Batteryville

Under the Bridge

The next morning Marty said, "That's us, kiddo." He pointed to the symbol on the side of the building under the bridge, the diamond, the same one on his arm.

Erin and I walked with Marty and Robin towards the line-up of people waiting to leave the compound. I said, "Good luck finding Batteryville."

Marty said, "What's the password to get in again?"

"There's no password, you just talk to whoever's at the gate."

Marty smiled a little and said, "Just checking. Can't blame a guy."

Erin said, "But the password at the New Pinery is asking to chop wood."

"And how much we want to chop is how many nights we want to stay," Marty said. "Got it."

I said, "Unless the space ship came already and they're all gone."

"Or the lizard people have come up out of the earth."

"Or zombies."

"The craziest one of all," Marty said. "But the best metaphor. Good luck, you two."

Robin took Erin by the arm and almost whispered into her ear, "You sure you don't want to come to Batteryville with us? It's the best place to be."

"No, I have to go on." She kind of looked at me and I thought she was going to say that I could go to Batteryville with them, show them the way, and for a moment I was hoping that's what she was going to say and I would say, okay, yeah, I'll do that, but then Erin said, "We're going on."

Robin looked like she was going to say something else, try and convince Erin, argue with her or something but after a moment she just said, "Okay, well you be careful. Be really careful. Things are going to get tougher."

Erin said, "We'll be okay."

"You better get breakfast. It's just leftover chowder from last night but it's okay."

The line was moving slowly but steadily forward and from where we were I could see people leaving the compound and walking over the one of the two bridges. It seemed like just as many people were coming in as going out.

Robin hugged me and then Erin and Marty held out his hand to shake. Erin hugged him.

I shook his hand and said, "We'll see you in a while when we get back to Batteryville. Thanks for your help here."

He said, "Good luck to you, too."

As we walked away I looked back and in just a few seconds I couldn't see Marty or Robin anymore, they'd disappeared into the huge crowd of people heading out the gate.