Awaken- The beginning of the end

by P K Stadnyk

  Than he and Mary took towels, water, and some other stuff and closed the door behind him. They weren’t coming out for a long time, so I went around checking on the others. They had eaten some food and most of them had gone to sleep. There wasn’t much space, so they had to sleep on the floor. Unlike what was outside, it was warm, clean, and safe in here. We had a lot of blankets in the basement already and Mary brought some more. Tom was sleeping in there as well, at least I thought so. His blanket fell off, so I went to cover him. I felt very responsible.

  “Thanks, kid,” he said. “You did a good job of getting us here. Not many kids would be able to do that. You’re probably wondering what happened. Well, I can’t tell you much. After those things fell down, all hell broke loose. People were lost, scared, and ran in all directions. Nobody came to help us, no police or ambulance. After some time, these guys in cars came and took everybody they found or left them paralyzed like your dad. I was hiding in my house. My friends told me they had a basement as well, but they never told me where. They probably won’t tell me now… Then Mary came to my house. She checked every house in the neighborhood. Yours as well but nobody was in there. We thought you were either dead or they took you away. For a long two days we tried to find you, until you turned up. Your mom will be fine; don’t worry.” He suddenly fell asleep. I had never seen anybody fall asleep so quickly. The two days were like a week for me. Tom lived with his friends renting an apartment. A year ago, they went for a vacation but never came back. At least he didn’t have to pay the rent.

  I went to the door where my parents and Mary were, put my ear on the door and listened. I couldn’t hear much apart from some whispering; then suddenly, my mom screamed. I jumped. Joe and William had a laugh; at least they were back to normal. After some time, my dad came out, carrying something small and pink in his hands.

  “Say hi to your baby sister,” he told me. She was sleeping already and was tiny. She had very little hands, was very pink, dressed in pink too and had short brown hair. I expected her to be big and able to play with me, but it didn’t look like it would be happening soon. She was cute, and I was proud. I went to see Mom, but she was sleeping.

  “Mom wasn’t very happy that you ran away, but I told her what you did. So, she won’t be angry or shouting at you. But promise me you’ll never leave your mom and sister again.

  “I’ll try. I promise. What are we going to call her?” I asked.

  “We think it will be Sophie or Chloe. What do you think?”

  “Sophie sounds great.”

  “We decided that you should help us choose. So, Sophie it is. Now go to sleep, Son. We’ll talk more in the morning.”

  CHAPTER 5 - A PLAN

  I went to my room and found Bella already in my bed. Her leg was covered in bandages. I wondered who had done it. I fell asleep straight away. When I awakened everybody was up and eating breakfast. I never saw so many people eating breakfast together. I found my parents talking to Mary.

  “There you are,” my mom said. “Dad told me what you’ve done. I can’t believe you left me but I’m proud of you. But you’ll never do it again, little man! I was really worried about you. I don’t know how you got that idea in your head, but there are more important things now. Now come here.” She gave me a hug and kiss then petted Bella.

  Bella was with me all the time. She didn’t leave me even for one second; every step, she was next to me. I liked it actually. I felt safe.

  My dad talked to me next. “Son, we decided to stay here for some time. It may be even a couple of months. These people have nowhere to go, so they’ll stay with us. It might be hard because there’s not much space for everybody, but we need to help them. We have enough food, too. We’ll try to find out what happened but not yet. Normally, we wouldn’t speak with you about these things, but we decided that after what you’ve done, you deserve to know. We need you to help us as much as you can to look after everybody. Maybe you could start by sharing your room with your friends?”

  I felt very grown up at this moment and very proud. However, I still didn’t understand what happened up there and who those people were in the cars. How could I not think about helping my friends? I was sleeping in a warm and soft bed with a comforter while they were on the floor under thin blankets. I guess I was selfish too sometimes.

  ***

  The days were passing, Mom was getting better, and my sister was crying a lot but growing. People were recovering their health with my parents looking after them. There wasn’t much space but everybody was getting along. Joe and William were making jokes again. I once woke up one morning with my face covered in toothpaste mixed with some paint that wouldn’t come off easily, so it stayed on my face for three days, and whenever somebody saw me, they couldn’t help but smile. One other day, they put cut eraser inside my marshmallows, then they tied my legs and hands together while I was asleep, and hardly a day passed without somebody shouting their names because of their pranks. Days turned into weeks, and after two months, Mary with her husband Bob called a meeting. We all sat on the floor while she spoke.

  “I want to thank you all for your attention and support. I also want to thank John and Anna for letting us stay and for their support, and, of course, Max for his help because without this family, we probably wouldn’t have made it. It’s been couple of months since we came, and it’s obvious we can’t stay in here forever. We don’t even know why we’re hiding and from what. So, I decided with my husband that we should get a small group of people and go out there to check what’s going on. If we don’t find anything, we’ll keep going out every day or two. We also have to consider going to different cities and maybe moving there. Everything must be planned and done slowly to avoid attracting any unwanted attention to us. The first walk out should be next week. Anyway, think about it. Anybody can always come to me or Rob and decide who wants to go with us. No children this time,” she said, smiling at me.

  My dad stood up and said, “I’ll go.”

  Then Tom, Joe, William stood up and the rest of Dad’s friends.

  “I think you should stay with your family,” said Tom.

  “My family is everything for me, so I’ll go and try to get the best for them and fight for them if I have to.”

  “As you wish, but those two should stay. They haven’t grown up enough yet. It’s a serious situation, not a joke competition.” said Tom, looking at Joe and William. Bella barked in agreement.

  “It’s a wolf everybody! Run, run for your lives!” Joe and William joked, and Tom didn’t say a word more, but, this time, he laughed with the rest.

  “If this is how it looks, we could go out tomorrow,” proposed my dad. “I suggest we go at night and not for too long. One hour at first should be enough. Don’t take anything unnecessary and wear dark colors.”

  That night, we all sat together and chatted about what might have happened that mysterious day. I sat with my friends discussing possible explanations that were bit more interesting than those of the adults. We could have been invaded by aliens or some other monsters. The mysterious people in cars could be aliens disguised like us for cover and the cars could be their ships, which they transformed. Our list was endless and became more and more fanciful. I didn’t really have an explanation. I decided to listen to what the adults were thinking about it.

  “It could have been meteorites…” somebody suggested.

  “I don’t think so; I’ve seen meteorites before and they looked different,” Tom said.

  “How exactly different?”

  “Well…different.”

  “I think it’s global warming,” someone else suggested. “They warned us for many years.”

  “I think it’s the government!” shouted Cedric. He was a very old man. Nobody really knew how old he was. Some said he was in World War Two. He always blamed the government for almost everything. Nobody ever believed or listened to him, except for kids. His stories always left us wanting more and sometimes gave us a nightmare or two.

>   I didn’t understand what global warming was but I’ve heard it somewhere before. I wanted to ask my friends but when I came back, they were already sleeping. I went to my parent’s room and decided to stay with them that night. They weren’t there yet, so they couldn’t tell me to go to my room.

  “What do you think it was, Bella?” I asked, but she just looked at me and growled.

  “I agree,” I said.

  CHAPTER 6 - MY FEET!

  Next morning I was woken up by noises. I got up and put my shoes on to check what the noises were all about. As soon as I put my feet in the shoes, they were burning, and I couldn’t take the shoes off. I didn’t know what it was, but I soon stumbled upon Joe and William laughing. I was a victim of one of their practical jokes again. Their laughter didn’t last long after my mom found out what they did. Then she put a large pot with hot water on the floor and told me to put my feet in so the glue would come off. It was a little painful and annoying because everybody was excited and nervous, trying to help organize for walk out, and all I could do was sit and wait for the water to work. I wondered where they found the glue, but they could devise a prank using a piece of paper. It was probably going to take a while before my feet would be free.

  After dinner, the group met to plan how and where they were going to move. I could hear every word they were saying, since Mom had sat me in the kitchen with the pot. Then they started walking out.

  “I need you to stay here this time,” my dad instructed. “Look after Mom, your sister, and others. We’ll be back before your glue dissolves.” Dad gave me a hug and left too. I was angry about just sitting and waiting. I wondered how I could get revenge on Joe and William, but after I saw them huddling in the corner, planning some new mischief, I understood that revenge wouldn’t teach them anything. It would just motivate them to do more. I looked at the clock. It was 7:00pm. I tried to find something to do, but there wasn’t much when all I could do was sit. I looked at the watch again, 7:05. How slow was the time going! 7:10, 7:13…even slower. I was curious what they would find up there. I wanted to ask Dad if I could go with them, but with these shoes…well I wouldn’t go far.

  Finally, the glue started to dissolve. I could feel water under my feet, not just heavy soaked shoe. I was glad I had slept with socks on. Otherwise, it could have been worse, but I wondered if they thought about it.

  7:20.

  I couldn’t sit in one place. Everybody else just sat in complete silence and waited nervously. I noticed how they all had changed since the parade. They’ve just sat in the corners with friends or family with their blankets and cups of tea. Parents tried to play with children, and those who sat by themselves were far away in their thoughts. Old Cedric was drawing or writing something very determinedly. I wondered what it was, but he was covering the paper with his shoulders and head, so even if I tried to see it, I couldn’t. It was very crowded, but we all managed to find some personal space for ourselves.

  I tried to pull my shoe off, but it hurt a little, so I decided to wait another five minutes, which seemed like eternity. My sister had started to cry, so Mom was with her almost all the time. I wasn’t offended by that. Actually, it was quite nice to have Mom’s eyes off my back for a while, but I hoped it wasn’t for too long. I needed some attention too after all, right?

  I started thinking about that night. I tried to guess what might have happened but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even remember much of it. What I could remember left a weird feeling in me that I couldn’t understand or explain. I wasn’t missing anything. I had my family with me, my dog, and my best friend. Then I realized I was missing the sky. I hadn’t seen it for so long! When I was looking for my dad, I only gave it a quick look. I wondered if everybody else was feeling the same, but some of them lost family members, so they probably felt worse than me.

  That feeling didn’t go away, though, it was getting stronger. The desire to see the sky was almost dragging me outside. I felt it once before when Alvin and I were in school and found a hall that we had never seen before. We walked down it and found ourselves in a horrible place: a room with parts of animals and insects inside jars. We both started to scream and cry. It was the most horrible place I had ever seen, like the worst nightmare ever. It was… a biology classroom.

  When my feet were finally free, the time was 8:15. The glue had dissolved but they still weren’t back. I could feel the tension in the air. Then I heard a noise coming from behind the door. Everyone became quiet as we waited for what was coming. The noise got louder and then stopped for few seconds before the door opened.

  CHAPTER 7 - WEIRDNESS

  The first one to enter was my dad and then everybody else except for Tom, Mary, and her husband. They looked exactly how they left.

  “Max, take the kids and go to your room,” said my dad. I knew from his tone of voice that any protests would achieve nothing, so I called my friends and we left. It was quite boring because we didn’t have many toys and games, and when we tried to tell scary stories, Maya tried to listen. I didn’t like her much, but, this time, I felt sorry for her. She was the only girl and didn’t have anybody to play with, except my sister, but she was too little.

  After some time, they all were sleeping, except for Alvin, Oliver, and me. Oliver was in our class as well, but he never played with us. He always thought of himself as better than others and tried to play with older boys. He wore glasses, had long brown hair, was very thin, and always wore pants that were a couple of sizes too big. He knew answers to every question the teacher would ask. He lived with his mom. Nobody knew where his father was or what happened to him. Now he was sitting in a corner, pretending he wasn’t listening to us while we spoke quietly.

  “Where do you think Mary and her husband are?” I asked Alvin.

  “I don’t know, but they’re inseparable, so if one is in danger, the other is as well.” That was true. They were always together, and everybody looked up to them as an example of a lovely couple. I wondered why they took Tom with them. He was a big nuisance.

  “What happened up there? I want to know but nobody will tell us!” complained Alvin. “Maybe your dad will tell you.” Well, I didn’t think so. My achievements up there had been quickly forgotten, and I was just a normal kid with annoying questions. So we had to have a plan.

  “I have an idea, but we’ll have to be quiet,” I said. I noticed that Oliver was giving us more interesting look and wasn’t sitting in the corner any more but slowly shuffling closer to us.

  “Because nobody will tell us anything, we need to go in there and try to hear something,” I continued. Now Oliver was just staring at us and wouldn’t stop. It made me shivered a little. “Can I help you?” I asked, turning to him.

  “How?”

  “How what?”

  “How do you plan to go in there unnoticeable and hear anything?” Oliver asked. “They probably keep their voices down.”

  “Well… just like in a game. We’ll crouch in the darkness and nobody will see us.”

  “Can I go with you?”

  “Wait… what?”

  “I can help you.”

  “How can you help us?”

  “I might know what happened up there on festival.”

  He bought us with that. “So, what happened?”

  “I’ll tell you when we come back. Otherwise, we’ll miss what they’re talking about right now.

  So we quietly went out to the kitchen and crouched in the shadows of a corner. They weren’t whispering, so we had no trouble hearing them. Thankfully, nobody was looking around, and they didn’t notice us.

  “…so everything is in perfect condition? Is that what you’re saying?” someone asked.

  “Yes, everything is exactly like it was before the festival,” my dad replied.

  “How about my house?” Nancy asked. When I was looking for my dad, I noticed that only her kitchen was left standing.

  “It’s intact, just like it always was.”

  “How is that possible? How
long have we been holed up down here?

  “Are there any people up there? I mean police, workers, cars, ambulance, or is anybody looking for us?” someone demanded to know.

  People just went mad. Everybody was shouting questions and nobody listened to my dad when he tried to answer politely.

  “Everybody, quiet!” he shouted so loud that Sophie started to cry. “We don’t know what has happened or who fixed everything, but it’s weird. Like I said, Mary and Rob went to the other part of town to ask if anybody heard something or if the same thing happened to them. Tom is sitting in our garden in a cover, waiting to see who’s fixing it all and who’s behind it. We didn’t find anybody else up there. It’s absolutely quiet and empty. Now we need to wait for them to come back tomorrow. Now please be calm. We’re going out tomorrow as well at the same time.

  That was it. We missed quite a lot I guess, but, at least, we heard something. When we turned to go back my room, I found that Joe and William were behind us. When we got back, we asked Oliver to tell us what he knew.

  “Well, I tried to look on the Internet for an answer to our strange weather because it wasn’t normal to get snow in the middle of the summer. What I found was that it happened in few other places in different countries exactly on the same day as here. When I tried to find it later, the blogs were deleted and people who wrote them disappeared.” Then he stopped. He wasn’t telling us much at all.

  “Is that all?!” I asked. You browsed the Internet and read about the weather? Well, that’s not what we wanted to hear.”

  “Will you listen? How stupid can you be! How can you not understand?”

  That was it. I stood up and wanted to teach him a lesson in manners, but William held me back.

  Oliver continued. “Have you never seen the guy in the black suit and sunglasses before?”