by P. A. Glaspy
Melanie patted his arm and said in a soft voice, “It’s nothing, sweetie. Why don’t you try to go back to sleep?”
He gave her one more worried look then closed his eyes and snuggled up next to her. She wrapped him in the blanket and looked at her husband over the top of their son’s head. Tanner responded to her with only a short, almost imperceptible nod then turned back to the window. He seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders at that moment. Definitely the weight of the nation.
For over an hour they drove with no interaction from anyone. When they’d passed the far outskirts of Philadelphia, the sky was lit up with an orange glow, indicating that the city was burning out of control. The city of brotherly love was obviously lacking in said emotion. The closer they got to the Delaware River, though, the more animated they became.
“I never thought I’d say it, but I’m going to be glad to have Jersey in my rear-view mirror,” Darrell said. After so much quiet time, his voice sounded much louder than it actually was inside the Humvee. He paused, apparently surprised at how loud he sounded even to himself.
Thankful for the distraction, Damon picked up the conversation. “I totally agree. I hope this side of the bridge is still clear. It looked pretty open from the other side when I came through the first time.”
“What are we looking at timewise, Major?” Tanner asked.
Damon studied his maps again. “We’re about sixty miles from Baltimore, Sir. We’ll take the bypass and go around it, which will be another twenty or so miles, then about twenty-five more to Washington. Once we get to D.C., there should be a strong military presence, and we shouldn’t have any problems getting to the White House. I think another two hours and we should be there.”
“Then do you think it would be okay if we stopped for a few minutes? I’d like to stretch my legs, and I’m sure Agent Stephens would as well. He’s folded up like a pretzel back there.”
“I’m fine, Sir,” Stephens replied. “I want us to get there as quickly as possible.”
Tanner turned slightly so he could see his Secret Service agent. “As do I, but I don’t think a five-minute stop is going to throw us off.”
“As soon as we get across the Delaware, we’ll find a place to pull over, Sir,” Damon said. “I could use a five-minute stretch myself.”
The Delaware side of the river was highly residential, so they continued on until they crossed the state line into Maryland. That area was much more rural. After crossing over Highway 279, Damon pointed to a section of road that was open and had only a couple of abandoned vehicles on it. Darrell started to pull off to the shoulder, but Damon stopped him.
“Best to not get off the path here. It’s not like we have to give way to traffic.”
Darrell laughed and said, “Good point. Old habits are hard to break. This spot looks good to me.”
When the vehicle stopped moving, Melanie woke up. Laying Brock down in the seat, she got out with the men. The camper emptied as well. Hutch came up to them to inquire if there was a problem and to see how Darrell was doing driving. Darrell assured him he was good to go. Damon led Hutch away from the Tanners and told him what they had seen at the trooper station.
“Holy shit! What the hell, man? Is everybody going crazy?”
“I don’t think we’ve even begun to see how bad this is going to get. You should probably station someone at the back window and one on each side to watch for trouble. That leaves only one able to sleep, but …”
Hutch shook his head. “I doubt anybody will be doing any more sleeping until we get to the White House.”
Damon looked over at David Tanner. “For some, maybe not much after we get there either.”
Chapter 17
No ambient noises from appliances, electronics, or the furnace should have left the house deathly quiet.
That wasn’t the case for Joel.
The lack of electricity meant that Lauri couldn’t use her CPAP machine for her sleep apnea. If Lauri slept without it, Joel usually didn’t sleep; not in the same room she did anyway. After about an hour of the noise, he got up with a sigh, grabbed his pillow and an afghan off a chair in Elliott’s room, and headed out in search of a quieter place to sleep. He made his way to the boys’ room and scooted Cameron over so he could share his pallet. Cameron grumbled in his sleep but rolled over, giving Joel the space he needed. Aaron, who was in the top bunk, woke up as Joel was trying to get comfortable.
“What are you doing, Pops?” Aaron whispered as he sat up and squinted into the darkness.
“Trying to get some sleep,” Joel hissed back. “Nana without her machine is not conducive to anyone else sleeping in the same room.”
Will woke as well and seeing his dad trying to get comfortable on the floor, climbed out of the bottom bunk. “Here, Dad. Take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“No, it’s fine. Really,” Joel replied with a wave of his hand.
Aaron hopped down from the top. “No, it isn’t. Uncle Will can have the top, you take the bottom, and I’ll take the floor. I have younger bones.”
“Yes, you do. I accept your proposal,” Will said with a sleepy grin. “Come on, Dad. No arguing.”
Joel nodded and the three men settled into their new locations. Joel fell asleep immediately. Just as he was about to drift off, Will heard a low growl from Lexi, who was in the living room with Ethan. After a moment, he heard Ethan and Elliott talking in whispers. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, so he climbed back down to see what was going on. His movement shook the bunk beds slightly, which brought Joel awake.
“What is it? What’s going on?” Joel asked.
“I heard Lexi growl. Elliott and Ethan are up. I’m going to check it out.” Will had slipped his tennis shoes on by then.
“Hold up. I’ll come with you,” Joel said. “I don’t think sleep is on the agenda tonight anyway.”
The two men walked quietly down the hall. Elliott had turned the lantern up a bit, casting the room in a soft glow. He and Ethan turned at the sound of the other two men entering the room.
“I’m not sure what’s going on. Lexi growled and has her hackles up. She’s been staring at the back door. Maybe it’s another coon trying to get to the rest of the chickens,” Elliott said softly as he was lacing up his boots. “I did miss having a dog around for that, if nothing else — early warning system.”
He put on his coat and grabbed his shotgun. Ethan followed suit.
“Do you want us to come with you?” Joel asked.
“No, you two stay in here. I’d grab a pistol at least,” he added, noting that neither man was wearing a side arm. “Just stay by the back door and listen. I’ll holler if we need you.”
When the back door opened, Lexi took off like a shot. Elliott shined a light in the direction she’d headed. “She’s definitely after something!” He and Ethan hurried out into the night. Will looked at his father as Joel closed the door behind them.
“Are we really living in a world where you can’t go outside at night without a gun for protection anymore, Dad? It seems alien to me to automatically reach for a weapon before I walk out the door.”
“It does to me too, son, but I’m sure Elliott is right. There will be a lot of desperate people out there. Some of them are bound to show up here wanting to take what we have. We have to learn to be ready for something bad to happen. We have to be ready to defend your mom, Carly, and Amanda, as well.”
Will snorted a laugh. “There’s a better chance that Amanda will be defending us.”
Joel grinned at his son. “She is something else. I think she might be a keeper. What do you think?”
“Time will tell, Dad.”
Lexi was out of sight, but Elliott and Ethan could hear her running around the outside of the barn. Elliott held his light up high to try to see farther into the darkness. Ethan did the same.
“Should I call her, Dad?” Ethan asked, concern etched in his voice.
“Wait and see if she finds whateve
r it is she heard,” Elliott replied. “Probably another coon. Sometimes a couple of them will run together.”
Suddenly, Lexi started barking in alarm, and both men hurried toward the sound. Before they could get to her, they heard something else. A yelp … from a human.
“Ow! Get off me, dog! Get away!” the man’s voice yelled out into the night.
Elliott pushed the partially opened barn door wide and shown his light in. “Who’s in there? Come outta there now, and lemme see your hands!”
Ethan had his light shining as well, so Elliott pulled up his shotgun and aimed toward the spot the noise seemed to be coming from. In the flashlight beam, they could see Lexi staring up the stall divider, stoic, growling, and hackles raised so high it looked like she had a Mohawk. Ethan panned the light up to the top of the stall wall.
“Taylor? What the hell are you doing in here?” Elliott said, lowering his shotgun slightly. “Get down from there! Son, call the dog off.”
“Lexi, come.”
Lexi backed up, then turned to join Ethan and his dad. She sat dutifully beside Ethan but stared dog daggers at the intruder. Taylor climbed off the wall and stood with his hands slightly raised.
“Uh, you can put the gun down, Elliott. I’m not armed. I told you I don’t even have a gun at home.”
Elliott glared at him. “No, I think I’ll keep it for now. I’ll ask you again: what the hell are you up to? It’s the middle of the night, for cryin’ out loud!”
“I was just … um … looking around,” Taylor replied sheepishly. “I didn’t know you had a dog.”
“She’s a recent addition to the family. Don’t change the subject! What were you looking around for? Just because I offered you free use of my well pump doesn’t mean you can come and go whenever and wherever you want on my place. You’re lucky you didn’t get shot!” Elliott was getting worked up and his face was turning red.
Taylor seemed to be trying to figure out what to say. Finally, he blurted out, “I’m desperate, okay? I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to take care of my family now! We need some place like this. I can’t protect them at our house. Soon I won’t be able to feed them. What would you do if you were in my place, Elliott?”
“Well, I wouldn’t be looking around for what I could take from someone else’s family, I’ll tell you that!” Elliott shouted. “You said you had food to last a week, maybe two. I know you don’t have anything to hunt with, but I can teach you how to set snares. I was even thinking about getting you set up with a gun and teaching you how to use it for hunting and protecting your family, but now I don’t think I’d trust you with it. You’d probably use it to steal at gunpoint!”
Taylor’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, man, that would definitely help, but I still don’t think I could protect them by myself. We need to join a group or something. We don’t know anything about survival — at least, not how to survive without electricity. We need help! We could contribute here. We’re willing to learn, we just —”
“I told you we don’t have room,” Elliott said shaking his head. He had calmed down a bit. “We have nine people here now. That’s a full house. We don’t have enough food to last the winter, either. You expect me to let my grandsons go hungry for your family? I never met you before this happened. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to figure this out for yourself. I’ll teach you a couple of things, but I’m not gonna lie — this is going to be a tough winter for everybody who doesn’t have a house full of food, a means to get water, and some way to heat their home. I can’t take care of your family. I have to take care of mine. Now, I want you to get off my property. You can still come get water during the day, but I don’t want to ever see you here after dark again. Do you understand me?”
Taylor’s shoulders sagged in defeat. “Yes. But will you still teach me about snares? And how about that gun?”
Elliott raised his shotgun and let it rest over his shoulder. “I’m going to need to think about that now. I’ll let you know what I decide.”
“When do you think that will be?” Taylor asked, pushing the issue.
“When I decide! Now git!”
Taylor hurried past them, giving Lexi a wide berth. Lexi gave him a low growl in return. That got Taylor moving even faster.
When he was gone and they could no longer hear his footsteps in the crusted snow, Ethan said, “So, are you going to help them? It’s kind of sad about his kids and him not knowing how to do anything.”
Elliott started toward the door. “I’m sure I will at some point, but not to the extent that it takes anything away from anyone here. I plan to sit down with Lauri tomorrow and see if we can figure out how far we can stretch the food we have. I may go hunting in the next few days. If I can bag a deer, I could give that family some meat, at least.”
Ethan followed him and held the flashlight so his father could see to latch the door. “You’re a good man, Dad.”
“As good as I can be at the moment. By the way, remind me to get a chain and padlock on this door tomorrow. I don’t want to make it easy on the next person who tries to take anything from in there, especially the livestock.” He looked down at Lexi who was right between them. Reaching down to rub between her ears, he said, “She’s a good one. Glad to have her with us. Let me know if you need anything for her. We’ll try to make sure she gets a portion of the food, as well. She’ll definitely be earning her keep.”
Will and Joel were watching through a window with the back door slightly ajar so they could hear if the other men called for help. When they saw a flashlight beam headed toward them, they hurried over to the door. Elliott and Ethan stamped snow off their feet on the porch and came inside.
“Was it another raccoon?” Joel asked as they were taking off their coats.
“Nope. It was a varmint, though. The two-legged kind.” Elliott hung his coat up and turned back to them. “That guy Taylor was out in the barn skulking around.”
Will piped in. “What? Why?”
“He never came right out and said, but I think he was scoping the place out for food, or a place to squat — or both.”
“Do you think he’d steal one of the chickens or something?” Joel asked.
Ethan snickered. “If he did, he’d have no idea how to clean it. He’s a city boy, start to finish.”
Will eyed his former brother-in-law. “You know, it’s weird, but I never knew you hunted or knew anything about that kind of stuff.”
“Yeah, I haven’t hunted in years, not since I was about Aaron’s age. Now that I’m back and could hunt with my dad, I don’t have much life left to do it. I didn’t make time when I should have. Don’t wait, Will. If there’s something you want to do, do it. You never know when you’ll run out of time.” Ethan smiled at Will, winced as if in pain, and walked slowly into the living room. Will watched him go.
Turning to Elliott, he said, “How long does he have?”
“He said a few weeks, a month at the most. Toward the end he’ll be too tired to get out of the house anymore. He’ll pretty much stop eating and sleep a lot. It won’t be long after that. At least, that’s how it was with his mother.” Elliott paused and shamelessly wiped a tear from his eye.
Joel stepped up beside him and laid an arm across his shoulders. “Well, if there’s one good thing to come out of all this, at least you won’t have to go through it alone. We’ll all be here to help and support both of you.”
Elliott nodded and said, “I hate the circumstances but I’m really glad you’re here. I don’t know if I could do this on my own.”
Joel gave his shoulders a squeeze. “You won’t have to, buddy.”
Chapter 18
Arturo Rodriguez, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, was in Austria, along with the majority of the Security Council, who had flown in from all over the globe for the emergency meeting to discuss how best to assist the United States in its time of need.
“From the reports we have gathered, the entire country is in chaos,” Margaret
Owens from the United Kingdom said. “There has been looting, armed thugs stealing from innocent people, others being mowed down in the streets for fun! This is what their Second Amendment has allowed to happen. All those guns they have are making it easy for the lawlessness to run unchecked!”
There were murmurs of agreement from some around the table, chuckles and shaking of heads from others. Arturo called for order. “Yes, I believe our mission will be twofold — to provide aid to the people in the form of food, water, and basic necessities, but also to provide security, particularly in the larger cities. There can be no peace when there is no law enforcement. It is going to take a long time — many years, in fact, from the experts’ estimates — before the United States will be able to provide even basic resources to the populace. I foresee this will be a long, arduous road for them. We have commitments from the permanent member countries to send emergency rations and supplies, but we will need all member countries to assist, as well.”
“And what of their attacker?” Li Qiang, the representative from China, spat in anger. “North Korea must be held accountable for this heinous act. They have crippled an entire country! Millions of innocent people will pay the price for his blatant hatred of America. And not just in that country. If Americans are not working, they are not paying taxes. If they are not paying taxes, the government cannot make payments on their debt — if their government could even function, which is definitely not possible now. If they do not make payments on their debt, it impacts the countries holding those debts, not the least of which are China and Japan. This is not just an attack on the United States. They must answer for this action!” Haruto Tanaka, the Japanese ambassador, was vigorously nodding in agreement.
“And they will,” Rodriguez assured him. “But first, we must do what we can to help the United States regain control of the country. I’m surprised we haven’t heard from them yet but having to relocate for this meeting may mean they don’t know where to contact us. We should start with their assets outside the country and try to get word to President Olstein to let him know —”