by Kip Nelson
Maggie was trying to remain calm, and her outward appearance suggested to Mack that she was, indeed, facing the situation with little fear. Yet, he knew as well as her that they both had been trained to appear calm in these situations. Her eyes belied the truth. They darted around from child to child, and Mack knew she was desperate to see if one of them was her son. Since she still was looking, it was clear Tristan was not among those who had captured them.
The blonde girl, who still had not given her name, nor asked for theirs in return, as though they didn't care for names, called out for King Peter to appear. Upon hearing his name the rest of the Lost Children chanted his name as well. They stomped their feet and clapped their hands, and the high ceiling of the warehouse made the noise echo until it reached a frightening, frenzied pitch. Mack was alarmed for this whole thing had the appearance of a cult.
The chanting went on for a few moments until King Peter emerged from the rear of the warehouse. He was flanked by two guards, although they remained standing behind him, cloaked in shadow. Peter was a boy of no more than fifteen, although he clearly reveled in the authority given to him by the rest of the Lost Children. He wore a cardboard crown on his head, and a curtain on his back that acted as his cloak. On his waist hung a belt that held a gun. He walked with a swagger and looked to be in complete control as he took his throne. He held up a hand and all were silent. It felt as though they were playing make-believe, and yet the guns were a stark reminder that it was all too real.
“Why have I been summoned?” the king asked in a loud voice. The golden-haired girl skipped up to his throne and knelt down, bowing her head.
“I'm sorry for disturbing you, sire, but we found some wanderers outside, and we thought you would like to meet them,” she said.
“Indeed, you did well, Sharon,” he said, and the girl beamed with pride at receiving the praise from her king. “Bring them forward!” the king ordered and clapped his hands together with relish.
Sharon looked back toward the adults and waved them forward. Mack felt a prod from a kid who didn't even come up to his waist, but Mack had no choice but to follow orders. The two adults slowly walked forward and stood before the king, who leaned forward and rested his chin on his fist, peering down at them from his throne. However, before he had a chance to speak, one of his guards stepped forward. The light shone on his face, revealing him to be Tristan.
“Mom!” he shouted.
At the appearance of her son, and hearing his voice, Maggie lost it. She tried moving toward him, but as soon as she stepped forward, the other Lost Children were upon her and held her back.
She struggled against them, trying in vain to get to her son, the son she had been separated from for far too long. Mack winced as he saw the sheer yearning in her eyes. He wished he could have been happy for her, and congratulated her, but there was still much danger to contend with.
“Enough!” Peter said, glaring at Tristan. The guard looked glum and stepped back into position, shooting another painful look at his mother.
At the king's command, the children relaxed their grip on Maggie. This time she made no move toward her son, knowing it would have been futile. Mack couldn't imagine the pain she must have been going through, to be so close and yet so far from her son. The king seemed to relish the power he had over everyone, and sat back in his chair with a smug smile on his face.
“That's better,” he said.
“I won't tolerate unruliness in my chamber. Now then, just who do we have here?” he asked, his voice dripping with arrogance and derision. Neither Mack nor Maggie said anything.
“Names!” Peter yelled again, leaning forward, his eyes wide with anger at his orders being refused. Mack glanced around at all the guns and thought it best to not push the king too far.
“Mack,” he said.
“Maggie,” she said with a sigh.
“That's more like it. Now then, if you weren't aware, we have a strict “no adults” policy here, and you made a big mistake coming into our territory,” the king said.
“We're sorry. It was an honest mistake, we were just passing through,” Mack said, trying to play dumb. Peter sneered at them from his lofty throne.
“Do you take me for a fool, Mack? Am I supposed to believe it is a mere coincidence that this woman just happens to be the mother of one of my children? Passing through...yes, I'm sure you were. You know it is not good manners to lie to a king. You should show more respect.”
“I see no king here,” Mack said, and this sent Peter into a rage.
He slammed his fist against an arm of this throne, which would have had more impact had the throne not been made of boxes, then pushed himself up and stormed down the stairs. He stood in front of Mack, staring up at him with beady eyes, full of anger, hatred, and madness.
It was a delicate situation. Push him too far, and he could kill them both, if that wasn't in his plans already. But Mack had to resist because these Lost Children had to be reminded that adults wouldn't be pushed around by a boy who pretended to be a king. If Mack showed any weakness, then he never would stand a chance of changing their minds, or of showing Tristan that his mother's efforts to find him weren’t a lost cause. It gave Mack hope that Tristan seemed too surprised and excited to see his mother, as he wished to use that to remind the other children about their old lives and the real world. This way of life was not sustainable for any of them, and they wouldn't be able to grow into responsible adults if they were left to their own devices. But for now, Mack had Peter to deal with. The king was standing in front of him, snarling.
“What did you say?!”
“I said I see no king. I see a boy who is playing make-believe. I see misguided children acting out a fantasy because they can't conceive of the world outside. This is not Camelot, and your cardboard crown means nothing.” The words were harsh, but Mack hoped they would get through, and prick the aura that Peter had engendered from his followers. (Mack refused to think of them as subjects).
If he just could show them he was in control, and remind them that adults know best, he could salvage something positive out of the situation. But instead of throwing a tantrum or losing his cool, Peter merely laughed. Soon enough, the rest of the Lost Children were laughing with him, guffawing and giggling, laughter that became a cackle and sent a shiver down Mack's spine. Peter turned his back on Mack and walked back to his throne, while the chorus of laughter was ringing all around him. He crossed one leg over the other as he sat down and looked undeterred by Mack's defiance. Mack and Maggie shared a worried glance with each other.
“You adults always make me laugh. You come in here and think you can order us around just as you did before. You say we have no concept of how the world has changed, but we do. We know better than you, in fact, Mr. Mack. You see, no longer are we slaves to what adults say. We don't have to listen to them, or be ordered around by them. We can do what we want, what we think is best, and we do know what is best for us, better than you do. How many times did our parents give us stupid orders and then, when we asked them why, they only said, 'Because I said so?'” He was met with a cheer from his adoring crowd. “And how often did we see them making a mess of their own lives, struggling to get by, day by day, and then pretending they were so much better than us, and knew more than us?
“We always were held down by your kind, brainwashed into thinking we had to turn out like you, but now we know that isn't the case. You're not the first adults to come here and try getting us to change our ways, to bring us back to civilization, and I'm sure you won't be the last. But the thing you don't understand is I've given everyone here a choice. If they want to, they can walk out. I won't do anything to stop them, but they know what I know, and what you should know as well. This world is ours now. It's our time. You're no better than dinosaurs, and we're just waiting for you to die out.” Again, this was met by a cheer and Mack was left aghast.
“Why are you doing this? You surely can't believe all adults are the same? I just want to hel
p you,” Mack said.
“Help? Ha! What can you do to help us? We have everything we need right here, and we've been doing just fine by ourselves. We have food, we can defend ourselves, and we can make our own decisions. Why do you think we're doing this? Because we can. Because it's time that we proved what kids before us have been saying for generations, that we can handle ourselves. We're not idiots. In fact, it's you who are idiots. You had no idea how to run the world, and whatever happened to cause its end was all your fault. Why should we listen to you? The only thing you've ever given us is failure and a broken world. It's up to us now to fix it. Thank you for the legacy,” he said bitterly. Unfortunately, Mack found it difficult to argue with that particular point.
“Whatever happened to the world wasn't my fault, or that of anyone I know. We have a community, and we'd be glad to welcome you back. We should be working together, everyone. That's the real way to get through this,” Mack said, opening his arms to try imparting some sense into Peter.
“Why would we ever want to work with dinosaurs?” Peter said, and then collapsed into laughter.
The other children began chanting, 'Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs!' over and over again, and Mack knew that his hopes of talking Peter out of it were dashed. Eventually, the chanting subsided and Peter drew in a breath.
“You have provided me with some entertainment, so for now I shall keep you alive. Take them to the jail!” he said, raising his arm.
The Lost Children obeyed and Mack and Maggie found themselves pushed and prodded to the back of the warehouse, where a couple of storage cupboards had been converted into jail cells. They were pushed into the same one. As they were taken away, Maggie tried making eye contact with her son, but he was looking away, ashamed. The Lost Children then moved away after they made sure the door had been locked. Mack and Maggie heard them chant and laugh, and were glad to hear it fade so they didn't have to put up with the taunting for any longer than necessary.
“Well, this is great,” Maggie said, kicking the side of the cell.
“At least your son is alive,” Mack said.
“Yeah, and he's guarding that upstart.”
“You know, although Peter may not think he needs any adults, and he believes he's convinced the others they don't either, I'm sure that's not the case. Actually, a lot of them will find they miss their parents if they just give it a little thought. We just have to find some way to remind them.”
“Right now, I'd settle for having a few moments alone with Tristan. I'm sorry for dragging you into this, Mack. I'm starting to think we should have made more of a plan when we were back at the settlement.”
“Hey, I was the one who gatecrashed the party,” Mack said, giving Maggie a reassuring smile, but at the mention of the settlement Mack did wonder what was happening.
He hoped they wouldn't send a rescue party for them. It only would lead to them getting captured, and the last thing Mack wanted was to lead them into danger. For now, he ruminated on what Peter had said and all he had seen while being in the presence of the Lost Children, trying to figure out what he could do to get them on his side. They had such disdain for adults that it would take a great deal of effort to remind them they were children, but it had to be done.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“THERE'S STILL no sign of them?” Grace asked.
Freddie shook his head. He and Saul just had been around the settlement asking if anyone had seen any sign of Maggie and Mack, but nobody had. People had discovered there was a horse missing and some guns, but nobody knew where they could have gone. Nobody who was talking to Grace or the others anyway.
“I can't believe they didn't even leave a note. Do you know who she was looking for in the city?”
Freddie looked at Hank, but both men shook their heads. “She never talked about it. We asked but we never got anything.”
“We have to find them. We should go out looking for them,” Grace said. They were sitting in the apartment building. Saul was lying on the bed while Grace was pacing, biting a fingernail. The others were sitting down.
“Where? The whole city? We have no idea where they've gone. You can't expect us to go wandering about looking for them. We're just as likely to get lost, or worse. Besides, we need to stay here. If we're going to do what you want, then it's going to take all of us,” Saul said without opening his eyes. Grace was about to argue, but then she looked at the others and saw they all agreed with him. She sighed and leaned against a desk, gazing out the window for a moment.
“I'm sorry. It's just that he saved my life at the beginning of all this, and I hate to think that he's out there in trouble, and we're just sitting here doing nothing about it,” she said.
“We have our hands full,” Luis reminded her, “and I'm sure Mack would understand. He'd be the first to say there are some things more important than his life.”
“You're right,” Grace admitted, and gave him a grateful smile.
“So, with that being said, what is the plan now?” Saul asked.
“We've been talking with more people, and I think the majority don't want to fight. They're just scared of Bob.”
“As I thought,” Grace said.
“Mindy has the same opinion,” Hank said, “but whatever we do, we must be sure it's the right move. If we make even the tiniest miscalculation, we'll lose whatever good faith we've managed to accrue in our short time here. If we do wrest control from Bob, then we're going to have to be all in, all the way, and we're going to have to run this settlement. Otherwise, there's going to be chaos.”
His words made each of them aware of the gravity of the situation. It was the final chance they had to back out of the plans they had begun formulating, but each of them knew that if they didn't act, they would be surrounded by dead bodies. There had to be a changing of the guard.
“I'm sure,” Grace said, and gave the nod to the others. They rose, and with solemn looks on their faces, they walked as a group to City Hall.
Those they passed knew that something major was going to happen, and spoke in hushed tones, keeping their distance. Grace held her head high and walked with purpose, knowing that to be a good leader she had to give the impression of confidence, even though she was feeling nauseous inside. Never had she done anything like this. Even when she had been a hacker, infiltrating the cyberspace of various conglomerates and corporations, she had felt protected behind the veil of virtual reality. This felt immediate and sudden, with no way to retreat and hide if things went wrong. The solution to that was simple; things had to go right.
They walked into Bob's office, and he threw his hands up when he saw them again. Shaking his head, he cursed and muttered that he really needed to get a lock for the door. Giving them an exasperated sigh, he asked them what they wanted. All eyes turned to Grace, who stepped forward.
“We'd like you to step down as leader of this settlement,” she said.
Bob laughed, only stopping when he saw the serious expression on her face. His face turned into a snarl, and he leaned forward menacingly, placing two clenched fists on the desk in front of him. Every word he spoke was low and deliberate, but Grace did not let herself be intimidated.
“The next words out of your mouth better be chosen carefully because I will not stand for you coming in here and dictating terms of my surrender,” he said.
“Just think of it as retiring again. You can make it easy. Go out there and tell everyone the strain has become too much, and you're not the right man for the job anymore. Nobody has to lose face,” Grace said.
“You're out of your damned mind. This happened to me before, and it's not going to happen to me again. I should have known when I saw Maggie that she'd be trouble. I took you in, and this is how you repay me? I won't let you get away with this. I'll fight. I will not stand for this kind of insubordination, especially from the likes of you. You're amateurs and civilians. You don't know what it's like to run a community, to protect it. They need someone experienced to lead them, someone who has
a good sense of justice--”
“Someone with a lust for blood?” Grace interrupted.
“You've done a good job here of establishing a community. That's why I'm very confused as to why you'd want to risk tearing it all down? War and violence aren't the only ways to solve problems. Don't you see that a new world needs a new way of thinking, and you're not the right man for that job? You may think of us as amateurs and civilians, but we've been through a hell of a lot out there. We've seen and done things that have changed us, and have shown us new sides of ourselves. Believe me, if this was the old world, then I never would be doing this. I'm not the same person I once was. None of us are. But that's not a bad thing. We can use that to help people and make a better world. Everyone is equal now. We've all been given a fresh start, and it's up to each of us how we approach our lives now. We don't need to resort to violence or anger all the time.”
“Tell that to the people who keep raiding and attacking us. Tell that to the people who have died,” Bob said, becoming more and more apoplectic as he spoke. His face reddened and his body visibly trembled as his blood boiled with anger.
“I am not going to stand aside and let you take control of this settlement, not when I've spent so much time and energy in building it. You're signing their death warrants. You think you can come in here and just take over things as quickly as that? You have another thing coming. You might think you know what these people need and want, but I've lived with them, I've talked with them. I've seen them every day ever since this damned city was nothing but smoldering ruins. We built this place together, and if you think they're going to forsake me now, you haven’t thought this through.”