Desperate Times by Nicholas Antinozzi

Drag them
off the lot, over the hill. There’ll be others through here. We can
at least take out the trash.”
     
    Fifteen minutes later the caravan was moving
again. They didn’t stop until they reached the driveway leading
onto Ken’s property.
     
    Jimmy continued to replay the scene over in
his head. He’d killed a man and his name had been Lonnie.
     
     
Six
     
     
    What do you actually know about the Federal
Emergency Management Agency? What you find out may shock you. The
Agency has sweeping powers, even the muscle to suspend the
Constitution of the United States.
     
     
    Ken fired up the generator and the house
began to glow in the darkness. Patty ushered Jimmy into the house
and tended to his wound. Julie tried to tag along, but Brenda
intervened and they busied themselves in the kitchen. Jimmy had
been fortunate that the bullet had just grazed his left shoulder.
While Jimmy was inside, the other men set about the grim task of
burying their dead. He wasn’t sorry to have missed out on that
detail. He and Patty talked about the day’s events, side-stepping
what had happened at the rest area. She carefully disinfected the
wound and taped a bandage onto his shoulder. He felt tired and
began to have trouble keeping his eyes open. The day was catching
up to him.
     
    “I’m wiped out,” he said to Patty. “I might
go catch a nap in the truck.”
     
    “Nonsense,” said Patty. “Follow me.”
     
    Jimmy followed her up the creaky stairs of
the old familiar house. They were greeted by a familiar, musty
smell that lingered even when the windows were opened. At the top
of the stairs was a hallway which led to the main room; it
contained four beds—three queens and a single. The empty beds sat
at the four corners of the room and all were covered with quilts
that Patty had stitched herself. They’d been there for as long as
he could remember. The ceiling was peaked and dropped sharply along
the roofline. Those sleeping on the inside of the beds at those
ends had to be careful getting up. Tall windows occupied the walls
at either end, their sashes painted white. A similar but smaller
room to the left held another pair of beds. This room was usually
reserved for children as the tallest point was six feet, and the
ceiling dropped considerably the farther inside it went. The wooden
floor had been covered with carpet samples stitched together to
make a colorful rug and the old floor creaked beneath their feet as
they walked to the back of the main room. At the end of the large
room was another door and on the other side was a small bedroom.
Patty flipped a switch and pointed to the bed.
     
    “There you go,” she said, turning the bedding
and fluffing the pillow. “Get some sleep.”
     
    “No, I’ll sleep in the other room with the
kids. I don’t need this big bed to myself,” Jimmy protested.
     
    “You can and you will,” Patty said. “I
insist.”
     
    Jimmy looked at the bed and decided against
arguing any further. The bed was the most comfortable guest bed
they had and besides Ken and Patty’s room downstairs, it was the
only private bedroom in the house. Jimmy turned to thank Patty, but
she had already left the room. Jimmy stretched, closed the door and
shut off the light. He quickly undressed and crawled into bed. With
the light out he could see the shadows of the tall white pines out
the window, standing sentry at the side of the house. He thought
about his day and how much things had changed. He wondered if he’d
changed and supposed that he had. They all had. He thought about
Paula and prayed that she was safe. He was soon fast asleep.
     
    He woke just as dawn was beginning to break
with that strange sensation of waking up in a different bed in a
different house. He lay there for a minute, gathering his thoughts.
The day before had been unlike any he’d ever experienced; with it
had come new realities. His world had been turned upside
down—everyone’s had—and he fought to come to terms