The First Hours Read online

  “Why should I? You said it was going to be a dog eat dog world now and now you’re going to let this…” she looked Teagan up and down, “little girl tell me what to do? No way!” She pushed on the forward pedal again. “Move!”

  Chapter Twelve

  As he drove off the ramp onto Highway 34, he stared at the burned-out shell of a gas station. He couldn’t imagine what had happened. Like the plane crashing, it was unexplained. He didn’t have time to stop and offer aid or investigate he needed to find Teagan.

  Carrie leaned forward, staring under the overpass, “Oh my God! Are those bodies? Dead people?” She leaned forward to see better, as Tom made the turn, “Tom, I think those people are dead.”

  Tom managed a quick glance, “Or they’re sleeping.” Tom’s tone said he didn’t think they were asleep. His tone said he didn’t have the time or the inclination to find out. Every interruption only cost him precious time.

  Once away from the freeway, they passed a few stalled cars. Tom only gave them enough attention to assure himself they were abandoned. Along the roadway, he saw small farms and homes but none that looked occupied. He was sure there were people in them, but without power, it was hard to tell. He didn’t have time to check them out. He thought about stopping when he passed one that had an array of antennas on the roof. Tom wasn’t an authority on radio antennas, but he was sure that whoever lived there had one for short wave. He thought about his neighbors but couldn’t remember seeing anything to indicate short wave. But maybe someone had a base station they could reach out with. Knowing what was going on away from their area could be beneficial, especially if they were forced into leaving. The destination Tom had in mind if it became necessary sat on top of a hill, and he was sure communication with the outside world would be a benefit to them all.

  “There it is,” Nancy crowed from the back seat. Her finger flew forward, pointing to a white BMW sitting on the edge of the roadway. “That’s Deena’s car.”

  “Some ride,” Carrie said.

  “She got it for her birthday or graduation. I don’t remember, but that’s it. See the Tiger window sticker?”

  Tom pulled in behind the car and set the parking brake and the transmission in neutral. He wasn’t about to shut the motor off just in case. He got out and walked around the other car. The door was unlocked, but he couldn’t tell anything from the interior. It still had the new car smell, and Tom wondered who bought their child a BMW for their first car. In spite of Teagan going behind his back to attend the senior weekend, he wished he’d handled it differently, and she’d driven her own car.

  “And who knows where she’d be right now,” he said under his breath.

  Tom walked around the car and noticed that while the trunk lid was down, it wasn’t latched. He lifted it. A suitcase he knew lay unzipped with the contents hanging out between the zipper. He lifted the top. He recognized Teagan’s clothes and frowned. Nothing looked like the type of apparel he would have expected a young girl to take for a beach getaway. She had sweatshirts, jeans, and heavy boot socks. There were no shorts or bathing suits and no dressier clothing at all.

  “It doesn’t look like Teagan planned on spending much time on the beach, does it?”

  “No. No, it doesn’t, which leads me to believe something else was going on.” Tom turned to where Nancy leaned against the fender, “I bet Nancy knows more than she’s saying.”

  “Well, you better let me handle it then. The mood you’re in, you’re liable to alienate her. This needs finesse which you are sorely lacking.”

  Tom’s mouth hung open as Carrie left his side and walked to Nancy. What was she getting at? He knew how to use diplomacy when questioning people. He believed in the forward approach is all. No beating around the bush, no leading up to the question, just plain and simple worked every time. He didn’t understand why Carrie said that. “Finesse,” he snorted.

  Just the same, he let Carrie talk to Nancy, and he could see by the way Nancy’s shoulders dropped that she hadn’t told the truth. He didn’t think Nancy would blatantly lie to them, but maybe she hadn’t disclosed everything she knew. In Tom’s book omitting important facts was as good as an outright lie. He was pretty sure Carrie wouldn’t see it the same way, but the omission was the same thing. Tom understood that Nancy was trying to protect her friend, but loyalty could only go so far. If she had put Teagan’s life in jeopardy by not telling them everything, he would have to rethink her staying with them. As soon as Tom thought it, he threw the idea out. He could no more turn Nancy away than kick Teagan out. He’d known Nancy almost her whole life, and for a while, she was as close to him as Teagan and then she’d started having problems at home and Tom, after witnessing what happened the day before realized her life couldn’t have been as happy as she’d always let on.

  “Teagan had no plans to do any partying in Newport. I knew something wasn’t right when Nancy said where Teagan had gone. That girl would no more drink and party than I would.”

  Tom interrupted, “Then why go at all? That’s exactly why I thought I’d talked her out of her foolish idea of going. You know what happens when a bunch of kids gets together without proper supervision.” Tom frowned, “Then why exactly did she go? It’s obvious she had something in mind.”

  “She went to do something you put your foot down about years ago. I told you a long time ago that girl had a love for horses, and I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m going to tell you something that I should have confessed long ago when Teagan first brought it up. She was going to learn to ride. Apparently, there’s a lady outside of Newport who is a friend of the veterinarian in town, and she offered to teach Teagan to ride. Tom, Teagan had every intention of becoming a veterinarian.”

  Tom stepped back in surprise, “What? Why didn’t she say anything? Why didn’t I know that?”

  “Because you don’t listen. You only hear what you want to hear.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Of course, I hear her.” He thought she was going to college to be a… Tom realized that he didn’t know. He wracked his brain and came up with nothing. When she was young, Teagan talked about being a vet and was always doctoring her horse toys. He remembered her ‘my little ponies’ always decked out in bandages of some kind, but like all children, she outgrew it. She’d asked for riding lessons too, but Tom felt they were too dangerous and had put them off until she finally quit asking.

  “Apparently, you didn’t listen hard enough. She got a scholarship you know,” Carrie told him, her tone told him she knew he hadn’t known.

  “I’m sorry. I know I should have said something, but Teagan is my best friend, and I just couldn’t tell on her,” Nancy told them.

  Carrie put her arm around Nancy’s shoulder and squeezed, “It’s okay. We’ll get this figured out. Tom, if they broke down this close to the freeway, wouldn’t it be Teagan’s natural response to turn around and go home? She’s a smart girl, and even if they waited around for help to come, it would still be closer for them to go home.”

  “Maybe.” He turned and looked around. With the curved road in both directions, he couldn’t see much, but he did remember passing a few houses. “I’m going on the premise that they did, because Teagan is smart, and I’ve always preached to head for home if something bad happens. If this doesn’t qualify as something bad, I don’t know what does.”

  “We used to play apocalypse when we were little. She always had a plan for us…but it was always about how to kill zombies,” Nancy laughed, “I guess this isn’t quite the same thing, but we always had to make our way home through the hordes of the walking undead, so I bet she went home.”

  Tom went to Deena’s car and zipped up the suitcase he knew was Teagan’s and pulled it out. He was going to leave the other two behind when he realized that Deena would probably be with Teagan and she might need the things in her bags too.

  With the bags stowed in the trunk, and the women buckled in, Tom turned the car around. He pulled into the first driveway the
y came to.

  “I’ll be right back. Lock the doors and if something goes wrong, get out of here,” he said and climbed out pushing the door shut behind him.

  “What could go wrong?” Nancy asked, turning to watch Tom. “Probably half these people out here don’t even know what’s going on.”

  “Probably true, but some of us old people aren’t very trusting when it comes to people we don’t know, knocking on the door just before dark,” Carrie told her with a laugh.

  “You’re not old! Neither is Mr. Cooper.” Nancy sounded indignant that Carrie would call herself and Tom old. They weren’t old compared to the way she remembered her grandparents, but she didn’t remember them well, but they both had gray hair and lots of lines on their faces. Surely, they weren’t as old as her own mother. She had dirty gray hair and as many lines as she remembered her grandparents having, and she was always tired. She even walked old.

  Nancy couldn’t help but wonder how much her stepfather had contributed to her mother’s aging. He was a hard man, and he was evil. He had never treated Nancy like a daughter, and she and Teagan speculated as to the why. Now, she had her answer. How had she not known sooner? Why had it been such a big secret? It would have explained so much over the years, so many times she had felt ignored and mentally abused. It saddened Nancy to think her mother had never stood up and defended her, but maybe she’d been suppressed as much as Nancy had been, but it didn’t explain why her mother had stayed married to him.

  “Nothing,” Tom told them, climbing into the car. “They didn’t see the girls and didn’t know why the power was out. The missus and two young kids are waiting for her husband to come home from work, and she is worried that he hasn’t returned. He should have been here last night. I tried to explain what I thought was going on, but she refused to listen.” Tom shook his head as he put the transmission in gear, “Silly woman. There’s nothing more I can do here.”

  Carrie sighed, “I wish…”

  “Don’t,” Tom cut her off. “We have to keep our priorities straight. Once we have Teagan and our own safety is taken care of, then we can worry about helping other people.”

  “What if they didn’t come back this way? What if they went to the coast?”

  Tom met Nancy’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He knew she could be right, but with where the car stopped where it was and the distance both directions, he felt sure Teagan would have tried to go home. She’d read enough to know, but would she understand the significance of what happened? He had to go with his gut and pray she had turned around. The question that bothered him was, which route would she deem the most logical. She had to circumnavigate three cities and on foot. He didn’t know what supplies the girls had packed if any or if they had some way to defend themselves.

  If they stuck to the main interstate, the stranded population alone could be their downfall. The saving grace was that this was only the second day. Barely the first hours of a long grueling recovery if there was to be one and likely most people hadn’t figured out what was going on yet, but they would, and it would be too late for many. Tom was determined to not be in that category.

  The next two houses proved fruitless having seen or heard nothing of the girls and like the first house, clueless. The older couple in the last house, seemed to be better prepared for a disaster. When Tom told them what he thought happened, the gentleman assured Tom they could not only take care of themselves food-wise but could defend themselves as well. Through the archway, Tom saw an older type gun case, and through the glass front, he saw rifles hanging one over the other. The determination and confidence in the old man’s face reassured Tom that he could indeed look after himself and his wife. Tom thought he would be a formidable opponent to anyone who would want to take from him.

  Tom sank into the car seat and pulled the door shut. With each house, they stopped at Tom’s spirits began to sink a little lower. He was really beginning to hope that Nancy was wrong about them, possibly continuing toward the coast. Tom needed to believe that Teagan would have turned around and headed for home. He hadn’t figured out what he would do if they made the journey home without finding her, but he knew it involved starting over again and this time using an alternative route and continuing on to Newport. First, he needed to complete this trip. He had a gut feeling they had somehow missed her along the way, and with help, she could already be at the house worried about him not being there. He knew she would check the station and possibly Carries house and maybe even stop at Nancy’s which in Tom’s mind could possibly be the best ending. She would know that Nancy would probably have confessed Teagan’s whereabouts to him and somehow find out that Nancy was with them.

  “Nothing?” Carrie asked. Carrie didn’t know why she even asked, and maybe it was just to say something. Since the first house, few words had been exchanged, and Carrie thought he was losing all hope of finding her. It wasn’t a feeling Carrie shared, but she also knew that nothing she could say would pick Tom’s spirits up until he found her. All her words would do was remind him they hadn’t found her yet. She wished she hadn’t asked anything.

  “No…but it isn’t hard to believe that Teagan wouldn’t knock on doors. When her phone didn’t work, and I’m assuming that the other girls didn’t either, she would know what caused both phones and the car to fail. If I know her, she would have wanted to avoid all contact.”

  “True, but it would be nice to know if someone at least saw them.”

  “We’ll try one more house and head for home. The worst-case scenario is I’ll leave you and Nancy at the house and come back alone.”

  “Not going to happen,” Nancy muttered from the back seat.

  “I don’t think so,” Carrie told him. “We all go, or none of us does. You said yourself it wasn’t going to be safe going anywhere alone.”

  Tom groaned, “please don’t throw my words back in my face. I know what I said, and I’ll give her another day, but if she doesn’t show up, I have to do something. I’m not going to give up on finding her.”

  “Nobody is asking you to. I’m just saying we need to stay together. You can’t look and drive at the same time and still watch your back. That’s where we come in.”

  Tom pulled into the next driveway. As if he hated to get another person telling him they hadn’t seen the girls, Tom sat with his arms resting on the steering wheel. With a sigh, he looked at Carrie, “This is the last one. I’d like to ask for luck, but somehow that doesn’t seem enough, and I don’t want to jinx myself.”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Carried nodded at the house, “We’ll wait here.”

  He wrinkled his eyebrows as if to say, “Why should it be any different this time.” Tom left the car and stopped when a man came out on to the porch. Tom raised his hand in greeting and felt relief flow through him when the man returned the gesture. The guy's hand moved away from the visible holster at his waist. While he didn’t move it completely away, it did relax. A tentative smile crossed the man’s face, and Tom relaxed as well.

  “I’m only looking for information,” Tom told him.

  “Don’t know that I have any but ask away,” he returned. The man’s wife came out to stand beside him.

  The man held his arm out to stop her, and Tom could see there was little trust for visitors. At least visitors who drove in unannounced. Tom didn’t blame him at all.

  “My daughter and her friend were on this road yesterday. Their car is about twenty miles back toward the coast. I’m hoping they may have stopped along the road somewhere.”

  The woman leaned in and said something to the man. He nodded, “The wife thinks she may have seen them. Little redhead and a blonde girl came off the road but didn’t knock. Rita stayed hidden because we don’t usually have people stop in, we don’t know. With the power going off and all she was a little spooked.”

  “Can’t say I blame her. What time was this?”

  “I was in the garden pulling weeds, so it was probably middle to late afternoon. Without c
ar traffic, the sound of them arguing was as plain as day. I saw them when they came into the yard. I waited to see what they would do, but I didn’t make myself known. I’m sorry. Maybe I should have said something, but you just never know with young people nowadays. I saw the one try the door, but she didn’t go in and then they left.”

  Tom felt a huge sense of relief. He was right. Teagan was going home. To be sure, he asked, “Did you notice which direction they went?” He knew but needed the reaffirmation. They would have no reason to go back the way they’d come from.

  She pointed toward the highway, “they went east.”

  Tom sighed. This was the news he needed to hear. He turned to go to his car when the man stopped him.

  “You know what’s going on, don’t you?” He didn’t wait for Tom to answer him, “Some asshole lobbed a nuke at us. I just hope we had enough time to get a few off ourselves.”

  Tom turned, “Why would you think it was a nuclear attack?” Tom had considered it but thought a solar flare was more likely. There were policies in place to take out any threats from a pending nuclear attack. It wasn’t like anyone could fire missiles at the United States without repercussions or interventions. He thought the theory was to shoot them down before they reached land, but even Teagan knew more about the procedure than he did, and that was why he believed she would go home. The thought foremost in his mind was, what if they did intercept and incoming nuclear device and it exploded over land instead of over the ocean. Wouldn’t there be the danger of radiation fallout if that was the case? So many questions and no answers and right then, no way to find the answers.

  “What else could it be. The plant went down just before eleven yesterday. The computers, the lights…shut down as if someone flipped a switch. Hell, we couldn’t even move the engine away from the loading docks.”

  “The engine?”