Chapter 5: Unforeseen Changes
"Emma, in the cellar of your house I left a lot of food. Please, for the life of you, watch the news and don't go out. Things will get worse!""Damn it!"Richard shouted. The sound of his voice filled with helplessness echoed inside the van. He could only hope Emma had heard him. Although if things kept going this differently he was thinking of going after them even if they labeled him crazy.
The cops, distracted by the chaos and the sudden appearance of the message in the sky, had let their guard down. That was his chance, and he took advantage of it to flee, accelerating until the sirens faded behind him.
If what he feared was true, if events were moving forward, then the next disaster could strike at any moment. And if the rain of blood found him on the street... he wouldn't get a second chance. The van would protect him to some extent, though it would only take a single drop for him to end up as the bearer of the fourth disaster.
In his past life he had never checked to see if he was immune to a zombie bite, and he didn't plan to leave that detail to chance in this life.
"Emma, pick up..." he muttered, pressing the phone to his ear as he kept trying to call her.
The lines were still busy.
So the only alternative would be to contact her by internet, but for that he had to get to the house as soon as possible, before something worse happened and the services were cut off. For now, the network was still up and running... so they had to take advantage of it, time was money.
The European continent had not been hit by the great earthquake, that monster of over magnitude 10 on the Richter scale. Not because it had been the world's favorite. On the contrary: the worst was reserved for them.
The rain of blood.
It would begin in the United States, and like a disease it would spread to the rest of the world, although wreaking more havoc in the first countries.
At first it would start as a simple acid rain, something annoying but manageable because it only affected organic things, so there was no structural damage. People would just use an umbrella to walk the streets and that was it.
But that's what caused a massive contagion problem shortly thereafter that ended with the fall of every country in less than a few hours at the start of the fourth disaster.
Richard gritted his teeth."Things are going too fast. I don't know at what point the rain will start... or how big it will be this time."
Everything was changing to how he remembered it.
Whether it was because of his rebirth, or whether it was because of some intervention caused so that humanity had no slightest chance of saving itself, was unknown.
"..."He looked up. The message was still written in the sky.
For some reason it did not disappear with the passage of time, in Richard's past life that message had taken no more than twenty minutes to disappear after reporting the beginning of the end.
"I have to get ready..."
Richard took the weapons that were in the van.
Without wasting any time, once he arrived at the parking lot of his residence he lowered all the weapons so that when he returned he would quickly put them away.
If the changes were so drastic, he could no longer trust Emma and her parents to be safe in their own home. In their past life, the only thing they had suffered had been food shortages. This time, nothing assured that the outcome would be the same.
"Emma, how are you!""Are you okay?"Richard typed into his cell phone.
The answer appeared a few seconds later:"Yes, I'm fine... What's up? The lines are busy, I can't call you."
Richard let out a raspy sigh, barely a moment, before typing again:"I'll come and get you, wait for me and get your things ready. We don't have time."
Emma didn't know what to say, when she saw the message. It seemed that Richard knew what was coming, although she wanted to pass it off as an exaggeration on his part, after all what was happening was unreal.
"Okay, I'll tell my parents..."
That simple message was enough for Richard.
He couldn't afford to wait any longer. He put the phone away with a sharp movement and climbed into the van. The engine roared with exhaustion, reminding him that this vehicle was nothing more than a ballast. As soon as he could, he would abandon it. He would steal a better car, something faster, that would allow him to modify for future trips.
Goodbye to the plan he had had, he could no longer trust that everything would happen as it had been before.
* * *
"Did Richard answer you?"
Ethan entered Emma's room.
He found himself hugging his wife. He had to peel her away from the television or she might become more anxious watching the things that had happened.
The images that were being shown were too strong.
The last moments of Japan. People running, buildings collapsing like they were made of paper, screams drowned out under tons of concrete.
Those images seemed to repeat with the other parts of the world, it wasn't just Japan.
"Yes, Richard says to get ready. We will go with him. I have an idea where to, but I don't know if what's happening will continue to get worse like he says," Emma replied without turning around, as all her attention went to packing her things.
Ethan frowned."Does that kid know anything, or is this some dumb joke of his?"
He knew the boy, had raised him as his own son, but he couldn't leave the safety of his family to his delusions.
He didn't know if going out was safe right now."Are you going with him?" he asked again.
Emma didn't turn around. She was zipping up another suitcase. There were already several lined up by the wall, ready to move. It looked like she was preparing to have everything she needed for a very long stay.
"Yes. I trust him. He's been acting weird lately, I'll admit." She paused for a moment, then continued with conviction, "But I know when he jokes... and when he's serious."
Emma was completely sure of Richard's words.
She knew every single thing he had ever done, like renting an abandoned insane asylum on the outskirts of town, or selling his parents' houses. A house that had always been too important to Richard for him to sell without a reason.
Ethan fell silent at his daughter's words.
His instinct told him that they shouldn't leave, the authorities would calm things down and everything would be back to normal in less than twenty-four hours.
But he wanted to trust his daughter and Richard. If for some reason he kept Emma and everyone stayed home and something much worse happened he couldn't live with the guilt that he caused the death of his family.
Ethan's silence was broken by a voice he hadn't expected. Rebecca, who until now had merely hugged him, looked up at her husband.
"Dear... our daughter is grown up now, I think you should trust her at least this once.""If Richard says things are going to get worse... then the sensible thing to do is to listen. And at worst, it will just be a false alarm. No one dies from being prepared."
His wife's words were like a bucket of cold water to Ethan.
It was true... he had no reason to hesitate at this point, if for some reason this was a false alarm they would lose nothing.
Ethan gritted his teeth and nodded, surrendering to the weight of logic."Well, we should get our things ready."
He looked at Emma and then at Rebecca."Let's get everything ready. Richard said he left a storage room full of food... we can't just leave it there to spoil."
* * *
The van's engine rumbled down the driveway of Emma's house.
The neighborhood wasn't too populated, perfect because that way Richard hadn't had to battle the big city traffic.
"Now how do I convince them... that old man is too stubborn when he puts his mind to it."
Richard scratched his head in frustration.
"Richard, we're ready now!"
"Huh?"