299 Days: The Collapse

Chapter 58 “You gonna eat that pickle?” II (May 6)

The Team left Mrs. Nguyen’s and went two doors down to Pow’s. He checked his phone. There was that text from the unknown number.

“Shit!” Pow yelled. “Guys, guys, get over here. Looks like we have a mission.”

Pow’s excitement got the Team’s full attention. “OK, looks like Grant needs us,” Pow said. “Short version is that we need to get his family and bring them out to the cabin. He says we can stay out there as long as we want, and to bring lots of hardware. Bring all of it. All of it.” They smiled at that.

They went over the new plan. It was getting dark, so things would be a little hairy, but things out there weren’t yet total anarchy. They needed to do two things simultaneously: get Grant’s family, and also get their stuff ready to go out to his cabin.

“It’s not too bad out there,” Pow said, referring to the conditions in Olympia. “I can go get Grant’s family myself, and you guys can go back to your places and get your shit together. Let’s meet back here in two hours.”

They left and Pow got into his Hummer. He was carrying concealed, of course, and his AR was in the passenger seat. This would be a milk run. No big deal. His Hummer had plenty of room for the Matsons to put their stuff in.

Grant had given Pow the address in the text. He set out, keenly aware of the conditions out there. Things were still pretty calm; there were no sirens. It was like the police had either given up or were hunkered down and not driving around with their sirens on. There weren’t many cars out. A couple more crazy asses sped by. No cops. Anywhere.

Pow slowly pulled into the entrance to the Cedars. There was an armed guard under the streetlight with a pump shotgun. That’s it? Wow, this place would be a easy to take over, he thought to himself.

Pow rolled his window down and showed both of his hands as if to say, “I’m unarmed” and waited for instructions. That Hummer wasn’t a granny mobile, so maybe he’d get some more scrutiny. The guard put his shotgun up halfway and walked up to the driver’s side. How predictable, he thought. These guys were out of their minds to have only one guard, and one who just walked up to the predictable side.

Pow took his “badge” from around his neck and put it out the window for the guard to see. He yelled, “I’m here to investigate the shooting last night.” Grant had told him that in the text.

The guard saw the badge and lowered his shotgun. “Oh, hey, didn’t expect to see you guys. You off duty or whatever?”

“Nope,” Pow said, “we’re all on duty now. All leave has been canceled. I’m a plainclothes. Where is the Matson house?” He avoided actually saying he was the police because he wasn’t interested in committing any crimes, even if the police had their hands full and he would never go to jail for that.

The guard told him how to get there.

Pow decided to keep up the charade. “We’ve cleared Grant Matson in this. I just need to go interview his wife. Routine, you know.” That would be a nice rumor to have the guard spread around. Pow was smart. More precisely, he had street smarts growing up in a rough Tacoma neighborhood.

Pow drove up to Grant’s house. He had never seen it before. As close as the Team was, Grant had never invited them over. He said his wife would freak out. His house was pretty nice.

Pow rang the doorbell. It took a while for anyone to answer, even though the lights were on inside. The porch light came on. A very attractive professional-looking woman came to the door. She wouldn’t open it.

Pow showed her the badge through the window in the door. He knew that word would spread like wildfire through the neighborhood that a “cop” had come, so he might as well have her think that, too. Besides, he needed her to open the door. He could apologize to her on the way out the cabin about having misled her.

He said through the door, “Sorry to bother you, Lisa.”

She looked surprised. How did the police know her first name? This must be about Grant.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

He smiled, “Yes. This is about Grant. It’s very good news.”

Lisa let him in. She was surprised to see a six-foot tall Asian guy.

Pow paused and looked Lisa straight in the eye, smiled, and then asked, “You gonna eat that pickle?”

What? Why was a cop asking her about a pickle? Then Lisa remembered that this was Grant’s first line to her back when they met.

“What?” Lisa asked. “I’m not sure I understand you.” She couldn’t believe what he had just said.

Pow smiled even bigger. “I am a friend of Grant’s. We shoot together all the time, me and some other guys. Grant sent me a text.” Pow held up the phone so she could see it. “He wants me and my guys to give you an armed escort to your cabin.” Pow was bursting with pride. He felt fantastic that he and the Team could help Grant and his family reunite.

Lisa just stared at him.

Pow added, “He told me to use a code phrase about the pickle. Said you’d know it could only be from him.”

That clever bastard, Lisa thought. Grant hadn’t completely abandoned her and the kids. He was trying to reunite with them. And he had sent a cop with a Hummer to take them there. For the first time in two days she didn’t hate him.

Lisa was still trying to process this amazing news. She just stood there staring at the cop offering an armed escort out to the cabin to be with Grant. Was this really happening?

The kids came downstairs, hearing that a visitor was there. Lisa motioned for them to go back into their rooms. She didn’t want to alarm them.

Pow showed her the text. “Here’s the text he wanted you to see.”

Lisa could see it was from Manda’s phone number. That’s right, she remembered, yesterday Manda asked where her phone was. Grant took it. Why wouldn’t he want to use his own phone, though?

She read the text:

“Lisa: I’m at the cabin. I’m fine. Things are great out here. I have 9 months of food. The gov’t is collapsing. Seriously. I know from Jeanie. She told me top secret stuff. Things will get worse. You and the kids have to leave NOW. Leave. Leave. Leave. Pow is a Korean guy who is a friend. He has a team of guys who will provide an escort out here. You and the kids will be safe here. You won’t in the city. I want to be with you. Please come out here. Love, G.”

This was crazy, Lisa thought. She is just supposed to leave her house and get in a Hummer with a cop? There were some things on the news about things breaking down, but it wasn’t the end of the world. The country was having some troubles like it did on 9/11, but it bounced back from that. This was nothing to overreact about.

Lisa wanted to go and be with Grant, but the idea of going wasn’t…normal. Normal was the house, her job, the kids going to school tomorrow. Normal felt good. She wanted normal. Normal meant Grant being back and things being OK. Going off to the cabin would be admitting that things weren’t normal, and that things were dangerous in Olympia.

“Sorry, but I don’t think we need to go,” Lisa said. “I appreciate you coming out here, but tell Grant we will stay here.”

Pow was shocked. How could someone not want to go to a safe cabin?

“Really?” Pow blurted out. He was stunned. “I mean,” he said pointing out toward the city center, “have you seen what’s going on out there? Those looters will be back. Probably at night. You think they’ll be OK with you guys shooting their homies? Are you kidding me?” Pow realized he was scaring her with reality. He reeled it back in. “I mean, I understand that it’s a big thing to leave but, ma’am, you need to. It’s not safe here.”

Pow remembered the “badge” hanging around his neck and that Lisa thought he was a cop. He would use that. “Ma’am, I’m a professional and I’m telling you it’s not safe here.” He hated lying to her, but knew she’d thank him later.

Lisa stood there and thought. She knew it wasn’t safe at her house, but it just seemed so weird to leave. Plus, if they left their house, it would probably get robbed and all her stuff would get broken. She couldn’t just leave and let that happen.

But how could she stop robbers? Grant was gone. And she wouldn’t touch that gun he left. Those things were dangerous. Ron and the other guards would prevent any robbers from coming in. And so would the police. After all, there was a police officer right now at her house; this proved to her that the police were still on patrol. The protests, or whatever those sirens were all about, would be over soon and things would get back to normal. Then Grant would figure out that he was just overreacting. He’d come home and things would be normal.

“No thank you,” Lisa said. “We’ll be fine.

”Pow was speechless. He never even considered the idea that she wouldn’t come. He figured she would view him as a hero.

He had to think of something to say since this wasn’t going like he thought it would. “Well, OK,” he said, “but Grant has Manda’s phone so you can communicate with him that way.” He got out a piece of paper and a pen. “Here is my cell phone number. When you change your mind, call or text me. Me and my team will be here, no matter how rough things are. Grant is a teammate and I’ll risk my life for him. All of us on the Team will. We made a pact, ma’am.”

That floored Lisa. Grant was on a “team”? What? A “pact”? This was all just too weird.

“OK, I’ll call if I need you,” Lisa said, “but I doubt I will. What I need is for Grant to come back home. Tell him that. His home is here, not out in the boonies somewhere.”

Pow, the insurance salesman, felt like he was losing the biggest sale of his life. She and those kids would be dead in the city. “OK, ma’am,” he said, not wanting to leave just in case he could figure out something to say to get her to come along. “But please call me when things get scary. They will.” He reluctantly left.

Lisa closed the door and started crying again. This was all too much. Why couldn’t Grant come back home? Why did he have to “win” by having her come out there? Why was he acting this way?

*****

Manda came downstairs. “Mom, you should call that police officer. We need to go. Dad is right.”

Lisa cried more when she heard Manda say, “Dad is right.” Lisa was starting to realize this, too. But it was impossible to admit that they needed to go. She wanted “normal” back. She just wanted normal. And leaving for the cabin with an “armed escort” was not normal.

A few minutes later, Lisa heard gunfire in the distance. Then she heard a car horn honking and a car speed past her house. Then another. Was it another attack?

Manda went up to her room and came back down with the revolver Grant had left. Lisa was horrified that there was a gun in her house.

Manda said, “Mom, I’m going to have this with me. I don’t care what you say. I have to do this.” She sounded like an adult saying that.

Lisa didn’t know how to respond. Her daughter was holding a gun. People might be attacking her neighborhood. Her husband was gone. A police officer had just been at the door offering them an armed escort out the cabin, and telling her that Grant was on the officer’s “team” and had made a “pact.” Lisa was getting dizzy. She needed to sit down.

After about twenty tense minutes, Sherri Spencer, Ron’s wife, came to the door and said there had been a false alarm; it was only some shots a few subdivisions over. Lisa was relieved. See, nothing bad was happening to them, she thought.

Right now. But there were several more hours left before the sun came up. Lisa was praying for the sun to come up. It was the longest night. She was terrified.

Lisa took the police officer’s phone number out of her pocket. She couldn’t dial it. It was late and she didn’t want to wake Grant up. She kept staring at the piece of paper.

“Call him,” Manda said. Lisa didn’t know she was standing there. “Call him, Mom.”

“Go back to bed,” Lisa said. This was not happening. This was not happening…