Chapter 14

Simon spent the last night with Jeremy playing Monopoly, their favorite board game. And when it was time for bed, he took Jeremy's hand and led him to the basement. They sat together on the mattress and talked about motorcycles, movies, and comic books until Simon laid his head on the pillow and fell asleep.

Isaac sat at the top of the stairs, having listened to his brother talking incessantly about matters of inconsequence for the past hour. Simon was snoring softly now while Jeremy sat cross-legged at the foot of the mattress. Isaac considered waking up his brother and taking him upstairs, especially since Simon had not chained Jeremy this night, but he decided to let him be. Isaac leaned his back against the wall of the basement and prepared himself for a long night of watching over his brother, but soon, his head drooped, and he, too, snored lightly.

Jeremy turned his head to Isaac at the top of the stairs. He then looked down at Simon, who was curled up into a little ball on the mattress. A blanket lay bunched up at Simon's feet. He picked it up and laid it gently over the boy's body.

In the morning, the children had loaded the bed of the truck with supplies, including extra gas and their red wagon.

The truck was parked at the house, and the children were standing in front of Jeremy who peered down at them with his usual blank expression.

"Thank you, Mr. Jeremy," said Katie, walking up to him. "We wouldn't have made it if it weren't for you." Then she hugged him warmly.

"I'd like to thank you too for all that you've done, Sir," said Isaac. "It's because of you that we have a chance of getting back home." He put his hand out for Jeremy to shake who only stared at it quizzically, so Isaac put his hand in Jeremy's and shook for the both of them.

When it was Simon's turn, he hugged Jeremy as tightly as he could.

"I'll miss you, Jeremy," he said.

Jeremy looked down at the boy's eyes, which were filling with tears.

One by one, the children climbed into the cabin of the truck with Katie behind the wheel, Simon in the middle, and Isaac in the passenger seat.

Katie scooted to the edge of the seat and turned the key, starting the engine. She exhaled and eased the truck into gear.

The children all waved good-bye with Katie putting her left arm out the window and her right hand on the wheel.

But the most enthusiastic of all was Simon who was on his knees looking through the rear window and waving, even after the others had stopped.

"Bye, Jeremy!" he screamed. "Bye!"

The truck rumbled down the dirt path, stirring dust into the air.

"Bye!" said Simon one last time, but before the house and Jeremy were lost to view, he saw his friend raise a hand in acknowledgement.

"He waved!" Simon shouted with shock. "Did anyone see that? He waved to me!" Simon climbed over his brother and stuck his whole upper body out the passenger side window and even though he could no longer see him, he continued to wave and shout.

"Bye! I'll miss you, Jeremy! Good-bye!"

Isaac closed his eyes and felt the warm desert air on his face as the truck rattled down the highway. He opened his eyes and scanned the vista of rock, sand, and weeds, looking for places that they would have used for shelter had they still been on foot. He spotted a clump of chaparral some distance from the highway, and thought to himself how that would have made a good camp for the night.

This is how far we would have gotten on the first day.

During one of the first few days of having been in the desert, he had tried counting his steps because he had wanted to know whether or not they were covering roughly the same distance each day. By the end of that day, when they had to stop due to heat and exhaustion, they had taken some fifteen thousand steps. Fifteen thousand steps lying between them and knowing whether or not they would live to see the next day.

And here would have been the second.

The heat would be emanating from the asphalt and the sun, and he would have felt the warmth through the soles of his shoes. The pain in his head would have been throbbing with each beat of his heart, and his throat, dry and tight. No one would have spoken, for it would have been too painful to utter a word. the rope harness connecting him to the red wagon would have dug into his shoulders, and every two thousand steps, they would have allowed themselves one swallow of water, but each time, he would have had to fight the urge to drink one more mouthful even though his body would have been crying out for more.

And here, the third.

He thought about the cabin in the mountains and tried to retrace their steps, to figure out how long they had been on their journey. They hadn't always been moving. Some days, they had to stay underneath their tarp, unable to travel due to torrential rain. On other days, they were too tired to take even one more step, so they rested in some secluded area in silence.

And the fourth.

Then there were those times when the road diverged, and they had to choose. Often they had chosen wrong, and the road curved upon itself and lead them back toward the place they had just left. Other times, the road ended or turned into a dirt path that lead to an abandoned farmhouse or vacant lot, and they had to make the arduous trek back. Sometimes, they had to leave the road altogether and cross fields and valleys, and for days they had wandered, using the setting sun as their marker, until they came upon another road.

And here, we would have run out of water.

Isaac looked around and could see no signs of water anywhere. What would they have done then? The three of them would have crawled into a ditch and pulled the tarp over themselves. Perhaps they would be able to make it for another day. Possibly two. But one morning, they would be too weak to rise, so they would lie there, wishing the pain would go away as the wind-blown sand covered them slowly.

Isaac closed his eyes again and tried to block out all these thoughts.They had been driving for a little over an hour, yet they had gone farther than they would have after five days of walking. They had seen a sign, which indicated that the city lay 109 miles away, and at this speed, by sunset, they would be there.

Later in the day, the children began to see more signs of civilization - gas stations, fast food restaurants, and trailer homes. Telephone wires crossed overhead, and signal lights hung lifelessly over empty streets. A few scattered buildings with tinted glass panels passed by their view, and the road had gone from two lanes to six with arcing overpasses and junctions.

"Oh, my God," said Katie, slowing down the truck.

Isaac glanced at Katie and followed her gaze down the road. A large, metallic object leaned over the highway, and at first, Isaac thought it to be a building that had toppled. But when they got closer, he could see that it was the massive tail section of a passenger plane. He followed the trail of debris into the desert town where a wide swath of devastation - burned buildings, piles of rubble, overturned cars - led to the nose of the plane several hundred yards away. Isaac looked to the other side of the highway and saw a part of the wing in an empty field covered by dirt and overgrown weeds.

He felt Simon's hand grip his arm tightly.

They were under the tail section now, driving in its shadow. Deep grooves in the asphalt where the plane skid across the highway rocked the truck back and forth as Katie drove slowly past.

It was night, and the truck creeped through a dark mountain pass, for its headlights were not working. They were close to the city. Earlier in the night, they had passed a sign that marked it as being seventeen miles away.

Katie was leaning as closely as she could to the windshield to see the twisting road ahead when the engine sputtered, choked, and became quiet.

Katie gasped as the truck coasted silently down the road. She pulled off to the side and put the gear into park.

"That's it," she said. "This is as far as it'll take us."

They got out of the truck and stared at it helplessly.

"It's okay," said Isaac. "We're almost there anyways."

The children made their way to the bed of the truck to start unloading their supplies when they saw the flames in the distance. They stepped to the edge of the dropoff to take a closer view. Side by side they stood, staring where the hills parted to the dark expanse below where small fires burned, illuminating streets, road signs, and warehouses. And far in the distance, silhouetted in black was the outline of buildings, towering skyscrapers that rose above all else, and in the center was the tallest one where, Isaac knew, their parents were waiting for their return.

"This is it," he said. "We're here."

And then came the howls, which echoed through the hills, one after another, from somewhere in the city. A sound that they had never heard before - piercing, agonized, and inhuman.