Jacqueline Druga - What Tomorrow Brings

“Hey!” Terrence shouted. “Hold up.”

The man kept walking.

Terrence tried to pick up the pace, but he had a hard time catching his breath. “Wait. I can’t catch you.”

The man turned the bend.

Hands on knees, half bent over, Terrence hollered. “Dennis!”

He would give it another few seconds, then try to follow once more. Then Dennis returned from around the bend.

He looked at Terrence, paused, then picked up speed rushing Terrence’s way.

Terrence felt instant energy and raced to Dennis, whole bodily embracing him. “Oh God, I knew it,” Terrence said. “Everyone said I was nuts. I knew I saw you.”

“Terrence, my God, it’s good to see you alive.” Dennis stepped back from the embrace and squeezed Terrence’s arm. “I’m gonna assume you look better than you did a few weeks ago?”

“Yeah. I feel a lot better, too.” Terrence stared at Dennis. What had he been through? The once prestigious looking politician was pale and thin, a gray beard spread across his chin and cheeks. “I’m sorry Doug turned you away.”

“No, it’s okay. Deana wasn’t there.”

“I owe my life to Deana. I do. She saved me, let us live in her home. Have you been out here all this time?”

“Yeah, about six weeks now, trying to get to D.C.…”

“So you’ve seen what’s out there? Is it better? Better than here?” Terrence asked.

“Depends on what you consider better. Some places yes, some… no. Do you know where she is?” Dennis asked. “Do you know where my daughter went?”

“Not specifically. She said they were moving her south. She has to be at a medical camp.”

“Then I’ll start searching them. At least she’s alive.”

“She is very well, too,” Terrence said. “Maybe you shouldn’t search. Stay put. Stay close. She’ll eventually come back.”

“No, I have to look for her. This whole rescue and aid thing is going to fall apart and she’ll be out there. I have to find her.”

“Then search tomorrow. Rest today. Come back, have a meal, get some sleep. We’ll make sure you have enough supplies. What do you say?”

Dennis nodded then embraced Terrence again. “You’re a good guy.”

Terrence didn’t respond to that. How could he? He never thought whether or not he was being the good guy, he just did what was right. When it came to Dennis, there was no question.

Dennis was worn out, tired, Terrence wasn’t sure how far he had traveled, but he was certain not finding his daughter was devastating.

Terrence wanted to do what was right by everyone. He had saved enough provisions to gamble and move west with his family. He would do that. He also wanted to do right by Dennis, a man who went out of his way to do right by Terrence.

Terrence would make sure he had what he needed and the directions to find Deana. There was also a lot of people that were alone in the gated community. Terrence would find someone to go with Dennis, bribe them with food if he had to.

If he couldn’t find someone then he would do all he could to convince Dennis to help him secure his family somewhere and then Terrence would make the journey with him.

There was no question about that. The world was different, but Terrence really wasn’t. He suffered a great loss, but it only made him stronger. If Terrence changed at all, it was for the better. He searched for the good instead of only seeing just the bad. There had to still be good out there.

Prior to the bombs, Terrence’s goal in life was to have a good job, make a lot of money, and provide a better life for his family.

Now his goal was to keep his family safe, alive and wanting to survive. After all he had been through, all the uncertainty in the world, those were things he was positive he could do.

Terrence would.

They had spent three days with Jonas. He was a good man and positive his wife was alive. He had checked twelve of the camps and was counting on her being in the last place he looked. He was also certain he would be kicked out again and nearly as positive that Kit and Abe would be kicked out as well.

“Don’t get discouraged,” he told them. “Just come back in.”

Kit wondered if there was something about Jonas that drew attention. She and Abe had hit two camps before even getting to Puyallup and not one soldier or worker asked for their work orders, or asked to see that wristband that all the workers seemed to wear.

They searched every bed, every cot and walked through the large square tents where people had set up temporary homes.

Nothing.

No one said a word to them.

Their days were spent walking, stopping, walking some more. At least eight hours a day was in a holding place while it was dark. Most of the time it was an old store, garage, or house. Never anything outside in the open. The truck would come, order them to get in, take them to a holding place, and let them go at dawn.

Kit wondered how she and Abe were able to be so unnoticed.

The last thing Jonas said to them before they parted ways was, “I pray you never get to the edge and see what was done to our world. Right now, we’re surrounded by a lot of area unaffected by what happened. Don’t go to the edge.”

Kit believed ‘the edge’ was some sort of metaphor.

She soon found out that Jonas meant it… literally.

It took seven days to get to her mother’s house in Puyallup. The residential neighborhood was largely unscathed, sans a few broken windows. No occupation take over or possession had occurred. Her mother’s house was fine, the door was unlocked and the house empty.

Kit had no delusions of walking up to the house and finding her mother. The entire house was untouched. No furniture moved, pictures still on the mantel. In fact, they were certain her mother survived.

It was evident that she had taken refuge in the basement. The windows were blocked out, empty cans were used as tiny fire cans. Abe said there was definitely more than just her mother down there. Kit didn’t want to get her hopes up that it was her daughter, it could have been anyone.

Her mother lived through the bombs, stayed below then left.

Was she sick? Hurt?

There were eight camps around the area, and Kit would check each one.

She took a few photos of her mother and Jillie, because it would be easier to ask people if they saw her if she had a picture, then they headed more toward the heart of Tacoma to look for Jillie.

Jillie’s apartment building was scorched. The entire surface of the building facing Seattle was blackened and the windows blown out.

The whole area was decimated. No one would have survived the heat of the blast.

The bombs fell at night, while people slept. Every resident of that building would have died before they knew what hit them.

Was Jillie one of them?

Kit didn’t want to believe that was true, after all, her father said he tried to evacuate her. Maybe she had left. Maybe she was the person in the basement with her mother.

Standing at Jillie’s apartment, Kit learned what Jonas meant about the edge.

From where she stood, she literally was on the edge… the edge of destruction. Vashon Island was gone. It took a direct hit. The entire body of water that surrounded it extended out. It wasn’t an airburst, it was a surface burst that caused a crater so wide and deep, it made the island look as if it sunk.

Unlike in Spokane, there was no rubble, no smashed buildings and houses, everything was just obliterated.

They stayed there staring out like some sort of post apocalyptic tourist and then they moved on to whatever camp was next.

That was when Kit realized why they hadn’t been stopped.

It was Abe.