EPISODE 6 – The Calm Before the Wrong Storm
1018 Words
“Silvia, I need you to get out of your seat,” James said, his voice calm but firm as he kept his eyes on the road. “Drop the back of it down and tell me what you see.”
Silvia twisted around and pulled the release lever. The seat folded flat with a quiet thump.
“Uh… okay,” she said slowly. “I see a bow. A bunch of knives. And… wait… there’s a button down here. Why is there a button under my seat?”
“Push it.”
She hesitated. “Why?”
“Just do it.”
Silvia pressed the button.
A low mechanical whirring came from beneath the floor, and the seat base beneath Joe and Leanne shifted slightly.
Joe jumped. “Okay, that’s creepy.”
“That’s Dad,” James said quietly. “Push your seat back up. Everyone back where you were.”
Silvia slid into place again.
“Now that bag of guns you brought,” James continued, “there should be a hidden compartment in it. If I know my paranoid father, he built one. Empty everything into that compartment.”
She blinked at him. “Your dad is terrifyingly prepared.”
James didn’t smile. “That’s why we’re still alive.”
They drove in silence for a while after that.
The road stretched ahead, quiet and almost peaceful, which somehow made everything worse.
“We’ll be coming up on California in about an hour and a half,” James finally said. “If I’m right, Dad went through Devil’s Elbow to get to the farm. He’ll stop in California to top off fuel and stretch everyone’s legs. Might even be waiting for us.”
“You really think he’d use a place like that to fuel up?” Silvia asked, suddenly hopeful.
James nodded. “Dad always looks for a station on the edge of town. Quick in, quick out. Less risk.”
They searched when they got there. Slowly. Carefully.
Nothing.
“I don’t see anyone,” Zariah said. “Maybe he already made it through.”
James tightened his jaw. “If he did, he would’ve left some kind of sign.”
They circled again. Then again.
“Everyone look for anything painted that doesn’t belong,” he said.
Twenty minutes later, Leanne sighed. “James… we haven’t found anything.”
He exhaled slowly. “Okay. We fuel up and keep moving. We catch them today.”
A few miles down the road, a wooden sign caught his eye.
Palomino Ranch
James slowed.
“There’s a horse farm here,” he said. “We’re stopping. Five minutes. Stretch. Breathe.”
“YES,” the girls said at once.
They pulled in.
The horses were beautiful. Golden coats, deep brown eyes, watching them with quiet curiosity.
“God, they’re gorgeous,” Silvia whispered, stroking a nose over the fence.
“Where’s James?” Leanne asked suddenly.
“And Joe?” Zariah added.
“It’s fine,” she said quickly. “Probably just boy stuff.”
But then—
“Wait,” Leanne whispered sharply. “Do you hear that?”
They all paused.
Wind in the trees. Hooves shifting in the pasture.
Then James’s voice called from the barn.
“Joe! Grab that feed. Load it into the sleeper compartment. Then start stacking square bales in the trailer!”
They found him inside, already working.
“Ten horses,” James said. “Plenty of feed. Hay. Saddles. Apple wafers.”
Joe stared at him. “You’re serious? We’re taking horses?”
James nodded toward a massive truck parked beside the barn. “F-650 Dually. Horse trailer already hitched. This is better than what we’ve got.”
“You just claimed it?” Joe asked.
James didn’t hesitate. “Survival changed the rules.”
“Vehicle,” Leanne whispered from outside.
Everyone froze.
An engine in the distance.
“Hide,” Silvia and Zariah squeaked at the same time.
James stepped forward instead. “No. Hands visible. Slow.”
A man stepped out of the approaching truck, eyes wide as he looked at the horses already loaded.
“You planning on paying for those?” he asked.
James met his gaze. “We’re trying to survive. You’re welcome to come with us.”
The man studied him, then laughed.
“Fair enough.”
They were about forty minutes from Devil’s Elbow when Sylvia leaned forward sharply.
“Stop the truck.”
“What?” Zariah asked.
“Look.”
Vehicles were moving across the fields on both sides of the road.
Another truck was blocking the road ahead.
Joe’s truck slowed.
James’s heart dropped.
Then he checked the mirror.
More vehicles behind them.
“They’re surrounding us,” he said quietly.
“What do we do?” Joe’s voice crackled over the CB.
“Do what they say. Stay calm.”
The lead truck stopped sideways, blocking the road.
Men with rifles stepped out.
“You in the trucks!” one shouted. “Out! Hands up!”
James stepped out slowly.
“Who are you?” the leader demanded.
“Justin,” James said evenly. “Heading south.”
The man stared at him.
Then—
Joe crumpled.
James turned just in time to see the butt of a rifle slam into his head.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Inside the Tahoe behind them, Leanne sobbed. “We have to help them!”
“We can’t,” Sylvia said, voice shaking but firm. “We have no weapons. We have to survive first if we’re going to save them.”
“Sedalia,” Zariah said suddenly. “The woman at the gas station. She knew Mom and Dad.”
Leanne wiped her face. “We can make it back.”
“How fast can you get us there?” Sylvia asked.
“James driving? Twenty minutes. Mom driving? Forty-five.”
“Then drive like James.”
Silvia managed a weak grin. “Hazel is never letting him live this down.”
Zariah turned the Tahoe around.
Not running away.
But racing toward the only hope they had left.
- Writer
