against his chest. He walked to the main room and covered the body of the young woman. He went to the other room, grabbed that comforter and used it to cover the man.

  He went to the front door and opened it. Angela was standing there with her back to the door lifting one foot and then the other, walking in place to try to generate some heat from mild exercise. Even with Jim’s jacket on, she was cold and every breath she took was visible in the frigid air. “I need some help in here,” he said to her back.

  “Jim, I don’t know if I can— “

  “I took care of it. Come on.” He reached for her shoulder and gently pulled her toward him. She came in slowly, taking small steps through the doorway, afraid of what she might see. She looked at the floor, first at one blanket with a body shape beneath it, then the other.

  “Is that— Are those…?

  Jim’s hand was still on her shoulder and he used it to turn her toward the hallway with the two bedrooms. The man’s body was now behind her but the woman’s was still to her left, easily visible in her peripheral vision. He pulled her toward the hall and this time she didn’t hesitate to start walking.

  “I want you to look through their suitcases, or backpacks – whatever they have – for anything you think might be useful. Also check the bathroom in the master bedroom on the left. Shampoo, razors, toothpaste – anything like that.

  “We’re robbing them?” she asked, alarmed.

  “We are not robbing them. They’re dead. They don’t own anything. We’re gathering—“

  “Okay, so we’re looting. Whatever you call it, it’s still wrong.”

  Jim took a deep breath and told himself to be patient and keep his voice level. “Listen to me, Angela. I’m trying to think ahead here. We don’t know how long we’re going to be without power or any kind of services. We have no vehicle to go to the market for food or supplies, if there’s even a market to go to. We sure as hell won’t be shopping in Denver, and if there are stores up here, we don’t know how far away they are. Our cell phones have no signal and even if they did, there’s no one we could possibly call. We’re stranded here for the time being with a limited amount of food, and this cabin has supplies that the former occupants won’t be needing.

  “We have to survive, and we don’t know for how long. If we don’t take what’s available here, someone else will. Sooner or later, it’s gonna happen. When people run out of food and can’t just go buy more, they’ll start looking for it wherever they can. So let’s think about ourselves and our immediate survival for now and we can map out a revised moral code later. Will you help me?”

  “I’m sorry. You’re right. I just didn’t think about… I haven’t really…”

  “It’s okay. Just see what you can find. Anything that you would want to buy if it was sitting on a store shelf – put it in a bag or suitcase. I’m gonna see what useable food they have. Okay?”

  She said, “Okay,” and just looked at him, not moving. He could see that she was barely holding on and was close to crying. He pulled her close to him and put his arms around her. She gratefully wrapped her arms around him, holding on to him tightly and whispered, “Jim, I’m so scared. I don’t know what I would do right now if you weren’t here.”

  “It’s okay,” he said
softly with his mouth beside her ear. “I’m here.”

  Four

  It took them two trips to carry back the things they had gathered. They both went back once more to make sure there was nothing else. They finally emerged from the cabin empty-handed, satisfied that they had gotten everything that might be useful. Jim turned around to lock the door with the keys he had taken from the male corpse. Angela was looking across the road and through the trees.

  “Jim, what’s that? Oh my god!”

  Jim immediately thought another nuke had hit and quickly turned around. “What? Where, Angela? I don’t see anything.”

  “Right there,” she said, pointing at nothing but trees as far as Jim could tell. “Look at the roof of our cabin, then look to the left through the gap between the branches.”

  “Oh shit.” Jim saw what she was looking at. There was a small figure dangling against the backdrop of the winter sky, swinging his legs back and forth. “God dammit!”

  “What’s wrong?” Angela asked.

  “There’s a guy stuck on a ski lift!”

  “I know. But why are you cursing?”

  “Because now we have to go rescue the poor bastard.”

  “Is he a skier?”

  “Can’t be. The resort isn’t open for a few more days, but it’s definitely someone on a ski lift. Must’ve got stranded when the power went out.”

  “Jim, we’ve got to help him!”

  Jim handed Angela the keys he was holding and said, “See if their car will start; if it does, turn on the heater. I’m gonna go lock our cabin and be right back.”

  Angela took the keys and hesitated. She knew there was no reason not to use a car that no longer had a living owner, but she still had a feeling that it wasn’t right somehow.

  Jim ran across the street and Angela looked at the keys in her hand, easily identifying the button that unlocked the BMW in the driveway. She unlocked the door and got in the driver’s seat. She looked for an ignition to the right of the steering wheel and found a button where she expected to find a place to put the key. The button had the words “START” and “STOP” written on it. Not sure if it would work or not, she pushed the button and was a little startled when the engine came to life.

  She looked at the keys in her hand, then out the window toward her cabin and saw Jim coming back, heading toward the driver’s side of the car. She pulled her legs up and moved over to the passenger seat. Jim got in and asked, “Did you turn on the heater?”

  Angela looked at the dash console and said, “No. All I did was push that button and the car started right up. What’s to keep people from stealing expensive cars like this?”

  “What do you mean? Any car can be stolen.” He put on his seatbelt and backed out of the driveway.

  “Well, it seems like all you have to do to steal it is get inside. You don’t even have to hot-wire it; you just push a button and it starts.”

  “Oh, that.” He shifted to Drive and headed down the hill. “If you didn’t have the fob, the button wouldn’t do anything. There’s a microchip in the fob that the car’s sensors read, which then unlocks everything, like turning a key to the On position.”

  “That’s really cool. You probably think it’s dumb, but I’m always amazed by modern technology and the things people come up with. We really do live in the space age, ya know?”

  “Yeah. We’ve been moving forward technologically at an amazing rate while we’re steadily moving backwards as a society. Now we’re in a position where we shouldn’t even be allowed to have access to our own inventions.”

  Angela was about to ask what he meant by that, but then she thought of nuclear weapons and assumed that’s what he was referring to. Jim turned the car at a corner where a sign directed drivers to the Ice Bunny Ski Lodge.

  “We’re like monkeys on crack, with laser guns,” Jim said as he shifted the car into Low for the steep incline up to the lodge. “We’re stupid, out of control, and more lethal than we’ve ever been before. Today, somebody pushed a button and everybody in Denver suddenly died. Aren’t we amazing?”

  Five

  They parked next to a maroon Chevy pickup that was the only other vehicle in the lot. There was a row of ten cabins in front of them and a large main lodge building behind them. Jim said, “Stay here and keep warm.”

  “I’m going with you,” Angela responded.

  “No, you’re not, Angie. You’ll freeze your feet off. Have you ever walked up a ski slope? There’s no reason for both of us to suffer. If you want to do something, see if you can get inside the lodge and find some food and start a fire. If I can actually get this guy down, he’s gonna be frozen. And depending on how long he's been up there, he’s probably starving too.”

  As usual, she couldn’t argue with Jim’s logic. She wasn’t happy about being left alone, but she understood that she’d be far more useful staying behind. And maybe she’d find some people inside.

  Jim removed the skis from the rack on the BMW while Angela stood watching. She didn’t know why, but watching him getting ready to leave, even though he wasn’t actually going away made her feel sad and she fought the urge to cry.

  Jim turned around, looked at her face and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “Just… be careful and hurry back, okay?”

  “Sure,” he said, wondering what was up with her. “Wait!” he said. “I need your help with something. Come here for a sec.”

  Jim removed his arms from his jacket and explained to Angela how he wanted her to tie his sleeves together just below the ski bindings as he held them against his back. She tied the sleeves in a knot then he asked her to zip up the front of his jacket, which she did.

  “Thanks. I know this looks stupid with a jacket on below my armpits, but now both my hands are free to use the poles.”

  Angela was still standing close to him after zipping up his jacket. She leaned forward and kissed him on his lips. Then she quickly turned and headed toward the lodge without saying anything.

  “Huh.” He stood there for a second, watching her walk away. He turned around and began walking across the parking lot and headed toward the base of the run. When he reached it, he looked up and was glad to see that the guy had gotten stuck above one of the easiest of the beginner runs. It wasn’t going to be hard at all to reach him on foot.

  Jim didn’t say anything as he made his way up the slope; not even when he was sure he was close enough to the man to be heard. He waited until he was almost directly beneath him before he yelled, “Need some help!?”

  The man was startled out of his daze and looked down at Jim who was walking to a point in front of him now. “If you’re not too busy, sure - I could use a hand,” he replied.

  Jim laughed and liked him immediately. “You probably have a better idea than I do about how to get you down. What would you like me to do?”

  The man said, “If you could walk the rest of the way up to the terminal, there’s a diesel engine that’ll get this thing moving again if it still works. I’m hoping it’s just a power outage.”

  “It is,” Jim said, realizing the guy had no idea what had happened in Denver, and most likely in other major cities across the country. As he slowly made his way up the slight incline, he thought about how the man on the ski lift was living in the old world – the one before the nuke. When Jim told him what had happened, he would cross over into the new world that he and Angela were in. It wasn’t often that you had the power to change someone’s entire world with a few words.

  A short while later, Jim watched the man slowly moving up the slope as the smell of diesel exhaust spread out around him. The man hopped off the chair with a smile, and walked over to Jim, sticking out his hand.

  “I’m Terry. I owe you one for saving my ass.” Jim shook his hand and told Terry he didn’t owe him anything.

  “Anyone would have done it. Besides, I literally had nothing better to do.”

  “Well the way I see it, the resort isn�
�t even officially open yet so I’m damned lucky you happened to be here. What brought you over, anyway?”

  “You did. A friend of mine spotted you dangling on the line and pointed you out to me. So I guess you are kinda lucky, but if you want to thank someone, that would be Angela. Should we take the lift back down, or do you want to ski down?”

  Terry said it would be best to shut off the lift and ski down, so they did. When they stepped through the front door to the lodge, they could smell an unusual combination of hot dogs and coffee. “I guess you’re not as lucky as we thought,” Jim said.

  Angela stepped out of the kitchen and into the main room. “You made it! You must be hungry and freezing. I’ve got some hot coffee ready for you.”

  “And hot dogs?” Jim asked, sniffing the air.

  “Well, everything’s frozen and I didn’t know how much time I’d have to thaw anything out, so I made hot dogs. I guess I could’ve made soup instead. Sorry.”

  “I skipped breakfast this morning and spent the entire day hanging in the breeze, so right about now, hot dogs sound just fine. Coffee too. Thank you!”

  “Is anyone else here?” Jim asked.

  “No. Just me. Everyone else had the day off, but they’ll be back tomorrow to get ready for opening day. Maybe I can get you two some passes for helping me out of the bind I was in. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say I could’ve died if I had to spend the night on the lift. I feel really lucky.”

  Angela looked at Jim who lightly shook his head at her unasked question. They sat at a table big enough for eight and ate their food. Angela had started a fire in the huge fireplace and the only sounds for a few moments were from the wood crackling and the slurping sound from drinking off the top of a cup of coffee that is too hot to sip quietly.