Free Reset by Jacqueline Druga Page B

lot. But where there was grass it was overgrown. Weeds had grown wildly and high, looking more like odd shaped miniature trees. The seams of the sidewalk were filled with bright green growth. The buildings weren’t clean and shiny, they looked weather worn.
    Not a car.
    Not a sound.
    Not a person.
    After looking around, he raced toward the parking lot and stopped. The view before him was a barren world. Barren … dead.
    “Hello!” He cried out. “Hello!”
    His voice echoed back at him.
    Face tensing with emotions, he spun and looked at Nora. She stood arms held tight to her body.
    “Where is everybody?” he asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Look at this.” He held out his hand. “This isn’t seven months. It can’t be.” He closed his eyes tight and with a painful realization that things had gone horribly awry, Jason, feeling defeated, released one quiet single sob and dropped to his knees. “What happened to our world?”

EIGHTEEN – PRECAUTIONS
     
    It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be a source of support, but Nora couldn’t stay outside. Even with the sun shining, it exuded a sense of gloom and she returned to the small lab type office.
    She felt hollow, empty and hadn’t a clue on how to process all that was going on. A feeling of loss washed over her. Her daughters, her husband. What had become of them? One thing Jason was correct about.
    It was longer than seven months. It had to be. The growth of weeds and foliage was far too great.
    When she returned, John had opened the blinds to all the windows and the room was brighter. The moods weren’t. Grant sat in a swivel chair staring out. Amy was in the corner staring at an empty backpack.
    Malcolm was rummaging through desks, Meredith stood off watching him and John stood by the window.
    “He’s still out there,” Nora said.
    “Yes, well, maybe he is doing that praying thing he was famous for,” John replied.
    “John, please.”
    “He’s kneeling.”
    Nora looked out the window. “That’s not a prayer kneel. That’s a ‘my world is over’ kneel.”
    “Yes, well, emotionally we’re all doing that.” He turned from the window. “How are you?’
    “Numb. Trying to process. Did the lab below decontaminate? Think we should get out?”
    “I estimate it was two hundred feet below. Decontamination will be a fireball that will extinguish quickly, we’re fine. I believe and I also know …” He peered down to his watch. “We have about six minutes remaining. About right now, though, I can use some of that humor you said you had.”
    “I don’t think there is humor in this.” Nora folded her arms tight. She turned her head to the banging of drawers. “Malcolm?”
    Malcolm ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Did these people just up leave or not come to work?”
    “What do you mean?” Nora asked.
    “I mean the dates on papers stop on December fourteen. What the hell. I wish I could get into the computer.”
    “What about the solar …” Nora’s eyes shifted. “Where’s the president.”
    Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around, as if the president would suddenly appear.
    “Did he go outside?” John asked.
    “No,” Nora replied. “I was out there. He didn’t come out.”
    “Where in the world could he …” John stopped and looked beyond Nora.
    She turned.
    The elevator.
    The door was closed.
    Nora hurried to it. “You don’t think?”
    “Unless he slipped out somewhere else,” John said.
    There was a keypad next to the elevator, Nora lifted the cover and pressed the button.
    Nothing.
    She pressed it again.
    “Come on,” she beckoned. “Open … damn it.”
    “Nora,” Grant hurried her way and grabbed her hand. “We don’t know that he’s down there.”
    “Where is he?”
    “Does it matter?”
    “Yes. If we are all that’s left.” She kept pressing.
    From across the room, John commented. “Maybe he should have thought of that before he agreed to this population control