It had been decided that the best course of action was to get out of the city as quickly as possible. Somewhere just past Park Avenue, they found transportation. A man had been getting into his car and collapsed, briefcase and keys still in hand.
That was the easy part, but getting through the tunnel or driving across the 59 Street Bridge was impossible.
It was there they had to abandon the car and hoof it.
Not once during their walk or drive though the city did they see a single person, at least one who was alive.
The best they could see was that one of the bombs went off by the Empire State Building, another one further south and another one to the north.
Whatever hit New York hit every single person on the streets.
By the grace of God, their train crashed and they were shielded not only by the tunnels but also by the metal of the wreckage.
That’s what they deducted during the car ride.
The bridge gave no hope that on the other side they’d find anything different.
It was like an
They stopped the car in the dead line of traffic, gathered their belongings and began their walk across the bridge.
A lot of the vehicles had crashed into one another. Again, bodies were strewn across the road and hanging out of the cars.
Harry told not only himself but Tyler not to look. There were families in those cars with children and that ate away at Harry.
He wondered what was going through the child’s mind. Was he scared? Indifferent? To Harry, he seemed the calmest of them all. Well, almost. Abby had a weirdness about her. She showed not one ounce of sadness over what she was witnessing.
Lana went from being led by her husband to walking beside him clutching his hand. “This isn’t happening,” she said to him over and over. “Tell me this isn’t happening.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I want to go home. I just want to go home, Ben,” Lana told him. “It’s in Connecticut. You know everything is fine there.”
“And we will. We will,” he assured her.
“My mother. Your mother, my sister.”
“We’ll find them.”
After walking through a maze of cars and bodies, they reached the end of the bridge.
Ben peered in each car, trying to start each one. Finally one started. “Here’s one.” He moved onward and tried another car and then another, until finally, success. “And here’s another,” he said and smiled proudly. “Both of these will work.”
“We don’t need two cars,” Harry said. “We should be able to squeeze into one.”
“And go where?” asked Abby.
“Out of this area and out of the city,” Harry answered. “Obviously, something occurred here and we have to find our way out and find out what happened.”
“Not me.” Foster said.
Harry turned to him. “What do you mean?”
“I was on the train to find my biological mother. She lives in Queens. It’s not far from here. My grandmother lives there, too. I’m going to head there.”
“Then what?” Harry asked.
Foster shrugged. “I don’t know. Then, I guess I’ll find my way out.”
“We’re taking one car,” Ben said. “Lana and I have family. We have to go and find her mom, my mother, our siblings. We just need to do this by ourselves.” He opened the car door for Lana.
Before getting in, Lana walked back to Harry. “Thank you for everything.” She embraced him. “Good luck.”
“Good luck?” Harry asked. “Aren’t we all headed in the same direction?”
“I’m going to go with my husband,” she said. “We need to find our families and then we’ll head home.”
Ben walked over and shook Harry’s hand. “Good luck, Harry.” Before he stepped back, he ran his hand over Tyler’s head.
Harry stood dumbfounded. How could they be leaving?
Foster extended his hand to Harry as well. “I would go with you, but I have to find my mom.”
Harry turned to Abby. “What about you?”
“Honestly, I just want to sit down on this bridge,” Abby answered. “I have nowhere to go.”
“You can come with me,” Harry suggested.
Abby shook her head. “I think if Foster doesn’t mind, I’ll go with him. It’ll give me something to focus on other than dying.”
“I would like that,” Foster replied.
“Let’s go then.” Abby started to walk away with him.
“Wait!” Harry called. “People, please. Do you realize we just had a national event wipe out New York? Hell, it could be global. Do you really think it’s a good idea that we separate and go our own ways?”
Did he really think he’d get an answer? Did Harry believe that somehow, suddenly the four of them would stop, smack themselves on the head and say, “What were we thinking?”
No.
Abby and Foster gave him apologetic looks and walked on off the bridge and veered left, never looking back.
Ben and Lana got in the car, gave him one more look and a wave and drove off.
They had all left, just left.
Just like that.
Harry stood there speechless until he heard it.
Tyler was crying.
He was really crying hard.
“Hey,” Harry said softly. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
