We stood there for a few moments, neither of us knowing what to say. He broke the silence through ragged breaths. “Get in the truck. They’ll see us!” I looked up to the sky and saw a silver ship hovering nearby.
“Carey, in the truck!” He looked at me with a tilted head. The man had already jumped into the passenger seat. “Carey, get in, boy!” He growled at me. The silver ship was getting closer, and any moment, it would spot us standing there. I got in the truck and Carey finally got the point, jumping onto my lap. As I swung the door shut and turned the truck engine off, the ship slowly hovered over us and into the park space.
We sat in silence, barely breathing while we watched it hover over the green space; soon it was out of our sight.
“I saw a ship a few hours ago, up north. Do you think there are a bunch of them?” I asked the stranger.
“No idea. I got close to the city early this morning… left Pittsburgh as soon as everyone disappeared.” I noticed him fidgeting with something and saw a ring on his pinky finger with a large green stone.
I nodded towards it. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Not a lot. I hoped you did,” he replied.
I pulled my amulet from under my shirt and showed him. He grimaced and rubbed his hands over his face.
“She told me to wear this damn ring. I had no idea what she was talking about, or why. But when your girlfriend is sick and asks you to do something in her memory, you do it. Save the world, she said.” His breath was ragged, the words spilling out like he’d been waiting years to say them.
I’m sure my mouth hung wide open at his words. His story was so similar to mine that I knew this couldn’t be a coincidence, only my wife hadn’t mentioned the “saving humanity” bit. I had no idea what was happening, but I was glad to have someone to share the pressure with.
“I’m Dean. Dean Parker.” I reached out my hand, which he took in a firm handshake.
“Ray Jones. I tell you, I’m glad to meet someone else. How’d you not get taken?”
The word taken stuck in my brain, and I sat there remembering James getting lifted through my house. “My wife. Same story as you, Ray. She died and made me promise to wear this.” I lifted the chain and showed him the green pendant hanging from it. “Only I didn’t believe that my life was at stake, and I just got it from a storage locker yesterday after the ships came. I guess I’m glad I did now. Even after death, we should listen to our wives, hey?” The joke hung out there in the air, neither of us laughing at it.
“How the hell are we supposed to save the world? I mean, I’m just a guy from Pittsburgh, a computer science engineer, who works at a steel factory programming manufacturing machinery. I mean, God above us, all I want to do is watch the Steelers and drink a cold one after a long day.”
“I have no idea. I’m an accountant. Maybe if I audit them, I can find out where they brought everyone.” Another swing, another miss. My mom used to always chide me for making jokes at the wrong time, but I guess that’s how I dealt with things. “How did you get here? Why New York?” I thought about the vague letter with the safety deposit box information.
“I drove in. The highways had a lot of cars, but I made it through with a Jeep. I had to drive in the ditch for some sections, but I made it all right. When I got through to Jersey, the tunnels and bridges were all packed. I grabbed my bag and went to a dock on the Jersey coast where I commandeered a motor boat. Didn’t think the owner would mind. I landed at the boat basin by Seventy-Seventh Street and started to head east. Then I saw the ship and started to hide, when I saw you there. I was sure the ship would see you if you were moving. And here we are. The reason I came here. A letter telling me to, after my Kate passed away.”
I wasn’t normally a trusting man, and with all the things my wife apparently had kept from me, I had good reason, but there was something right about Ray. He just seemed so honest, and I instantly felt like I could trust the guy. “Let me guess…TD bank…box number, all of that business.”
He slowly nodded to me and put his bag in the cab of the truck. “You got it. Seems we’re more alike in this than I thought. So, both had significant others die and make us wear a freaky stone that heats up and keeps us here while the rest of the world gets dragged to space. Then we have the same message to go to New York to a bank box. What do you think we’re going to find when we get there?”
I had no idea. “Hopefully some answers. Let’s go find out.” I took one last look at the museum, started the truck, and headed toward downtown.
SEVEN
As we crossed into Times Square, the sun was being blocked to the west by all of the tall buildings surrounding us. We pulled up to the block the bank was on, but the roads were just too full of taxis, tour buses, and police cars.
“We’re going to have to walk there,” Ray said, getting out of the car. “Should we leash Carey up or leave him in the car?”
I thought about a ship coming and finding us because Carey might decide to stand and bark at it. “Let’s bring him but leash him up.” I eyed my rifle under the seat but doubted it would do me any good should one of the aliens, or whatever they were, come down and confront us. I just brought the paper with the information on it and checked my pocket to make sure the key was there. Once we had everything and Carey was leashed, we headed down the block. He didn’t seem to mind the leash, and I thought it was probably quite the picture.
In a minute or two, we were at the bank, and I couldn’t help but notice how eerily quiet it was there. I’d spent a lot of time in this city, and noise was something you just got used to. The dead silence of it now was more than unnerving to me. Even the country growing up wasn’t this quiet. No cars honking a language only the cabbies understood, no falafel vendors shouting to patrons, no noise of the city. Just silence.
As if reading my mind, Ray turned to me and said, “It’s too quiet. I don’t like it.”
We walked into the unlocked doors and passed our way to the far side of the building.
“Where do you think they keep these things?” I asked, hoping Ray might know.
“I think they’re going to be around the back here, out of sight, but still close to security.”
He was right, and we were soon at the doors. Only problem was, they were locked. It appeared there was a code to get in, but we didn’t have it. There was also a manual key hole, so we decided to search the place in hopes of finding a key ring left behind that would grant us access. With the power out, the code puncher was probably useless anyway.
I let Carey go and he wandered around, following fairly close to me as I checked all of what I assumed were the executives’ desks. I found many strange things, including booze, poker chips, and a spare set of underwear. Whoever worked here sure wanted to be ready for a good time. After ten minutes of looking around, I called out to Ray. “Any luck?”
He appeared with a big grin covering his face. “If one of these doesn’t open the door, I’ll eat your hat.”
“Ray, I’m not wearing a hat.”
“Yeah, I know. I only make bets I can win.”
We laughed, showing our raised spirits as we tried each key on the ring one by one. After about five keys, we found one that fit. With a final holding of breath, I turned the key and heard the latch click. Victorious, we hugged each other as if we had already saved humanity.
I moved to deposit box 107 and stared at it for a moment, wondering if Janine had been the one to put something in here. How could she have known about this moment? It just didn’t make sense at all. She was a clothing store manager, what did she know about all of this business? Ray stood directly beside me; he had box 108. Box 109 beside him hung open, like someone had already been here for it.