Now, that brilliant soldier’s wife worried at the window, just hoping to see her husband and son come walking out of the rain. Ted walked up, Kate turning toward him as he approached. He could see the tears welling up. He put his hand on her shoulder.
“He’ll get here, Kate,” he said softly, “You know he will.” Kate nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. Ted looked out the window she was staring through. “Jesus.” The rain was like nothing he had seen since he had been stationed in Panama in the 1980’s. “I didn’t think this kind of rain happened here.”
Kate shook her head. “It doesn’t,” she whispered,” In the decade we have lived here, I have never seen anything like it. Do you think it has anything to do with the power?”
Ted looked out at the road, seeing the huge streams of water rushing down the streets and into the storm drains, where it was beginning to pool into small ponds. He doubted there was any connection. “I don’t think so, but I don’t know, kid.” Ted always called her kid, and it had the effect he was hoping for. It is the little bit of normalcy that relaxes a worried person. He learned that from Cal. Kate’s shoulders relaxed almost unnoticeably, but it was enough, Ted knew that. “You should get some sleep.”
Kate nodded. “I will, as soon as I feel tired in the least.”
Ted gave her a hug. “Come on, why don’t you go climb into bed with your sister. I will take the sofa.”
Kate frowned. “No, Ted, it is fine. I can sleep on the sofa.”
Ted looked over to where Rich was curled up in the dining room. “We have new friends. I would feel more comfortable if I took the couch. Would that be okay?”
Kate looked over at Rich’s curled up form just as the pastor began to snore. She smiled at her sister’s husband a broad, joking smile. “You got it.”
Ted gave a soft chuckle. “Go, before I change my mind.”
They hugged again and Kate walked back to the bedroom. Ted looked out one more time, then lay down on the couch to get some rest. He thought for a long time about Kate’s question about the cause of the outage. Something wasn’t right. He wasn’t sure what it was, but this was something different than just a power outage. He slept soon after, but it was a restless sleep, full of vivid dreams.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The rain had been pouring through the small openings in the “outer garden” for hours and Jordan was just happy that the drainage worked in this small confined space. They had few dry spaces, but he, the doctor and Harris were all able to find good spots to lie down. They kept the door propped to let air in, just in case Rio ever tried to follow them, but in the couple of hours they had been up here, there had been no sign, nor sound, of him.
Doctor Pare huddled in close, even though the rain had not made it considerably colder. Quite the contrary, the rain added humidity to what was already a dark, hot space. Jordan began to wonder if he would become a mushroom, or just sprout them from his clothing. As far as he could tell, they had been outside for perhaps three hours when it had begun raining. Never having had to keep time without either sun or time piece, he couldn’t be sure.
“Do you think we can go back and get him?” The doctor asked quietly, trying not to wake PFC Harris. She was thinking of Rio.
“There is no point,” Jordan told her, “Each door we went through is made to seal back up as soon as it shuts. That is why I know no one made it out. The idea was to keep radioactive air from spreading if some got in. However, right now, that seems a little short-sighted.”
“So, what are we going to do?” The doctor asked. Jordan was amazed that he was being given such deference as to his wishes. He was the highest rank of the actual soldiers, but he wasn’t even an NCO. Though Dr. Pare was a civilian, she had authority in these cases.
“I don’t know,” he said, “What would you like to do?”
There was a long pause. “I would like to leave it up to you.”
Jordan didn’t say anything. He just sat and listened to the drip, drip, drip of the rain pouring through the little opening on the top of the enclosure. It was actually quite peaceful, it reminded him of a noise machine he had heard once that put babies to sleep. As he sat and listened to it, he also began to hear the heavy breathing of Dr. Emma Pare. Apparently, it did pretty good job of lulling forty-year-old doctors to sleep also.
DAY TWO
“The rain it came, and the flood soon rose. What could Noah do, but watch and hope?”
– Pastor Brick Martin, The Spring Life Church
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jenny woke to the sound of her own hunger. She smiled at the way her body was communicating with her. It had always been fascinating how the body would talk to a person to let them know what was needed. When it comes to hunger, one gets the feeling of emptiness, followed by a mumbling and grumbling from the stomach area. If one waits long enough to eat, the body will make an even louder noise, and eventually that will be followed by a severe pain or cramp. The body is an amazing thing. With the loud groan coming from her mid-section, she knew she needed to find some sustenance soon.
Rising up, she also felt the weakness in her legs from not enough fuel being fed to her body. So, she stood and stabilized herself for a moment before moving to the window. Outside, the rain that had begun the night before didn’t look like it was letting up in the slightest. It was hazy, but she could make out the figures in the clear windows of the dojo across the street. They had found umbrellas and three of them were standing out front. Using the techniques she had honed the night before, she turned her inner sight on and immediately saw so much more. She could not see the black figure, so she figured Mr. Fine must be away from the window. Reflecting on it the night before, she knew that was who the black figure must be. Her vague recollection about auras told her that black was not an evil color. If she remembered it correctly, black auras were about power, desire and oppression. She did not at all remember what some of the other colors were and reminded herself to try to go through the books in the light to find something about aura colors. If her phone worked, she would have googled it. She was amazed at how helpless she felt, how in the dark, without her smart phone. It was a good thing to remember.
As she looked up the street, she saw shapes and various colors – a brown, a blue, a red, a muddy gold, a dirty gray and the occasional flash of white. It was actually all she could do to not just sit there and marvel at the colors. But there was activity across the street and she saw the black aura reappear. Mr. Fine has made an appearance, she thought to herself. She watched him order some men to go one way and some to go another on their side of the street. Then he looked across at her building. She shrunk away from the window. There is no way he could see me through the blinds, the shade and the window covering, she thought.
She had just about calmed herself when she saw the shadow and heard the knock. She remained silent, uncertain why she was afraid of this man. A harder knock came after.
“Hey yoga girl” came the friendly sounding voice muffled by glass and window dressings. It was a voice practiced in friendliness with a purpose, it sent cold shivers down her spine. “Come on, I know you are in there. I want to ask you something.” He knocked again, but Jenny stayed hidden behind the counter. She then saw a violet color enter the black aura that was practically emanating through the front of her studio. She knew instinctively he was preparing to do something, but what? Apparently, something distracted him. She heard a voice and he moved off. Jenny knew she would have to make her way out of this building and get away, she realized that the man was not going to wait for long.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Kayla woke and did her best to prepare breakfast for everyone. It was still raining cats and dogs outside, but the issue was – what was she going to make? In the end, she decided bread with peanut butter might be best, and they still had some fruit, so she cut some up for everyone. She made her apologies, but the group was pretty thankful for anything she could whip up. The pastor from down the street, Rich, had said that he
would grab whatever he could from the church and his house as soon as the rain let up, but they had no idea when that was going to happen.
As soon as they had woken, her sister Kate had taken the same position she had been in for most of the night before – at the front window, looking for any sign of her husband or son. Her mom walked up behind Kate.
“Honey,” she started, “you know that man of yours is the most capable person I have ever met, no offense Ted...” she said, turning to look toward her other son-in-law. He just shrugged and waved her off as if to say he agreed. “But he is also a very intelligent man. He would not come trudging through this mush, and flooding unless he thought you were in danger. He knows you are here, so I am sure he will be here as soon as he can get here.”
Ted was rolling up a piece of bread that was slathered with too much peanut butter. “You know Mom is right, Kate. He will be here. This rain is crazy, there may be roads out. I am sure he is just waiting until it is safe to come, then he will be here.” Kate nodded without much confidence. Kayla looked at her sister and was overcome with a gratefulness that her husband and daughter were home when this had happened. How similar would her reaction have been to Kate’s, if they had not been home when this happened. She could only imagine the worry.
Natalee walked out of the back yawning and stretching and grabbed an apple. She had put on a pair of Kate’s sweats, looking like she came out of the catalog modeling them. Kayla shook her head, part of her hoped that Max did not grow up to be as stunningly pretty as Natalee was. She wasn’t sure she could handle it.
“Well, good morning, miss Nat!” Kayla called out, Natalee rolled her eyes at her aunt. “Is your cousin coming out too?”
Natalee took a chomp on the apple in her palm. “She took that dog out to do its business. Is there any way the dog could just stay outside? She snores.”
A chuckle went around the room. Rich was sitting near Ted and had spotted a guitar, which he had picked up and began strumming. After a full day of silence, it was a beautiful thing to have a little light guitar in the background. It was relaxing to all of them. It even made her sister come out of the window and sit next to her daughter, who immediately put her head on her Mom’s shoulder.
As Rich played, he talked. “Whose guitar is this? Who is the musician in the Craven family?”
Kayla came in and sat next to her mom. Beth had always been a church-goer and Kayla knew that her mother was comforted by having a preacher in their midst. Had he not been there, she would have said, “among all of you heathens.” Beth is the one who answered. “All of the children play piano, guitar and one other instrument. I made sure of it. I have paid for their musical education since they were toddlers.”
“And we are grateful for it mom, even if our children are not.” Kate offered, but Natalee acted like she hadn’t even heard. She was playing with her iPhone, still trying to get it to work. They had told her numerous times that it was no use, but she would not be dissuaded.
Rich played a really nice toon and sung a light hymn, which made Kayla’s mom very happy and her husband uncomfortable. Ted would never stop blaming every church member for the actions of one creep. He just hated church and anything related. Because of this, it had been hard for Beth to accept him, but Kate and Kayla’s father had convinced her that a man’s goodness did not reside in his house of worship, but in his heart. Eventually her mom had grown to love Ted as much as she loved Cal, which was a lot. God, Kayla missed her dad. They were just coming up on two years since he passed.
Beth decided to make small talk. “Are you married, Rich?”
Rich kept playing but he dropped his head for a moment, “No, ma’am. Not anymore. If y’all had been around here a little longer, you could have heard the gossip. My wife ran off on me. She ran off with one of my elders. People blamed me for not keeping my house in order, and that is why the church is so bereft of congregants.” He kept playing. He had said all of this so matter-of-fact, like he was talking about business.
“Oh, I am so sorry Rich,” Kayla said.
“I am confident that all things work together for the good,” he said leaving out part of the passage and Kayla knew it, “and I am confident that He will reveal to me my purpose at some point. I have to believe there is one.”
Ted rose and headed toward the back sliding glass door. He made no mention, made no face, there was nothing to show it, but Kayla knew what her husband was thinking. He was thinking that man will make anything up to convince himself that he has purpose, it was almost a mantra of Ted’s. Ted opened the door and called out for his daughter.
“Damnit, Maxine Craven! You get your butt in here, you are soaking wet. And what is this? I thought you had the one dog.” Ted grabbed a towel out of the nearby bathroom.
Max looked like a drowned rat, her hair all matted, her clothes soaked through. Her dad began drying her off as she answered. “Daddy, they were alone. I told them they could be part of our family.”
Ted didn’t even miss a beat. “Yeah? Well tell them they can stay on the porch.”
Max looked up at her father with a broad toothy smile and said, “okay.” She didn’t even turn around, but the dogs all laid down on the porch. Besides the pit bull, there was now a mutt of some sort and a huge German Shepherd. “Their names are Snickers and Rex. Rex is the big one.” Ted gave her a hug and closed the door. The dogs didn’t seem to care less.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Looking into the hazy mess that was created by the deluge of rain, Adam was perplexed. He hadn’t seen rain like this in a long time. It kept the day in almost dusk-level darkness all morning. As far as he could tell, it was after mid-day, but there was no way to be sure. The rest of the group were trying to place stops in the crevasses under the doors to keep their little shelter from flooding. The pool had flooded within an hour, but the rest of the area was now covered in about an inch of water that was seeping in every nook and cranny around the building where they had slept. It was not really a great place to take shelter any longer.
“Well, this isn’t going to work”, Kyle said as Adam turned to see the water coming in under the door they were trying to seal up with towels.
Cal looked down on it and gave up. “Yeah, never mind. We are going to have to find some other shelter. What is between here and Forest Township?”
Kyle thought for a moment and replied, “Across the highway is a hardware megastore. There is a Target on this side, just up the road, then nothing until you get to the high school.”
Cal nodded and looked at the rest of them. “Do you all want me to decide, or do we take a vote?”
Adam was the first to speak. “Well, Sarge, I have followed you many times before, but you never asked for my vote before.”
Cal grinned broadly. “Thanks, Doc, but you didn’t enlist for this one. Also, I have no authority over you guys. So if you want me to be the decision-maker on the team, just let me know.”
Adam nodded, “I am good with it, never went wrong before with that.”
Kyle just said, “Seriously, Pop.”
Jessica and Ellen nodded, and Erica asked, “You are a doctor, Adam?”
Cal turned to her, “No, ma’am, he is so much better. He is a battle-tested and Army trained combat medic. Hua.”
Adam replied without thinking, “Hua.”
Cal thought for a moment. “Well, in that case, if it is up to me, we can move a lot faster. If anyone has a question, shout it out, I won’t take long to decide.” He looked around, but clearly no one was questioning him. “Okay, it seems we will get very wet. We need to stay close to each other, as I would guess some of the roads are flooded. We will walk north until we get to the Target store. If we can get in, to be honest, we will probably loot some goods. We will at least take a cart or two so we can more easily carry some of the heavy loads.” He looked around, still no questions. “From there, we will again head north, this time up the main highway so we don’t get stuck in the mud in the cattle land out there.
Then head for the high school and on up into Black Forest until we get to the town. We will probably move on from there with a slightly larger group of my family and head back west. We have to find a place that is high ground due to the rain, and preferably well-stocked, or has some other benefit to wait out whatever this is.”
Ellen spoke up, “You said you would tell us what you think it is.”
Cal looked at the ground for a bit. “I will, but it is only a guess, and it would be best to wait until we get to a more secure location. We are going to have to make some long-term plans…”
“How long, Cal?” Adam asked, wondering at what his old leader was thinking. Cal was smart, but more importantly, he was wise. Knowing is good, but the ability to synthesize information and make plans makes all the difference. Calvin Ward was gifted at this kind of wisdom. Most of the guys found it kind of creepy, feeling like he could tell the future. Adam had always just appreciated it.
“I don’t know, Adam. But, it is going to be a bit. I don’t want to get into it until we stop moving, but think about it. It has been 24 hours, nothing has come back on. We haven’t seen any movement on the roads, no cars, which probably means the cars aren’t working. No cars from outside the area, so it isn’t just here. Nothing has come back on, which could mean it is persistent, though there hasn’t been enough time to tell yet.” Adam’s head dropped but it was the jaws around the room that dropped, they were seeing a glimpse into a special mind. In the midst of stress, change, fear, and unknowing about his family, this is what Calvin Ward had assessed. Knowing Cal as long as he had, Adam knew that Cal had assessed that in a flash, in the first few seconds. Cal looked around and had been in this position before, so he knew what he would need to do. “Anyway, it will be a while. Like I said, let’s talk more when we get to a more secure location.”
Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) Page 5