Grid Attack (Cyber War #2) (2 page)

Tony appeared a few minutes later, grabbing my hand and pulling me back into our house. I could tell by his walk that he was in a hurry and he seemed upset.

I felt my stomach lurch as he pulled me into his arms and hug me.

“What? What is it?” I asked as I pulled away to look at his face.

His eyes were filled with tears.

“She…she slit her wrists. She laid on top of him and slit her wrists.” He said.

Chapter 3 - Anthony

When I got into Alice’s house, I used the flashlight to see inside, being careful not to shine it towards a window.  Since the tree was still covering most of the front of the house, it was easy to go through the back and not be seen.

The first thing I noticed as I made my way towards the garage was the smell.  We hadn’t noticed it up until now, probably because the door was closed to the garage and the temperatures had been pretty cold, so any decomposition would have been slow.

When I got to the garage door entrance from inside the house, I could see the door was ajar.  We had made sure it had been closed before, so I knew either someone had been looting or someone was in here.

“Alice?”  I called out softly.  “Are you here, Alice? It’s Tony.”

Making sure I identified myself was vital these days.  We didn’t want to accidentally get shot.

Of course, I had no way of knowing if she was even in the garage or if someone else was in there.  I pulled my pistol as I made myself ready in case someone jumped me.

As I got into the garage, the smell of death was overwhelming.  So much so I almost lost my dinner.  I grabbed my jacket and pulled it up around my nose and mouth, hoping to block the smell.

There is something about the smell of death that once experienced, you always remember and know what it is. It is the most putrid of smells and can linger inside your nostrils for days.

I took the flashlight and shown it around the garage as I slowly worked my way around the first car.  As I got toward the center area I slipped on something and almost landed on my ass.

With a shaky flashlight, I shined the light down on the floor. Following the bright red trail of blood, it led me right to Alice’s body.  She had decided this world was too hard to live in without Ernie.

Her eyes were still open, as I rushed over to her.  But I could tell she was already dead.  I carefully felt for a pulse, then closed her eyes.

It hurt my heart that someone could take their own life because of heartbreak.  But I understood it.  Having someone suddenly torn from your life by death isn’t something that is easy to handle no matter who you are or where you're from.

Some people can manage to deal with death more easily than others.

I remembered reading an article about how many couples who had been married for years, died shortly after one another.  It was almost as if their heart was so broken, that it couldn’t be put back together.

Alice and Ernie were that kind of couple.  She just couldn’t bear the thought of life without her husband.

I backed away from them and quickly made my way back to Katherine and Carl.  I needed to feel Kat in my arms right then.  My emotions had begun to get the best of me and I choked back the tears that pricked at my eyes.

Living life in a state of constant stress isn’t something that most people can handle.  I know I have talked with combat Veterans who’ve tried to explain it to me.  But there is no way to explain stress of the constant state of fear unless you have been to war.

Fortunately, I had never had to experience war. At least not at the level of the troops.  I didn’t envy any of them, and always respected anyone that could come back and manage to live any kind of normal life after fighting.

I hurried out of the house and grabbed Kat by the hand, leading her into the house before pulling her close to me and feeling her warmth. I needed to do that before telling them about Alice. Carl followed us inside closing the door behind him.

I knew she would be upset.  Rightfully so.

After I told her, she just shook her head and went to sit down on the couch.  Grabbing some tissues she covered her face and quietly sobbed.

Seeing Kat cry was one of the hardest things for me.  When she cried, it was almost like I could feel her pain inside me and I had to swallow hard to keep myself together.  It wasn’t always possible.

I went and sat down next to her, pulling her into me and laying her head on my shoulder so she could let go of the stress and pain of the last few weeks.  I petted her head and held her tight until she finally calmed down.

“Damn, I hate to cry,” She said.  “I always get a bad headache when I cry.”

The headaches were something she had fought with for years.  So crying wasn’t something she allowed herself to do often. When she did it would trigger a headache that would last for days.

She had medication, but since it was expensive she only used it when the pain became unbearable.

I knew she had been stockpiling it as often as she could when we had insurance so that during the times when we didn’t or if we couldn’t get it, she would have it.  Her migraines were disabling and that wasn’t something she could deal with right now.

Carl was quiet as he went back over to the map and continued to look at the different routes.

“I think I will go with you guys if you both agreed and are okay with it.”  

He knew that Katherine had concerns and that we had gone upstairs to talk about it.

I whispered to Kat, “What do you think?” I asked her.

She nodded yes.

“Yeah, we would love to have you.  It most likely won’t be a fun trip.”  I said.

“Well, it makes sense to stay together.  If I went out on my own, I would have less chance of making it by myself.  Being in a group helps.”  He said.

I believed he was right.  He probably figured he would never make it to his mother’s now anyway, at least not in the current state of the country.

“What about your mom?  And your brother?” I asked him, making sure he had considered all his options.

He shrugged and sighed.  I could tell it was a weight on him.  He was here with us and probably felt he missed his opportunity to get to them safely.

“Unless ya’ll were planning on making a side trip, I will just have to find a way to get to them later.” He said.

I nodded.  He was better off coming with us for now and figuring out how to get to his family later as things calmed down.  Besides, his mom lived out in the burbs and most likely was better off than we were in the city.

Katherine finally calmed down and grabbed more tissues to wipe her tears.  

“I think I want to sleep.  We can finish this in the morning unless you guys want to plan things out.” She said.

She kissed me on the lips.  “I’m fine babe. I’m just tired.  It’s been a long month.” She said with a slight chuckle.

I knew she was trying to suck it up and just deal with life, but life was so different now.  Life was scary, and dealing with constantly being scared made it easy to want to just give up.

I gave her hand a squeeze.

“We’ll make it.  Your mom is waiting.  Let’s make sure we show up.” I said.

Chapter 4 - Katherine

Sometimes the pain of life and death can make you wonder if it’s worth it. Why do we keep going when things seem so bad and it appears that there is no hope?

I pondered that, as I slipped off my shoes and pulled the cold covers up over my head. We had been sleeping in our clothes in case something happened and we had to hurry up and get out of the house.

The last thing we wanted was to be outdoors in our pajamas in the winter. Plus, it helped keep us warm.

The fireplace helped and we would turn on the vent-less propane heater I had bought several years ago. It was a godsend during those winter months when the radiator heater didn’t seem to want to take the chill off this old house fast enough. Now, it was what was keeping it tolerable inside the house in addition to the fireplace constantly going.

Unfortunately, the little amount of wood we had was quickly being used just to keep it at a tolerable temperature.

I had picked up the propane heater after an ice storm took out power for a week in what was the coldest week in the history of storms here. The power was out for most of the St. Louis metropolitan area for almost a week.

A lot of people died that year. Mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning because they were bringing in their gas grills to heat the inside of their homes. It was brutally cold, and the hotels outside the city filled up fast.

Not to mention we had no way of knowing when the power would be back up and a lot of people just didn’t feel comfortable leaving their homes for that long with no power. We were the same way.

Fortunately, for Tony, his office had power so he was able to work and stayed warm when he went into the office. I managed to stay home and keep the firewood on the fire while listening to the radio and playing solitaire.

The ice kept me from doing anything else and there was no way I was getting on the road if I didn’t have to.

I really felt sorry for those linemen. They worked day and night in freezing temps to get everyone back up and running. But the weather just wouldn’t play nice. We got hammered with high winds which only made things worse.

The fireplace kept us going that year, but I never wanted to be without an alternate source of heat ever again.

So I waited until off season and got the vent free propane heater along with the propane tank, and it works like a charm. I would have to remember to bring it when we headed down to moms. It could come in handy if there is no heat down there.

As I closed my eyes, I tried not to tear up thinking about Alice. How sad she must have been and didn’t really say anything to us. She must have felt as though we had enough on our plates with trying to keep the food and heat going for all of us.

There were so many chores now. So many things that had to be done manually that was done with machines before. Washing clothes was the hardest and waiting for them to dry in the cool dampness of the winter seemed to take forever.

Although, when we would dry them near the fire, the moisture would help put humidity in the air so it would not feel so itchy on our skin.

What I was really missing was my heating pad. I used to take it and put it between the sheets at night to take the chill out of the bed down by my feet. It made it so much nicer to slip into bed with a warm spot for my cold feet.

For now, I would just have to deal with what I had. I began to warm under the dozen blankets we had on the bed. I pulled them up to my eyes so I could warm my nose under them. Sleep finally began to creep in as I longed for my fan to make white noise to block out the silence.

Now, it was too quiet. I could hear the house groan and creak like an old man when the wind would blow strong enough. Occasionally, there would be a gunshot in the distance or the sound of glass breaking.

It had become the norm for all of us to rotate sleeping upstairs. Usually, two of us were sleeping down on the sectional in front of the fire and the third would be upstairs under a bunch of blankets.

I actually slept a lot better upstairs. I guess knowing that the guys were downstairs keeping an eye and ear on things helped.

I worried about mom and I hoped they had remembered all the things they should be doing to stay warm. I’m sure they were fine, but not being able to get in contact with them was the worst.

Hopefully, we would be on our way down to them in a few days, if nothing else bad happened to change our plans.

Plans weren’t something we could count on anymore. We were constantly changing them based on what we needed to do or have done for the day.

The next morning, I woke to the sun peeking through that crack between the shade and the window trim. You know the one…it’s the one that some how finds your eyes even though the slit is only 1/4 inch wide.

I laid in bed for a moment to see if I could hear anyone stirring downstairs. All was quiet and I was glad because quality sleep for any length of time was so hard to get these days.