The collapse box set, p.32
The Collapse Box Set, page 32
part #1 of The Collapse Series
Sandy’s pistol poked out of the edge of the door and fired.
The bullets ricocheted off the metal door. Two stray bullets zipped into the vault, punching holes through metal money boxes. The prisoners gasped.
Haley took a step towards Alvin.
Alvin’s shoulders tensed up. He tightened his grip on Ashley’s hair, wrapping it in a bundle around his palm. His other hand kept the shotgun on her back.
Ashley shook uncontrollably. Her eyes begged Haley not to mess up. The rag in her mouth softened her whimpers.
Haley gnashed her teeth. She waited for Alvin to peek his head out.
Alvin said, “You’ve come a long way and risked a lot to get here. I respect that. I have too. Before this blackout, I really wasn’t much of anyone.”
“I’m not interested in trading stories,” Haley replied.
Gunfire sounded behind her
Dan switched out his ammo magazine and shot down the hallway.
Haley said, “Drop the girl.”
“Or what? I have greater numbers, superior firepower, and the prize in my hand. You have nothing to offer me,” Alvin replied.
Sandy rushed from the office and bolted for the teller’s desk.
Dan fired four bullets into her back.
She dropped quickly and leaked red across the carpet floor.
Dan quickly turned his attention to Alvin.
Sweat trickled down Alvin’s face. “Within minutes, my people will be at your backs.”
Ashley looked deeply into Haley’s eyes.
Hopelessness sank Haley’s morale. Alvin wasn’t giving her a clear shot.
Suddenly, Ashley yanked herself away from Alvin. Screaming, her hair tore from her scalp, leaving long tufts tangled around Alvin’s fingers. She hit the floor before Alvin could grab her.
Haley and Dan aimed at Alvin’s chest.
Terrified, Alvin dropped his shotgun and shouted, “I can help you!” He raised his hands. “I can tell my men to stand down. I know you haven’t killed them. I would’ve been alerted if there was a firefight.”
“On your knees,” Haley said coldly.
Alvin dropped one knee at a time. “You can leave with your daughter safely. If I die, it’ll be a war out there.”
Haley’s barrel aimed at his forehead.
Dan pulled out a pocket knife and cut the ties around Ashley’s wrists. She opened and closed her fists a few times before pulling off the gag and giving her father a hug. “Dad, I’m so sorry.”
“Help them,” Dan said and handed her a knife. He rushed to one of the prisoners and cut the zip ties. Ashley did likewise.
Haley kept her finger on the trigger.
“I can make you very happy,” Alvin said. “I’ll let you and your family live in the fortress and share in our spoils.”
“You think you can buy me?” Haley scoffed. “You’re done, Alvin.”
“I’m begging you,” Alvin groveled.
Each woman Ashley freed helped another until all that were in the vault were unbound. They grabbed the little amount of food that had been tucked away and exited the vault. Dan stayed back with Ashley and Haley.
“What are you thinking?” he asked Ashley.
Haley saw fear in Alvin’s eyes. He was just like every other scared person. “Leave him.”
Ashley took the sawed-off shotgun, and the three of them left.
“You won’t last two minutes out there!” Alvin shouted.
Haley twisted around and shut the vault door, sealing Alvin’s fate.
Dan and Ashley moved to the front of the prisoners. Haley stayed in the back to keep watch. The prisoners stripped the weapons from Seth and Sandy’s bodies and entered into the bank’s main room. All around the room, the standing captives thrashed in their binds. Haley looked around. No sign of the enemy. The thick walls canceled the noise of the firefight. She ordered all the young women to help unbind the prisoners. Dan explained the escape route to them. They refused to use any candles. Darkness was their ally in this situation. Leading the hundred-plus women, Dan pushed open the back door.
The sniper on the closest watchtower kept his scope aimed at the distant fire. Dan gestured for the women to follow and dashed for the closest wall. In a broken line formation, the woman ran after him. A few stumbled due to malnutrition, but their friends quickly helped them up. Haley was the last out of the bank. She kept her AR-15 aimed at the sniper. Using the iron sight at night proved challenging.
She scooted alongside the bank wall and reached the corner. Taking a breath, she peered around it, seeing Lawrence on the roof of the nearby shop. She waved to him. It took a second before he waved back.
She raced across the snowy concrete and grass and reached the inner wall, following behind the women. She walked backward, keeping an eye on the obvious sniper.
The captives reached Hosea. He quickly opened the passage and allowed them to slip through one by one.
A light flickered in the woods.
Carter, Haley thought.
The bikers descended from the front watchtowers. They started toward the bank. Haley whispered to the woman in front of her. “Move quickly.”
Haley trained her sight back at the sniper. The moonlight reflected in his scope. He aimed right at her.
Haley’s heart dropped into her stomach.
Bam! Bam!
The sniper toppled over the edge of the railing and crashed on the ground.
Haley never pulled the trigger.
Kneeling, Lawrence lowered his weapon and gave Haley a quick glance.
Machine gunfire erupted.
Lawrence dropped prone. Confused and alarmed, the bikers on the road ran for cover.
Haley pushed the woman in front of her. “Go, go, go!”
The women pushed into each other, shouting for the one in front of them to hurry. They fought their way through the hole in the wall. One of the bikers ran into the alleyway, rifle aimed and ready.
He shot one woman near the escape hole before Hosea put two bullets in him.
Haley ran for cover behind a dumpster. The four bikers in the building Lawrence was on top of ran outside and bolted to the trucks.
A hail of bullets hit on one of the drivers. The shooter used suppressive fire from the window of the antique shop. Meanwhile, Dexter rushed out of the back door, holding his daughter and leading a flood of freed children.
The machine gunner on the unoccupied truck unloaded on the front of the antique shop.
The second truck raced down Main Street and swerved, pointing its nose at Haley’s alley.
Using the trash can as cover, she shot at the driver. Bullets hit the engine and windshield, but not the driver.
The machine gun opened fire.
Haley slid down to her back as bullets ripped through the metal trash can and zipped over her head.
The snipers in the watchtowers shot at the escape hole, but their lack of light made it impossible for them to aim at any specific target. The women screamed and cowered as death pelted the wood all around them. Many of them froze in fear.
“Keep moving!” Hosea shouted. “Don’t stop!”
Haley stayed low, her eyelids squeezed shut. The barrage of bullets stopped. The truck’s engine roared. The tires screeched as the vehicle lurched forward.
Making a split-second decision, Haley rolled out from the trash can and squeezed the trigger multiple times. The truck raced her way. Her bullets hit it. Blood splattered on the inside of the windshield. Haley dropped her head. She felt the air move as the truck ran over her. She stayed between the wheels, avoiding death by inches.
“Stop! Stop!” the machine gunner yelled.
The truck crashed into the wall, flinging the gunner over the roof as the vehicle’s nose broke through the scrap wood.
Haley lifted her head. Broken breath escaped her chapped lips.
Dexter led the children around the town’s wall.
The second machine gunner’s weapon jammed, interrupting his assault on the front of the antique store. He opened the top of the weapon, revealing the ammo feeder.
A bullet flew from the antique shore and hit his leg. He fell off the edge of the truck.
Joshua rose from his stomach and stepped out of the obliterated window. Blood trickled down his cheek from a bullet graze.
On the ground, the machine gunner drew a pistol from his hip.
Joshua put him down with a second shot.
The watchtower sniper shot at Joshua, but Lawrence took the sniper out from on top of the other shop's roof.
The last woman slipped through the wall gap, and Dan ran back inside. He rushed to the guard tower close to the gate. Using the shadows, he reached the ladder and ascended. He reached the top. The sniper shot at Lawrence and Joshua. Dan got behind him and snapped his neck. He picked up the man’s scoped rifle and dropped the other sniper.
One of the remaining bikers rushed behind the bank to hide, but spotted Dexter and the kids. Holding his daughter with one arm, Dexter shot the surprised man. Dexter ran for the gap in the wall. Hosea helped guide the kids inside.
Haley stood. She checked her ammo magazine. Empty. She rushed to Hosea.
“Backpack,” Haley said.
He quickly let his backpack fall to the floor. Haley opened it and pulled out the ammo box. She fed ten bullets into the magazine before slipping it back in her AR. She took a knee and kept a lookout for any more of the bikers.
Gunfire popped near the bank. Haley stayed put.
The firefight died down.
Through an alleyway, Haley saw Main Street. She spotted the silhouette of one of the bikers, holding his bleeding arm. Bullets blew through his back. He died next to one of the flaming trash cans.
Two minutes of silence passed. The last of the children fit through the wall.
“That’s it,” Hosea said. “The others will be in the woods.”
“You go on ahead,” Haley replied.
“But--”
Haley moved to Main Street, keeping her gun at the ready. She stayed in the shadows and near the wall. She arrived at the bank.
Joshua checked the body near the unmoved truck. He pulled out the keys and turned his attention to Haley. “The children?”
“Safe,” Haley replied.
Lawrence approached from the shadows. “Any more of them?”
“Alvin’s men? Not that I can see,” Haley replied.
Lawrence lowered his rifle. “The town will be good to live in once we get the bodies out.”
“I’m going to search the area,” Haley said.
The three of them split into different directions. They checked the buildings. Dan stayed back to look after Ashley and the kids. After forty-five minutes of searching, Haley was convinced that Alvin’s men were dead. Following Joshua and Lawrence, she slipped through the crack in the wall and hiked up the hill.
Carter rushed down to Haley, giving her a fat hug. “We won, Mom. I can’t believe we actually won.”
Haley kissed him on the top of the head and kept walking. Jermaine and Ashley stood near Dan. A few yards away, Hosea treated a captive woman’s wounds.
Crying, Ashley embraced Haley. Jermaine hugged her and Dan joined in last.
At sunrise, they arrived at Frank’s home.
Mariam, Eve, and Ron rushed out of the house at the sight of Joshua. Dee-Dee followed after them and joined her family. Frank lingered in the doorway, eyeing the flood of women and children flocking his way.
It didn’t take many days for Greenhill to be restored. The dead were burned and mourned.
Jermaine was the first to volunteer to help Hosea repair the wall. A handful of the young ladies followed. They added more barbwire to the wall and set up strawmen in watchtowers to scare intruders. Haley couldn’t be prouder of Jermaine. The more respect the adults showed him, the more he gave back to the community.
Carter stayed within the town’s walls, leading large games of tag and imagine war with the surviving youth. Despite the trauma, the freezing cold, and intense rationing, there was once again laughter in Greenhill.
Wearing a sad smile, Ashley watched the children race through the icy street. She called them to Town Hall in the mornings and taught class, liberally sharing her academic and farming knowledge. She privately mourned the loss of Aaron, but her isolation allowed her to spend more time in her studies.
Lawrence found a number of young ladies that saw him as a hero. He stayed in town, tethered to Haley and Dan like he’d always been. He led scouting parties and made sure there was a steady stream of loot flooding into Greenhill.
The Peterses assisted wherever they could, providing blankets and organizing housing for the widows. Though the Peterses longed to leave and start afresh, their good conscience prevented them from abandoning their people.
Dexter, on the other hand, took his daughter and hit the road. Walking down the center of Main Street, the New York Cowboy held his daughter’s hand and exited into the sunset.
Haley stopped him at the open gate. “You done?”
“I am,” Dexter said.
“We could still use you,” Haley said.
He eyed Greenhill soberly and shook his head. “She’s yours now.”
“At least wait until morning,” Haley replied.
“Nah, it's safer in the dark.” Taking his daughter, Dexter walked on. Haley gestured to one of the local women. She pulled the pulley and the gate closed.
The next morning, Dan and Haley returned to her junk-littered home. Holding lanterns, they walked down the basement stairs and stood at the mouth of the secret room.
Dan stood to the side of her. “You don’t have to do this.”
The candle in Haley’s lantern danced its light across the stacks of canned food, bottled water, and medical supplies.
“Our family has what we need,” Dan said after a moment. “The choice is yours. I’ll stand by your decision.”
A small smile crept up Haley’s face.
The End
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Aftermath
By J.S Donovan
29
8:36 A.M
Hands buried deep in her coat pockets, Naomi waited at the edge of the platform. Even underground, she couldn’t escape the harrowing chill of the freezing January day.
Peering into the dark tunnel, she waited.
Listened.
The faint clacking grew louder.
Faster.
The sound matured into a powerful rumble, like the thunderous hooves of a thousand wild horses. Golden beams of light sliced through the tunnel’s darkness. A dirty chromatic subway emerged.
Its brakes screeched.
The train slid to a stop, its middle doors halting in front of Naomi. After a brief lull, the doors parted.
Naomi stepped back. The horde of people sharing the platform flooded past her, funneling into the narrow entrance and quickly filling the train car. Face locked on his phone, a straggler knocked shoulders with Naomi as he slipped inside. After the last had gone, Naomi entered. Her act of selflessness caused the closing double doors to bite her. She escaped the mechanical jaws with a bruise on her upper arm.
People from various walks of life squeezed together. Within seconds, nearly every eye was glued to a smart device or other small screen. A man wearing a facemask checked his vitals on his phone. Muffled music leaked from an angsty teenager’s ear buds. A young mother with heavy make-up over her blackened right eye cradled a skinny baby. There was no father in sight.
Slipping through the crowd, Naomi claimed a tight spot in the middle of the car. She grabbed ahold of one of the weathered plastic rings dangling from the ceiling.
An automated voice said, “Departing.”
The brakes released with a sharp hiss. The train lurched forward.
Reeking of alcohol, a greasy-haired, wobbling businessman pressed against Naomi. Distancing herself, Naomi bumped into the frail elderly woman in front of her. The woman said something with her tiny voice, but the clattering wheels muted the words.
The subway gained momentum.
Apart from the occasional cough and sniffle, no one spoke. No one smiled. It was worse today, no thanks to the cold gnawing at their bones. Naomi checked her smart watch. The thermometer read sixteen degrees Fahrenheit; it had been one of Philadelphia’s coldest winters since ‘94.
The few people who weren’t hypnotized by their devices eyed Naomi with perplexed expressions. They’d recognized her from various TV specials, the backs of books, and even on a few billboards. Instead of flaunting her fame, she rode the Broad Line to the heart of Philly as she had since her days studying Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania eighteen years ago. She pursed her lips and smiled at them. One smiled back. The rest averted their eyes.
At thirty-nine years of age, Naomi stood five foot six inches tall. A hooded blue insulated winter jacket conformed to her lean frame. Black pants and boots covered her lower half while a small purse hung from a strap on her shoulder. Her face matched her mother’s: diamond-shaped, but homely with an air of quiet wisdom and a wide, heart-warming smile. Her eyes were her father’s: a tired blue with a ring of golden flakes around the center.
