by Connor Mccoy
Domino raised the bag and gazed at the pictures inside. These would do as her remembrances of this place, along with the drawings she had Brandon make.
The Averys had finished checking all of their packs. With a solid breakfast in their bellies and their gear and supplies stowed in their packs, they were ready to leave Doc Sam’s home in the hands of its new owners, all of which had gathered in the living room to bid the Averys farewell.
There were ten in all, most of them in their twenties, all of whom were students of Sam to one degree or another, including Camilla and Janet Kartheiser. Together, they formed a consortium that would take over the house. The head of the consortium was a man named Raymond Dallas.
“So, what are you going to do with the house?” Jubilee asked Dallas. “I mean, are you going to keep it up?”
“Absolutely.” Dallas patted one of the home’s support beams. “There’s no way we would tear this place down. We need all the shelters we can get. We’re going to convert this place into a full-time clinic. We can add more beds, take the rooms and make full-time treatment centers.”
“I’m sure Doc Sam would be happy that his home will be used to…” Janet looked away for a moment. “I’m sorry. It still doesn’t feel real.”
“It’s okay. You’re right. Sam helped my daughter. Now you’ll be able to keep helping people just as he did.” Domino leaned down and took Janet in her arms. Janet hugged her tightly back.
As Jacob and his family disembarked Doc Sam’s house for the final time, they were greeted by a small group of well-wishers, Elliot and Moses among them. Jacob and his family said their goodbyes to them.
Elliot noticed Jacob was pushing the bicycle he had been using during his trip to get the medical supplies for Doc Sam. “You know, we could give you bikes for the rest of your family,” Elliot said.
“No, you need to hold on to those. You never know when some of your people might need them in a pinch. The next few days, even the next few weeks, they’re going to be rough. You never know when you’re going to get a lot of newcomers showing up.” Jacob patted the bike’s handlebars. “You might want some quick ways out of town.”
“I see your point. But are you really going to walk that bike all the way home?” Elliot asked.
“No.” Jacob looked down at his ride. “Actually, I have one important thing to do first.”
Jacob tied the knot tight. Stepping back from his handiwork, he chuckled. “Well, I guess if another person comes by here looking for a bike to borrow, I just made it ten times harder to lift than when I showed up.”
He walked back to his family, who awaited his return in the driveway. Jacob had led his family back to the home from which he had borrowed the bicycle. Jacob was glad he had managed to hold onto the bike throughout this whole ordeal. He had thought about whether to knock on the door and let the owner know that he was the one who took the bike. After some hesitation, he knocked, but there was no answer at the door. Jacob decided to just leave the bike at the home and move on.
“I hope whoever lives here is okay,” Jacob said, “he or she or they.”
He didn’t want to say it in front of the children, but whoever lived here could have dropped dead due to the shock of realizing that the world suddenly had changed for the worse, or the owner could have gone for help out in the wilderness and had been killed, perhaps days ago.
Even given those grim possibilities, he was glad he was able to return the owner’s property. He wondered if he could hold on to his morality, to not justify the worst actions for the sake of his family.
I might have been lucky so far, he thought. Hien Nguyen thought adopting the strategies of the strongmen he had witnessed commit atrocities overseas, even though moderately, might be the better solution for keeping his town together. He didn’t see that his brother would take those tactics to their logical conclusion, until it was too late.
“I’m going to have to be careful,” he said.
“Jay?” Domino turned her head toward him. “What are you saying?”
“Huh?” Jacob realized he had spoken his last sentence out loud. “Oh. Just thinking about the last few days. I’m happy we could return the bike here where it belongs. I just want to be sure I don’t go too far next time.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, Jay.” Domino fished a strand of hair out of Jacob’s face. “You’re a truly good person.” Then she leaned forward and gave him a kiss.
Jacob smiled at her. “Well, how about we get this little caravan going? We have a truck to find.”
As Jacob’s boot touched down on the high ground, Brandon finished up his narration. “Captain’s log, stardate fifty-nine twenty-seven. We continue the search for the crashed shuttlecraft. The ion storm has left thousands of ships crashed on this alien world. My crew and I are on the lookout for hostile alien activity.”
Jacob said to Domino, “Let’s see, first cyborgs, then zombies, now aliens. I’m getting a little worried about all the creatures we have to watch out for.”
Domino laughed. “Me too.”
The four of them just had made it to the ground near the curb of State Road 212. This part of the road was littered with stalled vehicles. So far, there was not a single human being to be found. Everyone apparently had abandoned their cars and trucks to fates unknown.
I hope I don’t run into any horrible accidents, Jacob thought. He had seen his share on the way to Pleasantville, most notably that airplane crash. He didn’t want his children to witness such carnage.
“The truck shouldn’t be too far away.” Jacob turned around. “Let’s backtrack a little bit, keep off the road until we spot our ride.”
The four of them spun around to start back down the incline. But suddenly, a crackle rang out in the sky.
“What was that?” Jubilee asked.
Brandon shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked up. “A plane?”
“Oh God, do you think so?” Domino climbed back up the incline to get a better look.
Jacob looked up at the heavens. They were mostly clear, with a modest cloud cover in the distance. To him, the noise sounded like a brief rumble. He understood how it could have sounded like a plane engine. But if there was a plane up there, wouldn’t he still hear it?
The family remained there, watching the sky. The idea of an actual plane up there quickened their hearts. If true, it was a sign that perhaps some of their technology had survived, enough to rebuild their society much more quickly than they thought. Perhaps it meant the government even had made it through the carnage and was ready and willing to help the people.
But as the minutes passed, the sky remained quiet. There was no sign of any aircraft.
“Well, it might have just been thunder,” Jacob said.
Jubilee sighed. “Guess it was.”
“No sign of a rescue from the Space Forces.” Brandon lowered his head.
Domino walked back down the hill. “Guess we’re going to be jumpy like this for, what, maybe the rest of our lives?”
“But what’s going to happen to us?” Jubilee asked. “Is there really no one out there who can help us?”
“I don’t know. If there are, they may be pooling their resources, rebuilding. We might not know for years.” Jacob walked in closer to his two children. “But until then, we have each other. Who knows? Maybe we’ll have our little corner of the country rebuilt before the feds show up.”
Domino giggled. “Oh, I can just imagine.”
“We’ll start our own country!” Brandon made a fist. “The Great Galactic Alliance! And I’m making my own town. I’ll call it Brandonburg.”
“Well, if we’re starting our own country, I want to be the top mixed martial arts star of the nation.” Jubilee punched the air.
As Brandon and Jubilee spilled ideas about what their new nation would be like, Domino leaned into Jacob. “It’s great to hear them talk about their future. Even if they do sound a little…” She wiggled her fingers. “Fanciful. They at least believe that th
ey have one.”
Jacob put his arm around Domino’s shoulders. His wife was right. If his kids didn’t give in to despair, they likely would pull through all of this.
Find out what happens in part three! Available now!
Copyright © 2019 by Connor McCoy
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Chapter One
Jacob Avery watched the trees. They were not very big and did not seem to hide any assailants, but Jacob would take no chances with his family. He had kept them away from State Road 215 for that reason. They journeyed close enough to the road that he, his wife or either of his two children could view it with their binoculars, but he vowed to go no closer.
They passed another tree without incident. The trees and foliage were thinning out, opening up to a wide field that exposed a red car in the grass. The vehicle had gone off the road. As the Averys approached, they spotted no sign of the driver or any of the vehicle’s passengers. They must have disembarked and fled down the road.
At least Jacob hoped they had escaped. He feared a more gruesome revelation—that the driver and any passengers in the car did not survive, that their bodies lay in the car in a frozen state of death.
Thankfully, they passed the car without such a discovery.
“I think…we’re getting…close.”
That was his son’s voice. Jacob noted that his nine-year-old was out of breath. They had been hiking across sloping land for a while. The effort was no doubt draining what little energy they had left, after walking all the way out here. Jacob wanted to find more level ground, but to hike any lower would take them out of view of the road. Plus, they would have to climb back up once they found their truck.
Jacob shivered in spite of the warm air. He didn’t like to think about missing their vehicle. He had voiced such a worry just a few minutes ago, only to have his wife Domino urge him to keep such concerns to himself.
I don’t blame her. The sooner we find the truck, the sooner we can turn around and go back home. They had spent almost a week away from their homestead, and Jacob wanted to get his family back under their roof as soon as possible.
The slight moan of his teenage daughter turned his head. Jubilee walked with slightly bent legs. She was fighting perhaps the greatest amount of fatigue of all four of them.
Jacob flicked away sweat from the top of his head. His short cut hair made it easy for sweat to escape. “Maybe we should take a break,” he said.
Jubilee’s face tightened. “I’m okay.” She knew he was trying to accommodate her. “I can go a little more. We’re almost there, aren’t we?”
More stalled vehicles appeared on the horizon, so they should be close. Domino had recalled how she had driven off the road at the same time as many other drivers. Their truck should be not too far from a mess of other stopped cars and trucks.
That moment must have been terrifying. Jacob imagined what it felt like for his family. Domino, Brandon and Jubilee all were in that truck, with Domino behind the wheel. In an instant, the electronics had cut out. The engine had died. Domino was driving a vehicle and then suddenly had lost control. She had turned the wheel and stomped the brakes hard to bring the truck to a stop and avoid a fatal collision.
She had succeeded, as had many other motorists on State Road 215. But when they emerged from their vehicles, they were stepping out into a whole new world. All of their electronics were fried. They would not be able to call for help, access their Wi-Fi, turn on a television, or drive a motor vehicle again.
How did it happen? How did the electromagnetic pulse occur? Was it the sun, or did a nuclear war finally break out? It was an answer they might never find out. News about increased solar activity had clogged the airwaves for the past year, including worries from various talking heads and politicians that an EMP could destroy the country’s electrical infrastructure. It seemed that in the past week the government had been taking the situation seriously, but it clearly was too late to stop the calamity.
Jacob wondered if it was providence or just sheer luck that he had chosen to live off the grid with his wife and children. Their homestead was nestled in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the northwestern part of Virginia. He grew his own crops and maintained livestock, and also drew his own water from a well. He never had intended to be a survivalist, and yet his farm would provide a place where he and his family could survive, even as society broke down around them.
Of course, he had to take crucial steps to secure his family. That was the whole point of hiking out here to his truck.
“Dad!” Brandon pointed to the slope just ahead. “There it is!”
Jacob’s son had nailed it. A black pickup truck laid on the side of a narrow slope. The tire tracks down the hill still contained dirt from where the tires had dug into the ground when Domino had pushed hard on the brakes.
“Mom made a nice landing,” Brandon said as they closed in on their vehicle.
Domino rubbed her hand in Brandon’s hair. “Thanks.”
Jacob picked up his pace. “Hold on. Let me just check around here first.”
It was painful to think about, but he imagined there might be someone lurking behind the truck, or perhaps just an animal. The events of the past few days had heightened his instincts. He was on alert for dangers anywhere.
His family hung back until Jacob orbited the truck. The grounds were empty. Jacob conducted a wider search, but it was clear the slope was empty of humans and animal predators. He beckoned them to approach the truck.
“You know what would be funny?” Brandon was the first to the driver’s side door. “We walked all this way and we find out we lost the keys to the truck.”
Domino groaned. “Sweetie, please don’t joke about that.”
Jacob patted his pants pockets. “I don’t know. I think Brandon may have a point. Oh, no!” He groped his shirt, then his bag.
“Jacob Avery, don’t you dare!” Domino raised her hand as if to slap him.
Even though the dirty blonde-haired woman was fairly thin, the years of homestead life had hardened her into a dynamo. A slap from Domino could sting for over an hour if she wanted.
Jacob pulled out the keys from his left pocket before Domino could say or do anything more. “Well, how about that?” He winked at Brandon. “I just found them.”
Father and son exchanged a laugh while Jubilee moaned. “I feel your pain,” Domino said to her daughter.
“It’s no big deal,” Brandon said, “he just could have broken in.” The boy coiled his fingers into the shape of a pistol. “Bang! Shatter the window.”
“One gunshot’s not going to make a window fall apart.” Jubilee waved her hands. “That only happens in the movies.”
Jacob unlocked the truck. “Brandon, go around to the passenger side. I’ll unlock it. You can open the door.”
Brandon obeyed. Soon the Avery men had opened both the driver and passenger side doors. Brandon, seated in the front passenger seat, flipped open the glove compartment and fished out their papers.
“Perfect.” Jacob took them and looked them over, one by one. He had hoped to find their personal papers so they could remove them. He didn’t want a scavenger to come along, raid the truck, and find the Averys’ personal residence listed on the truck’s registration.
“Vehicle registration, driver’s insurance cards, oh, hey now.” He held up a small bank envelope with a bank deposit slip and a twenty-dollar bill sticking out. “Well, thank God we came back here, or someone might have broken into our bank account.”
Jacob laughed. Domino did as well, though she also winced. “Yeah, with what?” she asked, “Tearing out the bank computers to get to our money? Good luck!”
Jacob kept chuckling. It was silly. Their checking and saving acco
unts were, in reality, nothing more than numbers stored on a computer. It was as if their money never had existed in the first place and it took the EMP to confirm it.
Jacob ran his hand across the steering wheel. The leather felt slightly worn, especially on the underside, where he had gripped the wheel the tightest. He had bought this truck about three years ago. It still had plenty of life left in it.
He released the wheel with a sigh. He would in all likelihood never drive this vehicle again. He did not possess the resources or the parts to replace its fried electronics. The truck would remain out here for years until society got back on its feet and started to clean up the mess left by the EMP, if such a rebuild was possible at all. Jacob wondered if roadsides like this one would remain littered with stalled vehicles for years, even decades to come.
And the bodies.
Jacob shuddered. Some people had not been fortunate enough to make it to a safe stop when their vehicles lost power. They would have slammed into a tree, a telephone pole, or another vehicle. Jacob doubted they ever understood what had happened to the world just before they left it. Those bodies would stay on the road, unburied, their remains left to decay and to be picked at by animals.
“Jay?”
Jacob turned his head. Domino looked at him, her arms folded. “Someone looked deep in thought.” She chuckled. “Like you lost a lover.”
Jacob’s cheeks burned. “Well, I guess a truck is kind of like a guy’s first love. Although, in your case, I’d say you got to me first.”
Domino’s smile grew. “Good answer. So, what’s on your mind?”
“I was just thinking how I’ll probably never drive this truck or maybe any truck ever again. I never thought a few days ago that it’d be the last time.” Jacob leaned against the side of the driver’s seat. “There were a lot of ‘last times’ that happened last week.”