by Mark Tufo
What if it was five or six armed men this time? What if they’d had enough? Now that they knew they had lost the element of surprise, why wouldn’t they simply rush the farm and take a chance?
Now Darlene wished she’d gone up into the tree. She could see who was approaching and how many there were, and get the first shot off to warn John and Herbert.
Someone climbed over the fence, holding their weapon over their head and not even trying to hide the noise they were making.
Darlene froze, finger on the trigger. What if this was a trick? They’d sent someone to gauge the response or see where Darlene was hiding? She figured they were all hunters and had infrared scopes. Even now, there could be half a dozen rifles aimed at her head.
“Darlene?” the figure hissed, walking toward the tree.
Darlene panicked and fumbled the rifle in her hands, catching it at the last second before it discharged and hit the ground.
“You still there?”
She sighed and realized it was John. She gripped the rifle and watched him approach.
“Are you an idiot? I almost shot you,” Darlene said.
John stood in front of her and put down his rifle. “I had my gun over my head.”
“I thought it was a Sawyer trying to trick me.”
“I hopped the fence while you and Herbert were talking and searched around. I didn’t see anyone else. There’s a pickup truck parked on the side of the creek not too far from here. My guess is they came in alone or whoever was their backup left,” John said.
Darlene realized she was still gripping the rifle. Her nerves were shot.
“I’ll go up and keep watch,” John said. “You look like shit. You might want to go get some sleep.”
Darlene was about to argue with John because suddenly she didn’t like his attitude. She couldn’t tell any more if she was being oversensitive or if he was talking down to her. It sounded like condescension to her, but it could just be how messed up she felt.
“Fine,” Darlene mumbled and began the long walk back to the house, stopping every few feet to listen to the night. She didn’t think she’d ever feel safe again.
The house and property were too big and unmanageable to defend properly. They’d gotten lucky, but next time the Sawyers could easily hop another fence to the east or west and get right into the middle of the property, and no one would know.
By the time Darlene got to the porch, she was exhausted, and not only from the walking.
Herbert sat in his chair, slowly rocking. He had three rifles within reach and a small pouch in his lap, just visible in the moonlight.
Darlene went to sit down next to him but Herbert put up a hand. “Go lie down. You got all day tomorrow to cry. You really need some sleep.”
“I’m not tired.”
“Bull crap,” Herbert said bluntly. He opened the pouch and stuck two fingers inside, pulling out a dark mass.
Darlene sighed. Sleep did sound good right now.
“Don’t tell Pheebz,” Herbert said and stuffed the mass in his mouth.
“About the shooting and killing?”
Herbert laughed. “No. I mean this.” Herbert held up the bag. “If she found out I was still using chewing tobacco, she’d kill me. I swore to her I quit a long time ago, but with all this happening. I just needed a pinch to calm my nerves.”
“I won’t say anything,” Darlene said. She turned and looked up at the clear night sky. Her hands were shaking.
When she turned back to Herbert, he was staring at her and he looked scared.
“Night,” Darlene said and went inside.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I-70
“Holy shit,” Rosemary said. She frowned and looked at her two boys, who were grinning after hearing their mom use profanity. “You two go to the room. Now. Shoo.”
“This can’t be happening,” Darlene said, falling to the couch, eyes fixed on the television.
Boston was really gone this time.
According to the news anchor, a small nuclear device had detonated in the center of the city, leveling it. There was hardly anything left except toppled buildings and smoke. Fenway Park, the venerable stadium, had been reduced to a pile of rubble.
She’d thought the worst had happened. A frustrated city pulling itself apart made more sense than a second nuclear attack on U.S. soil. How had the terrorists gotten such a device into the country? And why had it taken two weeks for this attack?
John, sitting next to her, began to shake. He looked away before finally closing his eyes. “This is insane. The world is coming apart.”
“Not the world. Our world,” Pheebz said. She called for Herbert, who was keeping watch on the porch after they’d eaten lunch.
The news cut to a live shot of the president, and he began by giving the few facts already presented about the bombing.
I thought the Boston Marathon bombing was horrible, but this is even worse. Too many lives gone, and with the fallout and long-term damage, the city will never be the same. Hell, Massachusetts and the entire Eastern Seaboard will never be the same, Darlene thought.
“America is under attack and the cowards are remaining underground and creating havoc in our streets,” the president said. “I have recalled every police officer and soldier in our military back to our shores. We are not going to let politics and the slow grind of government get in the way of what needs to be done. Right here and right now. The United States will close its borders, effective immediately. This means no one gets in and no one leaves. Some of you might have already noticed our United States Naval Fleet anchored off the coasts. They will protect you, and so will the Army flying in to help stop the rioting.” He paused dramatically and stared at the camera. “Fellow Americans, this is our country. Our cities being rioted. Our fellow Americans being attacked by angry mobs. This will end. Now. Thank you.”
Herbert, standing in the doorway, sighed. “Tonight, we need to go into town and see what is happening. Hopefully, everyone hasn’t gone nuts yet. Maybe we can stock up on supplies and get some local news.”
“I haven’t seen anything about the West Coast. They’ve been focusing on the Boston attack. Images out of New York City and the massive riots there, too. But not a lot out of L.A. or San Fran anymore,” Pheebz said.
The coverage went back to the same shots from a news chopper overseeing the destruction of Boston in the distance, the mushroom cloud and the helicopter being buffeted with strong winds even as far out as it was, before turning back to see the destruction. The city had been razed.
“My aunt is dead. The entire Talbot side of the family is gone,” Darlene said, shaking her head. She turned to John. “How far will the radiation and dust and all that spread?”
John shrugged. He was staring at the television. “We could look it up. You’d think they’d tell us what to expect on the news. Some talking-head nobody anti-terrorist nerd should be spouting out facts and figures already.”
Darlene pulled out her phone but it was dead. She’d forgotten to charge it, and with no signal, it was useless anyway.
“I’m going back outside,” Herbert said. “There’s not much we can do about the other side of the country. Heck, we can’t do anything about the other side of the county at this point.”
John stood up. “I’ll walk the property again.”
“I can do it,” Darlene said.
John shook his head. “I can’t sleep during the day. You can at least power nap. I’d rather do it. I’m too antsy.”
“Remember, you need to rest at some point. We’re heading to town at dark,” Herbert said.
“I’m fine.” John walked out the door.
They were quiet as they heard John run down the steps outside and into the driveway.
“That boy is wound up tighter than a ball of string,” Rosemary said. She turned to Darlene. “You should go out there and use your feminine charm on him.”
“Rosemary,” Herbert growled.
Rosemary put up her
hands. “Herbie, I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. I see the way they look at each other.”
“The man’s wife is dead or missing,” Pheebz said.
“All the more reason to take his mind off of it for a while. Heck, if I was twenty years younger I’d be in the barn with him right now. Hopped up on the hood of a rusty car, too,” Rosemary said.
Darlene covered her mouth and tried not to laugh. The image of the feisty old woman trying to seduce John made her smile. Right now, she needed a good chuckle.
“You make it very hard to be around you, sis.”
“But you still love me, big brother,” Rosemary said.
Darlene went back to the news and watched video of a naval fleet and then a live shot of JFK airport with hundreds of soldiers boarding departing planes. The bottom newsfeed was a continuous scroll of cities updated as far as rioting, curfews imposed, and where residents could go for food, water, and shelter. The last two weeks had felt like years.
It seemed like most news channels were focusing on the positives now and not filling the airwaves with the negative. There was too much negative.
Pheebz changed the channel. MSNBC had an interview with someone who’d survived the Boston attack because he had been driving back to school in Connecticut. The man, who looked to be no more than twenty, had lost his entire family. The hosts were trying to give it a good patriotic spin, but Darlene could tell the man was uncomfortable talking about any of it.
“Leave the boy alone,” Rosemary said.
Darlene stood up. “I think I need to go for a walk.”
“It’s too dangerous outside. It’s been quiet the last few nights, but that will change soon enough,” Herbert said.
Darlene grabbed her rifle and nodded to Herbert. “I’ll be fine. I just need to get away for a few minutes. I’ll go down to the fence line and walk it. I really wish we had infrared goggles or something.”
“So do I,” Herbert said. “Unfortunately, I haven’t hunted in way too long. And when I did, it was during the day with only a rifle between me and my dinner. I never went in for all the fancy toys hunters use these days. It isn’t much of a fair battle anymore. I always enjoyed the challenge.”
“Right now, I’d enjoy a few of those toys,” Darlene said.
Rosemary grinned. “Me too.”
“Sis, I’m warning you.”
Darlene paused for a second when she realized Rosemary was making a sexual innuendo. Wow. The old broad was even feistier than Darlene thought. Good for her. Darlene winked at Rosemary before she walked outside onto the porch.
It was dark, and with no lights on and all the blinds drawn, the only guide was moonlight. That was fine with Darlene, who just wanted to be alone for a while with her thoughts.
John wasn’t on the porch, and this bothered her. If he was out patrolling and saw her movement, he might shoot her. If she made noise and someone else was around, she’d also be in trouble.
Darlene sighed and sat down on the porch, keeping her eyes open for anything.
The night was quiet, as if it were holding its breath. Darlene laughed to herself. Can you be any more dramatic? Lighten up, she thought.
Her dad’s funeral felt as though it had happened years ago instead of weeks. Maine seemed a million miles away, and the life she’d been comfortable with was so far removed from everything she was going through.
She’d killed people. If things returned to normal, would she ever be the same?
John came walking up, and Darlene was glad she’d sat on the porch where there was moonlight. He looked right at her before sitting down in one of the chairs and beginning to rock.
“Nice night,” Darlene said.
“Sit with me awhile, please,” John said, almost a whisper.
Darlene sat down in the chair next to John but didn’t look at him, staring instead at the stars she could see.
“They took her from me,” John said. He was wringing his hands. “Four men. There was nothing I could do.”
Darlene didn’t want to interrupt, fearing it would break the spell and keep him from getting it all out. Maybe John just needed to purge it from his mind once and for all, and then he’d feel some relief.
“They took everything we had. Everything I had. They took my wife...four hillbilly bastards who looked like they stepped out of a casting call for Deliverance. They were evil men, you could see it when I stopped the car. Why did I stop?”
She waited for John to continue, not knowing if there was more he needed to say. She bit her lip and kept looking at the stars.
“I have nothing now,” John said.
“Not true.” Darlene closed her eyes. Why had she answered?
John slammed his fist on the arm of the chair. “Tell me what I have,” he said, and she could hear the anger in his words.
“I’m not the enemy. I am your friend,” Darlene said. “We’re surviving together.”
John stood and pointed at Darlene. “Do you want to know the kicker? The real reason we left the night we did?”
“Because of me,” Darlene said and looked at John. “Or, rather, because of misplaced jealousy.”
She could tell John wasn’t expecting the answer, and he looked away. “Because of me and the things I’ve done in the past. I had an affair six months ago. A girl ten years younger who worked at the pretzel stand in the mall where I work.” John looked at Darlene again. “She could’ve been your sister. It was stupid, and I came clean to my wife, but I think it was too late. We took this trip to get away from Florida and our problems, but it never helped.”
Darlene kept her mouth shut. John was a cheater, and she had no sympathy for him. She felt sorry for any wife that stayed with a cheater and tried to make it work.
John began pacing on the porch. “This is God’s way of getting back at me.”
“I don’t believe in a vengeful God. I believe in karma, and things happening for a reason. But your wife being….What happened wasn’t because you cheated. It was because of the world around us. What you do from that moment on, however, is your punishment or reward,” Darlene said.
“So, you believe in God?”
“I don’t come from a very religious family, but times like this make you want to hedge your bets. I’d rather believe and be proven wrong than, in the end, not believe and be proven wrong.”
John gave a brief smile. “I can see your point.”
“You just need to focus on what’s going on right now.”
“I can’t. I’m so mad at myself and those men and everything and everyone. This rage is simmering and trying to control me. I know it all sounds cliché, but it’s true. I want to hurt someone,” John said.
Before Darlene could answer, John opened the front door and went inside.
She was worried for all of them. If John succumbed to the anger inside, they were all in trouble. And she didn’t know him well enough to understand how much he’d changed. Their first meeting had been only for a few hours, and most of it had been spent with his wife staring at her.
Darlene didn’t even know what his wife’s name was, and she wasn’t going to ask. She thought it odd John only referred to her as ‘his wife’ and not by name. He was suffering from a major disconnect, and now she was even more scared.
She decided to take a walk and see if she could figure out yet another problem thrown at her. She wondered if any of them were going to get out of this alive.
By the time she got back to the house, Los Angeles had been nuked as well.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Day 25 - Manhattan
A week later, and the wounds were still very fresh for both men, barely scabbed over, and for Mike at least, they might never completely heal. The only thing that had kept the men going was the thought of revenge on those that had set these calamitous events in motion. The power had gone out for good the day after Tynes heard from Linda’s family. Fine ash had found its way to New York a few days previously, and most days, the sun was blotted out fro
m the heavy volcanic pollution. Though it was still summer, the average temperature had begun to fall. Maybe it wasn’t another ice age, but the weather was indeed changing. Food was becoming scarce as the farms that remained struggled to keep up with demand. Even if the food was produced, manufacturing and transportation had suffered as well, making distribution extremely difficult.
Tynes had gone in to the police station a few times, but each day, more and more of the force had quit. Panic had taken hold, and the people saw police as a hindrance to their survival. More police had died in the first month of the downfall of the country than had in the entire previous twenty years. The military had been called in almost immediately, and the justice they dealt out completely bypassed the judicial system. Anyone caught in the act of bodily harm upon another was shot. Anyone caught causing property damage was shot. Anyone caught looting was shot. Merely being outside was grounds for getting shot in those first few weeks. Mike ensured that the duo survived, much to the reluctant desire of Tynes.
“We’ve got enough food to last us for weeks. Why get more?” Tynes had asked.
“Weeks? You think the government is going to be righting this ship in a few weeks? I hate to tell you, buddy, but this fucker is sinking. If we could catch a boat, I’d be sailing for the Bahamas. Well, maybe not there—I’ve always been a cold weather fan—but somewhere other than here.”
After the airlines had been grounded, people had turned to ships. Those lucky few that had departed were now stuck wandering the globe, homeless. The same dictate from the North Koreans that mandated no one help the Americans in America applied to those that now found themselves adrift. Germany had been bold enough to launch a submarine to aid. A Chinese spy satellite had caught the transaction in progress as the sick were brought on board the sub and rations were off-loaded. It had been played on their national news. Hamburg had suffered retribution for their interference; it was the last time anyone tried to help. China had off-handedly apologized for the video being aired.
