Sanctuary Read Online Free

background. Her gas light came on. She glanced at the gauge. It still had a few miles left in the tank. She didn’t have the time or inclination to stop for gas. It would just have to make it there.
    She backed the car out of the driveway and headed toward J. Clyde Morris Boulevard. In her mind, she reviewed how to get to Riverside Hospital and hoped that she wouldn’t hit many lights on the way. Because of Mickey, she was over half an hour behind her father.
    As she pulled out onto the main thoroughfare, the street scene reminded her of news footage of battle-scarred roadways in far off places like Afghanistan. Cars were caterwauled across the street and some on top of the sidewalk. The horns of car alarms blared. Bodies littered the street. Too much. She weaved around it all but really wanted to shut her eyes.
    Nausea churned the pit of her stomach. Even though the news claimed that one third of the world’s population had been killed, she really didn’t know anyone personally who had died. The bodies in front of her made this real.
    And her mother.
    Jennie gripped the steering wheel, losing feeling in the tips of her fingers. Fear and panic took hold. She had to keep it together for Mickey. A quick glance in her rearview mirror showed him playing with the Sippy-cup and nibbling at the pastry. He didn’t lift his head to look out the windows.
    She turned up the radio, hoping to drown out some of the sirens and car alarms. A Toyota Forerunner wrapped around a pole, the light flashing yellow. The appearance dizzied her, and she nearly missed her left turn on Route 17.
    “We’re almost there,” she announced in as cheery a voice as she could muster.
    “Good! I want to see Mommy.”
    “I just have to find a parking space.” As Jennie pulled into the hospital, she found the parking lot crowded worse than the streets on the drive over. It overflowed with cars. By the emergency room entrance, the cars were left abandoned with doors wide open. People had parked sideways in the lot and taken up more than one space. Some trucks and SUVs were parked over curbs and in the grass.
    Chaos. She automatically searched for the blue minivan, but soon gave up. So many cars. Jennie parked in the grass near the back of the lot. She threw off her seatbelt and took a deep breath before turning in her seat to her brother. “Can you get unbuckled yourself?”
    Mickey set aside the Sippy-cup and pulled the fasteners. He moved much faster than Jennie’s unpracticed hands could.
    “Good.  Now climb over the console so you can come out my door, okay?”
    “Okay!”
    Outside the car, the distant noises continued on the breeze—the rumbling, the car horns. Mickey slipped his hand into hers and concentrated on stepping off the curb so he wouldn’t trip. They started toward the five-story white building, and she hoped things were going to be all right. A car whipped in front of the entrance, and two people got out, covered in blood. Jennie had yet to see an ambulance.
    Her heart raced faster as she neared the open emergency room entrance doors. She eyed them, fearing they would close when she walked through with her brother.
    Injured people crowded the room. Not a seat was empty. Moans and sobs filled the air. The coppery scent of blood overpowered the clinical, hospital smell. Jennie wanted to hold her breath.
    As she tried to step forward, Mickey pulled on her arm. His eyes were wide and horrified, his feet frozen in place. Would he sit down right there in the entrance? “Are you okay?”
    “I don’t wanna go in there.” Mickey shook his head from side to side, his wide eyes fixed on the mayhem.
    She swallowed her fear and put on a smile. “I don’t want to go either, Mickey, but Mom is hurt.  And, she’s in here.”
    Tears welled in his eyes, and his bottom lip quavered.
    “Do you want me to carry you?” Jennie asked.
    Mickey didn’t say a word, just nodded and lifted his arms.
    Jennie picked him up, and her brother clung to