“What the hell are you talking about dude?” Jake snapped.
“You said you wrote a paper. What does that mean?” Brent asked, trying to keep their interrogation on track.
“Back in college, I was studying climate change and the different heating trends. The Earth, it’s like a giant oven…like a giant pot of spaghetti with a paper-thin lid.”
“Um ok?” Jake scoffed.
“My paper said the lid might break…we were cooking the spaghetti too much. Some really important people took it seriously.”
“What does any of this have to do with that?” Brent asked as he waved his hands around in the air.
“Look around Brent. The fucking lid just broke.”
Cindy twisted her face and bit her bottom lip. She turned away from me and lowered her head. I reached out and wrapped my arm around her and she pulled away. Wiping her face, she straightened then slowly twisted back around.
I couldn’t tell how she was feeling. Her face was blank and she refused to look me in the eye. But I knew this would push us to the breaking point, I just wanted her to be safe.
“So, what do you actually do Max? Where do you work?” she growled.
“It’s complicated. I mean, I do work for the National Weather Service. But I lead a project directed by homeland security.”
Cindy cut her eyes and clicked her teeth.
“Look I can’t tell you anything else. At least not here. I’m sorry Cindy, but this was top secret, I couldn’t tell anyone.”
Jake started to laugh. “Dude you can’t be serious. Top secret? Leading a project for homeland? Come on man, you couldn’t lead us out of Atlanta.”
“Screw you Jake!” I spat.
“Screw you!”
“Guys, come on,” Brent piped up.
I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to Cindy. “When we get to Cartersville…I’ll tell you everything.”
That didn’t seem to make her feel better. She wrinkled the corner of her mouth and leaned back, but there wasn’t anything else I could say. I’d already told her enough to land me in prison and the looks and stares from the others in the truck couldn’t have been a good sign.
Brent glanced at me then stared toward the ground. Jake wouldn’t even look in my direction. I’d had about enough of them, I wished I’d left them back in that damn apartment. If we were gonna survive, it’d be because of me, not one of them.
What didn’t they understand? I’d led them from that nightclub, I’d kept them safe and because of me they were all still alive to hate me. That’s all I’d been trying to do for years…save the world.
The truck started to slow and I could hear elevated voices in the distance. I quickly sat up and started to look around.
“Hurry up!” someone shouted from outside. “We’re evacuating now.”
The truck came to a complete stop and I jumped up. “Something’s going on,” I said.
Cindy grabbed my hand. I was sure she was still pissed at me, but she was scared. I pulled her up next to me and we quickly moved to the edge of the truck bed.
Captain Estevez stepped around the corner. He had a worried look on his face and was motioning to someone in sharp movements. There was a lot of commotion going on outside, just out of view.
Cindy’s hand trembled, or maybe it was my own. Something bad was coming. My throat dried and my voice felt like a twisted bone lodged in my neck. The fear that I thought we’d left in the apartment was creeping back.
Estevez turned toward me and took a deep breath. “There’s a truck leaving now, they’re heading to Calhoun,” he said. “If you hurry you can catch a ride.”
“Let’s go,” I snapped and grabbed my bags.
I jumped out of the back and turned around to help Cindy down. She was terrified, but eventually climbed out of the truck. Brent and Jake stopped at the edge and gave me an odd look.
“Let’s go,” I said again. “They’re leaving.”
“We’ve been talking,” Jake started. “It’s probably best if we stay here. Wherever they are trying to take survivors is probably safest.”
“Are you kidding me?” Cindy suddenly shouted.
“You can stay too,” Jake replied. “But we aren’t going.”
“Fine, stay here. Cindy let’s go,” I growled and tightened my grip on her hand.
Cindy looked back into the truck and then to me. Before she could get out whatever words she was thinking something exploded and a loud boom rattled the ground.
“What the hell?” Captain Estevez groaned.
He circled the back of the truck then headed toward the front. Suddenly, a whoosh of air swept passed me. I felt my feet lift from the ground as the force pushed me backward, ripping Cindy’s hand from my own. I heard her yell something to me and then I was airborne.
The sky came into view, then the ground, then the sky again. I was spinning like ragdoll, twirling through the air on a high-speed collision course with the unknown.
I could hear people screaming and things falling apart. There was a loud roaring in my ears as I swung my arms like a dying bird. I struggled to gain control, but I was moving too fast.
I couldn’t tell what was up or down anymore. I felt like I was going to pass out from the force of the blast alone or the constant spinning, like I was in one of those NASA centrifuges. Then, without warning, I met the ground and everything went black.
CHAPTER 10
I’M STILL BREATHING
My body ached. Every nerve, every cell screamed in pain. Was this what it felt like to die? I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t see and I hurt so much I couldn’t determine what was actually injured.
All I knew was pain. As my awareness of self slowly came back, I continued to wonder if I was dead or alive. I guessed alive, death couldn’t hurt this much.
I could feel the hard ground against my skin. A rock or some piece of concrete was jarred into the small of my back. I could feel blood in the back of my mouth, the distinctive metallic taste, pooling on my tongue.
I was afraid to open my eyes. Afraid to find out if I was even able to open my eyes. So, for minutes I just lay there and it was the most agonizing moments of my life.
I still couldn’t hear anything and that terrified me. I didn’t think everything had gone silent, rather something was wrong with my ears. Whether or not that would last was anyone’s guess.
The longer I lay on the ground the more my body hurt. The more uncomfortable I became and eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I opened my eyes and blinked wildly. Something hot was covering my face and suddenly I could feel it burning my skin. It was metal, hot metal. A slab of it had fallen on me and I squirmed in panic.
I’d been in an accident? I remembered that much. Something bad had happened and…and I wasn’t alone. Someone should’ve been with me.
With a heavy, grunt I pushed at the slab of metal and slid it to the side. I sat up and let out a roar. My back felt like my spine was trying to rip through it. My brain was rattling inside of my head and my eyes burned like my tears were made of fire.
Someone grunted a few feet to my left and I snapped my head around. A woman’s hand jutted out from beneath a pile of dirt and rocks. Blood was dried to her skin, gashes and scrapes were up and down her arm, but something, something was familiar about her…and then it hit me.
“Cindy!” I shouted.
Everything was coming back to me, the truck, the explosion, the earthquakes. Something had gone wrong. We were all just there, just standing there.
I scuffled to my feet and rushed to Cindy’s side. She was partially covered under a mound of dirt and small bricks. Her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing.
“Cindy…Cindy,” I called as I dug the rubble from around her.
I pulled her into my chest and squeezed. I could feel her heart beating, but she wasn’t responding. I shook her then grabbed the sides of her face and pressed my forehead to hers.
“Cindy, wake up. Cin
dy, can you hear me?”
She moaned again and then her eyes fluttered.
“Cindy?”
“Ugh,” she groaned.
“Cindy?”
“What…what happened?”
She slowly opened her eyes and gazed at me. I felt my chest lighten and I breathed a heavy, sigh of relief.
“I don’t know,” I replied and looked past her.
About thirty yards away the military truck we rode in was toppled over. The ground behind it had rose like a mountain and in front of it a thin vapor spiraled from the ground. Bodies covered the floor, but I couldn’t see whose and I felt sick to my stomach, knowing that my friends could be among them.
“Are you hurt?” I asked Cindy.
She looked herself over then shook her head from side to side. I stood up and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet. I grimaced, but tried to hide the pain that I was in. It was something I would worry about later.
Smiling, I wiped the dirt from her face. As my brain seemed to be reconnecting everything, the shock of almost losing Cindy came crashing down. It felt like someone hit me with a sack of rocks. I staggered then gritted my teeth as I felt my stomach churn.
I grabbed Cindy by the arms and pulled her into me. “I love you. I don’t ever want to lose you,” I said.
“I love you too Max,” she whispered into my ear. “Where’s Jake? Where’s Brent?”
I looked over her shoulder and wondered if they’d survived. No one seemed to be moving and the amount of vapor or smoke that was coming up from the ground was getting thicker and thicker.
“Let’s go find out,” I replied.
We slowly made our way back to the truck. It looked like we were walking through some kind of morbid construction zone. Pieces of metal and other debris were scattered across the ground. Chunks of burning vehicles sent acrid smoke into the air. And among all of that were the dead.
I could see the bodies of people up ahead. I knew they were dead, I didn’t need to get any closer to see the bent limbs and twisted faces. It was a nightmare and I could only hope my friends were alive somewhere in there.
“What did this?” Cindy asked as she wrapped around my arm and pulled tight.
“I don’t know. Looks like some kind of underground explosion. Maybe gases unleashed after the last quake.”
“Oh, my God!” Cindy groaned and covered her face.
It was one of the families we’d met on the truck. Phil, his wife and their young daughter, all dead. From what I could tell they’d been burned by whatever gas had caused the explosion. Their charred bodies were frozen in time, huddled together, trying to protect their child.
I felt a pain at the pit of my stomach, a wrenching knot that made me pause and double over. Gagging, I turned and vomited into the dirt. I wasn’t prepared for this…this, this wasn’t right.
I wiped my mouth then stood up. I didn’t even know them, I’d talked with Phil for maybe half an hour, but his death seemed personal to me. He’d died right there, holding his wife and daughter, trying to shield them from the inevitable. I didn’t know him, but he didn’t deserve that.
In that moment, it was the first time I really considered my own mortality. We were just fragile bodies, trying to avoid an unescapable destiny. We were doomed to a life of peril and none of us were safe. Phil’s fate could’ve been my own and in that we were all connected, counting arbitrary digits until we met our own demise. I hoped there was something more.
I shivered and smashed my face into the palms of my hands. It was hard to keep a level head with so much death around. I tried to focus on the people I needed to find, but bodies were everywhere.
“I hope it was quick,” Cindy mumbled as she glanced back at their morbid statue.
I didn’t think it mattered. One second of pain could feel like a lifetime and in the end, they were gone, but maybe they were lucky that way. At least that’s what I told myself, that they’d escaped the worst and we were the unlucky ones.
I hugged Cindy then pulled her away. “Come on. Let’s keep going.”
As we walked, we passed more and more bodies. Even Captain Estevez had lost his life. It was sad that he’d died trying to save so many others. I wondered if he had family or would anyone even know he was gone. Would his body turn to dust and be swept away in the winds or be swallowed by the earth along with everything else?
His corpse was almost unrecognizable. His name patch and rank were the only way I could identify him. Dirt and rubble covered his scorched face, smoke still rising off of his body. Another person that I’d passed in my journey that was with us no more.
“I can’t believe this,” Cindy said over and over. “It’s a nightmare.”
I tried to comfort her, but the best thing we could do was keep moving. There were fissures spread across the ground. Steam rose from each one as the soil continued to crack and the warped earth shuttered like it was cold. It was a bad idea being anywhere near there, we needed to hurry.
The bed of the truck was covered with a green tarp that hung over steel framing. That was the only thing that kept the overturned vehicle from totally collapsing. There was hope that if someone was still inside, they might be alive.
“Hello?” I shouted as I got closer.
I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled toward the opening. With trembling hands, I pulled back the tarp and stuck my head inside. It was dark, but I could make out several bodies spaced out toward the cabin.
“Stay here,” I turned and called to Cindy.
I took a deep breath then crawled inside. The ground was still warm to the touch and the smell of sulfur lingered in the air.
“Brent? Jake?” I called.
As I reached the first body I turned them over and frowned. It was an older man that had lived in Georgia his entire life. His neck was twisted and his face permanently etched in a painful grin.
“Max?” someone called to my right.
“Jake!” I replied as I turned and caught a glimpse of his face.
“My leg is stuck. I…I can’t get out.”
“I’m coming.”
With a sense of hope, I scurried toward him. He was stuck near the side of the truck. One of the metal frames landed on his leg and pinned it to the ground. It didn’t look painful, the soft dirt had gave way and created a little pocket, but I wasn’t sure how I’d get him out.
“Where’s Brent?” I asked as I tried to pull his leg free.
He screamed and pushed me away. “No! Not like that. I think it’s broken.”
“So, what the hell do you want me to do?”
“Get me out of this fucking truck!”
I groaned and looked around. For a moment, I seriously considered just leaving his ass in there. My fear of him dying had made me forget how impossible he’d been lately.
“I’ll be back,” I said.
“What? Where are you going?”
“Hang tight.”
I crawled back out of the truck. Cindy was standing there with her arms wrapped across her chest. She looked jumpy and still had tears in her eyes.
“I found Jake…no sign of Brent yet.”
Cindy nodded and I rushed off back toward Estevez’s body. I stopped over it and looked down, deciding if freeing Jake was worth what I was about to do.
I’d seen it with him earlier, one of those hand shovel tools that turned into a dozen other things. Swallowing, I bent down and started rifling through his fatigues. Luckily enough, I quickly found it in one of his pants pockets.
“Yes!” I elated then rushed back to the truck.
“Where the hell did you go?” Jake groaned as I crawled inside.
I started to reply, but paused when I heard another voice. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you left him.”
It was Brent. He was sitting next to Jake and as far as I could tell, he was in pretty good shape.
“Where the hell did you come from?” I asked him.
“I was taking a nap. I’m ready to hit the road
again now.”
I frowned at him then looked at the few remaining bodies. I guessed some people dealt with tragedy in different ways. Brent had chosen to pretend it wasn’t happening.
“Help me with him,” I told him as I slid closer to Jake.
“What’s with the knife?” Jake asked with a sudden seriousness in his voice.
I cut my eyes at him and twisted it around pushing the other metal pieces together to form a spade. Sighing, I started digging around his foot. The dirt was stubborn, but inch by inch I was able to move him a little more until he was free.
“Good idea,” Jake said as he crawled from under the frame.
I smirked then scampered back outside. “Look who else I found,” I called to Cindy.
Brent came after me followed by Jake. They stood up and brushed the dirt from their pants then looked around.
“Holy shit!” Jake exclaimed.
“Yeah…wanna tell me again how you plan to stay here?”
“Sorry about that,” Brent grumbled.
Ignoring them, I started my own search of the area. I didn’t have a chance earlier and Estevez never did tell us what they had going on in Cartersville. We barely had time to park before everything went to hell.
We’d stopped inside of a fenced off area. It was probably some kind of community soccer field in the past, but now all of the grass was dead and it was covered in gravel. It was a rural area and as far as I could see there were no buildings or houses.
It looked like they’d just started to set up a FEMA camp. Luckily, they hadn’t done much and there weren’t too many people in there yet. Now the place looked like ground zero, but it could’ve been worse.
“Help! We need help over here!” a woman suddenly shouted.
I looked up and found her waving her hands from across the field. She was running toward us from an overturned trailer, one of the only ones that had been set up.
“Help!” she called again. “He’s on fire!”
CHAPTER 11
SCORCHED EARTH
I’d come to the conclusion that the world was dying and it was trying everything imaginable to take us with it. It’s final death throes were violent, punishing and cruel. It was tumbling from a cliff and grabbing everyone it could to take with it.
The Mayflower Project: Deconstruction Book Two (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) Page 6
