Children of the After: The Complete Series Read online

  “OK, Sam. I’m gonna untie the wire and pull this shelf back a little. You hold the other one up when I lean it back, and ill poke my head outside and see what’s what.”

  “You got it,” she said rising to join him.

  Watching as Will shuffled out of their way, Jack carefully untied the wire binding the two shelves together, shifting the first one back several inches as he strained to prevent it from making noise as he returned it to a vertical position. Sam, seeing his intentions, grabbed hold of the opposite end and helped him, both of them being more careful to remain silent than ever before in their lives. Once the first shelf was removed, Jack leaned the second one back precariously, allowing Sam to take the weight of the shelving unit and turned back to the door.

  Grasping the stainless handle, he slowly and carefully pulled it upwards, feeling the pull of its inner spring mechanism tighten until it came to a stop. Wrapping his other hand around the base of the metal to muffle any sound it might make, he pulled up on the handle once more as he felt, more than heard, the final click that signaled its release, and cautiously he pressed his shoulder into the door feeling as the air seal broke and the door inched open with a metallic groan. Again he froze, as did both of his siblings.

  With his ear to the small opening in the doorway, he strained his senses, hearing nothing more than a low breeze singing through the wreckage and ruins of the city, like a mourner of the dead. Reassured, he pressed again against the steel of the door and as it opened wider he leaned out carefully, looking out into the morning, searching every shadow. Here and there things like torn canopies of buildings or shredded insulation still clinging to the ruined framing of walls fluttered in the hollow breeze, causing his eyes to dart one way and then another, but no sign of danger showed itself. The view seeming clear, Jack pushed the door the rest of the way open and motioned for Will to join him.

  Darting out of the cooler like a caged animal offered freedom, Will vanished around the corner, the sounds of his movement coming to an abrupt stop as he sighed loudly from out of Jack’s sight, obviously relieved of the pressure threatening within him. Smiling at Will’s audible relief, Jack turned back to Sam.

  “Let’s get him fed and get out of here. I don’t want to stay in the city.”

  She didn’t even reply, choosing instead to acknowledge his words by spinning on her heel to begin rummaging through their packs. If Samantha had become Mom, Jack supposed that he had become their dad, taking on the role of leading their family. Watching as Will reappeared from around the corner, he knew he would do his best to play his role no matter how much he didn’t want it.

  Reentering their shelter, he sat with his siblings as Sam handed both him and Will a pack of Twinkies and a bottle of soda. It wasn’t much. Certainly not a meal. But for now it would have to do. Eating quickly, he waited patiently as the others followed suit and helped them pack up their meager belongings before striking out once more into the city.

  * * * * *

  After having to listen to Will pee against the side of their shelter for like five minutes straight, Sam couldn’t help but wonder how such a small child could possibly hold so much fluid. Though the severity of their circumstances was not lost on her conscious thoughts for even a moment, she couldn’t help but ponder the oddity of what they faced. Yeah, it was gone. Everything was gone. But besides family and friends and those they loved, what was really lost? Commodities? Pleasures? Convenience? Sure she had indulged in her share of modern conveniences and technology, but every advancement they had before the event was really just to replace something that had already existed on a more personal level. Television and newspapers had replaced town meetings and gossip. Phones had made it so you didn’t have to face a person to say things that you wouldn’t have said, had phones not existed. Social media removed real connections and friendships and replaced them with ratings, whining rants, and new ways to bully people. What was odd, was that before the event she had hated the way the world was. She had despised the fakeness of it all. Yet now, here in this world, she found herself missing the simplicities of numb mindlessness and uncaring that had come with the old world. Easy was gone.

  Plunging her half emptied bottle of root beer down the throat of her backpack, she rose to her feet, pausing a moment to allow the effects of her sore muscles to settle before she stretched her legs, rising to her toes, before reaching down to snatch up her pack and shoulder it. With a nod to Jack she watched as he stepped free of their metal walls once more, and reaching down she took Will’s hand. Swift and silent was the order of the day.

  “OK, Will. We have to move fast and be quiet.”

  “Like ninjas?” he asked with wide hopeful eyes.

  “Exactly like ninjas,” Sam said with mock sincerity before smiling in response to his happy nod.

  At least that was easy. Weaving back through the collapsed building and all of its grills and deep fryers, they rounded the counter and dodged the tables to step back through the remains of the front wall of the building and into the parking lot beyond. Here Jack clung to the walls, preferring them to the open streets, and looking about, Sam noted the source of the sound that had alarmed them all earlier in the morning. There had not been a presence out here. Instead, the pole holding up the traffic lights at the intersection had bent over, the lights and wires crashing to the ground sending the glass that littered everything scattering beneath it. The same shards of glass that moved beneath their feet with every swift step.

  For hours Sam moved on in a mindless trance, following and mimicking Jack’s every move as they crept from one devastated building to the next, as strip malls turned into small tightly packed homes in what was once a poor region of the city. Now there was little left but concrete and brick foundations littered with charred bits of broken memories and smeared streaks of blackness. The whole community had been wiped from the earth as if washing it away to start over, removing its filth and depravity to replace it with something new or better. Perhaps that was just her missing the way the old world worked, but Sam could not help but feel that this was not an end. Tragic, yes, but it could not be all. Could it? There had to be more. There had to be some good from all this loss. She hoped against hope they would find a new and better beginning somewhere beyond the city. There had to be something. Working to refocus her train of thought, she looked down upon Will who still crept upon his toes like a ninja, even hours into the morning. He deserved a new beginning.

  Eventually as the day progressed, Sam’s mood lightened, mostly due to watching her little ninja move like a cartoon cat across their obliterated world. At some point they had crossed the threshold of homes that had once been owned by the impoverished into apartment buildings and warehouses, as signs for the interstate began showing up here or there where they had not been completely destroyed or charred beyond recognition. Though she paid scant attention to any of the signs in the past, they gave her hope now. They proved that the edge of the city was nearing, and she no longer felt safe in the city. Just seeing the signs seemed to take a weight off of her chest. She couldn’t wait to get out of this place. It felt like a cemetery.

  * * * * *

  Creeping upon his toes, carefully selecting places where he could avoid the glass below, Will moved ahead. Slinking here, and springing across the cement ground there, he moved like the wind and no one could catch him. No way, not ever. Jerking his head from side to side, he sought out those who scoured the city for them, but locating no enemies, he returned his super vision to the ground beneath him. It was a fun game, but would have been more fun if Jack and Sam played along.

  Instead, Jack moved up ahead with his shoulders slumped like he had just lost a track meet, and Sam sighed or giggled from time to time behind him, her mind undoubtedly on boys or some other such nonsense, as Mom would say. If Dad were here, he’d play along. Dad was an awesome ninja and could probably destroy all the bad guys. But Dad was probably out saving Mom, so he would just have to be a ninja all by himself.

>   Sometime long after his belly started growling, they passed under a big concrete bridge and Will pretended to pass through the enemy’s tunnel, darting from one dark shadow to another to evade detection from enemy sentries. Once out of the tunnel they turned left and climbed a twisty ramp up to the road above and Will realized that he was just about to the top of the enemy mountain fortress. Victory was his!

  Rounding the last bend he skirted the charred carcass of a four door sedan, following closely on Jack’s heels, impatient to reach the highest point. Pouncing atop a fallen sign, he countered for its rocking surface and kept his balance as it tipped under his weight. Bounding back off the sign, Will landed nimbly between any major shards of glass, and began moving once more in a crouch. Whipping his arms about, he pretended to slay the last of his samurai enemies as a grin spread across his face.

  Running to the edge of the bridge where the concrete had been smashed away by a car during the event, he thrust both of his arms up to the sky, carefully celebrating his victory. Bouncing up and down on his toes like a boxer, Will turned all around as Sam smiled her biggest smile at him. But her smile did not last.

  Even though he had done his best to celebrate in silence, had he done something wrong? As Sam’s smile faded she raised her hand to her mouth and he could see her fingers shaking. But she wasn’t mad. Turning his attention to Jack he could see that his older brother had gone momentarily rigid too. Something else was wrong.

  Turning away from the frightened faces of both Jack and Sam, Will looked in the same direction as they were, and his breathing caught in his chest. There, on the street below, raced a man in a long coat upon a horse in the distance. Though he was miles away, it was obvious that they had been spotted as the horse and rider charged directly towards them.

  Chapter Ten

  With a lump in his throat, Jack’s stomach twisted within him. It was the same man on the horse. Even from this distance he knew it, and the man had seen them. There was only one thing they could do. Turning, Jack grabbed Will’s wrist as Sam’s panic-stricken face resolved and she turned to follow his lead, as she took Will’s free hand. Together they turned east upon the interstate and began running. Even from so far away, the rider would be able to see which way they were going. He could move five times faster on the horse than they could on foot. He would catch them in an hour, give or take. Jack was counting on it.

  Weaving in between fallen signs and destroyed cars, Will led his siblings as fast as he could, guiding them on, looking over his left shoulder again and again to mark the rider’s progress. Down the far slope of the overpass they ran, scattering dust and glass as they went. When they reached the divided lanes of the interstate only a hundred yards further he led them into the grass of the median, before dragging them to a halt between the two opposing lanes of traffic.

  “Now you listen and listen good,” Jack said, the sternness in his own voice sounding in his ears the same as his father had that last day. “Follow the grass back towards the overpass. Stay off the glass and ash on the road. Go under the overpass, but be careful he doesn’t see you. You’ll have to be fast and hide up near the top, where the bridge crosses over. Hide and I’ll come back.”

  “You can’t just leave us,” Sam pleaded, tears already beginning from her eyes. “Not like Dad.”

  “I’m not, just trust me, there is no time. Now go!” Jack shouted, shoving Sam and Will away from himself as he turned and began sprinting away.

  Measuring his every breath he stretched out his strides, feeling the air pass over his face and through his hair. Running was freedom. Here in this moment, he could get away from anything. In the past he had used it to get away from Mom and Dad’s nagging about his grades or preparing for college. He had even used it to get over his grandfather’s passing, but he couldn’t use it now. Couldn’t enjoy it. Leaving Sam and Will behind felt like a betrayal, even if he knew it was the only way. Glancing back, just once, he saw their fleeing backs. They had done as he had told them.

  Stretching each stride to the last inch he pushed his sore muscles and veered off course, listening to his boots upon the pavement before moving back into the grass. Ahead, maybe two miles, was a rise and then sight ahead was lost. Two miles. Twelve minutes, maybe more if he was slower now than he had been months ago. He had to keep up pace.

  Again he swerved onto the concrete, leaving tracks in the ash on its surface. They were probably useless, but if the rider had companions who were following, they would follow the tracks. At least that’s what Jack hoped. One mile down.

  On and on he ran, feeling his pulse level out at its normal running pace and he matched his breathing to the perfect clock of his heart. With every beat he took a stride, and with every stride he watched the ground sweep beneath his feet. Minutes slowed as the world seemed to stretch out to infinity in front of him but on Jack raced, refusing to give up. Another half a mile down.

  Faster and faster he pushed himself, feeling his lungs tightening from the strain as his body threatened him with cramps, but there was no time to slow, he just knew he had to keep going. Leaning forward he pumped his legs harder and harder, driving them down into the soft grassy ground and he plunged onward, topping the rise that was his goal. Digging his heels into the soil, he slid to an abrupt stop and turned to witness exactly what he had bet their lives against.

  * * * * *

  She couldn’t believe he was doing this. Not now. Not like Dad had done. Could he be serious? But then she realized that this wasn’t like Dad. He wasn’t stuffing them in a box saying stay inside as long as you can. No. He said hide and I’ll be back. I’ll be back. That was different. Blinking the tears from her eyes, Sam gritted her teeth and pushed away her pain and hurt and grabbed Will’s hand, as Jack turned and did what he was born to do. Away from them, as fast as his legs would carry him, Jack sprinted as if trying to outrun death himself. And perhaps he was.

  Turning, Sam looked into the eyes of her little brother knowing it was not fair to him to say what she had to, but knew that it might be their only chance.

  “Hurry, Will. We have to do what Jack said and let the rider chase Jack, or else he might get us.”

  “But, Jack…”

  “No buts, little man. Let’s go!”

  Jerking her little brother nearly off his feet she tried to mimic her older brother and run, but Will’s little legs couldn’t keep pace. Like Jack had warned, they followed the grass, moving as fast as they could, back in the direction they had come. Already she could hear the rhythmic falls of the horse’s shod feet upon the asphalt of the city streets and with every sound it grew louder. They weren’t going to make it.

  Turning, she spared a look back over her shoulder to see Jack already an incredible distance away. He was so fast. On and on the sounds of the horse came as Sam began to think that they would reach the overpass in time. But her hope was suddenly torn away from her as her hand yanked back driving her to the ground.

  Rolling upon the grass, she spun to look upon Will who had gotten his leg entangled in the tall grass and tripped, pulling her with him. It wasn’t Will’s fault, but his fall had ruined their chances of making it to the underpass and Sam knew it. On and on the horse came, its hoof falls now echoing out from the very underpass they were supposed to hide in.

  Dragging Will back to his feet, Sam pulled him through the grass, her heart pounding in her ears as a scream threatened to spring from her lips. They couldn’t go to the underpass. She knew that without a doubt, and then it struck her.

  All about her, on both sides of the median, charred vehicles sat abandoned and destroyed as if the event had happened sometime around rush hour. Though far from whole and even further from ideal, they provided for her and Will a place to hide, allowing Jack to carry out his plan of leading the rider away. Ahead the hoof beats began to slow.

  Turning abruptly, Sam pulled her younger brother with her as she neared the pavement. Again her arm tugged. As she looked back to her little brother, he swung his h
ead wildly from side to side, reminding her of Jack’s warning. Stay off the road. Good call. Turning again she pulled him another dozen feet nearer to the underpass, dropping to the ground and pointing under a large SUV.

  Watching as Will vanished under the hulking piece of charred metal, Sam dropped her pack and kicked it under before dropping to her belly and pulling her body beneath it too. It was slow going, and with all the rubber melted from the tires the clearance was barely enough to permit her.

  Cursing her bubble butt, as Mom had called it on more than one shopping trip, she nudged Will farther beneath the metallic mammoth and together they hid in silence. She hoped for all of them that Jack’s plan worked. She could not and would not tell Will that Jack was gone too. She couldn’t break his heart like that. Not again.

  * * * * *

  Will slid over, crushing the thick grass beneath him as he struggled for a more comfortable spot and vantage to see the road beyond. He could hear the horse approaching and the sound sent shivers down his spine, causing his leg to jerk, accidentally kicking his sister. Fortunately, she didn’t yell at him. She didn’t even look in his direction. Instead, they both watched on towards the underpass, staring intently across their narrow field of view as the horse’s steps slowed to a crawl somewhere just out of sight. Will wondered what the man was doing out there on his horse. Why was he chasing them? What did he want? He knew people could be mean. Mrs. Dervish, his first grade teacher had been mean, but she’d never tried to hurt him. This was different.

  Flattening down the grass in front of his face, Will dug his toes down into the ground and pushed himself forward for a better view. Apparently Sam had another idea, and grabbing the back of his pants she pulled him back under the truck again. Still the horse moved slow, but Will realized that it was now moving in a different direction. Not only that, but it was getting close. Really close.