Nearing the first doors, Sam first looked across the hall from her position into the rooms that each stood open there. Seeing nothing that posed a threat, she peeked around the corner into the first room to find it all but empty.
Decorated in the letters of the alphabet and cartoon characters, the room was once used to teach young children, likely kindergarteners. The room looked just as it might have, many months ago, before the invasion, minus the fact that on the opposite wall where Sam stood peering in the door, all the desks had been piled against the windows as a makeshift barricade.
Taking the single step to the next door, Sam found it in the same state as the first. Blinking across the hall, just because she could, she found the two rooms there similarly arranged. Turning to look deeper into the building, she blinked to the next set of rooms and then the next and finally a fourth before she found anything of interest.
Here, peering into the rooms it was obvious that they had been used by the military. Looking inside the first room, Sam found it arranged differently than the others. The walls had been stripped of all decorations, and maps had been plastered up over every square inch with symbols and numbers written in various colors of marker upon them. In the center of the room, the teacher’s desk sat alone with another map upon it. This one had small objects place about its surface like paperweights, but Sam realized they were there to represent something different. Turning, she saw strange scrawlings on the blackboard, though couldn’t make out their meaning. Lamps were placed about the room, all of their cords running to a singular surge bar, and from it another cord traced back out and into the hall.
Following the cord, Sam crossed the hall to the adjacent room and found it littered with electronic equipment in shades of olive green, and tan. Strange satellite dish-like tripods sat about the room with cables running here and there and in the corner, against the wall of boarded up windows sat a generator, its piping ducted through a hole in the plywood to the outside. Making a note of all she saw, she moved on to the next room.
Boxes and crates of various supplies stood stacked in organized piles in the third room she found. Though most of the boxes were labeled, they were too hard to read in the very limited light filtering in from the door, far down the hall. Abandoning the room, she quickly stepped into the fourth to find it filled nearly wall to wall with military style cots. Making a quick estimate, she guessed there were thirty in the room, though she had seen no evidence of any people still inhabiting the school.
Walking back into the hall, Sam peered further into the darkness. She could see an intersection in the corridor ahead, but just barely. So far nothing had presented itself as to tell her that the building was occupied and as such she felt comfortable enough to go back to Jack, Will, and Tammy, and escort them here for the night. Turning back the way she had come just moments before, Sam blinked back down the long hallway to the door and then again, out into the street when a sound erupted from somewhere down the road. She wasn’t alone.
* * * * *
Jack’s duty was threefold. Not only did he have to propel the vehicle forward, a task that took significant concentration, but he also had to watch the road for debris and steer. Not to mention look for Sam. With the remains of collapsed buildings, street signs, abandoned cars, and other obstacles, Jack slowed the jeep to a reasonable speed, even though he was now fairly certain that something sought to catch up with them. He would have been more scared a week or so back, but being chased was really starting to become a part of normal everyday life. He imagined it must have been much the same for cavemen, running and hiding from the large predators of their time. The primary difference, of course, being that the predators in this world were more intelligent, problem-solving killers.
His head swiveling this way and that he sought out any sign of Sam, or any building that looked complete enough that she might be inside investigating it. All about him, to either side of the road, was destruction, much like they had seen everywhere. Though some buildings clung to their former glory in vain, the vast majority were obliterated. Piles of rubble littered the spaces in between the skeletal remains of buildings, spilling out into the streets, causing the jeep to bounce and jostle Jack and his companions. Like everywhere else, glass littered the ground in sparkling shards and crunched beneath the tires as they rolled deeper into the town. Great metal lamp posts leaned over, sagging, having been partially melted by the attack and following fires, and stubs of burned down telephone poles jutted up from the ground like grave markers at regular intervals. The place was dead.
Like most of the places they had seen, the town had been expunged from the world of the living and left as a desolate marker of a time now lost. Though Jack had never visited the town before, and didn’t even know its name, he felt the loss. There had been life here once. Lots of it. Now it was all gone, taken from them, but for what purpose? Jack knew that it was the question that he wanted answered above all others. It was one of the reasons he agreed to go on this supposed quest. He wanted to know why. He had to know.
Dodging the metallic lump of what had likely once been a compact car, Jack continued onward towards what he hoped was the center of town. He assumed Sam would be working in a straight line, towards the center, and thought there would be a chance of crossing paths. Tammy and Will began to shout her name, though the reply came not from Sam, but from somewhere in the distance in a deep and booming voice. It was coming, whatever it was, and it sounded huge.
Traversing a twist in the road, Jack pressed the brake to the floor and focused his power against the movement of the jeep. As he jerked the steering wheel to the left, all four tires broke loose and slid upon the greasy ash and glass-covered street. As the jeep slid sideways, he had no option but to brace himself for impact. Out of control, the jeep careened forward into what Jack could only describe as a pair of armored vehicles. The world seemed to slow as the impending collision loomed nearer and Jack watched in vivid detail as shards of glass shot out from beneath the protesting tires and clouds of dust arose from the piles of debris upon the road that they disturbed. Nearer and nearer they raced towards impact, and he focused all his will to stop them in time, but it wasn’t enough.
As the entire passenger side slammed into the grill of one of the armored vehicles, it was only Tammy and Will’s seatbelts that saved them from serious injury. With appendages and necks jerking suddenly to the right as they hit, Jack imagined them all puppets with cut strings until he realized that he had never bothered to fasten his own seatbelt and though his companions had jerked suddenly and come to rest, he continued on, glancing first off of Tammy’s shoulder and then the roll bar before being completely ejected from the jeep altogether.
Before Jack’s eyes danced a thousand memories of his life. There were mom and Dad, both smiling at him. His first fishing trip with Grandpa out on the lake in a little green boat. The day Mom and Dad brought Samantha home from the hospital, making him the proudest big brother ever. Then his seventh birthday when they all went to the adventure theme park and he got to meet some of his favorite cartoon characters. His first track meet came next, followed by his memory of the day Will first smiled up at him as a baby and reached out to hold his finger. Those and a million more played out before his eyes as his shoulder exploded in pain as he ricocheted off and over the top of the armored vehicle towards a web of razor wire and concrete beyond. Jack knew it was over. He’d failed.
* * * * *
Will smashed against the side of the jeep, his seatbelt digging into this stomach and neck as he was whipped back and forth. His ears ringing, he screamed as Jack smashed against the steel bar atop the jeep before hurtling head over heels out of the vehicle altogether. He reached up, tried to grab his brother, but missed, as if he couldn’t move fast enough. The whole world was moving slow, he realized, and fought the urge to cry. Tammy too was reaching out towards Jack’s somersaulting body to no avail. Watching Jack smash into the truck they had hit, Will reacted on instinct as his brother careene
d over the vehicle to be lost from sight.
“Stop, Jack!” he shouted, his voice breaking before he could complete the thought.
Tammy unleashed a bloodcurdling scream as Jack vanished and tears streamed down Will’s face. He hurt. All over he hurt, but not his body. It was on the inside. Fighting with his locked seatbelt to get loose, Will wiggled and tugged, pushing the button upon the buckle with numb fingers as the horror inside him threatened to overcome him.
With a click the seatbelt relented and in an instant Will was jumping from the jeep to the hood of the armored truck and scrambling up and over the steel-plated windshield. Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement, and turning he watched as Sam vanished from where he had just seen her to appear atop the very truck he was climbing.
“Here,” Sam said, reaching out a hand to help him up. “You’re gonna want to see this.”
Taking his sister’s hand he pulled himself to the top of the armored truck with her help and raced to the back. There, suspended above the ground just a fraction of an inch above the deadly grasp of the razor wire, was Jack. With his eyes closed and powers focused, sweat beaded on his forehead as he levitated above that which would have maimed or killed him. Though the strain was apparent in his face and the rigidity of his limbs, he grinned as he opened his eyes.
Slowly, as if the world was still moving outside the confines of time, Jack began to raise up from his precarious position and though he wobbled this way and that slightly, he rose steadily until his feet touched the solid surface of the ground. Will couldn’t help but stare at his big brother with an open mouth. He could fly. Jack could fly. If he wanted to, he could have the coolest superpower ever.
“Thanks, Will,” Jack said, after a moment to calm himself.
Turning to make room for Tammy, who scrambled up the armored truck to join them, Will cocked his head to the side awaiting Jack’s answer.
“You stopped me.”
“No I didn’t. I don’t have telekinetic powers, I can only make people… Oh… Right. You stopped yourself because I told you to, not because you knew how.” Will put the pieces together. “Awesome!”
“That makes you a hero, sweetie,” Sam said, ruffling his hair.
“When you say it like that it doesn’t sound as cool,” Will replied. “You’re supposed to say it like this… Saving the life of his older brother with his telepathic powers, young Will became the first of three heroes of the human race,” Will said in his deepest voice.
Will grinned as all three of the teens with him laughed loudly at his joke. They were all OK. None of them had been seriously injured. Everything had worked out, and he had saved the day. It wasn’t until their laughs were responded to by the deep roaring of something in the distance that Will remembered that their troubles were not yet over.
“C’mon, guys. Let’s get inside. I think we’ll be OK in the school,” Sam said in a hushed tone.
Will could see that all their moods had changed in an instant. It was back to business as usual. Climbing back the way he had come, Will slid down the hood of the armored truck to the jeep below and retrieved his bag. Handing up both Jack’s and Tammy’s to Sam, he climbed back out and across the top of the truck. One moment Sam was beside him and the next she was on the ground with Jack, reaching up to help both him and Tammy down. Another roar split the darkening night, and Will couldn’t help but wonder what it was that was chasing them this time.
Following Jack’s lead, Will and Tammy both followed him through the maze of razor wire picking out a path towards where Sam stood awaiting them about fifty yards ahead. Again the roar sounded, this time sounding closer than before and Jack paused, looking both left and right for a way around the latest barrier. Seemingly unable to find one, Will watched as the razor wire began to move and lift into the air, hovering above them as if suspended by invisible strings. Ducking beneath it, Jack allowed it to fall once more to the ground before they all ran together to catch up with Samantha.
Entering the school brought back so many memories of recess and friends, but the instant that Will sucked in a quick breath in realization, Sam closed the door behind them, shutting out the little light they had, leaving them in darkness.
* * * * *
One moment Tammy stood peering about their new surroundings and the next it was as if all the light was sucked out of the building. Inching towards her friends, she put her hands up, finding Jack’s shoulder and the top of Will’s head at nearly the same instant.
“Still got your light, little man?” Jack asked.
“So long as it didn’t get broke, I should,” answered Will.
Tammy felt the younger boy kneel to the floor and heard him rustling about in his pack. A moment later she could feel him shaking and then a click was followed by a dull light that illuminated them and their surroundings.
“This way,” Sam said, turning back to them momentarily before heading off down the hall.
“Hang on,” Jack replied, turning back to the door.
Twisting the knob to the lock, he secured it with a snick, and turning, they all began to follow Sam down the hall. With tile-covered concrete floors and walls lined with steel lockers, their every step echoed down the hall and back again. Tammy feared that anything in the building could and did hear them approaching already. There was no way to sneak when both your footfalls and your need for light gave you away at every turn.
It became apparent quickly that Sam had already done some scouting here as she passed several rooms without a second glance and led them deeper into the building. Even so, Tammy was nervous. Deep into the hallway, Sam turned left into a room, tugging Will into it with her. Following them inside, Tammy watched as Jack rubbed his shoulder. He had taken a lot of hits. She was amazed he hadn’t broken anything.
Inside the room were piles of boxes and crates of varying sizes. As Will shook his light vigorously, Tammy joined the others in scouring through the room to read the labels. The first several crates she came to were empty and labeled with a combination of letters and numbers that to her were little more than gibberish.
“What’s a TC-4900?” Tammy asked.
“Dunno,” Jack replied.
“Me either,” Sam answered.
“How about a .50 cal tripod?” she asked, reading the next crate.
“It’s part of a gun,” Jack answered.
Moving along, she realized it didn’t really matter what had been in the crates as they were empty now. Turning her attention to the boxes she began sounding out the labels upon them as well.
“I’ve got a box of antibacterial soap,” she said.
“There’s some boxes of sterile bandages over here,” Sam replied.
“We might have hit the jackpot,” replied Jack. “There must be ten boxes of MREs in here.”
“What’s an MRE, Sam asked.”
“Military food. The stuff lasts like forever, and comes with everything from meat to hot sauce and candy.”
“Candy?” Will asked.
“Yup.”
“The hero gets first pick at the candy, right?” Will asked tentatively.
“Sure thing, kiddo,” Jack replied. “But before we go digging around, maybe we should see what else we can find.”
“The other rooms right here are pretty basic,” Sam said. “One is filled with cots, another with what I presume is communication equipment, and the last just has maps.”
“Like if whoever was here was planning an attack?” Jack asked.
“Maybe,” Sam replied.
“I know you all want to explore, but this door has a good lock on it,” Tammy said. “Maybe we should wait until morning, when our light won’t give us away, to go and have a look around. We already know that something is out there. Let’s not chance telling it where we are.”
Looking around Tammy watched as her friends nodded their agreement. Will didn’t hesitate to begin pulling at the flaps to a box labeled MRE and within seconds he was tearing open several tan colored, plasti
c bags, spilling their contents onto the floor.
Tammy realized something then. It wasn’t necessarily her role to physically guide them to saving the world. Perhaps it was simply to offer them ideas or solutions. Maybe that is what the prophecy meant by naming a guide.
Covering all but a sliver of the light, all four ate in near darkness until their tummies could hold no more. Having everything from chocolate cocoa to Italian pasta, Tammy watched as her companions explored flavors they had all but forgotten, and enjoyed discovering new flavors from their world of which she didn’t have any memories to compare. With stomachs full, they locked the door and lay down upon the floor of the once classroom and fell quickly to sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Jack awoke in the near black room, looking about for a moment in an effort to remember where he was. Having not been startled awake in the night by whatever had been chasing them, he assumed that whatever it was had given up the chase or simply lost them. Pushing himself up and off the floor, he winced at the searing pain in his shoulder. Reaching up, he poked and prodded at it, noting the boundaries of the basketball-sized bruise. Though it hurt, he refused to complain about an injury that could have been fatal, but wasn’t. Sitting up, he worked his sore shoulder by twirling his arm in circles until at last the muscle relaxed, granting him at least a small measure of relief.
Here and there, slivers and pinpricks of light shone across the room to fall upon the opposite wall, or the boxes and crates piled high about the room. Though most of the windows were covered in entirety, once his eyes adjusted these small beams of light were enough to see, roughly, those around him.
Deciding to let them sleep, Jack picked up a pack of unknown food and tore the bag open. Tipping his head back he let the substance slide out from the pack and into his waiting mouth. A large glob of the substance tumbled into his mouth, and uprighting the package he snapped his mouth shut and began to chew. Pausing, his face scrunched up, he chewed again but more slowly. It was mushy, with chunks of something that burst when he bit into them. Bugs! Spitting and sputtering, Jack sprayed his mouthful of food all about the chamber, hacking and coughing like he had nearly drowned.
Children of the After: The Complete Series Page 34