Doomsday Haven by Bobby Akart

Author:Bobby Akart [Akart, Bobby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-29T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

New Year’s Day

The Haven

Ryan was perturbed as he drove the final stretch of driveway to the front gate. This was day one of what could be public unrest and panic exploding across the nation, and one member of his security team wanted to gallivant into the dead zone, as the media called the regions surrounding Philadelphia without power. Now a group he rejected was trying to beg their way inside the Haven. As he pulled the Ranger to a stop, he retrieved his cell phone from his pocket and read the mysterious message he’d received earlier.

This is just the beginning.

Truer words were never spoken, he thought to himself as he noticed the family of four huddled together under the watchful eye of his guards. He’d barely reached the gate when the holistic healer and his wife, the emergency room nurse, began to speak at him simultaneously.

The husband spoke first. “Have you seen the news?”

“We can’t go home! There’s no power,” the distressed wife shouted.

Like a tennis match, the husband took his turn. “We have no other options, Mr. Smart.”

“Please let us in!” The wife’s volley was more forceful.

Ryan held both hands up and walked closer to the gate. “I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work like that. We can’t let you in.”

The chair umpire had spoken. The husband’s mouth fell open, and his distraught wife immediately gathered her children against her hips. She began to cry. Between sobs, she asked for an explanation. “But why? I don’t understand. You brought us here to—”

“Ma’am, hold on. I didn’t bring you here. This was part of a process, and you both knew that. During our interview yesterday, I got the distinct sense you have an issue with our use of weapons—”

The husband immediately interrupted. “She’s over that, right, honey? Weapons aren’t a problem. It’s just, with everything in the news, we kinda agreed that there are too many guns. But now we get it.”

“It’s not just that, sir,” continued Ryan. “Yesterday was the most important part of the process of bringing new residents into the Haven. My interview with you, and the feeling I get from it, is the determining factor. There can only be one decider, as they say, and that’s me.”

“Why did you exclude us?” asked the wife.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, you excluded yourselves,” replied Ryan frankly. “Your most important role to the Haven was your medical training and expertise. You had no interest in seeing our medical facilities. You seemed more concerned with giving your children an opportunity to see the Hunger Games filming locations.”

“I know, but the kids had traveled a long way and—” the woman began before Ryan cut her off.

“Listen, things could get ugly at some point when we’re all called upon to defend these gates. The other men and women of the Haven need to have confidence that you’re all in. I didn’t get that sense from either one of you.”

The wife continued to cry, and now the children were whimpering, staring at Ryan as if he were the evil man who’d just run over the family pet in the street.

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