by Connor Mccoy
Brandon and Jubilee seemed to understand the logic. Still, Jacob wanted a little time alone with his wife. So, he asked of his children, “Hey, think you two could take over the unloading for a bit? I need some adult time with the missus.”
Brandon broke out in a wolfish smile. Jubilee, climbing up the tailgate, scowled. “He’s talking about emotional time, not…ugh!”
Jacob tried not to laugh as he walked away, holding Domino by her shoulder. His wife did not walk very fast, seeming to resist him.
“I’m okay, Jay,” she said.
“You sure?” Jacob asked quietly, not wanting his voice to travel too far. “If there’s anything you want to talk about, anything at all…”
“It is what it is, Jay!” Domino broke from his hold. “Yeah, I’m pissed at Cowell and Sykes. Thinking about those two makes my blood boil.” She lowered her head. “And I’m a little worried about what those two might be up to. Cowell never exactly thought much of us and how we raised our family. What if he’s turned back into what he was?”
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked.” Turned back into what?”
“He was…” Domino shook her right fist. “You know, cooperative, a little understanding of what was going on. He knew he couldn’t go back to his old life. But that’s partly why he bailed on us. But what if Sykes has given him power, you know, like Doctor Nguyen’s brother? Maybe guns or people to control? Jay, this world is bringing out the worst in a lot of people. You don’t think it could have happened to Cowell too?”
“You’re worried that Cowell, if he ran into us, might be a threat?” Jacob checked over Domino’s shoulder to make sure their children still were working and did not appear to be listening in.
“I know it’s over the top. Cowell wasn’t prepared for all this, and odds are he’s hunkering down in Fall Crossing.” Domino massaged her shoulders. “But it’s hard not to think of the worst.”
“It’s okay. It’s actually a good idea to keep those parades of horribles in mind.” Jacob smiled a little to ease his wife’s concerns. “I don’t think we’ll be butting heads with Cowell again, but you never know. I think the best thing to do is to get home in one piece and plan for the future. If Cowell returns, we’ll deal with him. Same with Sykes.”
Domino smiled along with him. “You’re right.”
Jacob slammed shut his truck’s driver side door for what he figured was the last time. The truck had been stripped of just about all the supplies, plus their insurance documents and anything else that could link back to their home. With the recent appearance of the Corbin Transportation Lines truck, Jacob felt increasingly glad that they had removed their personal information from the vehicle.
With his pack on his back, Jacob hiked toward his family. They began gathering their packs as soon as he approached. Each of them had been assigned a portion of the truck’s supplies.
“You know what would be great?” Brandon asked as he picked up a bag of supplies. “After we go, all these cars and trucks could turn into Transformers and fly away. They just used the EMP as cover so they could go back to their home planet of Cybertron.”
Looking at the field of scattered, motionless automobiles, Jacob thought Brandon’s reference to the Transformers franchise almost sounded plausible. It did seem a little absurd that their modern tech simply could be shut off at the drop of a hat. Who was to say their cars and trucks weren’t actually alien robots?
Jacob chuckled. Maybe life isn’t going to be that fantastic. His son had the luxury of fanciful daydreams. As the father, he had to keep his mind on the world as it was. He turned to lead his family back into the wilderness, away from the road and the vehicles.
Even so, Jacob indulged in a short daydream of his truck, now all alone in the grass, suddenly morphing from a four-wheel pickup into a tall, humanoid robot. The machine saluted the Averys as they marched off into the forest.
Jacob glanced at the sky again. That last bundle of clouds still was moving off. His fears of rain dwindled. They should have a full day’s journey, uninterrupted by nature.
Well, at least nature as far as the air was concerned. Jubilee had to use the bathroom, but out in this wilderness no toilets were available. Fortunately, they already were approaching a cluster of trees, so it was simple for Jubilee to disappear behind them to do her business.
Doms was able to teach her that. Jacob smiled at his wife, who was chatting with Jubilee as they left the trees. Domino imparted the sensitive lessons to Jubilee about the outdoors that only a woman could teach a young girl.
We’ve held it together so far. It’s truly amazing.
His thoughts, however, drifted to a member of his family who wasn’t there. His father had disappeared into the streets years ago, and his mother had passed away. He never knew of any cousins, aunts or uncles he might have had, as his father never mentioned any siblings and his mother was an only child. So, his family actually felt complete, except for one person.
His older sister Sheryl lived in the city of Chantilly, which was in the orbit of Virginia’s D.C. metro area. After Jubilee was hit with that arrow, Jacob decided to take her to the hospital where his sister worked. It was the first place he could think of, and his truck would have made it there with no problem. He certainly didn’t anticipate being stranded between his home and his sister and the ensuing adventure to follow.
His throat tightened. Sheryl was caught up in whatever madness had erupted in her home area. There were hundreds of thousands of people just in her immediate vicinity who likely didn’t know what had happened. And when it became clear that help wasn’t coming—if it wasn’t obvious already—they would go mad, looking for food and supplies to sustain themselves.
I gave you that warning, Sheryl. If you see everything going to hell, get out of there.
“Jay!” Domino called, “Look!”
Domino’s voice pulled Jacob out of his thoughts. His wife was pointing to a deer off in the distance. The animal just now was raising his head from the grass and didn’t appear to notice them. She and the children had slowed to a near stop to observe the creature.
Jacob joined his family. The four of them took time out to watch the deer. It helped to calm Jacob’s anxiety and put him back in the here and now, though he noted, with some sadness, that he might not see his sister again.
Jacob could not be happier that the whole day had gone without incident. Their journey through the wilderness had yielded only a few opportunities to observe nature, gazing at small silvery fish in a stream, looking at a random deer, or finding a beaver’s dam on a small river. The only hazard thus far was avoiding random animal excrement.
However, the angle of the sun started to dip. Jacob knew they would not make it home before the sun set, though they were closing in. Jacob decided to make camp rather than trek through the night. Their spirits were high, but their bodies still were exhausted. They had been walking for hours since they had stopped for lunch.
Soon Jacob found a patch of ground in the shadow of a large oak tree. “What do you think?” he asked his family. “Looks like a fine place to rest for the night.”
“Perfect,” Brandon said. “Now I get to go pee.”
“Sweetie, if you had to go, we would have stopped,” Domino said with a laugh.
After putting his bag and backpack on the dirt, Brandon broke for the trees. “Hey, don’t pee in any stream we have to drink from!” Jubilee cried as he disappeared behind a tree. Once he was gone, Jubilee added, “I think he’d do that and not tell me.”
As Brandon did his business, Jacob paced around in the shadow of the tree. No doubt about it. They should sleep well here tonight.
He thought of his wife teaching his daughter how to handle her bathroom needs outdoors. Maybe it was time he gauged how well he had taught his daughter other things.
Jacob stood back, nearly bumping into the bark of the oak tree. “It’s all yours, Jubilee.”
Jubilee began by peeling bark from a paper birch and a tulip pop
lar. She shredded it down into a fine tinder bundle, which she added to a group of dry grass she had gathered from their surroundings.
From there, she whipped out a steel object from her pack that fit over her knuckles. Next, she pulled out a tiny piece of dark cloth and a pinch of flint. She laid the cloth over the flint. Domino and Brandon’s eyes widened a little. They knew what was coming next.
Jubilee struck the combo of the flint and cloth with her steel. A single spark jumped onto the cloth and produced an ember at the center of the tinder. Jubilee then blew on the ember.
The fire leaped to life. A few more breaths from Jubilee increased its flame. She stood back, satisfied. Jacob, Domino and Brandon clapped.
That’s my girl, Jacob thought. He had built many fires, but he felt greater satisfaction in watching his daughter it than during any of his previous experiences lighting a campfire.
Jacob’s eyes fell on his pack. Well, there was one thing he was itching to do. He waited just a little longer so he wouldn’t steal the glory from Jubilee. He decided to linger until Domino and Brandon started unpacking their dinner.
“I have the perfect addition to our dinner fire.” Jacob searched his pack until he found what he was looking for. “My IRS 1040 tax booklet!” Jacob flipped through the pages. “Odds are, we’ll never get one of these in our lives again. So, it’s only fitting we give it the fiery burial it deserves.”
Domino laughed. “Where did you find that?”
“Under the mat in the back. I must have been in one hell of a hurry.” Jacob flipped to the middle of the booklet and tore out a page. “Now, I’m not going to burn it all at once, because the pages might snuff out the flame. It’s a pity, but we’re going to have to burn this sucker piece by piece.” Jacob kept a big smile to belie his professed pity.
He tossed a page onto the flame. The fire quickly turned the white page to black, the smooth surface crumpling up as it sank into the flames. Domino clapped and cheered, with the two kids joining in.
Jacob sat on the ground as Domino hoisted the cooking pot atop the small cooking grill. The fire soon would heat up the roasted chicken inside and treat the family to a hot meal.
The scene was so peaceful and cheerful that Jacob was amazed to think how dangerous things had been just a few days ago. They had been dodging the bullets of madmen on Doc Sam’s property. Now they were enjoying dinner cooked by a campfire.
A rustling in the bushes interrupted his thoughts. He spun around, eyeing a gap in two small trees. A shadow retreated from the bushes—a human one.
Domino stood up. “Jay!”
“I saw him!” Jacob charged toward the gap. “Watch the kids!”
If that was a person, Jacob had to confront him, figure out what he wanted. He couldn’t risk the stranger returning in the night while they slept. If he was a son of a bitch looking for trouble, Jacob was determined to make sure the man knew he had messed with the wrong family.
Upon breaching the gap, he spotted his prey. The mystery man was running, or actually hobbling, back through the woods.
“Hey!” Jacob shouted. “Stop right there!”
His shout seemed to startle the intruder, who promptly tripped and fell down. As Jacob closed in, the person cried out in a feminine voice, “Please don’t hurt me! Please! I just smelled the food and I’m very hungry!”
Their visitor was a woman. In fact, her voice sounded very familiar to Jacob’s ears. He slowed down, taking a moment to look at her form. She was face down in the dirt. He reached out for her arm and took it.
“No! Don’t touch me!” she cried.
“Easy, easy. I’m not going to hurt you,” Jacob said.
She felt limp. She didn’t have a lot of strength, which only intensified Jacob’s suspicions. As he turned her over to expose her face to the moonlight, his eyes widened in horror.
He could not deny he was looking at the face of his sister—Sheryl Avery.
Chapter Five
“Sheryl!” Jacob softened his grip. “Sheryl, my God!”
Sheryl’s eyes blinked rapidly. “Jacob?”
She acted as if she couldn’t recognize him. She wasn’t used to the dark of night. Jacob had spent a lot of time outdoors at night, so he understood how to focus in and draw in details in places with sparse light. Sheryl’s only experience with the night was in cities or suburbs with surrounding street lights. She was not used to the woods, illuminated only by the Moon and the stars.
“Sheryl, it’s me! Jacob! Are you alright? What the hell happened?”
Jacob knelt down to try assessing her physical state, but it was hard to see her in any great detail under these trees.
“Jacob?” Sheryl’s voice cracked. “Is that really you?”
Jacob took his sister’s right hand and ran it up the side of his face. “In the flesh, Sherry.” He hadn’t used that nickname on her since high school. He hoped it broke through.
Sheryl broke out in a sob, which cracked quickly with a spate of coughing. Jacob sat there with her.
“Jay?” Domino cried out, “What’s going on?”
“It’s alright!” Jacob shouted back. “It’s Sheryl!”
“Your sister?” Domino hurried over to them with Brandon and Jubilee right behind. “Sheryl, it is you!” Domino knelt down next to her.
“Aunt Sheryl!” Jubilee almost knocked into her mother while trying to squat down beside Sheryl.
Sheryl glanced at them haggardly, barely able to focus. “Domino…babies…” She coughed.
“We should get her to camp.” Jacob turned to each member of his family as he spoke. “She’s probably malnourished.” Turning back to Sheryl, Jacob said to her, “We’ve got supplies. We’ll help you. I just…”
Jacob pulled Sheryl close to him and hugged her. Sheryl sobbed a little more as her brother held her.
Domino lifted the cup from Sheryl’s lips. “We’ll get you some more,” she said as she passed it to Jubilee.
Sheryl nodded once. She sat against the bark of the oak tree, her legs outstretched across the dirt. The light of the campfire allowed Jacob to get a look at his sister’s condition. He tried hiding his pain. Sheryl had been through a lot.
Sheryl Marie Avery was the first strong woman Jacob ever had known, strong in that she could melt life itself with her gaze. She knew what she wanted to do with her life and went with it, putting herself through college and then going into the medical profession. She also knew how life was to be lived. She was a woman of strong conviction. She hated the urban life she and her brother lived growing up.
However, she believed she could make a life in the city work for her. It was just a matter of not running with the wrong crowd. Jacob, however, wanted to get away from city life entirely. It was one thing they did not see eye to eye on. Unfortunately, that disagreement pushed a big enough wedge between them that they only saw each other occasionally. Ironically, they would have run into each other soon enough because Jacob was taking Jubilee to the hospital where Sheryl worked. It was the EMP that delayed their reunion.
Looking at her, Jacob was aghast. Her brown polyester pants were torn and caked with dirt and mud. Her light blue shirt, less dirty but still marred with soil, clung to her chest due to her sweat.
Additionally, Jacob always remembered Sheryl’s hair for its vibrancy. She was a natural redhead and always wore her hair with a slight curl across her shoulders. Now her hair looked very limp, with little streaks of dirt down her strands.
Brandon passed a plate of freshly cooked chicken to Jacob. “Alright. I’m sure you’ve probably been dreaming of something like this.” He handed it to Sheryl. “Now, don’t wolf this down. I know you’re starving. Just ease into it, take a few bites. Let your system get used to taking in food again.”
“How long have you been out here?” Domino asked.
“Let’s try to get her strength back,” Jacob quickly said. “We’re ready to hear Sheryl’s story whenever she wants to tell it.”
Sheryl said, almost
in a whisper, “Thanks.” From there, she started taking small bites.
Jacob watched her green eyes. The strength was returning to them. Her eyes were at ease. She no longer was frightened.
He looked at Sheryl gazing at Domino for a moment. Sheryl never had been fond of Domino, not from the start, when Domino had started going out with him, and not since. Sheryl had not liked the family Domino came from. Even when Domino had left her family and wanted to join Jacob out near the Blue Ridge Mountains, it did nothing for Sheryl.
Sheryl wiped her mouth. She was moving more. Perhaps she would talk about her experiences soon.
But how did she get out here? It seemed like such a coincidence to run into his own sister in the woods like this.
Finally, when he was convinced his sister might speak, Jacob spoke up. “We were on our way to see you when everything shut down.”
“I know. Domino texted me,” Sheryl said.
“What happened? You obviously got out of town, thank God,” Jacob said. “But how’d you make it out here?”
Sheryl stabbed a piece of remaining chicken. “I don’t even know myself. I can’t believe I’m actually alive and that I found you.” She chewed on her morsel bitterly, only speaking when she was starting to swallow. “I was on my break when everything went out. I tried using my phone, didn’t get anywhere. I looked outside and saw cars everywhere just crashed into each other. I didn’t know what was going on.”
“The EMP,” Domino said.
“Yeah. I heard some people saying that.” Sheryl stabbed her fork again. “I went back to the hospital. I thought I should stay, try helping people who I knew were coming in from accidents or whatever. And then all of a sudden, Doctor Rhodes, he’s my superior, he came running up to us with bugged-out eyes and covered in sweat. He just kept telling us to run. “Run, run run!”
