Winds of Ares: An Apocalypse Thriller by Druga, Jacqueline (most recommended books TXT) 📕

shelter at the courthouse, in the old fallout shelter.”

“We’re traveling east,” I told him. “Trying to make it to a safe zone.”

“You’ll be traveling across a mine field,” he said. “Do you think that’s wise? You have the children to think about.”

Lane questioned. “From what you’ve been told is it safe out west? I mean is it over there?”

Reverend Barrows lifted his hand a bit and shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. I really don’t. It’s in God’s hands. He’s in control.”

“You think this is God’s end?” I questioned.

“I can’t really say it’s His end, but maybe he’s doing a little cleansing. I really don’t like to think that.”

“This is man’s doing,” I said. “An experiment gone bad. Trying to use weather manipulation as a weapon.”

“That is very science fiction and farfetched,” he said.

I wanted to snap back that it wasn’t as farfetched as God’s ending, but I didn’t. Not only because he showed us kindness, but who was I really to say. Man may had started it, but maybe it was God who said, “Okay, okay, enough.’

He wasn’t a man to be argued with or debated with. He was good and deserved our respect and thanks.

He took time out of his day and away from helping his town to help us.

As our break there neared the end, town residents showed up to help out at the church. I wish we could have stayed and helped even a little. We just didn’t have the time.

I mean … we could have stayed.

I even spoke to Lane about it. He was good with whatever I wanted to do.

The town was so peaceful and calm, they had it together with their heads on their shoulders. A part of me even thought about accepting the offer to stay. To brace for the storm in a town that was well prepared. But I wasn’t sure the town would survive the impending storm, let alone Ares if it followed the next day.

I just knew, despite the reverend imploring us to stay, it wasn’t an option. A huge storm was coming, and we needed to move out.

We spent the next hour getting that break we needed. The kids ran around as if nothing out of the ordinary had been happening. I envied the innocence and lack of fear the kids all possessed. Too young to know any better, or maybe just too young to be scared.

I tried to get as much information as I could from the Reverend about what he knew. He and another man from the town looked at my map. Neither saw any reason why we couldn’t stay on the highway, at least for a hundred miles or so. Nothing directly east of us was hit, and if we timed it right we would miss that massive hurricane roaring its way north.

Anything he could tell us would be and was helpful. I was eternally grateful for his help and willingness to lend a hand to a group of mud covered strangers.

I truly hoped he and his town would weather the storm … literally. We left and hit the road, fearful of what lay ahead, but ready to face it because the reverend’s information and guidance had us moving forward a little less blindly.

SEVENTEEN - DIAMONDS FROM THE SKY

“Then what?” Carlie asked.

It was a strange question, one not laced with preteen sarcasm, she was genuinely curious. Just a kind of out of the blue question after a ten minute stop. Martin had decided to take a break driving, leaving Rick and Anita in the truck, while he joined us in the RV. I had thought about it myself, the ‘then what’, but I saw it as a bridge to cross when we got there.

She wasn’t talking about the immediate future she was asking about what we would do after the threat of the storm was over.

Then what.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I mean I don’t see us living in the bomb shelter. Maybe we will all be part of a new community.”

“Why?” asked Carlie. “Why can’t we go home after the threat is over?”

“Is it going to be over?” questioned Lane. “I mean, if this weather bomb story is real, is it going to be over, or did they mess up the weather forever?”

I gave a sharp look to him. “What do you mean … if? Of course, it’s a weather bomb.”

Reese spoke up. “Didn’t you say they tried to fix it?”

I nodded. “Yeah, and we saw that.”

“Maybe they did,” Reese said. “Maybe not everywhere, but maybe they fixed it and it only shows in small places like that one place today with the sun.”

“Maybe.”

“Hey, Aunt Jana,” Carlie leaned forward at the table. “Do you think our mom is watching and sees this all?”

“Probably. I know she’s seeing it all.”

“You think she’ll wait to come back?”

Martin grumbled.

Carlie looked back at him. “What’s wrong Pap?”

“Just this … you’re talking about your mom on Mars.”

“What about it?” she asked.

Before Martin could say anything, I did. “Your Pap hated the idea of her going.”

“Damn it, Jana,” Martin snapped. “Don’t put words in my mouth. That’s not it and you know it.”

Innocently, Carlie glanced at her grandfather. “What is it then, Pap?”

“Carlie, the Mars thing. I hate that you have been lied to.”

“Who lied to me?” Carlie asked. “And what did they lie about?”

“Jana wasn’t honest with you,” Martin said.

All expression dropped from my face. Was he really picking this moment, in the middle of the world falling apart, to tell Carlie her mother not only didn’t want her, but was probably dead from one of the many natural disasters?

“What did she lie about?” Carlie looked at me. “What did you lie about?”

“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” I said. “He said I wasn’t honest. Not lie. Big difference. Pap is an old man. He’s not making sense. And really, it’s probably something dumb. I mean, cause if he was going to tell you something serious and earth shattering why would he do it right now.”