Lana gasped, turned her head and involuntarily vomited right on the carpet.
Ben only got a glimpse before began to shut the door, but then stopped.
“Stay here,” he told Lana.
Lana held up her hand and conveyed through her motions that she wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, she couldn’t stop heaving.
Lifting his shirt over his nose Ben stepped in the bedroom.
Beth’s husband Ray lay in bed under the covers. On top of the bed next to him, wrapped in a quilt was Lynn. The coloring, the dried mucus, was the same as they had seen in everyone.
But Beth was different.
She too was dead, but not like Ray and Lynn.
She sat on the floor, her head on the foot of the bed, her one arm draped on the bed while the other dangled. Both of her wrists had been slit and a pool of clotted blood had formed on the bed and floor.
Beth was the reason Ben entered the room. He hadn’t seen it at first, but he did when he started to close the door.
A note hung around her neck attached to a chain necklace and the words were big, obviously written in her distress. Ben retrieved it.
He covered Beth and holding the note, left the bedroom closing the door behind him.
“You found a note,” Lana said.
“She left one, yes.” Ben handed it to her. “It isn’t much.”
“It’s enough.” Lana took the note and read it.
It was simple, very few words.
But the words said a lot. The meaning behind them though was still yet to come to Ben and Lana.
‘For those of us who died… please fight.’
“Look here and we get a full tank of gas to boot,” Harry had told Tyler when they found the car. He knew it was going to be a gold mine or at least a viable means of transportation when he saw the man on the hood of the car. It was a repeat visual of what they had seen before.
They were moving now.
Harry was driving and had to admit he was tired. His legs hurt, his body hurt but he couldn’t let Tyler know he was wearing down. Tyler sat up straight and anxious in the front seat; Harry’s wrapped gift to Leo was perched on his lap.
Tyler played with the edge of the paper.
“Held up pretty good, didn’t it?” Harry asked him. “I’m talking about the wrapping paper.”
“Yeah. You wrap nice.”
“Thanks.”
“What’s the present?”
“It’s something old for an old friend. Something I know he has been wanting that I had.”
“Didn’t you like it?”
“Oh, I loved it. It is very priceless to me.”
“So why were you giving it to him?” Tyler asked.
“Because I knew he’d want it. But…” Harry sighed. “I’m just gonna hold on to it now. Leo has probably passed on. He was in New York.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too.”
“What is it?”
Harry was going to tell him but didn’t. “You know what? Let’s hold off on knowing what it is?”
“Why?”
“Because you never know what could happen. You and I may be bored one day and there’s a whole story behind the contents of that box. Let wait.”
“So after you take me to my mom, you’ll come back and see me?”
“Without a doubt,” Harry told him. “We’re friends now.”
That’s what Harry told him. Of course in the back of Harry’s mind he had a different reason for saving the box.
Harry had a feeling he was going to be seeing a lot of Tyler and not just because they were friends. It was just a feeling.
Harry didn’t hold high hopes at all as they drove on the Connecticut turnpike.
Especially since they had gone twenty miles and hadn’t seen a car and the radio still played anti-war songs from the seventies on every station.
Brendan and the other men had left Madison Square Garden parting ways with Harry and the others simply to return to the subway to aid those who still remained.
They had gathered supplies of water and food and planned on how they would tell the others about what had happened. Or at least try to tell them.
En route to the wreckage, they cleared more of a path to make for easier walking.
They had found flashlights and the rescue mission was underway. What exactly they would do afterward remained to be seen. They supposed they would leave the city to look for help.
It took a little longer to get back than it had taken to get out. That was understandable.
But as they approached the wreck site, there was a new odor in the air.
They could smell smoke.
Had they lit a fire to say warm?
As they got closer the smell became actually smoke; it was thick and filled the air. Brendan and the men picked up their pace.
The flashlights were no longer needed as they made their way around the final train car.
Sunlight burst through, or at least that’s what they thought it to be.
And it was.
The thought that a rescue had occurred quickly evaporated when they arrived.
A huge hole had been blasted through the train wreckage. A new exit had been formed.
Those who had remained waiting for help were still there, but those who remained were merely unrecognizable and charred body parts scattered about.
Whatever or whoever blasted the hole in the wreckage had blasted through the survivors.
Brendan and the others didn’t have a clue what had happened or why, but they didn’t stick around to find out.
They left easily through the new exit.
