Regardless, his friend was now missing and Samuel was stranded with Mason and Noah, both of whom were wet, cold and frightened. His immediate priority had to be keeping both of them safe and then they could all work together to try and find Austin. There was no point running off blindly and putting all of their lives in danger.
“Are you both okay? Are either of you hurt?”
Noah whimpered and held onto his older brother tighter, his little body shivering and his teeth chattering. Mason looked up at Samuel and shook his head before his eyes also drifted out to the river in search of Austin. Samuel knew what the boy must be thinking and he wished he knew what was the right thing to say – Austin was much better at this sort of thing than he was, Samuel didn’t yet completely understand how to act and behave around children.
“Austin will be all right,” he said, aware that he couldn’t leave the subject entirely untouched. “We’ll find him again further down the river. He will have just taken his canoe to another point. Why don’t we dry off and warm up a bit, then we’ll head down and see if we can find him?”
Starting to shiver much like his brother, Mason nodded. Samuel felt his heart tighten as he looked at the two boys and wondered whether it had been the right thing for him and Austin to bring them on their journey. The children had been living on a diet of donut frosting and sprinkles, but they had been safe and warm and out of any immediate danger. Now they were freezing cold and drenched from a very dodgy journey across the Hudson, one of their group was missing and they still didn’t have a clear way of getting into Poughkeepsie. Try as he might, it was hard not to see their journey as a failure so far.
But Samuel refused to give up. He had been through so much since leaving Trident and New York behind, he had to remember the bigger picture and what was happening to Americans all across the country. The fact that they were still alive was a miracle and a blessing and something that Samuel knew he needed to hold onto and cherish.
“Come on,” he muttered to himself as he struggled to get a fire going, sifting through the contents of his rucksack to try and find the firelighters that were packed away inside. Thankfully his bag had managed to stay relatively dry and the waterproof lining inside it meant the contents were safe from the river water. He had dry clothes he could change into and thankfully – due to some additional packing during their second visit to Camp Placid – there were clothes the boys could put on as well.
“Get your wet clothes off,” Samuel instructed them once the fire was blazing, the three of them sheltered behind some trees with the river on the other side of them. “Let’s try and hang it up around the fire,” he explained, snapping a branch in half and draping his t-shirt over the top of it while he stuck the other end in the ground next to the fire. “Get things dry if we can.”
Reluctantly the two boys followed Samuel’s lead, stripping down to their underwear and shivering beside one another, their arms wrapped around their bodies to try and keep warm.
“Here,” Samuel handed them clothes from his rucksack, pulling out the items they’d found in Camp Placid. “Get yourselves dressed and stay close to the fire, try and keep warm.”
It was hard going, but their frozen fingers gradually thawed and all three of them started to feel more like themselves. Samuel got some food from his bag and heated it up over the fire as well, serving the boys a quick meal of corned beef and tinned tomatoes, followed by a few broken cookies. It wasn’t much, but it was warm food and after the experience they’d just shared it felt like a five-star meal to each of them. It was only mid-afternoon, but none of them would be getting any rest any time soon. Once they had all eaten and their clothes had dried, Samuel needed to get everything packed away as quickly as possible so they could begin their search for Austin. Looking after the boys was his priority, but he refused to forget about his friend.
“You both good to get going again?” he asked as Mason and Noah practically licked their bowls clean, not leaving a morsel of food behind and leaving no need to spend precious time washing up just yet.
“Do you think we’ll find Austin?” Noah asked once they were walking, the question taking Samuel by surprise. Of the two boys, Mason was normally the one who asked questions and engaged in conversation. Noah was younger and so naturally more apprehensive about things, Samuel also found it more difficult to talk to him, wondering whether he could speak to Noah like he would an adult or whether he needed to significantly dumb things down for the boy to understand. His experience with children was next to none and so he doubted whether he was doing things right more than half of the time.
“I do,” Samuel replied, choosing to speak to the little boy honestly and not hide his emotions from him. He might not be certain himself whether they would actually find Austin again, but he was determined to not give up hope and to keep searching as long as they could. “He’ll have just washed up further down the shore I bet. We’ll find him before we know it.”
“It was scary in the boat with him,” Noah continued, recalling his personal experience in the river.
“I know,” Samuel nodded, “but you know Austin did everything he could to keep you safe, right? You did an amazing job Noah, and I’m sure you helped him very much.”
“You were great,” Mason echoed, encouraging his younger brother once more. “Austin was lucky to have you.”
“He was,” Samuel nodded. “And I’m sure he can’t wait to see you again. It won’t be long – come on.”
Walking along the Hudson, Samuel led the way through unfamiliar terrain. He had no idea how far north from Poughkeepsie they actually were. However so long as they kept the river to one side of them, Samuel at least knew they were heading in the right direction. Eventually they would see the telltale signs of Poughkeepsie again and hopefully before that, they would find their friend waiting for them.
When they did, it was not what Samuel and the boys had imagined.
“No way,” Samuel exhaled. “It can’t be…”
Rushing to the river bank, Samuel felt his heart hammering in his chest as he looked across the river at the figure that waved to him, narrowing his eyes to try and determine whether it was, in fact, Austin. There was no mistaking the man once he centered in on him, Austin’s frame cutting a shape against the setting sun, his body standing still on the river bank as he looked across at Samuel and the boys.
“What do we do?” Noah wailed as he recognized Austin as well, crying out in disappointment at the sight of the man. Samuel could hardly speak. Austin was alive and that filled him with happiness. He looked relatively unharmed too, standing up straight and waving across at them. The only problem was, he was on the wrong side of the river. Austin was safe and unhurt, but he was stranded on the other side of the Hudson, away from the three of them and away from Poughkeepsie where his husband and son waited.
“I – I don’t know,” Samuel whispered in response as he stared at his friend. After everything they had been through in order to cross the river, the crushing truth that not all of them had made it fell on Samuel like a ton of bricks.
The only reason he was even there was because of Austin. He was the glue that kept their group together – the father pushing for Poughkeepsie and keeping the rest of them alive in the process. Without Austin, Samuel didn’t know what he was supposed to do. But he had Mason and Noah to look after now and one way or another, he needed to take care of them both. Looking out over the water at his friend, Samuel resigned himself to the fact that for the time being at least, he needed to face his problems alone.
Chapter 14
“Honestly, please,” Walter did his best to quieten the cheering crowd. “I’m just doing my job. It all comes with the badge.”
“I don’t care about all that,” Max said in reply. “What you’ve done here is incredible Walter, whether it’s in your job description or not. You’ve saved all of our lives today.”
Walter Davies shook his head and maintained his modest attitude, simply happy that he had manage
d to help and make a small difference in the crumbling city. Both Martha and Dawn had been rescued from their underground tomb and Benji was in the process of being carried to the nearest hospital; Walter was unsure whether the man would be able to walk again any time soon, but he was alive and that was the difference.
“What will you all do now?”
“Uhh,” Max paused for a second, faltering at Walter’s question. “I have to say I haven’t really thought that far ahead. You never really plan for the day your apartment building comes crumbling down, do you?”
Max forced out a laugh that was laced with fear, his true feelings about his future blatantly apparent to Walter. It was impossible not to be frightened right now and after what Max and his friends and neighbors had just been through, Walter could only guess at how lost they might be feeling. Looking at Max, Walter knew his work wasn’t entirely over – there were more ways he could continue to help these people.
“There’s a rescue center not far from here,” Walter suggested. “It was where I was heading earlier today actually – do you know it?”
“Yeah,” Max nodded, “I know where you mean, isn’t it already out of supplies though?”
“Potentially,” Walter replied. “If you want though, you’re welcome to head there with me and check it out. There are more of my guys stationed there and we’ll do everything we can to help all of you find a place to stay and ride this thing out.”
Max looked back over his shoulder at the fallen apartment building and shrugged. “Not much else going on right now I guess,” he sighed, “Thanks Walter, that’d be great.”
Smiling, Walter nodded and placed a hand on Max’s shoulder, pleased to be able to help in whatever way he could. He extended the invitation to everyone else and within a couple of minutes he was leading the group of them toward the rescue center. His team should have already been there for some time and Walter was keen to find out how they had been handling things.
“Lieutenant!” Josie was the first of his team to notice Walter’s arrival at the rescue center, alerting Huxley and Dixon as well.
“Hey Josie,” Walter nodded at her, surveying the scene at the rescue center and mentally counting how many people were already gathered there. “Nice work getting everything set up here, I was worried we wouldn’t have enough supplies. How’s it going?”
“Yeah, well,” Josie looked down at the ground. “We don’t really. The food situation is a bit dire, but I think people like having a place to come to anyway. A lot of them have lost their homes throughout all of this.”
“So I’m learning,” Walter nodded, his recent encounter serving to swiftly change his view on how his city was coping with the epidemic. Max and the others who had come with him slipped by and made their way into the rescue center. Looking at them, Walter felt guilty for leading them here under false pretenses. With every minute that he was out in the city, he realized how out of tune he was with his surroundings.
“Have you managed to get much set up here?”
“Not really,” Josie replied with a somewhat embarrassed expression. “We’ve been keeping the peace and making it a place people can come to for support if they need it. Dixon’s been reading to the children and teaching them a few things while me and Huxley are sorting everyone else out. Apparently, there have been a few break ins in the area with people trying to find food and medicine and stuff – that seems to be the biggest problem from what I’ve encountered.”
“Yeah,” Walter agreed, “makes sense. The people who I just arrived with,” he paused and nodded to Max and the others who were passing round a couple of plastic water bottles, “just survived a building collapse. There were a couple of them who got trapped underground so I needed to help get them out – that’s where I’ve been the last couple of hours or so.”
“Figured you’d find something to help out with,” Josie smiled, always admiring the Lieutenant’s work even in the short time she’d known him. “What do you think is our best course of action with everyone now? Should we take them back to the precinct or…?”
“No, no,” Walter interrupted, “there’s no point doing that, it’d only scare half of them away and we haven’t got the resources there either.” Although as Walter spoke, he remembered the hot coffee he’d been drinking every day and the regular sandwiches he was eating for his lunch. Compared to a number of people in the streets, the precinct had a great deal more resources than everywhere else. It was an imbalance he desperately wanted to restore, but he knew taking dozens of people back to the police station was a bad idea. They had to find another way to help them.
“Let’s just continue as we are for the time being,” Walter eventually decided, hoping a solution would come to him. “I’ll speak to a few people as well, find out what they’ve been through.”
“Okay,” Josie nodded, “let me know if you need anything.”
Bidding farewell to his fellow officer, Walter put his hands on his hips and tried to figure out where to start. He wanted to help these people, but before he could do that, he knew he needed to better understand what they were going through and what they needed. It took him back to one of the most important lessons he’d learned from being a cop and that was that it wasn’t a job you could do by yourself. He had to listen and learn from his environment and that was something that was true now more than ever. Walking over to where a mother and daughter sat together on the curb outside the rescue center, he began trying to make a difference.
“Afternoon,” he greeted them. “Mind if I sit with you?”
“Free country,” the woman shrugged.
Walter hitched up his pants to sit down, sandwiching the teenage girl in the middle of the trio. “I’m with the NYPD,” he introduced himself quickly, another lesson which had to be learned telling him to always disclose he was a police officer early on, to save people from thinking he was trying to spy on them or deceive them. “Lieutenant Walter Davies. You may have spoken to some of my colleagues already today.”
“Not yet,” the older woman replied. “Don’t see how they can help us really. Not enough food left to go around.”
“Well I want to try and change that,” Walter replied, trailing off the end of his sentence and waiting for the woman to supply him with her name.
“Harriet,” she replied after a short pause. “And this is my daughter, Maisie.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Walter smiled. “I’m sorry about the lack of resources here today. We’re doing everything we can to keep these places as well stocked as possible. The demand across the city is just far higher than we had anticipated. Are you both from around here?”
“Close enough,” Harriet replied. “Our place is over in Marine Park, but there’s no use hanging around there anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Nothing left,” Harriet explained. “Stores are all smashed in and everything is gone already. All the places closest to the water are the worst – people were trying to get away when everything happened whichever way they could and they didn’t care what they destroyed on their way.”
“So, have you not got a place to sleep anymore? Are you out on the streets?”
Harriet looked at Walter with a look of distain, like she was offended by what he was asking her. “Of course, we’ve got a place to sleep,” she huffed. “I’m not going to let my daughter sleep on the ground just because the neighborhood’s gone wild. I’ve lived through worse – we head back there every night, just no point hanging around during the day.”
“I’m sorry,” Walter apologized. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just trying to understand what’s happened throughout the city so I know what we can best do to help people.”
“If you want to help people,” Harriet suggested, “then give them something to do. We’ve all lost our jobs because of this. My company kicked everyone out who wasn’t upper management. Said there wasn’t any work for us anymore. I get it – like, I know we can’t do jack without the money to fund it, but how
come the guys at the top don’t seem to be suffering? Business as usual if you ask me.”
Walter furrowed his brow and took in what Harriet was saying, trying to understand her as best he could. It was clear she was angry about what had happened with Trident, but after speaking to her for no more than five minutes she had already raised two new issues.
He was puzzled that she thought there were still companies operating throughout the city, or at least still employing those in more senior positions. The financial crash hadn’t been selective. It didn’t matter whether you banked with Trident previously or not, the value of money had deteriorated so significantly that trying to trade with it or keep things functioning as normal simply wasn’t possible. There was no way anyone could still be in employment, Harriet must’ve misunderstood.
The other issue Harriet had raised about the looting and how difficult it was to survive in certain parts of the city was less of a surprise, but with Walter always focused on the bigger picture, he knew he had to pursue the potential of work as a priority.
“What did you do before all this?” he asked Harriet, hoping to mine the woman for as much information as he possibly could.
“I worked on the shop floor in Pedro’s,” she replied, naming one of the city’s popular and rapidly expanding supermarket chains. “At first they did everything to keep us all working; while half the city was looting and raiding the stores we tried to keep hold of our jobs and our humanity as they promised we’d be looked after if we carried on.” Harriet paused and shook her head in disappointment. “What a load of bull that was. As soon as the shelves were empty, they packed us up and sent us all home with nothing. By that point there wasn’t anything left for the ones of us who had stayed and tried to help. Typical. Never mind fortune favoring the bold, what about the idiots who thought they were doing the right thing.”
Wipeout | Book 3 | Empty Vault Page 10
