“Listen everyone. Something major must have happened or else the lights would be on and someone would have come for us. Unless you want to continue to wait here, I suggest we head out. I have two flashlights…”
“Two?”
“And I think we should try to get back to the entrance. Going forward will take a lot longer and there are some tricky parts. What I want you to do is come to the light again. You will each grab the shirt of the person in front of you and I will give a light to the last person in line. I’ll have the other one and I will lead us back to the entrance,” he said.
A few grumbled but at last they were all touching his hand.
“Okay, now let’s form a line and do not let go of the person in front of you. Who is the last person?”
“I guess that would be me,” a male voice said.
“You are?”
“Barry. Barry Henderson.”
“Good. Barry, hold out your hand and I’ll give you the other flashlight. I’ll shine mine on the floor in front of where we are going and you keep yours about half way up the line.”
“I can do that.”
“Good. Now everyone, please, don’t try to rush. If I am going too fast just let me know. I know we have been in here a long time but hurrying at this point could lead to someone getting hurt. We don’t need another injury.”
“What about Mr. Jameson?” someone asked.
“He didn’t make it.”
“He died?”
“I’m afraid so,” Willie said.
“Man. This has been some experience,” a voice uttered.
“Amen to that,” another replied.
“Okay, moaning won’t do any good. Let’s just concentrate on getting out of here. Now, if for some reason you do lose hold of the person in front of you, make sure you yell out right away. Don’t waste time trying to find them. I’ll stop until we are all reconnected again. Everyone clear?”
A chorus of ‘yes’ came back.
“Good. Here we go,” he said and started leading them back toward the entrance.
****
It went smoother than he had expected. Thirty-five minutes later they were all in the main entrance.
“Usually when we leave through the normal exit, the light gets progressively brighter so you can adjust to the sunshine. We have been in the total dark for over two hours. I’m going to open the door slowly so it won’t blind you. Everyone ready?”
They said they were so he slowly cracked the door. A stream of dull light came through the crack. It wasn’t nearly as bright as he had expected it to be. It had been a beautifully sunny day when he first led them into the cavern.
He opened it further and after a few moments someone said, “Let’s just get the hell out of here. My ass is frozen off. I’ve had enough.”
“Fine,” was all Willie said.
He opened the door and they filed out. It wasn’t the same bright sunny day as when they had entered.
“What the….” a man said, pointing up at the sky.
“Tornado?”
“That’s too strange.”
“Where is everyone?” someone asked, looking around the parking lot.
“What happened to the trees? None of them have leaves.”
“It had to have been a tornado,” one woman said.
“Willie?”
“I don’t know. I’m never seen anything like it before.”
“Well, where are all the people? The lot is full of cars.”
“I guess they went inside. The main building has a basement. Maybe they went down there for protection,” he suggested.
“Mommy, what’s all that yucky stuff?” the little girl asked.
“I don’t know honey but don’t touch it. It looks nasty,” the mother replied.
“What is that stuff?” someone else asked.
Blotches of slime were all around the entrance to the cavern. Willie bent down and looked at it. He saw rings, watches, earrings and assorted jewelry in most of them. Several had belt buckles and coins mixed in with them.
He reached out to touch one of the watches and like those in other areas that had come into contact with the substance he screamed and began shaking his finger, trying to stop the burning. Everyone gasped and reacted by stepping back, putting distance between them and Willie.
“What happened?”
“What’s going on?”
“Why is the man screaming mommy?”
Finally the pain passed enough for Willie to say, “Don’t touch that stuff. I think it is some kind of acid.”
He held up his finger for everyone to see.
“Why would someone leave that stuff lying around?” Barry Henderson asked.
“I honestly don’t have a clue,” Willie said, looking at the blackened skin on his finger.
“Can we check on the people inside?”
“I think that’s an excellent suggestion,” Willie said and headed toward the main building with the others following close behind.
When they got inside, more splotches of the same substance were found in various spots.
“Wait here. I’ll check the basement,” he said and headed through a door marked ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’.
He had to use his flashlight again. None of the lights were on in the building. After a few minutes of playing the light around he knew no one was down there. He went back upstairs.
“Well?”
He shook his head ‘no’.
“Where are they then?”
“I don’t know.”
“This is silly. They couldn’t have just disappeared. They have to be around here someplace. Maybe they are all in the cavern.”
“No. They would have been in the entrance to the cavern. We would have passed them.”
“Frankly, I don’t care any longer what happened to them. I’m getting out of here,” the lady with the child said and headed for her car.
The others agreed and soon, Willie was standing in the middle of the building, all alone. It was strangely quiet. He started walking through the building, sticking his head in the office door, gift shop and even restrooms but he found only the same globs of gunk.
How could everyone have just disappeared? Where the hell did they go? He was pondering that question when the lady with the little girl came back in.
“My car won’t start.”
“Leave the lights on?”
“No, I did not leave the lights on. It just won’t start. It’s deader than a doornail.”
“I have jumper cables in my car. I’ll give you a jump start.”
“Could you hurry? I really want to get out of here.”
“Sure,” he said and they started out the door. Just as they were exiting the building two others came up.
“My car won’t start.”
“Mine either.”
Willie looked puzzled. They occasionally had someone leave their lights on and he had helped several people but never three in the same group. While they were talking, the other four walked up and reported the same results.
“This is really unusual. I’ll be around to give each of you a jump. I’ll start with you,” Willie said, indicating the mother and child.
He headed to his car and stuck the key in the ignition. Nothing. He tried again with the same result. His car was totally dead as well. This was just too unreal, he thought. What in the hell is going on around here? If this was a joke, it sure wasn’t funny.
He sat with his head leaned back against the headrest trying to let his mind just go blank for a few seconds. He had just closed his eyes when one of the people tapped on his door. He rolled down the window.
“Are you coming?”
“I can’t. My car is dead too.”
“What? That’s crazy. They can’t all have dead batteries at the same time.”
“It may be crazy but that appears to be just exactly what happened,” Willie replied.
“Please, just tell me just what is going on around here will you?” they asked.
>
“I wish I knew.”
“Someone had damn well better have an explanation. I’m really getting mad.”
“I’m not too happy about it either. Whatever it is, no one that works here had anything to do with it, that I can assure you of that.”
“So you say.”
“Yes, I do,” Willie said, rolling up the window and getting out of the car.
He walked back to the building and sat down on the steps, making sure to avoid the splotches.
“Call a tow truck or something,” Henderson said, “I tried my cell phone but it isn’t working.”
“Mine either,” the others reported.
Willie tried his with the same results.
“None of the cars work and none of our cell phones. That sounds like an EMP blast.”
“What’s an ENT?”
“EMP, Electro Magnetic Pulse. It’s a way of disrupting all communication devices or anything that operates on a computer chip,” Henderson replied.
“How do you know that?”
I was in the military. EMPs are used when you want to knock out the enemy’s communication systems.”
“So someone used it on us?”
“I don’t know, but this has the signs.”
“Who in the hell would do such a thing?”
“Terrorists, another country, or maybe it was an accident.”
“And maybe that wasn’t it at all?” another man said.
“You could be right but I don’t know what else it could be.”
“Does this EMP thing melt people?” the lady asked.
“Melt people? That’s not what it is intended for. I mean, it uses an electromagnetic burst of energy to fry electrical components. It isn’t used to kill people,” Henderson explained.
“But if it happened too close to people could it, you know? Kill them?”
“I really don’t know. I suppose in theory it might hurt them but I doubt if it could melt them.”
“Then what happened to all the other people and what are those things,” she said, pointing to the ground. Henderson just shrugged.
“Someone has to have the answers. How far is it to the nearest town or whatever?”
“The entrance is back that way about a half mile. If you go north you will come to a crossroad with a couple of gas stations and a grocery store. Beyond that is Lewisburg,” Willie said.
“Then I’m for hiking down there and finding out what is going on,” the man replied.
“I’ll go with you,” Henderson offered.
“Then let’s book. I want to get the hell out of this area and never come back.”
“I’m with you on that,” Henderson replied and the two men set off. The others found places to sit and wait.
“Mommy, I want to go home.”
“So do I baby, so do I.”
****
The two men set off down the road.
“Name’s Mark. Mark Wilson. I’m from Madison, Wisconsin.”
“High. I’m…”
“I know. Barry Henderson.”
“Right. This has been some day.”
“I’m going to sue this place into the weeds when this is all over.”
“Why? I don’t think they caused this,” Henderson said.
“Doesn’t really matter. They will settle out of court. They won’t want the bad publicity. I did that to Subway a few years back. Got two hundred grand out of it.”
Henderson just remained quiet. They walked along in silence until they came to the entrance to the property. Directly across the highway were two cars that had obviously been involved in an accident.
“Looks like someone else is having a bad day,” Wilson said, turning north.
“Don’t you think we should check it out?”
“Why? I ain’t no doctor and I didn’t see it happen. What good would that do?”
“Suit yourself but I’m going to see if everything is okay.”
“Ah Christ. I just want to get going,” Wilson replied.
“Go on. I’ll catch up with you.”
“No. If you’re going to go check it out, I’ll go too.”
What a jerk, Henderson thought as he jogged over to the cars. As he crossed the highway he could see other cars stopped and off to the side of the road. It looked like several others had been involved in collisions as well.
What the hell was happening he wondered? He reached the cars and looked in the first one but found no one inside. He looked in the second car and found the same thing. This was just too bizarre. Both cars had the same substance they kept seeing. The first car had four splotches and the second on had two. The same kinds of materials were left behind. Keys, rings, watches and jewelry.
“I guess they were taken to a hospital,” Wilson said, coming up to join him.
“I don’t think so. I’m starting to get a very bad feeling about all of this.”
“What kind of bad feeling?”
“I’m not sure yet. But I think you’re right. We need to get to the gas station.”
“Why are all the other cars just parked along the highway?” Wilson asked, scratching his head.
“Let’s get to the station and find out.”
“I’m cool with that.”
The two men walked at a much quicker pace and within ten minutes they could see the crossroads. They headed to the nearest station. Cars were in the lot and at the pumps, but no one was around. It was just like everyplace else. They went inside and looked around. The lights were off and they found no one.
“Want something to munch on?” Wilson said, taking several candy bars.
“Not just now. Let’s go across the street and see what’s going on.”
“Sure,” Wilson said, shrugging and stuffing three candy bars in his pocket. They found the same conditions at both of the other gas station and in the grocery store. No lights were on and no one was around.
“Now what?”
“I don’t know. Try the phone,” Henderson suggested.
Wilson picked up the receiver.
“Nothing. It’s dead.”
“EMP,” Henderson muttered.
“Don’t know about that but something is certainly not right.”
“Ya think?” Henderson said.
“So what do you think we should do next?”
“I guess go back and tell the others.”
“What good will that do? ‘Hey guys, we can’t find anyone around and all the cars on the highway have been abandoned’. That will do a lot of good,” Wilson said.
“What do you suggest?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Go on. Get in one of the cars out there and drive to the next town. Something.”
“Why don’t you go try the cars? See if one of them will start,” Henderson said, just wanting him to leave so he could think.
Wilson looked at him for a second then went out to check the cars. Henderson closed his eyes and tried to think about what he had heard about EMP’s and nuclear bombs. The EMT part made sense but a nuclear attack didn’t. No mushroom clouds, no damage to structures or cars. A nuclear device would have done much more damage.
Biological agents? Maybe, but if that was true, what could have acted so quickly? Were the splotches all that remained of humans? He shivered involuntarily just thinking about it. How far reaching was it? Maybe even more important, what were they going to do next? Finally they agreed to walk back to the others and tell them what they had found.
****
“What does this all mean?” Liz Nelson asked, holding her daughter while the little girl slept on her shoulder.
“We honestly don’t know. Has anyone noticed the sounds?”
“What sounds? It’s dead quiet,” Willie said.
“That’s what I mean. Do you hear anything at all?”
Everyone fell silent. There was nothing to hear. Not even the wind.
“That’s spooky,” Erin Spade, the other woman in the group from the cave said.
“We saw absolutely n
o vegetation in any of the fields and not one other person,” Henderson told them.
“So, what do we do now?” Liz asked.
“We tried most of the cars and none would start. I guess we could try to make it to the nearest town,” Wilson said.
“What? I can’t do that. I have a daughter to take care of. Even if we did, what do you think we would find?”
“What do you suggest? We just sit here? I ain’t gonna just sit here hoping someone comes along. I’m going to try to make it to the next town. If I find someone or a vehicle that will run, we can come back for you. I really don’t know what else to tell you,” Wilson replied.
“I think what Mr. Wilson is trying to convey in his own way is that we are out of options and we have to try to establish contact with someone. There are people someplace; we just have to try to find them. Willie, does the main building have an emergency generator?” Henderson asked.
“There is some big engine out back but I don’t know what it does or how to operate it.”
“Show me,” Henderson said.
Willie led him to the back of the building. An older diesel powered generator sat there with three fifty-five gallon barrel drums beside it.
“Let’s see if we can get this puppy running,” Henderson said reading the panel where the start procedures were located on a plate.
He followed the directions, crossed his fingers and pushed the start button. The big machine cranked over slowly but didn’t start. Barry fiddled with the air intake and checked the wiring that he could see. One lead was rusty.
“Got a can of coke around here?”
“In the building,” Willie said.
“Get it and bring it back here.”
“I don’t think it is going to be very cold.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
Willie shrugged and went inside to get it. He returned a few minutes later and handed the can to Henderson.
“It’s warm.”
Henderson didn’t say anything. He just opened the coke can and poured the coke over the terminal. He let it sit a few seconds before he tried the start button again. The engine cranked over caught once and then died. He tried it again and it sputtered a few times.
“Come on. Fire,” he said.
It chugged and then stopped. He poured the coke on the other terminals and tried it again. It cranked over and finally caught enough to start running. Slowly at first and then it kicked in and started chattering away.
THE END - Book I - Of THE EVENT SERIES Page 10
