"They could all just run for the hills. Scatter, like dust in the wind," Holly suggested.
"That probably wouldn't be a bad thing."
"I know you think that we should do this all on our own and that we don't need anybody else's help, but I'm still not convinced," Garrett started, but then stopped himself. He'd already voiced his concern several times to Holly and didn't feel a need at the moment to repeat himself. The shock of the situation and what they had endured was now starting to settle in on him.
Sometimes, it takes a while for people to react. They don't realize the gravity of the situation until after they've had a bit of time to process it. That's where they were at this point. Everything was just starting to hit them. They both felt overwhelmed.
"Maybe we shouldn't have come back," Garrett suggested. "I'm really not sure I'm ready to deal with this many people, at least not these people."
"You mean our people." Holly put extra emphasis on the word our.
Garrett looked at her funny. "These aren't our people. Why would you even say that? I get that we've come through something together and we have something in common. But that's over now. We survived the cruise ship, and we made it to land. That's it; we don't need these people anymore, no more than they need us."
Holly smiled. "How do you know what these people need? How do you know they don't need us more than we need them?" She held up a finger. "That's not to suggest that I think we don't need them. Just for the record. I'm just saying that I'm not sure you get the gravity of the situation and the importance of having others."
"Really? Believe me, I get the gravity of the situation. I understand what we're going through here."
"Do you?"
Neither of them chose to continue, but they were so enthralled in their conversation that they hadn't noticed Sam making his way across the beach to them. He'd seen them come back and was quite happy to see them. In spite of how Holly and Garrett were feeling at the moment, they were going to have to begin dealing with people. Sam at the very least.
"Ah, shit," Garrett said, motioning towards Sam as he spotted him first.
"Hello, Sam," Holly greeted him, in the most welcoming way she could muster. She was happy to have a distraction from the day's events.
"We've got news," Sam said.
Holly and Garrett were both relieved to see that Sam was in a talkative mood. It would save them, at least momentarily, from making a decision about what kind of information to share with the group. Sam was the personable type, and certainly, if they told him, it wouldn't take long before the entire group knew what was going on. Little did Holly and Garrett know, Sam had a better idea of what was happening than they realized.
Sam dropped himself down into a crouch, squatting in front of the two, noticeably anxious. He looked like he had a story that was just bursting to get out of him, like he'd won a million dollars and was scared his life would change forever. Given the current situation, both Holly and Garrett's minds raced to something tragic. They were pretty close.
"Have you heard the news?" Holly and Garrett both shook their heads in unison, happy not to have to carry their end of the conversation. "Some people dropped by." That got Holly and Garrett's attention and not in a good way. The only people they'd met so far were people they wouldn't want to introduce to their worst enemies. "The whole country's gone to shit." That would, of course, jive with the experiences Holly and Garrett had endured so far today. They both just nodded their heads, hoping Sam would continue with his side of the story. How much worse could it be, they both wondered? "Apparently, there've been attacks all over the country. Massive nuclear explosions in the atmosphere were detonated by one of our country's enemies. The power grid is down nationwide. Everything's been taken out.
Just when Holly and Garrett thought things couldn't possibly be any worse, there it was. Nuclear attack. All of a sudden, getting beaten up didn't seem so bad. Watching four thugs being murdered in the street didn't seem to be much of a story anymore, given what Sam had just dropped on them. As bad as their day was and as impossible as it seemed for it to get any worse, here it was, getting worse.
"What?" Holly said. "Nuclear attacks from an enemy? An enemy of this country? That's impossible. There's no way that could happen. There are treaties and arms proliferation agreements. This can't be happening. That can't be right." Holly was visibly shaken; the cumulation of the events of the day had pushed her over the edge.
Garrett gently took her hand in an attempt to comfort her.
Garrett spoke up. "Now just hang on a second, Sam. That can't be right. If there were nuclear attacks, this city wouldn't be standing. All these people would have radiation poisoning, and they'd be dying right, left and center. That's not what's happening. We've seen people in the streets; we were out there today. People are out and about. There's no major damage to any of the buildings."
Sam shook his head "No, no. It's not like that. They were detonated in the atmosphere. Not on the ground. There's no ground damage and little to no radiation that we've heard of. The whole point of it was to take out the power grid. That's it."
"How could you know this?" Holly said. "If there's no evidence of it here, then how do you know?"
"There were people, some people from town that came and talked to us. They told us what happened."
"People?" Garrett asked. "What do they look like; were they threatening? Did they hurt anyone?"
"No," Sam said quizzically. "Why would they hurt anyone? They were just kids. They looked like street kids, could've even been homeless. It was hard to tell, they looked pretty rough, but they had brand-new clothes. Like they'd just gone shopping or something."
"They could've just been looting the stores. We saw lots of evidence of that today," Holly said. Garrett nodded in agreement.
"There's looting?" Sam said. "Yeah, I guess there would be. That makes sense. There are no security systems, and everything's in chaos. Anybody can do anything, take whatever they want. Clothes are probably the least of everyone's concern at the moment. Food and water must be a pretty big deal though. There's got to be shortages everywhere."
"How do we know these kids were even telling the truth?" Holly asked. "How do they know what's going on? There's no evidence of it here, other than I guess the power is out, but that's not something all that unusual. Power goes out all the time."
"The cruise ship. It's just too coincidental," Garrett said.
The series of events that had taken over their day had them all overwhelmed and for a moment they'd almost forgotten how they landed here. A cruise ship was suddenly struck with a power outage in the middle of the ocean and now the first American city they visited was also without power. Days later. These kids could've been right. No one wanted to admit it, but the explanation lying in front of them was just as plausible as any.
"Apparently a military unit came through here a few days ago," Sam said. "That's where these kids got their info from. It was a small group, maybe twenty or so men and two vehicles. They came through just to check the situation but were moving south to where there were bigger problems. They passed along some information to the locals, gave instructions about the importance of maintaining law and order, and said that there would be a bigger force arriving here soon."
"Soon?" Holly asked.
Sam just shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know how soon," he responded.
"Yeah," Garrett said desperately. "I have a feeling not knowing could be our theme song going forward."
Suddenly, Holly couldn't take it anymore. The worries of the day and the traumas that had been inflicted upon them were more than she was prepared to handle. Mentally, she wanted to do it, but emotionally and physically, she felt like her entire world had imploded. Shards of her life fluttered around her and disappeared into the sand, buried in the cracks and covered by the rocks. The wind whipped through her hair and she began to lose it completely.
Instead of falling to pieces in front of Garrett and Sam, Holly jumped to her fee
t and took off down the beach, running as fast as she possibly could. Garrett and Sam just looked at each other, unsure what to do. Garrett stood up slowly, as best he could, with a splint hampering him through every excruciating inch. He started hobbling down the beach after her, but at the pace she was going, he couldn't catch up. He called out to her, trying to move as quickly as he could. He couldn't. There was no way. She kept running and running.
Garrett looked back to Sam, who was frozen in place. He didn't know what was going on. None of the others had taken the news as badly as this. He didn't understand.
"Go get her," Garrett insisted. He pointed down the beach at Holly and motioned in her direction. Sam was slow to respond. "C'mon, get off your ass and go get her. Go bring her back." He motioned to his leg. "I can't go after her like this. I'll never catch up. I can barely walk as it is."
For the first time, Sam noticed the splint on Garrett's leg. "What happened?" Sam asked.
Garrett shook both hands in the air, dismissing Sam's question. "There's no time for that now, she's getting out of sight. You've got to go and get her. Bring her back, and we can talk later. I'll tell you the whole story."
Sam tore off down the beach as quickly as he could, sand flying everywhere. The wind coming off the ocean had increased since the time they got back. There's a storm coming, Garrett thought as he looked off into the horizon. There were dark clouds further out, but he couldn't see them yet. Right now, all he could see was sun and blue skies. He squinted down the beach, trying to see Holly. Sam was younger and faster and would catch up to her eventually, so Garrett sat back down, lost in his thoughts. Holly hadn't said anything before she took off, but he knew exactly what she was thinking. Becky. He was thinking it too.
If the story Sam had told was true, then who knows what disasters would have befallen New York. It would've been a prime target. The biggest city in North America and the pinnacle of American success and failure. Everything that any American held sacred could be found in the city of New York. The good, the bad and everything in between.
He could see that Sam had caught up to Holly. It was hard to tell what they were doing, but Garrett could just imagine. She'd refuse, of course. She'd push him away and scream at him to leave her alone. Better him than me, Garrett thought. Let her expend all that energy on him, and then when she comes back, we can talk in earnest. He thought of an old song he used to know, with lyrics that went something like hopes in our minds. He couldn't be sure why that came to mind, but he felt it was important. That's what they had to do now. They had to keep an open mind. They couldn't worry about the worst that had happened. They had to remain optimistic and keep hope in their minds. That's what he'd tell her.
They were coming closer now. Garrett could see Sam and Holly getting bigger in size as they returned.
That's good, he thought, she'll come back. She always comes back. At least so far. I've got to deal with this appropriately, he thought to himself. I can't let emotions get the better of me. She hasn't made the fuss I've made so far about finding Becky, but she's got to be feeling it. She's been trying to keep it positive, but this was too much. This last bit of news was an overload.
They were back soon enough, and Garrett could see that Holly was spent. Probably spent half her energy running away and the other half screaming at Sam. That had to wear her down, as if the events of the day hadn't already done that. Poor Sam though. He looked like he'd been through a full heavyweight fight and come out the loser. Holly didn't pull punches with anyone. Especially not at a time like this. Who could?
There were tears in her eyes, and she made no attempt to hide them. That was unusual, not like her at all. There were only a few times Garrett could remember when she openly wept in front of him. Often, she'd wanted to, but didn't want him to think that she was weak. Not that she thought it was weak to cry, but she believed he did. She didn't want to give him the advantage, ever. Crying would've done that, and she wouldn't let that happen.
Sam didn't have to be asked to leave, but he did. He gave them space, either out of respect for their privacy or fear of another tongue lashing from Holly. Garrett knew it had to be one of the two, but didn't know Sam well enough to choose. It didn't really matter. As long as he left them alone, that was good enough.
Before he left though, Sam did say one more thing. "I didn't tell you everything, but I'm afraid there's some more bad news."
Neither Holly nor Garrett was in any state or condition to hear any more bad news. Garrett just pointed his index finger back towards the boat and didn't say a word. Holly didn't say anything either. Sam turned and left; he could take a hint.
"Whatever happens and whaever has happened already, we'll deal with it," Garrett said to Holly. He hobbled over slowly and wrapped both arms around her. "The whole world can burn down, but as long as we keep hope in our minds, we'll get through this. At the very least, we know we have each other. From now until the end. We have each other, and that's no small thing."
Holly's crying increased and she sobbed uncontrollably. The sound of the wind, the sand on their skin stinging as it flew through the air and Holly's uncontrollable cries fought to drown each other out.
Chapter 11 ~ New Friends
The storm came ever nearer, and the distance between them grew even more. Not just the distance between Holly and Garrett, but it would seem there were distances and problems growing between the other survivors as well. Holly and Garrett still kept separate from the others. More at Garrett's urgings than at Holly's. She seemed to be drawn to them as if there was comfort within a group of castaways on a beach. But now, some squabbles were starting to break out amongst the survivors.
At first, it just seemed to be heated arguments, raised voices and angry looks. Now though, pushing and shoving was escalating into fistfights and more.
"They need some guidance from us," Holly said. "Look at them; they have no clue what to do next. They're adrift. Do you think they know what's going on in town?"
"I don't know," Garrett said. He eyed the group with disdain. The squabbles had stopped as others broke up the fight and separated the two combatants. "It can't be that serious; the two of them seem to have given up the fight." It was two younger men, probably in their mid-20s, who were doing all the shoving and punching.
"Did Sam say there was still more bad news?"
Garrett was hoping she hadn't heard Sam's last comment while she was so upset. Apparently, she had. "He did say something, but I can't imagine it could be anything worse than what we've heard so far."
"I'm going to find out."
She got herself up from the sand and marched towards the lifeboat. Garrett tried calling her back, but she had clearly made up her mind that this was what she wanted to do. She was going to talk to the others and figure things out.
"Sam," Holly called out as she approached the lifeboat. Sam was one of the ones in the crowd who had broken up the scuffle between the other two men. He was still keeping an eye on one of them to make sure tempers didn't flare again.
"Sam," Holly repeated, finally getting his attention. "You said you had more bad news. What else is going on?"
Sam looked at Holly with a sympathetic look in his eyes. "It doesn't really matter. Amidst everything else that's going on around here, it doesn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things."
"Look, don't worry about me. I can take it. Just tell me what else is going on. Those men couldn't have been fighting for no reason whatsoever. There had to be something that set them off."
Sam shrugged. He started to raise a hand to explain and then just dropped it at his side. "While you guys were gone, a bunch of looters came around and broke into the lifeboat while no one was inside. They stole a bunch of the supplies we'd been rationing. I think it was just some canned goods and some bottles of water. There wasn't much that they could've gotten. We didn't have much to start."
"So what were those two fighting about then?"
"Who knows?" Sam cast an eye at the on
e he was watching earlier, who appeared to have given up the fight for good. "Probably just blowing off steam. People are scared and on edge. Everyone knows about the nuclear attacks and the power grid. People are scared and haven't figure out that they need to work together."
Yeah, I can certainly understand that."
Garrett hobbled over now to join the conversation.
"So what was going on?" Garrett asked.
"Oh, it just sounds like a bunch of hotheads were blowing off steam. It looks like the looters have been striking here as well. Apparently now we're a target too," Holly answered.
"We're too big of a group and we're too obvious sitting here around this boat, drawing attention."
"What do you propose we do?" Sam asked Garrett now.
Garrett had some pretty distinct ideas as to what should happen next but wasn't sure he wanted to share them with Sam. "Not sure yet," he lied. "We're still figuring things out. When we get things sorted, we can talk about it."
"Oh stop lying," Holly said. "Garrett wants the two of us to take off and leave everyone else behind." Holly directed her answer to Sam. Something got caught in Holly's throat, but she cleared it and continued. "Garrett here thinks we're better off with just the two of us heading out on our own, even with his busted-up leg, to find Becky. "
Sam looked disappointed at first, like a puppy dog that's just been left home all alone. Then, his eyes brightened just a little. "He's not entirely wrong. This is a big group to be moving, and maybe with all the disagreements breaking out amongst everyone, it might be time to split up. Not everyone is going to want to go to the same place or have the right answer for how to get out of this mess. Maybe a smaller group is a good idea. Although maybe two is too small a group. I could go with you guys."
Garrett started to speak, but Holly cut him off with a look. They just stared at each other for a few seconds.
"That wouldn't be so bad, now would it?" Holly suggested. "You and me and Sam. He seems reasonable enough." She cast a glance at Sam, who nodded his head.
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