by Annie Berdel
“Get the animals gathered!! Hurry!! We must get them into the barn!” Shelby realized she was screaming as she was running towards the barn! “Children, we must hurry!! We have to get them penned and we need to get into the cellar!! Help me…we need to get done as fast as possible!” She didn’t want to scare the children, but knew it was too late for that. The bewildered look on their faces was enough. She needed their help, though, as she knew there wasn’t a lot of time left.
“Bring them all this way!” she yelled as she motioned towards the large doors she was swinging open.
Once inside the barn, Shelby knelt down and pulled two large doors open that were recessed into the floor. With all the loose hay that scattered the floor, not many people knew there were access doors even there. Swinging both wide, Shelby began to descend the earthen ramp under the barn revealing a large room with another door off to the side. There were no corrals or pens down here so the animals would be loose, but it was better than being left up top.
Two cows, a couple horses, rabbits, chickens, goats and pigs were all quickly released into the room and given piles of food. Calculating in her head, Shelby knew they didn’t have much time left. Running to the house, she gathered a few quick essentials and ushered herself and the kids through the only door in the big room beneath the barn. Once inside, Shelby got busy giving each child a bag of essentials.
“Only one flashlight on at a time. Let’s not waste the batteries,” she murmured to them.
“Mama, what just happened?”
“Where’s Daddy?”
The questions just kept coming as Shelby’s hands continued preparations.
“Come. Sit down here with me,” Shelby directed to the children.
“Shhhhh….” she whispered to try and calm their minds.
“Daddy is a smart man and will be just fine. He went into town and should be here by nightfall. Maybe a little later.”
“But what was the big blast? Are we at war?” her eldest asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Shelby replied. “What I do know is this….”
Softly and with calmness, Shelby told the kids what she felt had just happened in the world above them. Their eyes were glued onto their Mama as she laid out the plan going forward, which included staying in the underground room for a while. Shelby’s tone set the precedent for how the children would react to what she was describing to them, and it was important that she remained calm. They had everything they would need for quite a while, but being able not to panic was of utmost importance and without Mountain Man here, Shelby had to do this all by herself.
93
“You have a lovely family, Emma.” Nina was trying to start small talk with Emma, more to gain information than to show she cared. She didn’t care. She had an agenda that few people were listed on and while Emma wasn’t on the list, her delightful husband could very well be used for various purposes.
“Thank you, I couldn’t agree more,” Emma replied. Emma had sized Nina up the moment she had walked into Emma’s house and knew her kind. The woman was out for the next newest and best, disregarding anything used as if merely throwing away trash. She left a wake of burned bridges behind her and never looked back.
The tension between the two women was quite noticeable. It was like watching two wild felines dance around each other, not taking swipes but just waiting for the perfect time to pounce.
“How long have you lived here? It’s a beautiful farm you have,“ Nina asked.
“This land has always been in my family,” Emma replied. “It’s a part of who I am.”
“But what about your poor husband? He had to feel like an outsider coming here.”
Nina was digging and Emma knew it.
“Quite the opposite. My Tommy is as much a part of this place as I am. That’s what marriage does, it melds the two pieces together into one. Three actually if you understood our religious beliefs. A cord of three is not easily broken.”
“Interesting, but I have to wonder if moving to a place where you both were on equal footing is not better for a man’s soul, instead of living under the rule of the wife”
“I’m not sure you understand what’s good for any man’s soul, but I assure you that you have no clue what you are talking about when it comes to my family. No disrespect, but you are merely a visitor here and know little about us to pass such a judgment.”
“No. Maybe not,” Nina replied. “But I do know that a man wants to rule over his own house and not one given to him by a woman. He needs to feel like a man, not merely a concubine.”
Emma could feel her anger swell up within her. “Keep your cool, chickie,” Emma said to herself. “It’s merely a test to see if she can get your feathers ruffled. She isn’t worth it and you need to keep the upper hand.”
Grinning her best grin, Emma looked at Nina, “Oh hun, that’s what the pool boy is for, right?!” and turned and walked away.
94
Nina’s eyes went wide with fury. “How dare she speak to me in such a way!” Livid, Nina just stared at the woman as she walked away. If her eyes could, they would drill holes into Emma’s back straight into her soul. Nina envisioned her hand reaching in through those holes and twisting Emma’s heart until she died.
Feeling much calmer after releasing some of her anger towards Emma, Nina walked over to the kitchen sink and poured herself a glass of spring water. Looking out the window toward the barn, Nina watched Tom cleaning out the chicken coop. “This place has everything I would need to survive what was coming,” Nina thought. Unlimited food, spring water, the total ability to self-sustain herself and with hundreds of acres, it also gave her staff the room to work without being on top of each other. Several of her staff had already taken over some cabins in the woods.
A slow grin crept across Nina’s face as she watched Tom work. Not being a country girl like little miss perfect Emma, Nina would need an escort to find her way to the cabins to check in on her people. What a perfect opportunity to get Emma’s delightful husband alone. Nina knew the passion that flowed through the veins of a Latino man, and it had been quite a while since she had released her own fervor.
If Nina were to take control of Emma’s farm, she had to get Emma out of the way. Killing was killing, and quite messy, she thought tapping her bottom lip with her finger, but a chink in the bitches’ armor by fornication with her beloved husband would be quite fun, Nina thought.
Nina sat the glass down in the sink, making sure she left lip prints along the rim of the glass with her dazzling red lipstick. “Game on, bitch,” Nina murmured with a grin.
95
Scott tried to open his eyes but he kept losing the battle. Why wouldn’t his eyes open? His leg jumped again involuntarily. What the heck was going on? He was so tired and just wanted to sleep. His leg jumped again as he felt something hit the bottom of his boot. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as his brain finally circled back around and became fully functioning once again. Again, something struck the sole of his boot.
Slowly peering out from under his lashes, Scott saw the man standing there, a gun pointed directed at Scott and Angie. Scott’s brain went into overdrive as he tried to buy more time by pretending that he was asleep still.
Scott didn’t have much of a choice after the next kick as the man yelled at him to wake up. Scott rolled over towards Angie and grabbed her before she could get up or scream.
“Slow and easy,” the man released the words with the same inflection that he expected his surprised guests to react, slow and easy.
Scott raised his hands in the air as he sat up, trying to get as much of Angie behind him as possible.
“What do you want? Take whatever,” Scott said, not taking his eyes from the stranger.
“I reckon I will!” the man replied with such a wicked grin that it made Scott’s throat clench.
“Just take it and go,” Scott choked out.
“Oh now wait a minute there! I haven’t even had breakfast yet. Ki
nda rude to send me off with an empty belly now, don’t ya think? How about you get that pretty little thing hiding behind you out there and fix us men some grub,” the man said… and then his voice changed ….low and forceful… “I think you need to remember who’s in charge here. Would hate to see someone get hurt.”
Without hesitating, Angie crawled out from behind Scott. Stumbling over to where she had cooked dinner a few hours earlier, Angie set about getting a fire going again without taking her eyes off the stranger. Her senses in overdrive, her mind was reeling trying to figure out how they could get out of this situation and no one get hurt. Her main goal was helping Scott and keeping him safe but trying to see his face in the dark and read his expressions was tormenting her. Damn it! Emma was right. They needed to talk about “situations” so they knew how the other people would react. How many times had they played “Conflicted” around Emma’s table after dinner? Damn it, Angie wished she had paid better attention. At least now she might have a clue on what was going through Scott’s head right now.
It hit her square in the gut like a bulldozer. If the opportunity presented itself, she knew what she had to do. Angie swallowed hard as she remembered Emma’s words “Consider it the light switch effect. How fast can you switch yours on? How fast can your mind get from ’Life is all grand, peace love and harmony to I have to do whatever it takes to protect those I love in whatever manner it may take.’ The difference in living and dying is how fast you can flick that switch in your head, because the bad guy is already living in your worst nightmare.” Angie let her head descend as she closed her eyes. “Lord, please help me!” was all she prayed.
96
The bike sputtered to a slow stop. Of all places, they had to run out of gas now, Chloe thought. Michael stretched out his cramped legs and balanced the pile of metal while Chloe crawled off, her muscles not cooperating from the long ride.
Chloe slid off her helmet and looked around. A freakin’ suburb? Really?
Michael kicked the stand out and propped the bike up. Much more accustomed to riding than Chloe, he dismounted with more grace than she had. Walking over beside her, Michael removed his helmet and surveyed the landscape. “I’m sure there’s gas here somewhere.”
“You suck at directions,” Chloe retorted.
“Oh really? And who the fuck has gotten your fairy ass this far?”
Chloe knew a losing battle when she saw one, but chose not keep her mouth shut anyways.
“Ya, Utah is so far! I guess your tank isn’t as big as you think it is!”
“Listen, we are about 400 miles out of Los Angeles. That’s what’s important. Better this happen now than when we get in the mountains. We need a better mode of transportation anyway. If not, the ride over those bitches is going to be brutal,” he said, his chin pointing in the direction of the Rocky Mountains.
Chloe turned in the direction he had pointed and caught her breath. She had never seen them before, the beginning of the Rocky Mountains. Sure, she had read about them in school books, but there’s really no comparison to seeing them in real life.
St. George Utah, or Utah’s Dixie as some refer to the city as the early settlers grew cotton here, sat at the base of the Colorado Plateau. Red in color from the iron oxide in the soil and rock formations, the view of the mountains reminded Chloe of all the blood that would soon be shed, if not already. So far they had been lucky, mostly just wide spread power outages. Chloe was trying to brace herself though for what devastation lay over the mountains. If what happened was what was being rumored, the ground would be a scarlet red, and not the soft color she was seeing before her now.
Taking a deep breath, Chloe turned to Mike, “Time to get to work, dude. Let’s see what we can do.”
“I’m thinking a helpless female is going to be more of a welcome sight than a male stranger. All yours sugar plum,” Michael replied with a grin.
He was right, again. Being approached for help by a woman would get someone much further ahead peacefully than any man could possibly get. They needed gas, food,…oh, a shower would be great” Chloe thought, new mode of transportation, warmer clothes and water.
“No worries, I got this,” she finally said.
Glancing around, Chloe surveyed the houses. Typical suburban homes. Landscaped lawns, no clutter, curtains shut. This might be harder than she thought, that was until she spotted the small motor home parked in the very back of the lot of one house.
“No worries,” she muttered again, more to herself than anyone else, as she headed off in the direction of the RV.
97
“UGH! If I hear one more parent talk about how stressful spring vacation is when their kids are home, I am going to scream,” Megan thought as she left the doctor’s office. “Why do these people even have kids if all they want to do is send them to someone else?”
Megan buckled her 3-year-old into his car seat, locked the door and made her way around to the driver’s side of the car. Taking 30 seconds for herself, she raised her face to the sun and closed her eyes, feeling the warmth penetrate her skin. One must learn to appreciate such warmth in Wisconsin in April, she thought. Last year at this time, they had 3 feet of snow and no sight of spring showing up. This year they haven’t seen snow since the middle of March! Just maybe they will have an early spring. How lovely that would be!
Megan unlocked her door and slid into the driver’s seat. Glancing in the back seat, she made sure Robbie was still buckled in. Kids his age are better at escaping car seats than Houdini! Poor little guy wasn’t feeling his best today though. No fever, but his appetite had dwindled down to hardly anything and he wasn’t sleeping at night. Visiting the doctor today, they had drawn some blood for some tests and he had already pulled his SpongeBob Band-Aid off his puncture point.
Megan headed the car toward the grocery store. She only needed to pick up a couple things but noticed Robbie had fallen asleep about a block from the store. Deciding not to wake him, she turned the car toward home. She would send her mom a text later and see if she would pick up some milk and bread on her way over later. She hated to bother her, but Robbie did not need dragged through the store if he wasn’t feeling well. Being a single parent sucked sometimes.
Pulling the car into the driveway, Megan tenderly removed Robbie from his car seat and managed to get him into the house without him waking. “I’ve got this!” she thought as she made her way to his room. Slowly she lowered him into his crib and pulled his favorite blankie up around him. Turning to leave the room, she breathed a sigh of relief and within 5 seconds Robbie was standing at the side of his crib crying.
Megan’s shoulders slumped as she turned to pick him up. “Poor little guy,” she cooed as she cradled him in her arms. “Oh, mama wishes she could figure out what is wrong!” Megan walked into the living room and sat with Robbie in the rocking chair. Her mom would be bringing her oldest two children home in a couple hours, but right now all her thoughts were on her youngest… Megan began to rock, tears in her eyes and she silently said a prayer and began to sing ever so lightly…
“Hush little baby, don’t say a word …
98
The knock at the door startled Megan awake. “Oh God, please stop knocking!” Megan frantically stood up from the rocking chair and took Robbie to his bed and laid him down. This time he stayed sleeping. Megan heard the knocking again and quickly covered Robbie as she raced from the room. She couldn’t imagine why her mom had to knock at the door, she had her own key, Megan thought as she flung open the door.
“Oh. Hello” Megan said as she stared at the woman standing before her. “I’m sorry, I thought you were my mother”
“I really look that old?” Chloe asked
“Oh heavens no! I’m so sorry. My brain hasn’t started yet. I was asleep when you knocked. No, goodness no. You don’t look like my mother at all!”
“Good! You had me worried for a minute!” Chloe chuckled.
Chloe took in the woman before her. Her instincts kicked in
and Chloe had an overwhelming feeling to protect her. The woman looked like she hadn’t slept in a long time. Obvious signs of sudden weight loss and dark circles under her eyes, Chloe felt such sadness at the sight of her.
“Oh, my manners! How can I help you?” Megan asked.
“I wanted in inquire about the motor home out back. Is it for sale?”
“Oh. Well, that was my husband’s and I don’t really know anything about it.” Megan replied.
“Will he be home later? Or maybe a number I could reach him at?”
“He passed away a couple months ago,” Megan whispered in response.
“I am so sorry!” Chloe said, feeling like a fool.
“No, please don’t. He was doing something he shouldn’t have been and it caught up to him. Please, why don’t you come in and let’s talk about it,” Megan said, feeling a bit dizzy. The world around her started to spin out of control.
Chloe caught her as she collapsed, barely able to hold her up. “Michael!” Chloe shouted, “Michael, help! Come on dammit, I need some help!”
Michael and Chloe managed to get the woman onto her couch. Chloe ran to the bathroom and found some washcloths. Soaking them in cold water, she walked back to the living room and gently patted them on the woman’s face.
Megan started to stir. “Get me a glass of cold water from the kitchen,” Chloe directed to Michael
As Michael was making his way to the kitchen, Megan came around and tried to sit up.
“Here, let me help,” Chloe said, propping her up against some pillows. Sitting down on the coffee table in front of Megan, Chloe laid the cold washcloth across Megan’s head.
“You OK, hun?” Chloe asked.
“I’m sorry. I’m not sure what happened. How long was I out?” Megan asked.
“Not long, maybe a couple minutes,” Chloe responded. “When was the last time you ate anything?”