Free Storm Tide Rising: Blackout Volume 2 by D W McAliley

burnt foundation that had been his home. "I couldn't pull them out. I tried, I swear to God, I tried. I wanted to bury them under the tree with the swing. I just couldn't take it."
    "Were your parents in there?"  Eric asked, "Jesus, Brant, I'm sorry."
    Brant shook his head. "You don't get it. They were already dead when I got here. My mom had diabetes bad, and she needed four shots a day. When the Blackout hit all of her medicine went bad. She just went to sleep, slipped into a coma, and didn't wake up again."
    Tears were streaming down his face now, but Brant didn't bother to wipe them away. "They were married thirty five years this past March. I guess Dad just didn't know what to do without her anymore. He swallowed a month's worth of blood pressure medication, crawled into bed with her, and I guess he went into a coma too. They were both laying like that when we got here yesterday."
    Eric started to step forward again, but Joe gently shook his head. Brant wiped his face with the back of his hand, leaving a long smudge of soot across his face. He took a deep, shaky breath, then turned back to Joe, his eyes clear again.
    "I tried to move them, but I couldn't take the smell. Oscar and his little brother Justin are friends from college. They went in and got the stuff out that we need so I wouldn't have to. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving them up there, but I didn't want to move them, either. It just didn't seem right to disturb that. Besides, I knew I could never sleep in that house again. Not after smelling that and seeing them. So I burned it."
    Eric could barely breath. He couldn't imagine finally reaching home from whatever Brant had gone through in the days after the blackout, only to find his parents dead. Eric closed his eyes and said a quick prayer for his friend in the moment of stunned silence that followed his story. Joe lowered the muzzle of his rifle and relaxed visibly. A tension that had been hanging in the air suddenly evaporated, and Eric walked over and put an arm around Brant's shoulders.
    Joe broke the reverent silence carefully. "Brant, you know our door is always open to you," and he turned to the other two young men. "Your friends, too, for that matter. You men did a hard thing for him when he couldn't. Thank you for that."  Joe said as he shook Oscar's and Justin's hands. "You're all welcome with us if you need a place to stay."
    Brant looked down at his feet, and Eric stepped over by his father again. Brant shrugged slightly and shook his head. "I'm not ready to leave yet. I know I should, but I need to see this through to the end of it."
    Joe took a deep breath and looked at the fire for a long time before he spoke. "This will still be smoking tomorrow at midday. It'll be two days before it cools enough to walk through. I know you've seen a lot, son, but I'm telling you, it's going to get a lot worse."
    After another long silence, Joe turned back from the fire and looked Brant in the eye. "You've got three days. Be at our farm by first light on the fourth day, or you'll have to wait until it's over."
    "Until what's over?"  Brant asked.
    "You got trash bags and sheet plastic in that shed?"  Joe replied.
    Brant frowned, the sudden question taking him off guard. "Yes sir, I think so," he answered.
    Joe put a sympathetic hand on Brant's shoulder. "I helped your Dad put in three of his four gun cabinets, so I know the weight of hardware you have in that barn, Brant. It's way too much to carry if things get ugly for some reason and you have to leave in a rush. Other than your three hundred head of cattle, those guns are the most valuable thing you have in this world. I'll take your friends and weather proof them so we can bury them in the wood line down the hill toward the river. That way if you have to get out, you can circle back and get them later when you're clear."
    "Eric, what does your dad do?"  Brant asked.
    Eric tried to think of a tactful way to tell his lifelong friend he couldn't