Roman Cesaro: Fallen Into Darkness

Kyle went to the other side of the bed, touched Henry’s face, and said, apprehensively, “He’s cold. I think he’s dead.”

Kyle looked away and shook his head in disbelief. Robert turned to look back at the doorway and saw Richard staring at Henry’s lifeless body, his eyes wide and his face noticeably pale. Richard abruptly turned away and vomited, his breakfast of sugar doughnuts spattering on the hallway carpet.

Robert looked back at Kyle and said, “This does it for me. We have to get out of here. I’m taking the colonel’s advice.”

“How?” Kyle asked.

Robert looked out Henry’s window into the parking lot. He saw the old pickup truck they knew was still working and spoke toward the window. “Some things must still be functioning. Let’s get out of this room and get a plan.”

As they stepped out of the room, they saw Richard hunched over in the hallway on his hands and knees. Saliva was hanging from the corner of his mouth.

“Get up,” Robert said, as he and Kyle walked past.

Richard was still visibly pale and his body was shaking. “What about Henry?” he asked.

“There’s absolutely nothing we can do for him. We have to get out of here now,” Robert replied, as he walked down the hallway with Kyle. “Get off the floor and meet us in the lobby.”

Robert and Kyle stopped in the hotel’s lobby to wait for Richard. They sat there watching the confused people making their way in and out of the main entrance. The night clerk was still there alone, his fatigue even more obvious now. Robert did not think that it would be too much longer before the clerk got too frustrated and walked away from this mess.

Robert stood up and walked to the edge of the lobby to see if Richard was coming down the hallway. He saw Richard talking with Lee, the hotel’s maintenance man, just outside Henry’s broken door. Knowing that there was nothing he could do for Henry, and that he had broken the door, he decided not to go back and get Richard. He desperately began to brainstorm ideas on how to get out of town and back home to his family. Home for Robert was Kansas City. Robert knew that Kyle must be from Omaha because that was the corporate office where he was stationed. Richard lived the farthest away, based out of St. Louis. As Robert leaned against the wall, he dropped his head and started to feel the calamity of their situation. They each lived a thousand or more miles away.

As Robert’s depressed gaze tracked downward toward the tiled floor of the lobby, he noticed a rack of tourism brochures against a wall. One brochure stood out from the others. The title was Float the Headwaters of the Missouri River . Robert quickly grabbed it off the rack and hastily unfolded the brochure. The brochure described a family business that sold or rented rafting equipment and camping supplies. According to the brochure, it was located at the headwaters to the Missouri River, at a prime location for trout fishing and rafting.

Kyle was still sitting on a couch in the lobby.

Robert held up the brochure for him to see and said, “I have the answer.”

“What? A vacation?” Kyle asked, with a confused smirk.

Robert sat down and placed the brochure flat on the table in front of them. Robert placed his index finger on the brochure next to a large X that represented the location of the rafting supply store. Next to the X was a tortuous blue line running across the brochure, representing part of the Missouri River and its headwaters. He traced his finger across the blue line and explained they should get rafts and float downriver to make it home. Although not on the brochure, both men knew that the Missouri River flowed through both Omaha and Kansas City before merging with the Mississippi River at St. Louis.

As Kyle was nodding his head in acceptance of the idea, he asked several questions in quick succession. “How do we get to the store? How can we buy this stuff if retail-sales computer equipment is dead? What do we eat and drink? How could we keep ourselves alive on a thousand mile float trip?”

Robert did not have a chance to answer Kyle’s questions as Richard had just come around the corner and sat down next to Kyle, interrupting their conversation.

Richard looked apologetically at Robert and admitted, “You were right and I was wrong. Something very bad has happened. I was talking to that maintenance guy and he said he’s getting out of here and going to his brother’s ranch north of town. I saw his brother. He was the guy with the old diesel pickup we noticed going into the parking lot. I heard his brother say there are stalled cars all along the road. I’m a believer now, Robert. We are in trouble.”

“Robert has a plan,” Kyle announced, as he pointed to the brochure on the coffee table.

“What? A vacation?”

Robert rolled his eyes again and explained, “No, an escape out of here.”

Robert quickly explained to Richard what he had just explained to Kyle. Richard nodded his head in agreement as Robert spoke. Now Robert could answer Kyle’s first question. They would get to the rafting store in the old pickup they saw in the parking lot.

“Richard, we need to convince the owner of that truck to drive us there,” Robert said, as he pointed to the brochure.

“We better act quickly. It looks like he’s getting ready to leave with his brother,” Richard said, pointing to the front desk. Lee and his brother were standing there.

“Let’s go. You first, Richard,” said Kyle.

Richard greeted Lee and his brother again, then introduced Robert and Kyle, and asked if they could get a ride. Richard explained that he knew it was a pickup and they had no problem riding in the bed of the truck. He held the brochure up to their prospective driver and explained to him where they needed to go.

Lee’s brother said, “No problem. It’s right on my way home.”

“Thanks for helping us. How much time before you leave?” Robert asked.

“My brother is fix’n to quit this place. I’d give it thirty minutes.”

“Sounds good,” said Robert.

“Hold on. None of us has anything that tells time,” said Richard.

“Me, neither,” said the man. “I’ll just be hangin’ out around the front here. I’ll wait for ya.”

Robert watched the man turn his baseball cap backward, like his brother Lee had worn his cap earlier this morning. Robert walked away thinking how much the man looked like his brother.

Robert motioned for them to walk over to the empty breakfast area. He told them his plan. They were to go back to their rooms, clean up, and put on their best suits. They should each pack a large suitcase with some clothes, as best they could, to accommodate roughing it for a while and bring the pillow cases from the beds back here with them. If they were to buy equipment, Robert wanted to put as much as he could on a credit card. The longer they postponed getting the equipment, the harder it would become to use a credit card for anything. Everyone was going to figure out soon that credit cards were no good anymore. After merchants stop accepting credit cards, Robert thought they would accept cash for a while. He also knew it would not take very long before cash would also become worthless. That was why they needed to work fast and get dressed in nice clothes. It would be easier to convince a shop owner to take the credit cards of three businessmen rather than those of three guys in sweatpants, each with five o’clock shadow.

Robert, Kyle, and Richard arrived back at the breakfast area at about the same time. Each of them was clean-shaven and wearing a nice business suit. Sitting together at one of the small tables, each of them clutching empty pillowcases, they discussed what they should take to eat for their journey. Whatever they brought would have to last without refrigeration. They decided it would be wise to take all the bread and dry cereal they could find. Kyle opened the cabinet doors below the breakfast counter and found a case of oatmeal packets and some boxes of apples, bananas, and oranges.