Grownups Must Die

by D. F. Noble

  Randy poked his head out from the window and said, “You guys need a ride?”

  Chapter 12

  Hide and Seek

  “When the boys made it back here,” says the Elder, “to this very water tower, they were shocked to see it was full of children! There were toddlers and infants carried by their teenaged brothers and sisters. The little ones and big ones cried alike. So many tears fell from this tower that it seemed like it was raining.”

  The Elder tosses another log into the fire, and embers and smoke swirl up to a chimney chute above them. He looks back over the flock. The youngest of them maybe twelve, the rest no older than fifteen. They were told this story when they were younger, but just the bare essentials. Now they were old enough to know, to begin to understand life and death and love, to comprehend honor and duty and courage. This flock was on the cusp of initiation. They would take trades, some of them farmers and trappers, some blacksmiths and engineers, and some of them warriors and scouts. All of them would learn to fight. It was their way. From a young age, the Way of the Blade, Way of the Bow, Way of the Gun, all of them were taught.

  The world was wild now. Not a part they knew that wasn't. Outside the reaches of Tree Top's land claim, all kinds of horrors awaited. There were other tribes, some of them kind, some of them friends of Tree Top, traders and civilized folks. But there were many others who were not. Man-Eaters, cannibals, and the Madmen they eventually became. Too much human flesh, and the flesh of the grownups corrupted their minds, drove them insane and dangerous, diseased their bodies. There were Wild-Men, children who after The Static lost the Old Ways. Their children knew even less of The Before, lost language, lost civilization, and became Savages in the true sense. They were neither good nor evil, but had become animals. Bears and Big-Cats, escaped zoo animals like chimps and gorillas, and packs of wild dogs roamed The Wild now. Every acre of land held its dangers, and the Elders of Tree Top knew it. Everyone, even a tailor, could fight, if need be. It was the way of the world now. Fight or die.

  There were other things in The Wild. Things even the Elder did not like to think about. Ghoulish things, monstrous things. Creatures with long, thin and bony limbs and eyeless faces that ran on all fours like a beast, their mouths filled with needle teeth, their skins wet and slimy pink.

  Even the Grownups had to breed to survive...

  But their offspring...

  The Elder blinks and wonders how long he has paused. The children wait patiently and he clears his voice and continues. “Some of your grandparents were here when the boys came back. Some of your grandparents came later and joined us at Tree Top. Our numbers grew and grew, and we hid, we scavenged like mice and kept quiet as long as we could, but we were not alone here... There was another tribe, a tribe as mad as the grownups...”

  The first night on the water tower, Jake slipped into a fever. The cut on his chest burned like wildfire and he began to sweat, even as the sun set and the wind cooled as night took. While Jake had returned to town to find Dean and Alex, Randy had taken the reins and got the able-bodied kids to start ransacking nearby houses for food and supplies. Randy was a smart guy, he wasn't just collecting weapons and food and water, he also raided every medicine cabinet they could find.

  If Jake wouldn't have been so worn out, the act of Steffi applying ointments and Neosporin to his and the other guys' cuts might have been a little awkward. It didn't matter at that point, he was just trying to keep his eyes open.

  There were two dozen of them sitting up on the tower. Some were already sleeping, some quietly whimpering, but the ones who couldn't sleep sat with their legs hanging off the side, leaning up against the handrails, watching the town and speaking in hushed tones. They waited for the grownups to come for them, to come climbing up the tower like ants. But they never came.

  Jake and Dean and Alex sat and looked over the horizon in the dark, passing a pair of binoculars between themselves. The remains of the massive fire in town still coiled smoke. Radiant embers still pockmarked the landscape there like the twinkling of fireflies. They couldn't see much, but occasionally there would come the report of a gunshot echoing out.

  When Randy and Steffi had finished their rounds, applying novice-level first aid to the kids that needed it, they circled back to the boys. Randy sat down next to Alex, and on the other side, Steffi sat next to Jake, leaving Dean in the middle. The kids were all still looking at Dean like he was crazy, like he'd stepped out of Lord of the Rings or something with all the armor he was wearing. Dean didn't give a fuck. He'd throw half of them off this tower to keep his armor.

  “Most of the kids are talking about you guys,” Randy said, making himself comfortable.

  Jake was nodding off then, but he perked up as Steffi wrapped her arm around his back and leaned her head on his shoulder. He was too damn tired to think of anything sexual, just her presence, her companionship, was comforting. Her silver-white hair whipped about on the wind beside him, and Jake found his arm draping around her shoulders.

  Jake saw Dean turn to him, and through the eye-slits of the helmet, he saw Dean wink and grin. Alex asked then, “What do you mean?”

  “They think you guys are heroes,” Randy replied. He paused and looked out over the sky and stars, then said, “Well, they think you're fucking nuts. Some of us from the bus have been telling the newcomers what you did, Jake, how you saved us. How you went into town when everyone was trying to get out to find your friends and all.”

  Jake felt Steffi squeeze his leg and snuggle closer. He squeezed her hand and turned to Randy. “You did good, Randy,” Jake said. “I wish we woulda hung out more before…you know…this shit went down. You took care of them. No one had to ask you. You just did it.”

  Randy nodded and looked back out to the sky. Then Randy began to speak, and his voice was like honey, and lyrical, with beat and candor, as if he'd said this a million-trillion times.“Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper...

  …. and the finder of lost children.”

  The words rang out and hung in the air. There was power in them, and something stirred in their hearts. Jake saw Alex take his glasses off and wipe them, then wipe his eyes. He saw Dean purse his lips and grimace, then unwillingly rub a knuckle into the corner of his eye as well. Something in those words, or the way Randy said it, pulled at them, cut through the glaze of shock and fatigue and buried itself into their minds. Something wet rolled down Jake's cheek, and he knew it was a tear. He looked out into the town and the smoke plume there and wept openly, thinking not in words, but in images and emotions. His baby brother, his mom and dad, and Ronnie, all them snapshots on a reel, all of them dead now.

  “That was beautiful, Randy,” Steffi said, and sniffled. “Is that from the Bible?”

  Randy replied, “Yeah.” He wiped his forearm across his nose and continued. “Mom and Dad, they made us learn it. Went to church a lot. The words...the words are nice, but...”

  Randy wiped his nose again.

  “But I don't think I believe it much anymore…Not after today.”

  ***

  A little later, Randy told them they should get some sleep, that he and Greg, Joe and Bobbie would take turns guarding the ladder from adults. Jake didn't argue with him. They were all armed now, there were plenty of guns for most everyone. Although, they didn't pass them out freely. Anyone who seemed competent got a gun, the guys that Jake knew enough to trust (even if it was a wary trust). A bunch of high school and middle school kids carrying loaded weapons gnawed at him, made him worry. But he had to trust them; he knew he couldn't always be there to protect them, and they would have to learn to fight for themselves, and hopefully they wouldn't shoot themselves on accident.

  Jake leaned himself up against the well of the water tower, keeping as far away from the edge as possible, and curled up in a blanket beside Alex and Dean. Steffi didn't ask or say anything, but instead crawled under the b
lanket and wrapped herself around Jake and lay her head on his arm and shoulder. Jake wouldn't have been able to tell her no anyhow.

  Before Jake fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, he heard her whisper in his ear. “Thank you, Jake. Thank you for being there.”

  And then for a short time, Jake knew nothing.

  ***

  During the night, a fifteen-year-old girl named Julie woke from a nightmare. She thought she was screaming at first, but instead found that it was her baby sister. Her sister was a month shy of a year old, and it'd been a divine stroke of luck that Julie was able to escape her grandpa's house without being killed. She shuddered and remembered that her older sister, Tammy, did not have the same luck. Julie had heard a scream from outside the house. When she stepped onto the back porch with her baby sister in her arms, she saw her grandfather there with Tammy. Tammy was lying on the ground below the clothesline. An arc of blood marked a white sheet fluttering in the wind, and Grandpa was beating Tammy's face in with a hammer.

  Julie didn't think at that moment. She only ran, out the front door and through the cornfield, ran and ran till she couldn't. She hid in that cornfield till she saw people up on the nearby water tower, and when she saw the message they painted, she wandered through the fields and woods, trying to keep her infant sibling quiet.

  She was safe now, but she didn't feel it. There was nothing that was safe anymore. No place. This was not a world for children anymore, not a world for little girls especially, and when Julie awoke to that baby crying, she knew what had to be done. That baby was waking the other babies, and they were all starting to cry now. That wasn't safe; the grownups would come. Grandpa would find them. He would have his hammer.

  It was then that Julie stood up. She looked around at the other huddled forms of kids sleeping beneath blankets and wrapped up in each other, looked at the other infants kicking and squirming with their older siblings. Julie didn't think much then— it wasn't a matter of thinking, it was a matter of being safe. She held her crying baby sister up and told her, “I'm sorry.”

  Then Julie tossed her over the side and down into the darkness.

  Julie didn't watch her sister fall, that would've been too horrible. Julie was doing her a favor. Better this way, she thought, and moved to the next babe.

  “Wha- What are you doing?” a girl named Cassie said as she woke to Julie lifting her baby brother out of her arms. “Hey! Wha-”

  And Julie tossed him over, screaming four hundred feet to the ground.

  Cassie screamed then, long and loud.

  ***

  When Jake awoke, it was almost over. It was still dark. His body was stiff, and sore enough that Jake groaned as he got to his feet. There were a dozen voices, and girls were screaming, and the single wail of an infant cut the air. “What's happening?” Jake asked, fighting through his grogginess.

  “I don't know,” Alex said, and with a half-awake Steffi, helped Jake to his feet.

  They made their way around and found that no one was guarding the ladder. All of the kids were crowded around on one side of the tower. Jake looked down the ladder, saw no adults, and felt anger rise up in his belly. Just what the fuck is going on here?

  “Hey!” boomed Jake's voice, rocking the night like thunder. The kids ahead of him turned back, and Jake saw one of them was Randy. “What the fuck is going on?!”

  “She's going crazy,” Randy said, tears pouring down his face. “She-She...”

  Jake pushed through them. He saw two girls and Joe trying to pull a heavyset blonde girl away from the railing. Jake's heart leapt into his throat when he saw she dangled a screaming infant over the side of the tower's railing. Another girl was reaching out towards the child, her fingers trying to seize it.

  Joe cried out, trying to pull the big girl back, and ripped her shirt. Her bra-clad tits hit the air and Joe stumbled and hit his back against the tower well. In that moment, the crazed girl dropped the child. Jake caught only a glimpse of its terrified face before the darkness swallowed it.

  “It isn't safe!” she screeched. “Grandpa will hear her! Grandpa will hear-”

  Then the screams of the nearby girls drowned her out. They grabbed her by the hair, by her legs and arms with their fingernails and pulled her down. There was a thrashing of limbs and howls of pain as they bit and scratched her. By the time Jake reached them and pulled them off with the help of Randy, Alex and Joe, the girl Julie was bare-breasted and bleeding. A large chunk of her hair had been pulled out, and the scalp dripped blood. They lifter her to her feet and Joe, being a squat, strong guy, locked her up in a bear hug. Her legs kicked out to Jake, but he moved in close and locked them up in his arms.

  A girl behind Jake screamed, “She's a baby killer! She killed my brother!” Her hand snaked out over Jake's shoulder and raked down Julie's face.

  “Dammit!” Jake roared. “Everybody get back! Get BACK!”

  There was power in Jake's voice, like a general or a drill sergeant, and with the help of Randy, Joe, and Alex, they pushed the frantic girls away.

  Julie thrashed and screamed out, “It isn't safe! They cry! Grandpa will hear! I had to! Don't you understand, I had to-”

  Then Dean pushed his way up through the crowd. The kids moved away from him like he was infected with plague. His armor glinted in the moonlight, his helmet's red mane swayed, and then he was there beside Jake. There was a blur of movement, and then Dean's fist connected with Julie's jaw and her lights went out and her body sank.

  “Jesus!” someone in the crowd said.

  Her body being deadweight, Joe and Jake laid her down. “Somebody get me some rope! We gotta tie her up!” Jake yelled.

  “She's a murderer!”

  “Baby killer! She's a-”

  “Kill the bitch!”

  “Throw her over, man! We don't need that shi-”

  Jake pulled his pistol out and fired a shot in the air. The kids backed away from him. “Everybody shut the fuck up!”

  Wide eyes met Jake, and he lowered the gun. “All of you listen! I brought you here to be fucking safe! Not to kill each other!”

  Jake breathed heavily, and saw all the kids were doing the same. Their chests all rose and fell, their faces scowled or were blank with shock. He saw Steffi trembling with her hand over her mouth and her eyes big and wet. What's the point of saving them, Jake thought, if they're going to go as crazy as the fucking grownups?

  Alex leaned over and whispered into Jake's ear, “Take control. Lead them.”

  Jake knew he was right. Without some sense of order, they would all spiral into chaos. The last thing Jake wanted was to bring these kids here just to watch them die. He didn't know how, or what he was about to say, but he took a deep breath and stood as straight as he could.

  “If you're going to stay here,” Jake said, “we're going to need some rules. We're going to have to work together. If you don't like the way I run things, then go, get the fuck off my tower. If you wanna stay, if you wanna help, then-”

  Julie's scream cut through their ranks then. She leapt up and jumped on Jake's back, grabbing handfuls of his long dark locks. Her weight almost took Jake to his knees, and for a frightening moment, he thought they might both tumble over the railing.

  It was then that Dean reached over, grabbed Jake by the wrist with one hand, and sent a bone crunching punch into Julie's face a second time. She was dazed, but her fingers still grasped Jake's hair and tottered towards the edge.

  “Help!” Dean yelled, trying desperately to hold on to his friend.

  Joe, Randy, Alex, Steffi and Cassie and Cat rushed forward, all of them trying to grab on to Jake. Through the chaos of bodies and limbs, Dean zeroed in on Julie's plump face.

  “It's not safe,” Julie mumbled, and looked into Dean's eyes. “Grandpa will come, they'll all come.”

  Then Dean hit her. Her head rocked back, her body hit the railing and bounced back towards Dean, and Dean, falling right into the muscle reflex of his martial arts, grabbed Julie by her hair
and the seat of her pants, used her momentum, and then threw her towards the edge.

  Julie's skull hit the railing with a metallic twang, and then her ass went up over her head and she fell. A second later she screamed, but it was only for a second, for the next came the crash of tree branches and a sickening thud.

  Jake stood and looked over the rails beside Dean. All of the kids were looking over, all lined up trying to spot her below. Jake slapped his friend on the back and thanked him. Dean nodded and rubbed his knuckles.

  “Death by a fat bitch,” Dean murmured. “That's not what I want to put on your tombstone, man.”

  ***

  No one slept much that night. Jake found himself drifting in and out of sleep. The slightest sound would wake him, and he would jerk awake and reach for a weapon. For awhile, the five of them talked amongst each other. Jake, Steffi, Dean, Alex and Randy put their minds together and kept their voices low.

  “Tomorrow,” Alex said quietly, “before we start out for more supplies, I think we need to get all the kids together. We need order, we need rules. Without it, then there's no point in us sticking together. We'll all end up killing each other. After tonight…it's obvious. We have to do something.”

  Steffi's mind flashed two stark images at her: a baby falling into the dark, shrieking, and then Julie following suit. “Yeah,” she said, and shivered. “I was on student council and yearbook. We need…like a congress, and a president. Even in yearbook, if there wasn't a leader, nothing would get done. Alex is right.”

  “What do we do,” Jake murmured, “hold a vote?”

  Alex thought about it and rubbed a spot behind his ear. “No,” he answered. “Holding votes in a crisis is like trying to fight a shark with a breadstick. And this is a crisis. We need someone to take charge.”

  Jake noticed that they were all looking at him. “What? Why are you all looking at me?”