“Is everything okay? Do you need help?”
For several seconds the questions hung in the air between them, the rumble of the Mustang’s engine the only thing cutting a noise across the otherwise frigid situation. Both Samuel and Charles watched the man in front of the car, waiting for him to finally respond. When he did, the words were not what either of them wanted to hear.
“Get out of the car.”
Samuel swallowed and glanced over at his father quickly, the old man’s expression giving away his fear. “What?” Samuel called out of the window in response, buying them some time. “Why?”
“Do I really need to give an explanation?” The man questioned, raising his shotgun and pointing it at the vehicle. “Get out of the car, or I’ll drag your bodies out. It’s your call.”
Samuel didn’t move behind the wheel, his foot hovering over the gas pedal. All he needed to do was floor it and they could escape the situation. He could swerve past the man in front and be at the end of the street in seconds, the old engine still giving the Mustang a decent amount of power even now. If he zig-zagged across the road they could probably avoid the bullets – they would be able to make it – but then what.
As the thought of the rest of their lives passed through Samuel’s head, he felt his father’s hand brush up against his arm. With one look at Charles, Samuel knew his father was on the same page. It wasn’t worth it – even if they could escape from these men, where would they go? What was the chance that they would get away and be able to find somewhere they could make a new start for themselves? At least in Queens, they knew where they were going; Austin was only around the corner and he could take them in. If they gave up the car, they lost one great advantage, but if they tried to keep it, they could subsequently lose a lot more. The risk just wasn’t worth it and so, with a sigh, Samuel turned the key in the ignition and switched the engine off.
“Right decision,” the man with the shotgun smirked as they climbed out of the car, leaving both the driver’s side and passenger doors wide open. Samuel held his arms above his head, their single bag of measly possessions slung over his shoulder as he showed the keys to the man and waited for his father to walk around the front of the car to stand beside him.
“Hand them over,” the man nodded to the keys, his eyes lighting up at the thought of driving the Mustang. “Once I get them keys, you’re free to go.”
There was little point arguing or trying to strike a deal with these people, Samuel didn’t need to look at them twice to believe that they would fire if he pressed them. They were already pushing it by making them wait, the two men behind the car walking forward so they were in touching distance of the trunk.
“Enjoy,” he said dryly as he threw the keys through the air. The man caught them in one hand, letting his shotgun drop by his side to do so. The second he had the keys his demeanor changed and he moved quickly to the driver’s door, eager to see what the car could do.
Samuel didn’t want to wait around to see anymore. He turned and put a hand softly on his father’s back, ushering the old man away from the scene and down the street as quickly as he could walk. The sound of doors slamming and the engine starting up again rang out behind them, but Samuel didn’t dare look back. The men might not have fired at them just yet, but that didn’t mean he trusted them never to do so.
They took the first turn they came to and hurried down the next street, turning again until Samuel was happy that they were far enough away from the men. He had no idea where they’d ended up in comparison to Austin’s apartment, but knew the distance between them and the danger was more important. Losing the car was one thing, but leaving with their lives fully intact was the most valuable asset they both had.
Chapter 19
“Are you sure it’s this one?” Charles looked up at the ruined building they stood in front of, windows smashed in at ground level and the door knocked entirely off its hinges. He covered his mouth and nose with his arm as he spoke, a horrible smell coming from somewhere nearby. “I don’t think anyone would want to live here.”
“This is the address,” Samuel replied with a nod, though he agreed with his father. He knew that since the collapse people couldn’t entirely pick and choose what happened to their homes, but this part of Queens seemed even more run down than the rest. He was surprised Austin would live in such an area – expecting a bit more from his friend. “Let’s at least check it out. Third floor.”
Charles grimaced as he stepped inside but did as he was told, standing to one side so Samuel could lead the way up the stairs. He tried to breathe normally as they climbed, but if truth were told, their sudden escape from the men who had stolen their car had taken more out of him than he was letting on. Charles could feel his pulse beating on the roof of his mouth as they walked upwards, his body already close to running on empty. Even the simple task like climbing a couple flights of stairs forcing him to use the limited energy reserves he had left. He didn’t dare let onto Samuel how exhausted he was feeling though, the last thing Charles wanted was to become even more of a burden.
As they drew nearer to Austin’s apartment, Samuel felt the hairs on the back of his neck start to stand up. He was excited to see his friend, but he was a little nervous too. He and Austin had experienced more together than a lot of people experienced in a lifetime. Going from complete strangers to close friends in a matter of days had been unlike Samuel anything had ever experienced. He wasn’t used to having such strong friendships and – particularly in recent years – was more comfortable in his own company.
But Austin was different. He had opened Samuel’s eyes to the life he could have. He had enabled Samuel to see what being a parent could be, seeing the power that Austin’s love for his son gave him made Samuel realize just how much having a family could give you.
Samuel had just reached the third floor when he heard the noise for the first time, the noise that made him freeze in his tracks and look back at his father with wide eyes. The low shrieking sound was coming from behind one apartment door and Samuel didn’t need to look twice to know whose apartment it was. Charles raised his eyebrows in question as the shrieking rang out again, followed by a soothing deep voice trying to calm whoever it was.
“Austin?” Samuel pushed open the door slowly, poking his head around and looking into the apartment. The room inside was one that you could tell had been well decorated before the collapse, pictures hanging on the walls and vibrant splashes of color dotted throughout. It was darker now, one blind still not open and a few broken pieces of furniture telling the tale that the collapse had reached here too. As his eyes scanned the inside and Samuel called out his friend’s name, instead of finding the man he was looking for, his gaze landed on a teenage boy.
“Who are you?”
“I’m –”
“Miles, are you ready? We need to get going. Have you got – Samuel?” Austin took a step backwards when he saw the familiar face standing in his doorway, completely taken aback to see his friend. “Holy cow!” He exclaimed and walked over to him, wrapping his arms around Samuel’s back and squeezing him in a brisk hug before stepping backwards. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”
“Not really,” Samuel replied with a sigh, stepping to one side and allowing his father to walk into the apartment as well. “This is my dad, we –”
Before Samuel could explain, the shrieking began again from one of the other rooms and interrupted the explanation. Now that he was inside, Samuel was able to work out that the sound was coming from Meghan and his brow furrowed as he wondered what had happened to the old woman[MP14].
“Is that Meghan? Is she all right?”
“Austin, I can’t move her by myself, can you please – what the?” Dante emerged next, once again speaking before he noticed Samuel and cut himself short. “Where did you come from?” He began to question, before shaking his head and looking away from Samuel and back to his husband instead. “Never mind. Austin, I don’t know how we’re goin
g to move her. She can’t walk.”
“Are you sure?” Austin asked nervously, following Dante toward their bedroom where Meghan continued to wail before looking back at Samuel, almost as an afterthought. “It’s Meghan,” he said quickly, explaining what Samuel had already figured out for himself. “We don’t know what’s happened to her. Come in – I’ll try to explain what I can.” Then Austin paused again just as he was about to disappear into the bedroom behind Dante and looked back at Samuel, a smile on his face. “It’s good to see you, Samuel. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Samuel returned the smile as Austin disappeared, warmed to hear the words but confused by what was happening. The teenage boy – Miles – still sat quietly across the room staring at him, Bowie currently nowhere to be seen. Samuel’s instinct was to follow Austin into the bedroom and figure out what was happening with Meghan, but his father’s presence beside him reminded him that this wasn’t the same as before. He couldn’t just look out for himself anymore and while he worried about Austin’s family, his own was his top priority.
“Come in and sit down, dad,” Samuel said softly, making sure the door behind his father was closed as Meghan’s crying continued. “Are you okay?”
Charles nodded, one eye on his son and the other on the half-closed bedroom door Dante and Austin had disappeared behind. “Go on,” he ushered Samuel in that direction. “I’m fine.”
As much as Samuel didn’t want to leave his father, it wasn’t like he was going far. As Meghan’s crying continued, he could resist walking over to the bedroom to find out what had happened to the woman, visions of her lying in a pool of blood spinning around in his head as he tried to imagine what could have caused her to be in as much pain as she sounded. Just as he was about to enter the room though, a little voice caught his attention and caused Samuel to spin around.
“Hey, Bowie!” Walking into the child’s bedroom instead, Samuel immediately sat down on the bed beside Bowie and smiled at him. The little boy was half under the covers as he sat motionless, listening to his grandmother screaming. “How are you?”
Bowie didn’t say anything at first, pulling the sheet tighter around his little body and shivering. The apartment wasn’t cold, but Samuel doubted whether that was what Bowie was really protecting himself from.
“Grandma’s sick.” He eventually mumbled, finally looking at Samuel for the first time rather than keeping his eyes fixed on the bedroom door opposite his room. “She’s not getting better.”
“Maybe not right away,” Samuel replied soothingly. “But she will. She’ll be okay, Bowie. You don’t need to worry.”
Bowie only shook his head in response, a look of fear piercing his eyes. As Samuel sat with him for a couple of seconds, he heard snippets of Dante and Austin’s conversation carrying through from the other room. They were discussing how they were going to move Meghan, talking about transporting her some way across the city in order to get her some help. Samuel couldn’t sit and wonder any longer what had happened to the woman, giving Bowie a reassuring smile and standing up again, making his way into the master bedroom of the apartment.
“Samuel!” Dante noticed him properly this time and lurched forward as soon as Samuel entered the room. “How did you get here? Do you have a car?”
“Yes,” Samuel replied automatically, his eyes fixing on Meghan who writhed about on the bed, her skin covered in a layer of sweat. “No,” he quickly corrected himself as he looked away from the old woman to Dante. “We did,” he continued, “it got stolen.”
“Argh,” Dante threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “What are we going to do?”
The question wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular, Dante just searching for answers as his mother lay groaning and flailing on the bed. Samuel couldn’t help but stare at her. Austin was by her side, holding a wet cloth against her forehead and trying to keep the woman still as best he could, but it was an impossible task. Every time it looked like Meghan was calming down and becoming more lucid, she had a sudden burst of energy and her limbs floundered out of control as if unattached from her body. It was like the woman was possessed, unable to keep still or formulate a proper sentence.
“What happened to her?”
It was a simple question, but the answer was far from that. Austin looked over at Samuel and shook his head, while Dante looked like he was about to break down completely. Outside in the apartment, Samuel could just about hear his father talking quietly to Miles, how the teenager ended up with Austin’s family yet another question without an answer. When he’d brought his father into the city, Samuel had been sure that Austin’s apartment would be a safe haven for them both, but it was quickly appearing to be quite the opposite. But they were there now and one way or another Samuel was determined to help.
“I don’t know,” Dante eventually sighed in response, moving over to his mother’s side and sitting next to her, momentarily calming the woman as his presence comforted her. “A couple of days ago she said she wasn’t feeling well and went to lie down and then this happened. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“We haven’t been able to give her any meds,” Austin added. “But I met these people and they said there was some place across the city we could take her, I just don’t know how we can get there if she can’t walk.”
“Where is it?”
“Across the village near the parkway,” Austin gave a vague response. “But even if it was round the –”
Austin’s words were lost as Meghan suddenly burst into life again, Dante’s soothing aura losing its effect and a gut-wrenching cry exploding from her. Samuel expected it to continue, the shrieking that had welcomed him and his father into the apartment building now a familiar sound, but instead of beginning to thrash around and writhe on the bed, Meghan let out one single cry and then fell silent, her eyes drifting closed.
“Mom?” Dante asked, leaning over her and looking at his mother’s face. Then, with a bit more urgency in his voice he spoke again. “Mom? Can you hear me?”
Meghan didn’t respond, though her eyelids fluttered to signal that there was still something there. Dante was on his feet now, leaning over his mother and peeling her eyes open with his fingers so he could inspect her pupils.
“She’s unresponsive,” he exclaimed, taking a step back and looking around the room at Austin and Samuel, desperation flooding through him and the panic overpowering the years of training his job had granted him. “What do we do?”[MP15]
“Is she still breathing?”
“She’s crashing!”
Dante leapt into action suddenly, straddling his mother on the bed and frantically beginning chest compressions as Meghan stopped breathing and lay motionless. Samuel could almost hear the hospital machine flatlining in his head. This shouldn’t be happening here. Dante might have been trained for moments like this, but [MP16]he wasn’t emotionally prepared to be doing such a thing to his mother. Tears started to stream down his face as he tried to pump life back into her body, the years of compartmentalizing emotions away for later all catching up to him and pouring out at once. He needed to save his mom, but he was fighting a losing battle.
“Come on, mom,” he pleaded with her on the bed. “Don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”
Samuel and Austin could only stand by and watch the scene unfurl as Dante desperately tried to save his mother. He was sobbing now, his body heaving over Meghan’s as the life faded from her. Ten minutes ago, the woman had been overloaded with energy, screaming and crying as if her life depended on it, now there was nothing left. Literally nothing.
“Mom…” Dante looked down at his mother, her eyes closed and mouth open slightly. Flecks of saliva dried at the corners of her lips, the spittle flying from her mouth as she’d cried out in confusion and agony during her final moments. Dante had no idea what sort of pain she’d been in at the end, without equipment there was no way of knowing. Perhaps her mind had faded long ago, her body simply reacting to the last moments of whatever vir
us had overtaken her. Whatever had happened, it was over now. Climbing down from the bed and stepping away from his mother, Dante took one last look at her before throwing himself into Austin’s arms and heaving out heartbroken sobs. Meghan was dead and there was nothing more he could do about it. His mother was gone.
Chapter 20
Standing in line at the cave, Walter waited patiently for his turn. His stomach rumbled, but he knew this was how it was supposed to be. Everyone deserved an equal share and that meant everyone waiting in line, no matter where they’d come from or what their last name was. Life in the cave was balanced and fair and Walter was glad to be a part of it.
“What gruel are we lapping up today?” Taggy questioned behind him, the woman less enamored by the process of waiting in line for a meal, but in fairness she had lived in the cave a lot longer than Walter had. She craned her neck and tried to peer over the line of people ahead of them. “Looks like that miscellaneous meat broth,” she grumbled, “again.”
“Oh, give up, Taggy,” Luc laughed from the other side of her. “It’s not like you didn’t wolf down that half pack of cookies we found earlier this morning.”
“Hey, I needed that!” Taggy argued back playfully, swatting Luc on the arm in a friendly manner. “You try being up all night without any sugar or caffeine to keep you going.”
“I was up all night!”
Walter smiled as the two of them teased each other, stifling a yawn that turned into a chuckle as Taggy pointed out that a woman has needs and pouted to signify the end of the argument. It was easy to think that Luc and Taggy had known each other all their lives by the way they carried on with one another, Walter had become firmly cemented in their group over the last few days, but he was still an outsider compared to how close they were. Not that he felt like it though. He was happy to be there with them and he felt like they were really making a difference.
Wipeout | Book 5 | Foul Play Page 14