by Mark Goodwin
“Danny, look. I understand exactly how you feel.”
“You don’t know how I feel!” Danny snapped back as he slung the bucket and started walking toward the dining area.
“Whoa, big guy. Settle down.” JC didn’t seem to take offense at Danny’s attitude, but neither did he seem prepared to drop the subject. “Think about what you just said. I’ve got one kid out there, God knows where. I pray every night that he’s alive and that God will bring him back, but the reality is, I have no way of knowing. My other son, I’m putting him in harm’s way for the second time tomorrow. I understand that a wife is different, but don’t think I don’t love those two boys as much as you love your wife.
“Alisa is fast, smart, aware of her surroundings, and a natural when it comes to shooting. I’m not asking you to make any sacrifice that I’m not already making. And I wouldn’t even consider putting her in if I didn’t think she could handle it. Over the years, I’ve come to be a pretty good judge of who can take the heat and who’s going to choke on game day.”
“I thought you were just a beat cop. What do you know about how people will react in a shootout?”
“I worked as a beat cop. I never said that’s what I was doing when I retired.”
“I appreciate what you’re saying, but it’s not the same. Melissa is much better trained than Alisa. Why don’t you put her in?”
“Danny, I’m going in. I’m putting my kid in. Melissa ain’t going in. Somebody has to stick around for Annie. I can’t leave my little girl in this world with neither one of her brothers, no mom, and no dad. That’s too much to ask of her.”
Danny felt a pang of guilt shoot through his gut. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
The two men made it back to the beverage area where Danny began mixing the strongly brewed tea with the cold water. JC set the bucket next to Danny’s feet, patted him on the back, and said, “Think it over. We’ll talk later tonight.”
Danny said nothing. He didn’t want to think it over. He wanted to be back in Savannah, back at school, walking through Forsyth Park, holding Alisa’s hand, and going to Leopold’s for an ice cream. But none of that was ever going to happen again, so there was no use wishing for it.
After lunch, Danny helped Alisa, Dana, and Steven clean up. Then, Danny and Alisa went upstairs to take the nap he’d been waiting for all week.
Alisa closed the door, sat on one of the food storage buckets that was serving as a chair, and took her shoes off. “Dana overheard Pauline talking to Nana. Rocky isn’t going out with you guys tomorrow.”
Danny sighed as he kicked off his shoes and sat on the bed. “I heard.”
“So, Nick and JC both know? Who’s going to take his place?”
“Not you, if that’s what you’re hinting at.” Danny lay his head on the pillow.
Disappointment was again scrolled across Alisa’s face. “Danny, I don’t think you understand what happened to me mentally when I was abducted. I’ve tried to tell you, but either you’re not listening, you don’t have the ability to empathize with my emotions, or you’re too caught up in your own head to care. The powerlessness I felt, it’s still with me. I still feel like a victim. I’m not going to get mad anymore, I’m not going to throw a fit, and if you say no, I’ll be a submissive wife and do what you say. But, if you say no, I want you to understand what you are doing to me. You are imprisoning me in the past, in a perpetual state of being a victim. What happened to me is not your fault. I’d never blame that on you, but now I have a chance to prove that I can take care of myself, to break out of this prison of fear that’s inside me, to face my monsters. If you take that away from me, you are what is standing in the way of my healing.”
Danny listened as her voice cracked. He didn’t have to look at her to know she was crying. So was he. Danny did understand how she felt, but she didn’t understand his fear. He just didn’t know if he was ready to face his monsters, ready to deal with the fear of losing her. He remained silent, but the tears continued to quietly roll down his face and onto the pillow as he drifted off to sleep.
Danny jumped up from the bed, stumbled to the corner of the room, and grabbed the AK-47. Half asleep, he tried to focus as he raised the rifle to a low-ready position. “They’re coming, they’re coming!” he yelled.
Alisa cried out from the other side of the bed, “Danny! What’s happening? Who’s coming?”
Confused, Danny surveyed the room as reality replaced the blurry vision he’d just seen. He lowered the rifle as he looked at Alisa, sitting on the bed with one hand covering her heart. In a low, mumbling voice, he repeated her question. “Who’s coming?”
“Danny, put the gun down. I think you just had a bad dream. You scared me half to death. Sit down. Do you want some water?”
Danny placed the rifle back in the corner where it had been. He took a deep breath and caught a bead of sweat with his tongue. “Yes, please.” The familiar dry mouth following one of his nightmares needed more water than the few drops of salty perspiration sitting above his lip.
Alisa slowly stood up and made her way to the door. She put her hands on Danny’s face and looked into his eyes compassionately. “I’ll be right back with some water. And change your shirt; you’re soaking wet.”
“Thanks.” Danny followed her instructions. The clean, dry shirt was becoming a sort of ritual, the last phase of his journey, back to reality from a distant land plagued by horror and fright. Danny sat back down on the bed and remained motionless while he waited for Alisa to return.
She returned quickly with a glass of water. “What happened? Another cow?”
Danny took a sip of water and set the glass on top of the bucket by the bed. “I don’t know. I don’t remember a cow. The only thing I remember was being out on a barren plain. It wasn’t a desert exactly, but close. There was like some scrub brush growing and a few weeds here and there. Off in the distance, I saw a dust cloud. It was red. I remember thinking it was a dust storm, but as it got closer, I could hear the thunder of hooves charging in my direction.”
Alisa handed him the glass of water. “Like horse hooves, or like cattle hooves?”
Danny took another sip and set the glass back down. “I don’t know. The only thing I could see was the dust cloud. But somehow, I knew that the source of the hooves and the billowing dust cloud was coming for me.”
Alisa’s face went white. “It’s an attack. We’re going to be attacked. We have to go tell JC and Nick, right now.”
Danny nodded. “Okay, let me get my boots on.”
Once they had their shoes on, Danny grabbed the AK and made his way down the stairs. Alisa followed close behind, buckling her pistol belt as she cleared the last stair. They passed Steven and Dana, holding hands and sitting in the swing on the front porch.
“Where are you guys running off to?” Steven asked.
“Danny had another dream. We have to talk to JC,” Alisa said quickly in passing.
Steven trailed close behind with Dana following him as Danny and Alisa refused to stop on their way to JC’s trailer. Danny knocked on the door.
JC came out and looked at the rifle in Danny’s hand. “Is this an emergency?”
“I don’t know,” Danny answered.
“Do I need my gun?” JC rephrased his question.
Danny shrugged. “I had another dream. I don’t know.”
“Hold on one second.” JC dipped back in the trailer. “Jack, we got an Ernie. Look alive.” JC soon returned with his tactical vest and his rifle.
“What’s an Ernie?” Alisa asked.
“We use Sesame Street characters for alert levels. It’s less scary for Annie. But never mind that. What was your dream about?”
Danny was still processing the alert levels. “Ernie is which one? The orange one?”
“Yeah, Bert is yellow, Ernie is orange; Elmo is what you don’t want to hear.” JC motioned for Danny to get on with the explanation. “The dream, what was the dream.”
&n
bsp; Danny explained what he’d seen.
JC looked to Alisa. “Do you know what it means?”
“The dust was red. I think it’s like a cloud of war. I think it means we’re going to get attacked. The way the dust cloud was growing larger and the hooves getting louder, I think it’s getting closer.”
“I kind of gathered all of that, but how imminent do you think it is? Could this be happening within the hour, later tonight, tomorrow?” JC quizzed.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess since the cloud was a ways off, we probably have a little time, but not much. If I had to make an estimation, I’d say days. Definitely not months, and probably not weeks.”
“So less than a week?” JC listened closely to everything she said.
“It’s just a guess. I don’t know.”
JC patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t underestimate yourself. I don’t think God is going to bother giving Danny a dream unless it can be boiled down to actionable intelligence. You’re his interpreter. If you say days, not weeks, it’s probably days, not weeks.”
“I never said I was his interpreter.” Alisa stuck her hands in her pockets.
“Well, I have to go on something, and I’m going on that. Let’s go tell Nick.” JC motioned for them to follow him.
Jack was geared up and at the rear of the group by the time they arrived at Nick and Cami’s trailer across the yard.
JC knocked.
“Be right out,” Nick said.
“No hurry,” JC said.
Nick and Cami soon came to the door. “Come on in,” Cami said as she held the door open for Danny and his growing entourage.
JC gave Nick and Cami a quick synopsis of everything.
Alisa added, “Don’t forget about the landscape, the scrub brush and the weeds.”
Steven looked curious. “Do you think that’s significant? The weeds?”
“It could be symbolic of the sparse resources. I’m not sure.” Alisa shrugged.
Dana nodded. “That makes sense.”
“The bottom line is, we’re going to get hit soon, and we need to get ready.” JC turned to Danny. “I need you to think about tomorrow. The whole operation hinges on your decision. I’m not going to run that op short-handed and put everybody at risk. And if we don’t get the needed provisions to secure this place, we may all be dead this time next week.”
Alisa took his hand. “Danny, what is he talking about?”
Danny grimaced and turned toward JC. “Go ahead, tell her.”
“You sure about that?” JC quizzed.
Danny gave a reluctant nod.
“Alisa, would you be willing to fill in tomorrow? You’d be Danny’s assistant on cutting locks and connecting hitches. That would allow me to put Korey into the vacant fourth security slot.”
Alisa’s eyes lit up, “Yes! Of course.”
“Good, you know the drill. It will be just like training.” JC looked as though he was surprised by her excitement.
Alisa hugged Danny and kissed him on his neck. She whispered in his ear, “Thank you!”
Danny was less ecstatic about the situation but forced a smile.
JC pointed at Steven. “It should be you going tomorrow. I appreciate your position on stealing, and that was a great little sermon you gave this morning; I just hope your conviction is still as strong when you’re gurgling your last breath in a pool of your own blood, while you watch some sicko dragging your little girlfriend off on a dog leash to do who knows what to her.”
Steven didn’t respond to the comment but quietly stood up and left the RV. Dana looked like she had something to say, but kept her mouth shut as she slowly followed Steven out the door.
In fact, no one said anything. While Danny would have found a more discreet way to say it, he felt roughly the same way about the matter as JC did.
After a long moment of awkward silence, Danny said, “We should let Nick and Cami have their privacy back. Come on, everybody, let’s go.”
Cami held the door as they left the RV and reminded everyone, “Don’t forget about the news broadcast tonight. And we’re supposed to have the bluegrass music right afterwards. We’ll see you all by the picnic tables.”
JC waved as he walked down the stairs. “Thanks, but I’m going to skip the entertainment tonight. I want to get as much rest as possible for tomorrow. Danny, I’m sure you’ll let me know if the newscast has any pertinent information.”
“Absolutely. It’s usually the same old stuff, but if it’s anything new, I’ll relay the message to you. See you in the morning.” Danny smiled as he waved to JC and Jack.
Alisa’s voice was still full of excitement. “I’ll see you tomorrow, JC!” Her salutation also seemed to serve as an assurance that she would, indeed, be included in the mission.
The turnout for what had been the highly anticipated Pickens Radio broadcast was light. JC and Jack didn’t come, supposedly because they wanted to rest up, but Danny suspected it had to do with JC being irritated at the members of the group who weren’t supportive of the salvaging mission.
Steven and Dana didn’t come, after the harsh words from JC. Of course, they didn’t know he wouldn’t be there.
Nana, Catfish, Rocky, Pauline, Cami, Nick, Alisa, and Danny were all gathered around the radio before eight o’clock. The disagreement about the mission hung over the group, but everyone avoided the subject and tried to act cordial so they could enjoy the music when it began.
At eight o’clock on the dot, the radio sprang to life once again.
“Hey folks, I’m Ranger Dave. Thanks for listening to this special edition of Pickens Radio. First the news, then we have a special musical treat for anyone listening. A member of our community heard from a friend, who heard from a cousin, who heard from someone he ran into at a pop-up trading post, that a band of semi-well-organized ruffians were making their way around the area and extorting food and supplies in exchange for protection. The impression I got was that they’re putting themselves out to be a self-proclaimed legitimate government who wants to institute order. In reality, they’re probably little more than a local mafia.
“Now that I hear myself say it, sounds pretty much like the politicians we had before the EMP. But all jokes aside, just because someone comes around calling themselves governor this or mayor that, doesn’t mean anything. So don’t fall for it. Get organized and stand up for yourselves. If you let them push you around once, it will be harder and harder to resist.
“But like I said, this little news tidbit is coming down a long chain of the grapevine, so I can’t confirm it as anything more than rumor.”
Danny looked at Nick. “I don’t guess that’s anything worth disturbing JC over. Do you think?”
Nick shook his head. “Not really what we’re looking for to be considered actionable intel. There’s no real who, what, where, or how many.”
Ranger Dave continued the broadcast, going over the basics for new listeners. Afterwards, he introduced the musicians from his community, and they began to play. The bluegrass music was lively and fun, and everyone listening was soon clapping their hands or dancing around. Miss Jennie even knew the words to one of the songs and sang along.
The sound quality was pitiful compared to the standards before the EMP, but it had been more than five weeks since anyone had heard music over an electronic device, so no one complained. The band played for nearly an hour and the music did much to lift the spirits of the members in Danny’s group who listened.
Afterwards, it was time for bed. Danny was still tired. The vision of the red dust cloud racing toward them from the horizon had robbed him of his chance to take a restful nap. He hoped there would be no more dreams. Danny desperately needed a good night’s sleep before the mission.
Monday morning came early. Danny and Alisa were up well before daylight, even before Nana, so they could eat a good breakfast and gear up for the scavenging run.
A light tap at the back door preceded JC’s entry. He was carrying a gre
en tactical vest, similar to the one he’d given Danny. “Melissa is lending you her vest for today. You are both about the same size so the straps and buckles should be adjusted to fit you fairly well.”
Alisa took the vest. “Thanks.”
“Any new info from the radio last night?”
“Yes and no.” Danny filled JC in on the hearsay that Ranger Dave had relayed the night before.
“There’s probably some truth to it. It’s a shame he didn’t get more specific news.” JC unclipped his holster holding a semi-automatic pistol and took two magazines out of his pocket, laying them all on the counter. “And here’s my Glock. Alisa, you can wear it in the holster on the front of the vest. It’s the same model as Danny’s so you know what to do with it.”
Alisa finished zipping up the vest. “I can’t take your pistol. What will you use?”
“I’ve got my .38, as a backup. But I’ll never be separated from my battle rifle. You and Danny will be cutting locks and hitching up the trailers, so it’s imperative that you have a good sidearm in case we get hit and you can’t get to your rifles right away.”
Alisa stuck the Glock in the holster on the front of the vest. “Thanks again.”
“No, thank you. You’re a brave girl. I’m proud of you. And you, too, Danny. I know it takes a lot to put someone you love in harm’s way.”
Danny gave a slight nod and glanced over at his wife. “Thanks. I probably wouldn’t even have her if you and Jack hadn’t helped me bring her home.”
“We all do what we gotta do.” JC smirked. “Most of us, anyways. See you guys at the barn. We roll out in twenty minutes.”
“We’ll be there.” Alisa walked JC to the door so it wouldn’t slam shut and wake Nana.
Danny put a bowl containing the remainder of his oatmeal on the floor for Puddin’, who quickly turned her nose up at the inadequate offering.
“Ungrateful cat.” Danny shook his head. “These are hard times. We all have to make some adjustments.” Danny found the leftover fried rabbit from Sunday dinner and tore off a few morsels to mix into the oatmeal. By shredding the meat very thinly, the picky feline would be forced to ingest some of the oatmeal. Oatmeal was heavily stocked in the compound, but rabbit was a treat they ate twice a week at most. Next, Danny picked out some gristle and bone to mix into another portion of oatmeal for Rusty. The reliable old farm dog would have eaten the oatmeal alone, without complaint, but it just didn’t seem fair to not give him a taste of rabbit also.