End of the Road (Ghost Stories Trilogy #1) Read online

  ***

  TOBIN

  “Do you want me to write something?” Bob asked.

  “No, yeah…shit, I don’t know, man. I sure wasn’t expecting this.”

  “That’s why I never settled down….gets too complicated.”

  “She has every right to move on. I’m fucking dead.” I turned and started to walk away.

  “So that’s a no?”

  Bob’s question made me pause. I didn’t have any right to be angry. Candy had found someone and I couldn’t begrudge her happiness. So I went back.

  “Yeah. Ask her if Egan likes this guy.” I said, watching as Bob etched the letters in the dirt.

  Candy’s response was what I wanted for Egan. That he was happy and her fiancé, Adam, got along great with my son, but it still stung to hear it.

  ‘This is the last time I’m coming up here. I need to get on with my life. I hope you understand.”

  Bob waited for me to tell him what to write, the stick pointed and ready.

  Yes. Give Egan a hug from me and tell him his Daddy loves him. I want you both to be happy. Goodbye Candy.

  Bob’s eyes met mine and I nodded that I was finished. I couldn’t stop her and I knew Egan would be taken care of. That was my biggest concern. Suddenly, a buoyancy I hadn’t experienced before pushed any remaining worries to the side.

  “Tobin, how are you doing that?” Bob yelled. I turned towards him and that’s when I realized I was floating at least six feet above the ground and moving further away from the others.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  LAWRENCE

  “Tobin, get back down here,” I called.

  “I can’t!” His voice was barely audible because he was traveling higher up into the sky. This was a new development and none of us knew what to do.

  “I think I’m leaving!” The boy’s face wore a serene expression. “Bye!” He smiled a radiant smile brighter than the sun, waved and then disappeared.

  We stood there in a stunned trance surveying the sky for his return. We forgot that Candy hadn’t left and still waited for more words to appear in the sand.

  “Tobin, you still here?” she asked, breaking the silence.

  Bob had dropped the stick and stared at the clouds, completely unaware of Candy’s questions, even though he stood closest to her. I sighed and picked up the stick.

  He’s gone. I think you set him free.

  Candy gasped and her hand flew up to cover her mouth as tears spilled down her cheeks.

  Go live and be happy. Do this for Tobin. Do this for your child.

  She nodded and wiped her eyes, leaving matching charcoal smears which disappeared into the hair at her temples. Without another word she turned and walked back to her car.

  Tobin didn’t come back, his form wasn’t bleached invisible by the sun as Bob suspected.

  “He didn’t become visible like Juanita did with her family? Why do you think that is?” Frank asked me.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you think he really crossed over or just went somewhere else?” Georgia asked, while searching the horizon for her friend.

  “I don’t know.”

  “So he might come back?” She said and I could see the hope burning in her eyes.

  “Again, I don’t know. Obviously if I had the answers I wouldn’t be here!” I snapped and wished myself far away from the group. In less time than it took to blink, my wish was granted and I found myself on the other side of the highway.

  Tobin’s crossing over made me even more miserable. A family member or a loved one was the common factor in both situations and most likely the catalyst needed to leave purgatory behind. I didn’t have anyone to release me from my eternal prison. I’d be forced to linger on the side of the road where my family died.

  I didn’t stay away for long. Not only did I feel bad for yelling at Georgia, who was just upset over losing her friend, but I didn’t want to be alone. The thought had occurred to me that everyone could cross over leaving me behind. I needed to savor the company while it lasted.

  Frank greeted me as I approached the others.

  “Georgia didn’t deserve that.”

  “No, she didn’t and I’ll apologize…to you all.”

  “Some of the fault is ours. We seek you out for answers you don’t have.”

  We moved towards the others. Georgia and Peggy were watching the sunrise and Bob was watching Peggy. Frank and I stood with them. We all had our backs to the road and waited for the sun to creep up out of the horizon, for its golden rays to race across the earth towards us. This was our first day without Tobin. Just the five of us remained and none of us knew when our numbers were going to decrease again.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  GEORGIA

  What bothered me the most about Tobin leaving was that I didn’t get to say goodbye.

  Lawrence apologized for yelling at me. I assured him it was nothing compared to how my father would rant and carry on. I accepted his apology and moved on, focusing instead on strengthening our abilities. Since we were successful in saving Tobin’s family, we wanted to be better prepared for the next accident. The way people drove, it surprised me a disaster didn’t happen every day. There was more traffic too and although none of us knew what day it was, we always knew when it was the weekend because the traffic doubled.

  Cars overheated, tires went flat, but amazingly months went by without an accident. Our little area was located right by a nasty hairpin turn and tires screamed as cars whipped around too fast and we knew it was just a matter of time.

  None of us could have predicted the next disaster would be a natural one.

  ***

  LAWRENCE

  We were impervious to the weather, but even we could tell the summer was an extraordinarily hot and dry one. Trucks hauling tanks of water passed by us every day. Most likely heading towards farms where the irrigation had dried up. Plants withered and died on their stems, the vibrant colors of a lush spring had long faded away into a brown landscape. I was reminded of the Depression and the reports on the severe drought.

  Clouds formed on the horizon and we waited in anticipation for the rain as if our throats needed to be quenched. Just as quickly as the thunderheads gathered, they dissipated as if the heat chased them away.

  Days went by like this until finally there was some activity to the west. In the distance the clouds grew darker and were illuminated with strands of lightning. Somewhere it was raining. I remembered how I used to enjoy the smell of rain in the summer. In Boston, street surfaces steamed from a sudden dousing.

  My anticipation was never gratified for the storm didn’t reach us. It petered out somewhere over the expanse of desert. The next day dawned with clear skies and you could see for miles. On the mountain range to the west, a large plume of smoke smudged the landscape. As the day wore on, the plume grew larger and darker.

  ‘That’s not good,” Bob said. He stood next me and we were both engrossed watching the distant wildfire.

  “Why?”

  “When the smoke is dark that means it has a lot of fuel and is burning heavily - could make for some interesting viewing though.”

  Bob was right. Over the next few days the wildfire grew and marched closer towards us. Emergency vehicles became a familiar sight on the highway. Helicopter and airplanes roared overhead as an aerial attack on the flames commenced.

  When ash started to fall out of the sky like gray snow, I knew it was just a matter of time before the fire reached us. I found a part of me wanted the destruction, a sheer desire for something to alter our environment. I wasn’t the only one excited by the impending disaster. Bob stood in the highway hooting and hollering every time a fire truck passed through him. Frank and Georgia stood next to me and joined in the vigil as we watched the progression.

  Peggy remained unusually quiet and withdrawn. She only stood with us occasionally, spending more time down where her car had crashed. After two days passed without her talking to any of us, I se
nt Frank to check on her because he was the only who wasn’t restricted and could reach her.

  ***

  FRANK

  I appeared next to Peggy and she barely acknowledged my presence. She glanced at me briefly and went back to stacking rocks. Dozens of miniature columns had been randomly erected in the clearing.

  “You’ve been busy,” I commented.

  “What do you want, Frank?”

  “Nothing, Lawrence is worried about you.”

  “I’m fine,” she snapped, growing brighter and more dimensional, fueled by her agitation.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Frank, you remember how I died, don’t you?”

  As if she had knocked me upside my head, I remembered her crispy remains trapped inside her car. “Oh, Peggy. We didn’t even think.”

  “It shouldn’t bother me. I’ve been dead for so long, but…”

  “No, I get it. So, do you want me to leave you alone?”

  She nodded and turned her attention back to the stone column. The moment she did, I joined the others, glad to be relieved of my duty. Talking things out had never been one of my strong suits. I filled them in on what Peggy said and there was a collective, “Oh!”

  When Peggy eventually joined us the next day, we didn’t mention her accident. From the sideways smile she gave me, I think she appreciated our discretion.

  So we all watched the firestorm draw closer. At night, the sky glowed red, the ridge of the mountains a jagged, fluorescent scarlet line. The flames stepped down from the range and we watched as brush, Piñon pines and mesquite trees were consumed by a line of fire that marched in a slow, yet steady progression. The air choked with ash and the highway shut down. We suddenly had visitors as our land became the staging area for emergency crews.

  Come daybreak the smoke had snuffed out the sun and helicopters flew directly overhead. They hauled huge upside down balloons full of water. Firemen were putting in a full scale effort to control the wildfire. Bob said it reminded him of Vietnam, specifically napalm.

  “Is Napalm a city in Vietnam?”

  Bob snorted, “No a weapon which burns anything it touches. The sky would glow orange like this for nights on end.”

  Warfare certainly had changed over the years. I watched the war being waged in front of us; Man versus Nature. Even with technical advantages of fighting the fire from above, it refused to back down.

  The winds kicked up and flames raced towards the far side of the highway. The brush and weeds, which had grown over the rusted shell of my car, ignited.

  I overheard the firefighters say that the highway was a dividing line. If the fire jumped the asphalt, things were sure to spiral out of control. All efforts were focused on the road. A few men came through and started burning our area. They moved through us like we didn’t exist.

  “Did you feel that?” asked one guy to another.

  “What?”

  “The air was cold back there, like twenty degrees cooler than the rest.”

  “Huh, I didn’t notice. Weird. It’d be nice though, it’s fucking hot.”

  “And it’s going to get hotter if we don’t hurry.”

  Both men went back to work. If it was hot, I couldn’t tell. None of us in our group were able to feel temperature.

  All of this excitement in our territory provided a much needed distraction. Since Tobin and Juanita had crossed over, we had all been a little on edge.

  One of the firefighters yelled to the others on our side of the highway. He pointed up at the sky. I followed where he was pointing and saw a series of glowing embers arc from the other side. They landed in the sand and extinguished. More embers made the leap and some of these found more tolerable landing areas. Bushes, the moisture from spring rains long exhausted, lit up like candle wicks.

  More yelling ensued and the firefighters ran across the road and down the embankment to assist with the getting the inferno under control. Their efforts were futile. A wind gust picked up creating a fiery dust devil which quickly overwhelmed two men.

  “We got this!” I yelled to Lawrence as me and Peggy, the only two capable of going that far, rushed to their aid.

  When we reached the firefighters, they were unconscious. We worked together to pull them to safety. No one seemed to notice the men being carried out by unseen forces…or so I thought.

  Part II

  The Living

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Deputy Sheriff Elena Rosaline Hernandez

  28 years old

  July 2014

  This wasn’t my first wildfire, but it was certainly the worst. Once the embers started to jump, I helped close the highway, which pissed off a lot of travelers. Too bad.

  I left my cruiser parked across the two lanes with the lights flashing, set up construction barricades on each side and walked up to the main staging area. My eyes burned from the smoke, which also made my lungs heavy. When I approached an ambulance one of the EMT’s handed me a paper surgical mask. “This won’t do much, but it does help.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a nod and continued on, pulling the mask over my head and securing it in place, noticing the difference immediately with my breathing.

  “Hernandez, over here,” my Lieutenant said. He stood by his Tahoe with two firefighters and another sheriff’s deputy I knew all too well, Eric Wilcox, my ex-husband. When I saw him, I reflexively sucked in some air and exhaled slowly. Despite being divorced for over a year, the sight of Eric still managed to cause a dull ache in my chest.

  “Sir,” I said when I reached him, briefly acknowledging Eric with a polite nod. Keeping it civil, as my therapist had instructed. He nodded in return before looking away.

  “Hernandez, I need you to stay by your cruiser and secure the area. We don’t need any civilians or media getting in the way. Only emergency personnel are allowed in this vicinity.” Our Lieutenant’s eyes passed from me to Eric and back again. “Wilcox will accompany you, but no fights this time.”

  “I understand. That’s in the past…won’t happen again.”

  Even though we were divorced, Eric and I were with the Northern Command of the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office. Normally I was in my cruiser doing my own patrol, but we had been called in as reinforcements to assist the Southern Command. I couldn’t afford to let Eric push my buttons. The last time, the screaming match that ensued in the parking lot at the station, almost cost me my job. Of course it was during the middle of our nasty separation and emotions ran unchecked. Things had improved since our divorce had been finalized, but Eric had selfish tendencies and I didn’t think he’d ever grow up. I think he wanted to get me fired since it would make his life a lot easier. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

  We walked in silence back toward my cruiser. He was busy ignoring me and I was more distracted by the fire. The smoke offered an occasional glimpse of flames; which were less than a half mile away. I caught a glimpse of something else; a man and a woman, dressed in outdated street clothes. They were visible through the smoke one moment, gone the next.

  “Oh my God, there are people down there!” I yelled and grabbed onto Eric’s jacket sleeve.

  “Where?” He looked at where I was pointing.

  “Down there, at the bottom of the hill.”

  “I don’t see anyone.”

  “Right there, the guy is wearing a blue shirt, the woman has red hair.”

  “Nope, I don’t see anyone. Seeing things now?” he asked, his lips curling up into a smirk. “Maybe you should get some help?” he added as he walked away.

  “Ha ha asshole, I already am and my therapist can confirm I’m not crazy!” I hollered after him. His laughter was drowned out by a helicopter passing overhead.

  I shook off his comments, annoyed with myself because I did sound irrational. I stopped and glanced down the embankment. Emerging from the smoke were the man and the woman. They each dragged a firefighter behind them to the base of the slope; then they vanished. I ran to the edge of the
highway and stepped over the guardrail.

  “Hey!” I lifted up my facemask and called after the people who disappeared.

  “Elena, what the hell are you doing?” Eric said from behind me and I jumped. My foot slipped on gravel against asphalt and I almost fell down the embankment. Eric grabbed onto me and helped me catch my balance.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. “There are firefighters down there. They succumbed to the smoke.”

  Eric leaned over the guardrail. “Shit, did you call for assistance?”

  “No, I just saw them.” I hadn’t finished speaking and Eric was already calling it in. He turned his back to me and I hazarded another glance, hoping to see the rescuers. If they were down there, the smoke concealed them.

  “I did see civilians, I wasn’t hallucinating.”

  “Well if you did see them, which I don’t think you did, they’re probably in the same condition, if not worse than those guys.” He nodded in the direction of the firefighters.

  “I’m going down to take a closer look. If they’re in trouble, they’ll need help.” Slipping the mask back over my mouth and nose, I started to move.

  “Elena!” Eric called after me, but I was already half skidding, half sliding down the embankment. The sand gave away easily under my weight and I didn’t fight it. A few branches scratched at my face and I closed my eyes to protect them. My landing wasn’t graceful, but at least I didn’t fall on my ass or break a bone. A commotion stirred behind me and I glanced back. Four EMT’s were following at a slower pace in teams of two, each team carrying a stretcher between them. Knowing the firemen were going to get assistance, I ran into the thick of the haze.