"Okay, get out the flashlights and pepper spray and go," said Amanda.

"Just a moment, let me check the street first," said Thibodeaux as he removed the mop handle and slowly opened the door. He stopped and listened for a moment and then stuck his head outside and looked up and down the street. There was no one out in front of the store, but he could see and hear people running up and down Park Avenue. "Okay, when I say go, move quickly but don't run. It's dark and if someone falls, we will have to carry you back."

So the posse left the deli and hurried to Lexington and turned the corner. They stayed together and tried to look as tough as they could. The street was alive with groups of people who were pulling at doors, trying to enter buildings. People were carrying television sets and computers from apartment buildings. The city was being looted.

They continued moving quickly in the dark, crossing and heading to Third Avenue. The farther they went from the middle of the city, the fewer looters they saw. The looters seemed to have congregated on the posher streets of the city.

Once on Third Avenue, they moved quickly down the fourteen blocks needed to get to Mr. Garvain's house, arriving there around 9:00 p. m..

Amanda knocked on the door and said, "Please let us in."

Mr. Garvain opened the door with the fireplace poker in his hand and quickly pulled the children inside.

"Oh my goodness. You are back. I was so worried. Miss Virginia was yelling at me saying we should have gone with you and that we should have never let a group of children do a scary task like that alone. Did you get your photos?" asked Mr. Garvain.

"We sure did. Now all we need is some internet access and we can tell the whole world that there are no terrorists, just a bunch of really bad jewel thieves," said Peter.

"Well right now, you need to get cleaned up and go to bed. But what happened to you? You look like you were cleaning chimneys," said Mr. Garvain.

Peter started to tell Mr. Garvain about the bomb but stopped when he saw the look in Amanda's eye.

"Hey, this city gets really dirty when the street sweepers are gone," said Thibodeaux.

"It sure does," said Cindy.

"Miss Virginia washed and hung your clothes out to dry while you were gone. They are in your bedroom. So go on upstairs and get cleaned up. We don't have that much water left in the tank but we have enough so that you can each have a basin. So hurry along. But wait! Are you hungry?" asked Mr. Garvain.

"Nope. After I took the video, we all hid in a deli until it was dark enough to come back here without being seen," said Thibodeaux.

"A deli?" asked Mr. Garvain.

"Yes, a deli and there were cookies and crackers and nuts and we did not have anything else to do so we ate all afternoon. We did leave a note, though," said Thibodeaux.

"Very well. Now be very quiet. Miss Virginia was so upset when you did not come back home that she took a sleeping pill and is sound asleep," said Mr. Garvain.

So the posse climbed up the stairs, cleaned up in the bathroom, and went to sleep.

Chapter XI.

When Amanda awoke the next day, Peter was already up and had the video camera connected to his computer so he could download the video Thibodeaux had taken of the bad guys. For the first time since the explosion, Amanda was beginning to feel okay. They were safe. So far they had been able to eat and sleep and they now had proof of what happened to the city and all they had to do is wait for the power to come back on and they could send their files to the whole world. The police would be able to find the bad guys and people could come back home to the city.

Cindy and Thibodeaux were still asleep so Amanda got out of bed and quietly went downstairs to Miss Virginia's living room and then down two more flights of the backstairs to enter Mr. Garvain's kitchen. The kitchen was deserted. Amanda walked into the empty downstairs living room and thought that even Mr. Garvain must still be asleep.

Peter walked down the stairs. "I just tried to get internet access and there is no signal. I also tried the phones and none of them work."

"I don't think anything like that will work until there is electricity in the city again. I wonder why we don't have electricity. The cop did not tell us about any power plants being bombed," said Amanda.

"Maybe the police turned it off when they left the city," said Peter.

"Maybe," said Amanda.

They heard someone moving down the hall upstairs. Mr. Garvain walked down the front stairway of his apartment and entered the living room.

"Well, good morning," said Mr. Garvain. "I need to scrounge up some breakfast for us. I only have one more egg, but I do have some cheese. Let me see what I can do."

Mr. Garvain walked into the kitchen followed by Amanda Mr. Garvain looked at the back stairway and said. "Miss Virginia is still asleep and all is right in the world. Let me see if I can bake a cheese biscuit pie. Amanda, would you please grate this cheese?" Mr. Garvain handed Amanda a large chunk of cheese and a grater. "You can wash your hands in the sink."

Watching Mr. Garvain scurry around the kitchen, opening a box of Bisquick and pouring it into a large red bowl, Amanda thought about how grateful she was to be in a home and how she did not mind working in the kitchen, something she always fought with her mother about when she was at home. It was so nice to just be normal.

Mr. Garvain went out to the back patio and lit the hibachi and put the coffee pot on top to percolate. He also put a large cast iron fry pan on top of the hibachi to heat up. Then he came back into the kitchen and quickly opening the door to the refrigerator, he took out the last egg, some butter and a bottle of milk which he smelled.

"I think this will do." Mr. Garvain poured a bit of the milk into the bowl with the Bisquick mix and added the last egg. Then they took the butter and the bowl outside and put the butter into the now hot fry pan. He melted the butter and quickly poured it into the mix. "Amanda, bring the cheese, we are about ready to go."

Amanda carried the now grated cheese out to the back patio and handed her bowl to Mr. Garvain who quickly sprinkled the cheese evenly across the top of the dough. "Quick, bring that jar of spaghetti sauce out here." Mr. Garvain pointed to a jar of spaghetti sauce on the kitchen counter right next to the door. Amanda brought it out and handed it to him and Mr. Garvain proceeded to pour half of it on top of the biscuit pie.

Amanda went into the kitchen and took four coffee cups off the shelf and carried them plus the half empty bottle of milk and a bowl of sugar out to the garden table. She then poured herself a cup of coffee from the percolator. The pizza pie was almost done.

Thibodeaux. and Cindy entered the kitchen from the stairway and walked outside onto the patio. It was cool that day but the sun was shining and there was no wind.

"Thank you for making breakfast," said Peter.

"No problem at all. You are my guests," said Mr. Garvain. "Now go sit down at the kitchen table and I will bring in the pie when it is done. There are some warm Cokes on the kitchen counter," said Mr. Garvain.

"That will be okay. We have been drinking warm Cokes for days," said Thibodeaux as he picked up a coffee cup and poured a cup of coffee.

Mr. Garvain looked at Amanda and Thibodeaux drinking coffee and said nothing. He simply poured himself a cup and continued making breakfast.

When the pie was done, they all sat down at the table to eat. The plates were clean, but Mr. Garvain handed them the same cloth napkin they had used yesterday. Each napkin had a different napkin holder and Mr. Garvain seemed to remember which one belonged to which guest. The biscuit pizza pie was a bit odd, but it was hot and they were inside and safe.

"Well, we need to make some plans. What do you children propose to do next?" asked Mr. Garvain.

"Well, I still need to go rescue my Auntie Tina. It is Tuesday and I have not seen her since Saturday and she needs me," said Thibodeaux.

"My mother has not seen us since Saturday either but I don't know where she is and I don't know how to get to Connecticut," said Amanda.

"I don't know where my mother is, either," said Cindy.

"Well none of the buildings that collapsed were in Times Square so she has to be okay. According to the information on the flash drive, the only anthrax was left downtown at some Federal buildings. The rest of the powder was just flour so your moms should be okay and at least they are not stuck on a fourth floor without an elevator," said Thibodeaux.

"Does your aunt have friends to help her?" asked Mr. Garvain.

"My aunt is friends with everyone in the neighborhood, but they are not her flesh and blood. She is my responsibility," said Thibodeaux.

"But what can you do?" asked Mr. Garvain.

"I am going to get back in that subway tunnel and walk all the way to 116th Street and get out. There are no bad guys in the subway, they are all out stealing stuff so I should be okay," said Thibodeaux.

"That would be very dangerous, young man," said Mr. Garvain.

"No more dangerous than standing next to a bomb or getting tied up by bad guys," said Thibodeaux.

"What, what?" said Mr. Garvain.

"Thibodeaux is just acting silly, making a joke. We would have told you if we had been next to a bomb or someone had tied up Thibodeaux," said Amanda.

"Thank goodness. I would have felt terrible if that had happened to you. I should have gone with you," said Mr. Garvain.

Miss Virginia walked into the kitchen. Everyone was very quiet as she walked out to the patio and poured herself a cup of coffee from the hibachi.

"Dear, there is some pizza left in the frying pan on the counter," said Mr. Garvain.

Miss Virginia glared at everyone. She sat down and drank half of her cup of coffee in one gulp. "I am so glad to see everyone here this morning. I heard you come in last night but I was so glad you came back, I did not get up to complain about the noise."

"So, sorry about the noise," said Cindy.

"It does not matter. You are children and children are noisy. And that is why Mr. Garvain and I never got married and reproduced," said Miss Virginia.

"But you are brother and sister!" said Peter.

"No, no, children. She meant that is why we did not marry someone else and have children. And Miss Virginia is just being cross, we both love children," said Mr. Garvain.

"If you say so brother, dear. But our present company is quite nice." Miss Virginia smiled with a great deal of effort and reached out to pat Cindy's hand.

"Thibodeaux wants to go up north to rescue his aunt. But he says she knows people in her building who can take care of her, so I don't think it is necessary. We never should have let these children leave yesterday. They came back quite dirty," said Mr. Garvain.

"Dirty?" asked Cindy. "Of course we were dirty...."

"Because the city is dirty right now, right Cindy?" said Amanda.

"No, it is entirely too dangerous for anyone to go out right now. Mr. Garvain and I did an inventory and with a bit of planning and preparation, I think we have enough food and water to last a week. I know it will be boring to stay inside without television, but we have a lot of books and perhaps we can put on a play," said Miss Virginia.

"Put on a play?" asked Thibodeaux. "But I need to go up to Harlem to rescue my aunt."

"As soon as they clear the street, we will get a cab and go uptown and inquire about your aunt," said Miss Virginia.

The children looked at each other. They might all be young but they all knew there would not be any cabs for a long time. If you could not walk, you would never be able to go anywhere in the city.

"I loaded the video clip onto my computer. Would you like to see what the bad guys look like?" asked Peter.

"Oh, that's okay. There is no reason to scare Miss Virginia and Mr. Garvain with photos of bad guys," said Thibodeaux giving a Peter a look that said, 'are you out of your mind?' No one wanted Miss Virginia and Mr. Garvain to know about the bomb. They would blame themselves for letting the children leave.

Amanda got up and cleaned off the table. "Come on guys, we need to wash the dishes."

"No, dear. Let me do that. We have very little water and I have devised a plan to clean the dishes using bleach that requires very little water. Just put them here on the counter," said Mr. Garvain.

"So, then, why don't we go upstairs and clean up our room?" said Amanda.

"Do bring down the burglar clothes and I will wash them today. I am managing quite well without my cleaning service," said Miss Virginia.

Amanda led her crew up the stairs, up four floors to the bedroom they were using. She pulled them inside and closed the door.

"We need to talk. We need to get the file that was on the CD, the recording from Grand Central, and the video from Tiffany's to the cops so they will arrest these bad guys and we can all go home," said Amanda.

"How are we going to do that?" asked Peter.

"Well, we have two choices. We can stay here and wait for the electricity to come back on or we can go north with Thibodeaux and see if we can go across the George Washington bridge and get to New Jersey," said Amanda.

"But that is a very long way," said Cindy.

"It is, but we would not have to go all the way in one day. If we could get to Thibodeaux's apartment by late tonight, we could try to get across the bridge tomorrow. Maybe there will be some cops in North Manhattan that will help us," said Amanda.

"I just know that I have to go help my aunt. I never should have left her alone in the first place. My Mamma is going to be so mad. First my aunt being left all alone, then about me losing my I-Phone," said Thibodeaux.

"So if we are going to go, we need to get prepared. Pack up the backpacks with the things we have to have and leave them ready to go," said Amanda. "But we can't leave until night. We need to travel in the dark. I don't think anyone else will be in the subway tunnel at night."

"In the subway?" asked Cindy.

"Yeah, all the looters are on the streets, where the stores are. They won't want to be in the subway," said Amanda.

And so they did. They packed up their backpacks and placed them in a line next to the wall. They were just about to walk back downstairs when Cindy said, "Hey, wait. Didn't we say we were going to make the beds?"

So everyone went back and made the beds and hung up their towels and went back downstairs, leaving the back packs by the wall.

"I am going to take my computer downstairs just in case we get a signal," said Peter.

"Okay, I will take my cell phone too," said Amanda.

The Big Apple Posse climbed back down the stairs to Mr. Garvain's kitchen. They could hear Miss Virginia and Mr. Garvain in the living room so they walked in to join them.

Peter put his computer on the floor and tried to log on. It was still connected to a portable battery operated battery charger.

"Nothing," said Peter.

"I got out some books that you might want to read," said Miss Virginia handing them a pile of novels.

"Charles Dickens, James A. Michener, Herman Wouk? Aren't these the kind of books you have to read in school?" asked Peter.

"They are the kind of books everyone should read," said Miss Virginia.

Everyone started picking up the books and looking at them with very little enthusiasm.