Boom

Chapter Nine

They spent a couple weeks in Andrews house. Of course all of them didn't sleep there. Most of them left the house at night and found other houses to sleep in.
Audrey never left Andrew or Claire's side. Andrew and Kennedy still hated each other but it turns out Kennedy only broke her nose.
Which isn't good but it's better than having a broken cheekbone.
Nathan didn't talk to them much, only with Andrew when he found it absolutely worthy.
They had enough food and supplies to last them a long time but they still had to make runs every so often to find baby formula and water. Turns out when all the people disappeared the water got turned off, so no plumbing and no sinks.
Water bottles would have to do.

Allen blinked his eyes open.
He looked around the room, light flooding in through the open window. Claire was leaning out the window.
"Claire?" Allen said rolling out of the bed.
She shouted something and then pulled her head back into the room. "Yeah?" Claire asked.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh!" Claire laughed. "We were all too lazy to meet back at Andrew's house like usual. We all opened the windows and yelled to each other."
Allen nodded and Claire waited for him to laugh. When he didn't she stuck her head back out the window.
Allen walked over and opened the adjacent window.
"Well, well. Sleeping Beauty finally woke from her long slumber." Said Bailey from across the street when Allen stuck his head out the window.
Rachel laughed, "yeah great to see you alive."
Allen rolled his eyes. "I had to stay late last night making sure we had enough supplies for the Big Move."
Kennedy let out a laugh, "Big Move, is that what we're calling it?"
Claire glanced sideways at Allen. Kennedy was in the house to their left. Allen was to Claire's right.
Her left ear was the deaf side. So she hadn't been able to hear Kennedy.
Allen shook his head at her, "what she said was irrelevant." Claire nodded frowning sadly.
Andrew popped his head out of the window to his room. "We need to head out soon. I know the perfect place to go. But we can't take the car."
All the kids looked at him with confused looks.
"Mr. Robinson is uh..." Andrew trailed off.
Five windows slammed shut all at once.
Allen and Claire glanced at each other worried.
Then they ran down the stairs, threw open the front door and met everyone in the street.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?" Kennedy demanded Andrew when he came up to the group.
Andrew glanced at his arms where he held Audrey. He looked up at Claire, who nodded and took Audrey. Rachel ran up to Claire's side smiling at Audrey.
When Audrey left his hands he guided Kennedy, Allen, Bailey and Tyler into his house.
Andrew glanced backward slowly to make sure they were still following. "Are you sure about this?" He asked tentatively.
Kennedy rolled her eyes while Bailey says, "we've all seen worse."
Andrew gave a terse nod and set his jaw. "Alright."
He opened the door they were standing at.
What looked like the indents of horse hooves covered the oak wood floors.
There was a thin line of blood going toward the backdoor. Well what would have been the back door. There was now a massive hole in the wall, dust, dry wall and glass littered the floor.
"Horses rammed through that wall. Mr. Robinson came in grabbed Audrey shoved her into my arms and told me to run upstairs." Andrew stared at the hole as he spoke. "Never saw him again."
All of them choked down a sob. Mr. Robinson had been their teacher. He had taught them eighth grade science. Even though they didn't have a huge bond with him. It was still saddening.

Later that day they were walking toward the marina. They figured they could find a boat and live on it. Therefore the crazy animals they found everywhere wouldn't be able to find them.
Audrey was asleep in Andrew's arms. He had a huge duffle bag swung over his shoulder, it was filled with baby diapers and formula.
Allen carried another duffle bag filled with fish bait, in his hands he held four long fishing rods. The group figured they should catch fish and cook them.
"Shouldn't we bring more than one boat?" Tyler asked.
"Of course we are bringing more than one. We have to find the biggest boats we can and then when we get out there we need to tie them all together and live there." Kennedy replied tersely.
Allen glanced toward the back at Claire. She nodded at him. She held a pile of blankets in one hand. In her other hand she pulled a suitcase filled with clothes for her and Allen. They each brought clothes for themselves. But Allen didn't have a free hand so Claire brought it for him.
"Almost there! I can see the boats!" Rachel said running forward. She had a duffle bag filled with food and a suitcase rolling behind her.
Bailey also had a suitcase and she brought food too.
Kennedy followed more briskly. The rest of the food in her bag and she too pulled a suitcase.

When they reached the marina, Allen waited a moment for Claire. When she was next to him she stopped and looked around at the boats.
"That one. It's called the Hurricane." She said pointing to a huge double decker boat. "This is one of my parents friends boats. The keys are always in the cupboard." Claire raced towards the boat.
Allen followed her a huge smile lighting up his features. This is the boat, he thought to himself happily.
Claire jumped onto the boat from the dock. When Allen reached the boat he handed the four fishing poles over to Claire and jumped on board with her.
"Soooo do you know how to back out of a dock on a huge boat like this?" Allen asked Claire slowly.
Claire smiled at that and responded, "does any kid our age know how to back out of a dock in any boat?" She paused her smile dropping quickly. The smile returned when she said, "I mean in our group."
Allen nodded and said, "yeah but I've driven a boat this size before. How hard can it be?"

Yeah. He. Was. Wrong.

"LEFT!!! LEFT!!!"

SCREEECCCHHHH

"RIGHT!!! PUSH IT RIGHT!!! NOW!!!"

"ALRIGHT I THINK WE ARE-" BANG BANG BANG

"whoops."

"COME ON JUST A LITTLE MORE!"

When they finally got out Claire let out a celebratory yell. "FINALLY!" She said with a giggle.
Allen drove the boat toward the open water. "Now we are getting somewhere." He said patting the steering wheel.

All six boats slowly moved out of the marina and out towards the ocean.
Everything is changing.