3 Days (6 page)

Chapter 14

After jumping in the shower, I sauntered to my room. Running a brush through my wet hair, I looked at the mirror atop my vanity. Slid into the crease between the frame and the glass was the envelope.
DO NOT OPEN UNTIL MARCH 12, 2013 @ 5AM
. I stared at that letter every day since the day we left. Behind it, tucked away, was the letter that I had opened that horrible night.

I should have torn it up, flushed it, burned it in a fireplace somewhere. But for some reason, unknown to me, I kept it. I don’t even know why. It just seemed like something I had to do. I stared at it, weather-beaten, stained, and worn from bouncing back and forth in my room. Twice, I had thrown it away, tossing it into the trash bin, then losing my nerve and fishing it out. But I had no idea what Blaine had written in that letter, and I burned with the constant need to find out. Sure, I could have cheated and opened it earlier, but something told me it would be worth the wait. Something inside me just couldn’t let go of the fact that what was written in that letter was more important than any expectation I could possibly give it. And until the date labeled on it, that letter was Pandora’s Box.

Glancing at my calendar, filled with a red X on each day that had already passed, I noticed today’s date: March 11. I had been waiting eighteen months to open it, one more night wouldn’t hurt. Before curling up to sleep, I set my alarm for 5 am. I was going to hear from Blaine, one last time.

***

Before the sunrise, I was woken by the sound of R2D2 on crack.
Ugh, I hate that stupid alarm
! Smacking it with my hand, I shoved my head under my pillow. What had I been smoking, thinking of waking up this early on a Saturday morning? And then it occurred to me,
THE LETTER
! I threw the covers off of me, and darted for my vanity. Taking a seat on the stool, I plucked the letter from its most recent home. Tearing open the end, I couldn’t stop my fingers from shaking. After slipping the notebook paper out and smoothing it down, I read:

Kara,

I love you—

I stopped reading. Hell, I stopped
breathing
! Blaine loved me, at least at one time. Why didn’t he put that in the first letter? Why did he make me believe, all this time, that he didn’t want to have anything to do with me?
No contact
, that was what he said.
It would be better if we didn’t speak
, he wrote. Those are not words from a guy who
loves
someone! If this were 2 years ago, I would have been jumping up and down squealing, drawing hearts on the cover of my binder with BL+KL inside. But this was now, after nearly a year and a half of thinking he didn’t want anything to do with me. My only reaction was anger. As my face burned hot with contempt, I continued reading:

Kara,

I love you, I always have. Saying goodbye to you was the worst thing I will have had to do up until this point. You mean the world to me, and I couldn’t let you hurt and worry, knowing what I know now. By now I hoped you would have regained your memory of those two days that were lost from your fall. But if you haven’t yet, here is the truth. You and I kissed.

Wait, WHAT?!

Yes, kissed. In fact, we kissed twice. Once at my house, and the other in my truck at Lingo’s. But it wasn’t just any normal kiss. When our lips touched, we saw things. Things that haven’t happened yet, but were definitely going to. Before your accident, you saw them too. Being close to you opened a part of my mind that I had not been using until that moment, and it triggered a sort of sixth sense in me. After the second time we kissed, you cried. I don’t think you knew why, but I saw it in my vision. After that day in my truck, I started seeing things in my dreams, and many of my questions were answered. You moving away was a good thing at the time because I didn’t know how to explain why I was preparing for something that wouldn’t happen for nearly two years. I can only hope you weren’t so angry with me that you would throw this warning away. If you are reading this, it means you trusted me enough to wait. And I need you to continue that trust with what I am about to tell you.

I had a vision one night last week that put all the pieces together. We knew something bad was going to happen, but we couldn’t tell when or what. That night, I got the information we needed.

I stopped reading long enough to gather my thoughts. What was Blaine trying to say, that he was psychic? That I was psychic? My anger cooled into flustered confusion. So I continued reading:

Something huge is going to happen. Something that humanity cannot avoid. A solar flare. NASA tried calculating the exact point in time when it would happen, but they screwed up and it was wrong. It will come with an intensity not even
they
can predict. When it happens, you’ll know. Everything that runs on electricity will shut down, and there is nothing to get it running again. There will be mass chaos among people everywhere including looting, trampling of others, and even murder for supplies. The human race will diminish a great deal from this alone. But then there will be something, we did not anticipate, another threat. It is difficult to explain, but it has always been here. We just never knew it before.

Okay, now he was just reaching. This had to be one of his jokes. He was probably waiting by his cell for me to call him, so he could laugh until milk came out of his nose.

Here is what you need to know to survive…

It will happen today between 7 and 8 am. My visions weren’t clear about the exact time. I know your parents are out of town right now. They will be fine.

How did he know that?!

This all happens before they get on the plane, before anything could happen to cause a crash. Others will not be this lucky. Know that you will not be able to go to Denver to get them.

I continued reading, the details causing me to shake uncontrollably. Tears were streaming down my face.

Here is the most important thing. I can only wait for you at my house for three days, no longer. Know that I will leave no earlier than that. Do whatever it takes to get to me. Drive, bike, run, for all I care, but don’t give up until you get here. I will be waiting. Pack everything you can carry to sustain you for the next few days and nothing more. I have been preparing for this for two years now, and I will have everything we need to survive longer. It is likely that I am packing my truck while you read this. Please be careful, trust nobody, and get here as quickly as you can. And travel only during daylight, it’s better to stay hidden at night. I will explain more when you get here. I love you and will be praying that I haven’t hurt you enough to ignore my plea. Remember, three days…

Blaine.

Chapter 15

I sat staring at the letter, shock running through my body from head to toe. This letter was like a clipping out of a sci-fi book. Solar flares, mass chaos, unknown threats. Steven King couldn’t come up with a better plot. It all seemed so made up, like something Blaine and Jared would try and convince me was true back in the past. If it weren’t for the account of the details of my parents’ whereabouts, I would have ripped it up and thought it fiction. But something in my soul said it had to be true, I wanted it to be. If it were true, that meant Blaine had a reason for the way he had acted after my accident. He had a reason to keep me away from him all this time. It may have been hard to believe, but every cell in my body was willing to believe it. And then I looked at the clock: 6:12 am. I had supplies to pack.

I couldn’t believe what I was doing. In my head, it seemed so silly, but I was driven by an unknown force, pushing me to follow the letter’s instructions. I dumped every school item out of my backpack and grabbed anything I could find that was nonperishable, stuffing it into the pack. Rushing back into my room, I slipped on the most comfortable pair of jeans I owned, a graphic tee, my dad’s old college sweatshirt, and my running shoes. Even though it wasn’t in the letter, I grabbed every bit of cash I could find in the house. Then I pulled my hair back in a pony, packed the letter as well as a picture of my parents, grabbed my car keys and shot out the door.

Dropping my bag onto the passenger seat, I shoved the key into the ignition. Starting it up, the dash lit up. I had a quarter of a tank left in gas. That would definitely not get me to Blaine’s. Glancing at the clock in my car, I noted the time: 6:55 am. I had, at the very least, five minutes to get to a gas station before the solar flare hit and caused the electronics on the pump to lock up. I jammed the shifter in reverse and peeled out of the driveway. When I got to the gas station, the clock read 7:03 am. Either my clock was slow or this thing wasn’t going to happen until later. Still feeling the urge to hurry, I shoved the pump into my gas tank and started pumping. I dialed my parents’ cell while the gas poured into my car. On the other end of the line, it only rang once and then my cell went dead. The lights under the awning of the fuel station went out, and there was a low groaning sound as the gas pumps shut down, mid flow. I had only pumped one gallon before it shut down. The clerk behind the counter was walking toward me from across the lot. “Looks like a power outage. How much did you pump?” I told him and he responded with, “No sense in you waiting for the power to come in to pay. Just give me a couple bucks, and we will call it even.” He was already putting plastic bags over the pump handles while I fished out two dollar bills and handed them to him. “You have a nice day, miss. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
You have no idea
. I forced my best smile and got back in my car.

CRAP
! My thoughts were screaming words that would make a sailor blush. What was I going to do now? I had enough gas to maybe drive an hour. After that, I had no idea what to do about transportation. Leaving town, I got a glimpse of what Blaine had mentioned in the letter. Everywhere you looked, the power was shut down. That included the traffic lights. There were collisions at every intersection with car owners standing outside arguing. Some were looking up at the traffic lights scratching their heads in confusion. As far as I could see, there was not a single light working. They were all black against the dim light of the morning.

So far, everything Blaine had written was happening. Out of habit I turned on the car stereo...static. Thinking maybe I had it set between stations, I used the dial to tune it to a different station. More static. Not one station, AM or FM, that was working. In the beginning, it seemed convincing enough to take the initiative of heading out of town, but now it was solidifying more and more as each minute passed. Blaine’s prediction was real, and it was happening now. I knew now that I had to do anything I could to get to Blaine and fast.

Assuming that no cop’s radar gun would be able to work with all electronics down, I kept my foot heavy on the gas pedal. My plan was to speed through most of the miles I had to travel by driving as fast as I could to close the gap. I got about 30 miles down the interstate before my car began to whine in protest. Smoke began to roll out from under the hood, and the engine seized up after making a loud clattering sound.
No, no, NO! Not now
. Pulling the car over to the shoulder, I groaned and pounded my fists on the steering wheel. I still had about 200 miles to cover, and I was not off to a very speedy start.

While exiting the car, I grabbed my pack. “Piece of JUNK!” I hissed, kicking the front tire as hard as I could. “Buy a Toyota, sweetheart, even the old ones last forever,” I mocked as I slipped my arms through the straps of my book bag and began to jog.
Yeah, well, that doesn’t hold up if you buy a lemon
! I thought to myself as I picked up speed.

I knew I wasn’t going to be able to jog the entire trip, but until I found another option, I wanted to get there as fast as I could. After about ten miles, I had reached my limit and began to walk. Off in the distance, I saw a sign for a rest stop. After using the restroom to clean up a bit, I ventured out to see if I could find any other way of getting to my destination. The rest stop was completely bare. There wasn’t anyone in sight, not one car, not even a semi truck. Totally vacant and creepier the more time I spent there.

To my left, on the wall outside ladies room was a vending machine with sodas and bottled water. I had only packed a few bottles of water to save energy from extra weight, but realized I hadn’t thought it through. I had assumed I could refill my bottles with a water fountain wherever I went, and it was apparent, now, that a drinking fountain didn’t operate without electricity. I was going to have to get drinking water from the machine, but I wasn’t going to need a dollar, not that it would have worked without the power anyway. The machine had a flimsy plastic front that held the advertising logo. I was sure I could break it if I put some force into it. Taking a quick look around me, to make sure I was really alone, I backed up from the machine. Getting a running start, I charged toward the machine, lifted my leg up, and kicked the logo as hard as I could. It cracked sending my foot to get lodged in the broken plastic on either side.

After pulling my foot free, I investigated the broken area. Shoving my hands through the hole, I yanked the giant cracked pieces of plastic free, tossing them behind me. There were some mechanical gadgets blocking access to the bottles, but I noticed a space between the top of the mechanism and the roof of the machine. If I could wiggle my fingers through the slats just enough to grab the cap of one of the bottles, I could inch it slowly to the top and grab it with my other hand. This process took forever, but after about twenty minutes, I had managed to get two bottles free. And that would have to be enough for now.

Chapter 16

I had gone about thirty more miles, alternating between jogging and walking, before the sun was threatening to set. I decided to stop at the nearest town, to find shelter. Keeping to listen to the letter, and not risk traveling at night, I was determined to be still by dusk. Relieved in finding a twenty-four hour diner at the next exit, I made my way through the doors. It was all but deserted, with one older man standing behind the counter, wringing out a rag and wiping it down. “Got nothing cold, and the meats gone bad on account of the power goin’ out, but if you want some pie, I got a couple slices of apple left.” He was smiling at me as I slid up onto a stool beneath the counter. I dropped my pack on the stool beside me. “You ain’t a runaway, are yins?” He traded his gaze back and forth, between me and my bag.