“Wake up.”
I opened my eyes to blackness.
“You awake?” asked Chuck, quietly but urgently.
“I am now,” I groaned, propping myself up on my elbows.
Lauren was asleep beside me, holding Luke. It was still dark out. In the grayness I could just make out Chuck kneeling beside me. We’d slept in his spare bedroom.
“Is everything okay?”
“No, everything is not okay.”
Fear sharpened my senses, and I swung out of bed, still fully clothed. “What happened?”
“Someone stole our stuff.”
I pulled my sneakers on. “From in here?”
He shook his head. “Downstairs.”
I took a deep breath, and my pulse began to slow. At least someone didn’t come in when we were sleeping.
With a nod Chuck led me out into the living room. The low whine of the generator filtered its way back into my senses. Tony was asleep on the couch. Chuck nudged him awake.
“Everything okay?” said Tony, startled.
“No,” replied Chuck, kneeling to pick up some jackets and a bag. He threw the jackets at us. “Put these on and change into some boots.” He picked up his hunting rifle. “We’re going outside.”
“Goddamn it!”
Chuck was holding a broken lock and staring into his now mostly empty storage locker. All the lockers had been broken into, but where most of the others had been stuffed with bicycles and boxes of old clothing and books, Chuck’s had still been half-full of emergency gear and food.
“I guess that stuff was too heavy,” said Tony, pointing to the water containers.
We wore headlamps, so I was blinded when Tony turned my way. I looked away and inspected the locker again.
“I am so stupid,” said Chuck, swearing under his breath.
We’d checked the lobby level, and the front entrance was locked and secure, but the back door was open. Chuck had been the one with the keys, probably the only person in the apartment block with them apart from Tony. We must have forgotten to lock it when we came in yesterday. I’d been so cold and exhausted that I hadn’t thought of it.
“It’s my fault too,” I said. “At least we dragged a lot of it upstairs already.”
“Mostly just the gadgets,” sighed Chuck.
On the way down we’d stopped on the fifth floor to knock on the door of 514, the apartment Paul had said he was from. There’d been no answer. In a rage, Chuck had kicked the door in. The place was empty. Whoever lived there had gone away for the holidays. We’d searched through the kitchen drawers for old bills and found only the names of Nathan and Belinda Demarco. No Paul.
After that we’d gone and knocked on all the doors on the fifth floor. No one answered at most of them. At one apartment, the residents refused to open their door no matter how we tried to explain who we were. In another was a scared-looking young couple, dressed in full winter gear, hoping we were emergency workers or the police. They explained that most people on their floor had gone away for the holidays, or left when they heard of the coming snowstorm. They themselves were leaving for the emergency shelters that morning, to find transportation out of the city.
Most of the building was empty already. Our floor was the only one that was full of people, probably because of all the gear Chuck had. Nobody we talked to had ever heard of a Paul living there.
Chuck looked in a locker near his. “They must have used the Rutherfords’ kids’ sleds, and they took the snowshoes from Mike and Christine. At least they left some skis.”
There were a dozen storage lockers, and he knew everyone that used them.
“We need to go soon if we’re going to track them.”
We’d seen tracks leading out the back door from the lobby, a trail where they’d dragged everything out across the pristine snow that was still falling. The trail would be gone soon.
“Track them?” I asked, amazed. “We’re going to chase them into a blizzard and, assuming we find them struggling with our stuff, ask for it back?”
Chuck produced a handgun from a bag he had slung around one shoulder. “You bet your ass.” He gave one to Tony and offered me one as well.
“Are you nuts?” I held up my hands, refusing to take it. “I don’t even know how to use one of those.”
I hadn’t said anything about the hunting rifle, but Chuck producing handguns shocked me. While criminals might be able to obtain firearms easily in New York, it was almost impossible for a regular citizen to legally own a gun. I didn’t bother asking if he had permits.
“Time to learn,” growled Chuck. “Tony, you know how to use that?”
“Yes, sir. Served in Iraq.”
I looked at him. “Really?”
It suddenly struck me how little I knew about Tony. He was always the jovial presence at the door, a solid set of shoulders ever ready to help, but I’d never gone much deeper. He was the only one of the building staff to stay, and I had a feeling he only stayed because we had, because Luke was here.
“Really.”
“Mike, why don’t you stay upstairs while Tony and I go outside?”
Taking a deep breath, I slowed my thoughts down. I can’t hide upstairs—I want to know what’s going on out there. Maybe I could find out what had happened at Newark, if they’d shipped people into the city, something to raise Lauren’s spirits.
I felt like I had to do something. “You know what? I’d feel safer having Tony stay here, where the kids are.”
“You sure, Mr. Mitchell? With Lauren pregnant and all?”
Everyone knew already.
“I’m sure.” I knew he’d take care of them like his own family, and to be honest, if they needed physical protection, he was a better bet than me. “I doubt we’re going to find the thieves anyway, and I want to visit one of the emergency shelters.”
My tone left no room for discussion, so Tony shrugged.
We moved upstairs into the lobby, and Chuck and I put on the snow pants we’d brought down as Tony explained the firing mechanism on the handguns. He slipped a few cartridges into the pockets of the parka I was wearing. A sense of unreality set in.
“Ready to go?” asked Chuck, pulling on heavy mittens, wincing as he covered the broken hand.
I nodded and put my gloves on, noticing that they hadn’t quite dried out from yesterday. And that they reeked of gas.
Tony opened the lock on the back door and threw his shoulder into it, shoving back the snow that had piled up again. Cold air and snow blasted into the lobby. Chuck glanced at me and disappeared through the opening. Taking a deep breath, I followed him out into the swirling gray.