Authors: Geoff Jones
“That river is
brown
,” Al said. “I am not going to let you dump out those jugs.”
“That isn’t your call to make. We have to do whatever benefits the group. Whatever gives us the greatest chance of getting home.”
“What about the greatest chance staying alive? It isn’t your decision either. It isn’t even your water. It’s Lisa’s.”
Lisa’s eyes went wide.
“You know, rafting was my idea, but maybe we should – ”
Morgan entered the room,
throwing open the front door even though he could have walked through the empty window next to it. “Hey, hey, hey-hey-hey! Morgan is here to save the day!”
“Shut up, Morgan,” William said without looking. He was
studying one of the wooden tables. He turned it over and tugged on a leg. Lisa hoped he would make a decision before Hank and Al came to blows. “The idea of building a boat makes sense,” William said. “We would follow the same path taken by the football. I’m just not sure we could build anything that would actually hold us.” He looked around the room. “And any time we spend trying to build a raft is time we could spend walking toward the sea. We could cover a lot of ground in thirty minutes.”
Callie looked over at Morgan. “What the hell are you wearing?”
Morgan hooked his thumbs under the thick straps that ran down each side of his chest. He turned from side to side, showing off his discovery. It looked like a backpack without the pack. A small red handle hung from the strap near his waist.
“This here is a two hundred and thirty dollar, type
-five, quick-inflate personal floatation device,” Morgan said proudly. “And there are three more just like it upstairs.”
“So what?” Al said. “You found
a life jacket to wear on our imaginary boat.”
“Personal flotation device, bitch. And
this is only the start. Come outside and I will show you our imaginary boat.”
A bright yellow box the size of a suitcase sat in the mud near the remains of
Helen’s fire.
Hank looked at it and thought that Christmas had come early.
“Is that what I think it is?”
Morgan nodded
and spread his arms with a flourish. “It’s a five-person inflatable emergency life raft. United States Coast Guard certified.”
“Morgan, I love you,” Hank said.
Al leaned over and studied the box. “It’ll take more than half an hour to blow that up.”
Morgan
pulled open the Velcro top. “Try half a minute. It uses a CO2 cartridge.” He looked around to make sure everyone was watching. Even Helen had come outside. Morgan reached down and grabbed a red strap. “Check this shit out!” He gave the strap a firm tug and the yellow bag emitted a high-pitched hiss. Buddy whimpered.
The hissing bag began to erupt out of itself. Buddy tucked his tail between his legs and bounded up the broken
concrete. He almost knocked Helen over as he disappeared inside.
Morgan beamed
. The yellow bag turned inside out and an outer ring took shape. Thirty seconds later the hiss died down, leaving a twelve-foot-wide octagonal raft. Black nylon straps ringed its perimeter.
Hank studied the raft. It was certified to hold five people, but
he thought they might be able to squeeze in six. He didn’t think it would hold eight.
“I don’t understand,” Helen said.
“Why would they have a raft if they were going back in time?”
Hank considered for a moment. “They
knew there was an ocean here, but they must not have known exactly where it was. It’s the same reason they made the time device float.” He turned to Morgan. “What else did you find up there?”
“Come on,” he said, and
led them around the building to the rebar ladder. “It was that cabinet, man. I really wanted to make sure the time machine wasn’t in there. I mean, how stupid would we feel if we all went down to the sea and it was in the cabinet the whole time?”
As they pulled themselves up onto the
second floor, they saw the cabinet standing upright, both doors open.
“How did you lift it?” William asked.
“The lever. That piece of pipe you tried to use to lift the concrete off that lady.” Several layers of ceiling tiles had been laid across the body Morgan had named Mister Slushy. Morgan stepped up on this makeshift platform and stood in front of the cabinet. The bottom tile soaked up pink fluid like a sponge.
“It’s like, everything we could possibly need
.” Morgan showed off his find. He picked up a box of fishing tackle in one hand and a small camping stove, complete with a propane tank, in the other. “Tarps, PFDs, matches, sunscreen, bug spray, hunting knives, first aid stuff, flashlights. There’s even a short shovel.”
“Is there a gun?” asked Hank. Morgan shook his head. “Then
there isn’t
everything
we could possibly need.”
Al
took a knife and unscrewed the end of the hilt, revealing a compass. “This is awesome.”
Lisa
huffed. “These people were planning an expedition from right here in my building.”
William reached over and took out the
short-handled shovel.
“This might make a decent paddle,” he said. “It’s decided. We’re taking the raft and we leave in five minutes.”
The others
started to get ready. Tim took out the remaining life jackets. “I’m not at my best in the water. Hope ya’ll don’t mind if I take one of these.”
Hank, Al and Callie formed a bucket br
igade to move the supplies downstairs. Al collected each item from the cabinet and carried it to the edge of the building, where Callie tossed it down to Hank. Lisa and Morgan stacked the gear inside.
When
the last item had been thrown down, Hank approached William by the raft. “So you’re calling the shots here.” It was a question in the form of a statement. Hank wanted to see how William would respond.
“Folks seem to be listening to what I have to say.” William was tying the shovel to one of the black nylon stra
ps that ran along the circumference of the raft.
“
I’m glad we’re going down the river. It’s the right call.”
William smiled. “I don’t know if
it really is the right call. If there is something in the water, we’ll be sittin’ ducks.”
Hank shook his head. “I don’t understand. If it’s not the right call
, why did you make it? What kind of leadership is that?”
William cinched the knot and stood.
“I never managed anyone. I never had anyone report to me. But I learned from raising my boys that making decisions and sticking to them helps get everyone on the same page. Even when the decisions are not perfect. Having folks on the same page can go a long way toward turning an okay decision into the right one.”
“You know that raft will only hold five or six people, don’t you? What’s your plan for that?”
William made a chewing motion with his mouth. “I don’t have one yet. I’m hoping it works itself out. Helen could ride down with us, but there’s no way she’d make it back here.”
“What if we
find the device but it goes off before we get back?”
“We have to
get back. We don’t want to return to Denver in the middle of a freeway, or have a building collapse on us. We have to get back here.”
Tim walked up and offered the last two life jackets. William and
Hank both refused. “Give them to the women,” Hank said. “See that Callie gets one.” He didn’t know if she would find it sexist or valiant, but he was going to make damn sure she wore one.
Lisa stepped out front.
Tim extended a life vest. “Want to wear this?”
Helen
spoke up before Lisa could answer. “You aren’t really going, are you hon? Even if the raft makes it to the ocean, you still have to hike back here. You’ll slow them down with that hurt foot.”
Lisa took the life vest by one strap and examined it. “I haven’t
made up my mind yet.”
“Well, don’t stay here on my account. Whatever happens, I will be fine. But you can’t burden the others like that. You’ll slow them down.” Helen hobbled slowly
back inside.
Lisa handed the life jacket back to Tim. “
Hurry back, dammit.”
Hank watched Lisa disappear around the side of the building. The decision about who would go and who would stay had worked itself out, just as William had predicted. Hank took the last life jacket for himself and vowed to make sure they returned with the device in time.
Al climbed down from the second floor
using the makeshift ladder of rebar and broken concrete. All of the supplies had been removed from the cabinet and transferred downstairs. He still couldn’t believe their good fortune. They had enough gear to conquer this world if they wanted to.
Lisa met him as he stepped down onto the mud. “Hey Al Stevens, how about we pick up that conversation from earlier?” She took his hand and led him behind the café. He wanted to share his excitement about the supplies
. The look on her face told him to keep quiet.
She held on to his hands and turned to face him.
“Listen, I have decided to stay here at the store.” Al furrowed his brows but did not say anything.
“I can’t leave Helen here by herself and I can’t run. I think I will be safer here. Besides, it’s a five-person raft.”
“That’s ridiculous. We can make seven fit.
And if not, we can shove Morgan overboard. I think everybody would be fine with that.”
Lisa smiled.
“We can’t make eight fit, and I’m not leaving Helen here alone. I’ll be safe. You just gotta make sure to find the device and bring it back here.”
Al felt dizzy. He wasn’t sure what to do. He wasn’t sure what he
wanted
to do. He didn’t want to leave Lisa behind, but he really wanted to be there if they found the time machine. He didn’t trust the others not to screw something up. “I don’t know...”
She smiled at him. It was different from the smile she gave him each day when he collected his m
orning coffee. “I will be fine.”
“I could stay with you,” he said.
He saw fear on her face. “No. You have to go with them. You have to make sure they come back in time. For me.”
Al swelled. “I promise.” She was sending him on a quest.
“I want to thank you for saving me in the river this morning.” She looked up at him, one hand on his arm. “Nobody ever saved my life before.”
He knew that if he kept his mouth shut, he wouldn’t say the wrong thing. He
tensed up, flexing his bicep.
Lisa reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him full on. Her lips pried at his mouth. Al kissed back, wondering if he was doing it the way she liked. He held onto her lips with his own. Her eyes were closed, so he closed his
too, until she broke away.
“You’re welcome,” he said. They both smiled. She pulled him close again and held him tightly.
Al panicked as he felt his erection pressing against her, embarrassed about what she might think. He remembered his mother’s disgust when she saw him with an erection at the age of eleven. She had put him in the shower with cold water on full blast. At the time, he didn’t even know why it happened.
He tried to pull away, but Lisa reached to the small of his back and brought him closer with a wink. Was she actually pleased? They heard someone
approaching and separated.
Around the corner,
Morgan climbed down from the second floor. “It’s getting
nasty
up there,” he said.
“
Oh crap, the smell,” Al remembered. He and Lisa followed Morgan around to the sidewalk. “We’ve got to do something about those bodies. They’ll draw every predator in the area.”
William shook his head. “There’s no time. We have to
get going. We gotta find that thing and get back here before it goes off.”
“We can’t leave
Helen and Lisa here with those bodies upstairs. They will ripen in this heat. They’ll be like a beacon.”
Hank tossed a few bags of supplies into the raft.
“You stay if you want, Al. I’m going to find that device.”
Buddy watched from a distance. He had come back outside and circled the raft,
sniffing it from all sides. He seemed less afraid of it now that the hissing had ceased.
Al looked back at Lisa
, unsure what to do. “It’s okay,” she told him. “I’ll take care of the bodies. I’ve scrubbed enough puke and shit from the café’s toilet over the years.” She looked like she was trying to convince herself as much as Al. “At least Morgan got the cabinet off of Mister Slushy for me.”
“So you’re staying
behind?” Callie asked. Lisa nodded, looking both exhausted and sad. Callie gave her a hug.
“
There was nothing you could do,” Callie said.