“Well something did happen. A lot of somethings happened, but the good news is I found the meds!” Alex said excitedly, ignoring all of his injuries that were crying out at the same time.
David didn’t appear as excited as Alex was about the news, but Alex didn’t have time to process this as they were interrupted by Olivia, who came rushing out of their house.
“She’s either going to hug me or kill me,” Alex mumbled as she ran up to him. “In fact, the way I feel right now. Her hug might actually kill me.” He dropped the bike and backpack and waited to find out his fate.
“Where have you been?” Olivia yelled with tears in her eyes. Alex thought she might hit him, but then he knew he was safe, when he could see the look of concern in her eyes from seeing all of his visible injuries. She caressed his face and turned his head, so she could get a better look at his eye. “What happened to you? You’re bleeding and bruised everywhere.”
“I’m ok,” Alex said smiling as he pulled his wife close to him and hugged her. “Now I’m ok.” After holding Olivia for a moment, he pulled back and picked up the backpack. “I need to get these over to Jack’s house. I found meds for him. It’s a crazy story. Impossible really. I can’t wait to tell you guys about it.”
Alex took his wife's hand and expected her to walk with him over to Jack’s house to deliver the antibiotics, but she resisted.
“Wait,” she said despondently, avoiding eye contact with him.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked impatiently. “Jack needs to start taking these right away. We’ll have plenty of time to talk after.”
“Alex…” David said without finishing his thought.
Alex looked from Olivia to David and in that moment, by the sadness in their eyes, he knew that he had been too late and his friend was gone.
“When?” Alex asked. He immediately began to blame himself for falling asleep in that house and wasting so much time there.
“Not long after you left,” David said. “The infection just wiped him out. His fever was too high and he started having seizures. He died just before sun down.”
Alex dropped the pack again and turned away as he began to sob in his grief. After a minute, he took a deep breath and turned back to them.
“Is someone with Andrea?” Alex asked. “She’s got to be devastated.”
Olivia and David both burst into tears themselves at the question. Olivia hugged her husband again in preparation for the second dose of bad news.
“She went with him,” David said, clearing his throat and wiping his face with his shirt. He finished composing himself before he explained further. “When she was having those problems before, Lilliana and Naomi suspected it was her heart. When Jack died, the stress was too much for her and she passed a couple of hours later.”
Alex was shocked by the unbelievable news that they had lost both of the Sullivan’s during the time that he was gone. He stood there silently for a few minutes, before he turned to face his wife.
“I need to see my kids,” he said finally through the tears with his lower lip quivering as he said the words. “I need to go home.” Olivia took his hand and the two of them walked back to their house.
CHAPTER 20
The next day, the Oak Tree Lane group worked together for most of the day to dig a grave for their friends. Alex had been unable to help the others with the grave, due to the strict orders of Naomi and Lilliana, who convinced him that he would be next to die from infection, if he did not give his wounds a chance to heal. He was also dealing with the lingering effects of the concussion that he suffered, when he hit his head in the dog attack. So after minimal protesting on his part, he heeded their treatment plan and accepted his much needed rest.
Later in the day, once the grave was ready, the Sullivans were finally laid to rest in a shared plot in an area of the cemetery close to the graves of their other neighbors who had died since the EMP attack. Chung and Seung Kim were buried together in one plot nearby, while Mr. Harrison was buried alone in a separate plot. Mr. Harrison’s daughter, Diane, was the only neighbor who had not been buried with the rest, since she had gone missing in the early days after the disaster. The deaths of Jack and Andrea brought their death toll to six in the 5 weeks that had passed since the power went out.
The friends and neighbors all paid their respects and reminisced about their experiences with the cranky old former U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant and his caring wife, who had become like surrogate grandparents of sorts to all of the neighborhood children. Each family took turns sharing their thoughts and memories and what started as a somber event turned into a festive celebration of their lives with a few laughs mixed in with the tears.
The Walkers stayed behind during this memorial time, since they hadn’t had the time to get to know Jack and Andrea like the rest had. Erik kept watch over the neighborhood, while Emma stayed with the children at the Anderson house, where they played together just like they would on any other day. The group had talked to the children about the death of the Sullivan’s, but they felt as though they were still too young to expose them to the actual burial process.
At the end of their time of remembrance, Tony laid a wood board on the grave. The hand carved letters spelled out their names with ANDREA SULLIVAN written on top and JACK “GUNNY” SULLIVAN on the bottom. After a final moment of silent reflection, each couple said their goodbyes and somberly turned away to begin the short walk back to their neighborhood.
The Stones were the last family to say goodbye and as they started to walk away, Alex hesitated and turned to look back towards the fresh grave. Olivia knew that her husband felt burdened by the fact that he had not been able to save Jack, so she placed a supportive hand on his shoulder as a fresh stream of tears flowed from both of their eyes again.
From his hilltop position, Alex took in the scenic view of the rest of the cemetery with the rolling Blue Hills off in the distance. The panoramic image was still a beautiful sight to behold and, for the most part, it appeared to have been spared from much of the devastation that had marred most of the landscape in the area. As he stood there, Alex reflected on the last time he had been there with Jack, when they hunted geese together a week before. He also thought about how much their friendship had grown during the past five weeks, which in reality felt more like a lifetime.
As devastating as the EMP was on the lives of everyone in the impact zone, Alex could see that there were some positive things that came out of the disaster. Getting to know Jack and Andrea and the other neighbors better was a prime example of that. Prior to the EMP, the neighbors of Oak Tree Lane had barely known each other. But in the time that passed since the attack, they had grown into a family.
Alex took a long final look at the graves of each of his friends and neighbors who had died in the recent weeks. He turned his attention to an old shovel leaning against a nearby tree and wondered if it would be put to use again. Alex thought about his family and friends in that moment and pondered the gravity of their situation. In the dark days ahead, would the remnants of his group continue to survive or would they too succumb to the downward spiral of their fallen world?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Douglas is a dedicated husband and father from Boston who enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, camping and paddling. He is also an emergency preparedness enthusiast and often helps family and friends to improve their preparedness plans for potential natural and man-made disasters.
The Power Struggle Series (Book 2): The Downward Spiral Page 14
