But it wasn’t too far to run after.
Sure, there was every chance in the world that he wouldn’t catch up with them. He was just one lone man, tired and exhausted, trying to catch his breath. And he’d be up against a diesel-burning RV, with who knows how much horsepower.
And Jim didn’t even know who was in the RV. It was a long shot. His wife, not to mention the others, might be dead in the burning house right now. Or close to dying. But Jim had no chance of rescuing them if that was the case.
If they were in that RV, taken prisoner or hostage, then there was at least a chance of rescuing them.
It wasn’t the kind of strategy that worked in poker. But it sometimes worked in real life.
There were so many “ifs” that it all seemed crazy.
But he had to try. No one else was there. There were no other options.
Jim didn’t waste any time. He’d made up his mind. He started running.
He was already losing sight of the RV. It didn’t seem to be going fast, but it was going a lot faster than he was.
But he kept going.
After all, if there was a chance, however small, that he could save someone, or do something, then he had to take it. Worrying about the fire, the burning fire, and all the problems that would result from it, was pointless now. Completely and utterly pointless. And not just that, but an actual determiner to what he could potentially accomplish.
The day had been a long and gray one. The sun wasn’t yet setting, but the light was already getting low.
Jim had already been through his second and third wind. He didn’t have a fourth one in him.
But he still ran.
He was pushing with everything he had. His stomach was empty. His throat was dry from not drinking anything in ages. His head ached and his vision was blurry around the edges.
He kept his eyes focused on the RV.
And somehow, as he kept running, he was getting closer to the RV. It wasn’t just a little speck at the very edge of what he could see. It was getting bigger. Slowly, yes, but surely.
Had the RV stopped?
He kept running, and after a couple minutes, he was sure that the RV had stopped. He was getting closer with each step. He just had to push.
By the time he got there, he felt like he might collapse right onto the ground.
The RV was just sitting there, parked with two wheels off the road and two wheels on it.
Jim had his gun in his hand. His finger was inside the trigger guard. Right on the trigger. Already putting just the slightest bit of pressure on it. Maybe not the best practice. But these weren’t the safest of circumstances. His life might depend on a split-second reaction.
Jim pushed the door open. It swung wildly and slammed into something.
Someone screamed. A woman’s voice.
Jim leveled the gun, holding it with both hands. His legs were shaking, and so were his arms. But he tried to keep everything steady, spreading his legs shoulder-width apart.
Aly was on the floor in the space that functioned as the kitchen. She was face-down, with ropes binding her.
Jim recognized the other two people. They were the creepy couple he’d encountered earlier. He should have known they’d be trouble. Maybe he had known.
The woman had her hands in the air. She’d been the one who’d screamed.
The man didn’t react at all. He looked like he was on drugs, with his face going all droopy in a weird way. “I thought you’d never come,” he slurred. “Now we can really have some fun. Put that silly gun down and come join us on the bed. We’ll untie this woman when she’s ready. She looks like she’d be plenty of fun. Don’t you think?”
From the ground, Aly let out a muffled scream of “Help me.” Her face was pressed against the floor.
Meanwhile, the woman still had her hands in the air. But she wasn’t standing still. She was inching towards the small microwave and the kitchen sink.
Jim’s mind was jumpy with fatigue. His body was switching between feeling like he might fall asleep and as if he was pumped up on adrenaline. He was shaky and felt like he might simply collapse, no matter what state his mind was in.
He saw her hand moving in a jumpy way, as if it was lit by a strobe light. But he wasn’t going to let his fatigue interfere.
She already had the kitchen knife in her hand.
Jim was acting slowly.
But it wasn’t too late.
Jim trained the gun on her. Pulled the trigger.
She fell to the ground, the knife clattering somewhere on the floor.
Aly cried out, not able to see what was happening.
The man on the bed was somehow no longer on the bed.
Jim must have been really losing it. Losing his mind to extreme exhaustion.
The man was almost at Jim, his face contorted into some insanely intense emotion. He was scrambling, his arms flailing.
Jim was barely keeping it together. He was just getting flashes of what was happening, all of it jumbling together like a bad dream.
But he knew what he had to do.
His muscle memory wasn’t going to let him down. All those hours at the target range had been for something, after all.
The gun was as steady as it was going to get. It was aimed right at the man, who was inches away from Jim.
Jim squeezed the trigger.
The man fell. Right at Jim’s feet.
Jim didn’t know if he was dead. So he gave the body a kick to see if it would respond. It did. The man grunted in pain. Jim pressed the gun into the man’s temple and pulled the trigger.
Now he was dead.
Next, Jim moved to the woman. She was already dead. Blood was pooling up around her.
Jim grabbed the kitchen knife from the floor and cut Aly loose. She smelled like fire, and there was soot all over her. She looked exhausted and in pain.
Jim pulled her to her feet.
“You OK?” he said.
She nodded. “I was expecting you.”
“Sorry if I was late.”
“I’m fine. You came just in time.”
“The others? Were they in the house?”
“Rob and Jessica... they were gone... don’t know where... It was just Jordan. He was passed out. I tried to... I couldn’t...”
Jim put his arm around his wife and held her close to him. They were both unsteady on their feet, but somehow they managed to remain standing.
“What do we do now?” said Aly.
“I don’t know.”
24
Rob
Rob was feeling a little better. He hadn’t really hit his head that hard. Instead, it had just been the shock of the accident that had somehow made his brain go all weird and fuzzy. He was annoyed and upset at himself. He felt like he’d been weak.
Jessica had tried to convince him that it wasn’t the case, but eventually she got annoyed of constantly trying to make him feel better, and they spent the next couple of hours walking together in silence back to the lake house.
The motorcycle had not been salvageable. So they’d just opted to leave it there along with the Subaru.
They’d taken what few items from the Subaru that might prove useful sometime in the future: some flares, a knife that had been in the glove box, two LED flashlights, and a couple of energy bars that Jim had apparently stashed by the spare tire years ago, forgetting about them. They were a few years past the expiration date, not that it mattered in times like these. They might end up tasting a little stale, but it’d still work for calories.
It was night now, the sun having set hours ago. There was a chill to the air. They walked along the roadside, and not a single car passed.
It was a dark night. The clouds were out, and they had to use their flashlights to see. But they didn’t keep them on all the time. Instead, they just flicked them on when they needed. This way, they’d preserve the batteries, and also make themselves less visible for whoever might be out there.
It was strange, pass
ing houses that were completely dark. They should have been used to it by now, but they weren’t. Or at least Rob wasn’t. Jessica wasn’t talking, after all.
Jessica was good with directions, and she led them.
Finally, after what seemed like an entire day of walking, but had really just been several hours, they were getting close to the lake.
It felt good to almost be back. Rob’s legs were aching just from the walk alone. He couldn’t remember a time that he’d walked this much, let alone on so few calories.
Before the EMP, he’d been content to lounge on the couch, throwing back a couple beers, watching whatever happened to be on. He’d really liked watching nature shows, the ones where they show animals savagely devouring each other. Back then, the natural world had been something to marvel at, not something to participate in.
Now Rob and his friends were just like those animals. They were going to eat or be eaten. Not literally, of course. Well, so long as things didn’t get really bad. Not that Rob would ever do that. The idea repulsed him. But he wouldn’t put it past others. People were sick and messed up, no matter who they were or where they came from. Rob had known that for a long time. At every job he’d ever managed to hold onto for a couple weeks, he’d inevitably find that some normal-seeming coworker was, in fact, nothing more than a psychopath in disguise. Or, at the very least, someone with very serious problems.
And now all those people weren’t stuck at work. They weren’t stuck trying to make a living, trying to gather up enough currency to be able to pay rent and afford food and entertainment. No, now they were out in the wild, where their hard-earned money was no good, and they’d do whatever they could do to survive. Just like everyone else.
It was enough to give Rob shivers down his back, the kind that he used to get when he’d watched scary movies.
“Hey,” whispered Jessica, nudging him. “You see that up there?”
“Huh? Why are you whispering?” said Rob, speaking much too loudly.
“In case someone’s here. Keep it quiet, would you?”
Up ahead, there was something. It was something red, glowing.
“What’s that?”
“Fire?”
“Fire? But shouldn’t the lake house be right there?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe we got lost.”
“Let’s hope so, because it’s looking more and more like fire.”
The closer they got, the more it became apparent that it was fire. Or, more accurately, the end of a large fire. The flames weren’t intense, but those kinds of low, glowing flames you get when a fire had already consumed most of the material available.
“You think that’s the lake house?”
“Yeah. Look around you. That’s definitely the lake house. Don’t you recognize the trees? The driveway?”
“It’s dark. How can you see anything?”
“I guess you just have worse eyesight.”
“There’s no need to snap at me.”
“I’m not snapping.”
Rob shrugged it off. They were tired, and people got snippy when they were tired. Not to mention hungry.
He was more concerned about what it meant that the lake house had apparently burned to the ground.
They got closer now, close enough to feel some of the heat coming off the fire.
It was definitely the lake house they were looking at. Or its remains. The house had been completely consumed by fire, and the remains of the walls and ceiling had collapsed inwards. What was left was just a smoldering pile of wood, with flames lapping at the edges.
The smell was horrible, as if something unnatural had been burned, almost like plastic, but not quite.
“This isn’t good,” said Rob.
“Understatement of the year.”
“Do you think they’re...”
“Dead? Why not just come out and say it?”
Rob didn’t answer. Instead, he moved closer to the burning house, using his elbow to partially cover his face, trying to protect himself a little from the smoke.
Jessica was at his side.
“If there’s anyone in there, there’s no saving them.”
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Why? Do you?”
Not knowing what to do, not knowing what had happened to the others, and knowing that there was no way they could salvage anything useful from the house, they retreated back to a clump of trees.
They huddled up, getting close to the trunk. They sat back-to-back, but even so, they were shivering in the cool air. Rob could feel Jessica’s back as she shivered, and it unnerved him. It was hard to viscerally feel that she was cold, and it was hard to know that Jessica, who always seemed to have everything together, who always seemed to know what to do, was at just as much of a loss as he was.
Sitting there in the dark, Rob felt hopeless. The idea was to keep an eye out. If the others had lived, they’d hopefully return to the house hoping to meet up with Rob and Jessica.
“You think they died?” came Jessica’s voice in the darkness. It sounded hollow and scared.
“No,” said Rob. “Come on. There’s no way. We don’t know what caused the fire, but whatever it was, they would have had time to leave the house, right? It’s not exactly big. It’s definitely no mansion.”
“Yeah,” said Jessica. “But if that was the case, wouldn’t they have just put out the fire?”
“Uh, I guess. Maybe they couldn’t, though?”
“Come on. If it was a candle or something, they could put it out. Hit it with a rug, pour some water on it, whatever it takes.”
“Then what do you think happened?”
“Some kind of fight.”
“A fight?”
“You know, a home invasion. Something like that. They swoop in, kill everyone, and burn the house down.”
The thought gave Rob those chills again. Chills of fear. After all, it was a real possibility.
He might never see Jim or Aly again.
The two of them fell into silence, and, gradually, the night wore on. The hours passed, and nothing happened. No one showed up. There were no noises, other than the noises of animals. No cars drove by, and no lights shone.
They remained almost in the same position until morning.
Jessica had fallen asleep, and Rob had felt like it was his duty to stay awake and keep watch. She’d been kidnapped after all. And possibility tortured. She hadn’t told him what had happened to her, and he hadn’t asked.
Rob had been running through the options in his head.
Meanwhile, he’d been observing the fire, watching as it slowly died, leaving glowing embers mixed into the rubble of the house.
He realized that once the sun came up, there’d be no choice but to start searching through the rubble for the remains of his friends. Bones would certainly remain, and possibly more. Rob didn’t really know, but he knew there’d be something.
Of course, if they did find human remains, what did that mean? They’d be hard-pressed, most likely, to identify those remains.
But it would give them something. Some information.
And if they found no one? No remains? Well, that’d be good. They’d have to wait around by the lake for a few days, to see if Jim and the others reappeared. And if not? Or if they found the remains of three people in the house?
Then it meant Rob and Jessica were on their own.
It was a possibility that Rob didn’t want to admit to, but he knew that he had to. He very well might have to face it.
It was a terrifying prospect. He’d always known that he relied on Jim, but he’d never quite realized just how much. Even before the EMP, Jim had always been there for him. To give support. Or simply doing nothing more than drinking a cup of coffee silently with him when things weren’t going well for either of them.
“Jessica,” whispered Rob, poking Jessica as gently as he could with his elbow. “Come on. The
sun’s out.”
Saying that the sun was out was a bit of an exaggeration. It was upstate New York, after all, and the sky was heavy with the usual clouds.
“What’s happening?” mumbled Jessica. “Where’s the coffee?”
She clearly didn’t know where she was, and it would have been funny if she wasn’t about to realize what had happened to the world, and that not only did she not have any coffee waiting for her, there wasn’t much food either.
“Come on, Jessica. Let me help you up.”
He took her hands and pulled her to her feet. She turned sleepily and saw the house, and Rob could see on her face that it was all coming back to her.
“Shit,” she muttered.
“My thoughts exactly.”
Rob explained what he’d thought about all night, and she agreed, for the most part, with his plan.
They didn’t bother with breakfast, except to drink some water from the lake. They didn’t have bottles, so they just cupped their hands together and drank water from them.
“I hope this is clean,” said Rob.
“Clean as we’re going to get now.”
And it was true.
Next, they checked the house.
Overnight, what had been left of the flames had died down. The house was gone. Completely. It was just a pile of smoking rubble, all blackened.
Everything was still hot to the touch, but they were able to walk over the rubble. Of course, they had to be careful.
“Let’s hope we don’t find any bodies,” Rob was mumbling, more to himself than to Jessica.
Just as he said it, he spotted a body. It was in the corner of the house.
He’d tried to mentally prepare himself for the sight during the night, but what he’d imagined in his head was very different from what he saw now. He’d imagined some charred bones, maybe a skull. Something out of some scary movie, almost cartoonish in nature.
But what he saw shocked him.
It wasn’t a skeleton.
Instead, it looked more like a bloated doll, some grotesque representation of the human form. And it was all completely blackened, the way a marshmallow gets when you hold it too long over the flame.
Rob stood there, frozen, staring at it. In all likelihood, it was one of his friends.
Final Panic: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (Surviving Book 2) Page 13
