Either way she was done.
“Abby,” Foster called after her as she started to walk away.
Abby exhaled and stopped. She turned around with attitude. “Yes.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m thirsty.” She pointed up the street. “There’s a store.”
“Oh, good,” Foster said. “Good thinking. See if you can find something we can pass out to these people to hold them over.”
‘Hold them over until what?”
“Until help arrives.”
“Help isn’t coming Foster, or haven’t you noticed.”
Foster stepped back. “Why are you so angry?”
“Why are we doing this?”
“We? We? You haven’t really done much, Abby.”
“That’s because I don’t want to.”
“I’m sorry I asked.”
“Yeah, well, me, too.” Abby started walking again.
“Abby.”
She huffed and stopped. “What?”
“I’m gonna finish up here and go look for the bus. Judith says it is a couple blocks away. I’m thinking it’s probably closer.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know. Get them out of here and try to find help.”
“Foster, be realistic, okay? Why are you helping these people? There’s nothing you can do.”
“I can try. Abby…” He inched toward her. “Have you always been so mean and bitter?”
She stared at him for a moment. “No.” Without saying anything more, she turned and walked away.
There was no electricity, no gas, and no means of power at all. But there were lots of candles at the beach house. Frequent storms made Ben’s mother keep stocked up.
In fact his mother had stocked the house with plenty of supplies. Summer was coming. But Ben and Lana had opened the beach house early.
They went home to find more death on their street. They picked up their car at the train station, went to their home, cleaned up, gathered some belongings and decided to return to the beach house.
They’d go there for a few days, mourn their families, rest up and then figure out what to do.
They hoped that during the days they planned on spending at the beach house, answers would come.
They needed that time alone. Both of them were weak and the injuries from the crash were finally surfacing.
Lana’s leg sported a huge bruise from thigh to calf and she had her feet propped up on the railing.
Her phone was next to her and she heard the chime of the alarm.
At first she thought it was a text message, but when she lifted it, she saw the warning that her battery power was fading and she’d better recharge.
Recharging was going to be futile since they didn’t have any power.
It was then as she dismissed the warning and prepared to shut off her phone that she saw it. She had been looking for it all day.
It was the little symbol that told her she could connect to the network.
“Ben!” she summonsed him.
Ben was in the kitchen, using Sternos to make soup. He came out. “What’s wrong?”
“I can get on the internet.”
He quickly pulled up a chair. “Go immediately to the news.”
The news was her homepage so there wasn’t even a question of where to go. Every day, while others read the newspaper, Lana opened up her phone and read the headlines. If something grabbed her attention, she read the article.
The second the news page opened up, the headlines were bold. The first headline ‘Under Attack’ wasn’t a newsflash for them; it was rather obvious that it had occurred.
Images of the Statue of Liberty, partly crumbled and burned graced the page.
“Read it,” Ben said. “I don’t have my glasses on.”
Lana pulled up the article and read. “The United States struggles to organize following the surprise attack that has brought the country to a grinding halt. The extent of the destruction and invasion is still unknown and the President…”
Lana’s phone shut down.
“What!” Ben blasted. “No. Power up and see what happens.”
Lana tried, the phone only cycled through part way then shut down again.
Both Lana and Ben sat back with exasperated expressions and heavy sighs.
“So, we were attacked,” Ben said.
“And invaded,” Lana added. “We got that much.”
“Yeah,” Ben said. “But by who?”
Harry brought him to his home.
Tyler cried all the way and there really wasn’t much Harry could do.
He’d ask the boy later if he had any other family, telling him that if he did, then Harry would help him find that family. Tyler packed a small duffel bag full of clothes, his toothbrush, other things that were important and pictures of his mom and dad.
He told Harry he was glad to be going with him.
The bread was fresh and so were the chips. Harry made Tyler a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He pulled the apple juice from the cupboard.
“Will you eat for me?” Harry asked.
“I’m not hungry,” Tyler said. “Thank you.”
“I understand. But I’d like you to try to eat.” Harry set the plate in front of him. “Please.”
Tyler nodded.
“Now you stay put. I’ll be back.”
As Harry passed him, Tyler spun in his chair. “Don’t leave me.”
“I’m just going down to the basement, that’s all.”
“Why?” Tyler asked.
“I have a radio down there. It’s an old one. I think I may be able to hook it up to the car battery I have in the garage. We can see if we can find out anything. I’ll be right back.” Harry walked to the basement door. He hadn’t even grabbed the handle before Tyler was right there.
