“Where are we heading first?”
Samuel’s question echoed Austin’s thoughts, the man trying to determine where would be best to stock up on supplies. He didn’t really know this area of the city which left him feeling a bit lost. Samuel’s apartment was far more central than where he lived with his small family. They were still well within Lower Manhattan, a place Austin wanted to escape from as quickly as they could.
“We need to hit up a big department store or something. Is there anything like that nearby?”
Samuel thought for a moment. “There’s a big Walmart on the way into the East Village, but we probably want to avoid that area, right? What about trying to get across into New Jersey? That might be a safer route?”
“Yeah maybe,” Austin thought out loud, picturing the subway map of New York in his head and using that to get his bearings. “We could head up toward like, Times Square, then try and cross the bridge there?”
“Why go all the way up there? There’s a bridge from Soho. It’s only about a twenty-minute walk from here.”
“There is?” Austin paused, wishing he’d spent more time in this part of New York so he could figure out exactly where he was. “Oh yeah, of course. Let’s do that then. Are you okay to lead the way?”
“Sure,” Samuel nodded. “Are we ready?”
The two of them looked around the apartment once more, neither ready to give the order to leave. Samuel’s eyes lingered on several items, wondering when he would be back there again. The question of whether he truly wanted to leave with Austin hung over him like a dark cloud, but every time he considered changing his mind, he reminded himself why he was doing this.
Trident going bankrupt had put many things at risk, but Samuel had only realized much later that his humanity was one of those things. Losing that was out of the question. The guilt and shame he felt for his actions immediately after the banking crash was a constant prompt for him to do better. He thought of R Hauser and the fall he had taken from the Trident window. He remembered Anthony Calvert-Lewin, the man whose seat he had stolen on the shuttle across Long Island and wondered whether he ever managed to make it home. Questions about his parents and his sister, the latter stuck in Hawaii with her family, with no way of knowing if they would ever be able to leave their small island again also plagued him.
Could he have done more? Should he have done more?
Questions that Samuel would never be able to find the answers for. He was sure he would struggle with that for the rest of his life if things didn’t turn out the way he hoped. But during the quiet nights in his apartment when he’d sat up in his bed and listened to the terrifying sounds on the streets below, he had come to realize and accept that he couldn’t change the past. There was no use beating himself up internally for the way he had acted.
What he could do was shape the future. He could help Austin find his way back to his family and make sure the three of them were safe. There was little he could do for his own parents. Charles and Addison were perfectly comfortable in their house. They had enough food to last them for weeks and they wouldn’t even be considering going out into the city. Plus, Samuel knew his father could protect them if needed. He might be a member of high society, but that didn’t mean he was afraid to get dirty when necessary. They didn’t need his help, but Austin did and so that was where Samuel was going to focus his efforts for the foreseeable future.
Picking up one of the rucksack’s, Samuel slung it over his shoulder and caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. The actions of the last week had taken their toll on him, his stubble was unkempt and his hair uncombed. For once he was not wearing a shirt, though the t-shirt and jeans he wore didn’t seem to suit him, even still. It didn’t take a genius to notice that Samuel Westchester was not cut out for this sort of event, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him.
Turning to look at Austin – who thankfully looked somewhat more prepared, though equally nervous – he nodded and tried to force a smile onto his face. “We’ve got this.”
“Yeah,” Austin nodded back. “Here we go.”
With one final look around his apartment, Samuel tugged open the door and held it open for his friend, walking out into the hallway behind him. He turned and locked the door, a task that seemed almost futile. In that one act he left a huge part of his life behind and started a new chapter that he had never expected to write. Making their way back into the madness of New York City, both Samuel and Austin knew that from that moment onwards, their lives would never be the same.
Chapter 3
From the second the door of the apartment building was closed behind them, the city seemed to get darker around Samuel and Austin. The sounds of screaming, fighting, burning and terror increased and tormented them, that element of the outbreak dulled from their view from the window. Quicker than either of them could have imagined, it felt like they had been staring at a postcard—the parts of the city they chose to observe from the window
