“So,” began Andrew, “what do we do now?” He’d always been known to ask the obvious.
Both of the girls giggled.
Another inside joke? wondered Joaquin.
“Well, I think,” began Anthony, looking about the fire at the rest of companions. He was still scratching at Kenai’s head, who now had her eyes closed, enjoying his touch very much. “We have two major issues to deal with right now. One, we all really need to talk, get our stories straighten out, so we can try to figure out what is going on with all this ‘stuff’.” He waved a hand about his head indicating he was talking about the world around them in general. “And two, we need supplies, and I mean all kinds of supplies – blankets, tools, first aid, a jacket or coat for Andrew, and most of all food. I mean, my sisters and I haven’t eaten since last night’s dinner. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really hungry.”
“Yeah, I am too,” agreed Mikalah, slightly forlorn.
“Me too,” echoed Elena.
The other kids nodded in agreement. They all would’ve liked something to eat.
Joaquin slapped his hands upon his knees and said, “I think we should go out and get supplies first. After we get a little organized in that department, we can try to figure out what’s going on and maybe decided what to do next. We gotta keep our strength up, right? So, I vote we got get some food first.”
Jason laughed.
“What?” inquired Joaquin, taken aback by his friend’s unusual response, his hard squint making his face hurt where he’d been clouted by the Swüreg earlier.
“Spoken directly from your stomach!” replied Jason, still bouncing with chuckles.
Joaquin just shook his head and glared at the smaller teenager through his eyebrows. You little turd!
“Yeah, but where are we going to get supplies? I mean, the kind that Anthony is talking about?” questioned Andrew, looking more tired than ever now the cold had melted out of his body. He was finally able to sit at ease.
Joaquin and Jason looked at each other over the fire, smiling hugely.
“What?” asked Anthony, noticing him and Jason knew something the rest of them didn’t.
“We can probably find just about everything we need at Vons,” said Joaquin through his grin, laughing quietly.
The other four kids look back at him in amazement, their mouths and eyes were a myriad of circles gaping back at him.
Then Andrew asked, “How can that be possible when… well, this place is all jacked up?”
“It is possible, because that’s where we woke up this morning,” stated Jason.
“Inside a supermarket, is that what you’re saying? You’re saying you guys woke up in a grocery store?” repeated Anthony, wanting to be sure of what Jason was explaining to him.
Joaquin stood up and waved his arms to get everyone’s attention. “Let me explain the entire situation, before all your panties get wadded in a bunch. I know it sounds ridiculous at first, but after what we’ve all been through today... I think you guys’ll understand.”
Mikalah giggled at the “panties” reference, though Elena frowned, wiping the last of her tears from her face.
Joaquin continued, absently rubbing his swollen eye. “Last night, my mom had asked Jason and me to go get her can of cranberry sauce and some other crap at Vons real quick, because she was cooking and baking things, getting ready for Thanksgiving.” Joaquin paused and smiled a little embarrassed, then, “Since, I started driving she’s been giving me a lot of errands to run, so she doesn’t have to interrupt whatever she’s doing and stuff. I guess, it makes things a little easier for her, and plus I don’t mind having an excuse to drive, you know, because I just got my license and I… I kinda want the practice.”
“He’s just hoping some hot chick from school will see him and make a big fuss over the fact he’s behind the wheel of a car,” interrupted Jason, standing and changing his voice to an overly shrill, girly tone. “Oh look at Joaquin with all of his big muscles, driving that wonderfully beat-up Camaro his dad gave him that’s like a thousand years old. Eewww, he’s so cute and cuddly, I just wanna have his baby!”
“Dude, shut up!” shouted Joaquin, very embarrassed and blushing as well.
Besides, ever since Clarisse there’s been very little need to go trolling around for chicks, dickweed!
The girls squirmed with glee, covering their mouths at Joaquin’s discomfort.
“I’m trying to explain things here. Damn, man, can’t you be serious for like one second in your life?”
Anthony and Andrew were laughing as well and mouthing short sentences silently to each other:
“Oh, snap!”
“He got moded!”
All the while, the girls stifled the mirth threatening to overwhelm them.
The animals just stared back and forth between both boys, expressionless, except Garfield, who appeared to be asleep.
“Ok, ok, man, if the truth hurts… Well, all I’m saying is, you know, be true with yourself, my brutha,” said Jason as if apologizing, though he wasn’t. He sat back down with a satisfied look on his face.
“Dude, can I get on with the story now?” Why does this dude always feel like he has to butt in? Joaquin could feel his cheeks flushing, his face warming. It wasn’t from the fire burning beside him.
“Sure, man, sure, sorry I brought it up,” began Jason. Conspiratorially, he muttered behind his hand, shielding it from Joaquin, speaking loud enough for all of them to hear. “Touchy, touchy, huh, must’ve hit a nerve…”
There were smiles all around.
“Whatever, ass-chunk,” Joaquin responded, making the girls squeal with a loud, Eeewwwulll!
“Continue, my good man.” Jason ignored his comment, doing his best English Butler impression.
Joaquin took a moment or two to center himself and his thoughts. He went on. “Ok, like I was saying, before Beavis here interrupted me was that… Yeah, ok, I do some errands for mom from time to time and last night my mom asked Jason and me to go get some last minute Thanksgiving stuff for her at Vons. Now, the only reason why this Numb-nut was even with me last night –.”
“That’s me!” proclaimed Jason in mock happiness.
“- Was because his Dad,” Joaquin just continued like Jason had not even spoken, “is out of town on business, and since –.”
“My Mom and Dad are divorced,” interrupted Jason for the third time, although his tone had turned somewhat serious when he continued. “I live with my Dad, because my Mom wanted to go back to China when they separated. She didn’t want to take me, so she left me in the U.S. with my Dad.
“He’s a network engineer - my dad - and had some emergency in butt-hump Egypt somewhere and couldn’t be here for the holiday. Sooo, I asked if I could stay with Joaquin while he was gone and he said that was a good idea. That’s why I was stuck with his sorry ass last night at Vons.” He stopped abruptly as if he’d wanted to say everything as quickly as possible and just get it out there and get it over with. He motioned for Joaquin to carry on as if nothing had happened.
“Seriously, Jason, can I tell the story now?”
“Well crap, man, it’s my family. I feel I have the right to tell them about my family. Is that cool with you?” retorted Jason running his hand through his coarse hair, messing it up even more, but by now the hairdo was beyond repair. It was a disaster. He just shook his head back and forth without a care, motioning, once again, for Joaquin to continue.
“Alright, whatever, now please just have a Coke and smile, and shut the hell up,” pleaded Joaquin clapping his hand together, rubbing them as if they were cold. “So, for the third time… We were at Vons last night like walking down the baking aisle, or some shit like that, when we heard this really, very strange sound. It sort of frozen me in place, you know? Jason thought it was like some kind of earthquake, because he went up against the shelves holding the groceries and sort of knelt down. Next thing I can remember is everything in front of me eyes seemed to blur with gree
n, or something, almost like when you’re tearing up, but this was different.
“Then, Jason, asks ‘did you see that?’ I replied to him that I had, but when I looked at him, he seemed to be getting sick to his stomach. I was really confused. It happened again, the sound followed by the green blurring, but this time I could’ve sworn I saw the old lady, who was picking up a bag of floor half way down the aisle, just melt away like smoke. It was so weird and… and… man, even now, I can’t really explain it. I guess, it just felt wrong or dirty… no – tainted. Yeah, that’s the word.
“It felt so tainted, it made me sick too, just like Jason. I could feel my stomach all twisting and turning inside my body. I wanted to throw up big-time. I think I kind of hunched over, holding the middle of my body, because I don’t remember seeing anything but the floor. When it happened again, I heard Jason tossing chunks. I guess I did too, but I couldn’t have told you at the time, because I freakin’ blacked out, you guys. I freakin’ just felt like I was in a tunnel of darkness that kept getting smaller and smaller, until there was no tunnel, you know, just blackness.”
Anthony, Andrew and his girls were staring at Joaquin, nodding every so often when he highlighted something similar to what they’d experienced.
“Next thing I remember is waking up exactly where I blacked out on the floor of the baking aisle. I looked around. I saw Jason already sitting up, looking at me saying something like ‘I thought you were dead’ or some wacked-out shit like that. We sat there for a bit, you know, just getting our stuff back together, sort of leaned up against the shelves, wiping all the crud from our faces. We were looking at one another in like complete confusion.
“How long did we sit there, Jay?” he asked trying hard to piece the experience together for the others to comprehend.
“Not long, man, maybe ten minutes,” said the other, reluctantly, as if he didn’t want to remember.
“Yeah, not long,” agreed Joaquin looking up at the others, “because that’s when he heard all this glass breaking at the front of the store. That brought us to our feet. You know, because it wasn’t some random accident, there was a lot of glass breaking, repeatedly. It sounded on purpose, you know? There was something strange about it. So, we started walking slowly toward the front of the store when one of those gray looking guys comes like plowing around the corner and down the aisle. I mean, the fucker was coming balls-out, gunning for us like he knew we were there the whole time. We ran back the other way, you know, back toward the meat department. He had completely freaked us out. I mean, he looked amped-up, like he was on five or six Red Bulls, real savage and determined, so we booked out.
“We just get to meat counter when another one of those dudes comes hauling ass from somewhere by the pharmacy, so Jason and I just ducked into the area where they cut up the meat, you know? The Butchery? I guess that’s what it’s called.
“Anyway, we fly through there and into the storage area at the back of the store and out one of the rear doors, the type with the panic alarm on it, so when you go through it, an alarm will sound. Well, it didn’t go off when we went through, thank God. So, we ran around the building toward the front of the supermarket, on the side where the auto-repair shop is. We didn’t see anyone. All the houses that should’ve been across the street were gone as well as most of the streets. The only ones left looked like trails, you know, freakin’ wagon trails from like in the old Wild West days. We were even more confused. We really didn’t know what to do when this wolf-guy starts yelling from the store. He was inside the building, but positioned near the front, where we couldn’t see him, at first. Then, the chase was on.
“We ran up La Loma or what was left of it. When we got to the top we decided to take the smaller trail, you know, to throw them off our tracks. It didn’t matter, they caught us about two hundred yards or so down the other side of the hill from where we first saw you guys.
“When I tried to get one of the dudes off Jason, another one clipped me in the face. We pretty much stopped struggling after that. They were too big, and there were more of them than us. Plus, they had weapons and shit. There wasn’t much else we could do until…” He paused to chortle quietly, warily eyeing the Familiars. They all possessed such a gentle nature, it was quite easy to forget how devastating their attacks could be. “…until your pets came along and took them out like they were nothing.” He was shaking his head now. “That was the craziest thing I have ever seen in my life… Their bodies pulverized in like seconds! Boy, when you guys decide to battle, you come hardcore…” He finished peering through the fire at Kodiak as voice dissipating like air from a balloon.
“Well, not sure what ‘hardcore’ means actually, but if it describes what the Fingers of the Lord of the Light can do when they become a Fist, then what we did atop the ridge was ‘hardcore’. We will take it as a compliment, and accept your gratitude,” uttered Kodiak with a slight nod.
“I sort of like the ring of the word - ‘hardcore’,” said Mugzy, trying the sound, the feel of it in his mouth.
He garnered a flummoxed snigger from Garfield and a quiet chuckle or two from Mr. Patas, who was leaning up against of the logs Kenai had positioned around the fire, silent up until then.
“You’re funny, Poochers,” cooed Elena at her former pet, using his secret name she’d given him when she’d first seen him and took him in her arms. Even then, he had been stinky.
Mugzy beamed.
“Damn, man, your story sounds about as bad as ours,” responded Andrew, shaking his head along with the bigger boy, ignoring the interplay between Anthony’s sister and the tall dark haired man-dog.
“Yeah, I know, huh,” began Anthony, “but all of the food and stuff was still there when you woke up, right?”
“Yeah, dude, all of it.”
“Then, that solves it. A group of us should go and bring back as much as we can carry, right?” he both stated and questioned simultaneously.
Joaquin was slowly beginning to like the other teenager. He had a solid head on his shoulders. There was just no bullshit with Anthony…
Ok, ok… he’s a cool nerd.
“I think that is the best immediate course of action, Anthony,” added Kodiak with another regal nod of her huge head. “We all need sustenance to continue to ward off the cold. My daughter has found us more than adequate shelter, but we are still in need of many items, if we are to survive this unwanted winter. The Fist can hunt and forage, but even we will need some sustenance hoarded within this cave for emergency purposes. Whereas, you children… well, you will be in need of much, much more than us Familiars.”
“Ok, good, so who will go and get us something to chow on?” Joaquin watched as the other boy stood up and made it obvious that he wanted to go.
“The party should include most of the strongest of us, but not all. Some of us will have to guard those of us that are a bit weaker and not as capable of defending themselves against the likes of Fenris and his foul ilk,” mentioned Kodiak, seated upon her haunches, glancing about at the various faces, staring back at her.
“I think myself, Jason, and Anthony should go of us teenagers. Andrew should stay behind, because he’s not dressed for the weather outside, while being pretty strong at the same time,” rationalized Joaquin, glancing about to see if anyone disagreed.
Everyone was just looking at one another in silence.
Kodiak broke the silence with her deep rumbling voice. “And my daughter should accompany you as well given her adeptness at scavenging as detailed by her work with this cave, along with Garfield because of excellent scouting skills and Mr. Patas because of his exceptional auditory senses. That would give you a well-rounded party, while leaving us adequate forces to hold this cave should the need arise. Although, I think Fenris might have quit searching for us for this day, knowing now what he’s truly up against. He will no doubt marshal his strength for a larger push with the rise of the sun tomorrow.”
“I sure hope you are right about that,” murmured Antho
ny, and then louder asked, “Does everyone agree that it should be myself, Joaquin and Jason with Kenai, Garfield and Mr. Patas going to Vons to forage for supplies, while Kodiak, Mugzy, Andrew, Elena and Mikalah stay behind?”
“I agree,” nodded Joaquin.
“As do I,” Kenai uttered softly.
“Me too, that cold was brutal, so I don’t mind staying here,” piped in Andrew, giving himself a mock shake.
“Then let us be about it and stop wasting time!” chided Garfield as he sprang to his feet, darting out of the cave before anyone else’s could say anything or otherwise move.
“I thought he was asleep,” wondered Andrew aloud as those leaving began to shuffle toward the portal leading outside. Some of their typical spirit was in evidence. The prospect of finding something decent to eat had invigorated them.
“He was,” answered Elena. She got up and walked to the stack of wood with the intention of bringing back some larger branches and logs to place upon the fire.
Mikalah, seeing her intention, got up to help. Andrew snuggled under the animal skin he still had draped about his person, closing his eyes, taking in the warmth.
Joaquin followed the others, zipping up his jacket, already bracing for the cold he was about to experience. Somewhat thankful, because it had a numbing effect on his eye socket, which had begun to throb with the heat the fire was adding to the cave.
“We’ll be back!” he called to those still in the cave proper just as he passed through the entrance and into the open-aired passage beyond. Looking back, he saw only Mugzy acknowledge his statement with a single wave of his hand.
Then, he was within the gripping numbness of winter on the Melded World once again.
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~ 48 ~
Into the Melded World - Again
Day One, Thursday, 7:59 am…
The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves Page 39