Children of the After: The Complete Series: A Young Adult Postapocalyptic Action and Adventure series (21 page)

An odd sound arose from up ahead, and growing in intensity it caused Will’s head to begin throbbing again, as it had earlier in the day. Suddenly, people were springing from open doorways to either side of the hall and rushing towards the exit ahead. The sound grew louder and louder and Will recognized it as a siren. An alarm. Looking at the people rushing all around them, he noted that they carried weapons just like the ones he and his sibling carried.

The commotion continued and Will found himself and those with him being pushed and shoved out from the door they had entered earlier, only to move aside and let those that were doing the pushing pass.

“What’s going on, Sam?” Will asked.

“I think they’re being attacked,” she answered hesitantly.

“You mean,
we’re
being attacked.” Will’s mouth hung open.

“I guess so, baby. Don’t worry, I’m sure they know what to do.”

Even Will knew it was an empty reassurance. All he had to do was look around to see that. Even so, he didn’t panic. He had already seen plenty of places to hide.

“You guys stay right here,” Tom shouted over the rising din of yells and alarms. “We’ll be back when it’s over. C’mon, Cole!”

Off both Tom and Cole ran, abandoning Will and those with him to the night as the fleeing bodies from the building vanished into the darkness ahead. Within minutes fires sprang to life out in the distance, illuminating the backdrop of the resistance’s defensive wall and combatants. Even from here Will could see the fires burning in the cleared fields surrounding the small airstrip. Behind and atop the makeshift wall the inhabitants of the small colony gathered as shadows began to dance in the distance, giving proof of bodies passing between the fires and those who had lit them.

Seeing the movement, Will recalled when nights prior they had been forced to flee before the ape-like creatures that had chased them for days. He couldn’t help but wonder if, even though they had found hundreds of the monsters dead, these were more of the same, still following their trail somehow.

Breaking his concentration a scream erupted to the right, and Will’s eyes darted in that direction, only to be quickly drawn away by another frightened yell. Out of the fire-lit backdrop several silhouettes sprang up into the air, their wings making a strange buzzing sound as they fell upon the defenders. Will hadn’t been able to see much, but he’d seen plenty enough. These weren’t monkeys. They were something different. As tall as Jack, the things were shaped similarly to people, except they had wings and resembled a kind of ant or beetle, like a praying mantis.

Within seconds the air was filled with grunts of exertion and screams of fear and pain as Will witnessed a small child carried off into the night by a pair of the creatures. They were not safe. Nowhere was safe.

* * * * *

Tammy watched the creatures come. She’d seen them before. She knew they would only attack for a few minutes and carry off as many people as they could with as few losses as possible. They would attack like this every day until there was no one left. They took only as many as they could eat in a day, and returned over and over until the food was exhausted. She had lost her own family to these things. She wasn’t about to lose her new friends to them too.

Grabbing both Sam and Jack’s hands, she led them back towards the building as a buzzing sound settled in behind them. Another of the insect-like creatures settled to the ground between them and the converted hanger, forcing her to change direction. They were blocked. Her plan was thwarted already. With nowhere else to go, she led her new friends off to the left and found another route of escape.

Behind them a strange scraping sound followed, the sounds of the creature’s pointed legs skittering across the concrete. She wished she could scream, but she couldn’t. She wished she could explain and warn her friends as they ran, but that too was out of reach. She knew the thing wanted Will, who desperately clung to Sam’s other hand, but had no way to tell her friends. These things always took the weakest ones first. The young, the old, the frail and slow. If they could stay out of its reach long enough it would simply leave when the rest did, but there was no telling how long that would be.

Guiding them between the two massive parallel hangers, Tammy pumped her legs, feeling her heart begin to beat in her chest. She wished she could run faster, but with the shoes she was forced to wear, her stride was off, and the blisters were too painful to simply ignore.

Passing between the two buildings the scene became dark, the firelight from beyond blocked by the towering steel buildings to either side. Even so, their path was paved and straight and on they ran. Turning to look back in hopes of judging their lead on the giant insect, Tammy’s hopes were dashed as she collided with something in the darkness, her friends slamming into her from behind as they all fell in a heap. There, between the buildings, was a chain link fence that stretched from one hanger to the other, no less than eight feet tall. Atop the fence gleamed the sharp points of razor wire. They were trapped.

With her face burning from the impact, Tammy tried to disentangle herself from the writhing bodies beneath her when Will screamed out. With an all too familiar buzzing, the creature that had chased them into the alley began dragging Will out of the pile of twisted limbs as he clung to anything he could grasp. Kicking and screaming, Will was pulled out and up into the arms of the creature as it turned in preparation for leaping up into the air.

Without time to get the chain free from her own body, Tammy scrambled to her feet atop both Jack and Sam and leapt towards the creature, reaching out as she plummeted towards the ground. Her fingers scraping something solid, she grasped at it, catching the end of one of the creature’s pointed legs. As she dragged the monster back down to the earth with her, it struggled with both its legs and its wings to dislodge itself from her grasp, stomping and kicking at her as a screech emitted from its mandible-like mouth.

Tammy clung to the beast with all her might, holding on for dear life to its hair-covered stump of a bone-like leg. Then with a kick to her face from its other leg, her grip slipped, and the creature was free. Crouching low again, it lunged upwards with a loud clang as it crumpled to the ground, the still kicking and screaming form of Will entangled in its arms. Looking up, Tammy could see the form of Jack standing with his pipe in his hands against the backdrop of the stars.

Reaching down, Jack pulled Will from the twitching creature’s embrace as Will’s screams were silenced by a hiccup.

Jack knew that there was no getting around it this time. Will was done. He had fought the creature and was free, but he was still under attack from his own body. He wasn’t safe. Kneeling down, he propped Will against his leg as both Sam and Tammy gathered around him. Will’s eyes darted this way and that as he reached up to grasp his throat, the lack of air making him panic further.

“Calm down, baby. Just breathe,” Sam was urging.

Jack had seen Will’s terrified face. He knew kind and sweet words wouldn’t be enough this time. Digging through his pack he located the inhaler and popped off the cap. Pressing it to his little brother’s lips, he watched as Will fought through the fear and nodded. Jack pressed down on the canister. Nothing happened.

Pressing the small can inside the inhaler over and over, Jack found to his dismay that it was empty. There was no medicine left. Or was there?

Dropping the useless device, he snatched Will off the ground and climbed to his feet. Without thought he crushed the inhaler beneath him as he turned and fled as fast as he could run. Dimly he noted the sounds of both Tammy’s and Sam’s footsteps behind, but they began to fade fast. Jack was a runner. He had been built to run and had practiced for years, winning state and regional championship trophies time and again.

Sprinting for all he was worth, Jack burst forth from between the hangers and turned left towards the doorway they had entered earlier. Paying no mind to the still raging pandemonium around them, he darted through the door and into the dimly lit hallway. Clinging the small body of his brother to his chest, he plunged through the door into the large medical room to be met by the surprised and panicked stare of the nurse turned doctor.

“Asthma attack!” Jack shouted, laying the now unconscious form of Will on one of the cots.

While he watched as the woman fumbled with two small vials, she rushed to Will’s side and drew each clear liquid into the same syringe, one after the other, before plunging it into Will’s thigh. Pulling the needle free, she tossed it down on a small stainless steel tray before beginning mouth to mouth on Will. To Jack the whole thing was surreal, as if moving in slow motion. He wanted her to hurry, but dared not rush her lest she make a mistake. Even now, he couldn’t recall the run from the alley to the room where he stood, yet his heart pounded and calves tensed.

Looking to his little brother, he shook his head as the nurse tried again and again to force air into the small boy’s lungs through lips already turning blue. This couldn’t be happening. Not again, and certainly not now. Jack couldn’t lose Will. He just couldn’t. He had promised their dad to look after him and keep him safe, and he was doing the best he could. The nurse slowed in her attempts, she was tiring. Giving up.

Through the door came Sam and Tammy but Jack couldn’t look at them. Couldn’t bear their eyes upon him. He didn’t want to see his own pain on either of their faces. Didn’t want them to see he was a failure. The nurse backed away from Will, only for a moment, catching her own breath. Will’s face had gone gray.

“Noooo!” Jack shouted, turning his angry glare upon the woman who was supposed to save Will. “You don’t give up. Keep going!”

The young woman didn’t hesitate, taking his order to heart she again sealed her mouth around Will’s. More moments passed and Jack’s vision swam, his head feeling too heavy as the world seemed to suddenly jump to full speed again. Jack knew it was over. Something inside him broke as tears streamed from his eyes and sobs erupted from somewhere deep in his chest. He had lost him. He had failed Will and Sam and their father. He hadn’t done enough to keep Will safe. Jack fell to his knees.

Looking up with pleading eyes, he dimly witnessed as again the nurse sat back, raising the back of her hand to her forehead as Tammy shoved her aside, stepping in to breathe for Will.

Tammy gave Will a long and slow breath, pressing her fingers to his neck before beginning to press down hard in the center of his chest with the palm of her hands over and over again. Another breath, and again she shoved his ribs down hard. A strange popping sound came from Will’s chest and Jack felt bile rise up in his throat. Was she breaking his ribs? Crushing them?

Another breath. Will coughed a shallow cough and Tammy pressed her ear to his mouth, smiling wide as her eyes lit up. Feeling his neck again with her fingertips, she nodded, her wide smile growing even wider. Jack collapsed to the floor, all energy having been sapped from him. He sobbed loudly, not even trying to fight the emotion that sought to break free of him.

* * * * *

Like lead had been poured into Sam’s legs, she watched on helplessly as Tammy turned and smiled, signaling that Will would be OK.  She watched as Jack collapsed before her, hitting the concrete floor so hard his entire body was jarred by it. Though never in her life could she recall having seen Jack cry, not really, not even in those first weeks in the vault, today she witnessed as his soul was laid bare before her. With tears streaming down his cheeks unchecked, he cried loudly, his shoulders bouncing with his sobs. In that moment Sam realized something she had never really seen before.

Jack was strong. He had borne the weight of their safety, of their lives, on his shoulders for months without a single complaint. He had taken their father’s final words and wrapped them about himself like armor in order to bear the burden of their little family’s survival. He had led them out of security into the unknown and been threatened with them at every turn and still he brought them back from the brink time and again. How he must feel that the world was stacked against him. And even though they had each other, she knew that he must feel alone in this burden.

Ripping her leaden legs free from their apparent moorings, she strode to her brother’s side and fell beside him, wrapping her arms about his head and neck. He was crying because for a moment, just a moment, he believed he had failed and that failure had threatened to consume him. He was crying not because he had been weak, but because he had been too strong to realize that failure was an option. He was crying because he loved them, even if he barely said it, and Sam understood it all too well.

Looking up as Tammy collected Will from the table, she reached up and gathered both of them into her arms as well, and together all four shared several moments. Eventually calming themselves, they all hugged each other tightly in a thick mass of tangled limbs and helped each other to rise.

As they met the doctor’s eyes, it was apparent that she felt for them, even though she didn’t know their story, and for that Sam felt bad for judging her. And just when Sam thought that all the drama was over, yells and shouts began from down the hall.

She didn’t know if the creatures had made it inside the walls of the building or what was going on, but Sam realized that the sirens had stopped. Unable to do anything else, Sam pulled her tire iron from her belt loop and raised it over her shoulder, noting that those with her did likewise. Even Will, though weak and obviously confused, pulled his weapon out and held it at the ready. Whatever it was, they weren’t going down without a fight.

The screams of pain and yells continued growing louder, but Sam still could not see their source. Without warning, Grant appeared at the doorway with an injured boy’s arm over his shoulder. As he helped the teenager into the room, it was apparent that the kid’s leg was broken, the appendage dragging at an odd angle. The resistance’s leader himself had a wide gash above his eye where blood oozed down his face.

Sam lowered her weapon and helped Jack as they took the burden of the injured teen from Grant, and helped him to one of the cots. Turning, as Grant sat himself atop another cot, a procession of injured children and teens began flowing into the room. The battle was over, and by the looks of it they had taken some serious injuries. Sam couldn’t help but wonder if the world had been like this for months, and if so, how many had they lost? She was beginning to see something different here. No wonder they needed to keep the doctor in good health. Perhaps she had judged them prematurely. Sam was ashamed of herself.

* * * * *

Will’s chest hurt, like way worse than ever before. His lungs and throat burned as if singed by fire, and a weird bitter taste filled his mouth as if he had fallen asleep with sour gum in there somewhere. Sour gum. Now that was something he hadn’t thought about in a while. It was way better than thinking about what he had just been through. Again, for like the third time in a week, he had let them down. He had to do better. He had to control his attacks. He had stopped one before, but this time he had been caught by surprise and afraid. Still it was no excuse. They had been worried over him again and fussing over him. With so much wrong in the world, Will didn’t want to be another problem. Dad was strong and Jack was strong and Will could be strong too, he just needed to try harder.

Though he felt like he had been stomped on by an elephant, he moved out of the way with his siblings and Tammy as injured kids, both big and small, began to filter into the room. There were a lot of them, like twenty or more. Where were all the adults? Why were there so few? Something about this place was weird. Will found it strange that every time they found an answer he had so many more questions. He was about to voice his discovery when the scary leader of the resistance cut him short.

“You kids alright?” Grant asked, looking in their direction, appearing to meet all of their eyes like one of those creepy paintings at the museum.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Jack answered him.

“Good. Tom, you out there?” Grant asked, looking towards the door where Tom suddenly appeared as if out of thin air.

“Yes’ir.”

“Take the new kids to see Darvski…”

“But he’s crazy,” Tom interrupted.

“That’s enough, Tom. Just take them there. He’ll be able to answer their questions while I get this cut patched up and get sick bay organized and get a casualty count.”

“You got it,” Tom replied, turning as he rolled his eyes, expecting them to follow.

Answered questions. That sounded even better than sour gum.

Following Tom down the hall and out of the building, they turned and walked to the entrance of the other hangar, stopping at the doorway.

“Darvski mighta be sayin’ some of his craziness, but don’t ya’ll be buyin' it. I’ll stick around, just outside ‘ere and you can com’in git me if’e gits too nutty. K?”

Try as he might, even as exhausted as he was, Will couldn’t help but giggle just a little. Tom sure talked funny. With a smattering of nods they each walked past Tom and into the hangar, where Will expected to see the same as they had in the other. That was certainly not the case, however, and entering he looked around the large vaulted room with cables strewn haphazardly about the floor, running from one machine to another. The lights here were brighter than the other hangar and various equipment had flashing red, yellow, and green LEDs and some of them beeped in various tones. Wall to wall the equipment stood without a sign of another person in the room’s great expanse. Across from them a closed doorway could be seen, and even now Jack led them towards it, cautiously stepping over the wires and cables that crisscrossed everywhere.

Will followed, holding both Sam and Tammy’s hands as they crossed the room. The nearer they got to the other side they began hearing sounds from the room beyond. The sounds grew louder and more distinct and Will hoped that whatever it was that the scientist was doing in there was something cool. Coming to the door they stopped a moment as Jack knocked, and waited longer still as he knocked louder after several moments’ delay. Will doubted anyone on the other side could hear with all the commotion coming from in there, and apparently Jack felt the same. Without permission, Will watched Jack reach for the knob of the door and, twisting it, he shoved the door open as they all reeled from the loud noise and smell from beyond. Stepping through the door, Will was both disgusted and amazed as his senses reeled and bile rose into his throat.

* * * * *

Tammy should have known. All the clues were there. The boy called Cole had said they were doing tests, but this… this was something else altogether. Like the previous room, this one was as wide as the hangar and from here she couldn’t see the other side, her view was obscured by a scene of horrific nightmares. Before her and her companions, was row after row of large cages with the different species of invaders in various states of health. Some were obviously injured and crying out in pain. Others were pulling at the bars, screaming and hooting, while others moved about, seemingly blindly smashing bodily into the bars of their prisons. The room was pandemonium and reeked of feces, urine, and decay.

Tammy couldn’t believe that anyone could treat
any
creatures like this. Enemies or not, it was cruel and torturous. She felt sick to her stomach and tears welled up in her eyes and she would have screamed, but she couldn’t. No. Instead she had to remind herself not to judge the actions of other people, for it was not her duty to do so. Here the world was torn and afraid and everyone fought for the same thing. Survival. As twisted and wrong as it might be, they were looking for the answers that everyone sought. Justifying it didn’t make it right, but Tammy couldn’t think of one thing that was right. Not anymore.

Even though it pained and disgusted her, she forced herself to look among the cages and see what, if anything, she could learn. In the first row were the ape-like creatures she had grown accustomed to seeing over the last month, and in the next row was a more hominid version that stood more upright. Though mostly covered in thick fur, these ones watched with intelligent eyes, many of them standing and gripping the bars of their cages in silence while others of their kind hooted and grunted. She had seen these ones before as well, and paid them little attention.