Captive Sunset

Julie pulled up to the Police station and went inside. She greeted her new friend Ted. “Hi, want to visit with Laura and John? Maybe he can explain why the day is going by so fast.”

“OK, but what’s that about the day going by?” asked Ted not realizing it.

“Come outside and see,” she said grabbing his arm and pulling him to the door and through.

“Wow, that is weird. Here we go again. Let’s go see the professor.” He got used calling John that in an endearing way. He was still dressing the part as law enforcer. He put on his sidearm and headed to the parking lot. “We should take the patrol car. I’m on duty all the time because of the emergency.”

“Good idea,” she wanted to drive by the motel and not be recognized. She had not told Ted what happened to her at the eerie exit. He was a cop and she shot a man. As he pulled out of the parking lot she said, “Would you mind taking Campbell St.?” He nodded and turned toward it.

She looked for the van as he drove by, but it wasn’t there now. She felt a sense of relief but also worry.

At Laura’s they went inside and John was watching the news on the TV. There was a news alert and they were discussing the mission that would launch a weapon into space to save not only Earth but the solar system. There was an official from the government answering questions by the host of the show. Ted sat down interested in the discussion while Julie followed Laura into the kitchen and told her what she witnessed earlier.

Laura was shocked, “With all that is going on, now this. They were in need of medical care. I don’t believe it’s them. Maybe someone else took their car.”

“What should I do? I don’t want to tell Ted.”

“I don’t know what the right thing to do now is since we didn’t report it earlier. We can wait and see if you want but it might be better to tell him so he knows. They are dangerous and now they are in our home town,” said Laura.

“I didn’t know Ted until the meeting at the YMCA. I didn’t feel like telling him then but maybe now.”

They went back into the living room where John was explaining to Ted in detail what was happening. He looked at Laura and said, “I should fill Gil in on what we know and he can try to get the info out to everybody.” He had his number so he called and explained.

Gil sensing the seriousness in John’s voice said he would try to let people know from the list he compiled at the meeting.

After a while Julie and Ted left and went outside. It was hard to tell the time of day as the Sun navigated the sky every three ours or so. It would only be dark for 90 minutes at a time before the Sun came up again. She told him the story of what happened to them at the eerie exit. He got so upset, not with Julie. He hugged her was thankful they were able to handle the situation but he wanted to run a check on the two men at the hotel. He went inside and asked John if he would mind accompanying him to the motel. “We want our girls to be safe. I will do what is needed but having backup would help.”

John said, “Of course I will help. I hope I can help.” Laura handed him her loaded handgun. He carried it openly.

They drove in the police vehicle to the motel. The van was not there. They went inside. Ted had his revolver drawn from the holster. There was nobody around, but someone had been there. The cash register was broken into and the drawer and some contents strewn about on the floor. There was no money showing. What good would money do anyone at the moment. Everything was free for the last week. They found one room door blocked from closing in the hall near the front desk. Inside someone had stayed there. The bed was not made, like someone slept in it. There were no signs of blood in bed or in the bathroom.

“If it was the men, I would have thought there might be some sign of blood and it appeared as if only one bed was slept in. I will keep an eye out for them going forward. I’m glad she had enough courage to tell me,” Ted said.

Laura’s phone rang. She went into the kitchen and answered, “Hello?” It was GAIL. This was her chance to dig deeper into her relationship with John. Julie and Billy were watching the news and couldn’t hear. “No this is Laura, John’s friend.” She placed it on speakerphone so she could set it down. “He should be back in a moment. Why don’t you hang on?”

“OK, John has mentioned you to me. He likes you,” GAIL said.

Laura thought, I hope, “Did you work with John before he retired?” she asked investigating.”

“Yes, I loved working him. Still do.”

“Just curious, have you and John ever dated?”

“Not yet,” she answered.

This puzzled Laura more. Maybe she wasn’t being completely truthful with her.

John and Ted returned.

Laura pointed at the phone on the table, “It’s GAIL.”

“Must be something has gotten worse,” said John.

“I wanted to go over my data and my calculations with you and let you run the numbers yourself before the next conference call starting in an hour. We will send that data to the Russian scientist. It should be close enough to get them to launch phase and we will update as it is needed.”

John booted his laptop and went to work.

Ted said, “I want to take you the gun shop and pick out something you can keep for safety,” to Julie. They left in the patrol car. Now Ted would intentionally drive by the motel often in hopes of settling the matter.

At the gun shop, where Ted was no stranger before the cosmic event, he found the front door busted open and half of the glass encasement shattered. It was hard to tell what was missing as there were many guns still there. He went behind the counter. Let’s see,” he said without indicating any outward alarm at what he found. “I’m thinking you want something small that will do the job.” He didn’t mention to Julie that yesterday he checked the store and it was locked at that time.

“Laura’s worked fine," she said.

“OK, he pulled out a semi-automatic 9 mm hand gun from the glass case after breaking the lock on the sliding glass door. He pulled out the clip and grabbed a box of ammo. He loaded the clip, reinserted in the gun and pulled back the slider to load a bullet into the chamber.

She reached out her shaking hand for it. He placed the safety on and showed her how to release it.

She held it in her hand. It was much heavier than it looked. She released the safety and re-inserted it. “I think I got it,” she smiled at him. “You know I can’t hit the side of the barn.”

“You did the other day. Let the target get so close that you can’t miss, that is when you should fire. When this all blows over I will take you to the shooting range and spend more time on it. For now, keep it ready and always nearby until we know if those guys are here in town.”

She smiled at him feeling safer. She liked his optimistic tone about ‘when’ and not ‘if’ this will blow over.

Billy was on the porch watching the Sun zoom across the sky. John was hard a work checking over GAIL’s data. He had to have it done before the next conference call.

Laura came in and snuggled up close to him and asked shyly, “So what's all this stuff about GAIL only answering to you?”

“Huh,” he stopped and looked at her, “what are you asking about?”

“You know, you seem to be pretty close to her?”

“That’s right I am,” he said not really engaged with what was on her mind.

“It’s just that you don’t talk to me lovingly like you do GAIL?”

John’s mind was on his calculations, but stopped briefly, “I’m sorry. I will work on that, but right now I have to get this done.” He turned to her and kissed her, “OK?”

She got up and went outside and sat next to Billy. She put her arm around him feeling worse after what she said.

“I think it’s moving faster,” Billy said with an eye for fast movements playing his video games.

She heard the phone ring and looked at her watch. Maybe try again after the call ends.

Ted drove Julie to her apartment. It was a small quad building. It had two outside lower entries and an inside staircase up to two opposing apartment doors at the top. “Why don’t you stay with me for a while. I rent a house, there’s plenty of room. It would be safer there,” He looked at her and she at him.

She grinned and said, “Let me get my bag. It’s still packed from my trip to the coast. I’ll be right back.” She ran up the steps and unlocked the door with her key, but It didn’t seem locked. She opened slowly and peered inside. The room was well lit from the light coming in the window. She could see the shadows moving because the Sun’s position to the window was changing rapidly. Nothing was out of place. I probably forgot to lock it.

Ted had the trunk open when she returned to the car and placed her bag neatly inside. He drove by the motel on his way to his place and carefully scanned the commercial area for anything moving or any black car. It was safe and he arrived near the Police Station where he lived a block away.

As they walked up to the front door she asked, “When do you think people will start returning home from the convoy?”

“I expected some already. I haven’t heard form the Chief or the Mayor since the day they left. I guess they are having trouble finding fuel as you did.” They went inside and Ted took the bag upstairs and placed it in one of the unoccupied rooms, “There are three extra bedrooms so you take your pick of where to keep your things.”

A black car drove slowly down the street, but didn’t stop anywhere. It turned at the corner and came to a stop out of site under the canopy of a tree. Julie thought she caught a motion from her peripheral view out the window, but there was nothing when she looked closely for it.