Black Box 86ed (14 page)

“O yeah well names Will” I say sarcastically holding out my hand.

Roger cracks a slight smile “Roger” he replies shaking it.

“Where are you guys from?” I ask.

“Well I’m from New Hampshire originally and Roger here is from Austin.
We’ve been on similar routes a few times and got to know each other over the radio. Just kinda kept in contact, tried to get similar routes and all that. You get lonely ya know being on the road all that time. Plus it makes the trips go quicker when you got someone to talk to.”

“You guys got any family?” Grace asks.

“Had a wife an two kids.
Bitch just got up and left one day
, haven’t seen her or the kids in bout two
years.” Roger replies almost bitterly.

“O dam I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yep, I’ve tried looking for em, got the police knowing that there’s some whore out there with two kids that ain’t completely hers.”

“I’m sorry to hear that” Grace sympathizes.

“Ya it’s a shit show but least I got Over here to talk to about it.” Roger says patting Over on the knee. “He’s helped me quite a lot.”

“Well I’m glad to hear it,” he
replies. “Now where’d that bowl go I haven’t hit it yet.”

Grace passes it over me her chest grazing my
shoulder. “I’ll be right back gotta use the little girls’ room,” she says jumping over the couch running to the bathroom.

Silence comes over the conversation as we look out onto the skyline.

A streak of Smoke crosses
the sky. The building rumbles once again slightly more violently than before.

“Jesus it’s getting closer, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Over sighs.

“I think this is as safe as we are going to get.” I reply,
“no way they could take down such a big building down. Not unless it was on purpose at least.”

“RARRR!” Grace pops up over my shoulder legitimately scaring me.

“Jesus Christ!” I yell. Her head falls back laughing hysterically. She’s wearing the tiger rug over her, its head on top of hers.

“I totally got you,” she smiles hugging me from behind her head firmly against mine.

“Barely, you barely got me.”

“O bull, you we so scared, scaredy pants. You pee your pants, scaredy
pants?”

“Fuck you.”

“O don’t be like that, look at my new costume it fits so well. I
t’s a sign I must have it.”

“It does look good.”

“You think?
It’s not too intimidating is it?”

“O it’s defiantly scary but I think you can pull it off.”

CHAPTER…

Silence fills the room as we stare
out at the skyline. The recording we hear
d outside Union Station echoing off the buildings softly squeezing its way through the window to us.

“What do you think is going to happen tomorrow?” Grace whispers to me.

Shrugging my shoulder I tell her “We'll look around probable kick in a few doors so we c
an see all around the building.
Hopefully we will see a part of Chicago that isn't being fought over and make our great escape.”

“What if we don't?”

“Well then I guess I have no choice but to use you as a human shield until we're out of the city.”

“Ah very funny,” she responds jabbing me in the side.

“Honestly Grace I’m not going to make any promises you know just about as much as I do but one thing I can say is getting you out of the city is my only concern
, and I’ll do anything to get that done.” She lays her head on my shoulder the smell of her conditioner fills my nose.

“Ok I can accept that for an answer” she replies. I wrap my arm around her shoulder pulling her in closer.

“I’ll be back, Imma explore
this place a bit.”
Roger says j
umping over the couch he leaves the room.

“So you guys in school or anything?” Over asks.

“No we just works at a Mcdanald’s right now.” Grace replies

“O well, how’s that?”

“It’s the bubonic plague of jobs, but it pays the bills.”

“Ha I hear ya. T
here’s a reason it’s called a job and not play time.”

“Holy shit!” we hear Roger yell.

We bolt up running. “What! What!” Over yells to him.

“Just get in here!” We head down a hallway to the bedroom. Roger standing over an open chest, staring into it.

Walking over I look to see six
handguns and two walkie talkies. “Holy shit”! I exclaim.

“Should we take them?” Over asks.

“I don’t see any harm in borrowing em ya know I think we should be protected at least.” I reach down picking the shiniest one out.

“I don’t know” Grace says. “If we get caught with guns don’t you think they would,
I don’t know shoot us?”

“Well, we don’t know what’s gona happen.
Hell we don’t even know who
we should be trusting right now. S
o I’d say it would be better to be safe than sorry.” Roger retorts.

Grace stoops down inspecting them. “I’ve never even shot a gun before. Never even held one.” She picks one up inspecting it. I kneel beside her.

“I doubt we’ll even use them,
but it’s probably a good idea to have them at least.” She doesn’t reply as she stares at the pistol in her hand.

“Here it’s easy” I take it from her. “Here’s the safety you push
it up like this to take it off.
When it’s off you just point and pull the trigger, it’s that simple.

“It’s not easy when there’s someone on the other side of it.” she points out.

“That’s true but Grace if you’re in the same spot as them you know. If you think you might get hurt you won’t have a choice. With the situation we’re in now there is no reason for any of us to feel bad about the decisions we have to make. We didn’t start this and I’ll be damned if you get hurt over something you don’t have control over.
”

Nodding her head she stands back up. Pointing it to an imaginary person in the corner.

“Look here nigga,
you the one that’s been slapping my hoes around” she says in a probably very racist pimp voice. A smile cracks my lips.

“There you’re a natural.” Roger
laughs
. She turns to me her face just delighted at her own joke.

Roger gathers the guns and ammo, he hands us each an extra magazine giving me the extra walkie talkie. “I feel better now that we got something to protect ourselves with. But we should be getting to sleep. I don’t know about you but I plan on waking
up with the sun and getting outta the city before noon.”

Grace yawns in agreement. Taking our new toys we walk back to the couches.

“Dibs!” I yell as I sit down.

“What?
No way, I get the couch,
she says as she tries to push me to the ground.

“Fuck you,”
I retort pushing her off.

“O you asshole,” she laughs as I lay down.

“Well we’ll just share it,” she says as she jumps over me.

I turn to my back. She
adjusts
resting her head on my chest. Warmth, like I just at a bow of chicken noodle soup fills my stomach. Even after everything that’s happened I now know that it was
un
mistakably worth it. All the people I’ve seen die
today have not died in vein
because Grace’s head is resting on my chest. I pull my arm around her.

Staring out the window, the entire Chicago skyline dark almost completely void of light. Save for the random interjected flashes of grenades and gun barrels a
few blocks away. The building ru
mbling and shaking softly almost lulling me to sleep. Like sleeping through a thunderstorm. I close my eyes hoping I drank enough champagne and smoked enough weed to let me fall asleep.

CHAPTER…

HMPH… My eyes snap open as I’m jolted awake. It’s still completely dark out, like someone threw the switch to the entire Chicago skyline. Righting myself on the couch I look down for Grace but she’s gone. Huh, looking to the other couch it’s empty too. Where the hell did they go? I stand trying to shake the cobwebs from my head. Walking to the glass wall something catches my eye. Hundreds of little bursts of light coming directly from the street below. Cupping my hands to the cool glass I look down.

It’s all out war. M
ilitia and military exchanging gun fire. The light from the mussels of assault rifles and what I can only assume to be grenades illuminate small sections of the street. It’s almost, kind of beautiful. Tiny little sparks of whites, yellows, and reds scattering throughout the darkness.

A noise resonates from down the street, a car horn blaring.
I watch as the headlights veer around the corner turning onto my street. It’s a dark colored truck, I hear the engine roaring between burst of the horn as it races towards the military. BEEP, BEEEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEEEP, BOOM
.

A sudden very bright light bursting out from the truck about half a block to the north. The shockwaves expanding out tearing everything apart. First hitting the illegally parked cars, the tickets sitting on the windshields blown off, immediately followed by the actual windows being blown out. The first floor windows of the next building down shattering onto the sidewalk. I watch as the tremor flows up the floors and down the block towards me. Catching my building about a third of the way up. The glass almost immediately rumbling against my forehead as I stare, unable to look away,
as row after row of windows transform into tiny little shards of glass scattering out into the air. The rumbling underneath my forehead spreads, sinking into the floor
.
I feel it growing beneath my feet.

A sudden noise from behind me. I turn to the unmistakable sound of someone flicking a lighter. It’s Grace, not two feet behind me. Calmly she stands,
lighting a cigarette in her mouth.

“Hey get down”, I cry out and
wrap her in my arms trying to shield her from the inevitable explosion of glass.

Closing my eyes bracing. The sound of breaking windows coming from maybe ten stories below. I count as it hits each floor, in almost immediate secession.

Crash nine, Crash eight.

“What’s wrong Willie?” Grace asks not quite as concerned as she should be right now.

Crash seven.

“I don’t want to lose you,” I whisper back.

Crash six. The wave of energy
slows
as it reaches each floor.

“Why?”

Crash five

“Because you’re all that’s left.”

Craasshh, four.

“O, don’t be silly, Willy” she laughs into my shirt.

Pulling her tighter we stand waiting, Grace slowly taking small shallow puffs off her cigarette.

Crash three.

Just two floors down, the windows now standing their ground for a second longer the
next floor resisting even more.
Fighting even harder,
weakening the brute force pounding them from the outside.

Finally giving way they fall to the ground all the same. G
ripping Grace even harder we stand in silence. It
starts;
our floors glass slowly cracking and splintering, the wave of energy from the other side weakening. The silence broken by the sound of wind whipping through the cracks, finally giving way to large burst as each window bows to the outside force
,
shattering into tiny little shards of death sized pieces.

A bitter, cold wind flows into the apartment whipping around us. Why is it so cold, shouldn’t it be... Another loud crash rumbles from the street below. Grace letting go she walks to the window. Shivering, I fold my arms and join her in looking over the edge.

The street, it’s splitting, like a fault line it travels from where the bomb went off all the way down the block
and out of sight. The buildings on the opposing side bending and swaying with the reverberations. Looking back down, the street now splitting completely in half. Grace and I stare as it breaks. Th
e other half of the world begins
to slowly float away.

The freezing wind whipping at my face, my eyes blurring as we watch the once solid, resilient skyscrapers
collapse under their own weight. Each one crumbling floor by floor into the empty gap between worlds. The other side floating farther and farther away. I look down into empty black space, the earth now completely to
rn apart. The other side drifting,
its runny egg yolk core slowly leaking into the cold nothingness.

Grace slides in front of me blocking my view.

“We need to get out of here,” I plead as I grab for her hand.

Saying nothing as she takes a step back towards the edge.

“Hey, hey what are you doing?!”

She just smiles taking another step, half her foot hanging over the edge.

“Grace, Grace quit it, you’ll die if you.”

With one last drag off her cigarette she slowly leans back falling over the edge, pulling me with her.

A cold I have never felt before wraps us as we slowly fall into the empty abyss of space. Past broken cement, street signs, and abandoned cars. The men once fighting for their country on the street below,
now fighting the cold for the lives. Passing more than a few, I look to a man shivering as he floats by and off into the darkness. Grace pulls me closer to her. She’s warm I think as I hold her
.

“Why’d you do that?” I ask. “Why did you jump?”