by E S Richards
Leaning her head back against the wall to the cab, Riley let the vibrations of the vehicle bounce around her head, soothing her somewhat and distracting her from what was going on. At least they were on their way finally, she reminded herself, focusing on the promise that she would see her grandparents in a matter of hours.
She pictured the farmhouse in her head and imagined walking back through the door, Chase and Leo on either side of her as Linda and Jerry welcomed them home. She knew things would be different, but as Riley pictured it, everything was the same. Her grandfather would wrap her up in a massive hug while Linda broke into tears in the kitchen, flapping over their return and burning whatever she was cooking on the stove. It was a complete fantasy—which Riley was more than aware of—but she liked the picture anyway. Letting her eyes close, she remained focused on it as the vibrations in her head blocked out everything else, leaving her entirely wrapped up in her imagination and her grandparents’ arms. She smiled, forcing herself to believe that very soon it would be a reality. When she opened her eyes again, her family would be there.
Chapter 20
“Stop where you are! Put your hands above your heads!”
Mia, Jadon, and Jesse did exactly as they were told, raising their arms and coming to a halt. Ahead of them stood four characters in uniform, their faces obscured by dark masks and each of their arms cradling dangerous automatic weapons. Mia couldn’t make out if the man she had spoken to earlier was among them, the members of the Authority coming across more threatening and unnerving than they had in the light of day.
“This is a restricted area! State your business!”
“Please,” Mia started, forcing her voice to sound desperate and pleading. “I was here earlier; Mia Clarke. Our driver kicked us out and stole the car. We’ve got nowhere to go. Please, can we stay the night here? We’ll freeze to death otherwise.”
“Mia Clarke?”
“Yes,” Mia shouted back. “Accompanied by Jadon Sinclair and Jesse Matthews.”
Watching nervously, the three of them saw one member of the Authority lean over and whisper in the ear of another, passing along instructions or information about the civilians in front of them. It was a painful process, none of them able to do anything but wait with their hands in the air for a decision to be made. They couldn’t be turned away; this plan had to at least work well enough to get them inside.
“Okay, walk forward,” someone shouted out to them. “Place your hands on the backs of your heads and prepare to be searched.”
Again the three of them did as they were told, shuffling forward until a different member of the Authority grabbed them one by one and proceeded to frisk them for any concealed weapons. Mia still couldn’t make out who she was talking to due to the masks they wore and how dark it now was, leaving her unable to distinguish between friend and foe. None of them acted like they recognized her either, making it even more difficult to work out whether the plan was working or not.
“All clear,” the person—who Mia guessed was a woman from her voice—frisking Mia announced, her call echoed by the other two guards next to Jesse and Jadon. Following that they were marched forward, making headway toward one of the temporary buildings which had been erected in front of the border. Mia was granted a wider view of the setup and her eyes scanned the surroundings quickly, her brain trying to take note of where any potential dangers or weak points were.
Once inside, Mia did as she had always done in a new environment and quickly processed where all the entrances and exits were. It wasn’t hard to do. The makeshift building they were pushed into was nothing more than a small room with a table and set of chairs, pushed underneath a wall that was lined with breathing masks. At least the Authority was getting one thing right: they knew how deadly the outside air was. Mia wondered whether those masks were being provided to everyone who was still inside Texas or not. After how she had been treated so far, she assumed not.
“Mia Clarke, we meet again!” A male voice entered the room behind Mia, causing her to spin around and lock eyes with the man she had spoken to earlier. He closed the door behind him so that the four of them—plus one additional guard—were all crammed in the room together, hardly enough space left for them to move around without knocking into one another. “I hear you’ve had some car trouble?”
“Yes,” Mia nodded, quickly trying to read the man’s face to see if he believed their story so far. “Marcus—the guy who was driving—turned a gun on us and forced us out of the car. He threatened to shoot if we didn’t get out. We didn’t have any choice.”
“That seems odd.” The man cocked his head to one side, Mia looking down at his uniform and reminding herself of the surname printed there: Hargreaves. “I don’t recall you mentioning any bad blood within your little group earlier. What could’ve caused him to do that, I wonder?”
Mia analyzed Hargreaves carefully, understanding within seconds that he didn’t fully buy their story. She wasn’t completely surprised. If these people were from the government or somewhere similar, she assumed they would’ve been trained for these sorts of situations. Trust no one unless you have a reason to; that was a phrase she believed many men in government chose to live by these days.
“I wish I knew,” she sighed, acting her part perfectly as Jadon and Jesse both shook their heads and shrugged beside her. “It came out of nowhere. He just said that he couldn’t wait around anymore and that he had to make it home.”
“Home?” Hargreaves jumped in at the word, eager to soak up more information. “He’s not trying to get into Texas, is he?”
“No,” Mia shook her head quickly. “He wants to get back to Philly. He’s got family there.”
“I don’t know why he kicked all of us out though,” Jesse remarked, joining in the conversation as the group of them had planned. “I’d much rather be halfway back to Philly than stuck in this dump.”
“You’re welcome to wait outside if you want,” Hargreaves shot Jesse a look, raising his eyebrows as he looked up and down at the disheveled appearance of the young man. They had all deliberately ruffled up their clothes somewhat on the walk over, making it appear like they had been thrown out of their car and abandoned on the roadside.
“Dude,” Jadon punched Jesse on his arm lightly, scolding his friend for his outburst. “Sorry, man,” he then said to Hargreaves. “He didn’t mean that. We’re all just a bit messed up from all of this.”
“Jadon is right,” Mia took over the narrative once more. “I understand we can’t cross the border into Texas, but can we at least spend the night here? Once it’s morning we’ll be on our way as best we can. If we spend the night outside, we’ll freeze to death.”
Hargreaves looked at Mia and the two college boys standing in front of him, weighing his options in his head. He struggled to buy their story for many reasons, the first based off of how eager Mia had been to get across the border earlier that day. He found it all rather convenient that they had now had car troubles which meant they were forced to spend the night at the barrier, leaving them with a much easier way to get across and into Texas.
It was only the fact that they had left one of their group behind that made Hargreaves believe the tale a bit more. Although there was also a part of him that doubted whether there ever had been a fourth member of the group—he had never seen the interior of the car. The additional person who was apparently in the back while he’d spoken to Mia earlier could’ve been entirely fabricated. In fact, the more Hargreaves thought about it, the more reluctant he became to trust the woman in front of him. Things seemed to be working out too easily in her favor, and that was something Hargreaves couldn’t abide.
But despite all of his reasons for turning the three civilians away, Hargreaves knew that sadly wasn’t an option until morning. Following the eruption, the Earth’s climate had been gradually getting colder and colder. The temperature overnight now dropped well below freezing and to leave them outside in that weather would be to almost certainly condemn
them to death. As much as Hargreaves wanted to turn these people away, his humanity wouldn’t allow it, and so it was with a begrudging nod that he permitted their overnight stay and directed one of his colleagues to find them all a place to rest their heads. He vowed to keep a close eye on the trio though, to guarantee that nothing he didn’t feel comfortable with happened under his control.
“That was close,” Jadon whispered once the three of them were alone again, keeping his voice low and looking around before he spoke. “I thought that guy was going to throw us out for a second.”
“Me too,” Jesse agreed. “I don’t trust him.”
“I don’t think he trusts us either,” Mia scowled. “I’m not sure he bought our story.”
“Does it matter? He’s letting us stay anyway. That’s all we needed, right?”
Mia considered Jesse’s question for a moment, agreeing that being at the border barrier was the first stage, but aware that much more still needed to be done. “It’s going to be hard to carry out stage two now,” she commented, looking around the dormitory they had been escorted to and having flashbacks to the fracking site where they had spent a night.
The room was filled with beds—enough for everyone who guarded the border in one room. There was little space between them and little chance of sneaking out of the room unseen. Once everyone was in there for the night, Mia imagined the dorm would be a chorus of snoring and dreams, a challenge to escape from. Their plan had been to navigate their way around the base in the dead of night and find a way to open the barrier so that Marcus could drive through. They were supposed to signal him with a flashing light when the time was right, which meant their actions had to be carried out before day broke, though even then Mia was certain the signal would be perceived.
“We don’t really have a choice,” Jadon declared, aware that if morning broke and the three of them were still at the barrier crossing, then Hargreaves and the others would force them off and they would lose their one chance at getting into Texas. “If we want to get across, we’ve got to make this work.”
“I know,” Mia nodded. “We should get out there now. Screw being confined to this room all night.”
Striding toward the door they had been escorted through a few minutes earlier, Mia made it her business to get out and snoop around the barrier a bit more. When she was barely inches away from the door it swung open in her face, knocking her backwards as two men in uniform stood in her way.
“Uh, excuse me,” she mumbled, trying to dodge the men and still find a way outside. They were much too quick for her though, slamming the door and standing firmly in her way.
“No access for civilians, lady,” one of them spoke, shaking his head and crossing his arms over his broad chest. “You don’t have clearance to leave this room.”
“But,” Mia stuttered, thinking on her feet for a reason to get out. “I need to use the bathroom.”
“Be my guest,” the man smirked, nodding towards a large bucket in the corner of the room. Mia had thought there was a strange aroma in the dormitory and now she knew why.
“Seriously?”
“Hey, you asked to stay here,” the man shrugged, leaning back against the doorframe as his friend struggled to hide a smirk. “Don’t like it, you’re more than welcome to leave.”
“Mm, clearly,” Mia frowned, turning her back on the men and walking back to where Jesse and Jadon stood. Neither of the men were quite as big as the college football players, both towering over six feet and stacked out with muscle. But the weapons they wore at their waists made them all the more intimidating. Even though Jesse and Jadon might win in a fistfight, all it took was one squeeze of a trigger and everything was over.
“What are you guys doing here anyway?” Jadon stepped forward confidently as Mia drew closer to him, feeling an overpowering need to protect her in some way. He didn’t like the way those men had spoken to her, nor did he like how they were being treated in general since arriving at the border barrier. If this group was indeed part of the government, he believed they should answer much more than they were doing so far. “What’s this setup? Government? Military?”
“None of your business,” one of the men spat back. “Keep your nose out of it, kid.”
“Kid?” Jadon scoffed, taking another step forward and straightening his back so he seemed to grow in height even more. “That’s rich. I’m only asking for a bit of information. Aren’t you supposed to give us that?”
“Yeah,” Jesse stepped forward too, empowered by his friend and fed up taking a back seat. If they were going to get into Texas, they needed to take a more proactive approach. They had listened to Mia up until this point, but her methods just weren’t working anymore. Now, Jesse felt like it was time for him to step up. “We have the right to know what’s going on here. Why aren’t you letting us into Texas? What’s going on in there?”
The two men looked at each other for a second, knowing grins creeping onto their faces. Mia didn’t like the look of them; she didn’t want to cause any drama and the last thing she wanted was for things to get heated or violent inside the dormitory. Putting a hand on Jadon’s arm, she tried to turn him toward her and calm things down, but the boy shrugged her off with ease and shook his head.
“Come on,” Jadon demanded. “This is our country too. This is our home. Tell us what’s happening here.”
“Okay,” one of the men replied, walking forward and cracking his knuckles with a cunning smile on his face. “You might want to sit down for this.”
Chapter 21
As Blake pulled over into a truck stop on the side of the road, Chase couldn’t help wishing that they could keep on driving. Between himself, Blake, Vic, and Leo, they could cover the distance left between them and the farmhouse in a matter of hours. But sadly the conditions were just too difficult to drive in now. Blake had pushed it for as long as he could manage, but it was now just too dark and too dangerous to be on the roads. Like it or not, they would have to wait until the next morning to make it home.
“All right then,” Blake remarked as he switched the engine off. “Everyone in the back?”
“I think so, my friend,” Vic nodded in agreement. “It’s too cold to be outside now.”
“Clear some room back there, guys. We’re coming in!”
Following Vic out of the cab of the truck, the freezing chill in the air immediately hit Chase in the chest, despite the filtration mask he wore over his mouth and nose. The landscape around them was completely consumed by darkness, only the dim lights from the front of the truck illuminating the empty, gray fields that lined the road. They would be switched off soon too, once Blake fully switched off the truck. Even inside the vehicle it was freezing, the memory of air conditioning and heated cars a thing left long in the past. Everyone had agreed that they wanted to limit what else they used the stolen truck for; if the engine failed again or the battery died, they would all be left hopeless.
Jogging around to the back of the truck, Chase helped Vic open the back doors again as Blake finally exited the cab as well. He pulled out a flashlight to guide his way to the back and after fiddling with the bolts for a few seconds, they yanked open the huge metal doors and all clambered inside. Despite how much gear they’d brought to fix up the roof of the farmhouse, there was still plenty of room for the five of them, Riley and Leo having shuffled a few things around to make space.
“Not a bad setup you two have back here,” Chase smiled at his sister. “Might think about joining you for the rest of the journey.”
“Only two seats, I’m afraid,” Riley grinned back, she and her brother in good spirits as they both knew how close to home they finally were. “Wouldn’t want you flying around with the equipment.”
Chase laughed, walking a bit deeper into the cargo bed and picking up one of the rucksacks they’d brought with them. “We all right to fire up one of these burners in here?” he asked, pulling out a portable gas stove which they’d taken from the supplies in the office building.
It was a very professional-looking military-style one, taken from Vic’s store, like a lot of the more top-quality equipment.
“Oh yes, my friend,” Vic nodded. “They’re designed to be used in canvas tents. We’ll be fine having a couple going in here.”
“Should help keep us warmer too,” Leo commented with a shiver, noticing that Blake hadn’t fully closed the rear doors of the truck behind him. “Can we not close those properly?”
“I’d rather not, to be honest,” Blake replied. “I don’t want the bolts to get stuck and us to get trapped inside if that happens. We can move some of the gear in front of it to block off the breeze if you want? But I don’t really fancy getting stuck inside this old thing.”
“Fair point,” Leo shrugged. “I’ll give you a hand with the stuff now if you want.”
“Sure,” Blake nodded, Vic also joining them as they started to move a couple of crates over to the door. It made sense not locking it when everyone thought about it. On the other hand, it meant it would be a cold night spent in the truck bed for each of them.
“What food did we bring with us?” Riley asked her brother, the two of them clearly left to sort out a meal for everyone. Riley wasn’t the least bit hungry, her stomach practically in knots from both excitement and nerves. She felt like she used to, going to sleep before her birthday or Christmas when she was younger. She just wanted the morning to be there so they could get going and finally, finally see her grandparents again.
Chase was much the same, and he could tell how his sister was feeling. They still had to maintain their strength though, not forgetting how much there was to do once they reached the farmhouse. He could only guess how much worse the roof had become since they left. The days had blurred together but it had been well over a fortnight since he last saw the house and his grandparents. Chase could only hope it—and they—were still holding together.
