by P K Stadnyk
“Not really. Not everywhere. I found these on the floor of the table I was hiding under.”
“Max, why are you always getting us into trouble?” said William. “Now, definitely, they’ll be after us! You’ve got what they want!”
“You don’t have to look if you don’t want to. You can even go and give it back to them. There, take it. No? I didn’t think so. And first of all, it wasn’t my idea to go in there. Was it, William?” He was the one who came up with the idea, but since he was throwing up through my window, I let it go.
“Fine. I’m sorry. Well, open it.”
“Wait, what will I tell my parents in the morning?”
“That we came for a video games, it got late, and we stayed. I’m sure they won't mind, but just in case, don't forget to add that our parents knew about it. Then they won't ask them.”
“Right, sounds good to me. Remember, we aren’t going to tell anyone what we did or saw today. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Deal.”
“Well, let's see what's in here.” It was an ordinary brown paper file like you see at school. Inside were some documents and photos. At least the photos we could understand. They were showing some people on meeting, parties, and holiday. Nothing unusual. Some were showing some pistols, carbines, armored cars, tanks, and some showed something we had never seen before and couldn’t explain or guess what it was. UFO? There were a few with sequences of numbers, computers, and liquids in laboratories.
“Is that such a big deal? Some pictures? And they tried to kidnap us for it?” complained Joe.
“It’s probably worth more than we think. Look at the front of the file,” I said. It had something written in red on it. “We better hide it somewhere.” I put it inside the book Cedric gave me. The book was back in the bag under the bed. “That should do it. We shouldn’t go out at night. They might come and wait for the right moment.” We can go out only in the daytime and make sure someone else is on the street when you do. If you’re coming to me, call me and I’ll be waiting outside with Mom, and the same with you. Make up something so they’ll go outside with you. I need some sleep now.
Somehow, we all fell asleep and when we woke up it was late in the afternoon. Alvin was awake to. We briefed him on everything. He looked glad that he missed all the action.
The next few days passed quietly and nobody tried to kidnap us while adults were watching. The cloud was still there. I missed the sky and the sun. I hadn’t seen them for weeks.
I didn’t look into Cedric's book. If I did, I might have believed in everything he says… I was torn. He was right; there were people outside who were trying to catch us. The cloud was still hanging in the air. I was confused and angry. Our lives would never be the same no matter how hard we tried to pretend they were. And why weren’t we leaving this place?! Now, I was angry. Why did he give the book to me?! I mean people are supposed to get nice things on their birthday, not… this.
I missed the life we had before. The careless, happy, and beautiful life we all had. Sophie was cheering me up. She always smiled at my sigh and wanted to play. I felt sorry that she hadn’t seen how nice it was before.
“Every night has some light to it. Even the darkest ones,” my mom always said. I decided she had to be right and that I would wait for the light. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to come yet...
CHAPTER 18 - AN EARTHQUAKE
It was a while since our secret trip inside the plane and nothing really changed much. It was about to...
One day, I woke up with a gut feeling. I knew something would happen and most likely it would be something bad, unfortunately.
Alvin came to me in the morning, asking if I had seen his dogs or his sister's cat. I hadn’t. Then Joe and William called to ask if we had seen their pets. They had a lot of them. They had a hamster, which somehow had survived after five years of experiments; maybe he was getting tougher from them. They also had three dogs, a cat, a few parrots, and a guinea pig. Somehow, they all disappeared. The same happened to other neighbors. I went to look for Bella. She was still there, sleeping. I went to hug her; I didn’t know what I’d do if she disappeared. She just looked at me surprised and started licking my face. She had a terrible breath, but I didn’t mind.
All of my friends were so upset that I felt sorry for them and helped them all day to search for their pets. We didn’t find any of them. Even Bella didn’t find anything. We also noticed that there were no birds, spiders, or flies. Weird. There always had to be an annoying fly or mosquito keeping you awake. At night, I couldn’t fall asleep, thinking of all the strange things that were happening to us and we couldn’t do a thing about. Couldn’t or didn’t want to? Still nobody checked the plane. People were scared to, some said they heard noises at night coming from the inside. I wondered if Cedric’s book had anything about falling planes or disappearing animals. Maybe it had some answers.
When I fell asleep, I had a nightmare where we all had to move out quickly from our houses. We couldn’t get off our street for some reason as if it wouldn’t let us go. I was woken up by Bella shivering.
“What’s wrong, girl?” she whimpered only in answer. I noticed that little things on a table were shaking and starting to fall off. The shakes were getting stronger and woke up my mom. She turned the light on and Sophie started to cry. I didn’t know what it was, but the shakes were getting stronger. The entire house was moving. Could it be an earthquake? No, not in England, it couldn’t be.
“Mom? What is it? Where’s Dad? Should we go to shelter again?
“No, we’ll stay here. The shelter can’t help in an earthquake. It’s the worst place to hide, Max.”
“But Dad probably doesn’t even know it’s happening. We should go find him.”
“We have to go downstairs. You have to stay with us!”
We went downstairs but I didn’t feel good about leaving Dad alone. He didn’t hear a thing probably. I remembered how thick the walls were. I imagined him coming home and opening the door to finding that there was nothing, just a big deep hole that swallowing us. I sneaked out with Bella through the kitchen’s back door. I found the entrance to basement. Dad was using it so often that the cover got worn, making it clearly visible. We ran down the dark corridor as fast as we could. This time, we didn’t fall. The door was open. I ran in…
“Dad!” When he didn’t answer, I started to worry. I ran all over the place but he wasn’t there. Bella was searching on her own and after few seconds, I heard her barking. She was in the pantry with the metal closet that had a lot of locks on it. Well, it was open now. I wondered what we would find in there. So I went closer and, inside, I found... stairs. I went downstairs and soon came to a door. I opened it and I found myself in the greatest and coolest room I had ever been in. It was middle size and full of monitors on the walls, computers, and different devices in cool colors, mostly green, yellow, and blue. I walked around and couldn’t believe my eyes. What would my dad do in here? If that’s what doctors do, I want to be one as long as I get a room like this. I found a lot of books and notes lying all over the place.
“What are you doing here?!” my dad yelled. “Didn’t I make it clear to you?! It’s not a place for you unless there is danger!” He was really angry at me and when I thought about where to start, I noticed something behind him. A glass wall unit with guns inside. Why?! Doctors I knew didn’t have guns.
“Oh, wow, Dad. Are they real?”
“You are in serious trouble right now, so you better tell me why you’re here.”
“Right, I completely forgot. Everything started shaking, and it was getting stronger with every minute, so we went downstairs, and I went looking for you. I was worrying…
“Where are Mom and Sophie?”
“They were in the living room when I left them.”
“Do they know where you are?”
“No...”
Dad only sighed but smiled at me at the same time. I think he was glad I went looking for him. Who knows wha
t would happen if I didn’t?
“I need a few things from here, and, ehh... don’t tell Mom what you’ve seen here, please.”
“Okay. Can I help you somehow?” I wanted to get back to Mom and Sophie as soon as possible.
“Get some food from the other room. Here, take this bag.”
I went and packed the bag full of food. Soon, Dad came with two other empty bags, and I started packing them too. Then we ran to our house. The bag I was carrying was heavy, but with all the stress, I didn’t feel it. Dad had four big bags but didn’t look like it was heavy for him. When we got to the house, it was in a bad state. Everything was on the floor. Mom was packing our stuff. I went to my room and packed some clothes, Cedric's book, one teddy bear I had since I was a baby, some more books and posters, photos, Bella’s toys. It was hard to pick things up to take with me after I lived there all my life. Before I left, I looked around my room. I had a feeling it was the last time I was looking at it. It was a room where I spent the best time of my life full of happiness and fun. I sigh, scratched Bella behind the ear, and left.
When we got downstairs, Mom and Dad were finished with packing. The earthquake was stronger still. I was scared. Bella was squealing with her tail between her legs and tried to hide. We heard some screams from outside. I recognized William’s voice. We went outside. Mom took one last look around the house, sighed loudly, and left.
Outside, we found our friends running around in panic. Tom was packing things into his car; William and Joe’s parents were doing the same. Cedric was just standing in front of his house looking upset at us. He didn’t have a car. My dad shouted at him to go pack his things and he could go with us, but he didn’t move.
“Crazy old man...” said Dad, shaking his head with misunderstanding.
“We can’t leave him here!” protested Mom.
“We won't. We’ll take him with us on our way.”
“Where are you going?! Asked Tom. “What should we do?!” It didn’t seem like anybody was ready or ever thought of evacuation.
“I don’t know, my dad replied. “We have to quickly get as far away from here as possible. It’s getting worse.”
“It’s like being in the middle of horror movie, isn't? ha ha ha.” Tom always had a weird sense of humor, but that was too much.
“We will follow you and then we’ll decide what to do.”
“We’ll do the same.” Oliver with his mom was with us.
“Right. Get ready, and let’s go!”
I was in the back of the car hugging Bella. I never was so scared before. Sophie was crying loudly and Mom looked very pale. Only Dad looked calm. When all cars were ready, Mom waved everybody to go in front. Bob and Mary went first, then William and Joe's family, Alvin's, Tom, Nancy with husband and baby were just in front of us. When Dad started the engine, the ground shook so hard that when I looked through the window I could see a large crack in the ground not far from the car. Shakes were getting stronger with every minute.
“Dad...?”
“I know. Cover your eyes. You too, love.” He kissed Mom. I could see the tears coming down her cheeks when I realized I had some too; I covered my eyes and Bella's too. The next thing I felt was the car going very fast and hearing Tom shout, “Come on! You can do it!”
What did he mean? I felt the car going off the ground. It couldn’t be flying. I opened my eyes, something I shouldn’t have done and looked through the rear window. We were above a massive chasm in the ground, and I couldn’t see its bottom. It was just a dark endless void. I saw the plane and our houses falling down. I started to panic. What if we won't make it? These few seconds were for me like several long minutes. At least our friends made it.
They didn’t leave us; instead, they stopped and waited for us. It looked to me like we wouldn’t make it. The car was getting lower and we had a good few meters to the solid ground. Finally, the car hit the ground’s edge with its front wheels. The back of the car was heavier and started pulling us down. Dad was pressing on the accelerator really hard but the car was in the same place. It started to slide down very slowly. I saw my dad's determined face in a mirror. He was fighting for us and wouldn’t let go. Tom run toward our car screaming something, but I couldn’t hear him. We were sliding toward the chasm. It was terrifying... a bottomless hole full of darkness swallowing everything. I looked down for a moment and I thought for a second that I saw a light, maybe a fire down there. I blinked, and it was gone. Was that our destiny? To fall without the end? It was already dark around and I wished I had fainted instead of watching it all happening to my family.
Suddenly, I had a funny feeling of going up but it couldn’t be true. I looked outside, it was true! We were going up! Dad still was accelerating hard and couldn’t believe he was going uphill on the slope. We didn’t slide far and soon we were back on the ground. Sweet, lovely, hard, stable, concrete ground. Dad looked shocked at what happened, Mom had fainted and then I understood. Tom caught our car with a rope from his car and they pulled us out. Everybody cheered.
“Good to see you! Come on; we need to move! This thing is getting bigger and it’s taking everything that’s in its way.
“Cedric, come on! Get in!” my dad shouted.
“I’m not going. I’m too old. I lived in here most of my life. Why should I go? To live with you for a few more years? It would be a pleasure for me but trouble for you. It’s okay. Go.
“We can’t leave you! Come on! Quickly!”
“John, we need to go. It’s right behind us!” my Mom said.
“Cedric, please. Your last chance. There’s no time!”
“No, I’m staying. Bye and thanks for everything. Bye kids.”
The chasm was right behind us and we had to drive away. He stood in front of his house looking after us. I turned around and stopped watching when the chasm was closing in on him. I didn’t want to remember him falling into a merciless hole.
CHAPTER 19 - THE MOST HORRIBLE PLACE TO STAY
We had been driving for several hours at high speed. There had been no sign of chasm or cloud for a few hundred kilometers but we still kept driving. It was late at night when we stopped at a gas station.
“I’ve seen an inn not far from here,” Tom told everyone. “I guess we should stay there for a night or two and think about what to do next. Hey, don't worry about Cedric. We did all that we could. I wouldn’t be surprised if he survived! How old is he? I am sure he’s been through worse!”
“He's right, honey,” my mom told my dad. “You tried to save him, but you know him. When he set his mind on something, there was no way someone could change it. Nobody is blaming you.”
“See, John? I mean- you’re a hero after that trick with your car you did. We all thought we lost you there.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you, Tom. Right, let’s check your inn.”
“It’s just around the corner. They've got some food and it better be good! I’ve had enough stress today.”
We got to the inn without a word. It looked old and some drunk old men were standing outside. If only they knew what we had been through. Inside, the adults booked the rooms. The owner was happy. We took all five rooms they had. Tom had to share with us. He didn’t have any money.
“Cheer up, people!” said the owner. “You look like you came back from a funeral! Well, not in a mood, aye? We’ve got a little restaurant if you’re hungry. My wife cooks delicious fresh home food. Enjoy staying with us.” I wondered how he could look in a mirror and then welcome people to his place. His outfit would be good for scaring crows away. He was a partly bald, fat, weird man in old, ill-fitting, dirty clothes. The reception, if it could be called one, was his armchair and a little table under a high lamp in the corner. The door we came through was squealing as if it hadn’t seen oil for ages. They probably hadn’t painted in years too. It was hard to say what color it was: blue, brown, or maybe green?
We went to the “restaurant” he told us about. Walls were missing wallpaper, it was f
ull of cracks and it looked like the last rain had leaked down the walls. The wooden tables and chairs looked like those you would find at a campground. We found the biggest table and sat around it. The menu wasn’t very long-breakfast, dinner, supper. It said below what was supposed to be in each one of them, but they were illegible. Maybe it was better not to know the ingredients.
“I suppose we’ll take the special? I’ll go and order it,” said Bob. Nobody was behind the bar, so Bob pressed the bell. Nothing. He kept pressing the bell for few more times making them longer.
“I’m coming! I’m coming! What’s all that rush about?” That probably was the owner’s wife. She was a completely drunk weirdo with a hair looking like birds nest, eyes that couldn’t focus, and, like her husband, wearing clothes covered in different colored stains. “How can I help?” she asked, looking maybe at us.
“Eighteen dinner special,” Bob said. He was a bit annoyed. He hated going to cheap places and waiting for unprofessional staff who served him cold and burnt food. I couldn’t hear what she replied. The chewing gum in her mouth was making more noises than her voice.
“It shouldn’t be long now. I hope,” said Bob when he returned.
Nobody really looked like they wanted to talk. They were all upset and terrified, hugging the dearest ones close, far away with their thoughts. The food came after half an hour. As you can guess, it didn’t look exactly like food, but it tasted similar. It was supposed to be fish stew, but I couldn’t recognize anything of what was I eating. It tasted slightly burnt but it was better than nothing. I couldn’t get rid of feeling that somehow, looking at this day’s events, we had been very calm.
“What are we going to do now?” cried Nancy.
“What was it in the first place?” asked Oliver’s mom.
“Earthquake, I guess,” said Oliver.
“Poor old Cedric. We couldn’t do anything for him,” my mom lamented.
“Where are we going now?” Nancy repeated
