“Our what?” asked Reese. He narrowed his eyes and tried to see beyond the door but saw only darkness.
Harry snorted. “Call it the secret clubhouse.” He clapped Reese on the good shoulder and followed his daughter.
“After you,” Semmi said from behind Reese, his voice deep and resonant. “I know it looks bad, but trust me, we stay out here much longer, the Scavengers gonna sweep the street and catch us. You don’t want what they’re giving out.”
Reese nodded. “If this gets me closer to rescuing my friend, then so be it.” He ducked under the door and stepped into the next building. After a moment, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he picked out shapes: Decker, Carla, Harry…and several others who stood in the blackest of shadows. “Whoa.” He raised his good arm.
“It’s okay, they’re with us,” Decker announced. His voice echoed in the distance.
“What is this place?” Reese asked, as his voice followed Decker’s across a dark open space and returned.
“Parking garage,” Decker explained.
Reese grinned. Cami would have loved to hear Decker say ‘pahking’ garage. She had a thing for accents.
“When it collapsed, it fell over and sealed off the whole alley. It also gave us the perfect place to fight back. It’s like a rabbit’s warren in here,” Decker said, as he accepted a flashlight from one of the silent shadows. “We got guards placed at the only two entrances—here and street-side. Anyone who gets past them—and no one has—will never figure the way out. Stay close.”
Reese did as he was told and remained near Decker as the big man climbed up the steep-slanted floor that Reese was sure used to be a wall. Rubble gave way under his shoes and he almost lost his footing more than once, but he managed to keep up with Decker, who moved with the surefooted grace of a mountain goat, despite his size.
Back and forth, up and down, they wound through the maze of debris and traversed different floors of the toppled parking garage until they came to a stairwell that went left and right instead of up and down. Decker turned left without hesitation and moved into the tunnel-like structure. Reese glanced over his shoulder to make sure the others were still there, then followed.
The end of the stairwell, about a hundred feet in the distance, proved to be the old ceiling. So, the door out was on the new ceiling. Decker stood on a pile of concrete, rebar, and wood and lifted the door up like a ship’s hatch. Sunlight exploded into the stairwell, and Reese gasped at the sudden increase in light.
“Sorry,” Decker grunted. He hauled himself up through the hole in the ceiling and turned around to help Reese. “Just hold on to my hand and walk your way up the wall.”
Reese grabbed the offered hand and felt an immediate sense of weightlessness as Decker pulled up. The man was strong. Reese planted his feet on the wall and walked up as Decker hauled him through the open door. Several people waited for him on the roof of yet another building and helped get him clear of the stairwell so Carla could scramble up behind him.
“Now, where are we?” he asked, as he wiped concrete dust and sweat from his left hand. He squinted up at the late morning sun. He hadn’t slept much last night, worried as he was over Jo’s fate, and he’d pressed Harry, Semmi, and Carla to leave at first light. He glanced down at his watch. They’d walked through the remains of Boston for almost four hours before he finally met The Lieutenant. “How much longer do I have to wait before we go get my friend?”
“Don’t be so anxious to die,” Decker replied evenly. “The Scavengers will be more than happy to help you out with that soon enough.” He turned and walked across the slanted roof—side?—of the collapsed parking garage and approached a third building that leaned precariously against the garage. Or maybe the garage had collapsed against that one too, Reese couldn’t be sure. A man with an AR stood up out of the rubble pile next to a bright red fire door set into the side of the building. He nodded as Decker approached.
“How’s it going, LT?” he asked.
“Got a new guy,” Decker replied. He opened the door and held it for Reese.
“Welcome to the party,” the guard said to Reese with a wary grin.
Reese nodded. So far the ‘pah-ty’ was all cloak and dagger. He stepped into a brightly lit office building and blinked at electric lights that hung from the ceiling. “What the—“
“Pretty sweet, yeah?” asked Harry as he walked around Reese and waved to someone in the distance.
The entire floor had once been filled with cubicles, but Reese saw they had moved all the office furniture to the outer walls and made a large clearing in the middle, where the lights had been clustered. Wires hung from the ceiling and snaked off to the corners. Reese stepped over one and shook his head. “Extension cords? Lights? What’s going on here?”
Decker smiled again. “Welcome to…well, I guess you could say welcome to the Resistance.” He pointed at cables on the ground. “Three days ago, we found out this building still had a working generator. Fuel tank filled up for the winter a few weeks ago, according to the logbook we found in the basement. An electrician we rescued the other day disconnected everything but the lights on this floor, so we got plenty of gas to last us a long time.”
“You want something to eat?” asked Semmi. “We got cold water.”
“Cold water?” Reese licked his lips. “Got a cold beer?”
Decker laughed. “Yes, but not for you. Maybe…if you help us out with the Scavengers.”
“I
