“There’s no pulse!” Mike shouted, desperation rapid in his voice.
“Let me check,” said Demi, bending down to check Tom’s neck for a pulse. As she bent down, she observed the bullet wound to his heart. “Oh no!” Demi screamed, feeling no pulse and seeing how grave the wound was. Bullets pelted the trees that they stood between and the pair had no choice but to make a run for it and get out of the park.
Running as fast as they could to catch up with Chris, John, and Sophie, they found them with Helene and Lily who were ready to go. Sophie had Lily strapped in on her bike. The group did not spend any time packing up the camp as they would figure out what to do regarding supplies when they reached safety. They intended to travel with whatever they could grab within a second.
“Where’s Tom?” Sophie asked, sounding as though she expected him to be with Demi and Mike.
Demi was not sure how she was going to break the news. The gut-wrenching news nearly tore her up inside. However, she had to do it. While she lifted her bike from the ground, getting ready to mount it, Mike said, “Soph, he made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Let’s honor him by getting to safety, now.” Tears formed in Mike’s eyes as he said those words.
Sophie, who appeared not to grasp what was just said had a blank stare on her face. “Tom’s not with you?” Sophie asked.
“No, Soph. He’s not. Now, let’s get out of here so his death is not in vain.” No emotion came across Sophie’s face. Instead, she mounted her bicycle and pedaled. The rest of the group caught up to her.
The group pedaled as fast as they could, exiting the state park. Demi was not certain if she saw the men come over the hillside or not as she pedaled, her only focus was getting to the exit and pedaling in the opposite direction of where their camp was. The group headed back on the I-89, heading north. They had enough energy to pedal through the wee hours of the early morning as adrenaline-fueled and anger-fueled their legs. In any case, it didn’t matter if the men chased after them or not. Tom was dead, Lily would never know her father, and Sophie had a long road of grief ahead of her.
Chapter Five
Demi Thicke
“Let’s pull off over there,” said John, leading the group after the altercation at Bear Lake State Park, pointing to an exit off of the I-89 that led to a town called Mulberry, Idaho. Everyone was still reeling from the commotion, and no one could calm down as they pedaled in silence and shock.
Mike rode next to his sister, making sure she kept pedaling, Demi and Chris pedaled behind them. It was a strange occurrence for Demi to bring up the rear, but she was concerned about Sophie. Rufus rode in the trailer behind Chris. Demi admired John for his ability to soldier on, especially when she didn’t even want to. She hated feeling like this, she was trained to move on, but this was difficult. She never thought a member of her group would be murdered, especially when he tried to save her. For the first time, Demi found herself weak and vulnerable, she was not sure if she was going to make it to Pocatello.
The sun started to come up over the horizon. The group rode far away from the national park and to a residential neighborhood. There, they passed by a father out on his lawn. He watched his son and daughter play while he sipped his coffee. Families seemed to wake up earlier since the disaster and aligned their circadian rhythms with the daylight hours, therefore it was not out of the ordinary to see people up and about in the wee hours of the morning. Not like how quiet it was before the disaster and people hit the snooze button on their alarm clocks until the last possible second before they had to get up and head to work. Since the disaster, people seemed to enjoy their time much more.
John pulled over to the fellow who sat on his porch step and watched his kids play. “Hey there,” shouted John with a wave while he stopped at the edge of his driveway.
“Hey! Morning!” the man from the porch yelled as he waved back. The group caught up to John who got off of his bicycle and headed toward the man. The rest of the family watched from their bikes.
“Morning,” said John. “How have you been fairing with this here disaster?”
“It’s been all right,” answered the man. “I can’t complain too much. At least I don’t have to go into work. Get to watch my kids 24/7.”
“Ah, I see,” answered John. “Mind if we rest here?”
“No, not at all.”
“Thanks, appreciate it.” John turned to the group and yelled, “Hey guys, we are going to wait here for a few hours and rest. We need some time to regroup.” Demi, Chris, Mike, Sophie, and Helene dismounted their bicycles and walked them up the driveway to park them close to the friendly man’s garage.
“Thank you,” said Mike, walking over to the man to shake his hand. “My name is Mike.”
“Please to meet you. I’m Jack,” said Jack as he shook Mike's hand. “And these two rug rats are Kelly and Dylan.” The kids stopped their game of tag to wave before resuming. They were blondes, but Jack had black hair and a black beard, standing around five-foot, six inches. Smaller framed man, and very thin.
Demi remained quiet during this time as did everyone but John. He appeared to want to move on as quickly as possible. Demi saw that as a survival technique as that was probably the best course to keep the remainder of them alive.
John continued speaking with Jack, “So, where’s the misses?” John asked.
“Oh, she died while she gave birth to my youngest, Dylan,” Jack said with a lower voice so the kids could not hear his answer.
Jack continued to sip his coffee, “Oh hey, totally forgot my manners. Can I offer you guys a cup of coffee?”
John answered, “Yeah, we’d really like some.”
“I’ll be right back,” replied Jack. After a few minutes, Jack returned with a carafe of coffee and six mugs. He poured each cup and handed it to each adult in the group. Rufus played with Jack’s two kids.
John sat next to Jack, while the others stood drinking their cups. Demi enjoyed her hot cup of coffee, the drink comforted her after the horrifying experience they had just encountered. “So what are your plans?” John asked Jack.
“Wait this thing out. I’m a former medic in the army, got off on disability a few years ago before the kids were born. We’ve always prepared for something like this and knew it was possible for it to happen, but I never thought this would actually happen,” explained Jack.
“Like what?” John asked. “His military experience was short, but with these sorts of things, Demi found John to be slightly naive.
“You saw the auras the other night?” Jack asked.
“No, I didn’t catch them. So this thing is an attack?” John clarified.
“As clear as day if you ask me. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are two to three years out from everything going back to normal,” added Jack.
“I see,” muttered John, who appeared to contemplate the gravity of the situation. Demi took resentment from the notion that he did not believe her right away when she tried to warn him during dinner. However, the Cromwell’s elected to come with her and Mike to Montana to get out of harm’s way. Guilt filled her stomach as she blamed herself for Tom’s death. He went to save her. He was on this journey to Montana because of her. She was only giving the best advice she knew, but that didn’t change the fact that Tom was now dead.
“You guys are welcome to stay and camp here if you’d like,” offered Jack. “You’re the kindest people I’ve run across.”
“That’s mighty generous of you,” said John. “We would love to stay while we regroup.”
“Regroup? Where are you headed?” Jack asked.
“We are headed first to Pocatello to get Demi’s younger sister, and then we are headed to Demi’s father’s compound up in northern Montana, close to Glacier National Park,” explained John.
“He has a big mountain retreat with solar panels, a stream for fish, and a garden,” added Demi.
“That sounds very nice,” mused Jack, taking another sip of coffee. Helene juggled holding Lily while drink
ing her coffee. She had one leg on the porch stairs and the other on the driveway, bouncing Lily on her bent knee to soothe her.
Demi then offered, “You’re welcome to come with us. My dad would love that you are a medic and that you’ve served our country.”
“Really?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, he’d love to have you. Especially since you could do triage in case anything ever happened,” responded Demi, sipping her coffee and calming down after speaking of David and his sanctuary. Keeping her mind centered on her goal of getting Lacey and then heading up to northern Montana eased her mind some.
“You know, that sounds like a good option for us,” stated Jack. “I would know my kids were safe and cared for. I mean I have some stuff, but not enough for two to three years. And it sounds like you pop has every detail thought of.”
“He has,” affirmed Demi.
“Well, I’ll set you up with some tents for now and I’ll start packing. We’ll get everything set today and then we will head out tomorrow morning.” Jack looked at the amount of equipment the group had with them and asked, “You guys don’t look well prepared for a long trek like that. How’d you plan to survive?”
“We had to leave our camp,” answered Mike. “Demi and Sophie were kidnapped. During the rescue, we lost Sophie’s husband.”
“Oh, dear. I’m sorry, man,” said Jack. He walked over to Sophie, who stared off into space. He stood toe to toe with her as she cradled her cup of coffee. He asked, “Sophie, can I give you a hug?” Sophie nodded, still appearing to be in shock. Jack continued to say to her, “I know what it’s like to lose the love of your life. It does get better, I promise.”
Sophie appeared to be comforted by the jester that Jack made. The sentiment was sweet, however, Tom’s death was all too fresh for Sophie to really grasp what happened and how she would move on. Helene took charge of Lily, who was fussy and only wanted her mother. However, her mother was not capable of being one, for the time being, so Helene filled that role.
“I’ll start getting things together,” announced Jack. “You guys wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on my kids.”
“Not at all,” answered Chris as he sipped his coffee, keeping an eye on his dog.
Jack went inside to get things together.
A few hours later, Jack provided John with two tents as he gathered his things for him and his kids. Chris and Mike set up the tents out on the lawn. Demi and Helene tended to Lily and watched Jack’s kids play out in the street. Sophie sat by herself, still in shock from the series of events that transpired the night before.
While Chris and Mike pitched the two tents under John’s supervision. John monitored the tent progress from the porch steps. Mike struggled and fell under Chris’ lead on how to assemble the tent. Watching Mike struggle amused Demi and it lightened the mood some.
From down the street, a shot fired. The echo reverberated through the neighborhood, the sound bouncing off of the houses. Before Demi realized what occurred, Chris clutched the side of his upper arm, kneeling on the ground.
“Oh no!” John shouted getting up and running toward Chris. Demi followed right behind John, trying not to panic, but felt the emotion hard for her to control as tears started streaming from her eyes without any way for her to stop them.
“Chris!” Demi shouted, kneeling down next to him. Realizing the bullet only grazed his arm, she relaxed some.
“What in the world was that?” Chris asked, shouting in rage.
“Someone doesn’t like us being here,” stated John, his eyes drifting off to the side.
“Anything to do with last night?” Mike asked.
“Can’t say for certain. But, we need to make sure all of us are armed at all times,” said John. Demi nodded, pressing her palm into Chris’ arm to stop the blood flow.
Seconds later, Jack came out of his house with his first aid kit. “Heard what happened, what on Earth is going on?” Jack asked. “Kids! Get inside, now!” Jack commanded. “Get the dog inside too.” Jack’s kids grabbed Rufus by the collar and the two small blonde kids led the well-mannered Rottweiler inside the house.
Jack pulled out a suture kit and sewed up Chris’ arm in seconds. “You’re mighty fast at that,” stated John, sounding amazed at Jack’s speed.
“You know, triage in combat zones. One has to be fast,” replied Jack. “I can’t let you guys camp out here. Come inside, and you all can have one of the spare beds and the couches.”
“Thanks,” said John, putting out his hand to shake.
The gesture warmed Demi, and she had faith in humanity once again. Demi and Mike took down the tents and packed them to take on their journey to Idaho.
Once inside, the group counted their weapons, ensuring that each adult carried a piece. Sophie was in no condition to shoot anything, yet she carried one in a waistband holster. Demi helped Jack finish packing, noting the bottles of water he had on hand and the shelf-stable food they could carry.
Chris rested the entire night. The wound was not bad, however, the notion that he was shot on Jack’s front lawn sent him to a dark place. Demi realized this as she sought to comfort him and made certain he felt safe.
Taking the entire day and most of the night, the group replenished their supply of resources and were ready to head out the following morning to Pocatello.
Chapter Six
Demi Thicke
“Ready to hit the road?” Demi asked the Jack as she saw him heating water in the kitchen over a kerosene lamp.
“Yeah, are the rest up?” Jack asked, turning his head and directing his attention toward Demi.
“They are starting to stir,” answered Demi staying at the doorway of the while Jack tended to the boiling pot of water.
“Watch this, add the instant coffee crystals once the water reaches a rolling boil. I’m going to get my kids ready, and then we’ll leave,” muttered Jack. “The sooner we are out of here, the better,” he said walking toward his kids’ bedroom.
A few moments later, the group assembled in the kitchen, seated at the dining room table while Jack got his kids together. Demi had poured them a cup of coffee and they discussed the route toward Pocatello. Demi hoped that the group would reach Pocatello that day, but she was unsure. If they could at least reach Lava Hot Springs, that would put them just under forty miles to the college campus where Lacey was. They could get her in the early morning and head north.
In the state that Sophie was in, Demi had little hope that they would travel at the same speed they had been, since Tom’s death, Sophie had withdrawn and did not even look at Lily. Perhaps Lily was a reminder of Tom and Sophie couldn’t face that just yet. Demi was hopeful that she would shortly. Instead, Sophie only fed Lily when Helene brought her to Sophie. For the time being, that was good enough for now.
Jack returned with his kids and their backpacks on their backs and the group assembled in the garage to distribute the supplies they would carry.
Jack’s oldest rode her bike while Jack pulled Dylan in a bike trailer he had connected to his bike the day before. Chris thankfully was not injured badly from the gunshot that grazed his arm, but the emotional scars of actually being shot and the night that Tom died took a toll on him as he remained quiet during the morning.
“We all look ready,” announced John. “Let’s head out!”
Helene and Sophie switched bikes as Helene had mentioned to Demi that she didn’t want Sophie to exert any more energy than necessary. Sophie appeared to struggle to pedal the bike, let alone have extra weight on the bike. Also, the group did not require Sophie to keep any of the supplies, she only carried her firearm. That, John, insisted on.
For most of the day, the group pedaled at a slow, yet steady pace. They would travel for around one hundred miles, and would almost reach Pocatello, but not head to the college campus until the next day. They traveled along the I-89 until it turned into the I-30. With each pedal, Demi knew she was one more step closer to seeing her sister.
Once they reached L
ava Hot Springs, located in a mountainous valley of the Portneuf River. A once-popular resort town, the location, known for its plentiful hot springs, had become a destination for those seeking a relaxing atmosphere before the disaster. Since the power outage, several people from the nearby towns and cities had moved into Lava Hot Springs, as a nice place to wait out the event. Where open plots of land laid, people set up campsites. They cooked and fished, in between trips to the hot springs. Demi noticed that people had fresh fish on the grill, and hung towels on clotheslines. People walked up from the stream where signs indicated that hot spring vents were close by. Demi could not wait to soak her sore body in a geothermally heated pool of water, the thought sounded divine.
John led the group to a plot of land next to a stream. Demi suspected as they waded in the water, they could find hot springs where they could relax and soak their sore muscles. The ride had been grueling from the pedaling up the hill, however, everyone pulled their weight and now it was time to rest before getting to Lacey.
After the group set up camp with three tents, Chris asked Demi to join him on a walk around the hot springs. He had felt better as his fright wore off and had been much more talkative with both Demi and Mike as the ride went on. Chris took Rufus with them.
It was late afternoon, and a nice time to take a walk. Demi hadn’t worked out what they would eat for dinner just yet. She doubted the stream had fish since it had a hot spring that heated it. Perhaps she would work on her hunting skills later on in the evening.
Chris and Demi talked about the ride and getting to Lacey in the morning. Chris took Demi by surprise. “So, you don’t mind that I’m on this journey with you, do you?” Chris asked Demi as the pair walked down the street.
Lights Out (Book 2): Power Trip Page 7
