Against The Darkness (Cimmerian Moon) (26 page)

I squeal. “My
mother!”

If they’re
taking us to a clinic or infirmary, then I know my mother will be there.

“Let’s see how
you feel about seeing her when you see the number of immunizations she has to
give you,” Rocky says.

“Mom!” Just as
the word is leaving my mouth, I take off for her.

She opens her
arms to catch me in a tight hug. “My Shu-Shu,” she cries out, as I slam into
her.

“I didn’t
believe Eric when he told me you were here.”

I wrap my arms
so tightly around her, planning to never let go again. I can’t stop crying and
neither can she. I melt into her hold. My hands grip the back of her shirt. Energy
seems to burst off of me like fireworks. Nothing else matters in the world.

She rains
kisses on the top of my head and my forehead. “My baby, my baby,” she cries
over and over again.

“I found you,”
I mumble, as tears roll down my cheeks and fall onto her. I inhale a deep
breath, she smells just like I remember.

I’m home.

Wherever she
is, its home.

“Hi, Ms.
Allen,” Mia says.

My mom lets go
of me with one arm, only to pull Mia into our embrace. “Mia, honey. I’m so glad
to see you.”

Mia sandwiches
me to hug my mother and I. “It’s nice to see you too,” she says between
sniffles.

I feel Mia
crying onto my shoulder and I glance up at my mom. I want to tell her that Mia
can’t find her family, but I think she already knows. She places a kiss on Mia’s
head and pulls her in a little closer. “I have both of my favorite girls
again.”

I unhook one
of my arms from around my mom to hold onto Mia. To everyone else, I know we
must look like a tangled mess, but I feel just right.

My mother uses
a shoulder to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Who are your friends?”

I peer over to
the group of people that I owe my life to, trying to see them through my mother’s
eyes.

There’s Ms.
Burgess, who appears withered and worn. She’s younger than my mom, but she has
more wrinkles on her face than I’ve noticed before. I try to remember her as
she was. She had been the new teacher who always deferred to her elders, Mrs.
Franklin and Mr. Steinberg. The teacher who came to us unsure and untested.
Now, new wrinkles and all, she stands tall and sure of herself. But there’s no
mistaking the sorrow that reflects in her eyes for all of the students she wasn’t
able to save.

Ms. Burgess has
her hands gripping onto Masana’s shoulders, as though she never intends to let
her go. Masana doesn’t seem to mind. In honesty, she doesn’t really show any
emotion at all. We’ve all been through hell but Masana, I think, has been
through the worst of it. I don’t say this because she appears to be severely
underweight or because of the infected sores on her face. I think this because
of the way she watches my mother and I. Her eyes are vacant and that scares me.
I don’t know if we’ve found her too late, but I do know that it’ll take a while
for us to bring her soul back from whatever dark place it resides.

Wade stands
next to Ms. Burgess. He’s a lot thinner than he was when we left camp. No one
could ever call him the fat kid. He’s got muscles under those clothes that have
been overworked for weeks. Just over forty days ago, he was a shy kid who kept
mostly to himself. He changed to become our rock, keeping us calm and organized
on our journey.
The kiss he gave me yesterday has forced me to view
him with new eyes. I have a hard time putting him squarely back into that
friend category. I’m not sure why and, oddly, I’m not sure if I even want to.

MJ, my friend,
has his head down, trying to hide his tears. I know that he cries because he’s
happy that I’ve found my mother and I also know that he cries for his own family
and because Shayla isn’t here to see our journey end. I would have never
guessed that the jock with the heartbreaker good looks and promising future of
fortune and fame would have a heart as pure as gold. He has been my calming
force in the storm, someone whom I can share my thoughts with. Or that he would
be the one who, more than once, had brought me back from my crazy place, and I
would bring him back from his. We are two peas in a pod, having more in common
than I would have ever thought.

Ian has his
hands thrust into his pockets. At first glance he appears like the old Ian. Cocky
and cool, the Ian I remember from school. But after a bumpy start, he has shown
he isn’t the self-absorbed kid I had once pegged him for. Only one thing remains
a constant from those old high-school days; he loves my best friend. He watches
her now and I know he’s restraining himself from going to her side to offer his
comforting embrace. He can’t stand to see her cry.

Jasmine is the
only outsider in our group and I think even my mother would be able to pick up
on this. While everyone else is so close together that they’re practically
touching, she has wandered off and has begun to inspect the items in the
infirmary. Every now and then she glances over at us to see what’s going on or
what we might be talking about. But I don’t know what her plans are. Even after
being found, she still appears to be lost. She is looking for something, what I
don’t know, and I’m not sure if she does either.

And then there
is Jason. The man that fought so hard not to follow in his father’s footsteps,
but does it without thinking. He is righteous and courageous. From that very
first night when he saved my life, I have held a flicker of an emotion for him so
strong I can’t use words to describe it. Even with dirt on his clothes and
skin, and his hair so long that he has to pin it behind his ears, he appears to
be in charge. Without Jason we would not have made it. I know this with
everything in me. I have tried to tell myself over and over again that his
commitment to seeing us home is the reason why I feel the way I do. But that
would be a lie.

Winston trots over
to us and nudges against my mom’s leg.

“A dog! You
have a dog.”

I clear my
throat and, with pride, I say, “This is my family. Without them I wouldn’t have
made it.” Ms. Burgess’ breath hitches and she puts a hand over her chest, as I
begin to introduce them each by name.

“I don’t know
how to ever thank you,” my mother says to Ms. Burgess. Then she looks at
everyone. “All of you. You’ve brought my baby to me.” She turns to Winston and
give him a pet on the head. “And you too.”

* * * * *

The exams don’t
take long. We’re all underweight and dehydrated, but my mother promises that it’s
nothing that food and water won’t cure. She gives us all a round of antibiotics
and cleans Masana’s wounds. Anxious to explore our new home, we beg her to take
us on a tour instead of our assigned rooms.

It’s late and
mostly everyone is asleep, my mother explains, as she leads us to the mess
hall. What holds my attention is how large this compound is. We walk through
mazes of cement hallways that lead to rooms and more hallways. It would have
taken someone almost a lifetime of dedication to build something like this. We
pass only a few people on the way and my mother stops and introduces us. The
people we meet are genuinely happy and welcome us. They seem more surprised to
see Winston than they do us.

We enter the
mess hall, and the first thing that I notice is the smell. It smells like food
and it smells divine. If I weren’t underground I would think I was in a regular
cafeteria, minus windows. The lights lining the ceiling make the room bright
and cheery. There’s cafeteria-style tables set out in rows. On the far side of
the room there’s another, larger table that doesn’t have the benches attached.
I assume that table is used to hold food.

A man comes
through a swinging door from the left side of the room. He’s got his hands full
with plastic plates and silverware. He’s an older man, with grey hair and a big
build. And although we’re inside, he’s wearing camouflage and boots. As soon as
he sees us, his face beams into a warm and inviting smile.

“Ah! You
finally made it,” he says.

“Everybody,
this is Dave Bryant. He and his wife Jillian helped Rocky build this place,” my
mom explains.

He puts down
the items on one of the tables and comes to greet us with an extended hand. He
shakes each of our hands, asking our names. “I’m glad to have you here.” He
leans down and scratches Winston behind the ear. “Nice to have you here too,
big fella.”

“You did all
this?” Ian asks turning around and taking everything in.

“Well, not by
my own hands. We hired contractors to get most of the work done.”

“But how did
you know the aliens would come?” Wade asks. “The government didn’t even know.”

Dave shakes
his head. “An alien invasion was only one of the things we were planning for.
We wanted to survive against anything that came our way, invasion by aliens or
world war, contaminant outbreak, Armageddon.” He shrugs. “Anything.”

“I’m glad you
did,” I say. “And I’m glad you opened your doors to my mother and to us.”

“How could I
turn your mother down? We had planned for everything except for medical help.”
He chuckles deep. “Not as smart as we thought we were. So when we bumped into
your mother, it was a no-brainer. But she did have one catch though.”

“What was
that?” I ask.

He smiles warmly,
as he looks down at me. “She would only help us if her daughter would be
allowed to come into the community too.”

I squeeze my
mother’s hand. She knew I would make it back to her. “Thank you. I hope we aren’t
a burden to you.”

“No, we
welcome you with open arms. This place can hold thirty-five people comfortably
and right now we’re at twenty-six with you all.”

“Glad we made
the cut,” Wade says.

Dave nods and
then hollers out. “Jilly-bear, they’re here. Come on out.”

The woman that
I assume is Jillian comes from a back room. She’s wearing an apron and her
white hair is pulled into a bun. She has the same warm smile on her face as her
husband. And she smells wonderful. The closer she comes, the better she smells,
until finally she hugs me and I never want to let her go. I let the smell of
bread and cake waft over me.

“Come, come,”
she exclaims, pulling me toward the table. “Have a seat. I started cooking as
soon as Rocky told me we had visitors.”

We don’t waste
any time taking seats. Jason takes a seat next to me and my mother stands
behind my chair and begins to put my hair in a braid. Dave puts a hand on his
wife’s shoulder and says, “They aren’t visitors, they’re family.”

I look up at my
mom and smile.

We’re home
.

“I’m
starving,” MJ says. He picks up his spoon and fork and assesses them, as if he’s
never seen them before.

Jillian
laughs. “I thought you would be. Rocky told me you all started off in
Tallahassee, Florida. That’s a long ways away from here.” She shakes her head
in disbelief. “That’s cause for a special meal, so I got permission from Papa Bear
here and tonight you all get to dine on steak and potatoes, macaroni and cheese
and a chocolate cake for dessert.”

I think I might
die on the spot. “Oh. My. God.”

Jason leans
back in his seat. “Somebody pinch me. I think this must be heaven.”

“Shut the
front door!” Jasmine yells out.

Wade and MJ
give each other high-fives.

Mia leans over
and kisses her plate and then kisses Ian.

“That’s the
reaction I was hoping for.” Jillian chuckles. “I even have something special
for the pooch. Venison and a nice fat bone.”

“Thanks, he’ll
love that.”

“I bet he
will.” She turns and goes back through the door she came in from.

“Is this how
you guys eat every day?” Jason asks Dave.

Dave takes an
empty seat. “Of course not. We’d go hungry before the year is out. We only eat
what we need. We’re at war. We try to stay to a fifteen-hundred calorie a day
diet. If we’re going to outlast the aliens, we have to be smart about our food
supply.”

“We brought
some food with us,” I say. “We gave our bags to Rocky. We have some canned
goods and food pellets that I got from the aliens. The pellets don’t look like
much, but when you eat one and take a drink of water they expand in your
stomach and make you really full.”

My mom’s
fingers stop moving in my hair. “What do you mean? How did you get anything
from the aliens?”

“Sinta and I
were caught,” Jasmine blurts out. “That’s how we met. We had a one-way ticket
to the alien mother ship.”

I glare at
Jasmine, willing her to choke on her tongue.

My mother let
out a painful gasp. “They…they caught you?”

I swing my
legs around on the bench so that I can hold onto her. “I’m okay now. Don’t worry
about something that I survived.”

“But you could
have been taken away,” she says breathlessly, her body shaking.

“I know, but I
wasn’t,” I say, confidently.

“How did you
escape from them?” Dave asks. “I haven’t heard of anyone getting away once they’ve
been caught.

I glance over at
MJ. “My friends didn’t leave me behind. They hatched up a stupid plan for MJ to
get caught too. But he came packing grenades. We blew them to smithereens and
got away.”