by Mike Kraus
“It was… I don’t even remember when it was.” Tina closed her eyes, trying to think back to the day of the event. “We were in the house when the lights went out. We figured out pretty quickly something bad was happening when the phone caught fire, though.”
“Is that what happened to the house?”
“Yeah. Well, sort of.” Tina shook her head. “It feels like a dream.”
“Is Dave… was he…”
Tina ignored the question. “We were outside on the porch trying to decide if we should call the power company or wait for them to fix whatever was wrong. We smelled smoke and realized it was coming through the door. Dave went inside and saw flames all up the wall in the living room, starting from where the phone was.” She shook her head. “Damned smoke detector never went off. Piece of crap.
“Anyway, it burned a good chunk of the living room before we got it under control. A pair of industrial-sized fire extinguishers took care of that. We sort of forgot about the source of the fire at that point as we just tried to get things cleaned up. We headed into town to get some supplies, realized that something terrible was going on and came back here to get our things together in case we needed to leave.”
“You went into town the day it all started?” Dianne’s jaw dropped. “We did too! We went to the grocery and had a run-in with a couple of the guys who Jason and I saw at your house the other day.”
Tina shook her head. “Unbelievable. So we must have just missed crossing paths.”
“I guess so. We went out to your house the day after to see if you were okay but everything was… well. Gone.”
“Yeah. That happened later the first day. When we left town and headed back home we were followed.”
Dianne felt her heart skip a beat and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. “Followed?”
“Yep.” Tina spoke matter-of-factly, trying to distance herself from the emotional impact of that fateful day. “We went into the barn to get our emergency supplies out to check them and everything. When we went out of the barn to go back into the house there was an SUV pulling up. The doors opened and a group of assholes stepped out all armed to the teeth. Dave pulled out his concealed carry and dropped one of them but the others…” Tina shook her head. “They threw me in the back of the SUV and torched the house with his body inside. They piled our supplies in with me and drove off to the gas station.”
“Tina. I’m… I’m so incredibly—”
“Sorry?” Tina sniffed, wiping a finger along the edge of her eye. “Nothing for you to be sorry about. Bad things happen every day. It’s their fault Dave’s gone. Not yours.”
“I know, but still.”
Tina forced a half-hearted chuckle and plucked at the shirt she was wearing. “You want to know the funny thing? I had on all my regular clothes when they dragged me there. But I grabbed my robe and slippers out of the things they stole and wore them all the time just to mess with those assholes. Just like how I told them there was a safe on the property. Between that and wearing the bathrobe in this weather they thought I was insane. I’m pretty sure one of them felt bad for me because he threw me a blanket to help keep me warm in the shed.” Tina laughed, this time with genuine humor. “From what they said every time they got back to their compound I had them crawling all over the barn and the house looking for that safe. Idiots. It was the least I could do to keep them busy and waste some of their time so they’d have less to spend on doing to others what they did to me.”
Dianne shook her head in amazement. “You are one stubborn son of a gun. You know that, right?” Dianne had forgotten about how refreshing Tina’s no-nonsense attitude and blunt way of speaking could be. She also realized that Tina was either not ready to talk about her husband’s death or had already, somehow, gotten past it and Dianne didn’t want to press the issue any further.
Tina snorted and her expression grew serious again. “How many of them did you and Jason kill? I know you shot one while you were pulling me out of that shed.”
“I don’t know. There was him, yes. I’m sure several died in the explosion. Jason might have shot some more of them but I don’t know.”
“There’s one, he always wore a red shirt. He’s their leader. He’s a sly one. I wanted to ditch the bathrobe and slippers bit days ago but it was all I could do to keep him on his toes. If he died during your rescue attempt—which was nicely done by the way—then their whole little wannabe-gang would go crashing down with him.”
“I don’t think he died, but I’m not sure. I know the guy you’re talking about. He and a guy in a blue shirt seemed like they were the ringleaders when we were scouting their compound.”
“Scouting the compound? Listen to you. A regular Army Ranger.”
Dianne rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. Look, we need to talk more about this gang later. Anything you learned about them would be good to know.”
“You want to know about them? Sure. I can tell you that.” Tina pantomimed writing out a checklist on the table with her finger and thumb. “They seem to be interested in two things. First: being the biggest assholes possible. Second: exerting as much control as their pitiful little operation can manage. They want to be ‘kings of the highway’ based on what they said, though since the highway is mostly filled with burned out cars I’m not sure they totally thought that through.”
“You think they’ll come after us?”
“After what you two did? Absolutely.” Tina grew serious again and leaned forward. “I, uh… haven’t really said ‘thank you’ to you yet. I’m honestly not sure how, given what you and Jason did. Especially with him in the condition he’s in. But… thank you.”
Dianne shrugged. “You’re welcome, but you would have done the same thing.” Dianne hesitated. “Dave would have too.”
Tina nodded. “Yeah.”
The pair sat in silence for a few seconds before Dianne cleared her throat. “We’ll talk with Sarah and Jason when he gets up later and figure out a plan of defense going forward. I talked to him earlier, by the way. Just for a second. He’s in pain but he’s still trying to rest, though that’s largely been unsuccessful from what he said and looks like.”
“Mm. Not surprising. You don’t have much in the way of pain management.”
“Yeah we didn’t get our pharmacy renewal license in time so I had to throw out all the morphine.” Dianne made an exaggerated expression. “Sorry about that.”
A slight smile, one that appeared genuinely spontaneous, appeared on the corners of Tina’s mouth before she replied. “I’ll dose him up again here soon with what you do have. His liver’s already having a rough enough time. I don’t want to be stressing it too much with a bunch of pain meds in his system.”
Dianne leaned in and whispered to Tina. “What do you think his chances are? Truthfully?”
“If he was lucid and talking to you? Pretty good. I’m most worried about the infection. He’s bound to have one and most of the antibiotics you have aren’t really what I was hoping for. I’ll have to keep a close eye on him and make sure nothing serious develops.”
“What if it does?”
“Then things get a lot worse. For all of us.”
Chapter 10
Kansas City, Missouri
Sitting in the cramped car surrounded by shaking buildings and the ever-present threat of being crushed was not a pleasant experience for Rick, Jane and Dr. Evans. Going through all of that while trying to find a path out of the city that was least likely to wind up with one or more of them being killed was even less pleasant. While the vehicle’s navigation system had onboard street-level maps of pretty much every city in the country without regular updates the maps quickly fell out of date. This was especially true for places like Kansas City which were going through rapid growth and expansion phases and thus had near-constant changes to their streets both physically and in name.
“This isn’t West 34th anymore.” Jane pointed out the side window as they zipped across an intersection. “It jus
t turned into Malone Parkway.”
“Malone?” Dr. Evans typed in the name into a search box on the center console and a pair of streets on the map became highlighted in yellow. “That’s not for another block. I guess that’s another change.”
“Do I still take a right-hand turn at 19th?” Rick kept his eyes on the road.
“Yes. I think so.” Dr. Evans zoomed in on the map. “Yes, definitely. We’ll see if that dumps out where it should.”
Rick ground his teeth together, trying desperately not to let his emotions get the better of him. Driving the small car through the streets of a crowded, overbuilt city would be challenging on a regular day. Adding in the fact that the tremors were continuing to grow in frequency and severity made the drive so much worse. They had nearly crashed several times already, either because a tremor took them by surprise or because part of a building or overpass had collapsed in their path. They had also nearly been the victim of falling debris two times, but Rick hoped that keeping them going at a high rate of speed would considerably reduce the chances of that occurring.
Based on Dr. Evans and Jane’s readings of the map on the center console they were approaching the middle of the city and would soon be halfway to getting out. With the sole intact elevated highway becoming too compromised to use in moving throughout the city they were forced to stick to the surface-level roads as they wove between hordes of burned out or abandoned vehicles and collapsed or partially collapsed buildings.
The question they had upon first approaching the area—wondering what had happened to most of the skyscrapers that the region was famous for—was soon answered as they entered into the heart of the city. The downtown area was centered around a large park approximately four square blocks in size. The seventeen newly constructed skyscrapers had been built around the park, turning it into both a focal point and a natural island in the midst of a sea of metal and glass. Unfortunately the island itself had been consumed by the metal and glass, sucked under by a tidal wave caused by the earthquakes.
Seven skyscrapers stood around the park, six on the east side and one on the north. The other ten that had been on the north, west and southern sides of the park had all collapsed, leaving no more than a few stories of their structures still standing. Millions of tons of debris from the ten buildings lay strewn around the area, though most of it covered the park at the center of where they used to stand.
A few had toppled over onto nearby buildings, though the majority of the damage caused to the other buildings in the area was from the earthquakes and not from the impact of the skyscrapers. While many of the buildings on the outskirts of town had shown signs of damage in the form of cracks on their interiors and exteriors the ones in the center were much more heavily damaged—if they were even standing at all.
Even though only a small fraction of the downtown area was visible to the trio, Rick immediately realized that they would have to find a path around the center of the city if they wanted to escape. “Damn!” Dr. Evans cursed as he looked up and saw the swath of destruction laid out before them. “Give me a minute here.” He looked back down at the map while Rick turned around to start getting them away from the center of the city.
As Rick drove along he felt another tremor, but unlike the others that merely caused the car to vibrate and shake the one they were experiencing was actually making the car buck off of the ground by an inch or so. “Guys?” Rick looked at Jane and Dr. Evans. “Can I get some help here?” Jane and Dr. Evans were frantically arguing as they looked at the map, trying to decide which route to take when a particularly powerful tremor hit. The car bounced off the ground and landed with the tires slightly off-center, causing them to veer off of the road. Rick barely managed to keep them from smashing into the side of a building and he shouted as he continued accelerating. “Just choose a road already!”
Jane leaned forward and jabbed her finger at the screen, causing it to ripple with rainbow hues as she pressed on the panel. “Go there! Take a left at the next intersection! The buildings aren’t as tall, so maybe we’ll be safer!”
“Left at the next intersection. Got it.” Rick held tight to the steering wheel, feeling it and the entire car fight him with each tremor. Jane and Dr. Evans watched the buildings on both sides of the road as they tore past, growing more alarmed at how much the structures were swaying and shaking. Bricks and glass fell off onto the sidewalk and street and dust began to fill the air. While the other tremors had slowed down and even stopped after a while there was no sign of that occurring anytime soon.
“Look out!” Dr. Evans shouted and Rick hit the brakes, spinning the wheel to take an immediate right. A mess of cables and stoplights were falling into the street just ahead of where they had been driving. Rick turned left again at the next street and kept going forward, not certain that the path they were taking would lead them anywhere useful.
As they continued winding their way around the center of the city on the northern side, Jane kept watching as the lone northern skyscraper drew ever closer. Standing at ninety-six stories tall with another hundred feet worth of antennas on top, the building was swaying back and forth like a tower built—and about to be destroyed—by a child.
The movements of the tower seemed like they were taking place in slow motion due to how large the structure was, and while she thought at first that it would slow down and stop she soon realized that the shaking was only getting worse, not better. “Rick?” Jane said, quietly. “Rick!” She said his name again, more forcefully.
“What?!” Rick’s attention was focused completely on driving and he didn’t bother looking back at her as he replied.
“That skyscraper’s going to collapse.”
“What?” Dr. Evans leaned forward and gasped as he looked up at the building. “Holy shit… Rick, we have to move faster!”
“I’m trying!” With a clear, open stretch of road for what looked like a good mile ahead, Rick was pushing the car to its absolute limits while simultaneously fighting against the shaking and rumbling beneath the earth. As he glanced up at the skyscraper to see what was going on for himself he felt a sickening squeeze in his stomach as the building wobbled slightly too far towards the left in the direction of where they were driving.
Chapter 11
The Water’s Homestead
Outside Ellisville, VA
Jason dozed on and off throughout the rest of the day and into the evening hours. Tina, Sarah and Dianne continued to check on him while Mark stayed busy instructing his brother and sister with cleaning and maintaining the hydroponics in the basement and with feeding and caring for the animals. Mark, Tina and Dianne took the main watches throughout the day and night so that Sarah could spend as much time with Jason as possible.
Not wanting to trouble Jason given his condition, Dianne and Tina kept their discussions regarding their response to the gang between themselves, Sarah and Mark. The conclusion, after hours of on and off discussion, was to keep the status quo largely unchanged. The property and the house was largely protected against surprise assault and there wasn’t much else they could do that didn’t involve completely surrounding the property which, as they had talked about before, was not within the realm of feasibility.
The cold weather and the concerns over keeping a fire going and having the smoke be seen by the gang was a constant worry. Near the end of the day as the sun started going down they agreed that they would need to make the best of the situation by running a single, small space heater in the dining room. Everyone who was sleeping would be on pallets in the room to help conserve warmth while those who were on watch would double down on the blankets and warm clothing. The temperature over the last few nights had been warmer than expected which helped with the situation and Jacob and Josie were overjoyed at the change in scenery despite the direness of the whole situation.
It was in the early morning hours when Dianne, who was trying to get a couple hours of sleep, was awoken by Tina’s rapid tapping on her arm and whispering in her ea
r. “Dianne. Get up. I need to talk to you.”
“Wha…huh?” Dianne blinked several times and nodded slowly. “Sure. Talk.”
“Not here. In the kitchen.” Tina stood up and hurried to the kitchen while Dianne slowly stood up and padded from the moderate warmth of the dining room through the blanket hung in the doorway and into the cold of the kitchen.
Mark was standing at the back door as Dianne sat down across from Tina who passed the bleary-eyed mother a cup of coffee. “Here. Drink this. You need to be awake.”
“Tina, while I appreciate the coffee, I really hope this is an emergency.” Dianne croaked out the words as she sipped on the hot drink, both hoping that the caffeine would wake her up and wishing she could be back on the floor sleeping.
“Jason’s not doing well.” Tina spoke quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear. Dianne’s eyes widened and she put the cup down on the table, her brain suddenly kick-started into high gear.
“Come again?”
“Jason. He’s not well.” Tina shook her head. “His temperature’s going up pretty rapidly and he’s starting to have trouble breathing. I talked to him earlier and he seems… confused. Definitely not himself.”
“He seemed okay when I talked to him last night.”
“I know.” Tina nodded. “That’s what’s worrying. He’s getting worse.”
“What do you think it is?”
Tina sighed and scratched her head. “I… don’t know. My best guess is an infection. Maybe a bad one. Sepsis, possibly.”
“Sepsis? That sounds bad.”
“Yeah, it’s a whole-body infection. If that’s it—and I’ll be honest, I’m pretty sure it is—he needs real antibiotics very soon or he’s going to die.” The frank declaration sat in the air, hovering over the table as Dianne tried to make sense of it.