The Remnants of Yesterday (2 page)

3

“HELLO?” I STEPPED into the convenience store for the second time that evening. The bell above the door jangled. The place was empty. Both Walter and Clara had pulled a vanishing act. Just like the girl in the red dress, and the traffic noise on the highway.

A prickle of apprehension crept up my spine. This was weird.

“Is there anyone here?” My eyes wandered around the store, first to the restrooms tucked away in the back corner, then toward the coffee bar, and finally to the service counter. The store was deserted and quiet, the eerie silence broken only by the rhythmic hum of an air conditioner.

“I could use some help. My car won’t start. I think the battery is dead.” Why I was explaining all of this to an empty store I had no idea, but it made me feel better somehow. “Hello?”

Still nothing.

I opened my mouth to call out again, but a sudden thought occurred to me. What if the woman in the BMW was robbing the place? She could have Clara and her boss Walter tied up and gagged in the storeroom out back. Maybe she was waiting for me drive off so that she could empty the register and get away without any witnesses. My car breaking down would certainly put a crimp in that plan.

I froze, unsure what to do next.

I could turn and run, but then what? The car was useless, which meant there was no practical means of escape. And what if she had a gun? I wouldn’t get ten feet before she took me down. Hell, maybe Walter and Clara were already dead. No, that wouldn’t do at all.

My cell phone was in my back pocket, and calling the cops seemed like a better plan. I reached down and pulled it free, pressing the button on top to wake it up.

Nothing happened.

The screen remained dead and dark. Another dead battery. That only left one option, the telephone affixed to the wall behind the service counter. I stepped toward it, leaning over to pull the phone from the cradle.

Then I saw her.

Clara was behind the counter. She lay sprawled on the floor, unmoving. It was hard to tell if she was breathing, but at least there was no blood, so it seemed unlikely she had been shot. That didn’t rule out the possibility that I’d wandered into the middle of a robbery. I glanced around, relieved to find the store still empty, then slipped behind the counter.

“Clara.” I whispered her name.

She didn’t move.

“Are you okay?”

She still did not respond.

“Dammit.” I plucked the phone from the cradle and lifted the receiver to my ear. There was a dial tone. Finally something was going my way.

I punched the keypad. 9-1-1.

There was a moment of static, two rings, and then a monotone voice came on the line. “
This number is not in service. Please check the number and try again.”

What the hell? The emergency services were disconnected? Did I misdial 9-1-1? I punched in the number for a second time, taking care not to hit any erroneous buttons.
After two rings the same flat voice answered. “
This number is not in service. Please check the number and try again.”

I set the receiver down on the counter and pondered my situation. Everything started when I collapsed, and since then, things had gotten decidedly weird. Nothing worked right, not the car, not my cell phone, not even 911. Clara was still here, and that was something, although I hadn’t yet plucked up the courage to see if she was dead, but everyone else seemed to have vanished. I was still deciding what to do next when a female voice broke my train of thought.

“Ouch. My head.”

I glanced down to find Clara struggling into a sitting position. She rubbed her forehead and looked up at me.

“What happened?” She asked. “Why are you standing over me like that?”

I took a step backwards. “It’s not how it looks. I came in and found you on the floor.” Thank God she wasn’t dead.

“Still doesn’t explain what you are doing.”

“I passed out,” I said. “I woke up a few minutes ago. My car won’t start.”

“Help me up, will you?” She reached out.

I gripped her outstretched hand and pulled her up. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” She leaned on the counter, her eyes alighting on the phone. “Were you trying to call someone?”

“The cops. I thought the place was being robbed. You looked dead.”

“Well it’s not, and I’m not.” She winced. “I’ve had hangovers better than this. Now I wish I’d had something to drink last night, at least the pain would be worth it.”

“Yeah. It should fade soon. Mine did,” I said. “Do you remember anything that might explain what happened to us?”

“No. Nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“What kind of a question is that? Of course I’m sure. Last thing I remember is you leaving and Walter making some skevy comment, then lights out.” She pushed past me and opened one of the large glass fronted coolers, where she grabbed a bottle of water. “You want one?”

“Sure.”

“Here.” She handed me a bottle. “On the house.”

“I’m pretty sure Walter would have something to say about that.” I twisted the cap off and gulped. The water was cold and felt good. I hadn’t realized how dry my throat was.

“Who cares. Where is Walter anyway?”

“Beats me. You’re the only person I’ve come across since waking up.” I downed the last of the water. “He appears to have vanished, just like the woman in the red dress.”

“Huh?”

I pointed through the window toward the BMW. “She pulled in while I was filling up. She’s gone too.”

“Strange.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe Walter abducted her.”

“I think that might be a little far-fetched.”

“It would explain both of them coming up missing. Trust me, Walter’s a creep, I can just see him pulling a stunt like that.”

“And what about us? Did he drug us both first?”

“Good point.” She conceded. “I still think he’d do it though, given half a chance.”

A thought occurred to me. “Do you have a cell phone?”

“Of course.” She nodded. “In my bag. Walter won’t let us carry phones on company time.”

“Can you get it?”

“Hang on.” Clara put her water down and scurried toward a door marked PRIVATE. She took a key from her pocket, unlocked it, and stepped inside. Alone again, I suddenly felt vulnerable. I breathed a sigh of relief when she returned moments later clutching a small brown shoulder purse.

“Take it out.”

“Alright. Give me a chance.” She dumped the purse onto the counter and unzipped it, rummaging inside for a moment before bringing out a sleek silver IPhone. “What now? Should I try and call someone?”

“Turn it on.”

“Alright.” She pressed the button on the top to wake the phone up, and then her brow furrowed. “Odd. It was fully charged two hours ago when I got to work. There’s no way it should have gone dead this quick.”

“Give it to me.” I practically snatched the device from her hand and turned it over, examining it. There was no doubt about it. Just like every other item with a battery, the phone did not work.

“We could plug it in to a charger,” Clara said.

“Did you bring yours with you?”

“No. But we don’t need it.” She took off again, stopping in front of a rack near the back of the store. She searched for a moment then grabbed something before rushing back to the counter. She held the object up. “Replacement charger. All gas stations carry these things.”

“You’re a genius.” I would have kissed her, except she might have taken it the wrong way. “Do the honors?”

“Absolutely.” She reached behind the counter and picked up a pair of scissors, slicing into the shrink wrap and freeing the charger, then plugged it in and pushed the cord end into the bottom of the phone. “It’ll take a few moments before we can turn it on.”

We waited, watching the screen in silent anticipation. Several seconds passed, then a few more. All at once the screen lit up.

“It’s working,” Clara said.

The screen changed from a battery symbol to a picture of Clara with her arms around a large dog, a Golden Retriever.

“Nice dog. Yours?”

“My parents.”

“Oh.” I was about to make a comment about my own childhood dog, but then realized there were more important things than idle chatter. “Try and call someone.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

“How about my roommate Shelly.”

“Fine.” I didn’t really care who she called. I just wanted to see if she could actually get through to someone.

She pulled up the address book and selected a number, and then hit dial. “I’ll put it on speaker.”

“Good idea.”

She placed the phone back on the counter and we waited for the call to connect, our eyes fixed on the screen.

There were a few moments silence, and then a droning beep filled the air. The call hadn’t connected.

“Shall I try again?” Clara reached out to pick up the phone.

“Don’t bother.” My eyes strayed to the icons across the top of the screen, to the place where there should be four stepped bars indicating a signal. Instead two words jumped out at me.

No Service.

4

“WHAT NOW?” CLARA PULLED on her bottom lip with her teeth.

“I don’t know.”

“None of this makes any sense.” For a moment she looked like she was about to cry, but then she pulled herself together. “We haven’t tried my car. Maybe it will start.”

“How much do you want to bet?”

“Not much.” She narrowed her eyes. “No one else has come in since…” she trailed off as if mentioning what had happened somehow gave it more power.

“Someone should have stopped for gas by now, what with the Interstate right down the road.” This had occurred to me before, but I chose to ignore it. Now, with so much time passing, it was getting more and more unlikely that we wouldn’t have run into another motorist. Whatever happened must have affected a much bigger area that just the gas station.

“It’s never this quiet,” Clara said. “If other people blacked out like we did, and they were driving…”

“Then the Interstate is going to be a mess.”

“We should have heard sirens though. There should be some response to something like that.”

“Right.” I hadn’t thought of that. Any time there was a pile up it drew all sorts of emergency services. By now there should be medevac and news helicopters flying overhead, ambulances, fire trucks screaming down the road. There was nothing. It was quiet as the grave outside. “We could hike to the highway. There might be other people there.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s over a mile away, and there are no streetlamps on this road. It’ll be pitch black. Besides, I don’t want to go out there right now. We’re better off staying where we are. Someone will find us eventually, a cop or something.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but I didn’t voice my concern. “We’ll stay here and wait then.”

“Good.” Clara looked relieved. “I’m getting hungry. Do you want something to eat?”

I looked around the store. “Sure. Do you have anything that isn’t chips and candy?”

“There are some prepackaged sandwiches in one of the coolers. I think there are some donuts left too.”

“A sandwich is fine.” I’d planned to stop further down the road for a bite to eat. “Ham if you have it.”

“I think we can manage that,” she said, making her way to the back of the store and opening one of the large coolers. Moments later she returned with a couple of sandwiches and two small tubs of ice cream. She handed one sandwich to me and kept the other one, then offered me a carton of ice cream. “I brought us dessert too.”

“Thanks.” I took the ice cream.

              “Great. Let’s eat.” She hopped up onto the counter and pulled the wrapper off the sandwich. “Why don’t you sit down?” She patted the counter top, inviting me to join her.

“I think I’ll stand.”

“Suit yourself.” She bit into her sandwich, chewing for a moment before speaking again. “So what do you think is going on?”

“I don’t know.” My mind turned briefly to Jeff in New York. I hoped that whatever was happening here was not also happening there, and that he was safe.

“Maybe it’s terrorists.” She ate the last of her sandwich and popped the top off the ice cream, digging in with a plastic spoon.

“I don’t think so.” Everyone always thought of terrorism first whenever anything bad happened. I guess it was a sign of the times. “How could terrorists drain our batteries?”

“It could be an EMP.”

“A what?”

“Electro magnetic pulse. They fry circuitry so that things stop working. I read that nuclear explosions can do that.” Her bottom lip trembled. “You don’t think it was a nuclear strike do you?”

“I think that might be jumping to conclusions.” If it was a missile, New York would be an obvious target and we were less than four hours away. Would an EMP travel that far? I pushed the thought from my mind, ignoring the knot of dread that roiled in the pit of my stomach. Instead I chose to rely on reason, even if it might be flawed. “There was no explosion, no mushroom cloud. We would have heard something. Besides, your phone came back on.”

“I don’t follow.”

“If something damaged the circuitry it wouldn’t have turned back on. It was just a dead battery.”

“Maybe.” Clara didn’t look convinced.

“Besides, a bomb wouldn’t make us pass out.”

“Or make people disappear.” Clara seemed to perk up a bit, but then her face fell. “So we’re back to square one. We still don’t know what is going on, and we still can’t contact anyone, or get out of here.”

“Maybe we can.” A thought occurred to me. “If the cell battery just needed charging…”

“Then maybe the car battery is the same.” She finished my sentence, a look of hope crossing her face. “That means we can get out of here.”

“Right.” There was just one problem. “Do you have a car charger?”

“Maybe.” She hopped off the counter and proceeded to search the shelves.

“Find anything?”

“Not yet.” She shook her head, and then changed her mind. “Wait, how about this.” She held up a set of jumper cables.

“No good.” My heart sank. “We don’t have another car to use as a jump. We need an actual charger we can plug into a wall socket.”

“Sorry. There’s nothing like that.”

“Damn.” This was getting frustrating. For a moment I’d actually harbored hope of getting out of here. “I’m fresh out of ideas.”

“I might have one in the trunk of my car.”

“What?” Why had she not mentioned this earlier? “Really?”

“My dad put a bunch of crap in there before I left for college. He said it was an emergency pack. There’s a gas can, flashlight, and I think he put a charger in too.”

“If that’s true, I could kiss your father.”

“I don’t think he’d like that very much,” Clara said, smiling for the first time since everything went to hell. “My car is parked out back. I can go get it now if you want.”

“So what are you waiting for? Go get it.”

“Ok.” She rummaged in her purse and came out with a set of car keys. “Back in a moment.”

Then she was gone.