“Thank you very much Mr. President, I will be in touch soon.” He ended a radio call.
“The real President?” I asked.
“Yes.” Gil answered. “Are you leaving?”
“I am. I came to say goodbye.”
“I’ll walk you up.” Gil stated.
I said goodbye to Tom who wished me luck.
“You have supplies, right?” Gil asked as we hit the stairs. “Remember, do not use them or give them out until you are positive you can return. I’ll come out for you if you aren’t back in four hours.”
“We need more than four hours. And we have the radios.”
“Anna,” He stopped me as we reached the top of the steps. “Something for you to think about while you’re out there.”
“What’s that?”
“The President wants to send transportation up here in a week. He wants me down there, says I can be a big help. It’s thirty degrees down there and rising. You don’t have to live up here. Come with me.”
“Gil, what about everyone else?”
“I can’t take them. I can take you. I want you to come. Things will be good there.”
“Why don’t you stay here?”
“For what reason, Anna?” Gil asked. “Why? If you give me a good reason, I will stay. Otherwise I’m going to go.”
I didn’t know how to respond, I really didn’t. I just stared at him.
He reached down and opened the door for me. “Good luck and be careful.” He kissed me on the cheek. “Think about it. Please?”
My only response was a slight nod of my head in acknowledgment of his request. Stepping into the bay, I saw Tony standing there holding my coat.
“Think about what?” Tony asked.
“You heard?” I placed on the coat.
“Yeah and saw the kissing action. Think about what?”
While I adjusted the coat, Tony handed me my knit face mask. I perched it on my head. “He wants me to go south with him to that bunker.”
“Oh, won’t his wife be thrilled about that?”
That made me laugh.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Actually, I am.”
Tony took hold of my arm and we walked to the blast doors.
Duke and Spencer were already fully suited up. Both of them carried a bag on their shoulder. I had one too, it was empty.
“Remember,” Tony said. “Do not activate your hand warmers yet. It’s gonna be cold. Face coverings down.”
I rolled my mask over my face. Placed on my goggles, and then lifted the hood.
“This is a little overboard.” Spencer said. “It’s cold. But this isn’t Antarctica.”
“Better safe than sorry. We have to walk.” Tony reached for the doors.
I was ready, fully covered and mentally excited. We were leaving the bunker, venturing out and I couldn’t wait to see, good or bad, what was out there.
It had been months since I had left the perimeter of the bunker.
It was time.
Tony opened the doors.
47 – Elwood City
I never really realized how far a mile really was until I had to walk a mile in that cold. Bitter cold. It didn’t matter how much lining I had. By the time we reached the fence, I was frozen.
We were still quite a distance from our destination.
There wasn’t a single sound out there. No birds or animals. No planes in the sky causing a low hum you don’t realize is there until it’s gone.
Life sounds were gone.
The tree line road was still partially tree lined.
There were no leaves and the trees we saw that weren’t covered by snow were black and dead.
Actually, the trees were literally half dead. One side had taken the brunt of the heat wave.
The boots I wore were a little big for me and I kept slipping in them. My feet were cold. I knew they’d be numb before too long even though I wore lots of socks. Those hand warmers were going in my shoes first chance I got.
The ash on the road was still there but it was hard like a rock and covered with a thin layer of ice. It crunched as we walked and I had to lift my legs with every step. Every so often in the short one mile journey, I would regret not staying back and staying warm. What lay ahead and the vision of the aftermath kept me going.
What would we find? What would we see?
Was it a dead world? Outside the bunker it certainly was.
We stayed close, not really speaking, conserving our breath and trying not to inhale too much cold air. Spencer made a comment that it reminded him of a winter ten years earlier and he didn’t have the gear we had now. I started thinking it was just me, because Tony, Duke and Spencer looked unfazed.
The garage was a welcome sight. It wouldn’t be warm there, but at least it was a chance to get a vehicle. It looked little and square and I wondered how such a small garage could house a jeep and protect it from the insane elements.
Once the garage door was opened, I saw how. It opened to a ramp that went below. Dark and cold, the Jeep was there as promised, and Duke wasted no time getting to work on it.
While he did that, I walked up the ramp half way and pulled out the radio.
“Protocol One, come in.”
“This is Protocol One,” Gil replied. “Been waiting to hear. How is it out there?”
“Cold.” I replied. “Very cold.”
“Well, it’s warmer than when I arrived.”
“This isn’t a competition.” I said.
“How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay. We’re at the garage. It was untouched.”
“Keep me posted on the Jeep.”
“Will do.”
We said a few more things, and the conversation ended with Tony coming to get me.
“Are you done?” He asked. “We’re ready.”
“Duke got it started?”
“With ease.”
I smelled the Jeep running when we approached and Duke was inside. Tony got in the driver’s seat, and I got in the back with Spencer.
“Give it a few,” Duke said “She’ll warm up.”
To me, it was already warm compared to outside.
Slowly we pulled from the garage and turned. Funny, how I had no sense of direction and kept looking for the van.
Then we spotted it off to the side of the road. The back doors were open and the windows were busted. When we hit the bottom of the hill, we turned.
The drugstore looked even worse for wear. It had been burned down. At least the left side of it had burned.
We hit the main road and that was when I realized, I didn’t pay attention when we were on our way. Nothing looked familiar.
A few abandoned cars dotted the road, not many. They were just left there and most were buried in frozen ash. At least that was what it looked like to me. Of course, I wasn’t all that certain ash could freeze.
The road was covered and Tony said it was a little slick, but he was taking his time.
Elwood City sounded like a small town so I wasn’t expecting much. My first glimpse of the devastation caused by the comet was only a mile or so away.
As we neared, we saw smoke. It wasn’t buildings burning. It was people burning things to stay warm.
The area was flat with very few slopes or hills and spirals of dark smoke streamed to the sky from various buildings and houses.
We didn’t’ see a soul on the streets. We cruised through the main strip of town. The buildings were blackened from smoke and ash, but some had been burned. Windows were broken. The stores were apparently cleaned out. Store fronts were busted out. Items that had spilled out on the street were frozen there. A few shopping carts were over turned.
Again, though we didn’t see anyone, it was clear that people had survived and were living in that town.
Tony slowed down, then turned the car to the left.
“I counted eight,” Duke said. “Want to go farther?”
“No, we saw what we needed to se
e. “ He slowed down and in the middle of the road near the curb, he stopped. “Take the wheel?” he asked Duke, then opened the door.
We were getting out. Right there in the middle of the road. It made no sense. To me, if we were looking for people, shouldn’t we follow the smoke signals?
Duke had taken over the driver’s position.
“What are we doing?” I asked when I stepped from the Jeep.
Tony pointed to the store. It was one of those discount dollar places. “I want to see what kind of damage was done to items. Are they viable? Are the people that survived able to access them or will they get desperate?”
“Meaning will they come after us?”
“Exactly.”
“Maybe if we offered to help them, they wouldn’t.”
“Maybe if we did, they’d know we had things. No, Anna, we assess and we leave.”
“Then this whole trip makes no sense.”
“Did you think we were here as good Samaritans?”
“Yes. You said we were looking for survivors.”
“I said that and I meant that. Not look and aid. It can’t work that way.”
Admittedly, I was irritated. It seemed like such a waste. “Then why did we bring supplies?” I asked.
“In case we got stuck or someone asked for help or we needed to bribe our way out of a situation.” Tony stood before the broken store front. “Are you coming in or are you letting your bleeding heart seep into the sidewalk?”
Spencer placed his hand on my back. “Look, I know you want to help folks. I know you do. But we can’t advertise. We can’t...”
Tony walked ahead of us into the store. Some of the shelves had been overturned. Most were empty. The cheap dollar nick knacks were shattered on the ground.
We followed Tony thought the dark.
He picked up a water bottle that was empty and melted. He tossed it to the ground.
The cheap reader glasses rack was still standing, but some of the glasses had fallen and some were adhered to the rack. It had gotten so hot that some of plastic had melted.
Tony headed to the back of the store, it was darker back there and there was an odd wall of shelves. They looked as if they had been moved.
Tony pulled his rifle from his shoulder, extended it, and held his hand back for us to stop while he checked it out.
He inched his way there, but wasn’t quiet. His boot crunched against the frosted glass that was scattered around the floor. We kept out lights on him and he made it to the edge of the wall and peered around.
Then I knew. Something was wrong.
Tony lowered his weapon.
“What were they thinking,” he said. “All these houses. Why here?”
What was he talking about? He didn’t tell us not to look, so Spencer and I walked to the wall.
Once I did see, my insides churned. There were four people. A man, a woman and two children. They lay covered with towels, blankets and curtains from the discount store, huddled around a tin pot that was obviously used as their source of heat.
It hadn’t worked.
They were white and looked like ice statues. They had frozen to death.
Eyes open, completely gray. The woman’s arm extended from the blanket. It was eaten to the bone. By her arm was a dead German Shepherd.
I backed up, it was too much.
I felt my stomach twist and turn, wrench and squeeze and I fought with everything I had not to throw up.
It was visually and emotionally too much to bear.
How desperate they must have felt. The parents had to have felt helpless. I felt helpless for them.
Despite my trying to contain it, I ran a few feet and trying to be inconspicuous, I vomited what little I had in my stomach. It came upon me so sudden. Afterward, I had to remove my mask and place it in my pocket.
Spencer walked up behind me. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“As hard as this is, this is the reality of it. This is the way it is everywhere. Unfortunately, these people were not the exception to the rule. The longer they go without shelter and food, the more people will die. Nothing we can do about it.”
Still half bent over, I looked over my shoulder. “How can you say that?”
“What choice do we have?”
“It’s easy for us to say isn’t it? We have three meals a day, water, heat and shelter.”
“We’re lucky Anna. That’s not our fault, that’s our salvation right now in this dead world.”
Tony walked up to us. “You ready? We have to go. A running Jeep is a call out for trouble. They probably already spotted us.”
“We don’t need to be followed,” said Spencer.
I walked out with the two of them and immediately Spencer got in the Jeep while Duke stepped out to ride as a passenger again so Tony could drive.
It still baffled me why we came into town. Were we that callous that we only went in to see what we had to worry about? What dangers lurked in Elwood City?
Before getting in the Jeep, I went to the back of it and lifted the hatch.
“What are you doing?” Tony asked.
I grabbed one of the bags. “I’m leaving the supplies here. Maybe someone …”
“No. No, you aren’t. No trails to us.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s the way it has to be.” Tony took the bag from my hand, placed it back in the Jeep and closed the hatch. Hand on my arm, he guided me to the vehicle and I got inside.
We were leaving.
Pulling away, I looked at the dances of thin streams of smoke in the air. They signified life. I thought of that poor family and wondered how many others were scattered throughout the town, freezing and starving, with no food and nothing left to burn to stay warm.
We had enough supplies in the jeep to save one family like the one in the discount store. We could save someone of dying a cold death.
But we didn’t.
We just drove away.
Something was not right about that.
48 – Defining Roles
The entire short return trip, I was like a spoiled child that didn’t get what she wanted. I was quiet and snippy when spoken to. Increasingly, my irritation level rose when I realized that Duke didn’t stay behind at the Jeep to guard it. He did so to take pictures.
He continued taking them all the way back. My first defensive feelings were that we weren’t on some tour bus. But in fact we were tourists. Sightseeing the apocalypse. I felt that way. Duke explained that the pictures would give us an indication of how many people were there. Were they thin streams of smoke? The larger ones indicted bigger fires and more people.
Our arrival was greeted by almost everyone. It was as if we had been gone on a long voyage instead of just an hour or two.
We parked the Jeep just outside the blast doors, unpacked and walked in.
They all greeted us. They all wanted to know what it was like out there, what did we see?
Surprisingly, Gil wasn’t there, but I didn’t expect it to be long before he came up.
Melissa looked curiously around. “I’m shocked. I would have bet my double yolk eggs that you would have brought someone back.” She said to me.
That made me pout and stew.
Then when Craig said, “Me, too. That’s why I’m here. I expected someone to need medical help. A survivor.”
“Tony said no.” I barked out in a whining manner, without thinking how it would sound. “He said no. I wasn’t allowed. He wouldn’t let me.”
“It’s your bunker,” Melissa stated. “You can do what you want.”
“See? My thoughts exactly.”
“No.” Tony interrupted. “This bunker may be in her name, but we all live here. All of us. And this sisterhood for the betterment of nomads thing you two have happening, doesn’t wash.”
“What the hell was that?” Melissa snapped at Tony.
Internally, I cheered her on. Go, Melissa, pummel him. Someone please he
lp me out on the Tony arguments.
“Don’t get her started,” Tony said to Melissa. “I been dealing with her on this.”
“Fine.” Melissa shot up her hand.
Fine? That was it? Oh, great.
“Tony, she has a point.” I argued. “I should be able to have a say so.”
“And we don’t? We all live here, work here. This has long surpassed the single notion of what you think is best under you ideology of a post comet world.”
“Then it should have been a group decision.”
“It should not even be up for discussion at this point.” Tony’s voice was strong.
“Whoa. Whoa. Hey, hey …” Gil interjected. “What’s going on?”
Did my face show something? Arrogance at Gil’s arrival?
“Oh, okay, I sense the arrival of a shining knight.” Tony backed up. “A dark one, but a shining knight nonetheless.”
“Tony, come on,” Gil stated. “What’s going on?”
“Tell him.’ Tony said to me. “Tell him what you are mad about so you can get him on your side and hear him say,” Tony changed the sound of his voice. “‘You’re right Anna, you’re always right. Whatever you want'.”
I gasped.
Gil laughed. “Was that supposed to be an imitation of me? Because it wasn’t very good.”
“I’m working on it.”
Gil breathed out. “What’s going on, Anna?”
“We were out there. I guess scouting the area for survivors. Not to help them, like I thought, but just to see them. I wanted to help. At the very least, if we didn’t go door to door, leave the bag of supplies. Tony yelled at me …”
“I did not.” Tony defended.
“You did too. You said I couldn’t do it and was adamant that it was something we couldn’t do.”
Gil glanced at Tony, then to me. “I … hate to say this, but I’m gonna have to side with Tony on this one.”
Tony gloated with a ‘Ha, I knew there was a reason I used to like you'.
“Both of you…” I pointed. “Suck.” And then I walked out.
Okay, that was immature and not the way to end or handle the situation. I wasn’t a child and I needed to stop behaving like one. If I wanted something to go my way, under the semi democracy of the bunker, I had to present it to everyone with a why. Not stomp to my room and pout.
Protocol One Page 24