“Dad! Come on! They are here,” she whispered through tears. She knew what she was leaving him to. They would take him away like the rest.
“The ruck won’t fit through the window, Val. You need to leave me; I won’t make it. A man is waiting for you. Follow him. He will help you. Go and don’t come back here. You need to evade as I taught you. Remember everything I taught you. Go! NOW!” Mike said as stern as he could without giving her away. Valerie scaled the small ladder out of the well and turned as the headlamps bounced light around the room she was just in. She clutched the rifle, pulled the charging handle back and guided the cold metal forward, but even the clicks of the bullet entering the chamber seemed loud to her. Before she could flick the safety switch, someone pushed the barrel toward the ground and grabbed her arm.
“Be quiet and follow me.”
Valerie could hardly see to follow the man who gave her the command. She could tell he was wearing a variation of military uniform, but he was not her brother. She was sure she did not know him, but she trusted him for the fact he was not wearing blue, and her father had said someone would be waiting for her. They walked fifteen minutes to an underpass before the man turned around.
“Take your finger off the trigger unless you intend to use it,” he said.
“I hadn’t decided, yet.” Valerie glared at the young blonde man and waited for an explanation. She had the rifle pointed at him but had never taken the safety off. She did not intend to shoot him but was hoping her stance would motivate him to tell her who he was and where they were going.
“You’re something, you know that? They have Mike. Hope you’re happy. You’d think he would have taught you some sense.”
Before Valerie could throw back a witty retort, she processed what he had said.
“Oh, you think he lit up the entire house like a beacon?” he added. She must have looked confused. “Whatever you did was like a black Friday advertisement for the CDC. You’re lucky I got back there when I did. But we are both screwed if you pull another stunt like that.”
Valerie lowered her rifle, allowing the words to sink in.
“We have to go back. We have to get him. I shouldn’t have left him.”
“That’s the last thing we should do.” Anger and annoyance were evident in the way he spat the words at her. “I figured we’d be long gone before the CDC caught on anyone was still there. We were so careful. Your father sacrificed himself to get you out. His plan the whole time was to keep you kids safe. Away from them. You and Kevin are to be protected at all costs. So, great job, kid. Now pick up your lip. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
“The window. . .” Valerie trailed off. She was running out of fight. She replayed the scene over and over. The way her father pushed her through the window, the fact that the flashlights did not pursue her. “What just happened and who are you?”
He ignored her and walked west through neighborhoods for half an hour in silence, moving toward the mountain. Street lights helped them navigate in the dark. In time Valerie let slip a few tears for her father. He had not fought as hard as she knew he could.
The young man turned into a driveway and walked toward the backyard of a single-story home. He held the gate open for her, and she followed him inside.
Not until she sat down did she realize her luck to still have the pistol strapped to her leg. The man lit a candle and looked at her sitting on the couch.
“Don’t get comfy. I’ll get you another pack, and we’re leaving.”
“Who are you?” Valerie asked again, getting angry. The man turned and stared at her for a second.
“Jack?” a woman’s voice came from the hallway. She turned on a flashlight when she got to the living room and shined the beam in Valerie’s eyes before finding the man.
“Dean? What are you doing here? Who is this woman? Does your father know you’re here?” She questioned him with the light shining in his eyes. “You look different. You’re not using again, are you?”
“Alice, seriously? Will you stop?” the man answered, then continued to rummage through a coat closet.
“Oh, my goodness. Jack? What happened to you?” the woman questioned again with her hand over her mouth. She looked back at Valerie and scrunched her brow.
“What?” he yelled over his shoulder.
“What happened to you? Look at yourself! I thought you were Dean breaking in. Where did you go? Why do you look so young? Who is she?”
“I told you, I had to go back to Mike’s. Look, I am sorry I left in such a hurry this morning, but I am fine. She—” Jack motioned to where Valerie was sitting on the couch, “—is in the wrong damn place. I’ve got to get her back home.”
Valerie stood and greeted the woman of the house.
“Hi, I’m Valerie. I’m Mike Burton’s daughter. I’m sorry if I am intruding. I can go.” Sensing the tension between the two, Valerie turned to the door she had come in through. She guessed Alice was his wife and Valerie was not welcome.
“No. You sit down,” Jack commanded Valerie. He gestured Alice into the next room, but Valerie stayed standing.
In their attempt at privacy, Valerie could not help but overhear the conversation.
“You cut all power to the house, leave me here in the dark, and come back to bring a strange woman into our home? You expect me just to be okay?” Alice was having a harder time at keeping her voice down.
“This isn’t our home anymore. I don’t have time to explain all of this right now.”
“Can you at least explain to me why you look like a child?” she almost yelled.
“What are you talking about, woman?” Jack came back into the room with Alice in tow. He stopped at the mirror and grabbed the flashlight from her hand. When he did, the beam went dark. He handed the light back to her, and the ray returned. “Point it at me. Damned thing won’t work if I do it.”
“Why won’t the flashlight work, Jack? Can you please tell me what is happening around here?”
Jack stared into the mirror for a moment in silence. He tilted his head examining his reflection, doing the same facial stretches Valerie had done. He pulled a hand over his short trimmed blonde beard and laughed at himself. Then he lifted his shirt.
“You can hardly see my scar from ‘02.” He turned to Alice to show her. Valerie blushed and looked away, embarrassed to have noticed the definition of his abdomen even in the dim lighting. Alice cleared her throat giving a nod to Valerie. Jack lowered his shirt. He stared for a few more minutes trying to process his age regression. A grin spread across his face.
“Goodness, no wonder I feel amazing. Ha!”
“Well, then. How did this happen?”
“I think I did it,” Valerie spoke up, “at my dad’s house. It was an accident. I panicked while he was there and the—” she struggled to find a word to describe her ability, “—stuff spread to my dad, and I guess they both were affected. I woke up the same way this morning. I’m sorry. I’m still just as confused about all this.”
Alice huffed and disappeared into the other room and returned with a lighter. She lit another decorative candle and handed it to Valerie. “This will have to do.”
Jack vanished into the darkness of the hallway. The woman followed. Valerie sat down again on the couch. Having Alice at least acknowledge her eased her nerves but the voices in the other room continued to go back and forth. She was exhausted and had not eaten more than a few bites of food at her brother’s. She was also disoriented to time since she had given up on her watch earlier in the day. Jack reappeared with a medic bag like the one she had taken from Kevin’s house. He tossed the empty carrier down on the floor along with a few loose items: a tarp, a thin blanket, and a box of 5.56-millimeter bullets for her rifle.
“What’s on your leg, a .45?”
“Yes.” Valerie felt out of place as he left the room again. She felt all her regrets pull tight in her chest. She patted her legs. The panic took a harder grip on her. The lights came on, though still dim.
She found it harder to breathe continuing to pat around until she found the small pocket. She pulled out the photo she had taken from her father’s spare room. She focused on his face. Memorized it. Inhale, exhale. She had to keep herself together if she were to hold him again.
“Is he with Gia?”
The question jarred her. How did this man know so much about her? She nodded.
“This is a good idea,” Jack said pointing to the picture and looking around to ensure the episode was over. “You fight with everything you have until you make it back to your boy.”
“You know, Mike brags about you more than your brother,” Jack sighed. “I’ve known your pops for a long time. We served together at a training center in Louisiana in the late nineties. He saved my butt a few times. I owe him one.”
Valerie still had a hard time believing him. He looked so young, younger than her. She remembered living in Louisiana in middle school but did not recall ever meeting him. He would have looked then how he appeared to her now.
Alice’s sobs coming from down the hall broke her train of thought. Jack clenched his fists and leaned his head against the wall.
“I have to come with you. You’re an easy target traveling alone. We sent a messenger ahead to gather some people together. People we can trust. Since communications are down, they have no idea you’re here instead of Kevin. We can hope the crew will be there and willing to join us by the time we arrive.”
“Do you know what happened at my dad’s house? If you and my dad are so much older, why do you look younger than me?” She was still numb, not knowing how to mentally process what had happened. She could not wrap her mind around anything her father said about the electricity or why the CDC was so involved.
“I met up with your dad earlier in the day after we realized something was wrong and the planes went down. I left for a bit to touch base with another guy to gather the group together. When I got back to your dad’s place, the lights were flickering. The CDC trucks were already in the area, so I hurried and went in through the back door to warn Mike. I found him in the basement. He didn’t say much other than you were there instead of Kevin and needed my help. So, I waited for you outside. The lights got so bright I couldn’t look directly at the window. What I did see looked like electricity shooting from you to a hole you put in the wall. The Plexiglas melted, and the surge continued up the metal frame of the window well and into the ground.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head.
“But how was the electricity coming from me? Dad said we absorb energy.”
“I absorb energy. You’re something else,” he answered, maintaining his thoughtful stance. “Like your dad, I just chalked all this up as a fairytale and went on with life, not thinking the awakening would ever happen.”
Jack rambled on as Valerie fought to stay awake. When it was evident he was walking down memory lane without any more useful information, she surrendered to her need for rest and dozed off. Her mind and body were exhausted.
Valerie’s shoulder was shaken, startling her awake. Her eyes shot open, and she was ready to sprint. Instead of the threat she anticipated, Alice stood over her with two cups of coffee. Her eyes were swollen and raw from crying.
“I’m sorry you have to see me like this. Can you imagine how unfair this is to me to not be a part of all this? To watch others regain their youth, and here I am stuck in the same aging bag of skin?” Alice handed Valerie one of the cups and sat down next to her. The older woman sniffled and wiped her eyes with a wad of tissue. “I was young and pretty once. I’d eat a baby to have my youth back. Not really, but you know what I mean. Men used to look at me, talk to me, and buy me things. Now I don’t get a nod. No one bothers to hold the door anymore. Seems like society forgets about middle-aged women. I’m not a cougar; I’m like a tired old hag.” Alice laughed, and Valerie could smell the whiskey from the woman's coffee on her breath.
“I left my son with a nanny this morning. I live in Denver. I can’t use a car to get home or a phone to even call. I would age one-hundred years to get back to my son as soon as possible.” Valerie did not mean to be insensitive to the woman. Vanity seemed like a petty consideration in the grand scheme of things.
“I mean that you get to live again. Jack might be somewhat of an asshole, but he’ll get you where you need to go, but when you get there, and everything is right again, live your life. You got a second chance, don’t piss it away. Alright?”
Valerie nodded. She found comfort in her reassurance of Jack’s ability.
“We’re not married,” Alice said, motioning to Jack leaning against the wall with his own cup of coffee. “Anymore, anyway. This is, what, our third try at this?”
Jack nodded as if she had asked if he was having a good day. Like the failure was of normal conversation.
“We’re not young anymore. We’re both different people than before. There is nothing wrong with that. Jack is this way, with this Event, and I’m not.” She patted Valerie’s knee as she stood and went back down the hallway and closed a door.
Jack stood leaning against the wall, watching the exchange. Valerie sniffed her coffee to ensure there was no whiskey in her cup before taking a sip. Black and bitter. She took one more sip and set the mug down. She would give anything to be normal again. Fat, wrinkled. These things paled in comparison to being able to drive home. She could see her son within hours instead of days.
“Nap time’s over. Let’s go,” Jack said, then took a long drink of his coffee.
The sun was not quite up, but there was enough light to see around the room, and their gear staged by the front door.
Jack held up her pack so she could slip her arms in and take the load on herself. She buckled the waistband and another band across her chest to keep the shoulder straps in place. Jack wrapped the rifle in an olive green waterproof bag and secured the weapon to the side of her pack to not draw undue attention. Opening the front door with his cup of coffee in hand, he took a deep breath and exhaled with a long sigh. He let Valerie out the door and locked the deadbolt behind them.
The pace was agreeable, to her surprise, and she could not complain. Her body complied with the weight of the pack and the speed they moved. She considered this would prove to be an easy trip.
“This reminds me of doing ruck marches back in the day, the difference being my load is lighter and my shoes more appropriate. You couldn’t ask for better weather either. You might sweat a little, but the breeze keeps the heat manageable.”
Despite his gruff demeanor, Valerie could tell Jack was in high spirits. His attitude was contagious and kept her motivated, making the journey feel less daunting. They started through the neighborhood walking east, away from the mountains. As the road came to an incline, their pace slowed a bit.
“Where are we going? I’m not complaining, just trying to get an idea of how far we’ll be traveling.”
Jack raised a hand to cut her off. He stopped and studied the road. CDC trucks moved slowly with the regular traffic of those unaffected by the Event. He continued through the neighborhood instead of down the main street.
“We are going about twenty miles north of here. There is more traffic than I thought there would be,” Jack said.
“When I was walking to my dad’s, I watched the CDC clear the roads to move the trucks through. They pushed them onto the shoulder to make way for traffic. Everyone else just drove on the median or the shoulder to get around the stalled cars. There are so many left abandoned still. How many people do you think they took?”
He shrugged and tossed her an energy bar. She choked down the sticky, chalky mass with water. Before long, the overpass to the highway was in view, and they could break from the road. They continued under the highway and turned left into a city park.
“We can take a break here if you need to. We’ve covered about five miles in an hour and a half,” Jack said over his shoulder, continuing his pace. “From here, we’ll stick to the creek bed until the path ends. We aren’t going to
be the only ones with the idea, but we’ll be safer than if we keep to the road. I doubt they are hunting the homeless or degenerates for quarantine, anyway.”
“We can keep going,” she said as she followed him down to a footpath running the course of the creek for as far as she could see. “Twenty miles is not far out of town. I don’t know if a GPS would be helpful or depressing at this point. Puts a perspective on things when an hour drive translates into days of walking.”
Down the creek in the opposite direction, two tents were set up, but with no signs of inhabitants. The footpath along the stream took them to another city park where they sat for their first break. The two settled at a concrete picnic table and dropped their loads to stretch. They shared salami and crackers. She studied him again in the light of day. Though he looked young, he also looked angry all the time, even as he ate. He was, however, handsome with his heavy brow and square jaw.
“Do you have any other family?” Valerie asked after five minutes of eating in silence.
“Dean, my son. Spitting image of me,” Jack spoke between bites.
“Is he a part of all of this too?” Valerie asked, making conversation and hoping to learn more about her guide.
“His mom and I were just in high school. I went away to join the army, to give them a life. When I got back from my second deployment, neither of them wanted anything to do with me. Dean grew up without a dad most of his life and decided he wanted to keep it that way. Until he got really bad into heroin. All of a sudden, he wanted to reconnect. He just had nowhere else to go. You know, I honestly thought I could fix him. I’ve led kids younger than him into gunfights that lasted days and brought them safely back home. You’d think I could raise my own kid.”
“Did he at least get help?”
Apparent Power: DiaZem Trilogy Book One Page 5
