Then Came War Read online

  Abby shrugged.

  “Why are you here?” Foster asked. “Obviously this isn’t your cup of tea and you’re annoyed with these people.”

  Again, Abby shrugged.

  Foster tossed out his hand disgustedly. “I don’t need you to answer. You’re too lazy to go anywhere and I think you’re too scared to be on your own.”

  “I’ve been alone for the past several months.”

  “Yeah, well this is a little bit different,” Foster snapped “You’re not the only one mourning now. The whole world is mourning.”

  Abby started to blurt out a sarcastic “fuck you’ but only the first portion of it emerged before her heard turned suddenly.

  In fact, everyone started making noises and calling out in excitement over the sounds of planes.

  “The rescue team is here,” Abby said.

  Judith called out, “Foster, is that a rescue?”

  “I’ll go check.” He held up his hand even though no one could see him. “Stay here.”

  The blind started moving about, feeling their way. Their voices meshed with the excitement of the possibility of help finally arriving.

  Abby was already outside when Foster emerged.

  “We need to get back in or get out now,” Abby said calmly.

  “Why?” And then Foster looked up. “Oh my God.”

  There was such an abundance of planes. They formed their own masking cloud in the sky as they seemingly hovered overhead. But it wasn’t the planes that caused the concern in Abby or panic in Foster.

  It was the fact that it was literary raining parachutes. Thousands upon thousands of parachuted soldiers floated in the sky, making their way down.

  “It’s not a rescue,” Abby said to Foster. “It’s an invasion.”

  ***

  Brendan knew more than he realized. He hated the fact that it was every man for himself but it was the way it had to be done.

  He wasn’t so dumb as to not realize the hole in the train wreckage wasn’t placed there for a reason. They made their escape, coughing and choking over the smoke and gagging over the carnage of bodies.

  People who depended on Brendan to send help were taken care of in a different way.

  Once passed the wreckage, they followed the light but not for long.

  The tunnel grew lighter and the brightness wasn’t from the sun.

  It was lights and spotlights being brought in.

  Art first he wondered if indeed it really was a rescue party that had made a fatal error and accidently killed the survivors. But he soon realized the error in his thinking when he saw military trucks pulling in. Tables were being set up and armed soldiers were walking about.

  He had seen enough History Channel to know some sort of headquarters was being initiated underground in New York, tucked safely away and out of sight from any aerial attacks.

  He knew they weren’t Americans and he didn’t know the language or recognize the uniforms. Brendan wasn’t sticking around long enough to find out. Before being spotted he took off running back the way he had come.

  The others didn’t follow right away.

  Brendan heard gunshots.

  He kept going and didn’t look back.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Was the beach house still intact? It didn’t smell like it was and from his view under the bed Ben saw a lot of dust and smoke.

  “You okay?” he asked Lana.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Yeah.” Ben lifted his head, banging it on the bed. “I don’t hear anything.”

  “Me either. You think it’s safe?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Ben. What are we going to do?

  “If I were to theorize, I’d say this house is one of the safest places to be right now. But ...we can’t stay here.”

  “Who was it?”

  Ben shook his head. “Stay here. Okay?”

  Lana nodded.

  Ben scooted out backward from under the bed. When he saw the bedroom, he whispered, “Oh God.”

  The room was riddled with bullet holes. How they had escaped being hit, he didn’t know. He crawled to the window and peered out.

  He didn’t see anything or hear anything.

  “Come on out.”

  Like Bill, Lana inched her way out. She gasped, covering her mouth at she saw the bedroom.

  “I don’t even want to know what the rest of the house looks like.” Ben stepped over debris.

  “Why would they shoot at us? We were two people sitting on a deck.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they were just being assholes at that second. Who knows? Maybe they couldn’t see us.” Ben took Lana’s hand and they made their way from the bedroom.

  “I remember a fight we had.” Lana stayed close to Ben as they headed toward the living room. “We discussed America getting invaded. Remember?”

  “I slept on the couch for two nights over that one,” Ben said and exhaled when he stood in the living room and look around.

  “I said, no way could America ever get invaded.”

  “And I said that most of our troops were overseas and … a world war had never been fought on our soil and we were long overdue.”

  “I thought that was the hidden cConservative Republican in you talking.”

  Ben shook his head. “I said it more to piss you off.”

  They stood in the middle of the living room. The sun peeked with ease through the huge hole in the ceiling.

  Ben cleared plaster from the couch. “Sit down.”

  “I’m okay, really. I’m not hurt, just shaken.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Lana nodded.

  “Good. Because I need to pack some backpacks. We need to get some items and head on out.”

  “Where? How?”

  “Well, we shouldn’t take the car. We’re gonna have to walk. Stay between houses, stay out of sight and be very quiet,” Ben said. “The planes were headed inland, so we head north and stay north for a while.”

  “On foot?”

  “Are you up for it?”

  Lana exhaled. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

  “None at all,” Ben said and turned to start getting things in gear.

  Lana reached out to him. “Ben, we’re going to make it, aren’t we?”

  Ben swallowed. His jaw twitched as he sought the right words to say.

  “You don’t think so.”

  Ben shrugged. “I don’t know. But I do know this. We’re together, Lana. And for that I am so grateful.”

  Lana pouted, her lips tightened and her face tensed up as she held in her tears. With glossed over eyes she grabbed on to Ben and embraced him. “Me, too. Trust me. Me, too.”

  ***

  Every noise, every motor sound, every plane had disappeared and quiet had returned.

  Harry figured it was safe to emerge from under the work bench.

  “Can I talk now?” Tyler asked.

  “Yeah, I think it’s safe.”

  “What happened, Harry? What was all that?”

  Harry led Tyler to the stairs and encouraged him to sit.

  It had reached a point where all his years of living and all the experience he had would come into play.

  Harry could make reasonable deductions and be correct on his guess as to what happened.

  And while they had waited under that workbench, Harry had thought about it all.

  But he had to explain to Tyler what he believed was happening before he moved forward with his plan.

  After listening to the sparse reports from the Utah man, Harry pieced together in his mind a worst case scenario.

  “What grade are you in?” Harry asked Tyler.

  “Third.”

  “My God, are you young. Have you learned about any wars yet?”

  Tyler nodded. “Revolutionary. The Civil War.”

  “What about World Wars?”

  “Not much.”

  Harry cringed. How could he explain? Tyler seemed like a bright boy;
it wasn’t going to be too difficult. “Okay. When a country wants to take over another country, there are a couple of phases to do so. Are you with me?”

  Tyler nodded.

  “First, they know they eventually have to send in ground troops. But in order for the ground troops to be as safe as possible, the invading country has to clean house. Are you with me?”

  Tyler nodded. The he shook his head.

  “Okay. When the United States went to Iraq, before they sent our soldiers on the ground, they sent fire from the sky, bombed cities and military installations. They did this to shake things up, to remove the threat and make it safer for our soldiers. Following me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Good. So, the way I figure, there is a country or countries that want to come after us. They want to invade us. We ain’t had that happen since the war of 1812. The civil war doesn’t count because we were fighting against each other. But we haven’t had another country fight on our soil since 1812.”

  “Except for now.”

  “Exactly,” Harry said. “It think, like I said, countries wanted to take us over, but we’re the good old US of A. We don’t go down that easily. In order to do so, they hit us with some bombs, some chemicals and made us run in confusion, like chickens with their heads cut off. Following me?”

  “So they hit us with bombs. We get confused and then they think hitting us with bombs makes their soldiers safe.”

  “Exactly, only they’re going for the scattered effect. They cause some destruction and send us scattering. While we’re trying to make heads or tails out of what happened, they come in. That’s what I think we just heard. All those planes were bringing soldiers in.”

  “To where?” Tyler asked.

  “I suppose they set up a front line somewhere. But they’re gonna need more than soldiers. They’ll need equipment. That’s stuff they will have to bring in on boats.”

  “We’re close to the ocean.”

  “Yes,” Harry said. “Yes, we are. And because of that, we have to get moving. Now, I’m thinking that for a spell, it’s safe. The planes went somewhere and aren’t worrying too much about us. But those tanks and whatever, they’re gonna have to drive to the front lines. And chances are they’ll come right through here.”

  “This is like a movie, Harry.”

  “I know. So let’s go upstairs and get out belongings. We’ll go as far as we can in the car. Take the back roads and then play it by ear. Okay?”

  Tyler nodded.

  “I’ll do the best I can to get you out of this situation. But to be honest, Tyler, I don’t know how far all this goes. It could end in New York or it could go farther.”

  “We’ll get out of it, Harry. I’m sure you’ll get us out of it.”

  Harry felt pretty good about the vote of confidence he received from the young man. He took him by the hand and they went upstairs.

  Even though Harry had the car already packed to go he wanted to get a few more things. He wanted to gather items he knew they would need to stay warm, to eat and to be protected, just in case they had to abandon their vehicle.

  They didn’t waste much time in the house; they were out in just a few minutes.

  Harry was a little timid when he started the car, looking about to see if the engine noise had drawn any attention. Then he pulled from the driveway and headed from Windsor ,planning to go directly north.

  Harry knew he had two goals— stay focused and stay alive.

  ***

  Was he insane? In fact, Abby yelled that question at Foster when he ran back to the building. “Foster? Are you crazy? Come on!” She waved him to come on as she backed up.

  “I can’t leave them. I have to move them somewhere safe, maybe to the back of the building.”

  Abby looked up. More parachutes were falling, but there were many that had already landed. Some were in the distance, but a lot were close. Too close. They landed on roof tops and in the streets. Men were everywhere and all of them were armed. “Foster. We have to run. Now.”

  “Then run.” Foster tuned and went into the senior citizen center.

  Abby did.

  She looked over her shoulder to the five or six soldiers that had landed a block or so down from them and took off running.

  She slipped through two buildings and then darted to the next street over. Carefully she peeked around the corner, but pulled back when she saw more soldiers.

  It was hard to determine by looking at them where they were from. They appeared to have dark complexions, but it was hard to tell through their battle gear.

  Battle gear, she thought.

  They’re invading New York City like Normandy Beach.

  Abby waited until she saw they all had passed and then she ran out from between the two buildings.

  She saw the front door of a townhouse. It was standing wide open and Abby made her way in that direction.

  Someone could have been in there, but she didn’t think of that. She needed to hide and stay hidden, at least until the wave of paratroopers had passed her by.

  Abby made it up the stairs, paused in the doorway, looked back and ran into the house.

  She wasn’t thinking about anything but hiding. Hide and wait it out. She stopped at the first room she came to, the living room. She saw the couch which was angled out from the wall and raced behind it for cover, huddling with her knees brought up close to her chest.

  ***

  “We have to move! Everyone! Move now!” Foster yelled. He didn’t want to yell and knew it wasn’t the smart thing to do, but it was his only choice if he wanted to be heard by those who could barely hear.

  He grabbed their hands, joining them to each other in an attempt to create a human train. Jumping in the lead, he grabbed Judith’s hand.

  “Jimmy, what’s happening?” she asked.

  “We have to hurry. We have to hide or something.” He pulled her and then noticed others were dropping off the chain and not moving with him. Frustrated he grabbed for them.

  “Jimmy. Tell me what is happening.”

  “Soldiers are everywhere and I don’t know where they came from. I think they are just dropping from the sky. Judith … there are thousands of them and they are all over.”

  Judith gasped.

  Foster and the group were almost there, almost across the gym. Holding on to Judith, he pushed on the door. “Come on. Open.” He had a dozen maybe more grouped at that door. The rest of the injured were scattered about, aimlessly moving.

  “¡Manteno-o!” a male voice called out loud and strong.

  Foster turned to look. Six soldiers had entered the building.

  “Todo o mundo deixar!” another ordered, waving his rifle.

  Then a third stepped forward and grabbed hold of one of the injured.

  Foster was in the back behind everyone with Judith. He kept pushing on the door.

  The soldier looked at the injured man he had dragged toward him. “El é cego” He stared intently at the man, then looked around. “¿Son to-dos ceros?”

  Foster hadn’t a clue what language they spoke, or what they were saying. But by the look on the soldier’s face as he examined the injured man, he guessed it had to do with the blindness. The poor injured man was confused, turning left to right.

  Then Foster saw it. Another just shook his head and he raised his rifle. “Mate-los todos.”

  The meaning of those foreign words was abundantly clear to Foster when all the soldiers, raised their weapons at the same time and opened fire.

  ***

  Abby felt safe even though her insides trembled out of control. She was behind that couch for a second, trying her hardest not to even breathe. Her eyes skimmed outward to the dining room and that was when she did she saw the little hand.

  It wasn’t what she expected to see. Nor was it something she needed or wanted to see. It horrified her beyond belief.

  The little hand belonged to the body of a boy no older than two years old. His other hand clutched a Sipp
y cup as he lay on the hardwood floor by the dining room table.

  Abby wanted to scream. What built inside of her was agony and pain overseeing the child. It wanted to erupt from her vocally and it brewed within her gut. Both of her hands cupped over her own mouth to keep it in, She sobbed into her palms as silently as she could.

  Tears streaming down her face, she had to get out of there. She had to run. Overcome with the horror of seeing the child, she closed her eyes tightly and jumped when rapid gunfire rang out close to her. Gunfire followed by screams of pain and terror.

  Her hands tightened on her mouth as she fought not to cry out. Every part of her body shook. Her feet kicked forward, pushing and scooting her back until her trembling body hit the wall.

  She knew what the shots were and she was pretty certain, she knew where they came from.

  Whimpering out a whispered ‘Foster,’ she bowed her head to her knees and covered her ears to try to block out the shots and screams.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  When they were young, in love and in college, they were pretty carefree. Lana and Ben believed they were going to school just to appease their parents and eventually planned to drop out, live off the land, be artistic people and change the world.

  Then student loans and responsibilities kicked in. Lana got pregnant so they married because it was the “right” thing to do, but then she lost the baby at five months.

  It devastated them both and zapped them out of their fantasy world. They stayed in reality for a long time, growing bored, working long hours and fighting all the time.

  They aged but they remembered those times of biking for days, getting high in the woods and making love under the stars.

  It was their past that made them believe they could have a future … alive.

  They weren’t able to find backpacks in the beach house, but the general store had them along with the supplies they needed. They also were able to find bikes. Bikes would be a quiet means of transportation and easy to manipulate on and off road so they could stay hidden.

  South was out of the question, since that would take them to New Jersey and surely if New York was hit, Jersey probably was, too.