Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

8

Maya had never seen anything like it. She hadn’t thought an earthquake of this magnitude was possible in Nashville. And yet, something had happened. She’d watched a hundred-year-old church fall to the ground.

Cars piled up in the streets, many colliding and then bursting into bitter flames of rubber and plastic. People stumbling about, many bleeding and suffering broken bones. Screams and shouts competing with the emergency sirens. Even the tornado horn had blown out across Davidson County despite there not being a cloud in the sky. And now dark, oily smoke crawled above the northern horizon, though Maya couldn’t remember what major building or facility in that direction could possibly send up that much smoke.

She and Reno just continued to work, moving from person to person as a second paramedic crew showed up with extra supplies and helping hands. They stayed near the collapsed church as other rigs rushed to the scene to take people to the two nearest hospitals—St. Thomas and Vanderbilt. She had already treated the most seriously injured who had not been buried beneath rubble—those with broken limbs, serious lacerations, and head or neck injuries. Now, she focused her attention on people with minor cuts and bruises. She’d just finished bandaging a woman’s head when Reno approached.

“We’ve gotta make a run to the hospital. I’ve got a man strapped down with a really bad leg injury—compound fracture. The bone broke through the skin and I can’t stop the bleeding. He’s in shock, and I can’t get much out of him. He could be on blood thinners, or—”

“Okay. One second,” Maya said, more abruptly than she had intended. She turned back to the woman with the bandage. “Stay here, ma’am. First-responders should be bringing some water around.”

“Thank you,” the woman said, rubbing her head.

Dark crevasses cut through the asphalt which made navigating the roads even more of a challenge. Maya would have to use caution driving to the hospital.

Reno had already climbed into the back of the rig with the injured man when Maya jumped into the driver’s seat—the radio blaring with one emergency call after another, too many for her to even contemplate. She turned the siren on and navigated a narrow path through the crowd of people on the road. Because they’d been first on the scene, several other emergency and police vehicles had pulled up behind them, but she managed to find a way out. With huge chunks of limestone block from the church now blocking Broadway, though, she would have to find another route to St. Thomas Hospital.

People had gotten out of their cars, leaving the engines running and their doors open, which blocked portions of the road, but Maya found a way through it. She followed other emergency vehicles that had been able to part the crowds with high-pitched sirens. As they drove, people kept running down the sidewalks, waving at police officers and rigs. One man had run up to her window, slapping a bloody palm on the glass. Maya made eye contact and she could see the glassy stare of a concussed person. She glanced into the rearview mirror where Reno was trying to keep the man in back from bleeding to death. Someone else would have to help the concussion victim.

As Maya drove down Broadway, she saw that some buildings had imploded while others remained upright. The church had been hit the hardest from what she’d seen so far, and she wondered if that was because it had been one of the oldest structures in the city, erected long before zoning laws and safety ordinances. The scene reminded her of a time a few years ago when an unusual snowstorm had dropped six inches of snow on the city, paralyzing drivers and bringing the metro area to a standstill. But there hadn’t been an earthquake—buildings hadn’t crushed people to death.

They made it to the hospital, where Reno summarized the patient’s injuries for an ER staffer as Maya handed off the gurney to a team of doctors.

“We’ve got to get back out there,” Reno said to Maya.

“I know. Give me two seconds to check on my kids.”

“Maya, we have to—”

“Two seconds!”

Reno shook his head and ran his hand through his hair, shaking more dust out of his short hair.

Maya pulled out her phone for the first time since the incident. She had been thinking about her children, but the people with life-threatening injuries at the epicenter of the destruction had been her priority. No one could fault her for taking just one minute for herself now.

She scrolled through several missed call notifications—her mother, both of her kids, and three from Gerald. She saw a few voicemail messages, but those would have to wait. Maya tapped her mother’s number.

“Baby, my God,” Elizabeth said as she picked up the phone. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Mom. What about you and the kids?”

“We’re good. Everyone is fine. Nothing really happened here. We felt a little bit of a rumble. But I was watching the television, and they cut to the breaking news showing downtown. Were you there when it happened?”

“I was, and I have to go back out now. I just wanted to check on everyone while I had a second.”

“Please be careful, Maya.”

“I will, Mom. But look, I don’t know when I’m going to get off work.”

“Don’t you worry about that. I can take care of the kids as long as you need me to. All right?”

“Okay. Promise me you won’t try coming into town for anything. Don’t let them talk you into it. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but tell them to use their phones for entertainment until I can pick them up.”

“Stop worrying and get back to work. I’ll take care of everything. I promise.”

“Thanks, Mom. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too. Did you want to say ‘hi’ to the kids?”

Reno stood next to her, his arms crossed as the fingers on his right hand tapped his left elbow.

“I’ll talk to them later when things calm down a bit. Tell them I love them and give them both a big hug for me.”

“All right.”

She ended the call and switched to her voicemails as she walked back outside the hospital. Both Aiden and Laura had left one, there were two from her mother, and then there were three from Gerald on top of those. She tapped the first one from her ex.

“Maya, where are you? Are the kids with you? I just saw on the news. Call me back!”

She rolled her eyes as she tapped the second message.

“For Christ’s sake, Maya. Why won’t you pick up the goddamn phone? This earthquake shit is all over the news. I talked to Laura and she said they haven’t heard from you. I don’t care if you’re working. Call me!”

Maya huffed as she slammed her finger down on the screen, playing Gerald’s third and most recent voicemail.

“That’s it. I’m going to Elizabeth’s house to pick up the kids. I don’t want them anywhere near the city. You’re too busy with your job to be a good mother.”

Maya’s heartbeat quickened. She checked the time of the call—twenty minutes ago. Gerald lived about an hour from her mom’s house.

She swiped down to Gerald’s contact information.

“We have to go,” Reno said, hanging out of the passenger side window of the rig.

“I know. One second.”

“Maya!” Reno said.

Her call went to voicemail. She waited for the tone and left a message.

“Look, Gerald. Do not go to my mom’s house. The kids are fine. I didn’t pick up the phone because I was in the middle of a damn earthquake and have been doing nothing but treating injured people since it happened. This is the first chance I’ve had to check my phone.”

She sighed, mustering as much bravado as she could, given the situation.

“I’m serious. Don’t go to my mom’s. I’ll call the cops if you do.”

She ended the call then. Reno sat in the passenger seat, his jaw clenched and his arms crossed. Maya took a deep breath and sat in the driver’s seat.

“I’m sorry. I know we have to get back out there, but I had to check on my kids.”

“I understand. I didn’t mean to overreact. Are they okay?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, yes. It’s not them, really. I got a voicemail from Gerald. He was all pissed off, saying he was going to get Aiden and Laura.”

“Oh, no.”

“Yeah. I need to call her back quickly to tell her. She doesn’t always check her text messages.”

Elizabeth picked up on the second ring.

“That was fast.”

“Listen, Mom, I got a message from Gerald. He said he was coming there to get the kids.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know why. Because he’s crazy? Because he’s taken them without authorization before? Please, listen. I need you to take them and leave, but just not for town. Do you have somewhere you can go?”

“But, Maya. You don’t really think he’ll come here and get them, do you?”

“I don’t know what he’ll do. But I don’t trust him. He’s done this before. Can’t you go to the church? Or to a friend’s house?”

“Well, yes. I suppose Joanna wouldn’t mind us stopping by. I don’t know if the kids will like the smell, but we—”

“Great,” Maya said, cutting off her rambling mother. “Take them there.”

“Is everything okay? I mean, with you.”

“It’s fine. I just need to focus on my job right now. I have people to treat. I don’t want to worry about Gerald or the kids. Go to Joanna’s. Okay?”

“All right. If I remember, I’ll text you when I get over there.”

“Thanks, Mom. Love you.”