"How about you Glen, you worked in a church," Ana called out.
"Me? No, I don't believe in God." The old man said, stepping back from where the bodies were now laying.
"There's nothing to say," Kenneth interjected, "All my life I've seen friends, co-workers,
family die. I always figured it was better them than me. Now I'm not so sure about that. Maybe they were the lucky ones because they're not here sitting, waiting to die. Like I am, like we all are."
"He's right. I don't want to die here," Ana spoke quietly.
"I saw some shuttle buses down in the garage," Michael spoke, "maybe we can reinforce them, use them to get out of here."
"Sure, why don't we just cruise on over to the marina, hop on my boat and go for a pleasure cruise, you fucking jackasses." Steve sneered.
"Wait that's a good idea," Ana said, "there are islands out there that don't have many people on them."
"You're fucking serious! I was joking you morons!" Steve hollered.
CJ looked around at the rest of them. "Wait, let me get this straight. You want to reinforce some parking shuttles with some fuckin' aluminum siding then drive through a city that's more or less a war zone, hop on this asshole's boat," he gestured towards Steve,"and just sail away?"
"Pretty much." Tucker said.
"What the hell, beats sitting around in a cell all day, I'm in."
Fran pointed to the helicopter. "Wouldn't it be a better idea if we used the helicopter to try to locate a safe island first?"
"But we can't fly it Fran, we don't know how," Terry said.
"I can," she answered, "Stephen's been teaching me how. I guess this will be my first real solo flight." She tried to smile at him, wanting badly to prove that she was as strong as any of them.
Andy looked towards her. "Need a co-pilot Fran? I flew these things in the army, I think I can remember how it's done."
"Okay then, let's get this business taken care of, I think we've got some plans to make." Michael declared.
They put their escape plans into action the next day. Andy and Fran took off in the helicopter in search of an island that would act as their safe haven. The rest of the group began their work on the parking shuttles. While Kenneth and CJ began ripping the seats out of the shuttles, Peter and Roger began removing security gates from some of the stores to be cut and welded to the sides of the bus. Terry and Glen hauled the gates to the garage. Ana and Monica worked on collecting the list of equipment the guys had put together for them from the stores to be brought down to the parking garage. Tucker began cutting down the razor wire from the top of the fence outside the fuel pumps, planning on adding it to the top of the buses. Nicole tried to stay out of they way, keeping herself busy playing with the dog she'd named Chips. Steve retired to the roof of the mall to work on his golf swing.
The next few days continued with this pattern. Andy and Fran flying out in the morning in search of an island, the rest trying to get the parking shuttles finished.
On the third morning, Andy had announced that he was going to try to find some fuel for the helicopter. Roger and Peter insisted that Fran remain at the mall while they accompanied him. "Fran, if we land for fuel and things get hairy we need people out there who can handle themselves. Roger and I have experience doing things like this, you don't," Peter declared.
"But Peter," she began, Roger cutting her off before she could say more.
"Fran you have to think about the baby." At her incredulous look he explained, "Stephen told me, the night we flew outta Philly. You and Pete were asleep."
The three of them flew out with no further protest. Ana pulled Fran aside to talk. "Why didn't you say anything sooner Fran?"
Sighing, Fran lit a cigarette, "Don't look at me like that Ana. We both know that there's no guarantee that I'm going to live long enough to have this baby so I don't want to hear any lectures about the dangers of smoking."
"You didn't answer my question."
"If you must know, I didn't want to be treated any different from the rest of the group. Stephen and I didn't want to say anything, we were having a hard enough time as it was. And he..." She trailed off unable to continue, tears forming in her eyes as she thought of her dead lover.
"Fran, I'm so sorry," Ana reached out and hugged her. "We don't have to talk about this now. Okay?" Fran pulled away, nodding as she wiped away her tears. Ana fought back some tears of her own as she continued, "Just remember, if you need to talk, I'm here. Now, why don't we head on down to the garage, see if we can help the guys out with the shuttles." They began walking slowly towards the elevators, each lost in their own thoughts.