let him behind the wheel, “You’re scaring me Cody!”
“Well it about time you’re scared.” He said as he spun the car out onto the road. He hit fifty in the four blocks between the building, and the service station. He buzzed the car up behind four other cars, and slid to a stop. Others were getting the same idea as the line began forming, getting longer all the time on all four gas lanes.
He turned the car off, and then cranked it up again as the line pulled up a car. A woman was having trouble sliding her credit card, so he got out of the car and walked up, “Can I help you with that?”
“I don’t know why the card isn’t working.”
“Maybe the credit card company or bank is gone, here try mine.” He swiped his card, and it worked. He filled her Honda, and then laid the hose on top of the pumps. He walked swiftly back to the Corvette, and drove it forward. Soon he had the car as full as he could get it.
He looked over, and saw a truck with a gas can on the back, “Hey, I’ll give you twenty bucks for that gas can on your truck.” He said to the man.
“Its empty.”
“That’s ok.”
“Sure, I’ll take twenty for it.”
He peeled out a twenty, and handed it to the man, then picked the gas can up, and filled that. He screwed the lid on as tightly as he could, then put it in the trunk of the car, and then peeled out onto the road.
He drove until he came to highway 58 East, and took that, and then he pushed the car up to seventy five miles an hour, as soon as he was well out of town, he pushed it up to ninety.
“Where are we going, and why the gas can?”
“Big Bear, that’s where our kids are, and the gas can because there may not be much more gas flowing. We may be in a shit storm Denise. I’ve seen this before, and it won’t be any time until we won’t be able to get anything. Do you have a gun?”
“There’s one in the glove box.”
“What kind of gun is it?”
She reached into the glove box, and brought out the .40 caliber automatic, “There is a box of bullets for it in there, but what would we need with a gun?”
“You’d be surprised what people will do in a war. We can’t just go trusting people now Denise.”
“I’m so sorry about Holly.”
“We don’t know for sure she’s dead.” Tears began to form in his eyes, and he wiped them, and stuffed thoughts of her back down into a safe place. He knew he had to try, and keep a clear head, and finding Trevor would have been what Holly wanted.
The fate of the few
Dale looked back down the mountain trail, and he could see the boys were getting slower. Trevor came up to him first, followed by his son Glen.
“We’re almost there, and then we can make camp by the spring. How are you boys making it?”
“Just fine Mr. Banks.” Trevor said, as he turned and looked back down at the other six boys who were slower.
Dale hated to leave the boys alone, but he intended to walk away from the camp, and ‘accidentally’ fall off the high cliff of Butler peak. He had swindled the company out of half a million dollars, and then tried to cover the money up. It was an attempt to keep Denise in the kind of life she was used to, but the companies dogs were closing in fast. By this time he wished he had gotten rid of his wife. Should have off loaded her ass a long time ago. If he fell off a cliff, they would have to pay the insurance. The insurance was only a hundred grand, but Denise would just have to do the best she could. He didn’t really care any more how she faired. With the pressures of keeping up a life style he couldn’t afford, his resentment for her had mounted. He hadn’t told her he had financial problems.
His pride would never allow that, so she kept spending is if the world were made of money.
The group got to the spring, and began setting up camp, two boys to each tent. He walked over under a tree, and set the transistor radio down beside him, and turned it on. Usually he got stations from all over this high; he moved the dial an inch, and got nothing but noise. He put it on the AM Band, and Edwards came in clear. What were they saying? He put his full attention on the radio.
Los Angeles gone? Some kind of bomb? A nuclear blast? And all of a sudden what felt like electricity went through him, he didn’t have to die, his troubles were dead instead. He almost felt like doing a cartwheel, but he knew he had to play it cool in front of the boys. He called the boys over to have them listen to the broadcast.
I’m rid of the bitch, and good old Cody has got his hands full!
He felt guilty for feeling so elated, as he watched the faces of the boys whose parents and siblings had been wiped off the face of the earth.
“What does this mean Mr. Banks?” One of the boys looked up at him with tears in his eyes.
“It means we are in survival mode boys, and we can’t go back to L.A., we have to take stock, and then I think we have to get back to the van, and find a building to shelter in. There will be heavy fallout this close to the blast, we have to hurry now, and get it done.”
Some of the boys were crying, but they began to act as one. He had trained them well, and he was proud of them at that moment, and then he remembered Holly. Better her than me I guess.
His attention turned back to the boys. One of the boys walked up to him. He was the smallest of the group, but also considered the smartest. “Mr. Banks, there’s a fairly large cave a little ways over from here. Wouldn’t we be safer from fallout in a cave?”
Dale looked at the kid, and thought a minute, “You know Andy, you’re exactly right, let’s go find that cave. Maybe we have enough food to last until the fallout is clear enough to go below, and find some more.” And I’m in hog heaven, they won’t be able to get up here for weeks, and by that time I’ll have the boys, and be long gone where the bitch will never find me. Thoughts buzzed through Dales head like flies on stink.
Fire in the sky
The street in Mojave was empty as he slowed the car, and eased through the one traffic light. He pulled the car into the parking lot of a small grocery, and got out.
“Stay here, and keep that gun handy, and if anyone tries to take this car, shoot them.”
“Ok Cody, but hurry back, I don’t like to be by myself.”
He had no doubt Denise would shoot, she was a hard woman. He walked into the grocery store, and began to pile food and bottles of water in the cart. When he had it stacked to the top he rolled the heavy cart to the register. There were only three people ahead of him, and the grocer was enjoying doing a landslide business. This will all change when people begin catching on. He thought as he began to unload the food on the counter.
He stacked the food, and water in the small trunk, and back seat. He slid into the driver seat, and eased the car back onto the main road. He stepped on the gas as he headed south toward Lancaster. His plan was to go past Palmdale, and hook highway 18 to Big Bear.
As they drove toward Lancaster, black clouds began boiling up from the south. He turned the headlights of the car on. Soon the black clouds covered the sky. It was only three o’clock in the afternoon, but it began to get dark, and they could see lightning flashing high up in the clouds. They drove a few more miles, and it began to strike the earth.
Lightning struck the road right in front of the car, and Denise screamed, “Holy crap that was close! I almost pissed my bloomers!”
“Yeah sweet heart, but we have to keep going.”
The lightning lit up the desert in a tremendous display of power as the car sped down the highway, and when they came to Lancaster buildings were on fire on the main street. Cody eased the car past some fire trucks that were stopped in the road, and then punched it again, and sped toward Palmdale.
They came to an overturned car, and a man was waving his flashlight. Cody started to roll on past then, “Aw, to hell with it. He slid the car to a stop a few feet from the overturned car.”
“What are you doing Cody?”
“I’ll see what I can do to help them. Give me the gun.”
&
nbsp; He got out of the car, and stuck the gun in the back pocket of his jeans. The man ran over, “My wife is pinned in the car!”
Cody walked over to the woman who was pinned behind the wheel of the overturned car, and reached in to feel for a pulse. There was no pulse, and he stood up, “Your wife is dead sir.”
“Dead?”
“Yes…I have to go.”
“Ok.”
“Sorry we don’t have room for you.”
“That’s ok, I think I’ll stay here a while.” He walked back to the car, and sat down by it.
“Its already started.” He said as he cranked the car, and pulled back onto the road.
“What’s already started?”
“Oh…the tragedies, the loss of life when there are not a damn thing you can do about it. I was hoping I was done with so much of that.”
“We have to think of the boy’s Cody, we can’t go stopping to help everybody.”
“You’re a bitch Denise.”
“Yeah, maybe, but I’m a live bitch.”
Large drops of rain began to hit the windshield, and soon he fumbled for the wiper switch. The windshield began to smear under the wipers, “What’s that, the windshield was clean before?” She asked.
“I think it’s crap mixed in the rain from the blast. A nuclear bomb will have pulled crap miles into the air.”
“Is it radio active?”
“Yeah, it most likely is, we are going to have to hunt a place to hole up, radio activity is going right through this car, you won’t feel it, but it’s there, and it will kill us.”
He peered through the windshield in the dark, and rain until he saw a cement plant off to his left. He slowed the car, and turned into the road that led to the cement plant.
He stopped the car under a large steal chute. He fumbled in the back and came up with a roll of Saran wrap, “Here, peel some of this off, and wrap it over your head, you don’t want to get this rain water on your head. Its probably radio active too.”
He did the same, and got out of the car to sprint over to a steal door. The door was locked, and he took his wallet out to remove two thin hardened steal blades. He stuck the two blades in the lock, and then felt the tumbler. He flicked the tumbler, and the lock opened.
“You’re a handy man to have around.”
“A war photographer has to know many things.”
He opened the door, and walked inside the building. It was a two story affair built out of three layers of concrete blocks. He shined the light around the room, and saw a steal stairway on the other side of the room leading down, “We couldn’t have found a better place to wait this out. We have to get the food out of the car, and bring that in though, or it will be too radio active to eat.”
There was a lull in the storm, and the rain had stopped, at least temporarily, and they hauled the food to the building. It was pitch dark by the time they did that, and the sky was aflame with lightning. The electricity pulled at their hair as they brought the last load in.
He took the flash light, and began to explore the building. He walked down the stairs to another smaller room. In that room chutes ran into the room, and there was a conveyer that ran up, and out of the building. On the ground floor, there were hard hats on pegs by the door, and burlap bags further along the wall. He brought two larges bags from the stack, and began to scoop the food into that to make it easier to carry. Denise stood, and watched him work, “We need to rest…you need to rest.”
“When we get everything secure, we need to haul this food down that stairs with us.”
“Why not leave it up here?”
“Because others may come here, and we can’t afford to loose our food. We may not be able to get more. Here grab a sack, and let’s haul it down the stairs. We will have more protection from radiation down there.”
By the time they had hauled the food down; they were both out of breath. Cody laid his sack down, and then walked over next to a wall, and sat down. She walked over, and sat down beside him.
“Cody, do you think they are still up at Butler peak?”
“I think so, Dale has a lot of survival skills, and if there is a way, he will keep them safe as he can.”
He set the sack of food on the floor, and then sat back against a wall. He used some of the sacking for a cushion to sit on. She came over, and sat down beside him. It was almost completely silent in the cellar like place. He could barely hear the wind blowing outside, yet he knew it was blowing hard.
“What do we do now? Just sit here in the dark?” She asked.
“Can’t do much else, it would be suicide to go out in the rain.”
“How do you think the boys are fairing?”
“Listen.”
He heard someone banging on the steel door he had locked before they came down, “What’s that?” She asked.
“Someone wanting in, they saw the car, so they know we are here. I guess I’ll have to go open up, I’ll take the gun.”
“To hell with them, don’t go up there Cody.”
“Have too, you stay quiet.”
“Always the Samaritan aren’t you?”
He didn’t answer as he climbed the stairs, and walked over to the door. He didn’t realize he had the gun in his hand when he opened it.
The man in front saw the gun, and stepped back, “Whoa, you going to shoot somebody with that thing?”
He looked down at the gun in his hand, “I can’t be too careful, are you crooks or grave robbers?”
“I robbed my mama’s pantry once for a peanut butter sandwich.” The man grinned, and stuck out his hand as three other people followed him into the room, “I’m Gene Robbins.” He introduced the other three as Joe Grimes, Peter Hanson, and Linda Stanton.
“How long have you been in the car?”
“About an hour too long. We are part of a science team stationed just outside of Mojave.” Hanson answered.
“Yeah, too darn long, we know about the radiation hazard from the rain. I don’t think we got more than a drop on two on our skin.” Hanson said, “And who might you be?”
“My name is Cody Anson. We were in Bakersfield on business when we heard about the bombing on the radio; our boys were at Big Bear when the rain started.”
“Who’s we?”
“My next door neighbor’s wife is down stairs. We figured it would be better down there.”
“You are exactly right Mr. Anson. We have a little food in our car, I’ll duck out, and bring it, and the rest of us can throw our rain coats out the door. I’ll do the same when I come back.” Robbins said, and then opened the door, and sprinted for the car.
When Robbins returned Cody said, “Well lets get down below. We’re coming down Denise, it’s ok!”
“I don’t know what she could do to protect herself as we only have this one gun between us.” He said, as he led the way down the stairs.
“We have a small 22 pistol. We had snakes out there where we were stationed, and we brought it along.” Hanson said.
When they got to the bottom of the stair Denise was standing in the shadows. Robbins rummaged around in the sack; brought out a lantern, and flipped the switch. The lantern lit up the room somewhat. The four where dressed in jeans, work shirts, and hiking boots.
“You say you were with a science team?” Cody turned to them, and asked.
“Were the science team actually. Our headquarters is…was…at UCLA. We had a grant to study water on a desert for the space program, but I don’t guess a mars mission is likely now.”
“What have you heard about the present screwed up situation?” Cody asked.
It was the first time he had heard the woman speak when she broke in, “We heard on our radio that the attack came from Russia, and the last reports had Russian soldiers in Arizona. New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles are gone, and so is DC.”
“Linda was our radio guy…er…gal, I think we can depend on that info being somewhat right. Lets open a can of beans or something, I’m starved.”
“Anybody think to bring a can opener?” Grimes asked.
“Yeah, there’s one in there, when I first heard the broadcast that was the first thing I put in the bag.” Robbins smiled. “Pork, and Beans, my favorite food to eat in an apocalypse.”
After they had eaten, Cody asked, “Do you people have any idea how long it will be before it’s safe to go outside?”
“It depends on how long it rains, but if it keeps raining, it will wash some of the radiation particles into the ground, It’ll never be ‘safe’ in our life times, but if we hop from place to place like this, we’ll live a little while at least.” Linda said.
“What do you mean a little while?” Denise asked.
“She means our lives have been cut short, it depends on how much radiation we get at any one time.” Hanson spoke up. “The worst is that it may stay cloudy, and cold so crops won’t grow correctly, so when what food we can scavenge is gone, we’ll just starve to death.”
“I better turn off this light, and conserve the batteries.” Robbins reached over and flipped the switch on the lantern, and the room was almost dark as pitch, as the light faded from the cloudy sky. All they could see was flashes of light as the tremendous lightning storm never eased.
Denise scooted against Cody as he sat in the darkened room, and thought about his son, his dead wife, and depression rolled in like a flood. He fought it off, and eventually fell asleep. He awoke a few hours later, found the small flashlight in his pocket, and walked over to the far wall to pee down the wall.
When he returned Denise took the light, and walked over to squat at the same wall. It seemed to be a signal for the others, as they did the same thing.
“We can’t keep pissing down here, we’ll have to start going upstairs.” Robbins said from the dark.
“Yeah, shut up, and let us get some sleep Gene.” The grouchy voice of Linda came back. The entire group was exhausted, and had been pushed past their limits to be civil.
The next morning Cody climbed the stairs to welcome the dim light. He walked over to the door, and looked out to a lightning streaked sky that was still raining hard. The clouds roiled in a black sky, and the wind had stripped the leaves off a lone tree that stood by the fence, the limbs whipping in the wind.
They stayed three more days in the concrete room, and then Cody opened the door to a black sky, but the rain had stopped. He walked back down the stairs, “The rain has stopped. I think its