The First Hours Page 8

  “They aren’t that close. It just looks like it because there is no surrounding light to detract from them. If you point the lights at the ground. We’re going to need them over here,” Tom told her. He had moved inside the rock foundation and was tapping the dirt with the shovel blade looking for the softer sand. This was something he knew he should have done much sooner, regretting the delay. With the current politics, the division in the populace, the constant arguing on social media, Tom felt that something was going to happen. While he had told the women, it could be a CME, his gut told him it was much worse. The upheaval in the middle east, North Korea resuming their testing of long-range missiles and the subtle threats from Russia, Tom thought their circumstances could be the product from any one of them. Someone wanted their country on its knees, and well-planned nuclear detonations in the atmosphere could very well be the cause.

  Satisfied with his area of choice, Tom began to carefully peel off the surface grass and set it aside. Once he had cleared a six-foot rectangle, he began to dig in earnest. The monotonous dip, then push the blade in with his foot and toss the dirt behind him gave him the chance to put their situation in perspective. With his preparations, such as they were, hidden, he could leave knowing that when they got back with Teagan, he would be able to survive along with his growing family. When he had ordered his first tubs of survival food, Teagan had teased him about her using it to eat from long after he was dead and buried seeing as it had a 25-year shelf life. He had assured her that he would still be around in 25 years. “How old do you think I’ll be in 25 years?”

  “Really old,” she’d replied, laughing.

  “63! Which is not so old.”

  “Like I said, really old.”

  Tom had quit telling her when every payday he had ordered another three-month supply. Once he had enough of the staples, he began ordering the Entrees only baskets. He’d taste-tested the products, and while some were saltier than he would have liked, they weren’t that bad. Others were lacking in flavor, but they were packed with calories he knew they would need. If their lives changed at some point in time, the added calories would be needed to work as hard as he thought they would have to, to survive.

  “Tom? I think someone is on the road. I keep seeing a bobbing light like someone is walking.”

  Tom looked up from the waist-deep hole. He couldn’t see the roadway from his place in the hole with the added height of dirt surrounding him. “Carrie, keep your light directed down here and don’t give them a point of reference. Nancy, turn yours off, please. I’m almost finished. Just another foot or so,” he grunted and threw another shovel full up and over the top of the pile of dirt.

  His “almost finished” had come and gone. He had surpassed his “just another foot or so,” two feet ago. The bobbing light had bypassed Tom’s house, and Carrie thought it must have been someone from further up the road, making their way home. Nancy had grown bored and was curled up in the grass, sound asleep. “Are you ready to tell us why you’re digging? I figure you have something to bury, but unless you’re planning on a mass grave for all of us, the hole looks pretty big.” Carrie wished Tom would explain himself, because the thoughts going through her head didn’t bode well for someone. Why else would he need to dig a hole big enough to bury a dozen bodies? Her hands and feet had become cold and numb from standing in one spot, shinning the light down into the hole. Sweat ran down Tom’s face, and he’d shed his jacket hours earlier.

  “How are you going to get out of there?”

  Tom looked up at her his expression puzzled as he noticed how far down, he’d dug. Obviously, he hadn’t thought of how. Wiping the sweat from his eyes, Tom spread dirt from his hands across his face. Tom hadn’t noticed how far down he went. The earth had been easy to remove with only a few rocks of any size. At one point the digging had been easy enough, he’d wondered if the previous occupants of the house had once dug up the same dirt.

  The edge of the hole was just under shoulder height, and he chuckled softly. “I guess I never thought this through well enough. I should have brought the ladder. Do you think you can pull me up?”

  “I can try,” Carrie told him and set the flashlight on the ground pointing the beam across the hole, blinding Tom. “Sorry,” she told him, moved it out of his eyes and knelt down, knocking dirt back into the hole and over Tom.

  The futility of her trying to pull Tom from the pit became apparent as soon as the dirt began to collapse. “Where’s the ladder? I’ll go and get it because this isn’t going to work.”

  Carrie was right. She wasn’t strong enough to lift his weight, and he didn’t want to undo his hard-won progress. “It’s in the shed behind the car. Hanging on the wall.” He barely finished speaking before Carrie was gone.

  While he waited, Tom considered the stack of plastic totes he had to bury and thought the hole would do nicely. He could put them in the ground five high. The tarps he’d planned to use would go under them, and up the sides with another on top. He wasn’t worried about dirt getting inside because he’d sealed the edges with duct-tape and the tarps would help protect them.

  Not for the first time, Tom wished he had planned this better and had them already buried. He could have already found Teagan and been back home.

  He wasn’t sure how long they would be able to stay at the house without having to defend it, but he hoped it was long enough to come up with a plan for a backup location. He already had some thoughts on one or possibly two safe locations, but he wasn’t sure. It would all depend on how bad it got.

  Chapter Seven

  “So, how do we find them?” Teagan felt better knowing they were going to give Trevor and Deena the option of going with them. If they chose not to, then that was on them. The provisions she’d bought and paid for would not feed the four of them for many days, but they would just have to ration what they had unless they found food somewhere else. Or, they could make it home in a couple of days and never need all the food she carried.

  “Well, I guess we go up to where they had the party last night and see. They weren’t with the group who stormed the gas station, but I don’t remember seeing them at the camp either. I hope the people from the station were headed south and didn’t stick around, because they aren’t anyone we should associate with.”

  “You’re right, and I hope that guy took my advice and left before they got there.” Teagan thought of the empty beer and soda coolers and wondered who had cleaned them out. They wouldn’t be happy if they’d come back for more and the shelves hadn’t been restocked. She didn’t believe they would ever be restocked again.

  Ryan got to his feet, “No time like the present to find out.” He looked at the bags Teagan had been carrying when he’d spotted her, “I can take one of those backpacks and your shopping bags. You keep that gun handy or if you’d feel more comfortable doing so, give it to me.”

  She slid it into the pocket on her hoody, “I’m good, and now I know where the safety is, I’m even better. Can we go by the station and make sure that guy made it out of there okay? I’d feel better knowing he’s gone.”

  Ryan shrugged into the backpack meant for a much smaller person, which made Teagan laugh. The straps were pulled tight across his broad shoulders the buckles barely latching. He watched her as she put hers on and picked up the two shopping bags.

  Ryan looked at her and frowned as if he’d just thought of something. “I don’t suppose… Did you pay for all this stuff?” He didn’t want to go to the gas station only to find that Teagan had absconded with everything without paying.

  “Of course. What? You think I’d steal it? I’m deeply offended.” With the look of shock on his face, she recanted, “Just kidding. Ryan, I paid for every last thing, and if I’d known there was going to be two of us, I’d have bought more. The shelves still had lots to offer.”

  “You mean if there’s anything left,” Ryan said.

  They worked their way back toward the gas station. Teagan didn’t realize how far she’d ru
n when they didn’t arrive there within a few minutes. She was surprised when Ryan grabbed her roughly by her arm, jerking her to a halt. Teagan wrenched free and rubbed the spot where his fingers had bruised her.

  “What? What was that for?”

  Ryan shushed her with his finger in front of his lips and pointed to his nose. Just a little overdramatically, he sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. He scowled and wrinkled his face as if he found the odor disgusting.

  Teagan sniffed, her eyes popped open, “Is that smoke?”

  Ryan nodded. He whispered, “We’re not that far away, but it’s pretty strong. I wonder what happened? Shouldn’t we have smelled it before this?”

  “Not with the direction the winds blowing, but let’s go find out. Maybe the people just have another bonfire going and standing here isn’t going to give us any answers.”

  Ryan shrugged and gave her a mock salute, “Yes ma’am!”

  Teagan rolled her eyes, “Don’t make me regret coming with you.” Her tone was teasing and made Ryan grin.

  Shaking her head, Teagan led the way through the last line of brush. The stench grew stronger the closer they went. Teagan froze in place when all she saw of the gas station was a smoldering blackened shell. She clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. Curls of smoke floated above the charred interior.

  The man who had waited on her was nowhere to be seen, and she said a silent prayer he had listened to her and left before the crowd got there. Still, Teagan would carry the burden of guilt she hadn’t been more forthcoming with information. He had to know, she told herself. He was three times her age and seemed smart.

  “Don’t think about it. You can’t change what’s already happened,” Ryan told her. His grin was gone, and his eyes had taken on a haunted expression. He looked off toward the freeway as if he expected to see the backs of the retreating crowd that had swarmed the station earlier. He and Teagan had only been gone from the station for a couple of hours, and he couldn’t believe the situation had gone south so quickly. Ryan wanted to know if Trevor was part of the crowd, but he suspected he had been. Trevor was always in the middle of whatever chaos was going on at the moment.

  When Trevor had appeared in his life, Ryan had been excited to have a brother and did everything he knew to include the sullen little boy in everything he did. He introduced him to his circle of friends, and they accepted Trevor until the bickering and fighting divided them. Before the first summer had passed, Ryan’s circle had been pared down to just him and Trevor. As they grew older, Ryan came to understand that the chip on Trevor’s shoulder and only grown larger with time. Once both boys entered high school, Ryan tried his best to avoid Trevor because it always seemed that if there was trouble, Trevor was right in the middle and usually the instigator. Somehow, he always managed to spin it so that Ryan or another classmate were the culprits.

  Ryan had never understood why his mother treated Trevor differently and held Ryan accountable for every ounce of trouble, even the incidents that Ryan hadn’t been involved in. Her answers were lame, and Ryan had come to loath, “You’re the oldest, you should have known better. Why didn’t you watch him better, how could you let him do that?” and his favorite, “You know how fragile he is. It’s up to you to see he doesn’t get in trouble.”

  Ryan had never been in a position to stop Trevor from doing anything. At first, Ryan had gotten bloody noses for defending the younger boy, and then the bloody noses had come from Trevor himself. Trevor knew that Ryan would never tell what really happened to him, simply because his mother always took Trevor’s side. Ryan had learned early on to keep his thoughts to himself because if he voiced them, it made his life worse.

  “Hey, did I say something? I didn’t mean to bum you out.” Teagan had been watching Ryan and saw a variety of expression’s cross his handsome face. The one emotion that stood out to her was the hurt. She wondered what had happened to make him so sad.

  They walked in silence for a few minutes before Ryan answered and it wasn’t an answer Teagan would have expected. “It wasn’t anything you said. It’s Trevor. I’m sure he’s right in the middle of whatever happened back there. From experience, if he goes with us, I wouldn’t trust him.”

  At the look of shock on Teagan’s face, he tried to explain. “You’ve seen the way Trevor treats people, especially girls. He’s had a fixation with you, and I guess now I know the reason why. You denied him and trust me; he doesn’t think anyone has the right to deny him anything, and we can thank my parents for him being that way. So yes, I’m having qualms about his being with us on the trip home, but then again, I don’t feel right about leaving him here either, so I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”

  While Ryan seemed to be trying to work it out while he spoke, Teagan felt the need to say something. She waited until he fell silent, “That’s how I feel about Deena. I started this journey with her and darn it, I feel responsible for her. I can’t make her do anything, but I need to encourage her to come too. I know it won’t be easy and she’ll be a pain in the butt, but I can’t just go off and leave her here. So, in a way, I do understand what you said.”

  They reached the freeway overpass, to find several people who had obviously over-indulged the night before, and while the sun sat well over the horizon, they were still lying on the pavement; sleeping.

  Ryan clapped his hands together, “Hey guys, time to wake up.”

  Nobody moved. He and Teagan walked closer. The fire from the night before still smoldered. Broken bottles, squashed beer cans, and garbage lay where they’d been dropped or thrown.

  Ryan walked to one young man who resembled Trevor, in that they shared the same hair color and style. The kid's face was buried in his arms. Ryan nudged him with his foot. The boy didn’t move. Ryan used his hand to shake him and jumped away when he understood the body was stiff and unyielding to his touch.

  “Aw Jeez…I think this kid is dead!” Ryan sank to his knees. On closer inspection, he found a burnt spoon, an empty syringe, and a short length of thin rubber tubing cradled in the kid’s arms. “Drugs!” Ryan sat back on his heels. “Oh my God! Why?”

  “Short-lived entertainment I expect.” Teagan never understood people who used drugs and had strong feelings against their use. She knew kids at school who had thrown their futures away because of drug and alcohol abuse.

  “That’s pretty cold-hearted, don’t you think? Do you really think that’s all they were looking for? Entertainment?” He stared at Teagan, white-faced, blinking back tears. He looked around and counted. Seven people were lying in different places, two of them up under the sloped sides of the overpass embankment. He couldn’t force himself to check all of them. There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t call EMS or dial 911.

  Ryan stood, “Let’s go; unless you need to see if you knew any of them.”

  “I’m not looking any closer. I don’t want to know if I knew them or not. They should remain nameless and faceless, at least for me.” Teagan looked up at the highway, “I want to go home.”

  “What about Deena and Trevor? We just leave them here?”

  Teagan held her arms out while turning in a slow circle, “As in here? I don’t see them.” She was being facetious, but she didn’t care. She was torn as to what to do. Obviously, neither Deena nor Trevor was here, and while she felt some responsibility, she wasn’t about to go and hunt them down. She decided to give them as much consideration as they had shown for her and Ryan. It was time to quit flip-flopping and leave.

  Teagan shrugged, “Do you want to waste any more time looking for them and I bet, they already started for home. At least I would have if I were them.”

  Ryan exhaled overdramatically, “I guess. Maybe you’re right, and we’ll probably catch up to them somewhere.”

  Teagan thought Ryan was having a hard time leaving and she did understand, but as much as she’d like Deena to go with them, she wasn’t about to waste time looking. If they had been there, it would have been a dif
ferent story. Her feelings of responsibility only went so far. If Deena did leave with Trevor, maybe it released Teagan from feeling guilty for leaving her behind. Obviously, Deena hadn’t been worried about Teagan or bothered with finding her. Teagan wasn’t sure why it should, but the idea that Deena had abandoned her, made Teagan resent the other girl just a little bit more.

  “I smell sawdust burning,” Ryan told her as they walked up to the on-ramp.

  Teagan sniffed, “So do I but I’m not sure it smells like sawdust. It smells more like the gas station did.”

  Ryan laughed because Teagan had missed his joke. At the confusion on her face, he drew in a deep breath through his nose, “Oh, crap. You’re right, and here I was making a joke about your silence.”

  From the top of the on-ramp, they couldn’t see where the smoke was coming from directly, because a layer of it hung low west of them. In the distance, it looked as if something big was burning and maybe more than one.

  Ryan looked back toward the overpass, “I just hate leaving them there like that. It doesn’t seem right.”

  “Of course it doesn’t, and it’s not, but what can we do? Maybe someone will come looking for them.” Teagan didn’t believe anyone would show to claim the bodies, but it seemed better to say that than to acknowledge they had left them without doing anything.

  “I almost feel like we should wait to see if they show up…but we can’t. Can we?”

  Teagan didn’t have to ask who, and she understood Ryan’s feelings. She felt the same way, but she felt like she was working on will power alone. They couldn’t do anything to help anyone but themselves, and if he thought she was cold and heartless now, then he was going to have to feel that way. Teagan thought he would change his tune quickly over the next few months if they survived. Cold and heartless would be the best of her qualities because if her father and Uncle Eric were correct, she would add a lot more unpleasant characteristics to her resume.