Beneath the Ashen Veil of Darkness

by Robert Bartlett

  “Ok dad, it looks like we’re past the lake and should be coming up onto Hurricane Grove and Joplin just ahead.” Levi pulls him back to the present once again. “Alright, sounds good. We’ll pull over there and set up camp. What’s the map say that place is? Anything we could use?” Clay asks his son as he slowly pulls into what they hoped was an abandoned parking lot. “Um let’s see. Oooo maybe! It’s a chiropractic office. If they’re open I could definitely use an adjustment.” Everyone in the car laughs this time, a choir of Darth Vader’s still able to find some humor in an otherwise humorless world.

  As Clay slowly maneuvers the lead vehicle around to the back for better concealment from the road he also makes sure it is carefully positioned pointing back out the way they had come into the parking lot in case a speedy get away became necessary. Everyone was scanning the area for anything that could be of any harm or use. All of the laughing had come to an end as it was time to get to back work. Clay parks the Jeep Grand Cherokee they had found the first time they had left the compound for supplies and turns off the engine. They had found the vehicle sitting in front of the local CVS with the keys still in the ignition, backed up to the front door and loaded with beer, wine, and energy drinks. A forest green, high school boy’s wet dream, 4X4 with a small lift kit and big off road tires. They had found the driver found dead in front of the pharmacy seemingly shot trying to steal what was left of the oxycotin and xanax. Apparently he hadn’t been completely satisfied with the alcohol that had already been stolen. The jeep seated four comfortably and had become an unquestionably essential tool in the survival of the compound. On this excursion out the four chosen to ride in the Jeep were Clay and Levi seated up front with Paige Thomas and Jim O’Conner seated in the back. Jim wasn’t the normal fourth on these trips but with Jackson’s wife Gracie so close to giving birth it was decided that he should stay behind to be with her in the event that she did go into labor. Never the less, Jim wasn’t exactly thrilled by being the unasked volunteer to fill the team. They always went out in teams of four. Two were equipped with compound bows and side arms and ran point on the explorations for supplies while the two that guarded the rear were equipped with shotguns or carbines along with their side arms. The use of bows by the first two was to try to keep things as silent and covert as possible while the heavy firepower of the rear guard was to raise all of hell in the event that silent and covert was no longer an option and the shit had completely hit the fan. It was simple and effective. Four scouted around the predetermined area for anything that could be of use while the other four stayed behind siphoning gas from the cars in the parking lots and protecting the ever increasingly important vehicles they had become so dependent on for these supply runs.

  Clay and his group were just beginning to climb out of the Cherokee as Ray idles the black Toyota Tacoma crew cab 4x4 that made up the second vehicle of this miniature convoy directly behind them. Already in an unspoken understanding behind the strategic positioning of the vehicles, Clay raises a hand to his friend as he closes the driver side door and stretches for the first time in what seems like days. Ray returns the gesture as he puts the truck in park and kills the engine. The occupants of the truck that make up the second group, the ones responsible for the vehicles and for scouting the parking lot are Ray Jones, his son Grant, his oldest daughter Laura, and Colt Kingston. Ray along with his wife Sophia and their other two children, twelve year old twin girls Lily and Rose had become fast and close friends to Clay and his family over the calamity of the last several months. Along with Paige, whom Ray and Sophia had taken in after the loss of her family, and with Clay and Veronica taking in their youngest son Cain’s best friend Dylan Glosser, they were as close as two family units could be in such an unprecedented time of uncertainty. It was Rays experience as a car mechanic that had directly led to them being able to equip and maintain the vehicles on these long trips away from the protection of the compound. He was the one that had known that the cars would continue to work just fine as long as they kept the air and gas filters clean. Ray had his group clean out the air filters every time they stopped for the night and by making sure everyone kept ashes from falling into the gas tanks as they filled them up each morning. Of course night and morning were relative terms since the world they now lived in. It would’ve been more accurate to describe it as dark and darker as the dull globe that now defined the sun rose and fell across a world that was blanketed in a perpetual darkness.

  “Slow going around that hell hole of a lake” Ray says to his friend as he approaches him from the side extending out his hand. Clay grasps his friends hand as he responds, “You can say that again. Those maps we found at the Texaco are the only things that made this trip possible at all. After the last time, I’m not sure I would’ve even tried it without them.” Clay looks down at the ground as he finishes his statement. “Well I think you and your young navigator there did one hell of a job getting us all the way to Hurricane Grove with no mishaps. There isn’t anything to drop your head about Clay. Ron wasn’t your fault. You need to let it go.” Ray puts a hand on his friends shoulder and lightly squeezes as he turns and walks back to the truck to begin unloading supplies. Clay looks after his friend, appreciating the gesture. “Hey dad, Paige and I are going to scout the front of the building, see if there’s anything to see.” Levi says from behind Clay startling him, “Sounds good Levi. Keep it quick. Keep it silent. I’ll have Jim briefed on the way things work on these house sweeps by the time you two get back. If it’s too much for him we’ll just take Colt. I figure we can enter the office through this door here,” Clay gestures towards a back door set off to the far side of the building that led out to the dumpster paddock. “We do a quick sweep and clear to make sure there’s no one home then we search to see if we can find anything of any usefulness.”

  Clay and Levi both nod in understanding and agreement as they part. Clay watches Levi as he walks away to go find Paige and inform her of their agenda. Clay stands there, surrounded in the utter and complete silence that was left after Levi’s departure. You didn’t realize how noisy the world was until everything was shut off. The electricity had shut off not long after anything requiring a satellite link had stopped working since the satellite signals were unable to penetrate the ash cover to reach the towers. So the world, once blossoming in technological wonders, was put into perpetual darkness. Not only by mother nature herself, but also by the fact that there was no electricity, no cell phones, no GPS, no XM radio, no internet, with no electricity there wasn’t any running water. Nothing that a so called civilized society had come to depend on every day (and consequently took for granted) were gone effectively setting the world back two hundred years. But it was the un-nerving silence that was a constant reminder to Clay that their lives, the world, was forever changed and that their previous way of life was in fact like the silence that surrounded him, dead. So standing there in the dead silence that defined their existence he reflects on how proud he is of his son and how much he has grown in the last year. Clay couldn’t help but smile seeing the obvious infatuation that was growing between his son and the young, beautiful Miss Paige Thomas. The budding romance leaving him hanging on to hope for the future despite the hardships they all now faced on a daily basis for survival. As Levi and Paige slip off around the corner of the chiropractor’s office sticking close to the building and dead bushes that had once decorated it, Clay turns still smiling, and begins walking to where the others had gathered at the back of the Tacoma to lay out the plans for the rest of the party.

  Levi and Paige return just as Clay is finishing talking to the others and Ray takes over. “OK just so everyone understands, we actually make a small puncture in the left rear corner of the gas tank to filter the gas out. That way we’re sure to get all we can get out of it, making sure to run it through the cheese cloth to filter out any debris that’s settled at the bottom of the tank over time.” Clay adds, “It’s also an excellent way to tell if we’ve already visited an area. We hav
e the map gridded out to hopefully prevent that from happening but a little insurance policy never hurt. It’s cold and dark so mistakes are inevitably going to happen. Not to mention the fact that I think all our map reading skills got a little rusty with the invention of map-quest.” The group laughs at Clays last comment as Ray continues, “So, if you go to siphon a car and it’s got a hole in the bottom left rear corner, we’ve accidentally revisited an area we’ve already scouted. Find myself or Clay here, and we’ll get together and try to figure out where we made a wrong turn and move on to an un-scouted spot.” “Ok, so does everyone understand what they’re supposed to do? Two work on siphoning the cars while the second two stand guard keeping a watch over them and the area for anything threatening. As well as keeping an eye on the trucks. Got it?” Clay finishes as the group answers with a mask muffled chorus of “Got it.” Now that assignments had been given out, and with Jim stating that he thought he would be of more use outside helping Ray instead of being a liability searching inside of the building, Clay, Levi, Paige, and Colt will enter the Dr.’s office and gather anything of use from inside. While the rest of the scouting party, Ray, Jim, Laura, and Grant, start going through the parking lot refilling the gas cans and rummaging through the cars that were left there for anything useful. The party splits into their collective groups, all with the understanding of the importance of what they were doing out here.

  The back door was locked tight just as they had expected it would be after Levi and Paige’s scouting trip to the front of the building had found the front door and windows to be the same way. Clay slides the crowbar in between the door and the door frame as far and as silently as he can. Then Clay slowly begins to apply pressure. At the same time Levi puts controlled, steady pressure on the door trying to get it to “pop” as quietly as possible. Clay starts to add more pressure onto the crowbar just as the door swings in with a jolt, not as silently as they were hoping for but the goal was accomplished. Clay, with arrow notched ready to be released if necessary, leads the group in with Levi following directly behind him armed with a Mossberg 500 twelve gauge pump shotgun at the ready to aid his father if the need arose. Colt, with his bow notched as well and Paige, armed with a GSG-5 .22 semi automatic rifle, file in behind them. All of them were tense, nervous, and anxious all at once at what might be waiting for them inside the building as they enter it. The door opened into what was once a break room slash storeroom. It contained a small table, microwave and toaster ovens, a small refrigerator (like the ones you would see in a college dorm room designated for beer), a single row of cabinets, and a handful of chairs that took up one side of the room. Stacked boxes, cleaning and disinfecting supplies, along with some filing cabinets taking up the other side. None of them lose focus at the hope that there could be food or first aid in the cabinets, with the rest of the building still needing to be swept and cleared. There would be plenty of time to investigate what was in here later. The door that opened into what they were assuming was the main hallway that would lead to the rest of the rooms that made up the building stood slightly ajar. Clay slowly pushes the door open trying, but not succeeding, to keep the creeks and moans of the recently unused door to a minimum. The hallway that greeted them just beyond the door was thankfully empty and showed no evidence of being used in quite some time. Each room they explored as they made their way down the hallway towards the door that lead to what appeared to be the office’s main waiting room and the door that lead to the Dr.’s personal office thankfully yielded the same result as the hallway. Empty and unused.

  As they come closer to the end of the hallway, it is the smell that first tips them off to what awaited them just behind the office door of Dr. Tyler Blackburn. The door slowly swings open as Clay and Levi stand in the doorway confronted by the half decomposed body of the late Dr. Blackburn. The .357 magnum that was lying on the floor at his feet and the hole clearly visible in his skull left little doubt as to what had been the culprit of his demise. Clay, afraid of how the shock of finding such a gruesome scene like this will affect the young members of his scouting party, does his best to show very little emotion as he calmly walks over and bends down to pick up the handgun. Never even acknowledging the gore that sits beside him Clay simply says, “This could come in very handy. The best thing about it being a magnum is that we can put .38 specials in it as well. I’ll start checking around in here for anything of use, like a box of bullets for this much needed newest member of our arsenal here.” Clay holds up the Ruger LCR .357 as he finishes the statement. “You three go and start collecting anything we can use out of the examining rooms, working your way back to the break room we entered through. I’ll give the waiting room a once over just to make sure we don’t leave any stone unturned and meet you all there. Be especially on the lookout for antibiotic salves, bandages, and disinfectants while you’re searching. “ Clay gives these orders quickly, doing his best to get the group out of the room and their minds on something, anything, else other than the brains that were splattered all over the library of medical books that sat on the bookshelves directly behind the desk of the late Dr. Tyler Blackburn. As they turn around in unison, thankful to get away from the scene they now stood in front of, Clay stoops down to get a closer look at something that had caught his eye when he had picked up the magnum. The thighs and calves of the dead doctor looked as if they had been gnawed upon. But by what, or even more disturbing, by whom was the question.

  Chapter Six

  Lost in his own deep contemplations of the possibly partially eaten left leg of the dead doctor Clay walks right past the door that leads to the unexplored waiting room. Colt reaches out and gently grabs him by the upper arm “Hey chief, you still with us?” He asks Clay as he walks by the waiting room door, his head down in obvious deep thought. “Huh? What? Oh, uh, yeah, I’m sorry Colt. Yes I’m still with you” Clay stammers in response. “You sure about that chief? You’re walking through here like you’re in the clouds of Venus” Colt says as he and Clay share a half hearted laugh “Yeah I’m fine. Sorry man. And uh, thanks” Clay says to Colt as he looks him in the eye and gives him a short appreciative nod. “No worries. Come on I’ll go check the waiting room out with you. Levi and Paige got the examining rooms covered” Colt offers as he returns Clays nod. “Are they finding anything useful?” Clay asks with cautious optimism, “Oh Yeah!” Colt exclaims, “Some ace bandages, gauzes, latex gloves, mostly stuff like that so far, some cotton balls.” Not exactly what some one would think was important in everyday life but when everyday life becomes the survival of the fittest or, as in the case of the compound, the survival of the best prepared little things like cotton balls and ace bandages could be the difference between being able to live or not. “Sounds good, has anyone spotted a restroom yet? How great would it be to find a dozen rolls of toilet paper” Clay says, as they start to turn into the waiting room. “Well it is the little things in life you miss the most when they’re gone” Colt replies with more than just a touch of sarcasm apparent in his voice. They both share another short laugh as they slowly open the door and step inside the patient’s waiting room of the office.

  Their laugh is uncomfortably cut off as they both sense the uneasy feeling the room ebbs outward towards them as soon as they cross through the doorway. Almost as if they had just entered a fog. Clay motions for Colt to go to the right as he takes a step to the left in the direction of the receptionist’s desk. They should come back together at the front door and would be able to check the security of the locks then. They were all hoping to be able to use the office as a base camp of operations while they were exploring the section of this map, which had been gridded out yesterday. Clay, who had just reached the front of the reception counter and can’t help but to notice the receptionist’s name plate standing in the center next to the sign in sheet, stretches to look over the counter top to peer into the area behind it. The blood is instantly recognizable as it has turned black where it covers the chair and floor beneath it. The blood had also spl
attered all over the computer monitor and desk top that the chair sat behind. The fact that the .357 they had found was short two rounds left Clay suspicious as to what exactly had caused the blood splatters. But whatever had happened to the unfortunate soul that had occupied the chair, it hadn’t killed her right away. Clay could see marks on the carpet where she had drug herself out from behind the greeting counter to his right in the waiting room area. He begins to walk over to the drag marks trying to determine the destination of the now deceased Mrs. Deloris Scott when he hears the muffled scream come from behind him and the unmistakable sound of shattering glass.