They Walk

Chapter Seventy Six

Randy begins to back up, and when he turns to walk away, I realize he means for us to follow him already. And why do I suddenly feel like Alice getting ready to fall down the rabbit hole? Well, at least I know what to kind of expect, and I know Alice certainly didn’t, point for me. Gabe doesn’t hesitate to follow after him, and I don’t want to be that far from Gabe, so I follow them too. I hear my parents coming after me, and we all get led down the dim narrow corridor, which turns into another set of stairs. The door at our backs slams shut, making me jump a good foot in the air, and I would have fallen headfirst down the steps if Gabe did grab my waist.

“Latch the hook on the door there, if you don’t mind will you.” Randy calls over his shoulder, as he is already reaching the bottom of the stairs.

From behind me, my dad latches the hook around the lock at the top of the door.

I don’t know if it’s good or bad that it’s secured. But that isn’t that big as Gabe’s flare is dimming more now, and pretty soon all the light we will have is Randy’s flashlight. This doesn’t sit well with me, and my skin crawls with the fear of being in the dark. Randy is at the bottom of the stairs now and as we get closer, I can see that there is another door made out of a heavy looking stele. When all of us are squeezed into the small landing at the bottom and directly in front of the door, Randy raises his hand and bangs on it.

The sound radiates in the small space, and I don’t even have time to wonder why we are waiting, when the door opens inward and I see another familiar face. It’s Randy’s partner Brady from the apartments. He looks about the same as before too, with his dark eyes and brown hair. He seems to hold himself a little more with assurance, something he didn’t have the last time we met. Or maybe I’m just overthinking and he is just in bad mood.

He doesn’t notice the rest of us at first, as his eyes are all for Randy.

“Did you find what was making all that noise up there?”

Randy doesn’t say anything, rather he steps aside as the space allows, and reveals us to him. If it’s possible, his eyes go so wide I swear they are going to fall of his face.

“Well I’ll be. Dan is going to shit a brick.”

Did he just say Dan?

So that means my brother is here and he is well enough to complain. I seriously have to stop myself from charging past them and screaming for him. Instead I cling to Gabe’s side as Randy chuckles at Brady, and steps up beside him so that they are both in the small door way.

He reaches up and squeezes the back of his neck with a smirk on his face. “Yeah, I know he is.”

He immediately walks into the room without saying another word or even looking back to make sure we follow. So, we do the only thing we can do, we follow into a new room. The first thing I notice as I walk inside is that it’s brighter in here and not from a flashlight or candles. Looking up I notice that there are strings of Christmas lights circling all along the walls, and they are all on and blinking. This brings me to the second thing I notice, which is a vibrating generator across the room, that is obviously giving them power. The third thing I notice is that there is actual furniture in the room.

And I mean home goods furniture, like a sofa, loveseat, recliner and even a coffee table.

“Nice digs.” Gabe says under his breath.

I have to agree with him, the entire room is pretty good sized, and with its low ceilings and cement walls, it actually feels kind of nice. Good to know they are all living in comfort.

We don’t stay in here for long though, and before I have time to take it all in, Randy is already heading for an open doorway that looks like it leads into another room like this one.

“We haven’t been here for very long, but we have managed to swipe some stuff from the place upstairs.” Randy says over his shoulder as he hurries into the other room.

Still sticking close to one another, we pace after Randy, but when Gabe tenses in my arms I know we can’t keep playing show and tell. We have to tell Randy about the bombs coming and sooner rather than later too. Randy crosses into the new room with Gabe and I right on his heels, and Gabe clears his throat and I have the feeling he is about to take the plunge in confessing.

“We have something that needs to be discussed, it’s kind of important.” Gabe admits.

Randy turns around and faces us with an uncomfortable expression on his face, and Brady is right beside him now looking about the same. They are both blocking the opening of the room, but it really doesn’t matter since we are about to tell them that the world is ending as we know it. I give Gabe’s arm a comforting squeeze, like trying to tell him to go ahead and that it’ll be alright. I don’t know if that is even true though, because my parents are right next to me now and my mom looks worse than she did before. But we all wait patiently for Gabe to explain, and I think the guys sense that it’s a difficult situation, because they don’t rush him.

“We ended up making it to the Collisee, and they got word that air bombs are flying in sometime tomorrow to eradicate the dead.”

He finishes by taking a deep breath, and all I can do is hold mine, as we wait for their reaction to the whole thing. Brady starts right in by swearing and shaking his head like his disbelief will make it not true, but Randy remains calm. It’s almost creepy how calm he is, and all he does is just stares down Gabe, like he too is testing the truth in the matter.

He must believe it though, because he just nods his head once.

“Well, it’s a good thing we’re in a bomb shelter then isn’t it?”

Then he just turns around and makes his way into the room, with Brady following after him still in shock. We finally get a good view of the room now, and it pretty much looks identical to the one we just left, minus the generator though. Another thing that is different is that there are two sets off hallways that lead to the left and the right of the room and there are other people in here. They are all staring at us with wide eyes as soon as Randy walked away. A familiar figure amongst them sticks out to me and my heart swells at the sight of him. No it’s not an ex-boyfriend or anything, it’s my brother.

And if you have been through all that I have just to see him again, your heart would swell like the Grinch seeing the Who’s in Whoville singing at Christmas morning.

Seriously.