Alone (5 page)

“Jason, I think we are going to need something a bit more substantial than that little generator. We need to find a big generator.” Ralph said to Jason as he sat with the bear in his mouth.

“Looks like you found a friend.” he said patting the dogs head.

Jason dropped the bear on the front seat and then lay down. He rested his head on the bear and gave a big yawn.

As they drove, Ralph thought again of Mandy and their boys. When Colin had been born and then again when Sam came along, Mandy’s parents had flown over to visit. They had brought expensive gifts. When they visited the house, they refused to stay there. Instead they got a room at a local hotel. After visiting Mandy and Colin at the hospital, Ralph had driven home followed by the rental car Marjorie and Colin were using. He had showed them the house and then the nursery which he and Mandy had worked on for the past two months. They called the house “quaint” and marveled at how small it was. They walked into the nursery and swept the teddy bear that Ralph had bought into the floor. He had purchased the bear as a surprise for Mandy and little Colin. Marjorie and Colin had thought that it was tacky and had then showed the teddy bear that they had brought with them. Its head and limbs were articulated and it was wearing a derby. Before they left for home, Ralph had been told how expensive the bear was at least fifty times. They had paid more for it that Ralph made in two weeks. When little Colin had been laid in the crib, the bear was laid beside him. Mandy had thanked her parents profusely. Ralph had taken the bear he bought and had thrown it into the trash. He had never told Mandy about it.

The truck bounced and Ralph was brought back to the present. He had drifted off the shoulder and into a pothole. Jason looked over at him as if to say “Hey! Watch the road.”

“Sorry buddy. I was day dreaming.” Ralph said as he brought the truck back onto the street.

They drove across town to R&G Construction Company. Ralph had made plenty of deliveries here and knew where the loading dock was located. He drove around back of the building and saw several large generators in the fenced in yard. He drove up to the gate and slowly pushed it in. The lock snapped and the gate sprung open. He drove in and stopped.

Getting out of the truck, he surveyed the area. Like every place else, it was deserted. Jason bounded out of the truck and began to sniff around the gravel lot. Ralph walked over to the row of generators. These were big ones. He knew that these were used out on new construction sites to power all manner of tools. They were rugged and dependable. Ralph knew the owners of the company and he knew that they took good care of their equipment. He wandered down the row and checked the closest generator. It was fully fueled. These particular machines all started by key and there were no keys in any of them.

“Jason.” Ralph called. Jason came running from behind a large cement mixer and headed toward Ralph.

“We’ve got to go inside and find the keys for the generators.” He said as he turned and started across the lot. At the loading dock, he checked the garage doors.

“Locked.” He said to Jason as he checked each one.

“Let’s try the front.”

The pair walked around the building and tried the front door. It was unlocked and they entered. While Jason ran here and there and checked out the smells, Ralph searched each office. A few doors were locked, but a good kick popped them open. He had no luck until he entered the warehouse portion of the building. There he found a small freestanding office and a key cabinet. Each key was tagged with a complete description of what equipment it was for. Ralph located a group labeled generators and grabbed them all. He found the switch to raise the garage doors and opened each one. He walked out and over to his truck. Matching each key with the proper generator took only a minute or so. Jason ran to the doors when he heard them open and then trotted around the warehouse checking out the smells. Jason tried the first generator. It started normally. Ralph shut it down and maneuvered the truck around and secured the generator to the rear bumper.

It dawned on him that the other generators in the lot would ruin if they just sat there. One by one, he hitched the generators to the truck and drove them to the main building and placed each generator inside. He didn’t bother with lining them up; he just wanted to keep them out of the weather. When he finished, generators dotted the warehouse floor. He found 2 empty five gallon cans for fuel and threw them in the back of the truck. He closed the garage doors and hitched the last remaining generator to the truck. He pulled out of the lot and then closed the gate. Jason had finished his survey and he hopped into the cab. Ralph tied the gate closed with some rope he found and they headed home. On the way, he stopped at a convenience store and picked up a couple of jugs of bottled water. He filled the truck and both containers with gas.

Arriving at home, he found that the power was still on, however the water was not. He unhitched the generator and placed it beside the main breaker box into the house. He stored the gas cans beside it.

He unlocked the kitchen door and he and Jason went in. Ralph walked over to the answering machine and checked for messages, there were none. It was now after 4 pm and he was hungry. He opened a can of food for Jason and placed it on the floor. Jason bolted his food down as Ralph made another sandwich and heated a bowl of soup. Princess Snowflake decided that it was time for her to make her royal rounds thru the neighborhood and she stood by the door and demanded to be let out.

“OK.” I’m coming.” Ralph said as the cries got louder. Once she had made up her mind, she was in a hurry to be about her business. Ralph was taking entirely too long and she was quick to voice her disapproval.

“Wait a second for crying out loud.” Ralph said as he finished making his sandwich.

“You didn’t want to go out earlier and now you want out immediately. You are just going to have to learn patience.”

Ralph was putting away the mayo when her highness resumed her loud protests at being kept waiting.

“All right, all right.” he said. He opened the door and she just sat there. It was almost as if she had decided, at the last moment that she really didn’t want to go out after all.

“Oh no you don’t.” he said as she turned to walk back into the kitchen.

“You wanted out and out you’ll go.” Ralph said as he nudged the cat with his foot. “You might as well march right on out, because that’s were you are going.”

Princess Snowball looked up at him in disbelief. How dare he presume to tell her what to do? She seemed to say.

It was at that point that Ralph decided the easiest way was to simply pick her up and set her outside. Before she realized what was happening, Ralph scooped the cat up and set her outside of the door. She stared into the yard and he quickly shut the door, bumping her behind as he did. She sat by the door and began to cry pitifully.

“No way!” Ralph said looking out at the cat.

She looked up at him and cried.

“Get on out there. You aren’t coming back inside tonight, so you might as well accept it.” He said thru the door. With that, he crossed back into the kitchen and checked his soup.

“Just right.”

As he poured the soup into a bowl, the cries from outside stopped. He glanced out the kitchen window and watched as the cat slowly walked away from the house.

“Crazy cat.” he said as he carried his dinner out of the kitchen.

In the living room, Ralph once again tried the TV. This time all the channels were static. Everything was off the air. He finished the sandwich and soup and stared off into space. He was trying to get his mind around the day and trying to figure out what had happened. The room darkened and still he sat. When all of the light had faded, he became aware of Jason whining. He looked around and found the dog cringing beneath the coffee table.

“Jason, what’s wrong boy” he said as he leaned toward the dog. Jason responded by growling in rage. His lips pulled away from his snarling teeth and a wild look came into his eyes.

For a moment, Ralph thought the dog was going to attack him. Then he realized that Jason was not looking at him. He was staring down the short hallway to the kitchen. The kitchen light was on and a soft glow filled the hall. With the hair on the back of his neck rising, Ralph knew that someone or something was behind him. Slowly he turned to face the hallway. Two indistinct shapes filled the hall and moved toward him. He could now hear them over the growls of Jason. They made a wet slimy sound as they advanced down the hall. He couldn’t make out who they were. They seem to be misshapen. Reaching the living room, they paused.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Ralph said. His voice caught on the last phrase and it ended with a squeak. He began to rise from the couch when the two figures leapt across the room. He felt their wet slimy limbs engulf him and he felt their hot fetid breath in his face. He struggled to break free and screamed.

With a jolt, Ralph awoke. He peered anxiously around the room. Jason was sitting by the couch whining.

“It’s OK boy. It was Just a bad dream.” Ralph said shakily. “A doozy of a bad dream.”

Ralph looked at his watch and found that it was 11:30pm. He stumbled from the living room and into the bath. He jumped in the shower and turned the handle. A small trickle dripped from the shower head.

“Crap!” he exclaimed as he got back out of the shower. He had placed the bottles of water in the fridge. He removed one bottle and poured the water into a pot which he heated on the stove. When the water was warm, he took a sponge bath there in the kitchen. Feeling a little bit cleaner, he headed off to bed.

He decided to try the phone again, but when he picked it up there was no dial tone.

“Its amazing.” he said to Jason “Just how fast man’s devices fail. With no one to constantly repair and maintain them, they can’t last long.”

He sat on the edge of the bed and patted Jason’s head. The emotions swelled up inside him and he began to sob. At first he cried for Mandy and the boys. He knew that he would never see them again. Unless things returned to normal and he didn’t expect that. Even if they were all right, with the phones down, they had no way to contact him.

Then he cried for himself. As far as he knew, he was the only person left on the face of the Earth. How was he going to survive alone? What was he going to do?

Finally, he cried for mankind. If he was the last person on Earth what had it all been for? All the trials and triumphs of the past. What were they good for now? Nothing. It was all for nothing. Grief overwhelmed him. He fell to his knees and began to pray. As he prayed, the grief became bearable once more. When he had finished pouring out his heart to God, a wave of calm washed over him. He still didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, but it now longer seemed to be that important. He had rarely known what he was going to do from week to week. He got to his feet and slid into the bed. As soon as he closed his eyes, he thought about the nightmare he had had. With all the craziness today, it was no wonder that he was having bad dreams. He wrapped the covers around him and waited to sleep to take him. He was just drifting off when a thought crossed his mind.

“Did I lock the doors? Are all the windows locked?” he thought to himself.

The longer he thought about it, the more unsure he became.

“Oh for crying out loud.” He said as he sat up in bed.

With a sigh, he got out of bed, padded through the house and checked the doors and windows. All of them were locked. When he was sure that the house was secure, he turned off the lights and went back to bed. He settled into the covers and lay awake for a long time. Finally his eyes closed and his breathing became slow and regular. Jason curled up at the foot of the bed with his bear. They both fell into a deep sleep. Sometime later, both man and dog twitched and moaned then were still. It was at this moment, the power failed. And darkness filled the land.

CHAPTER FIVE

When he awoke the next morning, Ralph struggled against the clinging wisps of sleep as he hauled himself up. For a moment, he didn’t know where he was. He glanced around and recognized this as his bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his face. Jason lay at the end of the bed, his bear beside him.

“Good morning boy.” Ralph said as he patted the dog’s head. Jason gave a huge yawn and stretched.

“Did you sleep well?” Ralph asked as he staggered to his feet, crossed the bedroom and walked down to the kitchen. He reached inside the door and flipped the light switch. Nothing, the power was out. He stood flipping the switch on and off and an idea filled his mind. All of the meat in the various stores in town would quickly spoil now that the power was off. He decided it would be worth his time to try and save as much as he could. He ate quickly and gave Jason some food. He opened the door and called for her majesty, but there was no sign of her.

“Of course, I don’t think she would come to me anyway.” Ralph said as he pulled the door closed.

He cleaned the kitchen and quickly dressed.

“Come on boy.” He said to Jason as he walked out of the house. “We’ve got work to do today.”

They piled in the truck and then headed to the local library.

Propping open the front door, he began searching the card files. He found a section on preserving food and took all of the books with him. He also took every book he could find on preserving, canning, pioneer life, survival and home improvement. He made several trips to the truck, but finally got it all inside. He sat on the library steps and looked through a couple of books on preserving meat. He made a list of items he needed and headed off to the super store. The easiest way to preserve meat would be to dry it out. He fired up several of the small generators they had in stock and lined them outside the main door and plugged in every dehydrator he could find. He walked down the meat section and piled cart after cart with beef, pork, chicken, turkey and fish. He cut as much roast and steak into strips as possible and filled the dehydrators with the strips of meat. Soon the pleasant aroma of cooking meat filled the air. Using several camp stoves, he canned even more meat. The store had pressure canners and canning jars. He found several smokers in the sporting goods sections and had all of them going in the parking lot. After several hours of work, he had all of the meat from the store canned, smoking or drying out.