Children of the After: The Complete Series

by Jeremy Laszlo

  Visiting Grandpa’s pee-pee tree before going back down to the cellar, Will heard both Sam and Jack discussing leaving, an idea he really didn’t like.

  “A day or two maybe,” Jack said. “But we can’t just stay here, we need to go see what else is out there. Find out what happened.”

  “Jack, we can’t take all of this with us. If we leave it behind, who knows what we’ll find out there. We can’t just think that we’ll keep finding everything we need. This could be it. We don’t know,” Sam argued.

  “This can’t be it, Sam. We know there are other people. We’ve seen other people.”

  “Yeah, people that wanted to drag you off and do God knows what to you,” Sam interrupted.

  “Yes, they obviously weren’t what we had hoped for. But if other people are alive, that means that out there somewhere are good people, and a good place for us to live with Will.”

  “I’m not arguing that, Jack. I’m just saying. We have it pretty good right now. Why leave that, when we don’t know where to even go? Why not stay and see if we can figure out what happened?”

  “Find out how?” This time it was Jack to interrupt.

  “Grandma’s house. Neighbor’s houses. There has to be something. I don’t know. The whole world can’t just blow up without some evidence as to why.”

  Will wanted to tell them that he wanted to stay, but he couldn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know. He didn’t like their tones. He didn’t like that they didn’t agree, but he kept quiet, listening to see where the conversation was going. There was a few moments of silence as a whole range of emotions played across Jack’s face, but finally, with a deep sigh, he turned his eyes back to Sam and nodded.

  “OK, Sam. You’re right. We can stay. At least for a little while. By day we’ll go out and see what we can scavenge and what we can learn, and by night we’ll stay right here, but we are leaving. We have to leave while there are enough supplies for us to leave with and get us away from here. We can’t wait until we run out again.”

  “OK, Jack,” Sam said.

  Watching as Sam stood up, Will saw her cross the few feet separating her from his big brother and she hugged him.

  “I think that this is best. Let’s get some sleep tonight, and tomorrow we can see what we can find out about what happened,” Sam half whispered.

  They were staying. Good.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The morning had gone better than any over the last few days, and Jack was thankful for it. Waking up, they had all eaten their fill of whatever enticed them, knowing that the day would likely be long and laborious. Once finished, they emerged from the cellar, closing the doors behind them, and approached the ruined remains of Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

  Though the building was more or less destroyed, the front porch and part of the front wall of the house remained, and this is where Jack knew they would find some clues to what had happened, if any existed here. The rest of the house had burned, and anything that had any answers had likely burned with it.

  Leading his siblings up to the storm door upon the home’s front porch, Jack pried it open, swinging the door wide, its bottom edge dragging the surface of the top step. The whole room had shifted, he supposed, and as he let go of the door it remained open. Cautiously stepping inside the small room, he looked around, seeing what it was and recalling what it had been the last time he had visited.

  Both ends of the small porch held a rocking chair that his parents had bought his grandparents at the Amish flea market in Shipshewana. Though their color had changed, probably due to the heat of the fire, they looked rather well preserved. Indoor outdoor carpet stretched across the small space, the far end having shriveled and darkened to a sickly shade of blackish green. Here and there shards of glass littered the floor, but to Jack, all of this was unimportant. What he had hoped he would find, he did find, and here, in the small enclosed porch, were a collection of newspapers in various states of ruin. Most were all but destroyed by the rain that had come through the windows over months and the sun beating down on them, looking like little more than giant spitballs, but others were better preserved.

  Looking under the rocking chair to his left, he saw a rolled paper, that although faded, looked dry and protected beneath the chair’s seat. Next to the chair’s rocker, another paper laid, still inside the plastic bag it had been delivered in. Leaving the doorway he approached the two papers that appeared in the best shape, allowing both Sam and Will to enter behind him.

  Picking up the newspaper that remained in its plastic, he slid it from the semi-transparent sleeve into his lap. Removing the rubber band that secured it in a roll, he unwound the paper, scanning the top of the front page. The headlines were useless, one article dealing with problems in the Senate, and another about asteroids passing near to earth. Moving on, he scanned further across the page in search of the date. No good. It was printed months before they had been locked in the vault by Dad. Ugh.

  Discarding the first newspaper, he looked across the small room to Sam and Will who both carefully worked through papers in far worse shape than those he had chosen. Refocusing himself, he took a deep breath and lifted the other paper, the one that had been under the chair. Unrolling it upon his lap, he found that it was not a whole paper as he had presumed, but just the first few pages of a paper loosely rolled, making it appear bigger than it actually was. Opening it and spreading it across his lap, he found that its condition was much worse than he had hoped as well. Though some of the ink remained, the majority of the page had been a photo that now was too ruined to make out. The text of the articles had all smeared together, proof that although under the chair, water had saturated it on multiple occasions. None of that was what caught his attention though.

  With all the small print gone and the large image destroyed, the paper would provide him almost nothing, except for the headline that stretched all the way across the top of the page. It was smeared, and the ink had run, but the print was so large he could still easily distinguish the letters, and a knot formed in his stomach. IS THIS AN INVASION?

  Over and over he scanned the words, looking all about the page for anything else he could read but nothing else was legible. Flipping the page over and scanning through the next page, the result was the same. All but the main headline on the first page had been washed away. Lost. The answers might have been there months, or maybe even just a few short weeks ago, but they were gone now. Frustrated, he looked up and Sam was staring at him intently, one eyebrow slightly higher than the other, a questioning look upon her face. Turning the paper over, he held it up for her to read for herself as her expression fell, a deep frown taking its place.

  * * * * *

  An invasion? Sam couldn’t believe it. Who would have invaded the United States? Sure, they had no shortage of enemies, she supposed, but none that would dare invade. Nuke maybe, but invade… No way. Unless they nuked first, and then invaded. That would explain a lot, like why the city was destroyed, or why the monkey thing didn’t have hair. A nuclear bomb could destroy a city, and the radiation could make an animal’s hair fall out. Things were starting to make sense, but not all of it. Where were the people? Or at least their bodies? Who had invaded? Why?

  Looking up to Jack, she knew he didn’t have the answers. He himself was scouring through the remains of other newspapers upon the floor, hoping to glean something else useful. Returning to her work, Sam carefully began separating the pages of the paper between her knees upon the floor. The first several layers of pages had been ruined and were too wet to work with, but peeling them away, the lower layers still held nearly perfect text. The problem was not the legibility, but the fact that the pages were damp. Moving them, she had to be extremely careful not to tear them to shreds as she pulled the pages apart.

  Looking over to her smaller sibling, she found he was doing almost precisely the same procedure as she, and within minutes so too was Jack. Together, all three of them began separating pages, spreading them ab
out to dry, as they worked hour after long hour through the tedium together. Though she didn’t make an actual effort to read any of the pages as she worked, it was impossible to ignore the words that stood out among them, especially headlines. One said Judgment day has arrived, and another asked the question, Is this the end? There was a smattering of pages that appeared irrelevant or unrelated, but Sam did not bother trying to distinguish any page’s importance, deciding instead to just keep working and read what she could when the pages dried.

  It was evening when they called it quits, collecting the pages that had dried through the day in an effort to bring them to the cellar with them. In stiff, crumpled piles the various pages were gathered up, and Sam followed both of her siblings back to the cellar. The day had been long and primarily quiet, each of them concentrating on the task at hand, but even so, they spoke enough to decide they would eat before settling in to see what they could learn.

  With all of them anxious, however, their meal was short-lived, and before long they were back to the disfigured pages, searching the contents for any answers they could find.

  * * * * *

  When Will had entered the vault months and months ago he remembered that he had not been the best reader. At school he received extra tutoring, and was making progress, but then the event happened. Months inside a steel box could really change a person, and with nothing much to do inside the vault, Jack and Sam had both read with him, and helped him to sound out hard words, and before they finally opened the door, he could read anything in the vault, and had, multiple times.

  Sure he preferred his comic books, or even a couple of the story books that were written for an audience Sam’s age, but in this task, Will was excited that not only could he help his brother and sister, but he could read just as good as either of them. This in mind, when his siblings took up their first pages, he too slid one off the top of their pile and began working through its contents. It wasn’t long before he discovered something interesting.

  Continued from page 1A:

  …are undermined by their technological capabilities. With their infrastructure destroyed in every major city, analysts and military advisors say it is time for Europe to throw in the towel and run. At the same time, rumor spreads that Canadian forces, although sustaining heavy losses, have found a way to disrupt the enemy’s stealth technology. Could this mean the battle is turning? It has been less than six hours since the attack commenced, and all sources say that this massive strike is likely to spill over onto American soil within hours, not days. We can only pray that our military is up to the task. -- Written by Chief Editor, Mckenzie Rayne

  Finishing the article, Will didn’t know what to say to Jack or Sam, and without words of his own did the only thing he could think of. He began the article again, this time reading it out loud for his siblings to hear. Glancing up between the sentences he read, he looked over the page to two pairs of transfixed eyes, their expressions frozen, and mouths open in disbelief. After finishing the passage once more, the cellar fell silent for what seemed an eternity as everyone processed the information.

  “Europe, Canada, and the United States? Stealth technology? Who could it have been? The Chinese? But why?” Jack asked no one in particular, continuing on without awaiting a response. “They have been working on stealth for years. They made aircraft, drones, and who knows what else. What if they made stealth long range nukes? They certainly have the manpower. Even the direction makes sense. First Europe and then over the pond to Canada, and then here. It’s like no one saw it coming.”

  “Like a blitzkrieg?” Sam asked, referencing the German’s rapid assaults in World War Two.

  Will just listened, not knowing anything about most of what they were talking about. He tried to put the pieces together like Sam and Jack had, but it didn’t make sense to him. He didn’t know stuff about China or Canada. All he did know is that he was scared. Europe was attacked first, and Mom was in Europe. Maybe that’s why Dad had to leave them in the vault. Will wished Dad was here now.

  Rising to his feet, he crossed the small room with tears running down his cheeks, aiming towards the outstretched arms belonging to Sam, thinking in that moment that nothing could get any worse. But he was wrong. Way wrong.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Hearing the words that Will had read made Jack feel dizzy, but it seemed to have a deeper effect on the smaller boy, who stood with tears streaming down his face. Watching as Will was collected into Sam’s arms, Jack thought to speak again but decided against it. He and Sam could talk about it after Will was asleep. Turning to help calm and comfort Will, Jack was caught completely off guard when the door to the cellar was ripped open from above, as a cold wind swept through the small room and the darkness of night stared back at him from above with eyes of steely grey.

  Like his nightmare the day before, the bearded rider strode out of the darkness with blood in his beard and a tree branch under one arm as a crutch. Though he limped heavily, he carried a shotgun under the other arm that was more than enough warning for Jack to stay still. The man was covered in red brown mud, his duster seemingly having changed colors from black to this new hue, and in the man’s face was a strange look that bordered on disbelief, fear, and anger. Jack did not doubt the severity of the situation.

  “You kids are hard to track,” the man said in a deep and sinister tone. “I wouldn’t have found you if it wasn’t for this,” he added, holding up an empty red Skittles wrapper.

  Jack cursed their luck as his eyes darted around the room looking for some way to get Sam and Will out, his eyes falling on the shovels and rakes hung neatly on the wall.

  “Now now, boy. Let’s not go there again,” the man added, his expression grave before being overcome by a fit of coughs.

  Watching the man’s shotgun bounce with his coughs, Jack slid across the floor, placing himself between the man and his siblings. If he was going to hurt them, he’d have to get though him first. The coughing lasted a few minutes, ending with fresh specks of blood in the man’s beard, but he remained blocking their only exit.

  “I probably would have missed you again, had it not been for your light there,” he said, pointing to Will’s police light. “Still, you kids did good. It’s no wonder you made it this long all alone. You’re resourceful, intelligent, and fast on your feet. You’re gonna have to be to keep ahead of them.”

  Again the man was wracked by coughing. Jack’s eyes returned to the wall of tools. If he moved quickly he could get a shovel and hit the man before he knew it was coming. If he wasn’t fast enough, it would be another story altogether, and Sam and Will would be all alone. That thought stilled him, causing him to look again to the rider who had been chasing them for days. The coughing stopped.

  “I realize I may have had the wrong approach the first time I saw you three in Chicago. I wasn’t tryin’ to hurt ya, though. I was trying to keep you away from them,” the man stated.

  Jack tried to make sense of the man’s words. Who did he mean by them? The Chinese? He wanted to ask, but the man beat him to it, obviously seeing the confusion on his face.

  “They have scouts everywhere, finding those of us who are left and picking us off. They have a big force coming this way, that’s why me and Charlie were leaving the city. We were trying to scrounge up some supplies when I spotted you three. If I hadn’t seen you, and been sent halfway across the city being dragged by my horse, I probably wouldn’t have made it. When I got back, looking for Charlie, he had been taken. They got him.”

  The man kept talking but wasn’t saying much and Jack was getting frustrated. He had put together that Charlie had been the man driving the wagon, but who had got him? Who were they? He almost asked, but then the man started talking again.

  “They’ll be here in a couple days, their scouts are already in the area. Got me one this morning,” the man bragged. “You kids can’t stay here or they’ll find you. Keep going south, head towards St. Louis, I heard once that resistance fighters have a base the
re. You kids shouldn’t be alone. I’ll take ya as far as I can, but I ain’t gonna make it too far,” the man said, bobbing his head towards his leg. “Ya’ll did good with that trap back there, but I busted my leg. Had to put down my horse too. I’m sorry if I scared ya, but it had been a long time since I saw any kids, and I just panicked. I didn’t want you kids getting caught.”

  “Wait. What?” Sam asked from behind Jack.

  “Yeah, what are you talking about?” Jack asked.

  “Whudaya mean, what am I talkin’ about?”

  “Who are they? And what happened to everything?” Jack demanded to the rider, whose face paled dramatically as his mouth fell slack.

  “You mean to tell me that ya’ll don’t know what’s going on? Holy cow. Where have ya’ll been? Under a rock?”

  “In a security bunker.” This time it was Will who spoke up.

  “Oh man,” the rider explained. “You kids… Wow,” he said, shaking his head. “Look, I can explain it all on the road, OK? I usually don’t advise traveling at night, that’s when they’re moving around, but you can’t stay here.”

  Jack didn’t know what to think. Was it the truth? Could he be a friend? Ally? Was he trying to trick them into leaving to keep all the food for himself? But he said he would come with them… Could they trust him? He had no way to know. He needed more answers.

  “Listen, stranger,” Jack said, accentuating the word. “I don’t know who you are, or why you have been following us for days, but unless you have some more specific answers, I would prefer you just be on your way.”

  “Kid, seriously, there isn’t time. All you need to know is that I am not going to hurt you. I am trying to help. They are coming this way, and I can’t protect you from them. If we had more time we could probably find a way to secure this door and hide from them, but there isn’t time. We have to run, and we have to do it now.”