SURVIVING ABE: A Climate-Fiction Novel (27 page)

"Sam, put your arm around my neck and support your upper body.  Read
y on three: one, two, three. . . ."  Slowly Sam's body rose, dripping green coolant and red blood, and together they moved across the ice to the side of the flatbed.  Andy did his best to keep his movements as steady as possible, but the inevitable jerks evoked hisses of pent up breath from Sam.  Spreading the cat litter had given traction to the slippery ice, and Andy got Sam to and on the flatbed without slipping or falling.

Jennifer finished and climbed into the cab as Andy picked up the AR he'd dropped earlier, made sure the safety was on, and then put it next to Sam.  He then climbed up to lay down beside Sam, telling Jennifer, "I'll try to keep him steady and warm, we're ready to go."

On the way up the driveway to the farmhouse she started mashing the horn buttons.  The old horn sounded like a sick cartoon roadrunner, but did the trick of alerting the household.  Reb was first out the door holding Leo in her arms.

When the truck stopped Andy jumped down with the bag of remaining cat litter and started spreading it on the walkway to the house.  When Tye came up to him Andy briefed him on the situation.

Tye called to Reb and asked her to get their medical case and prepare a spot for Sam.  Then, together, he and Andy lifted Sam off the truck's bed and started for the house.  Melissa, carrying Leo, hovered around them as they brought Sam into the house and put him on the floor near the wood-burning stove.

Reb and Melissa cut away his uniform pant leg while Tye started heating water on the
gas stove.  Knowing they would need more water Tye grabbed two buckets and headed for the original, hand-pumped well in back of the farmhouse.

Jennifer had her hands full with Leo.  Even though the boy considered Jennifer to be his best "grownup" friend he wanted to be with his parents.  He knew his dad
was hurt and his mom was crying.

Andy sat at the table and watched, feeling helpless, but not seeing anything he could do to help, other than staying out of everyone's way
.  Then he remembered he'd left the AR-15 on the bed of the truck and he went out to get it.

Walking to the truck he noticed red icicles on the underside of the flatbed.  Taking a second look he realized it was Sam's blood that had seeped between the planks on the flatbed and dripped off to color the icicles.  Inside the cab he saw the pile of captured weapons, Jennifer's shotgun, and Sam's gear; all bejeweled with shards of ice and miniature chunks of shattered safety glass.

Seeing the aftermath of frozen blood, captured firearms, and broken glass reminded him that he had shot—and probably killed—two men today.  Andy knew in his heart that this day would forever leave a mark on him.  In some way it helped to see this evidence of mayhem; it reinforced the reasons he'd been
forced
to kill another human, and it helped him adjust to the horror he felt after taking another's life.

He picked up Jennifer's shotgun, the weapon he'd just used on two men, and cleared it, putting the round back in the magazine before slinging the shotgun over his shoulder.  As he felt the physical weight of the gun he thought how light it felt compared to the mental weight of responsibility he now carried, in knowing that he might have to use it again.

Earlier Jennifer had asked him if he was ready to shoot a man;
he could assure her, now, that he wasn't.
  His ears were ringing from gunshots, his mind churning with video replays, and his second-guesses were piling up.  He needed a distraction, something to do.  He decided that the guns needed to be checked, made safe, and moved to a more secure place than the cab of the one-ton.

Aside from the AR, the pile of captured weapons consisted of two semi-automatic pistols and a bolt-action rifle.  He made sure each one had an empty chamber before carrying them to the house to a place he found in the coat closet.  He assumed the Deputies would want them when things got back to normal, if normal existed anymore.

He found Reb and Melissa still tending to Sam, with Tye providing hot water and a pile of clean towels.  He watched as Reb used a turkey baster to irrigate the wound with clean water, which started the bleeding again in the exit channel.  Sam lost consciousness at some point, due to the pain of cleaning the wound, enabling the two women to finish soon after he stopped moving.

The women were starting to re-bandage the wound when Tye stopped them.  Some discussion on treatment between Tye and the women ensued with intense voices and waving of hands before a decision could be reached.  Tye, who had successfully taken care of wounded farm animals for years, was determined to douse the wounds with antiseptic from the veterinary clinic.  The argument started when he claimed the bovine medicine worked great on cattle
, and was near magical on his own cuts and scrapes.  Reb claimed his experience wasn't proof enough the medicine would work on normal human beings, just because it worked on fossilized farmers.  Since the women didn't have any viable alternatives, soon Sam's leg was treated and bandaged with the elixir Tye recommended.

In the kitchen Andy watched Jennifer holding the backdoor open and assisting Leo inside with another bucket of water.  She told him how important the water was for his dad and how much he was helping.  That Jennifer and Leo were close was evident in how he paid attention to
her and tried to do everything she asked of him.  Since Andy considered kids to be unsurpassed in their ability to see the good and/or bad in adults, witnessing the love and respect Leo had for Jennifer, endeared her to him on a new and unexplored level; he caught himself thinking of her as the mother of his children.  Tingly feelings on his neck confirmed that the thought had made him blush.

When Tye came into the kitchen a moment later it broke the spell, and to cover his embarrassment Andy asked,  "I'm looking for things to do, I put the guns we captured in the front closet; the shotgun you brought Jennifer is in there too.  I'm sur
e the cops will want those guns, and they'll probably want to talk to me, since I shot those two men."

"My advice is to keep your mouth closed about that.  Sam will handle that when the time comes.  Go wash up and change your clothes, you look l
ike a butcher.  Then come back and start a pot of coffee, or fix something hot for all of us to eat, if you still want something to keep busy with.  Besides, Jen says she likes the way you look in the kitchen much better than seeing me in there."

"Any clothes around here that might fit me?" Andy asked.

Tye looked Andy up and down and then answered, "That will fit you, probably not, but I'll see what I can find while you're washing up."

When the tornado's roar penetrated her sleep, Tess came awake and running for the companionway, simultaneously.  She didn’t get far before crashing into the wardrobe door when the violent winds tipped Robin over 90 degrees, far enough to dip Robin's mast into the river.  Tess controlled her panic and concentrated on getting to the hatch by grabbing the teak handholds, strategically placed for rough sea conditions, and pulling herself from one to the next.  Seconds later she slid the hatch open just in time to see a debris cloud around the vortex of a tornado that angled toward the ground, near where she thought Eric's house stood—or once stood.  Tess was braced in the companionway as Robin began to right herself from the winds of the tornado.  Awe and curiosity diverted Tess's attention from her own predicament, as she watched one of the atmosphere's most violent meteorological events unfolding, terrifyingly close by.

After the
sailboat righted itself Tess noticed that Robin spun in the water; they were no longer aground.  That joy would be short-lived if Tess didn't quickly do something to prevent Robin from going aground again.  But first, she had to retrieve the secondary anchor she had tossed out of the dinghy and into the river last night.

Going forward on deck she pulled in the rode, hand over hand, until she saw the anchor's shank break the water's surface—far enough for the moment.  She wrapped the rode around a deck cleat
, leaving the anchor hanging over the side, and ran to the cockpit.  When the diesel engine started at the first turn of the key, she uttered heartfelt appreciation to everything she held dear, jerked the transmission lever, and cranked the throttle.  Shortly thereafter Robin powered into the wind, side slipping downriver, fighting to keep from being blown ashore.  Tess stood tensely at the helm using both throttle and rudder to stay in navigable water.

Minutes later the wind died down to a gusty breeze, allowing Tess to throttle back and take stock of the situation.  When she remembered the anchor hanging over the side, she stopped the boat in the middle of the channel and rushed on deck to bring it aboard and secure it.  That done she hurried back to the helm to steer Robin away from shallow water and to continue on her journey.

~~~

A blasting roar awoke Eric as his bedroom imploded around him.  Total blackness, weight, and water enveloped
him; along with a din so loud his mind could deal with little else.  After the roar's crescendo, far in the distance, he sensed something vital.  In his mind’s eye it resembled the water's surface reflection to a diver coming up for air.  He tried to reach for the surface, but he couldn't move, weight pressed on him, suffocating him.  Panic swept through his mind like a storm surge washing through him.  Every muscle in his body strained to move, and fought to push against the pinning weight, so he could gain enough room to expand his lungs and inhale.

A clatter of something falling accompanied an easing of the weight, just enough to
allow him to take small breaths without struggling for each one.  His panic subsided some when he took the first breath and realized he
could
breathe.  Eric quit moving and listened intently, irrationally hoping to hear sirens.

Howling wind and occasional rumblings of thunder were the loudest sounds he heard; beneath those in volume, he could hear water steadily dripping.  He inventoried his body parts
, checking for any pain, as he tried to move each extremity.  During this process he became convinced that he lay face down on the floor with his bed mattress on top of him.

He struggled to crawl, shouted for help, and then cried and screamed at the frustration of not being able to move.  After the wave of emotional panic had drained him of oxygen
, he felt dizzy and close to passing out.  This time, as his panic for oxygen returned, he responded by shutting down everything that distracted him from taking small, steady breaths.

After a time he accepted being physically immobilized and quit trying to move, and thinking of new ways of trying to move.  He wondered what would ultimately kill him.  Even though he wasn't dead yet, he knew the final appointment he would ever have had been moved up on his agenda.

From the sound of the roar and his house falling in on him he figured a tornado had come close to suffocating him, and still might if more weight shifted onto him.  Drowning, or hypothermia, now looked more likely.  The carpet beneath him felt wet and cold, he knew he would be the same temperature soon.  Of the front-runners for the final cause of death, he hoped for hypothermia.  Just giving into sleep and not waking up sounded like an okay way to die, considering how the other two would feel.

He wondered if the tornado had hit Tess and her boat.  Thinking back he couldn’t recall any statistics of tornados hitting boats, or how they faired, but he didn't think her chances were as good as his; which sucked at the moment.

Being literally under his deathbed—while figuratively on it—he thought about the singularity, which he had always believed would happen in his lifetime.  It damn sure needed to hurry up.

Andy emerged from the bathroom dressed in a pair of bib overalls, with the straps let out all the way, worn over a skin-tight sweatshirt.  Trading his clothes, saturated with the mix of blood and coolant, for clean and dry clothing felt great; and he had no complaints about the fit.

As Andy approached the family room he saw that Reb and Melissa were still at Sam's side.  Deciding not to intrude on their vigil, he detoured into the kitchen and got a pot of coffee brewing while he looked at what ingredients were available to put together a meal.  To his surprise he found two frozen pizzas in the freezer, and he figured everyone would like pizza and coffee on an exceptionally cold day.  In the pantry he found some chips and cookies to add to the offerings.

Startled at first when a pair of small, feminine hands encircled his waist, and then started digging into the box of cookies he held, Andy felt the warmth of Jennifer's body on his back and relaxed a little.  "Stealing cookies
, I see," she whispered conspiratorially.

"Aiding and abetting
, as it turns out," he said and turned to face her.

"You look a little worried," she said between bites of a cookie.

"I'm fine, just thinking about what happened."

"Please, don't make it bigger than it is.  You defended yourself and others when fired upon, while trying to stop a crime in progress.  Everyone is proud of what you did, so quit hiding in here with the comfort food," Jennifer said.

"Easier said than done.  Things are happening that I never imagined would happen to a nerd like me."

"Nerd?  Since the day you rode into my life it's been one adrenalin rush after another, it's becoming addictive."

"Here, feed your cravings with another chocolate chip cookie, there's fresh coffee to go with it."  Andy put a cookie in her mouth and stepped out of the pantry.

Reb came into the kitchen, "Thought I smelled fresh coffee, and what is that in the oven?"

"The pizza!"  Andy rushed to the oven to look in and then stood up wiping his brow.  "I put that in for everyone to snack on and then got distracted and forgot about it."

"What on
Earth
could be distracting around here?" Reb asked as she poured a cup of coffee.

~~~

During the day Sam drifted in and out of sleep, each time he came around a cup of lukewarm chicken broth appeared under his nose, accompanied with encouragements to drink.  With warmth, rest, and what liquids he got down while awake, his color had improved by midafternoon.  Tye assured everyone Sam was on the mend and would soon be issuing orders, so everyone should get some rest while they could.  Reb told him to go clean corrals, but they all wanted to believe his prognosis.

A short while later
a Deputy that everyone, except Andy, personally knew drove up to the house.  As soon as he stopped and got out of his vehicle Melissa came out of the house to meet him, "Ben, I'm so glad you came.  Sam's been shot, he's awake right now, but hurry before he drifts off."

On the way in the Deputy said hello to everyone, and told Andy he knew of him by reputation from the night Jeff had attacked him, then he went over to Sam.

"Hey Buddy, how you doing?" Ben asked.

"Other than being doctored by a wannabe veterinarian daubing me with cow dope, I'm fine," Sam said with a weak smile.

"Come to think of it you do smell like my dog did when I got him back from the vet for getting his balls chopped off . . . same look on your face too.  They do that to you?"

"I know it's hard to believe the bastards missed su
ch big targets, but they did.  They shot me in the leg before I was even out of the vehicle, just opened fire as soon as I pulled up."

"You get those two guys Andy and Jen left handcuffed?" Tye asked.

"I found two dead bodies with gang tattoos by a shot up pickup in the intersection. Other than Sam's patrol unit, that's all I found.  If you left two others there, they're gone now," Ben said.

"Yesterday morning the flatbed ran out of gas near the intersection and was broken into and robbed before we could g
o back to get it.  Then Sam gets attacked near the same spot. I suspect those guys weren't alone, and their buddies rescued them," Tye said.

"As far as we know this is the work of a gang from Dallas/Fort Worth that's been capitalizing on the power outage, and this damned ice storm, to raid small rural towns.  Opportunistic bastards know that with
the power grid and communications not working, laws are harder to enforce.  They've been robbing businesses, homes, vehicles, and anything else they want.  Sam most likely ran into part of the gang as they were regrouping for another raid.  They could be anywhere by now," Ben said.

"You would think people would pull together in the middle of a natural disaster, is this when things start to get better or worse?" Tye asked.

"In this county things are getting worse, as I imagine it is elsewhere; the power has been off more than 36 hours.  This so-called Abe storm is affecting such a wide area that emergency resources are spread too thin to be of much help from Dallas eastward.  We're battling ice here, to the north they're battling snow, and that's on top of days of flooding.  Unless the static on the radios clears up and the power comes back on, it's not looking good for the next week or two."

Jennifer came into the room with Leo after the adult conversation was over.  He made a beeline to the platter of cookies to grab another and looked at Jennifer at the last second.  "Just one more Leo.  Grandma Reb has dinner for you coming later," she said.

Melissa came to Jennifer's aid and took over with Leo.  "What are we going to do?  Is there a helicopter to take Sam to a hospital?" she asked Ben.

"I want to go in the heli-o-copter," Leo said.

"Sorry honey, but there is only room for Daddy, if we can get one.  As soon as Daddy gets better he'll take you for a ride in the helicopter, I promise.  We are going to get one, aren't we?"

"Our
local hospital is quickly becoming a morgue.  With no power, low medicine/medical supplies, and a skeleton crew coming to work, only the severely sick and injured are showing up there to die.  Sam is much better off right here, Melissa," Ben said.

"I agree, we've treated our own ailing family around here for many years.  We'll watch Sam
, and if he takes a turn for the worse we can get a retired doctor that lives between here and town to look at him," Tye said.

"
If it's okay with you, Tye, I'd like to bring my fifth-wheel and family out here.  We got flooded out of our home and we're parked at the Sheriff's Office, but the parking lot is beginning to flood.  I'd like to move my family to a safer place; plus I could be here to help if that gang decides to retaliate," Ben said.

"Y
ou and your family are welcome here, and I appreciate your help," Tye said.

"Sure glad Sam told me where he was headed, I'll be back as soon as possible
.  There is one other deputy, Wes, with his family parked in that lot.  If he hasn't found a place to go to, would you mind if I mentioned your place to him?  We have our own RVs and supplies, we just need a dry place to set up a camp that's defendable."

"I would never say no to the County's finest. 
Tell Deputy Wes he and his family are welcome to stay," Tye said.

"Ben, you be careful.
Sam got ambushed trying to get from here into town," Melissa said as the group walked Ben out to his vehicle.  They watched his fishtailing vehicle as he tried to gain speed while driving away on the icy road.

As silence descended on the group a cold north wind chilled the thin-blooded East Texans and chased everyone back into the house. 
Tye and Andy helped Sam move from the floor to the couch.  Jennifer set up a small cot for Leo in the spare bedroom that he would share with his parents. Reb busily cleaned the area where Sam had rested, trying to erase anything that would remind Leo of the trauma his father had suffered. While that took place Melissa took Leo into the bedroom putting him down for a nap.

Tye invited Andy to go with him to check on the livestock and availability of water.  They took the chained up one-ton and went through the same gate Andy earlier had left
open, then they crossed the open field toward a tree line.  Tye turned to Andy, "Hope you don't get the wrong impression about us from all the trouble and cold weather.  Around here it's just the opposite most of the time; normally it's too hot to get excited or cause trouble."

"Your daughter thinks I brought trouble with me when I rode in."

"She likes to stir the pot, just to see what she can scrape up.  I'm used to it since her mother does the same thing—and passed it on to Jen."

"Speaking of scraping up things, something just came to mind I think I should mention."

"Shoot."

"Being an outsider I defer to local knowledge, but I'm worried.  If those two men
that escaped are still around, we better make this a quick trip, they may want revenge."

Tye thought fo
r only a second before deciding. "We need to get back to the house in case you're right. I can see the cows from here and they look fine for the moment.  Soon as Ben and the other Deputy arrive we'll move them up next to the house to ward off any two legged predators," he said as he turned the truck around.

"There's one other thing,"

"Jen?"

"How did you know?"

"You two are like watching what Reb calls a chick flick.  What are you going to do about it?"

"She told me her family's attitude toward me is very important to her."

"Not as important as we'd like sometimes, but I think we have more immediate problems than figuring out how females think; look there, the shop is burning."

"We need to be careful, it could be a diversion to draw us out," Andy said as they sped toward the farmhouse and outbuildings.

"We won't be able to do much to put out the fire, so I'm heading for the house and praying we are in time," Tye said.

Before Tye brought the one-ton to a stop Andy jumped out and ran for the house.  He heard a female voice scream, "NO ANDY," as he neared the front porch.  During his split second of hesitation at the words of warning a shadow moved into his peripheral vision.  Icy-footing negated his evasive lunge, and he felt a blow to his neck and shoulder that knocked him reeling into the side of the house.

One of the men he had handcuffed earlier came toward him with a shovel, winding up for another blow.  The icy-footing came into play again when the attacker slipped with the effort he'd put into his swing.  Andy pushed off the wall and launched himself under the shovel, taking the man to the ground and slamming his head on the ice.  Andy got to his feet, grabbed the shovel, and swung to meet the man's oncoming rush, catching him full in the face.  The man landed face down on the ice.  Andy delivered another blow to the man's head; simultaneously hearing the sound of a gunshot, close enough for him to feel the percussion of it.

He turned to see an axe skidding across the ice, away from the second man who was on the frozen ground a few feet away, his
extremities jerking in the throes of death.  Steam came from a bloody, hand-sized area of his chest—destroyed by buckshot.

Looking up from what had been a person intent on his death, he saw Jennifer standing on the front step, pumping a fresh round into the chamber of her shotgun
, as Tye arrived to stand beside her, likewise armed.  The light from the burning shop reflecting off the armed father-daughter duo, standing their ground in front of the family homestead, made an image so dramatic Andy knew he would take it to his grave, which seemed to be getting closer by decades each day.

Tye shouted to Reb and Melissa, when he saw tousle-headed Leo
just inside the front door, warning the women not to come outside with the boy.  He then turned to Andy and asked, "Are you hurt?"

"My head's bleeding, but
I'm okay otherwise.  What can we do about your shop?"

"Nothing, any effort would be but a symbolic gesture at this point.  We'll have to let it burn out by itself."

"With Leo here we need to do something with these bodies, put them in the shed maybe?" Jennifer asked.

Neither Tye nor Andy could think of anything to say
, so they turned to do as she suggested.  Both of the attackers were dead, they hauled the bodies to the shed and closed the door.

By the time they got back to the house Reb was finishing the preparations
to treat Andy.  Melissa and Reb cleaned the gash and shaved the hair around it, so the butterfly bandages would have a chance of holding it together.  Then Tye daubed on cow dope, and Jennifer held Leo while they both peered at the operation with great interest.

"Welcome to Tye's veterinary clinic where even the studs among us get treated like heifers," Sam said.

"You mind your manners, Bub," Melissa told Sam.

When Sam didn't have a ready reply Andy jumped in and asked S
am, "Maybe Ben was right, you sure your junk's intact?"

Before Sam could answer Andy yelped in pain, "That's not too tight is it?" Reb asked with a smile as she tied a bandage around his head.