Author: Rashad Freeman
Date: 2017-02-24 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Apocalyptic
Description: “Cast your reckless dreams upon our Mayflower.” Four different stories, one terrible event...this is Deconstruction. Max lives two lives. In one he’s an unassuming climatologist for NOAA. In the other he runs a secret government project that only a handful of people know exist. He’s been burning the candle on both ends for years, but now his paper life is about to come crumbling down with the rest of the world. After a rough week of work, Max and his girlfriend, Cindy, decide to burn off some steam and head out for a night in the city with two friends. Their little party turns into a cyclone o
Publisher: Altered Media Inc

THE MAYFLOWER PROJECT

DECONSTRUCTION

BOOK TWO

By Rashad Freeman

Copyright © 2016 by Rashad Freeman
www.rashadfreeman.com

Rashad.Freeman@rashadfreeman.com
www.facebook.com/rashadthewriter

Twitter:  @RashadFreeman
http://ask.fm/writerrashad

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This book is a work of fiction.  The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.  Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without the expressed written consent of the author.

Well, it took a while, but I’ve finally completed the second part of this epic journey.  Writing this installment was a wild ride so I hope reading it is just as exciting.  The mind can be a scary place, but through literature we get to explore the far reaches of this complex landscape.  When it’s all said and done I hope that I may have played a part in your life long adventure.

~Safe travels~

“Set the sails, I feel the winds a stirring.  Toward the bright horizon, set the way.  Cast your reckless dreams upon our Mayflower.  Haven from the world and her decay.” – Charlie Darwin

CHAPTER 1

THE COUNTDOWN CLOCK

"Max, are you gonna finish that," Suzanne asked me.

I looked up at her and sighed.  Of course I was gonna finish that.  There were maybe three bites left of my ham and cheese sandwich and I was holding the damn thing in my hand.  But the way she was staring at me, I feared she might snatch it and run off.

"Where does all of the food you eat even go?" I asked and narrowed my eyes.

Suzanne was a tall, light-skinned lady from some island in the Caribbean.  She apparently worked out like a track athlete, although I had no proof, other than her physique and the fact that she ate like a linebacker, but managed to never gain a pound.

She smiled at me and grabbed the remainder of my sandwich.  "Thanks Max.  You're a keeper."

"I was gonna eat that," I screamed after her.

Sighing, I got up and cleaned off the table then left the break room.  I walked down the hall and back into the work area at the National Weather Service Center in Georgia.  You had to say it that way or no one would understand you.  People didn't understand what we did anyway, but avoiding acronyms or any shortening of the name, made me feel like I'd chosen the right path in school.

Around the office we spoke in a short code on just about everything.  NOAA, EPA, SAB, E3, E&C, NAI,SCAN, SDR...the list went on.  It was enough to give anyone a headache.  So when I had the opportunity, I spoke like a normal person.

Lately, the list of names in the office had become much more ominous and terms like CIA, NSA, DIA and NORAD were getting thrown around.  All of our work had become compartmentalized and guys with dark suits and strong, jaw bones lurked in every corner.

All of this additional security made me nervous and as far as anyone outside of work was concerned, all I did was track hurricanes and send alerts to the surrounding Emergency Operations Centers.  But that couldn't be further from the truth.

I was a climatologist, a damn good one.  Science had always been my thing and luckily it worked out.  At the ripe young age of twenty-seven I'd managed to snag a senior position working with the government.  A position that I still couldn't believe I had.

It all started with a paper I'd written back in school.  It was a soapbox moment, but after getting passed around a few times the paper garnered some serious attention.

It was about thermodynamics and climate change and a theory I proposed, called the "Neilman Effect"...my last name.  Basically, the Earth was dying.  I suggested we'd be faced with cataclysmic disaster on a global scale in this lifetime.  The report was interlaced with a healthy bit of speculative fiction, but someone important read it and decided it sounded a little too probable to ignore.

So, here I was, heading up a secret team in an inconspicuous building.  Plotting charts, making graphs and giving predictions that set the ground floor for policy.  All because someone had read my dissertation and concluded that Max Neilman could save the world.

"Max, you get the reports over to the DOD?  They need the update before the last mailing goes out," Bruce asked.

He was an older man with silvery hair and thick, eyebrows.  He needed glasses, but he seldom wore them and he liked to part his hair right down the middle and chew the end of any pen he could get his hands on.

"Yeah Bruce, I sent them."  I stopped and looked up at the giant, digital clock that took up the wall.

The idea that you needed a clock the size of a movie screen was a clear indication of how serious things were, but if the message still wasn't received, the bright, red numbers that ticked away slowly, would've hammered home the sense of peril.  It read 987 Days: 14 Hours: 17:26.  An arbitrary time frame, but people needed something to shoot for.

As the numbers vanished I cringed and ground my teeth.  Time, man's greatest invention.  It was the only way we could comprehend our place in the universe and it was the only way we could even attempt to acknowledge our mortality.  But it was an invention nonetheless, a nonsensical representation that made us feel better.  A way that we could convince ourselves that things didn’t just happen.

"Staring at it is not gonna make it go back up," Bruce snapped.

"Yeah, I know.  It's just...maybe, maybe we got it wrong."

"Err on the side of caution Max.  You did good here."

I took a deep breath and held it.  That was just it, maybe I hadn't been cautious enough.  Everything had been extrapolated from my research.  Everything had been built around something I'd written while intoxicated and under insane stress.

Sure, my work had been second guessed and scrutinized by probably hundreds of other scientists.  Sure, experts had weighed in and tried to tear my research apart, but no one knew the data like me.  If the estimates were wrong, that was my fault.

Bruce stepped closer to me and leaned in.  "Mayflower is your baby.  No one might ever tell you and only a handful of people will even know what you did, but all of this is because of you."

"Thanks Bruce," I said and patted him on the shoulder.

Mayflower, that name was seldom spoken.  As far as code names went, it was probably the most secretive of all.  Only a few even knew of its existence and an even smaller group understood the details in their entirety.  I was part of that group.

"Look sharp, we have visitors today."  With that Bruce headed back to his desk.

Rubbing my face, I walked back to my office and closed the door.  I plopped into my chair and let my head fall forward onto the solid oak.  I counted to twenty then sat up and stared at the wall.

There was a map taped to the cream painted brick.  It was zoomed in on the mid-western United States and had pins stuck in places all over Wyoming.  I'd recommended Colorado, but decisions like that weren't really left up to me.

So, somewhere up in the Rocky Mountains there was a secret.  The government had its tentacles at work and had set the many segments of this powerful nation to task, without one arm knowing what the other one was doing.

That was the Mayflower.  That was the secret that many had already taken to their grave.  That was why I was under constant surveillance, like everyone else that worked down there and that was why every night, I went home and lied to my girlfriend.

"I just need more time," I mumbled to myself.

I picked up a picture frame, looked at it and smiled.  Cindy smiled back at me and I thought about life before all of this.  I thought about my life when I was just Max and no one expected anything else from me.

Mediocrity has it’s pluses and being in this place made you miss them.  What I missed most though was being invisible.  It wasn’t like I was famous or anything, but within a small circle everyone knew who I was and watched everything I did.  The guy in that photo never had to worry about things like that.

We'd taken the picture during a trip to North Carolina.  We'd visited a place called slippery rock and spent the rest of the week hiking through the mountains.  It was one of the best times of my life and the first time I looked at Cindy as someone I could get old with.

Now, we never had time for anything.  Cindy lived with her nose in a book, studying to take the bar.  And I was always here, doing things I couldn't even tell her about.  Most days we hardly saw each other and when we did it was for a few minutes before we both fell asleep.

"Max," I heard Bruce call as he tapped on the door.

"Come on in," I replied.

The door  swung open and Bruce was standing outside with two more men.  They both were wearing navy blue suits and were probably in their late sixties.  I recognized one of the men and felt my throat tighten just a bit.

"Hello Secretary Morris," I said with a smile.

"Max," he replied and stepped inside.  "This is Timothy Garner, Secretary of Defense.  Why don't you go ahead and tell us about the Mayflower."

CHAPTER 2

PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD

I got home around seven and headed up the elevator to my Atlanta apartment.  The commute from Peachtree was about an hour and I usually spent that time second guessing everything I'd done earlier.  We lived right in the heart of the financial district, which was good for Cindy since she worked there, but meant crappy traffic for me just about every day.

"You home?" I asked as I walked inside and dropped my bags.

"In the bedroom," Cindy replied.

I made my way through the living room and she walked out.  Cindy was a tall, athletically built former track star at Georgia Tech.  She could still outrun my ass in her sleep and since she was nearly my height I tried to ban heels whenever I could.

Her father was from South Africa and her mother Honduras.  The combination was what I thought every woman should look like.  Perfect skin, perfect hair and a full command of five languages while I struggled with two.  I knew it, so it didn't bother me when people would say how lucky I was.  I'd rather be lucky than good looking any day of the week.

"How was work?” she asked.

I collapsed onto our sofa and tapped the spot to my right.  She joined me and leaned into my shoulder while I stroked her hair.

"It was long," I finally replied.  "But you know...just another day at the office."

Cindy smiled.  "I know the feeling.  We need a vacation."

"Now you're talking."

"I'm serious, I have another month before I take the bar.  We should go somewhere.  I'm sure I can get away from the office for a week...and a break from studying would probably be good for me."

"It would be nice to do something different.  I'm just not sure if I can get time off right now."

"Max!" someone yelled as the doorbell rang.

Cindy groaned and I let out a laugh.

"You asked for something different," I said and headed to the door.

I opened it and Brent and Jake stormed inside.  They rushed past me and made a beeline for the couch.  Cindy barely had time to slide over as they dove onto it and made themselves at home.

"We got a plan guys," Jake said in excitement.

"No...no, we are not going out," I replied and held my hands up in a pleading manner.

Brent and Jake lived next door.  We'd known them for about five years and they were still living like we were freshmen in college.  Only difference was they had the money of a blossoming start-up to fund their alcohol-driven weekends.

"Just listen to me Max," Jake said.  He was the salesman of the two.  Tall, dark-skinned and baldheaded, he looked like a wanna be Michael Jordan.  He was a pretty funny guy and had absolutely no athletic ability whatsoever, but his charisma went a long way.  He could talk himself out of just about anything.

"Yeah," Brent added.  "Listen to him."

Brent was the brains of the operation.  An average sized guy with stringy, brown hair and glasses.  He'd been a coder since he was like twelve and with Jake's inspiration had created some trading algorithm that helped brokers make more money, as if they needed that.  When we first met him he was pretty uptight, but nowadays Jake's influence was starting to rub off.

"Alright Jake, what is this plan you have?" I asked.

"Prive is having a giant event tonight.  It's DJ Cosmo's launch party.  We have to go!  We get in there, get some drinks and get crazy!"

"This is your big plan?" Cindy sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Brent got us VIP."

"You know I hate clubs," I said with disdain and kicked my feet up onto the coffee table.

"Dude come on.  It's Friday, you guys never do shit anymore.  Remember how it used to be?  We were like the three musketeers."

"There's four of us."

"Yeah, but Cindy is a chick."

"Hey!" Cindy objected.

"He means, you're like the fair princess that we have to protect," Brent added.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.  So come on Max.  What do you say?  It's VIP...open bar dude."

Cindy nudged me with her elbow.  I turned and she raised her eyebrows and gave me an encouraging shrug.

"Really?" I asked in shock.

"Really!" she replied.

The next thing I knew I was in a noisy nightclub with blinding strobe lights, burning my retinas.  I could feel the bass vibrating my chest cavity and the multiple shots of vodka were doing nothing to dull my senses.

The place was packed and whoever this DJ was, he had a lot of friends.  I was amazed so many people could fit in one building and if it wasn't for Brent getting VIP we wouldn't have had a place to sit.

"Come on," Cindy said.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me to the dance floor.  For the next twenty minutes I reluctantly bobbed around with a crowd full of sweaty people, while Cindy pretended I was a stripper pole.

It was hard to enjoy myself when I had so much on my mind.  I really didn't like nightclubs to begin with and now with all that was going on at work, it just felt like more stress that I didn't need.  But I was a good sport, so I danced and danced until Cindy told me her feet hurt and she wanted to sit down.

After that it was back to our VIP booth and more shots until I couldn't see straight.  Jake and Brent were doing their best to make me permanently stupid and on some level they certainly succeeded.

"Enough of this vodka shit," I slurred.  "Where's the Patron?"

"Patron?" Jake echoed.  "You sure about that?"

"Don't you ask me stupid questions.  I said Patron Goddamn it."

Laughing, Jake flagged down our server and soon enough the fiery taste of death was burning its way through my digestive system.  Like a toddler I slid off of the sofa and flopped onto the floor in a laughing fit.  Everything was suddenly hilarious and I felt like dancing was the only cure.

Pushing myself onto my knees, I grabbed Cindy around the waist.  "Come on...more dancing," I grumbled.

She stared at me with glossy eyes then mumbled something I couldn't make out.  I started to protest, but then I felt the urge to empty my stomach and I threw my hand over my mouth.

I quickly jumped to my feet and rushed off to the restroom.  Bursting through the door, I dove into the first stall and lurched forward.  A stream of vomit came spewing out as my knees buckled and I dropped to the floor.

The toilet was filthy.  Stains and puddles of piss were everywhere.  But at that point I didn't care.  I wrapped my arms around the bowl and heaved forward.

"Hey man, you okay in there?" Brent called from the door.

"Argh! Okay!" I shouted back then collapsed face first onto the toilet seat.

"Alright man...I'll leave you to it."

He closed the door and left.  It took me thirty minutes longer to puke out enough to regain some of my senses. I could barely stand afterward, but I was pretty sure I’d just survived alcohol poisoning.

Feeling like shit, I shuffled to the sink and doused my head with water.  I goggled and spit and washed my face over and over.  The taste of vomit still lingered regardless.  It was like my taste buds had been permanently damaged.

I leaned my head back then felt the floor shift a bit under my feet and the mirror trembled.  I shook my head from side to side and blinked wildly then slapped myself in the face.  I definitely had too much to drink.

"Get your shit together," I said as I stared into the mirror.

I smacked myself a few more times and took some deep breaths.  Clenching my fists, I screamed at the top of my lungs.  My head was still spinning, but the sting on my cheek told me I was awake.

Feeling a bit more like myself, I headed out of the bathroom.  A cluster of women were standing in the hall and giggled as I stumbled by.  Some loud trance music was playing and the bass was shaking the walls like a damn speaker grill.

I staggered my way back to the VIP section.  Cindy was slumped over on Jake's shoulder and Brent was twirling around with some blonde chick that was swigging Vodka from the bottle.

"He's alive," Brent announced as I got closer.  "We got bottles to kill before we leave here."

He grabbed the bottle from his dance partner and held it out to me.  I reached for it, but suddenly the floor jutted up and I fell into the wall.  The bottle slipped from his hands and burst into millions of tiny glass missiles.

I straightened up and looked around.  Everyone else was glaring in confusion as well.  A few people had fallen, others had spilled drinks or knocked over bottles on the bar.  This time I wasn't imagining, something was going on.

"What the hell was that? Brent asked as he chuckled and wrapped his arm around the blonde chick's waist.  "Who cares," he continued.  "Let's party!"

Suddenly, the ground moved again and a loud rumble echoed over the music.  With a crash, a crack split right down the middle of the ceiling and down the dance floor like a mirror image.  The shelves behind the bar toppled over and gallons of top-shelf liquor spread across the ground like a tidal wave.

The floor rolled up and down.  Fissures split open across the tile and the building shook so violently I thought a train was passing on top of us.  The rattling walls made it impossible for me to even think straight and I stood in place like they say possums do when they see headlights.

The sounds of screams pushed me further into a state of drunken panic.  Chunks of plaster and cement collided with human flesh, silencing forever those not quick enough to move.  Metal beams snapped from the ceiling and showered the floor like arrows.  Chaos spiraled all around me and I was too dazed to react until I heard someone shouting.

"Earthquake!"

CHAPTER 3

AFTERSHOCK

The air was cloudy and cluttered with dust flakes that threatened to blind me.  My ears were ringing like someone had set off a fire alarm and the taste of blood settled at the back of my tongue.

I stood there in shock, trying to orientate myself, trying to remember where I was...who I was.  I struggled to hang onto to simple thoughts and I felt like I was floating through someone else's reality.

I inhaled the soupy air and felt a sting in my throat.  I started to cough so violently that I dropped to one knee and lunged forward.  It was my luck that I'd survive the club imploding, only to die from breathing in some toxic material.

Every breath I took was like swallowing sand.  I could feel the air on my tongue as it entered my mouth.  Thick debris floated everywhere, it was heavy enough to scoop into your hand like a snowball.

With a deep, barreling grunt, I cleared my throat, straightened up then started to look around.  All hell had broken loose inside of the club.  The roof caved in and a thick, slab of concrete leaned against a pole that strained to hold its weight.  The sky poured through the opening like a waterfall, but it only brought with it the sounds of sirens and more panic.

Rubble was everywhere.  Dirt-smudged arms poked out from the piles of smoldering brick, reaching for help that couldn't come fast enough.  Wires and broken light fixtures dangled from the ceiling, sending sparks and rancid smoke into the air.  It was a nightmare, a nightmare that had no end when I awoke.

Wiping my face, I stretched my jaw and shook my head to clear it.   A piercing scream suddenly broke through the clutter and I whipped around.  It was answered by another and then shouts of pain and heartbreak joined in like the opening of some morbid orchestra.

"Cindy!" I shouted.  "Cindy!"

My mind was slowly returning and along with it came a sharp pain in the back of my head.  I brushed my hand through my hair and felt the warm trickle of blood, but that didn't matter now, I needed to find Cindy.

The area we were sitting in was demolished.  The couches in the VIP area were covered by a mound of plaster and metal framing.  There was nothing left, but destruction.

I felt my heart stop and a sharp pain ripped through my abdomen.  I keeled over and gasped, praying that she'd moved.  She must've moved, there was no way she was under that.

"She's okay," I mumbled to myself and stepped over a massive chunk of concrete.

Trembling, I moved closer and closer to the debris.  Each moment I feared I'd see her lifeless face covered in dust.  Each moment I feared I'd become the orchestrator to the collapse of my own world.

Large chunks of drywall and concrete rested against one another.  But she could be alive, she could be alive somewhere under there and she needed my help.  I moved some of the twisted, metal beams and started to dig my way through the pile.

"Max," I heard a soft voice call.

"Cindy?  Cindy! I'm coming!" I yelled.

Like a madman I started to toss the rubble aside.  Jagged shards of beams ripped into my skin, but I didn't feel it.  Cindy was somewhere under there and that's all that mattered.

"Max," she called again.

"I'm coming Cindy!  Hang on!"

"Max," another voice called, a deeper voice.  "Max!"

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I whirled around.  Brent was standing behind me with wild eyes.  Jake and Cindy were right behind him, glaring at me in shock.

I swallowed then took a deep breath.  Cindy rushed toward me and jumped into my arms.  I squeezed her and sucked in the smell of her hair, the smell I thought I'd lost forever.  Right then I wanted to break down.  It took all of me to hold it together.

"I thought...I thought..." I couldn't finish the sentence.

"It's okay," she said.  "I'm fine."

"We need to get out of here," Brent snapped.  "This place is gonna fall apart."

I grabbed Cindy's hand and started toward the door.  A small crowd of people were slowly moving that way.  They seemed as confused as we were.  Others were kneeling on the ground crying over dead friends or lovers and even more were crushed under the rubble, either dead or dying.

"What the hell happened?" Jake asked.

He never got an answer.  As we stepped outside the scene went from tragic to hopeless.  The sidewalk rose up and down like roller coaster tracks.  Across the street one of the buildings had completely fallen over and hundreds of injured and disorientated people stomped around aimlessly.

A giant crevice had opened in the middle of the road.  Blistering, steam rose from it and police were desperately trying to keep people from falling in.  Intoxication, panic and holes didn't mix well.

Sirens and flashing red and blue lights lit up the night sky.  Emergency responders shouted and pointed in random directions, only adding to the confusion.  The scene was complete pandemonium and we were right in the middle of it.

"Jesus..." Brent mumbled.

"Come on," I said and grabbed Cindy by the wrist.

I led her down the part of the sidewalk that was still flat then crossed the street yards away from the gaping wound.  We nudged our way through the crowd and made it to the far side where it was a little less congested.

"Dude you're bleeding," Jake said as he reached out and grabbed my arm.

"Yeah, something fell on me in there I guess.  I don't remember, but I feel fine."

Cindy rubbed her hand across the back of my head and I winced.  She rubbed the blood between her fingers and frowned.

"I'm fine.  Seriously, I'm fine."

"Whatever Rambo," Jake said, trying to lighten the mood. "Rub some dirt on it I guess."

"We've got to get home," I sighed.  "The longer we stay out here the harder it's gonna be."

"Look!" Jake suddenly said and pointed back across the street.

A tail of smoke plumed from the nightclub like a train.  The outside walls were leaning from side to side as more of the ceiling gave.  Then, with a loud clap, the walls collapsed and the building crumbled into a pile of smoldering rubble.

Cindy let out a high-pitched groan.  "People were still in there," she said.  "We should've helped."

"There was nothing we could've done," Jake replied.  "We just would've died with them."

Cindy winced at the thought, but didn't respond.  We collectively sat in silence for a moment.  Every one of us knew people that were in there, from the DJ to the bartenders and waitresses.  We'd become regulars at that club and in the snap of a finger it was gone.

I squeezed my right hand as my fingers started to shake.  It was hard to rationalize what I was seeing, hard to control the flood of emotions ripping through my body.  I’d almost died in there and as I looked around I still wasn’t in the clear.

"I...I can't believe this," Cindy mumbled and pulled at her hair.  "All of those people...they're, they're all dead."

I stared at the remains for another minute, but felt like we'd lingered too long.  I wanted to run, to get as far away from that place as I could.  The city wasn't safe, we weren't safe and we needed to get home.

Before I could say a word the ground shook again.  Cindy grabbed my arm to steady herself and I could see the terror in her eyes.  I clenched my jaw and prepared myself for the worst.

Luckily, it passed quickly and my heart slowed just a bit.  My nerves were fried and the calm demeanor I kept trying to show Cindy was riddled with hairline fractures.  But I needed to keep it together.

"Just a tremor," I said.

I'd lived in LA for a while and earthquakes weren't new to me, but one in Atlanta was beyond shocking.  It was out of place and hinted at things much worse to come.  I fought with myself about what it could really mean and tried to ignore the voice in my head that had already come to a bleak conclusion.

"Just a tremor?" Jake screeched.  "Just a tremor?  I'm pretty sure I shit myself man."

Cutting my eyes at him, I wrapped an arm around Cindy's shoulder and pulled her toward me.  She was shaking and had a frazzled look on her face.

"Hey," I whispered.  "We're okay.  I'm gonna get you home, alright?"

She nodded and I started to walk her back down the sidewalk.  Brent and Jake followed as we passed more dazed bar patrons and people from the surrounding buildings that had barely escaped with their lives.

"Do you have a plan?" Brent asked.

"What do you mean?"

"We're walking toward midtown...I know you're not planning on taking the fucking underground train home."

I stopped and slapped my palm to my forehead.  "Shit!  We're just gonna have to walk."

"Dude that's like ten miles," Jake protested.

"You got a better idea?  All I know is I'm not staying around here."

Jake chewed the inside of his gum for a minute and looked back toward the club.  Police and fire-rescue workers were moving around like a swarm of ants.  People were laid out in stretchers or in the middle of the road, groaning in pain.  More people wandered around like zombies, blood dripping from wounds or bones jutting from their skin like spikes.

He scratched his head and I could see the little wheels spinning.  It was like his mind was a Rubik's cube and someone was twisting and cranking it around trying to get it just right.  After an agonizing thirty seconds he finally tossed his hands into the air and grunted.

"Fine, let's go," he replied.

In a clouded daze we headed out.  No one really spoke as the rush of adrenaline subsided and we found ourselves battling exhaustion and shock.  My head was cluttered with nonsense and speculation, making rational thought nearly impossible.  So, I just focused on walking, focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

The further we walked the more normalcy returned.  Not just how I felt, but everything.  The roads seemed solid and the buildings were still standing.  Maybe it was just a tremor, just an isolated shift and nothing to worry about.  Something I'd be looking at on Monday, trying to figure out why the hell Atlanta was having any kind of noticeable seismic activity.

"We might be able to take the train at Lindbergh Center," Brent said as if he could read my mind.  "It seems stable around here."

"No!" Jake replied sharply.  "I'm not getting on that damn thing, no matter how it looks.  The last place I want to be is underground."

"You're such a pussy."

"Call me what you want.  I'm not getting trapped in a damn tin can.  I'll take my chances up here."

With that, Brent gave up on his plan.  So, we just kept on walking.  I was holding Cindy, nearly carrying her as we trotted down the street.  My mind was a tornado and no matter how much I tried to write it off, I knew something was wrong.

We'd survived a catastrophe.  Walked right out of the front door of what ended up being a coffin for most and we barely had a scratch.  I wanted to say I was in shock, but I wasn't sure.  The longer we walked the more things popped into my mind that I should've done or been concerned with.  But when we came out of the club the only thing I cared about was getting as far away as I could.

I stopped walking and patted my pockets then looked around.  "Does anyone have their phone?"

"My purse," Cindy grunted.  "Shit...I left my purse in there."

Her face immediately morphed into a painful frown and I knew she was judging herself.  She did that a lot, and complaining about a purse when people died in that building was certain to put her on her own shit list.

"It's not your fault," I said and rubbed her back.

She nodded and continued to sulk.

"Got mine," Brent said and held up his silver IPhone.

"Mine is...not here," Jake laughed.  "I wanted an upgrade anyway, but we don't need to call anyone.  There were tons of people there already."

"I don't have service anyway," Brent replied.  "What about you Max?"

Shrugging, I held my hands up in defeat.  I think I dropped my phone in the toilet."

"Great...let's just keep going."

We turned back down the sidewalk, but stopped as a loud high-pitched tone echoed down the street.  It was a metallic screech like bad brakes, grinding on rotors.  I covered my ears and squinted.

"What the hell?" Brent shouted.

The noise droned on like nails on a chalkboard.  It was getting louder and louder, squeezing my ear drums like cotton balls.  Cindy fell to the ground, clutching her head and Brent and Jake were nearly in tears.

As the sound continued, the sidewalk started to shake and I looked up ahead to the Arts Center Transit station.  The ground near it started to buckle and it felt like I was trying to balance on a soccer ball.  A bulge appeared in the asphalt just to the right of the station and cracks spiraled across the sidewalk, shooting into the road.

"Argh!!" I yelled as the pressure in my ears reached a pinnacle.

For the first time that I could remember I felt real fear, down to the core of my soul.  The kind of fear that haunted the dark before man discovered fire.  The kind that children felt when they looked into a closet at night.

It wasn’t like inside of the club, it was different.  I could hear the piercing sound of fate and there was nowhere to hide.  I could hear death coming, but I couldn’t see it and that twisted my stomach inside out.

The high-pitched shrill continued.  I thought my head was going to erupt and right when I couldn't take another second, the sound exploded just as a train ripped through the ground and burst into the air like a flaming arrow.  It smashed into the station, sending burning pieces of shrapnel in every direction.

“Jesus!” Brent snapped.

Like a manic snake, the train lurched from the Earth, flames and body parts spewing from the sides.  Screams of horror and death replaced the screeching and the smell of cooking flesh permeated the air.

The ground shook and the concrete splintered.  A crack ran down the middle, shredding the road in half.  The asphalt in front of me shuddered then crumbled into a black abyss.  Everything was falling apart and the Earth was hell bent on swallowing us all.

I shifted to one side and grabbed Cindy by the arm.  We fell back into the grass then shuffled away as the gap widened.

With a grunt, Brent jumped and landed on the curb.  He stumbled onto the grass next to us then whipped around, looking for Jake who for reasons only he knew, hadn’t moved.

The asphalt below him caved in and in slow motion Jack fell backward.  The ground was a hungry mouth opening to greet him, waiting to devour him like one of those meat eating plants.  With his arms swinging recklessly, and his eyes screaming for help, Jake tumbled and vanished beneath the road.

CHAPTER 4

HOME SICK

Cindy unleashed a wailing, cry and fell to the ground.  My jaw dropped and I felt my knees buckling underneath me.  Before I could move Brent was already on his feet, rushing toward the massive gap.

The road was ripped apart.  The two sides were split down the middle and slowly crumbling away like a cigarette bud.

"Jake!" Brent yelled.  "Jake...where are you?"

Suddenly, a hand shot up from the depths and grabbed the side of the road.  Another hand slapped at the pavement beside it then a dirt covered face peeked out.

"Brent!  Get me the fuck out of here!" Jake screeched.

His voice was pained and quivered with fear.  I'd never heard him like that, I'd never heard anyone like that.  It was like he'd seen death face to face.

"Stay here!" I told Cindy.

I followed after Brent and ran into the road.  Together we grabbed Jake's arms and pulled him up.  All three of us fell back onto the curb as a rush of steam whooshed behind him.

I could feel the heat against my skin.  It was like I’d stuck my head in an oven.  Anyone caught in the direct blast would’ve been cooked alive.

“Damn that was close,” I yelped.

Jake struggled to catch his breath.  His hands were pretty sliced up, but other than that he looked fine.  He still had the look of terror etched on his face and I knew this nightmare would only get worse.

Brent looked back at the crumbling road and scampered further onto the sidewalk, pulling Jake along with him.  As another chunk of asphalt broke away I scrambled to my feet and followed.

"You okay?" I asked and wrapped my arms around Cindy.

She didn't respond, she lifted her hand and pointed toward the station.  The mangled remains of the train were intertwined with the building.  Jagged metal strips wrapped around the iron framing like tinsel.  Fire rolled across the surface like it was alive, melting the frame like wax.

"My God," I mumbled.

My heart pounded like a timpani drum, but through that I could hear the screams for help.  People wailing in pain as they burned to death, trapped inside of the twisted train's compartments.  It was no way to die.

Rancid, black smoke was starting to cloud the air.  It covered the station as it floated through the night like a cloak.  The Grim Reaper had been busy.

"We have to help," Brent said lowly.

How could we help?  Even as I watched, small explosions went off from God knew what, pieces of the transit station crumbled to the ground and the groans from inside intensified.  How could we help without needing someone to help us?

"It's too dangerous," I replied.

"What?  Those people are dying Max...we have to do something."

"We have to get the hell out of here.  Brent, Jake almost died.  Hell we all did...in the club, just now, we just need to get home.  We can call someone from there."

More of the building fell and another scream blared out.  The ground started to shake again and I could feel the hairs on my arms spike.  Cindy shivered and pulled her arms in tight.  I grabbed her and started down the sidewalk.

"Come on," I said.  "We're going home."

CHAPTER 5

DOWNWARD SPIRAL

I don't know what I expected once we made it home, but it wasn't what I saw.  Maybe complete chaos, maybe the outer walls burning or the entire complex engulfed in flames.  But not this.

The lights outside were on, the ones on the street and around the building.  Everything looked orderly and untouched by the clumsy hands of disaster.  Even the automatic doors slid open as we walked into the lobby and soft tunes of classical piano greeted our ears.

Herman, the doorman, was standing near the front with an uninterested look on his face.  He seemed bored, like he’d welcome a natural disaster or any kind of reprieve from his regular nightly duties.

"Rough night?" Herman asked as he gazed at us.

I looked down at my ripped, jeans covered in dirt and grime.  Blood stained my hands and shirt and I could feel it drying like plaster in my hair.  It had been a rough night and from the looks of it, he didn't even know the half.

"Is everything okay here?" I asked him.

"Um, yeah...just another day, living to serve," he replied sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes and continued, "What about the earthquake?  You guys didn’t have to evacuate or anything?"

Herman smiled then started to laugh.  He pointed at me then threw his hands into the air and shrugged his shoulders.  With a red face, he doubled over.  "You young people and your drugs."

"Dude are you--," Brent started, but I cut him off.

"Have a good night Herman.  We'll see you tomorrow."

“Yeah…looks like you potheads had enough fun for all of us.  Try not empty out the vending machines in the clubhouse,” Herman snorted.

I nudged Brent forward and we headed to the elevators.  Once we got inside Brent turned to me with a snarl.

"What the hell man?" he growled.

"Jumping down the doorman's throat isn't gonna fix anything.  Look around, obviously nothing happened here."

"Well shit Max, I'm not a super scientist like you, but there's no way they didn't feel that over here."

"I don't know...we all just need to calm down."

Brent sighed and leaned back against the wall.  He growled under his breath and rubbed his face.  He was cracking and I didn’t blame him.  This was more than anyone should have to handle.

With a ding, the doors slid open and we stepped into the hallway.  The dim lighting and soft tones meant to put people at ease did nothing to calm my nerves.  I scanned the shadowy corridor as my arms erupted in a field of goosebumps.

"What now?" Brent asked.  “We just go to sleep like none of this ever happened?”

"I don’t know.  We need to sit down somewhere and figure all of this out.  You guys coming in?" I asked.

"I need to take a shower," Jake replied.

"Me too,” Brent added  We'll run by our place then head over in a few.”

"Sounds like a plan."

With Cindy holding my arm, I headed to our apartment.  She was still pretty shaken and hadn't said a word since the train station.  She had me worried, but so did a lot of things.

"I'll get you some water," I said as she sat down onto the sofa.

She nodded and I made my way to the kitchen.  I was still amazed that the lights worked, that anything worked.  I expected more destruction, but nothing had happened here, it was just another day in Atlanta.

"Here, drink this."

Cindy took the glass and brought it to her lips.  She drank a few sips then took a deep breath.  "All of those people," she said in a low voice.  "We left all of those people to die."

"We would've died with them," I replied.  “There was nothing we could do Cindy, but now, now we can call for help.”

I grabbed the house phone and turned it on.  There was an optimistic dial tone so I punched in the numbers 9-1-1 and waited.

It felt like a lifetime, but eventually the busy signal started to beep.  Grunting, I hung it up and tried again.  The same thing.

"Lines are busy," I said lowly and took a seat next to Cindy.

“We left them,” she groaned again.  “We didn’t do anything.”

“It’s not our fault Cindy.  Things happen and we can’t control that.”

"I'm scared Max... real scared," she cried and leaned her face into my shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay.  Look around, we’re safe here."

"I just...what if this is it?  What if this is the end of the world?"

I laughed slightly then straightened my face.  "Come on Cindy.  It's not the end of the world.

Everything is gonna be fine."

"But what if it is?  What if this is just how it starts?  I don’t want to be one of those people that thinks everything is okay, until it’s too late to do anything about it.”

“Cindy, come on…it’s not, it’s not the end of the world.  Alright?”

“I'm serious Max.  I 'm really scared...and, and there's something I need to tell you," she said as she turned to me with tears in her eyes and grabbed my hand.

"Yeah?"

"I don't want anything bad to happen and I never said anything.  I just...I just have to tell you."

"Cindy, what are you talking about?  Nothing bad is gonna happen.  What's bothering you?"

Cindy took a deep breath.  She bit her bottom lip and clenched her fists.  Her face was pained and contorted.  It was more than tonight that was bothering her.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and stuttered, "It's...it's just that--"

Suddenly, the door burst open.  Cindy jumped back and let my hand fall.  She turned to the door as Jake and Brent stormed in and rushed into the living room.

"Dude have you seen this shit?" Jake asked and grabbed the remote control for the TV.

He hit the power button then scrolled through a few channels.  He stopped on the news then sat back onto the couch.

I stared at the TV in disbelief.  A banner scrolled across the bottom, but the headline and what the anchor was ranting about caught my attention.

"Underground gas explosion claims the lives of 56 at Atlanta night club.”

The anchor was going on about how the explosion caused damage to the underground transit system and may have impacted pickup times for the train.

It was complete bullshit.  They were covering it up.  There was no way a gas explosion caused any of that damage.  I saw the ground moving myself, I felt it shifting underneath my feet.

"Can you believe this crap they’re spewing?" Jake snapped.

I felt just as angry as he did.  I couldn’t believe they weren’t warning people or evacuating the downtown area.  If I hadn’t been down there first hand, it would’ve sounded crazy, but I knew there’d been an earthquake.

“Maybe they’re not trying to panic the whole city,” Brent said as he stared at the TV.

“By letting everyone die instead.  This is the same shit they always do.  Nothing to see here folks,” Jake replied.  “Just move it along.”

“What’d you expect them to say?  Get out of town now, run for your lives.  Don’t go all conspiracy theory on me.  Give them some time to figure it out.”

“Hey at least we know they’re down there and someone’s helping the people at the train station,” I added.

Jake shrugged then let out a deep breath.  For the next few hours we were glued to the television, watching update after update.  The death toll at the club continued to climb and no one from the train survived.  It was a sad day for the whole city.

I grabbed some extra blankets from the closet as the temperature dropped.  No one wanted to go to sleep though, we were too invested in what was going on and what we might miss.  At some point in the night however, we all caved into exhaustion and passed out.

CHAPTER 6

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

It wasn’t the quake that awoke me the next morning.   It wasn’t the falling picture frames or dishes that crashed from the cabinets.  Not the screeching of tires or the sounds of sirens and shouts for help.  Not even the sound of our door cracking and falling into the apartment disturbed my slumber.

I slept right through every bit of the destruction, we all did.  I guess the combination of liquor and shock put me into some deep coma-like sleep.  The adrenaline dump alone could’ve done it, but after seeing what we’d seen it wasn’t any wonder that a train crashing through the front door wouldn’t have awaken us.

You wouldn’t think it, but it was the quiet, the lack of sound, the lack of anything that sent an eerie chill through my unconscious mind.  Something in my head screamed, “Wake up dummy!  The world is ending!”  And only, the uncomfortable feeling of silence, could’ve carried that message.

I cracked my eyelids and swam through a sea of darkness.  For a minute, I wasn’t even sure if my eyes were open.  There was nothing, not a flicker, not a twinkle of light anywhere.  It was complete, pitch-black darkness.

Groaning, I slowly sat up, making sure to keep my hands firmly planted on the sofa.  It was my only reference point and without it I’d be lost in a nebulous sea, screaming for help like a toddler.

“Think,” I told myself.  I knew I couldn’t stay there forever.  The world was falling apart all around me and I wasn’t’ gonna die in my damn apartment.

Brent and Jake were somewhere on the floor and Cindy had slipped off to the room.  I racked my brain for just how I could get to her without killing myself.  If I called her she’d probably walk right out of the window, but I risked the same fate.

Out of options I rolled off of the sofa and crawled in the direction of our bedroom.  I waved my hand out in front of me, sweeping it back and forth like a walking stick.  It was a tense couple of minutes, but my memory and sense of direction served me well.

As I felt the mattress of our bed I heard Cindy grunt and roll over.  I grabbed her foot and slowly stood up.

“Cindy,” I called out.  “Cindy wake up.”

“No!” she suddenly shouted.

Her foot jutted out and slammed into my stomach.  I doubled over and her other leg snapped violently, catching me square in the face.

Stars erupted in my eyes and blood gushed from my nose.  I staggered backward and hit the wall, reopening the tender gash in my head, before sliding to the floor.

“Shit Cindy,” I groaned.

“Max?  Oh, my God.”

Cindy leapt off of the bed then stopped.

“Max…where are you?  I can’t see a damn thing.”

“Just stay where you are,” I grumbled through my hands that cupped the flow of blood.  “There’s no power.  I’ll come to you.”

“What the hell were you doing?  I thought you were a burglar or something.”

“I was trying to wake you up.”

I pinched my nose and wiped the blood away with my shirt.  I still couldn’t see a damn thing, but I could feel the flow start to lessen.

“I’ll get the candles,” Cindy said.

“No, no stay in bed.  I’ll get them.”

I stood up and leaned my back against the wall to steady myself.  I felt a bit lightheaded, but the sensation passed quickly.  Reaching my hands out, I slowly started to walk forward, blindly feeling the air in front of my face.

With a thud, I slammed into the dresser and let out an umph, intermixed with garbled swears.  My knee bore the brunt of the impact and now I couldn’t tell if that or my face or the back of my head hurt more.

“You okay?” Cindy asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I replied and started to feel across the dresser for the candles Cindy liked to keep out.

She giggled at me, but I was on a mission.  Ignoring her, I continued looking for the next five minutes with no success.

“You gonna ask for help or just keep looking?” Cindy griped.

“Well if you know where they are why don’t you just tell me?”

“I moved them.  They’re in my top drawer with the lighter.”

“Really?” I gasped.

Now was not the time for jokes and with everything that had gone on in the last few hours I wasn’t sure why she was acting the way she was.  I was concerned, but not as much as I was about the apparent loss of all power.

As I flicked the lighter a warm orange glow grew and I immediately felt safer.  I lit three candles and placed two around the room and kept the other one in my hand.  It was one of those scented ones, lavender, seated in a glass jar that Cindy had painted with her nail polish on a boring Sunday morning.

“Let me look at you,” Cindy demanded.

I walked to her and she grabbed the sides of my face.  The light flickered against her skin, exposing dried tears and puffy eyes.  I reached out and swept her hair away then gave her an encouraging smile.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Am I okay?  Jesus, I really did a number on your face,” she replied.  “I was probably a ninja in another life.  Why don’t you crawl into bed and let me show you how sorry I am.”

“Be serious Cindy,” I said with a frown.  “How are you feeling today.”

“Be serious Cindy,” she mocked me.  “Geez Mr. mood killer.  Since when did you start turning down sex?”

With a deep breath, I swallowed my next words then ground my teeth.  I leaned forward and kissed her forehead then stood back up.

“What the hell is going on?” Jake blurted out from the doorway.

Cindy jumped then snatched her hands away.  I turned around and glared at him then shrugged.

“Power is off apparently,” I replied.

“There’s no lights anywhere.”

“Yeah, I just said the power is out.”

“In the whole world?”

“What the hell Jake?” I growled.  “Don’t be stupid…not today.”

“Max,” he started.

And I heard something in his voice that I’d missed.  It was fear, he was scared, terrified and his voice trembled with every word he said.

“There…there’s no light anywhere.  No street lights, no moon, I can’t see anything out of that window.  It’s like someone through a blanket over it.”

I swallowed and clenched my jaw.  He had to be confused.  A building outage…sure, with whatever went on last night a city-wide outage wouldn’t shock me.  But there had to be light out there, somewhere…even in the distance there had to be light.

Cindy followed me and we walked into the living room.  Brent was still asleep and Jake kicked him as we passed over him.

“What!” he shouted.

“Get up dude,” Jake replied curtly.

It must have been the seriousness in his voice, but Brent didn’t argue.  He slung the blanket off and jumped up with wide, bloodshot eyes.

With Cindy squeezing my free hand, I walked across the room toward the wall to wall windows that normally gave a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree view of the city below.  Jake had already pulled back the curtains and at that moment I wished he hadn’t.

“No…no, no,” Cindy started to whisper.

Her hand shook in mine and I tightened my grip.  Not out of reassurance, but out of my own fear.  The closer I got to the window the heavier my feet felt, the more I wanted to look away and ignore the grim reality.

I struggled for words and my brain tried to make sense of everything.  What I was seeing and what I should’ve been seeing or what I expected didn’t match.

Eventually, I was face to face with the glass and only the reflection of me holding the candle was visible.  It was so dark outside it was like I was staring at a black wall.  It was unreal, a day ago, even at night I could’ve seen for miles.  Now the world was blank, cast into shadows hidden from view.

“I…I need something to drink,” Cindy stuttered.

She uncoiled her fingers from my hand and turned toward the kitchen.  With a faint smile, she grabbed the candle from me then walked off.  I watched her go for a moment then looked back to the window.

“What do you think?” Brent asked once Cindy was out of earshot.

“I don’t know man, I really don’t know.  This is crazy,” I replied as I soaked in the darkness outside.

“The news said it was nothing.”

“I told you…I told you it was bullshit.  Fuck!” Jake said angrily.

“Okay…so what do we do now?” I asked.

“It’s gotta be around five in the morning,” he replied.  “The sun will start coming up soon and we’ll know something then.”

“You want to sit in here and wait for the sun to come up?” Brent asked.

“Hell yeah!  I don’t wanna go wandering around down there in that dark city.”

“Oh, my God!” Cindy suddenly shouted.

Whipping around, I rushed toward the glow of her candle.  I sped into the kitchen and found her staring into the dark with a glass of water in her hands.  Broken glass was all over the floor.  Dishes were spewing out of the cabinets and the light fixtures from the ceiling had fallen.

“Cindy?” I called.  “Cindy!”

She slowly turned around and set her cup onto the counter.  Her face was pale and she looked even more terrified than earlier.

“What is it” I asked as I reached out and pulled her close.

She pointed back toward the front door and I gasped.  The thick, wood was cracked down the middle and had fallen inside of the apartment.  Under the faint light, it looked like something out of a horror movie.  I felt a chill run up my legs and I knew at that moment we’d slept through another earthquake.

“What the hell could’ve done all this?” Brent grumbled.

“Earthquake,” I whispered.

“What?”

“It had to be an earthquake…a big one.”

“No way!  No way!  You saw that shit at the club.  You’re saying we slept through that?” Jake retorted.

“That’s the only thing that could explain this.  Shit, unless aliens are invading and breaking down people’s doors.”

“Okay, okay so an earthquake?  What do you do for that…what’s the protocol?” Brent asked.  “We…we need to get the hell out of here, right?”

Everyone was looking at me and I didn’t know what to do.  I was as clueless as they were and probably even more scared.  I had no phone, no internet and for the first time in my life I felt helpless.

“We…we, flashlights…flashlights.  We need to get flashlights and, and those camping bags.”

“Camping bags?” Jake echoed.  “Why the hell do we need camping bags?

“In the closet,” Cindy said.  “The hallway.”

“I’ll be right back,” I called out, ignoring Jake.

I grabbed the candle from the counter and ran to the hallway closet.  There were two empty camping bags on the floor and several flashlights on the shelf above it.  I tossed the flashlights into the bag then rushed back to the kitchen.

“Look, I think we need to get out of here as soon as possible,” I said.

“Out of the apartment?” Brent asked.

“Out of the city.”

“What!” Jake exclaimed.  “And go where?”

“I don’t know, but do you want to be here if something else happens?”

“I got a feeling we’re the only people still here anyway,” Brent replied.

“It’s about time we find out.”

No one replied, everyone sat in silence for a few minutes.  It was eerie, the candle flickered, casting shadows against the broken door.  Nothingness waited outside, the hallway was an empty hole that I knew would be hell to navigate.  But we couldn’t stay and something told me that the window to get out was closing.

“We need to pack, we have to get out of here,” I finally said, breaking the silence.  “And before you ask again Jake, I don’t know where.  We can figure it out once we get down on the street.  But we’re not gonna get any answers hiding in here and I don’t want to be on the tenth floor if this starts up again.”

With that, I grabbed a flashlight and walked off.  I headed into my bedroom and opened the closet.  On the top shelf, there was a safe where I kept my handgun, a forty-five caliber Glock.  I bought it a couple of years ago, and had gone shooting religiously for the first six months.  After that it became more of a novelty and I realized I’d probably never need it.

As I opened the safe and pulled it out I felt a sense of safety that I’d thought had been lost forever.  The world might be ending, but I could shoot my way out of anything.  Or so I thought.

When I returned to the kitchen Jake and Cindy were talking in the corner and Brent had gone back to the living room.  As I approached they both looked up then Jake stepped forward and nodded toward Brent.

Huffing, I followed him into the living room.  Brent was staring out of the window and turned around as he heard us getting close.

“We’re gonna need things, things like food water…you know?” Brent said.

“She’s scared man,” Jake blurted out.

“I know she is…hell we all are,” I retorted.

“I’m just saying, maybe it’s best if we stay here.  It’s safe here for now and I’m sure someone will be coming to check on this place.”

I groaned and ran my fingers through my hair.  “We’re leaving Jake.  You can stay, but we are leaving.”

“I don’t know what you have here,” Brent continued like Jake had never spoke.  “But I’ve got a few camping supplies in my apartment.  A tent that we can pack, canteens, rope, things like that.”

“Whoa man…slow down, just, just think about this for a second,” Jake said and waved his hands between us.  “This is nuts.  We’re gonna camp, we’re gonna live out in the woods.  It’s a fucking earthquake…maybe.  This isn’t the end of the world.  Damn guys, you’re going all over board.”

“Overboard, overboard!” I shouted.  “Look out of that damn window Jake.  That’s the city out there.  That’s the rest of the world and I don’t see one bit of it.  Something is wrong and I’m telling you, if you want to stay alive, we need to get the hell out of here now!  Not to mention you were losing your shit five minutes ago and now we’re the ones going overboard.”

Jake took a few steps back and twisted his face like he couldn’t believe what I was saying.  Brent turned to me with a look of shock then sighed and sat back onto the couch.  He clenched his jaw and shook his head from side to side.

“What the hell is going on Max?” Brent asked.

“What do you mean?  You said it yourself, we need to go.”

“No…you’re not telling us something.  What the hell do you know?  What is this?”

“I don’t know what this is okay.  I just know this place isn’t safe.”

“Bullshit!” Jake roared.  “Spill it!”

Cindy had walked out of the kitchen and was standing behind me.  I turned and looked at her as she glared and cocked her head to the side.

“It’s just something I think I overheard at work,” I lied.

“What?” Cindy replied fiercely.

“Just about the weather…about weather patterns and a warming trend, but it was years…decades off.  I just don’t think it could be related to this, but I’m worried, that’s all.”

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Brent asked.

“Say what?  That I think maybe this might be related to something someone might have said and they were probably wrong about.”

“So, what does all of this mean?  That’s the real question,” Jake snapped.

“Look, like I said, I don’t really know anything.  So, I can’t tell you what all of this means.  I just don’t want to be stuck on the tenth floor if this gets worse.  Okay?”

They all looked at one another with skeptical glances.  It was like they were considering if they could trust anything I said anymore.  I could only imagine what their response would’ve been if I’d told them what I really thought was happening.

Cindy grunted.  “I’m going to pack some clothes,” she said then grabbed a flashlight and headed back to our room.

I groaned and dropped my head into my hands then sat down.  No one understood my position and I could never tell them.  I’d just grit and push on, hoping Cindy would get over it.

“Nice,” Jake said then headed back to the kitchen.  “Real nice.”

“Don’t mind him.  He’s been an asshole a lot lately,” Brent said and patted me on the shoulder.  “Just…just let us know if you figure anything else out.”

I took a deep breath and nodded.  “I guess we need to get back to your place huh?”

Brent frowned and looked back toward the door.  I followed his eyes and felt the hairs on my arms shoot toward the ceiling.  An electric sensation rolled down my chest and I shivered.

It was out there, waiting, lurking in the halls just around the corner.  Whenever it was quiet, whenever the bickering and small talk stopped I could hear it.  It was the sound of nothing.  The terrible noise that lived in the shadows, the discord of abysmal darkness and eternal dusk.  And like a child, I was afraid.

“Yeah, yeah I guess we have to,” Brent finally said.

“I’m ready,” Cindy snapped as she walked up behind me.

I slowly stood up and turned around.  She had her stuffed camping bag slung over her shoulder and a flashlight clutched in her hand.  Even under the dim candlelight I could see her rolling her eyes at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said.  “I should’ve told you.  I, I just didn’t want to scare you anymore.”

Cindy sighed and turned her head toward the kitchen.  “Jake we’re ready to go when you are.”

“Give it time,” Brent whispered.

Taking his advice, I grabbed my camping bag and went back to the room.  I loaded up as much ammo as I could find, two packs of matches, a water bottle and some extra clothes.  Aside from that, I was banking on Brent.

“Everybody ready?” I asked as I made my way back to the living room.

Cindy didn’t look at me, but Brent and Jake nodded.  I clenched my jaw, clicked on my flashlight and started toward the front door.

CHAPTER 7

BEFORE THE END BEGINS

Somehow the hallway was darker than inside of the apartment.  Even with our flashlights it felt like we were falling deeper and deeper into a hole.  Every step was painstakingly slow, every word a muffled whisper that sounded like a siren echoing in the empty halls.

“You sure we’re going the right way?” Jake asked.

“Yes, you idiot,” Brent snapped back.  “You live here too.”

We’d been creeping down the hall for ten minutes.  The floor was covered in plaster and chunks from the wall or ceiling.  It looked like a tornado had swept through or there’d been some kind of riot, the place was a mess.

It was absolutely silent out there, our footsteps even seemed to vanish in the dark.  Jake was right though, it was hard to tell which way we were moving.  There was so much rubble to navigate and with the darkness it was easy to get turned around.

“I think this is it,” Brent announced.

“Oh so now you don’t know,” Jake snapped.

Brent had moved a little ahead of the rest of us like he was a scout.  I resigned to hanging back with Cindy, trying to mend our strained relationship even though I wasn’t sure why she was so mad.

“Jake’s got a point, how don’t you know?” I asked.

“The door’s missing,” Brent replied.

Brent vanished inside of the apartment and we slowly followed.  The inside looked mostly the same as mine.  Picture frames and paintings knocked off of the wall.  Broken glass and toppled over furniture.  All the signs that said something bad had occurred.

“It’s in the spare bedroom,” Jake said and headed toward the back.

“Damn it!” Brent groaned as he bent down and picked up a blue and white vase.

“What?”

“I got that in Italy.”

“I’m sure you can get another one.”

“That’s just it…I can’t.”

Before I could reply, Cindy brushed by me without a word.  She headed toward the back with Jake, leaving me and Brent alone up front.

“Silent treatment huh?” Brent asked.

“Yeah, I don’t’ get it.”

“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 were ok with crashing into ours, so the layout had me feeling a bit out of place.

It was a bigger than my apartment.  They had three bedrooms, an office and a den.  Not to mention, each of the rooms was about one and 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.  I guess he 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.

It was like everyone had just vanished. Th 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 exist 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.

“Where are you folks headed?” he asked.

“Not sure,” I replied before Jake could say something stupid.  “Some place safe.

“Where you coming from?”

“Atlanta...Bankhead”

“Bankhead?” he echoed.  “That place was evacuated.”

“Well, obviously they missed us,” Jake retorted.

It didn’t take him long to start pissing people off.  The man tilted his head to the side and gave Jake a stern look.  I took it to mean, “I’ll snap your fucking neck son.”

“When did they evacuate?” I asked trying to resolve the tension.  “And what is going on?”

“Last night, anyone left behind was as good as dead.”

“Well we made it out this morning.  Maybe there’s more survivors.”

“Unlikely, the quake that hit, it was the biggest ever recorded on the east coast and we think it’s just starting.”

“What’s just starting?” Brent asked.

The man ignored him.  “Anyone that survived that would’ve been incinerated by the gas.”

“The gas?”

“Came up from the cracks, kinda like steam or something form the lava, at least that’s what the scientists say.  Scorched everything, burned people to less than nothing.”

Cindy gasped and covered her mouth.  We’d all seen the evidence of that, we just had no clue what we were looking at.  But now we knew why we didn’t see anyone.

“Anyway, I’m Captain Estevez.  We’re taking people north to Cartersville.  There’s room in the truck.”

“What’s going on?” Brent asked as he finally found his voice.  “What’s happening to everything?”

“You see it.  Earthquakes, as crazy as it sounds, that’s as much as I know.  Now, we can’t stay here long so it’s best you come with us.”

“We’re trying to get to Calhoun, any chance you can get us there?”

“Calhoun?” he replied and gave me a strange look

Cindy did the same, but didn’t say anything.  I’d planned on telling them later, once I had a chance to make up a believable story, but with everything that was going on I needed to take advantage of having a military escort.

“HSA?” Captain Estevez asked.

“Yeah…yeah I work there.  I really need to get in touch with some people.”

He skeptically bored into me.  I smiled then reached into my bag and pulled out an ID badge.  He took it and looked it over then handed it back to me.  Scratching his head, he looked us over then put his helmet back on.

“Hop in the truck.  I can get a Jeep to re-route you once we get into Cartersville.”

“Thank you,” I replied.

We headed around the back and climbed into the panel truck.  There were fifteen other people, mostly families inside seated on the bench that ran the length of the truck bed.

“HSA?” Cindy asked once we got situated.  “You work there?  And what is in Calhoun?  What happened to Marietta?  You better start talking.”

“Yeah,” Jake and Brent added in unison.  “This should be good.”

I took a deep breath and cleared my throat.  At this point, everything was going to come out anyway.  It was time to tell it all…or as much as I could make up.

CHAPTER 9

WE’RE NOT SAFE HERE

The drive to Cartersville was bumpy.  The roads had been ripped apart by the quake and we spent most of the time navigating dirt trails and narrow passes through dense forests.  I think everyone was a little taken aback by how much damage an earthquake could do.

Cindy gave me the death stare for most of the ride, awaiting my explanation that so far, I’d avoided by listening in on the other occupant’s conversations.  I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep her at bay, but it was much more pleasant to learn about the truck full of people.

There was a family of five there from Florida.  The Jefferson’s, a young couple with teenage triplets.  They’d just started their winter vacation and planned on seeing the aquarium when disaster struck.  The wife was crying nearly the entire ride, she’d left her mother and father along with their youngest back in Florida.  From what they’d heard, that state wasn’t doing too well.

That was the other shock.  The earthquakes weren’t just isolated to Atlanta or even Georgia.  There was a guy from the National Guard seated back there with us.  He was an older guy named Lincoln.  According to him earthquakes were popping up all over the country.  The earliest started over a week ago.  The military had been coordinating evacuations and things were happening so fast news outlets didn’t even have time to report them.

It made sense and my model predicted it, but confirmation of what I suspected was something I didn’t want.  For once in my life, I wanted to be wrong, I needed to be wrong.

“Where are they taking everyone?” Brent asked.

“Not sure really,” Lincoln replied.  “Just trying to stay a step ahead of it.  They’ve got some guys studying patterns, telling them where the next one is gonna be.  They just keep pushing north, hoping to outrun whatever this is.”

“They’re not gonna outrun this,” I mumbled.

“What’s that?”

“Never mind,” I replied and turned away.

There was another family seated right across from me.  The husband’s name was Phil.  He’d been on a business trip in Atlanta and he’d decided to bring his wife and toddler along.  They were some of the last people to be rescued from Atlanta and while we somehow survived the worst of it, they were around to see all of the death and destruction.  Things like that never went away.

“Max,” Cindy said as she nudged me with her elbow.  “You’ve waited long enough.  Start talking.”

I huffed and looked her in the eyes.  I was sure after all of this she was never going to talk to me again.  But if she was gonna lose it, it was probably better she did in the back of the truck.

“You can’t be mad at me,” I said.  I wasn’t sure why I said it and as soon as I did I realized how childish it sounded.

“I can’t be mad at you?” Cindy echoed.  “Are you serious!”

“You’re screaming.”

“So, what if I am.  You feed me bullshit and when you decide to come clean you try to tell me I can’t be mad.  You’ve got some nerve Max.”

Everyone in the truck was staring at me and I felt like I’d been sent to timeout or something.  I lowered my head and scooted closer to Cindy.

“You’re making a scene,” I mumbled through clenched teeth.  “Calm down.”

“You calm down!”

“Jesus…I can’t tell you now.  You’re already pissed and I haven’t even done anything.”

“Max,” she said sternly.

“Fine…fine.  I don’t even know where to start.”  I paused and leaned closer to her.  I didn’t need the rest of the truck listening in.

“Start by telling me what the hell HSA is?"

Brent and Jake slid closer as well and created a type of semi-circle.  We looked like a group of gossiping teenagers.

“Homeland Security Agency,” I said lowly.

“What do you have to do with that?” Brent asked.

“I kinda work for them.”

“No, you work for the National Weather Service,” Cindy corrected me.

“Well, it’s complicated.”

“Max how complicated can it be?  You leave every morning and drive into Peachtree where you sit at your desk and tell people about fucking storms.  Did I miss something?”

“I wrote a paper,” I said.  It wasn’t a defense, but the only thing I could think to say.  I felt like I was being interrogated by the KGB.

“What’s in Calhoun?” Cindy asked.

“It’s a satellite office for HSA and emergency management personnel.  Everyone will have reported there now that the south is out of range.”

“What the hell are you talking about dude?” Jake snapped.

“You said you wrote a paper.  What does that mean?” Brent asked, trying to keep their interrogation on track.

“Back in college, I was studying climate change and the different heating trends.  The Earth, it’s like a giant oven…like a giant pot of spaghetti with a paper-thin lid.”

“Um ok?” Jake scoffed.

“My paper said the lid might break…we were cooking the spaghetti too much.  Some really important people took it seriously.”

“What does any of this have to do with that?” Brent asked as he waved his hands around in the air.

“Look around Brent.  The fucking lid just broke.”

Cindy twisted her face and bit her bottom lip.  She turned away from me and lowered her head.  I reached out and wrapped my arm around her and she pulled away.  Wiping her face, she straightened then slowly twisted back around.

I couldn’t tell how she was feeling.  Her face was blank and she refused to look me in the eye.  But I knew this would push us to the breaking point, I just wanted her to be safe.

“So, what do you actually do Max?  Where do you work?” she growled.

“It’s complicated.  I mean, I do work for the National Weather Service.  But I lead a project directed by homeland security.”

Cindy cut her eyes and clicked her teeth.

“Look I can’t tell you anything else.  At least not here.  I’m sorry Cindy, but this was top secret, I couldn’t tell anyone.”

Jake started to laugh.  “Dude you can’t be serious.  Top secret?  Leading a project for homeland?  Come on man, you couldn’t lead us out of Atlanta.”

“Screw you Jake!” I spat.

“Screw you!”

“Guys, come on,” Brent piped up.

I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to Cindy.  “When we get to Cartersville…I’ll tell you everything.”

That didn’t seem to make her feel better.  She wrinkled the corner of her mouth and leaned back, but there wasn’t anything else I could say.  I’d already told her enough to land me in prison and the looks and stares from the others in the truck couldn’t have been a good sign.

Brent glanced at me then stared toward the ground.  Jake wouldn’t even look in my direction.  I’d had about enough of them, I wished I’d left them back in that damn apartment.  If we were gonna survive, it’d be because of me, not one of them.

What didn’t they understand?  I’d led them from that nightclub, I’d kept them safe and because of me they were all still alive to hate me.  That’s all I’d been trying to do for years…save the world.

The truck started to slow and I could hear elevated voices in the distance.  I quickly sat up and started to look around.

“Hurry up!” someone shouted from outside.  “We’re evacuating now.”

The truck came to a complete stop and I jumped up.  “Something’s going on,” I said.

Cindy grabbed my hand.  I was sure she was still pissed at me, but she was scared.  I pulled her up next to me and we quickly moved to the edge of the truck bed.

Captain Estevez stepped around the corner.  He had a worried look on his face and was motioning to someone in sharp movements.  There was a lot of commotion going on outside, just out of view.

Cindy’s hand trembled, or maybe it was my own.  Something bad was coming.  My throat dried and my voice felt like a twisted bone lodged in my neck.  The fear that I thought we’d left in the apartment was creeping back.

Estevez turned toward me and took a deep breath.  “There’s a truck leaving now, they’re heading to Calhoun,” he said.  “If you hurry you can catch a ride.”

“Let’s go,” I snapped and grabbed my bags.

I jumped out of the back and turned around to help Cindy down.  She was terrified, but eventually climbed out of the truck.  Brent and Jake stopped at the edge and gave me an odd look.

“Let’s go,” I said again.  “They’re leaving.”

“We’ve been talking,” Jake started.  “It’s probably best if we stay here.  Wherever they are trying to take survivors is probably safest.”

“Are you kidding me?” Cindy suddenly shouted.

“You can stay too,” Jake replied.  “But we aren’t going.”

“Fine, stay here.  Cindy let’s go,” I growled and tightened my grip on her hand.

Cindy looked back into the truck and then to me.  Before she could get out whatever words she was thinking something exploded and a loud boom rattled the ground.

“What the hell?” Captain Estevez groaned.

He circled the back of the truck then headed toward the front.  Suddenly, a whoosh of air swept passed me.  I felt my feet lift from the ground as the force pushed me backward, ripping Cindy’s hand from my own.  I heard her yell something to me and then I was airborne.

The sky came into view, then the ground, then the sky again.  I was spinning like ragdoll, twirling through the air on a high-speed collision course with the unknown.

I could hear people screaming and things falling apart.  There was a loud roaring in my ears as I swung my arms like a dying bird.  I struggled to gain control, but I was moving too fast.

I couldn’t tell what was up or down anymore.  I felt like I was going to pass out from the force of the blast alone or the constant spinning, like I was in one of those NASA centrifuges.  Then, without warning, I met the ground and everything went black.

CHAPTER 10

I’M STILL BREATHING

My body ached.  Every nerve, every cell screamed in pain.  Was this what it felt like to die?  I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t see and I hurt so much I couldn’t determine what was actually injured.

All I knew was pain.  As my awareness of self slowly came back, I continued to wonder if I was dead or alive.  I guessed alive, death couldn’t hurt this much.

I could feel the hard ground against my skin.  A rock or some piece of concrete was jarred into the small of my back.  I could feel blood in the back of my mouth, the distinctive metallic taste, pooling on my tongue.

I was afraid to open my eyes.  Afraid to find out if I was even able to open my eyes.  So, for minutes I just lay there and it was the most agonizing moments of my life.

I still couldn’t hear anything and that terrified me.  I didn’t think everything had gone silent, rather something was wrong with my ears.  Whether or not that would last was anyone’s guess.

The longer I lay on the ground the more my body hurt.  The more uncomfortable I became and eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore.

I opened my eyes and blinked wildly.  Something hot was covering my face and suddenly I could feel it burning my skin.  It was metal, hot metal.  A slab of it had fallen on me and I squirmed in panic.

I’d been in an accident?  I remembered that much.  Something bad had happened and…and I wasn’t alone.  Someone should’ve been with me.

With a heavy, grunt I pushed at the slab of metal and slid it to the side.  I sat up and let out a roar.  My back felt like my spine was trying to rip through it.  My brain was rattling inside of my head and my eyes burned like my tears were made of fire.

Someone grunted a few feet to my left and I snapped my head around.  A woman’s hand jutted out from beneath a pile of dirt and rocks.  Blood was dried to her skin, gashes and scrapes were up and down her arm, but something, something was familiar about her…and then it hit me.

“Cindy!” I shouted.

Everything was coming back to me, the truck, the explosion, the earthquakes.  Something had gone wrong.  We were all just there, just standing there.

I scuffled to my feet and rushed to Cindy’s side.  She was partially covered under a mound of dirt and small bricks.  Her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing.

“Cindy…Cindy,” I called as I dug the rubble from around her.

I pulled her into my chest and squeezed.  I could feel her heart beating, but she wasn’t responding.  I shook her then grabbed the sides of her face and pressed my forehead to hers.

“Cindy, wake up.  Cindy, can you hear me?”

She moaned again and then her eyes fluttered.

“Cindy?”

“Ugh,” she groaned.

“Cindy?”

“What…what happened?”

She slowly opened her eyes and gazed at me.  I felt my chest lighten and I breathed a heavy, sigh of relief.

“I don’t know,” I replied and looked past her.

About thirty yards away the military truck we rode in was toppled over.  The ground behind it had rose like a mountain and in front of it a thin vapor spiraled from the ground.  Bodies covered the floor, but I couldn’t see whose and I felt sick to my stomach, knowing that my friends could be among them.

“Are you hurt?” I asked Cindy.

She looked herself over then shook her head from side to side.  I stood up and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet.  I grimaced, but tried to hide the pain that I was in.  It was something I would worry about later.

Smiling, I wiped the dirt from her face.  As my brain seemed to be reconnecting everything, the shock of almost losing Cindy came crashing down.  It felt like someone hit me with a sack of rocks.  I staggered then gritted my teeth as I felt my stomach churn.

I grabbed Cindy by the arms and pulled her into me.  “I love you.  I don’t ever want to lose you,” I said.

“I love you too Max,” she whispered into my ear.  “Where’s Jake?  Where’s Brent?”

I looked over her shoulder and wondered if they’d survived.  No one seemed to be moving and the amount of vapor or smoke that was coming up from the ground was getting thicker and thicker.

“Let’s go find out,” I replied.

We slowly made our way back to the truck.  It looked like we were walking through some kind of morbid construction zone.  Pieces of metal and other debris were scattered across the ground.  Chunks of burning vehicles sent acrid smoke into the air.  And among all of that were the dead.

I could see the bodies of people up ahead.  I knew they were dead, I didn’t need to get any closer to see the bent limbs and twisted faces.  It was a nightmare and I could only hope my friends were alive somewhere in there.

“What did this?” Cindy asked as she wrapped around my arm and pulled tight.

“I don’t know.  Looks like some kind of underground explosion.  Maybe gases unleashed after the last quake.”

“Oh, my God!” Cindy groaned and covered her face.

It was one of the families we’d met on the truck.  Phil, his wife and their young daughter, all dead.  From what I could tell they’d been burned by whatever gas had caused the explosion.  Their charred bodies were frozen in time, huddled together, trying to protect their child.

I felt a pain at the pit of my stomach, a wrenching knot that made me pause and double over.  Gagging, I turned and vomited into the dirt.  I wasn’t prepared for this…this, this wasn’t right.

I wiped my mouth then stood up.  I didn’t even know them, I’d talked with Phil for maybe half an hour, but his death seemed personal to me.  He’d died right there, holding his wife and daughter, trying to shield them from the inevitable.  I didn’t know him, but he didn’t deserve that.

In that moment, it was the first time I really considered my own mortality.  We were just fragile bodies, trying to avoid an unescapable destiny.  We were doomed to a life of peril and none of us were safe.  Phil’s fate could’ve been my own and in that we were all connected, counting arbitrary digits until we met our own demise.  I hoped there was something more.

I shivered and smashed my face into the palms of my hands.  It was hard to keep a level head with so much death around.  I tried to focus on the people I needed to find, but bodies were everywhere.

“I hope it was quick,” Cindy mumbled as she glanced back at their morbid statue.

I didn’t think it mattered.  One second of pain could feel like a lifetime and in the end, they were gone, but maybe they were lucky that way.  At least that’s what I told myself, that they’d escaped the worst and we were the unlucky ones.

I hugged Cindy then pulled her away.  “Come on.  Let’s keep going.”

As we walked, we passed more and more bodies.  Even Captain Estevez had lost his life.  It was sad that he’d died trying to save so many others.  I wondered if he had family or would anyone even know he was gone.  Would his body turn to dust and be swept away in the winds or be swallowed by the earth along with everything else?

His corpse was almost unrecognizable.  His name patch and rank were the only way I could identify him.  Dirt and rubble covered his scorched face, smoke still rising off of his body.  Another person that I’d passed in my journey that was with us no more.

“I can’t believe this,” Cindy said over and over.  “It’s a nightmare.”

I tried to comfort her, but the best thing we could do was keep moving.  There were fissures spread across the ground.  Steam rose from each one as the soil continued to crack and the warped earth shuttered like it was cold.  It was a bad idea being anywhere near there, we needed to hurry.

The bed of the truck was covered with a green tarp that hung over steel framing.  That was the only thing that kept the overturned vehicle from totally collapsing.  There was hope that if someone was still inside, they might be alive.

“Hello?” I shouted as I got closer.

I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled toward the opening.  With trembling hands, I pulled back the tarp and stuck my head inside.  It was dark, but I could make out several bodies spaced out toward the cabin.

“Stay here,” I turned and called to Cindy.

I took a deep breath then crawled inside.  The ground was still warm to the touch and the smell of sulfur lingered in the air.

“Brent?  Jake?” I called.

As I reached the first body I turned them over and frowned.  It was an older man that had lived in Georgia his entire life.  His neck was twisted and his face permanently etched in a painful grin.

“Max?” someone called to my right.

“Jake!” I replied as I turned and caught a glimpse of his face.

“My leg is stuck.  I…I can’t get out.”

“I’m coming.”

With a sense of hope, I scurried toward him.  He was stuck near the side of the truck.  One of the metal frames landed on his leg and pinned it to the ground.  It didn’t look painful, the soft dirt had gave way and created a little pocket, but I wasn’t sure how I’d get him out.

“Where’s Brent?” I asked as I tried to pull his leg free.

He screamed and pushed me away.  “No!  Not like that.  I think it’s broken.”

“So, what the hell do you want me to do?”

“Get me out of this fucking truck!”

I groaned and looked around.  For a moment, I seriously considered just leaving his ass in there.  My fear of him dying had made me forget how impossible he’d been lately.

“I’ll be back,” I said.

“What?  Where are you going?”

“Hang tight.”

I crawled back out of the truck.  Cindy was standing there with her arms wrapped across her chest.  She looked jumpy and still had tears in her eyes.

“I found Jake…no sign of Brent yet.”

Cindy nodded and I rushed off back toward Estevez’s body.  I stopped over it and looked down, deciding if freeing Jake was worth what I was about to do.

I’d seen it with him earlier, one of those hand shovel tools that turned into a dozen other things.  Swallowing, I bent down and started rifling through his fatigues.  Luckily enough, I quickly found it in one of his pants pockets.

“Yes!” I elated then rushed back to the truck.

“Where the hell did you go?” Jake groaned as I crawled inside.

I started to reply, but paused when I heard another voice.  “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you left him.”

It was Brent.  He was sitting next to Jake and as far as I could tell, he was in pretty good shape.

“Where the hell did you come from?” I asked him.

“I was taking a nap.  I’m ready to hit the road again now.”

I frowned at him then looked at the few remaining bodies.  I guessed some people dealt with tragedy in different ways.  Brent had chosen to pretend it wasn’t happening.

“Help me with him,” I told him as I slid closer to Jake.

“What’s with the knife?” Jake asked with a sudden seriousness in his voice.

I cut my eyes at him and twisted it around pushing the other metal pieces together to form a spade.  Sighing, I started digging around his foot.  The dirt was stubborn, but inch by inch I was able to move him a little more until he was free.

“Good idea,” Jake said as he crawled from under the frame.

I smirked then scampered back outside.  “Look who else I found,” I called to Cindy.

Brent came after me followed by Jake.  They stood up and brushed the dirt from their pants then looked around.

“Holy shit!” Jake exclaimed.

“Yeah…wanna tell me again how you plan to stay here?”

“Sorry about that,” Brent grumbled.

Ignoring them, I started my own search of the area.  I didn’t have a chance earlier and Estevez never did tell us what they had going on in Cartersville.  We barely had time to park before everything went to hell.

We’d stopped inside of a fenced off area.  It was probably some kind of community soccer field in the past, but now all of the grass was dead and it was covered in gravel.  It was a rural area and as far as I could see there were no buildings or houses.

It looked like they’d just started to set up a FEMA camp.  Luckily, they hadn’t done much and there weren’t too many people in there yet.  Now the place looked like ground zero, but it could’ve been worse.

“Help!  We need help over here!” a woman suddenly shouted.

I looked up and found her waving her hands from across the field.  She was running toward us from an overturned trailer, one of the only ones that had been set up.

“Help!” she called again.  “He’s on fire!”

CHAPTER 11

SCORCHED EARTH

I’d come to the conclusion that the world was dying and it was trying everything imaginable to take us with it.  It’s final death throes were violent, punishing and cruel.  It was tumbling from a cliff and grabbing everyone it could to take with it.

Her name was Mary, an Atlanta native, born and raised.  Estevez himself had brought her and her husband Greg to the camp.  They’d survived thirty years of marriage and the initial quake in Atlanta.  They’d even survived the explosion that had just claimed so many lives.  So, it was nothing more than fate’s cruelty that Greg perished from an electrical fire caused by his daily cup of coffee.

“That’s heartbreaking,” Cindy said in a low voice.

We were standing around outside while one of the officers found Mary a place to lay down.  To my surprise, several people had survived and some of the camp was still operational.  There was still some hope left.

Mary was in shock and hell I couldn’t blame her.  We’d made it to the trailer in time to smother the flames minutes before Greg died.  I couldn’t imagine the pain he was in, but he managed to croak something that sounded like “I love you,” right before he succumbed to his injuries.

Maybe what he said hadn’t sounded anything like that.  Maybe I was trying to create a silver lining where only rips and tears existed, but we all needed hope.

“We need to get moving,” I said and rubbed Cindy’s shoulders.

There were a few vehicles that were still operational, but another convoy was on its way to the camp.  Seismologist had been monitoring ground activity and warned that the camp needed to be evacuated a mere twenty minutes before the explosion.  They were now moving the survivors even further north.

“It’s gassed up and ready to go,” the officer named Hurly said as he handed me a set of keys.

I’d managed to talk him into giving me a Ford Escape so that I could drive to Calhoun.  We weren’t able to contact anyone there, but I was able to pitch my case convincingly enough.  And having my work ID on me didn’t seem to hurt.

I took the keys and nodded towards the small, gray SUV.  I felt a bit hesitant, venturing back out into the unknown, but it seemed like no place was safe.  The road, the city, a FEMA camp…when death came for you, in the end it didn’t matter where you were.

“I take it you have some pretty important stuff to get to in Calhoun,” Hurly stopped me on the way to the car.  “Just be careful out there, it’s getting bad and not just the earthquakes.”

I nodded and shook his hand one more time.  “Thanks a lot.”

“Why are you so dead set on going here?” Brent asked.  “Do you even have a plan?”

“If you’re gonna start up again, you can just stay.  That’s fine, but I’m not wasting anymore time,” I replied.

“Dude calm down, we’re coming with you,” Jake jumped in.

“Oh…now you are?  I thought you were leading the charge on the mutiny.”

Jake didn’t reply.  He bit his bottom lip then looked back at Brent.  Brent lowered his head and sighed.

“Let’s just go.  It’ll be getting dark soon,” Brent said.

I didn’t push the issue any further.  We all got into the car and after thanking the officer again, we drove off.  Leaving the camp behind was a relief.  As we drove north the destruction vanished behind us and it almost felt normal again.

The road opened up and it was like nothing had ever happened.  No toppled buildings, no ripped apart highways, no signs that anything bad had ever occurred.  The world was as it was and for some reason, normality seemed wrong.

“Maybe they were wrong,” Cindy said as she stared out of the window.  “Maybe it’s not everywhere.”

I glanced at her and smiled.  It was hard to imagine them being wrong.  The National Guard had a network that spanned the country.  If they said the world was falling apart then it was.  I just needed to get to Calhoun while the team was still there.

Brent and Jake didn’t talk much during the ride.  That was probably best, considering I was still pissed at them for wanting to stay back.  Tragedy really let you know who your friends were and I was shocked that these guys were so willing to cut and run.

It didn’t take as long as I thought it would to get to Calhoun, but it wasn’t what I expected.  Homeland Security was located inside of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which was an unassuming, brown, one story building.  It was surrounded by a thin chain-link fence that opened to a wide paved driveway.

I slowed down as we pulled up and put the car in park.  The gate was wide open and there were no cars parked in the motor pool.

“Something is wrong,” I mumbled.

“Yeah…nobody’s home,” Jake groaned.  “What a waste of time.”

“You could’ve stayed asshole.”  I grabbed the handle and opened the door.  Leaning my head out, I listened for any sounds of life, but it was eerily quiet outside.  “I’ll be right back,” I said to Cindy.

“Hold on,” she said and grabbed my wrist.  “What is going on?  Why are we here?  And I want the truth this time.”

I’d avoided the question long enough.  She deserved to hear the whole story and there was no telling when I’d have another chance to tell her.

“For the last two years, I’ve been working in a top secret facility here,” I said with as much confidence as her piercing stare would allow.

“What about the Service Center?” she snapped.

“I work there too and I’m there at least once a week.”  I paused then let out a groan.  “Remember back when I was doing my dissertation?”

“Yeah.”

“You remember what is was about and how stressed I was right?”

“Yeah, you were freaking out.  But what does that have to do with this?”

I struggled how to explain any of it without getting too far into details.  I wanted her to believe me, I needed her to believe me.

“My dissertation started it all.  I mean, the entire concept was about it.  In three years, I said the Earth’s core would reach a tipping point, but it’s happening now.  I worked here, helping to plan a shelter for the survivors in Wyoming.”

“The survivors?”

“Cindy, this is going to wipe out the world’s population.  Other countries are doing the same thing.”

My words hung in the air.  There was nothing, but silence and confusion inside of that car.  Cindy’s eyes teared up and Brent and Jake couldn’t pull their jaws from the floor.  I figured I might as well finish with all of the bad news.

“I was hoping to catch the team here and get us to the shelter in Wyoming, but it looks like they’ve already left.  That’s it, that’s the whole truth.”

Cindy glared at me then swallowed.  I shrugged then turned back toward the door and pulled it closed.  She jumped at the sound and shivered.

“You okay?”

She nodded slightly.  I could tell she was having a hard time processing what I’d told her.  That was the thing though, be careful what you wished for.  I had years to soak in the news, she had minutes.  But she wanted to know it all and now she did.

Sighing, I put the car in drive and slowly rolled forward.  I drove through the gate and stopped out front of the building.  It looked deserted, but I tried to think positive.  Maybe that was just the way they wanted it to look.

“You guys coming, or you staying in the car?” I looked back and asked as I opened my door.

“I’m…I’m coming with you,” Cindy stuttered.

Brent and Jake nodded and followed after me.  In silence, we headed up the walkway and found the front doors propped open with rocks.

“Is this normal?” Brent asked with a shaky voice.

“No…no it’s not.”

I quickly ducked inside and started to poke around.  My heart was thumping like a jackhammer and my stomach twisted and turned.  I was too late.

The main lobby was completely empty.  Short cubicle walls and small desks were systematically dispersed through the room like dominoes, but there was no one behind them.  Papers were tossed around and filing cabinets left open, like someone had left in a hurry or the place had been ransacked.  There was only one other place anyone could be.

With Cindy close behind me, I walked down the empty hall toward the project room in the back.  As we moved further from the glass doors the light faded and we were cast into shadows.

“Wait for me,” Cindy called out as she reached for my hand.

I slowed for a moment then turned down another hall and headed toward the main boardroom.  The doors were closed and a flickering light from the cracks gave me hope that someone might still be there.

With a deep breath, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.  There was a wide, polished oak table in the middle of the room.  It was empty except for an ancient projector that sat in the center of the table.  It was pointed at the wall, spinning wildly with an empty reel.  The click-clack of the aging motor echoed in the lonely room and inside of my head.

We were too late.  I felt my heart drop and I collapsed into one the chairs in defeat.  I knew it was a long shot, but if we’d made it we could’ve flown with them.  Now we’d have to face whatever the planet through at us.

Cindy took a seat next to me and grabbed my hand.  She smiled faintly, trying to hold back tears.  I smiled back then stared up at the ceiling.

“What now?” Jake asked from the door.

“Now…now we drive to Wyoming.”

CHAPTER 12

THE JOURNEY OF 1000 MILES

I walked into my office and started collecting things that I thought we would need.  The map on the wall was the first thing that stuck out.  I pulled out the pins and rolled it up.

“I didn’t know you still had this,” Cindy said from behind me.

I turned and found her holding the picture on my desk.  She had a smile on her face, but somehow managed to look remorseful.

“It’s my favorite picture.  It made the days here bearable.”

She set the picture down then looked at me.  “Is that it, out in the hall?”

I nodded.

“That…that’s how much time you thought we had?”

“It was never that simple.  It was the amount of time I thought we had to do something about it.  I could’ve never guessed when it would all occur.  I just knew we were reaching a critical point.  Once we hit it there would be no coming back.”

“I…I know it couldn’t have been easy.  Knowing what you did and still keeping it together.  Thanks for always being there for me, even if I wasn’t always there for you.”

“You’re talking like this is over.  We’re gonna be okay Cindy.  We can make it there in two days, that’ll be plenty of time.  We’re gonna survive this.”

Her eyes started to water and she wiped her face.  “I, I know Max.  It’s just, it makes you think you know?  There so many things I wish I could take back.  But I can’t and I want you…I want you to,”

“You’re not trying to leave tonight, are you?” Jake shouted as he barged in the door.

“No…it’s too dark now.  We’ll head out first thing in the morning,” I replied.

“I’ll talk to you later Max,” Cindy said then headed out of the door.

“Wait,” I called after her.

“Go ahead and finish in here.  I know you have a lot to do.”

She left the room and Jake took up the chair behind my desk.  He spun around a few times then stopped and started to look around.

“This is where you worked huh?” he asked.

“Yep, sometimes in Peachtree, but most times here.”

“Crazy shit huh?  I mean, you knew the world was going to shit and you didn’t tell anyone.”

I stopped what I was doing and cocked my head to the side.  I couldn’t tell if he was asking a real question or trying to be a smart ass.  I got my answer soon enough.

“Just think of how people would’ve spent their time if they knew.  It’s a good thing you kept it all to yourself.  I mean…I could’ve visited my parents for instance.  Did you know they were gonna come down last year for Christmas?”

“No…no I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, I told them not to worry about it.  That I’d come see them this year.  Then this year rolled around and I just didn’t have time.  Funny, I would’ve made time if I knew.  How do you think Chicago is doing?”

“Jake I don’t know.”

“Probably the same huh?  They’re probably dead, my whole family is probably dead.  My parents probably roasted to death in their sleep.  My sister…you know she got a full-ride to the University?  She probably fell in a fucking hole during her economics class.  Top-secret huh…thanks Max.  Thanks a lot.”

“It’s not my fault you didn’t see your parents Jake,” I replied, trying to let him vent.

“Yeah, yeah it is.  You knew…for years you knew and you said nothing.  What kind of fucking friend does that?” he shouted.

“Don’t do this,” Brent suddenly said from the door.

“Do what?  Tell him how he fucked all of us over?  We all feel the same way.  I’m just the only one with the balls to say it.  Somebody needs to tell him the truth.”

“The truth?” I scoffed.  “Jake the truth is, you didn’t see your parents last year or the year before that or that.  Not because of me, but because you’re a shitty person.  You’re an asshole and a terrible son.  Don’t blame this on me.”

“Fuck you Max!” he jumped to his feet and shouted.

“Fuck you!”

Brent rushed into the room and jumped between us.  He held his hands out and looked back and forth like he wanted to cry.

“Stop this!” he roared.  “This isn’t gonna help anything.  We’re all scared.”

“I’m not scared.  I’m pissed,” Jake shot back.  “And don’t act like you’re not.  You were our friend Max…our fucking friend!”

“We’re friends, we’re all friends,” Brent pleaded.  “This isn’t worth it.”

Jake glared at me then turned to Brent and grunted.  With a clenched jaw, he stormed out of my office and slammed the door behind him.

“He didn’t mean any of that,” Brent said once he was gone.

“Yeah he did.”

Brent frowned.  “He didn’t.  He…he just doesn’t know how to deal with it.  He’s scared and has a lot on his mind.”

I didn’t reply.  For all I knew Brent and Jake had been bitching about me every free moment they had.  To be honest, I didn’t know which was worse, being stabbed in the back or the idea that maybe he was right.

Brent gave me a thoughtful glance then patted my shoulder.  I’ll leave you to it,” he said then left.

I sat in my office alone for half an hour before I finished grabbing what I needed.  When I made my way back to the boardroom, Cindy was already asleep on the floor.  I’d pulled some blankets out of the supply closet and created makeshift beds.  All of the supplies we’d taken from home were lost in the last quake, even my gun.  That was something I wanted to replace immediately, but at least I was able to scavenge a from things from the center.

Everything at the moment just felt surreal.  I was just reacting and I knew sooner or later the shock would wear off and I’d be left to deal with reality.  It seemed to be much of the same for everyone else, but Jake had cracked.  I couldn’t blame him, it was more than anyone should ever deal with.  But a lot of what he said, he’d been holding back for a long time.  I didn’t think our friendship would ever be the same.

The next morning I woke up and it was still dark outside.  To my surprise, after taking a trip to the basement I found that the electricity was still working.  Nothing seemed to make sense anymore, but I smiled every time I got to enjoy a little piece of normality.

Yawning, I lifted myself onto my forearms and cracked my neck.  I nudged Cindy and she rolled over and sat up.

“Time to get moving,” I whispered.

She groaned.  “I was hoping yesterday was all a dream and I was gonna wake up in my bed.”

“I don’t think we have beds anymore,” I laughed.

She made a painful smile and lowered her head.  I threw an arm around her then gave her a kiss on the cheek

“It’ll be alright, you’ll see.”

“You keep saying that,” she snapped.  “But how?  How will anything ever be alright again?”

“We’ll make it to Wyoming and we’ll be together,” I replied.

“What then Max?  What do we do then?  You said the world is ending.  What do we do in Wyoming?  How do we survive and even if we do what kind of life will that be?”

“It’ll be life Cindy,” I said and grabbed her hands.  “It might not be the life we had, but it’ll be life.”

“Yeah, a wonderful fucking life,” Jake croaked as he sat up.

I grumbled then kissed Cindy again and tossed the sleeping bag off of my legs.  I reached for my shoes then stopped as my stomach twisted and roared like an angry lion.

“When was the last time we ate?” I mumbled.

It had to have been the day before yesterday.  We’d been running and scrambling to stay alive and the thought of food hadn’t crossed my mind.

“I’m hungry too,” Cindy added.

“There’s a vending machine in the break room and the frig normally has all types of stuff,” I said as I headed toward the door.  “You coming?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too,” Brent joined in.

Jake didn’t say anything, but begrudgingly decided to follow the crowd.  We headed down the hall and into the break room.  In silence we gorged ourselves with all of the junk food we could find and a bowl of spaghetti I found in the refrigerator.  I suspected it couldn’t be more than a week old.

“So when’s the next meal,” Brent joked.

I laughed and leaned back in my chair.  It looked like no one wanted to moving after finally eating.  I was headed into a food coma myself and was happy to have time to just relax.

“We should probably pack this stuff to go.  Those tubs of preserved lasagna are gonna get old quick,” Jake said.  It was the first time he’d spoken without being a total asshole.

“Good idea,” I replied.

He looked at me and made an odd face then started chewing the inside of his gum.  Brent cleared his throat and Jake sighed.

“Okay, okay,” he said in a strained voice.  “Look Max, I was wrong about what I said.  I know this couldn’t have been easy.  I’m just pissed dude…not at you, but the situation.  I’m sorry I took that out on you.”

I stared at him for a moment.  Deep down I knew Brent had talked him into apologizing and he probably didn’t mean a word he said.  But for now it was probably best we got along.  There was no telling what was waiting down the road for us.

“Don’t worry about man,” I replied with a grin.

“One big happy family,” Brent laughed.

“Guess so.”

We sat around in silence for a few more minutes then I got up and started throwing things away.  I looked around the break room one last time and took a deep breath.  I couldn’t believe all of this was happening.  It had been more theoretical to me than anything for so long.  A countdown clock to something that would never really occur.  But here I was and the world outside dying.

“Let’s get moving,” I said.

CHAPTER 13

THE BATTLE BEGINS

I hummed a tune my grandma used to sing as I zipped down the road.  The cabin was quiet, too quiet for me and I’d come to fear silence.  Everyone else was asleep and as the sun reached its highest point I was starting to feel optimistic.

“You want me to drive?” Cindy whispered.

“What?  I thought you were sleeping.”

“I was, then that awful humming woke me up.”

“I’m sorry.”

She laughed.  “I was joking.  Where are we?”

“Just inside of Tennessee.”

Cindy sat up and stared out of the window.  “What’s that?”

“What?”

“That…that black thing across the road.”

I squinted and focused my eyes up ahead.  There was something dark stretched out on the road, taking up both lanes.

“I don’t know,” I replied and started to slow down.

Suddenly there was a thud against the roof and I jumped.  Another one followed then something dark splattered and rolled off of the windshield.

“What the hell?” Cindy shrieked.

Something else banged into the hood and a staccato of thuds sounded off of the car’s metal roof.  I swerved out of panic, but quickly corrected then slammed on the brakes, sending the car swinging across the road like a happy dog’s tail.  In a cloud of eviscerated rubber, we finally came to a stop on the shoulder.

“Birds,” Cindy mumbled.  “Those are birds.”

Sure enough, there were birds scattered all over the road.  Mounds of black and red, clumps of feathers, dripping with thick, sappy goo.  They were falling from the sky, raining down on us like hail, like kamikaze pilots.

“What’s going on?” Brent asked in a groggy voice as he rubbed his eyes and sat up.

A triplet of clunks rattled the car and Brent shuttered.  He jumped to the side and landed on Jake then started to shake him.

“Wake up man!” he shouted.

Swallowing, I grabbed the handle and pulled it toward me.  I cracked the door and Cindy suddenly grabbed my arm.

“Don’t go out there,” she said with a shaky voice.

“It’s just birds,” I replied.

I stepped out onto the road and the first thing I noticed was the foul smell in the air.  I could taste it in my mouth, like spoiled eggs and battery acid.  Coughing, I covered my face and grimaced.

The next thing that hit me was the heat.  It’d been around sixty-five when we left Calhoun, but it had to be closer to eighty now.  I pulled off my jacket and laid it on the hood.

“Dude what are you doing?” Brent poked his head out and asked.

“It’s a pile of dead birds.”

“So what.  I can see the damn things falling from the sky.”

“It was a flock…they’re gone now.”

Brent opened the door and walked out.  He stared up at the sky then looked down on at the scattered ravens that littered the road like dead leaves.

“Gas maybe?” he said.  “Smells like it right?”

“Maybe…normally wouldn’t make it up that far though.  I mean these things were flying when they dropped dead.”

I turned and looked back where we had come from.  The empty road spiraled into the horizon and vanished.  The sun was starting its descent and the bleak sky looked like a depressing painting.

“They’re stiff,” Brent said in shock.

I turned to find him holding one of the dead birds, poking it with his finger.

“Don’t touch the damn thing!” I shouted.

“Why?”

“We don’t know why the hell they died.  Could be anything, some kind of weird disease, maybe even bird flu.”

He nodded and dropped the bird.  With a disgusted face, he brushed his hands against his jeans.  I didn’t think that was gonna do much.

“You’re the smartest dummy I know,” I told him.

“I think it’s the other way around.”

“Nah, I meant it the way it came out.”

We both laughed.  It was good to laugh, good to feel normal, even if for only a fleeting second.  And that’s all it was because our grim reality was everywhere.

“We’re gonna hit the city pretty soon,” Brent said lowly.

“Yeah…I know.  That’ll be good since we need gas.”

“What do you think it’ll be like?”

“Hopefully it’ll be okay.  We haven’t seen anything out here yet.  Just be prepared for panicked people everywhere.”

Brent sighed.  “Yeah…yeah that’s what I’m worried about.”

I shrugged then started to head back to the car.  As I closed the door I turned the AC down and leaned my head into the cool air.

“What’s up with you guys?” Brent asked.

Cindy was staring forward with an angry snarl on her face and Jake was glaring out of the window like a homesick puppy.  I looked at each of them then to Brent.  He threw his hands up on confusion.

“Everything okay?” I turned to Cindy and asked.

“I’m fine…just tired.”

“You sure?  Did I miss something?”

“I said I’m fine.”

“So, it’ll be dark in a few hours.  What’s the plan for sleeping?” Brent said, changing the subject.

“We’ll figure it out when we get to the city.”

“Shooting from the hip…I like it.  Don’t get us all killed Max.”

I looked back at him and flipped up my middle finger then cranked up the car.  “Put on your seatbelt asshole.”

It took another two hours before the landscape changed again.  The wide sweeping grasslands started to give way to traces of civilization.  Up ahead I could see a city in the distance, but as the sun started to fade the glow from the fires twinkled like a warning sign to stay away.

“What is that?  What’s going on up there?” Jake asked.

“We just need to find a gas station and get to the highway,” I replied.  “We keep going through the night.”

“So, no sleep then?  Great.”

“You’ve been asleep the whole-time Jake.  Shut up!”

Cindy sat up in her seat and glared out of the window.  She didn’t say anything, but I could feel the sense of terror, radiating from her like a hot oven.  Or maybe it was my own fear I felt.  I stared ahead to the burning city and I knew right then the rest of the world was no better.

“There’s a gas station,” Brent snapped.  “Over there.”

Up ahead to our left were two small, white buildings connected by a carport.  Underneath that was a total of three gas pumps.  It was barely noticeable, but it would work.

It was on the outskirts of the city and looked to still be running.  I slowed down and pulled up to one of the pumps.  I could see an elderly man standing inside with a nervous look on his face.  As I stepped out of the car, he moved toward the front door and the shotgun he was holding came into view.

“Max,” Cindy warned.

“I see him.  It’ll be okay.”

I slowly stepped out and held my hands up slightly.  I moved from around the door and pointed to the gas pump.

“Hey…we don’t want any trouble.  We just need gas,” I said loudly.

The man pushed the glass door open and leaned his head out.  He had to be in his seventies.  His head was completely bald and his thick, white eyebrows flared out from under his black, horn-rimmed glasses.

“Go away!” he shouted back at me and took a few steps out of the door.

His bloodshot, eyes scanned the lot from side to side.  He looked frazzled, and jumped at the sound of his own footsteps.  With his free hand, he took a handkerchief from his jean pocket and wiped his forehead.

“Please…we’re almost out of gas.  I have money.  We just need to get back on the road.  We don’t mean any trouble.”

“Ain’t got no more damn gas.  Whole city is dry.  Now get the hell out of here before you bring them back.”

I scratched my head and groaned.  There was no way the whole city was out of gas and we couldn’t afford to leave a working gas station with an empty tank.

“Sir…” I started.  “We, we just need a little gas.  Please, we’ll be quick.”

The man cocked the shotgun and pointed it across the lot.  I felt my balls shrivel and I took a step back.

“I said get the hell out of here!  Don’t make me tell you again,” he growled in a raspy tone.

I thought about pressing my luck further, but he looked like he was about to accidentally shoot me.  Getting gas wouldn’t do us any good if we were all dead and without my gun there was nothing else I could do.

“Okay, okay.  We’re leaving…we’re leaving,” I replied.

I got in the car and quickly pulled back onto the road.  The city was maybe ten minutes further and we either needed to find gas there or we’d be walking to Wyoming.

“What was he talking about?” Brent asked.  “Bring who back?”

“I don’t know.  He was crazy.”

“Well that’s a given.”

“Well, I try to avoid reasoning with crazy people.”

The gas needle hovered dangerously over empty.  We had to find gas and soon.  I sped up and felt a sense of anxiety as the city came closer.  It was worse than I imagined and I could see why the old man was so afraid.

“Do you really think there’s no more gas,” Cindy asked me.

“There has to be,” Brent jumped in before I could reply.  “It’s only been two or three days.  That guy probably hasn’t left his little shop in a week.  Probably lives there with his sister.  That’s how all these backwood assholes are.”

“We’re gonna die,” Cindy suddenly mumbled.

I didn’t even respond, my eyes were glued to the scene unfolding outside.  We’d finally entered the downtown area and it was like driving into hell.

Cars were ablaze on both sides of the road.  Some of the buildings were falling apart, the concrete shedding like skin to show the iron framing underneath.  Others had been broken into, looted and set on fire.  The earthquake had been there, but it looked the residents had done worse damage.

“Go back!” Jake said.  “Back up!”

“We can’t,” I replied grimly.  “There’s nowhere to turn around.”

People were everywhere, throwing rocks and flaming glass bottles at anything within range.  Mobs of them cluttered the streets, fighting amongst each other like packs of wolves.

“Oh, my God Max!” Cindy screeched.  “They’re killing him, they’re fucking killing him.”

I stared out of the right side of the car.  There was a man on the ground and a group surrounding him.  They were armed with bats and pipes and were beating the man like he was a piñata.

“We can't help him we have to go,” I replied.

"No… This is just wrong," Cindy groaned. "We have to do something."

"If we stop this car, we are going to die with him.”

As I looked back to the front, a group started to form ahead at the next intersection.  Another group was closing in from behind us and I felt my last bit of hope fade away.  We were about to be trapped.

A flaming, hummer had crashed into the coffee shop across the street and several troops and police officers lay dead near the wreckage.  They’d been nearly stripped naked, the mob leaving only their helmets and shirts behind.

Everything was moving in slow motion and I felt a stab in my chest, fearing that shortly we would share the same fate as those men.  It was like I was watching a movie, I couldn’t make sense of what was going on and my mind was trying to detach me from it all.

“Watch out!” Brent suddenly shouted.

From the right a man jutted out of the shadows and swung a metal pipe at the car, taking off the side view mirror.  I swerved and mashed my foot on the gas as my heart skipped a beat and my bladder tried to empty itself.

“Get us the hell out of here!” Jake screamed.

“I’m trying!” I shouted back.

People were darting out from everywhere.  Some were fighting amongst themselves others were hell bent on getting inside of our car.  My survival instinct took over and anyone unlucky enough to be in our path became pins in front of a raging, bowling ball.

Thuds and wet smacks sounded against the windshield, but I didn’t slow.  The crash of rocks and other projectiles hit the hood.  Some glancing blows, some direct impacts that shattered the glass, but fuck it, I was unstoppable.

Maybe I’d lost my mind.  Maybe all of the stress had caused me to completely snap or the adrenaline from fight or flight turned me insane.  Whatever the cause was, I drove that little SUV like a damn A1 Abrams tank.

“Bring it you fuckers!” I yelled out in an uncharacteristic voice.

I hopped the curb and turned down another street.  The growing mob continued to follow, but I saw light up ahead.  More thuds, more bodies bouncing off the impenetrable armor.  Cindy was yelling and Jake may have been crying, but I couldn’t hear them.  I was a mother fucking wrecking ball.

“Faster!” Brent screamed.  “Get us out of here!”

Swerving, I straightened the wheel then stomped the accelerator through the floor.  I could feel the truck groan as it sucked up the last bit of gas and I hoped the engine still had some fight left in it.  I was pushing it to the limit, but cars didn’t run on hope.  Our flight from the city might be short-lived.

“Turn, turn!” Brent yelped.

The road up ahead was blocked by another gang of looters.  I whipped the wheel hard to the left and bashed into a flaming parked car.  Glass shattered into the cabin as the flames flickered right outside.

“Dude watch out!” Brent annoyingly continued.

“Shut the fuck up!” I roared.  “The last thing I need right now is a backseat driver.”

I slung the Ford back onto the road and sped up, causing the engine to shutter like a hypothermic infant.  It made a loud clunk then rattled violently.  The steering tightened and we began to powerlessly drift down the road.

“Oh shit!” I grumbled.

Straining, I turned the wheel and we veered into an alley.  The SUV careened into the wall, the metal scraped along the side with an ear-piercing shriek.  We bounced back onto the road then coasted for another twenty yards before coming to a complete stop.

“Did they see us?” Brent asked.

“Let’s hope not,” I replied and switched the key to off.

The sun had gone down and the fires provided the only light now.  If we were lucky, we’d lost them when we pulled into the alley.  The dark was our only chance of making it out of the city alive.

“I’m scared,” Cindy whispered.

I reached out and grabbed her hand.  I cupped it in mine and gave her a reassuring smile.  “We’ll be okay.  We just have to stick together.”

Cindy tried to smile back, but it was painful.  Instead she closed her eyes and tried to wish her way out of the city.  We sat there for half an hour in the dark.  No one made a sound except Jake’s heavy, mouth breathing.

In the distance, we could hear the city tearing itself apart.  The crackle of gunfire echoed in sporadic bursts.  Every thundering, snap sent chills down my spine.  The loud hoots and yells of the mob made the hair on my arms stand on end, if the looters didn’t kill me, my nerves would.

The earthquakes, the destruction had torn the world apart, turned this city mad.  I didn’t think it was possible, but in a few days civilization had destabilized to the point where barbarians loomed in every corner.  What had made the world so insane?  Why were humans so eager to run head first into their own savage death?

As I sat there in the dark I contemplated my own existence.  I’d spent so much time trying to figure out how to save humanity that I hadn’t thought about saving myself.  I knew this was all going to happen, yet I was no more prepared than anyone else.  Now hope was my best plan to survive the night.

“I think they’re gone,” I finally said in a low whisper.

I clicked the dome lights off and slowly opened my door.  Swallowing, I stepped out of the car and felt my body soak into the darkness.  I felt fear crawl up my back and the weight of every decision I made.

“What do you see?” Jake asked.

“I’m gonna check the road,” I replied.  “Stay here.”

In front of us was a dead end, a wall where the parallel buildings met.  To the other side the alley opened onto the narrow street we’d come down earlier.  It was dark and smoke filled the air, but that was good for us.

One foot after the other, I moved through the narrow alley.  No matter how slow I went the crunch of broken glass and gravel sounded like amplified symbols and a high school marching band.  It took a lifetime to reach the wall at the end.

With a deep breath, I leaned my head out and looked from side to side.  I strained my eyes, peering through the dense smoke, scanning for any type of movement.  But there was nothing and after a few minutes I was convinced we could at least make it to the next street over without being detected.

“Grab the bags and let’s get moving,” I told them as I made it back to the car.

“Moving to where?” Jake asked.

“We have to find another car.  We can’t stay in here for the rest of our lives.”

Groaning Jake started to gather his things. Cindy shot me a look, but stepped out of the car and tightened the straps on her bag.  Brent followed her and after five long minutes Jake was finally ready to go.

“This way,” I called.

We stepped into the street and headed up toward the next block.  I could hear the rioters in the distance and what sounded like a police intercom.  I smiled, the thought that some level of order still existed was comforting.

It was cool outside, but the stress and the muggy smoked-filled air had me sweating.  My nerves were fried and every little sound nearly gave me a heart attack.  The brick walls in the alley acted like a megaphone, amplifying even the smallest of noises, screaming to anyone that would listen that we were making our getaway.

Stopping at the end of the building, I looked across the intersection and swallowed.  There was another suite of buildings across the street and buildings meant cover from prying eyes.  But to get there we had to cross a four lane road.

“We’ve gotta make it to that next set of stores,” I said to no one in particular.  “We can probably find some place to hide for the night.”

“Dude, I’m not going out there,” Jake retorted.  “It’s too open.  You saw what they did to that guy.”

“We can’t just stay here.  If someone comes from behind us we have nowhere to go.”

“Let’s just go back to the car.  We were safe there.”

“And what then?” I asked him.  “The car doesn’t work and we have to get to Wyoming…soon.  The car isn’t safe either.”

“I’m with Max,” Brent added.  “I’m not staying over here.”

Cindy grabbed my hand and squeezed.  Her fingers were sweaty and I could see in her eyes that she’d rather be any other place, but she was as ready as she’d ever be.

“I’m going,” I said and took off.

I pulled Cindy along and ran as fast as I could.  She easily kept stride with me as we zipped through the smoke that floated in the air.  I didn’t look back for Brent or Jake until we’d made it into the next alley.

Slamming into the wall, I turned back and stared across the street.  Brent was speeding toward us and Jake was a few steps behind.  Every couple of paces Jake would look back like he was trying to get caught.

“Hurry the hell up!” I growled through clenched teeth.

Gasping for air, they made it into the alley just as a small group of men appeared from around the corner.  It was hard to see them through the smoke, but I counted at least five.  They held bats and metal pipes in their hands and I didn’t think they needed them for their own protection.

“Quiet,” I said and looked back to Jake who’d been huffing like he’d lost a lung.

The men were close.  They’d stopped only a few yards away and started talking with wild animated gestures.

“I’m…. hungry…fucking…sideways…plans,” the men shouted in fragmented sentences, broken up by all of the background noise.

They all started to laugh and shove each other before casting a glance back toward the alley.  One of them pointed in our direction then said something that I couldn’t make out.  Another one glared back at us and took a step in our direction.

With trembling legs, I squatted and Cindy did the same.  We were just out of sight at the corner of the wall.  It was dark and smoky enough that I didn’t think they could see us, but the ground was cluttered with trash and one wrong move would send them our way.

They started laughing again then turned around and began to head further up the street.  Through the crawling fog, I could see them swinging the bats at the air like they were practicing for someone’s head.  Whoever they came across that night was probably not gonna make it home.

Out of nowhere, Brent suddenly coughed and I snapped my head around.  He shoved his hand over his mouth, but it did nothing and he let out another muffled bark.

The men stopped and turned back toward us.  “Hear something?” one of them asked.

With blank faces the others looked back silently and watched.  Their eyes scanned the area for a minute, but they quickly became disinterested.

“Let’s go,” another voice said and the men started to turn back around.

Brent started to cough again and Jake grabbed him and smothered his hands over his face.  Brent’s eyes bulged as he tried his best to hold it in.  He turned red and lurched forward over and over, straining to keep quiet.

Jake squeezed harder, but Brent started to squirm and fight against him.  He pushed away then turned toward the building.  Doubling over, he made an inhuman sound and puked out a mixture of blood and water all over the cement.  He tried to say something, but started coughing so violently he fell to the ground.

“Who the hell is that?” one of the men snarled.

I looked back and Jake gave me a helpless glance.  Brent was on his hands and knees.  Blood and spit dripped from his mouth and pooled onto the concrete.  Every few seconds he’d gag and go into another coughing fit that only seemed to get louder.

“Get him up now,” I said to Jake as I rushed to help him.  “We’ve gotta get the hell out of here.”

Holding Brent in between us, we had no choice, but to try and run.  Once again, I was leaning on hope that down the alley there was a way out.  But I knew sooner or later our luck was going to come to an end.

Cindy took off and we followed behind her.  She sprinted down the alley like she was back in college, quickly leaving us in her dust.  Brent wasn’t helping as he coughed and puked along the way.

“Down there,” I heard one of the men say as the thud of footsteps sounded behind us.

We followed Cindy down another, alley and sped up.  It was narrow and we barreled through trash cans and empty boxes like a snow plow.  Poor Brent was like a battering ram, but we didn’t have the luxury of being gentle.

Suddenly, ahead of us a door swung open and a middle-aged man stepped out holding a meat cleaver.  He was wearing jeans and a filthy, white t-shirt that accentuated his beer gut.  His ruffled, brown hair was intermixed with strands of white and his eyes were wide with shock.

Cindy fell back, sliding onto her hands to stop.  We nearly dropped Brent as we skid and almost crashed into her.

“Get back!” I shouted, the only defense that I could muster against his gleaming blade.

The man narrowed his eyes and glowered at me then looked down at his knife hand and gasped.  “This…this isn’t for you.  Come quick inside.  You don’t want to know what they’ll do to you if they catch you.”

I turned toward the alley.  The men hadn’t made it around the last corner yet, but I was sure they were on the way.  I looked back at the man and considered how much of a threat he could really be.  He was armed, but there was one of him and three of us that were still ambulatory.  We had better odds against him, even if they were slight.

“Hurry up!” he urged.

With my free hand, I grabbed Cindy’s arm and pulled her to her feet.  “Stay close,” I whispered.

I shot a quick glance at Jake and he looked back down the alley then nodded.  Swallowing, I stepped forward and followed the man into the building.  He slammed the door behind us and we were immediately cast into darkness.  I shivered from the cold and wrinkled my nose at the smell of gas that seemed to fill the nebulous room.

“What is that?” Jake asked.

There was a thud and something clunked in the shadows.  The smell grew stronger and a throaty growl rumbled up ahead of me.  It sounded like a lawnmower or some kind of motor bike.

“What the hell is going on?” Jake pleaded.

There was no response, just a louder whine from the motor.  I could feel it getting closer, feel things moving in the dark all around me, like a storm brewing just out of sight.

“Hey!  Where did you go?” Jake continued.  “Max…Max what is that damn noise?”

I finally recognized the sound, but I didn’t answer.  We’d made the wrong choice.  We’d left the smoke-filled alley and the unknown assailants behind and entered a dark room with a crazy butcher wielding a fucking chainsaw.

CHAPTER 14

WE’RE ALL JUST WAITING FOR THE END

I tightened my grip on Cindy's hand and pulled her closer to me. She buried her face into my chest and groaned in fear, flinching as the grumbling grew closer.

Brent collapsed to the floor as he slipped from my grasp.  His body made a muffled clump that vanished in the dark.

“What the hell is that?” Jake shouted.  “Sir…sir where did you go?  What’s going on in here?”

Something slammed behind us and I whipped my head around.  The droning sound suddenly stopped and an overhead light shot blinding rays into my eyes.

“Argh!” I growled and squinted.

My eyes watered and burned and my hand did nothing to shield them from the light.  Wincing, I slowly opened them, blinking the tears away.  The small room gradually came into view and I could see the man standing in front of us.

“Sorry,” he started.  “The generator pulls the power from the lights momentarily.  I need it to run the lock.  Come with me.”

He headed off further into the building.  I looked at Jake and nodded my head to follow him.  Bending down, I grabbed Brent’s arm and we dragged him along.

“In here, in here,” the man called back to us.

We followed him into a smaller room with a round, wooden table in the center.  There was a dim light hanging from the ceiling that cast an orange glow against the cream painted, brick walls.  The gas smell wasn’t so strong in there, but the scent of standing water and old wood had taken its place.

“Our friend needs help,” I said softly.

“Please have a seat,” the man replied and started to pull chairs out.  “Sandra…Sandra.  We need you out here.”

There was some rustling in the back then a thin, redheaded lady stepped around the corner and gave us all a discerning look.  With her head cocked to the side, she clicked her teeth then let out a heavy sigh.

“Carl, you can’t…you can’t keep doing this,” she groaned.  “You’re going to get us all killed.  You know it’s not safe out there.”

“Just help the man damn it,” Carl replied.

Skeptically, the woman stepped toward us and gave Brent a look.  “What happened to him?” she asked.

“Not sure,” I replied.  “Had a bad cough then threw up blood and pretty much passed out.”

The woman looked over him briefly then touched his forehead with the back of her hand.  She raised her eyebrows then leaned toward me.  “Leave now,” she mumbled lowly.

“What?” I asked, uncertain if I’d actually heard her.

Pursing her lips, she placed her hands onto her hips and tilted her head to the side.  “My name’s Sandra,” she said loudly. “I’m a nurse.  Bring him this way.”

Right around the corner in the next room, there was a twin-sized bed pushed up against the wall.  We laid Brent across it as Sandra ran off to get a washcloth to clean him up.

“I could’ve swore that lady told me to leave,” I whispered to Cindy.

“She told you what?”

“Where are you folks from?” Carl asked as he suddenly stopped behind us.

“What is this place?” Jake asked, ignoring Carl’s question.  “And what was that back there?”

Carl grinned then took a seat in one of the rickety, wooden chairs.  He leaned back and ruffled his hair.  “Well, this…this is the storage room for my bar.  Don’t worry, they can’t get in here…the door is magnetized.  That’s why the lights went out for a sec, generator can’t power both at the same time.  Believe it or not, this place was used during prohibition…thank God for that.  Lot of stories come through here.”

Carl’s eyes drifted away and his face slacked.  He stretched his legs out and relaxed into the chair then grinned.

“What the hell is going on in this town?” Jake asked angrily.

Carl didn’t reply.  He was fixated on something no one else could see, staring dreamily toward a wall.

“Hey!” Jake spat.  “What’s going on outside?  Has everybody lost their damn mind?”

Carl slowly turned and gave Jake a puzzled look.  “Where have you guys been for the past two days?  The world’s ending,” he said.

“Yeah…yeah, we get that much, but what the hell is going on out there?” Jake continued as he waved his hand back toward the alley.  “They’re killing people in the streets.”

“Look buddy, I don’t know what all you saw, but the world is falling apart, earthquakes and shit, real end of days stuff.  We’ve had a hell of a time here.  It didn’t take long for everything to fall apart.  And then the prison got hit…thousands of convicts got out and there weren’t enough cops to do a damn thing.  Most of them had gone home to protect their families.”

“Thousands,” I echoed with a smirk.

“Well, you get the idea.  Nothing is safe anymore and convicts are outside killing people.  We’re all just waiting for the end, ain’t we?”

“Those are prisoners out there?” Cindy asked then covered her mouth.

“Sure are.”

“Carl I’m gonna need some help,” Sandra said as she wheeled in an IV stand.

“What the hell is that for?” Jake asked defensively.

“I can explain myself to you or I can save your friend’s life.  But I ain’t doing both, so pick one.”

“Just ignore him,” I jumped in.

She sneered then went back to tending to Brent.  I punched Jake in the arm and cut my eyes.

“What?” he gasped.

“We need their help,” I replied through clenched teeth.

“Your friend here is pretty sick,” Sandra started as she poked a needle into his arm.  “Not sure what it is, but he’s dehydrated and burning up.  We’ve got a few antibiotics here, but beyond that, there’s not a whole lot I can do for him.”

“He was just fine,” Cindy mumbled.

“No telling these days.  Best we can do is keep him hydrated and watch him.”

She held the IV bag up and the clear liquid began to flow into Brent’s arm.  His eyes were glossed over and his face was sticky with sweat.  I glared at his pale skin and swallowed.  He didn’t look like he was going to last long.

“Is he gonna die?” the question blurted out before I could stop it.

“Not if I can help it,” Sandra said with a smile like she was talking to an eight-year-old.

“Sandra is a fantastic nurse.  Your buddy’s in good hands,” Carl said with an odd grin.  “Where about were you four headed?”

“North,” I quickly replied.”

“North?” he repeated.  “I guess it’s just as good as any place.”

“Are you going to stay here?” I asked him.  “It’s only going to get worse.”

“Where do you suggest I go?”

“The National Guard was evacuating people in Georgia.  They were setting up camps…I think those would be safe, safer than this city.  I’m sure they’ve managed to put something together around here.”

Carl started to laugh.  He stood up and walked to a shelf in the corner.  He grabbed a small black radio and brought it back to the table and set it down.

“They’ve been playing it on loop,” he grumbled.  “I’m sure they’re long gone, but it’ll probably keep broadcasting until the rest of the grid goes down.”

“What?” I asked.

He clicked a button on the side of the radio set.  A shower of static erupted, but as he wiggled the antennae it slowly cleared enough to hear voices.

“And outlying parts of Florida,” a monotone voiced droned.  “This message will now repeat.  This is a public service announcement from NPR and Ricky the Rocket Stevens.  If you can hear this, we urge you to shelter in place.  Increased weather and seismic activity will continue to throughout the night.  All guard stations have been decommissioned and the Federal Government no longer have the resources to assist with any rescue efforts.”

“What the fuck?” Jake mumbled.

“All emergency response teams have been disbanded and a curfew, enforceable by the military has been put in place.  That’s all the information we have for now folks so stay safe and keep your head down.  There are unconfirmed reports of Tsunami conditions and the following areas are now listed as unreachable:  New York city, New Jersey, the east coast of Massachusetts…”

“Turn it off!  Turn it off!” Cindy suddenly snapped.

Carl hit the power button then frowned.  The radio fell silent and he pushed it toward the middle of the table then took a seat.  “Didn’t mean to upset you…just thought you might want to know what’s going on.”

No one replied.  Cindy buried her face into her hands and Jake stood there with his mouth open.  Step by step the world was falling apart.  Civilization was crumbling, deconstructing in front of us.

“There’s…there’s a few cots in the other room.  Sandra says your friend needs some time to rest so you’re welcome to stay here as long as you like,” Carl said sheepishly.

I didn’t feel exactly comfortable staying with Carl, but as I looked at Cindy I knew she wasn’t ready to head back out.  Jake was worthless at his best and Brent wasn’t even conscious.  It looked like we would be spending the night.

CHAPTER 15

NO WAY OUT

I awoke the next morning ready to hit the road.  I figured if I could find a car, Brent could rest and we might make Wyoming in the next day or so.  We didn’t have much time to spare and I was afraid we were already too late.

I sat up on my cot and yawned.  It was quiet and that was something I’d learned to not take for granted.  All night I could hear the war raging outside.  Shouts and cries of pain and anger, the music of the night born out of despair and hate.  But quiet meant hope, it meant we might still have a chance.

I looked back at Cindy as she slept silently, wrapped under a tattered, green blanket.  She was so peaceful in that moment.  Dreams were sometimes an escape from the horrors that reality held, I envied her for that.  When I slept my mind just replayed all the shit I’d been through the day before.  There was no reprieve for me.

Leaning over, I gave Cindy a kiss then stood up.  I glanced around the room for a moment then headed back toward the storage area where we’d first come in.

“Your friend is looking better,” Carl mumbled.

He was seated in the corner, his face obscured by the shadows.  I didn’t reply immediately.  It took a moment for my eyes to adjust and find him.

“What are you doing up?” I asked.

“Who could sleep with all this shit going on?”

“Fair point.  You know of any place we might be able to find a car without getting killed?”

“A car?  What would you need a car for?” Carl asked as he stood up and walked toward me.

“Gotta get going pretty soon,” I replied and took a few steps back.

Carl laughed.  “It’s not safe out there, especially now.”

“What do you mean?”

Carl looked at me like I’d asked him the strangest question in the world.  He wrinkled his nose then let out a loud grunt and dropped his head into his hands.

“Of course…of course you didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?” I asked.

“You were sleeping, all of you were,” he paused and looked back toward Brent.  “He needed more medicine.  He was sick, very, very sick.  Sandra said she’d go out, it was that or let your friend die.  It seemed safe enough, it was quiet and I’m better with the shotgun.”

He paused and glanced toward the corner where a rifle was propped up against the wall.  I followed his eyes and in my head tried to calculate the odds of me making it to it before he did.

“Besides,” he started again.  “She knew what she was looking for.  There’s a pharmacy across the street, it’s not far…it’s not far at all.  I could’ve gone, but probably would’ve brought back the wrong thing you see.”

I leaned forward as he spoke.  My palms had started to sweat and my throat was dry.  Something about the way he said his words sent chills down my arms.  His raspy voice croaked and I swallowed like a dry creek bed.

“We were wrong, it wasn’t safe.  She got back with the medicine, but she’d been stabbed.  She bled out…while you were sleeping.”

“What?” I asked with a shocked face.

“Slept through it all, the whole lot of you.  It’s nice to be so secure ain’t it?”

I didn’t know what to say as I looked at him.  His entire demeanor had changed.  He’d gone from being optimistic to angry and even bitter.  I wasn’t the most familiar with southern customs, but it sure sounded like he was blaming me for Sandra’s death.

“Where is she?” I asked him, almost afraid of what the answer would be.

“There’s a small field, behind the fence in the alley.  I buried here there, but don’t worry…your friend is gonna be fine, he’s gonna be just fine.”

“Did we do something to you Carl?”

“Do something to me, what do you mean?”

“Never mind…um, Sandra is really dead?  I just, I just can’t believe it.  I’m, I’m sorry for your loss.”  My words felt empty, but I was never good at that sort of thing and it was even harder now.  “Do you need my help with anything?”

“Now you want to help?  Sandra could’ve used it last night, but now we’re on lockdown.”

“What?!”

“I told you, it’s far too dangerous out there.”

As he spoke I glanced back toward the door.  There was a thick metal rod bolted to it.  It ran from the door into the actual wall like an oversized bolt.

“We’re on lock down,” he said again angrily.

There was a ruffling behind me and I turned around.  Jake was up. He was yawning and had a blank look on his face.  It seemed like the perfect time for him to say something stupid that would get us all killed.

“What’s going on?” he asked in a groggy voice.

Carl looked at me then to Jake.  I stepped forward and grabbed Jake by the arm and led him back toward the room.

“Let’s check on Cindy,” I said.

“What?”

“Just come on.  We’ll be right back Carl.”

I dragged Jake away as Carl stared suspiciously.  Once we rounded the corner I stopped and looked back to make sure Carl hadn’t followed us.

“What the hell is going on?” Jake growled.

“Shh!” I snapped.  “Keep your voice down.”

“Well start talking.”

“Carl is crazy is what’s going on.  He locked us in here.”

“What?”

“He says he’s put the place on lockdown.  Says it’s too dangerous to go out and….and then he told me--”

“Fucking great,” Jake groaned.  “Can this get any worse?”

“I’m serious Jake.”

“I am too.  What do you want me to do?  We don’t have any weapons.  Hell, we lost our bags back there in the alley.  We’re screwed, completely screwed.”

“Sandra’s dead.”

“What!”

“Says she died last night, getting medicine for Brent.  I think he killed her.”

Jake’s grin evaporated.  He took a deep breath and held up his hands.  “What the hell are we gonna do?”

“What’s wrong?” Cindy asked as she walked up behind us with a terrified look on her face.

Jake turned and shook his head from side to side.  Cindy gave him an odd look then glared at me.

“We need to talk,” I told her.

CHAPTER 16

EVERYONE IS A PRISONER IN THEIR OWN MIND

It’d been two days since we arrived at Carl’s place.  Two days that seemed like two months.  We’d been tip-toeing around, trying to stay out of Carl’s way, but things were only getting stranger.

Carl had a room near the main door.  It was down a long, narrow hall with no lighting.  When he wasn’t barking orders at us he spent his time in there with his door closed.

Late at night we could hear muffled voices coming from his room.  It sounded like he was arguing with someone, but he could’ve just as easily been singing.  All I knew is that we had to get out.

It felt like prison.  Every minute spent second guessing your decisions and looking over you back.  Carl was everywhere and he was always armed, lurking in corners, staring us down like he was picking his next target.

“So, we need the key on his belt and we have to figure out how to power down the magnet in his room,” Brent reiterated.

He’d come around a day ago and while he was still moving slow, he’d made a remarkable improvement.  I’d caught him up on everything he’d missed and besides the initial shock he was taking it rather well.

“We just need to kill him,” Jake replied through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, which one of us is an assassin now?  Idiot!”  I glared at him.

“He’s right,” Cindy suddenly said.  “That’s the only way we can get out of here.  You said it yourself Max, he’s not gonna let us go.”

Huffing, I stared at Cindy and thought about our options.  Time was ticking away and I knew we had to leave soon, one way or the other.  Every minute here, was a minute closer to death, but we needed to think things through.

"Y'all are gonna have to start pulling your weight around here,” Carl called out.  “I got some barrels that need to be moved in the back room. Why don’t you three go ahead and grab those and Cindy can help me in the kitchen.”

“No!” Cindy mouthed.

I looked back to the corner and Carl hadn’t made it around yet.  “This is it,” I whispered.

“What?”

“If you can keep him occupied we can get the hell out of here.  Brent can search the room for a switch or something to the lock.”

Cindy glared at me, but we didn’t have a choice.  She was about to say something when Carl stepped around the corner and shot suspicious look.

“I don’t like repeating myself much,” he growled.

“Brent's not quite up to speed," I said.  "Me and Jake will handle it so Brent can rest…if, if that’s okay with you."

Carl shifted his eyes to Brent.  He stared at him for an uncomfortable amount of time and to Brent’s credit he really did look like shit.  Whether he was playing it up or he was still at death’s door, it worked to our advantage.

“You rest,” Carl started.  “We don’t need you getting sick again, ain’t nobody here to fix you this time.”

I leaned into Brent and whispered, "Once we’re gone you need to get in the room and find the button for the lock."

"Well come on,” Carl grumbled.  “Let me show you where you going."

We followed Carl down the hall and into a back room we hadn’t been before. There was an odd smell like something had gone bad years ago and the room was never completely cleaned. It was dark and there were puddles of standing water scattered around the concrete floor.

Carl felt his way down the wall to a light switch. He flicked it on and a dim orange glow did its best to brighten the room. Against the back wall there were stacks of wooden barrels. Carl walked towards them and placed his hand against one.

"This is where we store all the food. All the shit you and your friends keep eating. Pretty soon we’re gonna need more and you fellas are gonna have to help with that too. But for right now, just move 10 of these barrels to the dining room. And be careful they’re real heavy and the floor can be slippery.”

With that Carl left. I stared after him until I was certain he was out of earshot. Then I slid a barrel to the center of the floor and sat on it.

"You trust him in there with Cindy?” Jake asked.

"He's not that far away, I'm sure if something was going on we'd hear them. Besides, we gotta keep him occupied so Brent can search the room.”

"You're the boss."

I cut my eyes at Jake and started to push the barrel toward the dining room. Carl wasn't lying when he said they were heavy. Each barrel had to weigh more than 100 pounds.  It took us nearly an hour to move them all.

Jake wasn’t much help.  He whined the entire time, stopping every five minutes to look at invisible blisters on his hand or complain about his back.  When we finally finished, I’d moved eight barrels in total, while Jake had helped with two.

“How did it go?” I asked Brent as we made our way back to the room.

He was laying on the cot with his arms crossed over his chest.  He eyes were glued to the ceiling and didn’t move when he spoke.  He looked like he was meditating.

“We have to leave tonight,” he said in a dry, deep voice.  “As soon as we can.  We have to kill him and leave tonight.”

I glanced at Jake and his face was a mirror.  He was as confused as I was and probably just as scared.  Brent was the rational one, but something had changed.

“What did we miss?” I asked.  “You feeling okay?  Did you find the switch for the door?”

Brent rolled over and sat up.  He glared at me with crimson eyes and cleared his throat.  He had an angry look on his face and spoke with a croaky, harsh voice.  “I found the switch,” he said.  “And I found something else.”

I stared at him for a moment and when he didn’t continue I asked, “You found what?”

“That lady Sandra…the one you said saved my life.”

“Yeah, what about her?”

“She’s not buried out back and she wasn’t stabbed.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That crazy son of a bitch has her body wrapped in plastic in his room.”

“What the fuck?!  He’s still with Cindy now!”

I spun and rushed out of the room.  I sped around the corner, through the makeshift dining area and skid into the kitchen.

It was empty.  Carl’s dirty t-shirt was hanging from a hook on the wall, but there was no sign of Cindy.

My heart started to quake and my hands trembled.  I took a deep breath and grabbed the counter as my knees buckled.  In a panic I wheeled around the empty kitchen like a mad man.

I ran back into the hallway and stopped.  From there I heard a muffled grunt.  "Cindy?" I called.

There was no answer.  I waited, straining my ears, listening for the slightest of noises. I could feel the pressure of the quiet squeezing my eardrums.  Like it was all around me, squashing me into a little ball.

I called out to her again, this time screaming at the top of my lungs.  I said her name over and over, my voice breaking in panic.

"Max, I'm in here," Cindy finally called back.

I turned my head to the left, following the sound of her voice. It sounded like it was coming from the walls and the idea of that sent me into a frenzy.

I took a few steps backwards.  My heart was exploding inside of my chest, my lungs burned as I swallowed air at a pace only meant for someone who’d just finished a marathon.

"Max?" Cindy said again.

That’s when I saw it.  There was a short hall with a doorway at the end.  It was dark and so narrow only one person could fit down it at a time.

With a head of steam, I rushed down it and burst through the door at the end.  A bright light swung toward my head and I ducked and stumbled back.

“Max?” Cindy laughed.

As my head cleared I started to soak in what was seeing. Cindy was balancing on top of the ladder while Carl held the base. She had a smile on her face and Carl was concentrating on keeping the ladder steady.

"What’s wrong?" Cindy asked. “You look upset.”

I cracked a half smile and looked up at her.  “I couldn’t find you,” I said as calmly as I could.

“Sorry chief,” Carl started.  “We finished in the kitchen and I figured I’d borrow your old lady to help get some of the extra dishes down from storage.  I didn’t plan on having guests.”

“We could leave,” I mumbled under my breath.

Carl glared at me then looked back up to Cindy.  “Well, that’s enough for today.  Why don’t you come on down?”

“Okay.”

Cindy started to step down the ladder and Carl reached up, sliding his hands up her legs as he grabbed her hips.

“Easy does it,” he said with a creepy grin.

Biting my tongue, I reached out and grabbed Cindy’s hand.  “I got it from here,” I huffed.

“Thanks for the help Cindy,” Carl crooned.

“Anytime,” she replied with a cheesy smile.

I tugged at her hand and she followed me out of the room and into the hallway.  Wrinkling her face, she gave me an odd look, but I didn’t say anything.  She followed me back toward our room where Brent and Jake were waiting.

“Thank God,” Jake gasped as we walked in.

He was pacing the floor with a wild expression on his face.  He looked like he wanted to give us a hug, but clapped his hands together instead then went back to the cot and sat down.

“What?  What is going on?” Cindy asked.

“What the hell?” I started through clenched teeth.  “You and this asshole are best friends now?”

“What are you talking about?  I was supposed to keep him entertained wasn’t I?  Jesus, don’t jump down my throat.”

I swallowed and tightened my jaw.  She was right and I was just overacting.  I don’t know what I expected her to do to keep him occupied, but she’d done her job.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.  “I just…I’m sorry.  I got a little nervous…Brent found something.”

“Found what?”

“He found Sandra.”

“Oh my God!  Is she okay?”

“She’s dead.  Wrapped up in a plastic bag in this room,” Brent replied.  “The bastard strangled her to death.”

“Keep your voice down,” I warned him.

“He…he killed her?” Cindy mumbled.

“We’re leaving tonight,” I replied.

“How?”

I glanced back at Brent then looked to Jake.  “We’re gonna have to kill him.”

CHAPTER 17

FREEDOM IS PAID IN BLOOD

We waited…

We waited until the talking stopped.  We waited until he’d shut off the lights and slammed his door shut.

We waited…

We waited until the only sound we could hear was his heavy snoring.  We waited until the perfect moment and then we made our move.

We’d talked ourselves into a frenzy, but in the end, we weren’t the killing type.  Even now, even in this fragmented society torn apart by fear, we couldn’t bring ourselves to murder someone.  We only needed to incapacitate him long enough for us to escape.  We just wanted our freedom, he’d get what he deserved another way.

It was dark, so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.  It was like I was staring into nothing and my ears were busy making up the difference.  Every sound, every step we took was magnified like it was a surround sound movie.

We moved slowly, dragging our hands across the wall as we made our way toward his room.  It was a terrifying few minutes.  Any moment he could open the door and catch us, any moment our half-assed plan could go up in smoke and we’d be scrambling to survive.

“Do you still hear him snoring?” Cindy whispered.

“Yes,” I replied.  “He sounds like a fucking train.”

Brent snickered and we all stopped momentarily.

“What are we gonna do if he’s up?”

“Doesn’t matter.  We have to get out of here.  Do you want to end up like Sandra?”

Cindy didn’t reply.  Suddenly, my hand felt a different texture and I knew we were at his door.  I froze as the others bunched up behind me.

“What if it’s locked?” Jake asked.

“It’s not.”

“How do you know?”

“It can’t be, it’s our only way out.”

In reality, I wasn’t sure why that question had never crossed our minds until now.  The longer I sat there the more the stupidity of our plan became apparent.  I was likely gonna get us killed, but we were here now so nothing else mattered.

Fighting against the tiny voice in my head, I gripped the door knob and twisted.  It moved freely and I felt the door start inward.  We all took a collective breath, sucking the air from the room.

I stepped in first.  Something glowed in the corner, giving us a little better visibility.  A tiny lamp on his nightstand, Carl was afraid of the dark, a fear that would be justified shortly.

I took another step into the room to let everyone else in behind me.  We huddled near the door, preparing to enact our hopeless plan.

We’d pulled straws, well strands of hair really and Jake was the unlucky one.  As Brent slipped the keys from Carl’s belt loop, Jake had the honors of clubbing Carl over the head with a board we’d pulled from the door frame.  What could go wrong?

“You ready?” I asked Brent as we moved a step closer.

He nodded then I glanced at Jake.  He gripped the board tightly, holding it next to his chest.  He had a resolute look on his face, but I questioned his resolve.  Among the many weak links in my plan, Jake’s part had to be the most likely to break.

“She’s in the bed!” Cindy screamed in a whisper.

“What?”

“The fucking bed!” she hissed and jabbed her finger toward the mass that was Carl.

Sandra was next to him.  Wrapped in his arms inside of her plastic coffin.  Her face was pained, frozen in the last moments of her life.  The dim light accentuated her gaunt features, her sunken eyes glaring towards us, cloudy and empty.

“We’ve gotta go now!” I said.

Brent reached for the keys.  He hooked his finger into the loop and tugged.  Carl snorted and Jake swung the board down with all his might, but Carl rolled over just as it slammed into the pillow.

“What the hell?” Carl snapped.

Brent tugged harder and the keys came loose, sending him falling back onto his ass.  Jake took another swipe with the board, but Carl was up and fighting.  He threw up his arms and the board glanced him.  With a grunt, he kicked his legs out and caught Jake in the stomach.

“You ungrateful bastards!” Carl roared.

Jake toppled into the nightstand then scampered to his feet.  He leaned over to catch his breath like someone had called a timeout.  Carl was already on the move, charging toward him with flailing his arms and ill intentions.

“Brent get the door!” I shouted.

Grimacing, I rushed Carl at full speed.  Reliving my days in middle school as a third string linebacker, I crashed into him like a train.  We slammed into the wall and he brought his elbow thundering down into my back.  My spine felt like it exploded into a million pieces and I collapsed to the floor.

“Max!” Cindy cried out.

I tried to stand back up, but Carl was scrappier than I thought.  He kicked Jake another time for good measure then sent his foot into my face like I was a damn soccer ball.

“Get out!” I yelled as I spit out a glob of blood.

Brent grabbed my arm and started to pull me up.  He slipped the keys into my hand then took a wild swing at Carl that caught him in the chest.

The blow did nothing, but as he turned his attention to Brent, Jake whacked him over the head with the board and Carl dropped to the floor.  He hit the ground hard and didn’t move.

“Is he out?” Brent asked.

“I don’t care!  Let’s get the hell out of here,” Jake groaned.

We rushed out of the room and down the short hall to the front door.  My hands trembled as wrestled with the keys.

“The magnetic lock!” Cindy yelled.

“Shit!”  I turned and ran back toward the room.

“It’s on the wall behind the door,” Brent yelled after me.

As soon as I made it through the door, Carl was standing there and drilled me in the face with his meaty knuckles.

The punch was unexpected and knocked me off of my feet.  Carl didn’t even break stride and leapt over me on his way down the hall.

As I scuttled back to a stand I heard a yelp and a loud thud.  I ran back to the door and tripped over Jake’s lifeless body.  He was lying face down, breathing, but unconscious. I knelt down to check on him when a loud, angry voice caught my attention.

“I’m gonna rip your head off!”  Carl growled.

He had Brent by the neck.  His hands were coiled around him like a snake and were getting tighter and tighter.  Cindy was screaming and punching at Carl until he shot out his leg and kicked her away.

I rushed toward him and leapt onto his back.  Grabbing him in a headlock, I pulled back, but he was much taller than me.  He dropped Brent and heaved forward, slinging me over his head and onto the ground.

Before I could react, a dirty bare foot came crashing down on my face.  My eyes exploded into stars and blood gushed from my nose.

“I’ll deal with you next,” Carl said as he grabbed me by the collar and slammed me into the floor.

Straightening up, he turned back to Brent who was still trying to gather himself.  He’d managed to stand up and was leaning back on the wall.

“Where are they?” Carl shouted.

“What?” Brent croaked in a harsh voice.

“The keys, where are my damn keys?”

Before Brent could reply Carl smacked him across the face then kneed him in the stomach.  Brent gasped and doubled over.

“Tell me now!”

“I…I don’t have them.  I don’t know where they are,” Brent groaned.

Carl reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small silver knife.  Without another word, he crammed it into Brent’s side and yanked it back out.

Brent’s face froze and his eyes glowed in shock.  Instinctively, he reached down and placed his hand over the wound.  Blood oozed through his fingers and down his shirt.

“I should’ve known better than to take you in,” Carl roared.  “I should’ve known you were trouble.”

The blade glimmered with crimson as he held it up in the faint light.  The business end dangled over Brent’s head and Carl took a deep breath before he swung the final blow.

“You’re all dead!” he shouted then violently stabbed the knife downward.

Out of nowhere, a loud clap exploded and a flash lit up the room.  A thin stream of smoke swirled into the air and Carl’s body dropped to the floor beside me.

I looked at his empty face.  His forehead was cracked in half, leaking his life onto the floor.  His eye twitched as if it was trying to focus, but he was gone.  A bullet had torn through his skull and taken a chunk of his head with it.

I looked to the side and found Cindy.  She was holding Carl’s gun.  The barrel was still smoking, her fingers clenched the handle like it had become part of her arm.

As she turned to me I could see her eyes and felt my heart sank.  Tears streamed down her cheeks as she trembled and struggled to catch her breath.  Holding my head, I stood up and started toward her.

She swallowed then looked down at her hands and gasped.  “I…I killed him.”

CHAPTER 18

THIS ISN’T OUR LAST GOODBYE

The door creaked as it slowly swung open.  The sound echoed in the twilight, carrying across the wind like a plastic bag.  I laughed to myself, even Carl’s house wanted us dead.

Stepping into the alley, I could see the moon shinning high above.  It illuminated our path and I felt a tiny bit of optimism.  We’d been in the dark for too long.

With my arm around Cindy, I took a few steps down the alley.  She shook uncontrollably with every step, but followed my lead.  We maneuvered around the back and through a tall wooden fence to the other side of the building.

“Jake,” I started.  “I’m gonna see if this asshole has a car.”

I held up Carl’s key ring.  In addition to the keys for the door he had several car keys.  He never mentioned anything about a car, but all we had left was hope.

“Okay,” Jake replied and cracked a weak smile.

His lip was puffy and his left eye was swollen shut, but we were all in bad shape.  Brent was leaning on his shoulder.  His hand pressed a ripped t-shirt against his wound and sweat dripped from his pale face.

“I’ll be right back,” I said then gave Cindy a kiss on the forehead.

I moved down the wall toward the edge of the building.  I leaned my head out and peeked around the corner.  There was no one there, but I did find a dusty, red Honda parked near the trash cans.

I felt my heart jump.  With a deep breath, I rushed to the door and yanked on the handle.  It was locked, so I pulled out the keys and one after the other I jabbed them into the lock.  The third key clicked and I opened the door and jumped inside.

I swallowed and put the key into the ignition.  I started to turn it, but stopped.  If the car worked, we might have only one shot of getting out undetected.  Starting it now was almost certain to bring unwanted attention.

I pulled the key out and rushed back to where I’d left Cindy.  She had dropped to the ground and tucked her feet underneath her in a ball.  She was mumbling under her breath and rocking back and forth.

“What the hell happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know.  She just…she just started,” Jake replied.

I grabbed Cindy by the arm and pulled her back to her feet.  She stared at me in the eyes then looked away.  I could only imagine how she was feeling.  She’d taken a life and even now that was unbelievable.

“I found a car,” I said.  “Follow me.”

Jake sighed in relief then tightened his grip on Brent.  I started back toward the car and Cindy began to mumble under her breath.  As we came to the edge of the wall I stopped and turned to face her.

“Cindy?  Cindy look at me,” I said lowly.

“I killed him.  I killed him Max,” she mumbled.

“There’s a car around the corner.  I need you to get into it so we can get out of here.  Do you understand me?”

“I killed him.  I killed him,” she chanted.

I wanted to hold her, to squeeze her and tell her everything was alright.  She had saved Brent, hell she’d saved everyone, but my words weren’t getting through to her.

“Cindy, I love you,” I said.

She jumped as the sound of a bottle breaking pierced the silence.  Agitated voices floated our way and I knew our time was short.

“Come on,” I said.

I ran around the corner, pulling Cindy by the arm.  She wasn’t resisting me, but she wasn’t making my life easy either.  Once I reached the car I helped her into the back with Brent then I jumped into the front seat with Jake riding shotgun.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Jake said.

I nodded then twisted the key in the ignition.  Nothing.

“Shit!” I growled.

“Try it again!” Jake screamed.

I turned the key again and was greeted with the same result.  Panic started to take over my body and my hands started to tremble.

“Some…somebody is coming,” Brent stuttered.

Back down the alley there was a man standing near the corner.  He was smoking a cigarette, watching us like it was a normal night in the city.

“Fuck!  Fuck…fuck…fuck!”  Jake groaned over and over then opened the door and swung his legs out.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

“Pop the hood!  Hurry up!” he shouted back at me.

I leaned forward and yanked the lever near my left foot.  Jake ran around the front of the car and disappeared behind the faded red metal. There were few loud bangs and the car shook from side to side.

“Try it again!” Jake yelled.

I twisted the key and the car made a sluggish churning noise.  I took a breath of excitement, but it was short lived.  It died out and the churning faded into an empty click.

“Hold on,” Jake said.

“More…more coming,” Brent groaned

He was slumped in the back seat.  His eyes were nearly closed and his breathing was shallow, but he was doing his best to help.

I looked passed him, through the back window where a small crowd had gathered.  They were standing where the lone man had been earlier.  He was still there, but his cigarette was now a metal pipe and he looked more than interested in what we were doing.

“Jake,” I called through the window.  “Jake hurry up!”

“Try it again,” he replied.

I quickly turned the key and the car rumbled and started to sputter.  The steering wheel shimmied in my hands then the engine died.  It was like the world was against us.

I looked back again and the crowd had begun to move toward us.  There were half a dozen guys armed with bats and crowbars.

“Hey!  Is that your car?” one of the men yelled.

“You guys need some help?” another one heckled.

“Jake get in the fucking car!” I shouted to him.  “Get in the car now!”

“I almost got it,” he replied.

Dozens of thoughts went through my mind.  Like why didn’t we take Carl’s gun.  Hell, we didn’t take anything.  Carl had a storage full of food and we’d left it all behind in our rush to end up here and die.  I was turning out to be the shittiest leader ever.

“Jake get in the damn car!” I yelled.

Slamming the hood, Jake rushed around the side of the car and jumped inside.  He shut the door and locked it then turned to me with a pale face.

“Go! Go, go, go!” he snapped.

“How?”

I twisted the key again and the car sluggishly rumbled.  It puttered for a few minutes then died again with a loud clunk.  We were trapped inside and had nowhere to go.

There was a smack against my window and I jumped.  A man was standing outside with his palm pressed against the glass.  With his other hand, he tapped the window with a piece of metal piping.

“Come on out,” he said.  “I don’t think that car belongs to you.”

There was another thud and a man stopped beside Jake’s window.  He raised a metal bat to eye level then bashed it into the glass.  It shattered, sending tiny fragments into the cabin, but it didn’t break.

“Holy fuck!” Jake screeched.  “Go man, get us out of here!”

I tried to start the car again, but it churned like an old washing machine.  Fate taunted me as the engine would rumble, cut on and off then completely die.

“Get out the damn car!” the man on Jake’s side roared.

He cracked his bat into the window again and it rained a shower of glass down onto Jake.  Shouting, he reached into the car and grabbed at Jake’s arm.  Jake screamed and slapped at his hands, struggling to keep the man outside.

“Drive!  Drive!” Jake screeched in a high-pitched tone.

More people began to circle the car and beat their weapons against the doors and trunk.  The man beside me grinned then started to jab the metal pipe into the window.

I turned the key again and again.  More grumbling, but the end result was the same.  With a sudden thump, a man jumped onto the hood and started to swing a crowbar into the windshield.  Jake was still screaming and trying to beat the man’s hands away as he gripped his collar and pulled him toward the window.

Cindy tucked her head and curled up in a ball.  Brent could hardly stay awake and even as the car rattled from side to side and glass broke and sprayed the cabin, he didn’t move.

I mashed my foot on the gas and turned the key again.  “Come on you piece of shit!”  I pumped the gas over and over and with an ear-splitting squeal the car finally came to life.

I slung the shifter into drive and mashed the gas.  Just as we sped away my window burst into slivers of glass and showered my legs with daggers.  The sudden thrust forward freed Jake from the man’s grasp and like that we were off.

“Where do I go!” I yelled in panic.

“Just drive,” Jake replied.

To my surprise, the streets were mostly empty and any crowds that we did see were far enough away that they wouldn’t bother us.  As we drove deeper into the city I started to recognize some of the streets and I managed to find the highway.  Twenty minutes later, we were back on open road and the burning city was a speck in the rearview mirror.

“How much gas do we have?” Jake asked.

I hadn’t even thought to look and my heart sank as I thought about it.  But our luck held and a smile spread over my face when I looked down at the gauge.

“A little under a full tank,” I replied.

“Good, real go…” Jake’s voice trailed off.

I glanced to my right and he was staring into the backseat.  Somehow, I knew what he was looking at, but I had to ask, I had to be sure.  Swallowing the massive lump in my throat I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the worst.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Brent…he’s dead.”

CHAPTER 19

WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU

I couldn’t stop staring into his eyes.  They looked alive, like he should’ve been there.  Like he was waiting for the right moment to speak, to tell us some secret he’d been holding in all along.  Deep down I knew better, but I hoped for some kind of miracle.

“We’ve gotta move him,” Jake sniffled.  “Stop the car.”

Wincing, I pulled over on the side of the empty highway and put the car in park.  I turned and looked behind me. Cindy was crammed in the corner of the backseat.  She hadn’t said a word, but was crying non-stop.

Brent was hunched over on the opposite side of the car.  His face was pale, but his eyes were as lively as they’d ever been.  I couldn’t believe he was gone.  I thought if I just screamed louder or gave him more time he’d wake up.  He couldn’t be dead.

“You ready?” Jake asked.

I didn’t reply.  I kept staring at Brent, trying to comprehend the lie my eyes were telling me.  He was alive five minutes ago and now he was nothing more than a lifeless bulge.

“Max,” Jake said a little louder.  “We have to move him.  He needs to be buried.”

“Buried,” I repeated.

The idea seemed mad.  What if we were wrong, what if he was just in a coma?   What if he woke back up?  We couldn’t bury Brent alive, we just couldn’t.  Suddenly, an uncontrollable anger swelled over me.  I couldn’t’ believe he would even suggest that.

“You’re his best friend!” I growled.  “You can’t just throw him away like, like trash.”

“He’s gone man…I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”

“Fuck you!” my voice quivered.  It was hard to breath and my fingers twitched as I struggled to find the right words.  “Fuck you Jake!  He’s not gone!”

My voice broke and the sound scared me.  A wave of tears rushed from my eyes and I felt my head spin in wide swooping circles.

“It’s ok man…it’s ok,” Jake said and grabbed my shoulder.

“Don’t you fucking touch me,” I snapped and shoved him away.

Fuming, I opened the door and stepped outside.  I sucked in a lungful of air then bent over and rested my hands on my knees.  Suddenly, my stomach twisted and I lurched forward, spewing bits of beans and rice into the grass.

I grunted and caught myself before falling completely to the ground.  I heaved forward again and released another stream of puke then straightened up and wiped my mouth.

“My God,” I gasped and stared up into the clouds.

The other door opened and Jake stepped out.  He walked around the back then stopped a few feet behind me.

“You done?” he asked.

“Don’t start with me Jake!” I warned.

“Well, while you’re out here throwing a fit like a fucking baby, Brent is in the backseat dead.  We have to deal with this.  It doesn’t matter how you feel…we have to deal with this!”

I glared at him.  Somehow all of this was his fault.  All he cared about was his own ass and he’d sacrifice anyone to save it.

He threw his hands up in defeat and huffed loudly.  “Max, come on man.  We’ve gotta get him out of the car.  Cindy’s back there with him for Christ’s sake.”

I looked back into the car.  Cindy was still cuddled in the backseat with her face toward the window.  I felt my heart drop at the sight of her.  She was mumbling to herself, her face covered in dried tears.

Sighing, I dropped my face into my own hands in desperation.  I yawned then turned to Jake and lowered my head.  “Fine, let’s move him.  I’ll see if I can find something to dig with in the trunk.”

Jake tipped his head and returned to the car.  I opened the trunk and began to shuffle through the piles of junk that the Honda owner had amassed through the years.  Where were they now?  Were they like Brent, dead and left buried on the side of the road?  Or had they made it out?  Or had they been one of the lucky ones, to have never lived long enough to see the abyss our world spiraled into?

I’d never know, but as I shuffled through the remnants of their life, I couldn’t help but wonder.  Pulling myself back to reality, I felt my way through mounds of clothes, hoping to find a spade or metal object.  The best I could find was a tire iron and an old, plastic cup.

With our tools in hand, it was time to get to work.  It took us the entire day to dig a hole.  We watched the sun rise and start to set as we raged war upon the ground we stood on.  The process was sobering and every little bit of dirt that I moved felt like a pile of guilt I stacked on top of myself.

I stabbed at the earth with the tire iron.  The soil was loose and moved freely.  Sweat dripped from my hands and slid down the rusted metal, enough to turn the ground muddy.  But the labor was my penance for failing him, that along with the pain that I would carry until I joined him beneath the dirt.

My arms ached with every thrust into the soil.  Every rake of grass and dirt I pulled away, I felt down to my core.  I faded into the monotony, letting my mind get lost in the nothingness.  To think was to feel and I didn’t want to feel anything.  In some ways, I was just there, an empty vessel, the shell of a man after the soul had been ripped from the body and crushed underneath the weight of the world.

“I think this is deep enough,” Jake said as he scooped a cup of dirt over his shoulder.

I looked down into the hole, into the spot that was to be Brent’s final resting place.  A shallow grave off the shoulder of some highway in the middle of nowhere.  No one besides us would know he was there, no one besides us would miss him.

“So, this is what it’s come to?” I mumbled.

For the first time Jake looked bothered.  He dropped his head and frowned then turned his face into the wedge of his arm.  He was crying and it wasn’t subtle, it was sniffles and grunts and heavy breathing.  It was pain and the actualization of what was happening.  It was a last goodbye to a friend that had been there when no one else was.

“I’m sorry Brent, I’m so sorry.  I fucked up man,” he moaned.

The sky rumbled as if to answer him with its discontentment.  A light wind picked up and some of the dirt blew into the air.  It was a fitting farewell, a perfect reflection to the storm brewing inside of my own head.

“He’s gone man,” Jake whimpered then dropped to one knee.

I didn’t have the words to console him.  I was battling my own demons and in some ways, I faulted him for how far apart I felt we’d drifted.  Brent had always been the middle man, the guy that kept our little friendship together when one of us was being a stubborn asshole.

Who was going to patch us up now?  Who was going to be that glue, especially now when we needed it so much.

“Help me get him out of the car,” I finally said after giving Jake a few minutes to himself.

Jake nodded and we moved Brent to the edge of the hole and placed him on the ground.  In silence, we stared at him until the sun began to vanish.  As an orange haze shined across the sky, I knew it was time to let him go.

Biting my lower lip, I grabbed Brent’s arms and Jake followed suit.  We lowered him slowly, like a delicate piece of art.  Even in death, he was our friend and he deserved more than what we gave him.

His skin had grown cold, void of life, empty of all the things I’d taken for granted.  I questioned how my world had become so morose.  Death was something that humans couldn’t comprehend, a fallacy like time and all it did in the end was bring us pain.

“Should we say something?” Jake asked as he stared down into the grave.

“I’m sorry Brent,” I started.  “You deserve better and I wish I could’ve gave you it.”

I looked to Jake, but he’d already started crying again.  I grabbed his cup from the ground and started to toss dirt over Brent’s body.  It fell softly, but I cringed with every clump of soil that hit him.

“Wait!” Cindy called out.

I turned and found her rushing toward us.  She stopped short of the grave and knelt down.  Her face was smeared with tears and her eyes were red and puffy, but she looked like herself again.

“Brent, you were a friend when you didn’t need to be.  You were a brother to me and I’ll love you forever for it,” Cindy whispered.

She took her watch off and dropped it into the hole with him.  Tearing up, she blew him a kiss then with a deep breath, she stood up and headed back to the car.

As the last pile of dirt fell over Brent’s body I dropped the tire iron from my hands then stared up at the darkening sky.  A silent flash of lightning flickered through the clouds as a light rain began to fall.

Brent was gone, but we were still here, still here trying to survive in a world that was falling apart.  Brent was at peace now, but our fight was just beginning.

CHAPTER 20

AS THE STORM COMES

The air outside had begun to cool.  It flowed in through the broken windows and swirled in the cabin of the aging Honda.  We needed to find a new car soon.  It was only going to get colder and from the looks of it, rain was on the way.

Flashes of light grew in the distance, wicked webs of electricity, dancing through the clouds.  It was unnatural, something that would’ve been amazing to see in different circumstances, but now it was just another thing that could kill us.

“We’re low on gas,” I mumbled in a groggy tone then rubbed my eyes.

Jake looked over at me and shrugged.  “Let’s go into town.”

I pulled off of the highway at the next exit.  So far the infrastructure was sound and I doubted anything had happened out here.  We’d clocked nearly three hundred miles and the horrors of Nashville were far away, but somehow still with us.

“I’m thinking if we find gas or a new car we can make it to Wyoming by tomorrow afternoon,” I grinned.

Jake nodded, but didn’t respond.  With a yawn, I turned onto the surface streets and made my way toward the city.  I felt a cold twist in my stomach as I thought of what we might find once we got there.

“We’ve gotta be close to something,” I added.  “I can’t see a damn thing though.”

It was dark and our headlights were our only lifeline to safety.  The world had been cast into the shadows with death lurking in every corner.  I felt like an explorer on a distant planet.  Like we were the first to step foot on Mars and everything we did set a new precedent.

“It’s empty,” Jake mumbled.

“What?”

“This town, it’s empty.”

He was right.  There were a few deserted cars on the street, but it was a ghost town.  From the road signs, we were about thirty miles outside of St. Louis, Missouri.  With such a big city near I thought we’d see people everywhere.

“Maybe they all got out,” Cindy said in a weak voice.  “Maybe the National Guard evacuated them.”

I glanced back at her and smiled.  I was happy to see her talking again.  She still looked out of it, but at least she was engaged.

“I hope they did,” I replied.

“Me too.”

“Do you guys hear that?” Jake asked and sat up in his seat then leaned out of the window and looked around.  “It’s close, it’s really close.”

I slowed the car down to nearly a stop.  The brakes screeched and the tires crushed tiny pebbles as we veered near the shoulder.

Straining my ears, I listened in silence as the car coasted.  More lightning flashed and brightened the sky, exposing monstrous clouds, black and menacing as the grim reaper.  The wind had picked up, howling and shoving things around, but that was all that I could hear, the sound of the storm we all knew was coming.

Sighing, I stopped the car next to an empty field and put it in park.  I cut off the engine and looked at Jake.  He still had his head leaning out of the window like a dog.

“I don’t hear anything,” I told him after a few minutes had passed.

“Well I hear it,” Jake replied.  “Get out of the car!”

“What?”

“Get out of the car now!”

Jake opened his door and jumped to his feet.  With a grimace, he looked up at the sky then yanked open the back door and nearly dragged Cindy from the car.

“Max!  Get out of the car now!” he blared.

I still wasn’t sure what the hell he was screaming about, but I slowly stepped out of the car and made my way toward the back.  Jake had Cindy’s hand and was pulling her down the embankment on the side of the road.

“Follow me!” he yelled back.

I frowned and shook my head, trying to comprehend what he was doing.  Cindy didn’t seem to know either, but she wasn’t fighting.  I banged my hand on the hood then Screaming, I ran after him.

“Jake!  What the hell man?”

He didn’t reply.  He darted into the field and ran like a ghost was chasing him.  Another flash of lightning lit up the sky and a boom of thunder echoed in the emptiness.  But something else roared even louder.

The air swooshed and rumbled like water tumbling over the edge of a cliff.  The ground started to tremble, threatening to knock me off balance.  So much was happening and all I could think was to run faster.

“Jake!” I yelled, the wind swallowing the words as soon as they left my mouth.  “Where the hell are you going?”

My fear told me to run back to the car, to head back to something I thought was safe.  But then then I saw it, I saw what Jake had heard.  It was to my left, bearing down on us like a pack of hungry lions.  I could see then that it didn’t matter how fast we ran or where we ran to, there was no outrunning it.

It looked like hell had opened up and reached its gnarled fingers into the sky to pull the world down into the depths.  Streaks of swirling gray whipped around, twirling through the night like malign ballerinas.

Everything in its path was plucked from the ground and churned into nothing, before being spat out like cannon fodder.  It was death, it was a spinning cyclone of treacherous mayhem and it was headed straight for us.

I was never much of an athlete and now I regretted all of the PE classes I’d skipped along the years.  No matter how hard I pumped my legs and swung my arms I couldn’t catch up with Jake, I’d been left to die alone.  I wanted to shout, to scream, but it was useless.  They wouldn’t hear me and I needed every bit of oxygen so I didn’t pass out.

The grass whipped against my legs as I charged through the field.  I didn’t want to die, not here, not now.  Burying Brent had given me a new appreciation for life and I didn’t want to let it go so easily.

Suddenly, Jake stopped running and waved his hands at me.  They were nearly fifty yards away and the tornado was almost as close.  He was shouting to me, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.  So, I lowered my head and ran faster.

The ground was uneven and covered with rocks and short, thick shrubs.  The closer I got to them the more uneven it became, until it took a sharp decline and I stumbled and rolled across the ground.

High off adrenaline, I jumped to my feet as soon as I came to a stop.  I was almost certain I’d broken a bone or two, but that was nothing in comparison to what was coming.

“Hurry up!” Jake screamed.  “Down here!”

I could see what he was doing now.  The field ran into a culvert where a thin stream of water stood.  I followed after him and slid down the bank, landing in the shallow muck.

“In here,” Jake called out.

As the tornado roared behind me I rushed inside of the concrete cylinder and collapsed against the wall.

“How did you know?” I huffed.  “How did you know it was coming?”

“It’s a sound you never forget,” Jake replied with wide eyes, staring at the roof of the culvert.

Outside the wind bellowed its displeasure at our escape.  The sound of chaos thundered as a heavy rain began to fall.  The sky roared and my arms trickled with goosebumps.

“Is it safe in here?” Cindy asked.

I pulled her toward me and wrapped my arms around her.  “We should be fine,” I whispered.

“It was this or the car,” Jake added.  “And I’m sure the car ain’t there no more.”

A high-pitched whistle blared and gusts of wind rushed into our little shelter.  Toward the back there was a metal grate that separated the culvert from where the storm drain ran underneath the road.  I pulled Cindy along and we huddled near it with Jake crouched beside us.

The sound of the storm was horrid.  It was every nightmare I’d ever had, every fear manifested in the destruction taking place right outside.

Pellets of rain pushed by the wind swept into the tunnel like machinegun fire.  The sting against my back was agonizing, but I squeezed Cindy tighter and shut my eyes.  It sounded like the world was falling apart above our heads.  Loud booms and deafening collisions shook our little haven.  Every time the culvert rattled I thought it was going to cave in and crush us.

A loud roar droned as the tornado stopped directly above.  The strafing rain stopped and I could feel the cyclone pulling at my back.

I reached around Cindy and locked my fingers into the grate, pinning her underneath me.  A barrage of shrills and resounding clatter filled the culvert.  I could feel the wind pulling at me, ripping me from the ground.

My legs slipped in the grimy water and Cindy shifted underneath me.  She latched onto my waist and I grabbed her and pulled her back toward the grate.

“We’re gonna die!” Jake shouted as he clamped his fingers around the thick, metal.

It was like the tornado was alive.  It had found us and wouldn’t leave until it peeled us from our hiding spot like a pearl from an oyster.

“Don’t let me go,” Cindy said as the wind shrieked in pain.

I tightened my grip and struggled to plant my feet back onto the ground.  Everything seemed unreal.  There I was, nearly horizontal with the floor, being sucked into the air by a giant vacuum.

“I’m losing my grip!  Max help me, I’m losing my grip!” Jake cried out in panic.

There was nothing I could do.  I had one hand over Cindy’s and the other squeezing the grate with every ounce of strength I had.

“It’s gonna pass!” I yelled, my attempt at encouragement.

“Max help me!” he screamed and I felt it in my spine.

He made a loud groaning noise then he was plucked from the grate like a feather.  Jake didn’t go quietly though.  As the tornado pulled at him he slammed into the ground the caught my leg on his way out.

The sudden jolt ripped my hand off and I slid down Cindy’s waist.  I grasped at the air, but found nothing solid, I was flying and suddenly I was outside.

CHAPTER 21

THE TRUTH HURTS

I slid across the slime covered concrete as my life flashed before me.  The wedding that didn’t happen, the children I would never have, the sound of my daughter calling me daddy.  It was the life I’d wished for, but put off for so long, always thinking there would be more time.

I strained to keep my eyes open.  Fighting my own instincts to brace for my death like a coward.  I wanted to see it, I wanted to look death in the eyes before it took me.

Flinching, I stared up to the dark sky and gasped.  The cyclone had shifted and was tearing across the field back toward the road.  It dropped us onto the concrete like unwanted laundry and left.  We weren’t gonna die, not yet.

I jumped up and ran back toward the culvert.  Cindy was still latched to the grate, shaking and crying hysterically.

“Cindy!” I called out to her.

She turned her head and glared at me like she was seeing a ghost.  Her hands trembled as she slowly uncoiled them and reached out toward me.

I knelt down and wrapped my arms around her.  She buried her head into my shoulder and moaned in pain.  I’d never felt closer to her than I did in that moment.

“I thought you were dead.  I thought you left me.”

“I thought I was dead too, but it passed right over us.”

“I’m alright too,” Jake called from behind us.

I kissed Cindy’s cheek and squeezed her tighter.  With a deep breath, I sucked in the scent of her hair, vowing to never forget it.  There was something surreal about holding someone that you thought you’d lost forever.

I could’ve sat there for hours, hours just holding her.  I wanted to stay with her for the rest of my life and that’s when it hit me.

“Marry me,” I suddenly said.

I felt her jolt and she lifted her head slowly.  “What?”

“Marry me.  I don’t care how, I just, I just want you to marry me.  I’m sorry it took me so long to ask, but I’m ready.  I want you to marry me.”

Cindy dropped her jaw in shock.  She looked like she wanted to pass out.  He eyes were wide and unfocused like she was staring right through me.

An explosion of thunder stole my moment and I was reminded of the danger we were still in.  Lightning flashed and Cindy shivered in my arms.

“We, we need to get moving,” Jake said loudly.  “It’s coming back and we can’t stay here.”

I slowly released Cindy and she straightened up and looked down at me.  She placed her hands on my face and kissed me.

“We’ll pick this up when we get somewhere safe,” she quivered.  “I love you.”

I didn’t know what to make of that.  I smiled and grabbed her hand then rushed out of the culvert as wisps of cool wind blew against my face.

“Up here,” Jake called.

Following after him, we climbed up the embankment and stopped.  Flashes of lightning illuminated the abysmal landscape and I felt my stomach drop into the dirt.  The car was gone.  Twisted metal beams and all manner of debris was sprawled across the ground.  There was nothing left standing except the frame of a farmhouse nearly half a mile away.  It’s skeletal remains appeared and vanished with each crack of entwining electricity.

“That way,” Jake pointed.

At a jog, we took off toward the farmhouse.  The tornado spiraled recklessly in the distance, sporadically shifting from side to side.  Heavy wind gusts pushed against us with every step as the rain returned like a shower of nails.

I could hear the tornado brewing in the dark.  Like a giant child throwing a temper tantrum in a glass room.  It was coming back for a second round.

“Hurry up!” I shouted for no reason at all.  Cindy had released my hand and was several steps ahead of me and Jake was a step or two behind her.

By the time I reached the rickety frame, Cindy was already searching the grounds with Jake.  He was convinced they would have a cellar and I prayed he was right because we didn’t have time for a backup plan.

“Over here!” Cindy shouted.

On the far side of the farmhouse, where a few panels of wood stubbornly held on, there was a wooden door in the ground.  I grabbed the iron handle and pulled it open and without a second thought we all climbed in.

“Close the latch,” Jake warned.  “If not the storm is gonna rip the doors off.”

The old wooden steps that led into the basement creaked with every step we took.  It was completely dark down there, but anything was better than what was about to happen outside.  Holding onto Cindy, I made my way to the concrete floor one groaning step at a time.

“See if you can find a light,” I said as I blindly felt around.

There were rows of metal shelves with tools and collections of junk crammed on top of them.  As I clumsily swept my hands through them a light erupted behind me and I froze.

“Found one,” Cindy said calmly.

The little gas lantern burned like a star.  It cast its glow around the room and I felt a tiny bit of relief.  Men were never meant to linger in dark places.

Above us the war had started again.  Wind pounded the door as the sound of the collapsing farmhouse shook the ground.  We were safe for now, but we were in for one hell of a night.

“How long do you think it’ll last?” Cindy asked.

“I’m surprised it’s been going for this long.”  I took the lantern from Cindy and found a clearing on the floor.  Grunting, I sat down and leaned my back against one of the shelves while Cindy sat leaning on my legs.

Jake looked around the room for a minute then joined us.  “It’s like it’s looking for us or something,” he griped.

“What?”

“I mean we beat it.  We made it out of the car and into that damn pipe.  Now it’s back, it just won’t go away.  Do you think…do you think we’re supposed to die?”

I didn’t respond, I sat on the floor in silence just happy to be wherever I was.  It felt odd, having accepted my death and finding myself alive.  It was like I’d been given a second chance.

Cindy leaned back and rested against my shoulder and I stroked her hair.  She sighed in exhaustion then rubbed her hand across my face.

“I love you,” she whispered.

I smiled back, afraid to say the words, afraid of the silence she left me with after I proposed.  Sure, it was out of the blue and born out of my fear of losing her.  But that didn’t make it any less sincere.

We’d talked about getting married for years and just never got around to it.  I thought she would’ve been happy, I thought those were the words she’d been waiting for since I met her.  Maybe I’d waited too long, maybe it was too little too late.

Jake paced the floor anxiously.  Every bump, every crash he looked up to the ceiling like it was going to cave in.  I’d never seen him so frantic and I wondered if his mind would hold up all the way to Wyoming.

Wyoming, our promised sanctuary.  What could I expect when we got there?  Were we too late or was it just a pipe dream to begin with?  There were so many moving parts, so many jobs that were dependent on others.  I dragged us across the country betting on a plan that was never completely finished.

As the winds outside started to die the tapping of rain increased.  There was something calming about it, peaceful even.  It brought back some normalcy and I latched onto that feeling.

I closed my eyes and listened to the drumline of water.  My mind wandered and thoughts of Brent drifted by.  I missed him, I missed his level head and optimism.  I couldn’t believe I’d never talk to him again.

I thought about his parents and wondered if they were even alive.  He hadn’t said much about them since everything had happened and I think that was kinda his way of avoiding what was probably inevitable.  We all had a lot we were avoiding.

It felt like years had passed since we left my apartment and headed to the club.  That night was the last carefree night of my life.  It was the last time all four of us would ever be together again.  Disaster had a way of showing you that nothing was trivial.

“Is he sleeping?” Jake asked.

At first I thought I was dreaming.  I was exhausted and I felt my self drifting away as I lay there.  I’d been around the world in my mind, so Jake playing some part in my brain’s motion picture wasn’t shocking.

“Yeah, but keep your voice down,” Cindy replied and I felt her slide from under my arm.

I wasn’t dreaming and I was now deadly curious.  Their hushed tones and tip-toeing about made my hairs stand on end.  They tried to keep quiet, but everything echoed down in the basement.

“What are you thinking?” Jake growled in a menacing whisper.  “Marriage?”

“I have to tell him.”

“Are you fucking crazy?  Now, you want to tell him now?”

Cindy sighed and I could hear her pacing the floor.

“It’s killing me inside.  I feel like shit, I deserve to be dead instead of Brent.”

“You love who you love,” Jake replied.

The sound of feet shuffling echoed then there was an awkward silence.  I started to open my eyes, but just as I did a wet smacking noise sounded and Cindy giggled.

“He doesn’t have to know.  He never needs to know.  That was the deal when all of this started,” Jake continued.

“I can’t keep this up.  I might die, he might die.  He deserves to know the truth.  I owe him at least that.”

“And what is the truth Cindy?  What are you gonna tell him?”

Cindy took a long, deep breath.  “I’ll tell him…I’ll tell him about us, that I, that I cheated.”

“And that’s all this was?  I was just some mistake?”

“That’s not fair.”

As they argued back and forth I felt galaxies of emotions flood through my body.  First I was breathless.  It was a feeling I’d never experienced before, like the floor had suddenly vanished under me and I was free falling into darkness.

Why? I thought.  Why wasn’t I good enough for her?  How could she?  I’d given her my all, my everything until there was nothing left of me.  Why wasn’t that enough?

I felt sick to my stomach.  My head spun and if my eyes weren’t already closed I probably would’ve passed out.  I just wanted her to love me the way I loved her.

As quickly as those thoughts had formed they were replaced with a rage I didn’t think was possible.  I clenched my fists at my side and clamped my jaw like a bear trap.  I wanted to hit something, I wanted to hit Jake.  I felt like I could kill him at that moment.

What a two-faced little shit.  I’d trusted him, treated him like a brother and he was nothing more than a snake.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I couldn’t believe what was happening.

My anger boiled, but I realized it was misplaced.  Jake was an asshole, but he didn’t owe me anything, Cindy did.  Cindy was the person I trusted, Cindy was the person I loved.

“Do whatever makes you happy Cindy.  That’s what you always do,” Jake finished.

“You know how I feel about you.  Don’t act like that.”

“Don’t act like what?  I thought we meant something to each other.  I thought you loved me.”

I’d heard enough.  It was time for this to end.  My anger was about to explode and I couldn’t just sit there anymore in silence.

Opening my eyes, I scuffled to my feet before either of them noticed me.  “I thought you loved me too,” I barked in the harshest tone I could muster.

CHAPTER 22

STARING THROUGH THE WINDOW

Jake’s eyes looked like satellite dishes.  His jaw dangled in shock and the stupid look on his face was perfectly fitting.

Cindy collapsed to the floor and started to cry, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.  I looked at her with nothing but hate, everything about her made my blood turn to lava.

“Max!” Jake found his voice first.  “Max, I…I…”

“Save it asshole,” I snapped.  “I could fucking kill you right now.”

Cindy looked up at me with eyes full of tears.  She begged forgiveness without words, but I’d become hate.

“How could you!” I shouted.

“Max, just listen,” Jake said.

My hand shot out so fast I wasn’t sure it belonged to me.  I struck Jake in the throat like a blade and he gagged then doubled over.

“Why!” I shouted back at Cindy.  “I loved you.  Why!”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“Fuck your sorry.  I was gonna marry you.  Fuck!”

I slammed my hand into one of the wooden beams and roared.  I felt like I could tear the entire foundation apart and bring the whole thing falling down on us.  In the back of my mind, that seemed like the best thing to do.

“I…I didn’t want to hurt you.  I’m sorry Max.”

“You didn’t want to hurt me?  What the hell did you think you were doing?  I fucking hate you!”

I stormed off and headed toward the back of the basement.  There was nothing she could say to me, nothing that would make this right.  She’d thrown my life away for a pathetic, backstabbing coward.

“I’m sorry Max, I’m sorry,” she repeated over and over.

“Fuck you,” I grumbled.

Steaming, I found a chair crammed between two shelves and I sat down.  I laid my face into my hands and closed my eyes, wishing it was all a dream.  Maybe I’d bumped my head at work and none of this ever happened.  Maybe the world was as it should be and Cindy was sitting at my side waiting for me to wake up.  But I knew none of that was true, I was facing the biggest crisis of my life and it had nothing to do with the weather.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.  I felt completely drained, like I didn’t have enough energy to care anymore.  I just wanted to sleep, to escape my life even if it was only for an hour.

“Fuck,” I groaned silently.

I couldn’t believe this was happening.  Nothing made sense, nothing was how it was supposed to be.  But here I was, alone, realizing that the life I’d build had been one elaborate façade and I’d laid my trust in the hands of someone who’d never done the same with me.

Minutes, hours melted away in silence.  I tried to sleep, but I was restless, tormented by the thought of them together.  My mind tortured me and I found myself staring at the wall in some kind of zombie-like trance.

Cindy cried through the night.  Jake tried to console her, but she pushed him away.  I watched from the corner, stewing in my own hate like softened potatoes.  I just wanted both of them gone, I never wanted to see them again.

Once the rain and wind stopped we were left with a silence that felt like a brick wall.  I was trapped, stuck in a basement with the two people I hated most in the world.  It was odd how quickly reality changed directions.

“We should check outside,” Jake said suddenly, as if everything was normal.  “If it’s clear we need to get moving.”

I didn’t reply.  Jake looked at me then headed up the steps toward the doors.  Grunting, he unlatched the bolt and heaved.  The doors flopped open and a shower of light shot down into the basement.  I squinted and shrieked away, the darkness and shadows were my friends now.

“It’s clear,” he shouted back optimistically.

I blocked the rays with my hand and turned my face away.  I wasn't going anywhere, I was perfectly fine where I was.

“We should leave," Cindy whispered to me.

I glowered at her then looked away, her face was too painful to see. There was nothing she could say, nothing she could do that would make me forgive her. As far as I was concerned we were strangers.

Sighing, she reached out and put her hand on my shoulder.  Her touch felt like ice, like death and I jumped away without saying a word.

The wooden steps creaked as Jake returned downstairs.  His clumsy footsteps clunked on each plank like he could only be that loud purposefully. With a deep breath, he scanned the basement then his eyes stopped on me with an arrogant look on his face.

"The weather looks fine, it's sunny. If we go now we might make it all the way before we have to stop," he said, sounding as smug as ever.

Cindy clenched her jaw then turned back to me.  She tried to look me in the eyes, but I avoided her glance.  Seeing her was just too hard.

"Max,” she started. “I know you hate me right now, but this is stupid. Let's just get out of here, let's get somewhere safe. We can't stay here."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, either of you. Just, just leave me here."

"What?"

"You heard me. Why do you think I’d want to leave with you?”

"Max, we have to go. You said you’d take us, you said you knew somewhere safe."

I glared at her and if I could kill with looks, she'd be dead already. I took a deep breath trying to calm myself.  But every bit of love I’d ever felt for her had turned to hate.

I stood up and she staggered backwards like she thought I was going to hit her or something. I laughed, then turned around and started rummaging through the shelf behind me.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

I didn't reply. I found a cardboard box and ripped a piece off. Then I grabbed a screwdriver from the shelf and started to meticulously carve into it.  Every line I drew felt the tear that had been ripped through my heart.  It was a painful exercise, but some things had to be done.

“Here,” I said and offered her the awkward square.

"What is this?" she asked and took the jagged piece from my hand.  “Dubois?”

"It’s where you need to go to be safe and now you know as much as I do."

Narrowing her eyes, she sighed.  She fumbled with the cardboard between her fingers.  Her eyes flickered from the address to my stoic face over and over.  Like a boa, her hand coiled around the lifeline I’d given her as she took a deep breath and frowned.

“Don't do this," she mumbled.

"You did this.  You and that asshole I called my friend."

"I'm sorry Max. Please, please come with me, I don’t want to do this without you."

"You already did this without me."

"What can I do? How can I fix this? Please, I’ll do anything."

"You can die for all I care! Or at least get the fuck out of here!”

"Hey!" Jake snapped.

"What are you gonna do? You can die right along with her, hell you can die first and if you say another fucking word I’m gonna beat your head into the floor."

Cindy started to cry. She covered her face with her hands and almost collapsed.  Jake wrapped his arm around her and started to whisper into her ear, but she shoved him away.

“Leave me alone!” she shouted and stormed off toward the stairs.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jake turned to me and asked.

"Me?!  Are you serious?”

“Yes you, you fucking asshole!”

I couldn’t hold back any longer, I took a swing and my fist found his nose, which squished under the impact.  Jake stumbled backward in shock and grabbed his face.  Blood trickled down his lips and he gawked in disbelief.

“Just go!” I roared.  “Take her and get the hell out of here!  You got what you wanted. You can make it there on your own.  You don’t need me, so just leave!”

Jake stared at me for a long time.  His look was unreadable, but I stared back with death in my eyes.  There was nothing else to be said, no bonds to be repaired, no friendships to be mended.  Jake was dead to me.

“Max,” Cindy cried out in a shaky voice.

“I said leave!” I shouted then shoved the shelf beside me.

It toppled over and fell into the next shelf, sending an assortment of tools crashing to the ground.  Glasses shattered into millions of pieces and it felt like I’d finally found a home for my rage.

“Get out of here!  Leave me alone!”

I pushed the next shelf and swatted at anything I could reach.  Boxes of tools and old pictures flipped onto their sides and slid across the floor.  I kicked at them and spun around looking for something else to attack.

The basement had come to life.  It sounded like the tornado had spun its way downstairs to finish the job.  Everything I destroyed was a burden, a pain lifted from my chest.

Cindy screeched as she jumped to avoid a box of dusty picture frames.  Jake stood off to the side in shock, probably taking joy in my temper tantrum he orchestrated.  He was lucky I didn’t continue to take my anger out on him.  I just wanted them to leave, I didn’t want to see their faces.

“Max!” Cindy shouted so loudly it made me pause.

I turned toward her and the face she made nearly shattered my heart.  For a moment she was my best friend again, she was the love of my life and the only person that mattered.  For a moment she was heartbroken and looking to me for help.  But it was only a moment.

The rage that had temporarily subsided started to boil again.  I clenched my fists and swallowed.  She was never who I thought she was.

“Just leave…please.”  I took a deep breath and leaned my back against the wall.  “Leave me alone.”

Cindy started toward me, but Jake grabbed her arm.

“Come on,” he said lowly.  “We’ve gotta go.”

Cindy resisted and Jake pulled harder.  He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked her up the stairs.  She looked back the entire time, crying and heaving in big, dramatic gasps.

I watched as they moved higher, step by step.  They paused at the top of the stairs and took one last look at me.  I scowled and turned away.

“Bye Max.  I love you,” Cindy said.

Jake pulled her up the last step and they disappeared into the light.  The doors slammed behind them and I was finally alone.

For the next couple of hours, I didn’t move.  My eyes were glued to the top of the stairs.  I expected her to come back, to burst into the basement and tell me how she’d never leave, no matter what.  I expected her to always be there, I thought we were soulmates.

How pathetic was I?  I still couldn’t let her go, I still needed her to want me, to choose me.  And that ship had sailed.  She’d chosen Jake and I’d chosen exile.

I had no plan, no clue what I was going to do.  I just didn’t care anymore.  My race with time had ended, I’d surrendered my life to fate and whatever lay around the corner.

At some point, I fell asleep, but it was short-lived.  My dreams were haunted with visions of Jake laying on top of Cindy, sweating and grunting.  Her moans grabbed my like a pair of hands and snatched me back to reality.  There would be no peace for me.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes.  My stomach voiced its protest and my dry throat ached when I breathed.  Life was calling to me, telling me to get off of my ass and move.

I needed to find something to eat, no matter how much I hated Cindy I wasn’t gonna starve to death.  But I didn’t know what I was going to do.  I’d thought the world falling apart was rock bottom, I was wrong.

Groaning, I stood and looked up to the stairs.  I took a deep breath and slowly let the air out as I fought off the depression that had kept me down there so long.  “Just keep moving,” I mumbled.

Sulking, I headed up the old, wooden steps and pushed the barn doors open.  A wave of fresh air hit me and it was like life was being breathed into my lungs.  I felt energized, I felt alive again, despite all that had happened.

Something came over me, or more like something had been lifted off.  That basement, it represented death, it was a hopeless void where I’d been overwhelmed with depression and failure.  Stepping out of that hole was a resurrection.

I wasn’t going to die, I wanted to live.  Screw sitting in some lonely basement and withering away.  I was going to Wyoming, I was going to survive whatever the hell this was.

The sky outside was dark and the moon was barely visible through the thick, clouds.  The air was cool and crisp, biting at my skin like tiny flies with ice daggers for teeth.  Winter was finally awake.

I shivered and thought about the jacket I’d lost.  It would’ve been nice to have. I could probably find another one along the way, but I was pissed at myself for being so unprepared.

Something just out of sight stirred in the abyss and the grass rustled causing me to jump.  Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the sky and I caught a glimpse of a man, charging toward me from a few yards away.

He was wide and bulky with a thick gray beard and hands like bear paws.  His broad frame was cloaked in a cumbersome long coat that looked like it had been ripped from the back of a buffalo and he had an old shotgun dangling from a sling at his side.

My arms and legs became rigged and I lost my breath.  I wanted to run, but my brain couldn’t seem to get the message out to the other parties involved.

Another strike of lightning hit just as the man lunged forward with the butt of his rifle.  It caught me in the face and sent me reeling backward.  I hit the stairs and rolled, cracking my head on each step on the way down.  I could hear feet thundering after me, stampeding down the steps to finish the job.  With a crunch, I hit the bottom and everything turned off.

CHAPTER 23

WE ARE WHO WE ARE

I slowly lifted my face from the cold, hard floor.  Blood leaked from my lips and my head throbbed like someone was inside, scratching their way out.  I squinted from the bright light that burned above as I tried to figure out where I was.

I remembered falling, being hit and falling back into the basement.  But this wasn’t the basement.  It was someone’s house.  The carpet had been ripped up and only the concrete slab remained.  Four green painted walls surrounded me and a yellowing, door stood resolutely a few feet away.  Thick, dark blankets covered what I assumed were two windows and aside from a metal chair in the corner, the room was empty.

I needed to escape.  I didn’t know what was going on, or how I’d come to be in that house, but I knew I had to get out.  That was the only thought that repeated in my boggled mind.

I pushed myself onto my knees and took a deep breath.  With a heave, I stood up and tried to walk, but something yanked on me and I fell forward.  A sharp pain shot up my leg and I let out a groan.

Reaching down, I felt my leg where a thick, metal band dug into my ankle.  It was attached to a heavy, rusted chain that was bolted into the floor.  I wasn’t going anywhere and thoughts of cannibals and toothless men in overalls came to mind.

Panic should’ve been my first reaction, but for some reason I’d become numb to danger.  I felt jaded by it all.  If this was the end I just wanted it to be over already.

I laid back onto the floor in defeat, avoiding the puddle of my own blood.  As I stared up at the ceiling and the browning water stains I thought of Cindy.  I wondered where they were and if she was even thinking about me.

I hated how I felt because for some reason I missed her.  In my anger, I thought I could just forget about her.  That the hole in my heart could be filled with rage and anger, but as hard as I tried to push her out, she was always there.

“I know what you’re thinking,” a soft, male voice called out.

I rolled over and looked toward the door.  There he was, the bearded man, holding his hunting rifle, smiling down at me.  His voice didn’t match, he looked like a grizzly bear, but sounded like a second-year accountant.  I was more confused by that than anything else.

“You’re thinking what the hell am I doing here?” he continued.  “But you’re asking the wrong question.  I’m gonna save you the trouble of the others.  You need to be thinking, how can I stay alive.”

He’d done this before, whatever this was.  But unlike anyone else, I’d lost the ability to care about my life.  At least I thought I did.

“I was actually thinking, why do you sound like a twelve-year old girl?” I asked with an arrogant simper.

He didn’t immediately reply.  He gazed at me with an unreadable look.  Most of his face was covered with thick, knotted hair, but his beady eyes jittered back and forth.  They were dark and cold like a frozen lake in the middle of a forest no one ever visited.  The piercing stare was unnerving, but I glared back at him in spite.

He smiled.  “They all start that way.  The weak ones you know?  Crack a joke, make a threat, do anything to show how tough they are.  But you aren’t tough, are you?”

He took one step toward me and stopped.  I clenched my teeth, expecting to meet the casual end of his shotgun one more time.  But it never came.

“What do you want?’ I asked.

“That might be a better question.  If you expected to get out of here.  But let’s talk about what you want.”

He propped his gun against the wall and crouched down.  With a deep grunt, he plopped onto the floor and crossed his legs.  I lurched forward, fighting the urge to laugh.

“Something funny?” he asked.

“No,” I chuckled.  “Just…how the hell are you gonna get back up.”

He swallowed and twisted his lips.  “Nope, not tough at all, just stupid.  But that’s good, we don’t have to worry about you trying to be a hero.  We just have to break you.”

With that, the man pushed himself back to his feet and left the room without another word.  I breathed a sigh of relief and turned my attention to trying to break free.

My shoes had been removed, but they were near the wall not that far from me.  If I could get the band off of my ankle without breaking it, I’d be all set.

“Come on you piece of shit,” I grunted as I tried to slip my foot through the loop.

The door opened again and I froze.  Two men walked in and stopped in front of me.  One was shorter, wearing a baseball cap and a green army jacket.  The other was tall and skinny with dirty blonde hair and a red flannel shirt.

“Where you trying to go?” the shorter one asked.

I let go of the chain and sat up.

“I’m Shriver and this is Dale,” he said and nodded toward the taller man.  “Theo sent us.”

“Great, maybe one of you can help me out here,” I said and pointed at the chain around my leg.

“He did say you were funny.”

“This is gonna be fun,” Dale rumbled in a raspy voice.

I started to ask what, but Dale swung his boot into the side of my head and for the second time that day I was taking an unwanted nap.

When I woke up I was in a different room.  I’d been tied to a metal chair with my ankles tied to the legs and my hands bound behind my back.  There were a number of other people on the floor around me in different states of pain and consciousness, but they all were hog tied and gagged.

“Looks like sleepyhead is ready for round two,” Shriver said with a wild grin.

“Try not to tap out so early this time,” Dale added.

“Yeah.  Why’s it always the funny guys that are so soft?”

My head was fuzzy and I was still trying to clear the cobwebs, but that didn’t stop Dale.  He stormed toward me and stomped his foot into my chest.  It felt like my ribcage imploded as I tumbled backward and slammed my head into the concrete.

Quaking with pain, I rolled to the side and let out a muted groan.  I tried to breathe, but it felt like I was sucking air through a flattened straw.  Panic only made it worse and for a minute I felt like I was going to die right there.

“Don’t you pass out on me yet funny guy,” Dale said.

With Shriver’s help, he grabbed the back of the chair and set it back up.  I leaned my head back and felt relief as oxygen found its way to my lungs.  But it was a short-lived reprieve.

“Look at me!” Shriver snapped.

He grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head forward.  Smiling, he leaned into my face and stared at me.  I could smell the cigarettes on his breath and see every flaw in his yellowing teeth.

Dale laughed.  He was sitting on top of a table a few feet away with his arms crossed.  He looked mildly interested in us and was paying more attention to the woman to my left that was slowing coming to.

“You got any more jokes left in you?” Shriver asked.

I knew I’d regret it, but I couldn’t resist.  With as much arrogance as I could muster, I stared him in the eyes and asked, “Who’s your dentist?  You need to fire him.”

Shriver didn’t react immediately.  I couldn’t read his face at all, but I imagined he was pissed off.  But then he started to smile.

“Hot damn,” he yelped and clapped his hands together.  “That’s the spirit.  Make em work for it.”

He looked back to Dale with a grin then nodded his head.  Dale shrugged.  I could tell from the look on his face that something terrible was about to happen.

Shriver grabbed another chair and placed it backwards in front of me.  He sat down facing me and leaned his arms over the back.

“Where are my manners?” Shriver asked and held his hands up.  “We don’t even know your name.  You got a name don’t you?”

“Well of course he’s got a name,” Dale added.  “You gonna tell us your name?”

“Ma…” I started.

But Shriver brought his hand crashing across my face.  It burned like I’d been hit with a fireball.  My eyes welled with tears and I tightened my jaw in pain.

I saw stars for a few and the tingling of my skin left me disorientated.  I really should’ve just kept my mouth closed.  Maybe hitting my head so many times had made me stupid.

“What was that you said?” Shriver asked.  “You gonna tell us your name or what?”

I glared at him then back to Dale.  The sensation of the skin melting from my face made me shiver.  This was a game I didn’t’ want to play, but I was hardly in a negotiating position.

“Spit it out already!” Dale suddenly shouted.

I flinched.  They’d called my bluff and won.  I wasn’t’ a tough guy, hell I wasn’t even funny.  And there was nothing amusing about getting beat to shit.

“Name!  Now!” Dale snapped.

“My…my name is…”

Another hand slammed into my face, knocking the words out of my mouth.  My front tooth dug into my lip and my mouth filled with blood.

Shriver stood up and started to pace the room.  He stepped over the other captives and circled me like an agitated wolf.

“You know how long they kept us locked up?” he asked.  “Too long!  This…this shit, whatever it is that’s going on, it was our way out.”

I could see in his face he was reliving his worst days.  I thought back to what Carl said about the prison and figured these guys had come from another one, but their stories were the same.

“You know,” he continued.  “They didn’t even free us.  The whole damn building was falling apart and they left.  They said it served us right.”

“Fucking cowards!” Dale chimed in.

“They left us to die, left us to burn or starve or be crushed to death like some damn animals.  But now the tables have turned, they work for us now, you work for us.  You clean, you tend to the yard, you make the food and serve us…we’re your kings!  So you better get in line, you better figure it our real quick.”

Shriver was a lunatic, a man so angry he couldn’t see beyond his rage.  But maybe Dale had some common sense, maybe he would understand that staying here meant we all would die.  I had to try because no matter what, I wasn’t staying.

I turned toward him and lowered my eyes.  Shriver was starting to calm himself down and had taken his seat back in front of me.  I made sure not to look at him, but past him to the table.

“This is only going to get worse,” I started in a soft voice.  “The earthquakes, the storms…those are just the beginning.”

Dale looked up at me and narrowed his eyes.  He chewed the inside of his cheek and scratched his head.

“I know a place…some place safe.  I’ll show you how to get there.”

Dale rubbed his chin like he was considering me, but Shriver didn’t want to hear another word.  At a blinding speed, he leapt from the chair and stomped my face with his boot like he was kicking open a door in a swat movie.

The pain was blinding.  The force of his kick lifted the chair off of the ground and sent me reeling backwards.  I slammed into the floor as blood sprayed from my face, leaving me hanging to consciousness.

“Damn it!” someone shouted as the door burst open.  “I told you not to kill him.”

“He ain’t dead,” Shriver retorted.  “He’s breathing ain’t he?”

CHAPTER 24

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS IN

“Try not to move,” a voice said as I opened my eyes.

I was laying on a bed and could feel that my restraints had been removed.  I tried to lift my arm, but it felt like spaghetti and merely flopped at my side.  I knew it would be my only chance at escaping, but for some reason none of my limbs wanted to listen.

“It’s the drugs,” the voice continued.  “You’ll come around in a bit.”

With a few deep breaths, my vision started to clear and I could make out a dark-skinned middle aged man standing over me.  He was wearing a green t-shirt and had a stethoscope draped around his neck.

“You’re a doctor?” I garbled out in a barbaric drawl.

“Something like that.  My name’s Tucker and before you go getting any ideas…there ain’t no getting out of here.”

“What did they give me?” I winced.

“I had to set your nose.  Shriver did a number on you.  It’ll be sore for a few days and the swelling should go down in about a week.  They love to break people or do the best they can, it’s all their kind know.”

“Their kind?”

“Convicts…lifers.  I was a doctor at the prison about ten miles from here.  I stayed around when the guards left, trying to take care of the sick.  Guess that’s why they didn’t kill me.  It could be worse though.  So, just do what they say, pull your weight and you’ll be fine.”

I remained quiet for a little bit.  He was the first normal person I’d seen in a while and the way he talked about not getting out made me queasy.  He was so certain, so contempt with just accepting his fate.

“Have you tried before?” I asked.

“Tried what?”

“Escaping?”

“The prison…the prison I worked at, it was maximum security.  You know, for the worst of the worst.  Murderers, rapists, just bad guys overall.  That’s who you’re dealing with here and the only thing they learned while they were locked up was how not to escape.  They’ve done a good job of locking this place up tight.”

“It’s a fucking house!” I snapped, sounding angrier than I meant to.  “Sorry, I’m just a little out of it.”

“Don’t worry about it.  It takes some getting used to.”

I nodded then swallowed.  “But you didn’t answer the question.  Have you ever tried.”

Tucker sighed then leaned back against the counter.  “I’ve been here for a week and a half.  Only one guy has tried to escape in that time, like I said they like to break people.  His name was Sydney.  They caught him and tied him to the fence and every day they cut off a body part until he bled to death.  He’s still out there now, in the back…rotting.  So no, I’ve never tried to escape.”

“But…but the earthquakes, the storms aren’t over.  This place, this whole city is gonna be ripped apart.”

“How do you know that?”

“I work for the government, this is all I’ve been working on for nearly a decade.  Trust me.”

Tucker narrowed his eyes and twisted his lips to the side.  Huffing, he scratched his head then straightened up.  “So, you’re telling me we are all gonna die?”

“I know somewhere safe, somewhere the highest in the government have kept a secret, I can take you there.”

“I don’t know.  I mean I don’t know you, I don’t even know your name.”

“You can trust me, my name is Ma---“

Tucker’s hand bashed into my cheek and it felt like my nose had just exploded off of my face.  Every sensation came rushing back into my body and I quivered like I’d been laid on ice.  Tucker started to laugh and as my vision cleared I scowled at him.

“Are you fucking serious man?  I’m a doctor?  I’m gonna help you escape?” he laughed.  “Shriver get in here!  This idiot is up.”

I was so confused.  My head was spinning and I was too busy trying to cope with the pain to really appreciate what had happened.  Even as Shriver waltzed into the room I was still out of it.

“Damn look at you!” Shriver shouted.  “I messed your face up.”

“What do you want me to do with him?” Tucker asked him.

“Take him to the field, let him see how the rest of them get along.  Then put his ass to work.”

“Up!” Tucker roared and grabbed me by the arm.

He pulled me from the table and as my feet hit the ground my legs buckled.  I dropped to the floor and fell into the cabinets, knocking my head against the metal handle.

“Put these on,” Shriver growled and threw my boots at me.  “Don’t need you stepping on a nail and dying before it’s your time.”

I rubbed my head and started to lace up the beige, hiking boots.  At least if I managed to get away now, I didn’t have to do it barefoot.

I tied the last knot then slowly scampered to my feet.  I fell again and shook my head to try and clear the cobwebs.

“Jesus,” Tucker groaned and grabbed me.

With his hand clenched on my arm, I managed to right myself.  I leaned back against the table then balanced on noodles that were struggling to support me.  Slowly, I could feel my body starting to wake up, my muscles straining to function.

“Move it,” Tucker ordered.

With a shove in the back, I made my way out of the door and into the hall.  I tried to look around, but Tucker pushed me forward and I stumbled through the glass door and into the backyard.  Collecting myself, I turned around and grilled him before looking out across the back.

“What is this?” I gasped.

“These are the ones that don’t listen,” Tucker replied with a sinister grin.

There was a group of men with dog collars around their necks.  They were attached to nylon cords that ran the width of the backyard so that they could move across the yard, but no further.  The men were shirtless with welts covering their torso’s and bruises covering their faces.

There were no fences, but I could see men with guns posted at the far corners.  Another man roamed the yard and occasionally would stop and whack one of the prisoners across the back.

“Why?” I grumbled.

“Why not?  You see this one here?” Tucker said as he reached down and grabbed one of the men.

He was in his sixties, with thinning, gray locks and spots of facial hair that looked like the rest had been pulled out.  He was frail and his sagging skin was a clear indication that he was being starved.

Tucker gripped his hair in between his fingers and pulled the man’s head up until he was staring into my eyes.  His piercing, glare sent chills through my arms and down the middle of my back.  It was an empty, hopeless longing for death.  They couldn’t have been here more than two weeks, but the man was broken, almost pleading for me to end his life.

“This one here, his name is Landry…Kirk Landry,” Tucker said angrily.  “He worked at the prison.  Look at him wrong and he gave you a shot.  He doesn’t give shots anymore.”

Tucker pulled back harder, like he was trying to rip Kirk’s head from his neck.  Kirk gagged and started to squirm in pain.  His yellowing teeth gleamed under the sun, but Tucker just yanked a little more.

“Good old Kirk here loved to put me in solitary.  I once did 65 days straight.  Now, now Kirk works for us, right along with the rest of his soulless coworkers.”

He let Kirk go and shoved him back to the ground.  “You don’t have to be out here, you can work, earn your keep, hell maybe one day get a room of your own.  Choice is yours.”

I stared down at Kirk and then to the rest of the men they had locked out there.  I felt a level of pity for them, but I couldn’t concern myself, I needed to escape.

“I don’t want to be out here,” I said simply.

Tucker smiled.  “Good.  Sounds like you’re starting to learn.  Follow me.”

We headed around the side of the house and I got my first chance to look at the landscape.  We were in the middle of nowhere.  Off in the distance, across a flat plane, I saw another house.  It was maybe two miles away, but other than that there was nothing, but empty fields and a barren dirt road.

Windows ran along the side of the house and near the corner there was an unfinished wooden door.  It had a square window in the center and as we passed I managed to steal a look inside.

I could see food and guns right out in the open, like they didn’t have a care in the world.  It was there supply room and it looked like they’d been collecting for months.  That, or stealing from everyone they abducted and put to work.

“Hey!” Tucker snapped.  “This way.”

I followed him around the corner.  We made our way to the front of the house and passed a large green tent, like the kind the military would use.  I paused and tried to look inside of that too, but Tucker pushed against my shoulder.

“Don’t worry about in there.  Maybe, maybe one day Theo will let you have some fun.”

“Theo’s in charge?” I asked him.

“For now,” he replied casually.  “Just do what you’re told and you’ll make out alright.”

I nodded and we kept walking.  We headed to the front of the house to a faded, white carport.  Underneath, there were rows of tables and large buckets of water.  The tables were stained in blood and filthy rags and entrails were all over the ground.

A man was sitting near the back of the carport.  He wore a camouflage hat with dingy, brown hair sticking out of the sides.  His hands were tucked into the pockets of his jean jacket and he had his boots propped up on the table, relaxing.

A red and beige four-door, pickup truck with a trailer attached, was parked to the side.  The engine was running, but it didn’t look like anyone was inside.

“Benson, I got your replacement,” Tucker called out as we got closer.

“Good…I hope he’s not squeamish,” the man at the back said as he took his hands out of his pockets and stood up.  “What’s your name?” he looked to me and asked.

The memory of getting my ass beat was fresh in my mind and I shivered at the thought.  Squinting, I cast a look at Tucker and he nodded.

“You can answer him.”

“Max,” I replied.

“Well Max, you any good with a knife?  You ever gut someone?”

“Huh?”

Tucker laughed.  “I got shit to do Benny, have fun.”

He turned and walked off, leaving me with Benson.  I swallowed and started looking around.  There was a lot of blood and I wondered if maybe I’d said something wrong.  Maybe this wasn’t a job after all.

The grass was stained and spotted with black patches where old blood had dried.  Guts dripped from the table where someone had tried to rinse them off, but done a piss poor job.  The space underneath the carport was like a slaughterhouse and I was cattle being blindly led to a bloody end.

Benson pulled a hooked knife from his waistband and held it up.  It looked sharp enough to cut through wind and I was sure it could easily disembowel me.  He twisted it around in his hand, making sure I could appreciate the razor-sharp edge.

I took a few steps back and felt my heart try to tear through my ribcage and run off.  Benson grinned and I couldn’t tell if it was amusement at my fear or anticipation.

“The balls,” he said.  “You gotta start at the balls.  You see that’s the trick, cut a little circle around then slide the blade gently up.”  He motioned with the knife and zipped it through the air.

“Wh…what?” I asked.

“Shit…we’re cleaning hogs man, damn hogs.  Tucker didn’t tell you?”

I didn’t respond.  I scanned the yard, looking for hogs on any other kind of animal.  Before I could finish my search, Benson smacked me in the back of the head.

“You hear me?” he snapped.

I turned around and shook my head from side to side.  “No, no Tucker didn’t tell me.”

“Well alright.  Help me get the hogs out of the truck.  We got a lot to do.”

For the next thirty minutes I helped Benson pull dead hogs out of the bed of the truck.  They were heavy and still dripping with blood from where they were shot.  The stench was almost unbearable and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it sooner.

There was a total of six hogs that we laid out in the lawn.  Benson looked at them for a moment then started to loop a rope around one of the hog’s legs.

“What we do is hang em upside down,” he told me.

He stood up and pulled the rope over a pole attached to the carport, hoisting the pig into the air.  A stream of brown liquid poured from the things nose and splashed onto the ground.

“You can go ahead and practice on this one,” he said and held out his knife.  “By tomorrow you’ll be on your own.”

Skeptically, I reached out and grabbed the blade.  I looked at it then looked at the pig and frowned.  I’d never done anything close to gutting an animal and the idea turned my stomach.  Beyond that, the only thing I could remember from his little tutorial was to grab the damn thing by the balls.

“Come on now,” Benson grunted.  “You get to cutting this pig or I’m gonna start cutting on you.  You didn’t wonder what happened to the guy that did this before?”

I swallowed and reached my free hand out toward the pig’s genitals.  I looked at the knife then with a frown grabbed its balls and stabbed the blade into its pale skin.

“Now put your finger under it so you don’t cut into the intestines,” he ordered.  “Slide the knife—” he stopped.

A gunshot rang out echoed through the air.  Benson froze and looked back toward the house.  The walkie talkie on his belt crackled then Tucker’s voice fizzled out.

“It’s happening.  Shriver and Dale jumped the gun.  Get rid of the new guy and get down here!”

Benson glared at me and I tightened my fingers around the knife.  My heart thumped against my chest and my muscles twitched with anticipation.

“Well,” he started.  “Sorry your stay couldn’t be longer.”

With that he reached toward his back, for what I could only assume was a gun, but I wasn’t gonna wait and find out.  I lunged forward and swung the hooked knife with all my might.  The razor-sharp blade swept across his neck, carving a horrendous gash from side to side.

He froze and every bit of color drained from his face.  Blood poured down his neck, soaking the collar of his shirt.  Gagging, he gripped the oozing wound and garbled out a few intelligible words before falling face first into the dirt.

I paused, I’d never killed a man before and something about watching the life leak from his body was surreal.  But I didn’t have time for surreal, if I was gonna escape, the time was now.

I dropped the knife and rushed toward the truck.  Jumping inside, I slung it into reverse and backed up, slamming the trailer into the carport.

“Fuck!” I snarled.

I pulled forward again then jumped out and started to unhook the trailer.  Another gunshot crackled in the sky and I trembled just as Benson’s radio barked again.

“Benson what the fuck?  We need you here now!”

I could hear screaming in the background and I feverishly worked to get the trailer off.  I stood up and kicked it over and over then with a clunk, it fell to the ground.

Hurrying, I rushed back to the driver’s seat and stopped.  How far would I get with no supplies?

I looked around and strained my ears for a sign that someone was coming.  I could hear yelps and commotion, but it was coming from the back.

I swallowed then jumped out of the car and ran back to the side of the house.  I barreled through the gray door and stopped just inside.

Shelves of dry food rations and water lined the walls.  On the floor, there were boxes filled with pistols and boxes of bullets.  It made me think of my gun I’d lost.

As quickly as I could, I took a few buckets of food to the truck and a carton of water.  The voice in my head told me to leave with that, but I ran back inside and grabbed a handgun and tucked it into my waistband.

Rushing back to the front, I heard a muffled grunt as I passed the green tent that had almost begun to blend in with the landscape.  I paused and leaned my head toward it, listening in silence.  There were whispers and sounds of labored breathing coming from inside.  Curiosity gripped me and I poked my face into the slit between the canvas.

It was dark, too dark.  I took a step in and the curtains closed behind me.  My eyes slowly adjusted and figures seemed to materialize out of thin air.

There were ten women, chained to massive cinder blocks, wearing nothing but bras and panties.  Theo had created his own little brothel.  It hadn’t occurred to me before, but I hadn’t seen a woman anywhere and now I knew what they were doing with them.  The men worked while the women filled their other needs.

The ground inside of the tent was covered with a patchwork of soiled blankets.  The air was foul and moist and left a sticky residue on my skin.  I cringed as my mind tried to imagine what horrible things took place in the dark.

But what could I do?  I couldn’t save everyone and the longer I stayed there, the closer death got to me.  Every passing minute was time that I needed that I couldn’t get back.

Frowning, I slowly walked backwards and pushed the curtain to the side.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, I wanted to help, but I wasn’t a hero.  I was just a guy that wanted to live.

There was nowhere to take them, nowhere to hide them, so I turned around and stepped outside.  The curtain clung to my back and a few rays of light slipped in and cut a beam through the tent.

I glanced over my shoulder and my heart jumped as every detail of their gaunt faces was illuminated.  Men were such pathetic creatures.  We didn’t create, we only consumed and ruined, leaving broken shells behind.

For a moment, I scanned from side to side then paused.  There was a familiar face in the sea of pained visages, a marker that shined brighter than all others.  She’d been beaten and her face was bruised.  Her shirt was torn and her jeans were ripped and stained with blood.  Her hair was slicked against her forehead and twisted together with mud and gravel, but I was certain….it was Cindy.

CHAPTER 25

DON’T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME

My mind was flooded with thoughts at the sight of her.  Hate, love, disgust.  The pain I felt was just as real as if someone had been carving into my flesh with Benson’s knife.

Part of me wanted to run to her, to lift her into my arms and kiss her.  I’d failed her.  I wasn’t there to protect her.  All of this was my fault.

The other part of me, the bitter, angry part hoped that she hadn’t seen me.  I wanted to turn and walk away, to be rid of her for good.  I wanted to leave her there with the other women to a fate I couldn’t imagine.  She deserved it.

I pulled myself away and let the curtain fall behind me.  I crouched to one knee just right outside, weighing my decision.  With a deep breath, I grabbed a handful of dirt and rubbed it between my fingers.  This, is what she gets, I told myself.

For every lie she’d ever told me.  For every hollow “I love you.”  For all of the times she kissed me, knowing she shared her most intimate moments with a man I’d called my friend.  She deserved so much worse.

It was like fate was punishing her.  Like the twisted arms of karma had found her, but wanted to show me first that she’d gotten what she deserved.  Who was I to stand in the way of destiny?

“You can’t,” I mumbled to myself.

But there was no conviction in my words.  My feet wouldn’t leave, but my heart wouldn’t let me go back in there.

More gunfire crackled and I jumped.  I took a deep breath and leaned my head back, staring up into the sky.  For reasons I couldn’t explain, I still loved her and there was no way I could leave without her.

Grunting, I stood up and turned back around.  I walked into the tent then crept closer and closer to Cindy, not trying to rouse any suspicion.

Most of the women weren’t paying any attention.  They’d probably been drugged or had been abused so badly they were still in shock.  Either way, if they screamed or made any noise, none of us would make it out.

“Cindy,” I whispered as I knelt next to her.  “Cindy wake up.”

I shook her arm and brushed my hand across her face.  She pushed me away and groaned, but I continued.

“Cindy, you’ve gotta wake up.  We have to go.”

I pulled her by the arm until the chain around her waist tightened and yanked her back.  The sudden snag caused her to finally wake up and she growled in pain.

I brushed the hair out of her face and she stared me in the eyes and gasped.  Trembling, she raised her hands and touched my cheek with her fingers, pressing against my skin as if she thought I might vanish.

“How are you here?” she mumbled.  “Am I dead?”

“No, you’re not dead.  I’m gonna get you out of here.”  I smiled at her and kissed her forehead.  “Where’s Jake?” I asked for reasons I couldn’t explain.

“They…they killed him.”

My first emotion was remorse.  Jake had been my friend for years and to hear that he was no longer alive actually hurt.  But deep down I smiled.  Some part of me felt his lies and deception had finally caught up with him.

“How did you find me?”

I ignored her and looked at the looped chain wrapped around her waist.  “The only way to get this off is to shoot it.  But when I do somebody is gonna hear it.”

She nodded that she understood.

“Can you walk?  There’s a truck outside.”

“Yeah…they didn’t hurt my legs.”

I frowned.  Someday, another day I might ask her what happened, what had been done to her.  But now it was too painful.  My emotions where tangled like a spider web and not only did I cringe at the thought of what could’ve have happened, I felt guilty that I’d ever thought she could’ve deserved it.

“What about the rest of them?” Cindy asked.

I looked around at the other women.  Some were no more than teenagers, scared and wide-eyed.  They didn’t deserve to be there, but I didn’t know what to do.  I wasn’t a hero, if anything after all I’d been through, I realized I was a coward.

But I didn’t want to be a coward anymore.  I wanted to stand for something, I wanted to help.  I couldn’t continue to just be here.  I may not have been a hero, but I’d convinced myself I was a survivor.

“We take them with us,” I replied.  “As far as they want to go.”

Some of them had been awake, watching and listening to us.  Others seemed completely disinterested.  A few of them didn’t look like they’d be able to walk alone and I knew they would need help, but one way or the other, I’d get them out.

“I’ll be right back.”

One by one I made my way to each of them.  I was quiet and many of them looked terrified as I approached, but the promise of freedom from that hell hole was all they needed to hear.

“We won’t have much time,” I told them.  “Once I fire the first shot someone is gonna come running if they’re not already on the way.  Stick together.”

They all nodded with determined looks on their faces.  I turned back to Cindy and pulled the chain tight against the block.

“You ready?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

With a trembling hand, I aimed the pistol.  I took a deep breath and braced myself then squeezed the trigger.

Nothing.

I jumped and stared at the gun through squinted eyes.  Was it even loaded?  I hadn’t even thought of the possibility that the gun might not work.

“The safety,” Cindy whispered.

I smiled and flipped the small black lever on the side of the gun.  Swallowing, I aimed again then fired.  The sound was deafening, but a chunk of the block exploded and the chain fell to the ground.  Cindy smiled and sucked in a deep breath of freedom.

Nine more shots and everyone was on their feet.  I handed Cindy Benson’s knife then made the universal symbol for keep quiet.

Moving slowly, I crept toward the curtain and poked my head outside.  The coast was clear and I waved for them to follow me.

“Come on,” I said lowly and stared back at the shadowy, confused faces.

Turning back around, I stepped outside and looked up just in time to see Tucker flying at me with outstretched arms.  One of his hands smooshed into my face, the other hit my shoulder and his momentum sent us sailing back inside.

I hit the ground hard and the gun slid from my grip.  My head bashed into one of the shattered cinder blocks and I blacked out for a split second.

“You piece of shit!” Tucker roared and began to pummel his fists into my head.

It took me a moment to realize what was going on, but I wasn’t very skilled at resisting either way.  I flailed my hands in his general direction, making it bit harder for him to aim.  I even managed to catch him in the face once or twice, but it was ineffective.

“You’re a dead man!” he shouted as he continued his assault.

The women in the tent were in a frenzy.  I lost sight of Cindy in the mayhem and couldn’t make out any of the faces in the dark.  There was a lot of screaming and I thought maybe Tucker had brought more people with him.

Another punch collided with my forehead and I grabbed his arm and held on for dear life.  He yanked away, but as he did I caught a glimpse of Benson’s knife right before it sliced a path down his back.

Tucker roared in pain.  Cindy stepped around him then sliced at his neck, silencing him forever.  Blood sprayed everywhere, but I didn’t have time to be squeamish.

Rolling over, I grabbed the handgun from the ground just as another man barged inside.  I aimed at his silhouette and squeezed.  The bullet caught him in the stomach and he folded over and fell to the side.

“Let’s go!” I shouted.

I looked back and Cindy had mounted Tucker and was slicing at his face in a frenzied rage.  His blood dripped down her face and covered her arms like sleeves, but it seemed to only intensify her attack.

“Cindy,” I called.

She didn’t let up.  I rushed toward her and caught her arm in the air.  She paused and looked up at me with death in her eyes.

“Cindy, he’s dead.  We have to go,” I said as calmly as I could.

I could see the reason coming back to her face.  She looked down on her crimson-stained hands then to Tucker’s lifeless body.  Dropping the knife, she nodded then slowly pushed herself to stand.

I tucked the gun into my waistband and grabbed her hand.  She leaned on me, blood and all, but it was good to feel her touch again, good to feel needed.

Beneath all of my anger and resentment, there was a love there.  There were years of a bond that I thought could never be so much as threatened.  Maybe it was repairable, maybe after all of this, there was a future.  As mad as I was, Cindy had my heart, she was my heart.

Another gunshot outside brought me back to reality and I snapped my head around.  We still weren’t safe and the longer we stayed, the more likely we were to end up changed in that backyard. We needed to get moving.

“Come on,” I said and waved my hand toward the opening.

With Cindy close by, I stepped through the slit and checked from side to side.  Silently, I motioned for the other girls to follow and we headed down the side of the house to the front.

Cindy stared into the carport as we passed, but didn’t say anything.  Benson’s body was laid out on the ground, blood soaked the grass all around him.  None of them deserved to live.

We piled into the truck and Cindy squeezed in next to me.  Some of the girls climbed into the bed.  Shock had dulled their senses to the point that the cool breeze outside had no effect.

I could still hear the battle inside, spilling across the house as I put the truck into reverse.  The sounds of gunshots rang out and people cried in rage and pain.  I imagined the collateral damage and thanked God that I’d made it out.  But so many others didn’t and all I could do was mumble an empty prayer under my breath for them.

I could only do so much and I had a truck full of people depending on me.  So, without looking back, I spun the tires and shot off down the road.   A cloud of dirt and rocks bloomed in my wake, obscuring the dingy white house that had terrorized so many.  We were free and for now, we were alive.

CHAPTER 26

RECKLESS DREAMS

I drove through the night, only stopping once to let them wash up in the restroom of an abandoned diner.  As the weather cooled we squeezed the remaining girls into the truck, which alone raised the temperature in the cabin at least five degrees.  It wasn’t much, but outside it had to be in the thirties.

Every now and then we would pass a lone car, another lost wanderer, hoping to survive this.  It was odd seeing anyone at all.  I come to accept that we were the only ones still alive, even though that wasn’t true.  But we’d pass by someone and not even look twice.  My senses were dull, jaded by the constant stream of misfortune that seemed to haunt every wrong turn.

“Thank you Max,” Heather, one of the rescued woman said.

She was a sleek, middle-aged woman with alarming, red hair and freckles.  She was the headmistress at an all-girls school back in Bellville.  The other women, were teachers and some even students.  There were no words to comfort or assuage them after the horrors they’d been through.

“I wish I could’ve come earlier,” I told her.  “There’s a shopping plaza off the next exit.  I think we can find you all some clothes there.”

She smiled and wrapped her arm around one of the teenagers.  “It’s all just unbelievable.  One day I’m helping these girls with college applications, the next day we’re running from tornadoes.  And then…then…We were evacuated.  They told us we’d be safe.  Those thugs killed everyone.”

“Any idea what you’ll do now?  We are heading to Wyoming, there’s a sort of refugee center there… it’s government ran.  You can come with us, at least until you figure things out.”

“I don’t know.  It’s a lot to take in.  I just…what about their parents, you know?  They’ve just been through so much.”

I nodded.  I didn’t know what else to say so I turned my attention to the lonely road.  I pulled off of the highway into Lincoln, Nebraska and followed the warped signs to a rundown outlet mall.  It had probably been in disarray before the world started dying and now it looked like ground zero for a nuclear attack.

A few cars were still in the parking lot, but had been burned and smashed into each other.  Many of the stores had caved in and the roads around the place were cracked and riddled with wide, deep gashes.

“I don’t know about this place,” Cindy said lowly.

She’d been quiet the entire ride until then.  I could feel her moving uncomfortably throughout the night against my arm, probably questioning if she’d crossed some imaginary line or at what point I’d fall back into my fit of rage.

Her betrayal had hurt.  There was no way around that, but I was starting to think losing her might hurt even more.

“That outfitters store at the corner doesn’t look that bad,” I replied.

I drove the heavy Ford truck across the uneven lot, testing out the limits of its suspension.  The girls jostled about as we rumbled over the cracks and mounds like we were in one of those dune buggies in Baja.  But otherwise it was uneventful and I pulled up next to the crumbling walkway and parked.

“I’m gonna go inside first and check it out,” I said.

Opening the door, I stepped my foot out and felt the frigid temperature bite against every bare piece of skin I had.  It must’ve dropped 20 degrees since I was last outside and I was standing around still wearing cargo shorts, boots and t-shirt.

“Stay put,” I said with a laugh before completely exiting the truck and swinging the door back.

“Max,” Cindy called.

I caught the door before it closed and turned around.  She was leaning her head out of the truck with a half-smile on her face.

“Yeah?” I said with a slight shrug.

“Be careful in there and...and I love you.”

“Ok,” I replied then closed the door.

I could see her press her face against the window.  I waved then turned around and headed for the store.

Jogging across the shattered pavement, I started to think about what Cindy said.  I didn’t expect that out of her and my reaction was almost automatic.  What I should’ve said, what I wanted to say was that I loved her too, that I always loved her.  But my pride was hurt and that wasn’t easily repaired.

I hurried through the shattered doors and sought shelter between a turned over rack and a rolling cabinet.  It was dark inside and most of the store had been looted, but I was certain I could find a good amount of clothing.

The tile floor rolled up and down like a shaken rug.  Parts of the ceiling had caved in and there was soot and charred wood in the back where a fire had raged unchecked for hours.  Disaster had left its fingerprints everywhere.

Shivering, I rummaged through the pile of clothes next to me.  Most of it was accessories like gloves and hunting vests, but I managed to find a thick, camouflage jacket that fit me well enough.  I pulled it tightly and soaked in its warmth for a moment.

After that I grabbed a hiking bag and started to fill it with all the women’s clothes I could find.  When I was done, I looked around for shoes, but all I found was the left foot of an orange pair of Crocs.

That would have to do.  Nothing matched and I doubted much of it would fit well, but it was better than what they had.

I made my way back to the truck like some apocalyptic Santa Claus.  As I pulled the door open they all jumped and I offered the hiking bag to them with a smile.

“Here you go.  I’ll wait out here for you to get dressed.”

Heather laughed.  “Don’t be silly Max.  You’ve seen more of me than my gynecologist.  No sense freezing on our account.”

I smiled at her and shrugged.  “It’ll be easier to get dressed with less people piled in there.  Oh, and I put some jacket in this bag.”  I said and handed it to Cindy.

She took it with a half-smile and I grabbed her hand.  She resisted slightly, but I pulled her into me and wrapped my arms around her as she leaned halfway out of the truck.

“I love you.  I’ll always love you,” I whispered into her ear.

“Now get out of those bloody clothes,” I replied.

She smiled then shut the door to get dressed.  It didn’t take her very long and after she put her jacket on she climbed out of the truck and waited with me.  She didn’t talk, but she stood there, right next to me.  I held her close, my mind drifting to dark places that only her presence kept at bay.  It was good to have her back around.

The truck rocked from side to side as Heather and the others finished dressing.  A few minutes later they stepped out, clad in dark brown or camo pants, t-shirts that promoted bass fishing and windbreakers.

“Sorry I couldn’t fit more in the bag.  I figured I’d bring you what I had before I went venturing to far.”

“Oh, no worries Max.  This is a big improvement,” Heather replied.

I smiled and nodded my head.  “I didn’t see any shoes, but I’ll run back in and look for some thicker jackets then check a few of the other stores.”

“We’ll go with you.”

“You should probably stay here.  There’s broken glass everywhere.  It won’t take me long.”

Heather tipped her head and turned around then walked back to the truck.  I started back toward the store and Cindy grabbed my hand.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

“Well, at least you still have shoes.  Keep your eyes open, it looks empty, but you never know.”

Together we went back inside of the devastated building. The sun was a little higher and I could see more of the messy store.  I still didn’t see any shoes inside, but I found some thicker jackets.

I bundled them together into another camping bag and slung it over my shoulder.  “You ready?” I turned to Cindy and asked.

“We could use a lot of this stuff.  I don’t know for what, but better safe than sorry,” she replied and held up her own camping bag.

“What did you get?”

“Some rope, a sleeping bag…I found a few bottles of unopened water and some gloves.”

“Yeah it looks like they looted this place pretty good before whatever happened here happened.  Come on, we need to find the girls shoes.”

“Are they…are they coming to Wyoming?  Were you serious about that?”

Cindy had a strange look on her face and it took me a second to recognize it, jealousy.  I hadn’t thought about it, but Cindy always had a bit of a jealous streak and the four or five women that were of age definitely took care of themselves.  I guess couldn’t blame her, I’d been pressed up against half naked women for the better part of a day.

“I don’t know,” I replied.  “I don’t know what to do with them.  I just thought I needed to offer.”

Cindy half-smiled.

“Come on, I don’t want to be out here too long.”

With Cindy beside me, I headed through a cluttered breezeway and into the atrium.  A circular window towered above us where all the glass had been broken and fallen out.  A small airplane wing dangled from the opening, tangled with the bent metal framing.  My mind took off, imagining what had occurred, but it didn’t take long to find out.

As we exited the other side we walked into a small courtyard that was centered between seven different stores.  The remnants of a small Cessna were interlaced with the side of a brick wall, leaving almost nothing recognizable.

“I hope they died quickly,” Cindy said.

“Or maybe they got out before the crash.”

“Dying quickly is all you can hope for anymore,” she replied grimly.

I looked away from the crash and checked out the rest of the courtyard.  There was a fountain in the middle that was split apart and all of the water had long since drained away.  It seemed like no place was safe from earthquakes.

There was a collection of trash and debris everywhere I looked.  But as far as I could tell, at least almost everyone had escaped with their lives.  If people had died here, the earthquake or fire had erased every trace of them.

“Where to?” Cindy asked.

I shrugged and kept looking around.  I was stuck in my head, wondering why the world seemed so lonely now.  Over the last few weeks I’d been through hell, but I couldn’t fathom the idea that I was alone in that.

I could almost count the number of people I’d seen on my fingers.  Where had everyone else gone?  In the back of my mind I feared some worst-case scenario, where only pockets of our civilization had survived.  With that thought, returned the pressing need to get to Wyoming.  That was the only way we’d be safe, the only way I’d find answers.

“Max!” Cindy called out.  “Where to?”

“Sorry…this way.”

We left the courtyard and scoured the other stores.  One by one, we moved broken shopping carts and barreled through mounds of debris and overturned furniture.  Eventually, we found several pairs of water shoes and while they weren’t really made for the frigid conditions, they would have to do.

We returned to the front of the shopping mall weighed down with bags.  I was happy to have found so much and I was sure Heather and the others would be overwhelmed to have something covering their feet.

“Heather,” I called out as I sat the bags onto the ground and reached for the door.  “We finally found so—”

I paused then spun around and surveyed the rest of the parking lot.  Cindy stopped a few feet behind me and huffed.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“The girls, they’re gone.”

CHAPTER 27

UPON OUR MAYFLOWER

“Heather!” I shouted.

My voice echoed across the barren lot.  The forsaken swatch of hopelessness answered back in silence.  I spun around anxiously, but there was nothing.  They’d vanished.

“Max,” Cindy said in a low voice.  “Max, they left.  You don’t owe them anything.”

“What?” I asked with slanted eyes.

Cindy put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side.  “Let’s just leave,” she said sharply.  “They’re fine and don’t we have somewhere to be.”

“Cindy, we can’t just leave them without knowing where they went.”

She groaned in response then lifted her head and pointed.  “Over there, the hotel.”

I followed her finger to a ran-down hotel across the street.  It was old and dingy, but made of brick and had survived whatever disaster had claimed all of the other structures.

Cautiously, we walked across the street and stopped outside of the River Inn.  The place was ancient, like some kind of lost artifact from the 1800’s.  I was surprised it hadn’t been condemned and demolished years ago.

The entrance was a grime-covered revolving door with gold plated framing.  I walked up and placed my hand up to block the glare as I peered in.  Suddenly, it started to swing and whacked me in the face, knocking me off of my feet.

“Oh my!” Heather said as she stepped outside.  “Are you okay?  I’m so sorry.”

I gathered myself and stood up.  “What are you doing in here?”

“You took the keys…it’s cold.”

“Oh, yeah.  Sorry about that.  I found you shoes, they’re back at the truck.”

“Thank you so much, for all you’ve done,” Heather said in a strange tone.

“Where is everybody else?” I asked.

“There inside, keeping warm.”

“Well, call them down.  We need to get moving.”

Heather took a deep breath.  She looked back to the hotel then to me and Cindy.  “I think we’re gonna stay here.”

“What?” Cindy snapped before I could reply.

“Look, we are grateful for everything you’ve done.  More than I can express, but we’re safe now.  This, whatever this is will get worked out.  We’ll be safe here until then.  The hotel is empty and it’s only the one door in.  We already found something we can use to keep it locked.”

I wanted to protest, to tell her how crazy I thought she was.  There was no help, no working this out, if she stayed here she was definitely going to die.  But I could tell by the look in her eyes that there was no convincing her.  She’d made up her mind.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

Heather smiled then nodded.

“I’ll get you your shoes…and we have a bag of supplies.  You can find more back in the mall.”

Cindy cut her eyes at me, but I ignored her.  Heather smiled and grabbed my hand.

“Thank you so much.  Thank both of you.”

I jogged back to the truck and grabbed the bags.  I offered to help Heather take them in, but she was the self-reliant type, now that she wasn’t chained to a cinder block.  We exchanged a few more words, hugged and then she headed back inside with the others.

“You gave her everything,” Cindy growled as I cranked up the truck and headed for the highway.  “You didn’t think we needed anything?”

“We should be in Wyoming by the morning.  We won’t need any of that.”

Cindy laughed.  “Maybe you, I haven’t eaten in three days.”

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out an energy bar and tossed it to her.  “I kept a couple.”

She snagged it and tore it open.  Before I could say a word, she’d devoured the entire bar and was searching the cabin for something else.  I handed her the other two bars that were tucked away and gave her a bottle of water.

“Well now we don’t have anything,” I said.

Cindy grinned then dug into her pockets, but the only thing she came up with was the jagged piece of cardboard I’d given her back in the basement.  I frowned and she reached out and grabbed my free hand.

“I know you don’t want to hear it now, but I’m sorry.  I’m so, so, so, sorry.  I was fucking stupid,” she cringed.  “Whether we die tomorrow or 60 years from now, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

I didn’t know what to say so I forced a grin onto my face.  My feelings were still confusing and I tried to not think about any of it.  When I did, an uncontrollable anger swelled inside of me and I wanted to avoid that at all costs.

At some point in the day Cindy fell asleep.  I managed to stop at three different gas stations before she noticed and luckily enough, this one had gas.

“What’s going on?” she asked as she sat up and wiped the drool from her face.

“Nothing,” I told her.  “Finally found some gas.”

“Where are we?”

“Wyoming,” I replied with a smile.  “Just outside of Rawlins.  We’ll be there in a few hours.”

“We made it?  We made it!” she screeched then started to cry.

I grabbed her and pulled her into my chest.  She wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed.  It felt like she never wanted to let me go.

“We’re almost there,” I whispered.  “We’re gonna make it.”

“I love you…I love you so much,” she cried.

“I love you too.”

We held each other for what felt like a lifetime, but not nearly long enough.  The UV lights of the abandoned gas station buzzed over our head like an applause.  Cindy was right, we had made it.

Eventually, I filled the truck up with gas and pulled back onto the highway.  The night pressed on and two hours became three and then three became four.  And as the sun rose over the mountains the ranger station in Dubois came into view.

“Cindy!” I hissed and shook her arm.

She shot up and stared around before fixing her eyes up ahead.  “Is this it?”

“Just past the ranger station,” I replied.

The truck rolled slowly by the small outpost that housed several cameras.  The facility was a decoy, a way of deterring nosey eyes before they got close enough to see anything and giving security a fair warning of intruders.

The station was closed and had danger signs posted everywhere.  The area was supposedly off limits to travelers for undisclosed reasons, but it was so remote that if someone stumbled upon the station they knew exactly what they were looking for.

Ten miles up the road I stopped at a 15-foot-tall black, iron gate.  It ran from side to side as far as the eye could see.  Near the opening there was a single digit keypad attach to an inconspicuous wooden post.

I stepped outside and pressed my thumb against the silver-plated number seven.  Almost immediately the gate started to open and I felt a wave of excitement stir in my stomach.  We had done it, against all odds we were here and my journey that had costs so much was almost over.

“I can’t believe we made it,” Cindy said as I climbed back into the driver’s seat.

I leaned over and gave her a kiss, fighting back tears of joy.  My hands trembled as I gripped the steering wheel and piloted the rumbling truck around the bend.

“So, what happens now?” Cindy asked.

“I’ve gotta get in touch with my team, hopefully Bruce is here.  But now we live, we get to survive.”

My heart thundered like a stampede of buffalo, the closer we got.  I took a deep breath as I tried to contain my excitement.  The feeling was overwhelming, like the culmination of a life’s work.

The road started to straighten out and I could see the top of the building that had been built right into the mountain.  The bold letters that read “13 M.L.S.” stood out like a hand reaching for me.

I parked out front and took a deep breath.  “We’re here,” I said and opened the door.

I stepped onto the gravel covered lot and made my way to the control station outside.  There was a small console recessed into the wall like an ATM machine.  I slid out the keyboard and started to run the authentication process.

“What are you doing?” Cindy asked.

“This is the only way in.  The system monitors, who can come in, how many people are already in, when to seal the facility…it monitors everything.”

I finished inputting my information then anxiously waited.  Turning around, I looked up into the looming mountains that rose overhead.  It was the most at peace I’d felt in a long time.

“You built this?” Cindy asked and interlaced her fingers with mine.

“I helped design it.”

“Wow.”

The console suddenly beeped and I jumped then spun around.

“What?” Cindy asked.

I laughed.  “It’s nothing, just caught me off guard.”

A string of green text began to scroll down the monitor.  I leaned in and with my index finger traced each line as I read them aloud.

...………Authentication sequence complete……………

Version 7.62

Site:  13 Mayflower Launch Station

System user:  Max Neilman

Life support status:  100%

Charging system:  100%

Solar Operating level:  27%

Solar system availability:  100%

Primary systems:  97.6%

Backup systems:  100%

Water tank 1: 87.9%

Water tank 2:  100%

Water tank 3:  100%

Water tank 4:  100%

Primary fuel system: 8.3%

Secondary fuel system: 100%

Press 7 for more systems info….

Intake status:  Open

Personnel head count onsite:  0

Mayflower Launch Status:  Complete

Estimated time to Main station check-in:  26.6 hours

Estimated time to site M1A:  179.062 days

Estimated time converted:  184.6 sol

Would you like to continue check-in?

“No, no, no, no!  This can’t be right!” I shouted and banged my fists against the keyboard.

“What’s wrong?” Cindy asked in a panicked voice.

I punched in more commands and watched the same information repeat itself.  My breath lodged in my throat and I dropped to one knee.

“No!” I cried.  “No!  We were here, we made it.”

I didn’t expect it, but I felt the tears start to pour from my eyes.  I don’t know if it was anger, fear, or sadness.  Maybe it was all three, but my soul was crushed and it was all I could do to not die right there from disappointment.

“What is it?” Cindy asked hysterically and knelt next to me.

“They left,” I groaned.  “They left us.”

“What?  Who?  We’re here Max…we made it.  What do you mean they left us?”

I wiped my face and fell back to the ground.  Crossing my legs, I took a deep breath, wishing I could make it all just go away.

“This, this wasn’t a permanent solution,” I stuttered.

“There’s something else Max?  You said you’d tell me everything.  You promised you weren’t lying.”

I cut my eyes at her.  “It’s too late for you to take the moral high ground.  Don’t talk to me about lies.”

She didn’t respond.  She lowered her head and sighed.

Swallowing, I continued.  “The Mayflower project was never just about Wyoming.  This is just a transport center.  The real work was building a sustainable habitat.”

“I thought this was a sustainable habitat.”

“Not here Cindy, not on Earth.  This, this thing, the earthquakes, the storms…they’re not gonna stop.  This is an extinction level event.  When it’s all done, I don’t think people will be able to live here anymore.”

Her eyes widened and she crouched into the dirt beside me.  She seemed to be struggling for words as her brain tried to make sense of what I’d said.

“Are you sure Max?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“It’s what I do Cindy.”

“So, where were we supposed to go.  Where is this habitat.”

“On Mars.  We built a colony on Mars.  The Mayflower was never this place, it’s a ship and it’s gone.  They already left.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she quickly wiped them away.  We sat there in the dirt for a while in silence.  I didn’t know what else to tell her and I couldn’t think of anything that would fix this.  We’d been left and there was no reversing that.

As I fell deeper into my thoughts I heard a faint noise that sounded like it was coming toward us.  It was a deep thud, like someone was beating two boards together.  The closer it got the more distinct it became and I recognized the monotonous whacking in the air.

Cindy raised her head and looked at me.  “What is that?” she asked.

I looked up in shock and replied, “It’s a helicopter.

~THE END~

~Continue the journey with~

“Flight Plan:  Deconstruction Book Three”

Coming in Soon!!

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About the Author

The date was October 31, 1979. The air was cool and a light fog blew in from the gulf, cloaking the Tampa area in an ominous, tight-fitting tunic. The annual Halloween festivities had just begun and a night of mischievous tomfoolery was afoot.

Scandalous and nefarious characters took flight. Doorbells were rung and ill-boding tricks were played regardless of the treats given. This was the dark reality of the bustling Florida metropolitan.
To the north, Grateful Dead crooned the night's theme music at the Nassau Coliseum. Within earshot of the concert, witnesses stated a UFO hovered over the grounds for thirty minutes before vanishing.
At the same time the Cromarty's were busy hosting their notorious Halloween party at 112 Ocean Ave., better known as the Amityville Horror House. Screams and cries for help were reported throughout the night, punctuated with the disappearance of the family next door. They were never heard from again.
Unknowingly altering the course of history, Kurt Vonnegut released "Jailbird" the same week KISS gained infamy on The Tomorrow Show. The aftermath of this collision would not be felt for decades until the emergence of Justin Bieber.
After a night filled with mayhem and destruction and the deaths of several prominent entertainers, politicians and a notorious bank robber, the Federal government was forced to loan $1.5 billion dollars to Chrysler. This spurred a series of violent protests, resulting in the Brunah Agate oil spill. Over 10.7 million gallons of oil were dumped into the Galveston Bay. This became the worst oil spill disaster in U.S. history.
A few hours later, on November 1, 1979, Rashad Freeman was born. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

"I'm a writer, I right things."

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