“What is that noise?”
“Planes.”
“A rescue?” Tyler perked with excitement.
“I highly doubt that.”
Harry told him to go down first. Harry then followed him down and shut and secured the basement door.
In the basement they went to Harry’s work bench, an old wooden table top that Harry could never part with despite the number of times his wife asked him to.
He and Tyler inched under that bench. They waited there protected underground just on the outside chance there was another air strike.
Harry would keep them there until it was quiet and he felt the coast was clear.
He couldn’t take a chance.
There was a senior citizen’s recreation center in town that at one time had been an old school.
It was only a few blocks from the community medical center and Foster drove the bus there at the crack of dawn.
It was the best place he could think of to get everyone inside and comfortable while he devised a plan.
He had to get the injured people help and toting them all around was no longer an option.
A sign was posted on the wall of the center stating that it didn’t open until ten, which was good. The first attacks had occurred early.
Foster broke the glass on the doors and made his way inside.
It would work out just fine.
By 6:30 in the morning, having them all hold onto a rope, Foster was able to move them fairly quickly inside the building.
The small cafeteria had a case of the mini boxes of cornflakes and he passed them out to everyone.
There was bottle of water for each as well.
“What does it look like in here?” Judith asked.
“Like an old gym with tables,” Foster replied. “It’ll be fine.” He gave Judith her box of cereal; she was the last one.
“Jimmy, honey, you can’t keep doing this. You’re just a child. May I make a suggestion?” Judith said.
“Please do.”
“Leave,” she simply suggested.
“What do you mean?”
“We’ll be fine. How long would it take for you to go on foot out of the city to get help? Eight hours? Go. That is the best option.”
“I was thinking of that but I felt guilty about leaving you guys. Not everyone is like you.”
“We’ll be fine.” Judith grabbed for his hand. “Going to the bathroom is tricky, but we’ll manage.”
“I am probably going to have to…” Foster paused when he saw Abby’s hand reaching into the case of cereal. He stopped her. “Don’t.” he told her.
“Don’t what?” Judith asked.
“Not you, Judith. I was talking to Abby,” Foster said “She’s taking the cereal.”
“Oh, honey, she’s just hungry. Let her have some.”
“She’s well enough and fine to find her own food.”
“Don’t be like that, Jimmy.” Judith spoke softly. “Please.”
He didn’t say anything, but tossed a look to Abby that said he was allowing her to have the box of cereal under protest.
Abby took it and started to open it.
Foster stood. “You aren’t even going to say thank you?”
“Thank you. I don’t understand why it was such a hassle to let me have a box,” Abby said.
“Because it belongs to them, Abby. They can’t get their own food.”
“Yeah, well, you heard Judith,” Abby said sarcastically. “They can’t even go to the bathroom.”
“That was wrong.”
“It’s the truth,” Abby snapped. “Face reality Foster, you can’t help them. If you would have just told them to wait and gone on to get help you would have been back by now. But no, you’re a martyr.”
“Why didn’t you go and get help?”
Abby shrugged.
“Why are you here?” Foster asked. “Obviously this isn’t your cup of tea and you’re annoyed with these people.”
Again, Abby shrugged.
Foster tossed out his hand disgustedly. “I don’t need you to answer. You’re too lazy to go anywhere and I think you’re too scared to be on your own.”
“I’ve been alone for the past several months.”
“Yeah, well this is a little bit different,” Foster snapped “You’re not the only one mourning now. The whole world is mourning.”
Abby started to blurt out a sarcastic “fuck you’ but only the first portion of it emerged before her heard turned suddenly.
In fact, everyone started making noises and calling out in excitement over the sounds of planes.
“The rescue team is here,” Abby said.
Judith called out, “Foster, is that a rescue?”
“I’ll go check.” He held up his hand even though no one could see him. “Stay here.”
The blind started moving about, feeling their way. Their voices meshed with the excitement of the possibility of help finally arriving.
Abby was already outside when Foster emerged.
“We need to get back in or get out now,” Abby said calmly.
“Why?” And then Foster looked up. “Oh my God.”
There was such an abundance of planes. They formed their own masking cloud in the sky as they seemingly hovered overhead. But it wasn’t the planes that caused the concern in Abby or panic in Foster.
It was the fact that it was literary raining parachutes. Thousands upon thousands of parachuted soldiers floated in the sky, making their way down.
“It’s not a rescue,” Abby said to Foster. “It’s an invasion.”
Brendan knew more than he realized. He hated the fact that it was every man for himself but it was the way it had to be done.
He wasn’t so dumb as to not realize the hole in the train wreckage wasn’t placed there for a reason. They made their escape, coughing and choking over the smoke and gagging over the carnage of bodies.
People who depended on Brendan to send help were taken care of in a different way.
Once passed the wreckage, they followed the light but not for long.
The tunnel grew lighter and the brightness wasn’t from the sun.
It was lights and spotlights being brought in.
Art first he wondered if indeed it really was a rescue party that had made a fatal error and accidently killed the survivors. But he soon realized the error in his thinking when he saw military trucks pulling in. Tables were being set up and armed soldiers were walking about.
He had seen enough History Channel to know some sort of headquarters was being initiated underground in New York, tucked safely away and out of sight from any aerial attacks.
He knew they weren’t Americans and he didn’t know the language or recognize the uniforms. Brendan wasn’t sticking around long enough to find out. Before being spotted he took off running back the way he had come.
The others didn’t follow right away.
Brendan heard gunshots.
He kept going and didn’t look back.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Was the beach house still intact? It didn’t smell like it was and from his view under the bed Ben saw a lot of dust and smoke.
“You okay?” he asked Lana.
“Yeah. You?”
“Yeah.” Ben lifted his head, banging it on the bed. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Me either. You think it’s safe?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ben. What are we going to do?
“If I were to theorize, I’d say this house is one of the safest places to be right now. But…we can’t stay here.”
“Who was it?”
Ben shook his head. “Stay here. Okay?”
Lana nodded.
Ben scooted out backward from under the bed. When he saw the bedroom, he whispered, “Oh God.”
The room was riddled with bullet holes. How they had escaped being hit, he didn’t know. He crawled to the window and peered out.
He didn’t see anything or hear anything.