Ryan Westfield - Final Panic

And now all those people weren’t stuck at work. They weren’t stuck trying to make a living, trying to gather up enough currency to be able to pay rent and afford food and entertainment. No, now they were out in the wild, where their hard-earned money was no good, and they’d do whatever they could do to survive. Just like everyone else.

It was enough to give Rob shivers down his back, the kind that he used to get when he’d watched scary movies.

“Hey,” whispered Jessica, nudging him. “You see that up there?”

“Huh? Why are you whispering?” said Rob, speaking much too loudly.

“In case someone’s here. Keep it quiet, would you?”

Up ahead, there was something. It was something red, glowing.

“What’s that?”

“Fire?”

“Fire? But shouldn’t the lake house be right there?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe we got lost.”

“Let’s hope so, because it’s looking more and more like fire.”

The closer they got, the more it became apparent that it was fire. Or, more accurately, the end of a large fire. The flames weren’t intense, but those kinds of low, glowing flames you get when a fire had already consumed most of the material available.

“You think that’s the lake house?”

“Yeah. Look around you. That’s definitely the lake house. Don’t you recognize the trees? The driveway?”

“It’s dark. How can you see anything?”

“I guess you just have worse eyesight.”

“There’s no need to snap at me.”

“I’m not snapping.”

Rob shrugged it off. They were tired, and people got snippy when they were tired. Not to mention hungry.

He was more concerned about what it meant that the lake house had apparently burned to the ground.

They got closer now, close enough to feel some of the heat coming off the fire.

It was definitely the lake house they were looking at. Or its remains. The house had been completely consumed by fire, and the remains of the walls and ceiling had collapsed inwards. What was left was just a smoldering pile of wood, with flames lapping at the edges.

The smell was horrible, as if something unnatural had been burned, almost like plastic, but not quite.

“This isn’t good,” said Rob.

“Understatement of the year.”

“Do you think they’re…”

“Dead? Why not just come out and say it?”

Rob didn’t answer. Instead, he moved closer to the burning house, using his elbow to partially cover his face, trying to protect himself a little from the smoke.

Jessica was at his side.

“If there’s anyone in there, there’s no saving them.”

“What do we do?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Why? Do you?”

Not knowing what to do, not knowing what had happened to the others, and knowing that there was no way they could salvage anything useful from the house, they retreated back to a clump of trees.

They huddled up, getting close to the trunk. They sat back-to-back, but even so, they were shivering in the cool air. Rob could feel Jessica’s back as she shivered, and it unnerved him. It was hard to viscerally feel that she was cold, and it was hard to know that Jessica, who always seemed to have everything together, who always seemed to know what to do, was at just as much of a loss as he was.

Sitting there in the dark, Rob felt hopeless. The idea was to keep an eye out. If the others had lived, they’d hopefully return to the house hoping to meet up with Rob and Jessica.

“You think they died?” came Jessica’s voice in the darkness. It sounded hollow and scared.

“No,” said Rob. “Come on. There’s no way. We don’t know what caused the fire, but whatever it was, they would have had time to leave the house, right? It’s not exactly big. It’s definitely no mansion.”

“Yeah,” said Jessica. “But if that was the case, wouldn’t they have just put out the fire?”

“Uh, I guess. Maybe they couldn’t, though?”

“Come on. If it was a candle or something, they could put it out. Hit it with a rug, pour some water on it, whatever it takes.”

“Then what do you think happened?”

“Some kind of fight.”

“A fight?”

“You know, a home invasion. Something like that. They swoop in, kill everyone, and burn the house down.”

The thought gave Rob those chills again. Chills of fear. After all, it was a real possibility.

He might never see Jim or Aly again.

The two of them fell into silence, and, gradually, the night wore on. The hours passed, and nothing happened. No one showed up. There were no noises, other than the noises of animals. No cars drove by, and no lights shone.

They remained almost in the same position until morning.

Jessica had fallen asleep, and Rob had felt like it was his duty to stay awake and keep watch. She’d been kidnapped after all. And possibility tortured. She hadn’t told him what had happened to her, and he hadn’t asked.

Rob had been running through the options in his head.

Meanwhile, he’d been observing the fire, watching as it slowly died, leaving glowing embers mixed into the rubble of the house.

He realized that once the sun came up, there’d be no choice but to start searching through the rubble for the remains of his friends. Bones would certainly remain, and possibly more. Rob didn’t really know, but he knew there’d be something.

Of course, if they did find human remains, what did that mean? They’d be hard-pressed, most likely, to identify those remains.

But it would give them something. Some information.

And if they found no one? No remains? Well, that’d be good. They’d have to wait around by the lake for a few days, to see if Jim and the others reappeared. And if not? Or if they found the remains of three people in the house?

Then it meant Rob and Jessica were on their own.

It was a possibility that Rob didn’t want to admit to, but he knew that he had to. He very well might have to face it.

It was a terrifying prospect. He’d always known that he relied on Jim, but he’d never quite realized just how much. Even before the EMP, Jim had always been there for him. To give support. Or simply doing nothing more than drinking a cup of coffee silently with him when things weren’t going well for either of them.

“Jessica,” whispered Rob, poking Jessica as gently as he could with his elbow. “Come on. The sun’s out.”

Saying that the sun was out was a bit of an exaggeration. It was upstate New York, after all, and the sky was heavy with the usual clouds.

“What’s happening?” mumbled Jessica. “Where’s the coffee?”

She clearly didn’t know where she was, and it would have been funny if she wasn’t about to realize what had happened to the world, and that not only did she not have any coffee waiting for her, there wasn’t much food either.

“Come on, Jessica. Let me help you up.”

He took her hands and pulled her to her feet. She turned sleepily and saw the house, and Rob could see on her face that it was all coming back to her.

“Shit,” she muttered.

“My thoughts exactly.”

Rob explained what he’d thought about all night, and she agreed, for the most part, with his plan.

They didn’t bother with breakfast, except to drink some water from the lake. They didn’t have bottles, so they just cupped their hands together and drank water from them.

“I hope this is clean,” said Rob.

“Clean as we’re going to get now.”

And it was true.

Next, they checked the house.

Overnight, what had been left of the flames had died down. The house was gone. Completely. It was just a pile of smoking rubble, all blackened.

Everything was still hot to the touch, but they were able to walk over the rubble. Of course, they had to be careful.