“We’ll move on without her,” Dr. Benjamin says, rumpling his brow.
Brooklyn, NY
“Get up, Emma! Emma…come on! Get up!” She opens her eyes to see Mateo beside her, shaking her awake. “Come on! We’re getting out of here.”
She turns her head to see that most people have already scrambled out of the therapy room. “Where’d they go?”
He helps her to her feet. “They’re running for home!”
She stands, grabbing his arms. “No! Where did Carrie and Reggie and Mrs. Ramos go?”
Mateo shakes his head, helping her to the lockers for her purse and jacket. “I don’t know!” His voice sounds as terrified as his eyes look. “Vaporized!”
Emma grabs her purse and jacket, and as they dart across the room, she remembers Mrs. Ramos’s purse and turns back for it, along with the Cuban sandwich. They have the presence of mind to lock the door and close it behind them before running down the hall and stairs, and out the front doors. The sun is still shining and Emma squints, looking into it. The sky is blue and puffed up with white clouds. How can it look like an ordinary day?
She tries to dial Matt’s number but can’t get through. “Not Matt. Please, not Matt,” she whispers under her breath, running. A few people are in the street trying to move driverless cars to the side of the road. Some people look shell-shocked and confused, but she’s surprised at how many are walking along as if unaware. “Vaporized by what?” she gasps, running. Mateo isn’t answering. “Mateo!” she shouts. “Vaporized by what?”
He pulls her along, screaming as he runs. “I don’t know. Evil!” Emma’s heart races at the thought as she and Mateo sprint toward the subway. She tugs Mateo’s arm to stop him when they pass 316 Deli. “What are you doing?” he asks. “Come on!”
She looks at Mrs. Ramos’s purse and back at him. “I have to tell them. They need this. Go on without me.”
Mateo is irritated. “Come on! Give it to them later!”
“Go on. They need to know.”
Mateo shakes his head and runs on without her. Emma steps inside 316 Deli and the smells of soups and roasted chicken and baked goods fill the space as usual, but tables and chairs have been toppled; the place is empty. She thinks of what Mateo said about everyone being vaporized by evil and hurries behind the counter and into the kitchen, shouting as she searches the restaurant. Chicken, beef, and vegetables are sizzling to a charred black on the grill, and steam rises from a pot that’s boiling over. Emma turns everything off and steps to the walk-in refrigerator, where she sees a young girl crouched in the corner and trembling. She looks at her nametag. “Gina. Where is everyone? Where’s Carlos and Viviana and…”
The young girl looks up at her, traumatized. Her eyes are dark, and her hands are shaking. “We were all working…and then they were gone.” Emma walks to her, extending her hand, and Gina looks up. “People were screaming and running, and I hid. I had to hide before they got me too.”
“Before who got you?”
“Aliens. Right?” she whispers, looking for answers from Emma. “Right?!”
Emma doesn’t respond as she helps Gina to her feet and closes the door to the refrigerator. “Run home.”
Gina begins to cry. “But what if my home isn’t there?”
Emma looks around the restaurant. “Buildings are still here. It’s people who are gone.”
“Viviana was right next to me handing food to a customer in line and Carlos was talking to his wife and their two little kids, who had just come in. The food that Viviana was holding crashed to the floor, and Carlos’s voice suddenly stopped. I looked up, and he and his wife and kids were gone.” Gina looks at Emma. “People freaked out!”
Emma’s voice is quivering. “Run home, Gina.” Gina rushes for the door, and Emma grabs her arm. “Be careful.”
As Gina leaves, Emma looks over the restaurant once more and feels her throat filling again as she locks and closes the door for 316 Deli.
The subway station is packed, and people shove their way past the turnstiles and onto the platform; just like Elliott, they all want to get home. Two of the lines are down and fights are quick to break out as the crowd from the street rushes toward the oncoming train, shouting about a terrorist attack on the city. Mothers grab the hands of their children in the panic and race for the subway platform; others slug it out, jockeying for position closest to the doors.
It’s pandemonium, and Elliott wonders if he should find another way home. If the city were under a terrorist attack, then the subway system would be a primary target. But there’s no time to leave before the doors open and he’s pushed, even lifted, along with the crowd onto the train. He grabs a pole and it’s impossible to move; people are packed so tightly around him that he has trouble taking a breath. In contrast to the people on the platform, everyone on the train is quiet; an eerie, unnerving quiet prevails until a boy around twelve says, “Where’d Mom go?”
“Shh,” the man with him says.
“Where’d she go?”
The man’s face is pale as he looks at his son. “I don’t know.”
“It’s terrorists!” A man barks in the father’s face. “Just tell him the truth, for God’s sake!”
“How is it terrorists?” the father says, shaking. “How did they make her disappear?”
The man is red-faced and angry. “Chemical weapons!”
“It was Satan,” an elderly woman says, her hands trembling on her purse strap. “He and his demons have been let loose.” The hair stands up on the back of Elliott’s neck.
People begin to panic, but there’s nowhere to go. Shouts and curses fill the train before fright and anxiety strangle each passenger, and the father pulls his son closer to him. In his mind Elliott sees the empty graves again and his body begins to shiver, while the muffled cries around him continue.
Brooklyn, NY
Even if she wanted to, Emma couldn’t get to the subway platform. People are overflowing into the streets and trying to get down the stairs, while another flood of them run up the stairs, stumbling and falling over each other at word of the subway’s closure. Emma finds herself in the midst of them, being carried along in the wave of hysteria and chaos in the middle of the street. Her ears have not stopped ringing since Mrs. Ramos disappeared and it’s hard to catch her breath. Gridlock in the street makes running difficult; people fight their way to taxicabs or nearby vehicles. Sirens, alarms, shouts, and crying fill the air, pressing down on her chest, and she tries to take a breath. She is jostled on every side and clings to her bag and Mrs. Ramos’s purse.
The door to a restaurant is open ahead and she pushes her way through the crowd, heading toward it. She needs to get out of this sea of people to call Matt. She has to hear his voice and have him tell her that everything will be okay. She breaks from the crowd and stumbles toward the open door, but a few workers inside the restaurant are pushing people away from the door as they try to close it, keeping them out. “Get out!” A man in a black apron yells. “Get away from the door! Get out!” Three people fall to the sidewalk as the man inside slams the door, locking it behind him.