Empty Cities

by E. E. Isherwood

  The radio was static for a few seconds before the pilot came on. “I’m getting fucking shot at!”

  Meechum appeared pissed and raised the radio to her mouth, but the pilot kept talking. “I’ll stay here as long as I can, Pocahontas. Pop smoke when you see me coming over your position. Out.”

  The Marine spent time looking out at the trees and fields, and Kyla could only guess what the other woman was thinking. However, vehicle motors came from the streets nearby, though it was hard to say where they were.

  “Move out,” Meechum whispered. “That way.”

  She followed the Marine as best she could, but Kyla was ready to fall over dead. The miles-long jog through the city was all she could stand. More running seemed like an insult to her heart, but she refused to complain to the tough Marine, knowing it would do no good.

  “Just keep running,” she mumbled to herself.

  Meechum chuckled. “I loved Finding Nemo.”

  “You?” Kyla huffed. “You like kids’ movies? I never would have guessed.”

  They crossed a walking path and came to a clump of trees before stopping.

  “I’m a Marine, not a monster. Everyone loves Finding Nemo. It’s a classic. What’s more powerful than a father fighting to get his son back?”

  Kyla wondered about her own situation. Was Uncle Ted really coming for her? She had to get back to the ship because it was the only place he would look.

  They stayed in those bushes until the black vans pulled up in front of the building that had been attacked by the missile. Men got out who looked like they were dressed to be assassins. All-black outfits with black ball caps. They also had big black rifles, which were visible even from a hundred yards away.

  “Who are those guys?” she asked Meechum.

  “They might be mercenaries. Or a rogue department of the government. Hell, they could be TSA for all I know.”

  “Can we trust them? Maybe we could—”

  Meechum shushed her. “No, none of this is right. Our mission is to get on that helo and get back to the JFK.”

  “But we didn’t find any survivors,” Kyla said sadly. If they’d found anyone alive, she might have risked going to look for her mom, but every civilian they’d come across since Battery Park had been disintegrated. She didn’t want to see Mom’s clothes to prove anything. It was better to remember her as she was.

  “Hang tight, dudette. Those guys are going into the building. I don’t think they know we’re even here. Besides—”

  As she spoke, a gunfight broke out between the men at the vans and someone down a side street.

  Meechum watched through the leaves. “What the fuck? Who are they shooting at?”

  Kyla stuck her head up, hoping to make sense of it, but there were too many wrecked cars in the street to see who was back there. However, a couple of the men in black fell like they’d been shot. That got the rest of the guys running for cover and aiming at the culprits.

  “Come on, we have to get away from here, in case they sweep this way.”

  The distraction gave her a false sense of security as she followed the Marine deeper into the park. The whine of engines above suggested the bad guys still had aircraft up there, though the rotor whomps of her Seahawk were still out there, too. The battle wasn’t over by a long shot.

  It took them about ten minutes to wind through the tree-lined paths and well-manicured hedges toward a large field. Meechum kept them running along the edge, which was fine with Kyla. There were strollers, beach towels, and volleyball nets out there. They were the last things those people ever did in the field, and she wanted to stay far away from their memories.

  Eventually, they came to a thicket of underbrush that Meechum found attractive. “We’ll halt here. They can’t see us from that direction, but we can see the landing zone.” She pulled out the radio.

  “Longbow, do we have time to find a better LZ? Over.” After keying off the handset, Meechum turned to her. “I’d love to be far away from those men and that building.”

  “Negative. It’s now or never. I’m making one more pass. Out.”

  “Shit,” Meechum whispered. “Roger that,” she said into the handset.

  Kyla kept watch, though she wanted nothing more than to lay down in the green mass of leaves and take a nap. The gunfire had tapered off to nothing, though the planes still circled around, as if continuing the search for the enemy. Maybe they were looking for her…

  “He’s coming, right?” she asked when Meechum tucked the radio away.

  “Last pass. He’s at the far end of the park right now. We have to be ready when he comes back.” She pulled out a cylinder from her backpack. “Smoke.”

  Kyla nodded.

  The afternoon suddenly became almost pleasant, like a cloud had passed. A bumblebee flew in some clover nearby. A bird chirped in the trees above. If she blotted out the sounds of the planes, she could imagine walking out to one of those blankets and spending the whole afternoon in the sunshine. It wasn’t unlike what she and Mom had done in the past…

  A piece of tree bark snapped off a tree about ten feet away.

  “Fuck!” Meechum screamed. “They see us.”

  The Marine brought her rifle to her shoulder, then she squeezed off three quick shots. She did it one more time before ducking back behind her tree.

  Kyla was unable to catch her breath. Part of it was from the run there, but now her fear stole all her remaining energy. More snaps of bullets tore up the mulch next to a walking path and bit into the shrubs all around her.

  “He’s on the way!” Meechum leaned from her spot and shot some more. “Got one!”

  Kyla didn’t want to do it but knew she couldn’t squat in the shrubs while Meechum did all the work. “Come on, you can do this,” she told herself. She raised her pistol and held it to her chest like it might get away.

  Motion caught her eye in the trees to the right. A figure strode forward, his black rifle raised as if looking for targets.

  There was no time to call for help or even to hide. The man seemed to point the gun at Meechum, who was in front of her.

  Kyla raised the pistol and aimed along the sights exactly as Meechum taught her. She held her breath and did her best to pull the trigger, instead of the gun itself.

  The blast no longer scared the crap out of her. She flinched as it popped, but her aim was true. Though she couldn’t see where the bullet went in, the man fell backward.

  She was ready to brag she’d got one, but there were more coming…

  New York City, NY

  Ted and Emily snuck through the trees toward the two Marines. The closer he got, the more he liked their chances of escaping the city. The two women were on the far side of the south end of Central Park, next to a huge field. He and Emily were on the near side of this end of the park, which was more of a forest. The Seahawk could come in and extract him with the Marines, and the bad guys would never have a chance of catching them.

  “Ted, I thought we were dead back there. I won’t lie to you.”

  “Which time?” he mused. “This city was supposed to be empty, but boy was I wrong.”

  “They keep appearing wherever we go. Do you think that’s a coincidence?”

  “Maybe we need to go into flyover country. Indianapolis or Oklahoma City. They can’t be there, too. But right now, I’ll settle for reaching those two ladies and asking them for a lift.”

  The Seahawk’s rotor buzz kept getting closer, suggesting there was no time to waste. He ran as fast as he dared to reach the edge of the field, but he was forced to stop when the woman shot into the woods.

  “Dammit, they’ve already moved into the park!”

  Emily stopped behind a patch of ivy hanging from a tree. “There are guys running everywhere. Can we help the two Marines?”

  Ted scanned the scene through his scope. He and Emily didn’t get all the men to chase them. Some had come down from the street where they’d parked their vans and had infiltrated the woods on the other si
de of the field. The fully-dressed Marine fired multiple times at some of the men creeping toward them, then side-armed a silver object into the field. Red smoke belched out a second later.

  “Yes,” he said dryly. “We can give them a chance.”

  The helicopter was close.

  New York City, NY

  Kyla squeezed off another shot into the woods, but the man she’d aimed at did not fall with a satisfying thunk. Instead, he hid behind the trunk of a tree.

  “Fuck!” she complained.

  The man leaned out, ready to return fire, but his face exploded with blood, soaking the tree before he fell. She’d been prepared to fire her gun, so she shot it once on accident before retreating behind her own tree.

  Meechum wasn’t even looking in her direction, so she couldn’t square the logic of who’d shot the encroaching man.

  A second guy wasn’t far behind the first. Someone shot out his knee, forcing him to scramble behind a larger tree trunk. Then he screamed in pain at the top of his lungs.

  “We have help!” Kyla yelled toward Meechum.

  The other woman had been busy; she’d tossed a red smoke grenade into the field. She crouched by her tree with her rifle draped over her legs, but she was on the radio. “Longbow, do you see us?”

  The radio was loud enough for Kyla to hear. “Wait one!”

  Meechum screamed. “We don’t have any time. They are on our position!”

  A bullet struck the end of Meechum’s rifle, causing it to jerk back on her lap. Kyla didn’t think the woman even noticed, or, if she did, she didn’t care.

  Another rifle crack caught her attention, this time from across the field. It came from the far side. A civilian man and woman hunkered near bushes over there. Much too far for her to hit with her pistol.

  “Meech…” she said with fear.

  Oddly, the man lowered his rifle and waved at her. He made finger guns and somehow, she figured out he was pointing behind her, where the guys had been shot.

  It was the person shooting the attackers with her.

  She waved back.

  The man motioned to the sky over and over.

  She shrugged.

  Meechum was on the radio seemingly arguing with the pilot, so Kyla was left in a weird space all by herself. The injured man continued to scream behind her, but that way appeared clear for now.

  “Pocahontas, keep your head down. I have a shit ton of firepower coming your way.”

  “Bombs?” Kyla wondered aloud. She looked over to the two people who’d saved her life. “Meechum, tell them not to hit that side.” She pointed.

  The Marine glanced over to where she pointed, but the red smoke was obscuring most of the field close by.

  “Longbow, we’re ready for exfil. Be advised, enemy is along south edge of park.”

  Kyla hoped that didn’t include the two helpers, though the pair wasn’t close to the southern boundary. She’d meant to clarify with Meechum, but the woman was already shooting again.

  Then the helicopter practically dropped on top of them. It came down from behind the trees and brushed away all the smoke in seconds.

  “Run!” Meechum screamed to her.

  Kyla looked into the woods, worried someone would shoot her in the back, but no one was there. Meechum furiously waved for her to move, so she did as instructed.

  The tough Marine unloaded on the woods as she backed up toward the copter landing site, like actors did in any number of action hero movies.

  The wind almost blew Kyla backward as the Seahawk hit the ground. The pilot appeared to struggle to hold it there, but it was low enough for her to crouch-run toward the flight deck.

  The machinery was deafening. The rotors and helicopter engine screamed ahead of her, and Meechum continued to fire her rifle behind.

  Kyla was so tired, she misjudged the height of the helicopter and slammed off the metal hull as she tried to jump in. It was those ten extra pounds coming back to bite her.

  “Get in!” The Marine shoved her bodily into the compartment, then she hopped up after her, still carrying her rifle and hefting the backpack.

  “Go!” she bellowed toward the pilot.

  The tireless Marine hooked up Kyla’s tether before doing her own.

  Kyla knew enough to hold on, but she remembered the two people still down on the field.

  “We have to pick them up!” she yelled into the wind.

  The pilot wouldn’t hear a nuclear bomb; he wore the heavy headphones up in the cockpit.

  “Headphones!” she blurted.

  The helo banked out over the field, and for a moment, she had a clear look at the two people hiding in the brush. They weren’t more than fifty feet away.

  “No fucking way!”

  She recognized Uncle Ted easily enough, and that was shocking, but she didn’t know what to make of the woman next to him. Was it the vice president? Kyla leaned far over the edge to watch the figures get smaller. Almost too late, she waved.

  The man waved like crazy, as if he’d recognized her, too.

  “We have to go back!” she cried out.

  The helicopter rose straight up, giving her a sensation of being on an elevator. It wanted to glue her to the floor, but she fought against time and gravity to put on the headphones.

  “Sir, you have to pick them up!” she said the second she had them on.

  Meechum had hers on too. “Negative, our priority is to safely evac.”

  “They saved us! He’s my uncle! That’s our mission!” Spittle came out of her mouth and covered the microphone because she yelled with great force, praying it would convince them.

  “Negative,” the Marine said impatiently. “Our mission was a bust.”

  The helicopter continued to rise straight up, and Kyla got the sense they were evacuating an impending disaster. They rose above the trees quickly enough, but soon rose higher than the twenty-story buildings ringing the edge of the park.

  “But that’s my uncle, I swear,” she said with less enthusiasm. As before, telling military people how to do their jobs was a lost cause. They were already above the city and she couldn’t get them to go back down.

  The pilot interrupted her and Meechum. “We can’t go back down, I’m sorry. They’re here,” he added dryly.

  “Who’s here?” she asked.

  Kyla leaned left and right to see what he was talking about. She heard them before she saw them.

  “Oh, fuck.”

  CHAPTER 26

  Near Chicago, IL

  Tabby glanced over at Donovan, asleep on the front seat. He’d curled up with his shotgun and hadn’t opened his eyes since they’d left St. Louis. Peter and Audrey had been silent for most of the ride too, though she wasn’t sure if they’d fallen asleep or were in shock after their brush with death.

  For her part, Tabby was determined to drive north until she found someone, anyone, who was part of the disaster recovery effort. She imagined their stop in the convent with Sister Rose was a big mistake, because it had given Mom and Dad time to drive away with everyone else. Their delay in downtown St. Louis only made it worse. Now she might never catch up with them.

  She glanced at herself in the rearview mirror. The grim woman staring back soon cracked a smile, however, because it was laughable to think of her parents continuously driving north. Were they going to stop once they reached the North Pole? Tabby was ready to drive that far, if necessary, though she might need skis when they hit the snow.

  The horizon ahead was filled with Chicago’s skyscrapers. Numerous smoke plumes rose into the clouds in front of and behind them, giving the city a washed-out appearance. There had been random fires in St. Louis, and every small town between there and here, but nothing on this scale.

  “Sheesh,” she said to herself.

  Mom and Dad had taken her on an exciting trip to the Windy City back when she was in grade school. Her memories of the vacation destination were mostly limited to what she saw in the digital photos they’d brought back, but she w
ould never forget the trip up into the Sears Tower.

  She followed the tourist signs deeper into the city, always avoiding the fires and traffic blockages, and she did her best to look away from the telltale shirts and pants blowing on the wind. A freak thunderstorm came along and collected streams of clothing in the gutters as she neared her destination.

  A burst of thunder echoed among the skyscrapers, waking everyone up.

  “We’re almost there,” she said matter-of-factly.

  The wiper blades tossed water back and forth, but the rain was already slowing down.

  Peter squeezed his way between the two front seats to get a better look ahead. “Where are we going?”

  “Right here.” Tabby pulled the car onto the curb, only stopping when it was a couple of feet from the revolving door. She shut off the motor, snatched her keys from the ignition, and walked out into the drizzle. This time, she took her shotgun.

  The kids followed her through the large front door. Audrey slipped because of her wet shoes, but Peter grabbed her before she fell.

  “Thanks,” the girl said with relief.

  “Up we go,” she deadpanned. Tabby was tired from being behind the wheel for five hours. The strain of looking around each bend with the surety of seeing the cordon of police vehicles also took a heavy toll on her mental faculties. Now, her emotions were spent and all she wanted to do was get somewhere she could see for miles. Short of flying, it was the quickest way to look ahead.

  The lobby was huge and spacious, with gold trim, fancy furniture, and a third-story skylight. The mall-like enclosure sat next to the building, rather than under it. The open top gave her a view up the side of the black-windowed structure.

  Fifteen minutes later, they came out of the elevator on the observation deck.

  “Wow!” Peter ran directly to the side windows. Audrey and Donovan followed with a bit more restraint.

  Tabby took her time too, mostly to walk around dozens of tourist outfits strewn about on the black carpet. For a short time, Tabby walked toward the windows. The evening view was stunning despite the low clouds and light rain. However, her attention was soon focused on the dead people’s clothing.