by Harley Tate
He glanced over at Drew. As soon as breakfast ended, they would need to pack and work out a plan. Drew needed antibiotics. They all needed shelter.
But together they would work it out. After chatting and laughing and getting to know everyone, Walter finished his bottle of water and stood up. “Let’s load up and get this show on the road. I hear we’re off to Truckee?”
Brianna stood up, wiping off her backside as she nodded. “My parents have a cabin. More of a compound, really. There’s enough room for all of us.”
Walter tallied up the head count. “They have room for seven more people?”
She nodded. “And then some. As long as everyone contributes, everyone should be able to stay.”
Walter nodded. Even if the Cliftons said no once they got there, leaving the big city for the mountains seemed like as good an idea as any other. “The Jetta has about a third of a tank of gas. We can load up everything that fits and try to siphon a car somewhere for more fuel. How’s the Jeep?”
“It’s about the same.” Brianna glanced back at the Wrangler. “We can try to rearrange and get some more stuff on the rack.”
Peyton spoke up. “I’ll help. It’s a beast getting anything up there.”
As everyone split up, each helping to prepare, Walter marveled. A week in and they had formed a makeshift little family with responsibilities and roles already determined. If this was what the future held, he had hope. He smiled and walked toward the Jetta. “Come on, Drew. Let’s make some room.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
TRACY
Backroads of Northern California
2:00 p.m.
Tracy stared at her husband as he drove behind Brianna’s Jeep. She couldn’t believe he was alive and sitting beside her. After everyone packed both cars, the kids decided it would be nice to give the Sloane family a little bit of alone time, so Tracy, Walter, and Madison piled into the Jetta and Drew squeezed in with Brianna, Tucker, and Peyton in the Jeep.
Fireball refused to leave the Jetta, so Madison snuggled with him in the back. If Tracy didn’t look out the window and see the smashed-in store windows and abandoned cars, she could almost pretend the world hadn’t fallen apart.
While the kids got their breakfast, Walter had filled her in on a bit of his journey to find her, including his run-in with the National Guard. She turned to him. “Did the National Guard say anything about aid? How the government was getting along? Anything?”
Walter glanced at his daughter. “I don’t think now is the best time.”
“Dad. Anything you can say to Mom you can say to me. I’m an adult.”
Walter frowned, but Tracy reached out and rubbed his shoulder. “Madison is right. She’s faced more this last week than any nineteen-year-old should. If she can handle fleeing her college campus and getting shot at and a house fire, she can handle the truth. No matter what it is.”
Tracy smiled at her daughter. Madison still looked so young, but childhood didn’t linger forever. And in this new world, it was effectively over for everyone.
Her husband’s hands flexed on the steering wheel. “All right. I won’t sugarcoat it then. The short version is that there’s no help coming. The police basically don’t exist. Fire department, too. Downtown Sacramento was worse than LA in the riots. Every building burned out, every car flipped over, people shooting other people just because they can. It’s chaos. Madness.”
Tracy swallowed. It was worse than she expected. “What about the military?”
“Overwhelmed. The national guard is mobilized, the military too, I’d assume. When we ran into the unit from Eureka, they were headed to Sacramento to set up a defensive perimeter.”
Tracy started. “From what? Do they think there’s some threat? Is some other country going to take advantage of what happened?”
Walter shook his head. “No. It’s not like that.” He paused. “They were sealing downtown off. Locking the riot in.”
Tracy’s throat went dry.
“What do you mean?” Madison asked from the back seat. “How will people escape the violence?”
“They won’t. Not anymore, anyway.” Walter glanced at his wife, eyes full of bad memories. “We were lucky to get out. By the time we left Drew’s place, the barricades were going up. If we’d stayed another hour, we might have been trapped there.”
“Surely they would have let you out.”
“Orders were to keep it contained. They would have shot us if they had to.”
“Dad!”
“Sorry, Madison. It’s the truth.”
Tracy couldn’t believe it. “Why didn’t they send them in to stop the violence? That’s what they did in the riots in ’92.”
“Not enough personnel. It took over ten thousand troops on the ground to get the LA riots under control and it took them days to get there. That was with electricity and the rest of the state and country at peace.”
Walter shook his head. “There’s no way without a means to communicate that the military can mobilize anyone in sufficient numbers. The National Guard members I spoke to didn’t want to be there. A few were disappearing every day. Once they realize it’s not getting better and they won’t get paid for their efforts, most will leave.”
“What do you mean?”
“Once those soldiers figure it out, the ones with families will leave. I spoke to a few of them. They all said the same thing: ‘Why would I stay? So I can watch the end of the world while my family starves?’”
He glanced at Tracy. “In a few weeks, all that will be left of the military will be a bunch of single young men with guns, MREs, and no future to speak of. I hate to think what will happen next.”
Tracy shuddered. Even after all that she’d been through, from surviving the run-in at Wanda’s apartment complex to stealing a car to get back home, to the looters and the fire and everything in between, she hadn’t grasped the full impact of what it all meant.
“Do you think anyone will come help us? Canada or Europe, maybe?”
Madison scoffed in the back seat. “They all hate us, Mom. I read this article right before all of this and it said movie companies have to remove all images of the American flag in their ads in order to sell their movies in Europe. Think about it. A movie poster about the Civil War or World War II where they can’t show the American flag.”
“Madison’s right. A lot of places will cheer. The others will be afraid. Besides, we don’t know they weren’t affected, too.” He shook his head. “Like it or not, we can’t expect any help from anyone.”
Tracy looked out the window. All that they had built. Shops, restaurants, homes. Infrastructure. Technology. How many people worked for companies whose products were one hundred percent digital? The ingenuity of Americans was something to marvel.
In a half a century, the country had gone from small towns and backyard gardens to big cities with convenience stores on every corner. How many people even knew what a tomato plant looked like or could tell when a carrot was ripe and should be pulled from the ground?
Did anyone in a major city know how to hunt or raise livestock or even chop firewood and start a fire? Tracy had tried to teach Madison the basics. They backpacked, camped, and fished every summer—all the things Tracy wished she’d done as a kid.
But most families were glued to their screens, too busy typing away and snapping pictures of themselves to learn how to survive. While the world became increasingly complicated, the basics of life remained the same.
Food. Water. Shelter.
How had they forgotten that?
She tuned to her husband. “We really are on our own, aren’t we?”
Walter nodded. “Yes we are.”
Tracy reached out and rested her hand on top of his. “Whatever comes, we can face it together.” She turned to her daughter and smiled. It wouldn’t be easy, but every day that she got to wake up and see the face of her daughter and her husband would be a good day.
They might not have much, but they had each othe
r. Together, they could survive anything. She dropped her hand and leaned back in her seat. All they needed to do was take it one day at a time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
MADISON
Backroads of Northern California
4:00 p.m.
Madison leaned against the back seat, Fireball soft and snuggly on her lap. She still couldn’t believe her father found them. To think she almost shot him before he called out.
She laughed to herself.
“Something funny?”
“Not really.” Madison leaned forward. “Hey, Mom? Can you try the radio again? We’re a bit farther north. We might pick up someone.”
“Madison, we’ve tried the radio every hour. There’s no one out there.”
“I know, but you could try again? Please?”
Her mother sighed and flicked on the radio, scanning through the AM stations. A flicker of noise caught Madison’s ear. “Go back. I heard something.”
Her mom slowed, going lower in the stations until a voice made her freeze.
“Again, this is Mandy Patterson from Chico State. If anyone can hear me, we need help. Things are bad here. Real bad. There’s five of us trapped in the radio building. We’re almost out of food and water and we can’t get out. The doors are locked from the outside.”
Madison held her breath.
“We’ve tried breaking the glass, but it’s got to be bulletproof or something. If we don’t get out of here soon… we’re all going to die. Please if you’re out there, again, this is Mandy Patterson from Chico State. I’m broadcasting from the radio building on campus.”
The Sloane family listened to the girl over and over until she ended the broadcast. Madison swallowed. If they tried to save her, it would mean putting them all at risk again. But if they ignored it and drove on…
“We have to help her.”
“Honey, we can’t.” Her mom turned around in the front seat. “We’ve already got seven people with us. There’s nowhere for any more to go. You’re crammed in the back seat with bottles of water and Drew is up in the Jeep with three teenagers and enough boxed goods to make anyone claustrophobic.”
“But she needs help!”
Her father spoke up. “We don’t even know if it’s real. How is she broadcasting? She can’t do it without power. If they’ve got solar or wind or some backup generator, then she should be able to get out. I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”
“Mom. Dad. Come on. What if that were me? What if I were stuck back at college begging for help? Wouldn’t you want someone to save me?”
Her mom exhaled and closed her eyes. “Chico State has a hospital, right?”
Madison hesitated. “I don’t know. It’s smaller than a UC school, but it should have a student health center, at a minimum.”
“That means current antibiotics for me and Drew.”
“If there are any left.” Madison’s father glanced in the rear view. “This is a terrible idea. It’s too risky.”
Madison glanced out the window, trying to place their location. “We can’t be that far from Chico. It’s north of Sacramento.”
Her father frowned. “I’d guess we’re about thirty miles due east.” He glanced at her mom. “If we’re going to make a detour, we should do it now.”
Her mom turned in her seat. “You really want to do this?”
Madison nodded. “Yes.”
“It will put all our lives at risk.”
“I know.”
“Someone might die. We could risk losing all that we have.”
Madison knew the danger. But she couldn’t leave someone to die. Not when she was pleading for help. “I know what we’re risking, but we have to try. If we don’t, what kind of people are we?”
Walter eased the car to the side of the road and honked the horn. The Jeep stopped just ahead. “Let’s talk to the others. We’ll put it up to a vote.”
Darkness Rises
Prologue
MADISON
Back Roads of Northern California
4:00 p.m.
“This is Mandy Patterson from Chico State. If anyone can hear me, we need help. Things are bad here. Real bad. There’s five of us trapped in the radio building. We’re almost out of food and water and we can’t get out. The doors are locked from the outside.”
Madison held her breath.
“We’ve tried breaking the glass, but it’s got to be bulletproof or something. If we don’t get out of here soon… we’re all going to die. Please, if you’re out there, again, this is Mandy Patterson from Chico State. I’m broadcasting from the radio building on campus.”
The Sloane family listened to the girl over and over until she ended the broadcast. Madison swallowed. If they tried to save her, it would mean putting them all at risk again. But if they ignored it and drove on…
“We have to help her.”
“Honey, we can’t.” Her mom turned around in the front seat. “We’ve already got seven people with us. There’s nowhere for any more to go. You’re crammed in the back seat with bottles of water, and Drew is up in the Jeep with three teenagers and enough boxed goods to make anyone claustrophobic.”
“But she needs help!”
Her father spoke up. “We don’t even know if it’s real. How is she broadcasting? She can’t do it without power. If they’ve got solar or wind or some backup generator, then she should be able to get out. I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”
“Mom. Dad. Come on. What if that were me? What if I were stuck back at college begging for help? Wouldn’t you want someone to save me?”
Her mom exhaled and closed her eyes. “Chico State has a hospital, right?”
Madison hesitated. “I don’t know. It’s smaller than a UC school, but it should have a student health center, at a minimum.”
“That means current antibiotics for me and Drew.”
“If there are any left.” Madison’s father glanced in the rearview. “This is a terrible idea. It’s too risky.”
Madison glanced out the window, trying to place their location. “We can’t be that far from Chico. It’s north of Sacramento.”
Her father frowned. “I’d guess we’re about thirty miles due east.” He glanced at her mom. “If we’re going to make a detour, we should do it now.”
Her mom turned in her seat. “You really want to do this?”
Madison nodded. “Yes.”
“It will put all our lives at risk.”
“I know.”
“One of us might die. We could lose all that we have.”
Madison knew the danger. But she couldn’t leave someone to die. Not when she was pleading for help. “I know what we’re risking, but we have to try. If we don’t, what kind of people are we?”
Walter eased the car to the side of the road and honked the horn. The Jeep stopped just ahead. “Let’s talk to the others. We’ll put it up to a vote.”
DAY SEVEN
Chapter One
MADISON
Back Roads of Northern California
5:00 p.m.
“You can’t be serious.” Brianna crossed her arms and leaned back against the door to the Jeep, her disdain written in the wrinkle between her brows.
“I know it’s risky, but she could be just like us.”
“Pfft. If she were just like us, she’d be a million miles away from college with enough supplies to see her through. Not crying for help on a radio asking for someone to do all the hard work to come save her.”
Madison couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had a week without power and a few close calls already turned her friends and family cold? Were they already willing to ignore the suffering of others and only think of themselves?
If so, how different were they from animals? What separated them from the monsters of scary movies none of them would ever watch again?
Madison shook her head, flyaway strands from her ponytail brushing across her face. “At some point, we’re going to need help. How can we ask for
it if we turn a blind eye now?”
“So this is some karma trip? You want to go rescue some pathetic girl because if we don’t it might come around to bite us in the ass?”
Madison’s dad glanced up at Brianna, his scrunched brows hiding his brown eyes from view. Her father had already helped hundreds of people get to safety when he landed his commercial airliner on a private airfield. He’d made sure they had food and shelter and directions to the closest town before he set off on his own to find his family. And he’d taken his co-pilot Drew with him.
Her father was a good man. He could come around to her point of view.
“Dad, you have to agree with me. We can’t leave her there.”
He scrubbed at the week-old beard coating his jaw. “She said there were five, Madison. Five people trapped inside the building. Even if we get them out, what do we do with them? They can’t come with us. There simply isn’t enough room.”
“So we just ignore them?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Madison thought back over the past week and of all the dangerous situations she had faced. First the causeway where they followed a semi-truck as the driver smashed his way out of a traffic jam with no end. Then the altercation with the police officer and the man who wanted to rob them. Those were the easy memories to relive.
The assault on her parents’ house and the murder of her mother’s co-worker Wanda were worse. So much worse. Those men wanted to kill them and steal their supplies. They didn’t care who got hurt or who suffered.
Bill Donovan with his smug smile and protests of innocence. She ground her teeth together just thinking about the man. She’d had a chance to shoot him and make him pay for what he did to Wanda. But she couldn’t do it with the whole neighborhood watching.
