GIRL, UNPLUGGED

YA Novel Chapter 27 | 12 Minute Read

This is Chapter 27 of a YA novel. To see where the story began, check out the GIRL, UNPLUGGED table of contents post, or head to the GIRL, UNPLUGGED section of the Story Hoarder Substack page to see all the chapters.

This chapter is a 12 minute read.

CHAPTER 27: Bumps In The Night

When I suggested we get food while we waited for the horses to return, it was because I thought it was a good distraction. However, it became clear that the idea came straight from my brain-gut connection. We hadn’t eaten in a while and I was starving. Of course, I couldn’t help thinking about Janice as we were back at her tent, but, hunger always helps distract. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a lukewarm bottle of water. Not the most delicious meal of my lifetime, but maybe the most satisfying. We sat in a cafe in Times Square, as if we all just decided to stop and eat while exploring the more touristy corners of our city. I imagined how much a peanut butter and jelly sandwich would cost in a place like that while I listened to everyone else’s stories of their volunteer jobs.

Princess and Brenda both worked at one of the precinct tents. All they could talk about were the hot police officers. Murph threatened Brenda that he was going to go back to his cousin with all of this information, to which Brenda replied with a stuck out tongue. Rainbow said she was helping out in the medical tent. She wasn’t too happy with her station, “There wasn’t anything to do until something bad happened.” Everyone looked over at me.

“No, no, I don’t even mean that,” she said. “I mean — yeah — of course, that was bad and we were busy cause of all that, but I mean before that. All I did all day was organize first aid supplies until someone would come from one of the inventory tents giving us the name of a DB.”

“What’s a DB?” Colin asked, he was sitting next to her with his arm propped up on the booth seat behind her.

“Dead body,” Stella said quietly, “I sent a couple of those names your way.” She looked down at the table in front of her, quiet until Dustin put his hand over hers, “The people who came with the names were so… sad. Some people were there to tell us about their neighbors that they went to check on, others came to tell us about their parents — those people looked broken.”

“That’s so sad,” Brenda said.

“That’s not even the worst,” Stella said, swallowing hard, “This one woman brought us her baby. She was devastated, “ Stella gave each sentence its time. I could see that she was reliving the moment in her mind. For us, this was just a story, to Stella it was a constant replay, “The baby was dead.”

“Oh god,” Daria said while Princess gasped.

“She said the baby had a nebu-lazer?” Stella said, unsure.

“Nebulizer,” Daria clarified. “I have one of those at home.”

We all looked at her. I had no idea what a nebulizer was, so, for a moment, I thought it was vlogging equipment or something. 

“What’s it for, Daria?” Stella asked, “because the woman just kept crying that the nebulizer wouldn’t work and I had no idea what to say.”

“I have it for my asthma,” she said. I had forgotten about Daria’s asthma. It was a lot worse when we were kids, or at least I thought it was. I remember her carrying around those little pumps everywhere we went and always needing it at recess. In fact, in middle school, she was excused from Gym class, something I always envied her for. “If I have a really bad attack I have to use it just so I can breathe.”

“Oh…,” Stella said. And I could tell that she was thinking what we were all thinking. The baby couldn’t breathe. The baby suffocated and all that mother could do was watch. 

We may have missed our electronic devices, the cars and the convenience of our life since the CME, but other people were missing out on what kept them alive. Life was in danger. Any life supported by power. And then it hit me — the hospitals are full of people like that. What was happening in the hospitals?

“She was two years old,” Stella whispered.

Rainbow said, “Megan Fishman?”

“Yes!” Stella said, “How did you know?”

“I cried when I got her name. I mean, two years old?” Rainbow looked up as if praying her tears wouldn’t fall, “That just doesn’t make any kind of sense to me.”

We all sat quietly for a minute until Terrell asked, “And what were you supposed to do with those names?”

“We had a running list of the dead. The list had to be brought to the hospital’s morgue so they could figure out how to gather the bodies before disease spread or anything like that.”

“That’s so nasty,” Princess said, putting her sandwich down.

“Seriously Man,” Colin said, “I’m eating here.”

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow said. I could see that she was still shaken from her day. She, like most of us, wasn’t used to dealing with death so blatantly. 

“What did you do, then, Colin?” Russ asked.

“Barricade bonanza,” he said. 

“Which one?” I asked.

“Oh, I was lucky enough to be thrust back to the insanity we walked through to get into this hell hole. I got to dance around horse shit and get spit on by the natives,” Colin explained this with the typical dead-pan delivery he used for all conversation. He took a bite out of his sandwich before continuing. He raised one hand and said, “But there was a major win for the team over there. I had the joy of telling Brenda’s friend to go fuck off, with the full support of the police behind me.”

“Brenda’s friend?” Princess asked.

“That psycho woman, right?” I asked.

“That’s the one,” Colin said, pointing his sandwich at me.

“She the one that spit on you?” I asked.

“One of many,” he smiled. “ I don’t have — what do they call them things? — Oh yeah, people skills.. It just ain’t in my nature. Plus, I get cranky when I’ve been straight too long.”

Brenda laughed, “Dude! What is ‘too long’ for you? You were completely baked just last night!”

We all laughed and added details of Colin’s evident incapacitation due to foreign substances. 

Outside the cafe the light was dimming. Daria wanted to bring some food to Rose and to see what her progress was. It was just about the worst time to have to find someone in our group. Trying to see the separate faces in the twilight was difficult. We gathered outside of the Triage area while Daria went inside. 

I was looking through the window to see if I could even find Rose inside when everyone’s attention was drawn to the barricade as we heard the sound of horse hooves hitting the asphalt.

The carriages were back.

Chief Grady saw the group of us standing by the Triage and gave us a thumbs up from over by the barricade. One of the officers from the carriage dismounted and spoke for a long time to the Chief. There was a lot of back and forth and hands flying through the air before the chief ultimately exhaled and turned to greet us.  He was not wearing the expression of relief I had anticipated. 

It was bad news. 

One of the horses was hurt and the other was exhausted.  Neither carriage could take us downtown.

“What does that mean?” I asked. I was exhausted — both physically and emotionally. While the cot served its purpose when I passed out earlier, it still wasn’t my bed.

“I can offer you a police escort on foot to get you to your shelter. It should take about two hours, if you guys think you are up for it,” he said. “You won’t get to the ferry tonight, but you can rest up and do that first thing in the morning.”

My body had already signed up for a ride, not more walking tonight. I hated this plan, but there were no other options presented. I couldn’t just rebel against the group because I didn’t like what we had to do. 

I couldn’t, but I guess Princess could. “No way,” she said. “The cops are staying in the hotel. Why can’t we?”

“What are you talking about, Princess?” I asked.

“Right there, the Marriott! They have beds in there and there’s no way that they’re using all of them. We can stay here tonight and go in the morning,” she demanded.

Russ and I looked at each other, then at the Chief. “Chief,” Russ said, “I don’t think any of us can walk away from the prospect of sleep in a bed with what we have ahead of us.”

I could have kissed Princess, but I didn’t want to celebrate yet. I loved her plan, but that didn’t mean it was going to work out for us. I realized I was holding my breath in the silence that followed as Chief Grady looked from the hotel to us and back again.

“Right,” he finally said. “Yeah, we can work something out.”

By the time we finished discussing the arrangements with Chief Grady, the sun was completely gone. The stars were overhead again, but I was too tired to appreciate their beauty. The police pulled back the barricades giving them less area to keep secure since they had less officers to work with. There was a huge loss in presence once the curfew began. Many of the officers had to move to their positions on foot since the carriages were out of commission, but a lot of them, unbeknownst to me, had been resting in the hotel prepping for their night shift.

The hotel was scary. We had flashlights, but not many since we were limited to the type that were unaffected by the solar storm. We had to take the stairs up to the fourth floor. The police had already taken the first three floors divided up between them and the guests who opted to stay.

I can’t say I was still loving the plan as we climbed the stairs, but when I got to the bed, all of that changed.

Chief Grady and Officer Chris Guild walked us up and helped us find rooms that were in decent shape. While we didn’t have running water or lights, particularly after our climb, we didn’t really care. We brought candles up to the rooms since the chief and the cop were the only ones with the flashlights. I also still had at least two glow sticks floating around in my backpack, and I knew I wasn’t alone there as I had split them up between the group, so I wasn’t terrified of being trapped in the dark. And, you know something, I was actually becoming more comfortable with the dark anyway. 

Chris put me and Stella in room 423. It only had one bed, but it was a huge bed. All of our rooms were attached and Chris said we should keep the connecting doors open so we could hear each other and get to each other in case of emergency. He said this way we could all sleep in a bed rather than all clustering up in one room just for safety. The only type of protection we had was the bolt lock on the doors to the hallway. All the other locks — in between rooms, for each floor and the actual rooms’ doorknobs — were all automated and zapped by the CME. This is why Chief Grady was so resistant to us staying in the hotel. He said it wasn’t secure and that he didn’t have the manpower to spare to keep us all protected. We reminded him that we survived the night together in an unprotected museum the night before without the benefit of the Chief of Police sleeping downstairs. This was a huge upgrade in security as far as we were concerned. That’s what sold the Chief. He and Officer Guild came up with the plan to lock us in, but keep the connecting doors open.

I didn’t care what the hell they figured out, as long as I got to sleep in a bed. So, when I got to room 423, I took my shoes, hoodie and socks off and crawled into bed. I listened to everyone else settle into their rooms and then I heard Officer Guild shout out, “I’m in room 411 if you need me. Remember, odd numbers only, so count down from where you are.”

“Room 415 with Terrell, Murph, and Colin,” Terrell called out, then 417 was called out by Dustin and Russ. In 419 Princess and Brenda, 421 had Rainbow and Daria, and, finally, when it was our turn in 423, Stella announced our location adding that she thought I was already asleep. I didn’t realize we were the last group on the block, but I didn’t mind. I figured it would be more quiet that way. It didn’t take long for the block to become extremely quiet. We had barely slept the night before with all of the aurora excitement and, in many ways, today was a lot more exhausting than the day before. Rest is what we all needed. And the pillow on my bed was intoxicating.

I don’t know when Stella left the room. I don’t know if she was waiting for me to fall asleep, or everyone else. In fact, I didn’t even realize I was alone in the room until another voice woke me up, “Natalie, is this your room?”

It was half a dream, half a reality when it first entered my ears. Then the voice came back again, “Natalie, I’m sorry. Is this you? I just don’t want to scare you.”

“Russ?” I was sure I was dreaming when I identified the voice.

“Yeah. Natalie?”

“Yeah. What are you doing here?” I asked, slowly propping myself up in the darkness.

“Stella is an animal. Her and Dustin are at it again. I’m worried there’s going to be a solar storm baby from this trip,” he said while yawning.

“Stella left me?” I was shocked that I had been left at the end of the block all on my own.

“Yeah, and she kicked me out!” he said. “D’ya know if you guys have a couch in this room?” he asked and I heard him shuffling around.

“For what?” I asked.

“I’m exhausted,” he said. “I just want to sleep.”

“Russ, don’t be ridiculous. You need to feel these beds, they’re amazing.”

“I know,” he said, “I was in one,” he said bitterly.

“Just get over here,” I said, too tired to process the forwardness of my demand, “I trust you and, anyway, I know you’re too tired to do anything.”

I saw his silhouette stop and stand up straight. He didn’t say anything for a minute. I saw his hand rub his head as if he were having a hard time processing his options.

“Dude, I’m done. I need to sleep and you are waking me up with all of your walking around, just come to the bed. It’s enormous, you won’t even know I am here.”

“Alright,” his voice crackled with the thickness of his exhaustion. I felt so bad for him. Stella was crazy.

I laid back on the pillow, pulled the covers over me and felt a whole new kind of warmth when the bed leaned into Russ’s weight. Stella might have been crazy, but I suddenly understood why she might have craved the feel of Dustin by her side. I smiled and fell right back to sleep.

When Stella came to wake us up, the room was soaked in sun, “Wake up you two. I told the cop you came to get me to wake up Dustin,” she said in a very businesslike tone and I began to reflect upon all of her goodie goodie moments. I wondered if Stella was as good as we all thought, or if she just knew what to say and when to say it. I also wondered why she seemed so stoic after getting away with spending the night with her boyfriend. It just didn’t seem to match up for me. 

“I guess I better get back there,” Russ said sleepily, “I’ll see you later.”

When he left I decided to talk to Stella about putting him in such an awkward situation, “You know, you could have given us a heads up about last night. I had no idea you left me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly while putting on her shoes.

“It was kind of crazy to go down to their room, wasn’t it? I mean, you guys could’ve gotten caught,” I added.

“Caught?” Stella asked, “Caught doing wha— Oh. No. That’s not why I went down there, Nat. I just couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about her,” she went quiet.

“About who?” I figured she missed someone in her family, or was worried about her cat or something.

“Megan,” she said.

“Who?” I asked.

“She was so small, Natalie,” Stella began to cry. “She was blue. I didn’t tell you guys that, but her face was blue. She was wrapped in a pink and white blanket that looked just like the one my grandmother made me —“

I finally realized who she was talking about. The baby who died without her nebulizer.

“Why did she have to die?” she just broke down into sobs. Daria and Rainbow heard her and Rainbow went right to her side.

“I’ve been thinking about her too, Stella,” Rainbow said. I had almost forgotten that Rainbow had a Megan moment of her own the day before. The more I thought about it, the more I understood. While I had my own slap of reality yesterday, I didn’t have to face death in the same way these two girls did. I faced the violence and the reality of the darker side of humanity. They had to face the unjust reality of mortality. All life ends. In some cases, it is at the hands of illness or old age and we can justify the ending of a person’s time on this planet because their time here was lengthy and well spent, but what is the justification of the death of a child? And how do we deal with that death when it comes in the hands of a natural disaster, a fluke, by all intents and purposes, a blackout. How does one sleep when they are haunted by the eyes of a mother who held her child as she suffocated because she couldn’t help her? 

I wondered about the mother, the father and everyone in the family of the baby Megan. I sat down on the edge of the bed just thinking, wondering about my own family and how they were holding up. I remembered Roger when he was two years old and how he was so dependent on all of us. I was only six, but I had so much more of a handle on this planet and this life than he did. I sat there knowing he was old enough to be okay on his own, but I felt a sudden need to run home to make sure he was okay. As I listened to Stella’s sobs broken only by hiccups and deep breaths I focused all my energy on suppressing my own emotions. 

Roger’s okay, I told myself, He was in Staten Island. He’s with mom and dad.

I guess word got down the block about Stella, because Dustin came rushing in our room pushing everyone else out of the way. Looking at his face, you would have thought he was told she had been shot or something. “Stell, Baby, please,” he said, kneeling on the floor in front of her, “I’m here.” He was so gentle, so unlike the crass and outlandish Dustin I was used to. “She’s in a better place, Stella.”

“She must’ve been so scared,” Stella sobbed.

He leaned in and hugged her midsection, “What did I tell you about that?”

Stella’s breathing evened out when he held her, “She’s not scared anymore.”

He leaned back and looked at her, wiping her eyes with his fingers, “She is not scared anymore, Stella. She wasn’t even scared when you saw her.”

Stella nodded, pulling herself together. Which, honestly, is not something I think she would be able to do without Dustin there. Officer Guild walked in just when Stella got up and hugged Dustin. Dustin nodded to the officer to signal that it was okay. He didn’t protest or ask for clarification. He just said softly, “Alright guys, whenever everyone’s ready, we’ll meet outside the front doors.” Then, turning back to Dustin, “Take your time.”

Russ came in behind them. He walked right over to me, “Is everything okay?”

I looked over at Stella on the other side of the bed, “Yeah, I think she’s okay now.”

Russ pulled my face back towards him, “What about you? Are you okay?”

I exhaled the breath I didn’t realize I was holding in and said, “I think so.”

And then he grabbed me up off the bed and held me tight. I don’t know if he was inspired by Dustin, if he needed it or if he just somehow knew that was what I needed. I didn’t care. I was just happy to be in his arms.

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