The Tribe

by Jon Gerrard

“This stuff’s pretty good when you heat it up,” James said as he offered his bottle around. When no one took him up on his offer he shrugged and placed it on the ground beside him. In truth, James was secretly glad that no one spoke up. Just thinking about how sick he had been before made his stomach clench. If there had been some of Shay’s college girlfriends here he would have made the effort, but he could avoid a repeat of that experience and still save face.

  “If we’re looking for something to do,” Reed said, “I’ve got an idea.”

  Paige sat up straighter and looked at him. She had sensed earlier that Reed had something in mind. But she knew her friend and she wondered what kind of reckless stunt he was planning.

  Reed pointed up. “We could climb the tower.”

  The town water tower was only a few hundred yards away. Through the gaps in the trees they could see the looming disc of the immense tank overhead.

  “Don’t they have, like, security or something?” Manny asked.

  “Not really,” Reed said. “There’s a little house near the base of the center pipe, but there’s never anybody inside. There isn’t even a fence on this side. We can just walk right up to it from here. About twenty feet up the pipe is a pull-down ladder. Once we reach that all we have to do is climb the stairs to the top.”

  “How come you know so much about it?” Tom asked.

  “I climbed it once.”

  “I call BS,” Danny said.

  Reed shrugged.

  “Did you really climb the tower?” Paige asked.

  “I climbed it last year with Johnny Lynch.”

  “You were with Johnny Lynch?” Paige said.

  “Yeah. But after we came down he started throwing rocks at the pump station. That’s when I decided to leave.”

  “Johnny never was all that bright,” Shay said. “I’m glad you were smart enough not to hang around when he started acting stupid. So, what’s it like up there?”

  “It’s pretty cool, actually,” Reed said. “The view is amazing. You can see the whole town.”

  “I’m in,” James said as he jumped to his feet.

  “Sure, why not,” Tom agreed.

  One by one the others added their votes and soon the entire group had agreed to go. Magda was feeling better by this time. She said that the anger had drained away and she was as interested as the others in seeing what it was like at the top of the tower.

  This time Reed led the way. It wasn’t difficult to figure which direction to go in. The tower was a pretty obvious landmark. They had been walking for a few minutes when they came to a brick building in a small clearing. As they drew near they could hear some kind of machinery working inside. Although the building itself looked old, the windows were covered with wire mesh that looked new. Reed told them it was the pump station.

  Not too long after they passed the pump station the tree cover began to thin. Ahead of them stood the water tower. The giant tank was supported by ten steel legs. In the middle of the circle of steel girders was the wide center pipe. More than twenty feet up the side of the pipe was the pull-down ladder Reed had told them about. It connected to the staircase that spiraled around the pipe and led up to the tank. Beneath the ladder and off to one side was the booth Reed had also described to them. As he predicted, it was empty.

  They stole up to the booth and huddled in the shadows beside it to look up at the staircase that was out of reach overhead.

  “Okay, now what?” James whispered.

  Reed was poking around behind the booth in the gap between the hut and the huge pipe.

  “Last time there was a ladder back here,” Reed said quietly.

  “Well it’s not here now,” James pointed out.

  “Thanks for the news flash,” Reed whispered. “Anybody got any ideas?”

  For several seconds they all simply stared at each other.

  Then, “Heads up,” a voice said above them. Dimitri had appeared on the platform at the base of the stairs and was trying to unlatch the ladder. “I think I can—”

  The rest of his words were cut off by a sudden, ear-splitting squeal as the unlocked ladder began to rattle down its track toward the ground. The group of teens scattered as the metal ladder plummeted toward them. A moment later the ladder reached the ground and came to a sudden stop with a loud clang.

  Tom stared at the extended ladder that had barely missed him then looked up at the platform. “Tree!”

  “Sorry.”

  For the next several moments the group stood frozen as they waited to see if anyone had heard the racket.

  “I think we’re okay,” Reed said quietly when there was no motion nearby for nearly a minute.

  One by one the group started up the ladder. When they reached the base of the stairs they saw that they were already above the roofs of the houses in the area. The water tower was located in a wide clearing in the woods at the end of Birch Street. Although it was set fifty yards back from the fence that separated the town property from the rest of the neighborhood, they could clearly see all of the nearby houses for several blocks, which meant they could also be seen. Even thought it was closing in on full night, the group felt exposed where they were and they quickly started up the curving staircase.

  When they had completed one full circuit around the pipe they found that they were now above the tops of the trees. As a group they paused to look across the scene. From their perspective it was as if they were looking out over the surface of a deep green sea, the undulating treetops like the crests of gently rolling waves.

  “Everything looks so different,” Magda said as they stared out at the unexpectedly hypnotic scene.

  “Wait till you get to the top,” Reed said. “All we can see from here is the trees, but when we get higher we’ll be able to see down into the streets.”

  They continued up the staircase, winding their way around the big pipe several more times until they had reached the underside of the giant tank. In spite of the fact that they were out in the open, being so close to the immense belly of the tank gave them an uncomfortable feeling of claustrophobia. To reach their goal of the railed walkway around the tank however, they had to make their way out along a narrow catwalk that jutted straight out from the pipe beyond the distant edge of the tank and then up one last steep set of stairs.

  Although Reed had made the climb before, he found himself nearly balking at the journey out across the catwalk. With nothing between them and the ground over a hundred feet below, it took more than a little nerve to step out onto that narrow bridge of metal slats with only a four-foot-high railing on both sides.

  But he had been the one to suggest the adventure so he ignored the tightness in his stomach and struck out across the catwalk as soon as he reached it. He kept his eyes on the end of the catwalk to avoid looking down and heard the rest of the group hesitate behind him at the top of the staircase.

  “Don’t look down,” Reed called over his shoulder. “Just keep your eyes on the stairs at the end. We’re almost there.”

  When he reached the end of the catwalk and turned around he saw that the rest of the group was still huddled on the landing.

  “Really?” Reed said as he watched his friends peering down at the distant ground. “We came this far. It’s only a short climb to the top. Don’t you want to see the view?”

  “We can see fine from here,” Danny called from somewhere in the middle of the group.

  “You’re kidding me,” Reed said.

  There was some low murmuring and foot shuffling among the group before Tom finally stepped forward. Taking a firm grip on both handrails, he slowly started across the catwalk. Reed watched him come, following his tentative progress across the span. When Tom was halfway to him, Reed began stomping on the catwalk, causing it to vibrate underfoot. Tom immediately dropped into a crouch as he clamped onto the handrails.

  “Quit it, Reed!”

  “Don’t be such a baby,” Reed chided. “It’s perfectly solid, see?” He started stomping on the ca
twalk again.

  “Cut it out!” Tom said with an edge to his voice.

  “Fine,” Reed said. “I’ll meet you all at the top.” Reed started up the stairs and was gone from sight in a few seconds.

  Tom took a moment to settle himself, then stood and slowly continued to the end of the catwalk.

  “It’s not so bad,” Tom said to the others once he reached the far side. “Come on.”

  A moment later, Magda started across the catwalk. Tom waited until she was halfway across then started up the last flight of steps after Reed. One by one the others followed. Within a few minutes they were all standing on the walkway that encircled the tank. As Reed had promised, the view was breathtaking. All around them they could see the entire town of Mayfair Park spread out like a map at their feet. They were so high that the houses looked like toys. It was also eerily quiet. There was a mild breeze stirring the treetops, but they were too high to hear the rustling of the branches.

  “I can see the high school!” Amanda said, pointing excitedly. “And there’s the library and the pool!”

  “There’s the barn,” Dimitri said, looking in the other direction.

  “And I can see the carousel in the park,” Paige said.

  “Look how big the lake is,” Shay observed. “It doesn’t seem like it’s that big from the ground.”

  As the group took in the view Tom edged over to Reed. “Good call, man,” Tom said, holding his fist out for Reed. “I’ve got to admit, this is kind of cool.”

  “Thanks,” Reed said as he returned the fist bump. The pair of them stood quietly looking out across the town for a time. After a while Reed said, “It’s too bad Matt isn’t here. I wonder what happened to him.”

  “That’s right,” Tom said. “He never did show up. Hey, Magda, did you ever hear back from Matt?”

  Magda had been taking pictures with her phone. She swiped the screen and looked at it. “No. He never answered my texts.”

  “Doesn’t Matt live around here somewhere?” Danny asked.

  “Yeah,” Manny said. He looked around, orienting himself. “My house is right over there. Matt lives across the tracks on the other side of Woodfield Road. So that should be his street over there. In fact, I think that’s his house in that gap between the trees. The white one with the street light in front.”

  “Try calling him, Mags,” Tom said. “If he’s still home he can get over here in a couple of minutes. He’s going to be really bummed if he misses this.”

  Magda tried his number and listened to it ring until the voice mail picked up. Shaking her head she hung up and tried the call one more time. “He’s not answering,” she said when she got Matt’s voice mail a second time.

  “Is this normal for him?” Reed asked.

  “No,” Magda said. “In fact he’s usually pretty reliable. If he says he going to be somewhere he’s there.” She shrugged and put her phone away. “Something must have come up. He’ll text me later when—” Magda paused as she noticed Reed staring intently into the distance. “What is it?” she asked. She could sense that something was disturbing him.

  Reed pointed toward Matt’s house. “It’s that car again, the one that was near where you crashed.”

  Magda looked in the direction Reed was pointing. “What car?”

  “The one on Matt’s block,” Reed said.

  Tom squinted into the distance as well. “There’s a lot of cars on that street. Which one are you talking about?”

  “The black one right in front of his house. Look. It just pulled off. See it? It’s heading up toward Mayfair Avenue.”

  “Are you sure it’s the same car?” Tom said.

  “It’s got to be the same one,” Reed insisted.

  “Okay, you know cars but why does that mean it’s the same car?” Tom said. “There’s a lot of cars in the world.”

  “Yeah, but this one’s a classic. In fact, when that model was fitted with the law enforcement package it was the number one choice for police departments all across the country. Even a lot of the federal agencies used them. Of course, that was twenty years ago. You just don’t see a lot of them around anymore. If you’re into cars they’re real collectors’ items. And I happen to know that no one in town owns one.”

  “Yeah, well that’s really cool, and all,” James said, “but we’ve got something more important to think about.” Everyone turned and looked at him. “A name! We need to come up with a name for ourselves!”

  “What are you talking about?” Tom said.

  “We’re superheroes! Think about it. We could be the Teen Titans!”

  “I think that one’s already taken,” Danny said.

  “Okay, what about the Justice League or … Oooh! I know! How about the Avengers!”

  “Don’t you have anything that’s not straight out of a comic book?” Danny asked.

  “Why don’t you come up with something then?” James said.

  “I don’t think we need a name,” Danny said. “We’re just us. It’s not like there’s some super-villain out there that we have to take down.”

  “Yeah, but think about how we could make a difference,” James said. “Nobody can do the things we can do.”

  “But what do you want us to do with our powers?” Danny said. “Patrol the streets? Go after muggers and carjackers? That’s why we have police.”

  “But we can do things the police can’t do,” James said, pressing on. “We could handle the really big stuff.”

  “That’s why we have the FBI,” Danny said. Although he secretly enjoyed the idea of having super powers, he enjoyed teasing James even more.

  “No, I mean the really big stuff,” James insisted.

  “And that would be why we have the army,” Danny countered.

  “Oh come on!” James said, looking around at the rest of the group. “We could have a headquarters like a fortress of solitude, or a bat cave or something. You know, a place where we can hang out and discuss strategy and train for our upcoming battles against the forces of evil.”

  “You brought that bottle of fireball up here with you, didn’t you,” Danny said.

  “Actually, Mr. Wizard, I didn’t. For your information I left it…Oh man!” James hammered the railing with his fist as he stared down into the woods.

  “Somehow I don’t think the forces of evil have a whole lot to fear from us,” Danny said.

  “What’s that?” James said. He was pointing to a section of the woods where he had noticed a small gap in the trees. “It looks like there’s some buildings out in the middle of the woods.” In the low light nothing more than vague shapes could be discerned in the shadows.

  “Those are just some abandoned storage sheds,” Reed explained. “I don’t know if they’re owned by the town or the park but they haven’t been used in years.”

  “I bet one of them would make a great headquarters,” James said.

  “You know, now that I think about it, James has a point,” Shay said.

  “I do?”

  “Yes. Well, not about us being superheroes, but about needing a place to train. We don’t really know what we’re capable of. For some reason we have these incredible powers and we don’t really know what we can do with them. We need to find a place where no one can watch us so we can find out what our limits are.” Shay looked down at the spot where the abandoned storage sheds were. “And that might be just the place.”

  “If we’re not going to run around the streets fighting crime, what do we need to train for?” Manny said.

  “For one thing, we need to know how to control our abilities so we don’t hurt ourselves or someone else,” Shay said. “Amanda was trying to save that dog when she threw it way up into the tree by accident. What if it hadn’t landed on that branch? A fall from that height could have killed the poor thing. And Tom, you pulled the door completely off of Magda’s car when you were trying to get them out. If you get really mad at someone and can’t control your strength you could end up sending somebody to the hospi
tal. And you, James, if you had made that rock much hotter you could have seriously burned Manny.”

  “But I wouldn’t do that,” James said. “I was only goofing around.”

  “I know you would never do something like that on purpose,” Shay said, “but you might do it by accident. Do you have some kind of mental thermostat so you know exactly how hot you make something?”

  “Well, no, but I can tell.”

  “Really? How?” Shay asked.

  “I…well, I…”

  “Dude, aren’t you the one who wanted somewhere for us to train in the first place?” Manny reminded him.

  “Exactly,” James said. “That’s why I think Shay is right. We need to check out those buildings to see if we can train there. We need to learn how to control our powers before we hurt ourselves or somebody else.”

  “Good thinking, James,” Danny said.

  “Why don’t we go check it out right now?” James said.

  “Actually, I was thinking that tomorrow might be better,” Shay said. “The sun is almost gone. We don’t know what we’re going to find there and I’d rather not slice my leg open on some rusty piece of metal because I couldn’t see where I was stepping.”

  “Tomorrow it is, then,” Tom said.

  “Let’s make it early,” Manny suggested. “I’m working the afternoon shift.”

  “How about seven? We can get an early start on the day,” Tom said. When his suggestion drew groans from everyone he said, “Okay, nine o’clock then. Come on guys, we can do nine.”

  Anything before noon on a day when they didn’t have to get up was too early as far as the teens were concerned, but eventually they all reluctantly agreed.

  “Now that that’s settled, how about we get down from here,” Tom suggested. “It’s getting dark.”

  Reed pointed to the stairs they had climbed to reach the walkway. They were so steep that it was almost like going down a ladder. And with no protective cage enclosing them, starting down those stairs would be like stepping off into nothing. Reed remembered the way the group reacted to the climb up and couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

  “So who’s first?”