We All Fall Down

We All Fall Down Part 3

He got down the side road he found himself on, running past buildings. He could see movement behind some of the shades in some of the houses. People peeking out to see what the noise was. Or why a white guy was sprinting down their street carrying a suitcase. There were businesses on the other side of the street but they seemed to be all shuttered. They had metal grates drawn down. Bars over their windows. No signs of life. They were mostly industrial. Warehouses, fabrication shops. That sort of thing. He got to a cross street and ducked behind the building, in case something looked down from the freeway. He was panting from sprinting and he needed a second to catch his breath. It occurred to him he was clutching his suitcase and he pushed it away and let it drop to the ground. He bent over, placing his hands on his knees, and inhaled great lungful's of air. Damn he was out of shape.

Once he stopped feeling like he was going to keel over in the parking lot, he knelt down and opened his suitcase. He rummaged through it and pulled out his jeans and found a t-shirt. It was one of his favorites. A line drawing on the front showed the spaceship Serenity from the television series Firefly. Around the ship was a circle and on top it said 'Shipping & Logistics' and around the bottom, 'Everything's Shiny.' He loved that shirt. He looked around to see if anyone was about, saw no one, and quickly unbuttoned his dress shirt. He pulled it off, briefly fighting with the buttoned cuffs, and threw it on the ground. He pulled on the Firefly shirt and then, checking once more for people, pulled off his dress pants and quickly put on his jeans. Better.

He had a light jacket in the bag, just in case. It was too hot for it now but he might need it later. He tied it somewhat awkwardly around his waist. He rummaged through the suitcase again, pulled his toiletries bag out of it, and shoved that into his backpack. That ought to do it. He slung the backpack back onto his back, put both straps over his shoulders (he was serious now) and stepped purposefully away from the building, leaving his small suitcase and smaller pile of clothes behind him.

He could see the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles in the distance. He wasn't sure exactly where he was. And actually, he realized, he wasn't exactly sure where he was going. He paused. What the heck was he going to do? He realized he needed information. Dumb. He should have thought of that already. He pulled his phone from his pocket and brought the screen to life. His notifications were filled with news stories. From all over the country. They didn't make a lot of sense. Reports about attacks of some sort but no one seemed entirely sure what was doing the attacking. It didn't seem terrorist related. But it did sound epidemic because there were stories from New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between. Dallas. New Orleans. Chicago. Denver. He swallowed. Denver was close to his home town of Boulder, Colorado. Damn.

"Call Alex," he said to his phone.

"Calling Alex, I-C-E," replied Siri.

He held the phone up to his ear but it immediately made a hi-lo repeating noise and he pulled it back down to look at the phone. He heard a small voice from the speaker say that all circuits were busy. He hung up, pressed the redial and tried again.

"All circuits are busy. Please try your call again later."

Figures. He killed the phone and typed out a text message to his wife and pressed send. It left his phone. That was a good sign. He waited for the small 'Delivered' to appear under the message. And waited. And waited. Dammit.

He was about to try an email when he heard car. He was standing on the sidewalk at a crossroads, only about fifty feet from his suitcase. The car was coming down the road towards him at a pretty good clip. There was something wrong with it. It wasn't driving normally. In fact, it appeared to not be under anyone's control. He watched it veer slowly out of its lane, over to the side, then jump up on the curb. Towards him. He started moving away, back towards the building. The car sped past him, right over where he'd been standing, and slammed into the building behind him.