Richard Cox - House of the Rising Sun

Ahead, Thomas saw at least twenty docks where semi-trucks had parked trailers to be loaded or unloaded. And, tucked in a corner, there appeared to be an employee access door. Billy also saw this door and led them toward it.

“We are not here to fight!” he yelled as they reached the building. “We were in the woods behind the warehouse and discovered this man approaching from the east. He says he’s been here before. He says you supplied him with food and water. Why shouldn’t we be treated the same?”

“Where are your other men?” someone yelled back.

“Watching from the trees. They have orders to attack if this doesn’t go well. We are well-armed. I advise you to help us.”

Thomas couldn’t see who they were speaking to because of a long semi-trailer that stood between them. That meant the guards couldn’t see them, either.

“Approach slowly,” the man said. “Make any sudden moves and my sharpshooter will be forced to take you down.”

“We are aware of your sniper,” said Billy. “We are not here to fight.”

When Billy pushed Jimmy around the corner of the truck, Thomas cringed. But no one shot him. Soon all six of them, with Skylar and Natalie now in the back, were standing in front of two men and one woman. The woman held her rifle in a near-ready position.

“I am Anthony Williams,” said one of the two men. He was thin and composed amid all this chaos. “Manager of this facility. Paige and Aiden have been helping protect our interests.”

“Billy Pate,” said Billy. “This here is Thomas Phillips and Seth Black.”

Jimmy, who until then had appeared semi-conscious, jerked his neck to look backward at Seth.

“So your name is Seth Black?”

Thomas wasn’t sure why this mattered, but he could sense it coming, the big reveal, the unexpected twist that would propel the story into its final act. Did he believe it now, finally? That none of this was happening, that somehow he was living in a reality that wasn’t real?

“So what if it is?” Seth said.

“You here from Tulsa? Have a wife named Natalie?”

“I’m Natalie,” said Natalie.

“How do you know us?” Seth asked.

Jimmy turned directly toward Seth and smiled. There was blood in his teeth.

“I’m Jimmy Jameson,” he said. “You owe me $213,000.”

The look on Seth’s face, upon hearing this news, was something close to horror. Whereas Thomas was forced to suppress a smile. Because the twist was even more obvious than he might have imagined, this incongruous meeting of two men separated by geography and sheer population. What was easier to believe? That Seth and Jimmy had somehow found each other by pure chance? Or that it had been the guiding hand of an author determined to confer meaning to a random celestial event that had ended the world?

Life without order, without a narrative, was pointless. To desire order was to be human.

To believe you could alter that order was foolhardy. Hubris.

But Thomas planned to try, anyway.

Hi, there. It’s Aiden again. Shit is getting real, don’t you think?

You probably remember Anthony and me speaking to one of the heavily armed men in the crowd, who you now know as Billy. When he told us about the soldiers in the helicopter taking pictures, Anthony decided to send food outside. I went back to the roof just in time for Paige to spot Billy and the others walking out of the trees. My mind had become a universe of chaotic, screaming nonsense, and even as we met the new people, I was working out how to get back to the roof. Without Paige.

269 rounds, remember?

After introductions, during which a strange exchange passed between Jimmy and a man named Seth, Anthony led everyone into the warehouse.

“I need to go back to the roof,” Paige said as we walked toward the common area. “And Aiden should probably come with me. I could use another pair of eyes. Something is different this morning.”

“I’ll send him up shortly,” said Anthony. “For now, I’d like Aiden to stay here while we get to know our new guests.”

Paige looked at me carefully as she turned to leave. I wondered if she could sense what I planned to do.

“We still have three men in the trees,” said Billy. “And a pair of young boys. You’re running out of time here.”

It was easy to see who the boys’ parents were, especially the mother, who kept looking over her shoulder toward the door.

“And your sniper is right,” Billy added. “With that awful smoke, the crowd ain’t gonna wait much longer. There are starving babies out there. Pregnant mothers.”

“But I already promised to—”

“Too little, too late. As soon as they see food, it’ll be pandemonium.”

“It’s pandemonium everywhere now,” Jimmy croaked. “We fought a group of assholes who wanted to take Keri and Chelsea away. Marie died trying to save her daughter.”

Keri was such a distant memory it was like I had known her in a different life. And anyway, she was probably happy to be a sex slave if it meant she could eat.

By then we’d almost reached the common area. Billy was on high alert, his gun drawn. Seth and Jimmy kept looking at each other in an awkward way, as if neither believed the other was really there. The woman who wasn’t the mother was small and beautiful and strangely familiar. I felt a sense of destiny, as if every person present had been summoned for a purpose.

While my mind spun and my ears rang, someone cried out behind us. I whirled around and saw a couple of young boys running in our direction, their faces frightened and relieved and hopeful. But Seth and Natalie looked horrified and lurched forward to intercept the boys’ approach. Behind them marched three more men.

“I told you to wait in the trees,” Billy said.

“They wouldn’t wait,” growled one of the new men.

Two of these guys were carrying military rifles and looked ready for anything, but the other seemed more like a college professor. His eyes were wild and uncertain. Afraid.

Seth pushed the boys toward their mother and said this to Jimmy:

“I don’t understand what’s going on. How in the hell are you here?”

“I live ten miles away,” answered Jimmy. “You live in Oklahoma. What the hell are you doing here?”

Seth nodded at Thomas.

“We came with him. It’s a long story.”

“I assume you brought the money you owe me?”

“Not exactly. We came after the pulse.”

“Bullshit,” said Jimmy.

“Thomas has a running car. An old Mustang. The day of the pulse, he drove to Tulsa and brought us back.”

Billy didn’t seem to believe this.

“You have access to a working vehicle, and you walked all this way with Blaise?”

“There wasn’t enough fuel,” Thomas said. “There wasn’t enough room. And the car would have attracted too much attention.”

The entire scene felt unreal. Not only did Seth and Jimmy know each other, not only did Seth owe Jimmy a king’s ransom, but he lived hours away… by car. The odds of them accidentally crossing paths would have been astronomical in the old world, but after the EMP it should have been impossible. The only way to explain this meeting was that it was no accident.

But who could have arranged it?

“This is all his doing,” said Larry, pointing at Thomas.

During yesterday’s journey, as the sun beat on his bald head, as the ringing in his ears intensified, Larry devised a brilliant plan. He would, upon arrival at the warehouse, reveal to everyone how this awful world had been created by Thomas. Had been wrought by him. And maybe on its face the notion sounded absurd. But Larry was convinced, when people saw Skylar Stover, they would be compelled to believe. Her appearance would legitimize his claim, especially if she publicly agreed with him.