Chapter 2

Anthony opened his eyes.

There was light.

Light ... light could come from two sources. There was the artificial kind, all of which were off when he drifted to sleep, and there was...

Daylight.

He sat up, shivering. His coat, which had been covering his nude form at some point, was wrapped around Hannah. Her coat covered her legs. They were very nice legs, he now knew. They felt good, at least. Like the rest of her, his experience with them last night had been mostly one of touch, and taste. His eyes still hadn't really had a chance to enjoy her.

Anthony stood, stretching, one hand dropping to scratch his chest. He was, he had to admit, more scrawny than lean. Not a body that attracted the ladies at the beach. It was his wit, charm, and other qualities which more than made up for that.

Looking down at Hannah, he wasn't sure what had caused this.

Oh, yes, the desk over there now held four empty cans of Labbat Blue, as well as the rest of the six-pack. They were adults, though, and two beers weren't enough to excuse hooking up.

Well ... next to her purse, on Lenny's desk, was her open wallet showing a photo of her one year old baby. If Hannah needed to blame last night on the beer, Anthony would let her.

He walked over to the window. There were no windows to the outside up here, naturally. Even if such an arrangement had been possible, through the large exterior "Bells" sign, second floor windows would have just looked strange to customers. They'd wonder who was living up there, if they were monsters, etc. So, instead, a long, three pane window stretching the length of the office looked down into the store. From here, managers could spy on cute cashiers and customers in safety.

Anthony wondered if any of his predecessors had hid binoculars in their desk.

Looking out, he saw the morning sun streaming into the front of the store. On the other side of the windows, snow still covered the ... well, former parking lot. He sighed. No more excuses. Today, they had to find out what the hell was going on.

"Anything ... yawn ... down there?"

Half turning, he saw Hannah sitting up. One hand held his coat up over her front, then with a tired laugh she let it fall. Her largish breasts, hanging down a bit, said good morning to him. Anthony raised his eyes to hers.

"You doing OK?"

"Yeah ... thanks." With a grunt, she pushed herself to her feet. In the daylight, with thoughts of seduction long gone, he still admired her grace of movement. Hannah hesitated for a moment, perhaps seeing him for the first time as well, then walked over to Anthony and put her hands on his bony hips. Her breasts lightly pressed against him.

"Thank you, Anthony ... for, well, being there for me. I've ... never been away from Mary for so long before."

"Anytime," he said, kissing her on the forehead. "Now, let's get dressed and see what daylight has brought us."

Opening the door to the hallway, they saw Justin sleeping a few feet away. He was curled up on the rug against the wall, grey winter jacket wrapped tight around him. Anthony chuckled.

"Girls kicked him out, I guess," he whispered. Hannah nodded, moving a couple feet to the right and opening the door to the conference room. In the darkness, they could see at least three forms on the floor. Leaving the door and the one to the office open to give the sleepers some light, the two carefully stepped over Justin and walked to the end of the hall, turned, and walked down the stairs. Anthony's flashlight came in handy, but as they opened the door at the bottom they were greeted once again with sunlight.

The two walked, not quite hand in hand, down past the bottle counter and office to the open space between the registers and the windows. As one they turned, looking at their new reality.

It was still just snow. Endless snow...

"Oh, you guys are awake!"

Pivoting around, they saw Chuck and Melinda coming up pushing a cart. Well, Chuck was pushing. Hannah would have expected it to be the other way around, but the winds of relationships blew in strange directions. On the cart were a couple boxes of cereal, a gallon of milk, bowls and an assortment of fruit. Anthony chuckled.

"Do you guys do breakfast in bed?"

"Only if you're on the first floor," Chuck replied, grinning. He stopped next to register one, and began unloading. "Help yourself."

The milk was still cold, which was something. Hannah dreaded what this place would start to smell like once stuff started going bad. Then again, she realized, looking out the window, keeping things cold was NOT going to be the problem soon...

She looked down at her cereal. Kix's, with sliced bananas. Little Mary liked bananas. Was Mark, right now, feeding her breakfast? Did they know she was gone? Were they looking for her? Did Mary miss her Mommy...

She closed her eyes. Stop it. Stop it right now. Panicking like some blonde, like Alicia, wasn't going to help. Her baby was fine. It was HER that was in deep trouble.

"I, um, have a theory."

Hannah opened her eyes and looked at Melinda. The mousey girl was sitting on the now empty cart next to Chuck, their thighs touching. That, she thought, was interesting. Had there been some comforting going on down here as well? Anthony, now dressed in blue jeans and (under his jacket) a Sabres t-shirt (his emergency "got laid" outfit, as he had called it), swallowed and cocked his head at Melinda.

"Is it bunnies?"

The poor girl's eyes must have doubled in size behind her glasses, followed by a laugh just exploding out of her. She rocked back, only saved from falling over onto her head by Chuck dropping his almost empty bowl onto the conveyor belt and grabbing her. Hannah raised an eyebrow at Anthony, who shrugged and grinned back.

"Hey, I have a way with women."

"So," Hannah asked, once the girl had herself under control again, "what's your idea?"

"Well ... it's a STUPID idea, really, but then this is a stupid situation."

Chuck raised his glass of orange juice.

"To stupid situations!"

The four raised their glasses.

"How stupid?" Anthony inquired.

"Well ... it's like ... well, what if the entire store was just sort of ... scooped up, and teleported somewhere else?"

"Yup, that's stupid," Chuck agreed, cheerfully. His expression, though, was of one who agreed with the girl.

"HOW? I mean," Hannah said, sweeping her arm towards the window, "it's obvious we're somewhere else, but how is the question!"

"But it's one that doesn't need an answer!" Melinda pushed her glasses up, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter why we're here, as it was probably something random. Maybe something quantum. Whenever there's some unexpected or unbelievable bit of science it always gets blamed on something quantum. If we accept that we're here, not worrying about the why, we can move on to trying to survive."

"Heat," Chuck said. "Power. It's gonna get cold. Plus, we have food for awhile, but much of it has to be cooked."

"And it won't last forever," Melinda added.

"How long," Hannah whispered, "do you two think we're going to be here?"

Melinda closed her eyes.

"It's too long already..."

Within the hour the rest of the employees were awake, and fed. The fact they could not shower, bathe, or even put on clean clothes, added to some of the girl's stress.

"You can use distilled water," Anthony told them, firmly, "to use with a wash cloth, but that's it for now and go easy on it. It's not like the faucets are working." There were some shirts and sweatshirts with Buffalo team logos, over in aisle 8, but sizes were limited and clean underwear would be hard to find.

As the others talked, and talked, Justin found himself standing at the window. The sun felt good. You could feel the temperature difference, even just walking from ten feet away to here. When night came again the last of the store's heat would probably be sucked out, but for now, whatever star that was (and it seemed a bit red to his eye), it was their only friend.

Probably his only friend, too.

The slight teen let his body lean forward, forehead coming to rest against the cold glass. He wasn't that sorry to be here. Unlike the others, it seemed, his home ... had just been a place he slept. Nothing special. It's not that his parents were bad, really. They ... just didn't understand him. And not in the normal way the previous generation never fully comprehends what the fruit of their loins is doing, despite it being no different than what they did. He was a loner. Geek. Nerd. Justin didn't have all that many friends, and the ones he did have tended to be as quiet and non-social as he had come to be. He wasn't sure they'd miss him, or that he'd miss them.

Work, he had found, was no different in that regard. He knew these people, had known many of them for years, so there was no escape from his past, no chance to reinvent himself. He envied Chuck, who had come in with the ability to start over. He was the only one who just talked to Justin, accepting what he saw without knowing or caring about how he had been in the past. Chuck was the only reason he hadn't quick this stupid job.

Well, him and Tammy.

And Alicia.

But, mostly Tammy.

He wasn't sure what it was about the plain white girl. There was just, well, something. Maybe it was the eyes, or her smile. He was a normal male, had loved from afar many times, but ... he was eighteen now, despite his smaller size. A man. It was time to start acting on those feelings. Maybe, last night had given him a new life. A chance to start over somewhere new. With at least a few people he felt he could, someday, call friends. Or, in Tammy's case, more. Lifting his eyes to the horizon, Justin asked himself if this could be a new home...

There was a building.

"Chuck!"

"What?"

"Get over here! Quick!"

The heavier teen, a full head taller than him, ambled over. Melinda followed. For a brief moment, Justin regarded her with a feeling of ... was it jealousy? No! Can't be! He wasn't gay! That wasn't it! No, no, no. Besides, he had always gotten along well with the girl, even if they weren't friends. It must have been nothing. His eyes quickly went back to Chuck. His friend was looking out the window, scanning the snow.

"What did you see ... ah! That?"

"You see the black ... whatever, too?"

"God, yes! Anthony! We have a building on the horizon!"

Anthony stared out at the small blob in the distance, not so much ignoring the excited conversations around him as pushing it to the back of his awareness. He had to think. Decide. Be leader. Not just, as he had been with this group up till last night, the fun adult who kinda suggested things to be done.

And his choices could save or kill them.

Wonderful.

A hand gently touched his shoulder. Hannah was looking at him, expectantly. Well, now. There was no way he was going to disappoint a woman with beautiful eyes like that. With a smile, he turned, back to the window, hands raised.

"OK, everyone, settle down!" They did, wonders of wonders. "OK, we have to start making some choices. The first one is, do we stay here, or do we go out and try to find out what the fuck is going on?"

"We go out," Tammy said, in her quiet voice. "I want to get home, and I can't do that staying here." There was general agreement. Anthony nodded at them.

"Agreed. Now, that being the case ... I say we all go out and walk over to our mystery building there."

"ALL of us? Why?!?" Alicia, standing next to Nona, hugged herself tightly. "I don't want to go out there!" Her scar, which seemed to fade at times, almost glowed a deep red on her white skin.

"There're only eight of us," Anthony said, gently. "Splitting up just doesn't make sense, as neither half would be big enough to do much. Plus, I don't want to leave anyone here. Look, we'll go out, take a look, then come back. Simple. No risks." He forced a smile. "Don't worry. We'll be OK."

They packed for an excursion they hoped would need none of what they gathered. Tammy, who had done some work in the deli, made two meals worth of cold sandwiches. The bread and fresh produce would probably be among the first food they lost, along with the loose sliced lunchmeat, so she felt no need to skimp on the sandwich fixings. She even grabbed the best bread. Hannah put together some first aid kits, her former Girl Scout training coming in handy. The store had no actual pharmacy, so over the counter painkillers were the best she could do. They had lots of bandages, though.

At the front of the store, they packed it all into Anthony's duffel bag. A second bag, recovered from Hannah's minivan once she remembered her gym clothes were there, was filled with bottles of pop and water. Anthony looked at the space remaining, then told the others to start getting ready to go out while he got one more thing.

"Why do we need so much?" Alicia picked up Hannah's bag, grunting at the weight. "It's not that far!"

"We're just being prepared," Hannah told her lightly. "Better to have, than not have."

A few minutes later, the sound of the meat department door banging shut came to them, followed by Anthony walking up the canned good aisle. In his hands, along with a flashlight, were eight long knives.

"Why do you have those?" Nona asked, nervous. Chuck stepped up as Anthony put them on the register counter, picking up a rather large black handled knife. He turned to the light brown skinned girl.

"We don't know what's out there. Best to be safe."

"And if someone out there doesn't like us coming at them with knives?"

"I'd rather apologize than have to fight with a bottle of Pepsi," Anthony said. He looked down at his arsenal. "How do we carry them, that's the question." Chuck regarded his chosen weapon for a moment, then his face lit up.

"Got it!"

He raced towards the back room, returning with a large, empty box made of thick cardboard. Picking up the knife again, he shoved it down between the inner and outer layers of the cardboard. It stuck, blade safely contained. Melinda looked at him, eyes shining with approval.