Solar Reboot

by Matthew D. Hunt

  The town of Cashmere came upon them gradually, more and more buildings appearing at a time until suddenly they were in the middle of a town without realizing they’d passed its borders. The snow wasn’t piled up quite so high on these streets as it had been in Wenatchee. Someone had clearly come out to plow it in the not-too-distant past.

  Alex felt a little jolt of hope. If there was any semblance of infrastructure here, maybe there wouldn’t have been the same looting and chaos they’d seen for the last few weeks. He even half let himself imagine that they could still find an open store, or any place they wouldn’t have to break into to find the insulin they needed so badly.

  That hope died once they found the town’s pharmacy. A squat, square building, little more than a cube, he could see a pale seventies pink stucco under the snow that covered it. All the front windows were smashed, and through their gaping holes he could see most of the merchandise had been taken from the shelves. What was left lay on the floor, scattered all around in great garbage piles.

  He looked over his shoulder. They had to at least check inside, to see if there was any insulin at all. It might be the last chance they had. But he was still keenly aware that they might have some unwanted guests. He hadn’t heard any footsteps since they left Wenatchee, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

  “We’re going inside,” he said. “Stick close to me.”

  Piper nodded silently and helped him tie up the horses. The front doors were busted in like the windows, but they had crossbars and were chained shut. Alex helped her step in through the windows, careful to avoid the sharp glass. Max poked his nose in after them, but seemed reluctant to come in.

  “Stay,” said Alex, holding up a hand in front of the dog’s nose. “We’ll be right back.”

  Max whined, but he stopped trying to follow.

  Inside was just what he’d expected—or feared. What scant few products remained inside were all over the floor. The shelves were absolutely empty. He checked all of them, even after he went to the section where the insulin should have been, even after he saw the shelves were empty and boxes were scattered all over the floor.

  There was nothing.

  “It’s empty,” said Piper.

  “I know,” said Alex. “We’ll find someplace else.”

  “Where else? This is the only place.”

  “There’s going to be another one.”

  “How do you know? We should have looked in the last town.”

  Her face was ghost-white. She shoved her shaking hands into her armpits, wrapping her arms around herself. Alex stepped forward in concern.

  “Are you all right? How’s your head?” He put a hand to her forehead.

  Piper slapped it away. “I’m fine. I don’t have a fever, or a headache—yet. I’m freaked out, Dad.”

  “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. We’ll find something.”

  He hated the words, because he had no way of knowing how he was going to back them up. But what the hell else could he say to her? As if she sensed his doubt, she turned away from him, breathing heavy, the fog of it drifting out the window.

  Alex stared over her shoulder, at the buildings across the street, and the land farther south, where it rose up and into the foothills of mountains. Maybe someone up there could help. If it were him living in this town, he’d have a house up in those hills. The perfect place to retreat for the end of the world. Just you and the other richer inhabitants of the town, perched up above it all with lots of space in between each home. Nothing up there to attract crowds, or any people at all, except—

  His eyes fell on a low, red brick building.

  “The school.”

  Piper turned to him. “What?”

  Alex pointed to it where it looked over the town from atop the hill. “That school. The nurse’s office. They’ll have insulin. More than enough to get us home.”

  Piper stared at it for a moment, then spun to look at him. In her eyes he saw something priceless: she believed him.

  “Well then let’s go!” she cried. “Come on!”

  They practically leapt out through the broken front windows, and once they were mounted Alex spurred the horses to a trot. Max sped along behind them, as though he’d picked up their mood, and together they made their way up the hill to where the school was waiting.

  CHAPTER 32

  The school’s front door was locked, but didn’t hold up long once Alex threw his shoulder into it. On the third try it flew open, slamming into the wall behind and sending a deep reverberating blast echoing through the linoleum halls.

  Alex stepped in, closely followed by Piper and Max. Max stepped just ahead of him and raised his nose, sniffing. Alex looked down the hall stretching ahead, as well as the ones that ran left and right. Empty. Not that he’d expected to find anyone inside—the locked front door was a pretty clear indicator no one had come here since the weather began. Still, it made him breathe easier.

  They couldn’t see the nurse’s office from where they’d forced their way in, so Alex led the way down the hall. If he had to guess, the school would place the nurse somewhere near the middle of the campus, so medical help was as close as possible no matter where kids got injured.

  Every footstep sent long echoes bouncing all around. Alex could only remember two times he’d been in an empty school, both during high school, and he doubted Piper ever had. It was unnerving. The halls were so obviously built for crowds and sound, the thrum of young humanity on its way to adulthood, that when that life was stripped away, they seemed far more empty and cadaverous than open country. It was even worse than passing through Wenatchee and then Cashmere, no matter that they’d been reduced to Cashmere.

  But thoughts of the town reminded him of the prison van, and the lingering footsteps behind. He glanced over his shoulder before he could stop himself. The school’s front door was now out of sight. But with the dead quiet in the school, he hoped they’d hear it if anyone came in after them.

  “Faster, sweetheart,” he said. “Let’s find what we need and get out of here.”

  The hallway ended in a t-split, and Alex only hesitated a moment before turning right. In fact he had no idea which direction the nurse’s office might be, but one was as good as another.

  They didn’t find the nurse’s office right away, but they came across something else that made Piper stop and stare in awe, her eyes wide and her jaw hanging open.

  “Dad,” she gasped, and stepped forward. She spread her hands across the glass front of a vending machine absolutely packed with sweet, sugary goodness.

  Alex couldn’t help but smile at the look on her face, though his mood dampened again quickly. “All right, step back,” he said. “Get Max back, too.”

  Across the hall was the cafeteria. He picked up one of the chairs—a heavy, metal job—and chucked it into the vending machine. But the glass didn’t break. It was some kind of plexiglass.

  “Step into the cafeteria and around the corner,” he said. Piper did so quickly.

  He pointed the Glock at the top corner of the plexiglass and pulled the trigger. The gunshot blasted through the halls, deafening them. A neat hole appeared, along with a spiderweb of cracks across the whole thing. When he threw the chair again, the glass shattered to fall and spread across the hallway floor.

  “Oh my god,” said Piper.

  She went straight for the Kettle chips, ripping open a bag and shoving a handful of them into her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she moaned.

  “Sooo good. Do you want some?”

  She thrust the bag towards him, flecks of potato flying from her lips. Alex’s stomach growled at the sight and smell of it. They’d spent weeks now eating nothing but bare-bones rations, and something with salt and lots of trans fat sounded like heaven. But he was so nervous at the idea of being followed, he didn’t think he’d be able to keep down even such a small bite of food.

  “I’m fine, sweetheart. Go nuts, but hurry up. We didn’t come for snacks.”
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  She downed the rest of the bag and shoved several more into her pockets, along with some candy bars. Alex hurried her on before she was fully done. They needed to find the insulin, and then they needed to get moving. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but the sooner they were out of Cashmere, the safer he’d feel.

  Fate didn’t seem interested in kowtowing to his anxiety, however. It was another fifteen minutes before they finally found the nurse’s office. The door was thick wood and locked, but there was a glass window in the middle of it. It was real glass, and broke easily under the butt of his pistol, and then they were in.

  In the back room was a medical table, the uncomfortable kind that seemed designed to make every kid’s visit to the school nurse as unpleasant as possible. But in the back of the room was a tall locked cabinet. Like everything else, it was built to stop a curious child from breaking in and stealing something to get high, but wasn’t sturdy enough to stop a determined attempt to break in. Soon Alex had the door hanging from its hinges.

  On the top shelf in a small refrigerator was a whole box of insulin bottles. He almost wept with relief.

  Piper did, at least a little.

  “Here,” he said, pulling the box down with shaking fingers, and peering inside at the four vials of precious liquid. He got one bottle out, opened his back pack, grabbed the pump supplies and filled the reservoir for the pump while Piper removed her old cannula and inserted a new one. Piper then sat down for a dose right there, while Max curled up by her thigh, resting his head in her lap. “Glad we kept a few supplies in each pack… see, your dad isn’t as crazy as you thought he was,” Alex said with a tired smile. “And we’re not taking any risks with these, for sure.”

  Of the four, he put one in his jacket, and one in Piper’s, and then tucked one into his sock, and another in hers.

  “Backups of our backups.”

  “For once, I don’t think you’re a paranoid freak,” said Piper, smiling a little.

  “See?” said Alex. “That’s why I’ve been crazy all your life. For just such a situation.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Sure. For some kind of solar flare that destroyed the whole world. Totally makes sense.”

  He was about to answer, maybe give her a hard time, but a sharp sound cut him off. It was the sound of a metal door slamming open, striking the wall behind it.

  The front door of the school.

  They both froze, staring at each other in horror, while Max lifted his head from Piper’s head and began to growl. There came a long, screaming squeak of hinges, before the front door slammed shut again.

  Then, far off, they heard footsteps. More than one pair, moving into the school’s halls.

  Max sprang to the door of the nurse’s office and poked his head at the door, bristling. A low growl issued from his throat.

  Alex looked to Piper. Her eyes were wide as radar dishes, and her face was paler than it had been before the insulin.

  “We have to get out,” he whispered. “Follow me. And be as quiet as you possibly can.”

  Terrified, she nodded. They packed up her insulin pump. Alex slid out the door and down the hall, one hand trailing behind him to remain on Piper’s arm. The other hand led, holding the Glock.

  Max followed on their heels. Alex wondered briefly if it wouldn’t be better to leave the dog behind somehow. Dogs didn’t exactly understand the concept of stealth. But Max wasn’t making any noise now that they were on the move. And if Alex and Piper were found, he wouldn’t mind having the dog’s fangs on his side.

  “You there, asshole?”

  The shout was so sudden and loud, Alex almost popped off a shot. He and Piper both froze in the hallway. His mind raced, trying to figure out where the voice had come from. Not very close, but not far enough away.

  “We saw you come in, man. You and your little girl. Where are you?”

  Behind them. That was good. Alex nudged Piper forward. If he remembered, the next left took them toward the front door.

  “You killed my cousin, man, and two of my friends. That’s fucked up. We weren’t even gonna kill you, and you blew them away. Now? Now we’re gonna kill you.”

  Piper squeaked with fright. Alex stopped and turned to her, putting a finger against his lips. The convicts were trying to frighten them. They wanted Alex and Piper to be afraid, to make a mistake, make a noise, so they could be found.

  The Glock was covered in sweat. He prayed it wouldn’t slip if he had to use it. Where was the goddamn front door? They should have reached the turn already. He was lost.

  Footsteps. Just around the corner. Max lunged forward, snarling.

  Alex dove into a classroom, pulling Piper after him.

  “What the fuck?”

  Max’s mad, furious barking tore the air. After the quiet stalking through the hallways, it sounded like the apocalypse. Footsteps scuffed a hasty retreat.

  “You got ’em? Where are you?”

  “Nah, man! It’s their fucking dog!”

  “Kill it!”

  “I’m not getting near that fucking thing!”

  God bless you, Max, thought Alex.

  He’d been an idiot. He’d been listening to the voice, the one convict who was shouting after them. But there was more than one, and the other—or were there more than two?—had been sneaking along silently, trying to catch Alex and Piper as they were driven out into the open.

  The classroom door’s hinges squeaked slightly. Alex tensed. But then the pitter-pat of dog feet announced Max’s approach just before the dog came into view, whining and licking Alex’s hand.

  “Good boy,” whispered Alex.

  “Dad, there’s another door,” said Piper.

  He followed her pointing finger. The classroom had a back door. He was pretty sure it went the wrong way, but right now he’d do anything to get out of the school. They could figure out how to recover the horses, or get the other transport. But right now they had to survive.

  They made a beeline for the door. A short hallway led to the school’s back exit. Through the windows he could see a courtyard with tables for students to sit and eat—all abandoned, all covered with snow.

  Almost home free.

  No stealth now. Just running. He sprinted for the door, dragging Piper after him.

  A man the size of a linebacker leapt from nowhere. He tackled Alex into the window. Glass shattered as both of them flew out to land in the snow.

  Pain lanced the shoulder of the arm holding the Glock. He thought it was from the landing, but it was the wrong side.

  He and the convict rolled away from each other. When he tried to raise the gun, pain flared again. Grimacing, he felt the shoulder. His hand came away with blood.

  Glass. Laceration. No way to tell how bad it—

  The convict’s fist slammed into his face, too fast for him to raise the gun.

  Alex dropped. The man loomed over him—face thick and wide, and a deep cut in one cheek. The glass had been indiscriminate.

  “My fucking cousin, asshole!”

  He kicked. Hard. Alex tried to roll with the blow, but barely softened it. He groaned, hoping he hadn’t just felt a rib break.

  Shink.

  Looking up, Alex saw a knife in the man’s hand. Barely a knife—a prison shiv.

  There was a bestial snarl half a second before a flash of brown and black fur took the convict down. Max was on top of him, snarling and tearing at his arms.

  “Fuck!”

  The shiv slashed. But the man couldn’t get it up for a stab, and it just cut a gash in Max’s flank. The dog yelped and darted away.

  Alex was halfway to his feet. He heard crushed glass and looked to the window. Another convict was climbing out.

  Where’s Piper?

  Out of sight. He hoped to high heaven she was doing the smart thing and hiding.

  The new arrival raised his fists and charged.

  Alex lifted the Glock and put two rounds in his belly. The convict’s eyes widened as he stumbled back. Bl
ood spattered the white snow. He looked down at his own ruined torso as he fell, and didn’t move again.

  Movement to Alex’s left.

  Then a blinding flash of pain as the shiv sank into Alex’s guts.

  He gasped. His left hand came up to grip the convict’s bicep, like he was holding him for comfort. The man’s face was an inch away, rank breath washing up Alex’s nostrils.

  “Motherfucker,” the man growled.

  Alex’s hand tightened on his shirt. Then the Glock came up under the man’s chin, and Alex popped off two shots.

  Blood spattered his face as the convict’s eyes went vacant, and he fell to the ground.

  Alex sank to his knees. He stared at the shiv in his belly.

  Some organs have to be shredded. Internal bleeding for sure. Do I pull it out? Could bleed more. On the other hand, can’t move with this thing stuck in me.

  His thoughts were way too clinical. It had to be shock. That was bad.

  The nurse’s office.

  But first …

  One fist closed over the shiv’s handle. He took two deep, wheezing breaths.

  He yanked it out.

  If there’s anything that will sharpen your wits, it’s the unbelievable pain of pulling a blade out of your own innards. Alex screamed, screamed till he thought his throat would break. His fingers almost wouldn’t uncurl from around the shiv, but at least he forced them to, and it plummeted from his shaking grasp.

  He looked up, his eyes darting all over the place. Snow was still falling. It was starting to pile up on his shoulders. Was that because it was falling so heavy, or because he’d been there longer than he realized?

  Damn it. Shock might be settling in again. He couldn’t let his thoughts wander.

  Max appeared at his side. The dog was whining. He sniffed at Alex’s hand tentatively. Alex’s fingers sank into his fur, stroking him, drinking in the dog’s warmth. It helped him focus.

  “Good boy,” whispered Alex. “Good.”

  He got a hand on the dog’s haunch and managed to lever himself to standing. Slowly, a step at a time, he hobbled for the school’s back door. No way he was trying to climb in through the window in this condition. Both hands were pressed tight over the wound in his gut. It wasn’t bleeding as much as he’d been afraid it would.