Chapter 3: Fall of Eden

“The phones are dead. The power is out. All we have, and just for the moment, is running water,” Vanessa said as she and Rebecca watched Jackie rummage through the desk in her office.

After calming Vanessa and herself down, Jackie had taken a quick shower before changing into black cargo pants and a dark gray t-shirt. She had also traded in the police shoes for some apparently quite comfortable combat boots. The last item she had on was from her days in the military: an olive drab rig that looked like something from a Vietnam movie, to hold the magazines for her carbine, of which she only had three and one was nearly empty, a canteen and some other pouches for odds and ends. She said it was called ‘webbing’.

“Try my cell phone. It’s how Becka got hold of me,” Jackie said, pulling the small black phone from her pocket and tossing it over to her wife before going through the drawer once more.

Vanessa flipped it open and looked down at the screen.

“No signal. The towers must be down,” Vanessa said, crossing her now bandaged arms across her chest as Jackie stood, holding out a key.

“So what’s the plan?” Rebecca asked looking back and forth between her parents. She was curious as to the nature of the key that Jackie held triumphantly, but didn’t ask figuring the answer would soon be unveiled.

“Get out of this place. I don’t know if this is a local situation or not so, we should try and get out as quickly as possible. Rebecca, go to your room and pack a bag. Just what you need,” Jackie said before leaving the room.

Rebecca looked up at her mother for moment, who only shrugged before leaving as well. Rebecca took a glance around the office, taking it in, before walking down the hall to her bedroom.

Once inside she threw her purple back pack on the bed and started to toss in some clothing. She felt a weight in her stomach; it was a weird feeling, like she knew she would never see this place again. Her home for eighteen years and she was leaving it behind forever.

She looked around the room, looking at each poster for the last time, each photograph. She ran her fingertips over the wall, feeling the cracked and peeling paint and remembering how just a few days ago she had been telling herself that she was going to repaint the room. She sat on the edge of her bed and pulled her stuffed penguin closer and hugged him.

She got him for her third birthday, and had named Doodles. She thought it was a silly name now of course, but she had loved him. Her fingers ran over the stitching that Vanessa had done when the poor penguin had been ripped many years back, and the missing eye that was testament to his long life.

She pushed him into her bag before continuing her nostalgic look about the room. Her eyes finally settled on a framed picture she had sitting on her night table. She was only about a year old, and being held by Jackie who had a wide smile on her face. Little baby Rebecca held dearly on to Jackie’s shirt staring at the camera. She almost seemed afraid, and sought comfort from the woman who stood in place of a father.

She didn’t know why she liked this picture so much; her relationship with Jackie had always been a little strained, and she wasn’t even a biological parent. Still, Rebecca felt like there was a secret in this photo, lurking beneath the surface and just waiting for a key to unlock it. She ran the tip of her finger down the glass covering the picture.

“Almost ready darling?” Vanessa’s voice came from down the hall where her own bedroom was.

“Yes mom,” Rebecca called back and turned her attention back to the framed picture held in her hands.

She took the frame apart and pulled the photo out, and slipped it into the front pouch of her backpack. Getting to her feet Rebecca let her eyes sweep around the room one last time. She saw a picture of her and Diana smiling outside the school. She felt a tug in her heart realizing that she might never see Diana again.

Rebecca pulled the photo from its place on the wall and held it in front of her as her lip started to tremble ever so slightly. Tears welled up in her eyes as the full impact of what was happening hit her. Slowly falling as if trapped in a nightmare she went to her knees and hugged the picture to her chest. Great sobs started to wrack her body.

Nothing could go back, everything was destroyed. Tears pattered gently against her carpet as she mourned for herself, for her lost friends, and for all those who were gone so early. She couldn’t move, she could only cry and hold that picture close to her.

A soft pair of arms encircled her at that moment of anguish. A soft cheek nestled against her own. Vanessa didn’t say anything, just held her daughter and let her cry. The two stayed crouched like that for what seemed like forever, their bodies shaking as they both came to terms with what the world was becoming.

Jackie cocked back the slide of her pistol and looked in through the ejection port. The barrel and chamber were clear, but she saw the rounds seated in the magazine ready to be used in violence. She released the slide, letting it slam forward with an oiled click, picking up one of the bullets and pushing it into the chamber that had been empty just a short few seconds prior.

Slipping the weapon into a holster on her hip Jackie looked at the shotgun, a revolver, another pistol and the carbine lying on the table. All had come from the locker in the basement, unlocked only by the key she had hidden in her office, save the carbine. The trigger locks had been tossed in the garbage, and now what ammunition she had was placed beside the weapon to which it belonged. Only the shotgun had plenty of shells for it.

Both the revolver and shotgun were registered firearms, but the pistol was illegal. Today though, Jackie was glad she had broken the law this one time.

She made sure each gun was loaded, before fastening a sling to the shotgun and sliding the hand guns into their respective holsters. Laying the weapons out on the table, Jackie pulled a knife from a sheath at her hip and used a whetstone she kept in the kitchen to sharpen its blade.

As stone scraped against steel Jackie kept her eyes darting between the various entrances to the rooms while also keeping her ears open. She didn’t call out for her family, knowing that this was hard for them, harder for them than it was for her, though she did feel pain inside. A pain that would not leave easily, like the memories of some of the things she had seen in Afghanistan.

The sound of the front door opening caught Jackie’s ears. Her head perked up, whet stone stopping half way up the blade. Whoever or whatever was there stumbled into the front hallway. Jackie slowly stood, hardly making a sound as she drew her side arm from its holster.

As the intruder regained their balance and started to make their way down the hall, Jackie moved swiftly and quietly to intercept them. She stepped out into the hall and raised her gun, eyes looking down the sight.

A young man, seeming to be in his late twenties, looked back at her with scared blue eyes. Blood ran down his face from a gash partially hidden beneath a shock of blonde hair. He looked up at Jackie, staring down the barrel of her gun, with fear in his eyes.

“Who are you?” Jackie asked calmly but without letting her pistol waver from its point of aim on his head.

“Chase. I… I’m sorry I came in. I was just looking for somewhere to hide, and I saw the front door was smashed open and thought that no one would be in here,” the young man tried to explain.

“How’d you know there weren’t any of those creatures in here?” Jackie said, lowering her pistol but not holstering it just yet.

“I… didn’t,” Chase responded with a blink.

“And you figured a good place to hide would be one with a smashed open door?” Jackie asked with an almost amused smile.

“I… I didn’t think about that,” Chase said with an almost horrified look on his face.

Jackie couldn’t help but chuckle to herself as she holstered her pistol and turned to the kitchen.

“Well, come into the kitchen, lets get a look at that cut of yours,” Jackie said.

Chase followed her, and while Jackie looked about for the first aid kit Chase sat himself at the small table covered with guns. He looked in wonder at the small collection of weapons.

Jackie returned to the table, setting a small white box with a red cross plastered across the front on the table. She opened it and pulled out some gauze and crouched beside her new guest.

“Lets see now,” she muttered, lifting Chase’s bangs and getting a good look at the cut.

The wound wasn’t that deep despite all the blood which had started to congeal around the edges of the split skin. Jackie wet the gauze and used it to wipe away the blood. With the start of the scab brushed away, fresh blood started to run again, but Jackie pressed an alcohol soaked bandage against the cut and held it down with some medical tape.

“That should be good. Don’t take it off for a few days, let the scab form fully,” Jackie said as she closed up the first aid kit and shoved it in the backpack that was mostly full of clothes for herself.

“Okay,” Chase said, gently touching the gauze on his forehead.

“Mr. Lykins?” came Rebecca’s voice from the door to the kitchen.

Both Jackie and Chase looked up to see Rebecca standing with Vanessa’s hand settled on her daughter’s shoulder even though the girl was a few inches taller.

“Hello Rebecca,” Chase said with a smile, as he glanced between the three women.

“You know him?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah, he owns Sugar and Spice, the sweet shop downtown. Me and… Diana went there all the time,” Rebecca said and Jackie noted the slight hesitation at saying her friends name.

“And such a lovely pair you two are,” Chase said with a smile, making Rebecca blush slightly.

“You two all packed?” Jackie asked her family.

“Yes,” came their answers almost simultaneously.

“Packed? You all leaving?” Chase asked.

“Yes, trying to get as far away from this as possible,” Jackie explained.

“You’re welcome to come with. There’s enough room for a fourth person in the cruiser,” Vanessa added, causing Jackie to throw her a small look of irritation before finally looking back towards Chase.

“You have anything to bring?” Jackie asked.

Chase nodded once.

Jackie pulled out of her driveway for the last time, the police cruiser packed with everything they would need for their escape; food, water, sleeping bags, a portable stove, tampons, toiletries and other odds and ends that they thought they would need. As the cruiser made its way down the back roads outside the city the people inside looked out through the windows at the shadowy figures that flittered through the wood line, or was just their imagination?

No one spoke in the car, watching with fear clutching at them all as they fled. Jackie’s knuckles were white at the steering wheel and Vanessa fidgeted with her fingers while absently chewed at her lower lip.

Jackie took a turn that brought them to a road that ran along a ridge that overlooked the city. She brought the car to a stop and stared for a moment before getting out. The others followed, and everyone walked to the edge of the ridge.

“Oh my god,” Rebecca muttered quietly.

“God has nothing to do with this,” Jackie spat.

“More like the devil,” Chase said.

“Everything… just, gone,” Vanessa said.

Jackie hugged both her wife and daughter close while Chase walked closer to the edge of the ridge, all three looked over the city nearly entirely consumed with flames while shades flickered through the inferno. No sound could be heard save the soft blow of the wind and the faint roar that destroyed an entire city and everyone within that would still have been alive.

Jackie let out a sad sigh, not seeing any desperate last stand from her fellow officers. Nor could she figure out where the fire had started. It just looked so deserted.

“We have to get out of here,” Chase said as he turned and walked towards the cruiser.

Jackie kissed both her wife’s and daughter’s foreheads.

“I’m not letting anything happen to you two,” she whispered.