Though fate had been cruel to Jay by giving Jay Monica and Leah, then snatching away the woman he loved, Kate reminded herself the wheel of fortune had also delivered him to her again.
She clenched her teeth, fighting the unfairness of it all. They'd only been married a year. After so long apart…they hadn't even had their honeymoon yet. It wasn't fair. She glared up at the sun, riding high between clouds.
"This is all your fault, you stupid son of a bitch. If you'd only burped in another direction…"
Kate laughed at her own anger. May as well get angry at the air for allowing me to breathe. It's not like the sun gives two shits about anything on earth. It's just a ball of gas and fire.
Kate sat in silence, allowing her mind to shift into neutral. For a blessed few minutes, she thought of absolutely nothing other than the road and listened to the hum of the tires as her car coasted down the mountainside.
At the tail end of the trip down the mountain, a mini-van on the side of the road caught her attention. It was the first time she'd seen another vehicle in hours. The young male driver jumped out of the van as soon as he saw Kate's approaching car and frantically waved a green t-shirt in the air. Kate shifted lanes to put as much distance as possible between her car and the van.
"Sorry kid, I'm not falling for that shit again." As she said the words, she hated herself for not stopping, but memories of Stacy's betrayal were still too fresh in her mind. She only needed to glance down at her wrists to see the red marks where Alan's duct tape restraints held her captive.
A shiver went down her leg as she thought about what twisted activities Alan and his kid might've had in store for her if she hadn't been able to escape. And that bitch Stacy would have let it all happen.
Kate looked straight ahead and kept her jaw tight as she coasted past the young man waving by the van. "Help!" was all she heard before the car rushed by and his voice was lost to the sound of the tires.
Kate glanced in the rearview mirror and saw him jumping up and down, throwing the shirt on the ground. Two more figures emerged from of the van and stood next to the driver—all three of them males and college-aged.
Probably some kids leaving school for winter break. Maybe they're just on their way home…
She gritted her teeth and kept her eyes locked forward, grateful for the first sharp turn in the road that blocked the van from sight. Whatever the hell their story was, it was no concern of hers. Kate flicked her gaze to the mirror, relieved to see only the curving road, pine trees, and rocks behind her.
Mission first—I have to get home to Jay. I have to help Leah. I'm not going to let anything get in my way again.
CHAPTER 6
JAY STUMBLED OUT OF the trees, heart racing and mind crystal clear despite the fact his body teetered on the edge of exhaustion. He'd walked through the night, following Mac’s exact instructions to the letter, and took a second dose of caffeine pills an hour before sunrise.
As he stepped out of the shadows, he blinked in the dim light and threw his head back to laugh. He'd made it. His legs felt like lead weights and his body threatened to collapse, but thanks to the caffeine coursing through his veins, Jay had enough energy to keep going, pain or no pain.
Before him down a slight embankment, he at last recognized the main thoroughfare into Leah’s campus. About 200 yards south he spotted the remains of the little doughnut shop where they’d stopped at when he first brought her to campus back in August. Jay took one more step and laughed again.
"I made it!" he shouted, his voice hoarse.
The fresh powder gave way under his foot and Jay ended up on his ass, sliding down the embankment until he came to rest on the road's shoulder. Out of breath, he got up and for the first time in hours, grimaced at the return of aches and pains throughout his body.
Jay brushed the snow off his forearm and checked his watch. Mac advised him he'd already passed the caffeine safety limit so another dose wasn't an option. Jay figured he had maybe less than an hour or so to get to Leah’s dorm before he collapsed and passed out.
As he walked the abandoned streets of Brookville, he noticed the local shops had all sustained a disturbing amount of damage. The doughnut shop had burned to the ground. Not a single window remained undamaged—the whole back half of the restaurant had collapsed.
The closer he looked as he walked down Main Street, the more he noticed signs of fire damage. Almost every building on the way in to town bore the marks of recent violence. Several buildings had been spray-painted, some sported signs proclaiming the end times, while still other buildings shimmered in the breeze, festooned with hundreds, if not thousands of paper scraps.
The sidewalks remained clear except for broken glass and debris from what had to have been a massive looting spree. Everywhere he looked Jay saw paper slips dancing in the breeze like confetti. Curiosity finally overwhelmed the urge to keep moving and Jay paused to painfully stoop and grab one of papers from the breeze. He resumed his halting limp toward campus and examined the official looking flyer.
Citizens of Brookville: pursuant to Executive Order 30958-2, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has established a Civilian Emergency Resupply Station (CERS) at Connersville. Anyone in need of emergency medical attention is urged to report to CERS-Connersville as soon as possible. Food, water, and emergency medical supplies will be provided on an as needed basis. Contact your local law enforcement for further information.
Jay tucked the scrap of paper into his coat and continued deeper into the troubled college town, pondering the ramifications of what he'd just read. From the lack of cars and people, he assumed most locals had read the emergency information flyers and taken FEMA up on its offer.
Jay wondered how many places around the country had been selected by FEMA to be…he glanced at the paper again…Civilian Emergency Resupply Stations.
He rolled his eyes. Sounds like government-speak for refugee camp. How many other towns around the country have been abandoned?
As Jay turned the corner toward south campus, he saw the first body. Charred black and unrecognizable as male or female, the length of the corpse suggested it was an adult—or at least a college-aged student.
He stopped and stood over the corpse, all his senses frozen in shock as he tried to ignore the smell of burnt hamburger that invaded his nose. He forced himself to look over the body, its limbs pulled back in the torturous agony of death. Satisfied that the legs and arms were too long to be Leah, Jay turned his attention back to the road and offered a prayer for the soul of whoever's child lay forgotten in the snow.
Tunnel vision crept in as he felt the onset of one hell of a caffeine withdrawal. Jay forced himself to keep his cold, blistered feet moving. He couldn’t allow himself be distracted by the destruction on display all around.
Out of the corner of one eye, Jay recognized the remains of the campus dining hall. It looked like a bomb had gone off. The building had been reduced to a shell of its former self, with many of the landscaped bushes and trees burnt to crispy twigs. Food, wrappers, trash—even tables and chairs—and a few more bodies littered the entrance.
What the hell happened here?
Jay considered stopping for a moment to investigate, but the pain that flared in his right ankle with every step only intensified by the minute. He had no choice but to continue on while he still could.
In the back of his mind, the rational part of him continued to tell himself, the authorities had to have been able to help those in need. After all, if FEMA could set up emergency camps within a week of a disaster that affected the entire country—especially in such a small town as Connersville—then surely someone was still in control.
Jay turned the final corner with a sigh and looked down the long street toward Leah's dorm complex. The slight rise at the end of the road told him he was nearly there. He had perhaps maybe a quarter-mile walk to go and once he crested that hill, he’d see her dorm nestled in the valley on the other side.
Almost there.
A thin trickle of black smoke drifted up on the horizon from where he'd expected to see Leah's dorm. That ribbon of black in the sky gave pause to his hope, but it didn't look like something was actively burning.
With hope burgeoning his strength, Jay continued down the street, his staff tapping against the cold pavement. He only stopped when he came upon an abandoned police cruiser, partially wrapped around a telephone pole.
Well, that's definitely not a good sign.
The driver’s door was open, but he saw no sign of the officer. The pavement sported a splattering of blood and the door was coated in a crusty brown sludge. Jay hobbled over to the car and took a quick glance inside.
Equipment, radioes, computers—everything had been tossed around like a tornado had been turned loose inside the car when it crashed. Jay had no idea cops had so much stuff in their vehicles.
He glanced at the vehicle's exterior. Sure, it had hit the telephone pole, but it didn't look like there should have been so much blood on the ground—especially with an air bag deployed. Was every squad car like this, a potential death trap for the occupant? Jay shook his head. And yet they do it every day to protect us…
“Hello?” he called out as he approached. How the hell could anyone survive that?
Other than broken pieces of useless equipment, the car sat empty. On a whim, he hit the trunk release button and hobbled over. He paused to take a long look around and noticed no activity on the street. Jay lifted the lid and scanned the trunk for anything useful.
It held more than he’d expected. Whatever happened to the officer who drove the car, whoever had crashed the car apparently left without thoroughly ransacking the trunk.
Why the hurry? There's still lots of stuff in here. Jay looked up and checked his surroundings again. The longer he hovered over the car, the more nervous he became.
Spare jumper cables, what looked like a partial box of handgun ammunition, and an emergency roadside kit lined the right side of the trunk. Without hesitating, Jay unzipped the bag, threw the ammunition in and secured the zipper. He slung it over his shoulder and shuffled away down the road, looking back for anyone trying to follow him.
Three more blocks.
Jay trudged on, the extra weight of the bag from the police car weighing him down with every movement.
Two more blocks.
Each painful step brought Jay closer and closer to the top of that final hill. Each step brought him closer to Leah.
When he finally reached the crest, he paused to look downhill at the small valley where Leah’s dorm clustered by the road. The hope in his chest deflated like a balloon.
Building A had burned to the ground. A few brick walls remained, poking up like the ribs of some long-deceased creature. A thin tendril of smoke rose from the remains and drifted over the surrounding trees.
Across the street he spotted Leah's building and Building C next door. All the windows on the ground floors of both dorms had been smashed. Trash, beds, blankets, and unidentifiable debris covered most of the street in front of the two buildings. Jay stumbled forward and went down painfully on one knee, his watering eyes still locked on Leah's building. The second floor, looked much like the first—most of the windows were nothing but gaping holes.
What happened?
He knew Leah lived on the uppermost—thankfully undamaged—third floor in Building B, but that thought did little to sway the growing dread that coursed through his body.
Jay struggled to rise to his feet and leaned heavily on the staff. The extra weight from the police bag made him second guess his idea to take it in the first place, but he decided he may as well bring it along for the last hundred yards.
Jay hobbled as fast as he could down the hill and noticed Building C looked like it had suffered more damage than B. Almost all the windows had been smashed and at some point a fire charred the bricks around the main entrance.
He shook his head to clear his murky thoughts. Between the gut-wrenching fear for Leah, the caffeine wearing off, and the sudden rush of endorphins as he finally approached her residence hall, his mind swirled in a misty haze of confusion.
Jay found himself half-stumbling, half-rolling down the hill until he reached the bottom and gasped in pain. He got up and uttered a small cry as his right knee popped. Using all his remaining strength to support himself on the wobbly tree branch, he thumped his way to Building A. The little decorative sidewalk winding around the smoking remains emerged onto the debris clogged street before Leah's building.
He took a moment and stood there, breathing in the smoke-tinged air and spotted several bodies out in the street. Someone had taken care to cover them with sheets at some point, but the cold, unforgiving wind had flipped the blanket off a girl nearby.
With tears in his eyes, Jay hobbled over and prepared himself for the worst. His baby girl was dead. He’d been too late. He dropped to his knees ignoring the pain that shot up his abused legs, and with trembling hands reached out to touch the face of his daughter.
As he blinked back through the tears and his vision cleared, Jay pulled his hands back in shock. The girl at his feet had dirty blonde hair. The face that stared up in peaceful sleep was not Leah.
“It’s not her…” He looked around. “It’s not her. Leah!” he yelled, listening to his voice echo off the buildings.
Struggling once more to his feet, Jay turned and picked his way through the mine field of looted possessions and up to the ruined entrance to building B. Someone had really worked over the thick front door—it hung drunkenly from one heavy-duty hinge.
One hand on the doorframe, the other on his staff, Jay stepped through the busted door, ignoring the shards of glass and broken bits of furniture scattered across the hallway. Whoever had gone through here had looted it with such reckless abandon that he doubted much was taken that hadn’t been at least partially destroyed. After a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness, he found the stairwell and a disturbing amount of dried blood on the floor and walls.
What the hell happened here?
His heart racing as he entered the stairwell, Jay stepped through the fire door and stared at the pile of…he blinked. It looked like a tornado had chewed up an entire house and regurgitated everything down the stairs. A wall of broken furniture, clothes, bedding, and books stretched up the stairs as far as he could see into the gloom.
What the fuck?
"Hello?" he called out, painfully aware how terrible his cracked voice sounded as it echoed up the stairwell. "Leah?"
The absolute silence inside the dorm reminded Jay of catacombs he'd visited once in Europe. The stairwell, with its shattered remains of so many student’s possessions, felt like a place to be occupied by the dead, not the living.
Jay swallowed. There was nothing else to do but continue onward and upward, so he did his best to use the tree branch and clear a path through some of the looser debris. It appeared someone—or several someones—had forced their way through already. Much of the larger debris, like broken bookcases and bed frames, had been pushed to the side leaving a bit of a path—though it had backfilled with smaller items like books and clothing.
Jay blinked. Is that a bong?
Forcing his way up through the trash pile to the second floor landing turned out to be the hardest part of his journey so far, but Jay made it. Leaning on his staff as he panted, Jay paused and called out again.
“Hello? Leah! Anyone?”
It wasn't fair. Someone had to be here. He refused to believe after everything he’d been through to get here, the building had been deserted.
Anger replaced the fading hope in his chest. It'd been eight days now since he’d left home. Eight grueling days of fear and torment and anxiety over abandoning Kate for Leah. No matter what choice he made, one of his girls was doomed.
He struggled mightily against the debris flow cluttering the stairs up to the third-floor. Gasping Leah's name as he went, he fought through the pain step by grueling step.
&
nbsp; Lost in thoughts of Leah’s childhood, Jay watched his baby girl take her first steps while he struggled for each foothold. As his body toiled on autopilot, Jay watched his baby girl on the first day of school, her first words, the first time she rolled over on her own, the first time she said daddy.
The memories assaulted him unbidden one after another, after another. He finally clambered his way to the top floor and collapsed on the landing, completely spent. Knowing he was finally at the end of his long and seemingly fruitless journey, Jay sucked in a lungful of air and screamed one last time, pouring all his grief and sorrow into one word. Maybe she could hear him in Heaven.
"LEEEAH!"
When the only sound he heard was the echo of his own voice down the stairwell, Jay gave up and cried. He’d failed. Kate was already dead. As pain punished his body, and the adrenaline vanished from his bloodstream, Jay welcomed death.
I didn't make it. I failed. She's gone too. My baby’s gone.
CHAPTER 7
KATE STOOD AND PULLED up her jeans. She sniffed at the sterile, cold night air and adjusted her coat as she crunched her way back to the car over frozen gravel. She hated pulling over to pee on the side of the road like…
Like Jay used to do.
She turned her face west to the celestial globe hanging in the sky like a bright white beacon, lighting her way home. Don’t think. Just go. You’ve done enough thinking.
Kate climbed behind the wheel again and shifted her dusty Kia Forte into drive, willing the heat to hurry and warm her fingers. The frigid night air did wonders to erase the fatigue gnawing at her consciousness for the past two hours, but she still couldn’t stop for the night.
Solar Storm (Season 1): Aftermath [Episodes 1-5] Page 28