Final Chaos

9

It felt like hours had passed. In the darkness she felt like she was losing her sense of time.

Her watch wasn’t working.

The only thing to count the passing of time, the only signal from the outside world, were the shouts of the deranged man locked up in the cage near her.

His shouting was ceaseless, intense, and insane. And it all startled her to the bone.

Sure, he’d remain quiet for a couple minutes here and there. Just long enough until she thought he was finally done.

Then he’d scream again, and she’d feel the cold chill working its way up her back.

“You regret me, but I won’t forget you and all those of you who have wrong me, locked me up, chained me, and left me to die and fight in nothing but darkness!”

Aly had remained completely silent. She didn’t want to antagonize him further. She didn’t want to make herself a target.

She kept telling herself that, behind bars, there was nothing he could do to her. He could scream all he wanted, but they were just words. Nothing but words.

Soon enough, the lights would come back on.

Soon enough, the police and other staff would return. They’d release her. Maybe she’d pay a fine and apologize. Maybe she’d have to do community service.

And life would go back to normal.

Suddenly, there was a sound off in the distance.

Was it a door opening?

She pressed her face close to the bars, trying to see if she could see a glimpse of light anywhere.

But there was nothing.

No light.

But there were noises.

In the silence, she heard footsteps and whispers.

Who was there?

If it was the police, why would they be whispering?

Had someone broken into the station?

“Aly?” called out a voice.

She froze for a moment. How did they know her name?

Then she recognized the voice and felt silly and stupid.

It was her husband. How could she not have known it was him?

“Jim?” she called out, just to make sure.

“Aly!”

“Thieves and braggarts! Rogues and swine coming to plunder in the days of the aftermath!” The crazy man’s scream erupted like a volcano of sound through the quiet.

“What the hell was that?”

A narrow beam of light appeared in the hallway. It must have been a flashlight.

And Jim was on the other end of it.

“Aly?”

“I’m here, Jim.”

The flashlight beam found her face, and she went momentarily blind from the intensity of the light. She closed her eyes hard.

When she opened them, the beam was shining on Jim’s face. It looked eerie in the cold white light. The angles of his face were sharper than normal.

But it was Jim. Her husband.

And she’d never been so glad to see him.

For the moment, she forgot all their problems. All their arguments. All the stress.

Her heart leapt.

“It’s OK, Aly,” said Jim, his voice deep and calm. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

“Out of here? What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to find the key and get you out. We’re getting out of the whole Rochester area.”

Aly felt her heart starting to pound. Anxiety was taking over. The initial relief of seeing her husband instantly vanished.

“You’re talking about breaking me out of jail? Have you gone crazy?”

“No. But the world’s about to,” said Jim.

“Listen,” said another voice. She recognized it as Rob’s. “I thought he was nuts too. But I think he’s right. The power’s out everywhere. Across the whole city. Phones don’t work. People are starting to lose it.”

“You can’t break me out of jail, Jim,” said Aly, starting to use the voice that she’d used during their long arguments. “This is so like you. You don’t think things through. Look at you with that idiotic business. You jumped right in and now you’re paying the consequences. Don’t you realize what the consequences would be for breaking me out of jail? I don’t know what’s going on with the power, but I’m sure it’ll come back on.”

“It might come back on,” said Jim. “But not for a long time. What do you think is going to happen without the shipping systems? There isn’t going to be food. Or city water.”

“I’m sure it’s just here.”

“There was something with the sun,” said Rob.

“It’s all over,” said Jim. “At least as far as we know. Across the whole US. Probably the whole world. There’s no help coming in from anywhere. And we’ve got to get out of here and go somewhere where we can ride out the chaos that’s about to erupt. Rob, come on, we’ve got to find the keys.”

“No!” said Aly.

But it was too late.

She watched the flashlight beam traveling down the hallway as her husband and his deadbeat friend went to look for the key.

She tried to reason with herself. First of all, they wouldn’t be able to find the key. They didn’t just leave jail cell keys lying around. And even if they did, she was sure she wouldn’t be counted as an accessory to any crime. She had no priors of any sort.

Surely a reasonable judge would see what happened. He’d see that she’d been kidnapped against her will.

“Archbishops recant and bow before the will of the great Lord of Darkness!” came the deafening scream of the crazed man. “Vague consultation with criminals can’t commence without complete consent!”

“What the hell was that?” came Rob’s voice, drifting down from some other section of the station.

Then the station fell silent again.

And she waited in the darkness, worrying about what her husband was going to do.

As soon as she could arrange it, he’d soon be her ex-husband.

She couldn’t support this sort of behavior any longer. He’d always been impulsive, but when they’d gotten married, it’d been a sexy, interesting trait. She’d liked that he was a take-charge sort of man who didn’t back down. Now, it was tiresome. She had to live with the consequences of his decisions day in and day out. To survive in the modern world, a man couldn’t be totally a man. And Jim didn’t get that. And he never would.

In a way, it as if Jim wasn’t made for this modern world. He would have done well in the old West, in the gun slinging times, if those weren’t just a modern creation by the film industry.

He would have done well as a caveman. He would have been able to turn on that semi-savage survival instinct. He would have been able to do what was necessary.

But now, in the modern world, he couldn’t accept that he was just a cog in the machine. He couldn’t make that mental leap that was required by the modern man.

He always wanted to do things his own way. He always wanted to do what made sense to him, even if it clashed with the way things were supposed to be done.

Aly took a couple deep breaths and concentrated on exhaling slowly. She felt herself start to calm down a little.

There was nothing she could do.

She’d just have to go along with it.

Let Jim take her in the car.

She’d be able to explain everything later to the police, to the judge, to her lawyer, and whoever was involved.

But when Jim came back ten minutes later, with only the beam of his flashlight visible, she found her calmness evaporating. Her heart started to pound again.

She’d give it one last attempt. One last attempt to convince him that what he was doing was wrong.

“Jim,” she said, over the clatter of steel keys, her voice taking on a pleading tone. “Just listen to me, Jim. You’re going to get in a lot of trouble. If you unlock that door, you’re going to get arrested. And you’re going to lose the computer shop. You know how much that shop means to you.”

“The shop doesn’t mean anything anymore,” said Jim.

It was the first time he’d spoken since returning with the keys.

In the darkness, Aly could hear him trying keys in the lock of her cell door.

The flashlight beam danced back and forth. It seemed as if he might have been holding it in his mouth, as his hands were occupied.

Aly’s jaw dropped and her mouth hung open.

He didn’t care about the shop?

How many arguments had they had about the importance of the shop?

And now he didn’t care about it?

Something was wrong.

Maybe there was something to what he was saying.

After all, she couldn’t see him just completely going crazy, completely losing it and having a complete break from reality.

Aly heard the heavy bolt of her jail cell door sliding.

She heard the hinges as the door swung open.

A strong hand grabbed hers.

The crazy man in the next cell screamed again. This time he had no words. Just a blood curling high-pitched scream that echoed throughout the darkness.

She felt panicked.

She didn’t know whether to resist.

Or go with her husband.

Could she trust him?

“Come on, Aly,” he said. His voice sounded deep and strange in the darkness. “It’s going to be OK. But we need to get out of here.”

After only a few moments, she gave in.

She let herself be led through the darkened station towards the back door.

The three of them walked silently, following the flashlight beam as if it was a guide.

Rob’s breathing was heavy and loud.

She couldn’t believe she was escaping jail.

She’d be in so much trouble.

She knew she’d regret this when this was all over.

But she couldn’t help thinking that Jim might be on to something.

And she couldn’t stand another moment in that darkness with that nut screaming like that.

The back door was already partially open.

“We had to smash it real good,” muttered Rob as he hit the door and it swung open.

The sunlight, even though it was cloudy and overcast, nearly blinded her.

Aly put her hand up to shield her eyes.

“The trunk’s open,” said Rob.

“Shit,” muttered Jim. “She’s escaped.”

“What’s happening?” said Aly. “Who escaped? What are you talking about?”

Finally, she was able to lower her arm. She squinted as she looked out at the parking lot full of squad cars. The familiar Subaru wagon sat there, with the rear door open.

Jim took her by the arm and led her towards the car. He was reaching for something in his waistband.

“Hands in the air,” screamed someone. “Or I’ll shoot.” A young female voice, full of panic.