“It’s like my dad used to tell me, sometimes girls break your heart and sometimes the rain’s coming.”
“What? That doesn’t make any damn sense, Brent.”
“Give it time,” he replied then walked into the kitchen.
I sighed and spun around in place. I’d only been in their apartment a few times. They normally acted like they lived in my place.
It was bigger than my apartment. They had three bedrooms, an office and a den. Not to mention, each of the rooms was about one and a half times the size of ours. But that’s what happens when venture capitalist throw money at you.
It was decorated like someone with a split personality lived there. Sports memorabilia was scattered around the place, mixed in with high-priced artwork and tasteless pictures of models. The living area was painted in calm neutral colors, while the den looked like an artist was trying to make a statement with highlighters. They were as opposite as two friends could be.
“What’s taking them so long?” Brent asked as he walked back into the living room.
He had an orange and black camping bag on his back and a hefty-looking flashlight in his hand. He’d changed into some hiking boots, cargo pants and a thick, blue jacket. He must’ve suspected we might have to scale a mountain or two in four feet of snow, but hell, at least he was prepared.
While it was still mild outside, the December weather in Atlanta changed quickly. Dressing warm was a smart move and as I looked at my thin windbreaker, I regretted not packing something a little thicker.
“Damn it,” Brent groaned. “Guys let’s go!”
“She’s probably back there bitching about me. I’ll get them.”
As I headed into the dark toward the extra bedroom I could hear Cindy griping from the hall. I couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, but I was certain it had to do with how pissed she was with me.
“You tell him!” she snapped as I rounded the corner.
“Tell me what?” I said and jokingly raised my eyebrows.
They both dropped their jaws and stared back at me with blank faces. Jake was standing near the door with his camping bag in his hands and the tent rolled up at his feet. Cindy was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking as pissed off as ever.
“We need to get moving guys,” I said and looked from Jake to Cindy.
“Yeah…yeah I just need to grab something from the kitchen,” Jake said.
He grabbed his bag and the tent then walked out. Cindy stared after him then then turned back to me with a strange look on her face.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Don’t start,” Cindy replied.
“Don’t start what? Jesus what did I do to you that was so bad?”
“You lied!”
“I didn’t lie. I really don’t know what’s going on. Okay, so I had a hunch. Why worry you more with my bullshit. I could already see how much all of this is getting to you.”
“Exactly, Max. So I don’t’ need you lying to me too. I need to be able to trust you.”
“Well I’m sorry. You gonna be pissed at me for the rest of your life? If I’m right that won’t be much longer,” I laughed.
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
She grinned and shook her head from side to side.
“There she is,” I said. “I knew you couldn’t stay pissed forever.”
She straightened her face and stood up. “Whatever, Max.”
As she walked by I grabbed her arm and pulled her toward me. “Look all jokes aside. I don’t know what’s going on, but do you really wanna be pissed at me if this is the end of the world.”
She smiled again. I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “You forgive me?”
“Maybe one day.”
“Okay, I’ll take that.”
Sighing, she looked to the door then at me. She grabbed the sides of my face then kissed me on the forehead. She stared into my eyes for what felt like hours then grabbed my hand and walked out.
Once we made it back into the living room Brent and Jake were sitting on the couch making stupid shadows with their flashlights. It was good to see something normal, well as normal as they could be. I knew that nothing good awaited us outside.
“You kids done making up?” Brent asked.
I shrugged. “We doing this or what?”
Everyone collectively sighed and turned to the window. The reflection of our lights bouncing around the apartment was all we could see. Beneath the darkness, the remains of our world lay just out of sight. It was time to find out, just what had happened to it.
CHAPTER 8
THE DARK CITY
We moved back down the hallway toward the stairwell. It was a quicker pace, but I was still nervous as hell. Every step we took brought us further into the unknown.
As I pushed the door open it creaked loudly and I froze. The sound seemed to echo forever and I felt like I was in some zombie movie where the dead were about to come running around the corner.
But no horde of zombies ever showed. As a matter of fact, the trip down the stairwell was the most uneventful ten minutes that I could remember.
“Are you guys ready?” I asked as we all gathered near the door at the bottom.
“Ready as I’m ever gonna be,” Brent replied.
“Yeah, let’s just get the hell out of here,” Jake added.
“Okay.”
I opened the cold, metal door and stepped into the lobby. Our flashlight illuminated the wide, once eloquently decorated room and my heart sank. It was worse than I could’ve imagined. The floor jutted up into the air where the concrete had buckled. The result was two slabs jammed together that pushed into the ceiling above.
Across from us the elevator shaft had caved in and the door looked like a crushed soda can. Parts of the ceiling collapsed, taking one of the walls with it. Furniture was reduced to splinters and the glass doors up front were completely demolished.
“How didn’t we hear this?” Brent asked. “How could anyone sleep through this?”
“I…I don’t know. This is crazy,” I whispered.
We slowly moved through the lobby, soaking in the destruction. I was in the middle of a warzone, something out of a movie where one of our misguided bombs had destroyed a city in some third world country. I felt like a foreigner, unable to find any resemblance to my old home, just a visitor in a world I didn’t recognize.
“Look!” Cindy suddenly shouted.
Near the doors, a sliver of light was starting to creep in. The sun was coming up and although I’d been praying for it, now I knew it would only illuminate the destruction that hid in the shadows.
“Herman,” Jake mumbled.
As more light fell upon the lobby, Herman’s body came into view. He was near the entrance, probably standing there with a smile on his face when it all happened. He’d died at a crappy job where he greeted a bunch of assholes who couldn’t care less about him, in a place that he couldn’t even afford to live.
A piece of the ceiling had fallen and crushed him. From the look, he’d died slowly, suffocating as the heavy concrete squeezed the air from his lungs. It was no way to go.
Herman had always been a nice guy, going out of his way to please the residents here. It was sad to see him like that, to know he died alone in the dark in the same apartment that he’d given so much to.
Jake stared for a long time at his body. He might have been the last conversation Herman had. I hoped that sat with him, hoped he thought about it for a long time. Jake had always been a bit of an asshole and maybe now something would change.
“My God,” Cindy muttered as her eyes found Herman’s body.
“Come on,” I said and took her hand, she didn’t need to see that.
I led her outside where only more destruction waited. The air was clouded and thick, the roads were ripped apart and falling into bottomless holes. I was certain it was an earthquake,
but more than that.
Shifting, tectonic plates across the planet was just the beginning. Magma would bubble to the surface and pour into the oceans. The rapid temperature changes would give rise to catastrophic storms that would only exacerbate the destruction.
I’d spent the better part of my adult life detailing exactly how the Earth would die. It was like I’d made a prophecy and I was watching it all unfold. Everything looked eerily familiar to what I’d described in my paper. It was getting harder and harder to deny the truth and the longer I waited to accept it, the less time I’d have to do anything.
The higher the sun rose the more of the city I could see. Smoke billowed into the air from far away. Buildings crumbled and the towering downtown area looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off. Deep down I knew what was happening, but I didn’t want to believe it.
“Where is everyone?” Cindy asked. “Why is there no one here?”
“Maybe they were evacuated,” Brent replied.
“We need to get moving,” I said sharply. “Doesn’t matter where everyone is, we can’t be here.”
Jake chuckled then held his hands up. “Moving to where, Max?”
“I don’t know…north. We just don’t need to be here.”
“Why north?”
“Earthquakes and oceans never really seem to mix, so south just seemed out of the question.”
Jake bit his bottom lip then nodded. He pulled a water bottle from his bag and took a swig then held it out for anyone else. Brent grabbed it and finished it off then tossed the bottle onto the ground.
“What?” he asked as Cindy gave him a look. “It’s not like I’m making it worse.”
Shaking my head I grumbled, “Let’s go.”
We headed off down the road toward an uncertain location. I just hoped if we kept going north we’d run into something, maybe find some answers. I needed to be moving, I needed to keep my mind off of what was really going on.
The city was devastated. Like it had been under siege for weeks. The parts of the street that were intact were littered with rows and rows of cars, empty cars. There were no people, no bags, no clothes, just empty cars stopped in the middle of the road.
Everyone had vanished. The only thing that remained was a thin, white film that coated everything. The milky residue dripped from the surfaces like water, running down the gutters, forming a stream down the street.
“What is that?” Jake asked and reached out toward one of the cars.
“Don’t touch it!” I shouted.
He froze and looked back at me in confusion.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s probably toxic. Hell, we shouldn’t even be breathing the fumes.”
Jake nodded and fell back in line with the rest of us. We walked for hours, avoiding the cracks and holes in the ground. Hours of marching with no real destination in mind, but hours of the same devastation everywhere we looked.
For the most part, we walked in silence. I was consumed by my thoughts and everyone else seemed in shock, mesmerized by the damage we witnessed. It was hard to believe this had been a bustling city a day ago.
We’d pass houses with the doors left wide open, but not a soul in sight. Besides Herman, we hadn’t even seen another dead body. Everyone was gone and we were the unlucky few left to navigate a dead world.
“This is more than just an earthquake,” Brent said, breaking an hour of silence.
“Yeah, whatever this is, it’s bigger than Atlanta,” I replied.
“What does that mean?” Cindy asked.
“Nothing.”
“What are we supposed to do? Don’t you guys have like some kind of evacuation plan or something?” Brent continued.
“Nothing for this. Nothing for an earthquake, but there’s a satellite office in Marietta. We should be able to find something out if we can get there.”
I knew that was what they wanted to hear, but I already had my mind made up. I was always right, the Neilman Effect was real and the only thing I missed was the timetable.
“We need to take a break,” Cindy groaned as she stopped and doubled over. “My feet are killing me.
Brent and Jake immediately dropped their bags and sat down on the sidewalk. Sighing, I joined them and decided now was a good time to drink some water and try to figure out what to do next. I knew that if anyone at the center had come to the conclusion I had, they would’ve already evacuated. They would’ve taken the helicopters to the transfer station in Calhoun and within the week they’d be on their way to Wyoming. Our only hope was getting there before they left, which meant hanging out here for too long could kill us.
“You guys ready?” I asked after about five minutes.
“Dude, we just sat down,” Jake groaned.
“Okay?”
“I need a few more minutes, Max,” Cindy added.
I smiled and started pacing the sidewalk. My heart was racing and my mind was spinning itself out of control. This had to be it, this had to be what I’d been planning for the last few years of my life. But somehow here I was with nothing.
I wasn’t ready for this. We were supposed to have years; all the preparations weren’t even complete. I hadn’t been to the site in over six months and there was no telling how far along they’d come with the construction.
Someone touched the small of my back and I whipped around. Cindy was standing behind me with a thoughtful look on her face.
“What’s gotten into you? Talk to me, babe,” she whispered.
“Nothing…nothing. I just wanna know what’s going on.”
“Don’t lie to me, Max. I know you.”
I looked away and swallowed. She’d just started talking to me again. Now, I was gonna tell her the world as we knew it was ending and I’d known about it for years. No…I wasn’t gonna do that, somethings didn’t need to be shared.
“It’s nothing really, I’m nervous. All of this has me on edge and I don’t like being in this ghost town.”
“Okay…nothing is bothering you. Let’s go.”
I could hear the attitude in her voice, but it was the lesser of two evils. So for now, I’d just deal with it and once we got somewhere safe I’d figure it out. But I was gonna avoid any discussions about my job for as long as I could.
Brent and Jake groaned and stood up. They readied their bags and we started back down the crackled, ruined sidewalk.
We’d been walking for ten minutes when I heard the first sound that didn’t come from us. It sounded mechanical, like a motor, like some kind of truck.
I paused and everyone else did the same, apparently wondering if they really heard something. Straining my ears, I listened, trying to drown out the sound of my own thoughts.
“You hear that, right?” Brent asked. “It’s getting closer.”
“Is that a car?” Jake added.
“Come on,” I said as I grabbed Cindy’s hand and started to jog.
I rounded a corner then sped up as the sound grew closer. It was definitely a truck, probably more than one and they were moving. The rumble of a diesel engine was unmistakable.
“Come on,” I yelled back to Brent and Jake. “Hurry up!”
They were barely walking and I was fine with just leaving them behind. They’d been a pain in my ass since the other night anyway.
We sped up, urged on by the thought that somebody else might be alive. I turned down another street then suddenly screeched to stop.
“Wow!” Cindy exclaimed.
There was a convoy of trucks rolling down the road about a half mile away. They were big and green, Army cargo trucks, but instead of cargo, people were in the back.
“Wait!” I shouted and started to wave my hands.
I took off at a sprint, screaming at the top of my lungs. It was the first sign of life, the first sign of help, and they were driving away.
Cindy started a little way behind, but quickly sped past me, shouting along the way. Brent and Jake had just rounded the last corner and in true fashion were proving
to be quite useless. They started a slow jog and screamed like two drunk bar trolls, trying to flag down a woman.
“Hey! Back here!” I continued to yell, but I doubted they could hear any of us over the loud, rumbling engine.
As the last truck rolled past the intersection and vanished from sight, I felt a stab in my heart. There was my hope and it was leaving and suddenly we were alone again. The sensation of defeat made me sick to my stomach.
I came to a stop beside Cindy and put my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. “I thought your feet hurt,” I gasped.
“I’m fine with running. It’s the walking that pisses me off.”
I wanted to laugh, but my lungs burned like I’d swallowed hot coal. I felt lightheaded and I envied Cindy as she stood there with her hands on her hips, barely breathing at all.
“Where do you think they were going?” she asked.
I shrugged then slowly stood up. “At least we know the world still exists and we have a direction to go in.”
“I guess so.”
Brent and Jake finally caught up. They were covered in sweat and looked like they needed medical attention. I wasn’t in the best of shape, but Brent and Jake considered binge drinking a workout.
“They…they see, they see us?” Brent asked in between gulping air like a drowning fish.
“I don’t think so,” I replied.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of an engine again, just as one of the trucks reentered the intersection and started our way. I felt a weight fall off of my shoulders. Cindy whirled around and hugged me then sighed in relief.
“Yes!” she smiled.
As the truck approached I could see inside of the cabin. The driver was young, maybe nineteen, dressed in sand-colored fatigues with a flack vest and helmet on. A man, in identical dress, was sitting next to him. He was probably twice the kid’s age and had the distinguished face of an officer, the look of a man that had seen death and also been at the delivering end of it.
With a screech, the heavy, truck stopped and the passenger door swung open. The older man stepped out and took off his helmet. His black, buzzed hair was peppered with white, same as the scruff on his face. His skin looked hard and weathered, not from age, but from a life spent in the desert, dodging bullets.
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