by P K Stadnyk
“Oh…right…” Tom looked a little embarrassed. “I knew you did.”
“There are your menus. Let me know when you’re ready.”
The menu was rich in choices and I easily found something for myself: pizza! After a few minutes, she came back to take our order and I noticed that my friends had the same taste as I did, except for Oliver, who chose some dish with a weird name that was simply steak with mashed potatoes and salad. I wouldn’t choose it over the pizza. The food was delicious and all the plates were left empty. The dessert was even better with choices of different homemade ice creams and cakes. Tom didn’t say much and blushed every time the waitress was somewhere near.
Besides us, the restaurant hosted an old couple with their teenage grandchildren, a newlywed couple who didn’t eat much. They just looked at each other, held hands, and whispered sweet words. It was a nice heart-warming sight. I remembered that my parents were like that a long time ago. What happened to them? I knew they loved each other but maybe less? Was love temporary? What is love anyway?
“I’m full and can’t eat any more,” said Tom. “Anybody want my cake? Nobody?”
“We can send it to you room, sir,” said the waitress.
“Oh, no, that’s not necessary. Let’s go and get back to our business. We shouldn’t leave it for too long.” Tom winked at my dad.
“Yes, Tom. Let’s go and look at a map.”
“I suggest we go to Weymouth,” Tom said. “I heard it’s a nice place and not as deserted as Somerfield was, which makes it safer already. We could go and check how it is, and if we all like it, we’ll stay. If not, we’ll look for something else. If any of you like it, though, you can stay. I guess we won’t stay together forever, right? When we get there, I suggest not telling anyone anything personal, especially where we’re coming from and the reason for moving. That way, you should stay out of trouble and prevent people from thinking you’re crazy. I’ll try to find houses for rent. Anyone has any business to take care off before we leave?” Everybody shook their head.
“I’ve got something, and I need you to go with me,” he told my dad, winking at him. What did he tell him before? I couldn’t remember. It got lost somewhere in the back of my head. Think, think, think! Of course! They’re going back to our street!
“Okay. Does anybody have any questions?” asked Dad.
“Why is nobody trying to help us?” quietly asked Nancy.
“Because they’re…ah…” Mom gave Dad an angry look. “They just need a couple more days. When do you want to leave this place?
“As soon as we can,” said Mary.
“I want to go as far as possible,” said Nancy.
“Well, is the day after tomorrow good?” asked Dad.
“Why wait? I say we should go tomorrow,” said Joe and William’s father.
“Right. Goodnight everybody. Tom, I’ll be downstairs in 20 minutes.”
I had to go with them! How could I get out unnoticed? Mom might notice, but how do I get in the back of the car without anybody seeing me? I didn’t have a plan or time to think of one. I had to improvise.
“Mom, I’m going to bed. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, honey,” she replied with a tired voice, and I went to bed.
“Bella, I need you to stay here, okay? Please, stay this time. I’ll be back shortly.” She looked at me with sadness and accusation in her eyes. I covered her with a quilt to make it look like I was lying under it.
Everybody was gone, Dad was in the toilet, Mom was already asleep, and my way out was free. I could only hope the stairs and hallway were empty too. I opened the door quietly and looked around. It looked clear. Just when I was going down the stairs and passing the last of our rooms, Joe’s mom came out in her pajamas.
“Max, where are you going?” she asked sleepily.
“Bathroom” came out of my mouth before I even thought of it. She didn’t realize what I said. Our rooms had bathrooms.
“Goodnight,” she replied and went back to her room. Maybe she was sleepwalking?”
I ran quickly outside. It was dark. I noticed Tom was already in the car. Maybe he would let me in and I could hide in the back. He owed me one anyway. That was the only thing I could do. Dad would come out shortly, and there was no way to open the back door without getting his attention. I had to try. I went to the car, open the door quietly, hid behind the seat, and closed the door. He didn’t say a word for a while.
“Did your father let you come?”
“As long as he doesn’t see or hear me.”
“That means no. Your father’s not going to like it, Max. If he finds you, I didn’t have anything to do with it, okay? Now, hide. He’s coming… Hey, John. Ready to go, explore, look for answers, treasures, and evidence? It’s just like a Sherlock Holmes mystery. You can be Sherlock and I’ll be Watson.
“I’m not surprised you’re single. When will you grow up?”
“Me? Such a handsome guy? I’m just too busy.”
“Yeah, right. Who were you talking to?”
“Nobody.”
“I saw you talking.”
“The waitress.”
“Well, where is she?” My dad looked around surprised.
“I was rehearsing talking to her.”
“Oh, I see. Do you want to try with me? I can pretend to be her if it helps.”
“No, that’s a bad idea. Seriously, John. Wow! What do you need this for?!” he asked when my dad was putting something in the glove compartment.
“It’s just for security. You can never be too secure.” Something was telling me it was one of the guns he had in the basement. However, my imagination, as always, was very colorful and I soon forgot about it.
He started the engine and we were off. Thankfully, he didn’t look at the floor of the back seat. I was hidden but it didn’t make me look invisible. We had been driving for good three hours before I started to recognize any familiar buildings. I had to fight with myself not to fall asleep. We were close to where our school should be, but it was gone. Every single building, tree, and road was gone. The only thing that somehow survived was the church. It looked so deserted on a little island surrounded by the abyss. There was no way of getting to it. The cemetery, however, was gone.
Before we even got close enough to see anything, the area long before our street was all closed off with the police tape. I think they evacuated our entire little city. They didn’t rely on the police tape to keep people out, of course. The place was strongly secured with lots of military personnel with guns dressed from heads to toes in battle gear as if anybody would be silly enough to attack them. Who did they expect? Entire streets were full of different road signs: “No way through,” “No trespassing,” “Danger,” “Military Area,” “Turn around immediately.’ I also noticed there were far too many cameras. There was one every 50 meters.
We had been driving around as close as possible, trying to see anything. There was nothing to see really, just a massive hole in the ground. With every pass, we were catching more and more attention. Soldiers, who at first didn’t take any notice of us, now turned their heads, following our car. I couldn’t see their faces through their tinted visors. I noticed some people running in the background around the edges of what was left. They were all dressed in long white coats. Some were making notes, some were carrying equipment, and others just ran in all directions. Who were those people? My dad stopped by one of the soldiers, pulled the window down, and asked, “Excuse me, sir. Do you know what happened here?”
“Move! And follow these signs to get out!”
“But…”
“MOVE!” He listened and drove away. Not far from this angry man was another who waved to us to come over. Dad pulled the window down, this time a little less than before.
“You shouldn’t be here. Don’t ask questions. We have the right to shoot. See that guy over there? Well, you’re lucky you didn’t ask him. He just wants to shoot something. This morning, he was shooting at pigeons. Anyway,
why do you keep driving around? Are these signs too complicated?
“We just want to know what happened here, and we’ll drive away.”
He looked to the sides nervously to see if anybody noticed him talking to us. He looked just like a kid who was checking if his mom noticed he was talking to strangers. One of the soldiers on his right just shook his head at him and looked other way. He probably got used to his friend’s talkativeness.
“This is a strictly closed military area. They’re telling people from the outside it always was, as if they’d believe it. We don’t get told much either, but we’re not stupid. We know that something bad happened here recently. Otherwise, they wouldn’t call us. We don’t usually work in places like this. Yesterday, an old man came here and didn’t want to leave. We warned him lots of times, but he wouldn’t listen. He wanted answers. Our bosses were here. They ordered us to shoot him. We didn’t have a choice. Otherwise, they would have shot us if we didn’t do it. Normally, we don’t shoot at civilians. It’s not right. They can’t protect themselves. They’re just scared. Some of us understand. People above us think they taught us not to feel, not to have a heart; they think were just killing machines.” He went far in his thoughts.
“Thank you. Do you know what happened to this place or to the people who lived here?”
“Poor bastards. Nobody made it. Kids, old people, whole families, they all died. Most of them didn’t have any relatives to inform. Some had family in London, but I heard they disappeared and nobody knows where to find them.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I heard from a friend who works on the other side that they found some bodies. However, he’s well known for making up stories, so who knows whether it’s another lie. Listen, I told you too much already. You got your answers; now go!”
“We will. Thank you.”
“I think you deserve to know. I regret the moment when I chose my career. I can’t change it now, so I try to help others. I might die tomorrow, shot by the boss. Hate the bastards. I have feelings too, I’d like you to know. Now, go. I want to live at least until this weekend. It’s my wife’s birthday. I planned it all if I’m not going to be stuck here.”
“Thank you. You helped us a lot. Thank you.”
“Okay, have a good day, sirs, and bye kid.”
“WHAT?! Max! How did you?! You are grounded.”
I waved to this poor soldier, and I’m almost sure he smiled at me.
“So, we’re officially dead?” asked Tom.
“Looks like it,” said my dad.
“Just like that? Where did they get the bodies from? I still have mine.” Tom started touching himself like he would worry they took it away.
“There is a lot going on in there, and since we’re dead, we can’t do anything about it,” said my dad. Then, turning his attention back to me, he said, “Max! You’re…!” He laughed. “I can’t find the words. You didn’t do anything wrong, really. You just sneaked out of the room and hid in the car, but still, you need to keep your mouth shut to your friends, Mom, and even me! I don’t want to regret taking you here. And you are grounded.
“Grounded in the house he doesn’t have. That’s just unprofessional,” said Tom, laughing.
“Do you want to be grounded too? I bet you knew he was here.”
“No.”
“You don’t lie very well.”
“I had nothing to do with it!”
“Yes, you did. Is this the waitress you were talking to? Anyway, it’s strange I never asked you this. Do you have any family?”
“Well, no.” His face turned sad and he turned away to the window.
“What about your parents? You always joked that they told you to move out because they couldn’t take any more of your jokes, and they wanted you to grow up.”
“Yeah, well… everybody wants to have a good past and funny stories from it. If they don’t, they make them up and after telling them so many times, they start to believe it. That’s what happened to me. I believed in mine so much that I forgot they weren’t real.”
“I’m sorry, Tom. What happened to them?”
“We had a big fight about my life. I wasn’t serious and didn’t think about the future. My parents were rich and wanted me to be a successful man like my dad. Well, I didn’t want it. I always said there are more important things in life than just money and a job. I moved out and they disowned me. I spoke to my mom once or twice afterwards; she tried to fix things up but my dad was too hardhearted. After a few years, they died in a house fire. What about you?” He quickly got back to normal.
“No, not really.”
“Is that it? No story?”
“No.”
That’s right. Why had I never thought about it? I didn’t hear or see my relatives. Grandma, grandpa, cousins, uncles, and aunties were my neighbors. Weird. We drove back to the hotel in silence. Tom got out of the car first and went slowly inside. It was getting light already. I hoped I could get some good sleep. I didn’t get much the night before. I kept listening for things crawling under the bed.
“Max, go to bed. I hope your mom didn’t notice you were gone. Otherwise, she’ll think it was my idea to take you with me. And remember to be quiet and don’t say a word about what you saw tonight to anybody. Don’t even think about it.”
I went to bed. I could hardly find any space for myself. Bella was totally dominating it. Nevertheless, the bed was so warm and comfortable that I fell asleep immediately.
CHAPTER 21 - A NEW HOME
The next day when I woke up, the room was empty. Everybody must have had breakfast, I thought.
When I got downstairs, I found them having lunch. How long did I sleep?
“Hi, sleepyhead. Did you have a good sleep?” my mom asked.
“I surely did,” said Tom. “They’ve got really comfortable beds. It was better than the sofa. Those springs were getting in my back.”
“We ordered you pizza,” said Mom. After lunch, we’re leaving, so you better eat it all. It might be a while before our next stop.
When we finished eating, we got packed quickly and started to leave. They extended the checkout time for us so we wouldn’t have to rush, and they even gave us some souvenir towels with the name of the hotel on it.
We had been driving for a very long time, and I got bored from watching views behind the window. My sister didn’t want to stop giggling though. She looked at me and laughed most of the way. When she finally fell asleep, I could finally think but it didn’t last long before I was so far away…
When I opened my eyes, we were at the seaside. It was late at night, but it looked beautiful. We were staying at a hotel for one more night before find a house. It looked pretty much the same as the previous hotel, except that it was bigger and the people weren’t that friendly.
The next day, we went to see a house. It wasn’t far from the seaside, just a road away. It was nice inside and the furniture was modern, but I didn’t like it. I was missing our real home, which I could never see again. Too bad… When my parents asked if I liked it, I said yes. I knew it was hard for them too, so I didn’t want to make it even harder. The next day, we moved in. It had three floors. The kitchen was downstairs with a living room and a toilet. My parent’s room, my room, and a bathroom were on the second floor. On the third floor was an empty room, and Tom asked if he could rent it, since he couldn’t afford renting an entire house for himself. We agreed. He never gave us any trouble and seemed to never worry about anything. He hardly ever had any savings or plans, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
We lived in there for a good couple of months. I didn’t go to school again. Mom bought me books to homeschool me. I kind of liked it and had lots of breaks.
The others found houses not far from us. One thing I enjoyed was the sea. It was nice to play outside near the water. Bella seemed to like it too. Dad tried to call the policeman who wrote the report with us, but he no longer worked there anymore and nobody could give him any information. Soon, h
e stopped calling them.
CHAPTER 22 - MEET A WHALE
Summer came and it got really warm. After a few weeks, my friends wouldn’t get out of the sea. They spent most of their days in there. They didn’t play football anymore or any sport or game on dry land. Even Bella had enough of sitting on the beach and happily splashed in the water. I had an issue about murky water where I couldn’t see my feet or anything lurking below. Bathtubs and swimming pools were safe enough.
“Max, why don’t you go in the water and play? Look at your friends,” my mom urged every day. “Nothing bad is going to happened. It’s just water.” She wanted to give me a swimming ring. I didn’t take it. Oliver looked stupid enough in it, especially when he didn’t swim. He just stood in the water slightly above his knees.
After a week, I was convinced to try. Everybody looked okay, so I figured there was nothing in there. The water was warmer than I expected and refreshing too. I played water polo with my friends and we also played “shark,” a game in which one person swims underwater, trying to catch another. Oliver was usually the shark’s victim because he didn’t swim; therefore, he was easy to catch. I had a great time and when I was just about over my phobia, something touched my leg. I couldn’t see what it was. It’s probably nothing, I thought but then it did it again. I was just about to get out of the water when a massive tail surfaced and smashed back spraying lots of water around. This tail was at least four times bigger than I was. It did it again, but this time closer, covering me with a big wave as it pushed further into the sea. I panicked and got desperate to get out of the water but when I tried, it hit again. When I was struggling to get out, I found a kid, younger than me, standing there paralyzed and shocked. I shook him and when that didn’t work, I gave him a slap. I didn’t have a choice. This thing could kill us both just with its tail. That got his attention; he touched his now red cheek, started crying, and ran away from me. I don’t remember ever getting paralyzed with fear. Somehow, my survival instinct was always stronger.
