“It’s Darla.”
“Do you want me to bury your brother too?”
She nodded. “Yes, I’ll help dig.”
They had a nice little service for everyone, including Thomas. Turns out when it came to God, Robert Simpson had lots to say. He’d been a church elder for years. He offered a beautiful eulogy for everyone and then prayed a prayer that brought tears to all the mourners, even Joselin.
They then buried the bodies in the four graves they had dug. Afterward, Wilber had everyone come inside and sit down so he could talk to them.
“Here’s the deal,” Wilber opened, looking at all who were gathered around their dining room table, lit by a dozen or so candles. “This is a horrible lot we’ve all inherited, but it’s about to get a lot worse. Those two clouds you saw were from nuclear power plants only a few miles from here. Both plants I’m pretty sure have gone to meltdown, just like Chernobyl. An uncountable amount of radiation is being sent into our atmosphere and, although the jet streams blow it away from us, the radiation will make its way to this ranch within a week or two. Then, I probably don’t have to tell you, if we’re still here, we will all die horrible deaths.”
He paused to make sure everyone had followed along. “Now it’s true, I have a lot of food and water here, but we cannot stay here any longer. Instead, tomorrow morning, Olivia and I will be leaving this ranch and walking to New Mexico, to my brother’s ranch there. You are all welcome to join us. I figure, if we can maintain a decent pace, it’ll take us about ninety days. Honestly, I cannot promise any of us will make it there, but if we do, it’ll be a safe place. There’s a natural canyon that would be easy to protect, so I feel right sayin’ it’ll be safe. There is plenty of game and natural water there. It’s beautiful and we all have an open invitation. Who would like to come?”
The group around the table was silent for a long time. Robert and Emma held hands while looking at each other, before Robert turned and spoke to Wilber and then the group. “We really appreciate the offer, but we have to decline. If it’s all right with you, we would like to stay here our remaining days.” He squeezed his wife’s hand and kissed her.
“You know what that means?” Wilber asked the obvious.
“Of course, but you know that Emma’s time is coming pretty soon. The cancer is back strong, without the chemotherapy.” He looked to Doc Reynolds, who held his head down, not wanting to admit that he was losing another patient. “Without my wife, I’m not too interested in living any longer in this world. I’ll take my chances if it is all the same to you.”
Olivia had already arisen from the table and draped herself over Emma.
“Okay.” Wilber knew he wouldn’t change their minds. “Anyone else?”
“We’re in,” Steve said, looking at Darla and holding her hand.
“Joselin, you’re coming too, right?” Darla looked at a concerned face and reached out with her other hand.
“You sure I’m not a third wheel?” she asked.
“No!” Steve answered quickly. “That makes us three,” he said with confidence.
Joselin wore a wide grin.
“Doc, am I goin’ to have to hog-tie you to make you come?” Wilber asked.
Doc looked at Emma and then Robert and finally Wilber. “Won’t be necessary. I’ll come.”
“Okay, then it’s settled. I know you’re tired, but let’s get packed right now, while my beautiful wife cooks us some grub. Deal?”
They worked together, piling supplies on the porch and then stopping for dinner. There was much conversation, as they compared their life stories, cried, and even laughed a little before calling it a night. The next day was going to be the start of a very long and most likely difficult journey.
The Teacher endured a disquieted sleep, often stirring and dreaming. He woke from the last dream sitting up in his bed, bathed in sweat and screaming. It had been first magical and then disturbing. He was walking west with hundreds of followers. When they came to the mountains, he looked and found a three-pointed mountain with a city below. This city had a dome over it and sparkled in the sunlight, and then he had another dream. Two radioactive clouds descended on the town he was in, while the townspeople were praying to him. The clouds burned everyone’s skin, causing much pain and suffering. Many scratched at their faces, opening up wounds and scraping flaps of skin, blood dripping and skin flopping onto the pavement below them, in a desperate attempt to stop the itch. The toxic clouds began asphyxiating everyone, including the Teacher. Just before he died, he woke up.
John rushed into his bedroom. He’d taken over since Thomas’s disappearance. “Teacher, are you all right?”
Breathing heavily, Paul responded, “Yes, I’m fine, John. In fact, God just spoke to me. We need to leave Fossil Ridge this morning.”
“Where will we go, Teacher?” As the first to hear of the latest revelation, John was understandably excited—and not a little nervous.
“We are going west, to a sanctuary in Colorado, to a place called Shicada.”
Thompson Journal Entry
Continued…
Where you will go
If we are separated and you must bug out of Rocky Point, I have set up two places for you to go:
Mexico Ranch
I have a ranch in northern Mexico; about eight hours’ drive from Rocky Point. It is fully stocked with enough food and supplies for eight people to hold out for two years or longer. There is a natural water supply, and an abundance of wildlife to hunt. However, this is not the ultimate place for you to go. It is a stopping off point, perfect if you need to stop for days, weeks, etc. It is not a long-term solution.
So, if you are able to make the long journey, I would go to this place instead:
Cicada
If the world as we know it ends tomorrow, you should plan on going to Cicada. As you know, I have been planning for the world’s end my entire adult life, but I personally cannot plan for everything, although I certainly have tried. It also helps that I have almost unlimited resources.
Cicada was a project started by my great-grandfather, Russell Thompson, as a refuge for humanity in the event of an apocalypse. He never realized his dream for some of the reasons discussed in this journal. When I took over the project, I decided to bring in the best scientific minds from different fields so that together, when the apocalypse did happen, Cicada would be humanity’s best hope for survival.
Either this journal or my presence will be your ticket to entry. Once there, your family and whomever you bring with you will be safe.
50.
Adios
Their work was done solemnly and quietly, packing the Blazer and preparing themselves for what all knew would be a long and arduous journey. Before deciding on their course of action, they reviewed the journal and map together and discussed the merits of going to Cicada via Max’s ranch, versus the longer distance to Cicada straight north and then through Tucson. The journey to Max’s ranch and then on to Cicada was shorter, but there were greater negatives to this route: they would have to leave eventually, but far more worrisome was the long stretch spent in Mexico. It was agreed that their safest bet was to avoid the hundreds of miles of potential cartel members they might run into in Mexico and instead take the quickest route out of Mexico even though it meant more miles to drive overall—mostly in the US.