Page 39 of Everybody Needs a Hero

The Pathfinder slowed to a crawl again. “More cars?” Bryce asked, and Ashley was ready to help push so they could get through. Anything to keep them moving.

“No,” Drew said, her voice carrying a wary tone. “People are standing in the street.”

Both Ashley and Bryce moved to the center of the backseat to lean forward in the gap to look out the windshield. She saw why Drew sounded funny. Four people stood in the middle of the street. There was no way to tell in the dark if they were men or women, but from their sizes, she guessed men. A small flare of orange made her think they were smoking something. As Drew approached, they didn’t bother to move but instead turned to watch her driving closer.

“What are they doing?” Tess asked, and Ashley knew her mom well enough to sense both frustration and concern in her voice.

Drew shook her head. “I’m not sure, but I don’t like it,” she said. “Should I honk?”

“No,” Bryce answered. “But don’t stop either. Even if you have to bump them to make them move.”

Ashley saw Drew grimace at the suggestion. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said only a moment before the tallest of the strangers held up a hand like a traffic cop. Standing square in front of them, he wanted her to stop.

The car started to brake, and Ashley realized Drew didn’t know what to do. “Do not stop,” Bryce said again, steel in her voice. “Drive a little faster, and he will move at the last minute, I promise.”

“But what if they need help?” Tess asked. “It could be entirely innocent.”

Bryce shook her head. “It doesn’t feel like that,” she said. “My instinct is telling me to make a run for it.” As if only to prove her right, when it was apparent Drew wasn’t stopping, the stranger dropped his hand and instead pulled a gun. Bryce grabbed Ashley by the shoulders and pushed her toward the floor. “Hit the gas, Drew! And everybody get down.”

Ashley felt the car surge forward. There was yelling outside the car and finally a gunshot. The back window shattered, and Ashley yelped. Then, the vehicle turned a corner, and they were speeding away.If things are this dangerous here,she thought.What are they like in south or east LA?She imagined there would be looters all over taking advantage of the fact that the cell phones were not working, and the police were busy. Although she had witnessed a part of the disaster that brought out the best in people, she wasn’t naïve enough to think that was the case everywhere.What will LA be like in the morning?

Peekingover the backseat to make sure they weren’t being chased, Bryce was relieved to see no one behind them. “Is everyone okay?” she asked, helping Ashley back onto the seat.

“Yes, I am,” Tess answered, sitting upright again. “Drew?”

Bryce saw Drew nod. “That was insane,” the woman said. “What were they hoping to achieve? It’s not like my car is worth stealing.”

“It’s hard to know,” Bryce said, wondering where the bullet ended up and traced her eyes along the roof of the Pathfinder. “Some people like to make mischief in the wake of chaos. I’ve seen it on missions in the Marine Corps, and the reaction never makes any sense to me.” There was a small hole above Tess’s head, and Bryce didn’t like to think about how bad the attack could have been. She only hoped their luck would hold out.

“Hey,” Tess said, interrupting Bryce’s thoughts. “Is that Wilshire Boulevard?” Bryce looked over Tess’s shoulder to see the major artery through West Los Angeles ahead of them. Cars moved back and forth at a somewhat normal rate, and the street would take them straight to Beverly Hills.

Drew laughed. “It is,” she said, sounding surprised. “I am not sure how we ended up here, but it looks like it’s open.”

Ashley sighed. “We can be home in ten minutes,” she said, and Bryce reached to take the woman’s hand and squeezed it. The day was incredibly hard on Ashley, on all of them, and getting to Tess’s house would go a long way to making them feel better. As Drew turned onto the street and started moving with traffic, Bryce leaned back in her seat and felt her shoulders relax. They headed in the right direction at last. Looking out her window, she noticed a glow in the sky. Furrowing her brow, she tried to figure out why there was so much light. She glanced at her watch. It was too early for the sun to be coming up, yet the glow was strangely similar. And then she realized what she saw, and dread filled her—the glow of fire.Oh, please not that,she thought, aware that a considerable risk from earthquakes was gas leaks from ruptured lines. If there was any spark and the gas caught fire, the results could be devastating, especially in the close-packed communities of Los Angeles.

It didn’t take long for her fears to be realized as they came to a fire department roadblock. They were making people detour around the area. When Drew drove up next to the tired-looking fireman, she rolled down her window. “Can we get through to Sunset Boulevard?” she asked as Tess leaned across Drew to look out the window at the fireman.

“I’m Tess Landish, and I live at 92727, and I want to go home.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the fireman said. His face was blacked by soot with streaks from sweat running through it. Bryce felt sympathy for him and his team. The day had to have been hell for all the emergency responders. “But we’ve had to close down access to that part of the city. The gas main that feeds Beverly Hills ruptured from the earthquake earlier today and caught fire.”

“Oh, God,” Tess whispered, and Bryce guessed what she thought. The house might be in the fire zone, and everything they owned might be in ashes before morning.

“So, what do we do?” Ashley asked as Drew followed the other cars north away from the danger.

“We can go to my place in Malibu,” Drew said. “It’s up in the hills above the city, and we will be safe there.”

30

As they followed the line of cars along the detour circling Beverly Hills, Tess tried to be patient. They had been driving for hours, meeting with one obstacle after another.Hell, we were even shot at, she thought with a shake of her head—what a crazy, crazy day. Traveling through one of the nicer neighborhoods of Los Angeles, she was amazed at the lack of damage to the buildings. Expensive cars sat in driveways completely untouched. Porch lights were on, and streetlamps glowed as if nothing had happened there. Earthquakes were the most discriminating things. Downtown Los Angeles could be in shambles while Pacific Palisades looked like nothing had ever happened.Let’s hope that Drew’s house in Malibu is like these and untouched. She was grateful they had a place to go.

“Thank you for letting us come stay with you,” Tess said, touching Drew’s leg. “That’s very generous. We could have tried to find a hotel.”

Drew glanced at Tess’s fingers on her thigh, and Tess saw her swallow hard but not pull away. “Those would have filled up by now with displaced people,” she said. “And of course, you can come to stay with me. It’s only two big bedrooms, but I have a sectional sofa too.”

“Turn right in one hundred feet,” the GPS blurted, having been silent for the last few minutes while it tried to find where they were on the map. As Drew put on her blinker to turn with the line of traffic, there was suddenly an explosion to Tess’s right. Jumping from the noise, she looked on with horror as one of the beautiful houses burst into flames.

“Oh my God,” she heard Ashley say from the backseat. “I can’t believe I saw that happen.”

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