“No…no, not like that,” Eddie said. “We can’t drive through the tunnel.”
“So, we’ll go another way,” Jesse said.
Eddie shook his head. “No.”
“No?” Christina said.
“We’re walking though,” Eddie said.
Christina rolled her eyes.
Ali wanted to get back to his mother and Esperanza so badly. He was ready to do anything. “Cool, let’s go.”
Ali’s response set off a chain reaction as then everyone else’s mood slightly shifted.
“It won’t be that bad,” Vic chimed in.
“Everybody strap up,” Ali said.
Ali, Vic, Eddie, Marcus, Christina, and Jesse grabbed their knives. Raymond didn’t budge from his seat.
“I don’t think I can make it,” Raymond said. He took off his bucket hat and scratched the top of his head.
Ali got on one knee in front of him. “We’re not leaving you here.”
“I can’t do it,” Raymond said.
“Where will you go? You might not make it through the night,” Vic said.
“Listen,” Ali said. “I’ll help you climb up. Just stay close to me.”
Raymond sighed. “Any extra knives?”
Ali smiled. “No, I think there’s a wrench.” Ali turned to Jesse. “Hand me the wrench.” He gave it to Raymond.
Raymond took a few practice swings with the wrench. Then, he smirked.
Eddie went up to the dashboard and took his family photo’s out of the visor. He placed them in jacket pocket. He kissed his two fingers and then pressed them firmly on the steering wheel. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. Eddie was essentially saying goodbye to the last link he had to his loved ones. Josefina might as well have been a part of the family.
Eddie jumped up. He was startled by a hand on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder. It was Jesse.
“C’mon, it’s gonna be alright,” Jesse said.
Eddie nodded and exited the truck.
All seven of the survivors stood in front of the tunnel. The sun was about to set. Marcus and Eddie held flashlights. Christina, Vic, and Ali used their cellphone lights.
Marcus climbed up the hood of a car first. Vic followed right behind him. Ali boosted Raymond up on top of the car. They walked over five cars, and then the tunnel was clear for the most part. There was a defined passageway they could walk on.
Jesse turned to Christina, “See, this isn’t that bad.”
“Whatever,” Christina said while not taking her eyes off of the path.
Then, they heard a crashing noise that sounded like a window shattering.
“What was that?” Jesse said.
Christina shook her head at Jesse as if he’d jinxed them.
“Maybe a rat?” Ali said.
“A rat?” Christina shouted.
Ali sensed her fear. “Or a dog.”
There was another noise, but this one was a thud.
“That’s not a dog,” Jesse said.
“Shh,” Marcus said. He pointed forward. The group moved faster.
Car alarms began to sound. You could hear the unlocking and opening of the car doors one by one. It sounded like a hundred doors.
Ali used his cellphone light to illuminate one of the parked cars about seven feet to the left of their path. He saw a shadow move inside the car. Then, a head looked directly at him. Its eyes were bright purple.
“Run!” Ali shouted. “They’re in the cars.”
Already halfway into the tunnel, they dashed towards its exit. The creatures got out of the cars as if they were hibernating. The beasts looked like emaciated humans with long gangly legs and arms that folded out like grasshoppers’. They sprang across the tops of cars, sometimes leaping over two or three cars at a time.
Marcus stayed in the middle of the pack so he could keep an eye on Ali and Vic.
“We’re almost there,” Vic said as he could see the exit.
One of the creatures jumped on Jesse’s back. “Ah!” Jesse shouted.
Christina doubled back and drove her knife through its purple eye. She held out her hand to lift him up.
“Now, we’re even,” she said.
They made it out of the tunnel while there was still a hint of daylight. About one hundred of the creatures made it to the exit, but they did not walk any further. they were frightened by the sun rays. One of the creatures put its foot out, and it quickly drew back the sizzling limb.
“I keep telling myself not to get surprised by the stuff we’re seeing,” Ali said.
“It’s pretty hard not to, kid.” Eddie shook his head.
“Come on, before the sun goes down completely,” Marcus said.
They ran up the stairs into Penn Station. It was a mad house. People were all over the place, but they were humans. It looked like the largest riot ever.
“Should we put the weapons away?” Ali asked Marcus.
“No. Definitely not,” Marcus resigned. His head swiveled.
“Stay alert,” Eddie shouted. “But don’t make any sudden moves.”
Eddie thought they could go undetected amidst the chaos.
“This way,” Marcus said. He pointed straight ahead. “Follow me.”
The group ran behind Marcus. Nobody approached them. The rioters and looters were more concerned with wrecking Penn Station than they were with assaulting one another.
“They’re coming!” one of the looters shouted.
Who was coming? Ali thought. I don’t want to find out.
The group moved toward the broken escalator and ran up to the street level. Inside Penn Station seemed like the chaos and confusion appetizer to the street’s main course. It looked worse than the Stanford campus and not like any other Manhattan they had ever seen. People scattered in the streets as the streetlights flickered on. The group paused in the middle of 7th Avenue as they waited for Marcus’s direction.
“You hear that?” Vic said.
The group listened. They heard the same animal noise from the tunnel.
“Fuck!” Ali said.
The roars were now accompanied by screams from down in Penn Station as people ran up to street level.
“Come on.” Marcus sprinted down the street.
The looters ran into any building or shelter they could find.
“Should we go into one of these buildings?” Christina asked.
“No,” Ali said. “We’re going home.”
The group moved like a street gang through the Manhattan streets. When someone got fatigued, usually Raymond, they walked slower before they resumed their quick pace again. They moved from the middle of the street to the sidewalks as cars zoomed around in a hapless manner. All of the stop lights flashed red and all rules of the road were abandoned.
The roars got louder, but the group couldn’t tell where they were coming from. They ran across 7th Avenue.
“Oh shit,” Jesse shouted as he fell to the ground. The manhole he stepped over popped open. From under the street the mutants came pouring out like an open fire hydrant. Ali doubled back and helped Jesse get back on his feet.
Marcus’s face sunk. “Don’t stop!” He knew there were way too many of them to fend off.
The creatures hopped around on the cars, parked and moving, and attacked the humans who remained on the streets. The beasts snuck around the humans, snatched them off the ground, and tore off their limbs. They were more agile and quicker than the creature from Stanford, but didn’t have the same strength or tenacity. They were almost ballerina like.
“The train?” Vic asked Marcus as they passed a subway entrance.
Marcus looked down the stairs into the entrance. It was blocked off with debris.
Maybe that’s a good idea, he thought.
Then, the creatures began clawing their way through the debris to make their way from the subway.
“No,” Marcus said. “They’re all underground.”
“How much longer do we have?” Eddie asked Ali.
> “About five more blocks,” Ali said.
An exasperated Eddie wasn’t confident he would make it that far. Then, he saw Raymond hobble along. And Eddie got his second wind.
One of the creatures leapt in front of Vic. He held his knife firmly by his side as it sized him up. Then, it used its long arm to swipe at him. Vic backed up to dodge the swing, but fell to the ground. The creature stood over him ready for the attack.
Jesse ran at the creature and hit him with a bat in the side of the head. The blow did little to hurt the beast. It turned around and directed its attention to Jesse. It reached out to grab him, and Jesse caught it’s are at the rest. He stared into its purple eyes. The creature yanked back its arm. The skin on the creature’s arm sizzled.
Jesse, wide-eyed and unaware of what just happened, looked at his hands. Eddie ran up behind him and yanked him away.
“Move it,” Eddie said to Jesse.
“Thanks, bro,” Vic said to Jesse.
“This is our block,” Ali shouted. He looked up at the windows of their third story apartment. The lights were on.
The group ran up to their building. Marcus led them up the steps to the front door. He turned to Ali. “You have your key?”
Ali swung his backpack around pulled his house key out and opened the front door. Inside the building it looked only slightly better than the outside. Trash and broken glass littered the ground.
Marcus inhaled. He braced himself for the worst. He said a silent prayer as he marched up the first flight of stairs. He knew the likelihood of Nadine being there was slim. He already thought about how he would console Ali. As he walked up the second flight of stairs, he remembered Ali’s face when the doctors came into the waiting room to inform them Patrice had died. That was a moment he never wanted to relive.
Marcus looked at Ali and then at Vic. Now holding Ali’s key, he unlocked the door. He opened it hoping to see his wife there to greet him, but all he saw was the static screen from their television in the living room.
Chapter Eight
All of the lights were on. Their home was immaculate, but nobody was there. Nadine was always a stickler for cleanliness. Neither Marcus, Ali, or Vic were surprised at the condition she would keep their home in even if the world was ending.
“Nadine!” Marcus shouted.
Nothing.
“Mom!” Ali screamed as he ran around from room to room.
No response.
What should I do now? Marcus thought.
The others didn’t quite know how to respond either. Most of them had already experienced major losses as a result of the events of the past few days. Now it appeared to be Marcus, Ali, and Vic’s turn.
Marcus followed Ali into the master bedroom. Ali plopped down on his parents’ bed as his eyes teared up. A big part of Marcus wanted to do the same, but he knew he had to be strong for Ali.
Marcus placed his hand on his son’s back as he sobbed facedown.
“It’s okay. She’s probably…somewhere, but not here,” Marcus said.
Ali sobbed.
“We won’t stop looking for her,” Marcus continued. “Not until we can confirm what happened to her. Your mother is a fighter. She’s somewhere bossing people around. I just know it.”
“Marcus,” Eddie screamed. “Come out here.”
What now? Marcus thought. How could this get any worse?
Marcus didn’t want to leave his vulnerable son alone. But that plea sounded like it was important. He got up and ran to the rest of the group in the kitchen.
Then, he heard it.
“Who the hell are you people?” Nadine shouted.
“Listen,” Jesse pleaded.
Marcus reached the kitchen. “Baby!”
His stunning wife opened up her mouth, but no sound came out. She ran into arms, hugged him and kissed him on the mouth. He lifted her up off the ground.
“Ali,” Marcus shouted. “I told you! She’s alive.”
Ali ran into the kitchen and made their embrace a group hug.
Nadine looked at Ali’s face with tears in her eyes and made sure he looked okay.
For a moment, Marcus was so happy to be back together with his wife. His stomach untangled. She was there. His stunning wife. The same way as he left her. He was intoxicated by her smile once again. He got close enough so he could smell her hair and her caramel skin. Then, he realized they weren’t alone.
“Where were you?” Marcus asked her.
“On the roof,” she replied. She looked at his puzzled face. “There are a group of survivors up there who take shifts doing lookout.”
“Oh,” Marcus said. “Are most of the people in the building still alive?”
“There are only about seven of us,” Nadine said.
Marcus lowered his head.
“Who are these people?” Nadine pointed to the group.
Ali scratched his dreads and smiled. “Ummm…just friends we’ve met along the way. That’s Eddie and Jesse. They have a food truck. That’s Christina. She’s an aspiring model. And that’s Raymond. He’s old.”
Nadine smacked him upside his head.
“What?” Ali said.
“That’s not polite,” Nadine said.
“No, young lady,” Raymond said. “I am old.”
They all laughed.
“What are we gonna do now?” Ali asked Marcus.
“I don’t know. Maybe we can go out and do some recon and see what’s going on in the city,” Marcus said.
“Recon?” Nadine said. “What are you, a Navy Seal? You’ve been out there. People are out of their minds.”
“You gotta be running low on food,” Marcus said as he looked through the pantry.
Vic opened up the refrigerator and shook his head.
“You can’t go. Not now. You just got here,” Nadine said. “Wait until daylight at least.”
Marcus smiled. “Honey, we’ve seen a lot of things. Nothing like those though.”
“It’s getting worse too. Since everything shut down, those things appeared. And they appear to be getting stronger each day.”
“You think we can stay here?” Eddie asked.
Marcus became flustered. He worked so long to get home that he didn’t think what he would do if home wasn’t an ideal final destination.
“It seems like we’d be sitting ducks here,” Christina said.
“Has anything improved over the last few days here?” Raymond asked Nadine.
“Not really,” Nadine said. “More people leave and don’t return. Mrs. Thompson’s son went out two days ago for food and supplies. Never came back. And that was during the daytime.”
“Shit,” Marcus said.
“And at night, those things come out. Last night, from the roof, I saw them ransack a building a few blocks from here,” Nadine said.
Eddie looked outside the window. “I only see a few of them now, but they’re just beating up cars.”
“Hopefully that keeps them preoccupied until daylight,” Marcus said. “Okay, I say we block off the doors now. Tomorrow, we round up everybody in the building and make a plan. But tonight, we eat and rest up.”
“Sounds good to me.” Vic grinned.
Now that they had some direction, the group was more at ease and decided to rest in the living room. Vic flipped the television channels.
“That thing has been out for days,” Nadine said.
“Have you heard anything from Esperanza?” Ali asked his mom.
She shook her head. “I’m sure she’s all right.”
“How do you know?” Ali said. “I gotta go check on her.” He grabbed his jacket.
“The hell you are,” Nadine responded.
“I have to. Vic can go with me,” Ali said.
Vic looked up, thinking he didn’t offer to leave.
“No,” Nadine said.
“I’ll wait until daylight,” Ali continued.
“What did I say?” Nadine said. “That’s not safe either. Psychos are out there.”
>
“But—” Ali said.
“Marcus, talk to him,” Nadine asked.
“Listen to your mother,” Marcus said. He had no idea what their conversation was about.
Ali turned to Marcus. “I need to check on Espi.”
Marcus stopped. “No, you just got home. We’ll figure out a way for you to check on her.”
Ali knew he was defeated. And this wasn’t a battle he was going to win…at least not now. Both of them had dug in and weren’t budging.
Nadine moved into the kitchen and began preparing a meal for the group.
Ali went to his bedroom and collapsed on the bed. He pulled out an old Timberland box from underneath his bed and opened it. The box belonged to Patrice. Ali pulled out his old DJ Doo Wop mixtape and put it into his stereo. He slid on his headphones and began flipping through old pictures of his brother. Despite begin nine years apart, they were still extremely close. Ali followed his every move despite their personalities being total opposites. Patrice was a lot like his dad in some respects. He was hard working but in a cool way. He was stylish and outgoing. Not as rigid as their dad. His dad would always brag about how well Patrice did in school. Ali was fine with being in his shadow, because Patrice was pretty much perfect. He knew that type of perfection was unattainable.
There was a picture of them at Six Flags Great Adventure. Despite being muscular and tough, Patrice was always scared of getting on the Batman Ride. Ali would get at him by making that the first thing they did when they got there. Patrice would prefer to get some funnel cake. Ali picked up Patrice’s track medal from the 4 x 200 relay team.
Patrice was somewhat of an oddity. The brainiac who was also street smart. He was equally comfortable in his office on Water Street or drinking Henny with friends at a block party.
Before he realized it, Ali began to cry just as Peter Rock & C.L. Smooth’s “T.R.O.Y” came on. That was one of Patrice’s favorite songs.
How fitting, right? Ali thought.
The two of them would always argue who was better: Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth or Ali’s favorite duo, Gang Starr.
Ali missed him dearly. His brother would take him everywhere with him. He taught him everything from how to dress, how to talk to girls, how to fight, and how to move in the streets and in school. Since his death, Ali had felt lost. Now with those feelings on top of everything since the earthquake, he really didn’t know what else to do.
Scattered Screams: (The Disruption, Book One) Page 10