Eden (24 page)

28

Strangely enough the next morning began the same as any other.  Like the morning after Eden and I had first made love, I expected to feel different today, but I didn’t.  Last night I had written out page after page on my computer, explaining everything that had gone on between Eden and me, everything that until then I had kept from my family.  There were still some things that I wanted to add to my account, but it would have to wait until I got home from school.

Walking downstairs, I could hear my mother puttering around in the kitchen making breakfast; a surge of emotion suddenly filled me.  I wanted to thank her for everything she had done for me during my short life; I wanted to tell her that I loved her, but then she would know that something was wrong and I couldn’t do that.  It would have to be one of the things that I added to my little story later.  I just sat at the kitchen table and silently ate my breakfast and then headed off to school.  The rest of the guys were waiting at the bus stop.

“Are you ready for tonight?” Matt asked me, but his question was directed at everyone.

“I guess so,” I answered.

“I don’t understand why we are risking our lives to save his girlfriend?” Drake accused.

“No one asked you to,” I argued.

Matt stepped between us.

“Because,” he answered, “these leeches know who we are and they know that we know what they are; do you think that they will let us live with that knowledge?  We could, in theory, expose them.”

“Yeah, like anyone would listen to us,” Drake added sarcastically.

“We are less than nothing to them,” Matt pointed out, “why would they even take that chance when it would be so easy for them to just snap our necks?”

Drake didn’t answer, I can only assume that he understood Matt’s point; as long as we lived we would be constantly looking over our shoulders waiting for the leeches to attack.  In reality, we had to choice but to end this now; on our terms.  Howie pulled up to the curb and the door hissed open.  We got on the bus and Howie looked us over, barely nodding his head in greeting.

I can’t remember anything I learned in class that day; it all went by in a blur.  The only incident I can recall is when I was at my locker during break and Staggert sauntered over, trying to start something.  It must have been obvious that I wasn’t in the mood, because he backed off suddenly.

“What’s the prob?” he asked, with actual concern in his voice.

“Nothing,” I answered.

“I haven’t seen your girl today,” he observed, “is everything ok?”

I was stunned, he sounded like he was my friend or something.

“No,” I answered him, “absolutely nothing is ok and I doubt it will ever be again.”

He seemed surprised by my answer.

“Dude, if there is anything I can do to help,” he offered, “let me know.”

“Thanks,” I told him and started towards my next class.

I could feel Staggert’s eyes boring into my back as I walked away.

After school when we were getting off the bus, Howie quietly whispered to us, “Six o’clock at Benny’s.”

We barely nodded our heads in agreement as we stepped down to the curb.  Still looking at us, Howie slid the door closed and drove off.

“Well, this is it,” I said to my friends.

“So what am I supposed to go home and hug my mommy goodbye now?” Drake said.

“Do whatever you want,” Matt answered, “just be at Benny’s by six.”

“See you guys later,” I called as I ran home.  I had a lot more writing to do.

I spent the next few hours on my computer, typing away.  I was planning on leaving my computer on and clearing my desktop of all its icons, except for this document.  I am titling it “READ ME” in all caps; sooner or later someone will think to read it.

And so, this brings me up to date.  I hope that reading this story will give everyone a better understanding of what had happened to my friends and me.  I hope that you can forgive us for what we felt we had to do.

I love you mom and dad.  Thank you for all you have done for me.

I can hear my friends calling from the street.

I have to go.

AFTERMATH

29

We made it back.

Before I go into what had happened that night; let me go back and flesh out my previous manuscript.  If anything, it will give me time to put all of the past events in order.  I could have never have foreseen what was going to happen.  I had thought that as long as I survived, everything would be alright; that the worst would have been over.

I can’t believe how wrong I had turned out to be.

Just as we had planned, Howie and Strolls were waiting in the bus when we got there.  Drake came running up just when we had thought that he had finally chickened out.

“Glad you could make it,” Matt told him.

“Bite me, fatty,” Drake hissed.  He wasn’t happy to be here, but what choice did any of us have?  “Do you have a flame thrower for all of us?” he continued ignoring the rest of us.

“We got plenty,” Strolls assured him, holding one up in his hands, “I suggest we get going right now.  The sooner we end this the sooner we can get some rest.”

“Hopefully the rest won’t be eternal,” Kyle mumbled.

We all pretended like we didn’t hear him, but those exact same words were going through each of our minds.  The ride to Sacred Heart seemed to take only a few minutes.  Howie parked the bus way before the building came into view.

“It would be better if they don’t hear the bus coming,” he explained, killing the engine.

We all muttered in agreement and each grabbed a flame thrower from the seat beneath us.

“Damn, sure you brought enough?” Drake commented.

There were at least a few dozen flame throwers on the bus.

“Enough is never enough when it comes to leeches,” Strolls answered.

“We better get a move on,” Howie said, grabbing one of the weapons.

It seemed a shame to just bring one weapon each when there were so many available, but with the heavy tank on my back and the fact that I needed two hands to hold the flame thrower, itself; taking a second one was out of the question.  It was starting to get dark, we kept off the road; somewhat hidden in the woods.  We were, after all, each carrying what I felt certain was an illegal weapon.  To sum it up, we didn’t want to be seen by the leeches or the police.

“Here’s the plan,” Strolls whispered to us, “I was checking out the blueprints to this building online last night.”

Wish we had thought of that, I spent the night penning my memoirs.  I guess that is why they are the Guardians.

“We can’t go in through the front or the sides,” he explained, “too many windows.  Fortunately, there are none on the back of the building by the dumpster.  The woods come up to almost the back, we’d have to run across a parking lot, but there is a service entrance door that we can use.”

“So here’s what we’ll do,” he continued, “The dumpster is right up against the tree line.  We’ll hunker down behind that and check out the area.  When I decide it is safe, we will move as one unit across the parking lot to the door.  Since the building has been abandoned for so long, I’m sure any lock on the door has long since disintegrated.”

“What about when we get inside?” I asked.

“Boy, I’ll consider us lucky if we make it that far,” Strolls admitted, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  No more talking, we’re getting too close.”

We crept, silently, through the woods, approaching the back of the old school.  When we reached the huge dumpster, we all relaxed a little.  It seems like no one had seen or heard us and we had certainly not seen or heard anyone else.  Strolls motioned for us to stay where we were and he slowly poked his head out from behind the dumpster.  The area behind the school was silent and deserted.  When he was satisfied that we were alone, he motioned for us to come forward.  Gripping his flame thrower, Strolls silently trotted over to the service entrance door.  The rest of us followed in a tight group, looking all around us.

That is when all hell broke loose.

Everything was going according to plan; we made our way silently across the vacant parking lot.  We got about halfway to the door when we heard movement on the roof.  The roof!  How could we have been so careless?  Looking up we could see about a dozen or so figures gazing down at us.

“Oh, crap,” Strolls hissed between his teeth, “we in a load of trouble now.”

Howie raised his flame thrower and yelled, “Get to the door, now!”

All at once we bolted for the door and the leeches on the roof seemed to vanish into thin air before the column of flame from Howie’s flame thrower could reach them.  Without even slowing down, Strolls slammed his shoulder into the door.  It swung inward on rusty hinges and we all ran inside.

We found ourselves in a huge auditorium, with the numerous huge windows lining the east and west walls, it was not the best place to make a stand.  Across the vast empty area a set of double doors led further into the school.  By the time we got our bearings, Howie came running inside behind us.  We barely had time to acknowledge his presence before the windows around us shattered and leeches began launching themselves into the room.  The area was too large to draw a bead on any of them; they were just too quick and had plenty of room to jump out of the way of our flames.  They slowly began to surround us.

We made our way to the double doors on the far side of the auditorium, Strolls taking point.  He kicked in the doors while we covered him; the leeches staying just out of the reach of our flames.  Following Strolls, we made our way out of the auditorium and into a long hallway with classrooms on either side.  We could hear the pounding of many feet on the roof of the school and sounds coming from outside the classrooms on both sides; sooner or later they would corner us and that would be the end.

Coming to a T-intersection, Strolls made a right without a moment’s hesitation.  Maybe he recalled the maps he had read last night and remembered which hallways lead where; or maybe, like us, he was just scared out of his mind.  Heading down the hallway, the right side opened into a glass-enclosed atrium; to the left where more classroom doors.  Running past the atrium, I could see a few blurred figures drop onto the patch of grass – leeches, we kept on running.  From behind us, I could hear the sound of shattering glass as they leeches entered the hallway after us.  All of a sudden our rescue mission seemed like a joke.  We were hopelessly outnumbered and even one leech would be a problem for us to handle, let alone the half-dozen or so that seemed to be chasing after us.

The hallway ended at another set of double doors, these led into a cafeteria.  Strolls burst through the door, almost colliding with a long cafeteria table.  There were chairs scattered everywhere.  We all scanned the area, deciding on where to head next.

“There are stairs leading to the basement in the kitchen,” Strolls wheezed, “Maybe we can hold them off on the stairway, leastways there won’t be no windows.”

No sooner had Strolls said this then the windows of the cafeteria exploded, admitting more leeches; we were quickly surrounded.  There was no where to go.

Suddenly, flames erupted from the windows all around the cafeteria, burning some of the leeches to cinders before they had a chance to move; the others leapt out of the way – the path to the kitchen was clear!  We dashed for the doorway not questioning our good fortune.  My last glimpse of the cafeteria was of Staggert and his gang climbing through the windows armed with Howie’s spare flame throwers!