by Payne, T. L.
“That was close,” Isabella said.
“Too damn close,” Gus replied.
As they approached the Trinity River, Will was more concerned than ever about making it to Savanah’s in the truck. It was great to be able to move quickly, but it had nearly got them killed numerous times. He was beginning to think it just wasn’t worth it. He stared at the old rusty bridge that ran alongside the new one. How long would it take before all the country’s infrastructure looked like that?
After the way the trip had gone so far, Will was sort of in shock when they were able to drive through Liberty without encountering trouble. They’d crossed the bridge of the Trinity River, and there wasn’t anyone waiting for them on the other side. The truck proceeded east, past a small seafood restaurant and a tire shop without seeing a soul. On first impressions, Liberty looked like any other small town in Texas that you’d drive through and nothing would stand out. It had all the fast-food chain restaurants, convenience stores, and pharmacies of every other town.
“Turn left up there at Main Street,” Jaz said.
Gus turned, and they drove over the railroad tracks where an old train depot sat as a reminder of a bygone era when the town likely bustled with activity and commerce. Will stared back as they passed the library. Reading was now one of the few ways to pass the time. Books had almost become obsolete in the digital age, but they were sure to make a big come back now that the internet was gone.
“Which way?” Gus asked at the non-functioning traffic light near the Liberty County Courthouse.
“Just stay straight,” Jaz said, eyeing Liberty County’s seat of justice as they passed it.
“Where is everyone?” Cayden asked.
“I don’t know. It’s strange to drive through town and not see anyone out,” Jaz said.
“I expected to be stopped like we were in Dalton,” Isabella said.
They saw the first signs of life as they passed the Veterans of Foreign Wars post. The two older gentlemen standing in front of the VFW waved as they drove by. As they neared the Walmart, Gus spotted two police cars and called out. “Do I stop?”
“No. They’ll take the truck,” Jaz said.
“Will?”
“It doesn’t matter now. We’ve made it to your destination,” Will said.
“But you need it to get to your sister’s,” Jaz said.
Will turned to Isabella. “I’m not sure it is a good idea to take the truck. Look how much attention it has attracted so far.”
“But Izzy can’t walk on her leg.”
“I’ll be fine. It hardly hurts anymore.”
“We’ll try to find some bikes or something, but we’ll be better off without the truck. I do appreciate the offer though,” Will said. He was abashed and looked away. He should have discussed it with Isabella before making a decision that affected her. But regardless of what she thought about it, he wasn’t taking that risk with Cayden. They were better off on foot where they could slip in and out of towns unnoticed, even if they had to do so under the cover of darkness.
When Gus slowed the truck, Tanner rapped on the glass. “What are you doing? Just floor it.”
“No. We have to stop. We didn’t come all this way to get shot a couple of miles from Jaz’s mom’s.”
Gus stopped twenty yards from the police cruiser blocking the side road. They were stopping traffic from turning toward Walmart. Could it be possible that the store had not been completely looted out by now?
“Step out of the truck,” the officer yelled.
Gus turned off the vehicle and pocketed the keys before opening his door and getting out. Jaz followed suit, and then Will, Cayden, and Isabella got out and stood beside them. The broad-shouldered officer approached with his gun drawn. He stopped and lowered the pistol. “Jaz? Is that you?”
“Manny, what the hell are you doing pointing a gun at me?” Jaz scolded him.
“How was I supposed to know it was you? Who’s truck is that?”
“We borrowed it from a friend,” Jaz said, taking a step closer to the officer. “Guys, this is my baby brother, Manny.”
Jaz and Manny hugged, and Gus shook the man’s hand. “How’s Mom?” Jaz asked.
“Bossy as usual. She’s over at the store, giving the mayor and city council a hard time.”
“Where is everyone? The town was empty when we drove through.”
“Everyone’s at the Walmart for the distribution.”
“Distribution?”
“Yeah, the town distributes food and hygiene items once a day,” Manny said.
“You can go on home. I’ll let Mom know you’re here. She’ll be so glad to see you. She’s been threatening to go get you every day since the lights went out, but George wouldn’t let her. He said that the city had turned into a war zone.”
“It has. I’m glad she didn’t come. It’s pretty bad there.”
“I’m glad you got out. I’ll see you when we finish up here. I’ll bring you some potato chips.”
“I knew there was a reason you were my favorite brother.” Jaz laughed.
“I’m your only brother,” Manny said.
“Not true. Our dad has a son, remember?”
“Nope. Don’t claim him,” Manny said as he walked back to his police cruiser. He turned back. “Hey, you might want to call out before you go inside. We have a visitor with an itchy trigger finger.”
“Visitor?” Jaz said.
“You’ll see. Just announce yourself.”
Fourteen
Will
Day Seven
Gus drove the pickup to the outskirts of town and pulled to the curb in front of a red brick ranch-style house. Will took in the neighborhood. Jaz’s parents lived in an older middle-class subdivision north of Liberty. The lawns were all well-kept. A few had trash cans at the curb like they still expected it to be picked up, or maybe the homeowner hadn’t made it home after the EMP. It looked safe enough, but you just never knew. It wouldn’t have been the place he would have chosen to stay during this crisis. Even if you knew and got along with all your neighbors, how long before they’d turn on you once their kids start going hungry?
A man dressed in a white cowboy hat and boots stepped from the front walkway. He held a pistol in his right hand, and in the other, he had a star-shaped badge. The Texas Ranger wore a pair of khaki pants, a white dress shirt, and a tie.
The “Don’t Mess with Texas” slogan came to mind as the lawman stared them down. He wasn’t all that tall, but he looked well-built. Will guessed him to be around forty years old, which probably meant he’d been in law enforcement a while.
“Jaz, why is there a ranger at your mother’s house?” Gus asked as he put the truck into park in front of the house.
“What do you want?” the lawman asked, still pointing the pistol at the pickup.
“My mom lives here. Who the hell are you?” Jaz asked, totally disregarding the weapon in the man’s hand, and opening the door.
“What’s your mother’s name?” he asked as Jaz exited the vehicle.
“Listen, this is my mother’s house. I’ve had a very shitty day, and I’m tired, so if you ain’t going to shoot me, get the hell out of my way so I can go inside.”
The ranger looked perplexed as Jaz brushed past him and headed up the walk toward the front door. Gus exited and walked around the bumper with his hands in the air. “I’m with her,” he said, continuing up the pathway. Everyone else got out and stood on the sidewalk. The lawman lowered his pistol and watched Gus and Jaz. Will wasn’t sure what to do. He hadn’t been invited inside and Gus had taken the keys to the truck. The ranger holstered his weapon and pocketed his badge as he approached the pickup. “What about the rest of you?”
“They’re my neighbors,” Isabella said. “This is my friend, Will, and his son.” She nodded to Tanner and Monte. “They’re with the Cajun navy. They got stranded here after the EMP.”
“The what?”
“After the lights went out.”
“You’re thinking an EMP did this?” the ranger asked.
Cayden stepped around Will, who had been blocking him in case the lawman’s pistol came back out. “We know it did. An FBI agent told us so.”
Will’s stomach tightened at the memory of the last time he saw Betley. The images of Kim and all the others flooded his mind.
The ranger’s eyebrows raised as he pursed his lips and nodded. “Oh yeah? Where was that?”
“Houston.”
The ranger leaned forward slightly and eyed Will. “You guys going in or what?”
Will shrugged. “We’re not staying.”
“Where are you heading then?”
“Louisiana,” Will said.
“You guys can come in and get a bite to eat before you run off,” Jaz called from the front door.
Isabella didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Otis from the back seat and limped toward the door with Cayden right behind her. The ranger nodded toward Monte and Tanner, who were being uncharacteristically quiet. “What about them?”
Will glanced behind him and gave a half shrug. “I don’t know what their plans are. We just met out on the road here. I imagine they’ll be heading back to Louisiana. You’ll have to ask them.”
The lawman took a few steps to his left and addressed his question to Monte and Tanner.
“I think I’ll wait out here with the truck. Wouldn’t want anyone getting any funny ideas and taking off with it,” Monte said.
“I’ll wait with you, but I’d love a to-go plate of whatever you’re having though, Will,” Tanner said, opening the front passenger side door to the pickup and taking a seat.
Will followed Isabella and Cayden inside the house, where Jaz and Gus were already pulling food off the pantry shelf. “Beef stew or canned tamales?” Gus asked, holding out two cans.
“Canned tamales? Gross!” Jaz said, shoving the can back at him.
“What about you, Cayden?” Gus asked.
“I don’t mind tamales,” he replied, and Gus handed him the can.
“You can’t eat that. Those aren’t tamales. My mamá makes the best tamales in the world,” Jaz said, licking her lips.
“Your mamá hasn’t made tamales in years,” a male voice said from the doorway into a back room. “She practically quit cooking when she moved to Liberty.”
Jaz turned and put her hands on her hips. “Well, Marco, you don’t look like you’ve missed any meals.”
The man patted his round belly and stepped into the room. He was short and stocky. A bulge under his black T-shirt near his right hip told Will that he was concealing a weapon.
“What are you still doing here? I thought you were going away,” Jaz asked.
“The feds never showed up,” the man said.
“What’s up with the ranger outside?” Gus asked, stepping over and extending his right hand to the man. They shook and then bumped shoulders. Gus didn’t appear too concerned about the man’s presence. Despite the lack of introduction, Will assumed he was the troubled uncle Jaz had spoken about.
“He showed up right before the lights went out.”
“Why? What’s he doing here?” Gus asked.
The man pulled a bar stool out from the island and took a seat before answering. Jaz pointed to a small kitchen banquet, and Will, Cayden, and Isabella slid in and began opening cans as Gus placed them on the table in front of them.
“Was he here to arrest your ass again?” Jaz asked when he didn’t answer.
“No! He was here to interview me. He wanted info on a couple of cases before I disappeared, and he couldn’t get to me.”
Jaz cocked her head to the side and glared at him. “He wants to know where the bodies were buried?”
Marco tore the lid off a can of Vienna sausages, pulled one from the container, and popped it into his mouth.
“Have any of Arturo’s people been around since the lights went out?”
“Nope. They probably think I’m long gone. I put the word out that I was going to Honduras.”
“You should have left by now. If you get my family hurt…” She turned her back on Marco and walked over to the pantry, pulled a small bottle of apple juice from the shelf, unscrewed the lid, and took a drink. “You should leave with Will and Izzy. They can drop you off in Beaumont. You got baby mamas there, right?”
Will stiffened. He hadn’t agreed to take the man anywhere. If he was in some kind of trouble, there was no way he was getting in the middle of it.
“Can’t. That ranger said I had to stay put until the feds get here.”
“The feds ain’t coming, Marco.”
“Tell him that. He keeps talking like the government is coming to help any day now.”
“He has to. He’s part of the government,” Gus said.
“Everyone around here thinks they’re still coming too.”
“And you don’t?” Gus asked.
“No! We haven’t seen a single FEMA worker or anyone from the government. Some folks came through a few days ago saying that this was all across the state. I figure if that is the case, the government is overwhelmed with folks needing help. It could be months before they show up. We’ll all have starved to death by then.”
The front door opened, and the Texas Ranger entered the kitchen. “What’s things like in Houston?” he asked, pulling out a barstool and plopping down next to Marco. He poked his fingers into the Vienna sausage can and popped one into his mouth.
“It’s hell. What the hurricane didn’t destroy, the bombs are taking care of,” Jaz said.
“Bombs?”
“Yes, bombs. The whole damn place is like a war zone. But you’ll have to ask them.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward Will and the others.
The ranger turned in his seat to face them. “What do you know about the bombing?”
Will wasn’t in the mood to go into all they’d been through. He especially didn’t want Cayden reliving it. “The city is under attack from Chinese insurgents.”
“Insurgents?”
“They’ve been here a while from what we were told. They’ve blown up fuel farms and highway interchanges and attacked Ellington Joint Reserve Base. We saw explosions on our way out of town. That’s all I know about it.”
The ranger looked like someone had punched him in the gut as he slumped forward in his seat. He removed his cowboy hat and ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. His tie was already loose around his neck, but he tugged it off and stuffed it into the front pocket of his khaki pants. “So it was an enemy attack. I was afraid it was something like that. What about our military? They’re fighting back, right?”
“They are. We saw one of our planes fly over as we were leaving,” Will said.
“Well then, it won’t be long, and they’ll get it all sorted.”
“Unless the Chinese invade,” Cayden said, wiping chili from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“It’s going to take a very long time to get everything back to normal after the EMP, even if the military can defeat the enemy quickly. The power grid is fried, and everything electronic will have to be replaced. That could take months, even years,” Isabella said.
Everyone in the room turned and stared at her. No one spoke. The thought of enduring that kind of hardship even for months was difficult to swallow, but years were inconceivable. It would be devastating. Many, many people could die from starvation and disease. And then there was the lawlessness that would descend upon them.
“I guess everyone will have to prepare to endure a while longer,” the ranger said.
After everyone finished eating, Will was anxious to be on their way. He needed to get Gus alone to discuss Jaz’s suggestion that he take her uncle with them. That was not happening, and he needed to make that clear.
Will whispered to Isabella. “We should say our goodbyes now and head out. I would really like to get to my sister’s before dark.”
“You still planning on leaving the truck?” she asked.
“No. A
s concerned as I am about all the attention the vehicle draws, I just want to get to my sister’s sooner rather than later.” He didn’t want to continue on in the truck, but most of their supplies had been left behind when they’d picked up the group back on the freeway. All they had now was what they each carried with them in their backpacks and it wouldn’t be enough if they had to spend days walking.
“Could we just get off the freeway and take back roads?” Isabella asked.
Will took time to mull it over. In normal times, she might have been right, but they didn’t have a map of the back roads, and he sure didn’t know how to get them across all the bayous and rivers without going through cities.
“She has a point,” the ranger said, suddenly appearing behind Will. “You’ll want to avoid Beaumont for several reasons. The population, the refineries—those are a big problem. You’ll want to head north, cross the Neches River at around Silsbee and then drop back south to say around Mauriceville and then east to Deweyville to cross the Trinity River into Louisiana.”
Isabella leaned across Cayden. “You know those roads?”
“Sort of.”
“Can you tell us which ones to take?” Isabella asked.
The ranger scrunched up his lips and looked to the ceiling. “Oh, I don’t know.” He dropped his gaze to Isabella and smiled. “Maybe I can just show you, if you have room for one more, that is?”
“Where are you headed?” Will asked.
“I got me a little hunting spot up north of Silsbee along the Naches River. I thought I’d go hang out there till all this blows over.” The ranger stepped back and extended his hand. “I’m Ed Sudeski, by the way. I’ll get you to the Louisiana border. If you’ll have me.”
“What do you think?” Will said, turning to Isabella.
“I think we won’t make it without someone who knows the roads. Besides, he knows how to shoot.”
