“Come on Bowie,” Dante looked away and down at his son, regretting his choice to bring the little boy outside once more. “Let’s get back to grandma’s house, shall we?”
“What’s going on, daddy? Why is everyone clapping at that noise?”
Dante didn’t know how to reply to his son and simply shook his head. “I’ll explain it later, bud. I think grandma will be missing us.”
The look on his mother’s face when Dante walked back into her house with Bowie said it all. She had never wanted them to leave and she practically broke down in tears as Bowie ran into her arms, the old woman dropping to her knees to hold him.
“Did you hear the explosions, grandma?” Bowie asked her, still curious about what had happened and eager for an explanation. Dante had been quiet the rest of the way back, the man worrying about what he was going to do for his son in the next few days and how he was going to let Austin know what had happened. With his mother the focus of his son’s interest, Dante stepped into another room and drew out his cell phone, pressing the first name at the top of his favorites list and holding the device to his ear.
“Dante?”
“Austin,” Dante’s breath hitched in his throat as he heard his husband’s voice. “Are you okay?”
“I’m – office – elevator shaft – fire.”
“What?” Dante furrowed his brow and held his cell away from his ear for a second, checking the service and the battery were both still full. “I can’t hear you Austin. Where are you?”
“…hear me? I’m – apartment – hide – wait – coming for you.”
“Austin, listen to me,” Dante spoke seriously, worried that he might only have a short period of time left where he could speak to his husband. The effects of what had happened with Trident were cascading through the country like dominos. The phone lines were already struggling and Dante could only guess at what would go down next and how it would change their lives. He needed to tell his husband what had happened in Poughkeepsie; warn him about the bridge. They had both agreed that once Austin got out of New York, he would come and join them. Dante needed to let him know that their original plan was going to be harder than they thought.
“They’ve destroyed the bridge to Poughkeepsie. They’re putting the city in lockdown. No one wants anyone coming in from New York and they’re doing everything they can do to make us self-sufficient. Where are you? How long do you think it’ll take for you to get here?”
Dante stopped talking and waited for a response, silence greeting him from the other end of the line.
“Austin? Austin can you hear me?”
A faint, muffled sound came from the other end, Dante swearing he could make out the tone of his husband’s voice behind it. But no words were discernable. It was like Austin was speaking underwater.
“Austin please,” Dante begged into the phone, desperate to hear his husband’s voice, or at least have some reassurance that Austin had received his warning. “Please talk to me.”
Another few seconds of muffled static and then the line went dead. Dante froze. How much of what he said had Austin been able to hear? Had he received the warning about the bridge into Poughkeepsie, or the other lengths the locals were going to? Would his husband still try and reach them? Dante didn’t even know if he had made it out of New York yet, the ominous, disjointed noise on the call worrying him that Austin was in danger. Of the few words he’d been able to make out, none of them had been positive. The fear that Austin was in more danger than he’d originally thought grabbed hold of Dante and threatened to suffocate him.
“Is everything okay, dear?” Dante’s mother, Meghan, stuck her head around the door and asked. The drawn and pale look on her face made it blatantly obvious she had heard the end of her son’s phone call.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do mom,” Dante shook his head. “I can’t get through to Austin.”
“That man will be fine,” Meghan replied, “and you know he will. He’ll be doing everything he can to get back to you and Bowie and he won’t stop until he’s managed it.”
“But how will he get here, mom? They’ve blown up the bridge! They’re blocking off all the roads in and out of the city. These people are crazy. I swear dad was never like this.”
Meghan laughed, looking up to the sky. “You know what your father was like,” she smiled, “but you only remember the good bits. He perhaps wasn’t quite as extreme as blowing up a bridge to stop people from the big city coming up here, but he sure hated everyone from there just as much as the next guy.”
“Do you think they can really stop anyone from coming in?”
“I think they’ll certainly try,” Meghan nodded. “But you still shouldn’t worry about that husband of yours. Austin has got his head screwed on properly. He’ll figure out how to get to you and Bowie and he’ll do it with ease. You should be more worried about keeping that boy entertained until Austin does get here. He’s already a handful and I’m not sure we can have him running about outside anymore.”
Dante smiled, appreciating his mother’s words of wisdom, and knew that she was right about Austin. He and Austin often argued about who was the stronger of the two of them, both suggesting it was the other, but
