“Love and Family During the Great Death”
Chapter 02: A Few Things to Do On the Way Home
The threesome got as far as the next exit, which wasn’t that
close. Ellen suggested they stop and see if anyone had any news so they could
see how much damage had been done to the local community. The road was badly torn
up, and there were damaged and abandoned cars all along it. They’d been too
afraid to stop and check each one for bodies, figuring anyone in them would
have seen their lights and flagged them down. Despite reports of massive forest
fires sparked by the meteor shower, they’d seen none, largely because it had
rained the previous week and the nearby timber wasn’t that dry.
When they exited the highway and came around the corner,
they saw the beginnings of the local community, and it wasn’t a pretty sight.
There was a gas station that was still burning wildly, the gas tanks having
been ignited and no one having been able to do anything about it. Several
building were damaged, some completely leveled. A car dealer had practically
its entire inventory destroyed. There might be a couple undamaged, and maybe a
few more that could actually be driven, but the rest were either nonfunctional
or so heavily damaged they’d be considered junk.
They reached the burned out husk of a tractor trailer which
blocked the road, cutting off the nearby community. Not having seen many
people, and not wanting to invest a lot of time getting into a town they didn’t
know anyone in, they made a U-turn and headed back to the highway again.
Although no one said anything about it, David felt himself growing increasingly frustrated and angry at the world in general. He wanted to help someone, but so far all they’d seen was damage, no one actually requiring help. What’s more, he was more concerned with getting Alice and Ellen somewhere they were better protected.
The rest of the trip was similar. Some areas were relatively
intact, while others had the nearby trees flattened and the roadway heavily
torn up. Alice pointed out pieces of cars in the trees a good 30 feet from the
roadway, apparently thrown there by the force of the impact that destroyed
them. They each remained quiet as they tried to fathom the extent of the damage
this solitary storm had done to the country. Multiplying the damage they saw
times the amount of communities scattered across its path provided frightening
numbers.
They turned off the highway at the town of Wayne’s Quarters.
It was the nearest large town to David’s house, although it was another 27
miles away. This town, like the other, had extensive damage, but since they
arrived later the residents had had more time to recover and there were more people
out surveying the damage. Although this was the town that David did his
shopping in, he’d had no plans to pick anything up tonight, having done all his
shopping before he went to pick his daughter up.
Building after building was extensively damaged, but most
were still standing, and while they’d take a lot to make them habitable again
they were still structurally sound. While some of the buildings had people
working on them the majority of them stood silent, though they didn’t know if
it was because the inhabitants were asleep, hurt or missing.
As they traveled slowly through the town, hoping to avoid
hitting something, they saw some people running into a nearby drug store. It
was a large chain store, but it was one that David was familiar with. A huge
section had been ripped out of one wall leaving the building exposed, and a
bunch of scruffy looking young men could be seen entering the damaged building.
David knew exactly what that meant.
He knew it would be safer avoiding it, but he just couldn’t.
He couldn’t leave this to the police, because it would be a long time before
they got around to checking up on the various empty businesses. He quietly
pulled into the parking lot, parking a short distance from the car they’d seen
the young men running from.
“Stay here,” David told the girls. He got out and went to
the back of the car and opened the back gate. Removing something, he returned
to where the girls were.
“Take this,” he told Alice, handing her a sharp hole punch, he
knew she’d seen one before. “I’m going inside. Don’t follow me, and try not to
attract attention. I want you to use this to prevent them from leaving before
I’m finished.” He looked at his daughter to make sure she knew what he was
telling her to do. She swallowed and nodded so he went on.
“When you’ve flattened the tires, get back in the car, lock
the doors and keep your head down. Again, don’t leave the car no matter what
you hear. If anyone comes after you, sound the horn.” He glanced at both Alice
and Ellen, and when they nodded he headed towards the building as if he was
going for a pack of gum.
But David reconsidered, coming back to his truck, opening
the back and grabbing a two-by-four. Since he frequently worked on his house,
his SUV was frequently loaded with various building supplies. He checked once
again that the girls were OK, and then headed off; watching for any lookouts
the kids may have left. He didn’t see any, apparently the perpetrators were
either stupid or sure no one would ever interfere with them. But then, David
had never had any illusions about the intelligence of criminals.
He stopped by the crumbling remains of the southern wall,
first listening to see if anyone was there. He considered what he was doing. He
knew it was clearly stupid, and that the police and the courts wouldn’t look
favorably on vigilantism. If caught he’d likely spend time in prison for it,
but he couldn’t see ignoring such clear lawlessness. The police couldn’t be
counted on in the near future, so if someone didn’t step up anarchy was
likely to result. But more than that, he realized he was feeling frustrated by
what had been happening and he felt a need to act out on it. As much as
anything else, he was going after these men simply as an act of rebellion
against nature. It was just these jerks bad fortune that they happened to have
stumbled across his path. Besides, the owner of the drug store was a friend of
his.
Standing by the gash in the wall he heard someone
approaching, so he stood back and waited. Just as the nameless figure crossed
the threshold David swung his two-by-four and struck the young man in the face,
sending him sprawling back into the store, scattering a large bag full of pill
bottles he’d been carrying.
David hoped he hadn’t alerted the other thieves. However he
was pretty sure they were still busy looting the business, sending one at a
time to ferry the drugs they stole out to their waiting car. The others would
likely be trying to find the locked Class A prescriptions. David surmised the
young men inside were likely drug addicts looking for a quick high, who saw the
devastation everyone had encountered as their chance to get high quality drugs
without having to work for it.
Walking inside, David glanced around before focusing on the man
he’d struck. The side wall of the store had collapsed. The gap was in the
newsstand/toys/bottled water section. Thus there was scattered paper, pools of
water, and toys strewn all around, making walking treacherous. However the
sounds of the rustling paper and the wind blowing into the store masked much of
the noise he was likely to make.
Seeing no one else around, he approached the stunned figure.
He was scruffily dressed, bedraggled and pretty ratty looking, but the biggest
thing about him at the moment was his broken nose, damaged eye socket and the
blood splattered over his face.
The guy appeared to be unconscious. Although David had hit
him hard, he wasn’t sure it was hard enough to knock him out, so he didn’t know
if the guy had a glass jaw or if he had possibly struck his head on the hard tile
floor. He hadn’t wanted to kill the guy, after all, addicts managed to recover
all the time. But what he did want was to prevent the creep from taking
advantage of others. Stepping up, David slammed the two-by-four down across the
man’s chest. He knew if he left the man lying there he could wake up at any
time, and that would leave someone to attack him from behind, which he didn’t
need right now. However he knew he hit him hard enough to at least break
several ribs, making moving around quite painful. This guy wouldn’t be likely
to be looking for any trouble for a little while. Seeing the guy hadn’t moved
after he struck him he looked up, moving farther in the dark business.
He knew where the criminals would be, they’d be searching
behind the closed off druggist area. It looked like the guy that David had
struck had been carrying the easy to grab cold medicines, those used for making
crystal meth. That meant that these guys hadn’t been here long, thus the ones
left wouldn’t be as likely to be coming out quite yet. It also meant these guys,
being either associated with or ‘meth-heads’ themselves, would likely be more desperate
and less concerned about repercussions than typical criminals.
It was slow going trying to find his way in the dark
expanse, but he was guided by the noise of several men rummaging through the
back of the store. There were occasional flashes of light, so David supposed
they’d grabbed flashlights to help them in their search for drugs. This helped
David, since he could easily spot them, and if he could disable the light their
night vision wouldn’t be as good as his was.
David had no combat experience whatsoever, had never gotten
into fights as a kid, and was really ill prepared for this type of encounter.
He knew his opponents would be much more adept at confrontations than he was.
After all, David’s history was with intellectual pursuits. However, all the
construction he’d been doing the last couple of years had helped his physique,
and he decided his best bet was to over compensate.
He knew the biggest downfall of most amateurs was in pulling
their punches. However he had so much built up frustration over not being able
to control what had been happening to him, his daughter and Ellen last night,
that he didn’t think that would be a problem. He also planned to hit anyone he
came across that much harder, just to make sure they didn’t get up again. He
figured he might be able to get away with a slight miscue, but any serious
mistakes would likely cost him his life here.
The door to the pharmacy was standing open, and the
flashlight inside was moving around so rapidly it was easy to see what was
going on inside. David reached over and grabbed some items off a nearby counter.
He had no idea what he’d picked up, but that wasn’t important at the moment. He
wasn’t much interested in making any purchases. Stepping cautiously inside the
door he saw three scruffy looking men. Two of which were older, easily in their
40s, the other was a young kid like the first one was. Luckily they were so
distracted looking for the ‘good drugs’ that they weren’t paying attention to
much else. The biggest guy had a metal bar they’d found somewhere that he was
trying to use to pry open a safe. David just shook his head, criminals just
don’t come very smart, he reminded himself.
Walking up quickly but quietly, he tossed whatever he’d
picked up into the far corner, and before it hit the ground he started his
swing. The sound of the small packages hitting the floor caused the three men
to stop what they were doing and turn toward the sound. The biggest guy, the
one with the crowbar, looked up, but left the crowbar lodged in the crease in
the safe. David’s two-by-four hit him with a solid crack in the back of the
head. He was aware that such a blow might very well be fatal, but he was also
aware not taking the man out would surely be fatal for him. The man collapsed
to the floor instantly, not making a sound aside from the large crack the
two-by-four made when it struck his head.
The other two jerked back at the noise, turning to observe
their friend, as the crowbar he’d been using clattered noisily to the floor.
However David was already spinning around, turning almost 280°. Just as the two
noticed him standing behind their fallen comrade and they started to turn on
him, he finished his swing, connecting solidly with his two-by-four against the
side of the farthest of the two men. There was another loud crack as the two-by-four
split in two, and the man stumbled back making a sickening wheezing sound.
However the last man was now aware of what was happening,
and he’d be much more dangerous, especially now that David was essentially
unarmed. The older man, one of two older men, lunged at him, grabbing his arm
just as David was spinning again, trying to build momentum to spin out of the
man’s reach. David did, in fact, spin away from him as intended, but the man
held onto his arm, causing him to over spin and collapse onto one knee. The man
slugged David in the side of the face, knocking him to the ground as the pain
of the blow flashed across his eyes. Although the man was scrawny and undernourished,
he was still pretty big and evidently plenty strong.
As David hit the ground he heard the other man gasping
loudly, he couldn’t see him at the moment as he was facing the wrong direction
staring at the floor, but it sounded like he was suffering from a collapsed
lung. David, knowing he had to move quickly, tried to push himself up and used
the motion to shove himself over into a roll. Just as his head cleared the
floor he saw the kick aimed at his side. Luckily the blow got him after he was
already moving. It hurt like hell, but the blow augmented the action he’d
already begun, rolling him over and away from the man.
David realized he hadn’t thought this out very carefully,
since he didn’t have any backup plans. He hadn’t thought to carry another
weapon, or even anything to distract his opponents with.
His roll carried him a short distance away, and when he hit
the nearby metal cabinet he grabbed the edge and spun around it, using his own
momentum to keep him moving farther away. However the motion and the punch to
his face left him feeling dizzy, so he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stand.
Instead he rolled/crawled towards the door to the pharmacy, hoping to get out
of the close confining environment. But as he was almost to the door he felt
another kick to his side, knocking him sideways, causing him to hit the door at
an odd angle. His momentum again caused him to spin around and through the
door, but it also caused him to spin wildly once through the door, so he
tumbled to the floor again, sliding along the cold tile floor.
“Bloody Fucker,” the man shouter, “I don’t know who the hell
you are, but that was the biggest mistake of your life. I’m going to kill you
and leave your bloody corpse for your kids to find.”
David didn’t bother listening to the man, knowing it wouldn’t
help him. He was trying frantically to think of something he could try,
something he could grab to help him, but nothing came to mind. Probably because
his mind wasn’t working very clearly yet, and he was still moving too fast in
the darkened room to see much of anything. He heard his opponent bellow behind
him, accompanied by the gasping wet breath of his companion. It sounded like
the man David had broken his two-by-four against was spitting up blood, which
would mean that man, at least, wouldn’t be as much of a threat.
David knew his primary opponent had followed him out, so he
rolled over, turning to watch for a coming attack. However David’s previous
planning had come into play. The kid with the busted lung had been holding the
flashlight, and while the pharmacy was still lit, his opponent was now trying
to see him in the dimly lit aisles, which his flashlight adjusted eyes weren’t
able to work well in.
The delay allowed David to once again spring up and roll to
the side. The man following him detected the motion, but couldn’t make out what
he was doing. He cautiously followed, allowing David to gain some ground as
well as giving him time to clear his head and think clearly again.
Reaching the end of the display David felt around, searching
for some tool to use to help defend himself. He found something and tried to
ready himself. He crouched against the display aisle, which in the dark managed
to hide him fairly effectively. The other man cautiously approached, feet
spread wide so he’d be able to react to any attack he’d encounter. As the man
neared, David threw a small bottle of something at his face. The man’s first
instinct was to protect his face, so he raised his arms to block whatever David
had thrown. However the motions were too late as the small plastic bottle
smacked him in the face. The little plastic container was hardly heavy enough
to do any damage, but the surprise caused the man to step a half-step back,
which was all the assistance that David needed.
David once again swung with all his might, this time hitting
the man in the shin with the umbrella he’d picked up, causing him to spin
slightly. The combination of the spin and his off balance position caused him
to slowly fall to the side.
David took the opportunity to jump to his feet again. The
other man landed on one knee, stopping his fall, but he was facing away from
David and hadn’t had the opportunity to prepare himself. Getting to his feet,
David used the umbrella to knock some packages to the floor, causing the man to
flinch away from him, which David followed up by lunging at him, driving the
point of the umbrella into his kidney.
The man cried out, but the point of impact broke the fragile
umbrella, which was already weakened from David’s previous attack, causing it
to bend in the middle. Tossing it over the aisle divider, David took a step
forward and kicked hard, connecting with the man on the floor’s jaw, jerking
his head back and causing him to rise into the air, landing with a resounding
thud on the tile floor. He didn’t seem to be moving after that, but David was
aware he still had another man left, and the others might possibly have
recovered by now, so he had to get things under control quickly.
David looked around, once again looking for something he
could make a plan with. He then rushed back to the pharmacy, still trying to
move quietly. However, as he entered the pharmacy, he saw he needn’t have been
so careful. The other man lay against the wall, holding the pry bar while
panting in a wheezing labored breath. David simply faced him for a moment as
they both tried to take the other’s measure.
“OK, you rest here. I’m going to take care of your friends,
just so they don’t surprise me. When I get back I’ll take care of your lung. In
the meantime you can decide if you want to fight me, or whether you’d like to
live. It’s up to you, since I don’t particularly care one way or the other.”
With that David turned and left the guy alone with his crowbar, placing the
alarm clock and the jar of ointment he’d picked up to disable the guy on a
nearby counter. He didn’t think he’d need them now.
He grabbed the guy he’d knocked unconscious outside of the
pharmacy by the feet and dragged him towards the hole in the wall they’d
entered through. He was more likely to wake up than the one he hit in the back
of the head with the two-by-four. When he got him by the younger man, still
lying quietly bleeding in a pool of water, he dumped him beside his pal and
calmly walked out to his SUV.
When he opened the back of the truck both Alice and Ellen
jumped. Despite their being wary, neither one had noticed him approaching the
vehicle.
“Damn, Daddy, don’t do that!”
“Watch the language, young lady,” David warned her, although
he wasn’t as concerned with her language as he was in other things at the
moment.
“Sorry, but you scared us half to death. You’re always doing
that. You move so damn quietly,” Alice complained. Her father just glared at
her and she stared back, not worried about using the wrong language given the
circumstances. David eventually gave up and looked away.
“What happened?” Ellen asked, more worried about what
dangers David may have been facing than in blaming him for surprising them.
“Nothing much. Stopped a couple of looters. Stay here, same
rules. I’ll be back in a bit. Oh,” he said after a moment’s thought, “if you
hear anything unusual, don’t look back. You won’t like it much.” With that he
shut the back of the vehicle.
Of course, as soon as he said that they both turned around
and watched him walk away.
David knew stopping a couple of punks rummaging through an
accessible and unprotected drug store wouldn’t stop the next drug addicts who
happened to wander past. No, he’d need something to dissuade others from trying
the same thing. But he thought he might have just the thing. He briefly glanced
at the two unconscious men, deciding they’d be likely to remain that way for a
few moments, but he wrapped the one man’s hands with some scarves he found for
sale nearby. Then he returned to the pharmacy.
When he entered the closed in room the wheezing addict
glanced at him warily, but he’d lain the pry bar aside. The man was badly
dressed, somewhat dirty with greasy hair, with a wispy beard and a sunken gaunt
look to him. David didn’t think he had many alternative career options open to
him.
“Are you… are you gonna help me now?” he asked.
“Not yet. I’ve got to take care of your friend first,” David
advised him. “You realize there isn’t much I can do, though, don’t you?”
“I was wondering what you were going to… try,” the man
admitted, sweating heavily. However David saw he still had good color, so he
didn’t think the collapsed lung was affecting his blood pressure yet. The big
danger was if the lung caused the blood pressure to lower, triggering heart
damage. If that didn’t occur, then the next worry was permanent damage to the
lung. But without an ambulance or any police service David didn’t know how
likely they were to get any help. He knew he wasn’t about to drive for another
couple of hours in dangerous conditions to walk into a strange hospital
carrying someone he’d waylaid and intentionally injured. He’d help as much as
he could, but he wasn’t planning on putting himself in danger trying to help
him either. He figured the creep brought the trouble on himself.
“I’m going to try to inflate the lung. It’s likely to only
be marginally successful. Basically I’m going to try to get the lung to inflate
on its own. But you need to rest, you’ll need to save your strength.”
“Wait a… minute,” the kid gasped. “First you attack us, then
you try to save… me. Now you’re dragging the other guys away. What’s… what’s
up?”
“There aren’t any police, stupid. As you’ve guessed, there’s
no law enforcement or ambulance service at the moment. In cases like this
individuals have to step into the breach to help the community. I stopped you
from stealing supplies needed by the community, so there’s no need to kill you.
But if you try something like this again, I’ll do just that. You understand?”
The guy nodded quickly, despite the effect it had on his
breathing.
“I’m sorry, man. I just thought—”
“No, you weren’t thinking. You saw an easy
opportunity, and like the lazy jackass you are you figured you’d take it,
despite the fact others are injured and hurting nearby. Now leave me alone,
I’ve got another asshole to take care of,” David replied as he dragged the
other unconscious older man out of the room by his feet, heedless of how his
head occasionally banged into the nearby cabinets.
When he got him by the other bodies, he quickly checked all
three. The one kid, the first one he’d attacked, seemed to be coming around. He
grabbed his face, opened his eye to see just how awake he was. Seeing he was
coming to, he addressed him briefly.
“Sorry about this, but believe me, you’ll appreciate being out
for this,” he told him. Then he hit him full in the face again, knocking him
out once again. Once he was sure he was out he grabbed the most dangerous of
the men first, the one who’d come after him. He dragged him outside, and with
great difficulty stood him up against the intact wall beside the large gap in
the stores wall and stretched his arm over his head. At that point he pulled
the nail gun he’d grabbed from his car. It was handy working on his home so
much, as he had plenty of tools available for all kinds of situations. Holding
the man up with his own body and holding his hand steady, David proceeded to
nail the man’s hand to the wall, making sure he didn’t puncture anything vital.
When he saw the hand was attached to the side of the building successfully, he
did the same thing to the other hand. The guy was unconscious for the first
one, but began to wake up and moan while he was positioning his other hand.
When he shot the second nail through his hand the man came fully awake,
screaming piteously. David ignored him, making sure he was secure, then stepped
back to make sure he wouldn’t pull free from the building.
“Consider yourself lucky, punk. I could just have easily
have put the nail in your forehead. Remember that the next time you think there
are no cops around.” David started to turn around but, as if remembering
something, he turned back. “By the way, if you see any of your friends with
similar ideas, tell them it’s not such a good idea.” He had no idea if the man
understood anything that he said through his pain or not, but frankly he didn’t
really care. He was pissed at the world, and these men had been stupid enough
to threaten his friends and the community when he was angry at the universe.
David pulled the other two men, one by one, and did the same
to each of them. Luckily the first one remained unconscious until he was done,
while the other remained out of it, requiring David to first slap him, then to
throw some water on him to revive him. The first man stared at him
unbelievingly throughout the entire procedure. When he started to beg David to
let him go David simply stared at him and lifted the nail gun suggestively. He
stopped begging at that point.
Satisfied with his work, David set the nail gun aside,
dusted himself off, and headed back inside.
He found the other criminal where he’d left him, still
struggling for breath. He searched through the store using the man’s
flashlight. No, scratch that, he was sure he’d stolen that as well. These guys
weren’t smart enough to prepare for anything.
He finally found the vials of portable oxygen the pharmacist
kept for those needing help breathing. He got it hooked up and set the oxygen
flow to maximum, however these devices weren’t meant to apply oxygen under
pressure, only to supply a small additional flow of oxygen. It was assumed that
anything more would require a trip to the hospital, they hadn’t exactly been
counting on a situation like this one.
Figuring it wouldn’t hurt, David hooked up two, hoping the
additional one would provide some additional pressure, but not really expecting
it to.
“This is about the best I can do,” David advised the wounded
thug. “If it doesn’t work you’re out of luck, since the police aren’t coming by
any time soon, and I’m not going to risk a trip to the nearest hospital on bad
roads under the current circumstances. Are you ready?” he asked, not bothering
to explain what he was going to do. The guy nodded wordlessly, still laboring
for breath.
David had hastily rigged a mouthpiece onto the two separate
oxygen tanks, and placed it over the man’s face. “When I say the word, take the
biggest breath you can. It’s going to hurt like hell, but breathe like your life
depends on it, because if they don’t reinflate there’s a fair chance you’ll be
dead by the time the cops find you.” The man looked frightened but nodded his
understanding. With that David turned both tanks onto their maximum flow and signaled
the guy to start breathing. The man struggled hard, trying to breathe as deeply
as he could. David couldn’t see much result, but he kept the mouthpiece in
place and talked the guy into continuing, suggesting different breathing
techniques. Then he noticed the man’s chest lift a bit. Encouraged, he told the
guy to work harder, and slowly he got his breathing a little more under
control.
“You just survived on a miracle’s chance,” David warned him.
“Take this as a sign. You can either take this as a last opportunity and turn
your life around, or next time the next guy won’t be so understanding.”
The guy tried to respond, but he was still having trouble
breathing so David didn’t wait for a reply. Instead he lifted him up and
carried him out of the building, not bothering to mention they were passing his
friends. David carried him around to the far side of the building and set him
in front of the store, advising him to watch for the police and to flag them
down as soon as he saw them. “You’re not out of the woods yet, and your
continuing to breathe is more important than avoiding jail,” David told him
before he left him sitting there.
When he got back to the car the two girls were waiting for
him. He put his nail gun back into the back of the car and then got into the
driver’s seat like nothing unusual had happened.
“Uh, Dad, you’ve got blood all over yourself,” his daughter
told him.
“Yeah, that one guy was a bit of a bleeder,” he told her
nonchalantly. “Look, don’t EVER try to do that yourself,” he told Alice as he
stripped off his shirt and dropped it under his seat. “This was an unusual
experience and I thought it was necessary, but I’ll probably pay for it, and I
came close to paying for it a couple of times already. Violence is never the
best option, and it’s only allowable when you can think of no other options,”
he advised her as he drove off, leaving the one man out front with his friends
still hanging by their hands from the side of the building. “And, if you do
decide it’s necessary, always be prepared to pay for it when you’re caught.”
Neither girl was willing to say anything in response to
that, Ellen wondering who this man was, and Alice wondering what happened to
her kindly loving father. Once they’d been driving for a while Ellen asked for
a few details, though.
“I left the owner a note,” he told them.
“Was that wise?” Ellen asked.
“No, but I thought it was necessary,” he said. “I wrote a
short note that said ‘Sorry for the mess, but you had a rodent problem that
needed addressing. Remember to take some pictures so others will remember to
not try the same thing.’”
“Again, I’m going to have to ask why?” Ellen asked.
David laughed briefly. “I slid some money into the scanner
used to print photos. Hopefully he’ll figure it out before the cops see the
note. I know it won’t help him much, but I don’t want to be guilty of stealing
just like those others guys were. I’m willing to pay for what I did, but I’m
not anxious to volunteer for said punishment, and I’m not willing to pay for
something I can avoid, like stealing from a friend.”
“We’ll see how much of a friend he is when the police get
there,” Ellen responded.
“Yeah, we will. We certainly will,” David answered with
feeling.
The rest of the way to the house wasn’t quite so eventful,
simply because there weren’t as many buildings around. David stopped a couple
of times when it looked like someone might need help. Once there were no
survivors, another time everyone but two were OK, and the last one they helped
the people set things straight, or at least straight enough for them to survive
the night.
So it was fairly late when the trio finally arrived at
David’s mountain hideaway. Alice got out and opened the gate, David explaining
that he didn’t like unexpected people showing up, since hunters like to help
themselves to your land if you gave them a chance, and he was afraid of one of
them accidentally shooting Alice while she was running around the property.
There were several split and partially downed trees, but his
property remained largely unscathed, despite the craters everywhere. Ellen was
amazed at the house’s remoteness, observing only a quiet little cabin at the
foot of a cliff raised a good twenty feet off the floor of the valley, which
sloped away from the cottage. She couldn’t see any other houses nearby, and his
private driveway was so long it assured he had no neighbors around him.
David stopped the car and Alice went right to work, grabbing
her things and taking them into the house. Ellen, unsure what to do, followed
her, but turned when she noted David wasn’t accompanying them.
“Aren’t you coming?” she asked, as she watched him stripping
his jeans and cleaning out the front of the SUV.
“Nope, I’ve got to burn my clothes first,” he calmly told
her. “I may be willing to pay for what I chose to do, but nothing says that I
have to be stupid enough to volunteer evidence to anyone asking. I’m an
unlikely repeat offender, so I’m willing to extend myself the benefit of the
doubt.”
“Do you need any help?” Ellen asked, as Alice stopped by the
door seeing what she was going to do.
“No, you go ahead and sack out. Alice will show you our
spare bed. I’ve got several things to do before I’m set for the night.”
“Like what?” she asked, curious. “Maybe I can help?”
He looked at her and smiled crookedly. “Well, that depends.
How good are you at climbing mountains or high ladders.”
“If I may say so, I’d say I’m fairly good at both,” she told
him with her own smile, proud of her ability to handle herself outdoors.
“Well then, get your stuff stowed and you and Alice can join
me,” he told her.
“You want her climbing the mountain in the middle of the
night?” she asked.
“Like I could stop her,” he replied.
“Yeah, I always help him,” Alice assured her. “I’m his
assistant.”
“Well then, you have yourself two assistants for the night,”
Ellen told him. “But could we discuss the sleeping arrangements? I’m thinking
I’d rather not sleep alone tonight.”
“That’s OK, Ellen,” Alice assured her with a laugh, “you can
sleep with me tonight.”
Both David and Ellen laughed at that, knowing Alice was
teasing them. She may be young, but she knew enough to know what they were
talking about.
“No, you’re perfectly welcome to sleep with either of us,”
David told Ellen. “I just didn’t want to make any assumptions. It’s always
better to be cautious and be pleasantly surprised, than be presumptuous and be
disappointed.”
“You’re a wise man. We’ll be out shortly. Need any lighter
fluid?”
“Nope. I’ve got some in the shed,” he responded.
“Wow,” Ellen said, looking up at the large tower stretching
into the heavens before her and the thin metal latter attached to it, “when you
said you were going to climb a ladder, I thought you meant one of those folding
things.”
“Nope, this is Dad’s wind turbine,” Alice said proudly,
since she was familiar with it and had helped with it multiple times in the
past. “It provides enough electricity to power the whole house. We even have a
large battery that stores power for when there isn’t any wind.”
“So what do you need to do, again?” Ellen asked. Although
she’d told them she was fine with ‘climbing mountains and ladders’, she’d found
it had been a while since she’d been asked to do either, and for as much
difficulty as she’d had following little Alice up here, she didn’t want to
think about climbing that turbine.
“The turbine’s stopped,” David explained. “It’s designed to
lock down if anything goes wrong. I suspect it was damaged by a meteor but it
looks intact, but I’ll only be sure once I go up and check it out. From the
looks of it it seems that one of the blades snapped off.”
“Duh!” Alice replied with mock distain. “There are pieces of
it lying down there,” she said, pointing over the cliff at a spot hundreds of
feet below them. As much as Ellen liked hiking the Appalachian Trail, she had
no desire to go staring off of cliffs in the middle of the night following a
meteor shower that may have knocked something loose.
“That’s true, Alice,” David replied, “but you know as well
as I do that the impact could have wrenched something loose when it happened.
But, in either case, I’m going to rig a pulley when I get up there so you can
send me the new blade.”
“Uh, excuse me for being dense,” Ellen asked, “but what’s
with the bloody nail gun? Were you planning on nailing someone to it, or did
you think you could nail whatever was wrong with it?”
“Oh, sorry. If I was thinking I’d have hidden it better,”
David answered. “I really didn’t want to put you into the position of possibly
having to testify against me if anyone finds out about it. By the way, if
anyone asks, you never saw it, and if they press, I tossed it into the pond
downstream from us. It’s got a mucky bottom, so it’ll take them forever to search
it.”
“As disturbing as the idea of you hiding a weapon used in a
crime is, I’m moved that you‘d think of us instead of yourself,” Ellen told
him. “You realize we’re both already implicated. We both heard your warnings,
along with the sound of the nail gun and the screams of that poor man.”
“Poor man?” David asked dismissively. “They were drug
addicted meth heads that took advantage of a natural disaster where thousands
were threatened and untold damage was inflicted, to steal a controlled
substance that’s likely to be needed because of those selfsame injuries.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get why it was necessary, but I’m still
squeamish about having to see it. I know it had to be done, and I respect you
for having the gumption to do it. But I’m just not sure I could have done it.
If I could have, I would have followed you and provided you with some support.
Instead, I waited like a child outside for your killers to come out and assault
your daughter and me.”
“Hey, I’m no kid!” Alice protested. “Besides, I know how to
defend myself. And Dad knows how to take care of himself. I’ve seen him get
himself out of all kinds of jams.”
“Still, it was the idea that something might have
happened that worried me,” Ellen explained. “Anyway, I think I know how to work
the pulley, so we should be OK.”
“That’s OK, Ellen,” Alice replied confidently, “I’ve used
these many times. It’s a snap. I’ll show you.”
David said he should have everything rigged in a few minutes,
and he started climbing. They both watched him as he got smaller and smaller,
at which point Ellen turned to Alice.
“You know, you certainly aren’t a typical little girl.
Anyone else would be talking to her boyfriends or shopping, but here you are
doing dangerous mechanical repairs in the dead of night.”
“Hey, I do all that stuff when I’m at home with Mom. But
that’s only because there’s nothing else to do there. I’d do this all the time
if I could.”
“So you really do this kind of stuff every weekend?” Ellen
asked, before realizing she’d unintentionally said the wrong thing. They’d told
her how often she came up.
“No,” Alice pouted. “I only get up here half that much, if
even that. Mom won’t let me come up any more than the court appointed times. In
fact she keeps threatening to limit my visits even more, claiming Dad is ‘exposing
me to bodily injury’.”
“Excuse me for asking, but just how do you and your mom get
along?” Ellen asked her new friend. “So far I’ve only heard you complain about
how restrictive she is. Is she really that bad?”
Alice’s face fell and she looked sad, “No, she’s fine. She
thinks she’s looking out for my best interests. But she thinks my best
interests are learning to shop and date bunches of guys. I’m just not
interested in those things. Well,” she said after pausing to consider it for a
moment, “I guess I am, but not the way that she is. She really blames Dad for
not keeping up the life they had, but it was killing Dad. He hated his old job,
and he felt like he was helping destroy people’s lives by doing what he was
doing. He’s been much happier living here, doing this, even if it means he had
to give Mom up.”
“So he was unhappy about the divorce, huh?” Ellen asked,
fishing for some inside information.
“Yeah, he was. He really loved Mom, but she wanted what she
wanted, and it didn’t include moving out here with Daddy. But he didn’t fight
the divorce, though.”
“He didn’t?” Ellen asked. “Why not? You said he wanted to
remain married.”
“He said she wasn’t being unreasonable, and that he
understood what she wanted. He claimed he was the one that changed and that
he’d disappointed her, so the divorce was really his fault. Most of all, he
said that he wanted her to be happy, even if that meant she’d be happy without
him.”
“Wow, that says a lot about your father. There aren’t many
guys that would be so accommodating.”
“Yeah, but it hasn’t done him much good. He hasn’t dated
anyone since Mom refused to come out here. She took one look at the home site
and got back in the car and drove back to the city, refusing to come back out
again. She’s never even seen the house.”
“For as much as your dad’s actions say about him, your
mother’s actions also seem to say a lot about her,” Ellen observed, just as
something large crashed down beside them. She jumped back, holding onto Alice
as she did so. But Alice just laughed and walked up, grabbing the rope bundle
that David had tossed down to them.
“This is what we use to lift the blade up to him,” Alice
told her nervous friend. “He must have removed whatever was damaged. See the
pieces in the bag? They’re all the ones he has to replace. Grab the spare blade
and we’ll lift it up to him. I’ve got the bag of parts he’ll need to attach
it.”
So Alice helped Ellen lift the spare parts up to David
stationed well above them. When Ellen glanced up, she could see his back end
hanging above them, along with the reassuring safety ropes he’s explained would
protect him if he happened to slip. They quickly got the parts up, but then had
to wait while David made the necessary repairs.
“So, about your mother?” Ellen prompted.
“Oh, sorry. Yeah, it does. She says that she’s happy with
her new life, but I’m not so sure,” Alice explained. “She dates a bunch of
guys, but I think it’s because no one has ever impressed her as much as Dad
did.”
“Do you think she regrets her decision?” Ellen asked with a
certain amount of nervousness. She wasn’t sure what might or might not happen
between her and Alice’s father, but she certainly didn’t want to have to deal
with a messy triangle.
“No, I just think she’d not as happy as she thought she’d
be. But she’s definitely a city girl. She’s in all kinds of organization and
clubs. She volunteers for a bunch of things, and she has me involved in a whole
mess of stuff. For as much as I complain about it, I know I have better
opportunities than other kids do. I don’t think she has any desire to move out
here. She’s fine with her life. It’s Dad that I worry about.”
“How so?” Ellen asked, although she could imagine just what
she hoped his problems were.
“Well, as I said, Dad hasn’t dated anyone. He goes
into town and talks to everyone, but he doesn’t spend any time with anyone. He
knows how to be sociable, but he has no friends. I’m the only one he spends any
time with. He knows a bunch of people, but he’s always on his own.”
“That’s really too bad,” Ellen replied, though she was
actually thinking it was anything but. It sounded like there might be a spot
for her in David’s life, and she was anxious to try out for it.
Not wanting to appear to be too pushy, Ellen started to talk
to Alice about her life, and Alice asked her about her career, about what
writing for corporations was like. It was clear that Alice didn’t think much of
‘Corporations’, and Ellen assumed it was because of how her father described
why he’d quit his job. She tried to put a positive spin on what she did and
what the companies she worked for did, but she didn’t seem to be able to
dissuade Alice from her opinions on the subject.
“Mom works at a law firm, and she’s involved in a lot of
corporate groups. She’s always talking about what this one did, and what the
other one makes, but I never hear what any of them are doing for anyone. All
she seems to care about is how much money they make. I’m sorry, but I’m not
sure that should be your sole purpose in life.”
Their discussion was interrupted by the zipping sound of the
equipment bag returning down to them. It landed softly, and then the line
connecting it fell on top of it, signaling that David was finished. They
quickly got busy securing the equipment, so everything was finished by the time
David came back down.
“So it’s all finished?” Ellen asked, not sure if there was
anything else they needed to do.
“That’s it. I’m surprised. I’d thought the turbine would
have been pulverized, but it managed to miss any real damage. So we’ll have
plenty of power tonight.”
“We had power before we came up,” she corrected him.
“Ah, yeah, but that was battery power. It would only have
lasted so long. The water heater wouldn’t last long without a steady power
supply. I keep it on a standby system, diverting power to the more important features
like heating and air conditioning.”
“You consider air conditioning to be that important?” Ellen
asked. Alice laughed in response.
“No, silly, the air conditioning is for the refrigeration
unit. It keeps the refrigerators and freezers cold. You wouldn’t want your food
to spoil because it was cloudy for too many days. Personally, I’d rather have
fresh vegetables and ice cream than an overly long shower.”
“Gee, I’ve got a lot to learn, it seems,” Ellen answered.
“So I didn’t notice any damage to the house. How did you avoid all that damage
when everyone else we saw got creamed?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” David explained, as he stowed the rest of
the equipment. “The house is built into a westward facing cliff, which makes
for some excellent sunsets by the way. But apparently it’s pointed in the
opposite direction of the oncoming meteors. Thus, as the meteor storm travels
across the country it’s moving against the far side of the mountain. I’ll bet
you the other side doesn’t look nearly as pretty as ours does.”
“Wow, was that planned?” Ellen asked.
“No, it’s a little hard to plan for something like a meteor
shower like we had. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of another one like that
before. It’s definitely a freak occurrence. Hold on a minute,” David told them.
“I need to get rid of this,” he said, holding up the nail gun, “and it would be
better if neither of you saw what I did with it.”
So Ellen and Alice talked more about Alice’s friends, her
school and her hopes for the future while David was busy hiding the evidence
against him.
“So do you want to be a mathematician like your father, a
builder like he is now, or something else?” Ellen asked.
Alice seemed to consider that question. “Well, Dad says that
you need math for anything that you do. He says that the three most important
courses he ever took in school were typing, speed reading and calculus. He says
you need mathematics to understand what everyone else tells you. He explained
how the graphs they show on the news can only be understood if you know what
the type of curve they reflect means. So I’ll study math, but I’m not sure what
else I’ll do with it. Right now I’m thinking of being a doctor, but I’ve got a
while yet to decide.”
“That’s very mature of you, Alice,” Ellen told her. “Why medicine?
Wait, let me guess. I’ll bet it’s because you can help people, right?”
“Yep, how’d you know?” Alice asked, proud that Ellen could
understand her priorities.
“Well, you describe why your father disliked working for a
corporation, and you dislike how your mother doesn’t seem to recognize what the
corporations she works for do to people, so I figured that would be your
primary motivation. I think it’s a noble aspiration.”
Just then David came back. “OK, that’s taken care of.
Remember, if anyone asks, I tossed it into the lake. Then if anyone tells you
it isn’t there, just tell them you aren’t sure which lake I threw it into,
since you weren’t with me.”
With that they set off, tired after a very long day and
ready for some sleep. Well, as much as they each wanted to sleep, two of the
people there were thinking they’d like to postpone sleeping for a while at
least.