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

two bikes. Dev pulled his cell out and took a photo. They left a paper message with both their names and phone numbers, and the address of Desperado’s Hideaway, not that they were sure it still existed. They taped the scrawled note down to the countertop and took a picture of that, too.

They couldn’t send the photos to anyone yet. Dev’s cell bars were still nonexistent, the words “no signal” filling the space at the top of his phone. But at least they had the pictures as backup to prove they intended to pay for the equipment.

Twenty minutes later, they were on the road, the thick bike tires eating up the distance. As predicted, the bikes maneuvered through the small spaces between debris much easier than the car ever had. Cage didn't say anything to Dev, but he understood they were headed back to Desperado’s Hideaway first. It was the only real option. But they had no idea what they would find when they got there.

47

It was full dark by the time they neared the house, and Cage was grateful for getting the headlamps and bolting them to the fronts of the bikes.

They’d attached flashers to the back and had lights on the fronts of their helmets, too. Cage had thought it was better to be seen, even if nobody else was traveling the roads right now.

As the evening grew darker, he’d discovered that the lights were less for others and more for them. The powerful beams were the only thing lighting the road for them.

He'd also grabbed a small radio, which Dev insisted be attached to Cage’s bike. That had proved to be another smart installment. They’d listened to announcements, including long lists of names of people who’d turned themselves in at the community center. Others had been located by rescue teams. Some had simply gotten a handheld radio and contacted the station to let people know they were safe. The lists were long, but none had included Sarah Carter, Isabel McAlister, or Joule Mazur.

There were also descriptions of small children. Those were the ones that broke Cage's heart and made him pedal harder when his legs felt like they couldn't go any farther. Despite all the work out in the fields, and his much-improved physique from it, biking was not the same as squatting and catching lizards, and his muscles were not pleased with him.

Cage and Deveron were another mile down the road by the time the announcer began listing off happy reunions. At least, Cage thought, some people had found each other. That meant there was still hope for him.

“Is that it?”

Cage pulled to a stop. Behind him, Dev had his feet planted on either side of the bike, his finger raised. The blue gloves with white reflective tape were another strangely helpful tool in the dark. Cage had just been aiming at protecting their hands, but these, too, turned out to be more necessary than he’d expected.

“Wow!” He'd almost been ready to bike right past it. Riding a human-powered machine made him very cautious about not making any unnecessary motions. “It is.”

They’d almost missed the turn for the Hideaway. He frowned for a moment before realizing that he usually recognized this turn at night, directed by the streetlight at the corner.

“Is the light out?… Nevermind,” Dev asked, the tone of his voice at the end of the sentence indicating he'd realized his mistake.

Of course it was out. Everything was out.

The only light they had came from the headlamps on their bikes and the ones on their helmets. Thank God they'd been smart enough to pick up every light they could. It must have been a new moon or too much cloud cover, because Alabama was pitch black.

“Nah man,” Cage replied. “The entire streetlamp is gone.”

If he hadn't remembered that he’d used the light as a landmark, he wouldn’t have known the light was missing. The ground was churned up in several places, and now there wasn't any real evidence a lamp post had once stood here.

“Dammmnnnn,” Dev drew the word out as he got moving again and passed Cage, making the turn.

The gravel was noticeably harder to bike on than the road had been. Another tree had fallen across their drive, this time a small sapling. Cage considered getting off the bike and moving it out of the path, but Dev waved him away.

“There's no car here to clear the drive for.”

They'd left his car at the bike shop. Sara's car was destroyed—whether or not anyone had towed it from a ditch yet remained to be seen. So they biked to the edge of the gravel and hopped off. Lifting the bike made his muscles protest again, but Cage didn’t say anything as they picked their way through the branches and then pushed the bikes the rest of the way up to the house.

Halfway there, a light flicked on in a window. The building appeared to be relatively intact, or at least as intact as it had been the last time they were here.

“Hello?” a voice called out. “Hello?”

“Sarah!” they both cried out in unison, their pace picking up.

“Cage! Dev!” The light danced around, moving closer. As it dropped several feet, Cage sucked in a breath for a moment, but realized it was simply Sarah with a flashlight jumping down from the edge of the foundation rather than heading around the steps to the front porch.

As she got closer, he could see her face from the lights on the bikes and the relief that swept through him was overwhelming. She had been their first check for a number of reasons. The main one being that they knew where she was supposed to be. They could easily get a yes/no answer if Sarah was there. And if she needed help, they might be able to find it for her.

Joule and Izzy were still unknown factors.

He felt the hit as Sarah practically attacked him in a hug, her arms wrapped tightly around him. He hugged her