Adam Drake - The First Day

Ethan matched Wyatt’s gaze. “Because your job is to save them.”

“I think you’ve earned yourself a bitter beer,” Nate said. He handed Martin a bottle from the cooler. “In case you wanted to reload for another round.”

Martin twisted off the cap and took a sip, his hands trembling.

“Here,” Nate said, pointing to one of the chairs. “Take a load off.”

Martin dropped into it and sighed. He looked exhausted and Nate suspected it was from more than the day long hike pushing a wheel-barrel of prawns. It was his mind that was tired.

Nate sat in the other chair across from the little fat man. “Sorry I stole your thunder,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Martin asked. His eyes were watery as if he might burst into tears.

“Killing Unger,” Nate said. “I know a lot of people had it out for him, but I was the one who got to pop that cherry.”

Martin waved a hand. “No, don’t apologize. The bastard deserved it. The things he did to me…”

Not sure he was ready for a sob story, Nate said, “He did a lot of crappy things to a lot of people. That was pretty much his job after all. But he got his comeuppance and there’s no taking it back.”

“I know. I just didn’t expect him to be dead so soon. I thought there would be time for me to find a way to get to him.”

“Like a poisoned prawn?”

Martin laughed. “Or maybe a poisoned import beer.”

Nate spit out his beer and laughed. “Okay, that was good one.”

Both men went quiet for a time. Nate leaning back and looking at the stars, Martin staring into the dying fire in the barrel.

Martin finally asked, “Did they attack you?” He motioned to the other bodies with his beer bottle.

“More or less. They tried to rescue their king and were slain for their efforts.” He was impressed this guy wasn’t rattled at the sight of so many dead.

Martin looked the bodies over. “You killed all of them yourself?”

Nate didn’t have to answer. He just took another swig.

“Damn,” Martin said. “That’s impressive.”

They both watched the apartment burn like the fire was possessed with unfettered rage. If people had escaped they didn’t do it from this side of the building. The heat was intense, and the flames brightened the back lot as if it were day.

“So what happens now?” Martin asked.

Nate knew he wasn’t talking about the burning apartment. “I dunno,” he said with a shrug. “What do you want to happen?”

Martin shook his head. “I’m at a loss. I’d resigned myself to having to work for this asshole for the rest of my life, or until I found a way to kill him. Now none of that matters.”

This was music to Nate’s ears, yet he still wasn’t sure about this guy, having just met him. So he asked, “What if we were to go try and help those people?”

Martin looked to the burning apartment. “Are you kidding? Why would we do that? If we go try to help, then their problems become our problems. And, I dunno about you, but I got my fill already.”

Nate chuckled. Okay, he thought, this guy isn’t a total fool.

The smoke from the apartment inferno drifted over to where they sat, ruining their little get together.

“Let’s move this party inside,” Nate said, standing. “Besides, these guys are starting to really smell.”

Nate followed Martin into the bar where they sat at one of the tables close to the front doors. The smoke was barely noticeable in here. Even the occasional screams from the apartments were muffled.

Peaceful.

“Are you armed?” Nate asked.

“Only with a bad attitude,” Martin said.

“You’re going to need more than that from now on,” Nate said. “As you know, the shit has hit the fan and things have changed.”

“But this can’t last too long, can it? The power will come back on tomorrow, or soon after. It has to.”

Nate reveled at the sound of desperate confusion in Martin’s voice. “I don’t think so. I believe this is the end-game which has fallen upon us and we need to get prepared.”

“I dunno. It’s possible this could be fixed real soon.”

“Yeah, but does your phone work?”

Martin fished out a little phone from his back pocket and tossed it on the table. “Dead. Like everyone else’s I’ve run into. Yours?”

“Very dead. Just like the cars and smoke detectors and planes, everything is dead that isn’t even hooked up to the power grid. I haven’t seen one electronic device of any kind working since this morning. Have you?”

Martin shook his head. “No, not a spark of life from anything electrical. The roads are complete chaos. People hollering and screaming. Pandemonium.”

Nate chuckled. “Pandemonium. Good word. I like that. Covers exactly what’s going on. No power of any kind anywhere has led to complete pandemonium. So do you really believe that this can be fixed overnight?”

“No way.”

“Right. This is the ultimate dick-punch. A dick-punch to society as a whole. Maybe even the world.”

“That’s a pretty big dick-punch.”

“And I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that, even if they somehow manage to reverse this colossal dick-punch, things will not return to the way people are used to.”

Martin nodded. “Too much damage has been done.”

“And many scores being settled. There is a purge occurring out there tonight, and will continue to happen for days and weeks if not longer. How can a civilized society recover from that? I mean, really?”

Martin thought on this for a few moments. Nate drank his beer and watched him.

Martin said, “I think you’re right.”

“About?”

“About getting prepared. We need to protect ourselves. Get supplies and stuff.”

Nate nodded. “We can’t just sit around and wait for the government to come in and save our asses, now can we?”

“Uh-uh.”

“They’re too busy saving their own butts right now, mark my words.”

“Yeah.”

“So I think the best thing we could do is just as you said, get supplies and stuff. And by stuff I mean weapons.”

“I have a pistol back at the warehouse which is also full of canned crap we could use.”

Nate smiled. “I like that, Marty. A man after my own heart.”

Martin’s eyes lit up, and he stood. “Hey, don’t those guys out there have guns?”

“Yeah,” Nate said.

“Uh, want me to go get ’em?”

Nate shook his head. “No need, I stashed them already.” It was the first thing he did after plugging Morse. Can’t have any guns laying about that weren’t in his control so he stuffed them under Unger’s desk for the moment.

“Oh, okay,” Martin said, and sat back down. He took a sip of his beer.

Nate wasn’t quite ready to give this guy a weapon, but what choice did he have? Things were spiraling out of control and having him armed would be helpful. Could he trust him?

After some thought Nate reached into his jacket’s deep pocket and pulled out his pistol. “Here, take this for now.”

Martin’s eyes went wide and took the proffered weapon. “Wow, thanks!” He held it gently in his hand, inspecting it under the lantern’s fading light.

“You’ve used one before?”

“No, never.”

Nate tapped the barrel of the pistol with a finger. “You point that at who I tell you to, okay?”

Martin barked a nervous laugh. “Yeah, okay.” He squinted at it. “Is the safety on or off?”

Nate sighed. “Off. Just don’t shoot yourself with it.” You wouldn’t be much use to me if you did, he thought.

“Okay,” Martin said, and slid the pistol in the waistband of his pants. His soft fat rolls nearly enveloped it. He may not be much of a gunman, but he was the only one Nate had at the moment.