“Err, make yourself at home,” Samuel said as he closed the door behind them. “Sorry about the mess.”
Austin laughed. “You should see my place, pal.”
Being back in his apartment felt like a miracle, Samuel standing in the kitchen and just thinking for a second about everything that had happened since he was last there. It was only a matter of hours and yet the whole world had been turned upside down in that time. Samuel remembered leaving in the night and thinking that maybe they could get through this disaster, that maybe the public wouldn’t react so badly, and they would figure out a way to survive. Now that seemed an impossible dream. He had been right with his original assumption: things were going to get a lot worse before they got any better. That had been true when the crash first happened, and it was even more true now. Sinking down onto his couch once again, this time beside Austin, Samuel wondered when, if ever, it would be safe for the two of them to leave.
Chapter 19
The descent into madness was something Samuel had always wondered about. Did it happen slowly or all at once? Were there warning signs and symptoms you could look out for, or was it something that just happened outside of your control? As he and Austin flicked through static channel after static channel, he considered whether it was happening to him already. The cries of the city rang out from beyond his windows and the effects of the crash became apparent everywhere he looked. The world was changing and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it.
“What are we going to do?” Samuel asked out loud, though he didn’t expect a response to the question. “What’s going to happen to us all?”
Austin briefly looked up and shook his head. He felt sorry for Samuel and what had happened with the broadcast. It was clear that the man only had good intentions and while he often seemed to go about things in a slightly backwards manner, he only wanted to make a positive impression and be helpful to others. He was effectively harmless and didn’t deserve to have been scapegoated for this whole thing. But then at the same time, Samuel didn’t always help himself. It sounded to Austin like the man had pushed and pushed to get back into the Trident building, without really considering all the possible downsides to that. He had forced himself into a position of power and as a result, no one could have too much sympathy that the outcome hadn’t been exactly what he had hoped for. After all, in business, it rarely was.
Figuring out their next move was paramount to Austin. His endgame was undoubtedly Poughkeepsie and his family, but he did wonder what Samuel would do next. By all accounts, the man wasn’t coping well with things. He alternated between dropping his head into his hands, glancing out of the window with a terrified expression on his face and looking longingly at an open bottle of wine.
“Things will start to calm down in a couple of days,” Austin replied, sounding just about as confident in that statement as he felt. “I doubt anyone will remember your face in –”
Offensive knocking on the apartment door cut Austin short, Samuel’s name also being bellowed through the woodwork at the same time. Both men froze at the sound, Samuel looking at Austin in horror as the thunderous banging continued, his name echoing through the building like a foghorn, alerting people far and wide to his location.
“They’ve found us,” Samuel shuddered immediately, his first thought going to the angry mob that had chased them from the Trident building. Surely, they were done for now. They were cornered and there was no way of escape; he looked fleetingly to the fire escape but knew he could never bring himself to scale the rusted stairwell that hugged the side of his building. The access point might as well not be there, Samuel would rather take his chances jumping than put his faith in that old thing.
“No way,” Austin shook his head. “It can’t be the same people. They can’t have seen us come in here.”
“Sam!” The knocking continued, showing no indication that it was going to stop. “We know you’re in there. Come on, let us in.”
“It’s Trent and Abi,” a women’s voice joined the calls. “Please let us inside.”
A look of recognition mixed with relief shot across Samuel’s face as he realized it wasn’t the angry mob chasing him down, but his neighbors from the floor above. He was on friendly terms with Trent and Abi, a married couple about his age who he shared dinner plans with once every couple of months or so. They were nice people and on any normal day of the week he would’ve trusted them, but this wasn’t a normal day of the week. As a result, Samuel paused, trying to decide what to do.
Austin gave him a questioning glance. “Shall we let them in?”
Samuel hesitated, pros and cons for letting his neighbors into his apartment quickly running through his head. As the banging on his door continued relentlessly, he eventually stepped forward and pulled it open, frightened about the additional attention that the noise might attract.
“Finally,” Trent barged into the room, his wife right behind him. “What took you so long? We saw you on the news, man. I can’t believe it.”
Abi shook her head.
