Caine clapped the wooden hammer to the gavel several times and the din of voices dissolved into an attentive quiet. Maurice, who stood next to him at the podium, stepped forward to address the crowd of several hundred people. He had never seen his church filled like this before.
"Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for coming. The chief and I wanted to fill you all in on what's going on with the power and to put to rest any rumors that might be floating around. We will also need volunteers to help with important things around town we will explain later. First, I’ll let the chief explain the reason for the power outage." Maurice stepped back and let Caine move to the front.
"Good evening, everybody. There's no easy way to say this so I will get straight to the point. As far as we know there's been an earthquake and tsunami that hit the East Coast. Those two things have been severe enough to destroy or damage enough infrastructure to put us in a position where we cannot expect any normal services to return for a significant time."
The crowd erupted into a tumult of shocked and upset voices. Caine put his hands up trying to quiet everyone down. "Everyone. Everyone, please, calm down. Please, calm down." As the din continued, the rear doors of the church where two deputies stood creaked open. Two men walked in and at the sight of them a hush fell over the group.
Jim held Turnello's arm trying to help him into the church. The number of faces seemed bewildering after seeing only a handful of people in days. Turnello, who had eaten nothing in two days and now seemed to be burning with fever collapsed. Jim could not hold him up and so had to awkwardly lower him to the floor.
"Someone, please, help," Jim cried out.
The deputies rushed forward to help but hesitated when they got a better look at him. Between his complexion and the cuffs they put their hands on their guns and stepped back. "What's wrong with him?" one said. "Why is he cuffed?" asked the other.
"He's a good friend of mine. I found him cuffed. I don't know what's wrong with him, but he wasn't this bad a short while ago. Is there a doctor in here?"
Ann and a burly EMT she only knew as Rob ran to the back of the church to see if they could help. The moment she saw Turnello up close she said, "Shit, I wish I had gloves."
"I have my bag in my car. Give me a minute," Rob said as he ran out the open church doors.
"I have gloves," said one deputy as he handed her a black nitrile pair.
She put them on and examined Turnello. Rob returned with a big orange duffle bag and put on gloves as well. "Please, take the cuffs off him," she asked the deputies. They stared at her in disbelief. "Take the cuffs off him." Anger clearly in her voice. One of them handed her a key. She took it, rolled her eyes at him and shook her head while she undid the cuffs.
Caine and Maurice walked down the aisle to the small group. Caine put his hand on Jim's shoulder and said, "Sir, can we have a word with you outside?" It sounded like a question, but Jim knew he had no real choice in the matter. He stepped outside with them out of earshot of the crowd. "Where are you from and what brings you here?"
Jim didn't know what to say. How much should he tell them? He didn't even understand why he was here. Because of a boyhood pact? The goal had been to get to this town with no plan of what to do once they were here.
"I'm from two hours south of here on the other side of the river. I was on a business trip in Philadelphia when the shit hit the fan."
"You came up here all the way from Philadelphia?"
"Not exactly. I took a long time to get back over the river. Everything is a mess. When I finally did, I went to my friend's place," he said gesturing to the church, "Because it was a lot closer."
"And you found him cuffed?"
Jim shook his head. "No, he wasn't there. I found his truck abandoned on the road. I found him looking like this, handcuffed and in a car about halfway up here."
"Kidnapped?" Caine said and glanced at Maurice who shrugged.
"I have no idea. Things are crazy out there. It's bad."
"You still haven't told me why you're here."
"Turnello...my friend and I used to come up to this area when we were kids with our boy scout troop. We always used to say if the apocalypse happened, we'd meet up here and try to survive in the woods away from all the people down there. I know it sounds a little crazy."
"Apocalypse?" Maurice said, his brows furrowed, "Don't you think you're getting a little carried away?"
Jim straightened. His eyes rounded and took on a haunted quality. He shook his head. "I don't think you guys really understand what's happened out there. Philadelphia got hit hard. Collapsed buildings are everywhere. The parts of the coast I've seen look like somebody took a giant broom and swept them away. The bridge south of there is twisted and might collapse at any moment. And then--"
Caine and Maurice both looked sick and pale. Maurice whispered something under his breath. Caine grumbled a litany of unintelligible curses.
"And then," Jim continued, "there's an even bigger problem."
"How could there possibly be a bigger problem than what you described?" Maurice said.
Jim nearly blurted out a story about zombies when he had the realization that, perhaps in doing so, he might sound insane and lose all of his credibility. If he didn't warn them, people could die. Of course, if he told them and they didn't believe him then people would die anyway and he might be in a jail cell somewhere.
"Uh...well...I've seen large groups of people attacking others and I've seen people looting."
Ann stepped outside and pulled off her gloves while walking to Caine, Maurice, and Jim. "I think your friend has some kind of infection. Probably viral, but it's tough to say for sure. His symptoms are kind of weird. I put him on an IV and we need to monitor him. First, we need to quarantine him."
"There's a room in the basement of the church we use for AA meetings and stuff like that. You could put him down there," Maurice said.
"Okay," Ann said.
"Let me help carry him down. I've been with him in a truck for a while. If he's contagious, then I might have it too," Jim said, and they both walked back inside the church to get Turnello.
Maurice watched them go in, sighed heavily, and then turned to face Caine. "What do you want to do?"
Caine thought for a moment. "I don't think this changes much in terms of this meeting. We still need to focus on the areas we discussed, only now it's all very urgent."
Maurice nodded. "Okay, then let's go."
Jim and Rob exited the church with Turnello using a blanket as a stretcher. They watched for a moment as the men shuffled around to the outside basement and then walked back up to the front. The crowd pummeled them with questions along the way. Caine and Maurice both ignored them.
Caine addressed the crowd. "Okay, everyone. We need to organize volunteers to help with certain specific tasks. Anyone with prior military or law enforcement experience and willing to help, please come to the police station tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m."
A murmur rippled through the group. "What for?" someone called out.
Caine continued, "I told you we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Now, please, let me finish. Anyone with medical training of any kind who is willing to help out please come to the police station at 10:00 a.m. Anyone who works at or owns any of the restaurants or food market in town, please come to the police station at noon."
Again, the crowd broke out into murmurs. Someone called out from the back, "Why do we have to come down there?"
Maurice stepped forward. "Folks, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. We all need to help out here. We all need to hang together or we are going to, for sure, hang separately."
"Please be careful getting home. Lock your doors. Also, please pass along what we talked about to anyone who wasn't able to attend tonight. We'll have another meeting in two days at the same time,“ Caine said.
"Goodnight and God bless."
The people filed out of the church. Maurice turned to Caine and sighed. After
a moment, Ann joined them. "God, what the hell is wrong with some people?"
Caine shrugged. "Beats me."
"People have an amazing capacity for denial and sometimes selfishness," Maurice said.
"Except for Rob, not a single other person moved to help those men," Ann said.
"Not helping strangers, I can kind of understand, but not wanting to help your own town? Especially when your own life hangs in the balance too," Caine said, shaking his head.
"I'll head downstairs and check on those guys and Rob. Meet you back at the house?" Ann said.
Maurice nodded. "I'll take care of all these candles and lanterns and meet you there. I think I may need to crack open a bottle of something. Caine, will you join us?"
"I'll stop in for one. First, the men and I will get the external lighting shut down." He left the church, taking the deputies with him.
As the frightened people returned to their homes in a darkness few of them were used to, a pale moon crested the horizon and pierced through clouds thinner than when the day began. If any of the residents of Cherry Ridge had been near the highway at this time, they would have noticed silhouettes of people streaming from the roadway to the edge of town.
People moving without the aid of light, guided by some other sense. People drifting in a strange and awkward way. Shambling toward something.
A Bad Day (Book 2): A Bad Day Page 13
