And he didn’t have any sort of tubing. Even if he was able to improvise something, it would take a long time.
Jim grabbed the duffle bag without checking its contents and tossed it to Rob who had finally gotten out of the Subaru. Rob stood there, his legs visibly shaking, his eyes wide with fear.
Jim glanced at his watch.
They had to get moving.
Hopefully there was something that’d be helpful in that duffle bag.
The rifle had been a stroke of luck. He’d been worried about just having a handgun.
“Jessica,” called out Jim. “Can you get the dead guy’s handgun?”
“Already got it,” called out Jessica.
He glanced over at her and once again she looked ready. Poised for anything.
She was the greatest surprise of all. He’d thought she was nothing but a liability, one that he had to take care of out of guilt.
If only his wife and Rob were more like her.
Right now, they and their disbelief were the real liabilities. They were the real threats to their survival.
And, of course, the chaos that was to come.
“Everyone in the car,” shouted Jim.
This rousted Rob from what seemed like a nervous stupor.
But he still didn’t move.
“Rob, come on!”
Jim threw himself into the driver’s seat, started the car, and slammed the door closed.
He was depressing the clutch when Rob finally got into the car, moving slowly and shakily, the duffel bag clutched in both hands.
In the back of the car, Aly was breathing heavily and rapidly. It sounded like she was hyperventilating.
Another one of her panic attacks.
Normally, Jim was always there for her. He’d go to her side and comfort her.
But there wasn’t time for that now.
She’d have to learn to deal with it. She’d have to dig herself out of the hole herself.
Jim put the car into gear and the Subaru lurched back, away from the pickup truck and the two dead bodies.
14
Jessica was feeling better. Her head wasn’t in the clouds like it had been. Maybe it was the adrenaline from shooting, but her head actually felt clear.
She still couldn’t remember what had happened. She had no memory of the accident whatsoever.
But it was getting clearer by the minute that Jim, the man who drove the Subaru, was someone she wanted to stick with.
And it was clear that the situation was dire and extremely serious.
Jessica was practical minded. It wasn’t hard for her to see that society could descend into chaos in short order. Without basic public services, without food or water, people would react. And violently. When it came to that point.
“Are you OK?” said Jessica, putting her arm around Aly, Jim’s wife, who had curled herself up into a little shaking ball.
Now it was Jessica’s turn to do the comforting.
“She’s having a panic attack,” said Jim, from the front seat. “She’ll be OK. Remind her of her techniques.”
“Her techniques?”
“Just do it.”
“I think she already heard you.”
“Maybe not.”
Jessica leaned right up against Aly’s ear and spoke clearly into it. “Your husband says to remember your techniques.”
“She’s supposed to watch her breathing.”
“He says you’re supposed to watch your breathing.”
Sure enough, after a few minutes, Aly started breathing differently. Her breaths turned from shallow and frantic to slow and calm. She looked up at Jessica and smiled. “Thanks,” she said.
“You back with us, Aly?” said Jim.
“More or less.”
Jim was driving fast. The road was clear, for the most part. All the traffic lights were still out, as were all the lights in the stores and houses on the side of the road. They passed one cop standing on the side of the road in uniform. They simply drove right past him as he tried to wave him down.
“He looked like he wanted you to stop,” said Rob.
Jim said nothing.
Jessica’s thoughts turned for a moment to her parents. She’d barely had contact with them since she’d moved out, and she supposed that was going to be the way it stayed.
Now, her mind went to the practical. To survival.
“So what’s the plan?” said Jessica, directing her voice to Jim, who seemed like the only other one who had it together.
“Like I said, get to Aly’s mother’s house. Get her mother and get whatever supplies are there. We’ll split up and comb through the house. We’ve got to go for food, candles, knives, cookware, and any medicine you can find.”
“I got that part,” said Jessica. “But what about after that? Once we get out of the whole Rochester area?”
“That’s the part we don’t have figured out yet. Any ideas?”
“No,” said Jessica. “I’ve barely ever been out of Rochester.”
“We could go to my uncle’s house,” said Aly, speaking up for the first time since her panic attack.
“Your uncle Jordan? The drunk?”
“Yeah. He’s got that lake house on Chautauqua, remember?”
“Of course I remember. We spent that disastrous weekend there a couple years ago. The place was a dump and your uncle spent the entire time either passed out on the floor or actively trying to destroy all his possessions.”
“So what?” said Aly. “There aren’t many houses near it.”
“What about your uncle? He’s not exactly a reliable person we can count on in a situation like this.”
“No one knows where he is.”
“What? You didn’t tell me that.”
“It’s just been a couple weeks. My mom’s been calling him over and over. The last she heard from him he was in Buffalo.”
“Buffalo?”
“Yeah, doing who knows what.”
“Another bender, probably,” said Jim, dismissively.
Jessica noticed that Rob didn’t speak up at all during this exchange between husband and wife, as if he didn’t dare get in the middle of it should it turn into an argument.
Finally, Jessica spoke up herself. “Am I missing something?” she said. “It sounds like we’ve got the place to go. If it’s on the lake, we’ll be able to fish.”
As soon as she spoke, she realized that she hadn’t exactly been invited to go live with them.
But she’d helped them already. She felt like she’d proven herself.
And it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go.
The way she understood it, remaining in Rochester would be a death sentence.
“Anyone have any better ideas?” said Jim.
No one spoke.
“All right,” said Jim. “We’re heading to drunk Uncle Jordan’s lake house. Let’s just hope he hasn’t burned the house down or sold it or something since we were last there.”
“Jordan’s caused the family a lot of problems,” said Aly, almost as an aside to Jessica.
“It’s about a two hour drive if I remember correctly,” said Jim.
They’d entered a nice neighborhood, where the houses had large manicured lawns.
Jim swerved easily around the stopped cars in the street. It seemed as if some of the cars had been pushed to the side of the road.
There was no one in the street.
“Looks like everyone’s finally gone indoors,” said Jim as they pulled into a driveway in front of what must have been Aly’s mother’s house.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” said Jim, throwing open his door.
Jessica followed behind the three of them. The front door was locked.
“Shit,” said Aly. “My key’s at the police station still, along with the rest of my stuff.”
“Wasn’t there one under the door mat?” said Jim.
“No, she got worried about it and had me move it. It’s around back.”