“We should have kept going, after they attacked us” she said. “Walked, ran… whatever we had to do.”
Jacob nodded his head, not knowing what else to say.
Frustrated, Jacob walked to the far end of the room and sat at the head of the bed. He grabbed the small battery-operated radio and clicked it on. There was static on all stations but one—a local AM frequency that had been broadcasting the same emergency message for the past forty-eight hours. The same useless garbage—stay off the streets, help will come; shelter in place; if you must evacuate, go to the park. Jacob shook his head and shut the radio off before tossing it to the bed.
His wife looked up at him. “We should do it. We should go to the park.”
“That message is days old; how do we even know anyone will be there?”
She looked at him while biting her lip. “I want to leave.” she said her voice finally breaking.
“It’s going to be okay, Laura.”
He knew she wouldn’t leave; she wouldn’t go without him. He got the message though. It was time for them to go… but at what cost? Why leave this piece of shelter for the open streets? Jacob got up from the bed and helped his wife pack items into the bag. The action seemed to calm her nerves; although, when she looked at him, he could see she was holding back tears.
“I know,” he said, touching her cheek. “I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”
“What if they find us?” she sobbed.
Jacob held her and looked at his daughter on the bed. “I don’t know; they just can’t.”
Chapter Two
With late afternoon, came the sweltering heat. Jacob pulled the drapes away from the window to try to allow a draft, but only hot air entered. He paced through the room, sweating. He wanted to go downstairs and sit in the family room or venture into the basement den where it was always cool. His wife was sitting on the bathroom floor, fanning herself, when Jacob walked past her and entered the walk-in closet adjacent to the room. He looked up at the ceiling and thought about the attic. He knew it would be just as hot, but it was also vented and with the window in the gable end, he would have a better view of the street.
The attic access was in the hallway outside the sealed bedroom door. Not wanting to compromise their security, he decided he would just make a new entrance. Jacob retrieved a knife from his nightstand and climbed the tall shelves to the ceiling of the closet. He jabbed the blade of the knife into the sheet rock. Dust and bits of insulation poured down over his face and shoulders. He squinted to protect his eyes and worked until he’d created a fist-sized hole. He then stuck his hand in and broke away at it until he’d created a large opening between the ceiling joists.
With a hole large enough to enter the attic, Jacob stuck his head through and pushed away the rolled bats of insulation. Looking in all directions, he could see little; the attic was dark with only small bits of dust-filled light entering through the vent. He dropped back down and called for his wife. When she entered the room below, she looked at his body partway into the destroyed ceiling, then looked up at him with wide eyes and her hand held over her mouth. “What are you doing?”
“Get me the flashlight,” he said, not answering her question.
“Why? You’re not going up there,” she argued.
“Can you get the light,” he said not looking back.
He heard rustling below him and looked down to see that she’d climbed the shelf partway to meet him. She passed up the light. Jacob took it, clicked it on, and then pulled himself into the attic. He crawled across the joists to a center portion floored with plywood and filled with holiday decorations. He heard a noise by the hole and saw his wife’s head looking back at him.
“Why are you up here?” she asked again.
Jacob crawled to the gable that was above their bedroom. Seated in the end was a large louvered vent cap; it was normally pushed open by a thermostat-controlled electric fan. The surface of the fan was enclosed in a cage and full of louvers that were currently closed. “I wanted to see if I could get some air flowing,” he said back to her.
Jacob pushed his hands against the electric motor and found it firmly in place, blocking the gable vent. He forced the knife blade into the mounting screws, trying to break them free but failing. Behind him, Laura dropped below then quickly returned before reaching out to pass Jacob his drill. He smiled as he took it from her and then, working carefully, he was able to remove the bracket and drop the fan motor to the floor. After working at one of the exposed vents with his knife, he felt it give as the plastic louver broke free and snapped off. He repeated the maneuver with two more of the louvers and was quickly rewarded with a slight drawing of the attic air.
He looked back at his wife and could see her hair gently flowing up as cooler air from downstairs was pulled through the master suite and out of the attic window, the natural rise of the hot air creating a draft. The temperature decrease was subtle, but the moving air across their skin felt like heaven after sweltering in the sealed room.
She smiled at him approvingly. Jacob moved his eye closer to the vent and peered through the gap created from the broken louvers. He pressed close and looked in all directions. Far in the distance, he could see billowing smoke from fires and abandoned cars at intersections. The streets were void of all traffic. Junctures that were normally busy stood silent with debris in the streets.
Houses that still stood were closed up
