Fallen Into Darkness Read online

  As the colonel spoke, with his hands behind his back, they saw the bulge of a pistol at his waist. “The delicate network of technology that held everything so nicely together is gone. There is no federal government or organized military. It’ll be groups of people just trying to survive. I expect ninety percent of the population will be dead in a year. What just happened is an absolute game changer.” The colonel lifted up his shirt from the front exposing the pistol tucked behind his belt and said, “I won’t be an easy target for any banditos on my journey out of here. I’m a survivor.” Colonel Sheppherd moved closer to the breakfast counter and said, “I’m going to get a stash of this food and get out of here. Good luck. You’ll need it.”

  After the colonel left, there were a few moments of silence between Robert and Kyle.

  “What he just said scares the shit out of me,” said Robert . “I need some proof it’s that bad. Let’s look around. I’ll start by checking my laptop. I’m going to get my room key. Care to join me?”

  “Let’s do it.”

  As they walked to the front desk, Robert changed his mind and told Kyle to bring Richard back inside, get Henry, and then come to Robert ’s room. They all needed to talk. Robert thought that by the time he got back into his room, Kyle would have everyone gathered together.

  After Lee opened Robert ’s door for him, Robert left it ajar and immediately tried the power button on his computer. He got no response. He then tried his cell phone again. Same response: nothing. Everything seemed fried, just as the colonel had predicted. He sat on the small couch in his hotel room and stared at his useless phone as he thought of his children so far away. His son Brad, just seven years old; his daughter Jennifer, only four. His wife had stayed at home with the children. The pulse was early enough in the morning that he thought it was most likely they would all have been at home asleep when this happened. Thinking of his family, his stomach tightened into a knot.

  He closed his eyes as he faced the sunlight coming through the window. He was remembering the conversation with his son on the phone yesterday evening. His son asked when he would get back home; Robert told him that he would return on Friday. Robert ’s face cringed as he thought about his situation. How the hell am I going to ever make it back home from here alive? He shook his head, opened his eyes, and stood up to look out the window. Now that it was fully light outside, he could see that no cars on the road were moving. He cringed again. That colonel might be right about all this.

  “Knock, knock,” Kyle announced, as he entered Robert ’s room with Richard right behind him.

  “Hey, Robert , it sounds like you need a foil hat, too,” Richard said sarcastically, as he fondled another sugar doughnut in his hand.

  “My laptop is dead, Richard,” Robert said, as he walked to the window and completely opened the curtains. He gestured with his hand for Richard to look out the window. “Take a look at the cars on the road. They’re stalled. Why haven’t they been towed? See any lights on anywhere?”

  The three men looked out the window. As they looked down at the stalled vehicles in the street, Robert unlocked the window and slid it open to allow some fresh air into the room.

  Richard leaned closer to the window and looked to the left and right. “Hey, I think I heard something. There’s an old beat-up pickup truck…It’s parking right over there…look!”

  Robert laughed and said, “Yeah, that thing is older than me, no high technology to get fried in that engine.”

  Robert noticed Henry was missing and asked, “Where is Henry?”

  Richard pointed at Kyle and said, “He beat on Henry’s door. Henry is going to be pissed off. He never gets up this early.”

  With a confused look on his face, Robert asked again, “Then where is he?”

  Richard rolled his eyes and said, “Earth to Robert , he didn’t answer the door. He’s probably still asleep.”

  In an instant, Robert ’s face took on an expression of horror. He bolted out of his room and down the hallway. In his haste, he bumped Richard, knocking the doughnut out of Richard’s hand onto the carpeted floor.

  Robert exclaimed, “Henry has a pacemaker! We have to get that door open!”

  Kyle sprinted out of the room right behind Robert .

  Alone in the room, Richard looked at the doughnut on the floor and said, “Five second rule,” before he grabbed the pastry off the floor and made it disappear with one bite.

  Robert stopped in front of what he thought was Henry’s room and asked, “Is this it?”

  Kyle nodded.

  As Robert stepped away from the door, he said, “Stand back. I’m going to kick this door down.”

  Before Kyle stood back, he pointed to the door’s sweet spot for Robert , right by the handle, but Robert already saw his target. Robert took a deep breath, clenched his teeth and fists, coiled his foot up to his body and let it fly forward like a steel spring. As his foot contacted the door, they both heard a crack in the wood. Kyle gave him an approving nod. Robert backed up again and sent his foot flying hard at the same spot near the handle. On second contact, the wood holding the locking mechanism splintered away and the door flew open. They stepped into the room and saw Henry’s body on the bed, contorted under the sheets. He was lying in vomit.

  Robert was the first through the door and yelled, “Henry!”

  Kyle went to the other side of the bed, touched Henry’s face, and said, apprehensively, “He’s cold. I think he’s dead.”

  Kyle looked away and shook his head in disbelief. Robert turned to look back at the doorway and saw Richard staring at Henry’s lifeless body, his eyes wide and his face noticeably pale. Richard abruptly turned away and vomited, his breakfast of sugar doughnuts spattering on the hallway carpet.

  Robert looked back at Kyle and said, “This does it for me. We have to get out of here. I’m taking the colonel’s advice.”

  “How?” Kyle asked.

  Robert looked out Henry’s window into the parking lot. He saw the old pickup truck they knew was still working and spoke toward the window. “Some things must still be functioning. Let’s get out of this room and get a plan.”

  As they stepped out of the room, they saw Richard hunched over in the hallway on his hands and knees. Saliva was hanging from the corner of his mouth.

  “Get up,” Robert said, as he and Kyle walked past.

  Richard was still visibly pale and his body was shaking. “What about Henry?” he asked.

  “There’s absolutely nothing we can do for him. We have to get out of here now,” Robert replied, as he walked down the hallway with Kyle. “Get off the floor and meet us in the lobby.”

  Chapter Two

  Robert and Kyle stopped in the hotel’s lobby to wait for Richard. They sat there watching the confused people making their way in and out of the main entrance. The night clerk was still there alone, his fatigue even more obvious now. Robert did not think that it would be too much longer before the clerk got too frustrated and walked away from this mess.

  Robert stood up and walked to the edge of the lobby to see if Richard was coming down the hallway. He saw Richard talking with Lee, the hotel’s maintenance man, just outside Henry’s broken door. Knowing that there was nothing he could do for Henry, and that he had broken the door, he decided not to go back and get Richard. He desperately began to brainstorm ideas on how to get out of town and back home to his family. Home for Robert was Kansas City. Robert knew that Kyle must be from Omaha because that was the corporate office where he was stationed. Richard lived the farthest away, based out of St. Louis. As Robert leaned against the wall, he dropped his head and started to feel the calamity of their situation. They each lived a thousand or more miles away.

  As Robert ’s depressed gaze tracked downward toward the tiled floor of the lobby, he noticed a rack of tourism brochures against a wall. One brochure stood out from the others. The title was Float the Headwaters of the Missouri River. Robert quickly grabbed it off the rack and hastily unfolded the brochure. The
brochure described a family business that sold or rented rafting equipment and camping supplies. According to the brochure, it was located at the headwaters to the Missouri River, at a prime location for trout fishing and rafting.

  Kyle was still sitting on a couch in the lobby.

  Robert held up the brochure for him to see and said, “I have the answer.”

  “What? A vacation?” Kyle asked, with a confused smirk.

  Robert sat down and placed the brochure flat on the table in front of them. Robert placed his index finger on the brochure next to a large X that represented the location of the rafting supply store. Next to the X was a tortuous blue line running across the brochure, representing part of the Missouri River and its headwaters. He traced his finger across the blue line and explained they should get rafts and float downriver to make it home. Although not on the brochure, both men knew that the Missouri River flowed through both Omaha and Kansas City before merging with the Mississippi River at St. Louis.

  As Kyle was nodding his head in acceptance of the idea, he asked several questions in quick succession. “How do we get to the store? How can we buy this stuff if retail-sales computer equipment is dead? What do we eat and drink? How could we keep ourselves alive on a thousand mile float trip?”

  Robert did not have a chance to answer Kyle’s questions as Richard had just come around the corner and sat down next to Kyle, interrupting their conversation.

  Richard looked apologetically at Robert and admitted, “You were right and I was wrong. Something very bad has happened. I was talking to that maintenance guy and he said he’s getting out of here and going to his brother’s ranch north of town. I saw his brother. He was the guy with the old diesel pickup we noticed going into the parking lot. I heard his brother say there are stalled cars all along the road. I’m a believer now, Robert . We are in trouble.”

  “Robert has a plan,” Kyle announced, as he pointed to the brochure on the coffee table.

  “What? A vacation?”

  Robert rolled his eyes again and explained, “No, an escape out of here.”

  Robert quickly explained to Richard what he had just explained to Kyle. Richard nodded his head in agreement as Robert spoke. Now Robert could answer Kyle’s first question. They would get to the rafting store in the old pickup they saw in the parking lot.

  “Richard, we need to convince the owner of that truck to drive us there,” Robert said, as he pointed to the brochure.

  “We better act quickly. It looks like he’s getting ready to leave with his brother,” Richard said, pointing to the front desk. Lee and his brother were standing there.

  “Let’s go. You first, Richard,” said Kyle.

  Richard greeted Lee and his brother again, then introduced Robert and Kyle, and asked if they could get a ride. Richard explained that he knew it was a pickup and they had no problem riding in the bed of the truck. He held the brochure up to their prospective driver and explained to him where they needed to go.

  Lee’s brother said, “No problem. It’s right on my way home.”

  “Thanks for helping us. How much time before you leave?” Robert asked.

  “My brother is fix’n to quit this place. I’d give it thirty minutes.”

  “Sounds good,” said Robert .

  “Hold on. None of us has anything that tells time,” said Richard.

  “Me, neither,” said the man. “I’ll just be hangin’ out around the front here. I’ll wait for ya.”

  Robert watched the man turn his baseball cap backward, like his brother Lee had worn his cap earlier this morning. Robert walked away thinking how much the man looked like his brother.

  Robert motioned for them to walk over to the empty breakfast area. He told them his plan. They were to go back to their rooms, clean up, and put on their best suits. They should each pack a large suitcase with some clothes, as best they could, to accommodate roughing it for a while and bring the pillow cases from the beds back here with them. If they were to buy equipment, Robert wanted to put as much as he could on a credit card. The longer they postponed getting the equipment, the harder it would become to use a credit card for anything. Everyone was going to figure out soon that credit cards were no good anymore. After merchants stop accepting credit cards, Robert thought they would accept cash for a while. He also knew it would not take very long before cash would also become worthless. That was why they needed to work fast and get dressed in nice clothes. It would be easier to convince a shop owner to take the credit cards of three businessmen rather than those of three guys in sweatpants, each with five o’clock shadow.

  Robert , Kyle, and Richard arrived back at the breakfast area at about the same time. Each of them was clean-shaven and wearing a nice business suit. Sitting together at one of the small tables, each of them clutching empty pillowcases, they discussed what they should take to eat for their journey. Whatever they brought would have to last without refrigeration. They decided it would be wise to take all the bread and dry cereal they could find. Kyle opened the cabinet doors below the breakfast counter and found a case of oatmeal packets and some boxes of apples, bananas, and oranges.

  Kyle looked up and said, “Jackpot!” as he shifted his weight to move back from the cabinet door, revealing the bounty of food.

  Robert quickly leaned over and gestured a thumbs-up sign. Robert checked on Richard to see what he was putting in his pillowcases. It was doughnuts, pastries, and packets of jelly. “Dump that crap out,” Robert said, as he pointed to Richard’s pillowcase. Richard put his hand on the pillowcase and stared back at Robert . He was clutching the bag as if it was a precious treasure. Robert snatched the pillowcase full of junk from Richard’s hands and said, “Go to the front desk and get as much bottled water and trail mix as you can. Grab a map. Kyle and I will finish in here.” Robert walked to the large trashcan and dumped the junk out of the pillowcase, shaking it to remove the crumbs.

  Richard approached the front desk with his remaining pillowcase and noticed that the night clerk was still there, still alone. He was sitting back away from the counter in a chair. His head was leaned back, eyes closed, and there was drool on the corner of his mouth. Richard politely coughed and when that did not wake the clerk, he tapped the bell on the counter. The clerk was startled awake and jumped out of the chair, embarrassed.

  “Hi. I would like to pick up a few things you have back there,” said Richard.

  “Sure, what would you like?”

  “I am interested in the bottled water and the bags of trail mix.”

  The clerk quickly set a bag of the trail mix and a bottle of water on the counter and asked, “Anything else, sir?”

  “Yes, there is. I actually want all of them.”

  “You mean all of the bags of trail mix and bottles of water? It would be a lot cheaper to get this at the grocery store around the corner.”

  “That’s okay,” said Richard, as he put his credit card on the counter, “something came up. We decided to have a company retreat and go camping. If we’re going to rough it, we might as well do it the right way, in the woods.”

  “Okay, I will have to write your information down and run the card when the power comes back on.”

  “I understand,” Richard said, as he slid the card closer to the clerk. The clerk was too tired to notice Robert and Kyle walking out of the breakfast area, past the front desk, and out the front doors of the hotel carrying pillowcases stuffed with food. When all the pillowcases and luggage were at the front of the hotel, Robert and Kyle stood at the entrance and motioned for Richard to come out.

  Carrying a case of bottled water toward his coworkers, Richard said, “I was able to get the other stuff sitting on the counter. I need a hand with it all.”

  Not missing their cue, Robert and Kyle went to the counter and grabbed the results of Richard’s shopping extravaganza. Richard was able to get the hotel’s entire remaining inventory of bottled water and trail mix.

  “Nice work, Richard,” Kyle said, as he carried h
is armload to the bed of the pickup. “Let’s get this stuff in the truck and find Lee’s brother to drive us out of here.”

  Robert was finished loading first and told the others to stay by the truck. He would jog past the maintenance room, then around the hotel to see where Lee and his brother were. Robert felt awkward dashing into the hotel wearing a suit and dress shoes. He slowed his pace and calmly walked down the hallway. Robert noticed that the door to the maintenance room was open, so he stepped halfway into that room. It was dark in the windowless room. Robert ’s hand reflexively rose to the light switch on the wall. His wrist flicked and the switch toggled upward. As he heard the empty click, he realized what a foolish gesture this was, and laughed at himself as he turned away from the empty room to exit the building at the end of the hallway. Robert looked quickly to the left and right through the clear glass door at the back of the hotel before he opened it and stepped outside. Under a large shade tree, he saw their driver and his brother talking.

  “Ready when you are,” Robert said, as he waved to get their attention.

  The men quickly gestured back to him, motioning for Robert to come over. Lee pointed away from the hotel toward a nearby intersection. He told Robert they had seen a carjacking, and described what they had witnessed. The sound of an old car engine had caught their attention. As the car slowly approached the intersection, two men stepped into the street and waved their hands as if for the car to stop, which it did. One of the men approached the driver, pulled a pistol from under his shirt, and pointed it at the driver’s head. The driver raised his hands and the armed gunman opened the door for the driver to exit. The gunman motioned for the owner to run away, which he did. The carjackers drove north, toward the highway.

  “Sounds scary, mister…?” Robert said, as he paused to finally get their driver’s name.

  “Call me Chet,” he said, shaking Robert ’s hand.

  “Did they see you two?” Robert asked.

  Lee replied, “Nope, we were behind this tree.” Lee looked around. ”Let’s get out of here.”