They got to the wall of the second building and started inching along it with the wind at their backs. Chase hoped there weren’t four lions in front of them.
06:00 AM
“What are you two doing here?” Richard Krupp shouted across the crowded gymnasium.
Cindy and Mark had not even checked in with the emergency worker at the table near the entrance when Richard Krupp, the number one news anchor in Saint Petersburg, Florida, barreled his way to the front of the line.
“We’re here for the basketball game,” Mark said. “The weather slowed us down a bit. Who’s winning?”
“I’m serious,” Richard said.
“So am I.” Mark glanced at the emblem on the wall of the dimly lit gym. “I never miss a Florida Hams game.”
“I think it says Rams,” Cindy said.
“Whatever. I never miss one of their games. Hey! What’s with all the cots on the court?”
Cindy laughed.
Richard glowered. “You won’t be cracking jokes in a couple hours when you get fired for not showing up for work.”
“No worries,” Mark said. “We resigned.”
“Really.”
“Yep.”
“When?”
“A couple hours ago. We dropped by to let you know.”
“I thought you said you came here for a basketball game.”
“That too.”
“Why’d you quit?”
“We had an epiphany.”
“That’s a big word, Mark.”
“It was a big feeling, Richard.”
“How’d you get here?”
“Drove.”
“Station vehicle?”
“Private vehicle.”
“But you still have the station camera. Give it to me and I’ll take it back.”
“No can do, Richard. I signed my life away for this thing. I’ll return it personally.”
“What about the video inside?”
“That too.”
“I can take it from you.”
“You can try.” Mark smiled.
“Back off, both of you,” Cindy said. “We’re wet, we’re tired, and we’re hungry.” She looked at Richard. “And we are not giving you the video we shot.”
Richard Krupp backed off, but not very far. He pulled his sat phone out and woke the station manager from a very sound sleep.
06:01 AM
The walk to the end of the second barn seemed to take an hour, but according to Chase’s watch it was less than five minutes. The luminous hands looked as bright as the sun in the pitch dark.
If I can see the hands, Simba can see the hands.
Chase slipped the watch off his wrist and stuffed it into his pocket, next to the tranquilizer gun.
He and Nicole found the door to the barn open, banging against the metal side. Chase went over the list of animals Nicole had shown him during his tour of the barn.
One brown bear. Three zebras. Four ostriches. Some parrots. And Hector …
Nicole started to go in, but Chase put his hand on her shoulder. “What are the chances of Hector sneaking back inside here to get away from the hurricane?”
Nicole stopped and frowned.
“So there is a chance that we are standing between a lion and a leopard,” Chase continued. “Is there any gas inside the barn?”
Nicole shook her head.
“Maybe we should skip inspecting this barn and go directly to the barn where the Shack and Shop is parked. We don’t have a lot of time before the generator runs dry.”
“I need to check on the animals,” Nicole said. “If I’d checked earlier, Gertrude might still be alive.”
“What could you have done?”
“That’s the problem,” Nicole said. “I’ll never know.”
“We also don’t know if Hector is inside here waiting for us. The door’s wide open. Simba might be waiting inside for us as well.”
“I doubt Simba slipped in front of us.”
“No problem, then,” Chase said. “We’ll just walk into a dark barn with a bear, a few zebras, some ostriches and parrots, and maybe a killer leopard.”
“I get your point,” Nicole said with a slight smile. “It’s not a smart move. Why don’t you go get the gas and pick me up on your way back?”
“No. We’re sticking together.”
“Well, then we need to check on the animals.”
Chase knew there was no point in arguing with her further, and they were wasting time.
“I’ll go in first,” Nicole said.
“Be my guest. You’re the one with the shotgun.”
Nicole took two steps into the barn and stopped. Chase followed and closed the door firmly so Simba couldn’t sneak in behind them.
Providing he isn’t already in the barn waiting to devour us.
Chase looked around nervously, slicing his headlamp back and forth through the darkness. Any second, he expected Hector to attack, or the bear to run out of the shadows and tear his head off.
They stepped deeper into the darkness. Chase glanced down to see two inches of standing water covering the cement floor.
“How far are we from the coast?” Chase asked.
“What?”
“The surge,” Chase said. “This water isn’t just coming from the lake in back of your house. There’s too much of it. I think we’re getting floodwaters from two directions.”
“The gulf is three miles away as the crow flies,” Nicole said. “Maybe a little less.”
She took a few more tentative steps forward. Something moved to their left. Something big.
“Bear,” Nicole said.
Chase swung his headlamp in the direction of the movement. The bear was twenty feet away from them, pushing on the metal wall with his giant paw.
“We’ll be okay,” Nicole said calmly.
“I guess that depends on your definition of okay,” Chase said.
06:07 AM
John and Tomás stepped into the gymnasium.
Organized, John thought. And relatively calm. Probably about two hundred people. He had been in a dozen shelters over the past two years, in gymnasiums, sports arenas, and convention centers. When he and Tomás had first started following weather disasters, they had gone to shelters to solicit work but quickly learned that most of the people in shelters had nowhere else to go. Business owners and wealthy people stayed on their properties, checked into high-end hotels, or left town altogether.
John and Tomás had entered the gym near the makeshift hospital area, where people were being treated for all sorts of weather injuries: lacerations, bruises, broken bones, heart attacks, nervous breakdowns…. Nurses and doctors scurried between cots treating wounds, checking IV fluids, replacing ice packs, and handing out medications.
A food and water station had been set up in the middle of the gym so everyone could get to it easily. It was crowded with people grabbing donuts, pizza, water, and coffee.
Breakfast of champions.
Surrounding the station was a sea of cots and folding chairs filled with people wondering how long it would be before they could go home, assuming they still had homes. At their feet were boxes and bags of precious possessions they could not leave behind.
“Name, address, social security number,” the emergency worker said, sliding two clipboards to them. “I’ll need to see some identification too if you have it.”
Their IDs were wet. They flipped open their swollen wallets and filled out the forms.
The emergency worker looked at the licenses. “Whoa, a long way from home. What brings you to this neck of the woods?”
“Just passing through,” John said.
“Bad timing.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Are either of you injured?”
“No. Just tired and wet.”
“The locker room is open if you don’t mind a cold shower. We’re using generators for the lights and heat. Not enough juice to warm the water, but you’ll find plenty of tow
els. I’m afraid there are no dry clothes. We brought in a big load, but they were all used up by the first wave.”
“We’ll be fine.” John scanned the gym for Cindy and Mark, but he didn’t see them.
“What’s it like out there?” the emergency worker asked, as John and Tomás headed toward the locker room.
“Breezy,” John said. “Wet.”
06:09 AM
“Brutus,” Nicole said. “He’s been on the farm longer than I have.”
“Has he ever mauled anyone?” Chase asked.
“No,” Nicole answered. “I’m not saying that we should walk up and scratch his belly, but he’s not aggressive.”
“He’s not in his cage either.”
“Brutus is more afraid of us than we are of him.”
“Speak for yourself.”
Brutus didn’t look the least bit afraid. He had managed to loosen the corner of one of the metal panels and was trying to tear it off the wall.
Why didn’t he just walk through the open door? Chase thought. Maybe Brutus isn’t as bright as he is big.
“Do you think he’ll get that panel off?” Nicole asked.
Chase shook his head. “The panels are attached with long bolts screwed into treated posts. For the time being he’s not going anywhere unless he knows how to open a door, which reminds me … Who opened the door?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. It had to be Hector.”
“How does a leopard open a door?”
“It’s a bar handle on the inside. All he’d have to do is jump up and give it a swipe with his paw.”
“Lucky swipe,” Chase said.
“Maybe not.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hector is smarter than your average cat. He’s a watcher. He’s seen me come in and out through that door hundreds of times. I think he’s been waiting for the opportunity.”
Chase shined his headlamp at Hector’s cage. The door was closed, but the chain-link fencing was hanging down. “How’d that happen?”
Nicole pointed at the bear cage. The door was gone. “I’d say that Brutus managed to tear his door off. Probably in a panic from the sound of the wind. He must have torn into the chain link on Hector’s cage.”
Chase glanced back at the door they’d walked through. “You think Hector’s figured out how to open it from the outside?”
Nicole shook her head. “It’s a twist knob on the outside. As long as Hector isn’t in here, we’re safe.”
“Except for the bear,” Chase said.
06:12 AM
Rashawn broke off a flake of hay and threw it to the elephant. Pet picked the flake up with her trunk and tossed it over her back.
“Guess she’s not hungry,” Rashawn said.
Momma Rossi smiled. “She’s been off her feed for days. We’re just giving her food to keep her mind off her discomfort and the wind.”
Pet yanked on the chains around her left front ankle and right rear ankle.
“Doesn’t look like it’s working,” Rashawn said.
A far-off look clouded Momma Rossi’s face.
“What’s wrong?” Rashawn asked.
Momma Rossi didn’t answer. Her distant expression deepened.
“Momma Rossi?”
Rashawn glanced over at Pet. The elephant was standing perfectly still for the first time since they’d stepped into the barn. She was staring at Momma Rossi as if she could see right through her.
“Are you okay, Momma Rossi?” Rashawn tried to stay calm, hoping the old woman wasn’t having a stroke or something. “Can you hear me? Is anyone home? Earth to Momma —”
Momma Rossi blinked, then sighed, and said, “That was a strong one.”
She looked a little wobbly, almost as if she might collapse.
Rashawn rushed forward and took her arm. “Is it your heart?”
“Oh no, dear. It wasn’t my heart. It was a … Well, for lack of a better word, a premonition.”
“You mean you had a vision?”
“Vision is too clear of a word. It’s more like a flash of insight.”
“What did you see?”
“It’s too early to tell. It takes awhile for my old brain to catch up with the sight and define it.”
“Are Chase and Nicole all right?”
“I think I’d know if they weren’t. I didn’t get the sense that they were in trouble. At least at this moment.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I’m not sure. I have a feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better. Much worse.”
“Did you get any … uh … vibes about your son?”
“Marco?” Momma Rossi closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. “Nothing.”
Rashawn took a deep breath. “What about my family?”
“Give me your hand.”
Rashawn placed her hand in Momma Rossi’s tiny one. The old woman fixed her dark eyes on Rashawn’s for a full minute before saying anything.
“They are in a kitchen. All three of them. Your mother is asleep in a green leather chair with her feet up. She’s holding a young boy in her lap.”
“That’s my daddy’s green recliner! They must have dragged it into the kitchen from the living room. My momma and little brother nap in it all the time. What was my daddy doing?”
“Playing cards at a table.”
“Solitaire! He always plays when he’s stressed or thinking about something.”
“I can’t pick up people’s thoughts,” Momma Rossi said. “But I bet he’s worrying about you.”
“I bet he is too,” Rashawn said. “It’s kind of weird that you can see our kitchen without ever having been in it.” She took her hand away. “But I’m glad they’re okay.”
“I’m glad too,” Momma Rossi said. “Do you think your rice trick has fixed the phone?”
“Only one way to find out.” Rashawn took the satellite phone out of the plastic bag and snapped in the battery. “Here goes nothing.”
She pressed the button. The orange display came on.
“No signal,” Rashawn said. “I don’t know much about these things. I wonder if you have to point them at the sky for them to work.”
She walked over to the small window by Pet’s ring, holding the phone out in front of her.
“Two bars! Now if we only had someone to call. My daddy just has a regular cell phone, and no one’s been able to get a cell signal since yesterday.”
“The cell towers were probably damaged because of Emily,” Momma Rossi pointed out.
“Maybe I can hit the redial button and get ahold of Chase’s dad,” Rashawn said.
She didn’t have to. The satellite phone rang.
06:19 AM
“What time is it?”
“Ummm … I don’t know,” Rashawn said slowly. “I don’t wear a watch.”
“Sorry … uh … that’s a game that Chase and I play. Is this Nicole?”
“Rashawn.”
“Hi, Rashawn. This is John Masters. Can I speak to Chase?”
“He’s not here.”
“Where is he?”
“Out trying to find gas for the generator.”
“You mean outside?”
“Yes, sir, with Nicole.”
“It’s going to be light soon, and it’s not that cold. Why did he go outside in the middle of a hurricane to get gas?”
“Sun’s not going to shine where we are even after it comes up.”
“Are you in the basement of the Rossis’ house?”
“We’re in the barn. There is no house. Emily turned it into sticks.”
“Which barn are you in?”
“The one with Pet.”
“Pet?”
“The elephant.”
“Did you say elephant?”
“Yeah, you know … the one that’s pregnant. She’s supposed to have her baby any moment now. Be bad if she had it in the pitch dark. If there was a problem, we wouldn’t be able to get the baby away f
rom her. The wind has Pet all agitated, as you can probably imagine,” Rashawn concluded matter-of-factly.
“It’s hard to imagine any of this. I didn’t know the Rossis had an elephant on their farm.”
“It’s a circus.”
“Sounds like it. Is Marco there?”
“No, sir. We don’t know where he is, and Nicole is sick over it. Chase said you might be able to find him.”
“I can try. Do you know what kind of vehicle he’s driving?”
“Just a minute … White Chevy Tahoe.”
“What’s the condition of the building you’re in?”
“It’s holding up, but the wind is slamming into the sides. There’s water coming in on one end.”
“The windward side?”
“I guess.”
“How much water?”
“There’s six inches on the cement. Maybe a little more, but most of the barn is dry.”
“What’s your backup shelter?”
Rashawn hesitated. “What do you mean?”
“Where are you going to go if the building you’re in starts to collapse?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m sure Chase has thought of a backup.”
“I’m sure he has. He’s like some kind of storm superhero. He knows exactly what to do … well, most of the time he does. None of us knows what to do about Hector.”
“Who’s Hector?”
“The leopard.”
“As in big cat?”
“Big enough. And he killed Poco.”
“Slow down, Rashawn. Who’s Poco?”
“Momma Rossi’s monkey.”
“Momma Rossi?”
“You don’t know much about the farm, do you?”
“Apparently not.”
“Momma Rossi is Marco’s mom.”
“And she has a monkey?”
“She had a monkey until Hector killed it.”
“Is Momma Rossi there?”
“She’s standing right here. You want to talk to her?”
“I guess I’d better, but before you hand the phone over to her, check the battery level.”
“Hang on…. It’s in the red.”
“I was afraid of that. There’s a charger and spare battery in Chase’s go bag.”
“You mean his backpack?”