Page 42 of Heart of the Sun

The man had stilled now, the front of his jeans dark with urine, blood already spreading far beyond his body.

“Get on back in the car,” Leonard said. “We’ll take a bathroom break down the road.”

“Uh, we, uh…might—” Charlie stammered.

“I think we’re good here,” Tuck said.

I kept staring, trying to understand what had just happened. It felt like my eyes might bug right out of my head.

“Nah. Get in. We was having a nice time. Don’t look at me all scared. I’m not gonna harm any of you unless you’re planning on trying to steal Bridget.”

Tuck pointed at the sign up the road. “It looks like there’s a town close by. This seems like as good a stop as any.”

Leonard peered down the road and then shrugged. “Well. I’m not gonna kidnap you. If this is where you wanna get out, fine by me. I still got a ways to go.”

He sighed and took the few steps to where the man’s handgun had fallen, picked it up, and put it in the back of his jeans.“I’m gonna take this,” he said. “You’d be wise to find yourself a weapon too if possible.” He put his rifle back in the car, then he leaned on the doorframe and looked at us. “The world’s gonna be different for a while,” he said. “You either adapt, or you die.” Then he smiled and gave us a salute. “Good luck.” We watched as he got in Bridget, pulled back onto the road, and disappeared around the bend.

I let out a squeak, and Tuck’s breath released on a whoosh. “What thefuck?” Charlie said.

“Should we…” I pointed at the man. My voice was shaking. My whole body was shaking. And I had no idea where to go with that question. Should we what? The man was clearly dead. There was a hole the size of a baseball in his chest, and he was staring blankly at the sky.

“There’s nothing to do for him,” Tuck confirmed. “Let’s get out of here.” He looked at me. “Walk off the shakes. It’s just adrenaline. You’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

I gave him a jerky nod. I couldn’t even think straight. We’d just watched a man die in front of us. He’d been shot point-blank over a car and now he was dead on the side of the road. What the hell was happening? I couldn’t get a grip on this reality I’d suddenly found myself in. I was mentally flailing.

“This isfucked,” Charlie muttered. He linked his arm with mine and we held each other up as we walked past a sign that told us we were headed toward Silver Creek situated somewhere in a world I no longer recognized.

chaptertwenty

Tuck

I glanced back at Emily and Charlie. I was shaken by what had happened, but Emily looked like she was barely hanging on. As much as I wanted to stop and let her come to grips with what she’d just witnessed, I also knew that moving her body was going to help. And unfortunately, even if it was unlikely, taking the time to process also meant risking Leonard returning with his rifle blazing, deciding that three witnesses to the murder he’d just committed was unacceptable. Regardless, Leonard was right on one count—the world had changed in the last four days. And it was only going to get worse the longer the power stayed off.

Charlie took his phone from his pocket and lifted it toward the sky. “Any sign that it’s working at all?” I asked. It seemed plausible now that it wasn’t just that the power was out, or cell towers were down, or even that satellites weren’t working, but that the phone itself was fried just like the hundreds of cars we’d passed by.

Charlie shook his head dejectedly.“No.”

We passed another sign for “Silver Creek, Missouri, Population 2,700,” and continued in that direction.

I still hadn’t gotten used to the quiet. I could hear birdcalls, and the sway of trees, and the shuffle of our feet over the ground. But other than that? Silence. No planes flew overhead, there were no distant engine roars or whatever other sounds I was used to, even in the country. And the sky was still that pale orange color with odd waves of lavender.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” I heard Charlie say from behind me. “It’s like the whole world fell asleep.”

“We know that’s not true,” Emily murmured. “There are men with guns hiding in the trees.”

“Look,” I said, pointing ahead, and trying to distract Emily from thoughts of men who might ambush us at any moment. “The town.”

We all squinted into the muted sunlight at the distant outlines of a few buildings. There were some signs up ahead as well. “I don’t see any…movement at all,” I said.

“It looks like a ghost town from here,” Charlie noted.

“Maybe that man came here first and killed everyone,” Emily suggested.

I gave her a look. “One armed man didn’t kill a whole town of people. Come on. We know the power is out. People are probably holed up in their homes, waiting for things to get fixed. It’s pretty damn cold out.”

“Maybe we’ll see more signs of life as we get closer,” Charlie said hesitantly.

We walked the remaining quarter of a mile in silence. I kept my ears perked for the hum of an engine, or the laugh of a child, orsomething, but I didn’t hear a sound. The fraying of my nerves continued. Charlie and Emily moved closer as we passed through the town limits,the buildings before us sitting dark and seemingly empty of all human life.

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