She immediately gave up on the drone, because her duty was to the children. “We have to get in touch with someone on the outside. Does your truck have a radio?” She peered at Gus.
The dirt-covered sewer worker took a stiff drag on his cigarette, then shifted smoothly from Audrey to her. The smoke came out of his lungs as he spoke. “We could only talk to dispatch, but we haven’t been able to raise them. Before you ask, we’ve tried calling the police, too.”
Audrey coughed from the second-hand smoke.
Tabby had to do something. The two men seemed harmless enough, but that wouldn’t last long. She expected Gus to ask for a weapon any second, and it would be hard to justify not giving him one, because she and the kids had extras. If she had to tell them no, it would make things even more uncomfortable than they already were.
Vinny inched closer to her. “We did a job below the Channel 5 building not too long ago. It’s a few blocks away. They might have communications equipment.” He smiled at Tabby. Unlike Gus, she got a good feeling from him.
“Yeah, we should do that. Let’s go that way.” She pointed away from the end of the alley where she’d seen the floating drone.
Peter leaned close to her. “Are we sure these guys are telling the truth? Maybe the people flying the drones are here to help us. Unlike them.”
Gus laughed. “We can hear you, kid.”
Peter didn’t back down. “We have the guns. I’m not afraid of you.”
“Your pointer should be on the side of the guard, not on the trigger, boy.” Gus’s eyes made a dotted line to Peter’s finger, which was on the trigger. She’d have to remember that advice, even if it came from a sketchy man.
“It’s okay.” Tabby put her hand on Peter’s shotgun. He wasn’t pointing it at anyone, but he did have both hands on it, like it was open for business. “Who would lie about people dying from their company? Besides, the guys under the Arch didn’t exactly have a Red Cross tent to welcome us in.”
“Fine,” Peter pouted. “Let’s find a radio and get this over with.”
Tabby’s heart rattled inside her ribcage because everyone was acting unpredictably. If she was going to keep her kids safe, she had to keep the tour moving. She forced a smile toward Gus and Vinny. “I’m sorry for this. Yesterday, we learned their parents weren’t able to get out. I hope you understand. It isn’t you.”
Gus took another drag. “Bah. I get it. We’ll drive behind you guys.”
“No!” she blurted. “We can’t drive.” The little drone might have been gone, but they’d gotten lucky because it hadn’t looked down the narrow alley. Being on foot would better allow them to hide if they saw it again. Being in a car would make them easy to spot by drones and people alike.
Gus harrumphed. “What the hell do you want from us?”
Vinny nudged Gus. “The station is only a few blocks from here—a ten-minute walk, at best. When we get there, we can report those bastards for killing our co-workers.”
The older man seemed to think on it as he burned through his cigarette. Tabby was on the verge of leaving them both behind, but he finally nodded. “We’ll leave the truck where it is. I’ll call in to dispatch and let them know our intentions, just in case we don’t get back in a timely fashion. I’ll meet you at the other end of the alley.”
Tabby stood up and marshalled the kids like a sheep dog. “Works for us.”
She practically pushed Donovan ahead of her. “What’s the rush?” he asked.
“Just walk,” she insisted.
About halfway down the alley, she gathered them together. “Watch that Gus. He’s up to something. I think he’s going to try to get one of our guns.”
Peter hugged his shotgun. “Not mine.”
She smiled. “You watch him, okay, Peter? I’m putting you in charge of that.”
Tabby had more to say, but Vinny trotted up. He immediately spoke to her in a quiet way. “I’m sorry about him. I think that shooting messed him up. We really were about to go down there ourselves. He’s been with MSD forever, so he probably knew whoever was killed, though he refuses to talk about it.”
She did her best not to betray her own feelings of mistrust. Vinny didn’t need to know; he might tell his friend. “We’re anxious, too. If we can get in contact with someone, I’m sure we can straighten this all out.” She spoke a bit quieter, almost to herself. “I want this to all be over.”
“It’s going to be all right,” the young man said sympathetically. “I can tell you guys are going to make it through this. You seem like a tough girl.”
She blushed with embarrassment, but her demeanor shifted as Gus arrived. No matter what she thought of Vinny, and his distracting blue eyes, she couldn’t allow anything to take her concentration off job number one.
“Kids, stick with me. Vinny is going to lead us.”
He walked ahead. “We keep going that way.”
They reached the end of the alley between the two buildings. Ahead, a wide avenue stood between them and another alleyway on the far side.
Vinny took off his hat, then peeked around the corner, but yanked his head back an instant later.
“We’ve got company headed this way.”
Her stomach hit the panic button.
She suddenly wished she’d brought the shotgun.
CHAPTER 14
Newark, NJ
A long time ago, Kyla and Mom took a ride in one of Uncle Ted’s little planes, but she had never been in a helicopter, so the flight on the big military machine was another notch in her training. After being up in the air for only a short time, she appreciated again why her uncle did this for a living.
They’d been flying above the ocean for about twenty minutes before they turned inland. As soon as they did, Meechum reached over and tapped her, then spoke through the industrial-grade headset and mic gear they both wore. “Can you hear me?” Meechum asked at nearly a scream.
Kyla scrambled to turn down the volume. She gave the Marine a thumbs-up once she did.
“This is where I need you. We’re starting to go over Staten Island, New Jersey. We’re going to sweep to the north and east to see if we can find any survivors.”
“So… I just look outside?”
Meechum grinned. “Not everything about being a warrior is fun.”
“I don’t mind,” she said dryly. The less drama, the better.
They flew above thousands of houses, and there were many more to the west. It was like one big subdivision that went from the edge of the coast all the way to the curve of the horizon. The rivers and bays and skyscrapers of Manhattan were to the north. She’d recognize that skyline anywhere because that’s where Mom lived.
Used to live.
She lost some of her enthusiasm for a brief time, but she couldn’t let it drag her too far down. As Meechum stated, it wasn’t all fun and games. She’d been brought up here to do a job.
The helicopter was low enough for her to see trash cans at the end of driveways, individual windows on cars, and colorful lawn chairs sitting poolside in many of the backyards. She imagined if there were people down there, they’d be easy to spot, but, at first glance, no one came running out to greet them.
“If you see anything interesting, let me know and I’ll let the pilot know. You know?” Meechum laughed.
Kyla let herself lean toward the open doorway but kept one hand on the seat belt. It would put her closer to danger, but it made it possible to see almost directly below them. If people were down there, she wanted to be the first to see them.
Meechum sat on the floor of the cargo hold, with her legs dangling outside the aircraft. As usual, she made it look easy.
“You can do that, too,” she told herself.
They flew for a couple of minutes before she gathered up the fortitude necessary to try it. She found the tether rope attached to the wall, then buckled herself in with a carabiner.
She breathed fast, like she was about to dive underwater.
“You can do this,
” she whispered.
Kyla unhitched her seatbelt and set it aside. She slid off the edge of the seat, never losing contact with it as she got onto the floor.
“Just a little more,” she encouraged herself.
The heavy rope would prevent her from falling out the door. She knew that. However, it seemed like the most dangerous thing she’d ever thought of doing. The earth flew by below her. One fall and she’d be dead.
Still, she got her feet over the edge and carefully shimmied her legs over the side, too. Gradually, she slid even closer until everything below her knees was out of the helicopter.
“I did it!” she said to herself. Uncle Ted wouldn’t believe she’d flown today, much less stuck her feet out the door of a moving helicopter.
“I could get used to flying,” she said in her microphone.
Meechum agreed. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? Do you see anything over there? I don’t see shit on this side.”
Her attention had been elsewhere while she’d gotten down onto the floor, but now she made a concerted effort to do her job. At first, there was nothing to look at but more houses, streets, and tree-covered yards. Far to the north, a huge fire consumed a large part of the landscape. The black smoke rose to the stratosphere like a towering thunderhead.
“That thing is out of control,” she said.
Somehow, the Marine knew what she meant. “If you ever wondered if you should pay your fire department, this should be your clue.”
The fire was the most interesting thing out there, but her vision was drawn to movement in the air a lot closer. An orange spark and a puff of smoke appeared between her and the rager.
“I see something!” she yelled.
The orange streak went downward and closed distance on a highway. Before she had time to comment on it, the missile exploded under a bridge, and flames and black smoke burst from both sides of the overpass.
A man’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Evade!” the pilot yelled three times in a row.
The airframe dipped as the pilot steered them away from whatever shot that missile. She had half a second to wonder what had been struck down there, but her whole life flashed in front of her eyes as she slid right out the door.
Newark, NJ
The Hellfire missile crashed into the Cessna about ten seconds after they’d run away from it. The concussion knocked them both to the ground, but Ted scrambled to his feet as fast as he was able.
“Come on, hurry!” He pointed at the Piper Cherokee. It was lining up a landing on the interstate, exactly as he and Emily had done.
Emily’s eyes lolled for a moment, but she focused on him. “Did I fall?”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “You were clumsy. Let’s get up and run.”
He had to help her up, but once she’d gotten upright, her balance improved.
“What happened?” she asked, like she’d regained her senses.
“Drone attack. These guys aren’t fucking around. We’ve got to get out of here before more bad guys show up.”
The whirr of the Piper steadily rose as it came closer. He watched as it descended toward the highway. He and Emily stood on top of the embankment, giving them some concealment, but he wanted to get her running toward the nearby suburban homes, so he tugged at her elbow.
That got her moving.
They made it to the back yard of the first house on the street as tires chirped on the highway. The plane was below their line of sight, because the interstate sat in a lowered channel, but there was no mistaking how close the aircraft was.
Ted ran through the yard and came out on a short block of homes with a white-steepled church at the end. The small brick homes appeared clean and tasteful with stubby driveways and narrow porches. It was the type of place where he might have lived if he wasn’t an apartment person, always on the move.
He looked both ways on the street, frantic to find evidence of a car that had lost its driver.
“We want a ride, right?” she asked, apparently catching on.
He ran toward the intersection at the end of the street. “We have to get out of here fast. They’re coming.”
If he’d planned to make a stand, his best bet would have been to shoot into the plane as it landed. However, the Predator drone usually traveled with two Hellfire missiles. There could also be a hundred drones behind that one. His priority was escaping that to get Emily out of danger, not to inflict casualties on the enemy.
They made it to the end of the street. To the right, the road went underneath the highway. To the left, it went into the suburban neighborhood. There were several cars on the side of the road, or in the yards of nearby homes.
“That one!” he pointed to a boxy sedan parked against a hedge nearby. After a short run, he hopped inside, but it wouldn’t start. “Out of gas. It must have run dry idling since yesterday. We need a stick shift.”
“Why?” she pressed.
“When drivers, uh, went away, they couldn’t work the clutches. The motors would die when the RPMs got too low. That’s our advantage right now.” He saw a sporty car about a hundred yards away. “Go for that one!”
They hopped back out and ran along the sidewalk. He only checked back once to make sure she was on his tail. He had the heavy backpack, so he was sure she could keep up with him.
The hum of the Predator came from all around them, as if the sound waves bounced off the roofs and walls of the houses. There was also the sound of a helicopter in the distance. He was sure of it.
“They’ve got all kinds of shit after us,” he remarked.
Emily breathed heavily as she ran alongside him. “Are we going to hide?”
It was tempting to go into one of the houses close by. Several had their garages open, and probably their doors, because the people had been hanging around outside when the event took their lives, but he didn’t diverge from his goal.
“Not yet. We can’t stay around here. They’d eventually find us.”
She stumbled with an “oof” but quickly regained her footing. The sidewalk was a little older on this wider street, and some of the cracks had grown quite large.
“You okay?” he asked with a quick glance over his shoulder.
“Right behind you.”
They made it to the black sports car. It had run up on a curb, but otherwise seemed unharmed. He yanked out a woman’s pants and a shirt. The former owner wouldn’t need them anymore.
Emily slid into the leather passenger seat a moment later.
“This feels familiar. We keep getting chased.”
He noticed she didn’t have anything over her face, so he cracked open his door and picked up the woman’s blouse. “Take this. Use it to make a mask. We have to hide your identity for as long as possible, and I don’t think you can do your Dracula thing while holding a rifle.”
“What about you?” she asked with concern.
He depressed the clutch and started the engine, since the keys were already in the ignition.
“Please make one for me, too.”
As he said it, the Predator drone appeared from the same direction he’d seen it before. It cruised low and slow, like it was searching for something to shoot. He knew an operator was sitting in a faraway room looking at live video feed of the neighborhood around them. He and Emily might already be designated as a target.
“Get down!” he ordered.
San Francisco, CA
Dwight was drunk as a skunk, but he’d found his new home.
“I declare this Dwight’s Hideaway!” he cried out.
The blue shipping container had some foreign characters on the outside, and it was slanted a little because the back part was at the lower part of the beach, but he figured it was almost the perfect place to live. It had four cots bolted to both walls toward the front. There was a small cupboard in the middle of one wall, and that was filled with canned foods. A toolbox was latched onto the floor next to it. About fifteen seats stuck out of the floor toward the back, making three neat rows. A
t the very rear, a curtain blocked off a five-gallon bucket used for sanitation. He could live in there for a month.
For a short time, he lounged on a low cot, but eventually, he had to try the four on his wall. Then he tried all of them on the other side, certain one of them had to be better than the others.
“They’re not all the same,” he said to Poppy.
The bird laughed at him, causing him to give up his research. Instead, he sat in one of the plastic seats and started on his last wine bottle.
Once he’d made good headway, Poppy stared at him as she liked to do.
“Not this again. You saw it out there; the whole city has left us.”
He remembered thinking about what might have caused it, but his liquor-addled brain couldn’t remember the details. However, Poppy wanted to know.
Dwight leaned his head over the back of the chair and stared at the lone bulb tied to the ceiling. “I once met a guy who worked for the Air Force. Said he was part of a secret department that worked in New Mexico somewhere. I—”
He turned to Poppy. “No, I don’t remember where. It’s not important.
“Anyway, he always said aliens were real and the rest of us would know they were real when they finally chose to make an appearance. He said it would be big and impossible to miss. I’m calling it: the whole city got into an alien spaceship.”
Poppy was silent, which he took as an insult.
“You think you know better?”
He hopped out of his chair. “We need to secure this home against invasion! Aliens. Dinosaurs. I don’t care what. Nothing can get through that door if we lock it.”
Dwight scoured the inside of the container for something he could use to bolt the door, but there wasn’t much in the way of resources. The toolbox had a small hammer, some screwdrivers, and a can of orange spray paint. Nothing to hold both doors together.
“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” he said as he thought it. “If the world has been invaded by aliens, I’m sure they can get inside one last shipping box, don’t you?
“What?” He studied the blank spot on his shoulder, where the bird sat. “You think that would work?”
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