Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves

by Richard M. Heredia

  Elena glanced from her to what she figured by default was Hyun, who was an inch or so taller than Derek, athletic and in good shape.

  That has to be why Kimberly doesn’t like her, thought Elena. She was pretty and had a nice body. Boy, Kimberly’s gonna hate Sophie for sure! The girl suppressed a chuckle as she continued to walk toward her brother and the newcomers.

  Hyun was the Asian archetype, although she did not look to be of a sort like Jason. His features were smallish and delicate even for a boy, whereas Hyun’s face was broad and more flat. Her eyes were not as slanted, but still almond-shaped. She was also a bit darker than Jason’s pearl-like complexion, her skin being more golden and less translucent. Her hair was straight and long. It hung to the middle of her back, colored with a multitude of brown hues that seemed to change in the play of the light. She dressed in a down-filled jacket, ending at the waist. It was powder blue and looked expensive. She wore this over a darker blue sweater that shone in the failing sunlight, and a pair of skin-tight navy jeans. She wore a pair of black, designer hiking boots, while on her head she wore a navy blue beanie.

  Elena thought it was the perfect accessory for her outfit.

  She was already smiling at Elena and seemed, to the little girl, delighted to meet her.

  Elena liked her immediately.

  When she came to stand next to her brother, she looked from one to the other and waved a small wave. “Hi, my name is Elena Herrera. I’m one of Anthony’s sisters. How’s it going?”

  Derek had never stopped grinning and now extended a hand toward Elena, introducing himself. “Hi, Elena, my name is Derek Benson and… to tell you the truth… I am not doing so well right now.”

  Elena took his hand with a small laugh, giving it a few quick shakes up and down.

  Hyun came around the boy, her hand extended as well. “My name is Hyun Kwon,” she said with real warmth and Elena shook her hand as well. “And I’m with Derek here; things aren’t going well at all.”

  Kimberly did not come forward. She waved back at the little girl, saying, “Kimberly Madison, nice to meet you.”

  Elena just nodded her head and glanced back at Anthony to see what he was going to do next.

  Anthony glanced down at her with a large grin.

  She could see he was glad for having brought her forth. His plan had worked. She clasped her hands behind her back and sort of twisted from side to side. It was an involuntary kind of movement, conveying nervous energy.

  Her brother’s gaze returned to the three others. “So, where does that leave us? You willing to meet the only other Human Beings in this cursed place or what?” His voice was light. He was trying to exude a degree of calm for their benefit, but Elena could still see the uncertainty in their eyes.

  Derek looked from Anthony to Elena, back and forth, in quick succession, and then stopped. He appeared to make a decision, the cast of his face altering. “Yeah, man, that’ll be cool. I mean, it would be nice to finally meet someone other than these two. They can be tiresome at times,” he said, jacking a thumb at both of his companions.

  “Chew balls, Derek,” grumbled Kimberly.

  Elena flushed; surprised Kimberly would speak that way in front of her.

  Derek turned toward the Goth girl with a glare in his eye, but Hyun anticipated his reaction.

  “Ignore her, Derek,” was all she had to say.

  “Ooookaay, then,” began her brother. He cleared his throat, glossing things over as he turned to face the forest behind them. “Hey, guys come out and show yourselves, ok?

  “And,” he continued, “I mean no offense by this, but can we have only the members of the Twelve come forward first, and not the Fist for now? We’re gonna have to do this a little bit at a time. Things are still a little…,” he swung back to the three newcomers, “…iffy right now.” His grin was from ear to ear, trying to make light of the situation.

  From the concealment of the foliage, Elena heard Kodiak utter, “We will continue to wait. We will continue to guard your flanks, Kring-Hël!” Her voice was like the sound of rocks falling down a steep slope. Even at a distance, it was a deep resonance that shook Elena from the center of her body.

  The three new arrivals looked around, stunned and shaken.

  Elena had to admit; hearing Kodiak’s voice for the first time could be unnerving.

  Seeing their misgivings, Elena spoke before she realized she was doing so, her tones comforting. “Don’t worry, you guys, that’s just one of the five guardians that are helping us. They are protecting us too. So, you have nothing to worry about.”

  She had just finished when the others emerged from the sagging trees and bushes of the forest, making their way toward them. The rest of the Twelve came from both sides of the intersection in a broad, uneven arch, where Townsend met the Colorado trail.

  Despite telling them there were others about, Derek, Kimberly and Hyun appeared flabbergasted. The sight of seven other kids walking toward them had their heads swiveling from one to the next, their eyes shifting even faster.

  Feeling their discomfort, the others came forward with near-silent deliberation.

  Elena puzzled over their reaction. What did you guys expect?

  Anthony stepped to one side, so the three newcomers could get a better view of his companions. “Ok all, here next to me is Hyun Kwon, Derek Benson and Kimberly Madison.”

  There were nods and small waves around as Elena’s brother forged on, pointing as he went around the group.

  “So, going from left to right, the big guy over there is Joaquin Barrientos, and next to him is his best friend Jason Fong. The little guy next to them is Louis Willigan. The tall, skinny dude with his hand on Louis shoulder is my friend Andrew Ibarra - we kinda grew up together.”

  All three of them frowned in unison at the blankets Andrew had covering his torso, but put it from their minds for the time being.

  Anthony continued. “Finally,” he began, “the two pretty girls over here are my baby sister, Mikalah Herrera, and my girlfriend, Sophie Reed. And that's the last of us… Well, not counting the Fist, of course,” he added as a quick afterthought.

  There were a few raised eyebrows amongst the original group. The specifics of Anthony’s introduction of Sophie had been a small surprise. Or maybe, it had been an unexpected, but suspected, clarification.

  Yet, the girl had not balked. Her presentation as the “girlfriend” did not seem to faze her in the least. In truth, she seemed pleased. She did not seem to mind the dual smirks passing between Anthony’s sisters. Sophie ignored them and smiled at the three before her, waving her hand back and forth as she often did when she was tense.

  Elena glanced at Kimberly, wondering about her reaction to Sophie. Either she hid it well or did not care, because Elena did not see any outward change on her face.

  That was not the case though, when it came to Derek.

  When she glanced at him, Elena saw the exact opposite.

  He froze, eyes wide, like a deer in the headlights of a car, unable to move or even blink, maybe even breathe.

  Elena giggled, drawing another quick glance from Mikalah.

  Still, Derek stood there.

  Then her sister noticed the dumbstruck boy, moon-calving over Sophie. She smiled, crooked, shaking her head.

  “So, where you guys coming from?” asked Jason. Without warning, he had taken Andrew’s place as the “have-to-know-guy”. Or maybe he was just trying to break the awkward silence.

  Derek seemed to snap out of his thoughts as if rebooted or something like that. He stared at Jason, seeing him for the first time. “What?”

  Elena and Mikalah both laughed at him.

  Sophie’s brow tightened.

  Anthony shook his head from side-to-side.

  “Just curious, that’s all. You know, wondering where you guys came from. I’m assuming you’ve been here as long as we have, right? So that means you’ve been here for what… three and a half, almost four days.”

  Elen
a could not grasp where he was going with this, the extent of it eluded her.

  “Where have you been hiding from all this nasty weather?” asked Jason, pointing up at the advancing clouds, stressing his point.

  Derek turned peevish. “Ah, sorry man, I just didn’t catch the question, that’s -,” but there was an interruption.

  “We were hanging out at the mall having a love fest this whole time,” interrupted Kimberly with more than a little sarcasm. She sounded indignant.

  What’s up with you, Little Miss Crotchety?

  There were a few startled chuckles and a near-silent “what?” from a few mouths.

  Only Joaquin did not have an immediate reaction.

  Elena watched him as he stewed in his own thoughts for a second or two, and then: “The mall is here?”

  Hyun glanced over at him. “Yeah, it’s here or at least it was there when we left it this morning. Why?” There was deepening interest written on her face.

  “You guys all knew each other? I mean, before the Rending?” wondered Andrew, stepping around Louis and a bit closer to the three newcomers.

  The changing of the subject irritated Elena, because she felt Joaquin had been on the cusp of something important.

  Hyun and Derek exchanged a quick glance. Then they looked away. The boy’s head was downcast as he stared at his feet.

  Elena saw her brother and few others frown.

  “Was that a tough question?” Andrew implored, echoing everyone else’s sentiments.

  “No,” replied Hyun, her body stiff of a sudden, her tone timid. “Derek and I know each other from the gymnastics team at school. He’s on the Boy’s Junior High squad and I am on the Girls’ Varsity squad. Because we get out late and all, we kinda walk home together. You know safety in numbers. Right, Derek?” she asked the boy, throwing out a lifeline that did not seem necessary at that point.

  Elena’s frown deepened.

  Derek did not answer outright, but added an emphatic nod.

  Hyun’s eyes drifted toward Kimberly.

  Elena could see the reluctance grown upon her face.

  “Kim and I go way back, but that… Well, that was a long time ago. We don’t –, we aren’t -.”

  “We’re not tight anymore,” rasped Kimberly, leaning on her back foot, crossing her arms under her breasts.

  What the hell is going on…? thought Elena as she looked over all three of them - one after the other.

  “Yeah,” Hyun agreed with a shrug.

  Elena could tell there was still much more left unsaid, but neither girl, nor Derek, made a move to speak.

  All Derek did was continue to look at the ground, pushing at the snow with tip of one of his boots.

  “Were you guys all at the mall the night of the Rending?” questioned Anthony. Either he was completely ignoring the tension around them or too deep in thought to notice. He crossed his own arms, his brows knitting - a thoughtful stance.

  Hyun glanced from Anthony to Joaquin. “You guys have said that word ‘Rending’ twice already. I’m confused, because I have no idea what are you talking about. I don’t understand what that means,” she said, confused, but happy over the change in the topic of conversation. Her expression belied only curiosity.

  Something’s going on here, concluded Elena.

  “I can only describe it to you in relation to time,” replied Anthony. “That way it’s easier to understand.”

  Hyun nodded, intrigued to the core.

  “The Rending is what happened the night of our abduction from our world. The same night we came onto this one. What we are experiencing now is The Melding, which is the merging of some of our plane of existence with that of another. Only the merger is out of balance. That's the reason for the bad storms. That's also why some of the bushes, trees and animals we recognize from earth, while others look so strange. And they should. They're from Storm."

  The quiet was complete.

  “So in those terms,” he seemed to get stuck. “No, that’s not right. What I mean is, were you all at the mall together the night all the weird shit happened and you woke-up here?” rehashed Anthony as slow and measured as he could so the girl and the others would understand.

  “Oh, ok, I didn’t know there were names for things now…” Again, Kimberly Madison soaked her tone in derision.

  Why is trying so hard to be mean?

  “You have no idea, girl. In this place names are everywhere and they're all screwed up,” piped-in Andrew with a sardonic chortle.

  Kimberly turned her stare in his direction. It was not kind at all.

  Everyone else shared uneasy looks, shuffling their feet.

  “To answer your question, the answer is no. We didn’t all go together to the mall the night of the Rending, as you put it,” began Hyun placing her hands on her hips. “I was Christmas shopping and was in one of the small clothing stores when it all started. I woke-up still in the shop when it was over. Everything looked the same, but there were no people. I searched for a while before I ran into Kimberly.” She glanced at Derek.

  He nodded. “I was in the arcade waiting for my mom to finish whatever she was doing at Target. Like Hyun said, I came-to on the stinky-ass, arcade floor, laying in someone else’s chewed-up bubble gum.” He grimaced at the memory. “I went into Target to look for my mom, but I couldn’t find her. I looked all over that place. Finally, I just sat down at the second floor entrance not sure what to do when I heard people talking and went to go investigate. That was when I found the two of them.” His voice pinched off into silence. He did not look at Kimberly.

  She sucked her cheek in disgust, a heavy sigh upon the heels of the gesture. “I was walking with a friend down one of the concourses on the upper floor of the mall. We were just walking along minding our own business...,” Kimberly got a few nods of comprehension. Then, for the first time, her face softened.

  Elena felt she was gazing upon the real Kimberly and not the bitch she was trying so hard to portray.

  Kimberly brought a hand to her head and scratched in an offhanded manner. “…And then the lights got all strange and I felt sick. There was this sound or vibration, or whatever. My eyes got real watery and when I wiped at them, Shawn just sort of evaporated. I thought he might have run out on me, because of the way I was feeling, but then it happened again. I almost lost it. You know chunks and all. I remember I was sort of bent over on one knee when it came the third time. I can only remember everything being like I was in tunnel. Only it kept getting smaller and smaller, until everything was black.”

  “Dang! Well, at least you made it to the third gong and you still didn’t blow your cheese. That’s better than I did,” decreed Louis, his cheeks reddening when everyone turned to stare at him. “Well, it is!”

  Surprised, Elena turned to see Kimberly smile at Louis as if she was thankful for his comment. A small weight seemed to lift from her shoulders. Her hardened carriage melted to something wan, less intimidating. She turned when Joaquin spoke up again, the moment shattered.

  “But, like you guys said, when you left earlier today, the mall was still there, right?”

  “Dude, why do you have such a hard-on for the mall?” asked an incredulous Jason. He stared at his friend, annoyed, because he kept asking the same question over and over.

  Derek and Andrew laughed at the same time, though most of the females frowned at the remark.

  “Because, you dumb shit, there’s a Target at the mall,” retorted Joaquin. He raised his eyebrows as he leaned toward his friend with an exasperated look on his face.

  “So, who gives a –?”

  “On my god, Joaquin, your right!” exclaimed Anthony as Joaquin’s point struck home.

  Many of the others peered at one another in confusion.

  “Don’t you guys remember?” he pleaded with his sisters.

  Then it hit Elena like a ton of bricks. “That’s where Dad buys almost all our camping stuff! He goes there or to Wal-Mart, but nowhere else. It's because of the price
s,” revealed the little girl, her face flushing with excitement.

  At first, there was nothing but a thunderstruck silence. Then each of the original eight companions realized one after another the import of Elena’s words.

  Then from Anthony: “You see why I keep my little sister around? I mean even though she’s so ugly and all, she’s still freakin’ indispensable?” He looked her way with sparkling eyes. “They always say the horse-faced girls are the smartest!”

  Now I am going to bitch slap you, Tony! she thought as she looked over at Mikalah and saw her sister staring back with eyes that gleamed and a small grin.

  But, the others were not paying any attention to the byplay between the three siblings.

  “Holy crap, that’s right!” exclaimed Jason. “Why didn’t I get it before? Man, I’m sorry, bro. I wasn’t thinking,” added Jason, striking out at Joaquin’s shoulder.

  The other boy dodged it with ease, remaining quiet for the time being.

  “Why is that so important?” asked Hyun, hands still on her hips, but with interest.

  “Do you have a change of clothes?” was Andrew simple inquiry.

  “No.”

  “Yeah, neither do we, but there’s so much more at Target than just camping equipment, right? There are clothes there. There are backpacks, underwear, toothbrushes, mouth wash and deodorant. There's butt wipes, tampons and a whole bunch of other shit,” spelled out Andrew with an ever-growing smile.

  Some of the others let out outraged gasps at his comments.

  “It would be like finding fucking buried treasure or something!”

  “Andrew!” bellowed Anthony, incensed.

  “What?!?”

  “Language, dude! Jee-zuz, chill out!” chided her brother.

  “Oh,” was all Andrew said. His gaze darted from her to Mikalah, his face sheepish.

  “Shoot, man, we were so dead-set on finding our houses, we didn’t even think about taking some of that stuff. It might've helped big-time. Some of the survival gear we were already using. Dammit!” admitted Derek, full of regret, shaking his head from side to side.

  “Don’t bang yourself over the head, dude. Your eagerness to find our homes led you to us, which is pretty much saving all our butts. I know none of us are complaining. Besides, we were sort of looking for you guys in the first place,” explained Anthony. His grinned widened, glancing about for support.