Then Came War (17 page)

But unfortunately, it was more of the same. No people. No noise.

They had even found a radio when they were holed up in an old house while Lana was recuperating. But that didn’t provide them any information. They heard only one station and it played bad music.

There was no news and it was as if nothing had happened.

They were peddling in their own twilight zone.

Then they saw a McDonald’s.

They had gotten off the highway and figured, even if it was closed, they would find things in there they could eat. After all, they had found things like cookies, bread and juice boxes in other McDonalds.

But when they got there they found it had been wiped clean.

The McDonald’s still had electricity but nothing remained in the freezer— not a meat patty or a bag of frozen French fries … nothing.

Even the Apple Juice boxes were gone.

Someone had cleaned out the McDonalds and it was the first time they had seen that.

Who wiped it out?

As they were leaving the establishment they saw the sign for the small town.

Agabarn – two miles.

It was down a nothing road off the highway.

Did the people in the small town wipe out their McDonald’s?

Figuring it was two more miles and what would it hurt to check it out, Lana and Ben headed to Agabarn.

***

Brendan opened his eyes, not because his body had rested enough to awake him, but because the continuous calling of ‘Mr. Doe’ brought him to wakefulness. He wondered who this Mr. Doe was and why he wouldn’t respond.

Last he recalled he had run into Allied forces, American soldiers, and they had taken him with them in the back of their truck.

He had fallen asleep.

“Mr. Doe.”

It was when he fully opened his eyes that he realized the soldier standing above him was talking to him.

“Are you talking to me?” Brendan asked.

“Yes, sir.”

He groaned and sat up. “My name is Brendan Lane.”

“Mr. Lane, how are you feeling? I’m Captain Weurl.”

“Groggy,” Brendan responded as he sat up., “But good.” He looked around. He was in a tent, lying on a cot. “How did I get here?”

“My men picked you up yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” Brendan freaked.

“Yes, sir, you passed out. Are you hungry?”

“Very much so., I don’t know when I ate last.”

“Good. I brought you a hot meal.” The Captain said, laying a warm brown pouch on his stomach and handing him a fork. “Hope you like ham.”

Swinging his feet to the floor, Brendan looked at the Meals Ready to Eat package and chuckled while thinking ‘warm meal.’

“Sir, I have a question to ask you.”

“Sure.” Brendan opened the pouch.

“Where did you come from?”

“Today or when I was born?”

“When my men found you,” he said. “Where were you coming from?”

“Oh, God. You’re not gonna believe this.”

“Try me.” The captain pulled up a chair.

“I was riding a train in New York. It crashed. When I came up with other survivors, everyone was dead. People in the street, in cars, everywhere I went everyone was dead.”

“You know the United States was attacked, right?”

“I figured as much and assume enemy is not friendly,” Brendan said as he took a bite. “Wow, this is good.”

“You must be hungry,” the captain said with a smile.

“I am.” Brendan took another bite. “Anyhow, they aren’t friendly; I was shot at nineteen times. But damn if I didn’t make it out of there.”

“From New York City to Boston to the ocean is occupied territory,” the Captain explained. “They did have Philly for a while, but we took it back. But you were in New York City?”

“Yes. For a couple days,” Brendan said.

“I realize you were running and trying to get out of there, but you are the only person that has made it out of New York alive. We think they are using New York as their main hub. Did you see anything there that may indicate that? This is very important.”

“Yeah, actually, I did. There were a lot of convoys, trucks, tents; it was a huge set up.”

“Do you think you can recall what all you saw?” the Captain asked.

“I can do better than that,” Brendan said. “I can tell you where it is.”

On that, the Captain smiled.

***

Foster hadn’t a clue how long he had been sleeping, but he woke with a start and to the sound of children laughing and playing. He sat up. A blanket that smelled kind of musty had been covering him and he was asleep on a sofa in what looked like a recreation room from 1950.

A little girl looked up at him as he sat up.

“You were snoring,” she giggled and ran off.

Where was he? Where was Judith? He knew he was safe. After helping Manny and the others load the truck, they had driven somewhere beyond Brunswick, New Jersey. They had pulled into an underground parking facility. On the bottom level was a hole in the wall. It looked as if it were just made.

“We’ll cover that with the box truck,” Manny told him, “after we get everything inside.”

“Where are we going?” Foster asked.

“Gonna educate you,” Manny told him. “I was recently educated myself. Back in the cold war, civil defense was ready for nuclear war. They built fallout shelters, stocked them and then the threat left and they were kind of abandoned. They weren’t cleared out though. Well, most weren’t; they were resupplied periodically.”

“So you found one?”

“Miss Betty told us about it. She works for the county. Our camp is occupying the three shelters in this area. We use the one under the court house as the main one. All of them can be accessed from this garage. We cover our entrances with trucks.”

Manny explained to Foster that a lot of people tried to leave New Jersey when the attacks occurred. But then continuous airstrikes were killing a lot of people. Miss Betty lived in Manny’s apartment complex and she had given him the idea of going to the shelters to be safe. Within days, they were bringing more and people inside. That was the reason they had to go out to get more supplies.

Foster was impressed.

It was semi dirty, but they were cleaning it. It was old fashioned, but it was underground and safe.

Foster was alone in the room but it was not long before three children raced in, followed immediately by a thin black woman, who looked to be in her forties. “Now, come on, the boy is …” she paused in scooting the children from the room. “You’re awake?”

“Yeah,” Foster said as he scratched his head. “What time is it?”

“A little after two. You just missed breakfast, but I can get you something.”

“I’m good. Manny fed us when we got here. I have a friend.”

“Judith?”

“Yes. Where is she?”

“She’s with Doc Baker.”

“A real doctor?”

“Yes. Are you sure I can’t get you something to eat?”

“I’m sure. Thank you. I would like to see Judith.”

“Sure, baby, come with me.”

She gave him a gentle smile and he followed her. In route to where the doctor had his set up, she told him he was in Camp A. It was the main one and the bigger one of the three. She pointed to the door where he could get cleaned up and showed him where he could get clothes. She pointed toward the far end and told him that was where he could get his food rations from the infamous Miss Betty. Everyone had daily rations and it was up to him what he did with them. He could save a meal for later, if he wished. The only thing he wasn’t permitted to do was waste.

That he understood.

***

“What the hell?” Ben blurted as they walked on the side of the road with their bikes.

“What? What is it?” Lana asked.

“I just saw a man.”

Lana heaved out a sigh and smiled. “You saw someone, are you sure?”

“Yeah, just beyond that truck up there.” Ben indicated the truck parked in a gas station at the edge of the small town.

Lana took a second to process the possibility of finding a person, a live person, and then it hit her. “Wait. Was it a soldier?”

“Not unless they wear flannel shirts.”

“Flannel?” Lana cocked her head back. “In April?”

Ben chuckled and with a burst of enthusiasm they picked up speed, still refraining from riding the bikes.

As they neared the parked truck the town came into view. Ben noticed it right away that every window and every shop in the town was boarded up. The only cars on the street were the truck at the gas station and one directly across the street from it.

“Look at this place.”

“You think the enemy was already here?”

“Hold it!” a male voice called to them. “Just stop where you are.”

Ben and Lana stopped.

“Passing through or refugees?” the voice asked but they did not see anyone.

Ben replied, “Passing through. We’ve been biking for days to get north. But if you have a place we can safely rest, we’d appreciate it.”

“Well, if you’re staying a few days you’ll have to register with our refugee center.” Rick finally emerged from behind the truck, gave a short whistle and another man came from behind the other truck. Rick then turned and faced the town, waving his hand and doing a bird call.

In the distance, a bird call responded.

Rick faced Ben and Lana. He held a rifle.

“Whoa!” Ben held up his hands. “Can you point that thing another way? We aren’t armed.”

“Why not?” Rick asked.

“Huh?” Lana replied, dumfounded. “Did you ask, why not?”

“Yeah, why not?” Rick shook his head.

Lana shrugged. “We don’t really believe in having guns.”

Rick laughed. “Get the hell out of here. Really? Got a war happening, foreign country invading our land and you all are wandering the countryside unarmed? What the heck did you two plan on doing if you were faced with the armed enemy? Did you plan to lift your arms, asked them to join hands and sing
Give Peace a Chance
? Don’t answer that. That was one of those rhetoric questions.”

“Rhetorical,” Ben corrected him. “You meant to say rhetorical.”

“Here we are letting you into our home and you’re correcting my grammar?”

“I’m sorry,” Ben shook his head “That was rude.”

“It was,” Rick said, waving them to follow him. “But I’ll let it go because you two really can’t be all that smart if you’re wandering around without a weapon. Gees.”

With Rick a good ten feet ahead of them, and confident he couldn’t hear, Ben leaned toward Lana and whispered. “Don’t get too comfortable. We aren’t staying long.”

Lana only nodded her complete agreement.

***

Judith looked good.

Foster leaned in the doorway peeking in on her as the women finished up with her. Her hair had been washed, combed and pulled back neatly. She wore a plain colored tee shirt, a sweater and a pair of jeans.

“Just remember what the doctor told you. Keep to the regimen he prescribed. The woman squeezed a bottle in Judith’s hand. “Oh, you have a visitor.”

“Jimmy?” Judith called to him. “Honey, is that you?”

“Yeah. You look good Jude,” Foster told her. “All cleaned up and stuff.”

“Rosemary here did that for me. She said I looked a little worse for wear.”

Foster snickered. “I guess I didn’t do too good a job picking out clothes for you.”

“Don’t be silly, Jimmy, I am sure you did wonderful considering what you had.”

“Well, you couldn’t see yourself, so I was good.”

Rosemary smiled pleasantly at Foster. “You can take her back to the family room or to get food. I don’t believe she’s eaten yet. She needs to keep up her strength. Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” Foster walked over to the table and laid his hand on Judith’s. “What did the doctor say?”

Rosemary answered, “She sees light and dark, as you know. And she was able to distinguish that Doc was saving his hand in front of her. That’s a great indication that she can see shadows as well. Doc Baker says it may not be permanent. She may never see like she did before, but some sight will probably come back. She has to keep up the anti inflammatory medication.”

Foster grinned. “Wow, that is awesome news. I am so happy. Did he say how long?”

Judith replied, “When I met you Jimmy, I didn’t have dark and light and today I have shadows. He said a day, a week, a month. Who knows? But it will come back some and then I get to see your handsome face.”

“You may wanna reserve that comment.”

Rosemary chuckled. “Don’t let him kid you, Judith, he’s a very handsome young man.”

“He’s been my angel, so he could look like the Elephant Man and I’d think he was Brad Pitt,” Judith said.

“Ha!” Foster laughed. “Man, you’re old school. Elephant man? Brad Pitt? Plus, you know if you’re gonna go old school, then I’d rather be compared with a younger Denzel Washington. How’s that?”

“A young black man helping an old blind Jewish woman make her way across a war torn America,” Judith said as she shook her head. “Isn’t that just the perfect tag for a movie of the week on
Lifetime
?”

Rosemary laughed. “It’ll have the happy ending, too. I’ll let you guys go. If you get lost down here, anyone can help. Good luck.” She left the room.

“Shall we?” Foster gave a squeeze to her hand.

“We shall.” Judith slid from the examining table. “Then after we get something in our bellies, we need to talk,” she said seriously. “I need to talk to you.”

Foster muttered, “Sure.” He didn’t know what Judith needed or wanted to talk to him about. Probably wanted to tell him thanks, but she didn’t need him hanging around her anymore since they were safe and there were others that could do it. He liked hanging around Judith. She was good people. He hoped that wasn’t the case, but he would understand if it was. It would be par for the course. Every grown up he actually did like being around always seemed to leave him.

***

Tyler was hanging out in the refugee registration area. Actually, it was the library and they had school there in the back. Not that Tyler went to school, he didn’t. But he liked to listen in, and he was trying to find out about that rock. It was his personal puzzle.