Apocalypse Coming

by William Dunaway

“Now boy, you come on out where I can see you,” The man with the gun demanded. The boy didn’t come out. “Do you hear me boy?” The boy still didn’t come out. “Boy, if you don’t come out where I can see you right now, I’m going to put a bullet in your dad’s head.” The boy finally stood up and walked to the doorway.

  “Let me see those hands boy,” he ordered. The boy raised his hands and the driver of the truck ran up to Barney, “Now we’re just going to all go inside,” as he took the AR from his partner. As soon as they walked in, the man with the handgun hit the boy across the chest with the butt of the gun, causing the boy to fall backward and hit the floor hard. Before the door shut completely, Paul could hear him yell, “The next time I tell you to do something boy, you better do it.”

  Paul had made up his mind that he wasn’t going to get involved in anything. His priority was to get out of Oklahoma and get to the farm. But these guys butt stroking a kid; he couldn’t handle.

  “Those bastards have to be stopped.”

  He made his way across the road, making sure that the truck was in between him and the line of sight of the men inside. He then used the truck for concealment as he watched them. He could see the man with the handgun standing behind the counter, and he was obviously yelling at Barney. The other one, now with the AR, was going from shelf to shelf.

  Paul crawled to the front door of the store. It was an older door made of wood, with wood in the lower half and glass on the upper half. “This is going to be the tricky part,” He thought to himself then eased the door open a couple of inches.

  The man with the AR found a shelf with a selection of liquor for sale. “That’s what I’m talking about,” the man said while holding up a bottle.

  The man with the handgun was saying, “You’re trying to tell me that you don’t have any cash in this store?”

  Barney said in a frustrated tone, “No I told you. Lately, we’ve been bartering more than selling. The dollar is worthless now anyway. But even when I was selling, I didn’t leave money in the store at night.”

  The man with the handgun looked at Barney like he was nuts. Obviously, this clown didn’t have a clue what happened to the dollar and the economy.

  “Well the dollar isn’t worthless to me, and if you don’t come up with some pretty quick, you’re not going to like what comes next.”

  Just about then, the man grabbing the liquor yelled, “Fucking wine!” and smashed a bottle on the floor. His partner turned towards him, which meant, the man couldn’t see the movement of the door.

  The man grabbed another bottle of wine and threw it on the floor also. Paul used the opportunity to slip in through the door and move behind one of the shelves.

  “Will you stop that shit, you moron? Quit wasting the stuff; we can sell it,” the man with the handgun ordered with a yell.

  The man throwing the liquor said, “Sorry!” very sarcastically and then started mumbling to himself.

  The man with the handgun turned back to Barney and yelled, “Now are you going to give up the money or not?”

  Barney panicked and yelled, “I don’t have any money here.”

  “Fine, I told you what would happen.” He reached over and grabbed Barney’s son by the hair and stuck the barrel of the gun on the boy’s forehead. “Now give me your fucking money!” the man screamed.

  Barney started pleading and crying, “I’ll get you some. Please don’t hurt my boy. I’ll get you whatever you want; I just don’t have any here.”

  Paul could see the rage in the man’s face that was holding the handgun. He had seen that almost possessed look in prison when a prisoner was about to attack someone.

  “Ok then. Say goodbye to your boy!”

  Barney yelled, “NO!”

  Paul could tell by the body language of the man, that he was just about to pull the trigger. Paul jumped up, aimed at the man’s head, and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the man right above the ear. He dropped like a rock. The boy stumbled a little, but he was fine. The impact of the bullet hit a spot that made the man’s grip go limp.

  At that point, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion to Paul. He then turned the gun towards the other man with the AR who was just staring towards his brother. Paul yelled, “Don’t you move!”

  The man seemed to stare at his brother for several seconds. He had the AR slung over his shoulder. He turned and looked at Paul. “You killed my brother. You son of a bitch, you killed my brother,” and he started sliding off the AR from his shoulder and raising it towards Paul.

  Paul yelled, “Don’t do it!” The man continued to swing the AR toward him.

  Paul took three shots into the brother’s chest, throwing him backward with the AR falling to his feet. Paul moved up closer, keeping the Glock pointed at the brother. He kicked the AR away from the man who was just lying there, attempting to take his last few breaths. Paul will never forget his facial expression. It was like the man was watching himself die and couldn’t do anything to save himself.

  Then the man took his last breath and died.

  Barney and his son stood there stunned. Not knowing what to expect from Paul, Barney just stared at him for a few moments. Paul lowered the Glock and asked both of them, “Are you ok?” The boy was obviously scared and in shock. He didn’t respond.

  Barney grabbed his son and started asking if he was ok and looking him over really well and gave him a big hug. He looked up at Paul, “Thank you, sir. I don’t know where you came from, but you saved our lives. He then introduced himself as Barney Coleman and his son Peter.

  Paul reached out and shook his hand and just introduced himself as Paul.

  He then started telling the story of everything he saw and how he got into the store.

  “Well, all I know is you’re a Godsend. If you wouldn’t have come along when you did……” and then Barney started tearing up looking at his son Peter.

  Barney took his son over to a seating area and gave him a soft drink and told him to stay there.

  Barney moved over to the bodies, “These slimeballs deserved exactly what they got,” and reached down and grabbed the one with the handgun by the legs and started pulling him out the front door. Paul started doing the same with the apparent brother. After they’d gotten them outside, Barney went in and grabbed a tarp and threw it over both men.

  He asked Paul if he wanted a beer. It had been a few years since Paul had been able to enjoy a beer.

  “Please.”

  “I don’t know how cold it is with the refrigerator being off for the last couple of hours.”

  Paul took the beer. It had been so long he had almost forgotten the taste.

  Both of them started talking about the present situation, the power outage and everything that has been going on. Paul told him that he thought the outage was an EMP. Barney did know what an EMP was, but he wasn’t sure about what would cause it or how long it would last. Paul told him all he knew. Paul then complimented the man’s car, and it may have been odd with two bodies lying on the ground, but he took Paul over to the car and showed it off a bit.

  About the second beer, Paul explained where he was heading and made up a story about his car quitting on the highway. Barney was amazed that he was walking, “Well it’s a good thing for us that you were. Can I give you some supplies to make the trip go a little easier? I certainly owe it to you.”

  “You don’t owe me anything. It was just the right thing to do. Anyway, supplies are way too valuable to be giving away right now.”

  “Hey, we might be dead if it wasn’t for you. Please take what you need.”

  Paul looked around and eyeballed an Army rucksack. “Well, if you mean it, I could sure use that rucksack.”

  Barney walked over and grabbed it and then walked over to another shelf and opened a case of MRE’s he had, and he packed the MRE’s into the rucksack.

  “Do you have a sleeping bag?”

  “No, I don’t. To be honest, I had very little in my car. Some first aid items and some s
mall items.”

  Barney went over to another area and pulled out a sleeping bag and then a two-man pup tent that he had for sale. He walked over to the shelf by the counter and grabbed some beef jerky and some cupcakes he had left.

  “Wow! I want to thank you.”

  Barney waved him off with a smile, “Is there anything else you can think of?”

  “Well, you don’t happen to have any current maps, do you? Also, do you have any water, so I can fill my canteen?”

  Barney reached over to the shelf and pulled down an Atlas that had all the state maps in it. He then walked over to the corner of the store where a display of bottled water was.

  Paul smiled, “Let me run across the highway and get my canteen.”

  “No need, just take a case.”

  “You are a blessing. I do need to run over and grab my stuff though.”

  “You were the blessing, to us anyway.”

  He ran over and grabbed his limited supplies. When he was walking back across the highway, Barney was leaning into the two men’s truck. As Paul approached, Barney leaned back out of the truck, “Hey, why don’t you take their truck? It only has between a ¼ and ½ tank of gas in it, but that should get you pretty close to your destination. Maybe you can find some abandoned vehicles on the way and borrow some gas.”

  Barney walked over to a hose he had hooked up to the hydrant and cut off about 6 feet of it. He handed it to Paul, “You can use this for a siphoning hose.”

  Paul instantly loved the idea but asked Barney, “Well don’t you want to use it to haul these bodies in? Plus, I’m sure the Sheriff’s Department is going to want to talk to me.”

  That idea terrified Paul. He had no ID on him and if the Sheriff’s Department figured out that he was in prison…….

  “The Sheriff’s Department is going to have their hands full, and they probably don’t have any way to get around to investigating it anyway. No, I think these two are just going to end up laying along the road someplace. Anyway, it could be days before they check into it, if then.”

  “Well, I’d like to get on the road. No telling what is next if this is an EMP. Don’t you want me to help you with the bodies?”

  “No, you get on your way. My son and I will handle this. I have an old tractor with a trailer in the back shed. We can handle it.” He then paused, “I was scared to death for my son, but with everything going on, he’s going to have to learn to be a man quick. I’m scared to say; he’s probably going to see a lot more of stuff like this, God forbid.”

  “I’m afraid you may be right.”

  Paul walked over to Peter and stuck out his hand. Peter looked up and shook hands, “Thank you, Paul.”

  Paul then turned to Barney, who was holding a new 5-gallon gas can that he grabbed off the shelf, and shook his hand asking, “Are you sure you don’t need help with these two?”

  Barney smiled, “Will you just get going?” He then got a straight face and squeezed Paul’s hand a little harder, “Thank you again. You saved our lives.”

  “Thank you for all of this.”

  He grabbed his gear and gas can and threw it in the truck. He sat in the driver’s seat and looked at the map. He didn’t want to take the interstate as there’d be too many stalled vehicles and people. He decided to take Highway 2 all the way into Kansas and turn off on Highway 160 east. He’d take that over to 69 North, which runs straight north next to the Missouri line and goes all the way up to Kansas Highway 2, which would take him straight over to Harrisonville, Mo. Then it was only about a 12-mile drive to the farm. He knew he’d be driving through a lot of small towns, but he’d rather do that than drive through a city like Joplin. Plus, these smaller roads would have less traffic on them.

  He looked at the gas gauge and thought, “Well that’s my plan, but I know I won’t make it that far without finding some gas. It’s a lot better than walking all the way, though.”

  He looked up at Barney and Peter, who were standing at the door and exchanged waves. He started the truck, backed it out of the driveway and pulled onto the highway.

  Chapter Nineteen

  When we walked in the house, Kim had sandwiches, potato salad, and corn on the cob waiting for everyone. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to make more.” She said.

  Everyone praised her for what she had done and told her that this was plenty.

  Brandy said, “Oooh! I love corn on the cob,” while she picked up her corn and took a big bite.

  “Oh my God! This is the sweetest, juiciest corn I’ve ever eaten. I’m not kidding. This is delicious.”

  “Thank you. That’s out of our garden.” Kim said with some pride.

  Everybody had to try their corn then.

  “You’re not kidding. I didn’t know corn was supposed to taste this good. You never get corn like this out of the store,” Wit said before taking another bite.

  I spoke up, “Yeah, that’s last year’s corn too.”

  In between bites, Brandy asked, “Kim how do you keep its fresh sweet taste for so long?”

  “It’s a little pain to do when you have a lot of corn, but after I shuck it and clean it, I just wrap it in freezer paper and vacuum seal them. We always bought bulk vacuum bags because you go through a lot of bags.”

  “Well, it sure works … Don’t you guys love it?”

  Mia commented, “We’ve always loved their corn. The stuff we buy in L.A. is so blah compared to theirs.”

  After Kim had thanked everyone, she said “I figured that we needed to use up the sandwich meat and cheese as we go along. Anything we have that takes refrigeration, we need to eat first.”

  I said, “Good thinking. We aren’t going to be able to use the generator 24/7. We won’t have the fuel for that.”

  Hearing this kind of made everyone think about how we no longer had what we took for granted in the past. Mike brought up how most people didn’t store up food and water, and they’re going to suffer right away.

  Tag said, “I didn’t think about that. Vince, because of your guy’s forethought to store food and everything, we’re just inconvenienced compared to most people. Just think of all the people that only have the food that they had left in their cabinets, and most of them won’t even have any water.”

  Mia jumped in and said sadly, “We already saw part of it in the city, and that was before the EMP went off. Those poor people, they’re going to starve.”

  Angela repeated herself from a previous conversation, “The government has a plan. They will be there to help.”

  Wit spoke up and asked her, “What government? We don’t have one anymore.”

  “You have the state governments, the cities, and the counties.”

  Mo shook his head no, “They don’t have the assets to do that. How many local governments have any real plan for something this big? Yeah, maybe they have a plan for a disaster like a tornado or an earthquake, but most states and city governments depended on the federal government for times like that.”

  Red said, “And don’t forget, there aren’t any communications to speak of. The military may have the ability, but it could take weeks or months to coordinate.”

  Everyone sat in silence for a while with their own thoughts.

  Kim jumped back in, “Ok, I want to make a new rule. Let’s try not to have these types of conversations, during meal times. We’re going to face heartache and some tough times, but we need to keep some happiness and appreciation in our lives. We can’t sit around crying in our soup all the time.”

  Carmen said, “I agree, and from now on, I think we ought to give thanks at every meal.”

  “Carmen’s right, we need to do that at every meal. If one of you have an objection to that, you can choose not to take part, but I think at every meal we need to say a prayer from this point forward. Good thinking, Carmen.”

  “Thank you.”

  Even though we were halfway done with our lunch, I said a prayer and thanked God for what we had and asked for inspiration and guidance for what we
had to do to prepare for what was coming. I also asked for his protection.

  As we finished our lunch, the conversation turned more positive, and we got back to the normal jokes and jabs at one another.

  After lunch, Angela had put Lulu down for a nap on our bed, and I called everyone to the living room.

  “In a little bit, I’m going to head over to a friend that lives a couple of miles from here to check on him. If Kim hasn’t told you, she had a bit of a time getting home from work the other day. If it wasn’t for Blake’s help, no telling what could have happened.”

  “What? What happened?” Brandy asked.

  “Kim will tell you about it later, I’m sure. But this is partly what I would like to talk about. Even though we’re all together, due to everything that has happened, we haven’t even really had time to catch up. Not like we normally would’ve. For instance, Kim’s ordeal coming home. You need to tell them the story later. It was one hell of an event.”

  “Scared the you know what out of me,” Kim said.

  Mia, who was sitting next to Kim, kind of kicked Kim’s leg with hers and asked her, “What are you doing, holding out on me?”

  Kim laughed, “Now when have I had time to tell you this story? I’ll tell it as soon as Vince is done.”

  I continued, “Things are happening quickly, and I think everything is about to snowball. It’s pretty obvious that Kim and I have prepared for a situation like this for a long time. I did it basically as a hobby. When I’d sit back and think about different scenarios that could happen, I knew that ideally, it would be with a group of people that we knew we could trust and depend on and that hopefully, we’d all turn into a family of sorts.

  Mike and I have talked about security in the past and kicked things around. We told Mia and Carmen over the last couple of years, that if everything ever went to hell, to get their tails out here.

  Mia, I remember the first time you asked me about all the stored food. When I told you why, I could see you thought I was a little nutty.”

  Mia started laughing, “I did. I didn’t think you were a nutjob, but to be honest; I didn’t think anything like this could happen.”