After excusing himself up to his room after dinner and light conversation, Nick laid down on the same twin size bed he had spent his entire childhood on. It was good to be home, and so far the transition hadn’t been bad. With the exception of the bomb of course. Nick was really worried about what was going on and quite frankly he was terrified. The main question he had was whether or not there were more bombs, or if by some chance New Orleans was the only city to get hit.  ‘Man if it is, I can see it now, we thought there was a ton of conspiracy theories about Hurricane Katrina, we haven’t seen anything yet’  he thought. But for some reason, he didn’t think that was the case.

It took a while but sleep finally consumed him and he slept surprisingly well. It is amazing what nostalgia will do for you. Everything down to the color of the walls and the scent of the home was totally comforting. The next morning he woke up determined to get some answers about what was going on. He needed to know if we had retaliated yet. Who did this? What did they want?

After showering and getting into some fresh clothes he made his way downstairs and was greeted by the aroma of eggs and deer sausage. Allowing his nose to guide him, he easily found the source of the smell in the kitchen. His dad sat at the table reading his daily bible study and his mother at the stove flipping the sausage. “Morning.” He simply greeted them as he sat at the table across from his dad.

“Morning sweetie, you hungry?” his mom asked walking over and kissing him on his head. “Your head is looking better this morning.”

“Yea, it feels better too, and breakfast sounds great.” He replied. “Umm, dad?”

Mike looked up from his bible and raised his eyes at Nick.

“Would you mind if I went into town with you today. I really want to find out what is going on. I have a feeling that things are going to get crazy pretty quick if they aren’t already.”

Mike stared at his son for a second. What happened to the Nick that left Loranger six years ago? The Nick he knew was only interested in things that directly involved him. He didn’t care about anything that was outside his little bubble of existence. “Dad, did you hear me? Can I go with you today?”

Shaking himself from his shock, “Yes, of course, plus Kevin will be in town and I am sure he would love to see you.”

After eating breakfast the two men made their way into town, anxious to get to the Mayor’s Office and see if any information had been passed. Quickly exiting the cars and rushing inside Nick abruptly stopped as soon as he entered. His eyes glued to the girl in front of him, a girl who probably never wanted to see his face again. Abby Littrell. It could be assumed that she felt his gaze because it didn’t take long for her eyes to pull towards his. Her face quickly went through an array of emotions, joy, sadness, and anger all within seconds of each other.

“Nick, what are you doing here?” she asked evidently not happy to see him.

“I got back yesterday.” Nick simply replied. He could see that this conversation wasn’t going to go well, so he was trying to keep it brief.

“That figures, you come back to town and all hell breaks loose.”

“Abby…look I didn’t come back to start anything okay. I came back to try and fix my relationship with my family and friends that I have had my entire life….you included.”

“Yea, well you can forget about that Nick. You killed my brother. How could you too be so stupid? Brian is gone, forever, and you want to fix it? You can’t fix it Nick.” She said as her eyes started to fill with tears.

“Abby, it was an accident. Do you really think I would purposely kill one of my best friends?” Nick replied running his hand nervously through his hair.

“An accident? A fucking accident? Nick you were driving 90 miles an hour down a gravel road! What did you think would happen?”

“I didn’t know the tire was gonna blow out. You know I couldn’t have wanted this to happen.” He said pleading with her.

“Well, it did happen, and now I get to live everyday knowing that they guy I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with killed my brother, because he was stupid and drunk and thought he was invincible.”

“Abby…” Nick started.

“Don’t Nick, just don’t. Please just stay away from me okay? I have moved on, and I am finally happy again. I am getting married in two months; I really don’t need you in my life. So please just stay away.”

Nick nodded his head understanding where she was coming from. “Alright. If that is what you want, then I guess I have no choice but to stay away from you, but just so you know….I am staying.” With that Nick turned and walked away.

His mind now plagued by that Friday night, driving down Lee Rd, bringing more booze back to the party, when he and Brian decided it would be fun to see how fast his pickup truck would go down a gravel road. When the front tire busted, Nick lost control of the truck and ended up flipping multiple times. Neither of them was wearing seatbelts, which caused Brian to be ejected out of the car, only for it to land on top of him. Nick used everything he had in him to try and lift the truck off of Brian, but in the end Brian died in his arms. The judge had been lenient on him, but vehicular homicide was something that he couldn’t get away with a slap on the wrist. The judgment was 18 months in prison, suspended by enlistment in the armed forces.

Everyone in the entire town looked at him with such shame. Brian was a golden boy. He was the towns pride and joy, all-star quarterback, a full ride to LSU, and full of faith in God. And because of Nick his life was cut short. Abby took it the hardest. It was like she wanted to hate Nick, but she couldn’t and in turn it made her hate herself. The love of her life, the only guy she had ever given herself to, killed her brother, and she still loved him. She still wanted to be with him, and it disgusted her. She tried to just shut him out of her mind hoping that her love would just fade, but months later when Nick was already gone, she still wanted him. Now though, now was a different story. Now she was not only angry that he killed her brother, she was angry because it took him six years to get his ass back there. Six years! And just when she is about to get married!

Nick walked into his dad’s office shaking his head, “You could’ve warned me that Abby works here.”

“Sorry, it slipped my mind. There are more pressing issues.” His dad responded tonelessly as he gazed at his computer screen.

“What have you found out?” Nick asked.

“Well it looks like there have been multiple attacks on most major US cities. Houston, New Orleans, Tampa, Miami, New York City, LA, San Diego, Denver, D.C., Detroit, Chicago….tons more, they are all completely destroyed. This say’s that the fallout will reach its limits after 72 hours and that everyone needs to get underground if possible. If it is not possible then it say’s all doors and window seals should be ducked taped to keep the contaminated air from getting in. It say’s to stay indoors until it rains.”

“How long will it be till it rains?”

“I don’t know son, but this is Louisiana, it can’t be too long.” Mike replied.

“So what do we do?” Nick asked.

“Well, we call a town hall meeting and let everyone know what needs to be done. We need to get all the people in the hospital down into the basement, and we need to make sure everyone tapes their windows and doors. Let’s get going we don’t have much time.”

This is something Nick knew how to do well, plan on a whim. In the Marines, you don’t always have a lot of time to make decisions and once a decision is made you stick to it. Nick somehow knew that this was his chance to prove himself. To prove that he wasn’t the same punk kid that left six years ago.