Sole Chaos

by William Oday

  She shook it and patted it with her other. “You must be busy these days.”

  His lips pressed together and his bushy mustache hid the upper one. “Yep. This town is holding on by a thread. And I don’t have enough deputies to keep the peace if things really go sideways.”

  His eyes opened wide as he caught himself. “Uh, that’s not information I’d like spread around.”

  “Of course not. I don’t want trouble any more than you do.” She gave his hand a squeeze and pulled away.

  “Why don’t we head into my office?” He led the way through the hallway to the right. “We’re going over new procedures in light of the situation. It’s a tricky thing enforcing the law during a period of increasing lawlessness.”

  They entered his office and he shut the door. He gestured at the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat. Can I get you water or coffee? No wait. No coffee,” he said as he shook his head. “Old habits die hard. Water?”

  “Yes, thank you,” she said as she accepted the bottle. In times like these, there was no sense in saying no. “So, is Ronnie locked up in a bathroom somewhere?”

  Stuckey chuckled. “No, he’s back at large. The mayor didn’t want to press charges so I gave him a stern warning about being an idiot.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  “He’ll probably end up in here again, but I’m glad he’s gone for now. We’re way over capacity as it is. We haven’t resorted to bathrooms, but we did have to clear out a couple of closets to make room. I know that may sound like old school Alcatraz, but I don’t know what else to do. I can’t give a pass to people breaking the law just because we don’t have the space to hold them.”

  “No judgement here, Chief.”

  “I know, Flo. I’m trying to convince myself more than anything. It’s getting harder and harder to keep things running smooth.”

  “Well, at least you don’t have to write so many speeding tickets,” Flo said trying to lighten the mood with a joke.

  “True, but then we don’t get the revenue either.”

  Ha! She’d always known speeding tickets were more about the money than the punishment. At the very least, the revenue was part of it.

  “There’s not much speeding, but there’s a lot more of other things. Worse things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Breaking and entering. Domestic violence.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. Normal people are getting desperate and doing stupid stuff. We’ve caught half a dozen folks trying to steal food from their neighbors. People that would’ve never done something like that before.”

  He opened a manilla file on his desk and shuffled some papers around. “And that’s not counting the usual lowlifes and scumbags that consider it their job to ruin this town. Those types are coming out of the woodwork.”

  Flo took a sip of water. “I’m sorry to hear it, Chief.”

  Stuckey took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. “What am I doing? This isn’t your problem. I’m sorry. Anyhow, here are the forms I need you to look over.” He pushed them across his desk. He clicked the tip of a pen and set it next to them. “We need your signature on—”

  BOOM!

  An ear-splitting explosion tore through the air. The walls shook and dust rained down from the ceiling tiles.

  Flo doubled over, covering her ears and pinching her eyes shut. She gagged on a breath of choking dust.

  Stuckey appeared at her side and took her by the elbow. He yelled something.

  But there was no sound to his voice.

  Only the ringing in her head.

  He yelled again and she read his lips.

  Come on!

  She nodded and let him pull her up.

  He threw open the door and a cloud of white dust billowed inside.

  Like a January blizzard.

  She couldn’t see more than a few feet to any side.

  Stuckey pulled her forward and she let herself be led. This was his place. He would know where to go whether he could see anything or not.

  They stumbled through the grainy fog for what felt like forever.

  She bumped into him as he abruptly stopped.

  Only then did she notice their surroundings.

  They were in the middle of all the desks where the meeting had been going on.

  She glanced up at the light pouring through the missing roof.

  Dust swirled up and out as the air outside vacuumed out the small space.

  Stuckey let go of her and dropped to his knees to check something.

  Flo looked over his broad shoulders and sucked in a quick breath.

  One of the deputies-what was her name? Tammy?-lay on the floor with half her face peeled away. Pale white bone showed where the cheek and chin should’ve been. Her lips were gone revealing bleeding gums and missing teeth. The woman’s jaw quivered as blood spilled out of her mouth.

  Flo lurched to the side as her stomach heaved. She swallowed hard.

  Stuckey spun her around and yelled in her face. His thick mustache was powdered white like Santa Claus.

  He yelled again but Flo couldn’t understand.

  BOOM!

  Another explosion slammed into her side and flung her across the room.

  She hit something, pinwheeled, and crashed into a wall.

  Something cracked inside her.

  Something deep. Something vital.

  The world tilted back and forth.

  She took a breath and gurgled instead.

  Stuckey appeared above her with blood leaking out of both ears. A gash at his hairline poured blood down into one eye. He swiped it away and hauled her up over his shoulder.

  She bounced along as he stumbled outside. Every jostle sent a shockwave of agony through her chest and head.

  The air cleared and she realized they were outside on the street.

  Stuckey gently laid her on the pavement with his jacket under her head.

  Her head fell to the side and she caught a glimpse of the police station.

  Of what used to be the police station.

  It was gone. Most of it, at least.

  More rubble than structure.

  A person ran out from the alley next to the ruins. He hurried across the street. Another followed and soon a dozen or more had fled across the street and disappeared between the buildings on the other side.

  Another man appeared.

  Even with her vision swimming and going dark, she recognized this one.

  Alexei Volkov.

  She blinked as darkness overtook her.

  Something was wrong.

  She tried to figure out what, but the answer eluded her.

  Then it came with horrifying clarity.

  She couldn’t see, hear, or feel anything.

  Even the painful ringing inside her head was gone.

  5

  EMILY WILDER stood at the window peering out over the hospital parking lot and the ocean beyond. A brown haze hung high in the afternoon sky. It should’ve been beautiful scenery, but it wasn’t. Even an island with the natural splendor of Kodiak appeared diminished and depressing.

  She touched the silver heart pendant that hung from a slender silver necklace around her neck. It had been her mother’s once. Long ago. So far back it felt like someone else’s life.

  “Emily, please don’t go.”

  She turned to face Marco. The sight of his battered body in a loose hospital gown made her heart twist. “I have to.”

  “I just don’t understand what you—“

  “She might still be alive, Marco. If there’s even one chance in a million that she is, I have to take it.”

  Marco’s lips pressed together in a tight frown. His concern for her tried to melt her heart, tried to weaken her resolve, but she didn’t let it.

  Now was not the time for dwelling on what might’ve been.

  Not with an ill grandmother back home who could be alive and enduring who knew what. And if she was dead, Emily wasn’t sure she wanted to g
o on as the last remaining member of her family.

  There came a point when any rational person had to consider that maybe it wasn’t worth it anymore.

  Having lost her mother and father at such a young age, family was more precious to her than most. And her grandmother was all she had left.

  Marco reached for her hand and she let him take it. Strength and warmth seeped into her. He cupped her cheek with his other hand. The tenderness in his eyes made her heart race and her head spin. “Chief Stuckey said they found out San Francisco is gone. What are the chances that Oakland survived?”

  Emily yanked her hand away and fought to regain her footing. She was going, and that’s all there was to it. She pulled away and turned back to the bleak scene beyond the window. “There’s a boat leaving the marina tonight for Anchorage. If I have any chance of catching a ride south to Seattle, it’ll be from there.”

  Marco sidled up next to her and a crisp soap scent mixed with something deeper, wilder. He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.

  His touch made her heart skip a beat.

  She was acting like a giddy school girl.

  Pathetic.

  She gritted her teeth and did her best to focus on the journey ahead.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

  An ache in Emily’s chest made her want to give in. To surrender to him. “I know,” she said as she turned to him. She rested an open palm on his chest and tried not to notice the firm, sculpted muscle under the thin gown. “Marco, in another time, in another world, maybe we could’ve—“

  “Don’t say it,” he said with a lopsided grin. “I refuse to be dumped by a girl I’m not even dating.”

  Emily laughed. A short hard laugh that came out as more of a snort that she hid behind a self-conscious hand.

  His eyes grew serious again. “So you’re going out on an ocean voyage with none of the gear that keeps sailors safe in the modern day. No radar, GPS, emergency locator beacon, SAT phone, nothing.”

  Emily shrugged. “Guess so.”

  Marco closed his eyes. “Great. Just great.”

  Emily gently punched his chest. “I’ll be fine. This may come as a surprise to you, but people have been navigating the oceans of the world for thousands of years before our technology arrived.”

  “Yeah, and it was a lot more dangerous then.” He paused. “Hold on. I’ve got something for you.”

  He shuffled over to the tattered backpack that he’d gotten when the reality TV show Sole Survivor had begun. She had one just like it… somewhere.

  Marco dug through it. “Here it is!” He pulled out a short plastic tube with a cord attached to it.

  “What is that?”

  He opened the loop and raised it above her head. “May I?”

  “You may.”

  He lowered the loop and let the tube hang on her chest. “It’s a water-activated emergency light. Must not have microchips or whatever inside that the EMP fried. I know because I accidentally dropped it in the sink and it nearly blinded me. If it gets wet, it’ll light up a super bright yellow. Turns off automatically when it dries out.”

  Emily turned it over in her hand. “Cool. Where’d you get it?”

  Marco grinned in that way that did no good for anybody. “Scavenged it off that crashed Coast Guard chopper we spent the night in.”

  She remembered. She wouldn’t soon forget his warmth pressing against her as she slept.

  Mostly slept.

  Kind of slept, due to the distracting warmth pressing against her backside.

  The thought of leaving that warmth forever made her chest tighten. They would soon be no more than memories for each other.

  She let the light rest on her chest. “I have something for you, too.” The decision made before she decided against it. She dug through her pack and pulled out the mints tin.

  “I get it. I haven’t brushed my teeth today.”

  “It’s not that.” She opened the lid and unfolded the cloth to reveal the black G-Shock watch her father had given her long ago. One of a matching pair. The other had disappeared with him when he never returned. It hadn’t left her wrist for over a decade.

  Until the band failed while she was doing the show. She’d placed it in the tin for safekeeping.

  She held it up and glanced at the time. Still working fine.

  A part of her didn’t want to part with it. But that part was hanging on to the distant past.

  She put it in his hand and closed his fingers over it. “This is for you. So you can count the minutes until we see each other again.”

  They both knew those minutes would go on forever.

  He looked at it and smiled. “I’ll use my watch band to fix it.”

  “That would be good.” It was the right decision. It warmed her heart to know that he would treasure it just as she had.

  “Thanks,” he said as he drew her into an embrace.

  She rested her cheek against him.

  His strong arms wrapped around her. Supporting her. The hard muscles making her insides flutter.

  “When are you leaving?”

  “After sunset. The captain wants to make the journey at night to avoid problems.”

  “What kind of problems? Wouldn’t it be better to be able to see where you’re going?”

  “Not according to the captain. He’s worried about pirates.”

  “I don’t think there have been any Jack Sparrows roaming the seas for at least two hundred years.”

  Emily looked up and rolled her eyes. “Not the drunken, bow-legged kind. The kind with guns and the willingness to use them now that law enforcement isn’t right around the corner.”

  The smirk melted off Marco’s face as he remembered it was no joke at all. With no radios to call for help or aircraft to locate and effect a rescue operation, traveling on the high seas would once again be deadly dangerous.

  Marco bit his lip and Emily could tell it was everything he could do to stop from asking her again to stay.

  She pulled away. She couldn’t get this close. She might give in.

  A moment passed and the empty space filled with an awkward silence. One that didn’t belong between them but wouldn’t leave now that it had arrived.

  A bump in the sheet on the hospital bed popped up. The bump slid up the sheet and Oscar scurried out onto the pillow. The adorable little weasel faced the door and tilted his head, listening. His shiny black marble eyes didn’t blink.

  “Hey, Oscar. Have a good nap?” She said as she reached out to scratch under his chin. She flinched when he nipped her finger and hissed before turning back toward the door.

  With rust brown fur and a cream colored belly, he was cute. She had to give him that. But he was the grouchiest little stinker she’d ever met. Marco naming him Oscar made perfect sense.

  Marco reached over and Oscar allowed the contact. He arched his head as Marco apparently found a good spot behind his ear. “Hey, buddy.”

  The weasel darted to the edge of the bed, and reared up on his back legs. Alert and tense.

  Someone screamed in the hall outside.

  Another voice shouted back.

  Emily hurried over and eased the door open. She didn’t want to shove her head out if there was another robbery going down.

  She peeked out enough for one eye to peer down the hall.

  Nurses and doctors and even civilians were pushing mobile beds inside with red-soaked bodies in each one.

  “Marco! Come on! Something’s happened!”

  6

  They left Oscar with the door closed and hurried down the hall toward the nurse’s station and the ER beyond. A nurse appeared from around the corner and nearly ran them over with the empty bed she was pushing. “You two! Get this gurney outside! More wounded are waiting to be brought in! Now!”

  “Got it,” Emily said as she and Marco took the bed and steered it down the hall and out the double door entrance to the drive through.

  A single docto
r shouted instructions to a couple of nurses who hurried between numerous gurneys, assessing each patient’s state. He lifted the blood-soaked blanket of a man that looked to be wearing the tattered remains of a uniform.

  The doctor grimaced as he shook his head. He flipped through a stack of green, yellow, red and black tickets in his hand, tore off a black one and tied it around the patient’s wrist.

  Three old trucks sporting more rust than metal were parked in the drive-thru. A giant of a man that Emily recognized as Chief Stuckey jumped out of the bed of one of the trucks.

  “Over here!” he yelled at them.

  They rushed the gurney over as he hefted a limp body out of the bed of the truck. He carefully set the woman on the bed and adjusted her lifeless limbs.

  “What happened?” Emily asked.

  “Bombs at the police station. Two. Get her inside!”

  She and Marco hustled the woman inside. White dust had partially plastered over a coating of blood that covered her completely.

  Her hair.

  Her face.

  Her chest.

  Her stomach.

  Her limbs.

  Everywhere.

  It didn’t seem possible for there to be that much blood.

  They left the chaos outside and went straight back into the chaos unfolding inside.

  The nurses had recruited a few of the civilians to help out. One was performing CPR on a victim. Another held a blood bag in the air as the nurse inserted the needle into the inside of the victim’s elbow.

  “Doctor!” Marco shouted. “Hey! Over here!”

  She looked up and nodded. “Be there in a minute!” she shouted as she examined the person on the gurney in front of her.

  The woman on their gurney moaned and blood bubbled out of her mouth.

  “It’s okay,” Emily said even though it was a lie. “You’re gonna be okay.” She reached down and pulled the woman’s sticky hair out of her eyes. She used her sleeve to wipe away the plaster covering her face and froze when a wipe revealed a cheek missing skin.

  Yellow bone glistened through a pool of crimson.

  Marco moved closer and took the woman’s hand in his. “This is Flo, from the diner!”