“What the heck?”
Conrad leaned closer toward me so he could get a better view out of the driver’s side window. “All these earthquakes probably ruptured some of the gas lines. Their flames might have ignited the fumes.”
“Oh, that’s just great.” I hadn’t even thought of that.
“You hear that?” he asked.
“The gunfire?” It had been coming from several locations, though there was a break after the explosion.
“No.” He shook his head. “Listen closer.”
I rolled down the window an inch. “Oh, yeah. Helicopters.”
A moment later two of them came into view. They headed straight for the dragons, who’d moved on to the next neighborhood. I could only guess the military had put troops there to defend the place because it sounded like machine guns were going off on the ground again.
“Those are Apaches. They must have sent them from Fort Riley for them to get here this fast,” Conrad said.
I gave him a surprised look. “How do you know that?”
“My parents are in the army.”
“Huh.” I wouldn’t have guessed.
The Apache helicopters opened fire on the dragons. The creatures jerked wildly as the bullets tore through their bodies and wings, but neither of them fell. Lifting their heads, they roared out thick red and orange flames into the sky. One helicopter swerved to avoid the fire, but the other one didn’t move in time. Its rotary blades were incinerated, sending them plummeting. I winced as it crashed and burned into the ground. Those were our troops we’d just lost.
“Now I really want to see those fuckers die,” Conrad said.
We both leaned closer to the window as we watched. Please, God, let the other helicopter hang in there and do some damage. I wasn’t sure if it would stay in the fight as it sped away, flying faster than the dragons could follow.
Then it turned back, letting loose a missile before banking away again. I held my breath as the missile sailed toward the dragons. It struck one. The light from the explosion was almost blinding in the dark sky, but there was no missing the fall of a large body.
Conrad pumped his hand in the air. “Take that, you fucking bastards.”
“Why didn’t they do that in the first place?” I was still mourning the loss of the first helicopter.
He gave me a grim look. “On such short notice, I doubt they have more than a few missiles to use. They were probably ordered to try bullets first.”
A chorus of roars filled the air. Four more dragons entered the scene, coming from the north. The Apache sent missiles out toward them, but this time its targets were ready. They blew flames in front of them, incinerating the projectiles before they could do any damage. There wasn’t even an explosion.
They spread out to surround the helicopter. It didn’t have a chance to get away before one of the dragons got close. I dug my fingernails into the door panel as I watched it let out a stream of fire that engulfed the body of the helicopter. When it was done, only the blades were left to fall to the ground. I clenched my eyes shut, wishing I could wipe the memory of what I’d just seen away. The men in there had to have died instantly, but it must have demoralized their comrades on the ground. The shooting had stopped.
After giving myself a mental shake, I opened my eyes again.
“Damn. I thought that helicopter had them,” Conrad said, settling back in his seat.
“At least they got one dragon before they went down,” I said, rubbing my face.
“Yeah, but you saw what happened. It only took one time for them to see how a missile works before they figured out how to defend against it. They’re smart and there’s nothing that can get around that fire.” He balled his fist. “We’re up shit creek without a paddle.”
The dragons flew off, heading to another part of town. “Maybe the military will find another way to take them down.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” He gave me a pitying look.
I started the engine and continued toward campus.
“You’d think a new mountain range would have caused more damage to the surrounding area.” Conrad said a few minutes later after we got on Berry Road.
“Maybe not if it’s two dimensions coming together,” I pointed out.
“I think I’m gonna go with the magic theory. It’s growing on me,” he said, pasting a serious expression on his face.
I let it go and concentrated on driving through the dark neighborhood. There’d been no sign of electricity returning since we’d gotten back into Norman. I had to resist the urge to turn on my headlights. So far we hadn’t seen any more dragons, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any around. I wasn’t taking any chances after what we’d just seen. For once, having a late 90s model truck where the daytime running lights had stopped working came in handy. I could drive through the streets without attracting too much attention.
We moved toward the university at a snail’s pace. Conrad kept a lookout while I watched the road. When we reached the intersection of Berry and Lindsey, I eyed a gas station at the corner. It was shut down and all the lights were off. No one was around to stop us if we just walked inside and grabbed what we wanted.
Things were going to get a lot worse before they got better. We’d need food and supplies to survive and while a gas station might not have much, it was better than nothing. Too bad we couldn’t get fuel, too, but the electricity had to be on for the pumps to work.
I pulled into the parking lot. “Let’s grab as much as we can.”
“Good idea.” Conrad took a look around. “This place will probably be emptied out in another day or two.”
I stopped the truck right next to the entrance and we got out. Our shoes crunched on broken glass when we reached the door. Both of us peered through the dark to see if anyone was in there, but nothing moved or made a sound.
Conrad and I exchanged glances before going inside. The place had been trashed, but there was still a lot of stuff left. Whoever had been here before must not have stuck around long. Maybe the dragons hitting the nearby neighborhood had scared them off.
I moved behind the counter and took a handful of plastic bags, handing them over to Conrad. “Fill these up with drinks. I’ll grab food.”
He nodded.
We spent the next ten minutes clearing out everything we could and transferring it to the truck. All I could think about was that the library would have a lot of people inside and they’d need to eat. The more supplies we had, the better. I also grabbed soap and tampons. No one ever considered feminine hygiene products during apocalypses in the movies, but the last thing we needed was a bunch of PMSing females running around without the basic necessities.
By the time we finished, my truck bed was almost full and the store half-empty. I wished we could take even more, but we couldn’t stick around any longer. It had been risky to stay as long as we did. Just as I was pulling out, a group of young men entered the parking lot on foot carrying bats.
“Hey!” one of them called out.
I headed for the street.
“Stop!” they yelled and began running toward us.
“Get us the hell out of here,” Conrad urged.
My heart was pounding. “Right there with you.”
I sped the truck up and crossed the intersection, racing up Berry Road. Through my rearview mirror, I saw the guys had stopped running. We were about a mile from the parking garage. Once we got on campus we’d hopefully find Trish, Justin, and the others to help us unload—and keep any crazy people away.
Chapter 7
Bailey
It was fully dark when we pulled into the parking garage. I took the nearest available slot, using my running lights to see. It was a risk, but I couldn’t see anything without them.
I turned the vehicle off and realized my hands were shaking. The keys jingled in my hand. I’d managed to stay calm through everything so far, but now that I’d reached relative safety all the fear and uncertainty rose up. I was trapped in Oklahoma with no easy way out. People were dying every time I turned around. My parents were expecting me and I couldn’t contact them.
All these thoughts and more came crashing down, threatening to suffocate me. I liked to think of myself as strong, but I couldn’t imagine even the most seasoned veteran could be handling this turn of events well. The world…it was like someone tossed it in a blender and mixed it all up, adding some crazy fantasy crap in there as well. Why now? Just this morning I’d had my whole life ahead of me. Dreams that I’d wanted to follow. But not anymore.
There was a loud bang on the vehicle and I jumped.
“What happened?” Justin asked, appearing next to my door.
I rolled down the window. “Where’d you come from?”
“I was just coming out on a patrol when I saw you drive by. What brought you back?”
Taking a deep breath, I let it out. “Long story, but we’ll tell you all about it.”
“Looks like you raided a store.” He nodded at the back of my truck.
“Yeah, we did.” I turned my attention to Conrad. “Can you help Justin with that stuff? I need to change out of these clothes.”
“Yeah, sure.”
He hopped out of the truck. I overheard Justin tell him they should grab some more guys to help carry the bags. Apparently some of his veteran and officer training buddies had come to the library while we were gone. We’d filled up the truck bed with bottled water, soda, and snacks. It would take a lot of trips without more people to haul it all.
As soon as they were out of sight, I rested my head on the steering wheel and let out a shaky breath. One thing I’d learned while living on a ranch was that you had to remain clearheaded during a crisis. Most of our problems had been related to working with cows and horses, but the same basic principles applied. You couldn’t panic when a horse went wild in its stall during a storm or when the cows broke the fence and started a stampede. It was a matter of seeing the problem and doing whatever you could to fix it.
I couldn’t make the dragons go away or stop two dimensions from colliding. That was well out of my area of expertise. What I could do was take in the situation and do my best to protect myself and others. In less than a day, the world had completely changed. I could bemoan that fact and let it freeze me up or I could do my best to act decisively.
Straightening my shoulders, I sat up and lifted my head. I was Bailey Monzac and as long as I still breathed, I would survive. An apocalypse would not be the thing to break me.
Having given myself that little pep talk, I felt a bit better. I reached back and dug through my bags to grab a pair of jeans, a tank top, and a pullover. The night had turned cold. The smart thing to do when faced with no electricity was dress in layers.
About the time I’d finished zipping up my pants the guys returned and started pulling supplies from the truck bed. Conrad must have warned them I was changing because they were polite enough to avoid coming near the windows. I found a pair of my running shoes and put them on last. They’d be the most practical, assuming I didn’t get them burned off like my sandals.
I hopped out of the truck and found half a dozen people grabbing the bags of food.
Justin gave me a nod. “If you’ve got any clothes or blankets you want to bring with you, grab them now. The dragons are circling closer. Once we get inside, we need to stay in there if we don’t want to draw their attention.”
He had a point. If they saw even one of us going into the library, they might decide to burn the whole place to the ground. They’d already proven they could do it at other places.
“Alright.”
I pulled open the back door and stuffed whatever spare clothes I might need for a couple of days into a backpack. After that, I grabbed a pillow and comforter. There were two extra blankets that people could use so I handed those over to guys to carry. Then I took a few bags of food. Once we had everything, we moved as a group toward the library. Justin went a little ahead of us to scope things out along the way, but no dragons showed up before we got inside.
There was a guy and girl waiting at the entrance who opened the doors for us. They locked them up once we were inside. It wouldn’t stop the dragons, but it would slow looters down if they showed up.
Down in the basement, I discovered our numbers had grown since Conrad and I had left. Some of them were students, but there were a couple of families from the nearby neighborhood as well. I saw a few kids running around.
Justin leaned toward me. “Most of the library staff went home to check on their families, but we picked up some strays while out scouting for food and supplies earlier.”
“That was nice of you,” I commented.
We continued down the stairwell to lower level two where the library had an employee break area. Trish was in there with piles of bottled water and food around her, instructing another girl on where to put things. They had a battery-operated lantern sitting on the table, casting a soft glow over the room.
Her eyes widened when she saw me. “Bailey! You’re back. What happened?”
She ran her gaze up and down me as if she expected to see a fresh set of wounds.
“Interstate is closed. It appears the earthquakes are causing some terrain changes,” I explained.
“Oh, wow, you’re going to have to tell me all about it later. But you’re okay?” she asked, concern in her voice.
“Yeah. It’s just been…” I searched for the right words, “a long day.”
“Let me take those bags from you.” Trish scooped them from my hands. “At last count we had forty people to feed so we need everything we can get.”
“Where’d all this other stuff come from?”
She set the bags on a table. “Most people brought what they could with them from home. Some is from the library employees’ stashes, and there are leftovers from the finals week study room. Oh, and a couple of people who work over at the student union also joined us so they helped us find what we could from there. We’ll probably have to make another trip tomorrow to get the rest, though.”
At least that was a start.