Children of the AFTER: AWAKENING

by Jeremy Laszlo

  * * * * *

  Sam froze in her tracks, certain she had heard something besides her own breathing and the rhythmic crunching of glass beneath their feet. Turning her head this way and that to look both up and down the road, she heard it again as Jack turned to look at her. He had the audacity to open his mouth, though she quickly silenced him with a look. Straining her senses, she heard it again, and turning her head she was now certain.

  Somewhere in the distance ahead, perhaps around a corner or a few blocks away, something or someone else was moving among the streets. They could all hear it now, but it was Jack who made the first move.

  Her shoulder grasped by one of his large hands, Jack led her to duck as they moved quickly to the side of the road in the shadow of a building’s ruins. All around them the sparkling blackened wasteland stood as if frozen in death, but ahead they could hear the sound growing. Waiting several moments she was able to slow her breathing and listen, as they all did, angling their heads and necks to pick up the sounds. The longer they waited the more distinct the sounds became, and Sam knew that something was moving.

  In pairs the crunches came in rapid succession, sort of like a beating heart, but it was accompanied by a growling and grinding sound that raised the hairs on the back of her neck and arms. Whatever it was, it was big. Just when she thought she had located the direction of the sound, another heart-like beat hammered through the crushed glass of a nearby road at a much faster rhythm, moving from a different direction as if to intercept the first and then, like all the sounds had begun, they went silent.

  “I think we should check it out,” Jack whispered, causing her to jump.

  “We don’t know what it is,” Sam said, fear welling up in her stomach.

  “Exactly. We need to know what is out here. We need to know what happened. You guys want to know, right?” Jack replied.

  Sam nodded in reply and noted that Will did as well. Letting Jack take the lead, she reached out and took Will’s hand as they moved slowly across the crumbling face of the building beside them. Reaching the next corner they cautiously looked out in all directions, before turning right down the narrow intersecting street in the direction of the now absent sounds. It was two blocks in the new direction before they heard another sound, though it did not have the same rhythm as the previous. Even so, they used it to again change direction, turning left, back in the original direction they had been traveling for the majority of the day.

  Painstakingly slow they crept along, and Sam silently cursed every crunch of glass beneath her feet. Moving amongst the shadows of the buildings, it was two more blocks when Jack stopped abruptly. Then, unexpectedly, a voice sounded from somewhere ahead, and looking back at her, Jack pointed to the intersection just a dozen or more yards ahead and they began to move once more, only more slowly and more carefully than before. With each step she could hear the voice more clearly, though it was faint and she couldn’t make out the words, but it was a voice. The implications were astronomical. They weren’t the only people alive anymore. And then the voice yelled.

  Still she had not understood the words it yelled, but the rhythmic thrumming of glass and asphalt sounded once more, only for a second or two and then both the yelling and the pounding stopped. Had whatever made the growl-like sound attacked the man? Shivers lanced down her spine.

  Step after tedious step they crept to the corner, and Jack peered around it cautiously before waving for each of them to join him. Peeking around the corner with her brothers, Sam saw something she had not expected at all. There, perhaps three and a half blocks further down the road to their left sat a man on horseback. He wore an odd hat and a long duster jacket like in western movies, and behind him was another horse and wagon, guided by yet another man dressed similarly. Though their words could not be heard from here, it was plain enough to see that they were talking, and seconds later they began to advance down the street towards Sam and her brothers.

  Watching their slow advance, Sam labeled each of the strange sounds they had heard before. The beating hearts were the horses’ hooves upon the ground and the growling or grinding sound was the cart’s wooden wheels cutting a trail through the glass shards upon the road. People. People and horses. Not everyone was dead.

  Watching further, the man on horseback turned a corner, steering away from her concealed location, and Sam watched as the horse-drawn cart disappeared around the corner behind him.

  “Well, that answers a lot of questions,” Jack said, sighing loudly.

  “Yeah, but raises a lot of new ones. Do you think we should approach them, maybe at least ask them what happened?”

  “Let’s go talk to them,” said Will, weighing in with his own opinion.

  “I don’t think so,” Jack objected. “Not yet. What if they did this?” he added, gesturing to the buildings around him. “We still don’t know anything. They could be dangerous.”

  “Yeah, but they could also be a lot of help if they aren’t dangerous,” Sam argued.

  “Yeah,” Will agreed.

  “Guys, I’m sorry, but Dad said to keep you safe, and that’s what I’m doing.”

  And that was the end of it, at least that’s what Sam thought before something caught her attention, or rather the lack thereof. The sound of the man on horseback and cart had stopped again.

  Lifting her gaze from Jack to the road beyond, the air caught in her chest as she locked eyes with the man on horseback just a block down the street. Without the ability to warn her brothers, her heart began hammering in her chest as the rider drove his heels to the beast’s flanks and began thundering towards them. Finally her control over the air in her lungs was restored but all she could manage was a scream, but Jack had already turned around as the rider thundered towards them.

  “Run!” Jack shouted as Sam took heed of his words and began down the road the way they had come, half dragging Will with her.

  The thundering of hooves grew louder and louder, and briefly Sam wondered how it could be that her track star brother remained behind her and Will when it occurred to her that he wasn’t with them at all. He had stopped to buy them time and in doing so, protect them.

  * * * * *

  Will raced along as fast as his little legs would carry him, pumping out a steady rhythm as his feet slipped atop the broken shards of glass beneath him. Moving as fast as he could, Sam tugged at his arm tirelessly, dragging him to speeds that were unobtainable on his own. Behind them the man on a horse thundered towards them, seemingly with malice in his heart as he gained on Will and his siblings.

  One block and then another they ran, when Sam looked back over her shoulder, not at him, but beyond, as her face contorted in fear. Will stopped, dragging Sam to a stop with him, as he spun to look back the way they had come. His eyes going wide, his heart dropped into the pit of his stomach as his airway closed. Barely jogging a block behind, Jack had all but stopped as the man upon the horse was right on top of him.

  Faster than Will could even process, the man on the horse reached down as he thundered past and grabbed ahold of Jack’s collar, dragging him along with the horse as he slowed the beast to a stop. Reaching up towards his neck, the collar choking him, Jack thrashed his legs about, pulled off his feet by the man in the saddle.

  Will felt himself hiccup. He still wasn’t breathing. It was an attack. Sam screamed, and everything went black.

  Unsure how much time had passed, though it felt like little more than a blink of an eye, Will’s sight and hearing was restored. Pulling himself up to a seated position, all was just as it had been before, except Sam was no longer holding his hand. Then he saw her.

  Will witnessed in that moment when, like a crazed animal, Sam raced back down the street the way they had run, screaming, with a length of charred pipe in her hands. Fighting to focus as the edges of his vision went black again, Will watched as Sam lunged towards the man whose bearded face was much obscured by the shadow of his hat. In defense, the man leaned away from the blow meant for his head.
Sam missed, but it didn’t matter.

  As she struck the man’s shoulder in a glancing blow, he released Jack’s sweatshirt as the pipe was driven downwards with all Sam’s weight into the neck of the harmless beast that carried the attacker. Frightened by the blow, the beast spooked and reared up on its hind legs, kicking and neighing, spilling the man from his saddle. Smashing to the ground, the man’s head bounced as shards of glass scattered around him. Like a bullet, the beast rocketed off down the narrow street, its rider still entangled in the stirrups as he was dragged away at an alarming pace through the river of shattered glass and rubble. Just a foot away from Will the beast and fallen rider passed, spraying up shards of glass in all directions in their wake, but Will had no energy to move away as his vision failed again. The last thing he saw was Jack regaining his feet with a stricken look of panic on his face, as a strange shadow seemed to detach itself from the wall and slink across the street. Then the world went black.

  Chapter Eight

  Jack didn’t know how much time they had until the man who pulled the wagon appeared to avenge his friend, but it didn’t matter. Nothing did. Except Will. Clutching his younger brother’s limp body in his hands he shook him vigorously, trying to get any sign of life out of him as tears streamed down his own face.

  “Breath, baby! C’mon, pumpkin, breathe for Sam!” Sam shouted over and over beside him as he fumbled with the cap to the inhaler.

  It was an old thing, having been stored for months in the medicine cabinet even before the day they were closed in the vault. Jack assumed it was more than a year old at this point and hoped that somehow it would still work. Laying Will’s head down upon his back he let it fall back, opening his airway, and he pressed the mouthpiece of the inhaler to his brother’s now blue lips. Forcing his mouth closed around the inhaler, he pressed down on the canister of medicine and struck Will hard in the chest with the open palm of his hand and waited. Nothing.

  On and on Sam wailed, begging the little boy to breathe but he refused to stir. Again Jack pressed down on the canister and this time he pulled Will’s face up and breathed into this mouth, pinching off his nose. He had never done CPR. Never even been taught, but he’d seen it on TV enough to have a basic idea of the concepts involved, and he employed them now as best as he could.

  Forcing another breath into Will’s lungs and then another, he paused and watched and waited. He still had a pulse but made no sign of improvement. Sam continued to scream at him. She’d reached some point beyond an emotional threshold he couldn’t afford to reach himself. Leaning down he breathed again into Will’s lungs. Watching for any sign from his little brother, his own breath stopped when Will twitched. Then, like a huge weight was lifted off the little boy’s chest, he heaved in a deep breath, coughing and sputtering as Jack pulled him up and clutched him to himself before Sam collapsed into them as well. There was no time. They needed to move.

  Rising with Will in his arms, knowing full well he couldn’t be expected to run, Jack ran for him, carrying his brother as fast as he was able to get away from possible pursuit. Sam followed behind him, but he dared not slow enough to look back. Racing back to the street their own home had been located on, he turned back in their original direction and ran. And continued to run for what felt like hours.

  Jack stopped when Will’s eyes finally began to flutter, as if they would open, and spinning he watched as Sam collapsed to the ground. Her makeup was a wreck, between her earlier crying and the sweat that now streaked down her face. She wasn’t accustomed to running like he was, and Jack imagined it was only adrenaline and fear that had kept her moving this long. But now that they had stopped, she was done. The running was over.

  Listening to her ragged panting, he retraced his steps, lowering Will to the ground to stretch his own muscles, now knotting in his back and shoulders. Sam wasn’t the only one who was through. Jack doubted he could continue carrying Will much farther. Looking and listening, he strained his senses in all directions but found no signs of pursuit. Even so, he couldn’t shake the nagging sensation that they were not safe.

  Crouching at Will’s side, Jack watched the steady rise and fall of his chest as he worked to level his own breathing. The attack had taken a lot out of his little brother, but he hoped Will would recover soon. Turning, he moved his focus to Sam and grinned slightly at the smug look on her eyeliner-streaked face. She was spent, and they both knew it.

  “I think we should keep moving,” Jack said, watching his sister’s expression turn even more grim.

  “I know. Me too,” she replied with tight lips.

  “I can’t keep running while carrying him though,” Jack said, motioning with his head.

  “Me either. No more running. At least not for a while,” Sam replied.

  “My sentiments exactly. My back is toast.”

  “I kept up with you though,” Sam grinned.

  “Yeah, I noticed. Is there a sale on leather and lace, knee high stilettos in this direction?”

  “Ha ha. Seriously, though. Do you think they’ll come after us?”

  “I dunno. He didn’t seem interested in a conversation. I don’t think it’s safe to try and talk to anyone from here on. Let’s just get to Grandma’s and then figure out what is going on.”

  “Did you notice his clothes? He looked weird, like out of an old movie or something.”

  “I hadn’t thought about it, but yeah, he seemed off.”

  Jack recalled the first time he had seen the man atop his horse upon the ash and glass covered street. He had worn boots and a leather duster, but beneath it he had drab, even shabby, clothing with a wide collared button-down shirt. The only other aspect Jack could recall were his steely eyes hidden in shadow between his wide brimmed hat and thick beard. Picturing the odd man again, a shiver crept down his spine and he quickly shook the memory from his head.

  “I don’t know who they were, what they were doing, or what they wanted, but they seemed hostile. There could be more of them. Lots more, even. I just want to get us out of the city,” Jack stated.

  “Do you think we’ll make it out tonight?” Sam asked.

  “No,” Jack replied after a minute of contemplation. “We need to find a safe place to spend the night again.”

  Jack could barely believe his own words. He had been attacked this same day in this same city. There were men out there in the city who likely were searching for them, yet he knew it was their only choice. At least their safest one. Last thing they needed to do was run into trouble in the dark. No. They would have to sleep out the approaching night and strike out again the following day in hopes of getting out of the city. It was the best and safest option they had. At least he hoped so.

  * * * * *

  Breathing heavily between their words, Sam felt much like Jack’s track bag that she had become accustomed to avoiding over the last few years. Sweaty, dirty, stinky, and worn out. Even now, after having stopped several minutes ago, sweat dripped down her face and into her eyes as her hair stuck to her head and face in wet, seemingly irremovable clumps. Smearing her hair back from her face with the palms of her hands, she dropped her pack and half crawled, half shuffled to Will’s side.

  Looking down on his still form, she found herself shaking her head as she raised her eyes to her equally concerned older brother.

  “I haven’t seen him this bad since the first days in the vault,” she stated simply.

  “Yeah, but he’ll pull through. He’s a tough lil guy.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said with a grin.

  “Speaking of tough, thanks for going all ninja warrior on horse guy back there.”

  “You’re quite welcome,” Sam grinned, “After all, I felt it was my duty to save a damsel in distress.”

  Though she fought to keep herself as quiet as was possible, her weary brain and need for a change in emotional state caused her to laugh more loudly than she thought safe at her own joke.

  “If I weren’t so tired, I just might slug you for that one, dork
,” Jack responded.

  “You might try, that is if….”

  Sam stopped speaking as movement caught her attention and Jack also turned his gaze to the ground between them. There, sprawled amongst layers of glass and dark greasy ash, Will blinked his eyes up at them as one of his small hands reached up to the side of his head. Reaching down, Sam softly wiped the hair back from his face, smoothing it as she stroked his head.

  “How are you feeling my little monster?” She asked.

  “My head hurts.”

  “Well, we can probably handle that,” Sam grinned. “Think you can walk for a while?”

  “Sure he can,” interrupted Jack, “He’s a big tough man.”

  “Yeah, I can walk. But are we going to eat soon?”

  Yup. He was OK. If Sam knew anything about Will, it was the fact that so long as he was eating, he was going to be fine. The kid was a regular garbage disposal so far as food was concerned. Especially candy.

  “Why don’t you take a Tylenol and eat some of your Skittles, and we can stop for dinner a bit later? Would that be OK?” Sam asked in her best mommy voice, watching as Jack began digging in his pack for the Tylenol.

  “Okey dokey,” Will replied, carefully rising to a seated position.

  Sam watched as he struggled to reach into his pocket, at the same time Jack produced the small bottle of medicine from the first aid kit contained in his bag. Within minutes, Will swallowed the pill she gave him after several deep drinks from a water bottle. He still had trouble with pills. When finished, however, he stuffed a fistful of candies into his mouth and climbed to his feet with a little bounce before seeking out his pack and waiting for them to rise as well. Sam could not help but grin. Though she and Jack had run for countless hours, he was a rested little ball of energy, just raring to go, while they were both weary and sore from the day’s events.