One Second After

“Oh, damn, Jen, not now, not today, I don’t even want to think about it in relationship to her.”

“Few fathers do. But frankly, my son-in-law, I think your sixteen-year-old daughter is now, how shall we say, a woman.”

“Jesus, don’t even talk to me about this now.”

“Tyler and I had you and Mary figured out rather quickly.”

He blushed. Jen had never said that before. And he looked over at her.

“Almost to the day, I bet. At least I did. Tyler, like any dad, went totally blind to reality, and John, I see it in your daughter now.”

“Jen, not now,” he sighed. “There’s so damn much else going on.”

Jen nodded slowly.

“And you don’t want to face this issue. OK, but you better face up to it, John. Those two are scared, don’t see much of a future ahead, the old restraints fall away. I’m old enough to remember the Second World War; it was the same then. Eighteen-year-old kids who knew each other just a couple days or weeks would figure ‘what the hell’ and either marry on the spot or have to get married within a few months. Our ‘Greatest Generation’ stuff tends to make us forget just how young and scared they were back then. So face up to the reality, dear son-in-law. You’re the history professor; you know what happens inside kids when there’s a war on.”

Too much was happening today. He stood up, peeked into Jennifer’s room. She and Pat were playing a game with Jennifer’s Pokemon cards.

Her skin color looked off, a bit yellowish, pale.

Dear God, but one planeload of supplies into Asheville, but one, and my worst worry is gone.

“Would you talk to her?” he asked, looking back at Jen.

“Coward, and yes, I already have. But I think you as a dad better talk to both of them as well.”

“OK, later,” he said a bit too quickly.

Looking at Zach and Ginger, John went to the gun cabinet. He pulled out the 20-gauge and headed out the door, the two dogs slowly trotting along behind him, knowing that today there just might be some food if their master and provider got lucky.

CHAPTER NINE

DAY 63

He awoke to the dogs barking and instantly knew… someone was in the house.

They had drilled the plan after the murder of the Connors last week, their home at the top of the road, all four of them, parents, two kids, the house then ransacked from one end to the other for whatever scraps of food they might have.

He didn’t hesitate, shotgun up as he stepped out of the office crouching low.

The two dogs were barking madly, snarling, and then he heard the crack of a gun and a high-pitched, yelping scream.

He stepped into the living room. The back door into the kitchen was wide open. Two men, at least it looked like two men.

So this was the moment and he did it without hesitation.

The first blast nearly decapitated the man by the door. The second turned; one shot fired wild and the second blast caught that one in the guts, flinging him back against the kitchen counter.

The girls had been drilled; if there was an intruder they were supposed to get on the floor behind the bed. The water bed where they now slept together was an excellent barrier….

After several seconds Elizabeth started screaming “Daddy!”

“Stay put!”

Crouched down low, he came around the turn into the kitchen. The one man was definitely dead; even in the dark moonlight John could see that, the other whimpering, kicking spasmodically. By his side was Zach, crying pitifully, Ginger, with hackles raised, snarling at the wounded man.

There could be someone outside, John realized, but first he crawled over to the wounded man, grabbed his pistol, which was on the floor, a .22 revolver from the feel of it, and stuck it into his belt. The other man didn’t have a gun, just a machete, and John took that with his free hand.

He headed back to the wide-open door, was about to step out, then thought twice, doubling back through the house, coming in low to first Jennifer’s room and then Elizabeth’s to make sure there wasn’t a third intruder.

Past his old bedroom he looked in for a second.

“I’m all right. Now don’t move!” he hissed. “Elizabeth, you have your gun.”

“Yes, Daddy,” and her voice was trembling.

“If I come back to this room, I’ll call out first. If anyone else comes through, you shoot and don’t hesitate.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

Back out through his office and then the front door, which he slipped open, circling back around the house.

No one else. He slipped through the rear door into the kitchen and touched the basement door; it was still locked. Then once more, down low, sweeping Jennifer’s and Elizabeth’s rooms yet again, nervously popping the closet doors open, both rooms still empty.

He went back into the kitchen.

“Jen, light a candle and get out here.”

A minute later the flickering light illuminated the kitchen. Jen recoiled at the sight of the first man, face gone. The second was crying louder now, curled up. And then there was Zach.

John went over to his old buddy, his friend of so many years, who had saved their lives with his warning. He was shot in the top of the back, just behind the shoulder blades.