Impact (Book 3): Adrift Read online

  ADRIFT

  Impact Series

  Book 3

  By

  E.E. Isherwood

  Mike Kraus

  © 2020 Muonic Press Inc

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  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

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  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to my awesome beta team, without whom this book wouldn’t be nearly as great.

  Thank you!

  IMPACT Book 4

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  CHAPTER 1

  Billings, MT

  Grace sat up on the wooden church pew feeling anything but refreshed. As she glanced around at the dozens of other refugees inside the small chapel, it reminded her how lucky she’d been to find a place to sleep last night. Misha had cut her a break and allowed her and Asher to get into the otherwise closed town. Once she drove the streets and witnessed how crowded it was, she understood why the people from Billings tried to keep her and the convoy from coming inside the city limits.

  Asher spoke quietly in the early morning light. “Top of the morning. I can see by your face you found this place as refreshing as I did, but, hey, at least we didn’t have to spend the night inside a dead geyser. My wooden plank is ten times better than standing all night.”

  She looked over the back of her pew. Asher was sprawled out on the one behind her. Both of them had used their heavy winter coats as pillows, keeping their park ranger hats and other police gear close by. Seeing his similarly dreary face somehow made her feel happy. “Yeah, I don’t wish we were back in that hole, but I still didn’t sleep much last night. Did you?”

  “Nah,” Asher replied. “Too many sirens.” The church must have been on a main street of the town. All night police and fire trucks roared back and forth, seemingly every fifteen minutes. Even at that second, sirens wailed in the distance, though it wasn’t yet obvious if they were coming or going.

  She sat up and threw her arm over the top of the bench to get a better look at him. “You need to iron your uniform, Ranger. You can’t go around looking like you sleep in it.”

  Asher studied her face, eventually finding her smile. “Yeah, well, I bet your uniform is in even worse shape than mine since you’ve been wearing it longer.”

  She nodded and sighed. “I should burn it. I’ve been in this for three straight days.”

  “Has it been that long?” he asked with surprise.

  “I’d already worked a full day when the first pieces of the asteroid came down at the park. I found you that night, then we spent the next day on the run. We spent the second night in the geyser hole. Day three was yesterday; the drive over the mountains. So, yeah, I’m overdue for a shower and clean clothes.”

  A woman snorted from nearby. “Good luck with that.”

  She and Asher both sat up and looked to their neighbor down the row from Asher. The young lady had a little girl sleeping on her lap, and another child wrapped up in a coat at the end of the pew. Her face and clothing were filthy, like she’d been rolling around in ash.

  Grace smiled in her formal park ranger demeanor and spoke quietly out of respect for the sleeping children. “Good morning. We didn’t mean to disturb you. I’m Grace. This is Asher.”

  “I’m Alex. Don’t worry about it. These two could sleep through an earthquake. But I was serious about the shower. All of the motels are full, and because the power’s out, no one is being generous about their water. We were told to bathe in the Yellowstone River.”

  “We crossed it on the way into town,” Grace said, as much for her benefit as Asher’s.

  Alex nodded agreement. “We’ve been here since the beginning. Like you said, three days. Unfortunately, we were only passing through. Me and the kids were gassing up our car the night the meteor came down. I was driving to meet my husband at his oil field job up in North Dakota, but the news said to stay where you were, so we tried to find a room. However, the dang rodeo filled the town up. We had to sleep in the car.”

  “Were the kids scared?” she asked, knowing from her time at Yellowstone that some youngsters didn’t take well to camping.

  “Not as scared as me. There were strange people driving at all hours of the night. Gunshots in the distance. I didn’t sleep a wink. That’s why we ended up here, in the church. The pastor said we could stay here as long as we wanted, but he was also keen to point out he had no food for us.” Alex leaned closer and reduced the volume of her whisper. “There were more sirens last night than I’ve ever heard before. I think the time is coming when we’ll have to leave, no matter what.”

  “Where will you go?” Asher asked.

  She looked his way. “You two aren’t going to North Dakota, by chance?”

  Both of them shook their heads.

  “Too bad,” she went on, “I could have used the escort. I guess I’ll get back in my car and try to make it to my husband. He wouldn’t want me staying in some strange town like this.”

  Grace wasn’t sure what to make of her statement. Her own father would say to stay put whenever you had a good thing going. Even if there wasn’t much food, there was safety in numbers. Being in a town was probably better than going out on the open roads. The more she thought about it, Grace wondered if her plan to drive back to Kentucky was now too dangerous.

  “Do you know anything about what’s going on outside of Billings?” Grace pressed. “If we knew what it was like out there, maybe it would help us all decide if staying here is the right decision.”

  Alex shrugged. “No one tells me anything. I haven’t been able to reach my husband on my phone, either.”

  Grace pulled out her smartphone, studied it for a short time, then pocketed it again. “Mine isn’t working, either. It’s on, but the network signal is gone.”

  Asher checked his fancy watch, but didn’t say anything, suggesting it wasn’t connecting, either.

  She was about to continue discussing options, but in the short time she’d been talking to Alex, the siren sounds had grown closer. It was impossible to ignore how the shrieking noises kept getting lou
der and more urgent with each passing second. They all glanced at the front door when it sounded like a police car had pulled up to the church itself.

  Grace turned to Alex. “Is this normal?”

  “No,” the woman replied, looking worried. “No one from town has come here. Maybe someone’s been hurt?”

  They all looked around, wondering if any of the others in the church had called the police. A few seconds later, the two front doors were flung open by a heavy-set man in a black police uniform.

  Grace stood up, ready to help.

  The man at the door scanned the room, and his eyes quickly fell on her.

  He pointed at her and Asher. “You two. I need you to come with me right this second.”

  South of Cape Girardeau, MO

  Ezra was startled awake when something hit the underside of the pontoon boat.

  “Holy hell!” he screamed.

  The sun was low to the southeast, though the sky was thick with a gray haze that made the orb seem faint and smaller than normal. The light of the day helped him see the expanse of water now covering the miles-long stretch of farmland. The overflowing waters of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers had come together nearby, and the floodplains next to the riverways were swamped. Last night, after navigating the dangerous tornado of raging waters, he’d pulled the boat under some trees near a flooded farmhouse, as it provided a calm place to rest. He didn’t remember parking so far from the main channel, though.

  Ezra jumped into the captain’s chair and started the motor.

  “What is it?” Butch asked, sounding worried.

  “The water went down a ton since last night. I figured it would take a lot longer.” He’d lived near water most of his life and had seen spring flooding many times, but the water level had never dropped as fast as last night. Of course, it had never risen as fast, either. “Untie us,” he insisted, pointing to the line at the front connected to a small tree.

  He studied the depth finder to see how bad it was. They sat in about four feet of water, which was barely enough clearance to use the motor. The main channel was about a mile away. The flooding changed the course of the river, adding another reason why things looked different than they did the previous night.

  Once free, he set the trim, so the blades of the prop were barely under the surface. It made a frothy, bubbly sound, and it didn’t provide as much power as when it was deeper, but he had to protect the only propeller they had. Since they were heading over a farm field it was unlikely they’d hit any rocks or tree stumps, but the fast-moving water could have brought in heavy debris. Lots of junk floated in the muddy river, reinforcing his fear that not all of it was visible.

  “Are we going to make it?” Butch inquired while looking over the side. He still held on like he was afraid to fall off the boat, but he appeared slightly less ill-at-ease than during their wild escape yesterday.

  “We should,” he said cautiously. Yet, as he watched the depth gauge, it was clear the water was draining off the farmland faster than he expected, or the field tilted up as they neared the main channel. When they’d gone about half a mile, he had the prop almost out of the water, which meant they were barely moving. “I think the farmland was rearranged by the flood.”

  Butch look at him seriously. “What are you saying?”

  The depth was now less than three feet, nearing two. They were going to begin dragging the aluminum pontoons at any second. He lifted the Suzuki outboard engine out of the water, keeping it clear of any hazards. Once the engine was secure, he immediately moved to the rear ladder and climbed into the water. “We have to push it, Butch, or we’re going to run aground and stay there. If we keep it moving, we should be able to clear this high ground and get into the main channel.”

  Butch deflated. His eyes darted all around, perhaps searching for the nearest piece of dry land. Though it was quite shallow below them, there was no place to get out of the water for miles in any direction. The half-submerged farmhouse was less than a mile back, and there was a tree-covered hill about a mile behind it, but nothing close by. The big man took a deep breath to steady himself. “Whatever you say, E-Z. I just want to get out of here.”

  The young man carefully removed his cowboy hat like he didn’t want to lose it, kicked off his cowboy boots, then he gingerly lowered himself into the water.

  Ezra didn’t give him time to think about his fears. “Push, but hold on, okay? We can’t let this thing get away from us.” He didn’t think it would, since there were handholds and the ladder, but he wanted to prepare them both in case an emergency situation came up. He looked upriver, wondering if he’d doomed them by suggesting fate might send them another runaway wave, but the wide river remained relatively calm in the new day’s light.

  They pushed together for a few minutes before both pontoons began to drag in the mud. They had about a hundred yards to go.

  “Hang on a second,” he said while climbing the ladder. As expected, he was able to see some of the shallows ahead, even through the brown murk. He tried to project where it was deeper, then jumped back in with Butch. “Turn it my way a little. We have to push this through right now. The flood waters are definitely draining off the field.”

  “Aye, aye, skipper,” Butch replied, only looking over long enough to establish how far he had to turn the boat. Then he dug in and used his huge body to shove as best he could.

  The rocks and dirt of the field reverberated through the hollow pontoons as they pushed the boat. It sounded a lot like wet sand being drained through a rain downspout. It continued to get louder as they neared the final barrier next to the new river channel.

  “Push!” Ezra called out. “We’re almost there!” He did the best he could, but was under no illusion who was doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. Butch was braced against the main deck of the boat since the water was so shallow. He leaned into it like he was a contestant in the world’s strongest man competition.

  “Tell me when to jump in,” his friend replied. “Remember, I can’t swim!”

  There was no chance of him forgetting. The journey through Kentucky dam had beaten that fact into him. He didn’t even have any remaining life vests to give him. One of those would probably have done wonders for Butch’s confidence.

  The dragging sound intensified, the boat slowed to a crawl, then it stopped.

  “Can I climb in?” Butch asked, breathing heavily, evidently out of gas.

  Susan’s Grace rocked a little as it sat on the high ground, but it was definitely stopped. After miraculously surviving being tossed by a massive wave, then getting flushed back out into the lake, and finally making it through the two raging rivers, the tough boat had been bested by some dirt.

  “Let me think,” he replied, not sure what he could say.

  CHAPTER 2

  Billings, MT

  “Why do you want us, Officer?” Grace asked, aware that others in the church were waking up, looking at the loud-mouthed policeman at the door.

  He waved her over. “Please. I’ll share what I know when we’re outside.”

  She wondered if she was in trouble for any of the illegal activities she’d done over the past few days. During their brief phone call, Mom had mentioned how the news had falsely accused her and Asher of being vandals back at Yellowstone. Maybe someone in authority had figured out where she was and wanted to ask her questions about it.

  Asher gathered his things, perhaps assuming she’d go with the officer to see what he wanted. She put on her police belt, threw on her hat, and led Asher to the door of the church. The officer ducked outside once he was sure they were moving, which gave her a moment to talk to Asher in private.

  “Ash, if we’re in trouble, I’ll take the blame, okay? That will give you a chance to get out of here. Get wherever you’re going.”

  He laughed. “I’d like to get back home to Denver eventually, but not by ditching you. We’re a team, right?”

  She sighed, desperately wanting to agree, but sure it would only cause p
roblems. “Just follow my lead. One of us has to get back on the road. No one in this town appears to be going far.”

  Asher pushed out the door, decidedly noncommittal regarding her plans.

  The police car had been parked in the handicap spot, lights rolling, though the sirens were off. The officer waved them over as he leaned against the deep-blue paint of the cruiser’s hood.

  “How can we help?” she asked, praying his visit was professional.

  The officer stood his ground. “We got word the two of you were holed up inside the church. Came in last night, did you?”

  She nodded cautiously, afraid to give away too much, lest it was a more personal visit. Would they need to have a lawyer present?

  “Brought in a convoy of people from Yellowstone, right?”

  Again, she signaled he was correct, but it began to feel more serious.

  The man looked around, then waved them closer. When they approached, he spoke like he didn’t want to be overheard. “What did you do to my plainclothes deputies out there? None of them will tell me how a pair of park rangers managed to get through a blockade I set up myself, with orders to refuse absolutely everyone.”

  She re-appraised the man. His hairline had receded, so he was almost bald. His face was wide and round, though she couldn’t see his eyes behind his dark sunglasses. Grace assumed the big man was glaring at her, waiting for the answer he wanted to hear. In the moment, she decided there was nothing to be gained by lying.

  However, Asher answered before she could. “I pulled a gun on them. Made them let us through.”

  “No!” she replied immediately. “That’s not what happened.”

  “I did,” Asher deadpanned. “I wanted to be sure those people made it to safety at all costs. It was my sworn duty.”