"What's wrong?" asked the black cop.
"Is this shit from a school?" Trev asked me.
"Yes. Why?"
He threw the sauce back down and then tossed the spaghetti at me. I flinched as the package hit me in the shoulder.
"What the fuck, man," said Billy. The black officer grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back.
"Frank, did that dickhead back there mention anything about where the food came from?"
The black officer shrugged. "I don't remember. Why?"
"Cause they got it from a school." He turned back to me and pointed at the food with his shotgun. "Is all this shit from the same place? From a school?"
"Yes," I said. "Why? Why does that matter?"
"God damn it." Trev blasted our haul with his shotgun and my daughters screamed as pieces of food shot into the air.
"Calm down, Trev!" said Frank. "What's the problem? Why are you shooting?"
"We can't take the food, you dumb ass," said Trev.
"Why the hell not?"
"They got it from a school. Use your fucking head, Frank. You know damn well that food got poisoned. It was in the food at schools. Fucking shit, man. This is all useless." He was about to take another shot into our supplies when Frank reached out and grabbed his arm.
"Calm down, Trev. Shooting's just a waste of ammo. Don't be an idiot. Besides, we can still take it. We don’t have to worry, man. We've got shots."
Trev spit on Frank's boot and pulled away from his grip. "I ain't wasting shots on someone that ate food they knew was poisoned."
"Is that true?" I asked as the situation began to calm down. "Is the school food poisoned?"
"Yes," said Trev.
"No one's really sure," said Frank at the same time. "Did you eat some?"
I didn't want to answer. "What were you saying about shots?" I asked instead. "Do you have an antidote or something?"
"No," said Frank. "That's not what we were talking about. Never mind." He tried to brush off my question although it seemed like be knew more than he admitted.
"God damn it, man," said Trev. "I was really looking forward to that spaghetti."
Frank got off the boat first and Trev stepped up on the railing to follow him. He turned to Billy and saluted him. "Have fun in the city, dumb ass."
"Drop the gun and let's see how tough you are," said Billy.
Trev stepped back down from the railing to confront Billy. "Oh yeah? You wanna go, little dick? You wanna fight me. Let's see what you've got, baby boy."
Trev threw his shotgun down to Frank and started to roll up his sleeves. Billy got ready to fight and I knew the situation was about to get worse.
"Stop it." I stepped between them. I punched Billy in the chest and pushed Trev away. "No one's going to get in a fight. Just tell me what you know about the food. Was it all poisoned?"
Trev looked as if he was about to push me out of the way, but then he calmed down and answered. "Not all of it, but I ain't gonna take no chances. Throw that shit out if you know what's good for ya. And you, baby boy, if you don’t turn into a zombie from the food, come and find me. I'd be happy to kill ya myself."
I felt Billy's hands on my shoulder, ready to move me out of the way, and I begged him to calm down. He glared at Trev from behind me and said, "You'll get yours, pal. Trust me."
CHAPTER FOUR - WASHED THE SPIDER OUT
"Stop worrying," said Billy as if that were an option.
"What if they're right?" I stared at the empty pouch of stuffing.
"They don't know what they're talking about." Billy took the bag out of my hands, crumbled it, and tossed it aside. "The food was sealed. Who could've poisoned it?"
"I don't know, maybe someone that worked at the factory. The news said there were kids getting sick. What if it's true? Jesus Christ, Billy, what if I just poisoned us?" I tried to say it quietly so Kim and Annie didn't hear. They were in the cabin of the boat, where it was warm, tucked under a tarp for a blanket.
"We can fish for food from now on if you don't want to eat the school stuff," said Billy.
I paced the length of the boat and shivered in the cold air over Hailey's Bay. Billy took off his flannel and wrapped it around my shoulders. I slipped into his warm shirt and rubbed my arms beneath the sleeve.
"You're going to drive yourself crazy worrying about this."
"Probably," I said as I continued to pace.
"You're going to drive me crazy too." He grabbed my hand and guided me over to the bench beside him. "Relax for a minute." He swept a dingy pile of rags off the bench to clear a spot for me. Annie's hidden bag of candy tumbled to the deck along with the rags. I picked them up and smelled the sticky treats.
"What are those?" asked Billy.
"Chocolate apricots. Annie must've hidden them under those rags." I took one of them out of the bag. It was tacky and melted between my fingers. "She likes to hide food." I smiled as I thought of my girls fighting over hidden food. "Kim used to tell us that Annie was stealing candy and hiding it around the house, but we never believed her. We always thought she was being ridiculous. But then one day David found a stash of old gum wrappers hidden behind her stuffies."
"Stuffies?" asked Billy.
"Stuffed animals. Our house was littered with them. Annie had her favorites though. She collected all of the cat stuffies and horded them in her room. She used to lay in them, in a big pile in the corner of her closet. We would find her in there talking to them, all by herself. That's where David found her gum stash, tucked back behind those cat stuffies."
I took a deep breath and stared up at the stars. It was a clear, brisk autumn evening and only a few wisps of clouds marred my celestial view. Winter would be upon us soon, and that ushered in the busiest time of year for us. Not only were there the holidays, but Kim and David's birthdays were at the end of the year as well. It was always a hectic few months that I looked forward to getting past.
"I'd give anything for it to be yesterday again."
"It'll be okay," said Billy in a fruitless attempt to console me.
"I should have grabbed one of those damn cats."
"What?" asked Billy.
"One of her stuffed cats. We were in such a hurry to leave the house we didn't bring any toys for the girls. I should've grabbed one of her stuffed cats."
I stood from the bench in a moment of frustration and threw the bag of chocolate apricots out into the bay. I cursed at them as they splashed down in a series of quiet plops in the distance.
"Hey," said Billy. "I was going to eat those." He tried to joke, but the humor fell flat. "Seriously though, we don't know this stuff is bad. We shouldn't just toss it out."
"Yes we should," I said. "There's no way I'm feeding any of it to my girls again."
"Okay, fine, but we should still keep it."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because it might still be good. If we don't get sick in the next couple days, then we know it's fine. And even if you don't feel comfortable eating it, we could trade it with other people if we need to."
"That's a little fucked up, Billy. I'm not giving this shit to anyone else to eat."
"Why not?"
I couldn't understand why this was up for debate and I let him know it by glaring at him. "Because it might be poisoned."
Billy looked at the shipping label on the pack of spaghetti that the cops had discovered. "Forgive me, babe, but I haven't met too many folks since this started that I'd feel bad about poisoning." He peeled the label off with ease, crumpled it, and threw it aside.
As right as he might have been, I couldn't go along with it. "We're not giving poisoned food to anyone. Period."
Billy tossed the bag back into the pile that Trev had blasted with the shotgun. "Fine. But we're not throwing it out either, just in case. Deal?"
I nodded. "Deal."
Light erupted from somewhere in the city. We barely had a chance to see it before the sound swept over the bay. A deafening roar shook the boat as the blast's brilliance formed into an orange blaze.
"What the fuck was that?" asked Billy in shock.
"Mommy?" said Kim as she opened the door of the cabin. "What happened?"
"I don't know, baby. Get back inside. Stay inside."
The light faded until we only saw an orange glow that emanated above the top of the buildings along the shore. Plumes of black smoke rose over the city and we could hear the crash of something massive hitting the water.
Above the sound of destruction we heard the distinct whine of a jet as it passed overhead. The military had arrived, and the sudden explosion was no coincidence.
"They're destroying the bridges," said Billy. He sprang to action and rushed into the cabin to start the boat.
"What?" I screamed after him.
"They're going to cut off the city."
Kim and Annie moved to the corner as Billy struggled to get The Casper started. They begged us to tell them what had happened but I waved away their question and hushed them. "How do you know that?"
"They're trying to contain the outbreak," he said.
"By stranding everyone in the city? That can't be right."
"I'm not taking any chances." The Casper roared to life and started to tremble as the anchor's chain grinded its gears.
"What are we doing?"
He turned the floodlight on and pointed it out across the murky nightline to reveal a bridge across the bay a few hundred yards ahead. The Casper headed that way.
"Are we turning around?" I asked.
"That's Becken Bridge," he said.
"Okay, so we're going to go away from it. Right? If they're blowing up the bridges then we don't want to be anywhere near them."
"Becken Bridge is built on a strip of raised land. There's a waterway in the middle that leads into the channel."
"But that's not where we're going, is it?"
Billy looked at me with pursed lips and a strained brow. "We need to be on the other side."
"What?" I shouted in shock.
"We need to move up the channel to get to the yard. It's the only way."
"Then fuck the yard, Billy. We'll figure something else out."
He put the throttle up to full speed as we headed for Becken Bridge. "Sorry, Laura, but we've gotta make it. If that bridge goes down, it'll fall on the land beneath it."
"So what?"
"If that happens it'll block the channel."
I was furious. "Then we'll figure something else out. Don't you dare take us under that fucking bridge, Billy."
"We'll make it."
Becken Bridge loomed ahead as the roar of another jet came from above. I braced for an explosion, but the plane passed without incident. I pulled at Billy's arm to make him face me, but he stayed rigid, determined to move ahead.
"You're risking our lives." I started to look for something to hit him with.
"I'm trying to save us," said Billy. He flailed his right arm back at me without looking. "What do you think is going to happen if we stay out here? How long do you think it'll take for those cops to come looking for us again? We're sitting ducks out here, Laura. Now get the fuck off me and settle down."
We were almost to the bridge now, and turning around would've taken just as long as simply passing under. As much as I hated the plan, there was no going back.
That's when I saw things falling from the bridge.
"What is that?" I asked.
"What?"
I pointed at the dark forms that fell into the water from the side of the 150-foot bridge. Billy used a handle on the roof to aim the spotlight to see what had fallen.
"Are those people?" he asked.
They were, hundreds of them.
"Oh my God." I froze as we watched the horrific scene unfold. "Kim, don't look." She stood up to see what was happening despite me. "I said don't look. Go over there and lay down. Look at the floor. Now, honey."
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Nevermind. We're just going under a bridge. Now lay down."
A tremor ran through me and my stomach tightened as the horror of what we saw took hold. It was impossible to tell what happened on the bridge, but people, hundreds of them, decided jumping into the water was the best option. Some fell alone, and others held hands as they went. Their coats flapped over their heads as the wind ripped their shoes off. The Casper's rumbling motor spared us the sound of their bodies hitting the water, but it couldn't drown out their screams as they plummeted.
The cacophony of terrified people grew louder as we approached. My hands gripped Billy's arm as if our fight had been frozen in time, but the sight ahead made me loosen my hold. I slid my hand down as we watched the poor souls above fall to their death.
"Get down," said Billy.
"Why?"
"We're going under. One of them might land on us. Get down and cover the girls."
He was right and my heart jumped into my throat at the thought of my babies being crushed by a suicidal jumper. I spread myself over them and they reached out to hug me. We were deathly silent as we waited for the sound of something crushing us.
The splashing thuds grew loud enough to hear over the boat's engine. One after another, in sporadic bursts of horrifying impact, the bodies collided with the water ahead. Kim's grip on my side tightened each time another body hit.
Annie didn't understand why I was on top of her and she started to squirm to get away. "No, no," I said. "Stay there, Annie. How about we sing a song. Okay? Let's sing Itsy Bitsy Spider."
"Okay," said Annie as she quit struggling and nestled back in beneath me.
I sang and Annie merrily joined in.
"The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout."
Another body hit the water near us. It was hard to tell where the sound came from, but I glanced up and saw that we were about to pass under the closest side of the bridge.
"Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and…"
Another pound thundered beside us. Billy ducked down and put his arm over his head as The Casper passed under the bridge and came upon the other side.
"…dried up all the rain."
A series of thuds exploded beside us and we all screamed out in terror, except for Annie, who continued to sing alone.
"And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again."
The sounds of screaming death began to fade and Billy stood up to steer the boat. We'd made it through without getting hit. I helped Kim and Annie stand and we brushed ourselves off.
"Can we sing again?" asked Annie. "But this time do the hand thing like Daddy does." She used her fingers to mimic a spider climbing up and then falling back down again.
"I'm so sorry," said Billy. "I never would have thought…" His face had turned pale and he grinded his grip on the steering column with nervous energy. The sight of the suicide jumpers had rattled him.
Now that we were safe I could focus on how pissed I was. I grabbed onto his shoulder, spun him around, and shoved my finger in his face as I seethed in anger. "You risked our lives. You son of a bitch, you almost got us killed."
"I didn't know that would happen."
"No," I said. "You thought they were going to bomb the fucking bridge and you still took us under it. Wake up, God damn it. You're not just in it for yourself anymore." I pointed at Kim and Annie. "We're in it with you, like it or not. All of us, and I won't let you make decisions that put us in danger, ever again."
"You're right. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Billy's sheepish expression reminded me just how young he was and I felt bad for assaulting him. He was barely out of high school and had been thrown into a situation that would make most adults twice his age fall apart. I put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him to me for a hug. The sudden change in mood surprised him and I could feel his hesitation to reciprocate, but his arms eventually slid over my waist as I pressed my head into his chest.
"I'm sorry," said Billy.
"Me too," I said. "I'm just scared."
"Yeah, same here."
I started to laugh as I wiped away my tears on his shirt. He pulled back to see what I could possibly be laughing at.
"What?" he asked.
"I just realized something." I stepped away and put my hands against my temples to massage away the encroaching headache.