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We didn't speak.  We didn't move.  Our breathing was quick, shallow as the sweat rolled across our huddled bodies in the darkness of the garage.  Blood throbbed through my veins racking my body in an almost uncontrollable spasm with every heartbeat.  My hands were clammy, moist with nothing to occupy them and subside there trembling.  Outside in the orange glow of street lamps the shadows moved, flickering the light that dully beamed through slats in the boarded windows.  Hands slapped open palmed against the window with a wet squeal as they dragged across the glass.  This was followed by a sharp bang, not a gunshot but metal striking pavement.  The girl, I thought her name was Anna, jumped and tried to yell at the sudden noise.  Now my trembling hands had purpose as they clamped tight around her mouth and pulled her body tighter to mine.  I crushed her to my chest, half wanting to strangle her and, in the process forcing a muffled yelp from her throat.

Outside there was silence.

It was long, near maddening to hear the world of chaos so suddenly interrupted by an all absorbing nothing.  Did they hear us?  The thought was terror in itself, a near panic that made my body shiver in the windless August heat steaming through the sheet metal walls.  The cartilage in my hands began to pop.

"Quiet." I whispered into her hear.  My chin was close enough to feel the goose bumps forming along her neck.

Outside, the noise of the new world resumed with another blow of metal on concrete that slowly trailed off into the distance.

"What are they?"  She whispered as I released my grip.  She couldn't have been more than nineteen with short hair and athletic features.  There was a row of freckles that stretched out from the bridge of her nose and across her cheeks, innocence masking the horror we'd watched over the last few nights.  There had been five of us on Monday and now, just us two.

"I don't know, hon," I answered quietly, "and I really don't care to.  Let’s just sit tight for a few and stay quiet.  Okay?"

She nodded her agreement as I let her go entirely.  I pulled myself up against a stack of tires and popped my back as best I could.  Moe's Garage had been the perfect place to hide.  Two large, heavy bay doors, a single boarded window and a man door leading out into the heavily fenced tow yard behind the building made it a virtual fortress.  There were a handful of cameras arranged around the lot and all wired into Moe's office near the back door.  I didn't know exactly where the owner had vanished to, though I had a good guess from the red smears leading away from the second bay and into the street not that I was worried about him.  I had enough trouble trying to figure out how to keep myself and this kid alive through another night.

"I'm gonna' check those cameras in the office," I said with a reassuring smile, "so why don't you see what we've got, dinner wise, in that bag?"

She grabbed my arm tightly and shook her head.

"I promise I'll be right back. Just need to stretch my legs and see what’s out there.  Won't even be two minutes."

After a few moments of deliberation, she released her grip and offered a half hearted smile.  Moe's office was a mess of scattered invoices, dirty rags and fast food wrappers all coated in a combination of motor oil and filth taking up the space of a prison cell.  The loan video monitor was in the far corner covered in more of the same goop that coated the papers and rags.  I tried at first to wipe the screen with a towel draped over the chair and only succeeded in swirling the dirt over the glass.  I spit on the bottom of my shirt, stood up on the desk and tried again.  In hind sight, I wish I hadn't.  Outside, staring at the bay doors were hundreds of people, all almost unrecognizable covered in dirt, sores and open wounds.  I noticed movement to the left of the camera, then nothing.  At once, every camera had died.

"You hungry?" Anna asked.  "We've got beans, beans and... more beans."

"Put it all back in the bag." I said, near frantic."

"What’s wrong?"

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