Cyber Apocalypse (Book 1): As Our World Ends

by Hunt, Jack

  “Would you know if they’ve found my husband yet?”

  She looked like she was in a state of shock.

  “Uh. I don’t know. Who’s your husband?”

  “James.”

  “No. I don’t work for the department.”

  “What about my boy?” a middle-aged man said, slapping a picture of a kid against the glass. “He’s a good kid. Nine. I…”

  “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

  It was as if they all saw the cruiser and associated her with the law. One by one, people came up asking if she knew where their family was, many showing photos, all of them tearful and some even angry. One beat on the back window. “I pay my taxes. You’re not doing enough!”

  “We need supplies. Do you have any?”

  “Please. I don’t work for the department,” she yelled.

  But it didn’t matter. The mob mentality took over as one by one they made accusations, a couple shook the cruiser violently, and someone threw a stone at the rear window causing it to crack.

  A gunshot rang out, and those surrounding the cruiser flinched.

  “All right. All right. Move on. Now!” Garcia said, elbowing his way through the knot of desperate people. Liam hopped in the back and slammed the door as Garcia and three other cops with shotguns dealt with the unruly group.

  “It’s wild out there,” Liam said. “Even worse inside. You should have seen it. People spitting at the cops and calling them all manner of names. As if they could prevent this. Doesn’t give us much hope for the Coast Guard.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “That ship has sailed, Liam.”

  “What?”

  “Our careers. It’s in the past.”

  “No. This is a glitch, a bump in the road. The police, the military, they’re all out there and with the help of volunteers we’ll get back up and running. It might take six months or a year but it will happen.”

  She shook her head, scanning the faces of the desperate. “No, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Whoever did this, planned it out. Like hitting the first domino, it’s just a matter of time before the rest will fall.”

  “I don’t buy into that negative shit.”

  “It’s not negative. It’s reality. The power is down. Communications are down. This city is in ruins, never mind how many other cities all over this country have fallen.”

  “Other countries will come to our aid. They always do.”

  “Maybe. But I think if someone went to this length to bring a country to its knees, do you really think they are going to let other countries help? For all we know this might be worldwide.”

  “No. People are coming.”

  She shook her head. “No one is coming, Liam. We’re alone.”

  “Stop that.”

  “Stop what?”

  “You know.”

  “I’m just telling it like it is.”

  “No, you are doing the opposite of what they taught us. If we thought that was the truth we wouldn’t bother helping. We would leave people to drown. That’s not our way and it’s not this country’s way. Sure, these are some dark times but we never gave up inside that ground and I will be damned if I will give up believing that someone will help us.”

  “We got lucky, Liam. That’s all. We could have been like any one of those people that are still out there, buried, perhaps dead. We got lucky.”

  “Then I choose to believe we got lucky for a reason. Maybe we’re the ones that have to help.”

  She turned in her seat, studying him.

  “You said it yourself. No one is coming. But we are. They are,” he said pointing to the cops, “and so are volunteers. So no, I don’t buy that shit. And I won’t listen to it.”

  A tear welled in her eye and trickled down her cheek, she wiped it before he could see it. The truth was she hadn’t given up hope but it was hard not to be unnerved by their circumstances. She felt so out of her depth that it was hard to hold it together.

  “We’ll go back and I’ll get us a room with my parents and then once we’re settled, we’ll see about volunteering. The base might be gone, our careers might but what they taught us isn’t.”

  The door slammed as Garcia got in and exhaled hard. “Damn people.” He looked at Elisha and then back at Liam. “Not interrupting, am I?”

  “No,” she said.

  “Good. Let’s get you out of here.”

  The car roared to life and swerved out passing multiple vehicles lining the road.

  Ducking down inside a black 1972 Plymouth Barracuda were Joaquín Guzmán and two others. He’d been eyeing the department for the past hour, waiting for Garcia to show. Riding the high from gunning down innocents, he’d hoped there weren’t so many cops at the department and they could waltz in there and get Benny, but for now he was on his own. He turned over the V8 and pulled out keeping his distance as he followed the cruiser. Just one opportunity. That’s all he needed. Get him alone. Pin him in, and he wouldn’t stand a chance. He couldn’t wait to see what Carlos had in store for him.

  Liam got out first and went over to the dilapidated clapboard mobile home while Elisha remained in the cruiser. She didn’t look at Garcia but wanted to make something clear. “I like you, Garcia. We owe you our lives. But let me be very clear. I don’t know if my mother is alive or dead but I do know if she makes it back home, and you hurt her…” She turned her head.

  “She’s a grown woman, Elisha.”

  “Yeah, well even grown women make mistakes.”

  His eyes widened.

  “Don’t hurt her.”

  “I won’t. She’s just a friend.”

  “Everyone starts out as just a friend,” she said before getting out of the vehicle when Liam waved her over. Once out she leaned back through the window. “Again, thank you.” He gave a strained smile and she went inside. She wasn’t usually defensive of her mother but after seeing him crack Benny in the jaw, and knowing his history with the gangs, she would have been lying to say she wasn’t a little apprehensive. She also knew if she didn’t say it now she probably wouldn’t get the chance later.

  The cruiser rolled out past them a second time. This time, Joaquín had reversed into the driveway of one of the mobile homes. Ducking down, he smiled as the cruiser disappeared out of the gates. “Why aren’t we following him?” Manuel asked.

  “Because I have a better idea.”

  He got out of the car and went around to the rear and popped the trunk. He reached in and took out a short-barreled shotgun. “Let’s go.”

  Emiliano and Diego collected two rifles then Manuel slammed the trunk closed.

  The argument erupted the moment he showed his face. “So you come back in the middle of the night expecting us to open our arms to you, is that right?” his father said.

  Seemed like a real prick. He was wearing a white muscle shirt that exposed his flabby arms and chest, and a pair of pajamas. He was a stocky and round-faced man who had consumed one too many whiskeys by the looks of his bulbous nose. Liam certainly didn’t take after his father.

  “And hello to you, Dad,” Liam said walking past him into the kitchen to where his mother was.

  “I want you out of here.”

  “This place is still my home.”

  “It stopped being that the day you walked out.”

  “You mean the day I was kicked out? Or have you forgot?”

  He brought a finger up to Liam’s face and Liam straightened out. “What? You going to hit me like you used to, huh? Or do you prefer we take this outside like real men? Wasn’t that what you said last time?”

  His mother, a fairly large woman, was wrapped in a pink robe, her hair up in rollers.

  “Ed, leave the boy alone.”

  “That’s right, take his word over mine. You always do that.” He stormed past Elisha, his shoulder striking hers, nearly knocking her into the wall.

  “What the hell is his problem?” Liam asked.

  “Beside all that’s happened? Ah, don’t worry a
bout it. Come on, my boy. Take a seat.” She looked at Elisha. “And who might you be, darling?”

  “Elisha Reid.”

  “She was training at the base with me.”

  “Ah, another fine Coast Guard. You his girlfriend?”

  “Me? No. I…”

  Even Liam went red in the face. “We were trapped underground.”

  “I can see that.” She squeezed his cheeks. “You need a bath.”

  He smiled as she went to the fridge and took out a Coke and gave it to him. “It’s warm but it’s better than nothing. Can I get you one, darlin’?”

  “I’m good, thanks.”

  Liam cracked the top off and took a hard swig. “The place is gone, Mom. Wiped off the map. It’s pure chaos out there.” She took a seat across from him and took a cigarette out and sparked it up. Without power only a few candles were illuminating the inside, their flames creating shadows that danced on the walls.

  She reached a hand over and placed it on Liam’s. “You know I love you but even I have to ask. Why did you come back? You know how irate he gets.”

  “Other than the fact that I have nowhere to go.”

  She smiled.

  “Look. I don’t plan on being in your hair long. I was thinking of heading up to grandfather’s cabin. Wondered if I could get the keys.”

  His mother looked toward the doorway. Was she nervous? She got up, exhaled hard and shuffled across the room. She reached into a wooden bowl on the counter and took out a key. She handed it to him. “Don’t go messing that place up and don’t tell him I gave you this. He would go ballistic if he thinks I’ve given you anything.”

  “Come with us. Leave that asshole to his own devices.”

  She shook her head. “My home is with him.”

  “Then bring him if you must.”

  “Yeah. That would go well.”

  “It’s not safe to stay here, Mom. You should have seen it out there. Buildings are on fire. Emergency services are helping but their resources and supplies are strained. There’s just too many. At least up at the cabin it’s safe. We’re out of the city and… well.”

  She placed her hand on his again. “I can’t. You take that and look after…”

  “Elisha,” he said looking over to her.

  Suddenly, a commotion could be heard at the front of the house. Liam’s mother got up to go and see while both of them looked at each other. Concerned, Liam pushed his chair back to go check it out. In a flash, shouting was followed by a clear boom from a shotgun, followed by a high-pitched scream and then another round. Silence fell like a blanket then in an instant, four armed men, Latinos, all bearing gang tattoos, burst into the room, guns pointed and yelling.

  “Mom!” Liam yelled as he saw the body of his mother laying in the middle of the hallway. It all happened so quick. Barrels were thrust at them as they were instructed to take a seat or they would join them.

  Tears welled in his eyes but not wishing to die, Liam complied.

  “You. Over here now!” One of them yelled.

  When Elisha didn’t move fast enough, a nasty looking guy with a bald head and a face full of tattoos slapped her with the back of his hand, knocking her back into the table.

  Liam reacted but was quickly subdued.

  One of the men, with a goatee and a teardrop tattoo, pulled up a seat, turned it around and sat down, laying his shotgun on the table almost teasing them to go for it. He calmly reached for Liam’s mother’s pack of smokes and took one out and tapped it against the box before lighting it. A second later he blew a cloud in their direction. “Let’s talk.”

  25

  North Carolina

  Gunshots rang out along with the odd scream. What was happening out there? Sophie struggled to sleep that night, her mind distracted, her heart uneasy. Within an hour of arriving at Raven’s apartment, they’d each found a place to bed down for the remainder of the night. She’d been given the couch. Ryan and Alex took the chairs, and Thomas was asleep on the kitchen table.

  “Alex, you asleep?” Sophie asked quietly. He didn’t reply. She tossed and turned and tried to not dwell on fear of some madman and his buddies bursting through the door. Her thoughts went to Elisha. Was she alive? If she was, what was she doing?

  “What is it?” Alex said with his eyes closed. She turned over and propped herself up using her elbow.

  “Can’t sleep.”

  “Me neither.”

  She stared at his silhouette in the dark room, the only light came from the first inklings of daylight seeping through the drapes. “You mentioned Tommy earlier. Michael’s friend?”

  He gave a nod.

  “You saw him.”

  “Spoke with him. He was one of the group who robbed the gas station.”

  She couldn’t believe it. He was a nice kid. Really nice. Always pleasant. Always complimentary. She knew his home life was a little rough but still, to think he would turn to crime, threaten people. It made her think about her son.

  “You think Michael might have gone down that road?”

  “Who knows.”

  “I miss him. I miss the way he would smile and light up a room. His laughter was infectious.”

  “Sure was.”

  There was a long stretch of silence.

  “I don’t blame you, Alex. There was nothing you could have done that night to change the situation, and if I had known where he was going, I’m still not sure I would have stopped him.” She turned onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. “The truth is I wanted to keep him home that night — you know, cling to what little remaining time we had before he went off to college, but I was trying to let go, give him breathing room.” Throughout his time growing up she’d mollycoddled him too much out of fear. She never let him stay with anyone they didn’t know, and would drop him off at school every day simply because she didn’t want him to get bullied on the bus.

  Every parent had those fears, some more than others. She was on the far end of the spectrum, to the point that Michael resisted as he got older. Alex not so much. Of course, he was mindful of the dangers of the world but maybe because he was a boy, he understood kids needed to spread their wings, make mistakes, fall over and bruise a few knees to learn how to get back up again. In some ways, Sophie admired that.

  “I don’t blame you either.”

  “It felt that way.”

  “We were in pain.”

  “Do you ever wonder if it hadn’t happened whether we would still be together?”

  He opened his eyes and looked over at her. “You said the separation would have happened, regardless.”

  “I know. I’m asking you.”

  “Why do you think I wasn’t in a rush to sign the papers?”

  She sat up again. “I thought you were being an ass.”

  “We’ve been through everything together. As much as we didn’t like each other, I still loved you. There is a difference.”

  “Do you?”

  “What?”

  “Still have feelings for me.”

  He ran a hand over his tired face. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? You got what you wanted.”

  She laid back down and looked up at the ceiling. The truth was she wasn’t sure if it was what she wanted. Obviously there had been moments, a lot of moments when she felt it was the right thing to do for the sake of her own mental health, but she would have been lying to say those feelings didn’t change from day to day.

  In a quiet and thoughtful manner, he continued. “I needed you, Sophie. That was hard for me to admit but… I needed your support not your blame…”

  “You felt blamed? God, I didn’t want you to feel that way.”

  She breathed in deeply. They hadn’t spent time together or even talked about it since it happened. Both of them had retreated into their own bubble and handled it the way they knew best. He threw himself into his work, she quit the hospital and put all her attention on Elisha. She hadn’t given thought to how he was coping as she was too wrapped up in
her own grief. He’d always been the anchor in the family. Like a north star, leading them, the clear-headed one who remained steadfast when things around were shaking. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you needed me but you have to remember, Alex. I was drowning too.”

  “I know.” He nodded. “I know.”

  The distance between them only got wider in the weeks and months after Michael’s death. Eventually they just became like two ships in the night, passing each other and saying nothing. Even sharing the same bed, she felt alone.

  By the time their conversation was over it was a little after six. Though difficult, it felt good to air things she’d been carrying, and hear his heart. So much of their trouble came through misunderstanding, assumptions, an inability to help the other, and a lack of communication.

  Ryan yawned and stretched out his arms. He glanced over. “Still alive I see.”

  “At least for now,” Alex said as he got up and wandered into the bathroom. Ryan took a trip into the kitchen and gave Thomas a shake. “Hey dipshit. Wake up.”

  The goal that morning was to circle back to the house and collect the SUV and get the hell out of Asheville. After a breakfast which consisted of cereal and lumpy powdered milk because Raven didn’t stir the water long enough, Thomas brought up the topic of going with them.

  “So you mentioned me tagging along.”

  “That was just until we got out,” Alex said.

  “So, you’re leaving me here?”

  “It’s where you live, isn’t it?”

  “Was. Key word is was. You guys fucked that up.”

  Ryan was quick to jump on that as he downed the remainder of his coffee. “Always someone else to blame, isn’t there, Thomas. How about you take some of the responsibility for your actions?”

  “Hey, if you hadn’t shown up I would still be sleeping peacefully in my bed.”

  “Yeah, with a bullet in your head. Cowboy was coming, regardless. We had nothing to do with that. In fact, we probably saved your ass.”

  “Saved. Oh please.”

  Alex slammed his fist against the table causing the plates and cutlery to rattle. “If you two don’t pack it in now, I will leave both of you here.” He took one final swig of his coffee and picked up the rifle to head out, leaving them all staring at him.