by Max Lockwood
It startled Clara for a moment, because Cooper wasn’t one to curse easily, and the few occasions it did happen still surprised her. But, she supposed she couldn’t exactly blame him with the current situation. She glanced around again, glad she'd thought to move out of the way or she likely would have been stomped on. She stood between the rear and front of two cars, and the only reason no one had bumped into either of them, was because everyone was rushing for the free path between the lines of cars.
Finally noticing what she was doing, and giving up on what he was trying to do, he looked around as well and noted the craziness surrounding them. His arm went around Clara's shoulder in silent support, and she leaned into him gratefully. The adrenaline must have been washing out of her bloodstream, because she suddenly felt weak. Not enough to collapse, but she really wanted to.
Then Clara was reminded of her sister's threat that the world would end, and felt her eyes widen slightly.
Was there… even the slightest possibility that she hadn't been spouting more nonsense…?
No, it couldn’t be.
She calmed herself, knowing the world wasn’t over yet, but searched for a better reason.
But what could possibly have caused what just happened? Electricity going off everywhere was one thing, but cars and planes didn’t have any electrical connections on the ground, there was no reason why they also shut off. Then she heard a scream that cut off her thinking and she looked around to see that most of the people had gotten away, but there were some that couldn’t. She looked around, knowing what she had to do, but looking for help that wasn’t available.
So, she shook Cooper's arm until he glanced down at her. "We should try and help out. We can't just wait for an ambulance that might never come."
He glanced down at her, his jaw firmed in determination. "Let's go."
They got closer to the wreckage, and her heart started fluttering again, moving too fast. She didn’t want to be too close to this thing. Especially once they got close enough and saw it was uneasy, unbalanced on the cars. Light metal groaning made her shiver, as she imagined it falling and attempting to crush them yet again. Even though morbid curiosity was still there, she stopped herself from looking too closely at Cooper's car. Only the front of it was crushed, which meant they would have died—or Cooper would have, if he hadn't followed her like she'd thought, hoped.
She shuddered, not wanting to think about what would have happened if he hadn't trusted her enough—or cared enough to go after her even though he thought she was acting a bit insane.
"Be careful, Cooper," she warned as they headed for a car.
It was too close to the plane, and it looked so much bigger up close. She'd expected that, but it was a little scary. For a second, she wondered whether trying to help was worth it, but then she felt a twinge in her chest and felt guilt for even thinking of turning back. Besides, she'd already gotten this far.
The first car she approached had a young couple inside. She knocked lightly on the glass but neither of them seemed to notice or move.
"Hey!" she called, knocking on the glass again. "Can you hear me?"
Still no movement. After a few seconds, when they didn’t try to communicate back, she glanced over at Cooper on the other side of the car. He was trying to open the door, but it was obviously locked. The man sitting on that side had his head on the window, so he couldn’t exactly crack that. It was clear they were hurt, likely unconscious. Neither one looked like they could wake up to undo the locks.
Suddenly, the sound of groaning metal grew louder. Clara looked up at the ominous sound, and felt her eyes go round.
"Cooper!" she all but screamed, but he must have seen it with her, because he was coming around to her side and taking her elbow.
The airplane began to tilt, some metal screeched as the cars already under it were being crushed as it moved. They were forced to abandon the hurt couple to save themselves. It wasn’t ideal, but there was no time to think. They didn't get too far, but it was far enough that when the plane fell and rolled, they weren’t nearby to feel the damage. A few more cars were crushed, but there wasn’t an explosion this time.
There was a crash that shook the ground when one of the wings hit the ground and stopped it from moving, then a painful screech that made them both cover their ears as the wing snapped, and another mini quake when the body of the plan landed on the ground. They stumbled, holding onto each other to stay on their feet.
Clara looked back when everything settled again, horrified that the couple she had just tried to save must be dead. She didn’t think she could try to get that close again, but there might still be people around. She was lucky enough to be fine, and she hadn't managed to save the couple, but there were still people that would need help. She wouldn't play the coward and just run again, not when she could help someone, the help she would like to have had she been the one in trouble.
"Do you still want to go back over there?"
She looked up to find Cooper looking down at her. Clara wasn’t sure she would be able to speak, so she gave a sharp nod. A smile flit across his face, there and gone in a second.
"We can still help some others while we wait for help from the ambulance." He frowned and looked around. "Or at least any medical personnel that can manage to get out here."
Right. If all cars weren’t working, it made sense neither would an ambulance. But without working phones, how could they even contact anyone?
Though they might not need to. The crash was loud enough up close, it could have been heard from a bit of a distance. It was the best they could hope for, that or one of the screaming runners thought to go get help.
Clara thinned her lips. She couldn’t think of that, not just then. She had to believe help was coming someway, somehow. If she waited to think about it, she was going to have a breakdown. There was some internal amusement as she thought that, remembering the same thing nearly happened to her just the day before. The problems she'd thought were so overwhelming then paled in comparison to the current situation.
"It's the end of the world, kids. I'd suggest you help yourselves."
The voice was unexpected, it startled Clara enough to give a small squeak. She and Cooper turned around, only to freeze. An old woman stood behind them, and she had a gun in her hand.
Chapter Six
Clara stood in front of Cooper, who didn’t move as they both stared at the woman. She was fearful she would try to harm them and hoped Cooper wouldn’t think of the situation and get in front of her, try to play the white knight. She feared for herself, but she didn’t want anything to happen to him.
She didn’t, though. Instead, she turned the gun in her hand, and held it out to Clara.
For a moment, none of them moved, and they were locked in something of a standoff. Then Clara took a deep breath and took a step closer. She moved cautiously, just in case. But it would be better to have the gun out of the woman's hand, just in case she did try something. When she made no move, just held the gun out, Clara moved a little faster, a little less cautiously, feeling something like relief when her hand caught the butt of the gun and the woman released it.
The weight of it in her hand was heavier than she would have thought, but the initial surprise faded quickly to unease. She held the firearm gingerly, wondering what she was supposed to do with it now.
Shaky and confused, Clara asked, "What's going on?"
She didn’t think she knew this woman, yet she was handing over a gun. Clara wasn’t even sure where the woman had come from, or the gun. She could have come from one of the cars, or might have hidden close to one of them, like she had, or she would have been swept away by the stampede. She was well on in years, maybe in her late forties, early fifties with graying hair. She wouldn’t have survived the onrush of people. But why would she even have a gun?
The woman didn’t seem to mind the scrutiny, arching up a prim eyebrow. "I came prepared for the apocalypse, and you should be, too."
But C
lara was already shaking her head, refusing to take that explanation. "There must be an explanation for everything that's going on—"
"No," she said insistently. "You can think what you want, but this, what just happened? It was only the beginning. People are going to panic, and they are going to do stupid things. Believe me or not, the sooner you and your young man adjust, the more likely you are to survive."
Clara couldn’t argue against that. Whether or not it was the apocalypse, if this happened now, it could happen again, and was probably happening in other areas. If planes were crashing out of the sky… not to mention the loss of vehicles, of electronics, loss of connection to each other, to the outside, people were going to panic, and that was never a good thing.
"I wish you luck," the old woman said as a parting shot and walked away.
She just stared until the woman was out of sight, wondering what the hell was going on. Not so long ago, at least it didn’t feel like it, the world had made sense. It hadn't been particularly wonderful, but it was bearable. And now everything was literally falling apart, and though she wanted to deny it, the dread climbing in her throat told Clara it would only get worse.
"Clara."
His voice was close behind her and gentle, but it still made her jump and whirl around. Unexpectedly, he threw his hands up, palms out like he was trying to hold her back, but his eyes had gone down. She followed his eyes and only remembered she had the gun in her hand when she saw it.
She made a sound of distress, wanting to drop it. Opposing what she wanted to do, her hand tightened on it. Clara had never touched a gun before, had never wanted to. If she had fantasized about it, it had been someone else she imagined holding one, a character she created. She wasn’t actually into violence outside of fiction, so it was just another situation she never thought she would find herself in.
How guns worked was a general mystery to her, but everyone who'd ever watched TV would have the idea that touching the trigger set it off. But her finger wasn’t curled around the trigger, so it should have been fine. Yet she was worried, and so was Cooper.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" Her voice didn’t come out as calm as she wanted, an edge of hysteria coloring her tone.
But she didn’t know what to do about it. She didn’t want to keep it, and yet, if that woman gave it to her, it was so it would be useful, right? Why would some random person hand them something useless if she was sure the apocalypse was coming? It was true, too, when humans panicked they did stupid things. She could only imagine the current confusion going around wouldn’t impede criminal activity, if anything heighten it, but not stop it.
But she had never shot a gun, and was pretty sure she would never want to use it on another human being.
She held it up, holding it aimed down, just in case, and held it out to Cooper, carefully. He took it from her and tucked it into his hoodie for safekeeping. Once he had it put away, they were both a little more relaxed. Then they were just looking around again, lost on what to do next.
"How could all the power possibly go out at once," Cooper wondered aloud, and Clara turned to look up at him. He was frowning in confusion, eyes moving back and forth. "Not only on the ground, but in the sky."
Clara looked around at what he was seeing, and noticed that electrical signs in windows had gone out, too. Everything, even planes and cars it seemed, ran on electricity, but what exactly could shut it all down?
"It must be a freak accident," she murmured, trying to believe it and knowing it wasn’t plausible.
Freak accidents weren’t of this magnitude. They had no idea and no way to find out the extent of the damage, but if it was not just in their area, then something big was going on. She wasn’t smart enough to think of what, though, having never encountered anything like it before. All she could come up with were wacky theories too ridiculous to say out loud.
"I don’t know." She turned back in time to see Cooper shrug, then he arched an eyebrow her way. "I was thinking more along the lines of a foreign government attack. I mean, I've heard of EMP attacks that take away all electrical devices and modern communications. Similar things could be happening all over the state, though it's only an estimate. I mean, it wouldn’t make sense this was the only area affected."
Clara blinked at him. She couldn’t discount it, but she didn’t think it was all that likely either. She'd heard of such a concept in a movie once, but in real life? She was far from being a weapons expert, but even if one existed, the magnitude of its reach… was a weapon like that truly possible? She had no way of knowing, and the idea of it alone frightened her.
If it truly was an attack, would more be coming?
But this didn’t feel quite like that. She doubted this was some attack from a foreign government, because how would it have been carried out? Clara was fairly sure something like that wouldn’t have gone undetected.
"The shock is making you think unreasonably," she told him.
But she did wonder if there was a ring of truth to his words. He didn’t know more about weapons than she did, but could it really be impossible? Aside from something created by a human being, what could possibly cause this kind of damage so easily? She couldn’t think of anything, but the possibility had her nervous.
They stopped contemplating, though it refused to leave Clara's mind, as they went around looking for survivors, now that the plane looked like it wouldn’t move anymore. They assisted several people in getting out of their cars, though some people were too badly injured to escape. There was some hesitation when dealing with those cases, she didn’t want to leave them but she was hardly qualified to do any of this.
Quite a few were in shock, though plenty seemed to realize the situation they were in. Almost all of them were hurt somehow. Even if their cars didn’t get crushed, or hit, the force of the explosion had cracked some windshields, so nearly all of them were cut up.
Clara tried to calm children and adults alike, insisting the ambulance services would be there soon. She wasn’t sure, but she had to tell them something before they all gave in to hysteria.
The exercise took a while. Whoever they found, they led away from the cars, at least the ones they felt safe enough to move, letting them sit on a patch of sidewalk to wait there for assistance before going back for others. Clara wished she could just join them, but then none of them looked to be in any shape to be helping themselves, let alone others.
Neither of them were sure how long it took, but it felt like hours. Clara felt she would be depleted of all her energy and pass out, but kept herself moving. When eventually paramedics showed up, they were on foot.
Clara didn’t care. She was so happy to see them she collapsed to her knees and felt her eyes sting with tears. These were people who would know how to help the injured, and they came with bags that likely held resources to help those injuries that she didn’t. It wasn’t long before Cooper came to where she was, but he just sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders, letting her lean into him, and she did so gladly.
She ignored any offered help when one of them approached her, directing them to others who needed it more. She just needed to rest, maybe some water, but she could think about that later. Physically, she felt okay, if a little exhausted.
What she really wished for, though, was a way to contact her family. But there was no way to call home. If cell phones weren’t working, she didn’t think even the landline would, so she was essentially cut off from them. Eventually, they'd have to walk back, and just thinking of it, knowing they were a good distance away, made her want to cry.
But she knew they were safe from the wreckage, even if the power was out. She could be glad of that, at least.
After a short rest, she was feeling restless again. Her limbs shook when she went to stand, and though she expected him to, Cooper didn’t argue with her. He seemed to realize she needed to be active. Sitting too much would lead to thinking and she was trying very hard not to. She would go insane if she stoppe
d to think about any of this.
She looked through some cars a little closer to the wreckage. A few of the vehicles had been hit by shrapnel and debris, though calling it that when they were pieces from the plane and cars crushed under the plane, sounded ridiculous. One car had a large piece of metal sticking through the front windshield and part of the top of the car. She shuddered and looked away, deciding not to look at that one too closely.
Then Clara found a woman, she was trapped under the crashed front of her car. Clara watched for a moment, surprised to see the woman was conscious. She didn’t scream, but Clara could see her head moving, eyes blinking, dazed and confused. She must not have been feeling the pain yet, or just didn’t have the strength to voice it out loud, and Clara wanted to get her out so she could be seen to quickly.
"Ma'am? Please, don’t panic. I'm going to try and help, I promise." She made her voice louder, hoping to be heard through the glass, but the woman didn’t acknowledge her.
She tried for the car door, cursing when she found it locked. She'd have to break the window on the passenger side, at least she was alone so it was a possibility. She looked around for something to break a window with then went around to the passenger side, holding up the piece of metal she'd picked up and preparing to hit the already cracked window.
Before she could, though, her eyes registered what was inside. She could see better here than she could have from the other side. Even if she made her way inside, the woman's legs were crushed and she was bleeding, a lot, red splattered all over her. She must have sustained another injury that Clara wasn’t seeing. Even if she got inside, what exactly could she do for this woman? There were only human hands available, currently, and she looked like her legs were stuck under all that metal. What could any of them do for her without hurting her further?
And it hit her, just then, the realization that hundreds were going to die.
Chapter Seven
