War of the Worlds (Jabbawockeez)

4. Evacuating

About a few minutes later, Phil and Rynan arrive at the hotel, and got into the hotel room to find that the rest of the boys were up and dressed. The two ran in the room and saw that the others were okay. Phil sighed with relief as the other three looked at them with a concerned expressions on their faces. "You guys okay? You guys look shaken." Phi said, looking at Phil then at Rynan. "Where were you guys? You two weren't here when we woke up." Joe added, sitting on one of the beds to put his shoes on. "You wouldn't believe us if we told you.." Rynan said, finally catching his breath from running. "Come on guys, just tell us." Kevin pleaded, the three of them needed answers on what was going on. "Alright. We'll tell you." Phil took a deep breath and began to tell them what had happened when they made their trip to the store by the intersection earlier that morning.

Phil began to tell the story of what happened, about the lightning storm, the crater in the ground, and finally about the tripods. "These war machines, started to strike people with these laser beams or something. Everyone was trying to escape. Houses were being destroyed and buildings burned and crushed." As Phil went on with the story, Phi covered his mouth with his hand, Joe's jaw dropped, and Kevin felt like his heart had leaped into his throat.

"Oh man, what are we going to do?!" Phi panicked, but Rynan calmed him down. "It's alright bro. For right now, we should get out of the city as fast as we can, and get somewhere safe, and from there, we can figure something out. Right now, our safety is at risk." He said as Joe stood up and nodded. "Rynan's right. We need to get outta here." He said and started to gather his things. The others nodded in agreement and started to gather their things as fast as they could, then rushed outside towards the car. Joe then tried to turn the engine on but it wouldn't activate even if the key was in the ignition. "The car won't start guys." Joe stated and the others looked at him. "Are you serious? Do we have gas still?" Kevin asked as Joe nodded. "It was full when I got it, and we barely used half yesterday." He replied as Phil got out. "We may have to travel on foot then, other people are having the same problem we are." Phil said as the others got out to find that many other people were trying to activate their cars but have no success in doing so.

Phil directed the boys in the direction to where they could find a safe house or some place to take refuge until they can figure out something to do. The rest of the boys followed him, sticking close together so they wouldn't be separated from one another. "Let's find a safe house on the outskirts of the city. We can hide out there before we try to get out of the city." He said as the others nodded. "I can't believe this is really happening." Joe said as Phi put his arm around his shoulders in a reassuring manner. "It's alright Joe. We'll make it through this together. It'll be over before we know it." Phi stated, in a soft reassuring tone. Joe then nodded and walked along with the others down the now empty road, that now has some people walking the same way that they are going. After a few hours of walking, the sun began to go down, indicating that it was going to be dark soon. Rynan spotted a small hidden silo, by an abandoned house a few feet away which was covered by trees and other plants.

"Perfect! We can stay here for now until morning." Phil said and went to the house with the boys following closely behind. Phil opened the door and walked in as the boys walked in as well, looking around the house. "No one lives here, there's no signs that anyone is here." Kevin stated as he looked around.

"Yeah, it's completely empty." Rynan added as they walked around some more then found the entrance to what seemed to be the basement. Once they were down in the basement, they locked the door and settled down. "Now what's the plan guys?" Joe asked as they all sat down on the floor to discuss their ideas then get some sleep. "We stay here until tomorrow morning so we can get some rest." Phil said to the rest of the group. "We can follow the people leaving the city, and join all of them to where they will be evacuated to." Phi added as Rynan gave a nod of agreement. "Sounds good to me." He said as Joe, Kevin and Phil agreed to Phi's suggestion. "Let's get some rest. We've been walking all day." Joe said as everyone found a spot on the floor and got comfortable as much as they could since they were all laying on a freezing cold floor.

Phi propped himself up against the wall with his arms crossed and his legs outstretched with his hat covering his face, Rynan had his head on one of Phi's legs as f it was a pillow, Joe also was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his hat covering his face. Phil was laying on the floor with a spare jacket he had to use as a pillow, and Kevin was also laying on the floor, laying his head on his arms.

The night rolled on, and the wind blew a bit more than usual, and stopped after a while as all five boys were fast asleep down in the cold basement of the abandoned house.