The Resurgent

by Blake Wilbanks

  The question was out of abject curiosity, not out of rudeness like most parents would have done.

  This time, it was Xavier who answered, because he was the only one that really knew why Tyler was there. “He’s here because he can’t find his parents either, and he didn’t want to be alone. So, I let him stay here.”

  Alexander nodded. He had no objections. Who was he to prohibit someone from staying the night, when they were in the same boat as them? It’d be dumb to. He couldn’t just let some teen stay by himself, with no one but himself as company.

  “Take a seat Tyler,” he said. “Don’t be shy.”

  Tyler nodded and obliged to what he was told, taking a seat at the end of the table where Xavier’s mother usually sat.

  “After breakfast, I’m going to go for a drive around town, see if I can find your mother, and Denya and Legan.”

  Tyler perked up at that. “Could I go with you, if you don’t mind?” he asked.

  Alexander thought it over for a moment, then nodded. “Sure,” he said. “I have no business telling you what you can and can’t do, but all I ask is that you behave, and wear a seatbelt.”

  “Of course,” Tyler replied.

  Everyone got quiet when breakfast was ready. They all ate in silence, especially Xavier, who ate with an almost grimace on his face. He tried not to think about the fact that he was the one who cooked the pancakes instead of his mother. They weren’t bad, but they would have been so much better if his mother were the one who had made them.

  No doubt about it.

  The hours that followed were spent trying to find any excuse to pass the time. There weren’t many, though. The television still wasn’t picking up a signal, so they couldn’t watch TV, but there were books, so Xavier and Demetria sat on the couch next to one another and read for a little while.

  Xavier had chosen an old paperback that was titled, The Secret History, and Demetria opted for reading some book called Twilight.

  The book that he had chosen was little denser then what he was used to, but it was interesting and captured his attention, no less. It was a book that he had chosen solely based on the cover. And he could see that it was well-loved by his mother, who he could remember reading the book over and over again when he was a child.

  The book's spine was cracked and there were pages that had fallen out and had to be taped back for good measure. The book was falling apart, but it wasn’t completely hopeless.

  He was one-hundred pages in when the sound of the front door creaking open could be heard, signaling that Alexander and Tyler were back from their search, but when they got up to meet them half-way, before they made it into the living room, they were surprised to see that it was only Tyler, who had returned.

  He looked disheveled. His hair was sticking up in all directions, his clothes were rumbled, and there were blotches of red stains that littered his shirt.

  Xavier overlooked it, though, thinking that it had only come from his nose that had a slow trickle of blood coming from it that was streaming down the length of his face.

  “Where’s my dad?”

  Tyler was out of breath. His chest heaved up and down with each breath that he took. “F – Follow me,” he said. And then he was out the door, making a run for it down the street.

  Xavier and Demetria didn’t stop to think or question it, they followed after him. They ran for a while. He was about ready to give up about half a mile down the road, and he was starting to wonder why they didn’t just take his mother’s car for faster travel, but that thought quickly vanished when they came across a wreck.

  His dad’s white F150 was off of the road in a ditch. It looked as if the truck had flipped over a number of times, but with luck, it flipped back upright.

  Xavier took in a long shuddering breath of air. Oh no, he thought. He ran to the driver side, where his dad was, strapped in by the seat belt. He surveyed the inside of the truck, the airbags were out. He then took in his father’s features.

  There was blood all over his clothes and his face was bloodied and raw, as well. His eyes were closed and Xavier’s thoughts didn’t make this situation any better, but he couldn’t help but think them. They crept up on him and wouldn’t leave. So, with a shuddering breath, he grasped his father by the hand and checked for a pulse. But the realization of what he had been thinking just moments before hit him like a truck, and then it was real and the dam broke.

  All of the emotions that he had been holding in for the past day and a half caught up to him and he let the tears fall. He buried his face in the fabric of his father's shirt and let the sobs wrack through his body. His face was hot and wet with tears that stained the fabric of his father’s shirt. After a few minutes, he pulled back, covered his mouth with the flesh of his arm, and then screamed.

  It was just enough to rid himself of all the emotions that he was feeling. He was in pain. It was a pain like he had never felt before, and he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know whether to give up or what. He had no one, and to him, that was the worst thing that could ever happen to him.

  He stood motionless, looking at the peaceful expression that was etched into his father’s features. It was one that welcomed death with open arms.

  Demetria moved forward to console him, but he didn’t want that, right now, so he moved away from her. He ignored the hurt expression that flashed across her face and made his way down the road back to the house.

  He was tired from the day’s events and wanted nothing more than to get some rest. He had just lost his father, and his mother was missing. But he had already, pretty much, given up on the hope of ever finding her; really. She was probably dead, just like his father.

  It was a dark and twisted thought, but he didn’t care. Because who’s to say that it wasn’t true?

  At sometime during the night there was a knock at the door. Xavier was careful to not hope that it was his mother coming back from wherever she had been. It was a good thing that he had opened the door with no expectations because the person on the other side definitely wasn’t his mother. Instead, it was an elderly woman holding the bible in her right arm and the first thing that she yelled when he opened the door was, “REPENT!”

  Xavier closed the door in her face, as soon as the words left her mouth. But that didn’t deter her. She stayed outside screaming at the top of her lungs and saying something about a rapture that took all of the worthy and left the ones that weren’t.

  But none of them listened. They all went to bed, Xavier in his room, and Demetria and Tyler in the guest bedrooms.

  Not long after, the woman got the hint and left.

  CHAPTER

  SIX

  XAVIER SHOOK HIS head. He had been sitting on the couch with nothing but his thoughts. It was currently 4:00 AM and he was alone, with nothing but the silence and his thoughts.

  He sucked in a deep breath of air and wiped at his eyes with the palm of his hands. His face was all puffy and his eyes were red from all the crying that he had been doing. He put his head into his hands and took in a few deep breaths.

  He didn’t know what to do. But he also didn’t know if there was anything that he could do. He didn’t know what to do with his mother and father gone, because for so long he had depended on them, but not fully, for so long.

  He sat there for a while, just basking in the silence that he hated so much, but it was unavoidable. After a couple of minutes, there was a dip at the other end of the couch and when he looked up to see who it was, he came face to face with Tyler, who looked just as tired as he did.

  "Hey," said Xavier. His voice was groggy and hoarse from sleep, or lack thereof. He had been sitting on the couch alone for the past few hours and hadn't expected for anyone, much less Tyler, to come down and find him. "You should be asleep," he said, clasping his hands together and then unclasping them a moment later.

  Tyler shook his head. "I've been awake since two, and I've been trying to force myself back to sleep
, but I just can't seem to make it happen. My mind, it won't shut off. And my thoughts keep racing. So, I was going to go for a walk, but then I saw you, so I thought that I'd join you."

  "Okay," said Xavier, drawing the A out for a few seconds, then shook his head slowly from side to side. "Do you still want to go for a walk?"

  Tyler nodded. "Yes. Very much so."

  The two of them got to their feet and grabbed a jacket to protect themselves from the cold. They walked for a while down the street in silence. The wind ghosted across Xavier's skin and sent a shiver up his spine. The cold kissed his face and made him feel cold all over.

  He huffed out a long breath of air and shivered, again. "It's a bit cold," he said.

  Tyler gave a low chuckle in response. "Yeah, it is,” he said. There was a beat of silence, and then he spoke again. "So . . . how did you sleep?"

  Xavier shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, I guess. At least, what little bit I had was okay. What about you?"

  "Same," he replied. "Uh, I – I'm sorry about what happened earlier. You really shouldn't have had to go through that, and I can only imagine how you're feeling right now."

  Xavier shook his head. "It's fine," he said. But his words were forced. "We don't have to talk about. We don't even have to talk at all. We never did in school, so I don't really see any reason for us to now. It's fine, really."

  "We didn't talk in school because you were too shy. And I think that we should stick together, now. . . . Now that we're in the same boat. None of us, you, me, and Demetria, have our parents. We're scared and we don't know what to do. So, no matter what you say, I think that we're going to be with each other for a while. So there isn't any sense in not getting to know each other."

  "We don't have to," said Xavier with a shake of his head. "We can all just be anti-social pricks like you were all through middle school and high school."

  Tyler sighed. "Well, I want to get to know you and Demetria. Is that possible? Could it happen?”

  “It could,” was Xavier’s reply, and then he just kept on walking. They were nearing the place where his father had wrecked and died, but he didn’t think about that. Instead, he moved on forward, passed the sight and forced himself, though harder than one would think, to think of nothing.

  The further he walked the less bothered of the cold he was. He found that he didn’t care much about it, nor did he give the ripple, that was still moving like an incessant current in the sky, a second thought.

  Up ahead there was a woman standing under the light of a lamp post. It was a real novel looking moment that could have been taken right out of a horror movie, or a crime fiction novel. She was leaning against the lamp post with a bible in her hands flipping through it, whispering the words under her breath.

  And as Xavier and Tyler passed by, she looked up and started yelling at them immediately.

  “Repent!” she screamed. “Repent, before it’s too late!”

  “It already is,” retaliated Tyler over his shoulder. Then under his breath, “the world is in crisis.”

  “Of course it is.”

  They could still hear the older woman blundering on and on behind them. But the further they walked away from where she sat, the more muffled her voice became, and Xavier was happier for that than he really should have been.

  The more he ran into people that kept yelling at him to repent, the more he started to believe what they had been talking about. All about the rapture, and how everyone who was deemed worthy was taken and the ones that weren’t were left with what remained on earth. They weren’t worthy, so they were left with all of the rubble and the people that were hypocrites and the ones that instantly turned to religion after it was already too late.

  “Do you believe what they’re saying?” asked Xavier after a few minutes of silence. He didn’t mean to ask it, but the words were out of his mouth before he could even fully cohere them. “I mean, about how our families have been taken by the rapture and stuff?”

  Tyler shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I guess I do.”

  “Well, if it’s true, then why was I left behind? Why was my father left behind with me? He and I, we believed the same as my mother did. When I was younger we went to church as much as we could, and when we didn’t feel like going, because the church was kind of judgy, we’d have church at home. Why was I left behind? Why am I unworthy?”

  “I don’t know,” replied Tyler. “I can’t answer that, because I’m kind of asking myself the same thing, and I’m pretty sure Demetria is too. Just like the rest of the unworthy people left in the world. Just like that woman back there.”

  “Should we start heading back?”

  “I – I don’t really want to at the moment. Is there somewhere where we could go and talk some more? I’ve kind of enjoyed our little chat. Haven’t you.”

  “Yeah,” replied Xavier. “There is a tree house, out behind my house in the woods. We could go there and sit and talk for a while. I mean, I don’t think that I’m going to be going to bed anytime soon. Sound good?”

  “Sounds great.”

  CHAPTER

  SEVE N

  THE SKY WAS dark and filled with billions of bright and beautiful stars. The ripple was nowhere to be seen and everyone was back from wherever they had gone.

  Andrew and Eliza laid on their backs, on either side of Xavier and stared up at the sky, pointing out any constellation that they could find. Anyone that was the most prominent in the night sky.

  Xavier didn’t speak. He didn’t know how. For some reason each time he tried, the words wouldn’t come out. They would get stuck in his throat.

  He could hear the chatter of his mother and father, laughing and pointing up at the starlit sky and then falling into a fit of laughter.

  He made to clear his throat and then tried to speak again, but he still couldn’t hear himself. The words were on the tip of his tongue and were ready to be spoken, but the sound wouldn’t pass through the gate of his mouth so that they could be heard.

  He didn’t know what was going on. He couldn’t enjoy the moment that he was having with his family. He tried to force the words out, but still, nothing happened. After a few more attempts, he gave up and stared up at the sky with a blank expression on his face. And after a moment everything faded, then there was nothing. There were no stars and his parents were gone, as well. There was nothing but the voice in the back of his mind that said: “This isn’t real.”

  Xavier woke with a yell.

  He was breathing hard and trying hard to catch his breath. He couldn’t wrap his head around. He should have known that he was having a dream the moment that he realized he couldn’t speak, but he hadn’t thought that far ahead. What he was really worried about was the fact that it had felt real. More real than any other dream he had ever had.

  He shook head of his thoughts and turned to look out the window. From what he could see and where the sun was positioned in the sky, it was late afternoon and the sun would be going down in a few more hours.

  He pushed himself forward off of the bed, and made his way downstairs, where Tyler and Demetria were sitting on the couch reading books, that they probably wouldn’t be reading if it weren’t for the TV not working.

  “Ah,” said Tyler, when he caught sight of Xavier standing in the doorway. “Sleeping beauty is awake.”

  “Yeah,” he replied with a yawn. “I needed my beauty sleep. I wouldn’t be this flawless without it.” His quip wasn’t as good as he had wanted it to be, but he blamed it on his tiredness. It was just easier than admitting that he really didn’t feel like being snarky and quickwitted.

  Demetria nodded. “Oh, we believe it.”

  Xavier sent a quick scowl her way and then made his way toward the kitchen. He was hungry but didn’t feel like cooking anything, so he opted for a pack of Top Ramen.

  For the most part, he ate in silence. The sounds of Demetria and Tyler discussing whatever the book they were reading was about provided enough
background noise for him to not completely freak out and fall into thoughts that took over his mind.

  When he was done, he placed his bowl into the sink, with a mental promise that he would clean it later.

  “Are we the only sane ones left?” asked Xavier, taking a seat on the couch.

  “Probably,” replied Demetria, not looking up from the book that she had found herself enjoying more than she initially thought she would.

  “Every time I step outside I run into someone who tells me I’m going to hell. But honestly, who am I to care?”

  There was a pregnant pause. And then Tyler spoke.

  “I think of them, you know? All the friggin’ time. Sometimes, it’s like I can hear their voices telling me that everything will be okay and then I try to make the best of it. Try not to let anything get me down, but it’s hard, you know.”

  “I know what you mean,” said Xavier after a moment of contemplating. He was choosing his words carefully. “Sometimes the silence is too much and I want nothing more than to scream. Just to feel the void of nothingness that feels this house now that they’re gone.”

  “Well,” said Demetria with a frown. “This got really emotional, really fast. So, why don’t we go raid some grocery store, eat some ice cream on the floor and cry about it?”

  “Dee,” said Xavier clicking his tongue a few times. “No offense, but that just sounds sad and pathetic.”

  “So we do it,” provided Tyler. “Our lives, right now, are the epitome of sad and pathetic. I don’t really see anything wrong with doing anything remotely just as pathetic as we are.”

  Demetria and Xavier smiled, trying to force back the laughs that they wanted to let out.

  “I couldn’t have put it better myself,” she said, pulling herself to her feet and running toward the front door. “I’m driving.”

  Xavier did let Demetria drive without any objections. Partly because he didn't feel like driving, and because he knew that she would start moping like a child if he didn't let her get her way. It was just the way she was.