Tempest

by Kenny Soward

  Once they’d cleared the street, the path ahead was relatively unobstructed.

  “All right,” Hawk said, waving his gun. “We can get back in the car.”

  “Just let us go,” Marcy said in a plaintive voice. “We cleared a path for you.”

  “The lady has a point.” Jake stood with his hands on his hips. “You’ve got our food and water. We’ll only be a burden to you if we come along.”

  Hawk’s cold gray eyes looked back and forth between Jake and Marcy as he thought about it, but then he shook his head and waved the gun toward the car. “Nope, get in the car.”

  “Come on, man,” Jake said, trying to reason with him. “There are people who need our help. Just let us go.”

  “No.” Hawk’s voice was firm as it rose in anger, and he held the gun straight out at Jake. “And if I have to say no again…” He let his words trail off.

  “Fine.” Jake nodded to Marcy, and they went over to the car.

  “Back seat,” Hawk said. “Both of you.”

  Jake opened the back door and got in behind the driver’s seat, and Marcy slid in on the other side. Hawk climbed into the passenger seat with his body turned around and his gun trained on Jake.

  “You all did good,” Raven snickered as she checked her nails, which were polished to a red shine.

  “Just drive,” Hawk said with mild annoyance. “And be careful. Keep your eye out for anything sharp that might bust the tires.”

  “Got it,” Raven said as she turned the windshield wipers to high, pumped the defrost to full blast, and eased the car past the medical truck. Raven was a thin woman with her head shaved on both sides and dyed-yellow curls on top. Her voice had a high, cackling quality to it, reminding Jake of a small dog that never stopped barking.

  “Where are you taking us?” Jake asked.

  “Shut up,” Hawk replied.

  “It’s just a question,” Jake said, anger boiling inside of him despite looking down the barrel of the gun. “We have a right to know.”

  “Look, man.” Hawk ran his free hand through his mess of dirty blond hair, leaned toward Jake, and gave him a pointed look. “I’m only bringing you back because my instructions were to bring back anything useful.” Hawk’s eyes slid to Marcy before moving back to Jake. “I’m holding out hope that you two might be of use to us. If not…” Hawk pulled his hand back and traced a line across his neck with his thumb. “So, you need to think of a way to be useful besides asking questions. You got that?”

  “Yeah, I got it,” Jake said with a brief nod, then he turned his head and looked out the window.

  They crossed the Boston Street Bridge at a snail’s pace, and he couldn’t see more than fifteen or twenty feet in any direction with the rain beating down on the windows.

  Once over the bridge, the rain let up and Jake could see some of the buildings around them. The destruction there was considerably less than around the Westin, but it still seemed like something out of a Hollywood movie. Siding had been stripped from the homes on their left, and one top floor had collapsed into the street, its debris piled atop a car parked in front of it.

  Jake turned his head and looked past Marcy where a park fence had been twisted together with a copse of trees like spaghetti spun around a fork. Jake caught movement around some of the homes, people with their heads ducked down and moving from place to place. Two people saw the car coming and immediately dove into an alley between two houses to avoid being seen. Hawk’s full attention was on Jake, but Jake wondered if Hawk would have stopped to snatch those people off the street if he’d seen them.

  Raven drove them for the next thirty minutes, and Jake realized that a lot of the items pushed over to the side of the road had been moved by people or shoved clear by other vehicles. There were piles of vinyl siding everywhere, and wrecked cars pulled onto the sidewalks. That explained why Raven wasn’t using any of the side streets or back alleys.

  They came to a five-way intersection, and Jake noticed a group of men standing on the covered porch of an old Bostonian home. One of the men stepped out of the shadows to the edge of the porch, raising a rifle from where it had been slung on his back. He pointed the barrel at the car but Raven quickly hit the horn in a series of beeps that must have been some sort of safe signal, because the man nodded and stepped back into the shadows again.

  Raven eased them down the broken Boston streets, and Jake saw that an electronics and furniture store had been broken into and looted clean, although there was no sign of the perpetrators. And many of the buildings that still stood appeared to have been in bad shape before the storm ever hit the city.

  Raven came to a small side street and turned right on it. The sign had been bent down by the winds, so Jake couldn’t read it, though it was clear they were entering a rougher part of town. The streets were patched with blacktop, and grass and shrubs had been left untrimmed along the fences and homes. Some intersections were littered with orange cones and barrels as if they’d been under construction previously.

  After fifteen minutes of careful driving through the rainy streets, something drew Jake’s eye and he peered through the front window to see lights ahead, coming from the windows of a large, older building that might once have been a distribution hub of some sort. Jake hadn’t seen any electric-powered light in three days, aside from his cell phone, and he had to blink several times to assure himself it was real.

  The squat main building rested on a hill with its western side sinking into the cracked blacktop. A tower rose from the main building and stretched five stories high, the tallest structure he’d seen outside of the downtown area.

  Something else on the tower caught Jake’s eye. A metal framework adorned with flat disks and antennae pointed at the dark sky. It was a cellular tower, albeit a dead one. None of the lights were working, but the structure was still intact and hadn’t been blown over by the storm.

  Raven pulled the car into a parking lot, passed beneath a covered walkway, and entered a bustling courtyard. A half-dozen cars were parked in the lot, and several gang members with familiar tattoos carried merchandise through an open loading dock and into a well-lit warehouse area. Two gang members checked goods at the door and wrote things on clipboards while two more gang members drove forklifts, maneuvering pallets of goods inside the warehouse.

  At least a half-dozen gang members stood around with rifles in their hands.

  “Wow,” Jake said.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” Hawk took his eyes off Jake long enough to look around at the operation. “That’s why Tre is in charge of things. That’s why he’s the man.”

  Raven found a parking spot next to a black Escalade Jake realized was the same one from earlier, and then Hawk told them to get out.

  Jake stepped from the car and watched Raven get out. His eyes were drawn to her right hip where her gun was tucked into a holster with no safety strap holding it in. All he’d have to do was reach out and take it. His adrenaline started to rise until Raven stepped close to Jake and slapped his chest with a smile.

  “Don’t even think about it,” she said and walked by with a skip in her step. “We’ve got guns on every corner.”

  Jake shook his head and turned to see Marcy watching him from where she stood at the back of the car. He could see relief in her eyes, so she must’ve known that Jake had been thinking about taking the smaller woman’s weapon and was glad he hadn’t tried it.

  “Let’s go.” Hawk raised his gun and jerked his head toward the loading dock.

  Jake caught up with Marcy, and the two followed their captors toward the building.

  “What is this place?” Marcy asked in a soft voice, looking around.

  “It’s an illegal distribution center,” Jake said in an equally soft but impressed tone. “They’ve got people going out, stealing stuff, and bringing it here.”

  “Think they’ll resell it later, when the storms die down?”

  “I don’t know.” Jake scratched his head as Hawk and Raven led them up
a set of cracked stairs to the loading dock. “They’re definitely taking advantage of the lack of police.”

  One of the guards stopped them and gave Jake and Marcy a hard look before turning to Hawk. “Who are they?”

  “Just a couple of ducks,” Hawk said with a clever grin. “They were out floating around in the pond. I thought Tre might want them as pets.”

  “He told us to bring in any stray ducks,” Raven added with a smart smirk of her own.

  “Fine.” The guard shrugged and gestured for them to go inside with the barrel of his rifle.

  “After you,” Hawk said, stepping aside so Jake and Marcy could enter. “And welcome to your new home.”

  Chapter 18

  Sara, Gatlinburg, Tennessee | 3:05 p.m., Sunday

  “I win!” Zoe exclaimed, raising her hands and doing a little squirmy dance on the seat of her rice bin.

  “For the fifteenth time,” Todd said with a bored smile.

  “Great job,” Sara said, knowing full well that Todd’s purposeful mistakes had been a big reason why his sister had won so many times.

  “She doesn’t have to win every time,” Sara said under her breath. While it was cute for now, Sara didn’t want Todd to let Zoe win all the time, because it wouldn’t teach her anything about winning and losing.

  “I know, Mom,” Todd sat back on his seat and smiled in that adult way of his. “Just for today, though, okay?”

  “Sure, hon,” Sara said quietly, then she raised her voice with a smile. “You’re a good brother.”

  “The best!” Zoe declared, then she leapt up from her seat and threw her arms around Todd.

  “Hey, you little maniac,” Todd said, laughing as he wrapped one arm around her.

  Rex got up from his dog bed, stretched, and gave a playful bark before he trotted over and stuck his nose between the brother and sister to get in on some of the love. Sara laughed with them, but then the smile faded from her lips. A heavy quiet had fallen over the house, and there was no more rattling of windows and walls, and no dust fell from the shaking floor.

  “Sounds like the storm is over.” Sara stood up, eyes drawn to the ceiling and the complete silence from above.

  “Wow, that’s quiet,” Todd said in a surprised tone as he stood. “We must’ve been having too much fun to notice.”

  “I say we go see what the damage is.”

  “Should we wear our helmets?” Zoe stood and grasped Sara’s hand.

  “We should definitely wear them.” Sara stepped through the open gap in the bunker and guided Zoe over to the stairs. She started up them, eyes raised to the door as the boards creaked and groaned.

  At the top, she grasped the door handle and pushed, half-expecting it to get stuck on some wreckage. Instead, it swung wide open, and she was able to look around the entryway for any immediate damage. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the front door was blown off, but there was only a puddle of water on the floor around where the weather stripping was worn.

  Rex tried to shove past her, just as Sara grabbed his collar before he could run around and get himself into any trouble.

  “Todd, take Rex,” Sara said, handing the dog off to him before she cautiously moved through the entryway and into the open living room.

  Everything seemed to be in place until she got to the kitchen. A pack of Post-It notes, plastic and glass cups, and other utensils had been blown off the table onto the floor. The beads from Zoe’s craft kit were all over the kitchen floor, and Sara soon realized why. A tree branch had busted in the kitchen’s side window and remained lodged half-inside the house, allowing the wind and rain to get in.

  “Wow, Mom. The branch just crashed right in.” Zoe let go of Sara’s hand and ran to explore.

  “Zoe, stop!” Sara’s voice was like a gunshot in the quiet, and her hard tone had done the job and gotten Zoe to stop in her tracks. “There’s glass everywhere. The last thing I need is for you to get a bad cut. Now, back up. One, two, three…”

  Zoe took a step back each time Sara counted, and Sara gave a secret smile even though her tone remained hard. “Thank you. Now sit on the couch until your brother and I get this cleaned up.”

  “Okay, Mom. Can I watch a show?”

  Sara went over and flipped on a light switch to give the room some light, and she was happy when the kitchen light blinked to life. “Looks like the generator’s still working. Sure, hon, go ahead and turn on a movie while we clean. We’re going to need to conserve fuel, though.”

  “Do you think we need to?” Todd asked as they walked into the kitchen to survey the damage. “The city power should be on soon, right?”

  “We don’t know when power will be restored,” Sara said with a shrug. “Better to be safe than sorry. Now, let’s figure out how to get this tree out of our kitchen.”

  They stood by the sink and studied the branch. It was around ten inches in diameter and covered in smaller, pricklier branches that had ripped the curtains down.

  “It doesn’t look that big,” Sara said, biting her lip. “We should probably saw off the smaller branches first.”

  “I can go outside and tie a rope onto the bottom of the branch and then pull it as you push from the kitchen. We should be able to leverage it out pretty easy.”

  “And without causing much more damage,” Sara agreed with a nod. “Great idea, son.”

  They put on their rain ponchos and went outside to get the required tools and to inspect the cabin for external damage. Todd went around to the side of the house to see about the tool shed while Sara went left to check on the generator shed. As Sara stepped onto the porch, she immediately saw that the front yard was covered in loose brush and branches, and creek-sized rivulets were running down the yard and connecting to the main creek, which had receded below the bridge once more but still raged strong.

  “At least the bridge is still there.” Sara stepped down into the yard and turned around to survey the cabin. Branches and debris were stuck on the roof, although none had punctured or caused any damage to the main structure. There were some wooden siding slats missing or tossed around the yard, but those could easily be replaced.

  Sara walked around the side and judged everything to be okay except for the fact that they had a lot of cleanup to do. Then she turned toward the generator shed and peered at it through the thin veil of rain. From where she stood, it appeared to be fine. The structure was intact, and the wooden siding was still in place, although a section of the water collection trough had disconnected and hung down along the side. Sara and Jake had built the generator shed to last, because they knew it would be their primary source of fresh water and electric power should the world turn upside down.

  “The tool shed ate it,” Todd called as he came jogging around the house with Rex at his heel.

  “Did we lose any tools?” Sara asked, turning to him.

  “No, but they’re scattered across the yard.”

  “Easy enough to remedy.” Sara did a full circle as she decided what they should start with. Then she put her hand on Todd’s shoulder. “First, we need to get that branch out of the window and seal that up. Then we’ll fix the trough up on the generator shed and get the tools moved in here.”

  “After that?”

  “I’d say we work on getting this yard cleaned up,” Sara concluded. “Your sister can help with that.”

  “Sounds good,” Todd said. “I’ll grab the rope.”

  Sara went inside the cabin and swept up all the glass in the kitchen, using towels to mop up the puddles. Then she put on some thick work gloves and picked all the broken glass out of the windowpane. She shook out the towels into a trash bin and then tossed them all, except for one, into the laundry room that sat adjacent to the master bedroom.

  When Sara got back to the kitchen, she inspected the branch while she waited for Todd. A minute later, he brought in a pair of saws and they got to work trimming off some of the smaller branches so they’d have an easier time pushing it out. Once that was done, Todd
lifted the big branch with a grunt, and Sara leaned in beneath it to put the towel across the bottom of the window.

  Todd set the branch back down on the towel and stood back, brushing his hands off.

  “Okay, I think we’re ready to move this thing,” Sara said.

  Todd ran outside, got the rope, and tied it around the bottom of the fallen branch, making sure it caught on some knots and offshoots to achieve a better grip.

  “On the count of three,” Sara said, getting ready to lift and push her end from the kitchen.

  “Ready, Mom.” Todd spread his legs and took up all the slack in the rope.

  “One, two, three!”

  Todd lifted his end, and Sara lifted and pushed. The weight of the branch did most of the work, allowing Sara to easily shove it out of the window. She jerked her hands back at the last second as the end dropped out, and Todd allowed the branch to swing between his legs and hit the ground.

  “Perfect,” Sara said, leaning over the sink and looking down at Todd where he grinned next to the twelve-foot branch. “I’ll help you drag it out away from the cabin.”

  Sara checked on Zoe and Rex, finding both asleep on the couch with the movie still playing. Sara turned the TV off and put a blanket over Zoe. Rex jumped down from the couch and padded along beside her as she went outside and around to the side of the house where Todd waited.

  Todd handed Sara one end of the rope, and together they dragged the branch through the yard and dumped it at the edge of the clearing.

  “Once everything dries out,” Sara said, “we’ll chop it up and use it as firewood.”

  “Sounds good,” Todd said, working the rope free. “What next?”

  “We need to fix the trough and then wake up your sister so she can have some fun with us cleaning up the yard.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Todd said, then a dark cloud passed over his face.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” Sara asked with a concerned look.

  “I’m just worried about Dad.” Todd’s brow furrowed, facial features twisting as a tear ran down his cheek. Her son did not always show sadness or worry. When he did it always came suddenly and in a rush. He never let on that there were cracks in his emotions, instead waiting until the dam was ready to break. And this was the second time in as many days.