Richard Stephenson - Collapse

“How long are we expected to perform this task?” One of the volunteer firemen looked irritated.

“All non-law enforcement personnel are expected to remain and perform their duty for the next twelve hours, at which time they are free to evacuate or remain behind in the command post set up at the high school.”

None of the police officers in the room needed to ask how long they would be staying. They knew they were in it for the long haul. They had already made arrangements for their families to leave immediately before the roads got too clogged.

“If there are no more questions, you have your assigned streets and you know what to do.”

The room quickly cleared out. Elizabeth had been smiling at Max the entire time, clearly impressed with her boss. She waited for the last person to leave the room and walked over to him.

“Elizabeth, I don’t know how you could be smiling at a time like this.”

“Maxwell, I have never seen you take charge like that. I knew you had it in you. I must say I am very impressed. You know Tom is going to try and get you fired for what you pulled. Once things get back to normal, people are going to be talking about that all over town.”

“You like that? The last thing we need is a pissing contest and that asshole trying to take charge and completely screwing things up. He probably thought I was a pushover.”

“Well, it’s more than that, boss.”

“Really? Do tell.”

“He is a forty-nine percent owner of one of the gas stations you got giving away free gas.”

Max laughed. “Well that explains things! And here I thought he wanted to be the Big Man in Charge! But it’s simply about money, huh? What a scumbag.”

Elizabeth sat down in the chair across from the chief. She undid her ponytail and let her long, flowing hair spill down onto her shoulders. She sighed and slumped back. The chief was taken aback by her beauty.

“What?”

“I’ve just never seen your hair down. You always have it pulled back,” Max smiled.

Elizabeth ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it back up into a ponytail. “How bad is this really going to get? Are we on our own?”

“Computer, bring up the latest Emergency Action Message from TX-DOT.”

A detailed overlay of south Texas appeared on the screen across the room. Elizabeth turned around in her chair and studied the map. “What am I looking at?”

“Well, I must have stared at that thing for an hour after the evac order was issued.”

“I was wondering what you were doing while I was carrying out your instructions.”

“I’m hoping that I’m reading this wrong and that they’re working triple time to get the problem fixed.”

“What problem?”

“Five miles south of the loop, they have the southbound lanes closed and have one lane diverted to the north side. It’s going to be a bottleneck if they don’t get those southbound lanes opened back up.”

“Jesus Christ!”

“It gets worse. I-45 between Houston and Dallas has construction in four different spots. I don’t know how they think they are going to get everyone out of here in time. People south of the loop are going to have a hard time getting out of here.”

“Isn’t that an official evacuation route? I thought they couldn’t close down more than one lane at a time.”

“I thought so, too. Look at the map and see for yourself. Please tell me I’m wrong.”

Elizabeth walked over to the wall and studied the map closely. “You’re right. This could be a disaster in the making.”

“Computer, pull up the traffic cams I studied earlier today.”

Three separate windows popped up. Elizabeth studied them first to figure out where the traffic cameras were located and then to figure out the flow of traffic.

“Son of a bitch!”

“I know. They better work fast; in twelve hours a whole bunch of people are going to be parked in their graves if they don’t hurry up and figure something out.”

“What do you want me to do now, boss?”

“You’re riding with me. Let’s go.”

Chief Harris and Sergeant Reed climbed into the chief’s SUV and headed for the city garage. Max pulled two pills out of his shirt pocket and swallowed them. His hip and knee were throbbing. If they weren’t in the middle of a crisis, he would have pulled out the cane and made every effort to not leave his office chair for the rest of the day. Max thought ahead to the surgery he had planned in a few short weeks and tried not to let the overwhelming feeling of despair wash over him. The surgery was surely not going to happen anytime soon. He didn’t know how much longer he could endure this pain. If things got worse, he was ready to start doing heroin, job be damned. He would rather be a junkie than live like this for the rest of his life.

“You know if anyone else is doing this free gas thing you’re doing?” Elizabeth put her hand on the chief’s leg. She knew he was in terrible pain.

“I hope so. It’s the only thing that makes sense. It’s the right call. Most people don’t keep half a tank of gas in their car. You here for Ike?”

“No, I was in my senior year up north of Dallas in Plano. My uncle brought his family up to stay with us.”

“How long did it take him to get up there?”

“Eighteen hours. He usually makes the drive in six.”

“Sounds about right. You think people could sit in a car for that long today? Think about how many cars will run out of gas, get stuck and block traffic.”

“It would be a nightmare. What do you think most people will do?”

Max took a deep breath and thought for a second. “I think most people will just stay home and hope for the best. They don’t have the money for gas and know they wouldn’t make it far anyway, so why bother?”

“I hope you’re wrong about that. Any word on school buses being used to get people out?”

“I wish it were that easy.”

“What do you mean?”

“We might be one of the dozen states that still have public schools, but that’s not saying much. More and more schools are closing, leaving the ones that are still open extremely overcrowded. Then the kids just drop out. When the schools close, they auction off everything that isn’t nailed down to help keep the operating schools running. There aren’t nearly enough school buses to do any kind of good.”

The two officers didn’t say anything else. The city garage was less than a minute away. They turned into the front entrance and parked near the back. They both stayed in the car and watched the team that had set up shop to supervise. A line had already begun to form outside the main gate. The team had used orange cones to designate a route to the main gas tanks. They were in the process of cordoning off an exit route to the back gate so that no one would linger around the tanks and cause a commotion. Max watched the team and was satisfied that things were moving along smoothly.

“Elizabeth, I owe you an apology.”

“For what?”

“In the office, when you let down your hair…”

“You were staring at me like a horny teenager?”

Max’s face turned beet red. “Yeah, that. That was unprofessional, and if it made you uncomfortable I sincerely apologize. I’m your boss, and the last thing I want is for you to feel uncomfortable around me. It won’t happen again; I’m sorry.”

“Lighten up, boss. I appreciate the apology, but it’s not at all necessary. You should see me in a mini-skirt and heels.”

“Elizabeth! Please!”

She leaned in towards her boss and smiled. “Now Chief, am I making you uncomfortable?”

Max smiled and shook his head. “Knock it off, Elizabeth. Did Roscoe say how much gas we’ll be able to give out?”

“The tank is topped off and holds two and a half thousand gallons. We can cash in two hundred fifty vouchers here before we have to shut down.”