by Jay Ford
Her smile grew large, and she nodded. “Thanks,” she said under her breath. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was glad to be with a group of people that wouldn't cause harm to her.
“What about him?” she asked, pointing at Malachi.
“I have an idea,” I told her. I walked out of the living room, slid across the wooden floor, and stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Alex!” I called up them to him.
I heard a scuffling noise, along with someone sniffling. “Yeah?” he called back down.
“Bring those down! I need your help!” I yelled back.
Sarah came walking out of my parents’ room with the sacks of supplies. “Where do I take these?”
“Just set them by the door,” I said with a hint of impatience in my voice. I was beginning to get worried that we weren't going to get out of here in time. “We need to hurry up!” I yelled, voicing my frustration.
Alex came bounding down the stairs. “In here,” I told him, as I ran into the living room. I pointed to Malachi's feet. “Grab those.”
“Where are we taking him?” Alex asked as he grabbed them.
“Mom's car,” I said as I grabbed his arms. “One, two, three, lift!” We lifted him off the ground.
“Why the car?” Alex asked as we walked to the car.
“The Grimms most likely aren't going to open the car doors or even search in here. We'll crack the windows and cover him up with something.” I nodded my head at the garage door. “Can you get that?” I asked Sarah. She ran over there and opened the door. We walked into the garage, and our noses were instantly filled with the smell of gasoline and rubber.
Rae opened my mom’s car door, and Alex and I laid him across the backseat. “Somebody cover him up with something and I'll crack the windows. Make sure he's able to breathe,” I told them as they covered him up. I ran over to the front seat and got in. I turned the keys that Mom always left in the ignition. The car started, and I cracked the windows.
I took in a deep breath. That was the last time I was going to smell my mom’s scent. It was fresh, with a hint of lavender. That was the only thing I could describe there were tons of other smell that I could only describe as Mom's.
“Charlie!” Sarah shouted. “We need to get out of here!”
I was shocked back to reality and jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind me. “Let's go.” I walked past them and started running once I was out of the garage. I poked my head out the door and saw the Grimms disappearing into my next-door neighbor’s house. We were next.
I started grabbing some of the bags, and Sarah grabbed some, too. Alex got mine and his bags, while Rae didn't grab anything.
“Follow me. I'm going to make a run for it.” I walked out the door, and once I saw the Grimms were nowhere in sight, I took off running. I didn't look behind me to see if the rest of them were following, I was only focusing on one thing: getting in the car. The car was safety. The Grimms couldn't get me there. If they tried, all I had to do was press the gas pedal, and they would be eating my dust. Or their own faces. It really just depended on which side of the tires they were.
I reached it and yanked open the door. I threw the bags I had around my arms in the seat behind me. Sarah jumped in the passenger’s seat, and Alex and Sarah jumped in back.
Before they were able to shut the doors, I started the car, and threw it into drive. I turned the steering wheel as far as I could, and spun around in a tight circle, totally tearing up the yard. Dad would've killed me if he saw. I aimed for the destroyed gates and pushed the gas pedal down as far as I could. We were still for one second, before the engine roared, and the car flew forward, pushing us into our seats. The car went through the gates, and I turned the steering wheel as far as I could to the left, and we turned sharply. Sarah and Rae hit their heads on the windows, while Alex was thrown all over the backseat. The center console of the FJ kept me from going anywhere.
As we went flying down the street, I looked in the rearview mirror, and I saw the Grimms leave the house they were in. They saw us flying off in the car and started chasing after us. It was futile, though. We were long gone.
I glanced over at Rae. She had her forehead rested on the window. “What did I just do?” she asked herself quietly.
Chapter Eighteen
We pulled out of the gas station after filling the FJ up with gas. “Where to next?” I asked them as I turned onto the road.
“We need to get some food,” Sarah said.
“Agreed.” Alex nodded his head. “I'm starving.”
Rae didn't say a thing.
I let out a deep sigh. “What is there to eat?”
“We can go to a gas station and get some chips, I guess,” Alex suggested.
“We were just at a gas station, retard,” Sarah said, turning to look at him.
He just shrugged. “I'm just throwing out suggestions here. Feel free to pitch in at any time.”
“Kids, kids,” I said in a joking tone. “Let's not fight. There's one of those dollar stores up here. We'll grab some chips, candy, and some other stuff.”
“Sounds good to me,” Alex said
A silence fell over us. Not one of those awkward silences, but the kind where we were all deep in the recesses of our minds, musing over what has happened in the past six days. I couldn't believe that it had almost been a week since the Visitors had come. Who knew that so much could change in so little time? All of my friends were gone; my normal way of living was gone; even my parents were gone. I could only think about where they, and everybody else, had gone. Were they in the Visitors’ spaceship? Were they on the Visitors’ planet? Where was the Visitors’ planet? Did the government know about them before they were even here? What's left of the government? Who's all here, and who's all gone? Again, where did they go? Were they dead? My mind continued on a trail of questions that I was asking myself. That is what happens when I started thinking. I got lost in my own mind, asking myself questions that I didn't have the answer to. I wasn't even sure I wanted the answer to some of the questions.
However, the questions concerning where they were at kept asking itself in my mind. I broke the silence. “Where do you guys think everybody went?”
“Vacation,” Alex said sarcastically. He threw his arms up in the air. “How the hell do you think we know?”
I shrugged. “I was just wondering what you guys thought about all of this.”
“I think it sucks,” Sarah said.
“I think that's a given,” I told replied.
“I think that they were abducted to do experiments or something. Maybe they were taken as slaves,” Rae said, still looking out the window.
“She speaks!” Alex shouted, lifting his hands in the air. He extended his hand towards her. “Name's Alex. What's yours?”
“Rae,” she said not moving or acknowledging Alex's outstretched hand.
“I'm Sarah, Rae,” Sarah told her, turning from the front seat to look at her.
Rae turned to her, and let out a weak smile, before returning to her previous position looking out the window.
“Anyways,” I said, trying to break up the awkwardness. “Do you guys think that they're...you know...dead?”
I saw Alex shake his head in the rearview mirror. “No way, bro. If they wanted them dead, then they would've killed everybody and not have left us here.”
“Maybe they did kill everybody and just left us behind,” I countered.
Sarah then dropped the bomb. “That's what I want to know: why did they leave us behind?”
I was surprised that I hadn't asked myself that question before. An answer floated into my head. “I remember from church when I used to go when I was little, the preacher was talking about the Rapture, and how Jesus was going to come back and take all of the Christians to heaven with him.”
“I'm familiar with what the Rapture is,” Sarah said, “but, I don't think the Bible mentioned anything about Jesus coming b
ack in a spaceship or him leaving behind crazy man-eating-zombie-like-aliens.”
Sarah shook her head, laughing. “I think this whole conversation falls under the category of 'blasphemy'.”
I glanced back at Rae. I thought I'd try and include her in the conversation. I asked her, “Why do you think they left us behind?”
She shrugged. “We'll probably never find out.”
I looked back at the empty road and sighed. She was a tough nut to crack.
“If they do ever come back, I have a lot of questions to ask them,” Alex mused.
“My thoughts exactly,” I said.
“Same here,” Sarah agreed.
Rae grunted. At least she's trying to be a part of our conversations. Still, I was getting this weird vibe that she was hiding something, some sort of secret. But who doesn't have secrets? That's what makes us human. I wonder if the Grimms have secrets, I thought, and I started off on another long trail of questions that I had no answer to.
****
I grabbed an arm full of chips. They were going to go stale soon, and I, for one, wasn't letting them go to waste.
I threw them in the basket that I had and started looking around the store. It was a small store. It only had two cash registers and a handful of aisles that held only the basic necessities. It was also devoid of Grimms, which was nice. The surrealness of it all overwhelmed me. I was driving to Washington D.C. with almost complete strangers, fighting to stay alive.
I walked over to Rae, who was looking at the candy. “So, which one's your favorite?” I asked her, trying to spark a conversation.
She took a step forward and tapped the box of Cookies & Cream Hershey's.
I was taken aback by her gesture. I mean, I knew she could talk! “Rae, what's the matter?” I asked, trying to comfort her.
She shrugged. “This is all just so weird.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “You're right about that,” I said as I let out a deep breath. We stood there for a few more moments in silence. The awkward kind this time. “Is anything else bothering you?” I asked.
She was quiet for a few moments, and I realized that a tear was rolling down her cheek. “I just can't believe...I mean, I...”
When I realized that she wasn't going to say anything else, I started talking. “Listen, I know that what we did with Malachi was a hard thing to do, but—”
She held up her hand. “That's not what I meant. I know I did the right thing when I did that. I couldn't be his punching bag forever, and I realize that now. But what I meant was...” She looked up at me and searched my eyes. She was trying to figure out whether she could trust me with the information she was about to share. I know this because I've done it before. She looked away. “Never mind.”
She didn't trust me enough. Which I kind of understood. She had just met me a couple of hours ago, and we did take her away from her boyfriend. It's not like we forced her, though. Really, I'm her knight in shining armor if you think about it. I saved her from the hurt that was being caused by Malachi.
I grabbed one of the Cookies & Cream Hershey’s bars. “Here,” I said as I handed it to her. “Dinner's on me tonight.” I smiled big and cheesy.
She chuckled and started biting her thumbnail. “Thanks.”
Alex came walking up behind us. “Hey, Charlie, in case you haven't noticed, it's dark out,” he said with a hit of sarcasm in his voice.
“Right. I guess we'll just camp out here tonight,” I said, answering his implied question.
“Cool. They've got some sleeping bags and cots here. They've also got a lot of bottled water.”
“Good. We'll need that. I'll come help you set up the cots.”
“I guess I'll help, too,” Rae said as she put one of the squares of the Hershey’s bar in her mouth.
“She talks and puts up cots?” Alex teased. “Man! You better watch out, Charlie! I think she's planning to steal your position as team captain!”
I rolled my eyes. I didn't know why everybody assumed I was the “team captain” as Alex put it. I turned to Rae. “Excuse him. He's an...well...he's a not nice person.”
Alex put his hand over his heart and exclaimed, “Charlie Freeman! That hurt!”
I punched him in the chest jokingly. I didn't hit him hard, but hard enough to get knocked back a couple steps, and lose his breath. “Okay, that really did hurt that time.”
“Wow, Alex. You're a baby!” Sarah said as she walked up behind him.
Alex stood up straight. “Uhh,” he stammered. “Trust me, that hurt Charlie's hand more than it hurt me! I barely even felt anything,” he said in a failed attempt to heal his wounded ego.
I grabbed my hand as if it hurt. “Oh, yeah, Alex! I think you made a piece of dead skin fall off!”
He gave me a look. “You wanna go, Freeman?” he said, raising his fist.
“Nah, I don't want to bruise you—and your ego—any more than I already have,” I said, winking at Sarah.
Sarah stepped in between us, raising her hands. “Ladies! Ladies! Let's not fight! Save it for the Grimms!”
All four of us started laughing at what just happened. It made me realize that these weren't “almost complete strangers”, they were my friends, my family. They're all I had—no—we were all that each other had. They made the apocalypse a lot less depressing.
Chapter Nineteen
“Everybody ready?” I asked as I buckled my seatbelt. Next to me in the passenger seat was Rae, while Sarah and Alex sat in back.
“Let's get this show on the road!” Alex shouted.
I turned the key, and the car roared to life. The clock on the car said it was ten o'clock in the morning. I let out a yawn, as I the last bit off sleep left me. “How long did you say the drive was, Alex?” I asked.
“Uhh, eight, eight-and-a-half hours?” He said.
“Yeah, but we'll probably have to take the service roads at some point, thanks to all the wrecked cars,” Sarah said.
“True. As long as we follow I-95, we'll be good.”
“I doubt it'll take eight hours, though,” I told them.
“Why's that?” Rae asked as I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.
“I sincerely doubt there's going any police officers waiting around to pull us over, so we can speed,” I explained.
“Yeah, but still be careful, Charlie,” Sarah said. “There are still a lot of wrecked cars. You never know when one could be sitting right over a hill, where you can't see.”
Seeing as how most cars were probably in the ditch, I highly doubted there were going to be any cars right in the middle of the road. “I will,” I said, just to make her happy.
I started driving down the service road and got onto I-95 once the wreckage wasn't very bad. I did have to occasionally dodge a car, but for the most part, it wasn't that bad. I knew it was going to get bad the closer we got to D.C. because of everybody that was leaving town. If only they knew that it didn't matter where they were, their fate was the same. They would disappear to God-knows-where. I may never know where they went, and my theories got crazier and more depressing as time went on. I needed to focus on the present and stop thinking on the past.
I zoned back to reality and totally came into the wrong part of a conversation that Alex and Sarah were having. “Just grab it! I don't care. I've got plenty,” Alex said.
“Really? You don't mind?” Sarah said, giggling.
“Whoa! Guys!” I shouted. “Totally came in on the wrong part of that conversation!”
It was silent for a moment, as everybody thought about what I had just said, in the context of what Alex and Sarah had just said. Once they understood, everybody busted out laughing.
“No, bro!” Alex said, as he was laughing, with his cheeks red with embarrassment. “I was talking about these chips!”
“Sure, ‘chips’.” I said, laughing.
“You’re a jerk,” Alex said under his breath, jokingly.
/> I rolled my eyes, and punched the gas. I let off once the speed-o-odometer hit eighty-five miles-per-hour. “I'm just so pumped! I wanna get to DC!”
“Should we be letting him drive?” Alex said.
We all laughed. “I get kind of crazy when I'm excited,” I said. I really was excited for the first time in what seemed like forever. We finally knew what we were going to do, and where we were going to go.
“Clearly,” Rae said sarcastically.
Alex started clapping his hands. “Baby’s first sarcastic remark. Well done, Rae! Well done.”
I rolled my eyes at him, and then I remembered that he couldn't see me.
“There's a first time for everything,” Rae said with a serious tone.
“Uh, that was a joke,” Alex said.
Rae's remark piqued my curiosity. Even though I'm sure she knew Alex's comment was a joke, she dropped a hint as to what it was she was hiding, whether she intended to or not. I was determined to find out what it was.
****
We were two hours into the drive and were making great headway. According to Alex, we were about an hour ahead of schedule, which would put us in D.C. before dark. Sarah couldn't sit still because she was so excited and anxious to be reunited with Sam.
“How come he was in D.C., and you were in Boston?” Alex asked while Sarah was telling us a story about Sam losing his first tooth. Honestly, I really couldn't care less, but I smiled and nodded my head anyways.
Sarah went from being really excited to dead quiet. “Well, my mom and dad got a divorce a few years ago,” she said quietly. “My dad had an affair—”
“Ah, well, that's not so bad!” Alex interjected.
“With four different women,” Sarah said flatly.
Alex mumbled an apology.
“Anyways,” she continued, “Sam was visiting my dad, in D.C. Normally, he lives in Boston with Mom and me. Mom is a nurse at the hospital, which is why I was there that day. I had to bring her cell phone that she forgot. Once everybody disappeared, I locked myself in the hospital room, thinking it was a nightmare, and I would wake up soon. I knew it wasn't, though. I guess I thought that somebody would come and find me, so I had to stay in one spot. Once the Grimms showed up though, it really was a nightmare.” Her voice cracked, like she was going to cry. It was strange seeing her break down like that. In the past few days I had known her, she seemed really tough. The Grimms were her weakness, though. But then again, they were everybody's.
