The Tempest by A.J. Scudiere (story read aloud .txt) 📗

and easily. Throwing the car into reverse, he backed out of the space, trying to avoid the mangled limbs of the carport and get the car turned around.

The sound must have brought Sarah running, as she appeared quickly in the open gap. She made a face as if to ask, What was he doing?

She waved her arm at him, though Cage didn’t understand the signal, as she stood precariously at the edge. Deveron came up behind her, quick enough to make Cage wince, afraid his friend would slam into Sarah and she would stumble forward into the pile of rubble that had gathered below.

But Dev pulled up in time and the two didn’t tumble down.

Cage pulled the car just slightly forward before turning off the engine and climbing out. “I just wanted to get it out from under the carport. Wanted to be sure that not only did the engine work, but the tires rolled. It sounds good.”

He offered a smile, but Sarah put her one good hand to her heart. He noticed then that she was wearing a sling. He figured Deveron must have fashioned it for her.

Good call, but time was wasting, he thought. He waved them out to join him. “Come on, let's go!”

Sarah shook her head and Cage crossed the short distance between them, coming to stand well below their height, not having realized how far the foundation was raised until the stairs no longer existed.

His impatience must have shown on his face, because Sarah started by shaking her head at them. “One of us needs to stay behind. The house line is dead. If they come back here and we’re gone, they might come looking for us. That’s bad. There’s no cell signal yet to connect …”

She waved her one good arm into the open space, as if to designate all the dead air around them. There were no cell phones and, if there were no landlines, they would need to find people with radios.

“But we’re here. We looked, and she's not—they aren’t—here,” Cage protested. He wasn’t going to sit and wait. “That's why we need to go now.”

He hitched one thumb over his shoulder, not liking that this was even an argument, let alone the direction it was headed.

“Someone should stay here and wait for them.” Sarah’s tone said her mind was made up. “What if the phone lines come back up? The line here is intact. What if they call? What if they show up?”

Crap, he thought. It wasn't right to sit here and wait; they needed to get on the move. They couldn't simply hope that Joule and Izzy would find themselves and then make their way back home. Without phone lines, contacting other people could very easily depend on face-to-face interactions.

He had Boomer and Bob watching out for the two women. But the fact was, Boomer and Bob were watching out for so many people, that Joule and Izzy could sit in the back of their truck and get dropped off at the community center, and the men likely wouldn’t recognize that they’d found his sister. So no one would alert him and his friends. No one could or would call the house, and he could sit here worried for no reason.

“I'll stay,” Sarah volunteered. “You two go out and look. I've got a bum arm anyway.”

Though Cage was nodding, Dev pushed in front of her into the open gap. Again, Cage worried that one of them would fall, but at least Dev was smoother on his feet and once again, they stayed upright. “We can't do that. There's three of us. We’re a prime number—we can’t split up evenly and we shouldn’t leave anyone alone. We all need to stay together. At least until we get one more person.”

“Okay, who can we get to stay here with me?” Sarah asked, looking between them. But they stared silently at each other, each waiting for someone else to produce a recommendation.

When it was clear none was coming, Cage announced, “Then you’ll come with us. We'll leave a note.”

It wasn't the same as having someone answer the phone, but it was better than all three of them sitting here with no phone, or leaving Sarah by herself.

But she shook her head. “I’ll have the house phone soon.”

Cage frowned, but Sarah understood and responded, “The phone company makes restoring the lines a priority.”

“Before missing people?” That didn’t make any sense, and he could feel his hand squeezing the keys, trying not to show how upset he was that they weren't already in the car and down the driveway. He was more than certain he wasn't hiding it very well.

“Yes.” Sarah nodded vigorously. She understood the system here and he didn’t. “Once we get the phone lines up, then we can find all the missing people faster. It's an issue of necessity. We can stop wasting effort looking for people who are already found, because we can talk to people who located them. I’m sure the crews are already on it.” She paused, but then kept going, as though sensing he needed more convincing. “Hospitals need the communication.”

She looked to Dev, imploring him to join her side. She wanted to stay. “This is a house. I'll be fine here.”

Thank God it was Dev who turned around and blurted out exactly what Cage was thinking. “What the hell, Sarah? The side of the house is missing! You might not be okay here when the next storm rolls through.”

But Sarah shook her head. “It won't come back the same place.”

“What? Is it like lightning now?” Dev asked, sarcasm dripping. “Tornadoes do come back to the same place over and over again.”

“The sky is clear,” she protested, once again putting her good arm up to gesture. “Someone needs to stay behind. I'm the one with the bum arm. I can't help pull people out of their cars and I certainly can't climb up and down ditches to find somebody.”

Cage hated her logic. He wanted her safe. Though he