Grid Attack (Cyber War #2) (4 page)

I knew this would be hard to recover from, but I would make it. I refused to be one of those women who falls apart at every bad thing that happened to her. That just wasn’t in my nature.

The sun was out and I needed to feel it as much as possible. I really wanted to go back outside, but decided instead to open the shades and let some of the passive solar light come in through the south windows.

That would require removing our window darkening panels, but we needed to see the sun and it would allow us to sit down and look at the map better.

I peeked outside to make sure no one was out front, then popped the panel and set it off to the side.

The shade was already up half way and I raised it all the way up allowing as much sun as possible flood the living room. It was grand, and both kitties came down and found a sunny spot to lie in.

Sunshine always had a cleansing effect, at least that is what I believed. I sat down on the couch and allowed the sun to wash all over my body. Within a few minutes, I could feel the tension release from my body and my mind.

I had to really concentrate on not thinking about shooting that man, but I kept at it until I lowered my heart rate and my shaking finally began to subside.

My cat, Lady, came and sat on my chest and began to purr. She licked the side of my cheek once and gave me little cat chirps to let me know she approved of the sunshine beaming into the house.

Petting her almost made it seem like the rest of the world didn’t matter.

Not long after I began to relax, the guys came into the house.

“What are you doing?” Tony asked, looking at both windows wide open to the world and pointing with a look on his face as if I had just shot someone else.

“The sun is shining and it will reflect enough on the windows that no one will be able to see inside unless they come right up to the window.” I explained.

I knew as long as we put the panels back up when it began to get darker, we would be fine.

“She’s right,” Carl said. “We should be fine as long as the sun is out. But if it starts to get cloudy or dark, we need to put the shade panels back up.”

I was glad Carl backed me on this. I needed to feel like the house was somewhat normal.

The front of the house faced south and the trees had already lost their leaves, so when the sun was out, I always tried to open the shades for passive solar heat to warm the house.

Plus, it kept this old house from feeling like a cave.

They guys brought the chickens back inside to their makeshift pen and changed out of their clothes. The smell of the bodies had permeated the clothes and I insisted they let them hang outside on the rail so the air and sun could clean them before I had to manually wash them.

I tried as best I could to not keep my mind wandering back to the events that happened this morning. It was hard to keep focus, but we took the map and really made progress on the route we’d plan on taking down south.

“The biggest hurdle is getting across the river.” Carl said.

He was right. There was only one way out of the area without having to cross one of the three rivers that surrounded St. Louis.

And we were certain that those large bridges were probably already taken over by either some government entity or someone else that we didn’t want to have a confrontation with.

What normally would have taken an hour and a half to drive would probably take us more than a day now. Especially, because we weren’t sure about what was out there waiting for us.

I began to process just how difficult this could turn out to be. I also began to doubt it was the best option now. It was so risky being out there and possibly being exposed.

“Are you planning on taking the chickens?” asked Carl.

“Yes. They will be put into boxes with holes. They will be fine and will actually be quiet that way. Plus, we need the eggs.” I said.

“I assume the cats, too” he asked.

Tony and I both looked at him like he had two heads.

“Yeah, that would be like us leaving our kids.” Tony replied.

I was glad he made it clear what the cats meant to us. The chickens were pets, but not like the cats. Our kitties were our babies and we would find a way to take them with us.

In my mind, there was nothing that would stop me from taking my kitties, even if we had to give up the chickens to do it. I knew that wasn’t logical. It was an emotional decision. But that was the way it was going to be.

Chapter 7

Tony, Kat and Carl spent the rest of the day planning their route. They knew it was going to be a long trip. The truck they had wasn’t a four-wheel drive so they couldn’t take anything that would leave them stranded. They had to stay on some kind of road at all cost.

It took them several days to pack up everything they were planning on bringing. Most of it being food and water, the water filters, ammo and guns and as many clothes as they could bring for both summer and winter.

Since they figured they may not ever see the house again because it most likely would have be looted before they made it back up to the city, they limited the personal items only taking things like a few photographs.

It was heartbreaking for all of them. There were so many memories that they wanted to bring, but they just didn’t have the space. Kat decided to take a couple of plastic tubs and put some of their personal items that they were leaving in it and had the guys put it up in the attic. At least if the house were looted, the odds of someone actually going up into the attic was slim.

They all made sure to also pack a backpack that they could each take should something happen and they had to abandon the truck or if the truck died.

They pulled out the leaves of the dining room table to use as a template. It was almost as big as the truck bed and they figured they wanted to put as much as possible in the truck but keep it low enough to pull a tarp tight over what they had.

Plus, they figured that one of them could travel in the truck bed under the tarp, lying down so that they were out of sight.

The worst part was that the truck was white, so it stood out especially at night. They figured it would be best to travel in the early morning when most people would actually still be sleeping or waking from sleep and the odds would be smaller that they would run up against someone.

They spent the time going over plans until they were all exhausted from even trying. Their minds were all turning to mush, so they chose to just give themselves a day to just rest and not think too much about the trip.

It helped that Kat was really good now at making stews and soups that were hearty and tasted good. They all had a great meal and took turns napping to try to recoup some of the energy that they all had expended the last few days trying to make sure they didn’t forget anything.

Katherine had found several boxes and punched holes in them for the chickens. There were eight birds and she figured two birds per box so they wouldn’t freak out because they had a pal for the trip. Plus, chickens normally go quiet in the dark so it wouldn’t hurt them to be in the box for a day or so if needed.

She wasn’t sure where she would put them once we got to her mom’s house but she figured there would be plenty of garage space if she needed it.

Tony told her to just wait until we got there before she started planning that. She knew he was right. At this point, getting out of the city was the priority.

They knew they had a hectic trip ahead of them and since they had no way of knowing what lie ahead, there was no sense in planning.

Kat set her phone to go off at 3 a.m. They figured it would take them an hour to get the truck loaded and didn’t want to do it until they were ready to actually leave.

They would be on the road by 4 a.m. at the latest. It was going to be hard to sleep due to the high anxiety, but they tried anyway.

They guys sprawled out on the sectional while Kat curled up on the recliner as they watched the firelight.

“I love you.” Kat spoke into the darkness over to Tony. “No matter what happens, I love you.”

“I love you, too. Don’t worry. We’ll make it.” He responded with a certain amount of reserve in his voice.

“Well, since we are all getting emotional, I just wanted to say thanks to you both. Being here with you has really helped me deal with what has happened.” Carl said.

Both Kat and Tony said “you’re welcome”, then the room became quiet once again.

Kat listened as the guys began to fall asleep. She could always tell by their breathing and snoring. It always amazed Kat that men wouldn’t wake up at the sound of their own snoring.

She took a pillow and put it over her head to block out some of the noise. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough that she could begin to fall asleep as well.

The kitties had taken residence over by the fire. And Katherine had found herself daydreaming about being in the country at her mother’s.

Chapter 8 - Anthony

The loud rapping on the side door woke all of us up with a start.

“Who the hell?” Kat whispered. There was still enough fire glow that we could see each other well enough to know we were all awake now.

I raised my hand to have her stay put as I got up to investigate. All three of us had our pistols in our hand, and Kat had hers trained on the door.

I took my hand and signaled for her to lower hers so she wouldn’t accidentally shoot me instead.

I instinctively peeked through the peephole and heard a familiar voice.

“Tony, let me in. It’s Evan.”

“It’s Evan, guys.” I whispered back to Carl and Kat, who visibly relaxed.

Opening the door, Evan rushed inside and was out of breath.

“Hey man, relax.” I said, trying to calm Evan down. We had not seen him since the grid went down and had no idea he was even still in the area.

“You need to leave. NOW.” Evan urged.

“What? Why?” Katherine asked.

Evan looked over at Kat, then at me then over to Carl, then back to me.

“There is a band of looters headed this way. They are breaking into houses, killing anyone that is still alive.” He said.

“How do you know this?” I asked.

“Because I was down a few blocks scavenging for supplies when I saw them.” Evan said.

Kat looked over at me.

“With the four of us, we should be able to defend this place.” She said.

Evan shook his head. “Too many. There are at least fifty of them, maybe more. And they all have guns. Even with the four of us, we could not cover all the doors and windows.”

Kat went over and began to put her shoes on.

“I’ll get the chickens and the cats. You guys start loading the truck.” She said with authority.

Carl and I looked at each other. She was right, we had to hurry.

“How soon before they get to our block?” she asked Evan.

“Hard to tell. If they find a house that has a lot of stuff, it takes them a little longer. But since most people ran out of food weeks ago, they are usually in and out and moving on to the next house.” Evan said. “I would say no more than half an hour to be safe.”

“Then we need to be out of here before then. I don’t want them seeing us leave.” Kat said.

Carl, Evan and I worked like mad men loading up everything into the truck that we could, leaving room for both Carl and Evan in the truck bed. It was crazy but we managed to get everything in within 20 minutes, including the cats and chickens.

“Hang on, I need to get something.” Evan said as he took off for his house across the street.

He knew we were in a hurry so we started the truck and pulled through the gate to the front driveway.