“Girl Scouts!” Cindy started to say something and then stopped. “Oh, whatever. So we have water. Now what?” Cindy put a second bottle into her back pack.
“We wait.” Amanda sat down and pulled Cindy and Peter next to her. “Our mothers know we are here; so we wait.
And so they did. They waited, sitting quietly in the dark, illuminated only by occasional flickering lights.
Chapter II
A couple of hours passed and they still could not hear anything except the building groaning and the occasional thump as bricks fell on the floor above them.
“I am a boy and I should know what to do,” said Peter. “I know how to do lots of things on a computer, but we need a bulldozer.”
“I don’t hear anything outside. I don’t think anyone is trying to find us.” Cindy said very quietly.
“Mom thinks I don’t love her. We were fighting when she dropped us off,” Peter said.
“She knows we love her and she loves us,” said Amanda.
“I never fight with my mother,” Cindy said.
“Oh yes, you do. I heard Aunt Janey say you are unbearable when you don’t get your way.” Amanda spoke before she looked at Cindy’s face. “But she knows you love her and I know Aunt Janey and Mom love you.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Peter. “We can’t just stay here, can we?”
“We need to get prepared.” Amanda got up and moved around a bit, trying to look busy and confident.
“Is there anything else down here besides boas?” Amanda saw a backpack and opened it. It was filled with a lot of junk. Amanda dumped it on the floor to see what was in it – a hoodie, a McDonalds’ wrapper, a cigarette pack, and a zip lock bag with two hand rolled cigarettes.
“Hey, that’s Billy’s bag. He’s the stage manager and he gets really mad if you touch his stuff.” Cindy grabbed the bag from Amanda.
“Well Billy’s not here, we are and we need another backpack. Does Aunt Janey know that Billy smokes marijuana? Do you smoke marijuana?” Aunt Janey and her Mom would kill Cindy if they knew about the marijuana.
“Of course not. I’m nine years old. They are just nasty boys. They take that stuff and go into the men’s room and open the door…,” said Cindy.
“What door?” Amanda interrupted.
“There is an old door in the men’s room.” Cindy was really getting excited. “I only saw it once and they got really mad at me for going into the men’s room. It goes somewhere they can smoke and not get caught. It used to be locked all the time, but they found the key. They keep it on top of the door,” said Cindy.
“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” Amanda looked at Cindy and saw how upset she was. “It’s okay. Get your coats and backpacks.” Amanda picked up her backpack.
Amanda put two water bottles into the now empty backpack and handed it to Peter as they walked out into the hall. The floor from upstairs was still groaning like it was about to fall into the basement.
“It’s this way.” Cindy ran down the hall and opened the door to the men’s room.
They walked into the men’s room. The lights were still flickering. On the back wall was an old door. Amanda walked up to it and tried to reach the top of the door to get the key, but she was not tall enough. Amanda was jumping up to feel the top of the door when Cindy suddenly found the key where it had fallen to the floor.
“Give me that.” Amanda grabbed the key and unlocked the door. She tried to pull it open, but it was stuck. She could turn the handle, but the door would not open. “Peter, hold onto me and help me pull.”
Peter wrapped his arms around Amanda’s waist and pulled as hard as he could. The door still did not budge.
“Here, let me help too.” Cindy got behind Peter, wrapped her arms around his waist and started to pull.
“Stop. Okay, we need to pull as hard as we can together. I am going to count to three and on three, we’ll pull. Okay, one, two, three,” Amanda counted.
Amanda, Peter, and Cindy pulled as hard as they could and suddenly the door flew open and Peter fell to the floor landing on top of Cindy. Amanda was hanging above them, still holding onto the door handle.
“Are you okay?” Amanda pulled Peter up off the floor and looked at Cindy who was flat on the floor of the men’s room.
Cindy got up. “Let’s get out of here.”
They pulled the door open wider and saw some old dirt stairs which were reinforced by metal rods. It was extremely dark in the stairwell and they could not see where the stairs went.
“Where does it go?” Amanda asked Cindy.
“I don’t know, but I think it goes to the subway. Billy sometimes goes out that way when he is broke and doesn’t have a subway card.”
“Why is that door here?” asked Peter.
“Mrs. Hannigan says it was used during Prohibition to hide booze,” said Cindy.
“What’s Prohibition? What’s booze?” asked Peter.
“I don’t…” Suddenly there was another loud noise. Amanda ran to the door of the men’s room and looked out into the hall. The building had collapsed some more, debris filled the hall, the electric lights were flashing arcs and some dark liquid was oozing out from under the debris.
Amanda ran back into the men’s room and said. “We have to go. Grab the back packs.” Amanda grabbed the birthday candles and matches, lit a candle and put the rest in her pocket. “I’ll go first. You stay right behind me.”
The children climbed down the stairs. It seemed like over three stories of old musty stairs. There was graffiti on the wood beams and cigarette butts and crushed beer cans everywhere. Above them, they could hear the building continue to collapse and in front of them they could hear noises that sounded like mice squealing.
“Come on, we are almost there.”
Amanda could see a small opening at the end of the stairs where two parts of the overlapping subway wall did not quite close. They climbed on down, Amanda squeezed through the opening in the wall and dropped down into a cold subway tunnel.
“Come here, I will help you down.” Amanda reached up and pulled Cindy and Peter down into the tunnel. “I can see daylight. Don’t go near the third rail. It is that one with the cover on top and if the electricity is on, you could be killed.”
“How do you know that?” asked Cindy.
“My class came to the city on a field trip and we went to the subway museum,” said Amanda. “Look, there is a subway station down there and we can get out.”
“What if a train comes?” Cindy asked.
“I don’t think the trains are running,” said Amanda.
Cindy started to run. “That’s the Broadway Lafayette station. That’s where I get off when I come to the theater. We need to get out of here before a train comes.”
“There’s a rat!” Peter was running too.
It was getting lighter in the tunnel so Amanda put out her birthday candles. “Be careful. Don’t run, walk down the middle and don’t trip.”
Suddenly there was a loud noise and a cloud of dust. The theater had collapsed into the subway behind them. The opening where they had left the stairwell was a huge pile of debris. The children ran to the station and stood on the tracks under the platform. There was no one in sight. The entire station was deserted and they could not hear a sound from the street above. There were no lights in the station except the daylight from the stairways.
“Where is everyone?” asked Cindy.
“I don’t know. But we need to get out of here,” said Amanda.
“It’s too high, we can’t get up.” Peter sounded very scared.
“It’s buddy system time. Peter, sit on my shoulders.” Amanda kneeled down on one knee.
“What?”
“You’re a ninja, remember. Just get on.” Peter climbed on Amanda’s shoulders and sat down.
“What about me?” Cindy sounded really scared.
“You’re next. Now, I am going to stand up next to the wall and you climb up and stand on my shoulders.” Amanda moved nea
r the platform wall.
Peter stood up on Amanda’s shoulders.
“Now climb up on the platform. I’ll push you.”
Peter crawled up on the platform.
“Now lie down on your stomach, give me your hands and help me get Cindy up.”
Cindy climbed on Amanda’s shoulders, stood and pulled herself up on the platform with Peter’s help. Cindy had been enrolled in gymnastics since she was four, so she climbed up quickly.
“Now you two need to pull me up. Lie flat with your heads on the edge and give me your hands.” Amanda grabbed one of Peter and Cindy’s hands and pulled herself up on the platform, using her feet to help her climb up the wall.
Everyone collapsed in a pile on the deserted station floor.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Cindy was still breathing hard.
“I just figured it out. I’m a Girl Scout; it’s called team work.”
“High fives for those Girl Scouts. Where are our mothers?” Now that Cindy was out of the theater and through the tunnel, she was acting like her normal self.
“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here and find them.” Amanda jumped over the turnstile, and turned to help Cindy and Peter go through.
They climbed the stairs and walked out onto Lafayette Street and stopped. The street was deserted. There was not a soul in sight. Empty cars clogged the streets. Jets were screaming through the sky and all the stores were empty, many with their doors wide open.
“What happened?” Cindy said in a very small voice.
“I don’t know.” Amanda was in shock.
“Where are Mom and Aunt Janey?” Peter was scared.
“I don’t know. But right now, I have to be your Mom. I promised Mom that I would look after you and I will,” said Amanda.
“You’ll look after Peter but you don’t even like me.” Cindy was starting to cry.
“No, no. I am going to take care of you. I promise,” said Amanda. “In here.” A restaurant door was open and the children walked inside.
Amanda pulled out her cell phone and started to dial. Cindy quickly pulled hers out of her backpack and started dialing too.
“I don’t have any bars,” Cindy said.
“I don’t either. But don’t panic. We have to get out of here. But we can use the bathroom first.” Amanda was getting this babysitting thing down.
All three children went to the back of the restaurant and down a hallway where they found the bathrooms. As they were coming back into the hallway, they heard some people running into the restaurant and a loud smashing sound. Amanda grabbed Peter and Cindy and pulled them flat up against the hallway wall.
“Don’t use a hammer. We have to open the drawer.” Suddenly there was a gun shot. “Grab the money and go.” There was a sound of people running away from the restaurant.
“They’re looters. They have a gun,” Cindy whispered.
“Hush, don’t move and don’t talk.” Amanda pulled Cindy and Peter close to her.
“What are looters?” whispered Peter.
“Looters are bad people who steal things when we have a black out,” whispered Cindy.
“What’s a black out?” asked Peter.
“It’s when the lights go out.” The children huddled in the hall way as the lights flickered.
“Why don’t you ask your mother to flip the breakers?” asked Peter.
“The lights go out in the entire city,” said Cindy.
“All the lights go out? I am never coming back to New York,” said Peter. “Are you scared?”
“We all are,” Amanda said.
“What happened?” Cindy whispered.
“Well, it wasn’t just the theater. Something happened to the city.” Amanda was trying very hard to be brave.
“Where did everyone go?” asked Peter.
“I don’t know but we will get out of here and we will find our mothers. It will be all right, you’ll see,” said. Amanda.
“What do we do?” Cindy was starting to shake.
“We need to go somewhere where people can find us,” Amanda said.
“We can go back to the theater and wait out front for Aunt Melanie and Mom.” Cindy started to walk towards the door.
“No, wait, let me look outside first.” Amanda pulled them back. “You two get under that booth and be very quiet. I will be right back.”
Peter and Cindy crawled under a booth and sat flat against the wall. Amanda walked to the open door and looked outside. Everywhere there were collapsed buildings. Not every building, but enough to let her know that something really bad had happened. And all over the streets, on the curbs, and in the middle of the road were empty cars. But no people. Amanda could hear people on the streets, but they sounded far away.
Amanda came back in. “Come on. Cindy, which way is the theater?”
“It’s right across this street and down a block.”
Cindy ran across Houston, weaving through the cars with Amanda and Peter close behind. They ran a few blocks to what had been the theater and stared in awe at a heap of bricks.
“We were in there?” Peter asked.
“Yes, we were and we got out. But I don’t see any cars moving anywhere. I don’t think Mom is going to come. She can’t drive with all those empty cars blocking the streets,” said Amanda.”
Amanda looked at Cindy and Peter’s faces. “But we are going to be okay anyway. We can pretend we are the hobbits from Lord of the Rings. They were very scared but they were very brave. We can be too.”
“They had furry toes,” said Cindy.
“But they were brave, anyway,” Amanda said in her most grown up voice.
“What do we do now?” Peter was wandering down the street.
“We can go to my apartment,” Cindy said. “It’s just sixteen blocks away. Sometimes Mom and I walk home from the theater.”
“Okay.” The children ran back across Houston and started heading north towards 16th Street where Cindy and Aunt Janey lived. Amanda held Peter and Cindy’s hands as they traveled on the sidewalk, staying close to the buildings.
“Be very quiet,” Amanda whispered. “We don’t know where the looters went.”
The children had walked about three blocks north when suddenly they saw four men carrying boxes emerging from a building a couple of blocks ahead. They men turned and started running towards them. Amanda quickly pulled the children down a side street and down the stairs of a brownstone.
“Who are those people?” Cindy was starting to whimper.
“Shh! I think they are more looters. I don’t know why they are on the street and no one else is. Where did everyone go? Something really bad has happened. Why are there jets overheard and no helicopters? Where are the police?” asked Amanda.
“I am really scared. Where is our Mom?” asked Peter.
“I’m scared too and boy would I like to see a nice person. But so far, it is just us and we are just going to have to pretend to be brave until we get out of this. Can you two do that? Pretend to be brave?” Amanda looked at both of them. “I know, I’ll be a girl Seal and Peter you can be a Ninja and Cindy can be a flying acrobat.”
“My Daddy is in the Navy. I want to be a Seal too,” said Cindy.
“Your Dad’s a Naval Reserve JAG lawyer. He’s not a Seal.” Amanda looked at Cindy and changed her tone. It was hard to always have to be a grownup. “But that’s okay, we can be two girl Seals. And if we need a gymnast or an acrobat, you can be that too.”
“You can be Cat Woman,” said Peter.
“Who is that?”
“You know, Batman and Cat Woman! She has furry toes, just like the hobbits.” Peter sounded calmer now that he had a chance to “get” Cindy. “See that rat over there, go get him Cat Woman!”
“You are so lame.”
“Stop fighting. We have to stick together. I don’t hear the looters anymore; I think they are gone. Let me see if anyone is in this building. Maybe someone will help us.” Amanda knocked on the door to the ba
sement apartment. She thought she had heard some noise while they were hiding. She kept knocking, but no one answered. Amanda peered into the window and saw an elderly woman standing behind a large upholstered chair.
Amanda banged on the window. “Please let us in.”
“Go away, you’re poisoned,” the old woman called out.
“We are not poisoned. We are just kids who are being chased by some bad people,” said Amanda.
“I can’t help you. Go home,” said the old woman.
“My home is in Connecticut,” said Amanda.
“Please, please go away.” The old woman sounded very sad.
“Why won’t she let us in?” Peter asked. “We are not poison, we are just kids.”
“Come on, let’s go to Cindy’s apartment.” Amanda pulled both children up, walked up the stairs and peered up the street. “It looks okay, but you two stay right next to me.”
The children ran up Lafayette, heading towards 16th Street where Cindy and her parents lived at 16th and Third. Jets were screeching above and somewhere off in the distance they could hear a siren, but it sounded far away. They were just about to pass Eighth Street when they saw three men breaking a store window. The men turned and one of them yelled, “Hey, blondie, come here. Who’s a pretty girl?” The man started to laugh and run towards Amanda.
Amanda had never been so frightened in her life. Peter was frozen. But Cindy grabbed both of them and pulled them towards the subway entrance. “Run, Amanda. We have to get away from them.”
The children ran down the stairs of the deserted subway station and stopped at the turnstile. Amanda quickly jumped over the turnstile and turned to help Peter and Cindy crawl under. They ran to the platform and Amanda lowered herself.
“Get on your stomachs and lower your legs over the platform.” Amanda could see the first of the men at the bottom of the stairway. She quickly pulled Peter and Cindy down into the tunnel and pulling them by their hands, ran into the tunnel.
The man chased them to the edge of the subway platform and stopped. “Okay, run along little girl. You’re too young to be much fun anyway.”
They were back in the subway tunnel.
The Big Apple Posse Trilogy Page 2
