by Nate Phelps
I rolled my eyes and ignored him. We continued to bump along through the forest and I leaned against the window. Without meaning to, I drifted off into a deep sleep.
Later, I was bumped awake as the car came to a stop. I popped up and rubbed the part of my face that had been against the window. “We’re here? Do I need to get my permits?”
Ricky looked back at me. “We’re stopping for the night.”
“Stopping? What do you mean?” I looked out and saw the silhouettes of tree tops contrasting the fading light.
“Boss man Johnny stopped the caravan for a couple hours,” Ricky explained. “We’re gonna camp out.”
My heart jumped out of my chest. “WHAT?”
“Whoa, take it easy…”
“We were supposed to go straight through!”
He held up his hands. “Hey, I’m just driving.”
I clutched the seat. This couldn’t be happening. What had Johnny been doing that was so important we couldn’t make it to Sanitatem?
“It’s not a big deal,” said Ricky. “It happens sometimes.”
I didn’t answer, still rooted to my seat.
“You want a taco? I make the best freaking tacos anywhere. Literally anywhere.”
I relaxed slightly. “Really? They actually good?”
“The best. Madre’s secret recipe.”
“Yeah, okay. Sure.”
Ricky set up a fire in the middle of the caravan. He boiled a large pot of meat and beans and busted out the tortillas. I kept glancing at the trees around us, but I slowly began to feel safer as I was soon surrounded by dozens of hungry vendors.
Most of them seemed to know Ricky and there was a good deal of jostling for position as the line formed. I jumped in before it got too long. To my surprise, Johnny showed up. He skipped the line and Ricky handed him a plate, seemingly accustomed to this procedure. There were no grumbles from the others. I was apparently the only one annoyed by his cutting.
When I got my plate, I noticed Johnny sitting by himself, his back against a truck. He seemed content to be alone. No one tried to include him or even attempted to talk. Everyone respected him and appreciated his presence, but they were too intimidated to approach him. It seemed lonely. I got more than a few surprised looks when I sat down next to him.
He didn’t bother looking at me. “Don’t I see you enough?”
“Why’d you stop the caravan?”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot the trees freak you out.” He chuckled. “I was scouting for Dr. Henry. You can leave now.”
“Don’t you have any friends?”
He gave me a sideways glance. “I’ve had enough friends for twelve lifetimes. The concept has lost its appeal.”
“You don’t seem to mind the fan club.”
“What is this? Why are you psychoanalyzing me?”
“I dunno,” I shrugged. “I just figured that we’ve been stuck together for nine months and we’ve never talked. Not for long, anyway. Maybe we could make the rest of my time a little more pleasant.”
“Oh yes, please. Can we weave friendship bracelets too?”
“Sure. You can tell me what it was like way back when. What was baby Johnny like?”
“You wouldn’t understand the past. None of you know what it was like. You speak about my so-called fan club in Midhaven. Don’t make me laugh. It used to be that everyone in the world knew my name.”
I hadn’t actually expected to get him talking, but I wasn’t going to interrupt him now.
“I was the strongest one, you know?” he continued. “When it all began, I had the best response to the serum. I’d go to LA, New York, Vegas, and the streets would be packed. They would wait out there for days when they knew I was coming.”
I knew the names of these cities, but not much about them. “It’s too bad that scientist guy went crazy and made the Crawlers.”
“Shut up!”
I nearly dropped my plate at his outburst. His eyes ignited and he waved his finger in front of me. “Edward did not go crazy. All the stories are crap. Do you really think that he would have created the serum, made all of us, and then gone on to make the Crawlers for no reason?”
“Oh, uh…” I didn’t know how to respond. “Yeah, kinda. Wasn’t he nuts?”
“You’re a fool. No one knows him like we did. Nobody wants to understand. They just want someone to blame.”
“What do you think happened, then?”
“I don’t know. It was someone else’s fault. Some sort of freak accident. One day things were fine, and then the next we were overrun by monsters. We didn’t have time to trace it back to the source. It wasn’t Edward, though. He was one of the first to die. Why would he want that?”
“What did you do?”
He spared me another annoyed look. “Huh?”
“When the Crawlers started multiplying. Before you helped found Midhaven.”
He laughed coldly. “I was running with everyone else. Sure, I tried fighting at first, we all did. It wasn’t like it is now. There were thousands of them… tens of thousands. They could wipe out an entire city in minutes. We stayed and fought and lost. There were too few of us. We started falling. My best friends, my wife… dead.”
I tried to imagine the world having hundreds of Sentinels like it used to back then. What must have that been like? Only three had survived that we knew of. Johnny in Midhaven, Riker in Sanitatem, and Radon in Lutosa.
“What does it matter to you, Cleaner?” Johnny growled. “You don’t even know what it is you’ve lost. No one else saw the world crumble before their eyes.”
Johnny stood and went to dispose of his plate, before disappearing. I regretted bringing up the conversation. It hadn’t seemed to improve our relationship as I’d hoped.
At that moment, I felt the call of the wild. I rushed over to Ricky. “Where does a guy relieve himself around here?”
“Pick a tree,” he said as he filled a tortilla and handed it away.
I hesitated and looked at the edge of the forest. The light was fading and the interior was dark.
“You scared?” asked Ricky.
“No,” I lied. Maybe I could hold it till the next morning.
My body quickly told me that it wouldn’t be a good idea. I walked away before Ricky could make fun of me and hesitantly left the circle of vehicles. When I reached the trees, I stopped.
“Want me to come with you?” yelled Ricky. This was accompanied by a few chuckles from those around him.
I took several confident strides into the forest, muttering to myself. “Stupid Ricky. Fear is a healthy emotion. How dare I be afraid of flesh-eating monsters!”
A stick snapped behind me and I whirled around. Several birds fluttered away, startled by my sudden movements. I let out a relieved breath. Maybe this was good for me. This could help me conquer my fear of the forests. Maybe they were safe now.
I moved just a bit deeper into the woods so that no one could see me from the caravan. There had been quite enough embarrassment for one day. When I got back to Midhaven, I’d have to tell Sarah how Johnny had stranded us. I’d think of some good embellishments to make the story exciting.
The bed of leaves in front of me bulged without warning. I fell over, a scream stuck in the back of my throat. Two slender, white hands pierced the soggy covering just a few feet from me, and pushed against the ground. A head emerged. It was pale and narrow. Two slits split open revealing eyes that were completely black. Its mouth was cavernous and it let out a moan that started low, before gradually rising in pitch.
I regained control of my faculties and scrambled away. Just before I reached the edge of the trees, another shape burst up out of the underbrush in front of me. I skidded to a stop and swung to the left. They were herding me deeper into the forest.
“JOHNNY!” I bellowed as loud as I could.
I screamed his name several more times as I dodged through the dark branches that reached out to grab me. The sound of crackling dead leaves was close behind.
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“Not so loud,” said a voice next to me.
I cried out and spun to see a bearded man leaning against a tree. He chuckled as I landed on my butt and scooted away. In his hand he was holding a small black device. He pressed it and series of clicking sounds emanated from a speaker attached to his arm. The two pale creatures that had been pursuing me, stopped several feet away. He clicked it again and the sounds changed slightly. They headed away from our camp and disappeared. The man lifted a finger to his lips and then gave me a mocking wave before he turned and was gone.
The ground jumped and I was thrown to my side. There was a loud crash as a nearby tree splintered and tumbled to the earth. Johnny appeared and swept aside another tree to get to me. Dirt pelted my face as I struggled to get to my feet.
“What’s going on?” he barked.
“Crawlers!” I pointed where the creatures had disappeared.
Johnny grabbed me and sprang up and out of the forest. My stomach remained on the ground as we made a graceful arc out of the forest and down into the camp. He dropped me off and then went back.
“What’s going on?” asked Ricky, rushing up to me. “You were waking the dead with those screams, bro!”
“Crawlers in the woods,” I gasped.
Ricky’s eyes widened, and there were alarmed shouts from others who overheard. The camp became a bustle of movement as swords were drawn and camp was broken down. Ricky removed his pot from the fire and several people lit torches. I ran back to our car and realized I’d left my sword at home. Hanging out with Johnny too much had made me complacent. I pulled on Shania, thinking I could maybe use my foam gun to slow down the monsters if I had to. Who knew how effective it would be?
A large, gruff man approached me. I recognized him as one of the dairy vendors. “You sure of what you saw, boy?”
“Yes.”
He seemed dubious.
We came together in the center of camp and waited for Johnny to return.
“This is a bad idea,” I told Ricky, who was nearby. He had two pistols, which was surprising. “We should pack up and go. Johnny can take care of himself.”
There was no sound coming from the forest. The same vendor approached me with a couple others.
“Tell us exactly what happened,” he said.
I quickly told them about my near-death experience, lifting my voice higher as others around me turned to listen.
“I don’t get it,” said the dairy worker. “You saw some guy is in the woods playing with the Crawlers? What are you talking about?”
“Look,” I said, my body shaking with frustration. “I’m just telling you what I saw. I’ve no idea what’s going on.”
Others started asking me questions and barking out their own opinions about what they thought had happened. I was incredulous that they didn’t believe me. What reason did I have to lie?
“Okay, fine!” I snapped. “Maybe I imagined the guy. There was definitely something in there that was chasing me.”
“He’s changing his story,” said someone.
“Everyone, calm down,” said Ricky. “I know this guy. He’s no liar.”
I gave him a grateful look as they grumbled and went back to watching the perimeter of the forest. An icy hand grabbed my heart as I imagined pale bodies rushing out of the woods, howling and biting.
We waited for what seemed an eternity. Johnny finally emerged and landed nearby. He shrugged at me. “There’s nothing. It must have been a bear or a wolf.”
“I knew it,” said the dairy vendor. The crowd began to disperse.
“I know what I saw.” I approached Johnny, talking lower. “It was right in front of me. Black eyes, pale skin… just like they describe them. I saw one when I was a kid.”
“I thought you said you don’t remember your childhood,” said Johnny, looking annoyed. “Wasn’t there some sort of trauma?”
Several vendors who had stuck around laughed, and I felt an overwhelming anxiousness as I realized they weren’t going to believe me.
“They were there,” I hissed. “I’m not lying.”
“I know you’re terrified of them,” said Johnny, his voice impassive. “The last thing I need is you freaking everyone out.”
I looked around at the others. They were wandering back to their dinners and their nightly preparations. My face burned with shame. Ricky was still waiting nearby. He shrugged at me.
“Fine,” I said. “Maybe you’re right.”
Johnny wandered away without another word.
I didn’t participate in anything else that night, but locked myself in the car until the next morning.
Chapter 5
Finally, we emerged from the forest, and Sanitatem rose up into view. It was smaller than Midhaven, but the fortifications were even heavier than our own. The city had two walls instead of one, so that those defending could retreat to the higher one if overrun. These two walls were separated by a moat that served as both a defense and the city’s main source of water. They’d somehow connected it to an underground aqueduct.
The process of getting through both gates, over the bridge, and stamping each permit took a while. Johnny just jumped over the top.
Once we got past security, I messaged Sam to let her know I’d arrived. Ricky took me downtown and kicked me out of the vehicle.
“Have fun, bro!” he yelled over his shoulder as I pulled my bag out. “Don’t come back without a girlfriend.”
He gunned the accelerator and the door slammed shut as he sped off. I shook my head and took in the city around me. Sanitatem had a bright, comfortable feeling about it. The streets and buildings were clean, and there were few vehicles in the city. Many streets were dedicated to the markets. It was a city of healers and tailors who traded in medicine and clothing. I saw a shop nearby where they sold strips of cloth in about any color I could imagine. Ricky had no doubt gone off to find somewhere he could set up his taco stand.
I made my way through the market. When I got out to the other side, I stopped as my gaze came to rest on one of the larger buildings. Near the top, there was a gaping hole the size of a car. It was covered with a transparent tarp that puffed in and out like a lung.
“Holy…! How did that happen?”
Just then, I noticed a distant figure that was descending towards me from a nearby building. Sam grinned widely as she landed and shut her jetpack down.
“Kleiner!” she yelled, her arms spread wide. “You’re here!”
“I am,” I laughed.
Sam was a year or so older than me with curly brown hair and a face that turned into a heart shape every time she smiled.
She wrapped me in an embrace. “You don’t know my struggles.”
“I assume there have been some issues?” I pointed at the building before us.
She scratched her head and grinned sheepishly. “I don’t suppose we have time to practice?”
“Maybe later. I need to get my permits approved at your office before we meet up with Riker and Johnny.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Sam scoffed. “We have plenty of time.”
She led me up to the rooftops where we could avoid any casualties besides ourselves. I was surprised and pleased to find out she’d taken the initiative to create some paper targets. We set them up in different areas such as the top of antennas and dangling from power lines. As we came back down, Shania burped, causing me to overshoot my landing a bit.
“Do you want a different jetpack?” asked Sam. “I’m sure I could get you one. Everyone loves you here.”
“No, no,” I said adamantly. “Shania’s just restless.”
“You named it Shania?”
“It’s a good name. She’s sassy.”
Sam laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Oh yeah? What’d you name yours?”
Her smile disappeared. “Rex.”
“Ha!”
“Shut up, you’re supposed to be teaching me.”
Sam helped me set up my gear. Hers was a
lready in place with a yellowish dye in her foam as opposed to my deep purple. I knew yellow was her favorite color, but it was a terrible choice. When she fired, it looked like she was spraying giant boogers.
“I get the concept behind what you’ve taught me,” she said, checking her own foam gun. “It’s just aiming this stupid thing. The shots never go where I want them to.”
“Go ahead and show me.”
She took aim toward a target leaning against the lip of the roof. I immediately noticed several issues as she sighted down the barrel, squeezing tightly with both hands. She pumped the trigger and the gun jumped. The orb of yellow foam sailed over the edge. We hurried over to watch it fall towards the street below.
Sam winced as several people screamed. “Eesh. At least it didn’t hit anyone.”
“Let’s go again,” I said.
Her next few attempts weren’t much better.
“The kickback makes it jump,” I explained. “You have to compensate. Also, don’t look down the barrel like that. I didn’t make any notch for a reason. It won’t go where you’re looking. As you keep practicing, you’ll get a feel for it. It’s not the most accurate thing in the world, but the larger projectiles make up for that.”
She bit her tongue in concentration and fired several more shots. One nicked the corner of the target. Her hands shot up in triumph. “Whoo!”
She accidentally pulled the trigger. We dodged out of the way as a ball of foam splatted on the roof. I gave her a look and she grinned back at me.
We moved from target to target and her accuracy gradually increased.
“Excellent!” I said as she knocked off the last one. “I’m rarely stationary when I’m firing, though. Maybe we should try a sequence.”
“Yes, that’s what I was thinking,” Sam nodded. “What’s a sequence?”
“I’ll show you.”
I set up some more targets. Sam backed away as I revved Shania. I took a deep breath and then opened up the throttle, allowing her to yank me off the ground. My first hit the target dead-center. Sam whooped excitedly as I banked around towards the next. The wall of foam smacked the paper and pulled it off the power line. I slowed and fired two quick shots towards the last one on the ground near Sam. They slopped over the target, covering it completely.
