Then Came War

by Jacqueline Druga

  “We can’t know what happened. There’s no electricity so there’s no television.” Lana said.

  Harry snapped his fingers. “Radios. Car radios. One of them has to be working.”

  With a flurry of excited voices, everyone raced outside.

  ***

  “Found one!” Foster called out. He was sitting in a cab. “The battery is not dead.” He fiddled with the radio as everyone gathered around. Finally he hit music. It was the end of a 1970’s song.

  “Where’s the news?” Harry asked.

  “Good morning, New York and that was the Rascals,” the disc jockey said. “Beautiful Spring Morning. Hey, let’s hit another season with the Mama’s and the Papa’s.”

  ‘All the leaves are brown, the leaves are brown. And the sky is grey. And the sky is grey …. .’

  Foster raised an eyebrow. “Something isn’t right.”

  “Try another station,” Ben suggested.

  “I went for a walk. I went for a walk. On a winter’s day.”

  Foster turned the tuner and every station was playing the same song at the same time. “Oh, this is screwed up.”

  ‘California Dreaming’

  Foster shut it off.

  “The frequencies been hijacked,” Harry said. “This isn’t good. We need to head out of the city.”

  “What about those left in the tunnel?” Lana asked. “We said we’d send help.”

  “I can go back,” Foster said.

  “No,” Brendan interjected. “I’ll go. I mean we’ll go.” He pointed to two other men. “We already talked about this.”

  “Are you sure?” Ben asked.

  “Yeah.” Brendan nodded. “We’ll head down there now. We’ll get them out of the city. You guys get to the outskirts and see if any survivors are there and if you can get out.”

  Another man added. “It’ll be easier going to get them and bringing them out because we know what we’re facing.”

  Ben extended his hand to Brendan. “Good luck to you.”

  “You, too.” Brendan shook his hand, and then turned to Harry. “Good luck.”

  “This is a good thing you’re doing, son. And thank you for the info on those bombs.”

  “Not a problem.” Brendan nodded. He turned to the men who would go with him, instructed that they should get some supplies from inside Madison Square Garden, and then the group of men headed on their way.

  “I feel bad that they’re doing this,” Lana said.

  “We all can’t go,” Harry told her. “It’s easier this way.”

  “So now what?” Abby asked.

  “We start walking and try to get out of the city,” Harry said. “We aren’t getting a car out of here. Maybe we’ll find one the farther we get. But can’t say I’m familiar with this part of downtown.”

  Ben raised his hand. “I am. I’ve been to the Gardens a ton of times. Let’s go this way.” Placing his hand on Lana’s arm, it was Ben’s turn to take the reins and lead the group on the next leg of the journey.

  CHAPTER NINE

  It had been decided that the best course of action was to get out of the city as quickly as possible. Somewhere just past Park Avenue, they found transportation. A man had been getting into his car and collapsed, briefcase and keys still in hand.

  That was the easy part, but getting through the tunnel or driving across the 59 Street Bridge was impossible.

  It was there they had to abandon the car and hoof it.

  Not once during their walk or drive though the city did they see a single person, at least one who was alive.

  The best they could see was that one of the bombs went off by the Empire State Building, another one further south and another one to the north.

  Whatever hit New York hit every single person on the streets.

  By the grace of God, their train crashed and they were shielded not only by the tunnels but also by the metal of the wreckage.

  That’s what they deducted during the car ride.

  The bridge gave no hope that on the other side they’d find anything different.

  It was like an I am Legend world. They felt like Charlton Heston in Omega Man, racing about the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Just one car moving, nothing else.

  They stopped the car in the dead line of traffic, gathered their belongings and began their walk across the bridge.

  A lot of the vehicles had crashed into one another. Again, bodies were strewn across the road and hanging out of the cars.

  Harry told not only himself but Tyler not to look. There were families in those cars with children and that ate away at Harry.

  He wondered what was going through the child’s mind. Was he scared? Indifferent? To Harry, he seemed the calmest of them all. Well, almost. Abby had a weirdness about her. She showed not one ounce of sadness over what she was witnessing.

  Lana went from being led by her husband to walking beside him clutching his hand. “This isn’t happening,” she said to him over and over. “Tell me this isn’t happening.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “I want to go home. I just want to go home, Ben,” Lana told him. “It’s in Connecticut. You know everything is fine there.”

  “And we will. We will,” he assured her.

  “My mother. Your mother, my sister.”

  “We’ll find them.”

  After walking through a maze of cars and bodies, they reached the end of the bridge.

  Ben peered in each car, trying to start each one. Finally one started. “Here’s one.” He moved onward and tried another car and then another, until finally, success. “And here’s another,” he said and smiled proudly. “Both of these will work.”

  “We don’t need two cars,” Harry said. “We should be able to squeeze into one.”

  “And go where?” asked Abby.

  “Out of this area and out of the city,” Harry answered. “Obviously, something occurred here and we have to find our way out and find out what happened.”

  “Not me.” Foster said.

  Harry turned to him. “What do you mean?”

  “I was on the train to find my biological mother. She lives in Queens. It’s not far from here. My grandmother lives there, too. I’m going to head there.”

  “Then what?” Harry asked.

  Foster shrugged. “I don’t know. Then, I guess I’ll find my way out.”

  “We’re taking one car,” Ben said. “Lana and I have family. We have to go and find her mom, my mother, our siblings. We just need to do this by ourselves.” He opened the car door for Lana.

  Before getting in, Lana walked back to Harry. “Thank you for everything.” She embraced him. “Good luck.”

  “Good luck?” Harry asked. “Aren’t we all headed in the same direction?”

  “I’m going to go with my husband,” she said. “We need to find our families and then we’ll head home.”

  Ben walked over and shook Harry’s hand. “Good luck, Harry.” Before he stepped back, he ran his hand over Tyler’s head.

  Harry stood dumbfounded. How could they be leaving?

  Foster extended his hand to Harry as well. “I would go with you, but I have to find my mom.”

  Harry turned to Abby. “What about you?”

  “Honestly, I just want to sit down on this bridge,” Abby answered. “I have nowhere to go.”

  “You can come with me,” Harry suggested.

  Abby shook her head. “I think if Foster doesn’t mind, I’ll go with him. It’ll give me something to focus on other than dying.”

  “I would like that,” Foster replied.

  “Let’s go then.” Abby started to walk away with him.

  “Wait!” Harry called. “People, please. Do you realize we just had a national event wipe out New York? Hell, it could be global. Do you really think it’s a good idea that we separate and go our own ways?”

  Did he really think he’d get an answer? Did Harry believe that somehow, suddenly the four of them would stop, smack themse
lves on the head and say, “What were we thinking?”

  No.

  Abby and Foster gave him apologetic looks and walked on off the bridge and veered left, never looking back.

  Ben and Lana got in the car, gave him one more look and a wave and drove off.

  They had all left, just left.

  Just like that.

  Harry stood there speechless until he heard it.

  Tyler was crying.

  He was really crying hard.

  “Hey,” Harry said softly. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Tyler looked up to Harry. His little lips were swollen from crying and his face was all red. “They left.”

  “I know.”

  “How am I supposed to find my mom? How am I supposed to get home?” Tyler’s head hung low. “No one asked me to go with them. They just left.”

  “I know they did.”

  Tyler peered up to Harry. “You’re not leaving me, too, are you?”

  “Are you nuts? It never crossed my mind.” Harry grabbed his hand and walked him to the first car that Ben had started. “Don’t know how far this will get us, but let’s get started.”

  “We’ll get out of here, Harry, right?” Tyler asked before getting in.

  “Absolutely.” Harry winked. “It’s you and me, Kid, and we have a hell of a road trip ahead of us.” Harry closed the door and then walked around the car and got in the driver’s seat.

  He was going to get on the road and head north.

  He would head back to Connecticut.

  That was the only plan he had.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Four blocks into their walk Foster and Abby stopped at a deli. While obviously there was no one there, they knew they had to find something to eat. The deli was the perfect place.

  Everything in the freezer was still cold and they deemed it was safe to eat and wouldn’t make them sick.

  The bread was still good.

  Ignoring the bodies on the floor, they made sandwiches and went back outside heading for Queens, eating as they walked.

  “Do you know where she lives?” Abby asked.

  “I know where she used to live,” Foster replied.

  “You said, your biological mother. Did you live with your father? Grandmother?”

  “No. Foster parents. I was in and out of foster homes all my life.”

  “So can I ask why you are wanting to find your mother if she gave you up?”

  Foster stopped walking. “She didn’t give me up. They took me from her. She needed help. I’m older now, I can help her.”

  “With?”

  “Her addiction.”

  Abby nodded. “And she lives in Queens.”

  “Last I knew. She lived with my grandmother.”

  Abby looked around. They weren’t all that far from Queens and still they hadn’t seen a soul. Only bodies everywhere they went. She knew the probability was low that his mother was fine, but she said nothing.

  Abby didn’t really have a goal or purpose like the others. She was along for the walk with Foster, adopting his goal as her own.

  How far was it? Twenty blocks. Foster told her that where his mother lived was probably the farthest point from where the bomb hit and that’s why he was encouraged.

  They were talking about nothing in particular, when Foster suddenly stopped.

  “Do you hear that?”

  At first Abby didn’t and then it came into ear shot.

  It was a car horn. It was steady, as if someone just held it down.

  “Someone’s alive,” Foster said.

  “Wait.” Abby grabbed him. “They could have just fallen on the horn when they died.”

  Foster slowed his pace.

  Then the horn stopped. But after a moment, it picked back up, only this time it was sporadic.

  “That’s not a body,” Foster said. “Let’s go.”

  The young man over ten years her junior took off running at a pace she found hard to keep up with.

  The horn was far from where the bombs hit and it was conceivable that here on the outskirts, someone was a live and that someone was beeping the horn for help.

  ***

  Where was everybody?

  Just get out … get out of the city, out of New York and everything would be fine. That was the mindset of Ben and Lana.

  They immediately got on the highway, dodging the cars that had crashed or pulled over. Outbound traffic was minimal, so it was fairly easy.

  But the second they hit the New York state line, they started to worry.

  Where was everyone?

  The stream of halted cars was no more.

  There wasn’t a single car on the road.

  Nothing.

  Pulling off the highway didn’t give them any more answers. There wasn’t a soul at the gas station and yet there had to be power.

  Ben and Lana were deceived by the lit up gas station sign. They were enthusiastic as they pulled over.

  Not a car in sight, but the door was open. The sign on the pump, badly handwritten, merely said, “Help yourself.”

  The pumps were unlocked and they fueled up.

  They searched for a newspaper, anything, but found none.

  The radio still played the same music on every station.

  That was their first stop after freeing themselves from the confines of the city.

  About ten miles into Connecticut, they left the turnpike and headed to Lana’s mother’s home. She resided in a small, tree lined community with lush houses near the ocean.

  Lana was confident that this sleepy residential area was just fine. It was about that point that Lana got a signal on her phone. She couldn’t access the internet, but she was able to dial out. She tried her mother, her sister and a couple of friends. No answer from anyone.

  The picturesque small town square, more for tourist show, was the first warning that something had happened, at least in town.

  The grocery store was dark and its doors stood open. Pewter Drugstore’s doors were open as well and items spilled into the streets.

  “Pick up the speed, Ben, I don’t think we have to worry about another car,” Lana said.

  Ben drove faster making the turns without slowing.

  Lana’s mother and sister shared the same house. It was a Tudor and both cars were in the driveway when Lana and Ben pulled up.

  Ben was quick to get out of the car, but Lana was more apprehensive.

  Ben took hold of her hand and they walked inside. There was a smell that wasn’t fresh or pleasant. It wasn’t death, but neither Ben nor Lana could put their finger on it.

  “Mom,” Lana called. “Mom! Lisa!”

  They checked the living room and found nothing. It was in the kitchen that they noticed something was up. A bag from Pewter’s Drugstore was on the counter and an empty box of cold medicine.

  There was a bottle of juice that had been opened but never put back in the fridge.

  The entire sight was eerie to Lana. As she turned to leave the kitchen to go upstairs to search the bedrooms, she saw Lisa’s cell phone.

  The alerts on the screen stated that she had four missed calls and three text messages.

  “Read the texts,” Ben said. “Maybe they’ll tell us something.”

  Lana lifted the phone, “They’re all from her friend Beth.” She read them aloud:

  “First text – Ray is sick, so is Lynnie. How are you guys?

  Second Text – can you get back to me to let me know you’re fine. You aren’t answering.

  Third text – Everyone is sick, I swear I’m the only one who isn’t.

  Fourth text – Ray just died.

  The phone toppled from Lana’s hand and without hesitation she flew from the kitchen up the stairs, calling for her Mom the entire way.

  She was scared to open the first bedroom door, her Mother’s. The house oozed silence and Lana stopped as she reached for the door.

  “I can’t.” She turned to Ben. “I can’t.”

  Ben nod
ded. “I understand. Do you want me to?”

  “Yes.” Arms folded tightly to her body, Lana backed away from the door.

  Ben knocked once and then entered.

  A foot into the room, Ben’s hand shot to his mouth and he closed the door behind him.

  Margaret was in the bed, covered completely to her neck. She lay on her side, a box of tissue on the nightstand along with cold medicine.

  Her hand hung from the edge and tissues were gripped in her fingers.

  “Margaret,” Ben whispered. But he knew he wasn’t going to get a response, not by the smell and especially not by the looks of Margaret.

  Her eyes were open and grey, her skin was bloated and blotchy with purple spots and a thick substance encrusted around her mouth and nose. Ben grabbed the covers and lifted them over Margaret’s head.

  Out in the hall, Lana waited.

  It didn’t take long for Ben to emerge with a solemn, “I’m sorry.”

  Lana crumbled and with a sob folded herself into Ben’s arms.

  “It was a cold or virus or something.” Ben held on to her.

  “Should we check Lisa?”

  “I will,” Ben said. “Stay here.”

  Lana nodded and Ben slipped away to Lisa’s room.

  It was more of the same and that was all Ben had told Lana. He didn’t get into details or explained how decimated the bodies were from the illness. He just said it was an illness and they had to move on.

  Before they did, Lana grabbed Lisa’s phone. Beth’s last text had come only three hours earlier so Lana tried to call her back.

  Beth didn’t answer.

  She sent a text to Beth, stating that Lisa had died and left her number, asking Beth to please get in touch with her when she could.

  At least if Beth was still alive, she got get some answers.

  Ben and Lana left the home, got in the car and continued on to check on Ben’s mother.

  Another twenty miles would bring them to her house.

  They hoped the boundaries of death and destruction ended before they arrived there.