“Stop.” I yelled at Shane as he reached the handle. “Don’t touch it. Just in case.”
“In case what?” Shane asked.
“In case it’s still hot.” I pointed. “Look at her face. The black marks.”
“Jesus.” Shane stepped back. “No. That’s not possible. We were just with them. How … how did we not get hit? There’s no immunity to electricity.”
“It was twenty miles ago they passed us,” West said. “Which means this happened about twenty minutes ago.”
My eyes widened. “We were in the diner. There was no power there.”
West let out a long groan. “Oh God, if we weren’t looking for motorcycles we’d be dead too. We dodged a bullet and it was close. We’re alive not only because we were in that diner, but because we … weren’t in our vehicles either.”
West’s statement brought us all to a stop. For a few seconds none of us said a word.
Shane ran his hand over his mouth, looked at the van then to West and me. “I think … I think it might be a good idea now to take the bikes.”
There was no argument on that, none whatsoever.
Unknowingly we had been in a game of Russian Roulette. We had been lucky. Yet, how many more times would that cylinder spin and deliver a blank? It was a chance we couldn’t take.
We all knew without verbalizing, that whatever occurred was still happening. Seeing Ralph and Doris was more than enough confirmation that even though we had survived, we weren’t safe, we weren’t in the clear.
It wasn’t over.
11 – FLICKER
Taking the bikes was the safest idea, the smart thing to do. However, the area was not conducive to individuals not conditioned and trained on bikes. None of us were. I was the worst. It was evident that I’d barely rode a bike. Surely, I’d be a guru when all was said and done.
I wanted to say I held them up, but that wasn’t the case. The terrain was up and down, hills and valleys with very little straight areas that allowed for smooth riding. We had taken pretty much everything we could and were weighed down.
I for one wasn’t in tip-top, physical shape.
For a lot of the trip we walked the bikes, then it started to rain. It wasn’t like we didn’t see it coming, we did, there was just really nowhere to stop.
The last hill before Buffalo Gap was a killer. I was more winded than I could recall ever being in my life. My back ached from carrying my bags, and it was hot. The steady, light rain actually felt good.
There was a small white church. It was a cliché of small town churches. Not big, white framed, a single floor with a steeple. A white picket fence surrounded it as it perched on the corner. That was where we stopped. Across the street was one of those ranch styled homes, a nice one, too. We could have gone there, but we stood more of a chance of an empty church, than an empty house on a Saturday.
There was the chance that everything was normal, but I knew that chance was slim. We hadn’t seen a car, at least not one that was moving.
The church was locked; Shane broke the lock on the back door to get in. There wasn’t a parishioner or pastor, we had the place to ourselves. The quietness was a given and the church was dark. No sun to peek through the stained glass windows. No electricity.
We were safe.
I slipped into a pew, tossed in my bags and immediately lay down using the backpack as a pillow. I was spent. I needed to take a break. My body needed to relax. I wanted to wash my face and neck, but that could wait.
“I feel like we walked a hundred miles,” I groaned.
“More like fifteen,” said Shane.
I looked up. “Only fifteen?”
Shane paused in lighting candles. “It was all uphill. So that’s why it felt longer. We have a lot of downhill tomorrow, so it will be a better start.” He pivoted his body to look at West in the back of the church. “What are you doing?”
“Thinking about that house across the street.”
“What about it?” Shane asked.
“I think we should go over there. See if anyone is home or … in there. Maybe there’s a clue or something, I don’t know. I’m curious. If they are there and dead, did they die the same way?”
Shane shrugged and stepped from the front of the church into the main aisle. “Okay, I’m game. Audrey?”
“No, you two go ahead. I’m gonna stay right here.”
“You sure?” Shane asked.
“Positive.”
There wasn’t an ounce of fear when they left. I wasn’t afraid of being alone. In fact I was too beat to feel anything but my head resting back on my pack, and I fell fast asleep.
<><><><>
The sound of objects dropping caused me to wake and sit up. When I did a bright light flashed in my face, temporarily blinding me.
“Sorry.” West shut it off and handed it to me. “For you.”
“Thanks.” I scooted to the end of the pew and saw the canned and boxed food items in the aisle. “Did you steal all this?”
“It’s not stealing,” West defended. “They don’t need it. They were …. They were home, but they were dead.”
“You can’t steal from the dead,” I said.
“It’s not against the law.”
“Yeah, I think it is,” I argued.
“I don’t think laws apply now,” West said.
“There is still civilization out there. We’re close. How are you going to defend yourself about this?”
West laughed.
“This is funny?”
“Yeah, it’s really funny.” He laughed again then exhaled.
“I wouldn’t worry,” Shane said. “Look at it this way. It’s food. Not just cereal.” He handed me a can.
“We could have coffee…” West held up one of those French presses. “If we had a means to boil water. I for one don’t want to light a fire in here, and it’s too wet outside.”
I reached back for my pack, opened it, grabbed a Sterno and handed it to West. “If you can figure out how we can make a stove, this will work.”
“You have Sterno?” Shane asked.
I nodded.
“How many?”
“Like eight more.”
Shane whistled. “No wonder you were complaining about the heavy pack. We can make it work.” He stood, then reached down for one of the flashlights. “I’m going to go explore, see what I can find to heat water and our food with.”
He wasn’t gone long, but his exploration was successful. He handed me a couch like pillow, then one to West. He ended up taking hymnals, creating two walls on each side of the Sterno then balancing a coffee pot on the books in order to be over the flame.
We watched it carefully to make sure the books didn’t burn. After the water boiled we used that same glass coffee pot for the food by putting water in there, then the cans in the water.
My can was filled with a thick stew type soup and it hit the spot. I was hungrier than I thought.
We sat on the floor around the burning Sterno. Shane told of how he found the Pastor’s office and in there was a couch; hence the pillows. I suggested that maybe a better place to sleep until he told me the body of the pastor was in there. I quickly changed my mind and opted for the second pew.
There were several moments of silence where we just stared at each other; spurts of general conversation, then quiet.
I guess we were all thinking the same thing. There we were, three people who had just met, thrown together by circumstance, yet we knew nothing of each other. I had my guesses about the two men.
“So you worked for the cable company,” West looked at me. “Did you like it?”
“It was a job. Customer service.”
“Are you one of those prepper people?” West asked. “I mean, is that why you were at Gridlock.”
“Me? Prepper?” I shook my head. “No. Not at all. Not even close. Gridlock sets up tents for you. It isn’t a prepper place, believe me. It’s a place you go to shut off from the world.”
“It saved your life,” West said. “Why were you there?”
Shane interjected. “Why is that important?”
“I’m making conversation. We’re traveling together. Just curious who I am with. That’s all.”
“It’s fine.” I waved my hand. “I thought it would be a chance to heal me and my son. He’s … he’s been on a downward spiral with his life. He’s changed so much. He has anger issues, and substance abuse issues. I just ... I just thought if I could get through to him, get him away, I could make him see.”
“You can’t make him get help unless he wants that,” West said.
“I know. I know.” I lowered my head. “In typical fashion, he found something to get angry about and use as a reason to storm off. And he did. If he hadn’t, if he just stayed for breakfast, we would have been together.”
“I’m sorry,” West said. “I really am. I hope you find him.”
“Me, too.” I sighed. “Okay, what about you two.”
Shane answered first. “I’m a plumber for the county. Parks, recreation, I knew the area well … obviously. I knew Charlie. When he heard my wife left me he offered me a camp site, you know to get away. I didn’t want to go, but when … when Julie … my wife, was posting on social media about her new guy and stuff, I took him up on the offer. Cut off from everything would keep me from constantly going online.”
“And creeping her,” said West.
“And creeping her,” Shane said. “What about you, West?”
“Not much to tell.” He shrugged and spoke as if what he was going to say was not important. “I was on an extended camping trip. Just, you know, wanted to see the country. I’m a problem solver, I fix things. Solutions expert and developer for the biggest online company in the world. I graduated MIT, top of my class, but when my son … ”He looked at me then looked away. “Was diagnosed with Glioblastoma, I couldn’t fix it. I couldn’t … fix it. When he died, it was too much for me. And that ... is what brought me here. Hiding out in the woods, off the grid.”
I would never have guessed West was this super intelligent executive. Nor would I have guessed Shane was a plumber. I felt bad for West, really bad. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was, but I assumed they were words that he had already heard, and meant little to him. I reached out and laid my hand over his. I gave a gentle squeeze.
“Sorry,” Shane said. “That’s horrible for you.”
“Seems like all of our misfortune,” West said. “Saved our lives.” He scraped the bottom of his can. “So to stay that way I think our best bet is to avoid anything electric.”
“I agree,” Shane said. “If Audrey is correct, and I believe she is, something is causing the electrocutions.”
“But what?” West asked.
“A weapon maybe,” I said. “Or maybe the poles reversed and it messed with the polarity. It could be a lot of things. I am willing to bet that once we get out of the zone, they’ve already figured it out. You went to MIT, what do you think?”
“I think … I think it’s something that is new, never happened. Like you said, a lot of things could cause it. If … If we’re in a zone,” West said. “It’s just a matter of getting out of the area. I don’t know if that’s the case. Unfortunately, we have no information so there is no proof that it is or isn’t localized.”
After a murmured, “Oh my God,” Shane blurted out. “India.”
West and I looked at him.
“India,” Shane repeated. “I was thinking about West working at MIT and you at the cable company and his comment about India came to mind.”
West shook his head. “You have got to let that go,”
“No,” Shane said. “When I checked in yesterday, Charlie was watching the news.”
I snapped my finger. “Yes, he was watching when I checked in. I didn’t ask what it was about.”
“It was about India,” Shane said. “An apartment building. Two hundred people died from electrocution in that apartment building. Oh my God, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. This didn’t happen this morning, it started yesterday, and if India is related to this, it isn’t just here … my God, it’s everywhere.”
I didn’t want to hear that. It had to be a coincidence, just like Pole Man, his electrocution was a coincidence as well. It had to be. I had my family out there, the idea that it was far beyond where we were, that it wasn’t localized, and we weren’t at ground zero, meant that I had to face the fact that my family could be affected. I couldn’t think that way. I didn’t want those thoughts. In my mind Ken was home with Molly, holding her on the couch, watching the television and assuring her that I was fine. Michael was there, too, apologizing for leaving the camp and not going back. My family was being a family and waiting on me.
Those were my fantasy thoughts when my family came to mind. That is what I believed, that is what pushed me to walk up those hills. To get home, to get to my family. Truth be known, if I thought any other way, believed that something happened to them, I was certain I wouldn’t have the strength to go on, let alone push a bike up another hill.
If something happened to them, I was done.
If they weren’t alive, then I didn’t want to be either. So I decided to think positive, that was the only way to keep going.
12 – SHOCKING FACTS
While I hadn’t seen any, I was positive animals survived. At least one cat had. It cried all night long out of hunger or pain, or missing its owner. West said it wasn’t a cat, he said racoon, and Shane was fast asleep, he never heard anything.
In fact, in the morning, he didn’t believe us.
Especially when we put food out for and it was never touched.
Before we left, after we packed up, I made sure we cleaned up the sanctuary. I didn’t feel right leaving anything lying around. Even with the pastor dead it just felt disrespectful.
I didn’t dread the journey home, especially since the first few miles were all steadily downhill, and according to the map, there weren’t anywhere near the elevations we encountered before now.
I was twenty-two miles from home. If we kept a steady pace, stopping only when needed, I’d be home in four hours. Before noon. If Michael wasn’t there, Ken and I would head out to search.
I felt renewed and excited, ready for the day until we turned the bend and heard that cat again.
A soft, whimpering sound, high pitched, almost nasal.
“There it is again,” West said. “Believe us now, Shane?”
“That’s not a cat,” Shane replied.
“I told her that. It’s a racoon.”
“It’s not a racoon either.” Shane stopped pushing the bike, put down the kick stand and abandoned the bike.
“What is he doing?” I asked.
“Everyone stop with the bikes and look around.” Shane said, “It’s not an animal. Listen to the sound … it’s a person and they are close.”
Concerned I thought, ‘Oh my God’, balanced my own bike on the kickstand and placed my bags next to it.
West did the same.
Did it come from the house across from the church? It couldn’t. West and Shane had gone there. There were only a couple houses.
I focused on the side of the road, West headed back, and Shane moved forward.
The sound stopped.
Great, I thought, I’ll never find them.
“Here!” Shane shouted. He stood on the driveway of the first house to the left, waving at us.
Grabbing my stuff and the bike I hurried down. When I arrived, Shane was crouched on the lawn, his back to me.
West caught up to me and we both walked toward Shane.
The first thing I saw were a set of legs, they trembled.
Shane looked over his shoulder at us. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
“Are they dead?” I asked.
“Unfortunately … they’re still alive.”
He moved over and as I stepped forward I cast a shadow over the poor soul on the grass. Immediately, my stomach
knotted and I fought to keep down what little I ate for breakfast. I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t vomit.
“One of you run in the house, look for clean sheets, something so we can move her,” Shane dictated.
“On it,” West responded and ran by me to the house.
The person was a ‘she’, I was sure, even though it really was hard to tell. I drew my conclusion from the color of her clothes, the dainty look to her legs.
She was on her stomach and she struggled, arms stretched outward. She kept lifting her head. Lift it, open her mouth, make that noise, then drop it again. Keep it together, I told myself. Especially since she turned her head and looked at me, locking eyes, just like Pole Man.
Her hair was gone, her face was so severely burned, her nose was gone, her eyelids as well, it wasn’t that she stared, she couldn’t close her eyes. She wasn’t charred, instead, she was burned to the point of bleeding. Her wounds glistened in the sun, fresh and foul smelling. They extended down to just below the shoulder blades, and her shirt had fused with her body. Her right arm was burned completely with her hand being the only blackened portion of her injuries. Her left arm was burnt only from shoulder to elbow.
“She probably was close enough to get shocked but not die,” Shane said. “Or was grounded a little somehow. I don’t know. Can you go help him?”
“Yeah.” I headed to the house and noticed the bloody smear, or something like it from the front porch across the grass. The poor woman had crawled, probably hoping to find help, that just wasn’t there. And then she lay in her front yard, calling for someone. We heard ... we never came.
I felt so horribly guilty.
I stepped inside, the trail continued. “West?”
“I found the linen closet. Be right there.”
The blood trail, that would tell me where it happened. I needed to know because if she was like that, how many others were, too?
I followed the path to the kitchen and it led to the open oven. On the floor was a bucket and spray bottle.
The outside of the oven was black, smoke marks extended to the cabinets on both sides.
I wasn’t sure how it happened, I could only guess. She was cleaning the oven. Like most gas stoves it probably had an electric starter. The surge must have caused a spark that ignited her oven. I didn’t know. But somehow it happened.
Above the Hush Page 5
