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The cold air blasted through the AC vents as the car finally came to a complete stop. It had been touch and go for hours at that point, but the final halt felt nothing but defeating. "Come on!" Cole shouted, slamming his hand against the wheel in utter frustration. Road rage has been one of the few things that managed to pull angry emotions from him, so that on top of his fearfulness of the day had become more than enough. Even so, Coke tried to remain calm as he set his elbow on the car door, holding his head with his hand.
"Calm down," whispered Hilary softly, discreetly nodding to the kids in the backseat. Carl turned a little to look at her, marveling at the way Hilary managed to keep her words steady and her face free of worry. He knew she was right. The last thing they needed right now was too feel worried, and as always, she was the voice of reason for such things.
For the most part, Milo and Emmie had been sheltered from the news as much as possible. The TV would be clicked off if they entered the room. The radio was easily shuffled to a different channel. Newspapers were swiftly crumpled into the recycling bin and, just like that, all fear could quickly disappear. There was no point in causing them to panic about something that could be over with in less than a week. Of course, they still had to tell their children where they were going. There were only so many lies you could tell and so many ways you could spin a refugee camp without making it into something it wasn't.
"What's wrong?" Emmie asked, pushing the red button to unbuckle her seat belt. Before Cole could react, Hilary spun around in her seat.
"There's just a little traffic. Sit back down and put on your seat belt in case we keep moving." She lifted her eyebrows, giving her daughter a look that let her know she was serious, even though both of those were lies. Hilary felt like she might actually never run out of them, somehow. Emmie, with a groan, obeyed, falling further into her seat and clicking the seatbelt back on again. It was good for everyone that she had listened because Milo had fallen asleep in his car seat, applesauce drying on his cheek, and Cole was already stressed as it was.
Cars surrounded them. As far as you could see in either direction, there was an endless sea of vehicles with visible streams of heat radiating off of their metallic bodies and into the summer day. When Cole looked out the window into the car in the left lane, he could see a man in the driver's seat with the same expression he had on his own face. A small chihuahua, that looked as though it's time would be coming any day now from the sight of tufts of silvery hair that sprouted around its eyes and mouth, was perched with his head gazing out the open window.
"You think he's going to the refugee center?" Cole asked Hilary, jabbing a thumb towards the guy in his blue, rusting Ford. "I didn't think you could bring pets."
"I don't know," Hilary replied honestly, thinking it was peculiar as the skin between her eyebrows pinched neatly together.
Cole slammed his hand against the wheel again, letting the dull slap ring through the car. "What if the refugee camp is already full? What if that's why there's all this traffic? Maybe they're at capacity and turning people away." Cole turned again to look at the other cars around them.
"We'll figure it out. I'm sure it's nothing." Hilary pinched her lip between her thumb and forefinger while she thought about their predicament because this was, in fact, something and definitely not nothing. There was no reason for all this traffic if everything had been going fine. Even so, she refused to worry her kids. They would figure it out one way or another. She just knew that it was her job to do everything she could to remind Coke that throwing a tantrum like a child wouldn't help anything.
"I told you we should've gotten an earlier start," Cole sighed, huffing out a breath. "Maybe we could've beat the traffic."
"And maybe we would've just run into a different problem than this," she pointed out, raising her eyebrows. "Maybe even something worse."
"It'll be dark within an hour," he argued, trying to further his point. He looked out the windshield, seeing the darkness slowly beginning to settle in as the sun grew brighter and brighter with each inch it fell in the sky.
"We'll figure it out." Hilary reached over, grabbing Cole by his cheeks and pulling his head down to meet hers until she could softly press her lips to his forehead. "We'll figure it out."
Around them, people had started getting out of their cars, seemingly deciding that traffic wasn't moving now and would continue to stay the same. Some people pulled out coolers filled with chilled food and ice. Others were more focused on checking their supplies rather than using them.
"I'll check the radio again," Cole said, his willingness to do anything to keep him busy continuing to grow stronger. He had gotten the idea from a car in front of them. He twisted the tuning nob on the radio and turned up the volume. There was only static in response. About an hour ago, just a little bit after they left the house, the emergency broadcast had been coming through loud and clear. Every word was audible, but now, it was just the same default noise over and over again. Cole had about a thousand cuss words on the tip of his tongue and the urge to let them spill out was becoming increasingly more difficult to resist. He just barely managed to hold them back. If Hilary wasn't there, he might have just let them fly, telling Emmie to cover her ears before he did so. The only thing stopping him was the knowledge of the lecture he'd receive, even though he was already stressed enough.
"Did it stop?" Hilary whispered, becoming even more surprised herself. She acknowledged the fact that she'd have to disguise those feelings, however, because there was no reason to risk them translating into worry. Cole, dumbfounded, twisted the nob again, moving slower to navigate his way to the correct channel. A music station that was clearly far away and out of range barely came in, but that was it.
"It did." His hand dropped back onto his lap as he looked at the road ahead. Something was up. From what he'd been seeing on TV, he didn't like to think about what that could be, and of course, there seemed to be many possibilities. "I'm getting out. You can keep the car running." Cole didn't give Hilary a moment to protest before opening the door and letting himself into the thick air outside, a major contrast from the chilliness that was filling the inside of the car.
Car horns started to fill Cole's ears as he looked around. Some blared while others simply beeped once or twice. None of this was good.
In front of him, another man standing outside his black car caught Cole's eye. His was running his hands through his dark hair anxiously as he leaned against his car. He was clearly trying to see ahead of him, but like everyone else around, was struggling to do as much.
"See anything up there?" Cole asked as he approached the man. The man turned, his eyes seeming to size Coke up. Slowly, he shook his head before looking back in front of him.
"Just cars and more cars." He turned to face Cole again, but this time, as if just realizing he was there. "Are you getting a radio signal at all?"
"No. We turned it off a while ago, but we can't get it back now." It was good to know that he wasn't the only one struggling. Then again, that didn't lessen the possible peril they were in any bit. "I'm Cole. What's your name?"
Cole extended his hand to the man, shaking it. He had a firm grip, Coke noticed. "Shane." The symbol on Shane's gray T-shirt caught his eye, showing he was part of the police department.
"You're a police officer?"
"Yeah." Shane turned his head back to keep looking at the road a head of them, eyes intricately scanning the masses of vehicles. "I'm kinda wishin' that I could be back there right now."
Cole scoffed, feeling the same way. Never had he felt like he wanted to be back at work until now. Sure, he enjoyed his job, but it was also work. Cole peeked in the car, wanting to know who Shane was with. In the front seat, a woman with long, dark hair wore the same worried look he had just seen on his own wife's face. She was obviously trying to mask it and keep her eyes level with seriousness, but wasn't doing a very good job with that endeavor. In the back seat, a boy, probably about Emmie's age, stared up at him with light, blue eyes.
"Where are you guys from?" Cole asked, shifting his weight onto his other foot. He couldn't read the words on Shane's shirt a moment ago, but knew they probably held the answer.
Shane furrowed his brows, still deep in focus. "King County. What about you?"
"Madison. I told my wife we should've left earlier so we could've gotten here quicker, especially since we agreed to take the long way around to avoid traffic, but here we are." Cole sighed before taking a look at Hilary in the car behind him. She was still on edge. "She couldn't stop packing things. Every time I thought we were ready to go, she kept packing more picture frames or keepsakes." Cole laughed slightly at the thought, despite the stress rushing through him.
"Same with her," Shane replied nodding his head in the direction of the woman who starred back with weary eyes.
"I'm glad you got your wife and son out safely," Cole returned Shane stopped staring at the road beyond and turned to face Cole, seriousness filling his face so quickly that it had tipped off an illusion of flood gates being opened.
"They aren't, actually," he said in a low voice, looking at the boy out of the corner of his eye. "My best friend was in the hospital. He didn't . . ." Shane rubbed his hair as if shaking the thought from his head. "I had to keep them safe."
"I'm sorry. They're lucky to have you." Cole wanted to shiver at the thought - that bad things were already occurring that he didn't have the power to stop - but he knew that wasn't an option. Survival was the only option and he'd have to help his family through as much.
Shane nodded slowly again, like he wasn't sure about accepting the compliment. The passenger door on the black car flew open, but almost in a timid way, and the woman inside came out. She shot Shane a quick glance, that spent no time lingering, before walking around the vehicle towards them.
The woman was tall with puffy, almost red, eyes. She had been crying, something that was so obvious that she might as well have just told everyone as much. She looked at Cole, seeming to assess him to one degree or another, but he eyes were empty of judgment. "This is Cole," Shane said, introducing the man as if they were friends from way back, despite having only been acquainted on the very surface for no more than three or four minutes. Without any doubt, however, Cole extended his hand to the woman.
"I'm Lori," she responded before taking his hand and shaking it cautiously. Her hand was surprisingly cold, even in the sticky heat surrounding Georgia. Cole didn't know what else to say to the lone duo, so was glad when Hilary came out of their car and towards them.
"This is my wife, Hilary," Cole said, being quick to introduce her before she got too far. Hilary shook Shane and Lori's hands firmly, giving them each a small smile, one that he was proud of her for being able to muster up. "I suppose we're all going to be here a while."
"Seems that way," Shane sighed, folding his arms over his chest. The little boy in the back of their car was still staring intently out the window, his eyes focused on them without a single doubt. His curiosity of what was outside reminded Cole of his own daughter. Emmie never managed to lack curiosity in her own life, and would often find herself in accidental situations that were a result of such emotions. Lori finally waved at him, ushering her hand through the humid air in a motion to signal that he was allowed to exit the car and join them. His face seemed saddened as he got out and walked over to stand by his mom.
"This is my son, Carl," Lori said as she put a hand in his short, brown hair.
"Nice to meet you," Hilary and Cole said almost simultaneously, passing him smiles to make sure the poor kid felt safe. There seemed to be a lot of discomfort running rampant lately, and it was no question that such things were even more difficult on the children.
"I'm going to go check on our kids," Hilary muttered, touching Cole's arm gently before going back to their van. Of course, as soon as she opened the back door to see them, Emmie had her seatbelt unbuckled again and was ready to get out. This came as no particular surprise to her, and she had even found herself expecting such things to have occurred. Emmie raised her eyebrows, asking any question she needed the expression to, and her mom just nodded, pressing her lips together in appliance. With that, Hilary let her follow her back over to the small group that was forming after making sure Milo was okay in his seat. He was fast asleep, still.
"This is our daughter, Emilia," Hilary said as they came back. She proudly let Emmie stand in front of the her, placing her hands on her shoulders. She had every reason to be as prideful as could be. "Our son, Milo, is napping right now."
"Hello," Lori said politely. Shane just nodded. "How old are you?"
"Twelve," Emmie smiled brazenly.
"Me too," said Carl with a little bit of enthusiasm, looking at the girl, who was the about same height as him, but held a near fiery look in her eyes.
"It's good to know you'll have a friend while we wait," Hilary grinned, her face starting to feel the first onslaught of heat as a deep blush penetrated her cheeks while she grabbed Emmie's shoulder and playfully pulled her into her side. "Did your broadcast go out, too?"
Lori nodded gravely. "We haven't been able to get it for a little bit now. It was goin' fine one minute, but the next, it was out." Hilary swallowed back worry as she sadly came to terms with how much she was able to relate to such things. The honking of car horns that had been recently amplified around them due to the growing number of people that joined as more time passed and others became additionally more impatient.
The station wagon door next to them opened with every sense of annoyance that one could pour into such an action. A woman stepped out of the passenger's side, sizing up the group beside her. She had gray, short cropped hair and a face filled with lines of panic that bore deeply into her pale skin. A man got out of the driver's side, slamming the door and making the whole car shake. It was no question where the true aggression came from because it very plainly seemed to be him.
"Dammit!" he bellowed, his voice
reverberating sharply in the air. Between the sound of the door slamming and his loud voice, everyone jumped a little bit, even if they were better at hiding they're surprise and tinges of fear that had a remarkable ability to strike them.
The woman ducked her head, seemingly embarrassed as she quietly closed her door and walked to the backseat to help her daughter out. For a second, Hilary though that the woman had been prepared to say something, even something small, but her lips had sealed shut before she turned to help her daughter.
"Is everything okay?" Hilary asked cautiously, deciding to prompt the woman to speak so that, perhaps, she wouldn't feel so intimidated. She was hoping that they were just having the same problem as everyone else and nothing more - trouble with the broadcasting system on their radio. The woman didn't seem to know she was being spoken to for a moment, and when she registered as much, she acted almost surprised. Hilary nearly had to repeat her question before she got an answer.
"Everything is just fine. We're just havin' problems with the radio - that's all." She put on a big smile to hide her doubt, but without a second blink, Hilary was easily able to pull back the woman's curtain to see the sad possessions she was trying so desperately to hide behind it.
"We've been having the same problem," Cole said quickly after and in the best reassuring tone he could muster. "I think everyone is."
"We are, too," Shane added to further the point. "Where are y'all headed?"
"The refugee center. We were goin' to go stay with family, but we thought it'd be safest there."
"I don't think I ever asked where you guys were going," Shane said, pointing his finger back and forth between Hilary and Cole.
"Same as everyone else, it seems," Hilary answered, raising her eyebrows.
"It's getting dark," Lori commented. It was. The light between everyone was getting denser, like they had found themselves trapped beneath a thick blanket, and more blackness set in as time gradually went by. The sky was turning several different hues of orange and red as the burning orb of sunlight began to disappear, like a candle that couldn't fail to slowly twinkle out.
"We'll be alright," Shane assured the odd grouped that had managed to form in the center of the interstate. Although there were deep senses of terror within all of them, everyone needed to hear that, anyways, even if it was just a little bit. He got back in the driver's seat of the car and started playing with the radio again almost like he was expecting it to magically fix everything and go back to normal. Each of them held their breaths, wishing it would, even though, deep down, they knew it wouldn't.
"Where will we sleep tonight?" Emmie peeped up, clinging to her mom's side as she let a sudden bough of shyness overcome her.
"We'll have to stay in the car. It'll be fun. It'll be like a camp out." And there Hilary stood, speaking in soft reassurances as she always tried to sell things for the kids when stuff went wrong, making it out to be a fun adventure, when, in reality, she had already been planning on spending the night without a wink of sleep as she and her husband watched over their children. Emmie nodded, trying to seem enthused, even though she'd much rather be sleeping in the bed she left behind
"Speaking of a camp out, I brought a few board games if you kids wanted to play. I didn't want them to be bored at the refugee center."
"That'd be very nice of you . . . I didn't catch your name," Hilary said, eyebrows furrowed as she waited for a response.
"Carol. This is my daughter, Sophia, and that's my husband, Ed." Ed didn't even acknowledge the others. Sophia gave a shy wave. With that, Carol took a box of checkers from the trunk and set it on the ground for the kids to play. The pavement had cooled once the sun went down, so Emmie didn't mind sitting on it. The three children sat in a circle, taking turns playing games against one another. Cole was glad to have the kids staying occupied so the adults could worry in peace, even if that was the only thing they were capable of doing.
When the stars began to come out in the dismal sky, sparkling like speckles of silver glitter, orange flames started to lick the humid air while people built and lit fires around their cars, aware they were the only means of keeping them safe from the mild chilliness that would soon overcome them. Shane, still trying tireless to tune into the radio as an attempt to distract himself, continued to fail. He exhaled sharply after it didn't work for the hundredth, maybe even thousandth, time. "Still nothing?" Cole asked, Shane shook his head.
"I wanna go look around."
"I'll go with you," Lori said to Shane as quickly as she could, seemingly almost afraid to let him stray too far without her.
"We can go, too," Hilary offered giving a nod in Cole's direction. Shane looked over at Cole and Hilary before nodding.
"Okay."
"Hey, can you watch the kids, Carol?" Hilary asked the quiet woman, who was leaning against the car.
"Of course," Carol replied, standing up a little straighter and smoothing a hand over her clothes. At that, the parents told their children they'd be right back, and headed up the highway. Before they had a chance to leave, there were several protests from Emmie and Carl. They wanted to be with their parents. Carol convinced them they'd be safe with her, even though they weren't fully assured of such things.
Flames of fires flickered intensely against vehicles. Some were so tall and bright that they'd shoot higher into the sky, embers flittering back and forth. Hilary hugged her hands over her arms. After the sun set, it did get considerably cooler, she had to admit. She didn't blame everyone for wanting fires anymore. The sound of skin beating itself against skin sounded off as they passed a small wrestling match that was taking place on the ground. The white light of high beams blasted the individuals partaking in the fight. Cole saw a few patches of red which made him instantly look away.
Shane led everyone over the guardrail. Cole walked over it first before turning around to help Hilary. She kept her hand right on his arm as they descended into the woods, feeling spooked out. She could hardly see right in front of her face. After a few more paces, people around them became visible because of the flashlight beams illuminating their faces as they attempted to navigate their paths throw the trees. Shane and Lori came to a stop where the trees parted enough to view the Atlanta skyline. Lots of the lights around the city were still on and bright.
Hilary didn't know what to look for as her eyes scanned the city in front of her. She could feel her fingernails digging into Cole's arm, but he didn't react. "I wonder-"
She didn't get to finish her thought because the whirring of helicopter blades from above blasted in their ears, almost shaking the tops of the trees around them. Her head shot up to witness a fleet of helicopters flying just above them, lights blinking on their underbellies as they headed for the city. Everyone sat in silence, but not for too long.
Explosions began, orangey balls of fire and smoke spitting up from the ground towards the sky. Hilary's heart fell to her stomach as she watched. "It's okay," Cole mumbled in her ear and grabbed her head, pulling her into his chest. She started to quiver and shake, all of her doubt from earlier finally escaping her in an i shielded manner. They were releasing napalm in the streets. There was no hope they'd be taking more people in.
People shouted and screamed around them. Hilary wanted to. Their predicament became all too real. It was even worse than the news had said. All the same, she wanted to hope that they could come back from whatever this was that was doing this to them.
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A/N: Another little flashback for you guys!