Winds of Ares: An Apocalypse Thriller

by Druga, Jacqueline

  Martin asked, “What do you know about the West Coast? We’ve been really out of contact for two days.”

  “Typhoons up and down the West Coast,” he replied. “Massive tornados, dust storms, water funnels. They hit repeatedly from what James said. Ever hear the saying lightning doesn’t strike twice. Well, that doesn’t apply to this.”

  “Has James been updating you on all the weather?” I asked.

  The Reverend nodded. “He has. We’re bracing for the incoming. So should you. Stow your vehicles, and you’re welcome to stay here or we have a community shelter at the courthouse, in the old fallout shelter.”

  “We’re traveling east,” I told him. “Trying to make it to a safe zone.”

  “You’ll be traveling across a mine field,” he said. “Do you think that’s wise? You have the children to think about.”

  Lane questioned. “From what you’ve been told is it safe out west? I mean is it over there?”

  Reverend Barrows lifted his hand a bit and shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. I really don’t. It’s in God’s hands. He’s in control.”

  “You think this is God’s end?” I questioned.

  “I can’t really say it’s His end, but maybe he’s doing a little cleansing. I really don’t like to think that.”

  “This is man’s doing,” I said. “An experiment gone bad. Trying to use weather manipulation as a weapon.”

  “That is very science fiction and farfetched,” he said.

  I wanted to snap back that it wasn’t as farfetched as God’s ending, but I didn’t. Not only because he showed us kindness, but who was I really to say. Man may had started it, but maybe it was God who said, “Okay, okay, enough.’

  He wasn’t a man to be argued with or debated with. He was good and deserved our respect and thanks.

  He took time out of his day and away from helping his town to help us.

  As our break there neared the end, town residents showed up to help out at the church. I wish we could have stayed and helped even a little. We just didn’t have the time.

  I mean … we could have stayed.

  I even spoke to Lane about it. He was good with whatever I wanted to do.

  The town was so peaceful and calm, they had it together with their heads on their shoulders. A part of me even thought about accepting the offer to stay. To brace for the storm in a town that was well prepared. But I wasn’t sure the town would survive the impending storm, let alone Ares if it followed the next day.

  I just knew, despite the reverend imploring us to stay, it wasn’t an option. A huge storm was coming, and we needed to move out.

  We spent the next hour getting that break we needed. The kids ran around as if nothing out of the ordinary had been happening. I envied the innocence and lack of fear the kids all possessed. Too young to know any better, or maybe just too young to be scared.

  I tried to get as much information as I could from the Reverend about what he knew. He and another man from the town looked at my map. Neither saw any reason why we couldn’t stay on the highway, at least for a hundred miles or so. Nothing directly east of us was hit, and if we timed it right we would miss that massive hurricane roaring its way north.

  Anything he could tell us would be and was helpful. I was eternally grateful for his help and willingness to lend a hand to a group of mud covered strangers.

  I truly hoped he and his town would weather the storm … literally. We left and hit the road, fearful of what lay ahead, but ready to face it because the reverend’s information and guidance had us moving forward a little less blindly.

  SEVENTEEN - DIAMONDS FROM THE SKY

  “Then what?” Carlie asked.

  It was a strange question, one not laced with preteen sarcasm, she was genuinely curious. Just a kind of out of the blue question after a ten minute stop. Martin had decided to take a break driving, leaving Rick and Anita in the truck, while he joined us in the RV. I had thought about it myself, the ‘then what’, but I saw it as a bridge to cross when we got there.

  She wasn’t talking about the immediate future she was asking about what we would do after the threat of the storm was over.

  Then what.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I mean I don’t see us living in the bomb shelter. Maybe we will all be part of a new community.”

  “Why?” asked Carlie. “Why can’t we go home after the threat is over?”

  “Is it going to be over?” questioned Lane. “I mean, if this weather bomb story is real, is it going to be over, or did they mess up the weather forever?”

  I gave a sharp look to him. “What do you mean … if? Of course, it’s a weather bomb.”

  Reese spoke up. “Didn’t you say they tried to fix it?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, and we saw that.”

  “Maybe they did,” Reese said. “Maybe not everywhere, but maybe they fixed it and it only shows in small places like that one place today with the sun.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Hey, Aunt Jana,” Carlie leaned forward at the table. “Do you think our mom is watching and sees this all?”

  “Probably. I know she’s seeing it all.”

  “You think she’ll wait to come back?”

  Martin grumbled.

  Carlie looked back at him. “What’s wrong Pap?”

  “Just this … you’re talking about your mom on Mars.”

  “What about it?” she asked.

  Before Martin could say anything, I did. “Your Pap hated the idea of her going.”

  “Damn it, Jana,” Martin snapped. “Don’t put words in my mouth. That’s not it and you know it.”

  Innocently, Carlie glanced at her grandfather. “What is it then, Pap?”

  “Carlie, the Mars thing. I hate that you have been lied to.”

  “Who lied to me?” Carlie asked. “And what did they lie about?”

  “Jana wasn’t honest with you,” Martin said.

  All expression dropped from my face. Was he really picking this moment, in the middle of the world falling apart, to tell Carlie her mother not only didn’t want her, but was probably dead from one of the many natural disasters?

  “What did she lie about?” Carlie looked at me. “What did you lie about?”

  “I have no idea what he’s talking about,” I said. “He said I wasn’t honest. Not lie. Big difference. Pap is an old man. He’s not making sense. And really, it’s probably something dumb. I mean, cause if he was going to tell you something serious and earth shattering why would he do it right now.” I shifted my eyes to Martin. “When we are in the middle of all this.”

  “You’re right,” Martin said humbled. “I wouldn’t do that or pick now. It’s silly and dumb. Aunt Jana lied to you about … about something silly and little. You tell her Jana, you’re good with stories.”

  “Oh, I know what he’s talking about.” I waved out my hand. “I know what you’re talking about. I did lie to you, Jana, but that’s only because I didn’t want you to get your hopes up. You know they have these special spaceships up there that go back and forth from earth and Mars. Your mom was thinking of coming back and working out of Wyoming, but she couldn’t catch the flight in time.”

  “It’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Carli asked. “Or she wouldn’t be safe up there.”

  “Yes. It’s a good thing,” I replied looking at Martin, then turned around back in the seat to stare forward.

  I understood why he wanted to be honest with the kids. It was just bad timing. Martin didn’t have any love lost for my sister. When the private investigator found her and she didn’t want to come back, he washed his hands of her.

  I often wondered if something snapped. If I could have seen her, talked to her, I would know. She was my sister.

  Lane and I went to look for her. We went while Martin had the kids for a visit, and we found the ‘off the grid’ commune. A big piece of land, they farmed it and lived in trailers. It was fenced off and two men stood guard.

  They weren’t mean o
r disrespectful. In fact, when I told them who we were they went to get her. I watched as they walked to a trailer, saw just a snippet of my sister as she peeked through the door.

  She didn’t want to see us.

  I mourned her, even though she was alive, I mourned the loss of my sibling.

  My love for her was still there and I believed she would return for them. I never wanted her children to hate her.

  That was why I told the Mars story.

  “Are we going to stop soon?” Carlie asked.

  Lane replied. “We just did, an hour ago.”

  “I’m ready to drive again,” Martin said.

  “We’re getting off the interstate soon,” Lane told him. “We’ll pause then.”

  My husband was right about the interstate. It did save us time; we were able to move steadily at a good pace. There was a lot of lightning, a few claps of thunder, but no rain. It was coming, I knew it, I just didn’t know when. I kept feeling like we were playing Russian roulette with the weather. There was nothing around, left or right.

  “It was a good call,” I reached over and grabbed his hand. “It really was.”

  “Maybe if you look at the map again, we can find a good area to hit it again farther east,” Lane suggested.

  “I can do that. I just wish I knew the track of the storm the Reverend mentioned. I’m just grateful we avoided bad weather, we’d be out luck if something hit. There’s nowhere around to take cover.”

  “There’s always an overpass,” Martin said.

  “Yeah, but how safe are they? We’ve been lucky.” Those words just slipped from my mouth when I heard the first tap.

  A single tap on the roof of the RV. I raised my eyes when another occurred, then another.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  Soon it was steady, stronger and louder. I went from looking up to looking ahead.

  It looked like snow, but I knew it wasn’t. Each piece was frighteningly too big to be snow and every single particle that fell from the sky, grew heavier by the second. Pinging sounds turned into thumps, then bangs.

  I heard the click as one hit the windshield and a tiny crack occurred. They weren’t just coming down hard, they were coming down fast.

  “Look!” Reese called out. “Look, they’re sparking.”

  Thinking, ‘they’re what?’ I looked out the window and sure enough, on the side of the road where there was grass and the hail landed with a fierce connection causing sparks to ignite.

  “Is that possible?” I asked. “How is that possible?”

  “Friction,” Lane replied.

  Wham!

  A chunk of ice, the size of a brick landed on the hood of the RV

  It startled us all and Lane swerved, causing the RV to glide across the highway.

  “Lane!” I yelled, as if my scream was going to help matters.

  “It’s slick, it’s really slick.”

  Martin reached up. “Give me the radio.”

  I handed it to him.

  “Lane, overpass ahead. Stop there.” Martin instructed. “Rick, we’re stopping under the overpass.”

  “Thank God,” Rick responded.

  Lane decreased his speed; it was the only way to maneuver on the increasingly slick road.

  Once we found sanctuary under the overpass, it seemed as if the hail let up.

  Still, the result of the fast blast left a layer of rocky looking, white objects in various sizes on the highway.

  We all stepped from the vehicles.

  “Let it melt,” Martin said. “It won’t be long. It has to be ninety degrees.”

  There was something about everyone’s expression that screamed we were all over it. Just another delay, just another irritation.

  Rosie stood with her two young grandchildren near the edge of the ice. The youngest, Marta played with Dooley, both of them reaching down and touching the substance.

  “They sparkle,” Marta said innocently. “Like diamonds.”

  “Yes, they do,” Rosie said. “All different. Very pretty.”

  There we were, standing there with another road above us, the hail stopped falling, but we were stalled due to the conditions of the road.

  We had almost made it across the interstate with few problems. We cut some time but were losing it as we waited for the road to be passible.

  Everyone kind of paired off but Liza.

  Lane and I stood by the RV. Carlie and Reese, like Rosie’s grandchildren were enthralled by the ice. Something they had never seen.

  Martin talked with Anita. Skip was checking on the vehicles for damage, and Rick and Liza stood off alone. I didn’t think anything about it.

  Skip lifted one of the gas cans we had filled back in Princeton. He shook the one and replaced it. “What’s our mile count, Jana?” he asked.

  I looked at Lane. “Bowling Green was our get off the interstate point. How far were we from there?”

  “Fifteen miles.”

  I glanced back at Skip. “About four seventy-five.” I looked down to my watch. “A little over fifteen hours.”

  “That’s doable. Time wise.” Skip wiped his hand on the side of his pants. “I’m worried about the gas. We have enough for maybe another fill up of one vehicle and half for another. Where are you sitting gas wise?”

  Lane answered. “We have a half tank.”

  “Rick?” Skip asked.

  “Truck has a little above a quarter,” Rick replied.

  “Then let’s add ten gallons to the truck,” Skip said. “We have to watch. We may need to ditch the truck, hitch the trailer to the RV and pack us all in there.”

  “This,” Liza spoke up. “Is totally fucking insane.”

  “Whoa, hey, now,” Skip said. “Language. We have five kids here.”

  I assumed, probably like everyone else, Liza was talking about the weather. She was pretty good natured the whole trip, supplying food and things from the diner. Why would she be talking about anything else?

  “Yeah,” I said. “It is pretty crazy. I’ve never seen hail like this.”

  “You really are in your own world.” Liza turned and faced me.

  “I’m sorry. Excuse me?” I thought she was making a sarcastic joke I wasn’t getting.

  “You just have no clue,” said Liza. “You just keep leading us to nowhere. How many more people have to die because of this crazy idea?”

  Lane stepped forward. “That is not fair.”

  “Wow.” I was kind of shocked over her saying that. I wasn’t expecting it, not at all. “Liza, why didn’t you go with Alice, then? She left. She asked if anyone wanted to go. Why didn’t you leave with her?”

  “I don’t know. I just … I just didn’t think about it until that mud took so many.”

  “That mud is not my fault.”

  “This whole road trip is your fault.”

  I shook my head, staying calm. “No, it’s not. It’s not fair of you to blame this on me. There are only two people here who didn’t have a choice to be here, that’s Carlie and Reese. Everyone else is here by choice. Everyone. And everyone has the choice to leave. Excuse me.” I turned slightly, opening the RV door and stepping inside.

  The second I walked into the sanctity of my RV, I stood in the center of the living area, arms folded tight. I could feel my insides shake some. My response to Liza was calm but defensive, but it didn’t really hit me until I walked away, what was said by her.

  I sighed out, peering around the RV, the dirt that remained from the mud, even though everyone tried to clean while on the road.

  I didn’t hear the door close, probably because Lane followed me in. I really didn’t know he had been standing there until he spoke.

  “I know you, you know,” he said.

  I released a single airy laugh. “I should hope so.”

  “I know you and I know that bothered you. I’m sorry she said those things.”

  “Me, too.” I faced him.

  “Although … you told her everyone has the choice t
o leave …” he smiled. “You didn’t say how. But, through all this, one person speaking out because they’re scared isn’t bad. Don’t hold that against her. I really don’t think she meant it.”

  I shrugged. “Who knows? I feel horrible enough about those we lost, I do. I guess I don’t show it.”

  “You show it differently. You are focused on the kids and me. Well, I hope you’re focusing on me. How are you feeling?”

  “What? Why are you asking me that?”

  “Because it wasn’t long ago you got carried away by a tornado. After you saved that baby. I think Liza may have forgotten that.”

  “I’m okay. Sore, but nothing I can’t handle.”

  “I have something for you.” He lifted his finger to tell me to wait and then he went to the back of the RV. He returned with his hand behind his back,

  “What are you doing?”

  “Well, I had some help from the reverend getting this. He knew exactly where I could get it. And low and behold, look at the brand.” Lane pulled a bottle of bourbon out from behind his back. The label read, Ten High, and it made me laugh.

  Ten High it was our booze of choice when we were first married, and it was all we could afford.

  He moved closer, opening it as he did. “I figured you could use a drink of something other than that crappy expensive stuff.”

  “Oh, you bet.” I took the bottle as Lane reached into the cupboard for one of the plastic cups. I poured some in as soon as he handed it to me, taking a sip. “Oh, yeah, this is much better.” I gave him the cup.

  He waved his hand. “I’m driving. You drink.”

  “I’ll keep it in my bag. We should do a taste test with Martin.”

  “That … is a great idea.”

  I brought the cup to my lips, staring over the rim to my husband. “You’re the best.”

  “I love you, Jana, you know that, right?”

  “Of course. I love you.”

  “Even though you thought I was having an affair with my horse ...”

  “That was funny.”

  “Yeah, it was. Listen. Things are tough. We don’t know what’s ahead or behind us,” Lane said. “I can say for certain, none of this is your fault. You got that?”