She reached out, willing herself to keep walking instead, but her curiosity was too great. She grabbed the handle, expecting it to be locked, but it turned underneath her grip. She opened the door. The sound was louder now that the door was opened. She ran her palm across the wall, feeling for a light switch.
She felt it underneath her fingers and flicked it on – nothing. With a sigh she pulled out her cell phone, and turned on the screen for a dim light. The room wasn’t large, and most of its available floor space had been taken up by stacks upon stacks of crates. She couldn’t even imagine what was wasting away inside them, but she didn’t care. She was here to find out what that sound was.
It was coming from behind a stack of crates in the far corner. A sort of buzzing, shuffling noise. She approached carefully, walking around stacks, and then came to stand at the base of the tower. Was it coming from inside a crate? She didn’t think so. She set her phone to the side on a chest high stack, screen pointing up. It cast just enough light for her to see what she was doing.
She started by removing the top crate. It was surprisingly light. She set it carefully to the side and grabbed the next one. Oof! It was much heavier than the first one, and she stumbled with it, barely setting it down onto another. But the sound was just a little bit louder, and now Gina could see where the sound was coming from.
There was some kind of metal box on the wall. She grabbed her phone, shining it at the box. It wasn’t large, six inches by six inches, but it seemed to be vibrating quickly. That was the noise she had heard: the box moving against the wall extremely fast. From her position below, she couldn’t see much of the box, so she grabbed one of the cardboard crates and pulled it close.
Carefully, she climbed on top of it, putting the metal rectangle directly in front of her face. She looked at it closely: it had originally been red, but the paint was long faded and chipped. On either side was a round, dark hole. She couldn’t fathom what those were for. She wanted to reach up and slide her hand through, but there was no telling what it could be.
The top, she saw, was smooth, except for where two small wires protruded straight up. Using her phone, she followed them. They extended half a foot above the rectangle. One entered the wall, disappearing from her view. The other had been disconnected. In the dim light, she couldn’t see much, but she could tell that the wire had adapters on either side – to put it back together, all she would have to do was push them together.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Gina steadied herself as the crates rocked to either side. A large stack on the other side of the room collapsed, and they sounded heavy. She could really get hurt in this room – she needed to leave. She started to get down from her stool, but hesitated. It wouldn’t hurt to plug in the wire and see what happened, right?
She climbed back on and without hesitating she reached out with her free hand, grasped the wires, and angled them together with deft fingers. The light from her phone was unsteady, but it was enough. Just as the wires connected, she thought: It’s an alarm. Those two holes are speakers.
And the adapters slid into place.
Immediately, there was a loud rush of air, then the siren went off: a loud klaxon noise filled the air, so loud that the shock blew her backwards off of her box. She screamed, but she couldn’t hear it. She had enough time to think, Oh great. Now I’m deaf, as she tumbled backwards through the air. Her phone flew out of her hand, and she landed on the concrete floor, feeling her head crack against it with a flash of pain, then darkness.
*
The siren was deafening, but she knew that meant she still had her hearing intact. Gina rolled to her side, head pounding, and touched it gingerly. She could feel a wet slick of blood, but she knew it wasn’t anything serious. She’d been out for a few seconds, at the most, but that was enough: the room was utterly pitch black. Her phone had turned off. She may not be deaf, but she was effectively blind.
She fumbled around in the darkness, running blind into crates, praying they wouldn’t tip. There was another BOOM and she heard a tower collapse somewhere else in the room, metal clanking loudly inside of them. She got to her hands and knees, feeling for her phone, and finally found it.
She pressed the unlock button, and nothing happened. Slowly, she ran a hand over the screen. It was shattered. Her phone was broken.
She felt around until she reached the door and left the room. To her right, at the far end where the morgue light should have been, was instead darkness. To her left was the staircase leading out, but she couldn’t see that, either. Had the power gone off? Where was the generator? Why hadn’t that siren have turned off too? And what was it for?
She looked towards the staircase that would lead to the hospital proper. She started walking slowly, her hands outstretched in front of her. She didn’t want to run face first into the door. After what seemed like hours but couldn’t have been more than seconds, she reached the door, heart pounding. She opened it, then closed it behind her, thankful that the siren noise was dampened, if only slightly.
She looked upward: there was a window at the top of the stairs and it gave just enough light to see where she was going. She took the steps slowly, going up all five flights, and reached the top minutes later. She was exhausted – not physically, but the situation was stressful. She had no idea what was going on.
At the top of the stairs, the siren was barely audible. The rest of the hospital was silent. She had expected to hear Bobby’s TV blaring some game, but there was nothing. Even the fireworks – and whatever else had been exploding – were silent.
“Hello?” she called. No answer. She made her way to the front of the hospital, checking the reception room. The TV was on the floor, shattered, as were a couple of beer bottles. Miraculously, one bottle had stayed upright through whatever had happened. It was half drunk. Bobby, from all of his bragging, was the kind of guy to never leave a beer behind. But he was nowhere to be found.
From behind her, she heard footsteps. She turned, seeing Charlaine, a look of panic on her face. She hardly seemed to notice Gina, who moved in front of her, asking, “Charlaine! What’s wrong?”
It took the nurse a few seconds to register her. She never stopped moving, though, and skirted around Gina, saying, “Get home and get out of here, Gina!”
Then she was out the front doors. Dread was starting to form in the pit of Gina’s stomach. Something was seriously going wrong here. She didn’t know what it was, but she was uneasy.
BOOM! The entire hospital shook. The ceiling tiles started to come down, shattering close to her. She jumped sideways to avoid one as Bobby’s last bottle toppled to the floor and shattered in an explosion of glass and beer.
Gina decided that it was time for her to leave.
*
Outside, she couldn’t see much. This time of the year the trees were in full bloom, and they covered the mountains. There were a few small houses to her left, down the road: the entirety of the town of Grady. To her right was a small supermarket. The road was deserted, though. Even the houses were empty. The cars that usually sat unmoved out front were gone.
Whatever had happened, the residents had fled. She heard the roar of a car, and Charlaine raced past her. Gina watched her car until the road wound around a huge patch of trees, and then it was gone. She was alone. She was probably the only person left in the entire town.
She ran to her car as fast as she could, getting in and slamming the door behind her. She started it up and wheeled out of the parking lot faster than she had ever before. Whatever was going on, she intended to get home, grab her dog, and hit the road – anywhere was better than here, with whatever was going on. Petey would probably be scared stiff right now.
She took a right, following the route Charlaine had taken, winding and turning down mountain roads. She’d always loved the Appalachians, especially driving through them. Most days, it was like driving through a dream. She had always felt special, felt hidden, between these ancient trees. Right now, she hated it. She
couldn’t see anything but the twisting and turning road in front of her.
She tried to peer through the trees, down the mountains, hoping to see signs of what was happening in Haysberry. But the trees were oppressive and dark. The sun would be slipping behind the horizon soon, and then she wouldn’t be able to see anything, at all.
So she kept driving, muttering under her breath, “Shit, shit, shit,” over and over. The road was absolutely deserted. She had expected to see someone, anyone, but she was alone. She shivered.
Gina rolled the windows down, letting the warm breeze roll into her car and keep her focused. What was going on? There were some explosions, and that siren in the basement had gone off – she wasn’t sure what it meant, though. Explosions? Had they been attacked? Were those explosions from bombs, or from something else?
The radio told her nothing. There was nothing but static on every channel she tried. She wasn’t surprised. Gina shivered again. What was going on?
The drive down to Haysberry wasn’t long, but it was tense. As she drove down the mountain, Gina started to hear the familiar sound of sirens. Then she started to smell smoke. She still couldn’t see what was going on down below, but she had a feeling it wasn’t good.
She rounded the final bend before descending into Haysberry – and into chaos. Haysberry was on fire. She watched as cars crashed into houses, people ran across the street, and the flames raged out of control.
Petey! Instead of slowing down, Gina only pressed on the gas, heading down the mountain at a dangerous speed. She looked to the neighborhood her block was in. She was barely able to see it through the smoke, but she could tell that the fire hadn’t reached her house. At least not yet, but it would soon. She sped downwards.
The smoke quickly became so thick she could barely see through it, but she kept driving. To her left, a car sped around her, the man inside screaming and raising a fist at her. Then he crashed into another car head-on, and he was gone.
Gina looked back forward, swerving to avoid a woman running across the street.
“Watch out!” she yelled, but the woman either didn’t hear or, or paid her no mind. She followed her normal route home, swerving to avoid a burning car. Her mind raced. What is going on? What’s gotten into everyone?
She wanted to stop, to get her bearings, to figure out what was going on, but she couldn’t: Petey was depending on her, and she would never forgive herself if something happened to him. So she pushed her foot to the floor and sped off, turning into her neighborhood.
Here, besides the smoke, things didn’t look quite so bad. But a few houses on the far side of the neighborhood were on fire, and she could see the smoke and embers blowing ominously towards her house. She pulled up into the driveway, still moving forward as she jerked her car into park and yanked the keys from the ignition.
In the window, Petey was jumping and barking: happy to see her, or panicking, she couldn’t tell. Maybe a bit of both. She walked through her yard, turning around and taking everything in. Even one of the mountains above town seemed like it was on fire, but she wasn’t sure how that was possible.
She was snapped out of her reverie by the continued barking, and she went to unlock her front door. Her hands were shaking, but after a few seconds she got it open. Petey ran out immediately, running up to her legs, licking her and barking lightly. She bent down, pulling him close: he was shaking. He knew something was happening.
“Come on, Petey,” she told him, heading into the house with a final look backwards. She could see that the fire had spread to another house, but it was still a few down from hers. Gina and Petey had a few minutes of safety, at the least, and she meant to put it to good use.
She went to the pantry first, grabbing two gallons of water she’d had stashed there for emergencies. She lugged them to the car, tossed them in the back seat, then ducked back into the house. Canned food that had been sitting in the pantry for who-knows-how-long was next. She wasn’t sure how much food she would need; wasn’t sure what was going on, so she brought all of it. Grabbed Petey’s dog bed, his tub of dry food, and an extra bag just in case. Grabbed cans upon cans of wet dog food, too. When she’d grabbed every scrap of food he could eat, she went upstairs, Petey at her heels.
She went to the bedroom first. She tore the covers off of her bed, left the room, then reconsidered and grabbed a pillow, too. Outside, she saw that the house two doors down was on fire. Time was running out.
“Get in, Petey,” she told him. He obeyed, jumping up into the passenger seat. She turned the car on, putting the air to full blast, and shut him inside. She couldn’t risk him running off when the fire came closer. Gina went back into the house.
She dug through her closet, grabbing extra sets of clothes and stuffing them into a duffel bag. Then she grabbed another blanket, slinging it over her shoulder, and headed into the bathroom. She grabbed a toothbrush and toothpaste, ignoring the soap and shampoo. She grabbed a few towels, just in case, and headed back outside.
The fire was burning Mr. McNeil’s house, directly next door. He was an older man, and she hoped that he was gone from his house. His car was gone, so she hoped for the best. She considered leaving then, but knew she had a few moments left. Was there anything else she needed?
She went back in, the smoke thick now, blowing through the open door. She went to a closet, grabbed a flashlight and an old first aid kit. Then the smoke was too much and she had to leave her house for the last time, coughing and knowing that in moments, it would be gone.
The flames were just licking the side of her house as she stepped out the front door. With a hand on her car door, she turned and looked back, watching as the flames really caught hold. She’d been in that house for years, had bought it with her own hard-earned money. She was conscious of money, so she had saved up enough and paid it off entirely. It was something she was proud of. She had great insurance, but still, she couldn’t believe her house would be gone, and everything in it.
Everything except her and Petey. That was the most important thing. She opened the door – and Petey jumped out and sprinted towards the house.
“Petey!” Gina screamed, chasing off after him and dropping what she had grabbed. The house was fully engulfed now, but she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Petey inside. Without even hesitating, she sprinted through the burning doorway. The smoke was thick inside, and already her couch was an inferno. “Petey!”
She couldn’t see anything, so she dropped to her knees, scanning for him. He was nowhere to be seen. The flames had spread to the carpet, traveling across the room, melting her TV. She didn’t have much time. She crawled forward, towards the kitchen, making her way to where his food usually was. Maybe he had gone there seeking comfort.
But there was no sign of him.
Gina was coughing now. The smoke was choking her. She could feel her head getting dizzy and knew she wouldn’t last much longer. She had to find Petey… She had to.
Then he was in her face, dropping his bone by her hands and licking her face.
“Petey!” she scolded him, but grabbed him tight. She took his bone too and stood up, running out of the blaze. Safe in the yard, she collapsed, coughing wracking her body. Petey was next to her, licking her face, making sure she was okay. She handed him his bone and rolled over on her back, feeling the cool grass on her bare skin. But the flames were spreading fast. Bushes, and then the lawns themselves started to go up in flames. The fire was relentless.
“Petey, let’s get out of here,” she told him. He followed her dutifully, his bone lodged between his teeth. “Did you really need that?”
In answer, he wagged his tail and jumped into the passenger seat.
Gina picked up her supplies, tossed them inside, and put the car in reverse and rolled down the driveway. She paused in front of her house, watching it collapse in an explosion of flames. Petey yelped beside her, and that was enough. She put the car in drive, and rolled away from what was left of her house.
MARS (BBW Bear Shifter MC Romance) (MC Bear Mates Book 1) Page 37
