Ryan Westfield - Final Chaos

But there wasn’t time for that now.

She’d have to learn to deal with it. She’d have to dig herself out of the hole herself.

Jim put the car into gear and the Subaru lurched back, away from the pickup truck and the two dead bodies.

Jessica was feeling better. Her head wasn’t in the clouds like it had been. Maybe it was the adrenaline from shooting, but her head actually felt clear.

She still couldn’t remember what had happened. She had no memory of the accident whatsoever.

But it was getting clearer by the minute that Jim, the man who drove the Subaru, was someone she wanted to stick with.

And it was clear that the situation was dire and extremely serious.

Jessica was practical minded. It wasn’t hard for her to see that society could descend into chaos in short order. Without basic public services, without food or water, people would react. And violently. When it came to that point.

“Are you OK?” said Jessica, putting her arm around Aly, Jim’s wife, who had curled herself up into a little shaking ball.

Now it was Jessica’s turn to do the comforting.

“She’s having a panic attack,” said Jim, from the front seat. “She’ll be OK. Remind her of her techniques.”

“Her techniques?”

“Just do it.”

“I think she already heard you.”

“Maybe not.”

Jessica leaned right up against Aly’s ear and spoke clearly into it. “Your husband says to remember your techniques.”

“She’s supposed to watch her breathing.”

“He says you’re supposed to watch your breathing.”

Sure enough, after a few minutes, Aly started breathing differently. Her breaths turned from shallow and frantic to slow and calm. She looked up at Jessica and smiled. “Thanks,” she said.

“You back with us, Aly?” said Jim.

“More or less.”

Jim was driving fast. The road was clear, for the most part. All the traffic lights were still out, as were all the lights in the stores and houses on the side of the road. They passed one cop standing on the side of the road in uniform. They simply drove right past him as he tried to wave him down.

“He looked like he wanted you to stop,” said Rob.

Jim said nothing.

Jessica’s thoughts turned for a moment to her parents. She’d barely had contact with them since she’d moved out, and she supposed that was going to be the way it stayed.

Now, her mind went to the practical. To survival.

“So what’s the plan?” said Jessica, directing her voice to Jim, who seemed like the only other one who had it together.

“Like I said, get to Aly’s mother’s house. Get her mother and get whatever supplies are there. We’ll split up and comb through the house. We’ve got to go for food, candles, knives, cookware, and any medicine you can find.”

“I got that part,” said Jessica. “But what about after that? Once we get out of the whole Rochester area?”

“That’s the part we don’t have figured out yet. Any ideas?”

“No,” said Jessica. “I’ve barely ever been out of Rochester.”

“We could go to my uncle’s house,” said Aly, speaking up for the first time since her panic attack.

“Your uncle Jordan? The drunk?”

“Yeah. He’s got that lake house on Chautauqua, remember?”

“Of course I remember. We spent that disastrous weekend there a couple years ago. The place was a dump and your uncle spent the entire time either passed out on the floor or actively trying to destroy all his possessions.”

“So what?” said Aly. “There aren’t many houses near it.”

“What about your uncle? He’s not exactly a reliable person we can count on in a situation like this.”

“No one knows where he is.”

“What? You didn’t tell me that.”

“It’s just been a couple weeks. My mom’s been calling him over and over. The last she heard from him he was in Buffalo.”

“Buffalo?”

“Yeah, doing who knows what.”

“Another bender, probably,” said Jim, dismissively.

Jessica noticed that Rob didn’t speak up at all during this exchange between husband and wife, as if he didn’t dare get in the middle of it should it turn into an argument.

Finally, Jessica spoke up herself. “Am I missing something?” she said. “It sounds like we’ve got the place to go. If it’s on the lake, we’ll be able to fish.”

As soon as she spoke, she realized that she hadn’t exactly been invited to go live with them.

But she’d helped them already. She felt like she’d proven herself.

And it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go.

The way she understood it, remaining in Rochester would be a death sentence.

“Anyone have any better ideas?” said Jim.

No one spoke.

“All right,” said Jim. “We’re heading to drunk Uncle Jordan’s lake house. Let’s just hope he hasn’t burned the house down or sold it or something since we were last there.”

“Jordan’s caused the family a lot of problems,” said Aly, almost as an aside to Jessica.

“It’s about a two hour drive if I remember correctly,” said Jim.

They’d entered a nice neighborhood, where the houses had large manicured lawns.

Jim swerved easily around the stopped cars in the street. It seemed as if some of the cars had been pushed to the side of the road.

There was no one in the street.

“Looks like everyone’s finally gone indoors,” said Jim as they pulled into a driveway in front of what must have been Aly’s mother’s house.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” said Jim, throwing open his door.

Jessica followed behind the three of them. The front door was locked.

“Shit,” said Aly. “My key’s at the police station still, along with the rest of my stuff.”

“Wasn’t there one under the door mat?” said Jim.

“No, she got worried about it and had me move it. It’s around back.”

Aly disappeared around the back of the house.

“I had to shoot a looter,” said Jim. “Don’t be alarmed when you see the body.”

“Already saw it,” said Rob.

“I know you did, Rob. I was speaking to Jessica.”

Jessica just nodded stiffly.

To her own surprise, shooting dead a man not long ago hadn’t had as much of an effect on her as she would have thought. In fact, she felt nothing except relief that they’d gotten out of the situation alive.

And, if she was being honest, she felt proud of herself. Proud of what she’d done. Proud of being useful. Proud of keeping a cool head in a tough situation.

Aly reappeared a moment later with the key. It worked, and Aly swung the door open and rushed inside.

A second later, there was a scream.

“Mom!” screamed Aly.

Jim pushed Rob back roughly and rushed into the house.

Rob followed, and Jessica followed him.

A woman who must have been Aly’s mother lay on the floor. Her eyes were open, and it didn’t appear that she was breathing.

Aly was already on her knees, shaking her mother’s body. Tears poured from her eyes, and her voice was frantic. “Mom, Mom, Mom! Come on!” Now she turned to Jim, and screamed, “Do something!”

Jim was there by Aly’s side, on his knees, his fingers against the woman’s neck. He shook his head.

But he wasn’t giving up.

He motioned for Aly to move out of the way, and he put his hands flat against the woman’s heart and began pumping.

Rob and Jessica exchanged a look.

“Mom! Can’t you do something, Jim? Mouth to mouth. Out of the way.”

Aly tried to push Jim aside to get to her mother’s head. Instead, her feet got tangled together and she lost her balance and collapsed to the floor.