~ 25 ~

 Park and Ride

Date: May 26th 1999

Time: Sometime in the afternoon or early evening

Place: Philadelphia, PA (6 days after the emergency landing)

 + Brian +

The car Don managed to hotwire for us was really small, much too small for the five of us to fit in comfortably. The other big problem with the Escort was the fact that it was already close to empty according to the gas gauge. Our goal was to make it out of the city and try to locate another car before this one crapped out. At least that was one of our many goals. We had too many to keep track of at the moment.

We could have really used one of our managers and an itinerary right about now.

It’s almost ironic, this entire thing. I mean before all this happened when we were handed these itineraries that looked like mini novels we’d moan and groan about it. How many things are we expected to do on one day? We’d all take turns asking as we read our lives planned out, sometimes for weeks at a time.

I would kill for one of those now. We needed our lives mapped out for us because if we strayed too far from this plan, we were all going to die. How much I’d love to trade running for my life for running away from an over excited group of teens. I’ll never complain about any of that ever again, if I’m given that opportunity.

I turned to look behind us, “We’re still not being followed. I think we’ll be safe.”

“From them at least, lord knows what else is out here. I mean look at him.” AJ pointed over to Nick who was just sitting there in the front passenger seat, with his head resting on the window.

I didn’t want to look at Nick. It was too hard seeing him like this. Normally he was a constant ball of energy. This wasn’t Nick. This was just his shell.

“We need to find another car, so let me know if we pass one that’s abandoned.”

“How far do you think it is until New York?”

Kevin didn’t look away from the main road, “2 hours maybe?”

“How far you think we’ll get in this car?”

“Another ten minutes tops.”

“Fantastic.”

The last thing we needed was another hike on a snow covered highway. Even though we were all better suited for it clothing wise, none of us were ready for it mentally or physically. If it had to happen, then so be it. We’d manage, just like always.

“There’s a sign for the Pennsylvania Turnpike.” Howie sounded so hopeful, like a little boy who just saw a big sparkling sign for Disney World.

“Maybe we shouldn’t get on until we change cars.”

“I’m sure there will be a ton of cars on the Turnpike.”

I had my doubts but I decided to just stay quiet and let Kevin do his thing. We slowly made our way to the onramp that led us onto the main highway. I think we were all hoping that things were at least a little better anywhere but here. It couldn’t be any worse.

There were no cars lined up on the Turnpike like we were hoping there would be and sadly we didn’t even make it to the toll booth before the red engine light came on and the car slowly came to a stop.

“Son of a fucking bitch, what the hell do we do now?”

Kevin opened his door, “We walk, AJ.” He said a little too calmly as he got out and walked to the passenger side where Nick was still in the front and leaning against the window. 

“Fucking great!”

I tried to give a sympathetic shrug to my friend but honestly, why was it any harder on him than me? So instead I found myself rolling my eyes at him.

I looked back the way we had come and then forward, just past the toll booth. “Which way should we go?”

Howie did the same, “Maybe if we walk a little ways on the road we’ll find a car.”

“But if we don’t…we can’t make it all the way to New York on foot and these Turnpikes have long gaps in-between exits. We don’t want to be stuck out here in the middle of the night with nowhere to hide, do we?”

I posed my question to Kevin as he walked guiding Nick along, next to us. I could tell he was beyond frustrated but there was also a hint of despair in his eyes. “We should get off this road and head back the way we came.” He finally said after a few minutes of internal struggle.

So, we turned and walked the way we came, back into the city of Philadelphia which seemed almost as enticing as a roach motel at this point.

“We’re never going to get out of this fucking place.” AJ grumbled as we slowly walked back down the road.

In the car, it wasn’t really that noticeable but walking wise, it was easy to tell that we had a long down hill climb back off the onramp. We all decided to walk closely to the edge and hold on to the guardrail that was there to help us along because between the ice and snow it felt more like a ski slope than a highway. Sure enough, AJ lost his balance and within seconds we were all falling on the ground like dominoes.

Once we finally got to the end of the onramp, all wet and cold from falling on the snow, I saw a parking lot off in the distance. By car it seemed impossible to get to but all we had to do was cut across the road and go down a hill.

“Guys, look!” I pointed at all the cars and couldn’t help but smile. One of them had to have gas and keys.

“It’s a park and ride, let’s go.” Kevin took the lead and we followed closely behind.

This place clearly looked closer than it actually was. Getting there was very similar to hiking in the mountains. Just when you think you’ve made it to the peak you see there’s some more left to climb. It felt like every step we took, the parking lot also moved so we weren’t making any progress at all, of course it probably didn’t help that we were all really tired and hungry too.

It was also getting darker and the snow started to fall once again. If there was anything else that could possibly go wrong, I’m sure it would have. Eventually we did make it though, just as the sun decided to fully set on us.

“What the hell do we do now?” I whispered into my cousin’s ear.

“We find an open car and sleep in it for the night.”

“What if…”

“Brian, we don’t have time for what if.”

“There’s a van over here and it’s unlocked!” Howie screamed after a few minutes of us all searching up and down the lot.

We all ran over to him, once again falling as we went until finally we managed to hunker down in the van. Kevin closed the door behind us and even though it was still a little cold, it was warmer than it was outside.

“We’ll spend the night in here and worry about everything else in the morning.”

“There’s blankets!!” AJ said throwing three blankets at us from the very back of the van. “Fuck me, there’s also some bottled water!” Now he was excited and I was starting to feel the same way.

“You know if there are blankets and water in this one, there may be more supplies in some of the others.”

Kevin looked at me and nodded, “There might be, but it’s too dark. I think we should all just stay here and maybe first thing in the morning we’ll go exploring.”

“I wonder if Charlie and the others are okay.”

I couldn’t get them out of my mind. The fact that they went back and fought, knowing that the odds of survival were so slim was just too much to wrap my head around. The grim realization that our odds were just as slim hit my thoughts for a second but I managed to shake them off, for now anyway.

We were in a van, not as big as the RV but big enough to sleep and warm enough to not freeze to death. If it did get too cold, a few of us could easily go look for more blankets. We would be fine; we would have to be fine.

It was that thought and the surmounting exhaustion I felt that helped me dose off and wipe another day away from this place.

 Date: May 27th, 1999

Time: Very early morning

I awoke to a very stiff neck and the sound of coughing. For just a brief minute I thought I was in my parent’s car going on vacation. I felt the same way after driving around for hours, sharing the backseat with my brother Harold who was the biggest backseat hog ever.

Instead it was Howie I saw, holding his hand up against his mouth as he continued to cough. If we didn’t all die from pneumonia it was going to be a small miracle. I sat up and rubbed my neck.

“Morning, did you sleep?”

He shook his head at me, “Not much.”

I glanced over at AJ who was stretched out over the back row of seats. He was snoring which was a good thing and was covered in the blanket that Howie and I had been sharing. Nick was leaning against the window in the front seat covered in two of the three blankets we had found.

“Where’s Kevin?”

“He went to go check some of the other cars to see if he could find food and supplies for us. This one has no keys, so we aren’t going anywhere in this thing.”

“I’ll go help.” I needed to get out and stretch my legs.

“He said we should all stay inside.”

“I don’t care. Two people will make quicker work of it than one.”

Howie nodded at me and then tried to adjust himself to a more comfortable position once I moved.

The sun was very bright in the sky and it felt nice as I got out and started to roam around the parking lot. I was hoping I wouldn’t see any dead bodies. Luckily every car seemed to be empty.

“What are you doing out here?”

I jumped when I heard Kevin from behind.

“I figured you could use some help.” I answered, turning around to see him carrying a cooler and a few more blankets.

He handed me the blankets, “This is about all I could find and I searched every single car. Not one of them had a key, looks like we’ll have to keep walking.”

“We should have asked Don how to hotwire a car.” I joked but it really wasn’t even a joke. We should have done that for real.

“I think our best bet is to go back to the main highway and try one of the car dealerships I thought I saw out there.”

I nodded at my cousin. He was smart. It didn’t even occur to me to try a car dealership. “What’s in the cooler?”

He shrugged, “I didn’t even look.”

We walked back over to the van and hopped in just as the two younger ones woke up. After a quick breakfast of peanut butter cheese crackers and stale popcorn, we once again ventured out on a quest to find a car that would get us the hell out of Philly.

The walking seemed easier this time. Maybe because we actually ate and the sun was making it a little warmer than what we were used to but I have to say that I actually was enjoying the trek this time around.

It seemed like we were all keeping pace a little better today, even Nick who was trailing behind AJ, was walking fairly quickly. We all appeared to be people who had somewhere to be.

We had just made it up a steep incline when a hopeful feeling came over me. There were cars, a multitude of them, some on our level and some on a level up from where we were.

“If we need to, we could probably climb that tree and get to the next level!” Kevin said as he jumped the guardrail to the small batch of trees that separated one side of the highway from the other.

“Finally! It’s about time we got a fucking break around here!” I swear to God, the second AJ said that a slight humming sound was heard off in the distance. The same kind of hum that happened before our plane exploded and then the house. Within a few minutes of hearing it, we all fell to the ground as a huge blast happened not that far from where we were standing.