Under the Gray Skies

by Jacqueline Druga

  “What’s that smell?” Madison said from the back.

  “It couldn’t be Stone, could it?” I asked.

  “No. I know dead bodies. That’s not it.”

  She wound down the window and I felt the cold air smack against the back of my neck.

  “Smell it?” she asked.

  It was a distinctive smell. It was reminiscent of that smell that emitted from a hot oven when grease or food had dripped from the pan to the bottom. That smell that flowed out and filled the house while you preheated the stove.

  That was the smell.

  Burning, old, odd.

  “Do you smell it?” Madison asked again.

  “Yes, I smell it,” I said.

  “Please wind up the window,” Callie requested.

  Madison did.

  The smell lessened, but it remained with the chill in the vehicle.

  All I could think of was something burned or smoldered, something big.

  We continued driving the rest of the short distance, with each mile, the smell grew stronger even with the windows up.

  After exiting, I saw the sign pointing right indicating Stone Horse Ridge was one mile down the road. I could see it in the distance, but I could also see that stopping there wasn’t the best option.

  It was apparent that some sort of unsuccessful exodus had taken place. Something caused traffic to come to a screeching halt. No one got out and though cast in some sort of haze, I could see the automobile filled road that blocked us from going any farther.

  Like I had seen for miles prior, about six inches of dark ash covered the road. The left side of the road was lined with dead brush and oddly to the right, in the distance, a single story house looked unscathed.

  I stopped the Humvee about a hundred feet before the sea of cars. “What now?” I asked. “Back up and go on the highway?”

  “No.” Callie shook her head. “We can camp here. Lot of dust in the air, we need masks.” She peered to the windshield. “We have about an hour left. We should head into town and see if anyone is there.” She grabbed facemasks and tossed them to us.

  “Really?” Madison asked. “I’m thinking we don’t want to see what’s in that town.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m thinking it’s my job to … see what’s in that town,” Callie said to her then looked at me. “You coming?”

  “Yeah.” I told her.

  “Madison,” Callie looked back as she reached for her weapon. “You can stay if you …”

  “No. I’ll go.”

  Just before she got out, Callie handed me a pistol. “Just in case.”

  I nodded and took it.

  “Masks,” Callie instructed,

  I lifted mine over my nose and mouth. The moment my foot hit the ground I knew things were different. I didn’t sink into a soft velvety powder, my boots crunched in the ash. It was more like rock. In fact there were a lot of rocks, then again, we were headed into a desert town.

  The first four cars in the exodus were parked sideways almost as if they skidded to a stop.

  The ‘blip-blip’ sound caused me to turn around, Callie had locked the doors to the Humvee and shouldered not only a weapon, but her bag.

  “Someone’s there,” Madison said softy. “Ahead. In the cars.”

  The vehicles were still a good hundred feet away and though shrouded by the ash fog, I too saw the figure standing at the front of the line of cars.

  With each step I took, I saw more people standing there.

  What were they waiting for? Were they watching us?

  Like driving through the fog, the closer were got, the clearer things were.

  Dozens of people were by their cars.

  “Are they waiting for something?” Madison asked. “They’re looking up.”

  Callie stopped walking. “Something’s wrong. They aren’t moving.”

  Twenty feet from the cars everything came into focus.

  Car doors were open and the people … they weren’t standing as much as leaning. Propped against the cars like unbalanced statues.

  They were dead. They died where they stood ... frozen instantly in time.

  TWENTY-FOUR – POMPEII

  Callie was thrown by the view. She turned away, trying to be strong, yet I could see she was catching her bearings and getting it together to move forward.

  It was a shock to see, I instantly grew sick to my stomach and couldn’t move. Madison on the other hand seemed unfazed. Maybe it was all that she had been through, I didn’t know. I swore she also seemed enthralled.

  “Look at them,” Madison said. “Look.”

  “I am. I did.” I murmured.

  The windows of the cars were blackened, it didn’t look like glass. Every car was covered in inches of that dark ash. Not only that, scattered everywhere, even on the hoods of the vehicles were large rocks.

  The fine detailed features of the people were hard to see, their eyes, nose and fingers were undefined. Outlines of clothing were easy to make out. Some stood with their arms over their heads, some looked as if they cowered. They seemed like store mannequins, posed by God, then covered protectively, like a layer of clay poured over their bodies to preserve them for all eternity.

  It wasn’t clay though; it was whatever fell from the sky. A different type of ash, it fell fast, covering them completely, slowing, and possibly even stalling any decomposition.

  Callie led the way, walking slowly, through the maze of cars and people. “The cars all died at the same time,” she said.

  At first I didn’t know why she said that, but as I stepped farther, I could see some cars had crashed into each other.

  I was so grateful that the windows were blackened, that I couldn’t see inside. I didn’t want to look and see families, children. I focused on what was ahead. Six blocks of cars then the small town. It looked untouched. Then again, I was looking at it from a distance and through a dirty mist that acted as a Pleasantville filter, making everything seem black and white and fine from a distance.

  “This is unreal,” Madison said. “Look at this man.”

  I turned around to see Madison staring at one of the statue people. Clearly it was a man, his hand rested on the hood of the small car, while his other arm slung over the door.

  “Madison, come on,” I called to her.

  “I wonder what he was thinking,” Madison said. “Do you suppose he knew what was coming?” She reached for the man. The second her hand touched him, his corpse broke in two. The lower half, tilted and fell toward her and his top half, crumbled when it hit the ground. His arm remained on the door.

  I screamed. To me it was horrifying.

  Madison just looked at me.

  Had she snapped? Why wasn’t she reacting?

  “Get it together,” Callie instructed.

  It took a few moments, but I did, then rushed closer to Callie. Madison trailed behind.

  “Look.” Callie pointed down. “Footprints. Someone is here, or was.” She looked up to the sky. “Ash is still falling. I’m gonna guess they aren’t long gone if they left.”

  “It’s a man,” I said. “Look how big that footprint is.”

  When I said that, Callie stomped her foot next to the print creating an impression the same size. She glared at me.

  “Okay a man or a big woman,” I said.

  Callie moved on.

  I stayed close to her. Eventually Madison caught up to us when we cleared the cars.

  It wasn’t any better in town. Bodies were in the street, some lay, some kneeled. There was a coffee shop at the edge of town, and the window was only partially blackened. Inside, pressed against that window were at least six people. Hands and faces pressed against the pane that had a single crack in it.

  “Thermal shock,” Madison said. “Or therma. No, wait, it’s thermal.”

  “What are you talking about?” Callie asked.

  “What killed them? Thermal shock.” Madison looked at me. “Didn’t you listen to Ruth? Maybe not. You may have been sle
eping. Ruth told me about it.”

  “Ruth?” Callie asked. “The older woman with you?”

  “Yeah,” Madison nodded. “She is brilliant. She was a professor. Your peers would be smart to tap her for info. She’s a vat.”

  “I remember her talking about suffocation,” I said. “Not shock.”

  “Thermal shock,” Madison corrected. “She said when you’re so close that one of the surges of cloud will be like five hundred degrees. Instant death and while the body doesn’t burn, it causes like an instant rigor mortis. Look at the fingers curled up.” She pointed to the coffee shop window. “Bet their feet are pointed …”

  “Okay. All right,” Callie stopped. “But which one …” She pulled out that map again. “It’s not on this map, the other one we marked for areas of a possible Yellowstone eruption. We’re in New Mexico, it could have been ash from Yellowstone, but it’s not close enough to burn these people out like this.”

  “Is there a volcano in New Mexico?” I asked.

  “Several. Small but some are considered active.”

  “Jesus,” Madison gasped. “Did every volcano blow?”

  “Starting to look that way.” Callie folded her map. “Now let’s see if we can find this person that has been walking in town.”

  We followed the tracks as best as we could. Sometimes they disappeared within the rocks, but we’d spread out to look.

  Several blocks in the right direction, Callie pointed to a second set of tracks. Not footprints but rather small wheels, they weren’t always visible. We followed them down a residential street lined with single story houses and sporadic mobile homes.

  A stucco style home was down on the left and became clearer with each step. I imagined the stucco was once cream colored, but it was blackened on the west side. It was surrounded by a small fence and there was a tent set up in the front parking pad. A man stood there, he didn’t move.

  To me, we had found yet another Stone Horse resident transformed into a present day Pompeii remnant.

  “Wanna break this guy too?” Callie asked Madison.

  “Oh, that’s so wrong,” Madison replied.

  “Guys,” I spoke up. “He’s not dead.”

  He must have been shocked when he saw us, startled to a standstill but then he lifted his hand and waved. I rushed forward at the same time he did.

  One would have believed we knew each other. We didn’t. We had a common bond. Survivors in a dead, burned out world.

  He embraced me with gratefulness. I could feel it in his hold. I didn’t even get a good look at him, I was too busy hugging the stranger.

  After he pulled back, he squeezed my arms, the turned to Madison and embraced her. He repeated it with Callie, who looked like she was going to pat his head.

  To us he was a find and I guess we were to him, as well.

  My mind spun with a ton of questions. Who was he? How did he survive? Why was he camped out on a driveway?

  We followed the tracks and found him. Now it was time to get to know him. We were stopping for the day anyhow. Hopefully he was safe. We’d find out soon enough.

  TWENTY-FIVE - FORGET ME NOTS

  He had a bandit style handkerchief over his mouth and nose so it was hard to see his face. His eyes had crow’s feet, so I knew he wasn’t young. He wore a knitted cap over his head and a hoodie covered by an open trench coat. All of which were dusted with ash.

  “I swear,” he said. “I swear I thought everyone was dead.” He lowered his handkerchief. “Delvin, Delvin Newburg.” He shook all of our hands with enthusiasm. “It’s so good to see people.” He backed up and swung a hand back toward his tent. “I don’t have much. Can I offer you food, water, coffee?”

  Callie shook her head. “We’re good. Thank you.”

  Immediately, without saying anything, Delvin went into the open garage and pulled out lawn chairs, three of them for us. “Have a seat. They aren’t burnt. I got my camping stuff from the garage,” he said. “Thank God. Because I couldn’t go in the house. I saw … I saw they were in there.”

  “Who?” I asked as I took my seat.

  He lowered his head. “My family. I just moved them here. I’m on the road a lot. Figured my wife and kids should be with her mom. I was on the road when it happened.

  Callie sat down. “How long have you been camping out here?”

  “Three days, maybe four.” Delvin scratched his head. “I lost count.”

  “Can I ask why?” Callie questioned.

  “Why not? That’s my family. My wife. My three kids. Mother in law. All I have. I figured I would just stay here until I joined them. Where else am I gonna go?”

  “South,” Callie said.

  Delvin waved out his hand. “I had my chance to go south. I missed that boat. I had to come home. I had to find them.”

  I knew exactly what he meant, how he felt.

  “Where were you?” I asked. “You said you work out of town.”

  “I’m on the road a lot. I’m a sales rep. Ever see the movie Tommy Boy. That’s me. I go to businesses and try to get them to stock our product. I was in Cleveland when it happened.”

  I gasped. “Cleveland is not far from my home or my mom. How is it? What’s going on out east?”

  “Not what’s going on here, that’s for sure,” he added a chuckle of disbelief while he spoke. “Sun’s blocked, so it’s cold. Getting colder by the day. At first everyone kind of just … hung tight. Tried to get word on what happened, find out about loved ones out west. But most people were told that chance of survival for those close to the coast was unlikely. And the area was volatile so they weren’t sending crews yet, if at all.”

  “Who told?” Callie asked. “I mean, I know our base works on a message relay system. No long range communication.”

  Delvin nodded. “Same way, back there. There’s no power, so they have generators running. Forget solar generators. Not enough light for that. It took only a half day for the eastern skies to get gray. We knew it was coming.”

  “What did you hear happened?” I asked.

  “The Ring of Fire just blew. I heard not all four hundred and fifty volcanoes, but a lot of them. I don’t believe it. But without a doubt, volcanoes blew. Multiple. Notice the days, if that’s what you call them, are getting shorter. Pretty soon, another three weeks, it will barely be lighter than dusk.”

  “We heard,” Callie said, “that a planetary body caused it. Did you hear anything about that?”

  Again, Delvin nodded. “Yeah. I heard it came too close causing things to go crazy. Others said it hit the other side of the moon, nipped it, sending pieces flying to earth and that’s what started it. I’d wager on the later. I mean, I felt that earthquake. It knocked the power out everywhere. I saw things fall from the sky. Like a daylight falling star.”

  “Doug told us he saw things falling, too,” I said. “Doug was a pilot we met.”

  Delvin shrugged. “No one is gonna know, really, until things get up and running again. If they get up and running.” He glanced up to Madison. “You can sit down. Please don’t be afraid.”

  “I’m not,” Madison said. “I’m sorry, I was just listening.” Finally she held out her hand as she took a seat. “Madison Hollister. Nice to meet you.”

  He tilted his head. “Well that is a sign.”

  “What is?” Madison asked.

  “Your last name, Delvin said. “The last person I saw, before heading out here, was one of my favorite clients. His last name is Hollister.”

  “What do you sell?” Madison asked.

  “Safety features for cars.”

  I saw Madison’s face. Her expression dropped. “Where … where was this guy?”

  “Mt. Carmel.”

  “Oh my God,” Madison gasped. “Bruce?”

  Delvin’s eyes widened. “Yes. Holy shit. Yes. Bruce Hollister. Big guy. Best mechanic in the world. Owns Body Savers.”

  Madison shrieked. “He’s okay? The boys?”

  “Fine. They’re grea
t. I stayed the night at your house,” Delvin said. “I had been traveling. Hitching a ride here and there. Trying to get home. There was a military set up outside of Mt. Carmel. When I got there, I looked for Bruce. He’s the one that got me a vehicle that got me close enough to walk the last forty miles. He’s a great guy.”

  “Wait … Delvin. Del. You’re Del?” Madison asked.

  “I am.”

  As if she just met him, Madison jumped up and embraced him. “I heard so much about you. You met with Bruce before I left for California. You were selling those, Forget me Nots.”

  “I was. Bruce ordered some,” Del said. “Even though he wasn’t sure he’d sell them.”

  “What are Forget me Nots?” I asked.

  Delvin stood, walked into the tent, came out a few seconds later and handed me a plastic button about two inches around. It looked like a flower. “That is a Forget me Not. It runs on a button cell battery, so it lasts a long time. It’s got Bluetooth. Hooks on to the fastener on a baby car seat, connects automatically to an app on your phone. Get farther than ten feet from it, alarm goes off.”

  Callie reached for it. “Amazing. No more forgotten babies.”

  “That was the theory,” Delvin said. “It had downfalls. I mean if someone forgot their phone in the car too. Everything has a downside.”

  “You said Bruce and the boys are fine,” Madison said. “Were they heading south?”

  Delvin nodded. “They planned on it. Bruce though, was waiting on you. He didn’t believe for a second you were dead. Told me he knew you so well, he could feel it, you were alive and coming home. He was just gonna wait a little longer with the boys and head out. Trust me, that man has it together. He has a survival plan.”

  “My family is alive. They’re alive,” Madison gushed. “They’re alive Lacey and waiting on me.”

  I reached over and hugged her.

  Excitedly, she grasped my hand. “All we have to do is get to my house, if Bruce is there, we’ll go ahead to get your family. If not, I bet he left word at the house.” She looked at Delvin. “Would he leave word, a note maybe?”