by E S Richards
***
“Come on, Brogan,” Mia teased her brother as she threw him the ball. “Let’s see if you’ve still got that throwing arm of yours.”
It was the start of summer and the whole family was together at the farmhouse, celebrating the end of another school year with a barbeque and a few games of touch football. Linda watched from the kitchen while Jerry, Mia, Brogan, Lauren, Chase, and Riley all played outside. They were playing girls versus boys and annoyingly, Mia’s team was one point behind.
“This isn’t fair,” Riley whined, just a few days away from her eleventh birthday. “Chase always wins.”
“That’s because boys are better than girls,” Chase had teased his sister. “We’re bigger and stronger.”
“That’s not true,” Lauren called out in response, jumping on her son and locking his neck in the crook of her arm so she could rub her knuckles against the top of his head.
“Argghh, get off!” Chase cried out as Mia and Riley joined in as well, all ganging up on the teenage boy and refusing to let him get away with the comment.
“Hey!” Brogan shouted, grabbing Riley in his arms and swinging her around in a circle to get her away from her older brother. “Stop harassing my teammate!”
“But it’s not fair, Dad, you always win.”
“It’s okay, Riley,” Lauren smiled at her daughter, finally letting Chase go and ruffling his hair as he walked away with a pout on his face. “We’ve been going easy on them so far. How about we show them how it’s done now? I’ll throw; you and your Aunt Mia go long.”
“Okay,” Riley grinned, wriggling out of her father’s arms and running down the yard toward the farmhouse.
“Longer!” Lauren shouted as she winked at her husband who made a halfhearted attempt to stop the throw, the two of them enjoying playing with their kids. Mia watched from farther down the yard, ready to support Riley with her catch and make sure Chase was blocked. Jerry merely stood by, the old man happy to watch his family play while he took an official position on the sideline. Brogan and Chase didn’t really need him, the teenage boy carrying the team singlehandedly.
Everyone watched as Lauren hurled the ball down the yard, Riley zigzagging all over the place as she tried to line her body up for a catch. No one could have predicted the freak gust of wind that caught the ball, carrying it over Riley’s head and right into the kitchen window which Linda watched from.
The old woman’s shrill scream pierced the air following the shattering of glass, everyone freezing for a moment before they ran inside. Luckily Linda was unharmed, the glass fragments not touching her skin, only scattering over the food she was preparing.
“Who threw that?” she chastised in a serious voice once everyone had entered the kitchen, though it wasn’t hard to tell that she wasn’t really angry.
“Mom did it!” Chase responded immediately, laughing at how his mother was getting in trouble.
“You little snitch,” Lauren teased. “I bet you wouldn’t tell on your dad like that.”
Linda laughed. “I’m impressed you’ve got the range, darling,” she smiled at her daughter. “The way I see it—that counts as double points. The girls’ team wins!”
“What? No!”
“Aha! Yes, Mom!” Riley whooped and flung her arms around her mother while Chase stormed out of the kitchen in a huff. Everyone else burst out laughing, enjoying the family atmosphere. It was a rarity that they ever all got together and nothing ended up broken. Linda wasn’t truly angry at all; the windows needed replacing after all and that was the catalyst that led to them being done. At the end of the day, no one had been hurt and there was no point crying over broken glass and a ruined salad.
***
Mia remembered the incident fondly, though it only brought her a few brief seconds of happiness. The smashing of the kitchen window meant it had been replaced, but there were still plenty of others in the farmhouse that weren’t up to current standards. The old building was falling apart in places and Mia knew that meant it would struggle to hold up against the volcanic winter. Her family would be suffering, and she needed to be there to help them through it.
“How’re we doing?” Mia asked, turning her head away from the window in the back of the car where it had been resting and addressing the three boys. The conversation had still carried on between them on some level, Mia had just adjusted to the murmurings and managed to block them out in her head. “Are we still far from the border?”
“We’re not far at all,” Marcus replied from the driver’s seat. “I reckon we’ll make it across within an hour. We should be making ground over to Houston by nightfall.”
“That’s great,” Mia smiled. “Are you still okay with driving?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Marcus replied. “I’m fine, no worries. We can swap when we get to the border if you want. Grab something to eat there and switch over.”
Jadon laughed. “You make it sound like a real rest stop, dude. Visit the local restaurant on the border, grab a hot meal and a few more snacks for the road.”
“Man, I wish,” Marcus joked with his friend. “Imagine how good a plate of fried chicken would be right now.”
“Oh, man,” Jesse practically started drooling in the passenger seat. “Bacon-cheddar fries. That would be the dream.”
“Or pizza.”
“No, definitely fried chicken.”
“You’ve lost it, man,” Jadon argued. “Fried chicken can’t be your number one.”
“Hey,” Marcus spun his head around for a quick second to look at Jadon behind him, giving him a stern look like a disappointed parent. “While I’m driving, I’ll be deciding where we’re stopping. And we’re stopping for fried chicken. Either deal with it or stay in the car.”
Everyone burst out laughing at Marcus’s speech, it triggering a different memory for each of them of a time when they’d been told off in the car by a parent or relative. It was funny. And it took everyone’s minds off of the outside and made things feel normal again, like everything that had happened, hadn’t. But didn’t take much longer for that feeling to fade away again, signs for the border of Texas appearing and reminding everyone that they were almost one step closer to making it home. Mia had her family to look forward to, but the others still had to continue after Houston. Marcus had a pregnant girlfriend waiting for him and despite all the jokes and acts of him pretending to be a parent, everyone knew he had to make it home so he could actually become one.
“Looks like the roads have been cleared here,” Jesse remarked as they drew nearer the state line, cars lining the sides of the roads like they had been moved out of the way with force. “Surely they wouldn’t have stopped like this?”
“Yeah,” Marcus agreed, “it looks weird. Like a tank or something has smashed through here and cleared the road. Look,” he pointed off to one side quickly, slowing the car as he did so. “Those ones have even been rolled.”
“Dude,” Jadon exclaimed from beside Mia. “That’s intense.”
Marcus slowed even further as they all pressed their faces against the windows, peering outside through the dust and dirt, into the gloom, at the cars that lined either side of the road. It was a fairly major highway into the state, a border that would have normally been manned by security back when people had real jobs – following recent events – and everyone wasn’t just concerned with making it through to the next morning. It wasn’t near any sort of military base—as far as any of them were aware—though they couldn’t deny the sweep and clear of the road had a sort of military look to it.
“Hang on a minute,” Mia spoke up, an idea popping into her head. “Stop the car, Marcus. Have we still got any binoculars anywhere or did Jorge run off with them all?”
The mention of Jorge’s name quieted the three boys for a second, none of them having spoken to Mia about his departure yet. It was obviously a sensitive topic and no one had wanted to bring it up. But now if Mia was talking freely about him, perhaps it was open for discussion. At a later
date though—their feelings about the traitorous Spaniard were not a top priority for anyone.
“There are some in my bag still,” Jesse answered following the pause. “I think it’s back there with you guys.”
“Ah, yeah.” Mia located Jesse’s rucksack and fumbled through it for a second before she pulled out a pair of binoculars. “Perfect.”
“What are you looking for?” Jadon asked, looking at Mia curiously as she adjusted the sights on the binoculars and leaned forward so she could look out of the front windshield.
“I’m not entirely sure,” she replied, the dark eyewear already pressed to her face. “But I have a feeling I’m going to find something.”
Chapter 13
“What do we do? The detour back around would be massive. That barrier looks like it goes on forever.”
“I don’t know.” Mia shook her head. “Although I can guarantee that if we’ve spotted them, they already spotted us several miles back. I don’t think not approaching is an option.”
“So, what?” Marcus asked, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. “You want me to keep driving?”
Mia paused for a moment to think. The barrier up ahead was something you were more likely to find at the border between the US and Mexico, not just on the way into Texas. The interstate was closed on both sides, though even beyond that they could see through the binoculars that the barrier stretched out. Cars and barbed wire combined to make an impassable roadway, someone clearly trying to stop people from getting into the state.
The questions that struck Mia immediately were: who was behind it, and why? What was so important in Texas that they needed to protect, and who was in charge of it all? She didn’t see another option. She needed to get back to her family and so she needed to approach the barrier. Good decision or not, she was going to find out what was going on.
“Yep,” she nodded. “There’s no point turning back now.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Jesse reached over and put his hands on the steering wheel, stopping Marcus from driving off. “Are we sure about this? Those people have weapons. Guns. After what happened the last time we stopped, are we sure that this is a good idea?”
“We don’t really have a choice,” Mia replied simply. “Like I say, they’ve definitely spotted us already. If the border is blocked here, you can bet it’ll be the same everywhere else. We have to get through Texas and so we need to go forward. Marcus,” Mia spoke firmly now. “Either drive, or get out so I can.”
Marcus exhaled a long, slow breath. “Okay,” he nodded. “Jesse, come on. Mia is right. We don’t really have another option.”
“We’ll be fine,” Jadon offered encouragingly from the back. “Let’s just stay inside the car until we know for sure what’s going on and try and get one of them to come to us. If worse comes to worst, we have those guns now, remember?”
“I don’t think we want to let them know about those,” Mia replied. “Hopefully things won’t come to that, but let’s keep them hidden unless we’re absolutely certain we need them. I don’t want to end up in a shootout over a big misunderstanding.”
“Okay,” Marcus repeated. “Here goes.”
Everyone in the car remained perfectly still and silent as Marcus drove towards the barrier, watching and waiting for the people there to spring into action. Mia wished she was behind the wheel—or at least in the front passenger seat—she felt sidelined and out of control in the back, a position she didn’t feel comfortable in. She trusted Marcus and the others completely, even though she had always believed that there was no one she could trust as much as herself.
It didn’t take long before the men and women at the barrier started to react to the approaching Jeep. Mia counted twelve of them, likely stationed there permanently and some of them in states of more casual dress than the others. Most wore uniforms, though. It didn’t look military per se, even if there was certainly a utilitarian feel to it. Dark navy trousers and shiny black work boots were combined with either white T-shirts, for those opting for the more casual look, or dark military-style cargo jackets. Mia was surprised to see any of them in T-shirts considering the weather, the air slightly clearer than it had been, but the chill still utterly penetrating. Even through the doors of the car she swore she could feel the cold air coming in from outside, the feeling of warmth long forgotten.
“Slow it down a little,” Mia whispered to Marcus as she saw a number of the people reaching for weapons, which they wore at their belts. They looked again like standard issue military Glocks for the most part, though a couple carried rifles slung over their shoulders. The last thing that Mia wanted was for them to open fire before they’d even had a chance to explain themselves. All she wanted was safe passage into Texas and back to her family. She didn’t have any interest in disrupting what the group was doing—though she doubted whether they’d believe her saying that.
“Stop your vehicle!” A shout came from one of the men at the front of the group, his weapon still holstered at his waist and both of his arms held out toward the car. “This is a restricted area.”
“Mia?” Marcus whispered, still crawling toward the barrier at a snail’s pace. He was more than happy to take instruction on what to do now, half of him wishing he’d taken up on her offer to drive.
“Stop the car,” Mia replied. “No one get out though. Let them approach us. And keep the engine running.”
Marcus did what he was told and stopped the Jeep, putting the manual parking brake on as the automatic had failed several miles back. The vehicle still shuddered slightly, the man who had called out to them standing still and waiting for it to be turned off.
“What should I do?” Marcus questioned, nerves heightening his voice as he counted the number of weapons that were pointed at their car. He had no idea what this barrier was for, but he didn’t like it one bit.
“Wait it out,” Mia spoke in a low voice, unbuckling her seatbelt and leaning forward slightly so she could see what was ahead of them a little better. She knew all their faces would be obscured slightly by the windshield and the low cloud—something that worked to their advantage as she tried to figure out what to do. Despite her calmness and how prepared the others all believed she was, Mia had never had any real military or combat training. Her father had taught her how to fire a gun and how to defend herself; beyond that she didn’t know much about how to deal with a hostile situation. She was thinking on her feet, just trying to work out what was the best next move. She tried to think a few steps ahead of what was about to happen, the number of outcomes for the scenario increasing by the second and Mia’s mind teetering on the edge of overthinking. She had to trust her gut. She had to trust herself.
“Turn off the engine,” the man shouted from outside, holding one hand over his face to try and give him a better view into the car. “Step outside of the vehicle.”
“Jadon,” Mia whispered, the loose ends of a plan slowly forming in her head. “Take this,” she handed him the pistol they had taken from Eyebrows. “Keep it hidden, but be prepared to fire. I’m going to step out of the car and leave the door slightly open. If something looks like it’s about to go wrong, that’s your opening.”
“Mia,” Jadon shook his head. “That’s insane. Have you seen how many of them have guns out there? If I shoot, how many bullets do you think are going to come flying back at us?”
Mia sighed. Jadon was right. She shouldn’t put him in any unnecessary danger. She had to just do this and trust that the boys would know how to cope if something went wrong. “Okay,” she changed her tactic quickly. “You’re right. Just be ready to drive off if something happens, then. I can take care of myself, whereas you guys have got to make it back home. You’ve got to make it back to Philly.”
“We can’t leave you,” Marcus objected from the front. “I won’t do that.”
“You have to,” Mia stared at Marcus, seeing out of the corner of her eye a few more of the people in uniform approaching their car. “You’ve got to get home to
your girlfriend, Marcus. You’re going to become a father. If something goes wrong, promise me that you’ll drive. Promise me that you’ll try to get away.”
Marcus stared right back at Mia, unflinching in their eye contact as he listened to what she was saying. He knew he had to get back to Harper and their unborn child, but Mia had been more than just an ally to them since the airport; she had been their lifeline. Whether he could just drive away from her was a question he didn’t yet know the answer to. Reluctantly he nodded, knowing that when the time came, he would make the right decision.
“Okay,” Mia forced a smile. “Wish me luck.”
Not waiting for a response, she opened the side door of the Jeep and stepped out onto the pavement, swiftly pulling her filtration mask up over her face as she did so. Immediately at least three of the guns changed their trajectory and angled at her, forcing Mia to raise her hands as she walked away from the vehicle and toward the man out in front. He seemed to be in charge and Mia wasn’t going to mess around with anyone less senior than the person at the very top.
“Don’t shoot,” she called out. “I’m unarmed. We’re just trying to make it home to Houston. Why can’t we cross?”
“How many in the vehicle?” the man shouted back. “We need you all to step outside.”
“Four,” Mia replied, still walking slowly forward so by now the car was behind her. She hoped she was obstructing some of the shots on the others by where she stood, though it was entirely guesswork on her part. “I’m Mia Clarke, and I’ve traveled here with three male college students from Montana. My family lives just outside of Houston,” she explained, being careful not to give away too much information beyond what was absolutely necessary. “We’re just trying to make it home.”
“I’m afraid the state of Texas, including the major city of Houston, has been commandeered by the US government,” the man responded, taking a power stance with his feet shoulder-width apart and his hands on his hips. “We cannot allow any civilians access into the area.”