Above the Hush Read online

  Shane looked at the house. “I get that.”

  “Look,” West said. “We’re here now. It’s the fear of the unknown, it’s fear of what you’ll see. You have to go in there eventually but … why don’t I go in first. I go in so I can prepare you. Will that help?”

  “That … that would be amazing. Just knowing what I am walking into …”

  “Say no more.” West held up his hand. “This way I can prepare you.”

  “Thank you.”

  West gave a single nod and turned toward the house.

  I watched as he walked inside and closed the door. I stood on the lawn with Shane and said nothing. I imagined West walking through my home, seeing Ken, finding Molly. Coming out to tell me what he found.

  A few minutes later West walked out, closing the door.

  My heart raced so fast and hard, the beating filled my ears.

  Shane put his arm around my shoulder for strength as West neared us.

  Perplexed.

  That was the best way I could think of to describe the look on West’s face. Perplexed.

  The air felt thick and I struggled to breathe normal, every bit of me shook.

  “So, uh …” West paused to scratch his head. “They aren’t there.”

  Stop.

  I literally felt my heart stop and all the air I had been breathing in rushed out with a single word, “What?”

  “They… they ... aren’t there,” West said nervously. “I looked. You can look. No bodies. Nothing. No one is in the house.”

  “How ... how can that be?” I asked.

  “Would they go somewhere else on Friday?” Shane asked. “Maybe visit family.”

  “No. The chairs are set up. Friday night lawn talks,” I said. “The car is still …” I turned to look at the driveway and paused. “Oh my God.”

  Sounding panicked, Shane asked. “What’s wrong.”

  I shook my head then pointed to the police tape. “Oh my God, I wasn’t thinking. The utility guy. The one that died right here Friday, blew the transformer.”

  West closed his eyes. “You had no power.”

  “We had no power.”

  “No electricity” Shane said. “No means to send the current.”

  “They didn’t die.” I smiled then the smile dropped. “So where are they?”

  16 – RACKET

  Despite being certain that Ken and Molly were alive and just gone, I still had to see for myself. Admittedly, it was nerve wracking, checking every corner, closet, even under the beds.

  Like West had said, they were nowhere to be found.

  Neither were the diapers, wipes, bottles and toddler snacks. The entire carton of cigarettes Ken had purchased and left on the counter were gone, as well as the bottle of Jim Beam.

  After confirming they weren’t in the house, I started looking for what else was missing.

  A few clothing items, a couple pictures, it seemed Ken took what he could carry in a backpack or duffel bag. The pack and play was in the living room open with a blanket, so wherever he went he couldn’t take much.

  There was so much left behind, but one thing wasn’t … a note.

  That infuriated me. Had it been me and Molly leaving, I would have left word.

  Now not only was my son was missing, I was placed in the position where I had to find Ken and Molly as well.

  “Nothing,” West announced after he had checked the neighborhood with Shane. “Not a single person or body.”

  “On this street or next,” Shane said. “Only body we saw was in a car at the other end of the street. Looks like they were hit with the current and veered into a house. How about here?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “He took stuff. Not a lot.”

  “It seems the whole neighborhood left in a rush,” Shane said. “Okay you know your husband. What would his priority be?’

  “To get Molly safe. Then he’d worry about me.”

  “He obviously took her to safety. The whole neighborhood went,” Shane said. “That’s a large group of people so we should have no problem finding them.”

  “What about your son?” West asked. “Any indication he was here?”

  I shook my head. “None. I have places to look for him. He didn’t have his own apartment. He slept at different places. But it was always one of five places in town.”

  “That’s a first step,” West said. “It’s getting dark, so first thing in the morning we look at those places. Beyond that, we need a plan.”

  “If it were me,” Shane said. “And I left my mom and this thing happened, the first thing I’d do would be to go find her. I think he headed back to Gridlock.”

  “If he’s still alive,” I said.

  “Let’s operate on the assumption that he is,” suggested Shane.

  “Thank you.” I looked at them both. “Thank you guys so much.”

  West placed his hand on my arm. “Right now, we can all breathe easier and relax. Nothing we can do until sunup. Let’s make the best of this night and get the rest we will need.”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  I was home and it was different from staying in the church. I had a level of comfort being here. I knew where everything was and what I had. Using the grill I heated us a nice supper and made coffee with the bottled water.

  There was still water left in my tank, although it was cold, I used it to wash. It felt good to get clean and the cold water was a relief in the heat.

  After dinner, I started the task of packing items and writing the note in case Ken returned or Michael showed up. I listed the addresses of the places we would hit in town to look for Michael and gave them to West who seemed to be focused on plotting our course.

  He was obsessed with the maps and spent an unusual amount of time looking at them at the dining room table and marking them. But I figured it was his way of not being bored.

  We used candles for lighting, but had to keep the windows open to bring in some sort of air. A breeze started after ten pm, but it wasn’t enough for a comfortable temperature for sleeping.

  I thought about lying in bed, but the heat on the second floor was stifling.

  It probably was that way Friday night without power. Hence why the bed was untouched, Ken and the baby probably slept in the living room.

  However, the living room was too warm for me to sleep. Shane was crashed on the sofa, it didn’t bother him. I considered placing a lounge chair on the back porch and sleeping there. There was one in the garage, I’d go and grab it.

  I did more meandering around my house than anything else. Finding things to do while fighting the million thoughts that raced through my mind. There was nothing left to do but try to rest, I couldn’t pack anymore, it was too dark.

  I blew out the candle in the living room and walked to the dining room where West was seated with a couple candles.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey.” He looked up.

  “I’m gonna try to sleep on the back porch. It’s too hot in here.”

  “Tell me about it.” He lifted his water and took a sip.

  I sat down at the table, a kid’s marker set was there. “Coloring?” I asked.

  “You can say that.”

  My eyes shifted to the map. He had a ton of little red dots with circles around them. Next to the map he had a compass. Not one used to determine north or south, the kind used in school to make a perfect circle. “Where did you get that?” I asked.

  “I always have one with my maps.” He smiled.

  “Listen, West,” I folded my hands on the table. “I want to thank you. I am really fortunate to have you and Shane helping me.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said, focused on marking the map. “But what else do we have to do?”

  “Look for family, maybe.”

  He peered up to me briefly. “For me no. None to look for. I’m glad to be here.”

  I noticed he went right back to work on the map. “You are really working hard on charting our course.
”

  “It’s more me working from memory.”

  I didn’t understand what he meant by that. “Memory?”

  He set down his pen. “Audrey, we are going to look for your family. But we may have a bigger problem to deal …”

  He stopped talking and my attention was quickly diverted from our conversation when I heard it.

  It sounded like a lawn mower starting and it transitioned into a steady hum.

  In the dead quiet of night it was loud.

  I jumped up at the same time as West and raced out of the dining room.

  Shane sat up on the couch. “What was that?”

  “Sounds like a generator,” West said.

  Shane bolted from the couch and we all ran outside.

  The sound was louder and then it doubled with another hum. They came from our right. Sure enough, three doors up, a generator was perched in a red wagon on the front lawn, a power cord ran to the home of Roy.

  Shane looked at the generator. “Would that count as electricity?”

  “Maybe not as much as what it’s connected to,” West said.

  “We should shut it down,” Shane said.

  “Go on.” West nodded.

  “You do it.”

  “No you.”

  I reached down and hit the switch, jumping back in fear after touching it.

  “What the hell! Fifteen minutes of air conditioning that’s all I want!” Roy yelled from the house. A few thumps of footsteps and the front door flew open. “What in the world is …” he stopped cold and looked right at me. “Audrey, is that you?”

  “My God, Roy, you’re alive.” I stepped to him. “Where is everyone?”

  “What?” he blasted.

  I laughed at his not hearing me, but it was more of a chuckle of relief. I raced to him and hugged him. He was alive and probably had the answers that I needed.

  17 – CONTACT

  After a snap and a pop, the foam of the beer seeped out of the can and I quickly sucked it up. It wasn’t ice cold, but it wasn’t warm, it was refreshing.

  West had asked him at least three times if he knew what was going on, but Roy insisted on getting those beverages.

  “Drink up,” Roy said. “I had them in the basement commode so they’re chilled.” He handed a beer to Shane and West as we sat on his front porch.

  “Where were you?” I asked. “I’ve been here over a day.”

  “What?”

  I spoke louder. “I said where were you? I didn’t see you!”

  “Oh. I went out to get that generator from Ace. It was too hot in the house, I figured fifteen minutes, I’d risk it.”

  “I was out there all last night! All day! Did you see me?”

  “I saw you last night in the chair. Thought you were a dead body. Seen so many I didn’t get close enough to look. Hold on….” He reached into his tee shirt pocket and pulled out his hearing aid, turned it on and placed it in his ear. “There. That’s better.”

  Shane looked at West. “Do you think that’s safe for him?”

  Roy answered. “It’s safe. It’s also a damn good indicator for some reason. Anyhow, to answer your question. Yep. Sort of know what’s going on. Sort of. I was reading my paper when it started. I was awake, but you didn’t need to be in this town. I heard the loud crash down at the intersection, as if it was right outside my door. When I ran out, like a lot of people, I saw a plane just free falling, almost sailing from the sky.” He sipped his beer. “Right away, we thought it was an EMP attack. I mean,” he then looked at me. “When you killed that electric company worker.”

  “I didn’t kill that worker.”

  “People are blaming you. Said you distracted him. He touched the wire. That transformer blew and so did the one on the next street. None of us had power.”

  “It wasn’t an EMP,” West said.

  “Hell, I know that,” Roy replied. “See, a bunch of us ran into town. It’s only a couple blocks away. But the people in the cars weren’t the only ones dead. We ran into the donut shop, people in there had died, a couple folks on the street. It became a mystery, it wasn’t an EMP. Everyone was talking. Tossing out theories. But only for a minute. Well maybe more than a minute. I had read in the paper about that apartment building in India, I brought that up, how no one was able to explain it. Because it’s never happened, especially on this scale, we all were convinced it was a weapon. That’s when Ted Jenkins decided he was going to go and see how far it went. He made it about the end of the street and he died. Electrocuted.”

  “There has to be an explanation,” I said and looked at West.

  “I’m working on it,” West replied.

  “Whatever happened,” Roy said. “Happened in little spurts, then the big one. There are more little ones happening. That’s how Ted got hit.”

  Shane shook his head. “I don’t get it. I mean, how are people getting electrocuted in their cars. West, you went to MIT, come on, what’s the answer here?”

  “So many components in a car are electrical,” West answered. “Every car in the last decade or so runs on computer. I would say the amount of electronics in the car would determine how much of the … for lack of better word … surge it absorbs. Probably overload and it just lights everything up.”

  “That’s why all the cars are still here,” Roy told us. “Mayor Henderson was spared, and he made the decision to evacuate. We weren’t sure how safe the area was.”

  “Do you know where everyone went?” I asked.

  “East, that’s all I know,” Roy answered. “Trying to find someplace safe, unaffected, with power for those who needed it to stay alive.”

  “When did they leave? Did they walk?” I asked.

  “They left Saturday afternoon and they didn’t walk. Took some trucks, we got horses from Lakes Farm and attached them to carts.”

  “You took trucks?” Shane asked. “That’s not safe. You saw what happened to the one guy.”

  “These trucks were old.”

  “Still,” Shane said. “You can’t be sure. Why take that chance? All cars run on some sort of electrical component, even before computers.”

  Roy waved his finger. “Not necessarily one hundred percent true. You have cars from before 1975, about the only electrical components were the radio and the spark plugs that sent the charge to the ignition. Skeet the mechanic …” Roy looked at me. “One street over, he came up with that and said if we removed the radio, the most it would cause would be a short in the ignition, or a little shock.”

  West shook his head. “No, that isn’t right. Whatever is powerful enough to surge through here is going to hit you and kill you no matter what kind of car you’re in. In essence the vehicle is working like a reverse faraday cage.”

  Roy looked smug. “You’re wrong. We tested it.”

  “How did you test it?” West asked.

  “Crazy Sarge. How old is sarge?” Roy looked at me.

  I shrugged. “Eighty maybe, but he doesn’t drive. They took his license when he reversed into the Big Bear Supermarket’s front window.”

  “He drove Saturday,” Roy said. “Volunteered and put his balls on the line. Told us he was ready to take one for the team and he’d lived long enough. Skeet removed the radio, and sure enough after thirty minutes of driving in circles, one of those incidents happened. The truck stopped, but Sarge was able to manually pump the brakes. The ignition shorted out, Sarge said he felt a pinch, and Skeet fixed the ignition. So Skeet was right and he didn’t have a degree from MIT.”

  “This is good to know,” I said. “It means we don’t have to walk.”

  Roy tilted his head. “I wouldn’t be so certain. There were only four trucks in the area. They’re gone now. But hey, if you want to take a car that works, I have an extra hearing aid. Not so sure it will give you enough time to get out of the truck though.”

  “What are you talking about?” West asked.

  “It was when the thing hit Sarge that I realized my hearing aid was picking it up
about three to five seconds before the electrocution. At first I thought the old hearing aid was bad, but when the new one got the same rush of static, I knew what it was. And I didn’t need to graduate from MIT to figure it out.”

  “Okay, alright,” West said. “And it’s not me bringing up MIT. So, we have an early warning system with the hearing aids. It isn’t much but it works. Question though, Roy, have you been near anything electronic when you had the warning.”

  Roy shook his head. “Nope. Sarge was the closest and that was a block away.”

  “Just do me a favor,” said West. “If you are near something electronic, take it out right away if it gives warning.”

  Very seriously, Roy looked at him. “Would this be the MIT man in you talking?”

  “Enough. Just take it out.”

  “Why didn’t you go with them?” I asked.

  “Someone is supposed to come back for me. Right now, I’m manning the radio three times a day trying to find someone. No luck yet. Speaking of which …” he stood. “I’m overdue for the midnight call out. It’s battery operated.” He winked. “I’m being careful. I’m headed in. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

  I thought we were in a deep conversation, but Roy ended it abruptly. He did however give us conversation fodder until we all decided to sleep. My beer was half full, I thanked him and took it with me.

  After Roy had gone in the house, we stepped from his porch.

  Shane stopped walking. “Do you think the radio is safe? If he’s calling out, it has to be a big battery.”

  “Probably is a big battery,” West answered. “But I'd worry more about the antenna.”

  I cringed. “Let me go and warn him. I’ll be back. Wait here.” I turned and went back on the porch. After knocking and receiving no answer, I stepped inside. “Roy?” I called out. I didn’t see him, but I heard him. He was speaking in call signs and saying he was looking for anyone out there. Following the sound of his voice, I located him in a room off the kitchen. It was a nice size office. There was a desk and on a counter behind the desk was a radio connected to a car battery. The radio was perched in the far corner of the room near a window and Roy sat in a swivel chair in front of it. I could see the wires running out of the window. Probably to that antenna I was there to warn him about.