The chaos had ended. Outside he knew that throngs of people still marched steadily westward, into the hills beyond the city, but now they walked slowly. The sense of panic and purpose that held sway while everything around them seemed to collapse and turn to dust had abated as tidily as the collapse itself had been stemmed. There was no more collapse, and what rubble was destined for dust had long since arrived and swirled away on one hot breeze or another. So now they walked.

The sun was out. It’s light pried in through the windows. He watched her twirl across the living room in an open mockery of joy. On the couch, his children sat patiently, bickering quietly amongst themselves because they didn’t understand what was happening and didn’t know how else to behave.

“You seem happy,” he lied, smiling morosely at his wife. She stopped twirling and grinned, but her eyes were red and wet.

“We’ll be leaving soon,” she said simply, cocking her head as if expecting him to respond. The children stopped chattering and stared at them open-mouthed, thirsty for any queue of how they should react.

“We’ll be okay, Marybelle,” he agreed. She huffed out a breath and smoothed her hands down her skirt, then sucked in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before letting it out with a grin as she whirled over to the window. The steady crowd of people on the streets below plodded onward, looking like rats, except for their order and slow gait. The children, misreading her inward grin, began to wrestle and laugh.

“Where’s my sister, Michael?” Marybelle asked the window, not turning to face him.

“In the kitchen, I think. She went to get a drink.” He got up and went over to her, putting his arms around her waist and looking over her shoulder at the building across the street. It was still standing, too, but most of the windows were smashed and the masonry looked loose and ragged.

“We’ll be okay real soon,” he whispered in her ear. “It’s better that we try and stay together.”

“I didn’t think it would take him this long to get back,” she admitted. Somehow her face looked more calm when she stopped trying to smile. She closed her eyes and reached up to ruffle his hair.

“The daycare is all the way across the town,” Michael pointed out. “That’s a long walk.”

“I know.”

He kissed her neck and stood back, turning on his kids and clapping his hands together. “Maybe we should tell a story!” he declared. They bounced excitedly and grinned.

“How about a scary one?” the oldest boy begged.

“Oh, let’s tell a nice one,” Marybelle suggested, moving over and sitting on the couch next to them. “You start.”

But before he could, a woman stumbled in from the kitchen, holding her side. She looked up at them imploringly and slumped down into a chair at the dinette table.

“Jackie? What’s wrong?” Marybelle asked, dashing to her side. Her sister tried to smile, and her face said that no one was to worry at all about her.

“Just a pain in my side. I think I pulled a muscle.”

“When did you pull it?” Michael asked, walking up to them slowly, followed by the children. Jackie shrugged. She looked guilty, watching his face to judge his reaction.

“It’s been hurting on and off—”

“How long?” he asked gently, but firmly. He squatted down and studied her face. “You look flush.”

“I’m okay,” she mumbled. “Bax will be back soon with the kids.”

Michael stood up and turned to his wife. “There’s that med center just a block up.”

Marybelle shook her head, not wanting to hear anything about it, so Michael said it for them: “If it’s her appendix, she’ll never make the walk—”

“How long has it been hurting, Jackie?” Marybelle asked, her tone serious. “Is it your appendix?”

“How would I know?” Jackie snapped.

Marybelle glanced at her husband and bit her lip nervously. “She can’t make it there alone. And I wouldn’t want to…”

“I can take her,” Michael said. “Bax won’t be back before dark, I wouldn’t think. We’ll just walk up and get them to look at it. It might be just be a pulled muscle, after all—but we need to know.”

“Can you get up?” Marybelle asked her sister. Jackie nodded and put on a strong face.

“It’s all right now. It comes and goes.” She sighed and added to no one, “Why isn’t Bax back yet?”

“He’s got a long way to walk,” Michael said. “I bet we’re back before he is.”

That seemed to sell her. Michael thought again of the street outside the window, and the people. He grabbed their windbreakers and kissed his wife, then kissed each of his children.

“Back in a few,” he said. They waved, but no one said goodbye.

***

The apartment had shielded them, with its height and thick windows. The slow parade of people streaming westward only seemed orderly because they couldn’t hear the noise. As they walked into the lobby of the building, they realized the increasing swell of sound was not the wind gusting through smashed open windows, but the sound of voices. Voices yelling through tears or anger or just yelling to make sure they were heard; to make sure that not one person in the crowd would be lost behind any other.

They both stopped instinctively, in the shadows, out of sight of the doors. Maybe they’d seen too many movies, but when Jackie glanced at Michael, he knew that she, too, was wondering what the crowd would do to them if they were seen. Or, more likely, what they would do to the building, if they knew that it was still habitable.

Jackie moved closer to Michael and even as she sucked in a sharp breath, she said, “Maybe we shouldn’t go? Maybe the med center is closed?”

“The radio said they were staying open. They said people who were hurt, but could walk, should just walk from one to the next, getting checked as they went. They don’t want us going to the hospitals.”

“So let’s do that,” Jackie offered. “Let’s not go out there—” But another wince of pain stopped her. She held her side and bent over a bit. Michael looked at her. Her hand was too far forward to be her appendix. She was pressing near her pantie line, along her abdomen.

“Is that where the pain is?” he checked. “Under your hand?”

“Yeah,” she breathed. “It comes and goes.”

“I don’t think it’s your appendix,” he admitted. “But I’m no doctor and we need to be sure.”

Jackie looked up into his eyes. His expression was firm and sincere and, she thought, emotional. This was something he could do, other than sitting around, waiting. This was a problem he could solve. The med center was just a block away. They’d be back real soon. She nodded lightly, more at her own decision than his.

“Okay. It’s just a pulled muscle.”

He put his arm around her and she put hers around his waist, allowing him to guide her. With her other hand, she held her side. She didn’t want to tell him about the bulge she could feel. She didn’t want him to panic.

At the doorway they passed quickly into the alcove, then stood looking outside. The light seemed green down here, no doubt from the low-lying dust and debris being kicked up by the crowd, filtering the sunlight in strange, unpredictable ways. Michael looked up, out the window, as far as he could, but he couldn’t see any line that would say the light was indeed brighter further above. Jackie was studying the faces that walked past. Not one of them noticed the two of them standing in the alcove.

“Let’s go,” she said quietly. “It doesn’t hurt right now.”

Michael nodded once and pushed open the door. The noise of the crowd hit them harder than the swirling dust inking the air. Everyone seemed to be making some kind of noise, even if it was just to make noise. The slowness of the crowd was still there, but the illusion of order was shattered. The people pushed and jostled to get ahead, and everyone pushed and jostled to prevent them from being separated from the ones they were with. The med center was just shy of a block up, but it was across the street; they had to get into the current, then swim across without losing each other. Jackie held Michael’s waist tighter and he squeezed her shoulder. They actually held their breath as they stepped off the last stair and into the throng.

***

The med center was dark, the only light being an exaggeration of the same greenish hue as outside. The darkness was caused by the emergency lights; all the power had been shifted to the machines and the examining rooms, leaving the hallways and waiting rooms bathed in what dim light leaked out of the adjacent areas. Jackie and Michael waited their turn at the check-in desk. Jackie was standing straight now, but they still had their arms around each other—it was the only way they had been able to manage the street without being separated, and they weren’t ready to let go just yet.

“Next,” a haggard nurse behind the counter called out half-heartedly. Deep-down she clearly wished there was no next, but Michael and Jackie stepped forward.

“She has a pain in her side,” Michael said. Jackie looked up when he glanced at her and they smiled at each other. They had accomplished something. They had learned the rules of the crowd before they took their kids into it, and Jackie’s pain would soon be explained away.

“Is there a wound?” the nurse asked tiredly, jotting something down on a pad of paper. Jackie shook her head.

“We’re afraid it’s appendicitis,” Michael offered. The nurse sighed and looked at him, then turned back to Jackie.

“Where is it?”

Jackie pointed at her abdomen, just below her belt.

“It’s not the appendix.”

Something in the woman’s voice said she was going to turn them away.

“There’s a bulge,” Jackie blurted. “When it hurts, there’s a bulge.”

The nurse sighed again, tutted once, then sighed a third time, reluctantly. “Hernia,” she finally diagnosed. “I’ll have the doctor make sure you can walk out of town.”

Jackie didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until she let it go. She smiled widely, as if this simple thing would solve all of her problems. Michael squeezed her to him and she looked up at him, putting her other arm around his waist. He was smiling back at her. He leaned down and very slowly kissed her lips. It was a soft touch, full of relief. As he moved to pull away, she leaned in and opened her mouth slightly, and he kissed her again, very slowly. Their lips closed evenly, together, and they pulled away.

“Have a seat,” the nurse said. “He’ll be with you as soon as possible.”

***

Back in the examining area it was brighter, but the lights flickered and the greenness still managed to creep in. They had Jackie take off her clothes in a changing room and put on a surgical robe. There was no real explanation for this, but they both went along with it without complaint. Everything seemed to be going right now; no use tripping it up with senseless protest. The doctors and nurses were obviously tired, and the chaos in the street seemed to have bled in with the green light. People barked out commands, disagreed with orders, knocked over trays of instruments, and appeared to be teetering on the edge of complete breakdown.

Still, Michael smiled warmly at Jackie and she squeezed his hand and smiled back as the nurse helped her up on to the examining table.

“Don’t leave,” she said as Michael turned to go out. She still tightly held his hand. He smiled and motioned to a chair against the wall.

“I’ll sit over there.” Jackie squeezed his hand again, then let it go. He sat down with her clothes on his lap.

The doctor came in moments later, full of nervous energy and no beside manner. In short order he established where Jackie hurt, pressed her abdomen a few times and had her cough, then motioned to someone in the hall. Another man came into room—Michael assumed it was another doctor—and the two men conferred in low breath. Jackie looked over at Michael, her face writ with consternation. Michael smiled reassuringly, but his pulse began to increase and he found it hard to smile. There appeared to be dried blood on the table. He hadn’t noticed that before.

The first doctor sent the nurse away and she closed the door behind her. Neither of the men looked at Michael or even acknowledged that he was in the room. The second doctor moved to the other side of Jackie, partially blocking Michael’s view. He saw the first doctor rest his hand on her knee, below the hem of the gown. He ran his hand slowly up her leg to the hem, then hooked the gown with his finger and continued to smooth over her thigh. Jackie tried to stop him, but the second doctor grabbed her wrists. Michael could see only a wedge of her face, but her eyes looked wild; afraid. Michael stood up. The first doctor was speaking in a very low voice.

“We just need to lift the gown a little higher, so we can see better.”

“No!” Jackie demanded. “Let me put my underwear back on—”

“We don’t have time,” the doctor said firmly. Michael caught him glance at the second doctor. His eyes were admonishing and pleading at the same time. Michael’s pulse quickened further. The doctor’s hand was still on Jackie’s thigh, the gown now pulled back far enough to begin exposing her. The second doctor shifted his weight and held her wrists more firmly while the first doctor moved to the end of the table, between her legs.

“What the hell is going on here?” Michael demanded, stepping from his shadowy corner. The doctor holding her wrists immediately let go and spun to face Michael; the first doctor froze, his eyes flashing anger.

“We’re examining her,” he said levelly. Jackie took the chance to sit up and pull down the gown, then she swung her legs over the edge of the table. The first doctor grabbed her wrist, but didn’t turn to her. “Don’t go. We haven’t finished.”

“Yes you have!” Michael declared. “Get the hell out of this room!”

“What’s going on?” Jackie asked. Michael stepped forward again and the second doctor backed out of his way, toward the door. Michael noticed distantly that he had to flick the lock before it would open.

“Sir, we need to establish—”

Michael lunged at the doctor, punching him solidly on the jaw and sending him spinning. Michael grasped Jackie’s hand as she hopped off the table, her eyes lit with panic. The door was open; the other doctor was gone already. As they dashed into the hall, hand in hand, the doctor regained his feet and said, “It’s just a slight hernia.”

“Don’t mention this,” Jackie asked as Michael helped her dress in a dark corner, away from the center of the chaos. “Don’t tell Bax.”

She leaned in slowly and kissed him again, her lips tugging his for just an instant, then she pulled away.

“It doesn’t hurt any more,” she whispered.

***

Bax burst in the front door dramatically, his arms wide and his children pushing their way past to find and hug their mother.

“We’re here!” he declared. Jackie and Michael had got back only a few minutes earlier. Marybelle had hugged and kissed her husband and cried tears of joy when she heard the diagnosis. “You can wear my old wedding corset,” she’d said to her sister. “It’s sort of like a rupture truss.”

Jackie ran up to Bax and flung her arms around his neck, smiling widely and kissing him firmly.

“I say we leave in the morning,” Bax said, walking into the room with Jackie at his side. “It’s a madhouse out there, even now. Hopefully the crowds will have died down.”

“Sounds good,” Michael agreed.

He looked at Jackie and they shared a glancing smile. She squeezed her husband and put her head on his chest. Michael smiled at Marybelle and took her hand in his.

Jackie met his gaze, then closed her eyes.