Abandon

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Copyright © 2012 by Stephanie Dorman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Prologue

  North Carolina Shores

  1991

  The light of the moon created a path on the water as the waves crashed against the sand. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her young life. Granted, her life had been pretty short up until this point as she was only a tender seven years old. Sneaking a look back at the house where her parents were currently drinking concoctions from the cabinet she wasn’t allowed to touch and screaming at each other over something she couldn’t wrap her head around, she stepped further on to the beach.

  She wasn’t supposed to be here, so close to the ocean without adult supervision. Apparently, the ocean held a power that scared her mother and gave her father a kind of caution she rarely saw from him. She had been amazed because it was the first time in what seemed like forever they had actually agreed on something. Her mother kept saying something about a hurricane off-shore and how it was making the waves and the rip current stronger. She hadn’t even let her go in the water earlier that day. She had been forced to make sandcastles with her little brother at her mother’s feet while her dad watched golf inside.

  That’s why she sneaked out of the house when they weren’t paying attention. She had to see what the “rip current” was. She had to know what this thing was that had her parents so scared. Taking her pajamas off revealed a neon pink one piece bathing suit with miniature sparkles that reflected the light bouncing off the water. Standing in front of the pathway the moon created, she started walking into the water.

  It was surprisingly cold considering the earlier heat of the day and her body involuntarily shivered as wave after wave lapped at her feet. The sand beneath her tiny heels gave way each time water pushed past her feet and went back out to sea. Each time, she found herself lose her footing at the power of the ocean. For a second, she stopped to consider her mission: if the waves were this strong when she was only ankle deep - maybe her mother and her father had been right.

  Ignoring the tiny voice in the back of her mind, she continued stepping along the unending walkway the moon created for her. First knee deep, than waist deep, and finally a wave crashed over her head and she found herself totally submerged. Her body twisted and contorted under the strength of the waves and she thought that she must look like one of those performers she had seen with ribbons earlier that year at a local faire.

  Pulling toward the surface, sputtering out the salt water that had invaded her nose and mouth, she looked back at the house. It seemed so much farther away than the last time she looked and it was getting smaller. Her little feet tried to touch the sand that must have been somewhere beneath her but she couldn’t feel it. That must have been what her parents were afraid of - the ocean pulling her away from them.

  Taking a deep breath, she floated her body to the surface of the water and looked at the stars above her. She could see them all here, unlike at home. She supposed she should probably be scared by the whole ordeal; she had only been in swimming lessons for half the summer. If the ocean wanted to take her away in its rip current there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  A smile came across her face as she found the North Star from the Little Dipper. Let the ocean take her away. There was nothing in that house for her anyway - and floating across the ocean seemed like a grand adventure. Perhaps the ocean would take her somewhere far away, to a place where somebody cared about her. Maybe she would find a family that would notice her absence. Maybe, just maybe, the ocean could take her to a place where she felt loved.

  Part I

  Escape

  “Don’t you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?”

  Søren Kierkegaard

  Chapter 1: Annalise

  Northern Virginia

  December 12, 2012

  If she were to write a memoir of the day that changed her life and turned it upside down, Annalise would have to say that the day began pretty much like every day in recent memory. Her phone presumably started it’s alarm cycle at six in the morning, which she slept through. Then at eight, it started vibrating by her bedside, eventually falling in the crack between the frame and the mattress. That was the way she liked it, ignoring her phone and staying in her dreams.

  Eventually her phone started pinging her repeatedly. The sound was that of an alien noise which permeated her sleep state and caused her to groan. Her coworkers and friends were probably attempting to wake her. She was probably late for some meeting. Rolling over, she felt around the side of the bed to locate the device that was producing the offending noise. Upon finding it, her first priority was to press the volume buttons on the side to make sure it stopped screeching at her. She considered dropping it on the floor and remaining in bed for another half an hour, but she couldn’t be positive that she didn’t have some important meeting at a client site. Scanning her collective memories of the day before, the image of an early morning meeting on her calendar didn’t appear. But, really, it had to be something pretty important for her phone to just keep buzzing like that. Opening one eye, reluctantly, she glanced at the text message screen. Seven missed texts - from a very unexpected source.

  Wake up Annalise. We have to go.

  Turn on the news now.

  Do you remember the plan?

  Please tell me you remember the plan.

  Annalise - wake up. Dammit.

  I can’t get you too. You have to wake up.

  Annalise - please - wake up. Remember?!

  Well, that was certainly different. She hadn’t heard from Cort in two months, since her spectacular display of temporary psychosis induced by spending too much time with her married friends and their children that caused her to break up with him. They had tried to be friends for a brief time after but it had eventually become too hard for both of them to maintain the facade that they still trusted each other. He said he didn’t trust her not to leave him again, and she hadn’t trusted him to be honest about the other women he was seeing. They had spent countless hours over-analyzing every aspect but never found a way to solve the problem. Instead, they ended up both spending every day frustrated with the state of their fake friendship until eventually drifting apart, pretending that “they” as a couple had never happened. Yet, there he was telling her to turn on the news and asking about a plan she couldn’t quite recall. She considered texting him asking what plan, but figured perhaps the TV could provide the missing clue.

  Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, she pulled the remote from under one of her legs and turned on the 42 inch TV, mounted to the wall in front of her bed. It was in power save mode because she had fallen asleep with some show that showcased the horrible side of human nature like Bridezillas or some celebrity’s attempt of extending 15 minutes of fame by cashing in on the reality show craze. As the TV blared to life, the first thing she noticed was the red text scrolling across the bottom of her screen.

  BREAKING NEWS: Washington DC paralysed by riots. City in shambles.

  “Holy shit,” she muttered under her breath. It re
ally was happening. The world as she knew it was coming undone at the seams. Video clips played on a loop of the situation in the city, police in riot gear beating back what seemed like ordinary citizens, looters destroying storefronts to take what they could and fires spreading across the city finally coming to a stop only where the Potomac river created a wide barrier of water that the fire dared not cross. The pundits were speaking over the devastation in their most professional voices, some already saying that it would take years, maybe decades, to recover from this kind of revolt in the nation’s capital.

  Unable to tear her eyes from the carnage playing on the screen in front of her she slowly fumbled for her phone again, finally finding it, she hit reply.

  I’m awake, and yeah, I remember the plan.

  Meet you in a couple hours.

  Try not to die on your way there.

  Annalise watched the horror play out on her TV and thought back to the time she had spent with Cort. One of their favorite pastimes had been talking about plans for an eventual end of the world scenario. They had thought about zombies, government failure, and nuclear disaster. They spent endless nights talking about where they would go, who they would bring them, and what they would take. By the time their relationship ended they had a full fledged plan that they could enact in the event of an emergency. At the time it had all been a morbid kind of fun and games, never something Annalise thought she’d actually have to follow through with. She should have paid more attention to what was going on around her though because in the months since they had dated the political discourse in the country had degraded to some of the most immature, ill-thought bullshit she had ever heard. Half the country was up in arms and half apathetic. It was pretty much par for the course in recent years and everyone had assumed after the election things would get better. After the election things always got better.

  Unfortunately, things don’t always work out the way you expect them to. The candidate everyone thought had no chance of winning orchestrated a stunning come from behind victory. Rally cries of cheating, voter fraud and payoffs of various election officials had started before the west coast polls had even closed. Almost immediately various protest groups had held God-knows how many marches down Constitution Avenue for whatever ridiculous causes they believed in. Over the course of 48 hours DC had turned from nation’s capital and symbol of freedom to the world, to the nation’s capital of repugnance and animosity.

  Most of the DC and suburban natives like herself had ignored the signs of the quick growing discontent, mostly because of numbness from overexposure to political strife. That’s why almost a month to the date of the biggest and most important election in the nation’s history she was sitting at the edge of her bed watching Washington DC, the nation’s capital, crumble under the weight of the dissatisfaction of American citizens. It was mesmerizing, enthralling and she couldn’t help but wonder if this was what Nero was feeling as he watched Rome burn beneath his feet.

  Tearing her gaze away from the TV she looked at the clock by her bed. The faint letters told her it was somewhere around 9:30. If she started packing now, she could probably be finished by noon and try to round up the people who mattered. Jumping off the bed she threw open the doors to her walk-in closet and pulled out a backpack, two rolling luggage cases and two duffle bags. She took all the winter clothes she owned and began stuffing them in the rolling suitcases. Standing on her tiptoes, she snatched her snowboarding pants, boots, scarves, gloves and hats off the top shelf and tossed them to the bed. They would come in handy if there was a snowstorm while they were hiding out in the mountains of western Maryland. Looking at her snowboard she grabbed it as well, who knew, maybe she’d get in some good boarding while they killed time waiting for the whole thing to blow over.

  Moving to the bathroom she opened up the drawers under her vanity and pulled out all the toilet paper, soap, tampons and condoms she could find. She skipped the make-up strewn across the sink, but grabbed the most important jewelry from the antique box her mother had given for her sixteenth birthday. Then it was onto the shower for shampoo and her razor. Tossing everything into one of the duffle bags, she migrated to the kitchen to grab all her first aid supplies and anything non-perishable from her pantry. Beans, noodles, sauces, canned vegetables and fruits went into one of the rolling suitcases. In her living room she grabbed a stack of board games that didn’t require power to operate, and stopped in her tracks in front of the TV looking at her various gaming systems. She had an idea of the vacation home they would probably end up commandeering and hoped it would have power. If it did, the Xbox would be a welcome distraction during some of the most cabin fevered times. Besides, everyone liked to play games on the Kinect. Shoving the game console and all games into a duffle bag she looked at the clock on her microwave. It was 10:15 - she could start packing her car, be making calls and going door to door to grab the people who mattered by 11 AM.

  Sitting on the couch in her living room she looked around the apartment she had lived in for a little over six months. She had never really liked the apartment; it had always felt like a downgrade from her previous living situations. Prior to it she had lived in beautiful townhouses in the heart of her small town but hard times had forced her to make hard choices. Since she was leaving without knowing exactly when she would be back she felt some pangs of regret. She had always looked at the apartment as a stopgap to wherever her true destination was. Maybe if she had hung up some of her posters, put a little into decorating it, it might not have felt so bad. Maybe it would have felt a little more like home. Glancing at the white wall in front of her she wondered if she’d miss the apartment if she never came back. Standing up off the couch, she pushed the thoughts of the apartment from her mind and began the process of lugging the bags from the third floor to her car.

  Chapter 2: Cort

  Ellicott City, Maryland

  December 12, 2012

  “You can’t be serious,” Katy exclaimed as Cort was rushing around the room grabbing everything he needed for the upcoming weeks. “It’s just some little riots in DC, it will never reach here.”

  “How do you know it will never reach here?” he replied as he searched his closet for the case that held all the ammo for his guns. Finding it, hidden behind a stack of summer clothes he was sure probably needed washing, he placed it on the bed next to where Katy sat cross legged and headed back to the closet for the actual weaponry.

  “Because we’re in Ellicott City! The feds will have it contained and under control soon. It’s just a few unhappy people.” she said as he pulled all his guns from the topmost shelf and put them on the bed. “Are those guns?”

  “Yes, they are guns,” he replied pointing at the TV across the room. “Those aren’t just a ‘few’ unhappy people. That’s a lot of unhappy people that it seems like the government can’t control and I’m not staying here to find out what happens when they fail.”

  He checked the barrel of each gun making sure they were clear. Through the scope of his rifle he could see Katy’s exacerbated look. She was beautiful, with her long blond hair and hazel eyes. She had perky breasts that were a C cup, just enough to fill one hand each. Her ass was round and firm and she had legs a mile long. If they were walking down the street it would be a fair assessment that she was definitely dating down. Unfortunately, for all the beauty that the Gods had given her they had almost comically deprived her of any sort of ability to think in a deep or analytical way. She was unable to see beyond the things right in front of her and look at the bigger picture. Right now was a perfect example; the fact that she thought the government would just swoop in and magically fix what had been going on in DC for weeks was comical.

  He had only been seeing Katy for two weeks and he was mentally cursing himself for calling her last night. In the time he’d known her he hadn’t found her to excel at anything besides sex. That had been fine for what he needed yesterday but when he had looked at rioting on the news he realized that Katy would probably be a liabilit
y in his current escape plans. First of all, she wouldn’t fit in the group of people he planned to take with him, all of which were deep thinkers. Second, the way she was looking at the guns which laid on the bed meant that Katy would probably rebel against ever using one, making her an ineffective member of any survival group. Cursing himself again, he wondered if there was any way out of having her come.

  She moved her hand to run it through her hair. “Cort, I think you’re being totally whack right now.”

  Cort was about to respond when his phone started vibrating on the bedside table. Picking it up he saw the text and sighed in relief.

  Car is packed. Getting people then heading to the rally point. <3

  Annalise would be there. When he had sent the rapid fire texts earlier, he hadn’t truly expected her to respond. They hadn’t spoken in nearly six months and he imagined she would probably delete any sort of attempt at communication. He had to try though because all the plans he had for this event had revolved around her presence. Sure, he had been planning for this long before he actually met her, but once she had entered his life, he couldn’t imagine doing any of this without her. When she had first responded that she remembered, and she would meet him at the rally point he had been elated and relieved. If no one else met them out there or came with him, he knew that he could count on her to be his survival partner. Even now, the text that she was packed and on her way allowed him to breathe a little easier.

  Of course, there was the issue of Katy. A large part of him was hoping that Katy would decide to stay in this area of Maryland. Her friends were here, her entire life. Cort was just a recent fuck buddy and there was no reason she should put her life on hold to come with him, especially since she was considering him “whack” at the moment. Even though he was trying to rationalize it in a way that made Katy staying a better situation for her, he knew he was just reluctant to put Annalise and Katy in the same cabin or enclosed space for any period of time. Annalise would see her for what she was, which would be a drain on their collective resources, if they were required to hang out in the mountains for anything longer than a week. Katy would probably view Annalise as a threat to the only person she really knew. It was better for everyone involved if Katy stayed in the suburbs.