See Tom Run (6 page)

“Cheers,” he said.

“Cheers,” the girl replied.

Erin took a swig and looked at Tom, who had sat down
beside her on the hearth. “So now it’s time for you to tell me
about your day, Tom. When did you realize that everyone was
gone?”

Tom chugged his beer and savored it as it went down.
“Well, we were playing euchre in the family room …”

Tom proceeded to tell his side of the story. When he
finished, he sensed that the extent of their dire situation hadn’t
really sunk in with Erin until now since she had spent most of her
time running from her raging mad ex-boyfriend.

“I can’t say this enough, Tom. I am so glad you found
me. I don’t think I could’ve made it without you.”

Tom took her hand and held it tight. “I’m glad I
found you, as well. Somehow, we are going to get through this.
Together.”

She looked sad and a little skeptical. “I know we
will.”

Erin killed her beer and yawned.

“Let’s turn in,” Tom said. “Tomorrow is another day.
Why don’t you sleep on the sofa and I’ll take the chair.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll find some blankets.”

He went up to the bedroom and picked up a couple of
blankets and a pillow then went through the rooms, dousing all of
the candles. He stopped by the phone long enough to pick it up and
hear the dead line.

Erin was fast asleep on the sofa when he returned to
the living room. He tucked the pillow under her head and spread a
blanket over her. She looked like an angel lying there and Tom bent
down to kiss her on the cheek.

He didn’t know why he did that. It just felt
right.

Then he put out the rest of the candles, sat down in
the chair and closed his eyes. He was fast asleep within
seconds.

CHAPTER 5

Tom’s first conscious thought when he awoke was to be
sure to tell Peg the bizarre dream he’d just had while it was still
fresh in his mind. When he started to turn onto his side to face
her, he realized that he was not in their king size bed.

He was on a chair in the living room.

It had not been a dream!

The events of the following day cascaded into his
head in no particular order: the stark reality that his entire
family was gone. The huge snowstorm and discovering that there
wasn’t a single soul in Riverside Hospital—and how the doors to all
of the patient’s rooms had been locked. When he recalled Erin
Myers, he bolted upright and turned to look at the sofa.

She wasn’t there!

Tom bounded out of the chair just as the aroma of
freshly brewed coffee hit his nose. He had a smile on his face as
he headed for the kitchen.

He saw Erin at the stove just getting ready to crack
an egg on the edge of the skillet.

“Good morning,” he greeted.

“Good morning. I thought I’d fix us some breakfast. I
sort of improvised with the coffee maker,” she added, glancing
toward the counter.

Tom looked over to where she had poured boiling water
through the coffee maker basket into the Mr. Coffee carafe.

“Excellent! I’ll pour us a cup. Cream and sugar?”

“Lots of both,” she replied.

Tom prepared their coffees and handed a cup to
Erin.

“How did you sleep?” he said.

“Like a log. I don’t think I’ve been that exhausted
in my life!”

“Me neither.”

Tom went over to the window and peered out. There
were shafts of brilliant morning sunshine slicing through the trees
in the back yard. The sky was clear blue.

A perfect day to go out and find out what happened to
the rest of the world, he thought to himself with a wry smile. He
still couldn’t believe that this was really happening. He glanced
over at the young stranger cooking at his stove. The scene was so
incredibly surreal and bizarre that he almost felt like laughing
out loud. But he didn’t.

Because this, amigo, is no laughing matter.

Where in the holy hell had his family gone? And
everybody else? When were things going to get back to normal? Were
they ever going to get back to normal? What in the hell should he
do now?

He had no answers to any of these questions. All he
knew was that he couldn’t just sit around this house and hope for
some kind of miracle to come along and make it all go away. He was
going to have to get into his car and go somewhere. Somewhere where
the electric was still on, the phones still worked and people still
existed.

So where should he begin?

Downtown would be a start.

And if he had no luck there, then where should he
go?

He would just have to cross that bridge when he got
to it.

“Here we go,” Erin said, carrying a pair of plates
over to the table. On each was a huge pile of scrambled eggs.
Forks, knives, napkins and glasses of water were already neatly set
up on the table.

Tom went over and sat down. “It looks like you have
some experience at this.”

“I’ve waited tables at a few places over the
years.”

Tom thought it odd when she said this—it suggested
that she’d had several different waitressing jobs in her young
life. And she was only eighteen?

“That’s interesting. Any restaurants that I know of?”
Tom asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Tom had the feeling she didn’t want to go any further
with this—just like the old boyfriend topic. He felt it best not to
pry, at least not at the moment.

“These are really good. It’s refreshing to see a
youngster who knows how to cook nowadays. Cooking seems to be going
out the door in today’s society—especially with your
generation.”

“I wish you wouldn’t lump me into some statistical
bullshit, Tom! I mean—you make me feel like I’m five years old. I’m
a woman, not some little kid!”

Her outburst left Tom dumbfounded. Her age seemed to
be a particularly sensitive issue with Erin Myers.

As did her past.

Tom began to wonder what the real story was with this
peculiar young lady. As much as he was dying to find out, he knew
it would simply have to wait. The most pressing issue now was to
try to get out of the predicament they were in and find out where
everybody had gone.

“I’m sorry, Erin. I didn’t mean to offend you. But
when you get to be my age, you look at the world differently with
regard to some things. I guess that I was stereotyping and I
apologize for that. It’s a bad habit of mine, I’m afraid.”

“That’s okay. I’m sorry I lashed out at you. I’m just
a little too freaked out by all of this. What are we going to
do?”

“I guess we’ll just get into the
Jeep and drive around. Look for signs of life somewhere. I figure
we can start out downtown and take it from there. There’s the
police station, the city building, and so on. Surely, there has to
be
something.
”

Erin nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

Tom took a gulp of coffee and stood up. “I’ll go
start the Jeep so it can be warming up. Thanks for the
breakfast.”

She smiled at him. “You’re welcome. I’ll clean up the
dishes.”

Tom was intrigued by this young lady’s
resourcefulness. She would make somebody a great wife some day.

He went outside and got into the Jeep. After he
started it up, he noted the fuel gauge and realized that they would
have to get gas soon. He wondered if the gas pumps would work
without power, then answered his own question. Of course
not—virtually everything needed electricity to work nowadays. He’d
have to either siphon out some gas from another car or—

“Hold it right there!” a voice commanded.

Tom turned to see a gun staring him in the face. A
man in his late twenties or early thirties was standing outside the
Jeep poking a gun through the open door, glaring at him with
malice.

“Who are you?” Tom said, his heart racing.

“Don’t you worry about who I am, motherfucker. You
just need to worry about how you’re going to do as I say so I don’t
pop you with this piece. Got it?”

Tom had never had a gun in his face before in his
life. Nor had he ever been as scared as he was that moment.

“I got it.”

“Now, get out of the car, slowly. Don’t make one
false move or I’ll blow you away. I may just blow you away for the
fun of it if it moves me. Hell, who knows?”

“I’ll move slowly. Please, don’t shoot me!” Tom
cried.

The man roared with laughter. “What a pussy! You
sound like an old lady, you know it?”

Tom was not concerned with what this guy thought
about him. All he wanted to do was stay alive.

“Turn it off. You’re not going anywhere,” he said as
Tom started to get out.

Tom turned off the ignition and stepped out slowly
from behind the wheel. The man backed away, keeping the gun pointed
at his chest as Tom stood up.

“Now, let’s go see where my Erin girl is. I believe
you shacked up with her last night in there, didn’t you? Did she
give you a good blowjob? Or maybe she let you bang her from the
rear—she really likes that.”

Tom, despite his fear, wanted to
punch the bastard’s smug face. What in god’s name was this
guy’s
problem?

“She didn’t do anything but sleep here.”

“Right! And I’m the president of the United States!”
the stranger laughed.

It was then that Tom realized this must be the
infamous Kyle.

And he was even worse than Erin had described
him.

Much worse.

“Come on, shithead, lead the way. Slowly. And don’t
make a sound or I’ll waste you.”

Tom led the way to the door. He considered spinning
around and trying to knock the gun out of Kyle’s hand, but knew
that only worked in the movies. This was no movie and he was no
James Bond.

Tom reached the door.

“Open it—slow and easy. Don’t try to be a hero.”

Tom opened the door and entered, Kyle following
closely behind.

They went through the laundry room and into the
kitchen. Erin was washing the dishes.

“Well looky there! It’s my little girl-whore playing
housewife! How goddamn cozy!”

Erin dropped the plate and spun around, the look of
shock, dread and terror on her face.

“
Kyle!
What are you doing here?” she
cried.

“Why, I’m coming to take what is mine, honey. And you
know you’re mine, now don’t you?”

“God, Kyle—let Tom go! He doesn’t have anything to do
with this!” Erin pleaded, staring past Tom toward his captor.

“What do you mean, ‘he doesn’t have anything to do
with this?’ He has a lot to do with this! He took you in and banged
you last night! Now that wasn’t a nice thing to do at all, taking
another man’s woman and dissing me like that. No, I’m afraid that
Mr. Tom here is gonna have to pay for that.”

“I told you—” Tom said.

“Shut your goddamn mouth! Or I’m gonna make it so you
can’t ever talk again!”

“Kyle, please don’t hurt him! I’ll go with you—I’ll
do anything you say! Just don’t hurt him!”

“Why, it sounds like you’ve really taken a liking to
Tom here. You must have had a real good time screwing him last
night. Jesus, girl—don’t you think he’s a little old for you? Not
that that has ever stopped you before. But then, that’s a different
situation altogether, now isn’t it?”

“Kyle, please don’t—”

Kyle laughed hideously. “I think I got a pretty good
idea what’s going on here. I have a feeling that you haven’t quite
told this guy everything about our special relationship, have you?
I can tell by the look in your eyes.”

Erin started weeping. She convulsed so violently that
Tom ran over to her side, forgetting the gun pointed at him.

Suddenly, the gun fired. The sound was so loud that
Tom’s ears rang. He saw a hole in the shattered ceramic tile to the
right of his sink.

“The next one is for you, asshole. Now go over and
sit down at that table before I get tempted to quit wasting any
more time on you.”

“Are you all right?” he said to Erin.

“Now, motherfucker!”
Kyle roared.

“Go Tom!” Erin pleaded.

Tom went over to one of the chairs at the kitchen
table and sat down. He realized that he could be dead now and knew
that he was going to have to cool it if he was going to have any
chance of getting out of this alive.

“Now, Erin girl, I want you to sit down next to your
friend. And if you cry like that one more time, I’m going to kill
him. You know what I think about those crocodile tears, don’t you?
And I’m not gonna put up with any of that bullshit, I can tell you
that right now!”

“I won’t cry, Kyle. I promise.” Erin declared warily
as she sat down beside Tom at the table.

“I know you won’t, you ho! Now, you two sit there
while I figure out what I’m going to do. I’m so goddamn tired I can
hardly think straight. And that’s your fault, you cheating slut!
Keeping me out all night trying to find you after you sneaked out
on me. I liked to never caught up to you, but luckily there weren’t
exactly a helluva lot of tire tracks in the snow out on the
roads.”

Kyle kept his gun trained on Tom as he walked over to
the refrigerator and opened the door. He pulled out a bottle of
Chardonnay, popped off the cork and took a long swig.

“Jesus, I needed that! I don’t suppose you have any
decent road food around here, do you old man? Some chips or
peanuts—something like that?”

“There are some chips in the pantry.”

“That’s real hospitable of you,” he said. He went
over to the pantry and rifled through the shelves, keeping a close
eye on Tom. He took out a bag of potato chips, a box of Ritz
crackers and a jar of salsa dip.

“This is a start. Well, I think we should be shoving
off now, dear. We’ve got a long way to go. Kiss your old buddy here
goodbye, but only on the cheek, now! I wouldn’t want you to get all
excited and want to screw him again!”