by AJ Rose
“Oh,” Elliot said, chagrined. The knowledge that Ash’s parents were both dead bothered him more than he cared to admit. Thankfully he had Charlotte. And their uncle in Seattle. “I think we’re okay there. Ash grew up here, and we’re staying with his sister, Charlotte. I’ll just—”
“Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call.”
“Dad, I’m out of change. I gotta go.”
“What’s the address again?”
Elliot repeated it.
“Okay. Wait for Brian. I’ll get you to safety. Your mother and I are going to the—”
“Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call.”
“—condo in L.A. If you can get your hands on a satellite phone, do it. I’ll make sure Brian has his when he arrives, so you can call McGinn.”
“All right.”
“Be careful, son. Have you got your medicine?”
“Yeah, I—”
“Your call will terminate in ten seconds. Please deposit one dollar and fifty cents to continue your call.”
“—have about three weeks’ worth.”
“Try to relax, El. We’ll get you help with a medical priority.”
“Okay. I love you both,” he finished, but the line had gone dead.
Feeling disconnected from reality, Elliot hung up, his hand shaking.
“Everything okay?” Ash asked, no longer giving him space, standing right beside him, one hand caressing Elliot’s back. Raking his eyes up Ash’s chest to his throat and then his handsome face, Elliot shook his head in slow motion, fear nearly swallowing him whole.
“No. Nothing is okay, and it never will be again.”
* * *
* * *
The car stood sentinel, parked illegally in the fire lane in front of the movie theater at the Five Fingers Mall, Elliot’s passenger door still ajar from when Ash had grabbed change for the payphone. They’d sat at the foot of the phone when Elliot’s legs gave out, and Ash caught him. He explained what Steven Davenport had relayed, and they hadn’t moved, dumbfounded and absorbing the catastrophic information.
“Holy shit, Elliot,” Ash nearly whispered, staring at this feet, his legs splayed in front of him and his hands linked as he hunched forward. The cool from the cement seeped through his jeans, helping to keep him grounded in a reality that scared the living shit out of him.
“I know,” Elliot answered, sounding just as wrecked as Ash felt.
“This could take years to recover from.”
Elliot looked up with haunted eyes. “If we ever do recover. Think about it.”
“I am thinking about it,” Ash said, numbness giving way to restlessness. “We have to get out of here.”
Elliot put his head between his raised knees and breathed. “We’re now worse than a third world country.” His voice was muffled by his body.
“We gotta get out of here,” Ash repeated, quickly standing. “C’mon. We need to get Charlotte and go. If we leave now, we’ll get a jump on all the other people who have no fucking clue life as we know it is over.”
“My dad said stay put,” Elliot protested, even as he let Ash pull him to his feet.
“Forgive me for saying so, but fuck your dad, Elliot. If you want to stay, fine. I’ll even leave you some supplies. But me and my family are getting the fuck out of here and going to Seattle. As soon as I can get my sister off her ass.”
Elliot’s eyes flashed at that. “Hey, my dad is no slouch in the planning department. He said he’s been in contact with some army guy, who told him we’d be better off waiting for the military to move in and then hooking up with them. Every service member in the nation has been called to respond, so we’ll be seeing them in the next day or so anyway. What’s the difference if we take shelter with the guys who have the guns and are sworn to protect us, or we go to the other side of the country, which might as well be the other side of the world right now?”
“I’ll take my chances. You can come with me, or you can stay here and wait, but make up your mind, because I’m not sitting around to find out how this’ll play out.” He rounded the front end of the Audi and got in the driver’s seat.
Elliot didn’t hesitate to get in the car, for which Ash was grateful. He really didn’t like the idea of manhandling the guy into his seat, and he certainly wasn’t going to leave him to fend for himself in a town he didn’t know.
“Shouldn’t we at least consider that going to a military base might be safer than crossing the country? The drive will take days, and we may not have that before the shit hits the fan.” Elliot sounded terrified, and he wrung his hands in his lap to the point where his knuckles were white. It didn’t stop his visible shaking.
“What do you think will happen when the military mobilizes?” Ash kept his voice even and as detached as possible. Concentrating on sounding normal made him feel more normal than his quivering insides indicated. Ash was scared, and he hadn’t been in touch with that emotion since the day in 2003 when the marine officers had come up the front walk to inform them their father, Sergeant David Caine, had been killed in combat in Afghanistan during his second deployment since 9/11.
“If it’s anything like what happened after Hurricane Sandy, the National Guard will move in with generators and fuel to get temporary power up and running for FEMA and the Red Cross to use. There’s no damage to structures or flooding, like with Sandy, so….” Elliot trailed off.
Ash gripped the steering wheel tighter. “They’ll implement martial law. This isn’t a hurricane that hit the eastern seaboard and moved on. This is two-thirds of the entire country. And how long do you think the fuel to run generators for temporary power will last? People are going to go apeshit when they see military personnel moving in. But here’s the thing, Elliot. Are you listening?” His fear swallowed his patience, and he gulped before continuing.
“Yes,” Elliot said meekly, eyes glued to Ash’s face. Because he was driving, Ash couldn’t look back, which was a blessing. If he had to see Elliot’s terror, he’d probably lose it. As it was, his stomach seemed insistent on returning his meager breakfast.
“There are approximately three hundred million people in the United States. The eastern two-thirds is more populous than the western third, but for ease of argument, let’s say all those people are evenly distributed. There are two hundred million people without power right now. We’ve all heard that if the power grid went down, it would take months or even years to bring it back online. The troops aren’t just going to be providing gas and temp power. They’re going to be keeping us from descending into chaos. FEMA isn’t going to have enough meals to feed everyone indefinitely. They’re going to be policing us because normal law enforcement is not equipped for this. Hell, we don’t have enough troops enlisted for this. There are only about two million people signed up at any given time.”
“How do you know that?” Elliot squeaked.
“My Uncle Marvin is a retired marine, and he watches shit like that. He’s kind of a crackpot but….” Ash stopped. Maybe he’s not such a crackpot after all. “When people find out how screwed we are, all hell is going to break loose, and even with everyone pressed into service, it’s not enough. Hell, they may reinstitute the draft. You want to be forced into enlisting? I sure as hell don’t. I want to put as much distance between me and the military as possible.”
Elliot didn’t immediately respond, and Ash gripped the steering wheel tighter as he waited for him to connect all the dots.
“This is it, isn’t it?” Elliot warbled. “It’s all over.”
“Not for the whole world.” The nausea which had been poking at the back of his throat for the last fifteen minutes surged, and Ash pulled over down the street from Charlotte’s, at the edge of a weed-choked field where a hulking transformer sat behind chain-link fencing. In the unsettling calm where a buzz of live wires should have been, Ash stumbled from the car and threw up in the shadow of dead machinery.
He couldn’t catch a breat
h between heaves, and with his hands on his knees, bent over with his back to the car, panic for his sister, for her ten-year-old son whose childhood would never be normal, and doubts about his ability to keep them safe in the face of all of this crept over him. God, could he get them to Marvin’s? Would they be able to cross the country like this? How would they get gas to drive that whole distance? Were roads passable?
The sooner we go, the better. Fewer people aware of the danger.
If he hadn’t suffered another retch at that moment, he’d have shrugged off the hand that landed between his shoulder blades and rubbed, but once the touch registered, it felt good, soothing. Ash hunched over until his stomach was completely empty. Despite years of being selective of those he trusted, he found himself thankful for the comfort Elliot offered. The guy was just as fucked up scared as he was, and yet, he wasn’t thinking of himself.
Ash straightened and looked Elliot in the eye, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Elliot’s hand stayed on his arm, his haunted eyes searching Ash’s face. To his surprise, Elliot slid his arms around Ash’s shoulders and hugged him, holding on tight. For someone so lanky, he was remarkably strong, and Ash held on, clenching his t-shirt in fists to stop his hands shaking. Elliot turned his face into Ash’s neck and the stubble of his chin scratched when he spoke.
“Are we gonna be okay?” he asked, sounding like a little kid who’d just learned sometimes monsters were real.
“I don’t know,” Ash answered truthfully, voice muffled in the cotton of Elliot’s shoulder as he searched their surroundings. For what, he wasn’t sure. Answers he knew neither of them had? Reassurance? Hope? All of the above, most likely. He didn’t know what to say, so he closed his eyes and squeezed. “We’ll try to be. What else can we do?”
Elliot let go and backed up, his gaze landing in the middle distance of the field. “My dad said his VP of security would be coming for me. That he’d have a satellite phone. I don’t know when he’ll get here, but he won’t waste time once my dad tells him where to go. My guess is he’ll arrive by tonight. Can we at least wait for him? Maybe he’ll have an idea.”
Ash shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know that we’ll be ready to leave that soon anyway. I want to get more supplies, and I have to wait for dark to do it. So yeah, we can wait for your dad’s man.”
Elliot nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking so lost, Ash felt the visceral need to hold him again, comfort him. He squashed the urge. Getting sappy was not going to keep them alive. Still, Elliot’s presence helped, and Ash wasn’t sure what that meant, but he had more than enough on his mind without worrying about that, too.
“Come on, let’s go talk to my sister. We can’t let Riley know what’s going on, or he’ll freak out.” Ash walked to the car, and when Elliot shut the passenger door, he drove the remaining two blocks to her house.
Elliot laid a hand on his forearm before he could turn the car into the driveway. “I’ll keep Riley busy while you talk to Charlotte and Russ. Maybe we can discuss a plan tonight, when Riley is asleep.”
If we can think of one, Ash thought miserably. “That’d be great. Riley likes you.”
Elliot chuckled. “Glad someone does.” It wasn’t said bitterly or with any resentment, but the words still made Ash’s sensitive stomach drop again.
“I like you, too. I’m just, you know, not great with the making friends thing, remember?”
Elliot smiled. How he could smile with what they’d learned blew Ash away, but he found himself smiling back almost involuntarily.
Riley bounded out of the house and knocked on Elliot’s window, breaking the spell between them. “What’d you get?” His high-pitched voice was muffled through the glass.
Ash popped the trunk and got out. “Nothing fun, kiddo. Help us carry it in, though?”
“Whoa!” Riley exclaimed when he saw all the beef jerky. “Can I have some now? Mom never lets me have this. Too expensive.”
“Yeah, we’ll bust out some jerky and see what we can scrounge up for dinner, okay runt?” Ash said, handing him two of the lighter bags. “Your mom still around?”
“Yeah. Russ is fixing the van again, and she’s dragging out the camping gear to see what we can use. The house smells like mosquito candles.”
Ash made a face. He hated citronella, but at least they wouldn’t be bungling around in the dark. Carrying in the bags of food, Ash hollered for Charlotte.
“I’m right here,” she groused, coming up from the basement with a duffel bag trailing cobwebs and a box in her arms, which he took from her and set on the floor next to the counter-top.
“Listen, Char. Plans have changed.”
“Hey, Riley.” Elliot turned to the boy. “Let’s go build a Lego city and then stomp on it like Godzilla.”
“Have you ever stepped on a Lego, Elliot?” Riley asked, all skepticism. “It kinda hurts.”
“Then we’ll build a spaceship, too, and have aliens invade the city and wreak havoc. I’m in the mood to build something. You can do the demolition.”
Riley beamed and scampered to his room, Elliot on his heels, while Charlotte gazed after them fondly. Elliot stopped at the entrance to the hall and looked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow as if to ask if they’d be okay without him. Ash nodded and mouthed a thank you, then turned to Charlotte.
“You might want to go get Russ for this.”
Charlotte gave him an odd look but didn’t ask questions, moving to the screen door to the carport to holler for Russ.
All in all, they took it as well as Ash expected. Russ blustered some before calming down to listen, once Charlotte pointed out Ash had absolutely no reason to lie or embellish.
“So I plan to go down to the mall again after dark and load up at the Bass Pro Shop,” he finished. “Then we can pack up the van and get the hell out of here first thing tomorrow. Russ, how long do you think it’ll take you to fix that sensor?” If he had a choice, he’d ditch Russ, but disliking someone wasn’t enough cause to leave them to fend for themselves when the world went to shit.
“Couple more hours. I have to get it done before we lose daylight. It’s pretty easy, since I brought my tools from home.”
Ash checked his watch. Sunset was at least three hours away. “Good, so we’ll have time to load up while we wait for Elliot’s dad’s friend to get here and—”
“Who says we’re going anywhere, Ash?” Charlotte demanded, holding up a hand to stop him. “If Elliot’s dad, this bigwig billionaire, trusts the military with his son, why shouldn’t we listen and do what the man says? I mean, wouldn’t Uncle Marvin tell us that, too? Trust the troops?”
Ash scoffed at her derisively. “Guess you haven’t been listening the last few years since Marvin has been saying trust no one but family. We’re going to him, Charlotte. It’s dangerous for a few days, but once we get there, we’ll be far safer than anywhere we could be on this side of the Rockies.”
“It’s the getting there that worries me, Asher,” she pointed out fiercely, keeping her volume low with a wary glance toward the hall. “If people are going to go as crazy as you say, then traveling would be the stupidest thing we can do. I personally would want a few soldiers standing between us and any sort of rioting hordes.”
Ash put his head on the table, so much frustration in his chest, he had to breathe through it. When he looked up, he put on his best pleading face. “Charlotte, our parents taught us both to survive nearly anything, did they not? Mom with cooking and how to look after our checkbooks, and Dad with a gun and fishing line and bow and arrow. We know how to do this, and frankly, this is everything Dad trained us for.”
“No,” she argued, glancing at Russ for backup. He stared between them, listening to both sides. “This is way more than Dad ever said he was doing. He showed us a few things about hunting and self-protection. That wasn’t training, and if you think you’re as good as the marines or whoever is going to be moving in to stop all this supposed chaos you’re predicting, you
’re deluded. I’m not dragging my ten-year-old out in some sort of wilderness apocalypse wet dream you and Marvin have convinced yourselves will happen here!”
“Charlotte—”
“No. This is stupid, and you’re not a little boy playing soldier anymore. I will not risk my son’s life on some grand adventure because you want to follow in Dad’s footsteps, complete with early death.” She scuffed her chair back and stalked from the kitchen, slamming her bedroom door a few seconds later.
“Give her a day or two,” Russ said, trying to be helpful. “She may be stubborn as hell, but she’ll come around if things start to get bad around here.”
Ash eyed the man. “It’ll be too late by then. Just please get the van fixed as quick as you can?” He pushed up from the table, shoulders hunched as he wandered off to join Elliot and Riley. Maybe he’d come up with a better way to convince her. Maybe when Elliot’s friend got here, they could make some calls, and she could hear firsthand how bad it was going to get. It wasn’t an easy situation to comprehend, because it was just so unheard of, and maybe her assurance they were safe where they were wouldn’t need to be challenged so much as upstaged by the idea that going would be safer.
Right. If Elliot’s dad wants his son to stay put, he’s not going to convince Charlotte to go with me. Why would he?
“Got room for one more?” he asked, crouching on the floor in Riley’s room over the land of skyscrapers Riley was building.
Elliot looked up from his spacecraft construction, sympathetic the moment he saw Ash’s expression. Again he asked with a raised brow how Ash was, but Ash could only give a negligible shake of his head. The best he could do was lose himself in a few hours of play-time and hope some development would help him change Charlotte’s mind.
* * *
* * *
“What are you doing?” Elliot asked, coming into the kitchen and pulling out a chair. Ash sat by the light of a battery-operated camping lantern, hunched over his cellphone with a felt tip pen and little pad of paper, a cookie tin full of electronics beside him. He didn’t look up.
