I long ago stopped trying to edit these.\u00a0 I don’t even know what I’m pasting below!<\/p>\n
——<\/p>\n
Before following the path through the tunnel, though, they broke off and stepped into a parking lot across from the Barnes and Noble and the commercial district surrounding it.\u00a0 It still looked like the Bethesda of Daryl\u2019s youth out here, on the fringes of the nest of high-rise offices and apartments.\u00a0 Trees lined the road heading into the city center; even in this grim world, it was still vibrant and bustling.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t any movement in the city and Daryl hoped that the monsters had crawled off to die in a corner somewhere, but the cleared streets suggested otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0 They walked past the restaurants and bars, the doctor\u2019s offices and the high-rise apartments.\u00a0 Along the way, Daryl studied every office and dining room.\u00a0 He half expected to see Whittier\u2019s name on one of the doctor\u2019s plaques, waving in the wind, like a happy Hollywood coincidence.\u00a0 Stumble across it and Whittier\u2019s mutant secretary would pull them aside to a swell of music; begin act two.\u00a0 And who would Whittier be?\u00a0 There was an image of\u00a0 Keye Luke from the 80\u2019s film Gremlins that came to mind.\u00a0 Some wizened Chinese man who turns when they enter and says, \u2018I\u2019ve been expecting you.\u00a0 Now, you\u2019re looking for a way to defeat the jellyheads, yes?\u00a0 Very dangerous, very dangerous.\u2019<\/p>\n
They walked until they hit Old Georgetown road, just a block from the Bethesda Metro Station, which was the other end of the line from where Daryl\u2019s train was headed.\u00a0 He hated to think of all those trains down there, full of the dead, and found himself shaking.\u00a0 The thought of this empty city was overwhelming \u2013 dead above around and below.\u00a0 They stood out amongst the traffic in this silent city and glared in four separate directions.\u00a0 Daryl was trying to kick his sense of claustrophobia, the weight of these buildings all around, but he wasn\u2019t very successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are the dogs, the cats?\u201d Martin asked.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019d think they\u2019d be running wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr maybe they\u2019re just smarter than we are.\u201d\u00a0 Molly replied.\u00a0 \u201cWe aren\u2019t going to find anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr maybe something weird has happened to them?\u201d Azizi whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s pretend Azizi didn\u2019t just say that.\u201d Martin replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood, thanks.\u201d Daryl said over his shoulder, turning around to look back the way they came.\u00a0 \u201cThis is like some sort of Twilight Zone episode.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going with cracked fairy tale.\u201d Azizi said.\u00a0 \u201cThe story of the misanthropic knight who rode into Bethesda and never rode out again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daryl was about to suggest they make a hasty retreat when Azizi made a small sound and raised his hand.\u00a0 Then he heard it, as well.\u00a0 Footsteps, voices,\u00a0 heading in their direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know about you kids,\u201d Martin whispered, \u201cBut I ain\u2019t feeling too sociable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The corner of Old Georgetown and Woodmont, where they stood, was about a block from Bethesda\u2019s city center.\u00a0 It was one of the few pockets of the city that has remained unchanged since Daryl\u2019s high school days, but the encroachment of progress had it under siege.\u00a0 On the east, heading up to the city center, office high-rises squeezed in.\u00a0 But on the west, one block was taken up by a gas station which, in its simplicity, was an anachronistic icon of simpler days.\u00a0 A small island, grass surrounding, and a tiny bunker for the cashier.\u00a0 No garage, and no house shaped building.\u00a0 It seemed impossible that the station could have survived the development this long though now, of course, it would survive forever.<\/p>\n
Daryl and the others now backed up across wet grass, crouching behind the brick and glass bunker and a pile of tires that had been piled up behind it.\u00a0 Behind them, an apartment building rose into the sky, a canopy of young trees still bare, and Daryl glared through the limbs at the mirrored windows of the apartments looking down on them.<\/p>\n
Across from the gas station, a one-story development of shops also stood out against the hustle and bustle around them.\u00a0 The restaurants, except for a pub and a Greek place, changed regularly, but the other shops had remained static for nearly 20 years now.\u00a0 This included an Olsson\u2019s Books, which had somehow managed to muddle through the dark years which had begun with the arrival of the three storey Barnes and Noble just a few blocks away, near where they had parked the HumVee.\u00a0 The little strip had supported the moneyed residents of Bethesda, who lived in houses that also seemed to be under siege as progress, traffic and the population exploded around them.\u00a0 But the money and the people remained.\u00a0 Bethesda and Chevy Chase had come together as two of DC\u2019s most affluent suburbs.\u00a0 The residents and their allies had stood strong, though now they lay dead in their homes, the lights from the little strip of shops, designed to fit into a Bethesda that had vanished just a few years ago, still blazed away, and the intersection was packed with the cars of the dead.\u00a0 Except for a center aisle, cleared by heavy equipment, judging from the damage done to the cars.<\/p>\n
It was up this aisle in Old Georgetown that a group of survivors came shuffling into view from the west.\u00a0 In front, nearly a dozen survivors shuffled listlessly, chained together.\u00a0 Behind them, four men with guns shouted orders.\u00a0 The chained survivors looked like they\u2019d been through a wringer \u2013 wet, dirty, clothes torn.\u00a0 They\u2019d been on the run, or in hiding.\u00a0 Their faces were a mask of shock and horror.\u00a0 As they drew closer, Daryl saw that the men and women had been separated \u2013 two groups, chained together.<\/p>\n
The men behind them, however, were a different sight.\u00a0 They were clean, and each wore similar clothes.\u00a0 It was a uniform, if only in coloring \u2013 blacks and greys.\u00a0 They seemed to be taking orders from a large, bearded man with two pistols.\u00a0 He would have been a ridiculous figure, a movie-style pistolero, if it wasn\u2019t for the very real terror of the situation.<\/p>\n
They marched their prisoners through the intersection and on up towards Wisconsin Avenue, the geographical heart of the suburb, and where the Metro station entrance lay.<\/p>\n
The Metro had become a weight on Daryl, burning in his mind with memories of smoke, fire and death.\u00a0 He knew, he could simple feel it, that these gunmen were in the employ of the monsters, and the Metro would play a part in his future.\u00a0 He felt this with such certainty that he swore to avoid the situation when it came up.<\/p>\n
Azizi placed a hand on Daryl\u2019s back.\u00a0 He was also on his stomach, looking out at the road.\u00a0 He nodded and Daryl knew just what he meant.\u00a0 So did Molly.\u00a0 Azizi and Martin wanted to follow the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she hissed, her back pressed against the brick wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what we came for,\u201d Martin whispered, squatting down between Molly and his friends.<\/p>\n
Azizi and Martin rushed across the street, weaving through the cars, and leapt into the shadows of an office building.\u00a0\u00a0 They stood there, backs to the wall, then began a slow walk to a plaza connecting four separate office high-rises that filled the elongated suburban block.\u00a0 They vanished around the corner. The two office buildings facing Old Georgetown were connected and filled the block.\u00a0 One end looking out on the corner where Daryl and Molly now stood, numb and shaken, and the other side looking down on the city center and Metro entrance.<\/p>\n
Daryl looked over at Molly.\u00a0\u00a0 She was shaking her head, biting back tears.\u00a0 He took her hand. \u201cWe\u2019d all better stick together,\u201d he said lamely.<\/p>\n
She shook her hand loose and hissed, \u201cDon\u2019t give me that shit!\u00a0 You boys are fucking insane!\u00a0 This is a goddamned war zone; we\u2019ve got to leave!\u201d<\/p>\n
He took a breath and glared across the street.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to stick together, he thought.\u00a0 Jesus fucking Christ.\u00a0 He stood and raced across the street, cleared the little decorative bushes and slammed against the wall in the shadows, staring wildly around him for any signs of trouble.\u00a0 He crouched low to the ground, and then Molly was beside him, panting.\u00a0 They followed Martin and Azizi round into the plaza and Molly ripped open a glass door leading into a back lobby.\u00a0 This looked to be more of an employee entrance.\u00a0 A stack of deliveries and the corpse of a UPS man lay in the way, and a pair of elevators waited patiently at the end of the hall.\u00a0 Martin and Azizi waited by them.<\/p>\n
Besides the corpse, the lobby was empty.\u00a0 The silence, the sunlight and the glaring overhead light made the building an eerie ghost, like coming to work on a holiday.\u00a0 Daryl and Molly ran the length of the corridor and stopped, breathless, in front of the elevator.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpecting trouble, D?\u201d Martin asked with a smile, punching the up button.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d Daryl barked, \u201cAre you crazy?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I long ago stopped trying to edit these.\u00a0 I don’t even know what I’m pasting below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[404],"class_list":["post-623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nachos-lousy-novel","tag-nachos-lousy-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}