The door was locked. She picked up the brickand turned. The man skidded on the filthy alley surface as he turnedinto the areaway.
The girl raised the brick over her head. "Keep away! Stay away from me!"
"Wait a minute! Take it easy. I'm not going to hurt you!"
"Get away!"
Her arm moved downward. The man rushed in and caught her wrist. Thebrick went over his shoulder and the nails of her other hand raked hisface. He seized her without regard for niceties and they went to theground. She fought with everything she had and he methodicallyneutralized all her weapons--her hands, her legs, her teeth--until shecould not move.
"Leave me alone. Please!"
"What's wrong with you? I'm not going to hurt you. But I'm not going tolet you hit me with a brick, either!"
"What do you want? Why did you chase me?"
"Look--I'm a peaceful guy, but I'm not going to let you get away. Ispent all afternoon looking for somebody. I found you and you ran away.I came after you."
"I haven't done anything to you."
"That's silly talk. Come on--grow up! I said I'm not going to hurt you."
"Let me up."
"So you can run away again? Not for a while. I want to talk to you."
"I--I won't run. I was scared. I don't know why. You're hurting me."
He got up--gingerly--and lifted her to her feet. He smiled, stillholding both her hands. "I'm sorry. I guess it's natural for you to bescared. My name's Frank Brooks. I just want to find out what the hellhappened to this town."
He let her withdraw her hands, but he still blocked her escape. Shemoved a pace backward and straightened her clothing. "I don't know whathappened. I was looking for someone too."
He smiled again. "And then you ran."
"I don't know why. I guess--"
"What's your name."
"Nora--Nora Spade."
"You slept through it too?"
"Yes ... yes. I slept through it and came out and they were all gone."
"Let's get out of this alley." He preceded her out, but he waited forher when there was room for them to walk side by side, and she did nottry to run away. That phase was evidently over.
"I got slipped a mickey in a tavern," Frank Brooks said. "Then theyslugged me and put me in a hole."
His eyes questioned. She felt their demand and said, "I was--asleep inmy hotel room."
"They overlooked you?"
"I guess so."
"Then you don't know anything about it?"
"Nothing. Something terrible must have happened."
"Let's go down this way," Frank said, and they moved toward MadisonStreet. He had taken her arm and she did not pull away. Rather, shewalked invitingly close to him.
She said, "It's so spooky. So ... empty. I guess that's what scared me."
"It would scare anybody. There must have been an evacuation of somekind."
"Maybe the Russians are going to drop a bomb."
Frank shook his head. "That wouldn't explain it. I mean, the Russianswouldn't let us know ahead of time. Besides, the army would be here.Everybody wouldn't be gone."
"There's been a lot of talk about germ warfare. Do you suppose thewater, maybe, has been poisoned?"
He shook his head. "The same thing holds true. Even if they moved thepeople out, the army would be here."
"I don't know. It just doesn't make sense."
"It happened, so it has to make sense. It was something that came up allof a sudden. They didn't have much more than twenty-four hours." Hestopped suddenly and looked at her. "We've got to get out of here!"
Nora Spade smiled for the first time, but without humor. "How? I haven'tseen one car. The buses aren't running."
His mind was elsewhere. They had started walking again. "Funny I didn'tthink of that before."
"Think of what?"
"That anybody left in this town is a dead pigeon. The only reason they'dclear out a city would be to get away from certain death. That wouldmean death is here for anybody that stays. Funny. I was so busy lookingfor somebody to talk to that I never thought of that."
"I did."
"Is that what you were scared of?"
"Not particularly. I'm not afraid to die. It was something else thatscared me. The aloneness, I guess."
"We'd better start walking west--out of the city. Maybe we'll find a caror something."
"I don't think we'll find any cars."
He drew her to a halt and looked into her face. "You aren't afraid atall, are you?"
She thought for a moment. "No, I guess I'm not. Not of dying, that is.Dying is a normal thing. But I was afraid of the empty streets--nobodyaround. That was weird."
"It isn't weird now?"
"Not--not as much."
"I wonder how much time we've got?"
Nora shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm hungry."
"We can fix that. I broke into a restaurant a few blocks back and gotmyself a sandwich. I think there's still food around. They couldn't takeit all with them."
They were on Madison Street and they turned east on the south side ofthe street. Nora said, "I wonder if there are any other people stillhere--like us?"
"I think there must be. Not very many, but a few. They would have had toclean four million people out overnight. It stands to reason they musthave missed a few. Did you ever try to empty a sack of sugar? Reallyempty it? It's impossible. Some of the grains always stick to the sack."
A few minutes later the wisdom of this observation was proven when theycame to a restaurant with the front window broken out and saw a man anda woman sitting at one of the tables.
* * * * *
He was a huge man with a shock of black hair and a mouth slightly openshowing a set of incredibly white teeth. He waved an arm and shouted,"Come on in! Come on in for crissake and sit down! We got beer and roastbeef and the beer's still cold. Come on in and meet Minna."
This was different, Nora thought. Not eerie. Not weird, like seeing aman standing on a deserted street corner with no one else around. Thisseemed normal, natural, and even the smashed window didn't detract toomuch from the naturalness.
They went inside. There were chairs at the table and they sat down. Thebig man did not get up. He waved a hand toward his companion and said,"This is Minna. Ain't she something? I found her sitting at an empty barscared to death. We came to an understanding and I brought her along."He grinned at the woman and winked. "We came to a real understanding,didn't we, Minna?"
Minna was a completely colorless woman of perhaps thirty-five. Her skinwas smooth and pale and she wore no makeup of any kind. Her hair wasdrawn straight back into a bun. The hair had no predominating color. Itwas somewhere between light brown and blond.
She smiled a little sadly, but the laugh did not cover her worn, tiredlook. It seemed more like a gesture of obedience than anything else."Yes. We came to an understanding."
"I'm Jim Wilson," the big man boomed. "I was in the Chicago Avenue jugfor slugging a guy in a card game. They kind of overlooked me when theycleaned the joint out." He winked again. "I kind of helped them overlookme. Then I found Minna." There was tremendous relish in his words.
Frank started introductions which Nora Spade cut in on. "Maybe you knowwhat happened?" she asked.
Wilson shook his head. "I was in the jug and they didn't tell us. Theyjust started cleaning out the joint. There was talk in thebullpen--invasion or something. Nobody knew for sure. Have some beer andmeat."
Nora turned to the quiet Minna. "Did you hear anything?"
"Naw," Wilson said with a kind of affectionate contempt. "She don't knowanything about it. She lived in some attic dump and was down with a sorethroat. She took some pills or something and when she woke up they weregone."
"I went to work and--" Minna began, but Wilson cut her off.
"She swabs out some joints on Chicago Avenue for a living and that washow she happened to be sitting in that tavern. It's payday, and Minnawas waiting for her dough!" He exploded into laug
hter and slapped thetable with a huge hand. "Can you beat that? Waiting for her pay at atime like this."
Frank Brooks set down his beer bottle. The beer was cold and it tastedgood. "Have you met anybody else? There must be some other peoplearound."
"Uh-uh. Haven't met anybody but Minna." He turned his eyes on the womanagain, then got to his feet. "Come on,
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