~ 15 ~

Say a Little Prayer

Place: Philadelphia, PA

+ Brian +

None of us slept a wink last night. Not even Howie how would snore for about fifteen seconds before waking himself up. I have never had such an unsettled night in my life actually. We were just sitting there in the dark, listening for the slightest sound of trouble.  None of us even talked very much, it’s like we were all afraid if we were too loud, we’d be found. All I could think about was meeting up with a bunch of strangers. What if this was some kind of trap? Maybe it was the bad people who sent out that message, trying to lure people like us right to their doorsteps.

“Do you think its aliens?”

“Don’t be retarded Nick.”

“I’m serious AJ. If it wasn’t a bomb, maybe we’re under attack? I mean we haven’t seen anyone yet.”

“It’s not aliens, they don’t exist.”

“How do you know that Kevin?”

My cousin let out a sigh, but he didn’t answer. Truth was Nick’s theory might not be off base. We were all reaching for answers but there were none to be found. Who’s to say there were no such things as aliens?

There were lots of unexplained sounds coming from just outside the RV but with the lights off and blinds closed, none of us were eager to find out what they were. Maybe animals scurrying, but it didn’t sound like that. It sounded more like hail but only with small darts attached to the end of each ice crystal.

I hope my family is okay. I hope whatever this is, didn’t reach Kentucky, maybe only the bigger cities, hell, maybe only this one. I couldn’t handle it if…everyone has to be all right.

I looked down and was able to see my badly chapped hands which meant we survived the night.

“Must be morning.” I whispered, not sure if anyone was sleeping but knowing damn well we were all wide awake.

Kevin stood up and made his way over to the window, “It stopped snowing.”

“Thank God.” I stood up and I swear every bone in my body ached. The cold really wasn’t helping as I also sneezed about three times in a row.

The RV got really cold at one point and I almost was tempted to run the heat for a few minutes, but instead I just sucked it up and pulled my arms into the sleeves of my shirt. That seemed to do the trick for awhile.

I felt Nick shivering next to me so at one point I wrapped my blanket around the little guy. I was really worried about him. He hasn’t been himself since we landed here. Although who can blame him? We were all probably acting weird.

“What now, Kev?”

“We go to that place…Delilah’s. At least there we’ll find some answers.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking that way. Nice to know Howie is as paranoid as I am, “I mean, don’t you think the bad guys heard that message too? I mean if we heard, they probably did too.”

I hadn’t even thought about that. I can tell either had my cousin, he sat down across from us at the table with a look of new found concern on his face.

“Maybe they thought of that and it was a secure frequency?” He said after a few moments of quiet contemplation.

“I doubt they had any time to be that sneaky.” AJ stood up and wandered over to the bathroom.

“We can’t just sit here though. I think we should at least get to Philly and then we’ll figure out what to do from there.”

Kevin walked over to the driver’s seat and strapped himself in. I decided to follow him and take a place on the passenger’s side. Things looked really grim out there now that I had a chance to really look and see what lay ahead of us. The road was covered in about three or four inches of snow.

“We’re gonna get stuck.” I didn’t mean to say it out loud but, it was true. It’s not like there were any plows making their way out here to help us out.

“Maybe, but we have to at least try.” He turned on the RV and blasted the heat. It felt good as it hit me full force.

“Guys, you all probably want to sit up here and buckle up, it’s not going to be a fun ride.”

I glanced back at the guys as they made their way over to where we were. “It’s nice and warm up here at least.” Howie said as he took a seat behind me and buckled himself in.

“There’s only one seat. I’ll just sit off to the side here.” Nick seemed wobbly on his feet and I could tell his legs were still hurting by the winces he made as he sat down.

AJ moved behind Kevin. “Nick please brace yourself, this road is going to be slippery. There’s gotta be somewhere you can sit with a seatbelt.”

“I’ll be okay Kev, I have faith in you and that you’ll get us where we need to be safely.”

“Great…” Kevin muttered under his breath and he slowly started to move us off the shoulder and back onto the road.

At first the thing didn’t want to move. The back tires were spinning but we weren’t going anywhere. Kevin pushed on the gas as hard as he could and the next thing you know we were on the road, slipping and sliding all over the place, but at least moving in the right direction. We were going all of ten miles an hour and believe me, that was plenty fast.

As we slowly drove closer to our destination a new feeling of in trepidation hit me. It was an intense feeling that started in my stomach and made its way into my throat. I really wanted to cry but couldn’t. The stillness of everything around us was just to overwhelming for me. I would have to say it was around 8 in the morning. Normally the roads would have been packed leading into a big city like Philadelphia, but yet, ours was the only one chugging up the road. We passed a few more abandoned vehicles but not one sign of life anywhere. I would have given anything to be stuck in traffic about now.

We managed to get off the ramp that led into Philly proper about an hour after we left. We made sure to listen to the radio the entire time, just in case there was another message but the beeping never ceased.

As we drove slowly into town, I was taken back by how beautiful this city was. I have always loved coming into Philly. It reminded me of Boston in a lot of ways, but it had this edgier quality about it. Kind of like Boston’s trouble making little brother or something.

“It’s like a ghost town.”

I glanced behind at Nick who was staring out the window with his mouth slightly opened from shock.

Kevin stopped the RV along the side of the road oddly enough named Pennsylvania Avenue. “I think we should go the rest of the way on foot. All this thing is going to do is draw attention to us. Not sure if we want that.”

I nodded but wasn’t looking forward to going back outside in the bitter cold May air. He shut the mobile home off and quickly moved from his spot. We all followed behind. “Too bad they didn’t have jackets in here with them.” I said looking over at Howie who seemed as happy to be leaving the RV as I was.

Stepping outside, at least it wasn’t as cold as it had been yesterday. I would say we were probably a little above the freezing mark if I had to take a guess. I blew air out of my mouth and was bummed to see it hanging there in front of me but still, it didn’t feel that bad, yet anyway. At least we were all dressed a little more suitable this time. A jacket still would be nice.

We walked about a mile or so down the street when we started to see signs for the Museum of Art. “Isn’t this the Rocky place?” I asked my cousin as we turned a corner seeing the answer for myself.

Off in the distance the steps leading up to the museum were snow covered. I looked over to Kevin as he stopped. “Should we go up there or keep on moving?”

He sounded unsure of himself, this was the Kevin I didn’t like to see, the one who firmly planted his feet on the ground and was no different than the rest of us.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt.”

He nodded at Howie and then proceeded towards the steps.

A cool breeze made the snow covered steps almost shimmer and seem made of rubber. It was a nice illusion. We made our way up the stairs where the blowing snow sometimes felt like tacks on my skin. I buried my face as far as it would go into my shirt wishing I had a scarf and some gloves.

I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was walking, so I was surprised to bang into AJ with such force that I almost knocked the two of us off our feet.

“Holy shit.”

I pulled my face out of my shirt and made the mistake of looking up. There right in front of the Museum of Art, was what appeared to be gallows with a bunch of nooses hanging down.

“What the fuck?” I heard the words coming out of my own mouth as we all continued to walk slowly towards the gruesome site.

“Kevin are those…I mean they can’t be…this has to be…” Nick kept discontinuing his thoughts and I couldn’t blame him. I wish I was able to stop my brain from any further contemplation.

My cousin pat Nick’s shoulder, “It’s probably some kind of exhibit…let’s keep moving.” He answered rather unconvincingly.

It looked too real to be some kind of display. Maybe if it looked a little sturdier and not quite so hand made, I might have bought into it, but no, this looked like the real deal. There were small triangular flags floating down from a few ropes which were probably meant to direct visitors towards the entrance. They all seemed to be in various stages of disarray. Some seemed ripped while others looked as if they had been burned.

We all just kept looking at each other feeling as if we should turn around and run but yet, couldn’t help but want to continue to examine our surroundings.

“Look at that!” AJ pointed over towards the Rocky statue. We hadn’t even noticed it at first because of the gallows but the statue had spray paint all over it. Words like DIE! KILL! And ROT! Were tattooed all over the famous fighter’s body.

“I don’t get what’s happening here.”

And I really didn’t. How could this, I mean we would have heard about it. This instance of vandalism would have made national news.

Another breeze blew the snow all around us and litter from underneath was swept up in the air. There were a ton of papers under the snow so I decided to bury my hands under to grab one. The first one I picked up was so wet it fell apart on contact, but the second one was a pamphlet.

“What is it?”

I looked over to Nick as I opened it, “No idea, there are a ton lying around though.”

The inside read like an instruction manual on how to hunt people. I had to double check and make sure I was reading it right, but yes. It was how to hunt and…

“Guys we need to get out of here now!” They all looked at me as I dropped the paper.

“What’s wrong?”

I gulped back the urge I had to scream as I turned towards the stairs we had come from hoping they would follow.

“Brian?”

Kevin picked up the pamphlet I had been reading and his expression was horror filled. “Brian’s right, we need to go now!”

The other three wanted to ask questions but didn’t. We all just started to walk back towards the stairs as fast as we could. There were three men coming up so we turned and went the opposite direction. Figures now that we didn’t want to see anyone, they’d start popping out of the woodwork and sure enough just past the gallows a few more men showed.

“Oh God.” Kevin muttered to me as the others were still confused why we would suddenly be running away from the first real sign of life we’ve seen since we’ve been here.

“Kevin…”

“Guys, let me do the talking, all of you keep your mouths shut.”

The men started coming closer and they didn’t look friendly in the least.

“Why?” Howie asked.

“Because that’s a pamphlet on how to hunt and kill celebrities!”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Do I look like I’m fucking kidding you AJ? Now you all shut up and let me do the talking!”

The men were surrounding us now. There were about fifteen in all. They made a circle to prevent us from being able to run away. We were surrounded and as they all started to pull out weapons I found myself saying a prayer. I didn’t see a way out of this. Not this time. All the praying in the world wasn’t going to help.

They were going to kill us.