They Walk

Chapter Sixty Seven

My arms and legs are limp, and all I can do is staring out at the empty apartment. My parents have too, come to a stop and stare wide eyed around the room, but not Gabe. He is looking through some paper’s that are littering a coffee table in the middle of the room.

“We never should have left.” I say so softly I’m not sure I even spoke out loud.

But my mother turns to me with tears in her eyes, and I know that I have. She comes over to me then, and sits beside me on the floor.

“Maggie, you guys did what you had to do. And we don’t know for sure if anything bad happened to them, maybe they just left for someplace else.”

I glance at her, but I don’t feel anything inside as I do. She might be right, but what can we do about it now anyways?

“Besides, your father and I would still be stuck at Bates, if you guys thought our empty house meant the worst.”

I just stare at her in silence, because really what can I possibly say to that. I know she is trying to make me feel better, but it just feels like I was forced to choose between them without even knowing about it. Even if the others are hiding some place, we can’t do anything about it now. All we can do now is try to get to the border before the bombs go off. But as I sit here feeling as empty as the building, I have to wonder if we should all just stay here and give up. Not wanting my mother to see this on my face, I force myself to look away from her, and back to the room instead.

My dad is now helping Gabe search through all the papers on the coffee table and I wonder for a moment what they could be looking for. I don’t have to wonder long though, because Gabe holds up a manila envelope to my dad, and they are both grinning like banshees. Gabe turns to me then, and he looks the happiest he’s been in a while, and all I can feel is confusion.

Obviously I’ve missed something, and have no idea what is so good about a freaking envelope.

My mother gets to her feet suddenly, and rushes over to Gabe and my father. The three of them gaze at the envelope, and now I’m feeling something else, irritation.

“It’s addressed to us Maggie, all of us that left here a couple weeks ago.” Gabe says too loud for my ears.

But when it registers what he said, the fog in my mind clears and I stare up at the three of them dumbly.

“…Seriously?”

Still grinning, Gabe nods at me and I finally feel the giddiness that they are all feeling. Maybe they all did leave for some place better after all, and even better it seems they left something for us. Getting to my feet by pushing up along the way, I wave my free that isn’t still clutching the ax, towards the letter.

“Well open it already.”

With shaking fingers, Gabe pries the crease of the envelope apart and pulls until the top is completely open. Holding it up and gazing inside, his grin gets even wider, if that’s possible. He then pulls out two sheets of paper, and the rest of us wait in anticipation to find out what it says. He quickly skims it before finally looking back up at us.

“They did leave for someplace else. Apparently someone that lived here used to work for the county record office, and found out there were tunnels running under the city from the sixties.”

“And?” My dad says, with an annoyed look.

My mother shushes him and smacks him lightly on the arm, whereas I can’t help to think, so what.

“And, that isn’t the only thing under the city. There was a bomb shelter built and then boarded up after the city realized no one needed it. Randy says that they found out where the old entrance of it is, and after sending a scout, they decided to hide out there.”

Taking a deep breath, Gabe pauses, he holds up the other piece of paper that was in the envelope.

“This is a map to where the entrance is, and Maggie, it’s down the street a ways at City Hall.”

I’m grinning now along with them, and I just can’t believe it.

Of all the places for them to flee to, it’s a freaking bomb shelter.

A bomb shelter!

It’s perfect that they are so close, and the entire better to get out of the line of fire when the actual bombs hit. My parents embrace one another, and I can see the tears of happiness in their eyes. Gabe turns and saunters over to me, and when he’s almost within touching distance he stops just shy of me. I gaze up at him, actually feel a twinge of hope that we’ll find Dan and everything will be okay.

“We should get out of here, no?” I whisper to him.

Everything that happens next is like a blur to me, and before I know it, we’re back in the car and leaving the apartments. Lucky for us too, that there wasn’t any more of the dead for us to have to fight with. So the trip to the car was a fast one, and I may not have missed anything, all I know is I didn’t even argue when Gabe offered to help me down the stairs. With a newly lit flare in his one hand and the ax in mine, we quickly followed my parents outside.

I noticed that it was getting lighter when we went through the doors to the parking lot, and it’s getting closer to the end of the clock we’re ticking away on. Back in the car though, Gabe and I are up front again with my parents in the back, by the time I actually feel like myself again. I worry slightly that my headache is causing me to lose time, but I dismiss it, I just think I’m excited that things might be going our way for once. None of says anything, too worked up to know what to say I’m sure, and I just stare out the window and watch the closer we get to seeing my brother.

Gabe is pulling the car back onto the bridge now, and is already speeding through all the debris and heading in the opposite way we came in. The City Hall building is just a mile or so down the road and at the heart of the city. The closer we get, the slower Gabe has to drive, because the road gets more and more littered with things. About halfway there, I notice that there is something in the middle of the road up ahead. No scratch that, nothing something, someone’s and yes, plural.

“Gabe, what is that?” I say in a rushed whisper.

The damn moose we got hit by the last time we were hear flashes in my mind and I squint my eyes and lean forward to get a better look. Gabe slows the car to a slow crawl the closer we get, and I finally have a very clear look for what is blocking our path into Auburn. Standing single file, are a group of men dressed in army gear.

But from the way they point their shotguns at us, and have ski masks on?

I don’t really think that they are affiliated with the military.