Children of the After: The Complete Series

by Jeremy Laszlo

  “I tried that.”

  “Did you try this?” Will questioned, an odd tone to his voice. “Sam, your makeup is melting!”

  * * * * *

  Sam jumped awake, if you could call it that, and instantly began to struggle. Unable to move her head, arms, or legs she immediately began to panic until she heard the familiar voice.

  “See,” Will giggled. “I told you it would work.”

  “Will?” Sam asked. “Are you okay?”

  “Yup. Well, as okay as a bird in a cage,” came the reply.

  “Are Jack and Tammy here too?” she asked.

  “Jack is. We think Tammy is too, but she’s not awake yet.”

  “Sam,” Jack interrupted. “Teleport yourself out of your bindings and set us free.”

  “Are you sure?” Will asked.

  “Why wouldn’t she?” Jack questioned.

  “If we’re all tied up then shouldn’t the bad guys be nearby, ready to come insult us for failing or something?”

  “This isn’t a comic book or cartoon, Will,” Jack said.

  “I know, but, maybe we should wait at least a little bit until we can figure out what they want or what is going on?” Will continued.

  “We’re not going to figure out anything from here,” Jack replied. “Besides, there isn’t an exit here so far as I can tell, but I think that wall in front of us moves and there might be a way out behind it.”

  “Are you expecting the wall or the possible door past it to suddenly run away?” Will questioned sarcastically.

  “Of course not,” Jack said.

  “Then why don’t we wake Tammy up, and see what she thinks we should do? After all, she is our guide. Remember?”

  “I think he’s right,” Sam confided.

  “Alright. We’ll wait and talk to Tammy,” Jack agreed.

  Sam looked about as best as she was able and found the room sparse at best. There was no furniture, no windows, no perceivable doors, nothing. It was very much the cell that it appeared.

  Knowing that she could leave her bonds at any given second somehow made Sam okay with being tied up. Able to relax, she let her mind wander in an effort to ignore her pounding head as both Jack and Will passed time trying to rouse Tammy.

  Not sure how long had passed as she daydreamed about the ‘good ole days’, the tone of desperation in Will’s voice pulled her from her reverie. Listening to his words, it was apparent they had not yet manage to wake their friend. Sam tried to focus, but her head hurt beyond measure. Pushing her ability to its limits earlier was taking its toll.

  “Wait, guys,” Sam pleaded to silence their yells. “How did you guys know I was here?”

  “We could hear you breathing,” Jack replied.

  “Okay, so let’s be quiet and see if we can hear her,” Sam suggested, both for her head and as a means to determine Tammy’s location amongst them.

  Several minutes passed and none of them made a sound. Sam listened as best she was able, but all she could hear was the pounding of her head and the hammering of her heart in her chest. It was no use.

  “Anything?” She asked.

  “No,” replied Jack.

  “Me either,” Will answered. “Where else could she be?”

  “I dunno, buddy, but maybe because she isn’t a human they put her on the other side of that wall or something.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Will replied reluctantly.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Jack added. “Sam. Are you ready to set us free?”

  “Wait. What if something else is over there? What then?” Sam asked.

  “Then we fight it and go find Tammy.”

  “I don’t think I can fight,” Samantha admitted. “I feel sick and my head is pounding. I don’t know if I could blink more than a time or two without passing out again.”

  “Then Will and I will fight,” Jack said with determination in his voice. Sam couldn’t help but wonder if he knew how much he sounded like their father.

  “Wouldn’t it be better to know what is there first?” Sam asked.

  “If you have a plan, just tell us,” Jack said, obviously becoming impatient.

  “If I free us, then what is your plan?” she asked.

  “To see if I can use my power to move that wall.”

  “You don’t have to be free to do that, right?”

  “You win. I get it. Move the wall and see what is there before setting ourselves free. That way if something is there we don’t pose a threat and get ourselves killed. Got it.”

  Sam would have shook her head if she were able, and if it wouldn’t have made her vomit. Boys could be so obtuse sometimes. Charge in. Save the damsel in distress. Throw caution to the wind. Idiots. What would they do without her?

  * * * * *

  Will was impressed. Sam was thinking like a hero too. All those bedtime stories she had used to read him must have taught her something after all. It was a smart plan - see what they were facing, then confront it together. It was simple, and lacked the flair of a comic, this was true, but it was a good plan.

  For just a second, Will wondered if the aliens intended to bring them any food, when he realized that he needed to focus on more important matters. Watching the wall ahead of him, he listened as Jack took several deep breaths in rapid succession beside him. He did the same thing just before a track meet and had explained once that it was to oxygenate his blood. Whatever that meant. Either way, Will knew that Jack was about to do something. He hoped it was totally awesome like ripping the wall out of the floor, crumpling it up and tossing it aside.

  Without waiting more than a few seconds, he heard Jack exhale one last time, followed immediately by a strange shuddering that seemed to be focused primarily in whatever contraption held him to the wall. Then, without warning, dust began to rain down from somewhere above as the wall ahead lurched suddenly downwards by several inches. Just as quick as it began, the shuddering stopped and the wall ceased its movements. Beside Will, Jack again began taking deep breaths.

  Jumping in surprise, as much as was possible, Will’s mouth fell open as the wall began to rise once more, a sudden humming sound coming from below. Jack’s breaths ceased. The floor began to shudder and shake anew. Will knew his brother was doing silent battle against the mechanics that drove the wall. Watching intently, not that he could do anything else, Will saw the wall slow to a stop just before it reached the ceiling above and begin once more in the opposite direction.

  Down the wall came as steam and smoke began to seep up through the tiny gap between the wall and floor as screeching sounded from below. Beside Will, Jack was panting loudly, occasionally grunting in exertion as the wall slowly ground lower and lower, inch by painstaking inch. Then, without warning, the wall jolted down nearly an entire foot as a loud metallic cracking sound issued up from below. From that point on the wall moved steadily downward, revealing the room beyond an inch at a time. Will watched on, both enthralled and terrified.

  Opposite the wall, the room glowed an eerie yellow green color that seemed to fluctuate and change in intensity. As the wall fell further, the golden tops of three metallic columns were exposed, each of them with wires and tubes protruding from the tops and sprawling across the ceiling to then climb back down the walls again, only to disappear into the floor below. Down the wall they continued and just moments later, Will was astonished to realize that the columns were not as they appeared, but were great transparent, illuminated vials, filled with a strange greenish liquid. They were the source of the odd light. Inside the giant fluid-filled vials, bubbles arose from somewhere below, and as Jack continued to force the wall downward the large glass-like tubes were exposed further.

  Will stood with his eyes transfixed on the giant vials. He knew somehow that something about them was important. It was mere seconds later when the wall suddenly collapsed the rest of the way through the floor that their entire contents were revealed and if Will had been one of his favored cartoon characters, his jaw would have literally
hit the floor. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was something straight out of a comic, straight out of a movie. There, before him and his siblings, stood three alien beings contained within the giant glass vials. Each of them had tubes running into their chest, and each was unmoving, appearing like the jars of specimens Dristan Connor, a local scientist, had brought to his class to show them several species of fish he was working with.

  The aliens were odd but familiar in a way that in itself was peculiar. Like aliens had been depicted in science fiction time and again, they had long gangly legs with arthritic-looking joints. Their feet ended in three wide toes without nails, and their hands held only three fingers with an opposable thumb at each side. The head was the most familiar, though. Will had seen it similarly drawn in dozens, if not hundreds of comics and cartoons over the years. Egg-shaped, with a narrow chin and slit for a mouth, each face composed of two nose holes and a pair of huge almond shaped eyes that now were transfixed on him and his siblings. Though the beings appeared dead, they were very much alive, given proof by their eyes that all blinked simultaneously. Creepy. Very creepy.

  * * * * *

  Tammy awoke groggily, her head falling limply to the side, revealing she was lying on her back. She felt weak. Sick. Cold. Pain washed over her in waves, causing bile to rise in her throat, but she fought the urge to vomit. Opening her eyes, she was assaulted by blinding light and quickly closed them again as she was forced for a second time to choke back that which sought to escape her stomach.

  Turning her neck, she felt the cold hard surface beneath her and relaxing, her head fell again to the side, this time in the opposite direction. Through her lids the light seemed dimmer in this direction and as such she tried again to see her surroundings.

  Cautiously opening her eyes for the second time, she found the light on this side more or less bearable, and blinking several times to focus she quickly realized why. Beside her, standing perpendicular to her prone body, stood one of the alien mechanisms with its weapon focused on her. From its chest a light lanced out, moving rapidly as if to scan her for something, and then blinked out once more.

  “What is your purpose here?” the machine asked in Tammy’s native tongue.

  It took her several seconds to gather her wits, but when she did, she decided to stay quiet. How the thing knew her language was only one of the hundreds of questions swirling in her mind, but she dared not ask any of them. She dared not speak at all.

  To her right, the direction that would be up, the sounds of tiny motors and servos sprang to life as a small mechanical arm appeared from somewhere above, twisting and turning back out of her line of sight, and Tammy turned her head to follow it. Suspended from the ceiling above her, somewhere beyond the blinding light that shone from a similar location, the arm twisted into position just above her face before stopping momentarily.

  “What is your purpose here?” the robot repeated.

  Tammy refused to give it the satisfaction of an answer. The small robotic arm began to whir again and in one quick motion it darted down, its tiny finger-like appendages spreading open the wound in her shoulder before it thrust inside. Tammy opened her mouth to scream but instead she vomited. Whether it was from the pain of the machine in her wound or simply the thought of it, she couldn’t be certain. Mind-numbing pain exploded in her shoulder. It felt as if the machine inside her was tearing and pulling at the already damaged tissue, and pinpricks of light exploded before Tammy’s eyes. Then, just as it began, the tiny arm extracted itself and twisting up towards the light it vanished.

  “Your purpose?”

  Tammy ignored the robot again. The tiny arm above her sprang to life somewhere once more and within seconds it reappeared, this time with a new attachment at the end of its tiny arm. Tammy winced. It appeared to be some form of small rotary saw. Its intentions seemed clear enough. The plan was to torture the information out of her. Even so, she ignored the robot guard’s question and gritted her teeth as tightly as she was able. Down came the arm.

  Watching as the thing neared, she witnessed as the blade began to spin slowly at first then burst into what she assumed was top speed as it closed in on her flesh. With tears streaming from her eyes, she clenched her jaw as the blade bit deeply into her skin again and again, darting first one way and then the other, spraying a red mist into the air each time it touched her. Her body convulsed, but there was nothing left to vomit. After dry heaving several times she defiantly turned her eyes upon the guard.

  “Your purpose?” it demanded.

  The saw arm retracted beyond the light above and returned seconds later with yet a new attachment. How long? How long would it torture her? Until it got the answers, she presumed. Again the tiny arm began to buzz and whir and from it, dozens of tiny spider-leg like fingers protruded, moving back and forth like scissors. It began lowering towards her injured shoulder again, obviously intending to inflict yet more pain and damage.

  “Your purpose?”

  The contraption dove into the wound in her shoulder again. Tammy couldn’t help it. She screamed a long mournful scream that broke her own heart just hearing it. She couldn’t endure the pain. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

  “Stop. Please,” she whined, all strength having fled her as the machine inside her cut and tore at the wound.

  “Your purpose?”

  “Just guide. I’m just supposed to guide.”

  “Guide whom?”

  “The Star Children.”

  “The human siblings?”

  “Yes, that is the prophecy of my people.”

  The whirring inside her shoulder ceased. The arm removed itself from her wound, but the guard stood silent, as if actually pondering her words. Wracked by pain and emotion, Tammy had no concept of time, but it seemed uncomfortably long before the machine spoke again.

  “The Star Children,” it began, sounding more like a statement than a question. “Prophesied to save your race and lead them to a new prosperous home.”

  “Yes,” Tammy managed.

  “Interesting,” the robot replied.

  Interesting? Really? Tammy was angry at its response. The survival of her race wasn’t interesting. Wait. Could a robot find something interesting? She supposed it could if it were intelligent. Unless someone was simply using it as a communication device. Too much. It was all too much.

  “What do you want with me?” Tammy finally demanded.

  The robot didn’t answer, having fallen silent once again. Though she hadn’t noticed it depart, the small robotic arm from above returned with yet another menacing looking attachment which it began lowering towards her shoulder once more. It seemed to Tammy that they weren’t yet finished with her. She would not give them the enjoyment of hearing her scream again. Not this time. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the darkness of her mind instead of the pain she was about to endure.

  Chapter Seven

  The wall was down, and Jack sighed loudly. Holding his shoulders square, he peered straight into the giant glass tube in front of him and met the gaze of the alien being inside it. This was them. It had to be. These were the invaders. The true invaders. These were the ones who had enslaved countless humanoids from several planets and destroyed earth. These beings were responsible for ruining everything and killing their parents. Jack could feel his muscles straining against his restraints. He could feel his face growing hot. They were right here. He could pay them back for all the wrong they had done. All he had to do was get free.

  “Sam… Let me out,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Wait!” Will interrupted.

  Jack was impatient to be done with it. He was more than ready to bring revenge to those who had destroyed countless lives, but Will was delaying him. Why?

  Breaking his gaze from the alien directly across from him, he turned his eyes up to the being furthest to the left and watched as it swiveled towards him. From above the creature, Jack noted
as several small lights began to blink and a humming sound, similar to static on a radio, was emitted from somewhere unseen. Something was happening, and Jack knew it couldn’t be good.

  With his eyes darting about the room he noted a passageway beyond the three giant vials, and watched as a pair of the robotic guards entered through it. Was this their plan? Wait until they awoke, just to slaughter them? It didn’t quite seem like enough somehow. There had to be more. The static sound ceased.

  “Greetings,” an obviously synthetic voice sounded through the chamber. “Why do you wish to destroy our construct?” it asked.

  Jack simply sneered. He couldn’t make words form on his lips if he wanted to. He was angry. He hated the aliens. Wanted them gone. No, dead. He wanted them dead.

  “You started it!” Will shouted.

  “Yes. I suppose we did, though long, long before your life began,” the foreign sounding voice admitted.

  “Why?” Sam cried.

  Jack found himself wondering the same. Why come to their world just to deposit a bunch of aliens and destroy everything? It didn’t make sense. There had to be something they wanted. Even he wanted the answer, but even so he simply locked eyes with one of the aliens and poured all of his emotion into his gaze.

  “Long ago, when our sun began to fail, we sought other planets like our home that could support life, much as your race does now. Like you, we did not heed the warnings that our world gave us and we continued to destroy and poison it. We found dozens of planets with primitive life, but all of the inhabitable worlds we found were beyond the ability of our genetic code to cope with. Some had too much gravity for our delicate bones, others’ atmospheres were too dense for us to breathe. All could support life, but none was suitable for our continued survival.”

  “Then why are you here?” Sam questioned, interrupting the peculiar narrative.

  “Knowing that we had failed to find a suitable place to resettle, one of our scientists developed a plan to preserve our race. Here, on the planet you call home, we discovered a primitive race of bipedal vertebrates that are your ancient ancestors. They were lumbering beings, far from the intelligent race you represent now. Alone, we would never be able to survive upon your planet, but with your DNA there was hope that we could preserve ourselves.