There were a lot of safe routes set up. Scaffolds, buses, one basement to another, all provided the safety of minimal street exposure during the daylight, just in case.
Then again, the men on the rooftops kept an eye out and would alert them if any planes were coming so some did not bother taking the longer, safer routes.
But Tyler always took the safe route.
Harry was supposed to be at
“Harry!” Tyler called out as he raced in the shop.
“What in the world are you screaming about?” Harry said. “Shut the door.”
“Sorry.” Tyler shut the door.
“Why are you running the streets? I thought you were eavesdropping on school and looking up that piece of rock.”
“I was and…” Tyler looked around the garage; it was lit up, windows blackened. Four other men, including George, were at a table. They wore gloves and had metal things in front of them. Some looked as if they were measuring a black substance. “What you guy, doing? Can I help?”
“No, you cannot help,” Harry told him. “And we’re making explosives. So just in case George’s old hands start trembling, you might want to get out of here.”
“Whoa, cool. In case the enemy shows up?” Tyler asked.
“Exactly.”
“Whoa, that’s cool.”
“Tyler.” Harry tilted his head. “You ran in here screaming. What’s up?”
“Oh. You remember that guy, Ben from the train and his wife?”
“They were the ones that left us on the bridge,” Harry said. “Yes, I remember.”
“I knew you were mad about that.” Tyler nodded. “You didn’t say, but you looked it.”
“I wasn’t happy.”
“Are you holding a grudge?”
“No. Why are you bringing them up?”
“They’re here, signing in at the refugee center.”
Harry stood up straight and his head cocked back. He laid his hand on Tyler’s back. “Then I should be the welcome wagon. Let’s go.”
“You gonna yell at them, Harry?” Tyler asked, with rattling excitement. “Are you?”
“Tyler…”
“They left us, Harry. They made me cry.”
“Now who’s the one holding the grudge?” Harry shook his head. “Let’s go.” He gave a pat to Tyler’s backside and left the garage with the boy, informing George he’d be back.
They gave Brendan a change of clothes, jacket and personal hygiene products, and then told him he couldn’t go home.
Not that Brendan wanted to, considering he lived just inside Brooklyn. But he had nowhere else to go.
They asked if he had family or friends, and while he did have a brother in Seattle, Brendan simply said he had no one. That way he could stay and see what was going on.
They had moved farther east to a former Home Depot warehouse which was being used as a base of some sorts for the US military. He’d stay there at least for a few days to talk to them, not that he had heard anything important while in New York, but he had seen a lot.
That’s what they told him.
Brendan was fine with that.
He was surprised that there was television. He had tried like hell to find a radio station on his journey out of New York.
He heard a newscaster discussing the situation, and Brendan slipped quietly around the partition that was set up around the television.
There were five or six soldiers sitting there, watching and eating.
An aerial view of New York was behind the anchorwoman. She shared the television screen with some professor from Oklahoma.
“And as you know,” the news lady said. “We are in a complete media blackout. We aren’t privileged to know what is going on with our military and our allies. And even if we find that information, we are obeying the media silence order.”
“Why is that?” the Professor asked. “Don’t the American people have the right to know? I want to know. I have family in the occupied territory.”
“A lot of us do…”
Brendan pulled a chair up next to a soldier. ‘Hey, I’m sorry to bother you. I’ve been out of the loop. Do we know why they attacked?”
The soldier lowered his spoon into his bowl, turned his body and extended his hand to Brendan. “Lewis,” he introduced himself. “You’re the train guy, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s me.”
“Good going. Thank you.”
Brendan tilted his head. “You’re welcome, I think.” He scratched his head. “But do we know?”
“I’m sorry. Yeah. They want the president to resign. Step down. They were just discussing that. You missed it.”
“But I thought it was a media blackout.”
Lewis shook his head. “Not on that. That was clear when it all went down. You just missed some actor on this show saying we should open dialogue and negotiate before we raise arms… Can you believe that shit?”
“I know we’ve been fighting, I was in the middle of it.”
“Yeah, but the big push is coming.” Lewis winked. “We’re still bringing in soldiers and aircraft the back way. We have to have a lid on the media, can’t have…” suddenly Lewis stopped and stood up as someone announced, “Colonel in the room.”
Stand? Sit? Brendan stood.
