First Activation

It was good thinking, two planes landed at Newark and we knew the passengers had made it off on foot. It would just be a case of trying to spot which ones were not killers, and hoping that some of them had the twitter addiction Jack did.

A few had tweeted updates just after landing but nothing since then. Only one user stood out from the lists.

@LeaAsh Landed at Newark, What’s happening? Help us, we are stuck at Newark.

Jack clicked on the profile. I expected it to be like all the rest and see no further updates, but there were three more tweets, two of which had been posted today.

@LeaAsh Managed to make it into New York City. Please, please, get in contact with the army or whoever, New York is under attack, there’s no one left.

@LeaAsh There’s 3 of us in a Manhattan apartment. I am not giving our location away, but we need help.

@LeaAsh Is there anybody out there who isn’t trying to kill me? #GA

“Send her one of those direct messages, Jack, quickly.”

“I can’t. She has to be following me to be able to do that. The tweet will be public, so what shall I write?”

I thought for a few seconds.

“Tell her that three of us are coming to Manhattan tomorrow, we’re currently in an outer suburb and arrived on a flight into JFK yesterday afternoon.”

“Are we going to Manhattan tomorrow?” Jack said, raising his eyebrows.

“If we get a reply, then yes. Don’t you agree?”

“Not sure, we have a secure base here, so why risk travelling in the open? I’ll ask her to follow me so we can get more information.”

Jack @Swankey1974 to @LeaAsh Also a group of three but arrived on a JFK flight. We are in an outer suburb at the moment.

Jack @Swankey1974 to @LeaAsh Please follow me so we can direct message. What have you got to lose? What have any of us?

We watched for the next 10 minutes, naively expecting an immediate response. It was more in hope than expectation; Lea Ash was unlikely to be checking Twitter constantly. The best we could really wish for was a response before tomorrow morning.

“The food’s ready. You’d better get me a glass for a vodka as well,” Bernie called from the kitchen.

“No problem at all. You’re allowed to drink your own spirits, but I’ll only get you a glass if you fetch those Marlboro you’ve hidden in a drawer somewhere,” Jack smiled.

“I’ve never allowed smoking in my apartment, but what difference does it make now? As long as you let me eat first.”

Jack and I sat down on the same couch and Bernie handed us each a bowl of baked beans.

“Bernie, you really know how to roll out the red carpet,” Jack said.

“You don’t have to eat it, you ungrateful prick.”

“I’m sorry, Bernie. I didn’t mean…” Jack stammered and trailed off.

After our baked bean dinner, Jack pulled three cigarettes out of the packet. It turned out that the three of us had smoked at some point in the past. Jack and I had smoked in the army, while Bernie said he sometimes had an occasional sneaky one — but not for a year because Linda hated it. There was no sign of guilt from any of us as we coughed our way through the first cigarette. It was oddly calming to sit smoking in companionable silence, all apparently lost in our own thoughts.

Jack had found a bean can to use as an ashtray, then poured us all a large vodka as we sat back and discussed what to do next. Bernie was comfortable at the apartment and wasn’t keen on going into Manhattan, even if we received a response on Twitter.

“We’re safe here. Why put ourselves at more risk by trying to find three people who may even be dead by tomorrow?”

“If we can find three more people and get everyone armed, then we’ll have a strong group,” I said. “Maybe then we can secure a building with plenty of supplies. As we are, the three of us would have trouble holding anywhere with more than one door.”

“We can get supplies and bring them back here. It seems pretty quiet in the area and there are a couple of big stores a few blocks away. Imagine what kind of state Manhattan is in? It will be full of danger, corpses, and killers.”

“If we get a response on Twitter, then let’s at least consider it? If we get no reply, then we’ll stay here for a while.”