Awake (2 page)

Kevin said hesitantly, “Brad, come on…wake
up already. This is getting ridiculous.”

Then, as Kevin stared at Brad, an idea
popped in his head—a strange idea…one that was impossible. It was
totally unrealistic, like something out of a bad horror flick.
Kevin thought,
What if he couldn’t wake up?

As he pondered over this concept, he began
recalling simple things. His mom didn’t leave the lunch bag on the
table like she usually did. And the whole way they walked to
school, they did not see a car, or a single person other than
Katie. He wondered about the implications. It was a ludicrous idea
to be sure, but could it be true? What if everyone was asleep…and
couldn’t wake up?

Kevin knitted his brow, biting his nail
nervously.

“What’s wrong?” asked Andrew.

Kevin barked, “Come on! We’re going home
right now!”

Kevin raced down the street, wanting to know
if it was possible. Could his parents still be sleeping in bed? He
prayed to God that it was all just his wild imagination. Andrew
struggled to keep up, his heavy book bag bouncing up and down his
back as he ran.

When they reached their block, the two boys
ran to their homes. Kevin sprinted to the master bedroom and kicked
the door open. Breathless, he stood at the doorsill, gulping air.
After he caught his breath, he straightened up and gaped at the
bed. His mother and father were still asleep. Kevin stooped over
the side of their bed.

Confused, he pinched their cheeks, hoping
they’d be annoyed. He shook them, hoping they’d be angry. He cried
out the most profane things possible, hoping they’d scold him. They
did nothing.

His eyes wide open, he gazed at them for
several minutes, until he finally broke down.

A bad dream
.
This has got to be a
bad dream!

Tears pouring down his cheeks, Kevin
squatted by the side of the bed. He wondered if they would ever
wake up. Then he wondered if he would wake up from this nightmare.
He covered his damp eyes with his hands and screamed his lungs out.
He kept screaming and screaming until his voice cracked. Was this
the end of the world? He had no idea. But to him, it sure felt like
it.

Kevin and Andrew sat down at the curb. They
just sat there, as if nothing happened—or as if nothing was ever
going to happen. Just a moment before, Kevin had gone to check up
on Andrew to see how his mother was doing, but Andrew had simply
replied with a solemn shake of his head. Their fears were
confirmed. Everyone was asleep…and there was nothing they could do
about it.

Kevin stared morosely at the road. Andrew
fell back on the lawn and gazed at the sky.

After a long period of contemplation, Andrew
broke the silence. “What should we do?”

“I don’t know,” Kevin replied. “We could
wait. It might be temporary. Like maybe everyone is just
incredibly
tired and they’ll be awake by tomorrow.”

“That’d be good.”

“And that’d be an understatement.”

“Could we try calling someone else? Maybe
this is just a neighborhood thing.”

Kevin’s face lit up. “I never thought of
that!”

Kevin hastily dialed 9-1-1 on his cell. He
listened to it ring for a while. Kevin counted the number of times
it rang. If it reached twenty, he would hang up. To his surprise,
it didn’t even reach five.

“Hello?” A woman answered.

“Hello!” Kevin jumped to his feet. “Hey! Is
this 9-1-1 emergency?”

“I’m terribly sorry,” said the woman,
sounding frightened. “But we cannot help you at this time. Please
try calling back at a later date.”

“Wait! My parents aren’t waking up. I think
it’s a coma. Hello?”

“Again, I’m terribly sorry. But there’s…no
one around at the moment. Goodbye.”

“No, wait! Don’t goodbye me! We need—”

The woman hung up rather quickly.

Andrew stared at Kevin. “Well?”

Disheartened, Kevin threw his cell phone
over his shoulder and sat back down. “She said there’s no one
around and told me to call back later.”

Andrew yawned. “Back to square one.”

Kevin became very quiet and went back to
staring at the road, emotionless.

Andrew hummed a single note. “Want to play
video games?”

Kevin turned slightly to see Andrew with the
corner of his eye. “At a time like this?”

Andrew shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like
there’s anything else to do. No school. No homework. No life.
Nothing at all.”

Kevin thought for a moment. “True…but we
could also do other things—things we normally can’t do.”

“Like what?”

Kevin grinned. “Like driving!”

Andrew’s interest was piqued. “Do you know
how?”

“I practiced in a parking lot recently.
Besides, the roads are empty. It’ll be easy.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to drive if you’re
tired?”

“You’re right,” said Kevin. “I’ll take a nap
first. After we get some rest then we can do whatever we want.”

“You don’t think…” Andrew stopped and
gulped.

Kevin demanded, “What?”

Andrew took a deep breath before continuing.
“You don’t think we’ll end up like everyone else?”

“I don’t know.” Kevin shrugged. “I don’t
think so.”

“That’s a big risk to take,” said Andrew
reasonably. “Never waking up again.”

“But we have to sleep sometime. It’s not
like we can just stay awake forever.”

Andrew said, “So…if we don’t sleep, we might
die from lack of sleep. But if we do sleep, we’ll never wake up and
will probably die in our sleep.”

Kevin frowned. “You make it sound so
depressing.”

Andrew hung his head sheepishly. “Sorry. I
didn’t mean to.”

“Don’t apologize,” said Kevin. “You’re just
stating the facts.” Kevin stood up, stretching out his arms and
legs. “I don’t care anymore. Depressed or not, we have to do
something!” He smiled. “Going to sleep to escape this nightmare.
Oh, the irony.” Kevin marched up the driveway.

A man’s voice said, “Hold it right
there.”

It wasn’t Andrew’s voice.

“Who said that?” Kevin spun around,
searching the area. “Is someone else here?”

Suddenly, a dog and cat appeared before him,
blocking the way to his house. It was the same dog and cat from
before: the yellow Labrador and the black cat. The Lab was blind in
the left eye, having a scar over it. The cat glared at the boys
with intense eyes. Both pets looked intimidating.

“I said that,” said the dog.

Kevin froze. It was like his mind suddenly
exploded. He gawked at the animals for a long time. Then, when he
finally regained his composure, he turned to see Andrew’s reaction.
Andrew looked just as shocked. Kevin faced the animals again,
thinking of any possible explanations for this strange
occurrence.

Kevin broke into laughter. “Oh, that’s a
good one, Andrew. You’ve been practicing ventriloquism?”

The dog jumped on top of Kevin and barked,
“Kid, can’t you see I’m the one who’s talking here?”

“Okay…maybe I’m hallucinating.”

The dog said, “This is no hallucination. Do
you want me to prove it?”

“How?”

“Give me a test. I’ll prove that I can
understand you.”

“Um…okay. For starters, you could get off
me.”

The dog backed away and sat down. “And?”

Kevin got to his feet and thought about it
for a short time. Then he finally came up with a good idea. “I’ve
got it. How about an act? If you can act like the cat is chasing
you around, then I’ll believe you.”

The dog gazed wide-eyed at Kevin. “You want
me to do what?”

“Act like you’re being chased by a cat.”

“I-I don’t—I can’t—” The dog stuttered.
Shivering, the dog slowly turned his head and stared at the cat in
horror. He then stared at Kevin with these endearing eyes full of
anxiety. The dog looked as though it was about to cry and maybe
even faint. Kevin saw that the dog was reacting really
strangely.

Gloating, the cat sneered in a female voice,
“Come on, run away! You heard the boy!”

“No, that’s okay,” said Kevin, and the dog
took a deep breath of relief. “If it’s a matter of pride, I can
understand. I just want to know how you can talk.”

The dog said, “We’ve lived long enough with
humans.”

“Then why don’t I normally see animals
talking?”

“We already have our own forms of
communication. We only need to speak human language if we’re
speaking to humans. Or if we need to communicate universally.”

Kevin nodded. “I guess you have a point
there. But why do you guys sometimes act like you don’t really
understand us?”

The dog explained, “It is our law not to
speak with humans. How much more trouble would be caused if we
could communicate easily? We don’t care about the things you care
about. You work, you invent, and you engage in strange forms of
recreation such as traveling or…leaping off airplanes. Your laws
and rules mean nothing to us.

“Think about it. What if we did speak with
humans? In crime scenes they’d start to look for animal witnesses.
They might try to use us for spying or killing. They might even
start applying laws against us and we’d no longer have the freedom
to go wherever we want, eat whatever we want or pee wherever we
want. No, it’s better if the humans did not know.

“More importantly, we live by instinct. How
would you react if you knew that the chicken you ate could speak
your own language? As animals we are in tune with nature and live
by nature. We accept death as inevitable, but you humans see it in
a different light, trying to create ways to increase your lifespan
in any way possible.”

Kevin furrowed his brow. “I’ll never look at
a piece of chicken the same way again.” Kevin paused. “If it’s
against your law, why are you talking to me?”

The dog replied gravely, “Because these are
desperate times. Humans all over the world cannot wake up from
their slumber. We are not sure why, but we don’t think it’s
natural. It’s because of this situation that we’ve formed the HPC,
which we are agents of.”

“Agents? HPC? So is this like an
organization with animal agents? What does it stand for—Hungry Pet
Country?”

His eyes narrowing, the dog looked annoyed.
“No. The HPC is the Household Pet Coalition. It is a temporary
alliance of all pets…except for fish—they’re pretty useless. As
pets, we need humans to live. Not only that, but we love our
masters. We are willing to set aside our differences to protect
them,” the dog snuck an angry glance at the cat, “even if the
differences go back for thousands of years.”

Kevin cocked his head. “Then why don’t you
go and solve this? What’s the point in coming to me about it?”

“Because humans are more resourceful.
Understanding your language does not mean we understand much of
anything else about you. Your science is beyond what we could
fathom. Those computers and cars and such would be very useful to
our investigation.”

Kevin shrugged. “I’m only thirteen years old. I’m
not a scientist or anything. I’m not even smart…like, at all.”

“The only reason we are turning to children
such as yourselves is because you are the only ones we have found
awake,” said the dog. “And I didn’t say you had to be alone. We
welcome any humans for this task, even that friend of yours over
there. If you feel you cannot help us solve the problem, at the
very least we could use your assistance in finding humans more
suitable for the task. Don’t worry about anything else. We are
agents sent by the HPC and we will be your bodyguards. I’m
Genesis.” The dog gestured to the cat with his head. “And this is
my associate, Luna.”

“Genesis and Luna? Who gave you those
names?”

“We named ourselves,” Genesis replied.
“We’re strays.” Genesis continued, “So how about it? Are you in or
out? I can guarantee that if you go to sleep…you’ll never wake up.
Do you want that to happen? Your family and friends…they’ll all be
dead. And so will you. On the other hand, if you stick with us, we
might find a way to save the human race.”

“It almost sounds like I don’t have a
choice,” said Kevin.

Genesis nodded. “Then you see things our
way.”

- Korgen -

It was late in the morning when they decided
to head for the closest city, called Korgen, which was about twenty
miles away. Kevin had explained to everyone that the city was
probably the best place to begin the investigation.

While waiting in the passenger’s seat of the
red sedan, Andrew was having seconds thoughts. He didn’t have a
problem with going to the city. But he did have a problem with
how
they were going. Did Kevin really know how to drive?
Then again, Andrew thought, the roads were empty. There was nothing
to hit. They should be okay.

“All right, let’s do this!” Kevin buckled
himself into the driver’s seat. He adjusted the rear-view mirror
and, as he did so, he caught sight of Genesis and Luna in the
backseat with their seatbelts on. “Is everyone ready? All toilet,
sand and grass business done with?” Nobody responded. “I’ll take
that as a yes.”

“Before we go,” said Andrew, “try some of
this.” Andrew handed Kevin a travel mug.

“Oh, what’s this?” Kevin eagerly took a big gulp.
His eyes as wide as can be, he spat whatever he drank all over the
dashboard. It was hot and bitter. “BLEACK!” He wiped his mouth with
his sleeve.

Andrew looked apprehensively at Kevin.
“Ahhhh! I should’ve warned you that it was still hot!”

His red eyes full of tears, Kevin stared
back at Andrew with a look of contempt, his burnt tongue sticking
out. Tongue dangling, he sputtered, “Wuht ith dith?”

Andrew said, “Coffee from my house. My mom
left some near the coffee maker. I thought you’d realize it was hot
because it was in a travel mug.”