“It’s not like we could outrun it,” Marcy added. “Not with my bum leg.”
“We’d have to find a basement, quick,” Jake agreed.
He found half a case of bottled water on top of the refrigerator, and he took a couple of those and set them on the counter. He moved to the cabinets next, finding only glassware and pans at first. But then he opened one of the cabinets above the stove and a big grin broke out on his face. It was full of Chunky Soup cans on one side, and boxes of cereal on the other.
“Jackpot,” Jake called over his shoulder to Marcy. “You want ham and bean soup, or chunky pot roast?”
“Oh, boy,” Marcy said with an awe-filled tone. “I’ll have the chunky pot roast, please.”
“All right.” Jake took a can of each and set them on the table. Then he grabbed a couple of bowls and spoons before he searched through the drawers and found a can opener with the rest of the utensils.
Jake’s mouth watered as he opened the cans and spooned the cold soup into the bowls. Tucking the waters beneath his arm, he grabbed up the bowls and took them over to Marcy where she lay on the couch, legs spread and arms thrown over her head. Her glasses rested on her chest where they hung from the shoestrings.
“Dinner is served,” Jake said in an over-exaggerated tone as he sat down next to her, holding out her bowl. “Don’t forget to tip.”
“Thanks.” Marcy sat up and gratefully took the bowl from Jake. “I can tip you in jokes, or with my charming personality, but that’s all I’ve got in the way of currency.”
“I’ll take the charming personality for now,” Jake said with a chuckle, then he took up his spoon and dug into the cold ham and bean soup.
“This is the best soup I’ve ever eaten.” Marcy closed her eyes and sighed with satisfaction as she chewed and swallowed. “And this is the best couch on the planet.”
“I told you. Deluxe accommodations.”
Jake grunted in satisfaction as he chewed the cold, salty bean soup and swallowed it down into his happy belly. He was halfway done when he set the bowl on his knees and popped open one of the bottled waters, tilting it back and drinking half of it down before returning to his soup.
“Done,” Marcy said, and Jake looked up to see her grinning broadly with an empty bowl in her lap and her arms held over her head in victory.
“Let me finish mine, and I’ll get you another.”
“I can do it,” Marcy said, starting to get up.
“Sit down,” Jake said with a firm look. “As soon as we’re no longer starving, I’m going to have a look at that leg. I don’t want you walking on it until then.”
“Fine.” Marcy sat back down with a mock frown, and Jake handed her a bottle of water as he finished his last bite. “Hydrate while I get us some more grub.”
Marcy did as she was told, and they each finished another bowl of soup as Jake started to feel human again. As his stomach set about digesting his meal, a wave of sleepiness tugged at his eyelids. He resisted, reminding Marcy to stay where she was while he went in search of some dry clothes for them.
Jake checked the room at the end of the hall first, finding some oversized purple shorts and a T-shirt in the girl’s room. He brought those back to Marcy and tossed them on the couch next to her.
“Get out of your wet clothes and put these on,” Jake said before he went in search of some for himself. In the master bedroom, he found a pair of men’s shorts and an XXL T-shirt that fit him just about perfectly.
Jake went into the bathroom, peeled off his wet clothes, and lay them on the sink before borrowing a towel from a cabinet to pat himself dry. His skin was cold and clammy, but he was quickly warming up with the help of the towel. He put on the shorts and T-shirt, shuddering in pleasure at how comfortable it felt.
Beneath the sink Jake found a bottle of alcohol, some cotton swabs, tape, gauze, and a box of Q-Tips which he took into the living room. The morning light was growing stronger, and he could see that Marcy had already changed into the shorts and T-shirt, dark hair hanging limp over her shoulders as she prodded at the wound on her leg.
“Quit that,” Jake scolded her softly as he knelt in front of her and held out the flashlight.
“Sorry.” Marcy drew her hands away guiltily and took the light from him, shining it down on her leg. “What do you think?”
“It doesn’t look terrible.” Jake put his thumb and finger on either side of the wound and pulled it apart. The flesh parted like a mouth, and a line of blood raced down Marcy’s thigh. Jake caught the red line with a cotton swab as he continued to inspect the wound. “But it’s pretty deep. I saw the piece that stuck you.”
“I’d say it went in an inch or two,” Marcy agreed.
“At least.” Jake opened the bottle of alcohol, pressed a cotton swab to the mouth, and tipped it up. Then he held it above the cut and gave Marcy a dark albeit pitying look.
“I know it’s going to hurt,” she said, biting her lip. “Go ahead.”
“It’s important to clean it out well,” Jake said, putting the swab to the wound and eliciting a wince from Marcy. “If this gets infected…” Jake let his words trail off.
“I’ll end up like Blake,” Marcy finished for him, then she suddenly snorted deliriously and put her hand to her mouth to stifle a bout of giggles. “Maybe you can take me back to X-Gang for some medical attention.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jake laughed as he dabbed the cotton swab around, making sure to get it deep into the wound. “I’m sure Doctor Hawk is on duty. Best surgeon in the Northeast.”
“Doctor Hawk and Nurse Raven.” Marcy snorted into her hand and then repeated a line from a national health care commercial. “Quality staff who care. It’s health care we can all depend on.”
Jake laughed from deep in his chest, Marcy’s dark humor somehow filling him with a sense of hope. He finished cleaning out her wound, covered it with a piece of gauze, and secured it with some medical tape.
“All done,” Jake said, sitting back on his heels with a sigh. “Now maybe we can get some rest.”
He looked up to see Marcy had already fallen asleep with her head back and her mouth hanging open. The flashlight lay limp in her hand where she’d rested it across her stomach.
“Beat me to it,” Jake said with a sigh.
He got his arms under Marcy and lifted her off the couch, walking carefully down the hall and sliding sideways into the master bedroom so he didn’t hit her head on the doorjamb. He put her gently on the bed and pulled the covers over her. Marcy made a comforted sound as she rolled onto her side and lifted the covers to her chin.
“Deluxe accommodations,” Jake said, looking down at her with a weak but satisfied smile. Then he left the master bedroom in search of a dark, quiet place of his own.
Chapter 4
Sara, Gatlinburg, Tennessee | 8:10 a.m., Tuesday
Dion slipped into the driver’s seat and started the car while Sara took off her pack, opened the back door, and tossed it in. Then she got in on the passenger side and looked around at the pristine interior.
“It still smells new,” Sara said, refusing to feel too bad about getting his leather seats wet since he’d been so insistent on helping.
“We just bought it six months ago,” Dion said, flipping on the front and rear windshield wipers and turning in his seat to back the car up. “Didn’t think we’d be doing any off-roading in it.”
“Funny how life surprises you,” Sara said as Dion carefully pulled the car forward onto the rainswept road.
To his credit, Dion took his time, winding around the first bend at a modest five miles per hour. Water washed against the Subaru’s tires but didn’t budge the vehicle an inch, and Sara began to feel more comfortable on the steep road every minute that passed.
They approached the next section of cabins, and Sara saw that they looked empty, just like the first three.
“Should we stop here?” Dion asked, staring past Sara at the glistening wet cabins.
“No need,”
Sara said. “There won’t be anyone home and nothing useful inside. I mean, they’re good for shelter, but we have that already.”
“Right,” Dion said, edging past them and around the next bend.
The next two sets of cabins offered the same results. Where Sara thought there’d been people before, the cabins now looked empty. “Some people must have gotten out before the major flooding started.”
“I don’t see how,” Dion said. “It started getting bad on Saturday afternoon.”
“I get your point,” Sara acknowledged with a dark frown. “Maybe they got trapped on the road.”
They approached the bottom of Pine Bluff Road and the last row of cabins. There were two on the right with no cars in front of them, and another cabin up a long driveway to the left, mostly obscured by the trees.
“I think I saw a car up there.” Dion stopped the vehicle and peered up through the trees where Sara couldn’t see. “Think we should get out and take a look?”
“That’s why we’re here,” Sara replied. “It’s pretty wet out there. You can stay in the car if you want.”
“A little water never hurt anyone,” Dion said with a good-natured grin. “I’m game if you are.”
“Let’s do it,” Sara said, pulling the door handle and stepping out into the rain.
She went around to join Dion, and together they started up the long driveway. Water poured over the blacktop and over Dion’s canvas sneakers. Sara glanced over at his uncomfortable expression as the water soaked his socks and feet, shaking her head with pity at his unpreparedness.
Sara’s legs were burning by the time they reached the top of the driveway, and sure enough a big black Jeep sat on the gravel in front of a large, two-story cabin complete with a double-decker porch that overlooked the valley. It wasn’t as majestic a view as Sara’s, but still stood several hundred feet above the valley.
Two streaks of lightning lit up the sky in the distance, and four seconds later the rumble of thunder reached them.
“There’s the storm,” Sara said with a shiver as she recalled looking at the weather map before she left. Their entire area had been covered in orange with a mix of high winds that would rock the mountainside. “It’s going to be a big one.”
Dion gave a faint nod at Sara’s statement, then he stopped right as they reached the Jeep, narrowing his eyes at the cabin. “I just saw someone peeking through the blinds on the second floor.”
“Good,” Sara said with some relief. “That means we won’t surprise them.”
Sara smiled wide, raised her hand, and waved at the house like she’d done to coax the Gardiners out, sure it would work the same as before. “Hi there,” she called loudly. “I’m Sara Walton, and this is Dion Gardiner. We come in peace.”
No one answered the door at first, so Sara took one step forward and waved again to let them know she was anxious to meet them but would keep her distance. She was rewarded by the shaking of the front door glass, indicating someone was coming down the stairs.
“They’re coming,” Sara said, raising a smug eyebrow at Dion, but when she looked back at the door, something felt wrong. The glass shook as if someone were tromping angrily through the cabin to reach them, not the cautious approach she’d been expecting.
Sara started to reach for Dion’s arm to draw him away when the deadbolt clicked and the door flew wide open, followed by the barrel of a revolver pointing right at them. A tall, portly man of about thirty-five followed the weapon, stepping onto the front porch with a red, angry face beneath a tangle of blond-gray hair.
“What do you want?” The man moved the gun back and forth between them before finally settling on Dion.
Sara gasped and threw her hands in the air, elbowing for Dion to do the same. Dion stared at the man for a minute and then raised his hands at Sara’s prompting.
“We’re your neighbors,” Sara explained. “We’re staying in Pine Bluff, and we thought we’d come down and make sure everyone was okay after the storm.”
“Why?”
“Well, because we’re neighbors, and that’s what neighbors do,” Sara insisted as her stomach fluttered with nervousness. That gun is huge, she thought. It must be a .40 caliber, at least. She pulled her eyes away from the weapon and looked all around the house. “Doesn’t look like you’ve had any storm damage, so that’s good.”
“Just doing a friendly check, huh?” The man ignored Sara’s comment about his cabin having no storm damage and threw her a sarcastic sneer. “No intention of breaking in and taking our stuff, right?”
“Not at all,” Sara said, and her eyes dropped to the gun before raising to meet the man’s eyes again. “You said, ‘our.’ Is your family with you?”
“That’s none of your business,” the man said, switching his weapon to Sara. His finger was wrapped around the trigger and not showing any signs of moving away.
“We’d feel a lot better if you could just lower your weapon,” Sara said as her own anger began to rise. “You can see we’re not armed.”
“You’d love me to drop my weapon, wouldn’t you?”
“Considering we’re not here to harm or rob you, yeah,” Sara said, keeping her voice firm as lightning cracked above them, followed by thunder a few seconds later.
“Honey, please.” A woman spoke plaintively from inside the house, but Sara couldn’t see her from where she stood. “They’re not looters. Anyone can see that.”
“Shut up,” the man growled as he tossed a glance back inside the house. “Like you’d know what a looter looks like.” The man lowered his gun a little and took his finger off the trigger, and Sara gave a low sigh of relief as her insides unwound.
“I don’t need to be an expert to see that these are nice people,” the woman insisted. “What are you going to do, shoot them?”
“I said, shut up.” The man’s tone held an edge of steel to it, but at least he didn’t raise the gun again.
The woman inside didn’t speak up again, and Sara clenched her jaw at the man’s aggressive attitude. She wanted to press the issue, while also not wanting herself or Dion to get hurt just because she felt rebellious.
“We’ll just be going,” Dion said, offering the man a polite smile. “Right, Sara?”
“I guess we will,” Sara agreed, and the two of them began backing down the driveway as the man tracked them with angry eyes.
“We don’t like strangers coming around.” The man’s hard expression softened slightly, although there was still no apology in his eyes. “I’m sure you understand.”
“We understand just fine,” Sara said, lowering her hands as they continued backing down the driveway. “We won’t bother you again.” Then she grabbed Dion’s hand and pulled it down, turning him away from the house.
“Shew, that was insane,” Dion murmured as they came to the end of the driveway and got back into the Subaru. He started the car, turned the defrost up to high, and sat there staring out the front window for a moment before he put his hand to his chest. “My heart is still pounding. No one’s ever pointed a gun at me before.”
“Well, I’d never been strangled before last week,” Sara said, flatly. “So, we have a little something in common there.”
“Someone tried to strangle you?” Dion looked across at her with wide eyes.
“It’s a long story,” Sara said with a dark, humorless chuckle. “Let’s continue.”
“Okay.” Dion put the car in drive and swerved around the last couple of bends and then drove down the straightaway until they came to the first rollercoaster hill. A small river passed over the road and cascaded off the side of the mountain before the road went straight up seventy-five feet.
On the way to the cabin, Sara had been driving the cumbersome van, but Dion’s car looked more capable of handling these types of roads.
“You want me to drive through it?” Dion asked, pulling the car to a stop and nodding ahead.
“You drove through it earlier today with no trouble, right?”
&nbs
p; “Yes, we did,” Dion said confidently. “And back up to the cabin. We didn’t have any problems.”
“Then I say let’s do it.” Sara’s stomach turned with the thought of being swept off the road, but she told herself she was just being silly. The water wasn’t moving that fast. “We’ll go as far as we can.”
“Don’t worry, Sara,” Dion said. “I’ve got this.” Then he let off the brake and let the Subaru pick up speed until they were rushing toward the water flowing across their path.
Sara turned her head and winced, gripping the armrest of the door as the Subaru’s grill plowed into the water and sent it spraying off to the sides. Dion hit the gas, and the car’s engine gave a growl, shoving them through the water like a boat. Sara looked out the window and saw the tires were nearly covered, then the Subaru broke through and climbed up the other side like a champ.
“Wow, that was intense,” Sara said, letting out a sigh. “Nice driving.”
“Thanks. We’ve still got three or four more to go.” Dion flashed Sara a look before he focused on the road again.
They went up and over the rest of the hills, Sara’s body tensing every time they approached one of the flooded dips. But by the last hill she was feeling pretty confident about their chances. “You were right, this car has got some power.”
“We always joked about never using the all-wheel drive. I mean, the roads in Cincinnati get bad, however it’s nothing a front-wheel drive can’t handle. It’s just that the dealership didn’t have this model in a 2-wheel drive, so we went with it.”
“Glad you did.” Sara gave a light chuckle as they came to the bottom of the mountain, then her expression turned dark, and Dion pulled to a stop as the road evened out.
There was a three-way intersection ahead of them where one could turn left to go to Pigeon Forge, or right to go to Gatlinburg. The gullies on both sides of the road as well as the intersection itself were completely flooded. It had to be five feet deep in the gullies, and probably a foot or two of water on the roads. Directly across from them, sitting down off the road in a lake of water, was a house. Sara could see the shallow roof and the top half of the windows, but the rest was completely flooded.
Weathering The Storm (Book 2): Surge Page 3
