"Jeeez Buddy, look at all those fires." Eddie could see seven distinct columns of smoke rising from the direction of town. Even as he spoke the eighth smoke column made an appearance, but not a dark gray, brownish one like the others, this one was jet black with angry streamers of red and orange shooting through it.
"Oh shit!" "Not the gas station!" As he spoke the world suddenly brightened from that direction and there was a monstrous thunder-like "BOOM" and the black cloud was thrown outwards and upwards with an expanding ball of fire in it's center.
After a few seconds the mushroom of the fireball started breaking up and the original, inky black smoke began rising again, with flames licking and crackling around it.
Eddie broke his open-mouthed stare with another "Oh shit" although this time it was almost a whisper. Tugging on his parka, he started to break into a run but thought better of it and slowed to a trot, his head starting to pound and the smoke columns doubling and tripling in front of him.
Reaching his pickup truck he yanked the door open while chucking the first-aid kit behind the cab. There was a whimper beside him as he slid into the front seat and he leaned back just in time to avoid being slammed by Buddy who was scrambling into his designated co-pilot's position.
"Ow!" "Watch it, Bud!" Then grunted as one of the big dog's feet found purchase on his groin when the Lab turned to get settled. The bile was rising in his gorge again and a cold sweat broke on his brow. He thought he might faint but the waves of blackness receded as he squinted at his big friend.
"One of these days, Buddy" "You're going to cripple me in your enthusiasm," he rasped. Buddy merely looked back, with his tongue hanging out, (go now), "Yes, we're going" and turned the key in the ignition.
Nothing. He tried it again and got just the faint click-click of a dead battery. Cursing under his breath, Eddie jumped out of the truck and nearly had his feet go out from under him as another quake rumbled around them.
"Hold on, Hold on," he heard himself shouting, as if from a distance, and down he went. "Buddy, Buddy!" The roller coaster waves slowed then stopped. The big Lab bounded out of the truck and looked expectantly at him. (hurt?) "No, No, just scared I guess."
He got up from the dirty packed snow of the driveway and opened the truck's hood. After a couple of minutes testing connections and jiggling wires he slammed down the hood and got inside to turn on the ignition.
A small sound alerted him to Buddy's impending leap onto the front seat and just in time he shouted "No!" effectively canceling Buddy's jumping up with him and also commanding the big dog to sit. There was a barely audible whine from that direction as Eddie turned the ignition key again.
Nothing, not even a click. "Damn" he swore getting out of the truck and slamming the door. "Well Bud," he looked over at his brown friend, "Let's go over to the Sisters' place, maybe we can borrow one of their rigs to get into town." Knowing that charging the battery would take more time than walking the half mile to his nearest neighbors, he grabbed the first aid kit and without hesitation opened the truck door again.
Reaching under the seat he felt the familiar hand grips of his Ruger Blackhawk. Slamming the door again, which got a jump out of Buddy, Eddie clipped the holstered six-shooter to his belt and searching in the utility box on the pickup bed came up with a full box of semi-jacketed shells for it.
With the shells in his pocket and the sidearm handy to touch, Eddie felt a little more secure and whistled to Buddy. "Let's go!" The big dog bounded after him as he left the driveway towards his neighbor's place. (kammi?)
"Yeah, Kammi's place" he said as he kept a watchful eye for the inevitable leap from Buddy. " Hey!" he warned "Knock it off or we won't go that way." With what could only be described as a 'sheepish grin' Buddy settled back down on all fours, and galloped to catch up.
It took less than ten minutes to walk to the Sister's houses. "More like a compound" he muttered under his breath as they walked up to the gate. He looked up at the tell-tale so it could get the print from his retinas and spoke clearly, "Hey girls, Eddie and Buddy here, open up!"
With hardly a sound the big steel gate withdrew into the concrete abutment on the edge of the pavement. Buddy, who had been barely controlling his eagerness, was off like a shot for the first house in a line of three. All three were two storied, the second storey overhanging the bottom floor. All three also had buildings attached and outbuildings scattered behind them, no vehicles were visible.
A door opened in the blue-ish house on the end and he heard a muffled curse, " Gotta train that dog," he mumbled to himself. Prepared for the scolding he knew was coming, Eddie walked up to the door trying to exude innocence and little boy charm.
He was met with an exclamation of "Oh, are you hurt?" "Eddie what happened?" and all of a sudden the entry way was filled with the excited questions of three women and the slobbery greetings of three big dogs. As he stumbled inside there were hands helping him, hands feeling the head wound and other hands brushing off the snow and road grime from his last meeting with the earthquake.
"Hey, one at a time, please" he said to the women, "Need to borrow a rig to get to town." Eddie plumped down into the chair offered and accepted the cup of hot wine while Andy, the eldest, unwound his turban wound dressing and examined his Buddy trophy.
She circled a finger in front of his face and commanded,"Track this." He did and then a light was shining in one eye, something wet touched inside one ear, then the other. "Earthquake?" "No, he answered, "Just Buddy playing Dogzilla." There were a couple of chuckles at this. "Damn near knocked me off my feet when I opened the door." That came from a slightly chunky gal dressed in tie-dye tee shirt and blue jeans.
"Eddie, you gotta start training that dog." This was from the other twin, 'Agatha', dressed like Arabelle, the chunky one. All three were tall, blonde, blue-eyed, good looking women in their early thirties. "Viking Queens" he used to call them in college, where they all met.
"Uh, speaking of dogs,",,,,he began, but was interrupted by (no, no, not now) sounding as if it were echoing in his mind. "There are four of them now", he thought as his gaze swept the room. All four Labs were sitting as if at attention, in an orderly straight row, staring at him.
"Hey, look at that" Aggie was pointing at the dogs. "Ever see them sit like that?" As this got the girls in a heated discussion, Eddie took a drink of wine before looking back at the dogs. (listen old one, tell shes) he got the impression that this sending was from the first dog, a bitch, and mother of Buddy. There was a surprising sense of command in the thought and even more surprising was the agreement he read in Buddy's eyes and those of the others. (not now)
Having been a Boy Scout (Eagle) and concerned with being prepared ever since, Woody created a blog Affiliate Agendas/Emergency and Disaster Survival that incorporates articles on survival equipment, ethics, food and water storage as well as tips on weapons, sustainability, mind-set, and medical issues. A major medical issue that would complicate any survival plans is diabetes. Discover a way to solve this problem and reverse your diabetes at http://affiliateagendas.com/emergency
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