“Jake,” I asserted, “I know you want to get home to your son as quick as you can, but I have to do this. I can meet you at your place later.”
“Not a chance,” he retorted, with a slight smile. “Danny is with his sitter and I know she will take great care of him until we get there. Let’s get these ladies back safe.”
We all five walked at a brisk pace down Parker Road. I knew this road well, as I had passed it hundreds of times in the past few years, but never on foot.
We were making good time, passing the occasional person still trying to start their car. All others had been abandoned hours ago, I assumed. We could see a cluster of buildings ahead, about 200 yards out to our right.
“That’s it,” called out the ladies in our group. “Our apartment is just over there,” pointing to a cream-colored stucco building.
I was a little concerned because there were a lot of people hanging around outside their building. “Do you know those people?” I asked the ladies. “I recognize a few,” said one. “That’s Hector at the barbecue grill. He’s OK—has a wife and a couple kids.”
“That’s good,” I acknowledged, as we got close. “Hey, Hector. How’s it going?” I asked in a mellow, friendly tone. “Great, man. Do I know you?” he asked. “Just helping these ladies get home is all,” I replied. “Well, you’re just in time to eat,” he continued. “We got chicken, ribs, sausage, pork chops, corn and beans. Power’s out, so we’re all pitching in. What are you having?” he asked.
“Oh, we’re good,” I told him. “Enjoy your meal.”
“That’s not how it works,” replied Hector in a serious tone. “We look out for each other here. You and your companions need to eat.” So we did and it was some of the best barbecue I have ever had. That’s saying a lot for living in Texas.
When we were done eating I handed Hector two one-ounce Silver Eagle coins with a thank-you. He was surprised at the coins and commented on their weight. “These coins are heavy! How much are these?” he asked. “They are worth their weight in gold now,” I replied.
With that, we headed back towards Jake and Nancy’s house. The walk was quick, now that we were a small group. We drew much less attention now from people walking the streets. We all still had our carts and had no plans of abandoning them anytime soon.
“That’s our neighborhood, up about a hundred yards,” Jake pointed.
“How do you want to play this?” I asked. “What do you mean?” asked Nancy.
“Well, there will likely be a lot of people hanging around outside,” I said. “Is there anyone here you want to tell exactly what’s going on? I’m not suggesting that you do, but I will be very selective when I get home as to who I talk to about this. I can’t have a hundred people looking to my home for food, or anything else.”
“Yes, I see what you’re saying,” agreed Jake. “We pretty much keep to ourselves around here, but I will tell Tina.” “Who’s Tina?” I asked.
“She’s our babysitter and she deserves to know what’s happening. Her boyfriend is out of town on business and she doesn’t have family in Texas.”
“How far away is her boyfriend?” I asked.
“LA,” said Nancy. “LA like Los Angeles or Louisiana?” I asked. “Like California,” she replied. “Oh, that’s not good” is all I could think to say.
We walked up to a neat four-bedroom house in a nice little neighborhood. As Jake opened the front door I heard “Daddy! Daddy!” as little Danny jumped into his arms. My thoughts immediately turned to Joy and our boys. Please God, let them be home and safe, I said in a quiet voice.
Tina was there to greet them as well. She was young and pretty, like a sorority sister. Maybe early twenties, with auburn hair to her shoulders. “Thank God you’re here,” she said. “The power went out and I couldn’t call you. I tried to start my car to bring little Danny to you but it wouldn’t start… What’s happening?” she said, as she started to cry. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but Jimmy’s out of town and I don’t know how to call him. I don’t even know what hotel he is staying in.”
“Can you give us a minute?” Jake asked me. “Would you mind pushing Danny in his swing for a few in the backyard?”
“Sure,” I said, as I kneeled down to be on his level. “I’m Lance and you must be Danny. I have three boys just about your age. Let’s go swing and I’ll tell you all about them.” “Go ahead,” said Jake to Danny. “He’s OK.”
As I was pushing Danny and he was saying “Whee!” and “Higher!” I couldn’t stop thinking of my boys. I was so close to home. I just wanted to break out running and not stop until I got there.
I knew, though, that this step was important—not only for Jake, Nancy and Danny, but for my family as well. We were banding together, like-minded survivors, and I was sure there would be more.
Jake, Nancy and Tina walked out about 20 minutes later and Danny said, “Thank you, mister, for pushing me.” “You’re welcome, little guy,” I said, truly happy to have done it.
“Hey, man,” said Jake. “Can I talk to you for a second inside?” “Sure,” I said, pretty sure where this was going. Before he could say anything I said, “She’s coming with us—right?” He just smiled and looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
“I’ll send Nancy with her to get her things. She lives just a few blocks down the street. I need your help here to get packed up quick,” he said. “I want you to get to your family by tonight.” That sounded great to me.
An hour later Nancy and Tina were back with a cart full of her belongings. Jake and I had laid out an impressive arsenal of handguns, hunting rifles, two 12-gauge pump shotguns and an AR 15. Jake had 1,000 rounds of 22 long rifle, 850 rounds of 9mm ball and 200 rounds of 9mm hollow points, along with 1500 rounds of .223 ammonia for his AR and about 250 12-gauge buckshot shells. After we had laid all these out on the kitchen table he said, “I don’t have a lot of food but I have all these.”
“This is food,” I told him, “and the protection to keep it.”
While Jake and I went through the rest of his gear, Nancy was gathering her and Danny’s things. She said, “Danny, you can bring three small toys with us, so think carefully about what you want.”
“OK, Mommy. Are we going on a trip? I love trips. Can we go home to the mountains?” he asked. “We will, Sweetie,” she told him, “but it’s going take a while to get there.”
Tina, without being asked, was opening two large cans of chili and a can of green beans. “It’s going to have to be cold,” she stated, “but it’s dinner and we need to eat before we head out.”
“I’ve got a grill out back. Just throw it into a couple pots,” Jake told her, “and we will have a hot meal in no time.”
“Sounds good,” I added, “and let’s try to bring the propane tank with us if you have a full one.”
We ate what was one of my favorite low-nutrition but filling and great-tasting meals. Jake and I went through some final checks of their belongings. “You know,” remarked Jake, “a man finds out what is really important when he leaves his house, never to return, with just three carts.”
“At least you can leave that big-ass TV,” I joked, pointing to at least a 60-inch plasma on the far wall. We laughed for the first time today.
We finished loading the three carts and two large-frame backpacks for Jake and me, and two smaller daypacks for the ladies.
“Check this out,” Jake said, pulling an old gold timepiece from his pocket. He opened it up and the minute hand was spinning—click, click, click. “No shit!” I exclaimed. “That thing still works!”
“Yeah, I don’t know how but it does,” he said, smiling. “Belonged to my grandfather. He carried it in combat in the Second World War.” “That’s pretty cool,” I acknowledged. The timepiece read 7:21.
“OK,” said Nancy. “Let’s try to be out of here by 7:45. We have about nine miles to go, so at a speed of maybe three miles per hour we should make it by midnight, for sure.”
I
was getting excited now to see my family tonight and hoped Joy and the boys were home and OK.
We headed out at 8:03. Not bad, I thought, for four people waking out of their homes for the last time. I knew I would be doing that same thing soon.
* * * * * * *
Chapter Six ~ McKinney, Texas
Joy filled every possible container in the house in about an hour.
She was expecting Lance home anytime and figured she could take inventory of food and guns later. She gathered the boys, who were very helpful getting water filled into pots and sinks.
“Let’s go see what’s cooking,” she told them. They headed outside and quickly found Lucy next door. Lucy was a good neighbor. She was in her mid-forties with that “I’m all about my kids” Mom look.
“I’m glad you came out to join us. Grab some plates. Are you boys hungry?” Lucy asked the guys. “Yes,” they all chimed in together.
A few of the other neighbors were sitting around on Lucy’s driveway. “What took you so long to get here?” asked one of the other neighbors. “We had a long walk is all,” Joy replied. “Yeah,” added Jax, “and Mommy beat up a guy at gymnastics and shot at a man in a car.”
“He’s been watching too many cartoons,” remarked Joy, not surprised at all by Jax’s revelations. She had known for a while that nothing gets past Jax.
“No, Mommy. Remember when that man was saying bad things,” asked Hudson, “and you hit him on the head with your gun?” This is going nowhere quick, Joy thought.
“Thank you, Lucy, for the barbecue. Come over in a little bit and we can talk,” proposed Joy. The other neighbors now looked quite concerned but didn’t say anything. “Come on, guys. Let’s go home.” They protested a little, like they usually did when they were having fun. In a few minutes they were back in the house and Joy had the first of many talks to come with our boys.
“Jax and Hudson and Hendrix,” she began in a nice calm voice. “Let’s talk about what we tell people about what happened on our way home.” “OK, Mommy,” they all replied.
She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to tell them about what their new life could be like. She wanted Lance home to get a game plan for the family and the boys.
She had a flash of their beloved lab Hadley dying in front of the boys about six months ago. She had been to a couple of vet appointments in a month’s time, with exams and blood tests showing nothing positive. One day Hadley just got bad quickly. We went out for a bike ride with the boys and when we came home she was on the living room floor in a small pool of bloody stool. She died about thirty minutes later in front of the boys.
Lance was concerned that they saw this at their young age but they were surprisingly OK. It sparked many conversations about God, heaven and death. They knew within a couple days that Hadley was in heaven and would not be coming back. They would not feed her anymore or pet her, and they prayed for her each night after. We replaced the soiled carpet with hardwood floors the next week. It was the last carpeted room downstairs anyway.
“When we were coming home and the bad men came, was it scary?” Joy asked.
“Yes, Mommy,” they all agreed. “OK. Daddy and I will always protect you. Do you know that?”
“Yes, we know,” they all replied. She would pray every day that she would be able to keep that promise.
“We don’t want to scare anyone else by telling them what happened, do we?”
“OK. OK, Mommy. We know.”
Joy continued: “Daddy will be home soon and we will decide what to do.”
It is about 8 p.m., thought Joy, judging by the sunset. The boys were about twenty minutes beyond their bedtime. At least they would not be taking a bath tonight. There was still water but it was cold now. She got them to bed upstairs, using the flashlight that Lance always kept in their room in the top dresser drawer. There was one in just about every room in the house.
It was eerily quiet tonight without their white-noise sleeping monitor, but thankfully they went right to sleep. She left their bedroom door open, since she didn’t have camera monitors that worked now. She had a feeling that from this point on they would be sleeping much closer to her and not on a different level of a house.
Lucy came by soon after and Joy offered her a glass of white wine. They sat down with their glasses to talk.
“I have to admit,” said Joy, “that I was expecting Lance home by now. As near as I can tell, this all happened about 10 o’clock this morning.
“He had about twenty miles to walk and should be here now. I’m sure he tried to help others, or God forbid something has happened to him… We didn’t have the easiest time getting home and we were much closer than he was.”
“What’s going on?” asked Lucy, with a worried tone. “I know,” she continued, “that not only is the power out but phones and cars don’t work. Most people in the neighborhood are acting like they just got a day off work and we’re all just having fun barbecuing. But I knew something was not right and, after hearing your boys, I know it’s true. Did you really shoot someone today?” she asked in a sobering tone.
“Yes,” replied Joy, “and I think I may have killed another man who was going to do harm to me and the kids.”
Lucy was silent. No expression, words or any other gestures were displayed to give a sense of what she was thinking. She took a deep breath and said, “Is this the apocalypse?”
“I think so,” said Joy, “and I’m not sure what to do.”
Ringo jumped up and ran to the front door with a deep growl and barking combination that made him sound like the most vicious dog on the planet. Joy ran to the door, not wanting Ringo to wake the boys. She had grabbed a battery-powered lantern she got out of a faraday EMP proof bag from the garage, along with flashlights, radios and other electronic items.
She thought it must be Lance but they had never gotten around to adding a peephole on the front door when they moved in a few years ago. The windows on either side gave a good view of the street but not right in front of the door.
She grabbed Ringo by the collar and opened the door, expecting Lance, and found the neighbors from the barbecue instead. “What’s going on?” asked the middle-aged gray-haired man from three houses down. “What do you know? How much food do you have? We don’t have much,” he stated.
She still held Ringo at this point, but a 150-pound dog with a low growl is enough to make anyone be nervous. “Why is he growling at me?” asked the neighbor.
“I don’t know,” she replied, “but you should go. I can’t help you.” With that, she shut the door and returned to Lucy. “I never liked that guy Jeff from down the street,” Lucy said. “He may become a problem down the road.
“OK, Lucy. We’re friends and have known each other for a while. I’ll tell you what’s going on, but it stays here—agreed?”
“Sure,” said Lucy. “Agreed.”
“I can’t have the whole neighborhood knowing what we know, at least not yet,” said Joy. She went on to explain what an EMP and solar flare were, as Lance had explained it to her. She went on to recount her day and what she had been forced to do to protect herself and her boys, with a sense of sadness for it all but no guilt. “I would do it all again, just the same,” she ended with.
“Why is it all happening so fast?” asked Lucy. “I mean, it’s not the first time the power has ever gone out and people didn’t act like this before.”
“The difference this time, Lucy, is that their phones and cars stopped working also. They don’t know what’s going on but they all know it’s bad.”
Lucy sat for what seemed like ten minutes to Joy before replying. “God’s will is done,” said Lucy, “and He has carried you through. Praise the Lord for you and your children… I’ll be back in the morning,” she said, and headed for the front door.
“Are we OK?” asked Joy.
“Sure, Sweetie. I just need to process all of this. Thank you for telling me the truth. I hope to see Lance back by tomorrow,” added Lucy as she walked o
ut.
It was quiet now…too quiet…and Joy’s mind wandered. There was no television and no cell phone to distract her. She had always loved books, but read entirely on her Kindle for the past two years! That, of course, was not working today either.
“Where are you, Lance?” she asked out loud.
She thought about taking a cold shower after the day she had; it might make her feel a little better. She resigned to dip herself and the kids in the pool in the morning. Maybe she would even let them swim for just a little while. It may be the last swim they get for a long time.
Joy decided to lock all the doors, knowing Lance would have his key or use one of the hidden ones they kept outside. She grabbed an old paperback book from the office, a glass of white wine, and took Ringo upstairs with her to sleep on the couch near the boys. The master bedroom was downstairs but she couldn’t risk being that far from the boys now.
Next World Series (Vol. 1): Families First Page 7
