Nuclear Winter Devil Storm by Bobby Akart (great novels txt) 📗

the guardsmen were unaware that the guys were fugitives escaping their comrades’ pursuit.

Once they cleared Gilbert’s Resort, they accelerated slightly into Blackwater Sound, where the eye wall of the hurricane would soon greet them.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Thursday, November 7

Key West

Hank had no allies to call upon for a ride back to the hospital. The streets were packed with locals commiserating about the coming hurricane while frantically boarding up windows, as they’d done so many times in the past. Only, the storm was upon them, and the winds weren’t cooperating.

To clear his head and process what he’d learned, Hank chose to jog the four miles back to the Lower Keys Medical Center. After a mile, he became winded and blamed his lack of energy on the fact he hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. Of course, being out of shape had nothing to do with it. After that first mile or so, he alternated between a brisk walk and a jog. During the forty-minute jaunt through the increasingly rain-covered streets of Key West, his thoughts alternated between the conversation he’d had with Lindsey and the one he dreaded having with Jimmy’s parents.

He needed help to organize a search party for Jimmy. It would have to wait until after the storm passed. He passed a group of people huddled in the portico entry of a closed hotel. They were holding one another to keep warm as the wind-driven rain pelted them.

Hank tried to put their plight out of his mind and returned to his thoughts. Something had struck Hank as odd from his encounter with Lindsey. He hadn’t seen any computer-generated satellite imagery in the documents she had been studying. In fact, unless something had changed, he didn’t believe Monroe County’s government had internet access due to the collapse of the power grid.

They had been studying maps and fishing charts. The government personnel were resorting to handwritten notes. How could they even know what the track or the intensity of the storm was? Unless, of course, they’d learned about it like they did in the old days via word-of-mouth. Hank began to understand how people in the Midwest felt about tornadoes. The vicious, deadly wind events often came without warning. Meteorological advances provided the ability to issue warnings, but tornadoes were the most unpredictable weather threat man faced.

Hurricanes were different. NOAA and the National Hurricane Center had an abundance of resources at their disposal. For days if not weeks, people knew when they were in the path of a deadly storm. Whether they chose to get out of the way was up to them.

What was apparently happening now was more akin to a tornado. In the middle of the night, without warning, a hurricane had drawn a bead on the Florida Keys, and people would be caught unaware. Hank had no way of notifying Sonny and Phoebe other than to race back to Driftwood Key before it hit.

He picked up the pace and began to run toward the hospital. He’d have to convince Jessica to leave Mike’s bedside and return to Driftwood Key. If the frantic scene at the county administration building was any indication, they might not have much time.

He slowed his pace and caught his breath as he entered the emergency room waiting area. Without checking in, he walked briskly down the hall to the room where Mike had been kept as he recovered. Mike was gone, and another patient now occupied the room.

Hank swirled around and approached the nurses’ station. “Where’s Mike Albright? He was there when I left earlier.” Hank gestured toward the trauma wing.

“And you are?” the nurse asked, looking over her reading glasses.

“Hank, his brother.”

She thumbed through a large three-ring binder. Apparently, the hospital was minimizing the amount of electricity used as their generators worked overtime, and chose not to bother with computers.

“Through those doors is the north wing, or trauma recovery. Rooms are to your right, and the nurses’ station will be on your left.”

Hank thanked her for her help and hustled down the corridor in search of the nurses’ station. He was almost upon it when Jessica emerged from one of the recovery rooms.

“Hank, in here. Quickly.”

His heart rate soared. He was immediately concerned that his brother had taken a turn for the worse. He ran down toward Jessica, who held the door open until he was inside. Much to his relief, Mike was sitting upright in the bed and was apparently fine.

“Did you have any luck?” Mike asked without a hint of the respiratory issues that had beset him as a result of the knife wound.

“No. Stonewalled at every turn. The sheriff’s a coward, and Lindsey’s a … well, no help.”

Jessica offered Hank a bottle of water. After the four-mile trek from downtown Key West, he was both winded and sweaty. He took a deep breath and then several long gulps of the spring water. As he did, Jessica reported what she’d learned.

“I went to the sheriff’s department to look for you, but I guess you’d already left. Hank, they tell me a hurricane’s coming. A big one, actually. They wanted me to stay to help, but I danced around the issue.”

“Actually, tell Hank how you lied,” said Mike.

Jessica rolled her eyes. “Okay, I lied. I told them I was gonna check on Mike, and then I’d report for the graveyard shift. Hank, I’m not going in.”

“Won’t you get fired?” he asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Mike and I talked about it. It’s time for us to take care of our family and Driftwood Key.”

Hank looked toward Mike, who continued to stare at him, presumably to gauge his reaction to the news. Hank turned to Jessica and asked, “Did you hear anything about the storm’s timing? I learned about it while in Lindsey’s office, but she didn’t exactly offer any details.”

“Within the next couple of hours,” she replied. “We need to hurry.”

“What about Mike?”

“I’ll be fine,” Mike answered in a tone of voice that brought the issue to a close. “You guys hit the