He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of her. Too much happened, too fast. Nor did he think of his mother and niece. They were outside of a major city as well. Hopefully they were fine. Hopefully they knew what to do. His mother was an exceptionally strong woman. She of all people would know how to survive. He didn’t give much thought to his ex-wife, or where she was, not that he didn’t care, but Regis didn’t place her top of his priority.
Mark snapped his finger. “Rege, you with me? Are you really thinking about that?”
“No.” Regis shook his head. “I mean I’m thinking about it, but no, she wouldn’t put us on that flight, unless she was saving our lives.”
Mark looked curiously at him. “Rege, honestly, I’m a little confused here. Do you know anything? I mean, I figured, key words, fall out, decontamination and that tidbit about seven hundred missiles was pretty foretelling. How the heck did we end up crashing in Colorado?”
“There’s this thing called COGCON, it’s the…”
“Continuity of government,” Mark winked. “I listened to Dad.”
“Good, well, you don’t need me to explain. Anyhow, we ended up on a plane part of COGCON. I guess it was evacuating essential personnel, families, there weren’t enough soldiers on the flight to be a deployment. We were supposed to land in New Mexico, I’m betting the war started earlier than they expected.”
“This all had to be last minute maybe. Best they could do for folks in the area. Which makes sense why they were buying seats.”
Regis nodded. “Exactly. Securing lives while leaving the others behind.”
“How did you find out?”
“That soldier that came for us. He told me. He was a mess,” Regis said. “A barrel of nerves. He confided in me.”
“No shit? Man, he really took a chance doing that. I mean, that’s classified information.”
“Yeah, but what difference did it make? We were in the air. We’d find out soon enough.”
“Dude, we survived a nuke and a plane crash, how lucky are we?”
Regis shook his head. “We’re in the middle of all out war, nuclear war, I wouldn’t say we’re lucky.”
“Yeah, we are.” Mark nodded. “I’ll keep reminding you of that.”
“I don’t doubt you will. However…” Regis said. “We were lucky to be on that flight. I mean that was lucky.”
“Nah that was the only part that wasn’t luck.”
“How do you figure?” Regis asked. “The plane was an evacuation plane.”
“Exactly. We were meant to be on that plane.”
“Why do you say that?” Regis asked.
“Think about it. One word,” Mark said. “Dad.”
GROUND ZERO CITIZEN – Four
The underground garage had an ‘L’ shaped driveway. The first part was the steeper slope where a wall marked the turn to more gradual ramp into the first level.
Every step Terrence took down that driveway, he kept envisioning those nuclear explosions. They were haunting to watch as they burned and see how quickly a rising glow of orange formed around the skyline.
It was the end of the world as he knew it. Terrence was frightened. Never in his life had he had so much uncertainty of what to do next, as he did walking back down that ramp.
There was no doubt, Terrence was injured. His body slammed pretty hard into the wall and his back stung some. It burned like the time he was at the beach too long and his shoulders took in too much sun.
The last he knew his family was fine, it was only a few minutes earlier, there was no reason to believe otherwise. He had given the car a shove and watched it make a tight turn and scrape against the wall. It as an older model, if his wife did indeed slide into the driver’s seat, then she was able to pump the brakes, or turn to avoid crashing. None of that crossed his mind until he was returning to them. Perhaps justifying in his mind why he ran out to see the explosion, rather than run to them.
Just as he made it mid way down the ramp, he saw his car. As he suspected his family was fine. Macy stood outside the car, beside the open rear door. He clearly saw his daughters huddled around his mother. The car had collided into some parked cars, but it didn’t look too damaged. That was a good thing, they would need a place to sleep.
As soon as they spotted him, his family ran to him.
Terrence cringed as their arms wrapped tightly around him. His wife to one side, his mother to the other, both daughters grasping for his waist. He didn’t let them see him cringe, because he didn’t want them to know he was hurt.
“My God, Terrence, I thought I lost you,” Macy held tighter. “I looked back and all I saw were things blowing in, but no you.”
“I’m fine,” Terrance kissed the top of her head.
“Did you see anything?” his mother asked. “Was it a nuclear warhead?”
“It was three.”
Macy gasped and stepped back. “Three? There was three? Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Terrence nodded. “Can we…” he moved from his family’s embrace. “Can we just take a moment? I need a minute. I have to catch my breath. Then I need to try to come up with a plan.”
“We’re alive,” Macy said. “Isn’t that enough of a plan for now?”
“No, it’s not. We weren’t expecting this, not today, not tomorrow and certainly not in our lifetime.” More than getting his head straight, Terrence was injured, and he needed to stop for that. As much as he needed to assess the situation, he needed to assess his body.
“Baby, you’re bleeding.” Macy reached up to his cheek.
“I’m fine.” He pulled her hand away.
“No, you’re not. Let me get you some water.”
Terrence wasn’t going to argue with that, not at first and then he finally noticed. They weren’t the only people in that garage. “Mace,” he called her name as she headed to the car. “Stop.”
She tilted her head with a curious look and walked back to him. “I need to get your head clean.”
Terrence moistened his sore and bleeding lips, lifted his eyes, peered around then lowered his head toward her ear. “Grab the partial bottle from the front seat and use it sparingly.”
“But, Terrence we…”
“Mace.” His whisper was firm, and he shifted his eyes so she could see he was looking around. “Get the half empty one only.”
Macy nodded her understanding and went back to the car.
Terrence had his family’s well being and survival to think about. They were surrounded by terrified strangers.
He didn’t know these people, or what kind of situation they had placed themselves in. Until he figured it out, or attempted to, he wasn’t showing his hand.
Terrance and his family may not have been the only ones who sought shelter in that garage, but until he knew better, he wasn’t taking a chance of being the only person down there with a car full of survival supplies.
After he got his head together, dabbed his wounds sparingly with water, put on a shirt and used that tiny square clean up wipe from Barbeque Bill’s to wipe his face, Terrence took in his surroundings. Macy, his mother, and his daughters, Mylena and Kira, stayed in the car, at Terrence’s request. Just until he could figure out the next step.
He knew very little about nuclear weapons, only the knowledge he gained from movies and so forth. He knew there was radiation, that it was dangerous and they couldn’t be out in the streets, but for how long?