“No,” she cried. “See, this is what I mean. People believe what they want to believe.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “There might even be some gold down there, but not enough to risk a single life over it, let alone all the people who have already died.”

“There are several news people outside,” her father said. “If we give them a statement, they’ll probably go away.”

Great, just what she needed, more questions.

“I haven’t slept in a very long time. I haven’t eaten in almost as long.” She couldn’t explain what happened to her again, she just couldn’t.

“I’ll talk to them,” her father said. “Tell them to leave you alone for a couple of days. How do you want them to contact you?”

She didn’t want to talk to them at all. “Carrier pigeon?”

Her brothers laughed.

“Email, but if they bug me too much, I’ll just block them.”

He nodded and left.

“Shower then eat then sleep,” her mother said. She looked at her sons. “Find something to do outside or go home.”

“Yes, ma’am,” they all said.

Abby went upstairs to take a long, hot shower.










Chapter Seventeen

It took two days ofsleep broken only by bowls of chicken soup and trips to the bathroom before she felt human again.

Clean clothes helped too.

Abby came downstairs on the third day after their escape from the tunnel to find her home empty of people. A note on her kitchen said her parents had filled her fridge with more soup and a few other necessities before they left the previous night.

What day was it? She opened her phone and realized it was four days later than the last date she remembered. Was this how the crew of a submarine felt? Never knowing what day it was or even what time it was because you never saw the sky.

She looked out the window toward the street. No news vans or people loitering on the sidewalk.

The Jeep parked across the street was all too familiar, but where was its owner?