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.I've heard people with bad coughs before, even with whooping cough, and this sounds different; it's as if she's trying to bring up something that resolutely refuses to come out.Even if I'm wrong about everything else, I still think Lydia needs to get some medical attention.The last thing we want is for her to die up there in our spare room.Looking over at my mother, I can see from the look in her eyes that she's thinking something similar.She knows this is more than just flu, even if she doesn't want to admit it yet."Poor girl," my mother mutters."Come on," my father says, turning to me."You can carry some stuff out to the truck for me.""Yes, Sir," I reply, getting up and following him through to the hallway.Lydia's still coughing upstairs, and I keep picturing that cloud of bacteria getting bigger and bigger.I figure I might head out to the barn after my father's gone, and look for anything I might be able to use to keep the sickness from infecting the rest of us.I'm pretty sure there's an old gas mask hanging around somewhere; it might sound extreme, but at this rate, I figure we need to take every possible precaution."Don't worry," my father says, smiling as he pats me on the back."This time tomorrow, everything'll be back to normal."I sit and put my shoes on, while my father wanders to the truck.I wish I could believe him, but - as Lydia continues to cough upstairs - I can't shake the feeling that things are getting worse and worse.Chapter SixManhattan"Mom?" I shout, hurrying through to the front room.There's no-one there, but I swear to God I locked that door."Dad!" I call out, running to their bedroom.Still no-one."Where are you?" I shout, convinced that they must have come back.After all, they're the only other people who have a key to the door."They're not here," Henry says, coming through from the kitchen."Then who unlocked the door?" I ask, my heart racing.There's got to be some kind of mistake.I head over to the closet, pulling the doors open.Maybe they're hiding? Maybe they're waiting to jump out and surprise us?"You obviously didn't lock it properly," Henry says."Think about it.That's the only thing that makes sense.""I locked it," I say."You're losing it," Henry says, heading back through to the kitchen."You're really losing your mind.You know that, right?"I take a deep breath, determined not to snap at him.Someone unlocked that door.I know I locked it properly; I remember turning the key, and I remember double-checking.There's no way I'd just go out and leave the door open, but I don't understand who could have come into the apartment.We were only up on the roof for a few minutes, but I guess the most logical explanation is that our parents must have come back, found we weren't here, and then gone off to look for us.Why the hell didn't it occur to me that they might do that? We should have left a note."They were here," I say, hurrying back through to the front room."They must have assumed we were gone, and now they're looking for us.We have to stay here and wait for them to come and check again.""It wasn't them!" Henry says, standing with the fridge door open.He pauses for a moment."Elizabeth.Come and see this.""What is it?""Just come and see." He turns to me."Someone was here, but I don't think it was Mom and Dad."Walking over to join him, I look inside the fridge and immediately see what he's talking about.Earlier, we had food and bottles of water.Not much, and not enough to last more than a few days, but we had something to keep us going.Now, however, the fridge is completely empty.Someone clearly came in, cleaned us out and left.I look over at the drawers, which have been opened; it's the same story with the cupboards.Whoever was here, they took every food item in the entire apartment."Who the hell did this?" I ask, stunned."Looters?" he suggests."There are not looters," I reply."We need food," Henry says."I know you don't want to go outside, but we need food.We can't just sit here and starve.""We're not going to starve," I reply."What are we going to eat?""We'll find some food," I say, although as the words leave my mouth I can already tell how weak they sound.The truth is, I don't know what we're going to eat.Our parents left a prepaid card we could use for buying food while they're away, but with no power in the city, I don't see how we can use it; even if we can find a shop that's open and that hasn't been completely cleaned out, we need some actual cash."Go to your room," I say, forcing myself to stay calm, "and see what money you can find.Anything, even the smallest coins.""Why?""So we can buy food!" I say, raising my voice."Go!""That's not what we need to do!" he replies."We need to go and find the people who came in and took the food we already had! They can't have got far!""We need to find some cash," I mutter, hurrying past him and heading to my bedroom."We can't go confronting anyone.We just need to make sure we've got some money [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]