Cindy waited with the others in the group for Dave to figure a way toward his precinct HQ. The police officer scratched his head several times, threw up his hands and said, "I’m not sure. Everything looks different."

He held up his cell phone, showing the compass app on it, but it kept moving round and round. "I thought this would help me."

Cindy said, "Where is your precinct located?"

"It’s a block down from Time Square. I believe south from here."

Mary looked off in the distance. "This castle must be the Belvedere Castle. We just have to find the right direction to go."

Rochelle said, "Mom, I think I see the Met from here. But I’m not sure."

They all looked in that direction. The structure was broken and smashed. It could be any of the other buildings lying half exposed to the sun. Yet something was there. They heard a banging noise and a mist started to form around there.

Dan said, "I think I see one of the pillars. I think it is the Met, but it looks different."

Rochelle said, "There might be other survivors."

"We should check it out," Dan said. He looked at them for confirmation. As he spoke Cindy felt something, her necklace, and the stone had started to glow. She needed to be somewhere else but not here.

Mary said, "Your necklace is glowing. It’s beautiful."

She looked at it for several seconds as if mesmerized by its brilliance. They all did, and as they did so the stone ceased shining. She had an uneasy feeling about that building and sensed the necklace was trying to tell her something. They trudged along. They stopped several times and had to take a different route because the ground was unsafe to cross. It took them several hours to get there and they were exhausted.

They stood on top of a small hill and looked at the building. It was the Met. She could make out the remnants of the Beaux-Arts facade with some of the front still standing. Cindy sensed something was down there among the wreckage and turned to Mary and Rochelle. "You should stay here. Officer Dave, do you have another gun you can give her?"

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He looked at her with a crazy look. "Yes, I have a backup Beretta 9 millimeter."

He took it out of his holster and handed it to Mary, showing her the safety and how to shoot. Mary looked at the weapon in a dubious way, but she didn't argue.

Cindy and the officer starting walking downwards to the Met. The first thing they saw were statues, all types of sculptures from Roman classical to Egyptian and these statues were alive, talking to each other in their own language. Cindy shook her head, amazed. Officer Dan placed his hand on the butt of his pistol.

He scanned around and walked past a group of Greek busts. They talked among each other and didn't pay attention to them. This was wonderful and scary at the same time. She saw a Degas ballet dancer stretching. Dan suddenly stopped walking. He was looking at a man who was sitting on a large gilded armchair, and he was floating and laughing.

The man wore chino pants and a black button-down shirt. He said, "They are all dead. Nobody is alive."

Dan said, "Hello! I am a police officer. Do you need some help?"

The man looked at them for a while. His sandy blond hair was wild, poking up at odd areas on his head.

"Who are you? Are you ghosts or one of these art things? My wife always loved visiting the Met. I don't know shit about art, but boy, did she know."

Cindy said, "Where is your wife?"

The man looked at her. His face softened for a second and then he said, "You can’t trick me."

Officer Dan said, "We are not ghosts. We are here to help you. My name is Officer Dan and this is Cindy."

The man said, "What? What? Why are the artworks moving? You cannot be. I have gone crazy. Nobody is alive and you are not here either."

The man stopped floating. His chair skidded on the cracked cement and he stood up and ran at them. Dan didn't hesitate. He whipped out his gun and fired two shots at the crazed man, who stopped in his tracks and was knocked backwards by the velocity of the bullets. His head exploded and all the sculptures stopped moving and talking.

Dan said, "Has the world gone crazy? Nothing makes sense."

Cindy merely stared at the dead man. She was feeling the same way. They walked back. Mary and Rochelle looked relieved when they traveled up the hill.

Mary said, "If we go that way, we should be going south."

Officer Dan didn't say anything and Mary didn't ask them what happened, but Cindy knew they would have heard the shots. Cindy forgot she was walking barefooted. Her black stockings were all shredded from running.

Officer Dan said, "We need to get you some shoes before your feet start to bleed."

Mary said, "What size are you? I always have an extra pair of sandals in my purse."

"I’m size seven."

"I’m a size nine but this should fit until we find another pair of shoes for you."

The sandals were black with an open toe and no back. Cindy tried them on, finding them loose but she could walk in them. A chilly breeze flew around them and Dan directed them to walk near the exit of the park. As they traveled, Cindy had an odd feeling that she was going the wrong way, that she was supposed to find somebody, a stranger named Grace and that this stranger was looking for her.