“You don’t like the way I am?” Michael asked.
“I do, but I’m scared right now. I need to know you’ll be there for us if…” She paused and lowered her head.
“If what? If Dad doesn’t come back home? Do you think that will happen?”
She lifted her head, and tears had formed in her eyes. “It’s a possibility I’ve had to face every time he has left, but this time Chase went too. Now it’s us—you, me and Nana. Can I count on you?”
“Of course, I know I come across as sweet, but I can fight if you need me to. I can do anything that Chase can,” Michael said defiantly. “Dad has trained me with a gun. Heck, I shoot better than Chase does.”
“But…”
“Do you really think Dad and Chase won’t come back?”
Again Tanya paused. “Every time he leaves, I prepare myself mentally that he may not return.”
“Mom, you can trust that I will do whatever I can to protect you,” Michael declared.
She squeezed his hand firmly and said, “Glad to hear it.”
A wave of insecurity washed over him. “Do you really think I’m not capable?”
“I never said that you’re not capable. I’m asking you only to start thinking that you might have to be a fighter.”
Even though she had hurt his feelings slightly, he wasn’t going to show it, only because that would have validated the narrative that he was soft.
She wiped a tear from her cheek and said, “I’m going to go check on Nana. I think you should go get some sleep.” She stood and left the room.
Michael remained, his gaze fixed on the lantern at the center of the table. The orange flame flickered and danced. He prayed that his father and brother would return safely, but he also prayed for the opportunity to prove to his mother he was capable and strong.
DELIVERANCE, OKLAHOMA
Kincaid tapped his fingers on the desk as he pondered what Kaitlyn had told him.
“Well?” Kaitlyn asked. She knew Reid was at home, stressed and waiting to hear from her.
“I’m not convinced,” Kincaid said.
“What is the harm in it?”
“How is he even going to make it in time? You give the time frame as if he can drive there. He can’t. None of our vehicles can make that trip without having issues, you know this.”
“He can,” she shot back.
The leather squeaked as he settled in, leaning back in his chair. “You have a vehicle that can make the trip and I’m not aware of this?”
Kaitlyn sat down in a cushioned chair opposite Kincaid. She nervously smoothed out the creases in her pants and said, “I have an operational vehicle. It’s not perfect, but it can get him far enough to make it…theoretically.”
“Where’s this mystery vehicle?”
“In a garage in the north end of town. I’ve been working with a gentleman who had a Tesla Model S. He’s done some work on it, modifications, and he believes he’s given it a range of about five hundred miles on a full charge.”
“That sounds good, but that doesn’t get him far enough. It’s twice that distance,” Kincaid said.
“As I said, he made some modifications that he feels will enable him to charge the car as he drives.”
Kincaid widened his eyes. He was curious to see this vehicle and also disturbed that behind his back Kaitlyn and this man had been working on this Tesla. “How long have you been plotting to leave?”
“Leave? No—”
He raised his hand, motioned for her to stop talking, and said, “Don’t lie to me, Kate. You’re smarter than that.”
“A year plus,” she confessed.
“You don’t think I would’ve wanted to know about this vehicle?”
“Why would you? You don’t want to leave town; why would an operational vehicle mean anything to you?”
“I like to know what’s going on in my town,” he stressed.
“I’m sorry we kept it secret, but now you know, and now we have a chance to find out what’s happening in the world.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Kate. I thought I could trust you.”
“You can trust me.”
“I want to know more about this vehicle and its capabilities.” Kincaid leaned forward, placed his elbows on the desk, and gave her a hard stare.
Kaitlyn thought about how she could describe the vehicle, then decided on a different course of action. “How about you come with me and I’ll show you?”
Kincaid stood. “Let’s go.”
She smiled and said, “Does this mean you’re going to allow him to go?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I am putting off placing that call.”
Her smile grew.
He stepped around the desk and put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t ever lie to me again.”
“Never.”
“And, Kate.”
“Yes.”
“Destroy the house the second he’s gone,” Kincaid ordered.
FORTY MILES SOUTHWEST OF DALHART, TEXAS
“No, no, no!” Brienne howled as her fist slammed against the steering wheel. She pressed the accelerator, but all the SUV did was sputter.
The yellow light telling her the vehicle was running low on fuel had come on not a minute after she kicked Emily out.
The vehicle coasted and came to a stop.
She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the light of dawn approaching. Soon it would be morning, and no doubt with that would come people looking for her. She did have the advantage of miles in between her and them, but she wasn’t going to assume they couldn’t catch up. She rummaged through the vehicle, looking for anything of value, but came up short. She needed food and water and would need it soon. Ahead of her on the road was an abandoned vehicle, a Toyota Camry. If the car had gas in the tank, it had no doubt gone bad, but why abandon a vehicle unless you had run out of gas? Curious, she walked over to the Toyota and opened the door.
The skeletal remains of someone fell out and hit the pavement.
She recoiled. In her haste she hadn’t bothered to see if anyone or anything was in the car. She stepped over the remains and poked her head inside to find three other bodies. On the floorboard was a semiautomatic pistol. She picked it up and dropped the magazine to see the fifteen-round magazine was half loaded. She press checked it and discovered a round in the chamber. Looking back to the remains that had fallen out, she saw a large hole in the side of the skull. “Not a survivor, huh?” she smirked.
Not squeamish, she pulled the latch and popped the trunk. She lifted it up and said, “Let’s see what we have here.” Her eyes widened when she saw a cardboard box full of crackers and an assortment of chips, but the biggest surprise was a semiautomatic rifle and a backpack, something she sorely needed. “Jackpot.” She pulled out a bag of tortilla chips, tore it open, and stuffed several in her mouth, only to find that the chips had become stale. She shrugged and kept eating. The one thing she lacked was water, and she was now in the desert. She had enough to last her a day or two, but after that she’d need to find some.
She tore through the backpack to find mostly personal effects of the passengers, including a photo album, underwear she couldn’t use, and clothes that were too big for her. She dumped everything she didn’t need into the trunk and promptly loaded the backpack with the food she’d found.
In the middle of all the oversized clothes she spotted a small hardbound book. Curious, she picked it up and opened it to find it was once used for taking various notes. She then thought of her own journal. It had been in Emily’s backpack, meaning it was gone for good. “Damn,” she barked. She’d had the journal since Germany. It contained a detailed account of her life since she’d departed Europe to come back home. She glanced back east. She felt compelled to go find Emily and get her journal back, but knew that was a foolish endeavor.
She completed her search of the Camry and found it had been a success. In her pack she had a few days of food, a little water, a pistol she could use as a backup
, and more clothes. She had tried to start the Camry but found the battery had died. By her guess, Yuma was about four hundred miles away, and on foot that would take her about ten days, provided she didn’t run into any more trouble. To avoid becoming a prisoner of anyone like had just happened, she planned to walk off the road, keeping it just in sight but staying away from it altogether, and secondly, to stay as far away from people as she could.
She threw on her pack and instantly felt the forty-plus pounds. She grunted and said, “Maybe it will be more like twelve days.” She set out and began the trek across the barren terrain.
Time wasn’t really a concern to her. She’d already been traveling for years and what was an extra day or two now. She was close and with each step closer to hopefully knowing what had happened to Jake and her son, Dustin.
DELIVERANCE, OKLAHOMA
After waking Arthur, the man with the Tesla, Kaitlyn waited with Kincaid at the garage door.
The sun was now cresting the horizon to the east, and soon a new day would be upon them.
“How did you come to meet Arthur?” Kincaid asked, his hands stuffed in his pockets. The early morning was cool, with a slight breeze from the north making it feel colder.
“By accident, it’s too long a story, and really, that doesn’t matter,” she replied.
“How many other people know about this?”
“You, me and him. You should know, Arthur is a bit unusual. He tends to stutter when he’s nervous, so expect a lot of that, and he…well, how do I say this? He’s just odd, you’ll see,” Kaitlyn said. “But besides his unusual behavior, he’s a genius.”
Metal clanging came from behind the closed garage door. “Oh no…dang it!” Arthur bellowed.
“We’re waiting, Arthur,” Kaitlyn said.
“One second, just give me one second. I…” More bangs. “Darn thing,” Arthur barked.
Kaitlyn shot Kincaid an embarrassed look and said, “He really is quite brilliant.”
“And clumsy,” Kincaid added.
The garage door slowly opened. Bright light shot across the driveway.
Arthur emerged and briskly walked up to Kincaid, his hand extended. “Mayor Kincaid, it’s a real pleasure.”
Kincaid took his hand and shook. “I hear you’ve made some interesting modifications to your car.”
“Yes, I have, I, uh, I-I,” Arthur said. He paused for a moment then continued, the tempo of his speech deliberately slowed. “I have, and it’s an honor to show you.”
“I’m anxious to see it,” Kincaid said.
Arthur ran his stubby fingers through his thinning gray hair in an attempt to brush it to the side, but it didn’t help. He shoved his black-framed glasses up onto his face and said, “Please come in.” He stepped aside and motioned with his arm for Kincaid to come into the garage.
Kincaid, followed by Kaitlyn, walked into the space.
The first thing Kincaid experienced was the smell of burnt metal. His eyes instantly focused on the silver car. It was the body of a Tesla Model S, but that was as far as it came to looking like the car he had seen before. On the hood and roof were solar panels. Thick black cables came from underneath the panels. The roof’s cables ran down along the rear panel and went inside the trunk space. Another thicker black cable came out of the truck via a hole cut into it and went directly into the charging port on the rear left side. The cable from the hood panel ran down the left quarter panel, then alongside the bottom of the frame and into the trunk. All the cables were bolted to the body.
“It uses solar power?” Kincaid asked.
“Yes, yes, it does, so it can recharge as it’s parked or driving. I had to do some things to bypass the car’s programming that didn’t allow it.”
“But those panels can’t generate that much power.”
“Correct, that-that is true; what they do is-is allow it to have a longer range. I’m estimating that based upon the amount of kilowatts they can generate, of course, d-d-depending on if there’s sunlight, they will give it a range of about five hundred miles or so if you start out with a fully charged battery. The car’s batteries themselves give it a range of three hundred and seventy miles. Now, we do lose about five percent due to the drag caused from the panels being on the car, but I made up for that loss by cutting power to anything electrically nonessential. I diverted that power to get the battery to warm up faster, which helps it from losing about three percent. Of course, range is also determined by outside temperature, airflow and the speed. If the driver is driving fast, he can lose—”
Kincaid held up his hand and said, “I’m not a wonky sort of guy, no need to explain everything you’ve done. Are you sure it will work?”
Arthur gave Kaitlyn a glance and replied, “Yes.”
“Being that I’ve not heard about your car driving around town, how did you test it?”
Arthur rushed to a corner of the garage. He returned pushing what could only be described as two long metal frames with rollers in between. “I use these.”
“Where did you get them?” Kincaid asked.
“I made them.”
“Are you an engineer or something? How did we not see you on the lists we made? We could have been using your expertise long ago,” Kincaid said.
“Oh, no, no, I-I-I’m not an engineer or anything. No, no, that’s not me,” Arthur said sheepishly.
“Then what? Where did you go to school?”
“School, no, no, I didn’t go to school.”
A look of shock spread across Kincaid’s face. “What do you mean you didn’t go to school?”
“I didn’t go to college. I-I-I’m a janitor,” Arthur confessed.
Kincaid gave Kaitlyn an odd and confused glance and said, “You’re a janitor now?”
“No, no, I was before,” Arthur said, a whimsical smile on his face. He took great joy and telling people what he did before.
“A janitor has retrofitted a Tesla and increased its driving range?” Kincaid said.
“Correct.” Arthur chuckled.
“Can we drive it?” Kincaid asked.
Arthur gave Kaitlyn a look of fear and said, “Oh, I don’t know. I’m…I-I-I’m not sure about that.”
“What do you mean? I’m the mayor. There’s no fear about being seen. I want to see what your car can do.”
“I won’t get in trouble?”
“None. In fact, I’m trying to figure out how I can reward you for this innovation. I need you on our team,” Kincaid said.
“I’ll be right back,” Arthur said and ran off.
Kaitlyn walked up to Kincaid and asked, “You’re impressed, aren’t you?”
“Very,” Kincaid said. He got close to the car and ran his hand over it. He stopped at the panels on the hood and looked down. “If he can do this, he can help Joe get our batteries back up and the system running more optimally.”
Arthur returned, a hat on his head. “I’m ready.”
The car only had enough space for two people comfortably, with a third if they squeezed in the backseat alongside the equipment and tools.
Arthur took Kincaid out and drove him up and down the street that fronted his house. He showed him how the car still had the performance from before. He was very proud of what he’d created and wanted nothing more than for Kincaid to be just as happy about his creation as he was.
They pulled back into the driveway.
Kincaid exited the car and smiled at Kaitlyn.
“So?” she asked, barely able to contain herself.
“You can go,” Kincaid said.
Arthur got out and asked, “Go? Where?”
Kincaid replied, “Take your car to California.”
The joyful expression melted from Arthur’s face. “My car isn’t going to California. N-n-n-no, it’s not going anywhere.”
“I’m confused,” Kincaid said.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk with him yet about the plan,” Kaitlyn said.
“What plan? No, no one is taking my car
,” Arthur said, his body tensed, and he stepped back away from Kaitlyn.
“Arthur, we have an emergency. Someone needs to use your car. They need to take it to California to see if they can find a cure for—”
“No!” Arthur shouted.
“Arthur, please calm down. Let me explain,” Kaitlyn said softly.
“No,” Arthur again barked.
“Why can’t we take it?” Kincaid asked.
“’Cause it’s mine. I’ve been working on it for years…literally.”
“We can get you another one,” Kincaid said.
“Another one, where?” Arthur roared.
Kincaid stepped closer and said, “What do you do now?”
“Huh?” Arthur asked, confused by the question.
“Your job in the community, what do you do?” Kincaid asked.
“I work in the community garden,” Arthur said.
“Not anymore. I need you, Arthur. I need you; the town needs you. I want you to work with Joe Donaldson in our energy department. I need you to work with him on getting the solar and wind arrays working as efficiently as possible,” Kincaid offered.
“I can work on that?” Arthur asked.
“Yes, you’re brilliant. We need you,” Kincaid said.
“But we need your car. We need it desperately,” Kaitlyn said.
Arthur paced back and forth in the driveway, mumbling to himself.
The commotion drew the attention of several neighbors, who began to walk by, with some stopping to watch what was happening with curiosity, most notably staring at the car in the driveway.
“Arthur, by letting us use the car, you can be a part of this town’s legacy. If we find a cure for the dog flu, it will mean you had a role in that. Don’t you want to be known for helping the town, helping mankind, so to speak,” Kaitlyn said.
“Yes,” Arthur answered. He chewed on a fingernail and spit out a piece. “Can you find me a new car? I want to recreate what I’ve done here.”
“We’ll do our best. I think you’re probably the only person in town who had an electric car, but we can ask,” Kincaid said.
“Could we go looking for one?” Arthur asked.
Kincaid gave Kaitlyn a concerned look. “We’ll see. I’m not open to that idea, but I’m willing to discuss it. Is that fair?”
Seven Days: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel Page 8