Chapter 9
With his family at the forefront of his mind, Dante knew he had to make a decision that was right for them. His husband was just under one hundred miles away in the center of the Trident disaster, but things were unravelling quicker than he could’ve ever imagined in Poughkeepsie and he couldn’t rely on the promise that Austin was coming for them. Dante needed to make a choice and he needed to make it now.
“Daddy I’m scared. Can we go back please?”
Looking down at Bowie, who Dante and Austin had named after their shared musical hero, Dante knew what he had to do. They had left his mother’s house which was further inland from the river, with the hope of crossing it and getting out of Poughkeepsie so that Austin could reach them. Now that Dante stood in front of the Mid-Hudson Bridge – the only way out of Poughkeepsie over the river – he knew that it had been the wrong decision. He should have never brought his son out into this madness; the little boy needed to be protected and instead Dante had led him into the belly of the beast.
The people of Poughkeepsie had officially lost their minds. The small, riverside city which sat in the foothills of the Catskills was brimming with adventurers and explorers alike who loved nothing more than disappearing out into the mountains for weeks at a time and surviving off the land. Unfortunately, these same people all shared a very narrowminded view that when a disaster came, thousands of ‘city-slickers’ would flood to their area from New York and soak up their natural resources, bleeding them dry and leaving them to suffer.
Dante’s mother, who they were staying with, lived among them, though thankfully did not share the views of the majority. His father had however – before his passing – and so Dante knew just how extreme these people could get if they all united over something. Despite everything he knew though, he could’ve never imagined what was about to happen, hundreds of locals all grouped together at one end of the Mid-Hudson Bridge while those that didn’t want to remain in Poughkeepsie desperately fled across it over the water.
Bowie tugged on his father’s arm, anxious to return to his grandmother’s house and escape what was about to happen. Taking his son under his arm, Dante turned and started walking away from the bridge and up the hill that led back to where they had come from. He carried a suitcase in his other hand that was filled with unfolded clothes and random belongings he had hurriedly thrown into it just over an hour earlier. As soon as the news of Trident’s collapse had reached his household, Dante had panicked and tried to find a way back to his husband in the city. Only now he was realizing what a foolish idea that had been. Austin would come for them and the safest place their son could be for the time being was in a house with his loved ones, even if the rest of the people who lived around them had gone into apocalypse mode.
A loud boom shook the surrounding area just as Dante and Bowie reached the top of the hill, both of them turning around to look at the bridge, Dante with his arms around his son to protect him from the blast. Down below where the abundance of local residents gathered, men and women cheered as the Mid-Hudson Bridge cracked in the middle and started to collapse into the water.
This had been the plan all along. The people of Poughkeepsie were determined to outlive this disaster and they firmly believed that meant keeping themselves to themselves. Road blockades could be put up and defended on all the other major routes into the city, but the bridge was by far the most valuable. Reserves of dynamite had been laid across it and once everyone who wished to leave that way had done so, the mayor of the city had pressed the button and blown the concrete structure to pieces.
“Wow!” Bowie shouted over the noise, his tiny hands pressed against his ears as more explosions erupted, ensuring the supports of the bridge tumbled into the water as well and there was no way of rebuilding the structure.
Dante squeezed his son closer to his body and grimaced, wishing he hadn’t brought Bowie out to see this happen. The streets of Poughkeepsie were filled with people applauding the moment; the first step in making their small city self-sufficient through the upcoming weeks and months. They reacted harder and faster than almost anywhere else in the country, which meant they would be more serious about sticking to their guns. Austin had said he would come to Poughkeepsie and rejoin his family, but as Dante saw the determination in the people around him, he wondered if his husband would even be allowed in.
The father and son remained where they stood throughout the remainder of the explosions, the air around them filling with smoke and silencing the crowd for a few moments. When it finally subsided and a clear view of the bridge was visible again, a large cheer erupted throughout the city and people whooped and clapped their hands at the sight in front of them.
Dante himself stood silently, his son looking up at him with a confused expression, the little boy not tall enough to see what everyone was applauding. Dante could see it clear as day though and he questioned whether remaining in the city had been the correct choice. Where the Mid-Hudson Bridge once stood, now there was nothing put a pile
