Collapse (New America)

by Richard Stephenson

  “Hey, buddy. Hey, you!” The paramedic in the back was screaming at Beauford.

  Beauford snapped back to reality and try to steady his voice. “Yeah, what is it?”

  “How long was he hanging?”

  “Uh, why?”

  “Because I need to know! How long?”

  “Uh, yeah. I’m not really sure, I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know? I’m pretty sure he was up there for a while! What the fuck were you doing?”

  Beauford had no idea what to say; he couldn’t think of a lie so he changed the subject. “Is he gonna make it?”

  “Dude, at the very least this guy’s got brain damage. You got someone meeting us at Saint Elizabeth’s?”

  “What do you mean?” Beauford looked utterly confused and searched his racing mind for some sort of explanation. Who would be meeting us at the hospital? Aren’t the doctors already there?

  “You got back up coming or what? You notify your boss? Do you know what the hell you’re doing? Wake the fuck up and do something!”

  “Uh, yeah, yeah. Hold on.”

  Beauford fumbled for his radio. “Hey, Doug?”

  The Control Center replied, “Go ahead, Beauford.”

  “Hey Doug, uhh... this is Beauford.”

  “I know who this is, Beauford! Gimme a break! What’s going on?”

  “Doug, you got someone meeting us at the ER?”

  “Negative. County Sheriff rides our radio net. They must know what’s going on. You didn’t tell them?”

  Richard could not believe how easy this was going to be.

  “Idiots!” The EMT screamed to the front of the cab. “Step on it Manny, we’re in serious trouble back here!”

  Brock Hornsby was no fool. He spent three years as a medic in the army before he hired on with the Winchester County EMS. He knew exactly who the man was lying in his ambulance. He highly doubted the man was in any condition to do a thing. The man was probably a vegetable and the poor guy had even shit himse…

  Richard sprang into action so quickly that the three men riding with him couldn’t have responded if Richard had moved at half his current speed. In one lightning fast motion, Richard reached up under the paramedic’s chin and with the aid of his handcuffs, rammed the paramedic’s head into the ceiling. At the same time Hornsby hit the roof, Richard rolled over onto his left hip and kicked both of his feet around, breaking Deputy Clements’ nose. Blood poured from the man’s face as he crumpled against the wall, completely terrified. Richard knew Beauford was down for the count. The paramedic proved to be a little more of a challenge, but not much. Slamming into the roof didn’t knock him out and only pissed him off. The driver slammed on the brakes, sending the truck swerving recklessly. Hornsby fell over onto Richard’s face. Richard gladly accepted the gift of the man’s ear in his mouth and bit a chunk of it off. The man howled in pain and clawed his way past Beauford, opening the back doors and falling out onto the curb. Richard moved to the front of the cab and spit the chunk of Hornsby’s ear at the driver.

  “GET THE FUCK OUT!”

  The driver didn’t have to be told twice. Wiping a glob of bloody spit from his cheek along with a chunk of something Manuel didn’t dare try to identify, he jumped out of the cab like it was on fire and ran screaming down the street. Richard climbed into the driver’s seat and realized he had one more task to attend to before he could drive away.

  Beauford was still sitting in the back of the truck, the rear doors wide open, inviting him to disembark. The man was too terrified to do anything but tremble in fear.

  “Get out of the truck, Beauford,” Richard said calmly.

  “Richard, what are you doing? I don’t understand.”

  “Oh yes, almost forgot. Before you go, Beauford, I need you to do something for me.”

  “Richard, this doesn’t make any sense! Why’d you do it?”

  “Beauford! Be quiet and listen to me. OK, very slowly, with the thumb and index finger of your left hand, I want you to reach across and slowly take out your taser and toss it up here to me.”

  “Please don’t hurt me, Richard. Please.’

  “I’m not going to hurt you, Beauford. I’m sorry I had to break your nose. Now, do like I told you, nice and slow.”

  Beauford smiled at the apology. He knew Richard didn’t mean to hurt him.

  “Beauford, you’re not going to try and shoot me, are you? You’re shaking so bad I promise you’ll miss and things won’t go well for you.”

  Beauford did what he was told and tossed the taser into the seat next to Richard.

  “Good, Beauford. Thank you. Now, toss the restraint key and your smartphone up to me. And Beauford, before you leave, grab some gauze out of the container to your left.”

  Beauford tossed the cuff key up and Richard caught it. He dug for his smartphone and tossed it behind Richard’s chair. “Gauze? Why do you need gauze, Richard?”

  “No, Beauford, you need gauze. Your nose is still bleeding. You know why I had to break your nose, right?”

  “Huh?”

  “Beauford, if I didn’t break your nose, they might have thought you helped me escape. Now you can tell them whatever story you want about how you tried to stop me.”

  “Richard, why are you doing this? I don’t think a jury would even convict you.”

  “I appreciate that, but I have something that can’t wait. Goodbye, Beauford.”

  Beauford climbed out of the truck and nursed his broken nose.

  Richard Dupree shifted the gear down into drive and turned the ambulance around, facing north. He started down the empty road toward the mountains on the horizon.

  He was a free man.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Hurricane Maxine made landfall on the eastern edge of Galveston Island at 3:52am local time. The Category 5 hurricane didn’t break any of the records set the previous month by Hurricane Luther. She did, however, come very close. Unlike Luther, Maxine did not make landfall and then go back out to sea only to return to shore. Once she came ashore, she took her sweet time traveling to Houston. She slowly churned water from the Gulf of Mexico and brought it along with her for the trip, flooding the entire area from Galveston all the way into Houston. Winds in excess of one hundred ninety-five miles per hour brought Galveston Bay spilling into the Greater Houston area. Torrential rains flooded South Texas for the better part of twelve hours. Where Luther was a wrecking ball to the state of Florida, Maxine was like a fractured dam spewing water down on the state of Texas.

  Chief Maxwell Harris had spent a good portion of the night filling sandbags to keep the rising water out of his command post at the local high school. He had a stack of sandbags three high at both doors leading into the locker room. He thought it would be sufficient but soon realized he needed to double the height. It was a risky decision, given that he had to venture outside to fill up the sandbags.

  "Is it going to be enough?" asked Elizabeth.

  "I think so; let's just hope the gym can withstand this bullshit. If it blows away we might be treading water in here."

  "I hope you're exaggerating," Dr. Stone said.

  "Maybe just a little. If this continues, the water could get up to our waists."

  "This is a nightmare. I'm betting most of the town is underwater," Elizabeth stated with a worried look on her face.

  "Not just the town, most of the region. I can't imagine what it’s like out there or how we’re going to get to safety."

  "You'll think of something, you always do," Elizabeth stated.

  "How are you feeling?" Max sat down next to Elizabeth.

  "Very sore. Breathing is still hard."

  "Bruised ribs tend to have that effect on people."

  "Yeah, I figured that out pretty quick." Elizabeth sat up in her cot and fixed her hair.

  "I know this isn't really the time or the place, not sure if it will be for a long time, but I was just wondering how y
ou felt about everything I said earlier."

  "What do you want me to say?"

  "I don't know … something. You change your mind about me? Think I'm a reckless asshole who murdered two innocent people?"

  "Max, honey, stop. You didn't murder anyone, it was an accident. I'm sure you’ve done a fine job of torturing yourself. Explains a lot about you, why you always taking the path of least resistance. You have to move on with your life and make a difference. You can accomplish anything you put your mind to."

  "I love you, Elizabeth."

  "I love you, too."

  "Too soon?"

  "Not soon enough. Get over here and kiss me."

  Max leaned over and placed his hand on the back of her head. He very slowly pulled her in and gently pressed his lips to hers. Elizabeth giggled.

  "What's so funny?"

  "I don’t know. I was trying to make up a joke about this being our first date."

  "You mean you couldn't think of something clever to say? I'm shocked. Am I that good of a kisser?"

  "Don't flatter yourself. I'm pretty doped up on pain meds. Don't know how you manage to function on these things."

  "You're just a lightweight. I prefer to think my kisses distracted you."

  "Sure, keep thinking that, stud."

  Max got up from Elizabeth's cot and turned on his flashlight. He checked on the other occupants of the locker rooms. Very few of the adults were sleeping; the children were more fortunate. Max shined his light out into the gymnasium and saw several inches of water. The damaged portions of the ceiling allowed water in like a faucet.

  "He's dead, isn't he?"

  "What?" Max turned around to see a very solemn Kathy standing there.

  "Chief, don't tell me what I want to hear. Tell me the truth."

  "Kathy, I know as much as you do. Charlie is a sharp guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he climbed into a boat and tied it to a stop sign. You want to know my honest opinion?"

  "Yes."

  "There’s a very good chance that he is dead, but we don't need to think like that. Does us no good worrying about information that we don't have. I think it’s safe to say that a great many people are dead. The only thing we need to concentrate on is keeping each other alive. We’ll deal with the rest when the time comes."

  "I know. I'll do whatever it takes. I gotta say, Chief, you’ve really impressed me during all of this. I thought I could say I knew Maxwell Harris. Seems like I'm meeting him for the first time."

  Max smiled. "Thanks. I'd forgotten who I was. I'd pretty much given up on doing anything with my life. I just wanted to be left alone and coast my way through. I guess it took a life threatening disaster to open my eyes and start living again."

  Kathy smiled as they both stood in the doorway, not really knowing what to say. She decided to change the subject. "Looks like the wind is starting to calm down."

  "Yeah, thank God for that. I wonder if we’ll see the sun today."

  Kathy shook her head. "I doubt it. Probably have storm clouds for a week."

  "Well, we need to try and get some sleep. This is going to be a very long day."

  "I doubt we’ll be able to get much sleep."

  "Well, then we need to at least lie down and rest."

  Max walked around the locker rooms and checked on everyone. He told the civilians to try to get some sleep. Max took three pain pills to help with his throbbing hip and knee. He knew the idea of falling asleep was a joke, but he relaxed his body as much as he could and thought about dealing with the disaster happening all around him. He wondered how much of his town was left. Max thought about what his first move should be when they left the gym. Should he split up his deputies into search and rescue teams or should they all stick together? What about the civilians currently in the command post? Who would watch over them and keep them safe? What if they wanted to wander out into harm's way and risk injury? Max never dreamed of needing boats to get around his town; he didn't really think the water would get much higher than knee deep. The fact that water was coming inside the gymnasium meant that the water level was much higher than he anticipated. He would have to figure something out. Improvisation and resourcefulness were always his strong suits.

  Max checked his watch to find it was approaching 8 am. The wind had finally slacked off enough that Max felt they could operate safely. It was still pouring outside, but it was time for them to get out there and do the job the taxpayers expected them to do. Max gathered everyone in the boys’ locker room. Once they were settled, he spoke.

  "OK, everybody, listen up. We've got some planning to do. Need to figure some things out before we get started. I need all the officers to switch their radios from A mode over to B mode." Their radios had two modes: A mode sent their radio traffic to the police station over a repeater and broadcasted it over a range of fifteen miles. When the radio was in B mode, the range was limited to the antenna on the radio itself, essentially making them walkie-talkies. In B mode, two radios could communicate a few miles at best.

  "Since Elizabeth is in no condition to move, she will remain here at the command post with Dr. Stone and coordinate our movements. For the civilians in the room, I hope you won't object to staying here at the command post for the time being. I have no intention of detaining you against your will; however, I cannot allow you to leave here until we have surveyed the area. This is strictly for your safety. I hope you understand that. Do any of you have any prior military training or experience with emergency services?"

  "Chief, I'd like to volunteer to help out. I was a firefighter for twenty-five years," a man in his late fifties stepped forward, "name's Rudy. My wife Trudy will help the doc out anyway she can."

  "Rudy -n- Trudy. Trust me, we know our names rhyme," Rudy aid, winking to everyone in the room.

  "Rudy, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Very grateful for your help," Max addressed the room, "anyone else?"

  No one else spoke up. The only other men in the room were Elizabeth's fan who had enjoyed seeing her bra and a quiet man who clearly didn't want to leave his wife and small children behind.

  "OK, for the rest of you who are staying here, I'd ask that you help out in whatever way you can. The first thing we’re gonna do is head to the police station to survey the damage. Kathy, when you left the station did you secure the armory?"

  "Sure did, Chief."

  "OK, hopefully it managed to stay intact. Once we’re at the station, we’ll plan our next move. Let's get moving. Hopefully we can drive the entire way there. If not, we walk."

  Max turned to Elizabeth, "Sergeant, be prepared to receive civilians. If we come across anyone who needs help, we’ll be sending them here."

  "Yes sir, Chief."

  "Doc, you think you can handle running a makeshift ER?"

  "I think I can manage.” Dr. Stone gave Max a wink.

  "Okay, we're leaving the sedan here. Take everything useful out of it and move it to one of the trucks."

  Rudy spoke up. "Chief, that's my truck over there. Looks like she survived the storm. I got a tool box full of tools and some towing chains that might come in handy."

  "That's outstanding, Rudy. The sedan we're leaving behind is Officer Miller's. He can ride with you."

  "Okay, let's load up. The police station is only a few miles down the road. We’re going to take it slow. I'll take the lead. Listen to your radio. If you see anyone in trouble call out over the radio to stop."

  The four vehicles lined up in a convoy and pulled away from the high school. Only a few inches of water covered the roads, thanks to the drainage ditches on either side. They made slow progress, surveying the damage to their town. A half mile down the road on the left was a subdivision. When they were in front of the main entrance to the subdivision, the chief stopped and looked down the road. The majority of the houses were missing their roof. The drainage system in the subdivision was not exactly up to standard, so the streets and front yards were completely underwater. W
ater was up to the windows on the first floor of the houses. Max knew this subdivision was one of the lucky ones that had a higher elevation than most of the town. If things were this bad here, a good portion of the town would either be completely submerged or have only rooftops sticking out above the water line, like lonely beacons signaling the bleak wreckage of ordinary life.

  The rest of the trip was uneventful. They didn't come across anyone who was stranded or needed assistance. At one point, the water was deep enough to come to the bottom of the car doors. Once they got to the police station, they pulled into the parking lot and got out of their vehicles.