by Connor Mccoy
He spun around, aiming his gun at Jacob and Domino.
Sheryl screamed. She raised her gun but was too late to stop Sykes from shooting. However, at that moment a shadow crossed Sykes’s path, a big one, belonging to Arnie Lerner.
Sykes fired off two bullets before Arnie got in his way. Sykes retreated as Arnie closed in. He didn’t get away in time. Arnie grabbed Sykes’s leg and pulled him down.
Sykes shouted. “Get off me, you son of a bitch!”
Arnie clung to him. “Not let you hurt Mister Jacob!”
“Jacob?” Sheryl looked up. Jacob was cradling his right shoulder. Sykes had nailed him.
Domino was beside him, but Jacob ushered her away. “Stop Sykes! Help Arnie! I’m okay! I can handle it!”
Sykes raised his gun at Arnie’s head. Domino didn’t have a clear shot.
Pop!
Sykes’s head dropped onto its side. Domino did not have an opening, but Sheryl did.
Sheryl quivered. Did she get him? She ran up to Sykes. His arms fell slack. The gun fell out of his hand. His face was frozen open in silent death, blood trickling out of the back of his skull.
Arnie started groaning. “Arnie?” Sheryl rushed over to him. The man released Sykes’s body, showing off his right leg. It was bloody. Sykes had hit him.
“Quick, we have to tie off the wound.” Jacob cried out in pain. “Let’s…let’s hurry.”
The next few hours were an ordeal of bandaging up the wounds and stopping the bleeding. Jacob’s gunshot wound wasn’t hard to deal with. The bullet mostly skewed over his shoulder and impacted somewhere else, not lodging in his body. Arnie was another matter. The bullet was likely in his leg somewhere, plus, the bleeding was profuse.
Jacob feared the worst for a while. He longed for Doc Sam’s presence. Fortunately, Sheryl was on the case. She worked on Arnie’s leg, barking orders for stitches and disinfectants as she did so. She was unflappable, even as it seemed Arnie was in serious trouble.
“Thank God you got those antibiotics, Jacob!” she said as she looked up from Arnie’s leg.
Arnie himself lay on a mat on the floor, semiconscious. Jacob had acquired the antibiotics Sheryl had used on Arnie from a pharmacy in Middleburg as part of his supply run for Doc Sam. The people who had taken over Sam’s house allowed Jacob to take the antibiotics with him as a goodwill gesture.
“He seems to be stable for the moment. Hopefully, the antibiotics will kill any infections that latched onto the wound.”
Jacob heard footsteps. Courtney, Jubilee and Brandon were back from their latest tasks. No doubt they were eager for news.
Sheryl smiled softly at them. “Don’t worry. It’s looking better, but I’m going to stay with him all night.”
“Thank God,” Jubilee said.
Arnie started bobbing his head back and forth. “Miss…Sheryl?”
“I’m here.” Sheryl inched closer to Arnie’s head. The man turned to look at her. “How are you feeling? I’m sure it hurts. We gave you some medicine for the pain.”
“Sykes…gone?” Arnie asked.
Sheryl nodded. “He is. You saved Mr. Jacob and Ms. Domino. You saved us all.” Sheryl’s voice caught. “Thank you.”
Arnie’s mouth dropped open for a moment. “I…I did good?”
“Yes, you did!” Sheryl laughed with joy. “You did, Arnie!”
Sheryl’s patient lifted his head slightly. “Arnie a good boy.” Then he smiled briefly, but it was, in Jacob’s mind, a prize-winning smile. Then he settled back down, his breathing easing a little.
Jacob leaned closer to his wife. “Courtney told us Arnie had a rough life. I wonder if anyone’s ever praised him before. It must have meant a lot to him.”
“I’m sure it did.” Domino embraced Jacob, but carefully, slipping her arm around his waist so she wouldn’t brush his bandage. “I’m sure it did.”
Several days passed. No more of Sykes’s men came to bother the Avery household. Jacob began thinking the menace of Jimmy Sykes finally was over. Now they could worry about getting on with life in a world that had turned much more difficult and hostile.
Arnie continued resting after his ordeal. The news continued to look good. Sheryl was confident Arnie’s wound had not become infected. The man was regaining his strength and could soon try walking again.
On the fifth morning following the battle with Sykes, Jacob joined his wife at the kitchen table. Their routine seemed just the same as it had been before the EMP, with the only exception being the loss of lights and electricity. But by now such creature comforts were ceasing to matter.
“I was thinking.” Jacob narrowed his eyes. “And don’t say ‘run for the hills.’” Domino giggled as she sat down beside her husband.
“We should try to check out some of the nearby towns. Sheryl and Courtney have settled in nicely here and Arnie is doing much better. We need to see if maybe the communities have managed to survive or pick back up.” He stared at his coffee cup. “It’d be nice to know if some of our friends have managed to survive. Or Brandon’s and Jubilee’s friends.”
“I hope so.” Domino reached into her pants’ pocket. She was holding a folded-up list. “I wrote down everyone I could think of. I don’t want to forget anybody.”
Jacob took the list and unfolded it. “A lot of these people are near Skylar. I think that’s where we ought to start.”
Domino sank back in her chair. “We both could go this time. When you had to go to Middleburg to get the medicine for Doc Sam, it was almost unbearable not having you around. If you have to check Skylar, I want to see it with you.”
She nodded to the open door to the kitchen. The sounds of the kids plus Sheryl emanated through the kitchen’s screen door to the outside. “Besides, we do have a babysitter now.”
“That’s true,” Jacob said. A trip to Skylar with Domino. That sounded like a solid plan.
Find out what happens in part four! 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
Domino ignored the anxious pair of eyes looking at her and continued looking over the math test in her left hand. “I know you’re anxious to hear how you did. Just give me a few more minutes. I get that this is new for you, but that’s the way life is. We’ve got to meet these new challenges head-on. Oh, wait a sec. I spotted an error. Somebody didn’t get question number thirteen right.” She double-checked on the answer key in her right hand. “That’s one wrong.”
The woman seated in front of Domino sighed. “Yeah, I know,” Domino said. “It’s disappointing, but I had to go through this very same thing the first few times. Let’s see, question number fourteen, that’s right. Fifteen, good.” Domino read through the last few questions. “Ah! Number twenty is a no-go! Two wrong out of twenty!” Domino put the page on the desk. “Well, Miss Avery, what do you have to say for yourself?” she asked, kicking some mirth into her query.
Sheryl Avery, Domino’s sister-in-law, sank back in the chair in front of Domino’s desk as if she wanted to disappear into it.
Domino waved the answer key over her head, brushing aside strands of her blonde hair. “Did you have the right answer key when you graded Jubilee’s test?”
Sheryl’s grimace grew. “I’m sure I did. You’d think I would have graded half of the questions wrong if I had the wrong key.”
A soft wind blew over their backs, ruffling Sheryl’s red hair. The pair sat in the small room that Domino used as a classroom for her son and daughter, with Domino behind her desk and Sheryl seated in a small chair. The desks for Domino’s children rested just behind Sheryl. The open window behind them helped provide the room with ventilation, softening an uncomfortable situation. Domino did not mean to put
Sheryl down, and she hoped her sister-in-law understood that. “You’re probably still just breaking into the whole teaching thing,” Domino said.
Sheryl ran a hand through the top of her hair. “It was pretty late. I still had some chores to take care of after I gave Jubilee her lessons for the day. God knows how late it was when I sat down to grade her test. I’m still having trouble telling time around here without any working clocks.”
“Well, let’s just schedule the test grading for shortly after you give the kids their lessons. You can’t put this off until you’re about to go to sleep. Your brain will be fried,” Domino said.
“That makes a ton of sense. I just thought I’d be more used to the routines around here,” Sheryl replied. “Two months and all…”
“It’s about three months, actually,” Domino said.
Sheryl winced. “I really am the old dog you can’t teach new tricks to. I’m so used to clocks telling me what the time is. I always knew how much time I had before lunch, before work, before watching Survivor. Now, I turn around, and all of a sudden the sun’s about to set.”
Domino glanced at the clock on the wall. Even though its hands had been frozen in place for the past three months and never would operate again, Domino could not bring herself to take it down. Its presence continued to comfort her. While they had boxed up their televisions, computers, and kitchen appliances, that was mostly to free up space. They had left up many of their clocks on the walls as a way to maintain some normalcy, although they long ago had accepted they probably would live the rest of their lives without advanced machines.
“I thought Brandon taught you how to read the times of the day by the angles of the sun?” Domino said.
“He did. The problem is I’m not outside all the time. I can’t always look up at the sky,” Sheryl replied.
Clasping her hands behind her neck, Domino lifted her head toward the ceiling. “It’s so crazy how we have to relearn things. All it takes is a huge bolt of lightning from the sun and Boom! Everything shuts down. It’s a whole new way of life.”
Sheryl chuckled. “Thank God you got a head start on me.”
Domino was glad her sister-in-law could laugh now. Shortly after the electromagnetic pulse had lashed the atmosphere and fried the world’s electronic devices, Sheryl Avery was caught in her home city without a working vehicle. So she had no quick way to escape to her brother’s farm. She was forced to flee on foot, dodging the myriad of horrors – from fires to anarchists to wild animals -- on the way to this homestead.
But then things took an ominous turn when Sheryl reached the farm, only to discover it was occupied by another party, a pair of farmers working for a businessman named Jimmy Sykes. Sykes believed himself to be a king of sorts, and in the present disaster saw the Avery farm as ripe for the taking. Sykes would drop off workers at unoccupied farms to work the land and provide him with a share of the bounty, and the Avery farm was no exception.
The two workers also were forced to care for a teenage girl named Courtney and a mentally challenged man named Arnold Lerner. Once Domino and her husband Jacob met up with Sheryl, they proceeded to liberate their home, and from there they fought off Sykes and his men when they came by looking for their tribute.
Three months ago, Domino thought. Jacob and Domino, in addition to providing Sheryl with a home here, chose to take in Courtney and Arnie. With the swell of new farmhands, the Avery farm built up a robust food supply and, best of all, reestablished contact with the nearby town of Skylar. Domino still couldn’t quite believe the peace they were enjoying. On most days, she would wonder when the other shoe was about to drop.
Maybe she ought to stop worrying about it and focus on the mundane problems around here. Sheryl’s timekeeping issues seemed like a good place to start.
“Yeah,” Domino said, “I wish I would have asked Jay about clocks that don’t need electricity to work. I know there’s a way to keep time that doesn’t need mechanics at all, not even the wind-up kind. It’s just on the tip of my tongue.”
Sheryl’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you thinking of hourglasses?”
The answer was so obvious that Domino nearly laughed. “That’s right!” Why didn’t Domino think of that? “Yeah, that’s a great way to tell time. Not what time it is, but they can at least give you an idea of how much time has passed.” Domino cupped her hands over the desk, imitating the bulbs of an hourglass. “It’s very simple. When you start a lesson, you turn the glass over.” She flipped her hands around, so the top hand was on the bottom and vice versa. “You can mark how long it takes. If it’s very early in the morning and you know if an hour has passed, you know it’s probably not noon yet.”
“Do you have any hourglasses?” Sheryl asked.
“I wish I knew. I haven’t seen one around here in years. They might be in the attic. Or, maybe Brandon can help you build some. He would flip for it, I know. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was working on some kind of timepiece right now. You’ve probably seen some of his contraptions.”
“Oh, I have. He is one smart guy.” Sheryl gazed past Domino toward the window. “What’s he doing right now?”
Domino glanced at the afternoon sky beyond the window. “He’s paired up with Arnie among the crops. Jacob wanted him to—oh, speaking of Jay.” Domino rose. “That well! I got to see how he’s doing. He was making noise about it this morning.”
“Was that the well he wanted to snake some pipes into?” Sheryl coiled her fingers into small circle shapes. “To pipe water into the bathroom?”
“Yes.” Domino looked to the open door. “Which is why I want to make sure he’s doing it right. Think about it.” Domino wiggled her eyebrows. “Water flowing into the tub. A working shower?”
Sheryl pushed on the air with her palms. “Then you better go check on your hubby because I’m first in line for that new shower!”
Domino turned and ran through the hall toward the back door that would take her out into the backyard of the Avery farm.
Brandon waited for Arnold Lerner to chime in. The man was studying the leaves of the corn plant with a magnifying glass. This was their fifth stalk so far today. Brandon was bored by this inspection, but as Dad pointed out, threats to their crops did not come on all fours, with fur coats and sharp fangs. Sometimes the predators were much smaller.
It also was easy work for Arnie, as a look at Arnie’s right leg reminded Brandon. The man still wore a brace on it, even three months after taking a gunshot, thanks to Jimmy Sykes. He was healing although it had been slow. So slow that it worried Aunt Sheryl for a while. She wished to God they had electronic medical equipment, but as a consequence of the EMP, they only had the medical supplies they had saved or acquired from their trip out of town three months ago. It was a blessing Arnie had not complained of any pains beyond a slight ache here and there, although the man’s mental comprehension was limited to what a six or seven-year-old could understand.
“Leaves look good,” Arnie said, almost sing-songy.
Brandon was glad the man’s disposition was so friendly. If you looked at Arnie and didn’t know him, you might head for the hills, owing to his somewhat rough appearance. His forehead and jaw were slightly pronounced, and with his shaven head, he almost looked like an alien. At least Brandon thought so. As Brandon’s mom had explained, Arnie had suffered both physical and mental birth defects. Even though he was significantly older than the nine-year-old Brandon, Brandon knew and understood much more than Arnie could.
“Awesome. The leaves are clean and everything?” Brandon asked.
Arnie, smiling crookedly to show off his ill-kept teeth, gave a thumbs-up.
Brandon turned to the next corn stalk on this row. “Great. That leaves us with two more here and a bazillion on the next one.” A job like this should only need one person, but Brandon’s parents wanted someone to keep track of Arnie’s work. Besides, it was a good way to help the man feel at home by having another person to socialize with.
“We all wan
t to help everyone feel at home,” his mother had told him and his sister. “We also want Arnie and Courtney and Aunt Sheryl to feel like they’re accomplishing a lot. Try to encourage them. So much of farming life is new to them.” Brandon suggested that if Aunt Sheryl graded them on a big curve, it would do a lot for her self-esteem, but his mom quickly rejected that idea.
Hey, it was a worth a shot, Brandon thought with a smile.
Brandon looked out on the fields beyond, wondering if he would spot Courtney. The teenage girl had come to them as Arnie had. She was an orphan who had bounced around from guardian to guardian, which had bred quite a lot of cynicism into her over those years. Brandon’s mom insisted that she stay here, since they did not know if there was any safe haven beyond their property, any place that would take in Courtney and provide for her.
Brandon admitted he was happy to have Courtney around. From the moment he laid eyes on her, she entranced him. Sure, his dad claimed that he was “infatuated,” that it wasn’t true love, although in time, who knew what could happen?
At times Brandon worried that Courtney would want to leave, especially when his parents reestablished contact with Skylar. She might want to move there if she found another family to stay with. However, she had shown no signs recently that she disliked staying here. It probably helped that the months of farm work had trimmed some of her weight. When the Averys first had met her, Courtney admitted she wasn’t happy with her body, but as the weeks passed, her frame had been getting toned.
“Brad!” Arnie suddenly called. He was pointing to the topmost branch on the stalk. “I see! I see holes!”
Brandon groaned. Arnie still had trouble remembering Brandon’s name. “It’s Brandon,” he said, though he tried not to sound exasperated. He even was growing used to it by now.
“Really? Bring it down. I can’t see the stalk from down here.” Brandon whispered a plea to his body to bring on puberty as quickly as possible so he wouldn’t have to rely on Arnie for the tall tasks.