Silent Interruption (Book 4): Of Tragedy and Triumph

by Russell, Trent

  Alicia pulled back as Carl emitted his first audible moan. Tara’s eyes widened. “Carl! He’s alive!”

  Alicia nodded. “He’s alive, but we got to watch it. God knows how much smoke he inhaled.”

  Michael coughed. He had been coughing for a while. Tara was growing alarmed. “Michael.” She hurried to his side. He had been propping himself up, but he had not risen to his feet yet. “Please, you stay with us too.”

  “My lungs are on fire,” Michael said through coughs.

  “Just keep breathing.” Tara then coughed. She could understand what he meant. Tightness and heat clutched her own chest.

  Thomas reached the back door, which yawned open, pouring out smoke. “Dad!” He rushed toward the opening, gun in hand. “Dad, are you there?”

  His question quickly was answered. Harold dove out of the doorway, the back of his jacket on fire. He landed on the ground, nearly hitting Thomas, and quickly rolled around on the wet grass, smothering the flames.

  “Dad!” Thomas hovered over him. “Are you alright?”

  “Ben!” Harold responded. “Did you see him?”

  Thomas shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen anyone.”

  “Quick, look around!” Harold ground his back into the grass, snuffing out the last bits of flame and smoke. “That bastard is out there somewhere. You blasted a hole in his leg, so he can’t have gotten far.”

  “Dad…” Thomas trembled. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. Just go!”

  Thomas nodded. “Okay.” He turned and fled toward the woods.

  Harold sat up, panting. Then he called out, “Thomas! Tom! Wait!” He jumped to his feet, nearly tripping as he ran after his boy. “You don’t…you don’t have to do it.”

  Thomas spun to face his father. The nearly adolescent boy looked worried, scared, not as brave and stoic as before. Harold mentally kicked himself for forcing Thomas to go off and continue the manhunt that he was pursuing.

  “I’m okay. I don’t think the fire got through to my back. It just stings a little. Please, go help your brother and the others. I’ll go track down Ben on my own.”

  Thomas turned away. “I will.”

  Harold nodded. “Okay.”

  Chapter Five

  With Thomas returning to Tara and the others, Harold resumed his hunt for Ben. But as much as he wanted to nail Ben’s hide to one of these trees, the fire in his heart was somewhat quenched by running into Thomas. Harold was becoming so consumed with fury that he neglected his own son’s worries about his father’s wellbeing.

  Even so, he couldn’t shake his anger over how Ben had escaped the house. Harold ran through the chase so far in his mind. A piece of the roof had caved in, exposing the attic to the outside for the first time. A flaming beam had dropped behind him, cutting Harold off from much of the living room, leaving him no choice but to flee through the hallway toward the kitchen. But the fire caused by Carl’s explosion was spreading, and Harold was unlucky enough to catch some of the leaping flame as it pushed forward into the kitchen.

  For a moment, Harold thought he saw a silhouette jump through a window. The window already was broken, perhaps by the explosion or someone else breaking through it earlier. Harold hurried toward that window from the outside, hoping to catch sight of Ben. But unfortunately, the woods were close by. Ben could have ducked into the foliage while Harold was putting out the fire on his back.

  Harold looked on the grass for blood spots, but it had been raining for so long that large areas of the soil were pooled with water. Even without the pools, the rainfall would have scattered the blood.

  Even so, he wasn’t about to quit now. He ran toward the woods, vowing to tear through them to catch Ben.

  Tara finished cleaning the cut on Carl’s right arm. “This is what, twenty-two?” she asked tiredly. Although said in jest, Carl’s body was covered with cuts, most of them small. Some of them were on his back. Michael sheepishly admitted he had had something to do with that.

  “I beat up a Marine,” Michael said with a laugh. “I don’t think Dad ever would believe that.”

  For the moment, Carl remained unconscious. His breathing remained steady, and every now and then he would groan. The group longed for Rupert’s medical expertise to help them. Sadly, the male nurse had been killed by one of Ben’s men, their first, and so far only, fatality during this trek. They had fought so hard to make sure no more sacrifices occurred, but as Preston and Carl remained unconscious, it was not clear that they wouldn’t lose another life.

  Michael was reclining against a tree trunk. He was awake, but somewhat groggy. The experience had drained him. He tried to help Lorenzo bandage his wounds, but his coordination was a mess. He couldn’t stop his arms from shaking as he tried wrapping the bandage around Lorenzo’s arms. Lorenzo swore he could handle it and that he was fine. That left Michael free to worry about his breathing. His chest pains remained, though they were less intense than earlier now that he could suck in fresh air.

  Aside from Carl, everyone remained worried about Preston. He was breathing, but he made no noise, no moans, coughs, or any signs that he was stirring. It was difficult not to fear the worst. Preston could have slipped into a coma from which he would not emerge, and they did not possess a hospital’s medical technology to help maintain him and possibly bring him out of it. He was so weak that Tara openly feared he might not survive the night.

  As they continued binding their wounds, the rain subsided more and more. However, the end of the rain would not bring daylight to the woods. The ordeal of the day had stretched so long that it was now nighttime.

  Alicia looked into the woods. “Harold’s sure been gone a long time.”

  “It’s a pretty big forest out there,” Lorenzo said with a sigh. “Remember, we don’t have trucks anymore to take us around. It could take this long to hike around the immediate area of the house.”

  Alicia clutched her shoulders. “Speaking of, the air’s starting to feel nasty.”

  Lorenzo sniffed the air. “The wind is blowing the smoke and ash from the house this way. It’s starting to feel warm too.” By now the rain had stopped. Without the constant downpour, there was nothing to hold down the fire and smoke from Ben’s hideout.

  Before any of them could say anything, Carl coughed loudly. But instead of a small cough, it was loud and sustained. Carl then slapped his hand against his chest. He was moving!

  “Carl!” Tara gave the man his space. Carl lurched to a sitting position. He coughed some more, then spat out some nasty phlegm onto the grass. Tara knelt down behind him and propped him up for support. Shyanne hurried to the other side of Carl, but Tara quickly said, “Wait, wait. Give him a moment.”

  Carl hacked up some more fluids for a while, but soon he spoke a word. Actually, it was more like half a word. “Wha…” He then looked up into Shyanne’s brown eyes. “Hey,” he said, through panted breaths.

  Shyanne smiled. “You’re okay?” she whispered.

  Carl swallowed. “I guess I got a little cooked.”

  The girl then hugged Carl around the neck and started bawling. Tara held up Carl while Shyanne hugged her. Tara cried a little herself. Alicia couldn’t hold back some tears, either.

  Carl reached around and held Shyanne. “Sorry…to make you…worry.”

  Shyanne nodded. “You did. You did.”

  Tara laughed as she wiped her face clean. “No kidding.”

  Carl waited until Shyanne parted from him before talking. “I take it we escaped.” Then he noticed Michael against the tree. “Hey,” Carl said to him, “Looks like you made it.”

  Michael nodded. He still was too weak to say much.

  Carl looked around. “But what about Preston?” Carl didn’t see him.

  Alicia pointed to the ground by another tree where Ricardo and his mother sat close by Preston. Carl’s eyes widened. “Preston! He’s still unconscious?”

  “He hasn’t woken up since you brought him here,” Ricardo’s mom said.


  “He’s weak, but he’s alive,” Tara said. Nobody could hide a somber expression, though, as Tara discussed Preston’s state.

  “And Harold?” Carl craned his neck to look around as much of the area as he could to look for the older man.

  “Out hunting for Ben,” Lorenzo said.

  “You mean he’s still alive?” Carl asked. He was so agitated that he started coughing again after asking the question.

  “Well, we don’t really know,” Alicia said with a shake of her head. “Last we saw of him, he had hightailed it back into the house. Harold went after him. Thomas said Harold got out of the house and started hunting for him in the woods.”

  “Damn.” Carl wiped his face with his palm.

  “But seeing how bad off that house was, I can’t believe he escaped,” Lorenzo said.

  “We can’t take that chance.” Carl gripped his chest. “God, my insides feel like they’re made of sandpaper. Do we have anybody that can go find Harold? He may need some backup.”

  “Carl, we’re all beat down,” Alicia said, “I don’t think any of us should even think of going out there.”

  Lorenzo climbed to his feet. “But Carl could be right.”

  “Lorenzo…” Alicia began.

  “We can’t lose any more of us, Alicia,” Lorenzo said.

  “But I don’t want to lose you, Baby,” Alicia said.

  “Relax.” Lorenzo raised his gun to the sky. “I’m not going to let anyone get the drop on me. Just let me do this. The rest of us are too bad off or can’t handle a search like this.”

  Alicia sucked in a deep breath. “Fine. If you want to be Harold’s backup, then I’ll the backup to the backup.” She then started approaching Lorenzo.

  “They need you,” Lorenzo said.

  “Lorenzo…take her.” Carl struggled to sit up, but only could do so with Tara’s assistance. “Find Harold and bring him back.”

  Thomas gave Lorenzo such a pitiful stare that Lorenzo did not protest again. “Alright.”

  Lorenzo and Alicia left the camp. Carl sighed aloud. “Damn. If I’d have made it into the house sooner, then Preston wouldn’t be like this. I would have nailed Ben also.”

  “You did all you could,” Tara said. “You saved all of us.” Michael nodded as Tara spoke the last sentence.

  Carl bowed his head. “If Preston doesn’t make it, I’ll have plenty to tear myself up over.”

  “Preston saved us back there,” Tara said.

  She then told Carl how Preston had shoved Michael, Tara and Shyanne into the closet to save them from Ben. Michael then relayed some of the tale of how they had escaped from the attic, with Tara and Shyanne filling in the rest when Michael couldn’t speak because of coughing or fatigue.

  “That’s amazing,” Carl said. “I missed one hell of a show, didn’t I?”

  Shyanne looked down at her legs as she straightened her denim dress. “I got a little scared,” she said with some guilt.

  “Oh, that’s nothing to worry about,” Carl said. “I think we all were scared.”

  “It was just a little claustrophobia,” Tara said. “I helped her out.”

  Michael coughed a little before speaking. “I’m just amazed I didn’t go insane in there.” His eyes met Carl’s. “I don’t know what you did back there, but you really brought me back to Earth. Thanks.”

  Lorenzo’s boots tromped through the puddles. One of them was so deep that he sank up to his knee. Cursing under his breath, he pulled his leg loose. This had been one hell of a storm. A hell of a storm, Lorenzo thought. Yeah, and the rain was pretty heavy, too.

  His body ached all over. At least nothing stung horribly. He just would be miserable for the next few days. Alicia still was worried about possible infections. They couldn’t go to any clinics or hospitals to be checked out, so they had to worry about every little thing that might kill them. Getting stung or bitten by the wrong insect could take out any of them.

  This is crazy. I never planned for any of this. How the hell am I supposed to go on in a world like this? Now that he was alone, he was free to run through the parade of horribles in his mind. He never had much of a chance to think about his future while he was with Alicia. He simply was worried about keeping the two of them alive.

  One of his worries was about children, of all things. In their two years of marriage, they had yet to conceive a child. Now that the world had collapsed around them, Lorenzo feared Alicia becoming pregnant. Just how were they going to raise a child in a world like this, with no hospitals, schools, and a wasteland of crazed murderers ready to rob and kill at whim? Even if Lorenzo stopped being intimate with Alicia, that didn’t mean she was not pregnant now. The pair had shared several moments together since the EMP had struck.

  He carried his worries with him as he approached a ravine in the woods. This was the same ravine where Carl had killed Nichols. It wasn’t long before Lorenzo spotted the body of the treacherous soldier at the bottom of the cliff. He was mostly submerged in water, sparing Lorenzo the gruesome sight of his corpse. Soon the local vermin and birds would take care of the rest.

  Lorenzo really wanted to get away from this place.

  He patrolled the right slope of the ravine. Before long, the bushes ahead rustled. Lorenzo drew his gun. Someone was coming.

  “Hey!” Lorenzo cried, “Show yourself!”

  A familiar face revealed himself as he crossed a large tree. Lorenzo sighed. “Harold.”

  The outdoorsman’s face seemed haggard. The moonlight shone off the whiskers growing on his cheeks. “Hey,” Harold said, “They sent you to fetch me?”

  “Well, we are concerned. We can’t exactly text you anymore, can we?” Lorenzo asked.

  Harold approached. “Funny. I still have the damn thing in my pocket. I never got rid of it. I guess I keep expecting the phone to come on.” He sighed. “I have some pictures in it. Pictures of my wife, my home, the boys. Maybe I hope someday someone can turn it back on again and get the pictures out.”

  “I know what you mean,” Lorenzo said. “I suppose it’s a blessing I never had children. I don’t have any memories to lose.” He only could imagine what it felt like for Harold to have pictures of his deceased wife in his phone and yet not be able to see them again.

  “Well, you don’t lose memories,” Harold said, “Not the real ones, anyway.” He then tapped the side of his head. “I don’t guess you found any sight of Ben out there.”

  Lorenzo hung his head down as he shook it. “Nada. No body, nothing.”

  Harold looked past Lorenzo to the slick, wet landscape. “The bastard could have hobbled his way somewhere out there, maybe behind a tree or some brush.”

  “After what we just went through?” Lorenzo asked, “You sure he didn’t buy the farm?”

  Harold stiffened his chin. “Believe the worst. I don’t think we have much choice now.”

  Lorenzo slowly crossed behind Harold, gazing in the direction of their new camp. “It’d be stupid for him to try something now. He’s outnumbered. We could plug his sorry ass if he got close.”

  Harold didn’t respond.

  “Look, you need to go back there and be with your kids. Forget worrying about Ben. They need you.”

  Harold still didn’t turn around, but he did reply with, “I raised my sons well. I couldn’t be prouder of them. But I never should have put them in this kind of danger. I failed them. I failed them horribly.”

  Lorenzo sighed. He didn’t know how to advise a father when he never had been a father himself. He certainly didn’t know what to say in the midst of such extraordinary circumstances.

  “I think you did the best you could,” Lorenzo said. “I hate to say it, but all of this is making me glad I never was a father.”

  Harold grimaced for a moment. Then he turned and started walking back toward camp. Lorenzo followed.

  After a while, Harold said, “It brings pain, but it also gives you great joy. Life is always going to be a balance.”

  Lorenz
o was about to ask what Harold meant, but then he realized the man was speaking of fatherhood. Harold then quickened his pace. Lorenzo decided to let the man be. As for Lorenzo, he decided not to settle his conflict over children quite so easily.

  Chapter Six

  Carl sat propped up against a tree trunk, keeping a watch over Preston. The man remained quiet in his slumber. Alicia continued to check on his breathing. It was hard to hear, but stable.

  “Do you think Mister Preston is dreaming?” Shyanne, sitting cross-legged by Carl, asked.

  “He could be,” Carl replied. “Maybe he’s dreaming about us.”

  “I want to dream,” Shyanne said with a smile. “I want to dream about ice cream.”

  Carl chuckled. “Ice cream? Well that sounds like something I’d like to dream about.” He rubbed his chest. The pain was at least bearable by this point. It was worse when he laid on his back. He would have to sleep upright for now.

  “I dreamed about ice cream when I was in the closet,” Shyanne said. “I imagined I was in a forest with lots of trees that grew food everywhere. There were spaghetti trees and pizza trees and candy cane trees and chocolate trees! Oh, and one of them was an ice cream tree. I licked and licked and licked it until it was all gone.” Shyanne’s smile showed off her teeth.

  Carl gazed up at the canopy of trees over their heads. “Too bad these trees can’t be like those in your dream. I really could go for a sizzling steak tree about now.” Sometimes he wished he could be six years old again just to think of all the crazy stuff that a young child could imagine.

  The sight of Lorenzo and Harold returning also lifted his spirits. Harold said little, instead joining Thomas and the sleeping Matt on the ground. Thomas had filled in his father on his brother’s current condition. Matt had shifted a few times but showed no signs of discomfort or pain. They also had checked his skin carefully. There was a bruise on the back of his neck where Kale had struck it. However, that was the sole sign of injury thus far.