by William Oday
She shot a sideward look at Hudson.
“Listen, most of the idiots on TV are purposefully chosen to be entertaining in the most ridiculous way possible. I saw an episode of one of those shows where a self-proclaimed prepper decided to max out his credit cards buying TVs and other junk. He wasn’t worried about paying it off because he knew the world was going to end any day. That’s stupid and is the exact opposite of the whole point of responsible self reliance. So yeah, I’m a prepper and that means I have a bag of things that often comes in handy on any random day, and especially in an emergency situation.”
He opened the Ziplock and tore into an energy bar. “Anybody want one?”
Amelia shook her head like it was fried cockroaches on offer.
“Yes, thank you,” Hudson said as he held out a hand. No doubt he was just as hungry after their strenuous swim and subsequent walk to get there.
Cade thought for a minute. He could leave right now. Head out and go his own way. These people weren’t his problem. They had their own destinies to deal with. Then again, he needed them as much as they needed him right now. He didn’t know anyone in the city and had no place to stay. With fatigue coming on strong, he needed a few hours rest before getting out of the city.
So, for now, he’d help them as best he could and later they’d go their separate ways.
“Is there a grocery store still open at this hour?”
Hudson nodded. “Yeah, there’s a little corner market a block from our place.”
“Good. We’re going there now. You’re going to spend that cash on things that will help keep you alive.”
Amelia turned to Hudson. “He’s scaring me, Hudson. I don’t like it.”
He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. “I don’t like it either. But what if he’s right?”
The kid was starting to get it. A little.
But he was going to have to get fully up to speed and quick.
15
Another fifteen minutes of walking and they made it to the corner market before closing time. A few lights were on inside and the sound of a portable generator humming somewhere in the back drifted out.
It was a typical corner market in a big city. A small stock of fruits and vegetables. An equally paltry inventory of non-perishables. The liquor and beer selection, on the other hand, took up half the store. Every kind of lottery ticket imaginable was displayed around the register.
“Closing soon,” the old guy behind the counter said.
Cade grabbed a basket and went straight for the canned goods. He threw in cans of tuna, baked beans, fruit cocktail, Vienna sausages, green beans, corn, beef stew, a jar of peanut butter, and a number of other items until it was definitely more than forty dollars.
Amelia frowned as he passed. “Is any of that organic?”
Cade almost laughed. He would’ve if it hadn’t been so serious. Sure, he was a big proponent of organic. Eating foods laced with pesticides was one reason so many people were getting cancer these days. But that was a discussion for the normal world.
This was no longer the normal world.
Cancer wouldn’t kill you in thirty years if you starved to death in thirty days.
“They’re calories that won’t spoil,” he said as he unloaded the basket on the counter. It wasn’t much. A couple of weeks of food if they rationed it. But it was infinitely better than the empty pantry they currently had.
The cashier tallied up the prices by hand on a piece of paper. The bar code scanner and register, of course, didn’t work.
The bell hung above the door rang as someone entered.
“Get on the floor! Now!”
Cade turned to find three huge goons standing by the door, each wielding a pistol. One of which was pointed at his chest. They had the drop on him. One squeeze of the finger and he was a goner.
“Okay, whatever you say,” Cade said as he lowered to the floor.
Hudson and Amelia did the same. Hudson did his best to cover her body with his.
One of the others approached the counter. “Don’t do anything stupid, old man! I will splatter your brains on the wall!”
“Get out of my store!” the owner yelled back. “Go!”
A shuffling sound from behind the counter and the goon in front fired several rounds.
The sound of a pump-action shotgun being racked and then BOOM!
The guy’s chest exploded out his back, spraying the other two in red mist. He collapsed like a rag doll.
The other two fired wildly and the shotgun went off again. The glass store front shattered and shards blew out onto the sidewalk.
The two left jumped out of the missing window.
“He killed Calvin! Shot him dead!”
“We’ll be back for you!”
A few wild shots sprayed inside and then they ran away.
Cade lifted his head and took a breath, thankful that they’d been lucky. He turned to check on Hudson and Amelia.
And realized he was wrong.
Hudson knelt over her, pulling her head into his lap.
Her lavender sweater was covered in blood. The red leeching through the fabric as it leaked out of her chest. She gasped over and over like a fish out of water. Aspirated blood bubbled out of her mouth. She coughed and sprayed it on Hudson’s chest.
And then she was gone.
“Amelia. Amelia,” Hudson said as he held her tight. “Amelia!”
Cade got up, glass crunched underfoot as he stayed low and hurried over to the guy that had taken a shotgun blast.
He was gone.
Cade grabbed up the pistol and saw that it was a Glock 19. An older generation model than the one he had at home, but an effective weapon all the same. He ejected the magazine and found four rounds left including the one in the chamber. He palmed the magazine back in and approached the shattered window, ready to fire.
The street was quiet outside.
He checked the dead man’s pockets and found keys, a full magazine, and a roll of money that he’d count later.
He crept around behind the counter. A streak of red along the back wall from where the owner had been hit and then slumped to the floor.
The poor old man sat there, crumpled over, holding his belly as a pool of red grew around him.
Cade dropped down beside him. He pulled the man’s hands away. He had an Israeli emergency bandage in his bag. It didn’t work miracles, but it was good for keeping pressure on a wound. “Let me see.”
As soon as the hands came apart, Cade knew it was no use. The owner had minutes left. Maybe he would’ve had a chance if an ambulance and EMTs could’ve rushed to the scene and whisked him away to a nearby ER. But nobody was coming for him.
The doomed man was trying to say something, but choked on blood and couldn’t get it out.
Cade couldn’t save him, just as Hudson couldn’t save his fiancé. So he did the only thing he could, he held a dying man’s hand and waited for the end to come.
After the owner was gone, Cade closed his eyelids and said goodbye. He grabbed the shotgun and plucked out the spent shells. An ancient, double barrel break-action model. Probably passed down from generation to generation. Not his first choice for a defensive firearm, but he was thankful to have it. He scanned the vicinity and found a partial box of shells under the counter. He loaded two and dropped the rest into his pocket.
He stood up and saw a bright yellow streak blur through the air and then explode.
Two more came after and a flash of searing heat washed over him.
The two goons from before took off, yelling and swearing.
Cade jumped over the counter and watched in horror as the back of the store was engulfed in flames. They’d thrown in Molotov cocktails and the place was going up fast.
He hurried to Hudson and dragged him to his feet. “We have to get out of here!”
Hudson reached for Amelia, struggling to stay with her.
“We have to go! Now!”
Rougher than he wa
nted to, he shoved Hudson toward the exit. He tucked the Glock in his waistband and scooped up the basket of groceries on the way out.
Black smoke roiled out of the window and rose into the air as they made it out onto the sidewalk.
Hudson stood there like a zombie. Broken and lifeless. He stared at the bright orange flames as they closed in around the body that had been his fiancé.
It wasn’t something anyone should ever have to see.
Cade spun him away and pushed him forward. “We’re going to your condo. Lead the way.”
Hudson shuffled along, just aware enough to point at the high rise building as they came upon it at the end of the block.
Cade managed to drag him up twenty-nine stories and into the condo. He escorted the poor kid into the bedroom and let him collapse on the bed. He threw a blanket over him and figured he should’ve done something more, but he had nothing left. He was numb with exhaustion and close to shutting down.
He dropped onto the couch, tucked the pistol down into the cushion within easy reach and kept the shotgun across his chest. Whatever had kept him going this long now deserted him completely. His body was like a battery drained of juice.
There was nothing left.
His last thoughts before nodding off were of his family. Sam had Ethan and Dennis, not to mention Gary next door. How long would it take for her to understand the severity of the situation?
And then there was Lily. She was far from home with her best friend in Las Vegas. Piper was a sweet girl, but she wasn’t going to be any help to his daughter. All alone and he was far away.
He had to believe she could make it.
Lily was strong. Stronger than she knew.
But was she strong enough?
16
Lily stood outside the entrance to the Paris Hotel, stunned into silence. They’d seen the destruction from the viewing platform at the top of the tower. But here at ground level was something else entirely. Dim light from the moon above mixed with flickering orange from nearby fires. Burning plastic or oil scented the air, leaving a foul residue in her mouth. Cries of distress and confusion played like a background track to a Hollywood blockbuster where the hero would arrive and save the day.
Only, there were no heroes.
Not any that would be able to fix the multitude of tragedies unfolding along the strip.
She slipped her hand into Piper’s. “We have to get back to the hotel.”
Piper didn’t answer, her eyes wide and soaking up the horror.
“Piper, do you hear me?”
She nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.”
They started south on Las Vegas Blvd, giving a wide berth to the people they passed. Some wandered aimlessly, clearly stunned with shock. Others huddled together in small groups, speaking in low voices. A figure darted out and sprinted across the street. A few seconds later, three others followed in hot pursuit. They cursed and yelled threats as they pursued their prey.
Lily and Piper came upon the first intersection and a jumble of wrecked cars. A line was crammed together like they had all rear-ended the one in front. Two more were T-boned together where one had hit the other in the side. A dark sedan had the front passenger door open. Moaning sounds and a woman’s faint pleas for help came from inside.
“Help me…please…someone… help…”
Piper started toward it and Lily grabbed her wrist. “No, we can’t.”
Piper’s brows pinched together. “What? Why not?”
Lily dropped her head. “We can’t try to help every person that needs it. There are too many people. We’ll never get back and it’s too dangerous out here.”
Piper’s expression morphed into one of righteous indignation. “So we just ignore all this and blissfully head back for a good night’s sleep? What’s wrong with you?”
Lily chewed her lip. She didn’t like it either. It wasn’t in her nature to look the other way when someone or something needed help. Heck, she was the only one in her family that adamantly refused to smash spiders, moths and other insects in the house. She insisted on taking them outside. Her dad and Ethan went with the bottom-of-the-shoe approach. Her mom was somewhere in between.
But this was different.
She remembered how her dad had warned her about the fragile nature of modern society. About how civility for some people was only skin deep. And that didn’t even count the outright criminals. And there was no police presence that she could see. And if there was trouble, the local police would have no way of getting to the scene in any kind of reasonable time frame, much less even know that anything had happened in the first place. Without working mobile networks, most people had no way to report a problem.
No, they had to get back to the hotel as soon as possible.
“I know it sounds horrible, but we have to look out for ourselves right now. Is trying to help someone worth getting into situations where we could become victims ourselves?”
Piper shook her head and marched over to the car.
Lily had no choice but to go along. She wasn’t going to abandoned her best friend.
Was she?
What if it came to that?
How far would she go to survive?
She pushed the thought away. She shined her headlamp inside the car and found a middle-aged woman pinned against the steering wheel. The windshield was a shattered web. No airbag that might’ve lessened the impact.
The woman turned to the light, her eyes glazed and unfocused with pain. “Help me…please…” What had once been a light-colored blouse was now darkly patterned with red. A sickening gash along her hairline streamed blood down her face. A matching splotch of red on the windshield showed how she’d gotten it.
“It’s going to be okay,” Piper said.
Lily wondered if she believed that or was just saying it to comfort the woman. Either way, it was the right thing to do.
Lily circled around to the driver side door and wrenched it open with a loud screech. She touched the woman’s shoulder to get her attention. “What’s your name?”
The woman stared blankly for a few seconds and then answered. “Tracy.”
“Okay, Tracy. We’re going to help you.”
She teared up. “Thank you…thank you so much.”
“Can you move?”
Tracy shook her head. “My legs are stuck…I can’t feel them…”
Lily swept the light lower and saw the problem. The force of the impact had pushed the dash back onto her. A puddle of blood covered the floorboard around her feet. If this woman had any chance of surviving, they had to stop the bleeding.
But that was impossible with the dash and wheel smashed into her body.
Lily found the seat controls and tried to move the seat back. Not surprisingly, that didn’t work. “Do you think you can scoot out if I help?”
“I don’t know…maybe.”
“Okay, let’s try.” Lily wrapped her arms around the woman and gently pulled.
The woman shrieked with pain. “Stop! No! Oh God, no!” she yelled and broke down crying.
“Sorry,” Lily said, barely keeping it together herself.
She hadn’t budged an inch. Pulling at her was only going to cause more pain.
“Piper, help me try to lift the dash.”
Piper climbed in through the passenger door and they took hold of the dash on each side of the woman.
“One, two, three,” Lily said and they both heaved upward, grunting with exertion.
There was a creak, but no movement.
They blew out a breath and let go.
Lily looked over to Piper and shook her head. There was nothing they could do. She was bleeding heavily and they couldn’t get her free.
The woman touched Lily’s arm, making her flinch. Her nerves were keyed up and on edge. “I’m so thirsty. Do you have water?”
Lily grabbed her metal canteen out of her backpack and shook it. Empty. She’d meant to refill it after they’d drained it in the casino,
but had forgotten. She poked her head out and looked around.
There was a Walgreens on the corner. There was even a light on inside. A security guard stood at the entrance.
Were they actually still open for business?
“Piper, let’s go check out that Walgreens. If it’s open, we can get some water to bring back.”
She nodded.
“Don’t leave me…please…don’t leave.”
Piper sat down in the passenger seat. “Don’t worry. I’ll stay with you.”
Lily chewed her lip. She didn’t like the idea of separating.
Piper gestured at the store. “Go ahead. We’ll be here.”
Lily took off at a jog, knowing that her best friend meant well, but also knowing that it could get them into serious trouble.
17
The security guard standing in front of Walgreen’s watched her jog over, his hand on the pistol holstered at his hip. His eyes bounced over to someone shouting on the side street before settling on her again. He held out a hand as Lily got near. “Slow down, kid!”
Lily stopped a few feet away. “Is the store open?”
He scowled, but nodded. “For now, it is. The idiot manager wants to stay open for people that might need supplies.”
“Great,” Lily said as she started to skirt around. “I need to fill my water bottle.”
He dropped an arm to block her. “It’s open for paying customers only.”
Lily sighed, thinking the manager was probably more interested in reaping the rewards of panic buying than helping out people in need. “Fine. I’ll buy something.”
He didn’t raise his arm. “Cash only. The registers are down.”
“I’ve got cash,” she snapped back, definitely not happy with the way the guard seemed to be enjoying the power play.
He gave her a sarcastic smile, but then raised his arm like a toll gate. “Welcome to Walgreens.”
She shot him a look and then hurried inside. There was a long line of customers cued up at a single register. The cashier was a boy around her age and he was not doing well.
