Children of the After: The Complete Series

by Jeremy Laszlo

  Jack stopped when Will’s eyes finally began to flutter, as if they would open, and spinning he watched as Sam collapsed to the ground. Her makeup was a wreck, between her earlier crying and the sweat that now streaked down her face. She wasn’t accustomed to running like he was, and Jack imagined it was only adrenaline and fear that had kept her moving this long. But now that they had stopped, she was done. The running was over.

  Listening to her ragged panting, he retraced his steps, lowering Will to the ground to stretch his own muscles, now knotting in his back and shoulders. Sam wasn’t the only one who was through. Jack doubted he could continue carrying Will much farther. Looking and listening, he strained his senses in all directions but found no signs of pursuit. Even so, he couldn’t shake the nagging sensation that they were not safe.

  Crouching at Will’s side, Jack watched the steady rise and fall of his chest as he worked to level his own breathing. The attack had taken a lot out of his little brother, but he hoped Will would recover soon. Turning, he moved his focus to Sam and grinned slightly at the smug look on her eyeliner-streaked face. She was spent, and they both knew it.

  “I think we should keep moving,” Jack said, watching his sister’s expression turn even more grim.

  “I know. Me too,” she replied with tight lips.

  “I can’t keep running while carrying him though,” Jack said, motioning with his head.

  “Me either. No more running. At least not for a while,” Sam replied.

  “My sentiments exactly. My back is toast.”

  “I kept up with you though,” Sam grinned.

  “Yeah, I noticed. Is there a sale on leather and lace, knee high stilettos in this direction?”

  “Ha ha. Seriously, though. Do you think they’ll come after us?”

  “I dunno. He didn’t seem interested in a conversation. I don’t think it’s safe to try and talk to anyone from here on. Let’s just get to Grandma’s and then figure out what is going on.”

  “Did you notice his clothes? He looked weird, like out of an old movie or something.”

  “I hadn’t thought about it, but yeah, he seemed off.”

  Jack recalled the first time he had seen the man atop his horse upon the ash and glass covered street. He had worn boots and a leather duster, but beneath it he had drab, even shabby, clothing with a wide collared button-down shirt. The only other aspect Jack could recall were his steely eyes hidden in shadow between his wide brimmed hat and thick beard. Picturing the odd man again, a shiver crept down his spine and he quickly shook the memory from his head.

  “I don’t know who they were, what they were doing, or what they wanted, but they seemed hostile. There could be more of them. Lots more, even. I just want to get us out of the city,” Jack stated.

  “Do you think we’ll make it out tonight?” Sam asked.

  “No,” Jack replied after a minute of contemplation. “We need to find a safe place to spend the night again.”

  Jack could barely believe his own words. He had been attacked this same day in this same city. There were men out there in the city who likely were searching for them, yet he knew it was their only choice. At least their safest one. Last thing they needed to do was run into trouble in the dark. No. They would have to sleep out the approaching night and strike out again the following day in hopes of getting out of the city. It was the best and safest option they had. At least he hoped so.

  * * * * *

  Breathing heavily between their words, Sam felt much like Jack’s track bag that she had become accustomed to avoiding over the last few years. Sweaty, dirty, stinky, and worn out. Even now, after having stopped several minutes ago, sweat dripped down her face and into her eyes as her hair stuck to her head and face in wet, seemingly irremovable clumps. Smearing her hair back from her face with the palms of her hands, she dropped her pack and half crawled, half shuffled to Will’s side.

  Looking down on his still form, she found herself shaking her head as she raised her eyes to her equally concerned older brother.

  “I haven’t seen him this bad since the first days in the vault,” she stated simply.

  “Yeah, but he’ll pull through. He’s a tough lil guy.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said with a grin.

  “Speaking of tough, thanks for going all ninja warrior on horse guy back there.”

  “You’re quite welcome,” Sam grinned, “After all, I felt it was my duty to save a damsel in distress.”

  Though she fought to keep herself as quiet as was possible, her weary brain and need for a change in emotional state caused her to laugh more loudly than she thought safe at her own joke.

  “If I weren’t so tired, I just might slug you for that one, dork,” Jack responded.

  “You might try, that is if….”

  Sam stopped speaking as movement caught her attention and Jack also turned his gaze to the ground between them. There, sprawled amongst layers of glass and dark greasy ash, Will blinked his eyes up at them as one of his small hands reached up to the side of his head. Reaching down, Sam softly wiped the hair back from his face, smoothing it as she stroked his head.

  “How are you feeling my little monster?” She asked.

  “My head hurts.”

  “Well, we can probably handle that,” Sam grinned. “Think you can walk for a while?”

  “Sure he can,” interrupted Jack, “He’s a big tough man.”

  “Yeah, I can walk. But are we going to eat soon?”

  Yup. He was OK. If Sam knew anything about Will, it was the fact that so long as he was eating, he was going to be fine. The kid was a regular garbage disposal so far as food was concerned. Especially candy.

  “Why don’t you take a Tylenol and eat some of your Skittles, and we can stop for dinner a bit later? Would that be OK?” Sam asked in her best mommy voice, watching as Jack began digging in his pack for the Tylenol.

  “Okey dokey,” Will replied, carefully rising to a seated position.

  Sam watched as he struggled to reach into his pocket, at the same time Jack produced the small bottle of medicine from the first aid kit contained in his bag. Within minutes, Will swallowed the pill she gave him after several deep drinks from a water bottle. He still had trouble with pills. When finished, however, he stuffed a fistful of candies into his mouth and climbed to his feet with a little bounce before seeking out his pack and waiting for them to rise as well. Sam could not help but grin. Though she and Jack had run for countless hours, he was a rested little ball of energy, just raring to go, while they were both weary and sore from the day’s events.

  “So I guess you whacked that guy bad enough he left us alone, huh?” Will asked as Sam climbed to her feet.

  “I hope so, lil guy, but we don’t know how many of them there are so we have to keep moving.”

  “Let’s go then, slow pokes,” Will said, with a grin that bordered on both sarcasm and cunning.

  Reaching out her hand, Sam helped Jack to his feet before bending to retrieve her own pack. Carefully she wiped the bits of glass and dirt from her backside before grabbing Will’s little hand in her own. Within seconds, Jack too had his pack and taking Will’s other hand they began down the sidewalk once more.

  It was well on into afternoon as they crept among the shadows of the skeletal buildings around them. Though they moved with as much haste as they were able, often their imaginations caused them to pause suddenly and strain their ears for sounds that did not come again. Sam peered around every corner as they crossed intersections, and into the remains of building as they moved like predators amongst the rubble. She didn’t feel like a predator though, instead she felt more like the mouse that tempted the cat.

  For hours they walked until the afternoon became evening and her legs trembled with every step. Whether it was fear or the day’s exertion that led them to waiver beneath her she could not be certain, though supposed it was probably a combination of the pair. No matter how far they went, however, she still found herself thinking of things be
hind them. Not just the events of the day’s attack, but months ago, back before the event. She had hated things then, yet now she longed for what she had loathed just months before. It was odd how the world could change you just by changing around you. After shaking off her memories, she quickly concluded that she would much rather go back to school and worry about what people were saying about her in the hall, than worry about who else was alive in the world and what they would do to her and her brothers if caught.

  With a shudder at the thought, Sam squeezed Will’s hand slightly, calmed by the reminder that they were all OK so long as they had each other. All they had to do was be careful.

  * * * * *

  Scrambling over a pile of bricks, Will held the hands of both his big sister and brother, feeling their unease with every step. Both Jack and Sam were on edge, their heads jerking to one side and then the other in response to imagined sounds. Will knew they were worried about the man on the horse. But he also knew that the dark played tricks on you, and when you thought there was something to be afraid of, most of the time there really wasn’t. Unless it was a cat. Cats were creepy like that. Getting up in the middle of the night to slink around in the dark, and jump and climb on things for no reason. And they ate frogs. Eww.

  Block after block they traversed the rubble and piles of debris as the evening grew darker and darker around them, until they reached an intersection with several gas stations where just beyond he could see an overpass. Looking out across the intersection from behind a charred carcass of a pickup truck, Will could tell that the road was obviously wider than all they had crossed during the day. He watched as the burned remains of traffic lights swayed in the breeze above them, suspended across the street by melted and twisted wires that appeared they would give way at any moment.

  For long minutes he joined both Jack and Sam looking up and down the street, peering into the shadows searching for any sign that might betray another presence out there somewhere in the growing darkness. After what seemed like an eternity that increased the time between the now and his dinner, Will finally followed Jack’s lead across the road as Sam trailed behind a few steps. Mounting the opposing curb, they stepped into a blackened parking lot belonging to what used to be a fast food restaurant connected to the service station. Though the plastic emblem of the yellow arched “M” on the building had melted away during the event, Will recognized the franchise by its telltale roofline despite the fact that most of the building had collapsed. It seemed Jack recognized it too as he aimed them towards it without a second’s hesitation. Will found it peculiar that Jack had hated working at such a place just a few months prior, yet now he was leading them into one in search of a safe haven to spend the night. Will just hoped they still had chicken nuggets, though he seriously doubted he’d be that lucky. Oh my God, and ketchup, everything was better with ketchup.

  Picking their way through and over portions of collapsed roof and ceiling, they dodged between steel tables that remained fastened to the concrete and tile floor as they approached the bent and twisted stainless steel counter where once a teen like his brother would have stood wearing a stupid hat. Will chuckled. He had to say something.

  “Jack, I’d like a ten piece nugget meal with barbeque sauce and ketchup please.”

  “Shh,” Jack warned, fighting a smile as Sam snorted, trying to suppress a laugh of her own.

  Rounding the corner of the mangled counter they pressed further into the dilapidated building past scorched metal cooking implements that were as alien as flight controls to Will, though he had little time to ponder what it was the items were once used for. Weaving first one way and then back the other they moved among the wreckage until Jack brought them to a sudden stop. There before them was a large metal door, not unlike the cooler they had slept in the night prior, just bigger. Testing the handle, Jack pulled it open to be met by something totally unexpected.

  Like something from within had been pushing on the airtight door, it burst open causing Jack to jump and Sam to scream in surprise as a foul smell filled the air. Pulling his bag over his shoulder, Will yanked his police light out and began shaking it before aiming into the smelly darkness beyond. Flipping the plastic switch, he watched as the metal room filled with storage racks and cardboard was illuminated. Yet still the source of the smell could not readily be discovered. Pinching her nose, Sam was the first to step into the metal confines, and rifling through the few boxes that had not been already broken down and flattened, she deemed the cooler empty of anything putrid, disgusting, or foul. Then, lifting one of the empty boxes to her nose she quickly changed her mind. The smell was from the empty containers that once held food products.

  “We could toss them outside,” Sam offered.

  “No,” Jack replied, “If we can smell them, so can anyone else who might come this way.

  “We can find a place that doesn’t stink,” Will suggested.

  “It’s not safe, buddy,” Jack answered, “It’s getting too dark and we don’t want to be out shining around your light. Someone could see us.”

  Figuring that their decision was finalized, Will removed his backpack again and dropped it upon the floor. Stink or not, he was hungry.

  “If we’re staying, can we eat now?”

  “Sure can,” Sam smiled, dropping her own pack before bending to clear a space for them to eat.

  Within minutes the floor was cleared as discarded cardboard was piled into stacks in the back of the cooler, and they all sat down to enjoy a meal of the spoils they had found in the morning and previous night. It wasn’t much, and it certainly wasn’t the healthy foods any adult would suggest they eat, but they ate anyway, and each enjoyed it without complaint.

  It wasn’t until after their meal that Will and Sam were both enlisted to help Jack rig the door closed using pieces of the shelving in the cooler and a bit of wire scavenged from just outside the door. Pulling the door closed as tightly as he was able, it was when he pressed his shoulder into the shelf, wedged there by Jack, that his head rested against the outer wall of the cooler beside the door as it was sealed closed for the night, when he thought he heard a sound outside. It sounded very much like the shuffling and crunching of broken glass accompanied by a clip clop, clip clop that caused the hair on his neck to stand up. The darkness was finally playing tricks on him too.

  Jack secured the last metal unit into place, allowing Will to stand clear of the door and wall. The room was sealed and the sound vanished into the darkness outside.

  Chapter Nine

  His eyes popping open, Jack reached out instinctively to his side where the night before he had placed Will’s light. Brushing the floor with his fingers he fought through a second of panic, skimming the concrete surface of the cooler’s floor until he felt the cold hard plastic of the light. Snatching it up, he gave the light a shake and waved it around, brandishing it like a torch into the darkness. Rising, he felt as his muscles tensed, his shoulders and legs threatening to cramp if he pushed them too hard. He was dehydrated and malnourished. He couldn’t expect his body to handle the abuse he had put it through the previous day without it reminding him of his limitations. Cautiously, he rose to a kneeling position and shined the already dimming light into every corner of the room, noting both Sam and Will still asleep as he sought the source of the sound that woke him. Could it have been a dream?

  Nothing found, he sighed loudly and allowed the light to fade again into darkness as he sat silently still, a perfect mimicry of death. With naught but darkness he focused his hearing on the breathing forms of his siblings, and smiled to himself as he noted Sam’s low snoring. He wished he could record it to play back to her at a later time as proof, knowing she would deny it if accused. Before long, Will began to thrash about a bit before rolling to his side, a sign that he would soon be waking up. Jack was surprised how loud their small sounds were inside the confines of the cooler, that is, until his attention was drawn elsewhere.

  With a loud clatter, a series of crashing so
unds erupted outside as the tinkling of glass shards raining down upon the ground followed, sounding like wind chimes in a storm. A moaning sound then chased the crashes and the musical glass sounds fell to silence, when just as soon as the sounds came they were just as suddenly gone. So too were the sounds of his sibling’s breathing. Shaking the light in his hand slightly he allowed it to light ever so dimly as he pressed a finger to his lips, noting that both Will and Sam were now sitting and facing him with fear clearly etched upon their faces.

  Taking his cue they remained silent, turning their attention to the door, all of them straining to hear any further sounds beyond those of their own hearts pounding in their chests. Jack listened for what felt like forever, and when he was certain no more sounds were coming, he continued to listen further, without moving, afraid to give away their hiding spot to anything or anyone who might be lurking outside. After what must have been more than two hours, poor little Will could take it no more and finally broke the silence.

  “Guys?”

  “Yes, baby?” Sam asked him in a hushed tone.

  “I really gotta pee,” he admitted.

  “Let’s get the door open and peek outside,” Jack replied after a moment’s thought, not wanting to linger in the city any longer than they had to.

  “Can we eat after I pee?”

  “Yes, Will,” Sam answered their little brother. “But we’ll have to hurry,” she added, turning her pleading eyes up to Jack. She was asking for his agreement. This took no thought, and with a single nod of his head, he gave it.

  Jack found it odd and yet comforting how Sam had so easily taken on the role as a mom for Will. She was a natural with him, but then again, she kind of always had been. Even when Will had been a baby she had always volunteered to hold him, or feed him. It was almost as if she had been training for years for all of this to happen. It was kind of creepy thinking about it like that, but he was glad to hear her sound so grown up and mature. Will needed her to fill in for Mom, and she was doing a great job.