by E S Richards
Mindy looked to her husband with a questioning gaze, Nate shaking his head and overpowering the woman. “Nothing,” he declared. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Suspicion had already taken over Chase’s mind; he didn’t believe Nate and decided that no matter what supplies they needed for the farmhouse, being in the building site with them wasn’t worth the risk. Houston was huge. They could find somewhere else to gather the equipment on their own.
“Come on,” Chase whispered to his sister. “We’re getting out of here.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Nate stepped forward, seeing Chase and Riley preparing to leave. “I’m sorry it had to happen this way.”
Chase opened his mouth to argue again, still shielding his sister with his body when four men in uniform suddenly appeared, stepping into the building site, Connor accompanying one pair. Immediately Chase and Riley froze. It didn’t take much for them to determine that the men in uniform were the Authority. Each of them wore a utility belt around his waist, filled with equipment that could only be described as riot gear. More terrifying were the automatic weapons they held in their hands. They didn’t point them at Chase and Riley, but both of the siblings were reluctant to move should that suddenly become the case.
“Whoa!” Chase exclaimed, holding his hands in the air while ensuring his body was still positioned in front of his sister’s. “What is this?”
“I’m so sorry,” Mindy suddenly broke down. “This was the only way.”
Chase looked at her in shock as all the pieces suddenly fell into place. The Authority. The children. There was no safe way out of the city. This was a hand-off. Connor, Nate, and Mindy were handing them in to the Authority.
“They have our children,” Mindy wailed, practically hanging off her husband. “You have to understand!”
“Understand?” Chase spat back at her, rage burning inside of him as members of the Authority started to slowly approach. He could see their fingers resting on the triggers of their weapons, poised to shoot at any moment. “How could we understand? We have a family too, you know! We have people who need us!”
“I’m sorry!” Mindy wailed again, the woman falling apart in front of their eyes.
“Mindy!” Connor’s shout suddenly came from the site entrance, drawing everyone’s attention as a young boy and girl appeared, the kids’ eyes quickly landing on Nate and Mindy as the two of them broke into a sprint toward them. It was obvious that they were their children. Chase and Riley could only watch as Mindy and Nate both fell to their knees, wrapping their arms around their children and grasping them close to their chests. Mindy was in tears, Nate also struggling to hold himself together as the family reunited.
Chase could hardly look at them, blown away by the level of betrayal from the three adults. His eyes landed on Connor, who loitered by the site entrance, locking eyes with the man as two members from the Authority closed in on him and Riley. There was nowhere to run; nothing for either of them to do. Succumbing to their capture, Chase was forced to his knees by the man behind him, his wrists bound together like he was under arrest.
“This is for your own protection,” one of the men from the Authority spoke through the gas mask which covered his face. “You have been saved.”
Chase didn’t struggle. He knew there was no point. As slowly as he could, so it didn’t make the men think he was fighting back, he simply turned his head to look at his younger sister. Riley. She stared right back at him, her eyes full of determination and bravery. Riley wasn’t going to put up with this any more than Chase was himself. But like him, she knew this was not the right time to fight back.
Letting the Authority control them, Chase and Riley remained silent as they were marched out of the building site and into the back of a van. The last thing Chase saw before the doors closed was Connor. Looking at the grown man, Chase vowed to himself that he would see Connor again. He would not be kept in some facility in the city. For his protection or not, Chase refused to be a prisoner.
Chapter 13
“Mia! Mia, let us in!”
The desperate cry tore through Doctor Reeves’ house, accompanied by a frantic knocking on his front door. Mia recognized the voice immediately and dashed across the room, yanking open the door to reveal Deb and Stuart standing there, Billy cradled in Stuart’s arms.
“We need help,” Deb spoke desperately, Stuart already making his way inside with the young boy. “Billy can’t breathe.”
“What?” Mia questioned, her heart racing as the number of people in the doctor’s house doubled and the fear that was present in Deb and Stuart started to spread to her thoughts. Doctor Reeves had barely even started explaining what he believed had happened to everyone in his town; the conversation was slow and difficult due to his inability to communicate out loud anymore, coupled with his desire to explain everything absolutely perfectly. Now that investigation was being very quickly pushed to one side, Stuart laying Billy down on the couch in front of the old doctor.
“He started coughing,” Stuart explained as Doctor Reeves leapt into action. He was a man who had worked in the medical profession for many years; he didn’t need someone to tell him when to go to work. He knew when he was needed. “Then he started to choke,” Stuart continued as the doctor pressed his fingers against Billy’s small chest. “Then he just stopped altogether. He looks like he’s suffocating.”
Mia watched with her heart in her mouth as Doctor Reeves assessed Billy’s airways, the young boy straining desperately for mouthfuls of air, choking on each and every one of them. Billy’s face grew redder and redder, his small hands balled up into fists as he struggled to keep fighting and maintain consciousness. He couldn’t have been like this for much longer than a minute, but Mia knew that sixty seconds without oxygen likely felt like a lifetime.
Without being able to communicate, Doctor Reeves was very much on his own. He could tell that Billy only had a few precious minutes left before it was too late. He had seen this before. In their small town, those of them who were still alive were actually the unlucky ones—as Doctor Reeves saw it— because they would all die eventually. At least those who passed before them hadn’t had to suffer as long. Countless others who Doctor Reeves had been friends with had died the very same way that Billy was about to, unless he did what he needed to do. He hadn’t figured it out quickly enough with the rest, but Billy now had a chance to be saved thanks to the experience his dead friends had gifted him. As a doctor, he knew that even in death people could help to save a life.
He sprang across the room as quickly as he could manage, though like everyone else in Tanner, he was growing weaker by the hour. Doctor Reeves grabbed his medical bag and fumbled about inside, quickly pulling on a pair of rubber gloves to protect his hands. He found what he was looking for in seconds and darted back to Billy, the scalpel gripped firmly in his right hand.
“What are you doing?” Deb cried out, noticing the knife the doctor carried. “What are you going to do?”
Naturally, Doctor Reeves was unable to reply and the situation was far too urgent for him to pause and explain via pen and paper. He had to puncture Billy’s lungs and let the blood out. That was why he was choking. He was trying to cough up blood that was filling up his lungs instead, suffocating the boy from the inside out. If the doctor didn’t act quickly enough, Billy would drown.
“Stuart!” Deb cried again, her voice laced with fear as she watched Doctor Reeves tear open Billy’s T-shirt, exposing his bare chest. “What is going on?”
“It’s okay,” Mia stepped beside Deb, laying her hands on the woman’s shoulders. “He knows what he’s doing. We have to trust him.”
Mia could feel Deb’s whole body shaking, the woman’s chest heaving up and down as she panted huge breaths, nearly hyperventilating as she watched the scene in front of her. Stuart was still just a few feet from Billy, watching carefully while Jorge did his best to help the doctor. He unpacked everything from the medical bag, layin
g them out on the coffee table in front of Doctor Reeves so the man had easy access to what was required. Jorge had taken several first aid courses along with his piloting license; he was prepared for most scenarios—though he’d never imagined them being quite as extreme as they’d turned out to be.
A small bead of sweat formed on Doctor Reeves’s brow as he held Billy still, cleaning the patch of skin above the child’s lungs where he intended to make the incision. The young boy wailed softly; Doctor Reeves had just injected him with an anesthetic so it would take another minute or two to take complete effect. He could see Billy’s pupils dilating slightly from the drug, but Doctor Reeves didn’t have the time to wait for the full effect to set in. He needed to make the cut now or it would be too late for Billy.
Looking up at Jorge, Doctor Reeves tried to tell the man with his eyes that he needed someone to hold Billy still. Thankfully Jorge got the message and took a hold of Billy, holding the child as firmly but softly as he could. Both men hoped that Billy couldn’t feel any pain, the moment to act very quickly upon them.
Watching the doctor work, Jorge could see he was incredibly skilled. Billy flinched and cried out slightly as the scalpel slid across his flesh, creating an incision in exactly the right place. The blade was discarded immediately, Doctor Reeves reaching for gauze and bandages instead to catch the flow of blood. It didn’t happen straight away. A second passed, then another, and another. And then, blood. A steady stream trickled out of the cut in Billy’s chest and almost as soon as it happened, the boy took a sharp, sudden breath. He was breathing. The doctor had saved him. Billy was alive.
“Billy!” Deb lurched forward as she heard the child breathing on his own, crowding around the couch and trying to lean over to see what had happened exactly.
“Whoa!” Jorge exclaimed on behalf of the doctor. “Back off a little. Give the man some space to finish up.”
Thankfully Deb did as she was told, Mia placating the woman once again as, much like Billy’s, Deb’s breathing returned to normal. Stuart came to stand by their side, taking Deb’s weight away from Mia as the woman threw her body against Stuart’s, allowing the man to cradle her in his arms and whisper in her ears. Mia stepped away, giving the two of them a moment. They were both much closer to Billy than she was—and had probably known his mother well. They had the right to a minute to themselves.
“Thank you,” Mia spoke to the doctor, the physician finishing up his work with Billy as the young boy became instantly more relaxed. His breathing was slow and steady and his eyes started to flutter as the full effects of the anesthetic claimed him, sending the young boy into a peaceful sleep. Billy probably needed it after that: Mia could only guess at how much the small operation had hurt him. “You’ve saved his life.”
Doctor Reeves looked up at Mia and smiled, wiping his brow with his forearm, his hands still protected by gloves. He was pleased with how the procedure had gone. Billy would have to be watched carefully for a couple of days, giving the incision proper time to heal and his lungs the ability to mend, but he would hopefully be okay. Doctor Reeves understood exactly what had happened: his lungs had been lacerated by the particles in the ash cloud that he had breathed in. That had created tears in his internal organs, which, if left untreated, would’ve killed him eventually. The same thing was happening to him as he stood there. While those who had been outside when the ash cloud fell over Tanner had died relatively quickly, the survivors were still doomed to the same fate. They were dying the slow way, their larynxes shredded first, their lungs deteriorating soon after. Doctor Reeves knew it was only a matter of days before he awoke coughing blood, then the end would be in sight.
“That was impressive,” Jorge whispered to Mia as the doctor stepped out of the room to clean himself up, Stuart and Deb hovering over Billy anxiously and allowing the two volcanologists to step to one side.
“I know,” Mia agreed. “It’s lucky we were here when that happened. I would’ve had no idea what to do if we’d been out on the road.”
“Me neither,” Jorge shook his head. “That was some quick thinking on the doctor’s part. He saved Billy’s life.”
“I just can’t believe it happened so suddenly,” Mia thought out loud. “He’d been looking a little pale for the past day, but nothing like that. How are we supposed to know if any of us are suffering from the same thing? We could all literally collapse at any moment.”
Jorge tutted under his breath and placed a hand on Mia’s back, steering her slightly further away from Deb and Stuart so they couldn’t be overheard. “Not us, Mia,” he reminded her quietly. “We’ve been protecting ourselves—we haven’t breathed enough of this in. I’m sure of it.”
“Everyone else?” Mia questioned, looking over at Stuart and Deb and remembering how they hadn’t been covering their mouth and nose when she had first laid eyes on them. She even wondered about whether people at the airport had breathed in too much; none of them had protected themselves properly until they went outside. Thinking of each member of her small group in turn, Mia could find plenty of reasons why each of them might be the next to almost drop dead in front of her.
“We should all be fine,” Jorge replied, trying to calm his friend down. Mia wasn’t normally the type to get worked up about this sort of thing, but Jorge could see that she felt responsible for their group. When Mia got like that, she was almost impossible to argue with. It was one of the things that Jorge admired most about her and that had made him realize he couldn’t get through everything on his own. He needed Mia to keep him grounded and to remind him that there was more to the disaster than potentially solving the mystery of how it happened himself.
In all honesty, Jorge didn’t really know what else to say, grateful when Doctor Reeves appeared again instead, two pieces of paper clutched in his clean hands. He handed one to Mia and Jorge, the other to Deb and Stuart, allowing all five adults to communicate in silence as everyone read the words in front of them.
Billy should be fine.
The first words that Mia and Jorge read brought them both an immense feeling of relief; Stuart and Deb both let out large sighs as they read something of a similar nature. Looking at Jorge briefly and smiling, Mia continued to read what the doctor had written.
I had to cut into his lungs to drain fluid that was building up in them—he suffered from what is called an acute pulmonary edema. I’d like to keep him here for the next couple of days to ensure nothing goes wrong with his recovery, so if everything goes according to plan, he should be back on his feet in about a week. I like to think he hasn’t inhaled as much ash as the rest of us here.
In terms of everything else, I’m not sure how much more there is I can tell you. We’ll never get our voices back and we’ll pass away too eventually. I’ve examined everyone and the prognosis is the same: our larynxes—that’s the voice box—have been destroyed. Our lungs are halfway there as well. We weren’t outside when everything happened, but we won’t survive long either way. Our bodies are growing weaker by the day and eventually our lungs will fail us. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of any more help to you. I would encourage you to keep going on your journey. Billy will be safe here. I will look after him while I can; I give you my word on that. Therefore, I think you two should keep going. From what you’ve told me, you have a family to get back to and you’ll never stop until you’re reunited with them again.
I wish you a safe journey and hope that luck will continue to be on your side—even if it might not seem like it has been so far. You’re alive. Remember that and cherish it. There’s nothing more precious than a human life.
Both Mia and Jorge were lost for words. What Doctor Reeves had written for them was so beautiful and heartwarming. They looked upon the man with great respect and admiration, trying to convey in their expressions how much everything meant to them.
“Thank you,” Mia whispered, locking eyes with the man and hoping he could tell how sincerely she meant it. “For everything.”
Doctor Reeves
nodded and placed a hand on Mia’s shoulder, smiling at her and letting her know that he understood. After everything that happened, Mia couldn’t help but be humbled by the man across from her. He was taking everything completely in stride, facing each morning like a new challenge and refusing to back down. He’d told her and Jorge earlier that there were plenty of others who hadn’t taken it so well: several suicides in the town occurred once people realized they weren’t getting their voices back.
But Doctor Reeves was something else. Mia knew that if, by the time she reached his age, she had even half of his humility and benevolence, then she would be incredibly proud of herself. She knew Billy would be safe with him, and now she had to start thinking about everyone else. Would anyone else stay behind, or would the journey continue for the rest of them? Looking around the room and considering what had just happened, Mia knew they couldn’t stay long to make that decision. They had to leave, and they had to do it now.
Chapter 14
Michael screamed into the wind, a desperate and gravelly sound that was thrown back in his face, reminding him of how much of a failure he had become. He had almost completely given up hope. For two days he had been trying to make his way to his children, trekking across the country in one last, frantic attempt to see them again. Finally, he had accepted that he wouldn’t be completing the journey.
After his mother had died, Michael had been unable to go back inside their house. The memory of her haunted him, the woman occupying every nook and cranny of the house and refusing to leave his field of vision. It didn’t take long for him to leave the village behind completely. Angelica still wouldn’t go. Michael knew that now that his mom was dead, he couldn’t come up with any more excuses for not going to his children. The only problem now was he didn’t think he was going to make it.