Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

“How are you holding up?”

“I’m okay. We’re at the garage. It was untouched.”

“Keep me posted on the Jeep.”

“Will do.”

We said a few more things, and the conversation ended with Tony coming to get me.

“Are you done?” He asked. “We’re ready.”

“Duke got it started?”

“With ease.”

I smelled the Jeep running when we approached and Duke was inside. Tony got in the driver’s seat, and I got in the back with Spencer.

“Give it a few,” Duke said “She’ll warm up.”

To me, it was already warm compared to outside.

Slowly we pulled from the garage and turned. Funny, how I had no sense of direction and kept looking for the van.

Then we spotted it off to the side of the road. The back doors were open and the windows were busted. When we hit the bottom of the hill, we turned.

The drugstore looked even worse for wear. It had been burned down. At least the left side of it had burned.

We hit the main road and that was when I realized, I didn’t pay attention when we were on our way. Nothing looked familiar.

A few abandoned cars dotted the road, not many. They were just left there and most were buried in frozen ash. At least that was what it looked like to me. Of course, I wasn’t all that certain ash could freeze.

The road was covered and Tony said it was a little slick, but he was taking his time.

Elwood City sounded like a small town so I wasn’t expecting much. My first glimpse of the devastation caused by the comet was only a mile or so away.

As we neared, we saw smoke. It wasn’t buildings burning. It was people burning things to stay warm.

The area was flat with very few slopes or hills and spirals of dark smoke streamed to the sky from various buildings and houses.

We didn’t’ see a soul on the streets. We cruised through the main strip of town. The buildings were blackened from smoke and ash, but some had been burned. Windows were broken. The stores were apparently cleaned out. Store fronts were busted out. Items that had spilled out on the street were frozen there. A few shopping carts were over turned.

Again, though we didn’t see anyone, it was clear that people had survived and were living in that town.

Tony slowed down, then turned the car to the left.

“I counted eight,” Duke said. “Want to go farther?”

“No, we saw what we needed to see. “ He slowed down and in the middle of the road near the curb, he stopped. “Take the wheel?” he asked Duke, then opened the door.

We were getting out. Right there in the middle of the road. It made no sense. To me, if we were looking for people, shouldn’t we follow the smoke signals?

Duke had taken over the driver’s position.

“What are we doing?” I asked when I stepped from the Jeep.

Tony pointed to the store. It was one of those discount dollar places. “I want to see what kind of damage was done to items. Are they viable? Are the people that survived able to access them or will they get desperate?”

“Meaning will they come after us?”

“Exactly.”

“Maybe if we offered to help them, they wouldn’t.”

“Maybe if we did, they’d know we had things. No, Anna, we assess and we leave.”

“Then this whole trip makes no sense.”

“Did you think we were here as good Samaritans?”

“Yes. You said we were looking for survivors.”

“I said that and I meant that. Not look and aid. It can’t work that way.”

Admittedly, I was irritated. It seemed like such a waste. “Then why did we bring supplies?” I asked.

“In case we got stuck or someone asked for help or we needed to bribe our way out of a situation.” Tony stood before the broken store front. “Are you coming in or are you letting your bleeding heart seep into the sidewalk?”

Spencer placed his hand on my back. “Look, I know you want to help folks. I know you do. But we can’t advertise. We can’t…”

Tony walked ahead of us into the store. Some of the shelves had been overturned. Most were empty. The cheap dollar nick knacks were shattered on the ground.

We followed Tony thought the dark.

He picked up a water bottle that was empty and melted. He tossed it to the ground.

The cheap reader glasses rack was still standing, but some of the glasses had fallen and some were adhered to the rack. It had gotten so hot that some of plastic had melted.

Tony headed to the back of the store, it was darker back there and there was an odd wall of shelves. They looked as if they had been moved.

Tony pulled his rifle from his shoulder, extended it, and held his hand back for us to stop while he checked it out.

He inched his way there, but wasn’t quiet. His boot crunched against the frosted glass that was scattered around the floor. We kept out lights on him and he made it to the edge of the wall and peered around.

Then I knew. Something was wrong.

Tony lowered his weapon.

“What were they thinking,” he said. “All these houses. Why here?”

What was he talking about? He didn’t tell us not to look, so Spencer and I walked to the wall.

Once I did see, my insides churned. There were four people. A man, a woman and two children. They lay covered with towels, blankets and curtains from the discount store, huddled around a tin pot that was obviously used as their source of heat.

It hadn’t worked.

They were white and looked like ice statues. They had frozen to death.

Eyes open, completely gray. The woman’s arm extended from the blanket. It was eaten to the bone. By her arm was a dead German Shepherd.

I backed up, it was too much.

I felt my stomach twist and turn, wrench and squeeze and I fought with everything I had not to throw up.

It was visually and emotionally too much to bear.

How desperate they must have felt. The parents had to have felt helpless. I felt helpless for them.

Despite my trying to contain it, I ran a few feet and trying to be inconspicuous, I vomited what little I had in my stomach. It came upon me so sudden. Afterward, I had to remove my mask and place it in my pocket.

Spencer walked up behind me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“As hard as this is, this is the reality of it. This is the way it is everywhere. Unfortunately, these people were not the exception to the rule. The longer they go without shelter and food, the more people will die. Nothing we can do about it.”

Still half bent over, I looked over my shoulder. “How can you say that?”

“What choice do we have?”

“It’s easy for us to say isn’t it? We have three meals a day, water, heat and shelter.”

“We’re lucky Anna. That’s not our fault, that’s our salvation right now in this dead world.”

Tony walked up to us. “You ready? We have to go. A running Jeep is a call out for trouble. They probably already spotted us.”

“We don’t need to be followed,” said Spencer.

I walked out with the two of them and immediately Spencer got in the Jeep while Duke stepped out to ride as a passenger again so Tony could drive.

It still baffled me why we came into town. Were we that callous that we only went in to see what we had to worry about? What dangers lurked in Elwood City?

Before getting in the Jeep, I went to the back of it and lifted the hatch.

“What are you doing?” Tony asked.

I grabbed one of the bags. “I’m leaving the supplies here. Maybe someone…”

“No. No, you aren’t. No trails to us.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s the way it has to be.” Tony took the bag from my hand, placed it back in the Jeep and closed the hatch. Hand on my arm, he guided me to the vehicle and I got inside.

We were leaving.