Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode One (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 1)

by Douglas Wayne

  Much like the highways, the roadways here were clear, but there were signs of life as they occasionally passed people walking down the side of the road.

  "Do you think it's odd every person we pass looks like they are searching for something?" Mark asked after the pair passed a sixth person walking along side of the road.

  Tyler had noticed the people outside looked lost, but thought nothing of it believing they might have been looking for a dog or cat that got out while they slept. But now that Mark had pointed it out, it seemed odd those were the only people they saw instead of the normal joggers or walkers that were common this time of the morning.

  Also weird was the complete lack of school traffic. It was pushing seven o'clock, and they had yet to pass a single school buss. On any other school day he would've passed a few by now. Not only that, but this was well into the morning rush hour and the roads were fairly clear.

  They'd passed a few cars heading the other way, but there was nowhere near the amount of traffic that should've been on the streets this time of day. If he didn't know better, he'd swear today was a holiday. At least that way, the lack of people and traffic would make sense.

  A few miles down the road that all changed.

  "What is that?" Mark asked, pointing to the intersection ahead of them.

  A mangled mass of seven wrecked vehicles filled the intersection, blocking the road from all four directions. Around the mess, people gathered to look at the scene, but nobody seemed to be moving in to help. Tyler pulled off into a nearby gas station parking lot and put the truck into park.

  "Stay here. I'll make sure everyone is OK." Tyler hoped Mark would listen to him. If someone needed help, Mark was hardly in any condition to give him a hand. He didn't need to be bending over or lifting any more than was necessary until he got medical help. Tyler figured if someone here needed help, he could get someone standing around to give him a hand instead.

  Tyler approached the intersection cautiously. Shattered glass and bits of metal and fiberglass littered the street and sidewalk from the numerous impacts. The humming of roughly running engines got louder as he got close. He looked at the onlookers with a hint of curiosity, wondering why not one of them had moved in to at least turn off the cars.

  Thick black smoke poured out from under the hood of a mid-sized car that had smashed into the side of an SUV, smashing the front end of the car while pushing the door of the SUV a third of the way inside it. Two of the other cars smashed into this initial mess from the front and back as if none of them had been able to stop. The remaining three vehicles had plowed into the mess from the north and south.

  Tyler glanced at the traffic lights, wondering if they were to blame. Yet, from what he could see, the lights were working normally.

  He approached a woman who was holding her phone to the mess, either snapping a picture or taking video. The young blond woman lowered her jaw as she circled the scene, like she was trying to get every dent and scratch into her shot.

  "Is everyone out?" Tyler asked, walking up to her side as she circled.

  "I think so." She took her eyes off the phone long enough to acknowledge Tyler. "I mean, I didn't check, but I figured someone got them out a while ago."

  Tyler looked confused. "When did this happen?"

  "Sometime last night." She glared at him. "Didn't you hear the news?"

  Tyler cracked a smile. "Not a fan."

  She shook her head. "Me neither, but I'm glad I turned it on this morning. There have been wrecks like this all over town. Some reports say it's like this all over the United States. So many crashes that emergency services are having trouble keeping up."

  "Seems weird. Did something happen in the sky last night to throw everyone off?"

  "They aren't saying." She flicked the phone off and put it in her pocket. "But if you ask me, something happened to the people who owned these cars. Why else would they leave them here like this?"

  But what?

  Tyler left the question unanswered and went back to the car. As he walked he tried to work it over in his head. Twice now he'd come across to major accidents and both of them had been abandoned, saying what Mark told him about the other one was true. While he'd only spent a few weeks in Mobile, he doubted the practice was common. Leaving a highway or a major intersection blocked for a moment longer than necessary was a recipe for disaster. Especially when there are only a few paths to the south.

  "What's going on out there?" Mark asked as Tyler got back into the truck.

  "When you went to the accident scene on the highway, did you see anyone around?"

  "Nobody. I checked the firetrucks, ambulances, and even the police cars and didn't find a soul."

  "How about in any of the cars lined up in the traffic jam?"

  "Just you and the guy in the car in front of you."

  Tyler rubbed his chin as he thought about what he'd just heard. None of it made any sense. In what kind of world would so many people abandon their cars like that without a dangerous threat in the area?

  "Tell me about the accident. Was there a tractor trailer involved?"

  "Yeah," he replied. "Two of them. One of them jackknifed and was blocking most of the highway. The other one was hauling a chrome tanker though it was on its side."

  "Spilling anything?"

  Mark shook his head. "I didn't notice anything." He rubbed his head wound. "But I wasn't honestly looking that close."

  Tyler understood. If he'd been in an accident and had a gash like that, he wouldn't have been worried about anything other than getting the cut taken care of. Part of him wished he'd taken the time to check out the scene himself, but it was too late for that. Maybe it had something to do with the evacuations on the highway, maybe it didn't. Unless he knew what was in the tanker, it would only be a guess.

  "You think whatever happened on the highway happened here?" Mark asked, as Tyler pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, cutting through the surrounding parking lots to get through the mess of cars.

  "Maybe. A woman back there told me there have been reports of accidents like this across the US. Maybe they haven't had time to clean some of them up."

  He reached the back side of the CVS and turned around the corner, to get back on the road. As he passed a pair of dumpsters in the back, the passenger side window shattered as a brick flew in, hitting Mark on the side of his face.

  Mark screamed out in agony as the bones in his cheeks shattered. Blood oozed from his mouth, dripping onto his shirt as he held his face.

  Tyler slammed his foot on the gas pedal to get away, barely dodging another brick meant for his window.

  A masked man jumped out from in front of the building, holding an aluminum baseball bat. Tyler swerved to his right to avoid crushing the man as he tried to escape the ambush. As he did, the rear passenger tire blew as it rubbed against the curb, sending the truck into a spin.

  The last thing Tyler remembered was seeing the telephone pole in his way before something hit him in the head and his world turned dark.

  Chapter Three

  "Mister?"

  Tyler felt someone poking something into his shoulder, waking him up. He opened his eyes to see a boy who couldn't be a day over sixteen standing in front of him holding a wooden broom handle. He caught the pole in his hand before the tip could poke into him again.

  "I'm awake."

  "Amazing," the kid marveled as he held the stick to his side. "I thought those guys killed you."

  Tyler ran his hand across his head, noticing the softball sized knot just above his temple. Dried blood covered the knot an flaked off into his hand as it pressed over.

  "What happened?"

  "You were attacked. There were a group of guys hiding in the back of the pharmacy, waiting for someone to circle around the accident."

  "My truck?" Tyler looked around, hoping to see it somewhere close. The blown tire in the middle of the road was the only sign it had been in the area.

  "And your wallet."


  Tyler's hand went back to his back pocket and found it empty. A knot formed in his stomach. "There was another guy with me."

  "The guy with the broken jaw?"

  The scene flashed in his mind. He barely remembered the brick that caught Mark on the jaw just before something got him. "Have you seen him?"

  "Yeah." The kid exhaled sharply, turned around, and walked away.

  Tyler bolted up, pain flooding through his head threatened to send him to the ground as vertigo set in. He'd gotten a concussion or two while supervising job sites and knew he had a big one. "Where is he?"

  "He's gone, man," the kid said, looking over his shoulder as he walked. "They took him out."

  Tyler took a couple steps before the pain doubled him over. Bile threatened to burst from his throat as the dizziness increased ten-fold. He was in bad shape and needed to get to the hospital himself, but had to know. He wanted to see it with his own eyes.

  "Where is he?"

  "Fine man. Your funeral. His body is in the second dumpster. You won't like what you see if you look. They did a number to him."

  The beginnings of a tear formed on the corner of his eye as the reality set in. Mark had died when they stole the truck and for nothing. He probably fought for it, trying to keep it from them not realizing it was a rental and well insured. Even if it wasn't, there wasn't an object in the world losing your life over. A truck is just a truck. There were millions created before this one, and thousands more since. Money and items can always be replaced, but your life never can.

  Tyler wanted to stop the kid, to learn more about the guys who stole his truck, but he disappeared long before the dizziness faded and he could stand on his feet without the aid of a nearby tree. He had more important things to take care of than to track down the thugs who'd stolen his truck and killed the man he was trying to help. First, he needed to call the police and file a report on the truck, not to mention let them know about the murder. He decided, perhaps it was best if he left the body alone for now and let the police handle it. The last thing he needed was to get his fingerprints all over the dumpster and protective gate.

  Instinctively, he reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, but found it was also missing. Without his phone, or his truck, he needed to find a way to call the cops. He looked around, noticing the mess of wrecked cars he'd driven around earlier as a reminder they might be busy. But even seeing that, he knew he had to try.

  He took his time walking across the street, stopping every ten feet to rest while another round of vertigo took its toll. The trek across three lanes of traffic and a few parking stalls took him fifteen minutes, but he knew it was worth it as he made his way to the front door of the CVS.

  Lights were on in the building which was a good sign. That meant there was someone inside manning the store. Without his wallet he wouldn't be able to pick up aspirin for his head, but he could at least have them call the cops.

  With the aid of the brick wall of the building, it only took him five minutes to make it to the front door. He stepped up to the glass double doors, expecting them to open as he triggered the motion sensor, but the door didn't budge. Tyler took a few steps back and back up, thinking maybe he'd come at a bad angle, but it didn't help. The door remained as closed as it was the first time he tried.

  He leaned into the window, cupping his hands together to help him get a peek inside. Fluorescent lighting illuminated the pharmacy and everything inside. He scanned left and right, noticing items on the shelves with the pricing and signage still in place. The white tile floor glistened in the light as if had been waxed the night before. Nothing inside the store seemed out of place except that nobody was around.

  Gone was the cashier who should've been manning the front register, the workers who should've been cleaning and stocking the shelves, and even the manager who should've been inside making sure it all got done.

  Tyler figured maybe someone had forgotten to unlock the door this morning, or he was here too early. Without his phone, he didn't know what time it was, but knew it had to be close.

  After looking around one last time, he banged his fist on the window. "Hello?" He screamed into the seam between the double doors.

  He scanned the inside again, hoping he'd drawn the attention of someone inside with his knocking, but nobody was around.

  Tyler tried again, bashing the bottom part of his hand against the glass as hard as the pain would allow. But if anyone inside heard the racket he was making, they didn't show a sign.

  Tyler was getting frustrated. He needed to get the cops out here sooner than later, but was running out of options. The longer he waited to call the cops, the further the thugs got with his truck and the longer Mark rotted in the dumpster.

  He looked around the intersection again. The crowd that gathered just a while ago had dispersed, leaving the mangled mess of metal, rubber, and glass unattended in the middle of the road. He scanned the rest of his field of view, seeing if anyone else was around.

  For now the coast was clear, but he wasn't sure how long it would stay that way. The pharmacy had everything he needed, both to take care of his cut and a phone to call the cops. But if nobody was answering his knocks, he didn't know what to do.

  He leaned back against the brick wall and eased himself off his feet while he considered his options.

  The first option he had was to wait here for a while, hoping someone eventually opened the door to let him in. Without a clock to know the time, he might sit there for an hour or two before that happened.

  For the second option he could look around for something to break the glass windows of the pharmacy to get inside. One of the wrecked cars in the middle of the road would surely have a crowbar or tire tool he could use. Maybe he'd find one big enough to just pry open the door. He decided he'd save the option as a last resort, since it would take the call out of the equation. Sure, he could still call the cops, but they'd just arrest him for breaking and entering and ignore his claims.

  The final option was to make the grueling trip across the street to the gas station. If he could guarantee someone would be inside, he would've done it without a second thought, but as he sat there watching the front door, he had no way of knowing if anyone was inside unless someone pulled into the station and tried to get in.

  He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes while his brain mulled it over. Blood pulsed in his swollen temple, sending waves of pain through his head. The day had started on the wrong foot and kept going down the same path. He wished he could travel back in time and start all over again, staying in bed another half hour so he could avoid this mess.

  "Shit," he said, his eyes bolted open as he remembered his appointment with the city building inspector. He was supposed to meet him at nine o'clock for the final walk through. If he wasn't there, he'd have to reschedule which would put him back another day or two. Time he already wasn't willing to spend in Alabama, especially now.

  To his side he heard the mechanical grinding of the double doors sliding open. Tyler turned his head and noticed the woman from earlier, her hair now pulled back in a ponytail and a pair of glasses on her nose.

  "Oh my God, what happened to you?" she asked when she noticed him leaning against the wall.

  "I need a phone."

  "You need a doctor." She offered him a hand and helped him to his feet. Once there, he stood with his back against the wall while his body adjusted to his new position.

  "Someone stole my truck, wallet," he reached into his pockets and pulled them out, showing they were empty, "everything."

  "Come inside, let's get that covered."

  She stepped to his side and stood up, putting his armpit on her shoulder to give him some support. Inside the door, she led him to an empty wheelchair that sat not far from the row of carts.

  "Sit," she said as she turned him around and helped him into the chair.

  He felt embarrassed, finding himself sitting in a wheelchair for something as simple as a knot on his head. Surely someo
ne else needs it more than me. He didn't argue with her about it though, figuring there wasn't anyone around now that might.

  Once he was secure, she pushed him to the back of the store to the isle with medical supplies. She pulled a box of gauze pads, wrap, and a tube of antibiotic ointment and placed them on his lap.

  "I," he hesitated. "I can't pay for this."

  "It's on the house. Good thing about being the manager. I can write stuff off for emergencies." She pulled a bottle of rubbing alcohol off the shelf and poured some on one of the gauze pads then rubbed it on the knot, smiling as he let out a slight groan of pain. "And I believe this is an emergency."

  "Thanks." He opened another gauze pad and handed it to her and put the soiled one she handed him into the empty wrapper.

  "I'd say anytime, but you might make it a habit."

  Tyler grinned and flashed his left hand, emphasizing the ring finger on his hand.

  "Figures. The cute ones are always taken." She finished bandaging his forehead and handed him a bottle of Excedrin to help with his headache.

  "Sorry." He popped two of the pills into his hand and dry swallowed them.

  "Oh, it's fine. I have a habit of speaking before I think." She flashed him a toothy grin. "Fatal flaw."

  Tyler laughed. "Guess it could be worse."

  "Stay here for a moment, I'll throw this stuff away and get you something to drink." The woman walked away, leaving him alone in the medicine aisle. While he was glad his head was taken care of, at least from a first-aid standpoint, he felt bad for putting her in a spot. Manager or not, once someone above her learned what she did, someone would have to pay for it. He hoped it wouldn't cost her job.

  Moments later, Tyler's head jerked to the front of the store when he heard the scream.

  Chapter Four

  Hearing the woman scream, Tyler stood up to get to the front of the store as fast as possible, but as soon as he was on his feet, vertigo set in, doubling him over instantly. His head may be bandaged and wrapped, but no amount of gauze would keep the dizziness at bay for long.