Into the Ash: An Apocalyptic Survival Thriller by Jacqueline Druga

Author:Jacqueline Druga [Druga, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE – STEADY FOR A MOMENT

In the years I have known Pops, and that was most of my life, I had never seen him wear anything other than jeans or the overalls he loved so much. To see him wearing camouflage pants and an Army sweatshirt was just odd. He looked so serious and strong. I pictured in my mind: Pops snuck into camp and pretended he was a general or something.

The nice lady in the check-in tent for kids asked Pops a few questions; but there really wasn’t any doubt we were a family. Not the way we held onto him.

Sam was stunned.

“I’ll have to tell Clark,” Sam said with a shake of his head. “He was waiting for your grandkids.”

“Clark?” Pops asked. “You mean that guy that looks like Crocodile Dundee?”

I laughed. “I thought the same thing.”

“That’s the one,” Sam replied. “You met him, I take it?”

“Yeah. And we both were waiting on these two. And I didn’t put two and two together. Neither of us did. Maybe he did. I don’t know. I was just worried.” Pops shrugged.

Ben smiled. He just watched Pops with wonder. Just like I did.

He was so strong.

I felt so safe with him.

They assigned us a tent for the night. The next bus going east would leave after breakfast and we’d be home, back on the ranch.

There was a lot of traffic moving through, we could have gotten a ride possibly. But Thea told Pops that we’d been out there, and she just wanted to make sure we were fine before we left.

He understood. He’d watched a lot of people get sick from the ash.

I had hoped the other kids from camp would be on the bus; but they had to wait for family or else they’d go to a special shelter in four days.

Ben and I were lucky.

There was one older man in the tent, and he had the corner cot. He was sleeping on his side, his back toward us when we walked in.

He wasn’t as old as Pops, but he seemed it. He coughed a lot and had a little oxygen tank next to him.

He said his name was Mr. Billings, and we didn’t need to be quiet. He was a heavy sleeper, and noise never bothered him.

We collected our supper in the tent that had food. A roll and bowl of stew, taking it back to the tent.

Before we did all that, we were told to shower and get all the ash off. They had special tents for that. They gave us clean clothes in a bag, ash free.

Our new clothes were Army PT gray sweats and sweatshirt. The word “Army” printed in black. They were soft and warm. The tents were cold; but with the sweatsuits, blankets, and warm stew, I wasn’t that cold.

There was a heating can in the middle of the tent; but it wasn’t lit.

“It’s not that bad,” Pops told us. “Eat up.”

Ben asked him. “When did you get here?”

“Right when they closed the road. I couldn’t get through.

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