New Kings of Tomorrow

by J. M. Clark

  He hated the courtyard and all of the stupid flowers and shrubbery. There was always a bunch of old people out there. Dwight called it the old folks home.

  A beautiful woman walked past him then with a magazine in her hand. Her long auburn hair blew behind her like a cape on Superman. Full lips, a nice figure, and the cutest little nose you could ever see. She didn’t even register on the spank bank meter. Doesn’t hurt to be polite, he thought as he waved to her.

  Dwight decided it was time to vacate the first floor and make his way back to the pod. He had enough mental images to masturbate to in his brain. He tossed the empty chip bag in a garbage bin and started down the hallway that led to the elevator. He hit the button and waited for what seemed like five minutes. Always took a long time to get back up to the higher floors of the Palace once you were on the first floor. He hoped that no one came to wait with him. Dwight hated to be around people to begin with; being in an enclosed area like an elevator with someone was the worst. He was lucky though; no one came before he heard the bing of the elevator arriving.

  The fourth floor was Dwight’s stop. He had lived on that floor since he came into the Palace. You were not able to switch rooms for any reason, so the people that lived on your floor were the people you got to know the most. Of course, he had a few acquaintances on some of the other floors, but the majority were from the fourth floor. No one seemed to care for Dwight’s floor, and the fake smiles had run their course years ago. After handling his personal business in his pod, he was going to start working on a plan. They have everyone here fooled about who they are, but not me, he thought as the elevator moved up the floors.

  Dwight felt the elevator begin to slow at the third floor. It trudged to a full stop, then came another bing sound. The elevator doors opened, and there was Teacher Paul. Dwight couldn’t stand Teacher Paul. He was always trying to be nice and get people to like him. Dwight moved to the side and looked down at the corner nearest him. Being so close to people always made him uncomfortable.

  Teacher Paul stepped into the elevator, holding a folder in one hand. “Hello Dwight, have you been behaving yourself?”

  Dwight looked at the teacher out of the corner of his eye. Eye contact was not his strong suit. “Yes sir, always. I’m great actually, just going to my pod to relax before dinner with Sirus.” His mumbled response was nearly inaudible. Raising his head slightly, he noticed movement and spied someone else lagging behind. She stepped into the elevator with a big box of belongings, and he noticed she was young. Very young.

  She had to be fresh from the child center. Dwight felt himself becoming immediately aroused. She wasn’t all that cute, but she was young, and for him, that was what mattered. The girl stared down at the floor, never looking up to meet his gaze. She moved to stand between himself and Teacher Paul. He knew this was likely her first time on an elevator, and her first day out of the child center. She looked terrified. Something about her fear turned Dwight on even more.

  If there was a god, he would put this freckle-faced brat on the fourth floor with him. He was mentally drooling at the thought of it. Just as the elevator began to move up, Teacher Paul looked over the girl’s head at Dwight.

  “Michelle, this is Dwight. Dwight, this is Michelle. You two will hopefully see a lot of each other.” The girl nodded but still didn’t look up at him. She was staring at the box in her hands, clearly nervous. “Don’t hesitate to reach out for guidance from older Palace members like this gentleman,” Teacher Paul said. Dwight was certainly hoping she would come to him for help. She could come to his pod for anything. There hadn’t been a youngster on his floor for some years now, and the reality of it was very appealing to him.

  Stealing glances of her out of the corner of his eye, he desperately hoped to see them both get out of the elevator on the next floor with him. He wanted to cross his fingers for it to happen. The elevator came to a stop, and neither Teacher Paul nor the little girl moved. The teacher looked at Dwight and motioned for him to go on ahead.

  “Have a good day to both of you, and may Mother Earth grant you all that you desire in this life and the next,” Dwight said, taking one last look at the plain-looking blonde girl. He didn’t spare Teacher Paul a single glance as he took a mental snapshot of her face before stepping out of the elevator.

  Just as he got to his pod door and turned the lock with his key, he heard footsteps from down the hall. It was Teacher Paul and the little girl, walking in the opposite direction of the elevator! The sheer possibilities of what this meant for him almost made Dwight faint at the thought. “Oh my God,” he said quietly as he continued watching them walk a mere fifteen doors down from his own. Could this day get any better? He felt his penis stiffen and throb in his pants.

  Dwight watched as Teacher Paul unlocked her pod door with a key from his right-side pocket. Michelle looked down the hallway in his direction (or maybe past him), and Dwight waved, extending each finger, moving them all individually. The wave almost said come to me, or at least that was his intent. Dwight couldn’t be sure, but it looked like she waved back at him with just the slightest twitch of her hand. He thought she resembled the bully who used to tease him at school, Olivia Jenner. That made him feel angry for a slight second, then he quickly let the excitement take over his mood once more.

  Dwight walked into his pod with a pep in his step that he hadn’t felt since he was a kid, running around the trailer park with friends. They’d been carefree then, not knowing they were playing in the final days of the Old World. He felt revitalized, excited, and on top of the world.

  That afternoon, Dwight masturbated in his shower nine times in a row. That was a personal record for him. Afterwards, he laid down in his bed, got beneath the covers, and wondered if Michelle liked him. “She waved back, and I think I saw a smile,” he said to himself. For the rest of that afternoon and night, Dwight laid in bed, rubbing his penis raw and thinking about her. He didn’t bother to eat dinner with Sirus that night. Instead, he put a sheet over the television and came up with a plan.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Trevor

  Walking into his home, Trevor knew something was wrong. The scent of death hung heavy in the air, crawling up his nostrils and breeding in his brain. The smell couldn’t be mistaken for anything else in the world.

  He spotted blood all over the stairs, so much blood he could have slipped in it. As he climbed, his boots left prints on the carpet. Whose blood is this? he thought to himself while grabbing the banister to keep his footing. The steps were soddened and mushy, the sound of squishing filling the room with each of his movements. Trevor was afraid. Not afraid for his wife and children, but afraid for himself. What had happened here? And why did there seem to be no one home?

  Trevor stopped on the stairs and waited, listening for signs of anyone in the house. To the right of the staircase, the wall displayed a child’s bloody handprint. His heart dropped a level, and he came close to vomiting where he stood. He prayed it wasn’t the handprint of one of his children. Which child are you more afraid for though? he asked himself. Which one do you want to still be among the living?

  One step at a time. Trevor lifted one boot after the other, blood dripping from the soles, the blood of one of his children or maybe both. Could be Amy’s blood as well, he supposed. That didn’t sound right though. It wasn’t Amy. Never Amy.

  No matter how many gruesome steps he took, there always seemed to be ten more steps to go. The climb was maddening. Crimson-colored fingerprints led up each side of the stairwell, some seeming to spell out the names of his children. Michael and Tricia, every few steps.

  He finally reached the top of the steps, tired and out of breath. Trevor bent over with his hands on his knees, panting and coughing. After catching his breath, he stood up straight and looked around, noticing that all the rooms had closed doors. He knew that if he went into Michael’s room, he would find both his son and Amy inside. Trevor knew this because he’d had this dream time and time again. He touch
ed the door, wanting to run inside and save them both, but that never happened in this dream.

  Instead, Trevor turned around and began walking toward Tricia’s room, which was across from Michael’s. Taking this route may provide a different ending to the nightmare that never seemed to go away. He grabbed the doorknob and found it slick with blood. He wiped his hand off on his pants and opened the door.

  Trevor walked into the room. Even though it was no later than 11 a.m., it was pitch black. He flipped the light switch, but it didn’t work. Just as he began to walk toward where he knew her bed was, the television to his left snapped on. Trevor nearly jumped out of his skin, it scared him so bad.

  The words “Please Wait” flashed across the screen. The light from the TV illuminated the bed. Turning toward the bed, he could now make out multiple figures. He stepped closer reluctantly. Seeing your children die once was enough to make a man go mad…having to see this in subsequent nightmares for the last twenty years was enough to make reality and hell merge together.

  The bodies were tangled together like a blood-soaked human spider. It was hard for Trevor to make out which limbs belonged to which body. The heads were distinguishable though, and they belonged to each of his children. Trevor covered his eyes with one hand and his mouth with the other hand, the same hand that was just covered in blood from the doorknob moments before. Trevor spit blood onto the floor and turned around, and was again facing the television. The screen was now blinking “Please Wait,” “Please Wait.” He no longer wanted the light; it was a terrible light that could only show him the grotesque and twisted bodies of his children. He went to turn it off, but nothing happened. Click…click…nothing. No matter how many times he pressed the button, the TV would not go off.

  Trevor was crying now, slapping, punching, and clawing at the TV. He couldn’t get it to turn off, and he couldn’t knock it over because it was bolted to the floor. Tiring himself out once again, Trevor fell onto the floor, desperate to catch his breath. On his hands and knees, he looked up to see the television mocking him. “Please Wait” flashed more rapidly, creating a strobe light effect in the room.

  He got to his feet, knowing he would have to face his children in order for this nightmare to come to its conclusion. This was the way of dreams. Trevor stepped forward and looked at the misshapen form lying tangled in the bed, twisted and pulsating.

  The eyes of each of his children appeared to be gouged out. Maroon-colored sockets had taken the place of beautiful blue eyes. Blood streamed down their faces like running eyeliner. It took every ounce of his strength to not run screaming out of the room. Wouldn’t work anyway, Trevor had tried that in other nightmares exactly like this one, and the door was always locked.

  “Daddy…why are you here now?” the thing that was once his son said. His mouth, which was once filled with small white teeth, was now a dark toothless clam, opening and slamming shut with each word. The dark bloody holes were staring at Trevor. Even though there were no pupils, somehow, they still managed to stare in accusation. “You were not here when I needed you…I died alone,” Michael said.

  “No, no you didn’t, son. Don’t say that, please don’t say that. I didn’t know you were so sick…I tried, Michael.” A broken squealing sound left Trevor’s throat as he tried to walk closer to the twisted monstrosity on the bed, but his legs wouldn’t move. He felt like he was stuck in quicksand. Tricia’s eyes were still closed, blood running down her eyelids, past her nose, and into her hysterically laughing mouth, also void of any teeth.

  She laughed nonstop, a gargling, tortured laugh. There was no pleasure in the laugh; it almost seemed to hurt her, but she did not stop.

  “Shut up! Stop laughing at me!” Trevor screamed while trying to get his legs out of the invisible quicksand.

  “Even though you left us to die, Father, we will never leave you. Family stays together forever, in life and in death. That’s what you said, Dad…you said that,” Michael spewed, regarding Trevor with his sad, nonexistent eyes.

  “I’d never leave you, son, you have to believe me. Please Michael, Tricia, please believe me,” he begged the horrific monsters residing in his daughter’s old bed.

  Tricia continued to laugh at him. Laughing and choking on blood and bile the entire time. Trevor wanted to shut them both up. They were lying to him, saying things that weren’t true. He loved them, he would give his life for theirs.

  Because he couldn’t move forward, Trevor put his hands over his ears and turned to run out of the room. As he turned around, he came face to face with Amy. Her face was as hideous as the things in the bed behind him. Her once magical eyes were but mangled pits with skin dangling onto her cheeks. Amy’s lips were smiling as she screamed at him. At first, he couldn’t make out any words, but the screaming continued, and he finally managed to hear her. “WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!” she shrieked.

  Trevor was pulled back into reality by his wife.

  Amy, the real Amy, not the Amy of his nightmares, was above him, out of breath and beating on the side of his arm. “Wake up, Trevor,” she said in a harsh-sounding whisper. Fear was written all over her face, her eyes darting back and forth as she struggled to wake Trevor up.

  “I’m awake, Amy. What’s wrong, baby? I’m awake. What’s going on?” Trevor grabbed both of her hands and held them close to her chest.

  “Trevor, something is going on. We have to get out of here. Something strange is happening. I saw it.” Amy ripped her arms away from him and stood up. She walked over to the closet and back to the bed, pacing and mumbling. “I saw it,” she repeated over and over.

  Trevor sat up in bed, wiping sleep from his eyes. He remembered that whatever he said, he needed to speak to her in a very calm voice. The teachers warned him that when Amy had these…spells, not to get angry with her and to be very calm. The harsher his response to her behavior, the worse her outburst would become.

  “Amy, come over here and sit with me, baby. Tell me about it.” Trevor slapped a spot on the bed next to him.

  “No, Trevor, I’m serious. I saw it. They have all been lying to us. It’s not what they say it is.” The look on her face was pure terror. “You have to believe me,” she said. “They didn’t think I saw them, but I did.” She walked up to the bed and looked deep into Trevor’s eyes. Her face was beautiful in the night, the light from the moon shining against her pale creamy skin. He wanted to kiss her right then and tell her everything was going to be okay. He wanted to lay her down, rub her back, and hold her tight until she forgot about what she thought she saw.

  From time to time, Amy would have slips in reality. She had made much progress in the way of getting back to who she was before the kids had died, but with the trauma and the effects of old age creeping up on them both, the episodes would still happen. Lately it had been happening a lot more, and really she just needed to be heard, then comforted. After a nap, she would no longer mention the thing she was raving about before.

  “Trevor, will you believe me, honey? I know I get off balance sometimes, but please, I need you to believe me tonight. I saw it, I swear I did.” A tear rolled down her face. In the dark with the shadow of the moon, it looked like a diamond falling down her cheek. Hopelessness clouded Amy’s face, but she calmed herself and sat next to him on the bed. Trevor could feel her entire body shaking the mattress. He put an arm over her shoulders to still the trembles.

  “Just tell me what happened, I’m here for you. I want to hear about what you saw, darling. Talk to me.”

  “Are you going to believe me?” she said calmly. She was taking deep breaths and exhaling just as deeply.

  “Yes, I always believe you, honey. Talk to me.” Trevor pulled her closer. He wanted to make her feel safe; it made him feel good to do so.

  “Okay, listen to me. Do not interrupt, and please, do not coddle me like a child or someone who is not aware of what they are saying.” She gave him a stern look.

  “I promise I won’t interrupt. Tell me.” Trevor pulled his arm
from around her shoulder and sat back on the bed to give her some space. Amy got ahold of her breathing.

  “Okay. When I was coming back inside from walking with the girls, I went down to the central plaza to get a drink and grab a magazine. Well, I didn’t know that they were closing the area off for construction for the night. You know how they’re building a track for running on the other side of the gym?” Amy said, gradually speeding up as she talked.

  “Take your time, Amy. No reason to rush. Yes, I know they’re doing some construction at night down there. They’ve been telling us in morning enrichment classes for a few weeks now.” Trevor rubbed her knee and gave her his full attention. He knew that he only needed to hear her out and then get her to bed.

  “Right, well I guess no one noticed me come into the area. I was the only Palace member there, and that’s when I saw it. A chopper came down from the sky, just outside of the main doors. It was so loud, and so close to the building.”

  Trevor grabbed her hand. “Amy, you know that they bring in the supplies via chopper. That’s normal, baby.”

  “Is it normal for the suppliers to get off the chopper with no protective suit on?” She looked at Trevor gravely. “They are coming from out in the world, from areas that are not quarantined. I’ve watched men get out of those choppers time and time again, and they are always wearing the suits. They have to because the air from Palace to Palace is not clean. Why would they get out of the chopper with no suits now, when they never did before? That doesn’t make sense, Trevor.”

  “What do you mean? You mean they took them off at the door, right? They don’t wear those things into the building out of fear of contamination.” Trevor was confused, but a part of his mind told him to not pay her any attention. Don’t let her get you all worked up.

  “No Trevor, I’m not stupid. I’ve been here with you for the last twenty years. I know how the contamination process works. I was close. I could see that they got off the chopper with no protective suits on. Two of them had on black security guard uniforms, and one had on the yellow raincoat with the stupid hat.” Amy put up one finger, signaling for him to wait. Then she got up and went over to the door, put her face against it, and cupped a hand over here ear, listening to see if anyone was walking past. She came back to the bed and sat down calmly.