Alone, Book 3: The Journey

by Darrell Maloney

  With the googles, however, taking the dim light of the stars above and expanding it, he was able to see the entire length of the block in both directions.

  It was perfectly still. Not a single thing moved.

  Not even the trees.

  He carefully raised the garage door the rest of the way, then walked out to the center of the street in front of his house.

  Still no sign of life in either direction.

  Dave returned to his vehicle, got inside, and slipped it into gear without closing the door.

  He let it creep out into the driveway.

  Then he got out of the still open door and eased the garage door halfway down.

  Now was the tricky part, and one which had troubled him greatly for days.

  The manual lock on Dave’s garage door was broken. It wouldn’t latch from the outside. It had been that way for a couple of years, and Dave never saw it as a problem. Before the blackout, when the door was attached to the electric garage door opener, it couldn’t be lifted from the outside and therefore wasn’t a concern.

  And in all the preparations he and Sarah had made for the disaster they knew was coming, the implications of a broken garage door had never occurred to either of them.

  Until the last few days, when Dave had struggled with a very difficult decision.

  Should he just leave, and risk the chance that someone might try to open his garage while he was gone?

  If they did, they’d stumble upon his Faraday cage and dried food stores. And they’d likely be curious enough to want to see what other treasures the seemingly vacant house might contain.

  Curious enough to break down the locked door leading into the house.

  And there they’d find not only his safe room and water supplies, but also the rabbits he’d worked so hard to protect.

  On the other hand, he could lock the door from the inside, run through his house, through his hidden gate and into the Castros’ yard, through the Castros’ house and back out to his running vehicle.

  And hopefully it would still be there.

  Of course, he could kill the engine and take the keys with him.

  But if he did that, and it wouldn’t start again for some reason, he’d be screwed. He wouldn’t be able to work on it in his driveway, and the driveway had just enough of an uphill slope to prevent him from being able to push it back into the garage.

  And damn it, he wanted to get on the road, and finally start his journey.

  He opted to leave it running.

  And he broke a land speed record, almost, getting through the Castros’ house and back to it.

  Winded, but glad that his garage was secured, he climbed back into the Explorer.

  He was finally on his way.

  Chapter 6

  Dave was two blocks away before he dared pull the door closed, holding it shut with his hand to that point.

  Part of it was his paranoid nature, and part just being prudent. If anyone heard the sound of a car door being closed and recognized the sound, he certainly didn’t want it to be associated with his house.

  The automatic door locks didn’t work, of course, since he’d bypassed most of the electrical system. But the buttons, once depressed, were released by the inside door latch.

  He’d already locked the other three doors when he loaded the vehicle days before.

  Now he reached over his left shoulder and depressed the lock on the driver’s door, to prevent anyone from running up on the slow moving vehicle and pulling the door open.

  Of course, that wouldn’t prevent them from shooting Dave through the window.

  But he was relying on God’s good nature to keep that from happening.

  As for the vehicle itself, it made almost no noise at all, as long as Dave kept his foot off the gas pedal. So he let it crawl along at its own pace.

  He couldn’t go any faster than a crawl anyway. At least until he got out of the residential area.

  On each block, there were at least two, and sometimes several abandoned vehicles stalled in the middle of the street. Every one of them were in his way, causing him to mutter, “Geez. Doesn’t anyone drive on the right side of the road anymore?”

  He seemed to forget that when he retrieved his own vehicle, he’d retrieved it from the dead center of the street.

  Luckily all of the vehicles save one gave him enough clearance to get by. For that vehicle, a UPS truck, he merely used a driveway to allow his passenger side wheels to climb onto the curb, and to ride the curb to the adjacent house’s driveway.

  After five blocks he was on a main thoroughfare, Military Drive. Seeing it for the first time abandoned and completely dark, it looked spooky. Almost like a set from a post-apocalyptic movie.

  Then he remembered he lived in a post-apocalyptic world.

  Military Drive connected with Interstate 35 a few miles away. The I-35 was Dave’s path out of San Antonio and ran in the general direction of Kansas City.

  But Dave had a stop to make first.

  It may have been the way the street signs were designed, with white lettering on a dark blue background. Or, maybe it was just that the stars didn’t allow enough reflective light on this dark night.

  Whatever was the case, Dave found it hard to read the street signs.

  So he went by memory and watched out for the Dairy Queen.

  He knew that the Dairy Queen was on the intersection of Military Drive and Zavala Avenue. He used to stop and get a banana split with the girls on Saturday afternoons, after he picked them up from their “young readers” meeting.

  At the Zavala Branch Library.

  Which was his destination and his last stop on his way out of town.

  But first things first.

  First, he allowed his mind to wander a bit.

  To that Dairy Queen, and to the banana split he always shared with the girls.

  They got one for the three of them. With three cherries. Lindsey sat across the table from Dave and Beth, and carefully used a plastic knife to cut the dessert into three sections.

  “Now you two be careful not to encroach on my section,” she always warned. “I don’t want any of your cooties.”

  The first time she’d uttered the warning, Dave had commented, “Now where on earth did you learn a word like ‘encroach?’”

  She’d replied, “Dad, I’m twelve now. I know words you’ve never even heard of.”

  Dave shot back, “Well, excuse me, Einstein,” causing little Beth to giggle.

  A few seconds later Beth gestured for Dave to lean close, so she could whisper in his ear, “Dad, what’s an Einstein?”

  Dave always requested three cherries so each of them could enjoy one.

  He smiled as he remembered how little Beth always managed to steal his.

  Her fail-proof method never varied. She would point out the window and say, “Dad, look! It’s a pterodactyl!”

  Dave would say, “Really? Where?”

  And he would divert his attention to the window, just long enough for Beth to steal his cherry and pop it into her mouth.

  Beth, convinced she’d gotten away with her evil scheme, would then apologize.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Dad. I guess it was just a bird.”

  Beth would then snicker, Lindsey would roll her eyes, and Dave would wink at Lindsey.

  Just so at least one of his daughters realized he wasn’t the gullible old fool he appeared to be.

  Dave’s smile faded as the Dairy Queen came into view.

  Now he was back to business.

  He turned at the Dairy Queen and drove north another block to the public library.

  He’d have to go inside. And that provided his next predicament.

  Should he leave the vehicle running, in a strange neighborhood, or risk it not starting when he came back out?

  This time it was a no brainer.

  This time he wasn’t sure if he was spotted. And whether someone might be following his slow moving vehicle.

  He had no choice but
to kill the engine and hope for the best.

  Luckily, the Ford Explorer was equipped with a higher ground clearance and oversized tires that gave it much better traction than most passenger vehicles.

  Traction to go off-road, as long as the terrain wasn’t too rugged or too muddy.

  Perfect for driving off the pavement of the library’s parking lot and around to the grassy field at the back of the building.

  At least if he had to tinker with it to get it running again, he’d be able to do so away from the prying eyes of anyone walking down the street in the front of the library.

  Chapter 7

  As he suspected, the library had been broken into, but had barely been ransacked.

  The office areas at the front of the building were a shambles. Dave guessed that any snacks, sandwiches or bottles of water the small office refrigerators held at the time of the blackout were long gone.

  The long shelves of books, however, were virtually untouched.

  Apparently great novels weren’t in high demand when one was thirsty or hungry.

  Also as he suspected, there was no card catalog for him to look through. The library system had been computerized many years before. There was no way to look up what he was searching for without a computer.

  But hey, who was he kidding, anyway?

  Dave had forgotten long before how to find a book in a library using the Dewey Decimal system. His method for finding books had been the same method he used for finding something in the supermarket: wander around, and when you got really desperate, ask somebody.

  Only in this case, at this particular library, there was no one to ask.

  So he was relieved to see signs hanging from the ceiling to point him in the right direction.

  The signs had black letters on white backgrounds, and were therefore easier to read than the street signs.

  That was a good thing. His night vision goggles were able to use just the starlight coming through the windows. He didn’t have to use the small flashlight in his pocket, which might have attracted the wrong attention.

  He eased his way through the blackened library until he came across a sign announcing “REFERENCE MATERIALS.”

  His instincts told him to look low, on the bottom shelves. He expected the book he was looking for to be oversized. And the bottom shelf was where he’d store oversized books if he ran the library.

  His instincts were right on the money. It only took him a few minutes to find what he was looking for.

  The Rand McNally United States Road Atlas.

  “Bingo,” he said out loud.

  No one heard him, of course, and no one saw the look of pure joy on his face.

  It was just too darn dark.

  Dave tucked the atlas under his arm and headed back toward the broken window he’d crawled in through.

  He cautiously exited the building and stealthily made his way back to the Explorer.

  He looked around in all directions, and didn’t see anyone around.

  His luck was holding so far.

  In his right hand he held his 9mm handgun, just in case. He opened the driver’s side door and quickly swept his eyes over the back seat and the cargo area.

  Just in case he’d picked up any stowaways.

  It was clear.

  He climbed back inside, hoping his luck would hold just a little bit longer.

  In the back of the vehicle was a jump starter he’d pulled from his Faraday cage, just in case. About half the size of a car battery, it was charged by plugging it into a wall socket. Once charged, it held enough juice to jump start three or four dead car batteries.

  Since Dave hadn’t thought to save a spare alternator along with his other spare parts, and since the instrument panel was no longer working, he had no way of knowing whether the alternator would keep his battery charged.

  The jump starter was an insurance policy. But he didn’t want to use its juice unless he had to.

  So he crossed his fingers, whispered, “Please God…”

  And turned the key.

  The engine began purring like a kitten.

  He wasted no time, pulling the door closed behind him and pressing down the lock.

  He put the vehicle into gear and crept back into the parking lot and back onto Zavala Avenue, then back to Military Drive.

  He let the Explorer creep at its own pace most of the time. The only time he touched the accelerator was to speed past two teenaged boys walking in the darkness on the shoulder of Military Drive.

  One of them shouted, “Holy shit!” and jumped out of the way as the almost invisible vehicle sped past.

  The other one chastised his friend.

  “I told you, dude! You thought I was frickin’ crazy. I told you I heard a car!”

  Chapter 8

  Once he was too far away for the teenaged boys to catch him, Dave took his foot off the accelerator and let the big SUV creep at its own pace again.

  He wasn’t moving fast, but at fifteen miles an hour, he was running virtually silent.

  On surface streets littered with abandoned vehicles, where there was the chance he might encounter roadblocks set up by the police, or by marauders, it was prudent to move cautiously and carefully.

  Still, he hoped he could pick up the pace once he exited the city and entered the open highway.

  At this rate, it would take him forever to get to his girls.

  A couple of miles away Dave drew a sigh of relief when he connected with Interstate 35.

  His ticket north and out of the city.

  But he was far from free.

  Dave lived on the south side of San Antonio. To escape its grasp, he’d have to travel through the heart of the city, the downtown area, within a few blocks of the Alamo and the San Antonio River.

  His newest concern was the traffic situation downtown. He hoped the highway wasn’t clogged by a sea of stalled cars that would block his path and make him return to the streets to get around them.

  Luckily, the blackout didn’t occur during the morning or evening rush hours, when traffic frequently came to a standstill in all lanes.

  Still, he’d been downtown enough to know that such conditions could occur any time of day. It didn’t take much. An accident. A pretty girl trying to change a tire and several men trying to pull over to help. He was once in a traffic jam for an hour when a horse got loose from a trailer and San Antonio’s finest had to corner it and calm it down.

  “Please, God. You’ve blessed me so far. Please continue to do so. At least until I get out of the city and have some room to breathe.”

  So far, so good.

  As Dave passed over Cesar Chavez Boulevard, he looked off to the east when a sudden burst of light caught his attention.

  He wasn’t sure what it was, exactly.

  An explosion off in the distance, maybe?

  But he’d heard no noise.

  He moved his head from side to side, driving about fifteen miles an hour, trying to avoid the cars blocking his lane, and at the same time trying to figure out what caused the flash of light.

  Suddenly he saw it again.

  It flashed behind the Hemisfair Tower two blocks south of the Alamo. The tower was a hulking structure, built in 1968 to celebrate a worldwide carnival of cultures, and drew people from around the world for many years after.

  Before the blackout, the revolving restaurant at the top of the 750 foot tall tower was a favorite for locals and tourists alike.

  Any other time the blacked out tower, backlit by a flash of light might appear serene, even pretty.

  But not to Dave. Not when the flash of light was a lightning bolt.

  A storm front was approaching from the east.

  Dave’s mind raced with the implications.

  His windshield wipers, like his lights, went through the destroyed electrical system and would not work.

  He knew that.

  What he didn’t know was how hard it would be to see through a rain soaked windshield, when he was already
hindered by the limited capability of the night vision goggles.

  Of course, this could be a good thing.

  The rain, if more than just a drizzle, would keep most of the marauders off the streets.

  Not that he expected many of them to be wandering the elevated highway above downtown San Antonio.

  Still, there might be a few, looking for tractor trailers to break into. If the rain kept them from being in the open, it might help Dave get through the gauntlet that was San Antonio, even driving at such low speeds.

  Of course, if the rains were bad, he’d have to drive even slower.

  He couldn’t drive any slower than fifteen miles an hour. At that speed, a bandit in fairly decent shape could run for short distances and keep pace with him. And even in the black of night, against a darkened vehicle he might be able to barely see, he could land a lucky bullet.

  Bullets traveled much faster than fifteen miles an hour.

  He picked up his speed a bit, to twenty.

  And hoped for the best.

  Chapter 9

  After he got used to winding around stalled cars at twenty miles an hour, Dave’s confidence grew and he was able to pick up the pace a little more.

  At twenty five, he felt like he was finally making progress.

  It helped that he could limit all his attention to the front windshield, now that he’d identified the source of the flash of light. Only occasionally did he glance off to his right to see if the approaching storm had gotten any closer.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when he passed by the Loop 410 Interchange without getting stuck. The interchange was one of the busiest in the city, any time of day, and was subject to bottlenecks that once frequently stopped traffic in its tracks.

  Loop 410 was the innermost of two loops that circled the city. When it was completed there wasn’t much of anything outside the loop. Now, though, the city was so large that a second traffic loop, Loop 1604, encircled Loop 410 a few miles farther out.

  Dave wouldn’t rest easy until he passed under Loop 1604.

  For only then would civilization start to thin, and hopefully the number of stalled cars with it.