Waterfall

by Amber Garr

  Her wide eyes met mine and I gave her a quick nod. From what I could tell, he had just saved our lives. The second Vee stopped struggling, he let her go and she immediately rushed into my arms. And then she turned on the guy.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she spat at him. Brushing her clothes like that would rid her of the memories, she stomped her feet and glared.

  “Saving your ass,” he mumbled. “Did you really think running down the street and calling attention to yourself was going to help anyone? They’d shoot you on the spot just for being so stupid.”

  “Hey,” I shouted quietly. “Do you have to be such an ass about it?”

  “Seriously,” Vee mumbled, but the spark of anger dissipated when we both took in his words.

  “Sorry for saving your lives,” he said. And after a moment, when he not so discretely checked his cross bow, he added, “What are you two doing here anyway?”

  “Same thing you are, I imagine,” I said.

  “I doubt that,” the guy muttered.

  “We’re looking for supplies,” Vee clarified.

  “On the outskirts?” he asked in surprise. When we nodded he laughed at us, and not in a nice way. “There’s nothing out here but rats and meat wagons.”

  “Meat wagons?” I asked.

  He jerked his chin toward the soldiers down the street. “Collecting people for the draft, or so they say.”

  Vee and I looked at each and she shook her head. “Who are you?” she asked.

  The guy actually smiled at her and then held out his hand. “I’m Jackson.”

  Vee stared at his hand long enough that I jumped ahead and shook it. “I’m Zach and this is Vivienne.”

  A bright spotlight suddenly streaked down the street right past us and we huddled together against the cold windows of the diner. No one said a word. For a long five minutes, we waited for the inevitable. Would this be it? Were they going to capture us or shoot us dead in the street?

  “We need to get out of here,” Jackson said after surveying the street.

  “And just how are we supposed to do that?” snapped Vee. She still hadn’t warmed up to our new ally.

  Jackson gave her an amused look and then addressed me. “I see you have your hands full.”

  “Hey!” Vee punched Jackson in the arm and then jumped back quickly once she realized what she’d done.

  “Ouch.” He chuckled and rubbed his wound. “Come on. We really need to leave this spot before they find us.”

  And without another word, Jackson looked down the street and then took off in the direction we’d just come from. We followed him in silence as I wondered where we were going. “There’s nothing down here,” I whispered after him.

  “Exactly,” Jackson called back over his shoulder.

  He made an abrupt left turn taking us through a narrow alley that looked like it’d seen better days. At the end, we had to climb a ten foot chain linked fence that dumped us into the outskirts of an abandoned city park. Jackson continued to run through the overgrown shrubs and extended dirt patches until we reached the remnants of a public restroom. The place had been hit with a bomb or something large enough to blow out one side of the building, and that’s where we took cover.

  Out of breath and not having a clear plan, I found myself on the verge of a mini panic attack. “Where are we?” I asked Jackson.

  “Zach, we have to meet Max at some point.”

  “Who’s Max?” Jackson asked.

  “Our friend,” Vee said with a dangerous look.

  Once again, Jackson smiled at her. “You know, you remind me of my sister. Always ready with a quick comeback and not afraid of anything.”

  While Vee seemed to take that as a backhanded compliment, I noticed how Jackson’s voice had twitched at the mention of his sister. “Is she here? Your sister?” I asked.

  Jackson looked out at the park, ignoring me for several seconds. “I hope so,” he finally said.

  “What do you mean?” Vee asked.

  He shifted in the dirt, clearly uncomfortable with the question. “I came here, from New York to find her. She is…was…in school here.”

  “In Pikesville?” I asked, surprised that someone would send their child to Kentucky with all of the opportunities in New York City.

  Jackson tried to smile. “Long story. But basically, she wanted to be near our father. And there was nothing we could do to stop her.” He glanced at Vee. “She’s kind of stubborn.”

  I huffed and Vee kicked me in the leg. “So where’s the school?” I asked.

  “A few blocks away on the northeast side of the city.”

  “And you came from New York? Didn’t it get bombed?” Vee asked.

  “Yes. But I left before it happened. It’s taken me a long time to get here.” Jackson pulled his knees up and set the crossbow on top of them.

  “You’re by yourself?” Vee asked another question.

  “Yes.”

  “How old are you?”

  Jackson chuckled. “Twenty. I think. What month is it?”

  “October,” I said.

  “Then yeah, I’m twenty now.”

  In the distance, we saw the flashing red lights again with the intercom voice muffled against the stagnant air. It stayed several blocks away, circling back and forth like vultures searching for carrion. I looked at Jackson, a person who had survived on his own for more than a year, and wondered if I would have been able to do the same.

  “Well, we have to find your sister,” Vee said out of the blue. “She can’t be out here by herself. That’s just…it’s just too much.”

  I thought about Hunter and knew that she had a point. I thought about my own sister and a sharp pang of guilt twisted in my gut. Should I have gone after her like Jackson? Did we make a mistake by fleeing south when she was in Boston? I felt Vee’s hand squeeze my leg, no doubt knowing where my thoughts had gone.

  “I can find her myself,” Jackson said. “I don’t need your help.”

  Vee slid forward and rested her hand on top of Jackson’s. “I know you don’t. But we’re here now and we owe you.”

  “Vee, we need to meet Max,” Zach said. Not in a way that told me he didn’t want to help, but simply as a reminder that we’d made a promise not to get into any kind of trouble.

  “We have an hour,” I replied and then turned to Jackson. “You said the school was just a couple of blocks away, right?”

  “Yeah,” Jackson said hesitantly.

  “So have you been there yet?”

  Jackson shifted on the ground. “No,” he said quietly. “I haven’t made it past this side of the city yet.”

  “Do you think the school is even still there?” Zach asked, and I gave him a look. “What? Have you seen the buildings?”

  When Jackson wiped at his eyes and began to speak, Zach finally shut up. “I know I may have made this trip for nothing, but I just couldn’t stay there any longer without trying.” He glanced over at me. “I had to try and find her.”

  Squeezing Jackson’s hand a little harder, I nodded in silence. If there was a chance someone I loved was out there, I would search for them too. “So tell me about her,” I prompted.

  Jackson hesitated a minute and then let a small smile creep over his face. “Her name is Jacquelyn and she’s six years younger than me.”

  “That’s a pretty name,” I said, suddenly finding that talking to Jackson also soothed my frazzled nerves.

  “She hated it,” he chuckled. “She always made me call her Jacquie. But I refused.” Jackson let go of my hand and rested both palms on top of his crossbow again. “We never really knew my father. He left a month after she was born. But Jacquelyn’s stubborn and she was determined to make him love her.”

  I thought about my own father, and how amazing he had always been, then felt guilty for having that when someone like Jackson never did. “What about your mother?”

  Jackson huffed and m
oved his knees back in forth in a nervous fashion. “She left not long after he did. My grandmother raised us. She was good.”

  I didn’t miss his use of past tense but decided not to push for more information. Jackson would share if he wanted. A bright spotlight passed over the abandoned restroom and Zach scooted closer to me.

  “We need to meet Max,” he whispered.

  I knew he was right and that our time would be limited. But we had to help Jackson…we just did. “Jackson, do you know exactly where the school is?”

  He nodded and shifted to the side, pulling out something from his back pocket. “I think so.” With shaky hands, Jackson smoothed out a map on the dirty concrete floor. He dug through his backpack until he found a flashlight and then motioned for us to come closer. “We’re here,” he said, pointing to a green area on the city map of Pikesville. “And the school’s address is here.”

  “In the church?” Zach asked before I could.

  “Yeah,” Jackson said, “it’s a Catholic boarding school.”

  “That’s about five blocks away—”

  “And right through the center of the city,” Zach interrupted.

  I gave him another glare. “We’ll be fine,” I huffed.

  Jackson watched the two of us for a moment, silently assessing our interaction. “No. You guys don’t have to come with me. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Too dangerous?” I asked at the same time Zach chuckled. “We’re going to help you find your sister, Jackson. No more arguing.”

  “Don’t even waste your breath,” Zach told Jackson. “Princess Stubborn will not be changing her mind.”

  While I wanted to be mad at Zach for his comments, I was excited to be productive today. Our supply run so far had been dismal. And unless Max found something good, the only thing Zach and I would be bringing home were stories about the soldiers killing civilians.

  Another light crossed over our heads, the distinct red glow illuminating the road that circled the park. A few moments later, we heard another gun shot in the distance. For a second, I worried about Max, but then remembered it was Max, and Max would never get caught.

  “Okay, fine,” Jackson said. “We should go now. Once we reach the south end of the park, we can utilize the alleys and stick to the shadows.” He scanned each of us. “Do you have weapons?”

  “Yes,” Zach said. “But we could use some more.” Of course he would say that.

  “Supposedly there’s a sporting goods store somewhere near the church. Maybe we can check it out.” Jackson packed up his belongings and made his way to the hole in the side of the building. “Keep up.”

  Without saying anything else, we followed Jackson through the park, dodging around trees and using broken pieces of playground equipment as cover. I felt like I was in some sort of movie set. While we’d been skirting around the edges of towns and cities for a year, being on the inside and witnessing the destruction first hand, seemed surreal.

  By the time we’d reached the end of the dried out baseball field and hopped the rusty chain linked fence, the adrenaline rushed through my blood like a dangerous drug. We hadn’t seen any soldiers, even though we’d heard the low rumble of military trucks in the distance. Yet a small, insane part of me wanted to engage. I wanted to find those soldiers that had killed the deserters in the street and give them what they deserved. I wanted to fight back against all of the years we’ve been forced to run and hide and scrounge for every little scrap of life.

  “We’ll stick to that alley,” Jackson said, pulling me out of the darkness my brain had traversed. “After one block, we head left. Then two more blocks and one right turn should put us at the church without having to use any main roads.”

  Zach and I nodded, willing to listen to Jackson’s commands. It felt like we’d known him for years. I couldn’t really explain why, but Jackson instantly fit in with the two of us. In fact, I thought he’d fit in well with the whole group if he wanted to come back with us after we found his sister.

  Another gunshot echoed in the distance causing all of us to duck down behind an old oak tree that had once shaded the metal bleachers. We waited, listening for a sign that they were moving in our direction. But after several minutes of silence, Jackson waved us forward again and we sprinted into the shadows between old store fronts and apartment buildings.

  With guns in hand and Jackson’s crossbow at the ready, we slid through the darkness like a demon stalking a tortured soul. The first alley reeked of rotten trash. The sour smell of decomposing organic matter almost made me puke. The scent reminded me of a compost pile at the end of a hot summer day—fresh and ripe with critters I never wanted to see.

  As we rounded the first turn, we jogged through an alley that held several parked cars covered in dust and debris. I stopped next to a Jeep Cherokee. Wiping the driver’s window, I peered inside and admired the interior for a moment.

  “Vee? What are you doing?” Zach hissed at me. He ran back toward the Jeep, exasperation written all over his face. “Come on! We don’t have time for this!”

  “Remember your Jeep?” I asked in a whisper.

  Zach finally looked at the vehicle and sighed. “I do.” He wrapped his arm over my shoulder and squeezed. “But that was another time, Vee.”

  “I miss those times,” I said, sadness crushing into me hard enough to take my breath away.

  “I know. But they’re gone.”

  “What’s going on?” Jackson yelled over his shoulder. A vehicle drove passed the end of the alley, lights never searching down the dark corridor for us.

  “We’re coming,” Zach replied, pulling me along and not caring that I almost tripped over my own feet. “You need to pull it together, Vee,” he whispered at me.

  I completely agreed.

  With the last turn up ahead, we all stopped and took a minute to collect our thoughts. Jackson looked at me in concern as I stumbled against the concrete block wall of whatever building had once thrived here. Just like our old lives, nothing from the past existed anymore. It was as if it never existed at all.

  “She’s fine,” Zach grumbled when Jackson continued to stare at me.

  I gave Zach a look before turning my attention to Jackson. “I’m good.” Just want to go back to the way things were, I thought to myself.

  “We’ve got to run down the main road for about half a block before reaching the front entrance of the church,” Jackson said.

  “Is that how you get into the school?” Zach asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jackson replied with a shrug. “But I thought it could at least provide some cover for us until I can figure out where the dorms are.”

  “Okay,” I said and Zach simply nodded.

  Jackson leaned his head back against the cold stone and sucked in a deep breath. With his crossbow clutched tightly in his grasp, he slowly moved his head out and around the corner, checking both sides of the street for any movement. A few seconds later, he took off at a full sprint, leaving Zach and me in his wake.

  “Nice,” Zach groaned and then ran after him, swinging his gun from side to side like he’d done this a million times. Something about that brought a smile to my face.

  Quickly following behind the guys, I made my way up the street. The destruction on this side of the city looked worse than any areas we’d seen before. It reminded me of the photographs from European cities after World War II. Rubble, smashed cars, and broken glass littered the roadway, piled high enough on each side in some places to block out the sky. I marveled at the impact of war. Why had this city been bombed so much? Or had there been an internal struggle between the citizens and the soldiers who had other orders?

  But my inner swirl of thoughts ceased when I spotted Zach and Jackson standing in the middle of the road, staring at one particular pile of rubble. “What is it?” I asked once I reached them.

  Zach turned toward me, eyes glistening in the small specks of moonlight reaching the street. “The church,”
he whispered.

  I looked at the side of the street and read the sign in disbelief. Jutting out from a four foot high pile of broken concrete and red bricks, was the name of the school, “Saint Michael’s Academy for Girls”. Sitting like a sentinel just beyond the sign was the entrance door leading into a church that only had two walls still standing.

  “Oh no,” I breathed, reality finally sinking in. What happened to all of the students?

  “We should check inside,” Zach said.

  I elbowed him and whispered, “What inside, Zach? There’s nothing left.”

  But before he could respond, Jackson started stumbling over the debris and made his way to the front door that led into nothing. He grasp the large double doors and shook them back and forth until one side finally opened. Zach and I helped him push against the rubble to get it opened far enough for us to slip through, me falling to the ground when something behind it finally gave way.

  Jackson immediately rushed passed the archways and pews, jumping around the fallen chandeliers and burned bibles. As he disappeared around a corner, I slipped against the ground, foot sliding in something wet. Zach reached out for my hand at the same time I made the mistake of looking at the liquid beneath me.

  Fresh blood.

  My eyes followed the trail to find a crumpled body lying in an odd position behind the door we had to wrench open. My insides roiled with disgust, hand flying to my mouth to make sure everything stayed down. Zach yanked me up off the ground the same instant I suppressed a scream.

  “Don’t look,” he whispered in my ear. “We can’t do anything about it.”

  I ignored him and stared down at the man who could only be a few hours dead by the way the blood still held its color. Most of his face was gone, some kind of blast taking his life away. I froze at the sight. It wasn’t the first dead body I’d seen in this past year, but something about him being killed inside a church made my belief in humanity disintegrate like the walls around us.

  We would never go back to the way things were.

  A loud screeching sound drew our attention to the area where Jackson had disappeared. “Let’s go,” Zach said, pulling me forward and leading us around the overturned pews.