Jolene stifled a yawn.
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, especially Gordon,” Brian said, eyes earnestly searching Jolene’s.
“Oh, man, Brian, don’t tell me it’s another one of your conspiracy theories. I’m way too tired,” Jolene said.
“No, I mean, yes, I mean, I know who this Crow is. At least, I know who, okay, I better start from the beginning,” Brian said.
Jolene rubbed her eyes. “I’m listening.”
Brian started to speak.
“Jolene, can you come lay down with me?” Mags said in a sleepy voice.
“Shit,” Jolene mumbled. “Brian, can this wait? Or just tell me, can we trust this Crow or not?”
Brian nodded. “Yeah, we can. I’ll fill you in another time.”
Jolene started for the bed, then stopped and kissed Brian on the cheek. “I love you. I’d be lost here without you,” she said. “I hope you know that.”
Brian smiled. Jolene noticed his eyes were moist and thought he might cry. She decided to save his manly dignity by going to Mags and laid down beside the little girl. Within moments, she and the child slumbered.
7
Siri walked into the kitchen, yawning.
Jolene sat alone at the table and waved at Siri to sit down.
“It’s about time you and I cleared the air, Siri,” Jolene said.
“Do you really think now is the time for this, Jo?” Siri asked, her voice trembling.
“Oh, gee, Siri, I tell you what. Let’s wait until all this is over and we are back in our homes, safe and sound, and then I can tell you over coffee how fucking much I hate you for sleeping with my husband. Would that work better for you?” Jolene’s voice rose, high pitched with rage.
“There was a lot more to it than that, Jo, and you know it.” Siri’s voice was level, but barely above a whisper.
“Tell me how much more to it there was? You fucked my husband while our son lay dying in a hospital. You fucked my husband while our son lay dead in a casket. How much more to it was there, Siri? How long were you guys going at it, anyway? Months? Years? Did you have any sympathy at all for me or my child?” Jolene hissed.
Gordon stood in the entryway, folding his arms.
“You two, this may not be the best time to hash things out. We need to stick together and the little one is just in the other room,” Gordon said, eyeing the two women.
“You know what, Gordon? You can all go fuck yourself. I’m out of here,” Jolene said, getting up so quick her chair went flying back into the cabinets behind her. She stormed out of the room and down the hall into an empty bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
Jolene slumped to the floor, shaking, fighting back tears. Her face was red with rage and shame and disgust. She grabbed some toilet paper and held it to her eyes, sobbing, letting the tears come now.
There was a timid knock on the door, more of a tap, tap, tap. Jolene stopped crying and looked over at the door handle, half expecting Gordon or Siri to come in without asking.
Someone slipped a piece of paper under the door. Jolene heard footsteps walking away, small footsteps. Mags.
She reached over for the piece of paper, which was folded. She unfolded it and put her hand to her mouth, stifling more sobs as she looked at a picture of Mags and her doggy holding Jolene’s hand, walking down a street. At the bottom, Mags had scrawled, “Jo and Me.”
Jolene held the drawing to her chest and cried.
The late afternoon sun flooded into the living room. Mags napped on the couch, clutching her doggy. Jolene stood at the window, peering out between the open slatted blinds. There was no sign of Brian and Gary. They had been gone for hours.
“I’m heading out,” Gordon said, taking his pack.
Alex nodded and got up, saying, “I’ll go with you.”
Gordon shook his head. “I’d feel better if you stayed here with the gals, kept a lookout.”
“We can fend for ourselves,” Jolene snapped. She was still miffed at Gordon for his interfering with her talk with Siri. Hadn’t he told her in the woods that she and Siri would have to settle their differences eventually?
Gordon left.
Alex shrugged and stayed behind.
“Condescending jerk,” Jolene hissed.
Siri was quiet.
Janey took in a deep breath, exhaled. “Jolene, I don’t think he means anything by it. He’s just a fatherly kind of guy,” she said.
Jolene looked at Janey, and bit her tongue. She liked Janey.
“I know ... Just my nerves. This whole thing is just getting to me.”
“Hey, we are all on edge. But we gotta stick together as a unit, at least until we find out what is going on,” Alex said.
Jolene had to smile, hearing this kind of talk coming from a biker dude. Alex had always been a straight-up guy.
The front door burst open and Brian, Gary, and Gordon rushed inside, carrying bags of goods.
Brian quickly closed the door behind him. “We hit the motherlode!”
Gary held up another handheld ham radio, similar to Jolene’s.
“Battery about half full, but it works.”
“Did you see anything out there?” Jolene asked.
“Not a damn thing or a damn person,” Gordon answered. “We are alone here for now.”
The guys, along with Alex, took the goods into the kitchen to survey their booty.
Jolene, Siri, and Janey stayed in the living room with Mags. Jolene started to close the blinds when she saw something peculiar. She gasped. Outside, above the tree line at the end of the road, was a line of small drones, hovering.
“Jesus Christ, guys, we got company!” Jolene grabbed Mags by the hand and pulled her up off the couch. Mags grasped her doggy.
“Drones, just at the end of the street. Looked like there were about six of them,” Jolene said, her voice shaking.
“We huddle down. Look, we need to find an interior room, no windows,” Brian said.
“The den area, although the hall opens into the kitchen,” Gordon said, his voice low.
“The master bathroom. It’s big enough for us to stand in, one window with shutters,” Jolene said. “One of us should keep a lookout.”
“Everyone into the master bathroom,” Brian said. “I’ll keep watch. If they come close, I’ll join you.”
The group hustled into the bathroom. Mags was on the verge of tears, so Gordon scooped her up into his arms, then set her down in the bathroom.
“We’re gonna play a cool game of hide and seek, little one,” he said.
Jolene grabbed her purse and took out her Glock. Brian tossed his shotgun to Alex. They closed the bathroom door.
“Why do we need guns?” Mags asked, her eyes wide as she watched Jolene load her handgun.
Jolene looked around at the others, but no one seemed willing to answer the child.
“Mags, we are in a bit of a tough situation here, and we need to make sure we protect ourselves. We also need you to stay calm and be brave and strong. Okay?”
Jolene heard the harshness in her voice, but now was not the time to sugar-coat or beat around the bush. They all needed to be on the same page. Even Mags.
Mags looked at Jolene, eyes wide, but she didn’t cry. Instead, she went into the corner near the toilet and sat down, clutching her doggy. Siri went to sit beside her, along with Janey.
Jolene stayed close to the door, listening. Mentally, she threw a prayer to heaven, hoping God would show them mercy. Brian was out there. She had hoped maybe Gary or Gordon had gone. Not Brian. He was the only one she really knew and could trust to have her back. She looked around the room at the ragtag group and realized that they all had to trust each other now. They were all afraid.
Outside, she heard Brian moving into the kitchen. A moment later, he tapped on the door. She opened it slowly and he slipped inside.
“They’re just moving down the middle of the street like they’re scanning the houses or something. I lo
oked out back and it’s safe there. If we need to, we can bolt for the backyard and jump the neighbor’s fence to get to the woods.” Brian was breathless, his cheeks flushed. “For now, we just sit tight, and nobody say a damn word.”
They stayed inside the bathroom for an hour before Brian and Alex agreed to go out and check the street. Jolene held her breath, scared that the drone might be just lurking out there, waiting for some movement or a sign of body heat inside one of the houses.
“Be careful,” she whispered, closing the door after them.
“This is insane,” Gary said.
A barrage of gunshots boomed and echoed beyond the door.
“Oh, shit,” Janey said.
Gordon bolted for the door, and left the bathroom, his sidearm exposed.
“Stay put everyone,” he barked, and this time Jolene didn’t mind taking orders.
More rapid gunfire. Jolene put her hands over Mags’ ears and held the little girl tight to stop her from screaming.
“Just hang on,” Jolene said. “Just hang on, Mags, it will be okay.”
Another barrage of bullets, then yelling and hollering. Janey cracked open the door. They could clearly hear Brian, Alex, and Gordon whooping it up in the living room like they had just won the state’s Powerball.
Brian ran to the bathroom and pushed the door open. He grinned from ear to ear.
“We got ‘em. We shot the sons of bitches down!”
They poured out of the bathroom and into the living room, where Gordon stood at the window grinning. Gordon motioned for them to come to the window. He pointed outside to a pile of metal and a thin wisp of smoke rising from the rubble.
“We nailed the bastards. All six of them,” Gordon said, proudly.
Jolene looked again at the drones, now shattered and broken in the street. She wondered if whoever sent them here in the first place wouldn’t be fully aware of what happened ... and send more.
Dozens more. A single downed drone was one thing. Six? Quite another.
“Could you identify any markings on them?” Jolene asked.
“No markings. Not that I was expecting any,” Gordon responded.
“Let’s pack up and get out,” Jolene said, turning to the others. “I can’t help but think we are being tracked.”
Nobody disagreed.
They kept their pace fast.
The woods grew thicker toward the next town, directly south of the house they’d left behind. Black Rock Hill. Nothing had followed them, yet, but Jolene felt pretty sure it was only a matter of time.
Remove the evidence. Hide the proof. Jolene’s mind ran wild. Maybe the people Jolene thought were dead were still alive, and being experimented on at some top-secret facility off the radar. God, she was beginning to think like Brian now. Where was her tin-foil hat?
“How about a breather, kids?” It was Gordon, and from the way he was holding his hand to his chest, Jolene felt a bolt of concern move through her body. His brow was clammy, too.
“Gordon, you okay?” Jolene asked, approaching him. “You need to sit down. I’ll get some water.”
Gordon waved her off. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a little too much exertion lately. I don’t think I told you, but shortly after Miriam died, I had a little issue with my heart.”
Jolene sat beside him. She knew Gordon’s wife had passed away a few years ago from breast cancer. She had no idea Gordon had been sick, too.
“Well, how are you doing now?”
Gordon put a hand on Jolene’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about this old, grizzled tank. You have that little girl to watch over. I will say it’s nice to be a survivor out on the run with someone who knows CPR.”
Jolene smiled. “I can always find some paddles and hook them up to the generator, shock the life back into you.”
“I’ll settle for a few chest thrusts, thank you,” Gordon said. His smile suddenly vanished.
“Jo, you’ve trained in all this stuff. Do you have any solid thoughts? About what might have happened?”
“I thought, at first, it was just some exposure to toxins, you know, from the pest control spraying. But the drones ... This isn’t just some small thing. I know Brian likes to paint a big conspiracy picture on everything that happens, but this time, I wonder if he isn’t onto something.”
“You mean, terrorists? I know they have chemical weapons and delivery systems have improved over the years. I’m concerned about those drones. What if they are equipped with more toxins, or weapons of any kind, and we are what they plan to use them on?”
Jolene looked over at the others, huddled together, talking quietly. They all looked so tired. None of them had slept well.
“If you’re asking me if I know how to deal with a chemical attack, the answer is yes, but limited. We learned to shelter-in-place and keep ourselves from exposure. Once exposed, I can generally treat the burns if they are not drastic,” Jolene said.
“Then I guess you couldn’t help me with this,” Gordon said, pushing up the sleeve of his shirt, exposing red and peeling skin. “It started right after I came up from my cellar. I was in my cellar the whole time, going through some old boxes. I heard the sound of the planes and then those trucks and ducked into a storage closet. When I went back upstairs, I rubbed up against the wall and, well, that white shit was everywhere.”
Jolene examined Gordon’s arm. “It looks like an allergic reaction. I have some Benadryl, some cortisol cream, too, for the itching.”
“I’d appreciate anything. It’s starting to make me crazy. I just hope that’s all it is, Jo.”
Jolene got up to check the medical pack she had brought along. Gordon’s expression had worried her more than she wanted to admit. His skin, so red and swollen, looked like more than just a mild reaction. Jolene wasn’t sure what else it could be, though, and in any event, there wasn’t a doctor or hospital around they could go to. She got Gordon the meds and went back to help him.
She put Mags down for a nap and went to sit with the others. Jolene had her handheld on as she sat between Janey and Brian.
Brian reached out and took her hand, squeezing it briefly. Their eyes met. Brian mouthed “You okay?”
Jolene nodded. What was she supposed to say? No, I am terrified and want to pee my pants and wish I were dead, which was my original plan until this fucking bullshit began?
She knew he had feelings for her. He always had, even when she walked down the aisle with Rob. Brian had, in fact, tried to talk her out of it just the day before. He had even kissed her, telling her he loved her and always had, always would. Jolene remembered it like it was yesterday. Part of her wished she would have kissed him back and not gone down that aisle. Had she known how the whole story was going to end, she would have run a thousand marathons to get away.
But she didn’t, and when Robby, Jr. came along, she understood why. He made up for all the suffering, all the pain of being married to an abusive addict and cheater. She knew Rob was cheating on her from day one, but what she didn’t know, even now, was why the fuck she let him.
Robby Jr. changed everything. Now he was gone, too, and all Jolene had to hold onto in this moment was Brian. Her best friend since forever. And she did love him. He always had her back. Even now.
8
Gordon had taken the first watch, then Brian, and Gary. Then Alex. Janey. Siri.
They had decided to keep watches throughout the night. It made sense. Jolene had wanted to take a watch, but Mags wouldn’t let her out of her sight when the sun went under. She couldn’t keep lying to the child, who looked so forlorn. Mags missed her mom, and Jolene had to be straight with her and tell her they didn’t know where her mom was, or when and if they would ever see her again.
They packed up what food and clothing they could find, replacing dirty clothes they couldn’t wash for lack of running water. Jolene still felt bad about taking someone else’s things, but they had to do what they had to do. Brian had found a stash of medicines they could use, mainly aspirin and so
me antibiotic ointment, and batteries for the shortwave radios, even though they still wouldn’t work, like the cell phones. Siri found a couple of computer tablets for when they could get online again and seek out information. Alex had stocked them up on water, crackers, and power bars from the kitchen cupboards.
They had what they needed to survive for now. What they didn’t have was information.
The next town due south was Cole, a ghost town. Brian spotted a drone shot down in the middle of one street, and they all gave a quick collective cheer for the small victory.
“So someone else did survive at least long enough to shoot this bastard down,” Gordon said, nodding in approval.
“I can’t imagine we are the only ones,” Brian answered, looking at Jolene. Her eyes brightened for a moment. “If we just keep moving, we will find people and answers. I just know it,” Brian said.
“Always the optimist,” Janey said.
“For a guy who believes everything is a huge government conspiracy, I’m surprised,” Jolene teased.
Brian stuck his tongue out at her. The levity was cut short when her FT-60 blasted a high-pitched squeal. A voice broke through.
It was drenched in static, but they huddled around the handheld, trying to make out the words. The voice was oddly robotic as if a recording.
“By order of— We go to fatal ... repeat ... fatal flyover— Test Site One, surrounding regions ... 2100 hours ...”
The voice cut off and the radio began scanning again. Jolene held the radio out, frozen, waiting.
The message never continued.
“What the fuck is a fatal flyover?” It was Siri. She looked pale and fragile.
“I dunno, but I don’t like the sound of it,” Brian said. “Jo, does that mean anything to you, like, in emergency training terms?”
Jolene shook her head.
“Fatal flyover, Test site One. Guys, I think it means they are gonna spray again, and this time I don’t think they plan on leaving any survivors,” Gary said, his voice just above a mumble.
Black Mariah: Morris, Indiana (Black Mariah Series, Season 1) Page 6
