“My men picked you up yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Brendan freaked.
“Yes, sir, you passed out. Are you hungry?”
“Very much so., I don’t know when I ate last.”
“Good. I brought you a hot meal.” The Captain said, laying a warm brown pouch on his stomach and handing him a fork. “Hope you like ham.”
Swinging his feet to the floor, Brendan looked at the Meals Ready to Eat package and chuckled while thinking ‘warm meal.’
“Sir, I have a question to ask you.”
“Sure.” Brendan opened the pouch.
“Where did you come from?”
“Today or when I was born?”
“When my men found you,” he said. “Where were you coming from?”
“Oh, God. You’re not gonna believe this.”
“Try me.” The captain pulled up a chair.
“I was riding a train in New York. It crashed. When I came up with other survivors, everyone was dead. People in the street, in cars, everywhere I went everyone was dead.”
“You know the United States was attacked, right?”
“I figured as much and assume enemy is not friendly,” Brendan said as he took a bite. “Wow, this is good.”
“You must be hungry,” the captain said with a smile.
“I am.” Brendan took another bite. “Anyhow, they aren’t friendly; I was shot at nineteen times. But damn if I didn’t make it out of there.”
“From New York City to Boston to the ocean is occupied territory,” the Captain explained. “They did have Philly for a while, but we took it back. But you were in New York City?”
“Yes. For a couple days,” Brendan said.
“I realize you were running and trying to get out of there, but you are the only person that has made it out of New York alive. We think they are using New York as their main hub. Did you see anything there that may indicate that? This is very important.”
“Yeah, actually, I did. There were a lot of convoys, trucks, tents; it was a huge set up.”
“Do you think you can recall what all you saw?” the Captain asked.
“I can do better than that,” Brendan said. “I can tell you where it is.”
On that, the Captain smiled.
Foster hadn’t a clue how long he had been sleeping, but he woke with a start and to the sound of children laughing and playing. He sat up. A blanket that smelled kind of musty had been covering him and he was asleep on a sofa in what looked like a recreation room from 1950.
A little girl looked up at him as he sat up.
“You were snoring,” she giggled and ran off.
Where was he? Where was Judith? He knew he was safe. After helping Manny and the others load the truck, they had driven somewhere beyond Brunswick, New Jersey. They had pulled into an underground parking facility. On the bottom level was a hole in the wall. It looked as if it were just made.
“We’ll cover that with the box truck,” Manny told him, “after we get everything inside.”
“Where are we going?” Foster asked.
“Gonna educate you,” Manny told him. “I was recently educated myself. Back in the cold war, civil defense was ready for nuclear war. They built fallout shelters, stocked them and then the threat left and they were kind of abandoned. They weren’t cleared out though. Well, most weren’t; they were resupplied periodically.”
“So you found one?”
“Miss Betty told us about it. She works for the county. Our camp is occupying the three shelters in this area. We use the one under the court house as the main one. All of them can be accessed from this garage. We cover our entrances with trucks.”
Manny explained to Foster that a lot of people tried to leave New Jersey when the attacks occurred. But then continuous airstrikes were killing a lot of people. Miss Betty lived in Manny’s apartment complex and she had given him the idea of going to the shelters to be safe. Within days, they were bringing more and people inside. That was the reason they had to go out to get more supplies.
Foster was impressed.
It was semi dirty, but they were cleaning it. It was old fashioned, but it was underground and safe.
Foster was alone in the room but it was not long before three children raced in, followed immediately by a thin black woman, who looked to be in her forties. “Now, come on, the boy is…” she paused in scooting the children from the room. “You’re awake?”
“Yeah,” Foster said as he scratched his head. “What time is it?”
“A little after two. You just missed breakfast, but I can get you something.”
“I’m good. Manny fed us when we got here. I have a friend.”
“Judith?”
“Yes. Where is she?”
“She’s with Doc Baker.”
“A real doctor?”
“Yes. Are you sure I can’t get you something to eat?”
“I’m sure. Thank you. I would like to see Judith.”
“Sure, baby, come with me.”
