by Ike Warren
"Then what do you think it was?"
"Either a covert operation by the government and a cover up or an EMP attack."
"What's an EMP?" Ellie asked.
"Electromagnetic pulse. It's a high frequency pulse of energy that has the capability of knocking out electrical grids."
"So how is that different from a CME from the sun?" Allan asked.
"That's just it. A CME is generated by the sun. An EMP can also be generated by the sun, or can be generated by nuclear weapons or some other special device."
Allan thought of the movie Ocean's Eleven where Don Cheadle's character setup the EMP device to knock out the electrical grid to the casino that they were robbing. "An EMP is one possibility, but I’m not so sure about a nuclear weapon. If it were a nuclear detonation shouldn't we have expected to see a mushroom cloud and much more devastation? I mean, there is devastation now, but that was all caused by desperate people after the blast."
"Not necessarily. An EMP generated by a high altitude nuclear weapon really wouldn’t create anything more than a bright flash in the sky." Mr. Rodriguez said.
Allan remembered the bright flashes outside the Kirkland’s store in the mall and how he thought that they were camera flashes. Could that have been the flashes of a nuclear explosion? He wondered and then he remembered the news from the morning of their trip. "But this all started the night before, over in Europe. Wouldn't our government have told us that there had been an attack of such magnitude?" Allan asked.
"See that's what makes me think this might have been some type of government cover up. Truth is we don't know. We may never know."
Allan realized that he had been asking a lot of questions and there were so many more still running through his mind. "How long have you all been down here?" Allan focused on a question that might actually have a straight answer.
"The day after the lights went out some gangs started shooting at everything.” Ellie spoke up. “They must have robbed a gun store somewhere ‘cause I've never heard so much gunfire in all my life. Samantha and I were getting really scared when the gunfire started getting closer and we didn’t know what we were going to do. That was until Mr. Rodriguez knocked on my door and brought us down here to safety. We watched those hoodlums come into the neighborhood and completely terrorize the place. One of them must have family or friends in the area because we keep hearing them when they come back at night after their daily shooting sprees.”
Jennifer stirred in her sleep and let out a comforting snore that let everyone know that she was breathing better now. "How did you know we were at your house?" Allan asked.
"Little Samantha heard you. She said 'I hear mommy and daddy' and Mr. Rodriguez and I just looked at each other. We didn't hear anything and we couldn't believe you'd be back here so soon but she swore up and down that she heard your voices. So I sent Mr. Rodriguez out to take a look and he came back and said that someone was living in my house and that they had already rearranged the furniture in front of the front porch window.”
“That was me.” Allan explained. “I moved the dresser in front of the window to cover the big hole that I made when I broke the front glass to get inside.”
“Ah, well that explains it. I stood outside wondering why in the world had those hoodlums picked my house to live in and why were they moving my furniture around, and the more I thought about it the angrier I got. I decided to just barge on in there and give them a piece of my mind or a piece of my shotgun, whichever it took to get them out of my house. But when I opened the front door and looked across the hall and saw Jennifer lying in my bed I thought she I was seeing an angel. My heavens I surely did.” She shook her head from side to side as she looked on at Jennifer as if she still couldn’t believe that she was actually there. “Well anyway, we saw your note and I realized that Jennifer wasn’t just sleeping, she was sick. We decided that the house wasn’t safe. The hoodlums could come back at any moment. So Mr. Rodriguez went and got his hospital gurney and we carried her back to his house.”
"How did you get Jennifer down the basement steps?"
"Once we got her in the house we had a little trouble but Mr. Rodriguez is strong and he carried her on his back down the stairs." Ellie answered. “Now I have a question for you. How did you get home so fast? Was it only Greenville that was affected because the way things were looking outside the whole world had gone to, pardon me, S. H. I. T.” She said spelling out the last word so that Samantha wouldn’t know what she said.
Allan filled her in on their journey starting with the initial blast when they were at the mall. He told her about the airplanes that fell from the sky and all the mayhem that followed as people began to panic. He told her about all the fires and the burnt up buildings and the millions of wrecked cars on the road. Ellie sighed and shook her head with every detail as he told the story. He told her about getting held up and their bike getting stolen and then delivering the baby beside the lake and the barricade on the road at the Hunt County line and Luanne who shot the truck driver who had demanded a ride to Louisiana. There were many more details that he couldn’t possibly explain, especially with Samantha listening on to every word.
“Sounds like you guys really had a heck of a journey. And to be honest I agree with Samantha 'cause it smells like it too.” Mr. Rodriguez teased. “There’s a bath tub full of water upstairs. Filled it up before the water pressure dropped. I’ve only used it a couple of times. Why don’t you go ahead and clean yourself up and then look through my closet and find some clothes to wear. You should be able to find something in there that fits you.” Mr. Rodriguez offered.
Allan nodded and walked up the basement steps. As he reached the top of the stairs and opened the stairwell door Ellie’s voice stopped him.
“Sure is good to have you all back here. Thank you for brining my baby back home to me.” She said.
“You’re welcome. We’re all glad to be back home together.” Allan replied.
Chapter 24: Recuperation
Allan went to the bathroom and looked at the bathtub. It was full of dingy brown water that had made a dark ring around the sides of the tub. Before the blast Allan would have revolted in disgust at the idea of stepping down into the murky water but now he didn’t care. His body was tired and aching and it yearned for a chance to be clean. He slipped off his pants and underwear and wound them up into a ball and then he looked down at the wound on his leg from where he had ran into the jagged car fender on the highway in the middle of the night. The cut was starting to heal but there was a slight red tinged color all the way around it and he decided that after his bath he would get Ellie to help him clean and dress it properly.
He stepped into the water and slid down. The water was cold at first but it was completely refreshing once his body adjusted to the temperature. He grabbed the bar of soap that was sitting on the soap rack above him and as he scrubbed his body he watched the water become stained a darker brown color as the dirt that was embedded on his body released off his skin.
As he lay in the bathtub he began to think back over their long journey. How far we have come to get here. The many obstacles that we overcame. He thought. He wondered about big Walter back at the mall parking lot. Did he stay true to his word and remain in his car where he likely would have had a heatstroke or did he decide that walking home was his only choice? If he walked out of there, did he make it despite his assurances that he’d never make it? What about all those people that we encountered on the road? The man with the concussion that we helped out of his seatbelt on the first day, or the guy who was trapped under the car that we helped lift off of him? What about the man with the fedora hat who stood behind us in line at the tent hospital, or the man with the mud caked on top of his head who gave me the knife to cut the umbilical cord with, or Henry and Luanne, or any of the thousands of faces that we passed along the highway? Did they make it to their destinations ok? He feared that most had not. As the days after the blast carried on he figured that many on the highw
ay would succumb to the extreme summer heat and exhaustion, and if not that then their undoing would come in the form of injury or violence. Allan felt lucky to be alive. He was thankful that his family was reunited and that they were all safe, at least for now. He let his body slide down further into the water until the water tickled the edges of chin and he said a prayer for those who were still out there trying to return to their own families and he thanked God that he had reunited with his. He was grateful that he was not out there facing another night out on the road.
He let his body soak until his skin began to feel waterlogged and then he got out of the water and found a clean towel to dry off with. On the counter behind the sink he saw a couple of toothbrushes and Allan dabbed some toothpaste on the bristles of one of the brushes and he began scrubbing his teeth without a hint of hesitation at the thought of using someone else’s toothbrush.
He wrapped the bath towel around his body and walked to the nearest closet where he shuffled through the clothes on the rack until he found a pair of pants and a shirt that looked like they might fit. There was a long mirror attached to the closet door and Allan stopped and looked at his body for the first time in almost a week. His skin was nearly as dark as Mr. Rodriguez’s but when he looked again he noticed that his skin looked blotchy in some areas. He looked closer, concerned that the poison ivy rash was spreading, until he realized that the light blotches were from the areas that had been covered in the lake mud and the darker and more sunburnt areas were where he had applied the mud too thin.
Every part of his body looked shrunken. His eyes and cheeks seemed to sink into his face and he noticed that his ribs protruded from his sides like never before. He placed his hand on his stomach and turned to the side to size himself up. I must have lost 20 pounds in the past six days. He thought. Before the blast he would have never imagined such extreme weight loss would be possible, but after their long hard journey it really didn't surprise him. He dropped the shirt over his body and although it was the same size that he normally wore it felt like it was two sizes too big. He slipped the pants on and they were also too large so he found a belt and cinched it tight around his waist to hold them up. Then he found some shaving cream and a razor and shaved his overgrown beard and finally he found a comb and brushed his hair.
As he headed back downstairs he stopped in the middle of the basement stairwell. "Ellie, can I see you for a minute?" He called out.
Ellie handed the baby to Mr. Rodriguez and she walked up the stairs with a curious look on her face and Allan silently motioned for her to follow him back upstairs. When they got to the top landing of the stairs he turned and whispered to her.
"I have a pretty deep cut on my leg. I'd like for you to take a look at it and see what it needs."
Ellie's eyes grew wide with concern. Allan began to loosen his belt to drop his pants when he realized that he wasn't wearing any underwear. He began to stall and blush when Ellie spoke up.
"It's nothing I haven't seen before. Now let me see this wound."
Ellie's words put him at ease but as he lowered his pants to reveal his injury he also pulled on his shirt to cover up his private parts.
Ellie made a grimace on her face at the site of the deep cut and instinctively reached up to touch it as all mothers tend to do.
"Please don't touch it." Allan said as he winced at the coming pain of her touch. "Just tell me what it needs."
"It looks infected, but I think you made it here just in time. Mr. Rodriguez has a first aid kit downstairs. I'll go grab it." Ellie said as she got up and trotted down the steps. As she rummaged through items on one of the shelves down in the basement Samantha walked over to her.
"What are you looking for grandma?"
"I'm looking for a Band-Aid. Your daddy has a cut on his leg."
"Oh I like Band-Aids."
"Let me get your daddy patched up and I'll see if there is one left for you."
Ellie walked back upstairs holding a red box with a white cross printed on it. She opened it up to reveal an assortment of various sized Band-Aids, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and peroxide, antiseptic ointment, some large and small gauze pads, ace bandages, and a lot of other items that Allan wished that they had on them during their long walk home.
“Is there any Calamine lotion in that box?”
“I don’t think so. What do you need Calamine lotion for?”
Allan leaned his head forward and pointed to the back of his neck to reveal the thick red itchy rash.
“Oh good heavens Allan. What did you get into?”
“Poison ivy back at a farm pond where we stopped for water.”
“It’s going to be quite a job getting you all patched up. But we’ll get the job done.” Ellie said patting his shoulder and then she unscrewed the lid to the bottle of alcohol and held it above his leg wound.
"I'm just going to drop a little bit in to make sure it's disinfected."
Allan grit his teeth to prepare for the burning pain to come. As he expected, when the alcohol entered his wound it felt like his leg had been set on fire. Every muscle in his leg tensed up and he groaned in pain but he was able to hold his composure until finally the burning sensation subsided. Next Ellie squirted out a gob of antiseptic ointment onto her finger and rubbed it around the wound. Again Allan winced but the pain was not as severe as the rubbing alcohol. She opened a package to one of the big gauze pads and pressed it against his skin.
"You probably need to get this looked at by a professional. I can't tell if it needs stiches of not. For now we'll just wrap it up and keep it as clean as possible." She said as she wrapped the ace bandage around his leg to secure the gauze pad in place. "Any other boo-boos besides the poison ivy rash that I need to look at?" Ellie asked and Allan felt like he was four years old again.
"I've got some massive blisters on my feet." He said and Ellie knelt down and spread the antiseptic ointment on the broken skin around his heels.
"Let's leave the blisters open to the air. I think they will heal better that way." Ellie said as she pulled a Band-Aid out of the box.
"Then what's that for?" Allan asked.
"This one is for Samantha. She said she likes Band-Aids." They both smiled and Allan secured his pants around his waist and followed Ellie back down to the basement.
"Ellie, someone’s awake for you down here." Mr. Rodriguez announced as they exited the stairs.
Jennifer was partially sitting up in the bed with a confused look on her face.
"Where am I?" She asked.
Ellie and Allan ran to her side.
"You're in Mr. Rodriguez's basement." Ellie responded.
"Mom?"
"Yes darling. You're in a safe place now."
"How did I get here?" As she asked the question all the memories of their long journey home came flooding back to her. "Where's the baby? Where's Samantha?"
"Hi mommy." Samantha said as she popped her head out from behind Allan.
"Oh sweetheart, come here and give me a hug!" Jennifer exclaimed with joy.
Allan pointed towards the corner of the room, "Mr. Rodriguez is over there holding the baby."
The old man took his queue and got up and held the baby close to the reunited family. Jennifer pulled the towel down to reveal the little boy's face and then she turned to Allan and smiled.
"We made it home." She said and Allan embraced her with a hug. There wasn't a dry eye in the basement.
Mr. Rodriguez hid the fact that he was wiping a tear from his cheek and said, “I’m going to check upstairs.”
The family embraced one another for a long time when finally Samantha broke the silence. “Mommy you smell bad like Daddy did.”
Jennifer laughed. “I’m sorry sweetheart. Mommy hasn’t had a real bath in six days.” She wrinkled her face at Samantha to show how gross she felt.
“Mister Allan, you sure made a mess of my bathtub.” Mr. Rodriguez said as he came back down the stairs.
Allan was embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I’l
l go up there and clean it up.”
“No worries. I drained the water. No sense in scrubbing the tub though. Don’t want to waste any water just to clean it when it’s only going to get dirty again. I could use some help taking some more water upstairs to refill it though.”
Allan began to get up when Ellie put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him. “You need to rest that leg. Mr. Rodriguez and I will carry up some fresh water for Jennifer to have a bath.”
It took them several trips of carrying buckets filled with water from the blue 55 gallon water barrels up and down the stairs to fill the bath tub and each time Ellie had to demand that Allan rest his leg instead of getting up to help. Jennifer went upstairs and lay in the water and she let out a sigh of relief as the dirt flowed away from her body. She put her head back and relaxed every muscle in her body for the first time in days. Even though the water was cold she still felt like she was in the finest day spa in the world. It felt magnificent to touch the soap against her body and to be able to rinse her hair out with shampoo. She wasn’t really able to get all the soap off of her since there was no running water, but soap was better than dirt to her and she didn’t mind if some of it stayed on her skin and in her hair. When she was done with her bath she grabbed the toothbrush that Allan had used earlier and she brushed her teeth and then found a bottle of lotion in one of the bathroom cabinets and dumped out nearly half its contents and spread it across the surface of her skin. When she reached down to spread the lotion on her feet she flinched in pain as her own set of blisters on her feet burned as she ran her fingers across them.
When she was done she walked downstairs and smelled the sweet aroma of food being cooked. Ellie was in a corner of the basement busying herself amongst several pots that were set atop camp stoves and she looked back at Jennifer who had brought a hairbrush with her from upstairs to brush her hair.
“Feel better after your bath?” Ellie asked.
