by Lenise Lee
The woman stopped again and put a shaky hand to her mouth. Jesse’s ears perked and every muscle in his body tensed.
“It’s all gone,” she croaked.
The dramatic and startling news was only intensified by the sound of her tears spilling down her face and crackling over the wireless mic pinned to the front of her blue sleeveless top. The harsh reality of her breakdown served to confirm the sense of dread that had been looming around Jesse’s mind for days.
In the next second, the camera cut to an African-American man, who was probably seated at another news desk somewhere near the frazzled woman. His dark eyes were as equally troubled as his counterparts. It took him a few additional seconds to realize that the camera lens that was streaming this live news broadcast was now focused on him. He blinked a couple of times, licked his lips, and then hurried on with reading the distressing updates from the off-screen teleprompt. While he spoke, the screen cut to images of scenes coming in from several locales across the nation and from various places overseas.
According to the newsman’s report, the confirmation that over ninety percent of the world’s remaining oil supply had been consumed had prompted mass rioting and looting. Since the remaining supply was being withheld and siphoned to key locations necessary to keep certain emergency vehicles and facilities in operation, people across the face of the Earth were in a panic to fill their tanks with any remaining gas and grab food, water, and any other supplies that the individual deemed necessary. The pictures showed scenes of mobbed fuel stations, supermarkets being overwhelmed and emptied out in a matter of mere minutes as people tried to stock up on provisions. The dire news dropped from bad to worse. Without gas to keep deliveries moving and diesel to run municipal operations, it would only be a handful of weeks before all food transport would stop and water cleaning facilities in most urban and suburban areas would grind to a halt. Towns that consisted of mostly rural and farmland would have the best chance of remaining unaffected for the longest amount of time since most of their water supply was from underground wells and their food was harvested on site.
Jesse had heard enough. He tossed the remote on the bed without listening to the remainder of the dreary newscast.
Since all the phone networks were down and there was no local TV station to report on the events in this exact area, there was no way for Jesse to predict what the scene would be like about twenty miles away in the downtown area. He wouldn’t be able to find out whether or not all of the chaos on the television had reached the town that was home to the main campus of their school. His dilemma was this – he and Eve were not excluded from the need to seek out adequate supplies to hold them over until a resolution for this crisis was reached. Despite Jesse’s common sense beating down on him that this was probably the safest place to stay; in truth, there was only a very limited amount of time that the two of them could remain here without some basic survival essentials.
Jesse had to make a snap decision. Stay or go? And since there was no way he would allow them to starve to death out here, should he take Eve with him on his journey back into town, especially since he had no idea of what to expect once he crossed the city limits? What if, for whatever reason, he wasn’t able to make it back here within a reasonable time and he lost track of Eve? He wouldn’t be able to bear not knowing what had become of her during this terrible event. He had no choice but to take her with him and to keep her at his side.
He made his way over to the bathroom door and tapped it several times with his knuckles.
“Evie, baby, are you ready to go?”
She opened the door re-dressed and smelling like fresh soap.
By her wide-eyed expression she had seen the anxiety written all over his own face.
“Did you find out what’s happening?” Again, her question was soft spoken and timid as if her mind was already preparing for and trying to shun away from the worst case scenario all at once.
“The news says that there’s a temporary oil shortage.”
“What?!” She knitted her eyebrows together after her exclamation. “What does that have to do with that siren going off a few minutes ago?”
Jesse had anticipated Eve’s reaction and her follow up question but they were working on borrowed time. It was already half past noon and it would take almost thirty minutes to get back on town, so he decided to give her the most concise synopsis. He would have to wait until they were on their way to their destination before he told her the rest of the details about the panic that was going on outside.
“All of the phone lines are down. Everyone that was staying here bolted for the highway because the news is predicting a food and water shortage within a couple of weeks.”
“Oh, my God,” she pinched her lips together. “This…can’t be…shouldn’t be happening.”
“I know, sweetheart,” Jesse said in a consoling tone. He stepped closer to his lady. “For right now, you and I need to make some short term plans about where we’re gonna’ stay and about going to get some supplies until all this over.”
“What do you mean? The plan is to go back to campus and then to get home. What about Tiffany…and Eli…have you heard from either one of them?”
“No, I haven’t. The message coming over my cell says that all circuits are down. Everyone is trying to call their family or friends, which is probably jamming the satellite feed and the cell towers.”
Without hesitating, Eve dug in her jeans’ pocket, pulled out her phone, and dialed a number. The defeated expression that crossed her face confirmed that she had received the same automated recording.
“Eve, I know you want to check on your family, so do I, sweetheart, but our immediate concern needs to be on us and our well being.” Jesse circled his arms around her slim shoulders and brought her near. He tilted her shaky chin upward so he could stare into her brown eyes and she could feel the sincerity of his words. “Until we know for sure what’s really going on here and everywhere else, I want you with me, Evie. For right now, since I can’t reach my parents or Eli, you’re the closest loved one I have. I need to make sure that you’re taken care of.”
She looked hesitant.
“Please, baby, I won’t be able to think straight unless I know that you’re safe. Just stay with me for a few days and then we can see about how to get both of us back to our families.”
At the conclusion of his words, she threw herself into his embrace.
“Jesse, I’m scared.” She spoke while burying her warm face into his wide chest.
“I know, baby,” he said while stroking his fingers down her hair and across her bare back. “I’m worried for all of us. Times like these can sometimes bring out the best in people…or the worst, which is why you and I need to get downtown and get back before dark.” He leaned away so that they could reestablish their eye connection. “Okay?”
He kissed Eve’s forehead after she nodded in agreement.
When he was sure that he had gained her confidence and set her mind somewhat at ease, Jesse bent down and reached behind her to grab his clothing. The pants were still slightly soiled from yesterday’s game but they were all he had until he could get back to campus. Thankfully, he had a fresh T-shirt in the trunk of his car so he wouldn’t have to don the soaked undershirt that he had been wearing beneath his uniform.
He made fast work of washing up and then pointing his red sports car with the bold white stripe painted down the center at the highway. Hopefully, they would be heading back toward a scene that looked nothing like the nightmarish sight he had just witnessed playing out on the television.
- Six -
The long stretch of road they drove to lead them back to the business district of the town neighboring the Pine Barrens was relatively light considering the circumstances. The traffic volume didn’t start to double, then triple, and finally come to a creeping pace until they had reached the quarter mile mark.
After Jesse slowly rounded the next corner, his car stopped at the midpoint of Broad Avenue,
the main artery within the city, and he immediately regretted his decision to bring Eve along for this trip. The probability of imminent danger had rapidly descended upon them from all directions. The urban epicenter, usually the host of a modest lunch time crowd that would gather from the local campus, surrounding businesses, and residential community, had transformed into a scene of hysterical chaos. All traffic had halted a dead stop as both side of the thoroughfare became jam packed with countless numbers of vehicles. The blares of impatient car and truck horns sounded off while drivers and pedestrians alike barked out angry words from one end of the lane to the other and back again. The sidewalks that flanked the roadway were mobbed with people frantically shoving their way through the writhing crowds and darting from side to side as they criss-crossing through stalled traffic.
The sound of glass shattering caused both Jesse and Eve to throw their heads to the left side of the car. Across the street, the windows and doors of the entryway to a local grocery store on the corner were smashed in, followed by dozens of people swarming inside. From a short distance away, the couple could see the panic stricken citizens shoving and pushing as they grabbed and snatched at whatever they could lay quick hands on before the next person had a chance to do the same. The incident was repeated again and again at various other business establishments on either side of them up and down the bustling main street. Without warning, the whining moan of an ambulance exploded into the hot afternoon air, followed by the intense shrill of several police sirens.
“Jesse.” Eve’s frightened voice cut the air and then she clutched his hand.
Jesse squeezed hers reassuringly and then twined their fingers together.
“I’m sorry, Eve, I shouldn’t have brought you here. I didn’t want to leave you alone there but you would have been safer back at the lodge.”
The scene before him was what he might have imagined pandemonium would be. What do people do when they are afraid? First they panic and then they become violent. This was the panic. Pushing, screaming, snatching and clawing for supplies, pointing angry fingers. Friends, neighbors, and co-workers had rapidly become fierce enemies; they were all competitors for survival in a world that was trying to find a way to cope with a strange and frightening new reality. Was this the beginning of the end of the sense of normalcy that society had been struggling to hold on to since its wild infancy?
“Maybe should go back. This only going to get worse.” When Eve spoke again, the fingers on her other hand were digging into the hard black plastic of the interior of the car door.
She was right. At any moment, all of the chaos that was exploding around them might somehow find away to push itself into the confines of their vehicle. Jesse looked around the tight space surrounding the car. They were almost pinned in by all the surrounding vehicles. In the rear, car doors popped open as drivers and passengers started to scuttle into the mix. Others must have been thinking the same idea. They were either going to try to make it down the five miles of road that led to the residential streets on foot or they had decided that this was the best chance to gather what they needed and then figure out how to get to the next destination afterward. His instincts were already trying to mentally maneuver a path through the mayhem and back the way which they had come. A tight K-turn just might work, but there was no guarantee, especially with so many scrambling pedestrians weaved to and fro between the parked traffic. Whatever the decision, whether it would be to risk getting out the car and making a break on foot or force the vehicle through the cluster of other idling engines, Jesse and Eve were running out of time.
The sirens of more emergency vehicles pierced their ears. A flash of red and blue from the rearview mirror caught Jesse’s sharp eyes. The police cruisers and ambulance were inching closer. The traffic standstill was still blocking their arrival, but they were gaining closer proximity as each second passed. If any drivers remained in the cars behind Jesse’s, they did their best to move to either side so that the emergency vehicles could meander forward. The police cruisers’ used the curved black bars on their fenders to nudge the abandoned vehicles out of the way.
Without warning a loud cry went up, like the unified sound of an excited crowd cheering for a team. Only these were no cheers, they were a gurgled mass of angry shouts and screams. Up ahead and on the other side of the road, Eve and Jesse glued their eyes to the throng of people gathering at the gas stop a block away. Two men standing next to one of the pumps threw quick punches at one another. Their fight swiftly escalated into a disorderly tumble as nearby observers were pulled into the mayhem. They, too, started to jab and kick to protect themselves and soon a full brawl had erupted in the midst of that crowd.
Heavy footsteps pounded the concrete street and thudded past Jesse’s window. He and Eve looked on as two police officers made a mad dash toward the fight, abandoning their slow moving drive through the mass of traffic. By the time the two uniformed men reached the scene, other police men and women were running in from every other direction on all sides of the gas station. They pulled and tugged at the large pulp of scuffling bodies, pushing anyone they could snatch away to the wayside as they dug further into the layers of people. Once they penetrated the center of the tangle, Eve yelled out in horror.
Eli was one of the people who had been trapped at the center of the brawl. Even from this distance, they could see that his face was partially bloodied. He was still standing strong and tossing out large fists at three men who were trying to gang up on him. Jesse’s blood ran ice cold in his veins. There was no way he could sit idly by while one of his family members and his closest friend was trying to fight for his life in the middle of all that bedlam.
“Stay here and lock the doors behind me!” Jesse nearly tore the seatbelt from the frame of the door as he spoke his command. “If anyone even touches one of these doors, you pound that horn. Understand?”
Shock and awe were only a fragment of the countless jumble of expressions written across Eve’s once serene face. Her eyes were wide and hollow and her bottom lip trembled. He wanted to hold her and make her feel secure and loved. He wanted to wipe away everything that had conspired in the last twenty-four hours of the history of the world – everything except, of course, for the newly formed bond that they now shared – but he was helpless to do so. At the moment, the best that Jesse could manage to do for Eve was to keep her safe behind these locked doors while he went to save his friend from getting pounded into the concrete.
“Evie,” Jesse calmed his voice. The more he shouted the more frightened Eve was sure to become. “Listen to me, baby, I need to go help Eli but I’m coming right back. I don’t care who knocks, if it isn’t me, don’t let them in here.”
She gave a weak nod.
Jesse balled his hands into a tight fist, his frustration was mounting. How could he have led the woman that he loved right into the middle of this mayhem?
“God, Evie, I’m so sorry I brought you here. When I get back, I’m going to find a way to get you someplace safe. Lock the doors.”
He leaned in quickly and kissed her forehead before turning to run toward the brawl. As soon as he stepped up onto the curb in front of the fueling station, the smell of spilled gas stung his nose. In no time at all, a fist was flying his way. Jesse’s natural instincts kicked into high gear. His athletic agility allowed him to duck low before one of the men who was trying to jump Eli could land the punch he had been aiming at Jesse’s jaw. He countered his opponents move with his own sharp double jab to the man’s square chin and nose. The blows were enough to knock the fighter to his knees. A gush of crimson blood spilled from the stranger’s nose and poured down the front of his button up dress shirt.
Jesse looked the man over. The blood was still running from his broken nose. He was wearing dark blue tailored pants, now covered in grease and oil stains, and his shoes were pricey looking even when dust covered. He must have worked in one of the local office buildings.
This was the first time in many years that Jesse ha
d ever intentionally laid hands on another person in a physical altercation. Harming another person didn’t bring Jesse any joy. He wasn’t a brawler but he was physically trained with enough strength and speed to do so when needed. Unfortunately for the man sitting in a slump beneath him, today was one of those days.
There was new movement at the corner of his eyes. There were still two others surrounding Eli, who was nearly out of energy from trying to hold them back. Jesse stomped two heavy steps forward and used his brute strength to grip one of the men by his shoulders and yank him back with enough force to bring him down to the hard concrete with a bone chilling thud. The man lay still for a few seconds then flinched and grabbed at his right elbow. The impact had probably smashed the juncture in several places.
Jesse looked over at Eli. After a solid left hand hook caused the last opponent to stumble back against one of the broken gas pumps, Eli managed to steady himself on his feet. He bent forward and hung his weight onto his jean covered knees. He snatched in two giant gulps of air before lifting his head up to Jesse.
“Thanks, man,” he gasped out. “It was like everyone just went nuts.” Eli ducked his head again to cough a few times, still trying to refresh his aching lungs. “One minute, we’re all lined up to get some gas, the next, it’s like a full riot exploded. This is so crazy.”