Final Panic

5

Aly wasn’t feeling that well. But she was better than she had been.

The return of her uncle was a huge surprise. Honestly, she’d assumed he was dead.

He’d just come into her room again, after having stepped outside with Jim.

“You don’t smell like alcohol,” said Aly, not able to contain the surprise in her voice.

Her uncle Jordan laughed. His open mouth was full of food. He had a couple packets of crackers that he was jamming into his mouth as fast as he could.

“Careful,” said Aly. “We don’t have an endless supply of those, you know.”

“I haven’t eaten in days,” said Jordan. “I’m about to pass out from hunger.”

“Did you quit drinking or something? You don’t sound drunk.”

“Something like that,” said Jordan, shrugging his shoulders. “You know how it goes.”

“I don’t,” said Aly, her voice sounding harsh.

But she didn’t blame herself. Jordan had been nothing but a problem for her family since she could remember. They’d been so many frantic midnight phone calls, so many trips to the emergency room. So many family crises that never seemed to resolve, no matter how much effort her mother and father put in. More than she could count.

Aly watched from her bed as her uncle put his muddy shoes up on the edge of the bed, instantly dirtying the sheets with mud and filth.

“Make yourself comfortable, why don’t you?” said Aly.

“Hey, it’s my house,” said Jordan.

“What, are you going to kick us out?”

“Well, your husband keeps talking about some kind of apocalypse thing. So I don’t think I can in these circumstances.”

“But you would otherwise?”

“What difference does it make?” said Jordan, his mouth still full of crackers.

There were cuts and scrapes on his face. There was dirt in his overgrown hair.

He looked disgusting.

“Why don’t you go take a bath in the lake or something?” said Aly.

“The lake? I think I’ll take a shower, like a normal person.”

“Maybe you didn’t catch on yet, but nothing works.”

“The shower doesn’t work?”

Aly shook her head.

There was silence in the room for a few moments.

“How’s your mother doing?” said Jordan. “I kept meaning to call her…”

“She’s dead,” said Aly.

“Dead?”

Aly said nothing. She’d already told him. She didn’t see the need to keep repeating herself.

“Wow,” said Jordan.

A man appeared in the doorway. He wore a cop uniform.

“You got any more of that beef jerky here?” he said. His mouth was also full. It looked like sardines, maybe.

Aly just looked at her uncle for an explanation.

What was that guy doing, eating all their food? A complete stranger.

If she’d been feeling more like herself, she would have done something about it.

But each new worrying thought seemed to make her feel weaker. She didn’t, after all, think that she could even get out of bed.

“That’s Andy. He’s going to be staying with us,” said Jordan. “I already talked to your husband about it.”

“And he was OK with it?”

Jordan nodded. “Well, not really. But it’s my house.”

“What about the jerky?” said Andy.

Aly shook her head. “We’ve got to save that,” she said. “We’re on tight rations. We don’t just go eating everything in sight when we feel like it. It’s not like we’re going to get that food again.”

“Lighten up,” said Jordan. “We’re both starving. What? You want us to drop dead?”

“Where’s Jim?”

Jordan shrugged. “I don’t know. Went off to talk to some RV people or something.”

“Well,” said Aly, after a long pause. “You know, I didn’t really expect to see you again.”

“I’ve always been the black sheep of the family. Your mother always treated me like dirt.”

“That’s not true…” said Aly, interrupting him.

But he continued. “But keep in mind. This is my house. You’re my guest here. So things are going to go the way I want them to go. And I say that our guest here, this valiant policeman, well, he can eat as much as he wants.”

“But you don’t even understand what’s going on,” said Aly.

She started to explain about the EMP, about how everything was down. All the systems.

“Everything?”

“Yeah,” said Aly. “It was hard for me to believe at first, too. But that’s the way it is.”

“I’m sure it’ll all come back on,” said her uncle.

“That way of thinking is going to get us killed,” said Aly. “If things keep sliding in the direction they’ve been sliding, we’re going to be lucky to be alive. And we can’t expect the power to suddenly come back on.”

“I don’t know,” said Jordan. “Things always have a way of working out.”

“That kind of attitude could be the death of us all.”

“You sound so much like your mother.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” said Aly.

“I don’t mean to interrupt this little family drama,” said Andy the cop. “But what’s been going on around here? The lake, I mean. It was crazy back in Rochester. I barely got out alive.”

“Why aren’t you with the force there?” said Aly.

He waved his hand. “It’s a long story,” he said. “For another time. Tell me what’s been going on here.”

Aly told him briefly about the Carpenters, how she’d been shot, and the battle that had taken place with them.

“And nothing else happened? No one else is around here? No gangs? No police?”

Aly shook her head. “We’ve been lucky so far.”

“Hey!” shouted a male voice from outside the bedroom.

Aly heard the front door squeaking on its hinges. It took her a second to realize it was Rob’s voice.

“Rob?” she called out.

Rob appeared in the doorway, sweating from head to toe. His hair, a little longer than he normally kept it, was drenched and plastered against his forehead. In another context, his appearance would have been funny.

But now, it made her heart leap with fear.

“What is it?” she said.

All heads were turned, facing Rob.

“There’s someone out there,” he said. “Someone with a gun.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Where’s Jim? And Jessica?”

“They’re off to investigate some RV thing.”

“Shit,” muttered Rob.

“Well,” said Jordan, standing up and tapping Andy the cop on the arm. “You’re the cop. Why don’t you get out there and see what’s going on? Give him your gun, Rob.”

Rob shook his head. “No way,” he said.

“Well, how’s he going to defend us without a sidearm? As I understand it, his was taken in the line of duty.”

“Uh, that’s right,” said Andy, looking nervous. “Look, I don’t think going out there in uniform is the best approach. Maybe he’ll just leave.”

“What?” said Jordan. “What happened to bravery and all that? Bravery in the line of fire?”

“Well, it’s just that…”

There was a loud knock at the door.

“Anyone in there?” came a rough, male voice.

“He’s here,” whispered Rob.

Jordan didn’t sound nervous. He wasn’t talking like he was nervous, but when Aly glanced at him, she saw that he was sweating. Beads of perspiration had accumulated on his brow. And his hand, which he was trying to conceal close to his body, was shaking almost violently.

“I’ll deal with this,” said Rob, taking a deep breath and turning back around to head out of the room.