by T A Williams
After The Event
BY
T.A. Williams
To Mrs. Thompson
For making what a young boy thought was impossible, possible.
To My Mother
For showing me the joy in visiting new worlds. Here is one of our own.
The Event
Alec
The power went out.
Alec had been knocking on sandman’s door when his world was plunged into darkness. He felt his youngest sister, Alya, asleep on the couch next to him with her head in his lap, while his brothers Ben and Joseph were in their rooms asleep. Slowly he attempted to move without waking Alya and probably would have been successful if it wasn’t for the ear-piercing scream that erupted from their apartment hallway.
Alya immediately stirred. “Alec, what’s that?”
His eyes had started to adjust to the darkness and he saw her sit up and could make out the fear showing in her eyes. “Stay here Ally, I’ll check it out.”
Ben stumbled out of his room, hair in disarray, with Joseph, barely half the size of Ben, following close behind. “Ben, watch them I’ll be right back.” Ben’s eyes were as wide as saucers but he nodded and Alec opened their front door.
The scream doubled in sound as the barrier of the front door was removed. He peeked through the hallway and his eyes could make out their next door neighbor, Mrs. Finch, standing over her husband who was lying motionless on the hallway floor. Her eyes darted around in a panic but stopped when she caught sight of Alec.
“Please you have to help me, he just collapsed I don’t know what’s wrong.”
Alec made his way over to Mr. Finch and just stood there. He was just 16 years old, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do in this kind of situation. He had watched TV shows where someone performed CPR but he didn’t really know what steps he was supposed to take.
“Please hon, do something.” She pleaded.
“I’ll call the police.” Alec ran back inside his apartment and nearly tripped over Alya standing in the doorway. “Alya I told you to stay put,” he turned his attention to Ben. “Get her and keep her inside, something is wrong with Mr. Finch.”
Ben’s mouth was hanging open in a stupor. “What happened to the lights?”
He didn’t answer Ben because he didn’t know. First thing was first, he needed to call 911. Alec scrambled to find their phone in the darkness of the apartment. He reached onto the counter and knocked over several objects before he felt the familiar contour of his cell phone. He picked it up, attempted to dial, and was met by more darkness. The battery couldn’t be dead it had close to a full charge before he laid down for the night. He rushed over to their landline phone and picked it up, silence.
Mrs. Finch’s screams filled his ears once again. “Please someone call 911 I think there is something wrong with his pacemaker.”
Joseph grabbed hold of Alec’s pants and clung to him. “Alec what’s going on? I want mommy.”
Alec looked down at Joseph and couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t give him what he didn’t have. She was gone and they were left with him. There should have been someone else there with them, but just like when he was younger that person was nowhere to be seen.
Ben walked over slowly with a strange look on his face. “What’s that sound?”
It took Alec a moment before he could make it out over Mrs. Finch’s sobs. The sound was coming from outside. He walked over to the window overlooking the city and the sound got louder. At first he thought it was because he was walking closer to the open window but he soon realized that whatever it was, it was getting closer. His eyes never left the window but he gently peeled Joseph off of him.
“Stay here little man.”
The sound went from barely noticeable to ear-deafening before he took more than a few steps. He got to the window overlooking the city and there wasn’t a single light in sight. The city was completely cloaked in darkness. As his brain attempted to register this fact a large object plunged from the sky into the heart of the city. He didn’t remember the blast throwing him back across the room, he didn’t remember the broken glass cutting into his face, but for as long as he lived he would never forget the image of the 747 right before it hit the ground and filled the dark city in a fiery light.
After The Event
Chapter One
Grant
It was the gunshot that finally woke him up, or the two gunshots to be exact. Not that he had been asleep, at least not in the literal sense, but he had been ignoring the obvious.
The day after the power went out he had tried going to the nearby grocery store. As to be expected it was packed with people trying to grab as much food as they could fit into their carts. He didn’t expect the power to be out for very long but with their refrigerator out he needed to get some can goods to hold them over.
The whole time he was in the store he remembered feeling like everyone was on the verge of panic. Everyone moved with a purpose while before they seemed to just be going through the movements while they played on their cell phones. He had remained calm, filled up his shopping basket with just enough can goods to last them for a few days and headed towards the checkout lanes, and that was when he got a glimpse of just how bad things were going to get.
The lines stretched out in all directions and none of them were moving. The sound of arguing came from every single one of the checkout stands and they were all similar. Whatever had knocked out the power had also taken the ability of the stands to take debit and credit cards. Grant stood there realizing he only had a few bucks and was in the same boat as the majority of people there.
The arguing grew louder and louder until a gunshot shut everyone up. The shot echoed through the store making it sound twice as loud as it normally would and for a few seconds there was only silence as everyone’s minds tried to reconcile what had just happened. When the young female clerk screamed out in pain and fell over, the building erupted. The man who had shot her fled with his shopping cart and not a single soul attempted to stop him. Some ran outside ahead of him, others ran deeper into the store, while the rest stood there dumbfounded, Grant was one of the dumbfounded.
As the existing clerks fled most of the people still standing in the lines took their food and escaped the store, while others continued to stand in place either unwilling or unable to process the current situation. Grant had walked calmly through the existing lines out of the store into the chaotic parking lot and into his van. He placed the basket full of canned goods into the passenger seat, started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. It wasn’t until he was halfway home that his hands started to shake uncontrollably and he had to pull over to collect himself.
He should have realized then, but he was still in denial.
They sat in their powerless apartment day after day waiting for the power to come back on and day after day they remained in the dark. It wasn’t until Grant heard the second gunshot that he realized things weren’t going to get better anytime soon.
When he looked out the window he saw a group of people pulling grocery bags out of a car that was sitting crooked in the roadway. He wasn’t sure which of them fired the shot and was convinced, based on each of them running in opposite directions, that they had not been working together. A teenage kid got out of the driver’s seat and stumbled a few steps before he collapsed on the street. Grant watched as a puddle of blood slowly formed around the now still body.
It was only then that he realized things were going to get worse, not better.
Now he found himself driving to the middle of nowhere with a van full of kids he had previously abandoned and all he could think about was her, and how she would have known what to do
“How much further?” Ben asked from the passen
ger seat.
Grant glanced over to the passenger seat and tried to give Ben a reassuring smile. He couldn’t believe how big he had gotten. In the back the youngest boy, Joseph, was wrestling around with his youngest and only daughter Alya, while Alec sat quietly to the side looking out the window.
He had been gone over two years and they had all changed so much. The last time he was around Alya she was an uncoordinated little toddler who repeated everything he said, now she was six years old and her own little person. Joseph was just two years older and was easily the quietest of the group. Since he had been back he didn’t think the boy had put together more than three words at a time. Ben, who for the last hour had been sitting next to him with the biggest Cheshire cat grin, made up for Joseph’s lack of words. Grant could tell Ben thought this was going to be some grand adventure.
Then there was Alec in the backseat. The boy was straddling the line between child and adult at nearly 17 years old. He had seen both the best and the worst of Grant, unfortunately Grant had more bad then good in his past. There was a time when Alec had been just like Ben. Always hanging all over him and believing everything was an adventure. Now all he could see in the boy’s eyes was mistrust, and he couldn’t blame him.
“Ow, Ally get off.” Joseph yelled from the back seat.
When Grant glanced in the back he saw Alya sitting on Joseph’s head. Before he could say something Alec shot Alya a look and she sheepishly got off. Alec then returned his attention to the passing landscape. While physically Alec was still a boy, mentally he was a man. The rest of Grant’s children looked at Alec as a father figure.
Grant was in over his head. It was bad enough when he got the call saying that she hadn’t made it. Knowing that the one person in his life who had always been there for him, no matter how bad he got, was gone forever had left him in shambles. Then he had been hit with the realization that the only person his children had left was him. He hadn’t, and still wasn’t, ready. Then the power went out.
“What are those people doing daddy?” asked Ben.
Grant followed Ben’s eyes and saw a small shopping center off the road. A common sight in this area but what wasn’t common was that it was being pillaged. People were swarming throughout the buildings like ants, crawling in and out of the windows and knocking each other over to get in and out with the items they were taking. Society was breaking down.
Before he turned back to the road he saw it. He had learned his actions and choices were the reason his life fell apart, and he was also aware that there was one place that always helped push him off that cliff. In the middle of the shopping center was a liquor store.
Thirsty.
The window was busted out and it appeared empty.
There could still be something hidden in the back. If I could just find one bottle that will be enough to help me get through this. I could park on the far side, they would be safe there, and then I could just run in real quick grab the bottle and run out. No one would notice and-
“What’s wrong dad?”
Grant snapped back to reality and saw the worried look on Ben’s face. “Nothing. Its, it is just dangerous out here.”
He looked in the rear view mirror and saw Alec staring at him. The boy knew what he was thinking. Grant couldn’t meet his gaze and turned his attention back on the road. He had grown up in the middle of the country in a house just a handful of miles outside a small town. The place had sat abandoned after his father passed a few years back. Grant had been meaning to sell it but had never gotten around to it. If they could just make it there then they could wait until everything returned to normal. As they continued down the road he searched for some comforting thought or ray of hope but turned up empty. He was all they had left now.
Thirsty.
Alec
The quiet was the first thing he was going to have to get used to. It was never quiet before everything went dark. There was always a TV in the background, music playing, cars zooming past, sound was a constant. Now it seemed so quiet it was deafening.
Alec sat out on the porch of their new home. The cool wind gently blew his hair back as the rays of the sun warmed his skin. His father hadn’t been lying when he said the house was in the middle of nowhere. He was the one who had decided this was the safest place for them, and that it wasn't safe to be in the city anymore.
Alec leaned back against the warm wooden bench and closed his eyes. The quiet seemed to disappear and gradually he could hear sounds again. He heard the wind rustling through the leaves, he heard the birds as they let out their morning sounds. It wasn't TV but at least it was something.
He watched as his brother Ben fought an imaginary swordsman with his stick. To him the only thing his brother’s swings were doing was cutting empty air, but he knew his brother was convinced he was taking down zombies, or pirates, or any other number of bad guys. His brother had only just turned 11 years old but his imagination was as strong as it had ever been.
His youngest brother Joseph sat in the grass caught up in his own little world. His gaze, partially obscured by his ever growing bangs, appeared to be focused on a nearby anthill which wasn't a good thing for the ants. 8 years old yet still caught in the terrible-two mindset.
Meanwhile his 6 year old sister, Alya, continued to do what she always did, refuse to be a girl. She was rolling around in the dirt with an action figure they had found in the house. Her face and hair were indistinguishable from the dirt and she couldn't have looked happier.
Alec took in a deep breath and focused on the horizon. It was obvious that things were going to change and probably not for the better. They now found themselves alone in the middle of the country with only their father to watch after them. Alec was the oldest and only he seemed to remember how unreliable the man was. Most of his memories of his father revolved around alcohol, and the destruction the man caused when he had too much of it. If his mother was still alive they wouldn't be in this position. It was up to Alec now. He would protect his family. If his father turned back to alcohol it wouldn't matter because he would be what his family needed.
Grant
Alec didn't trust him. He could see it in the kid's eyes, not that he could blame him. The rest where too young to remember, but Alec had been there for the worst. One year sober didn't mean shit to a kid that had spent the majority of his life with an absentee father.
His late father's old place seemed like their only option at the time, now he wasn't so sure it was the best choice. They barely had any food, they were out in the middle of the country, and they didn't have much to protect themselves with. Grant had managed to find his father's old .22 rifle in an old gun case but with only a handful of bullets, and the fact the barrel had a slight curve, he didn't think it was going to protect them from much. The main need was for water and luckily his father still had an operating well on the property.
He stared out at the sea of green in front of him. The fields stretched as far as the eye could see, only being interrupted by the trees sprinkled throughout the land. The house sat on 40 acres of land broken up by only fence lines in the distance, beyond that were more fields that had once been used for farming and feeding livestock. A couple of miles north was another house, Grant no longer knew who lived there but that place was the nearest. The only other house was 4 miles west of them, but again Grant had no idea who lived there.
The nearest town, Centralia, was over 30 miles away and used to have a population of around five thousand. Grant made a point to drive around the town in order to get to this house. When they had left the city it was on the cusp of falling into chaos and he didn't want to be in any heavily populated areas when that occurred.
“You leaving?”
Grant had been so lost in his own head that he didn't hear Alec walk up behind him. The boy had grown so much since he last saw him. The baby smoothness his face once reflected was replaced by a spattering of acne and tufts of hair sprouting from his upper lip. The boy’s face had also hardened; Grant
believed he was more responsible for that then age. “I'm going to try and see if there is anyone in the old house just north of us.” Alec had the same wary look that had been on his face since Grant had come back in his life. “Can you watch everyone while I'm gone? I should be back before it starts getting dark.”
“We will be good without you.” Alec's eyes met his without flinching. Not reassurance, a statement.
Grant let out a small breath. “Alright, I'll be back soon.” With that said he turned around and began walking towards where the old house was. He was going to have to work out the issues that Alec had with him sooner or later, he just preferred for it to be later. It was no longer about trying to simply make up for lost time with his son, it was about survival. Alec was the oldest but he was still only a child, a child that because of what happened was going to have to become a man much sooner than Grant wanted. The world was descending into chaos and Grant couldn't protect his family alone.
The green plains soon became populated with heavy brush and trees that blocked out the sun. As he made his way in and around the various shrubbery he realized he was in horrible shape. By the time he had finally caught sight of an old white house seemingly placed in the middle of nowhere the back of his shirt was nearly soaked through.
He had left the gun back at the house. The last thing he wanted was for whoever lived in the house to think he was trying to rob them or worse. He took a wide berth around the house in order to come up to the front door, again to convince anyone inside that he wasn't a threat. The yard appeared to have been recently mowed and Grant noticed the nearby bird feeders were full. Almost as if the world had never gone black.
