~ 18 ~

Brave New World

Place: Philadelphia, Pa (1 day after the emergency landing)

+ AJ +

When people surround you and you’re never quite sure what they’re going to do next is something I’ll never get used to. Girls screaming and crying uncontrollably are so unpredictable. You know the last thing they’d want to do is hurt you but when they are caught in the moment, they very well might. Our bodyguards were excellent when it came to crowd control. We had the best in the business and I firmly believed that because in all the jams we had found ourselves in, they managed to get us out of them really quickly with minimal damage done.

I wished we were surrounded by fans now because this didn’t feel friendly at all. These people didn’t want our autographs or to touch us, hug us etc… no, they had a different intent and sadly, our security was nowhere to be found.

They were circling us like we were their prey. A nice early afternoon snack to keep them satisfied until later. There was nowhere to run. Even if one of us were to break through, where exactly would we go and what would happen to the rest of us? It was much better to stick together and face whatever it was we were up against. I think we all had that same feeling.

“Put your hands up the air.” Kevin whispered to us as they closed in.

“We aren’t armed, we mean no harm. We crash landed about five miles away and were looking for help.”

I was surprised at how calm Kevin sounded. It’s like he has done this before. I think if I had tried to talk it would have come out as a half whine, half cry.

They were so close to use now I could actually see down the barrel of one of the guys shot guns. This was the second time in that many days I have had a gun aimed at me. Before then, the closest I had ever come to even seeing a real gun is when our police escorts would remind people they were armed by putting their hands on the gun while it sat safely in their holsters.

One of the men pushed his way through the crowd and stood directly in front of Kevin, seemingly unaware of the idea of personal space. “Is that so?” He asked raising one of his brows up slightly.

He was kind of short and without the gun would not have looked menacing in the slightest. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I could have even taken him down. Funny what a gun in hand will do to someone.

“Yes, I swear to God. We were coming from New York and crash landed.”

The man put down his gun for a second, seeming intrigued. “What’s it like there?”

“Where, New York?” Kevin seemed confused by the question and I couldn’t blame him, now wasn’t the time to start spouting how lovely it was and boy you need to check out the theater district etc…

“Same as here.” Oh right, that’s what he meant. Once again I was grateful that someone else was doing the talking.

“When did you crash?”

“Yesterday.”

That made the small man put his gun up, “That’s impossible! NO one has flown anywhere for almost a year! Where did you come from?”

“I’m telling you the truth, if you don’t believe me; I’ll even show you the plane!”

I turned to look at Howie and he looked as nervous as I felt as he mouthed the words we had just heard, “Over a year?”  

The man in charge was thinking about this for a minute and then he once again put his gun down. How was Kevin going to do that exactly? Getting here was hell, it’s not like we could just turn around and go back! Not now, especially not with all the weird explosions going off.

Luckily or unluckily he switched thoughts for a moment, “You look familiar.” Great, we go from problem A to problem B.

“I don’t think I know you.” Kevin once again said calmly.

Suddenly two more men shot into view, “We need to get moving they are heading this way!”

The man nodded, “Okay, let’s go, we’ll sort this out later.”

He motioned for his men to follow him and they led us all away from the gallows which I was thankful about and behind the museum where there was another set of stairs waiting for us.

At this point I really couldn’t tell if we were their prisoners or just along for the ride. They seemed to be just as nervous as we were, especially when they found out that ‘they’ were coming. Not sure I wanted to know who ‘they’ are.

We walked for quite a while down side streets and in and out of alleyways. We passed the famous LOVE sculpture that now symbolized anything but its namesake. I wasn’t positive but it looked like a stream of blood was flowing down the words giving it an almost tie dyed look.

“Where are you taking us?” Kevin asked.

We were all doing our best to keep up but Nick especially was having a hard time. He kept falling behind only to be pushed by one of the guys with a gun. “Leave him be, he hurt himself.” Brian said after the last push caused him to fall to the ground.

“Somewhere safe so we can talk a bit more about this crash of yours.” The man said and then turned around to see what all the commotion was about.

“How old is he?” He asked pointing to Nick who was slowly getting off the ground with help from Howie and Brian.

“Nineteen, why?”

“Great…” The man rolled his eyes. “And he’s hurt?”

“Not really, just a little sore from yesterday.”

“Well, he needs to keep up or we’re leaving him behind.”

Hearing that, Howie took one arm and Brian took the other and between them they were pretty much dragging Nick the rest of the way towards our destination which I hoped we’d arrive at soon.

About five blocks later we came upon a warehouse. The man in charge knocked out shave and a haircut which I actually laughed about and when the two bits reply came, the door opened up.

There were at least ten other people in the small space. Judging from the outside, I thought it would have been a lot larger than it was but it was more like the size of a two bedroom apartment than a warehouse.

“Who are they?” One of the guys asked as we all walked in and sat down on crates that were covered with various drapes and blankets to make them more comfortable.

“We found them at the museum; apparently they crashed landed here yesterday.”

The guy laughed, “From where, Mars?”

“Close, New York. Any sign of trouble?”

“No.” the two men walked away for a second to confer leaving the five of us just sitting around while some of the other people stared at us like we were monkeys in a cage.

I glanced over at Kevin who was carefully looking around, maybe trying to figure out a way to make a quick escape if the need arose. “What do you think he meant about no one flying for over a year?” I asked my friends who only shrugged in reply.

The man in charge walked back towards us and squatted in front of Kevin, “So, tell me again about this crash landing.”

He was no longer holding a gun and getting a closer look at him I could tell he wasn’t that much older then Kevin. He might have even been younger than that.

“There’s not much more to tell. We were on our way from New York to Philly when our plane hit some serious turbulence and the next thing we knew we are on the ground.”

“And this happened yesterday?”

Kevin nodded.

The guy stood up and walked away for a second and then turned back again, “What happened next? Did anyone show up? Were there explosions? Did they come after you?”

“They blew up the plane, yes.”

“How did you even manage to get it up in the air? I mean all the airports have been closed since the attacks.”

I could tell this guy believed our story or at least wanted to. Kevin took awhile to answer. I don’t blame him, what the hell was he supposed to say? What attacks? What the hell happened here?

“I don’t really have an answer for that, sorry.”

The guy walked over to Nick and squatted next to him, “And you were hurt in the plane?”

Nick nervously looked over at Kevin unsure of what to say so he took over. “No, when we landed he was wearing shorts and a tee shirt. We walked for hours in the snow and it really took a toll on his legs.”

“Shorts, why on earth would you be wearing shorts? It’s been snowing for a good part of the last year, or is that not happening in New York either?” Before he got his answer he gently moved Nick’s pant leg up slightly and winced, “Looks like you might have some frost bite kid. Larry!” He yelled, “Larry’s not exactly a doctor but he knows a thing or two about first aide. He’ll help you out.” He pat Nick’s head and smiled.

“Thanks.” Nick answered shyly.

The man named Larry walked over and helped Nick to the one real piece of furniture which was the couch. I could tell he desperately wanted one of us to go with him but none of us moved. I think even though all weapons were put away, we still were afraid to do something wrong.

The man then extended his hand to Kevin, “My name’s Charlie. Sorry about the guns and everything, we just have to be careful nowadays. It’s a brave new world out there.”

“Kevin and this is my cousin Brian, and our friends AJ and Howie.” Charlie nodded and smiled at all of us. “That one is Nick.”

“He looks really familiar.” Charlie said looking over at Nick as Larry applied something onto his legs.

Kevin shrugged, “So, who were we running away from at the Museum?”

Charlie sat down on the floor, “Let’s just say there are dangerous people out there and leave it at that.” I could tell he didn’t fully trust us yet.

Larry and Nick came walking back over a few minutes later. “I don’t think its frost bite but I put some cream on it because it was really red and bumpy. I’m going to see if we have any antibiotics to give him to fight off any infections that may arise, just in case.”

“Thanks Larry.”

Kevin looked worried by the infection part of that sentence. Nick always manages to get sick or catch whatever is in a five mile radius of where we are. Now wasn’t the time for that to happen.

“You all look like you can use some rest so find a spot and relax for a bit. We don’t have much food but my brother is working on that right now. My dad makes a pretty mean chicken soup as well. He pointed over to an older man who had his arm around a beautiful girl while he made people laugh.

“Thanks Charlie.” Kevin said smiling as our host walked away and joined the guy he was speaking to earlier.

Now I could clearly see the family resemblance. That was his brother. These people were not threatening, they were a family just trying to survive, but what were they trying to survive? That seemed like the new million dollar question.

For now though, I wanted to take advantage of the offer of sleep so I got up, took the blanket off of the crate I was sitting on and went for a spot pretty close to where everyone was still sitting. One by one they all did the same as we slept in pretty close proximity to one another. I didn’t think I’d actually fall asleep but once I closed my eyes I felt myself drift off. Maybe I’d wake up to find that this was only a dream.

Doubtful, but one could hope.