The driver suddenly points to something in the distance and gestures to the other man. They both watch as a skinny rabbit hops slowly among the dead vegetation on the other side of the road, probably in search of food. The driver pulls a handgun from the back of his pants, aims and fires one shot, dropping the rabbit. Both men run toward the body. The gunshot startles Samson into a fit of loud barking.
Stealth is no longer an option for the Jacks family. The driver turns toward them and aims his gun at Samson. Deuce jumps up waving his arms frantically.
“Don’t shoot! That’s my dog! Please don’t shoot!”
The driver sees Deuce and lowers his gun. The other man is one hundred feet away, holding up the dead rabbit. Alex and Jessa stand protectively beside Deuce as the driver approaches them, tucking the gun back into his waistband. The one without the gun looks happy to see them as he approaches.
“Hundreds of miles I drive. I see no one. It’s just me and my brother and our families. So here you are, another family of survivors. Where are we, amigo?”
“Dana Point, California. Used to be a great place to live but, as you can see, the neighborhood’s gotten a little rundown lately.”
Matias Guerrero grins at Alex, laughing, a kind and friendly face. “Sorry about the gun, but our children are hungry, and the rabbits are slow. I am Matias and this is my brother, Diego. The women are our wives, Mariana and Isabella, and our children are Mateo, Mia and Sofia.”
“I’m Alex, my wife, Jessa, our son, Deuce, and this is our coyote-killer, Samson, and what’s left of our house. How did you manage to survive? Where did you come from?”
“Baja on the Sea of Cortez. Diego and I are cave-divers. We were on holiday, sleeping under cave-rocks when the earthquake hit. By the time we return home, there is nobody left. The earthquakes killed our parents and everyone else we know. Mexico was getting too hot, so we decided to head north for cooler weather.”
“But all the cars here are dead. How is your van still running?”
“Diego pulled the battery and ignition wires to clean the contacts. We were tired from the dive, so he decided to replace them the next morning. After the earthquake, the van started as usual. We thought nothing of it until we saw all the crushed and abandoned vehicles on the roads.”
“Sorry about your parents. You are lucky to be alive.”
“Tell that to Diego. He has not been himself since we found them.”
Alex eyes Diego, who is coming toward them holding the dead rabbit by its ears. Samson growls at Diego, lunges for him.
“Samson, no!” Deuce holds Samson back by his collar.
Diego walks right up to them and pulls the gun from the back of his waistband. He points it at Samson. Deuce pulls with all his might on Samson’s collar and backs him away. Diego looks deranged as he waves the gun toward the growling German shepherd.
“Diego no! These people can help us. They live here. They can help us find food and water.” Matias speaks softly to his brother, as if speaking to a child.
“We need food and water now.” Diego is cold, unemotional and robotic.
“I know where there’s plenty of food and water,” says Deuce. “I can take you there if you want.”
They have wisely left the bomb shelter door closed and Alex has no intention of revealing either the shelter or their private food and water stash to these newcomers. He has no intention of allowing Deuce to go off with them unprotected, either. “The boy’s right. There’s a food market not far from here.”
“You take us there, now,” says Diego pointing the gun at Alex.
“We can do that.” Alex turns to Jessa and Deuce. “You stay here with Samson while I take our new friends to the market. We survivors need to help each other. Come, Matias, Diego.” Alex speaks softly to Diego, too. He winks at Deuce and heads off on foot toward the market with Diego still pointing the gun at Alex’s back and Matias just inches behind him.
With or without a gun at his back, Alex is happy to lead them away from his family to the store. He’s happy to help them carry food and water back to their families, especially if it spares Alex’s family, even for just a few hours, from an angry, irrational, stressed-out man with a gun.
As they approach the market, Alex knows that the dogs have likely already picked up their scent. The men won’t have the element of surprise on their side this time. This time, they have something even better: Diego’s gun.
The same two mangy dogs appear at the entrance to the market barking and growling menacingly as the three men inch closer. Without hesitation, Diego pulls the handgun from his waistband, aims and fires twice in quick succession. Pop, pop. Two head shots. Game over. Both dogs collapse to the ground without so much as a whimper.
The three men step over their carcasses and carefully ease their way inside. The market is in shambles. The dogs have done considerable damage to the remaining groceries. The bags and boxes are mostly shredded and scattered about, but the canned goods are untouched. Diego and Matias begin gathering and stacking undamaged cans of chili, baked beans and vegetables near the store entrance.
“Wait,” says Alex. “Your families are going to need much more food than we can carry. Instead of taking the food to them, why not bring them to the food?”
Matias eyes Diego. “I think our new friend is right. What do you say, Diego?”
“Typical gringo, trying to move the beaners out of his neighborhood.”
“Come on, Diego. We have to trust him. He led us to food for our families.”
“He led us away from his family. No wetbacks allowed, right?”
Alex has heard enough, makes a move toward Diego. “So you’d rather hike two miles carrying cans than admit that an American is really trying to help you. Fine. Do what you want. Either way, your brother is right. I am your friend. I’m happy to be your neighbor and, for the record, I have never used words like ‘beaner’ or ‘wetback’ to describe anyone of Mexican descent.”
Diego responds by pointing the gun angrily at Alex’s face.
With the men gone, Jessa and Deuce feel compelled to smuggle food and a jug of water from the shelter. They carry it down the hill to Mariana and Isabella, who hover around their three children as they sit side by side, looking sad and miserable, on the short tailgate of the van. The two girls swing their feet back and forth nervously like metronomes while Mateo, his head sunk in his hands, stares a virtual hole in the ground. Mariana and Isabella are grateful to have food and water for their children.
“Thank you. Thank you. I’m Mariana and this is my sister-in-law, Isabella. She doesn’t know English and it wouldn’t matter if she did because she is deaf. These are our babies, Mateo, Sofia and Mia.”
“I’m Jessa and this is my son, Deuce. The dog is Samson. His owners were killed so he adopted us.” She extends her hand toward Mariana in friendship.
Mariana clutches Jessa with both hands, tears welling up in her eyes. She nods toward the children. “They’ve lost their friends and their grandparents.”
“I’m so sorry.” Jessa hasn’t forgotten the pain of losing people you love. Her own parents were killed in a plane crash several years earlier.
Samson sniffs at the children one by one then sits quietly on the roadway and watches the girls’ legs swinging back and forth. Deuce marches right up to Mateo, who looks about his age.
“I’m Deuce.” He stretches out his hand.
Mateo barely looks up and offers a weak handshake in return, “Mateo.”
“Are you going to sit there like a lump or take a walk with me?” Deuce pulls Mateo away from the van and they walk across Pacific Coast Highway for a closer look at the ocean. Deuce thinks it looks even higher than it was a few days ago, but he can’t be sure. He isn’t accustomed to paying much attention to the world outside of computer displays and cellphone screens. Now it’s all he has left. There is no other choice but to notice to the real world.
“This sucks, Mateo. I miss my computer and the Internet. I miss playing M
indcraft with my friends.”
“I miss my Nanas and Poppis,” says Mateo. “They died in the earthquake.”
Deuce feels like the biggest tool on the planet. After all, he is lucky to still have his family intact. The things he misses suddenly seem petty and inconsequential compared to Mateo’s losses. He pats Mateo’s shoulder like a big brother. “I’m really sorry, man. I didn’t know. It was really insensitive…”
“I can’t believe they’re gone. I can’t believe everyone’s gone.”
“You still have your mom and your dad and sisters.”
“One sister. The older one, she’s my cousin, Sofia. She’s twelve.”
“So you still have your cousin, Sofia, and your aunt and uncle, right?”
“I guess.” Mateo kicks a rock near his foot hard enough to send it flying across the road. “You play soccer?”
“Only in gym. I’m more about playing computer games.”
“Sitting at a computer’s not much exercise, amigo.”
Deuce nods. “You’re right.” Following Mateo’s lead, he kicks hard at a rock the size of a tennis ball, sends it skipping across the road toward Mateo’s rock. It stops about a foot short.
“Not bad.”
“Hey, we should start a new sport. Instead of soccer we can call it rocker.” Deuce likes making puns.
Mateo’s frown vanishes. He laughs at Deuce’s cleverness. “Rocker, eh, a perfect name for the only sport left on Earth.”
“You think we’re the only ones who survived The Crash?”
“You mean the big earthquake, right?” Mateo didn’t see The Crash.
“I mean the moon crash.” Deuce says insistently.
“Dude, all we saw was clouds over Baja. The moon crashed?”
“Yeah, it crashed right into a dwarf planet. I thought everyone saw it. It was epic.”
“So that’s what messed everything up...” It suddenly makes sense to Mateo, the crushed buildings, the near-total death and destruction, the dark skies and the missing moon.
They stroll back to the van together, new friends taking turns trying practice kicks and making up new rules for their new sport, two-man rocker. The girls are on the ground petting Samson like crazy. Mia wraps her arms around his neck and shoulders, hugs him and kisses the top of his head repeatedly. Sofia breaks off a piece of her protein bar and feeds him, then giggles as he gratefully licks her face. Samson gives her a warm, affectionate diversion from her sorrow.
“No, Diego! Put down the gun.”
Alex backs away slowly. “Look, if you want, I’ll help you carry supplies to your family for tonight. You can sleep on it. Leave the van right where it is, or move it here where the food is. Up to you. Either way, I’m glad you survived and made it here. Our wives and kids can get to know each other. We can get to know each other. I think we all need friends, a sense of community right now, and we’re all the community we’ve got.”
Diego mulls it over for a moment then slowly lowers the gun and tucks it back into his waistband. Without a word, he picks up the stack of cans at his feet and walks right past Matias and Alex and out of the store.
Matias smiles at Alex and winks. “He agrees.”
By the time they return to the van with their canned foods, their families have already become a community. The two girls are playing fetch with Samson. Mateo and Deuce have struck up a fast friendship over a primitive stone-kicking game. Mariana, Isabella and Jessa are working together cooperatively reorganizing their meager supplies and repacking the van.
Alex, Mateo and Diego set the cans on the pavement next to the van. “We have food, Mariana! A whole market full of food.” Matias hugs her joyfully.
Diego goes off by himself to brood in silence, pacing back and forth like a caged leopard, cursing under his breath. He is convinced that Alex is hiding something about the recent events. Diego has never trusted Americans. His knowledge and point of view until now have been somewhat limited by a handful of Mexican friends who had crossed the border and tried to find work in America so they could support their families. They tried and failed repeatedly.
Unemployment in America had surpassed twenty percent while the corporations replaced human workers with robots and took all the profits for themselves. The once-powerful and more prosperous middle class that had made America the dominant world power for five decades had been squeezed into poverty by greedy corporate pirates and corrupted millionaire politicians.
There was no place for outsiders like Diego’s friends in the menial low paying jobs most Americans had held. Long before The Crash, unemployment, thirst, hunger, homelessness and high crime had become the dominant forces in American culture. Practically overnight, America had become a police state where citizens were routinely stripped of their rights and their dignity. Squads of angry police beat people in public, or shot them on sight if they violated the new 11 p.m. curfew most states had legislated. Thankfully, California was one of the few exceptions.
Now, none of that matters anymore. All that matters to Diego is finding some way to salve his anger and pain. Spending a night with the Americans is simply not an option.
Diego stops pacing and turns toward the women just as they finish reorganizing the van. He doesn’t need to sleep on it, as Alex suggested. Diego has made up his mind.
“Okay, let’s go. We’re leaving.” He directs the women and children into the van, gesturing emphatically, herding them like cattle.
“Why the rush, Diego? We can move in the morning,” says Matias.
Diego glares back at him.
“This was your idea, you and the American. Now you want to stay? Forget it.”
Diego walks off in a huff. Matias is just as surprised by his sudden change of heart as Alex. He glances toward Alex and rolls his eyes. “Please forgive my brother. He is full of grief and needs someone to blame. Mostly, I think he is angry at himself for not saving our parents.”
“He needs time, not forgiveness,” says Alex. “I understand.”
Diego ignores them and finishes loading everyone into the van. He plops himself on the driver’s seat and starts the engine. “Let’s go, Matias! We’re moving to where the food is.”
Matias shoots Alex an apologetic look and reluctantly walks to the van. “Until I see you again, amigo.” Matias smiles at Alex as he climbs onto the passenger seat. Diego immediately stomps the accelerator and they roar off into the night toward the market leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.
“What’s his problem?” Deuce has finally found a friend his own age and just like that, he’s gone as fast as he came.
“He’s suffering his losses, not taking any of this well.” Alex is relieved that Diego is gone.
“Mateo told me they didn’t see The Crash because of clouds over Baja,” says Deuce. “He was shocked when I told him the moons crashed.”
“Good, maybe he’ll tell his uncle Diego we weren’t hiding anything.”
That night, instead of sleeping inside the bomb shelter, they sleep under the stars near the one small section of their house that is still upright. Alex trusts Matias but fears that the newcomers might visit unexpectedly during the night and he does not want to be caught off guard or forced to expose his resources.
Alex considers their situation and decides to stick with their plan to stay close to the bomb shelter until the usable groceries run out. He is thankful that Deuce and Jessa have not revealed the bomb shelter to the newcomers, and that Diego has rested his trigger finger. After so many weeks without meaningful human interaction, Alex really hopes the newcomers will stay and bring some sense of community to what’s left of Dana Point.
Sugar Pine Point, Lake Tahoe, October 28
Eric and Donnie have trekked more than thirty miles since leaving their home in Kingsbury, Nevada. They have followed the southern terminus of Lake Tahoe all the way around until they reached Sugar Pine Point State Park on the western side of the lake just south of Tahoma, California. They hike up one of the highest elevations in La
ke Tahoe and camp out at about eight thousand feet with no more shelter than a makeshift lean-to of fallen trees and pine branches.
“These pine needles make me itch,” says Donnie.
“Dude, it’s the only bedding we have. Get used to it.”
“I thought it would be colder here, especially at night.”
“Me, too. Maybe the weather’s like messed up from, you know, the thing.”
“Yeah, the thing. The thing that messed up everything.”
Eric uses his best radio announcer voice. “It’s the greatest movie never made… The Thing That Messed Up Everything starring ‘Dynamite’ Donnie Murray and Eric ‘Killer’ Krueger.”
Donnie forces a laugh and gazes out over the landscape in front of them. They are facing west away from Lake Tahoe toward the Pacific Ocean. Though the afternoon sky is still overcast, the air is clear and dry and they can see for miles. Donnie squints into the distance and focuses his gaze for the first time since their arrival. What he sees astonishes him. “Am I hallucinating or is that water on the horizon?”
Eric stares at the horizon and his jaw drops. “Holy crap.”
“Aren’t we supposed to be like two hundred miles from the ocean?”
“That sounds about right.”
“Then what the hell is that, Eric?”
“Either we suddenly have Superman vision, or the Pacific Ocean has risen a few thousand feet in the last two months.”
“Dude, that’s like twenty miles away, maybe less.” Donnie swallows hard.
It’s not a hallucination. The rising Pacific has swallowed everything from San Francisco to Sacramento, including Citrus Heights and Auburn, and is now encroaching on the western edge of Tahoe National Forest. If the trees were still standing, they would have blocked Eric and Donnie’s view of the spectacular new blue horizon.
“Holy crap,” says Eric.
“Holy crap is right,” says Donnie.
Glenbrook, Nevada, October 30
Meg Baker enters Glenbrook, a tiny town on the eastern edge of Lake Tahoe. She has a backpack filled with salvaged items from her apartment and a hiker’s 48-ounce water bottle inside an insulated, zippered cover with an integrated shoulder strap. She has walked about ten miles from her apartment in Indian Hills and she has not seen a single sign of life.
RUNAWAY MOON Page 10
