Authors: Jeremy Laszlo
As she struck the man’s shoulder in a glancing blow, he released Jack’s sweatshirt as the pipe was driven downwards with all Sam’s weight into the neck of the harmless beast that carried the attacker. Frightened by the blow, the beast spooked and reared up on its hind legs, kicking and neighing, spilling the man from his saddle. Smashing to the ground, the man’s head bounced as shards of glass scattered around him. Like a bullet, the beast rocketed off down the narrow street, its rider still entangled in the stirrups as he was dragged away at an alarming pace through the river of shattered glass and rubble. Just a foot away from Will the beast and fallen rider passed, spraying up shards of glass in all directions in their wake, but Will had no energy to move away as his vision failed again. The last thing he saw was Jack regaining his feet with a stricken look of panic on his face, as a strange shadow seemed to detach itself from the wall and slink across the street. Then the world went black.
Jack didn’t know how much time they had until the man who pulled the wagon appeared to avenge his friend, but it didn’t matter. Nothing did. Except Will. Clutching his younger brother’s limp body in his hands he shook him vigorously, trying to get any sign of life out of him as tears streamed down his own face.
“Breath, baby! C’mon, pumpkin, breathe for Sam!” Sam shouted over and over beside him as he fumbled with the cap to the inhaler.
It was an old thing, having been stored for months in the medicine cabinet even before the day they were closed in the vault. Jack assumed it was more than a year old at this point and hoped that somehow it would still work. Laying Will’s head down upon his back he let it fall back, opening his airway, and he pressed the mouthpiece of the inhaler to his brother’s now blue lips. Forcing his mouth closed around the inhaler, he pressed down on the canister of medicine and struck Will hard in the chest with the open palm of his hand and waited. Nothing.
On and on Sam wailed, begging the little boy to breathe but he refused to stir. Again Jack pressed down on the canister and this time he pulled Will’s face up and breathed into this mouth, pinching off his nose. He had never done CPR. Never even been taught, but he’d seen it on TV enough to have a basic idea of the concepts involved, and he employed them now as best as he could.
Forcing another breath into Will’s lungs and then another, he paused and watched and waited. He still had a pulse but made no sign of improvement. Sam continued to scream at him. She’d reached some point beyond an emotional threshold he couldn’t afford to reach himself. Leaning down he breathed again into Will’s lungs. Watching for any sign from his little brother, his own breath stopped when Will twitched. Then, like a huge weight was lifted off the little boy’s chest, he heaved in a deep breath, coughing and sputtering as Jack pulled him up and clutched him to himself before Sam collapsed into them as well. There was no time. They needed to move.
Rising with Will in his arms, knowing full well he couldn’t be expected to run, Jack ran for him, carrying his brother as fast as he was able to get away from possible pursuit. Sam followed behind him, but he dared not slow enough to look back. Racing back to the street their own home had been located on, he turned back in their original direction and ran. And continued to run for what felt like hours.
Jack stopped when Will’s eyes finally began to flutter, as if they would open, and spinning he watched as Sam collapsed to the ground. Her makeup was a wreck, between her earlier crying and the sweat that now streaked down her face. She wasn’t accustomed to running like he was, and Jack imagined it was only adrenaline and fear that had kept her moving this long. But now that they had stopped, she was done. The running was over.
Listening to her ragged panting, he retraced his steps, lowering Will to the ground to stretch his own muscles, now knotting in his back and shoulders. Sam wasn’t the only one who was through. Jack doubted he could continue carrying Will much farther. Looking and listening, he strained his senses in all directions but found no signs of pursuit. Even so, he couldn’t shake the nagging sensation that they were not safe.
Crouching at Will’s side, Jack watched the steady rise and fall of his chest as he worked to level his own breathing. The attack had taken a lot out of his little brother, but he hoped Will would recover soon. Turning, he moved his focus to Sam and grinned slightly at the smug look on her eyeliner-streaked face. She was spent, and they both knew it.
“I think we should keep moving,” Jack said, watching his sister’s expression turn even more grim.
“I know. Me too,” she replied with tight lips.
“I can’t keep running while carrying him though,” Jack said, motioning with his head.
“Me either. No more running. At least not for a while,” Sam replied.
“My sentiments exactly. My back is toast.”
“I kept up with you though,” Sam grinned.
“Yeah, I noticed. Is there a sale on leather and lace, knee high stilettos in this direction?”
“Ha ha. Seriously, though. Do you think they’ll come after us?”
“I dunno. He didn’t seem interested in a conversation. I don’t think it’s safe to try and talk to anyone from here on. Let’s just get to Grandma’s and then figure out what is going on.”
“Did you notice his clothes? He looked weird, like out of an old movie or something.”
“I hadn’t thought about it, but yeah, he seemed off.”
Jack recalled the first time he had seen the man atop his horse upon the ash and glass covered street. He had worn boots and a leather duster, but beneath it he had drab, even shabby, clothing with a wide collared button-down shirt. The only other aspect Jack could recall were his steely eyes hidden in shadow between his wide brimmed hat and thick beard. Picturing the odd man again, a shiver crept down his spine and he quickly shook the memory from his head.
“I don’t know who they were, what they were doing, or what they wanted, but they seemed hostile. There could be more of them. Lots more, even. I just want to get us out of the city,” Jack stated.
“Do you think we’ll make it out tonight?” Sam asked.
“No,” Jack replied after a minute of contemplation. “We need to find a safe place to spend the night again.”
Jack could barely believe his own words. He had been attacked this same day in this same city. There were men out there in the city who likely were searching for them, yet he knew it was their only choice. At least their safest one. Last thing they needed to do was run into trouble in the dark. No. They would have to sleep out the approaching night and strike out again the following day in hopes of getting out of the city. It was the best and safest option they had. At least he hoped so.
* * * * *
Breathing heavily between their words, Sam felt much like Jack’s track bag that she had become accustomed to avoiding over the last few years. Sweaty, dirty, stinky, and worn out. Even now, after having stopped several minutes ago, sweat dripped down her face and into her eyes as her hair stuck to her head and face in wet, seemingly irremovable clumps. Smearing her hair back from her face with the palms of her hands, she dropped her pack and half crawled, half shuffled to Will’s side.
Looking down on his still form, she found herself shaking her head as she raised her eyes to her equally concerned older brother.
“I haven’t seen him this bad since the first days in the vault,” she stated simply.
“Yeah, but he’ll pull through. He’s a tough lil guy.”
“Yeah,” Sam said with a grin.
“Speaking of tough, thanks for going all ninja warrior on horse guy back there.”
“You’re quite welcome,” Sam grinned, “After all, I felt it was my duty to save a damsel in distress.”
Though she fought to keep herself as quiet as was possible, her weary brain and need for a change in emotional state caused her to laugh more loudly than she thought safe at her own joke.
“If I weren’t so tired, I just might slug you for that one, dork,” Jack responded.
“You might try, that is if….”
Sam stopped speaking as movement caught her attention and Jack also turned his gaze to the ground between them. There, sprawled amongst layers of glass and dark greasy ash, Will blinked his eyes up at them as one of his small hands reached up to the side of his head. Reaching down, Sam softly wiped the hair back from his face, smoothing it as she stroked his head.
“How are you feeling my little monster?” She asked.
“My head hurts.”
“Well, we can probably handle that,” Sam grinned. “Think you can walk for a while?”
“Sure he can,” interrupted Jack, “He’s a big tough man.”
“Yeah, I can walk. But are we going to eat soon?”
Yup. He was OK. If Sam knew anything about Will, it was the fact that so long as he was eating, he was going to be fine. The kid was a regular garbage disposal so far as food was concerned. Especially candy.
“Why don’t you take a Tylenol and eat some of your Skittles, and we can stop for dinner a bit later? Would that be OK?” Sam asked in her best mommy voice, watching as Jack began digging in his pack for the Tylenol.
“Okey dokey,” Will replied, carefully rising to a seated position.
Sam watched as he struggled to reach into his pocket, at the same time Jack produced the small bottle of medicine from the first aid kit contained in his bag. Within minutes, Will swallowed the pill she gave him after several deep drinks from a water bottle. He still had trouble with pills. When finished, however, he stuffed a fistful of candies into his mouth and climbed to his feet with a little bounce before seeking out his pack and waiting for them to rise as well. Sam could not help but grin. Though she and Jack had run for countless hours, he was a rested little ball of energy, just raring to go, while they were both weary and sore from the day’s events.
“So I guess you whacked that guy bad enough he left us alone, huh?” Will asked as Sam climbed to her feet.
“I hope so, lil guy, but we don’t know how many of them there are so we have to keep moving.”
“Let’s go then, slow pokes,” Will said, with a grin that bordered on both sarcasm and cunning.
Reaching out her hand, Sam helped Jack to his feet before bending to retrieve her own pack. Carefully she wiped the bits of glass and dirt from her backside before grabbing Will’s little hand in her own. Within seconds, Jack too had his pack and taking Will’s other hand they began down the sidewalk once more.
It was well on into afternoon as they crept among the shadows of the skeletal buildings around them. Though they moved with as much haste as they were able, often their imaginations caused them to pause suddenly and strain their ears for sounds that did not come again. Sam peered around every corner as they crossed intersections, and into the remains of building as they moved like predators amongst the rubble. She didn’t feel like a predator though, instead she felt more like the mouse that tempted the cat.
For hours they walked until the afternoon became evening and her legs trembled with every step. Whether it was fear or the day’s exertion that led them to waver beneath her she could not be certain, though supposed it was probably a combination of the pair. No matter how far they went, however, she still found herself thinking of things behind them. Not just the events of the day’s attack, but months ago, back before the event. She had hated things then, yet now she longed for what she had loathed just months before. It was odd how the world could change you just by changing around you. After shaking off her memories, she quickly concluded that she would much rather go back to school and worry about what people were saying about her in the hall, than worry about who else was alive in the world and what they would do to her and her brothers if caught.
With a shudder at the thought, Sam squeezed Will’s hand slightly, calmed by the reminder that they were all OK so long as they had each other. All they had to do was be careful.
* * * * *
Scrambling over a pile of bricks, Will held the hands of both his big sister and brother, feeling their unease with every step. Both Jack and Sam were on edge, their heads jerking to one side and then the other in response to imagined sounds. Will knew they were worried about the man on the horse. But he also knew that the dark played tricks on you, and when you thought there was something to be afraid of, most of the time there really wasn’t. Unless it was a cat. Cats were creepy like that. Getting up in the middle of the night to slink around in the dark, and jump and climb on things for no reason. And they ate frogs. Eww.
Block after block they traversed the rubble and piles of debris as the evening grew darker and darker around them, until they reached an intersection with several gas stations where just beyond he could see an overpass. Looking out across the intersection from behind a charred carcass of a pickup truck, Will could tell that the road was obviously wider than all they had crossed during the day. He watched as the burned remains of traffic lights swayed in the breeze above them, suspended across the street by melted and twisted wires that appeared they would give way at any moment.
For long minutes he joined both Jack and Sam looking up and down the street, peering into the shadows searching for any sign that might betray another presence out there somewhere in the growing darkness. After what seemed like an eternity that increased the time between the now and his dinner, Will finally followed Jack’s lead across the road as Sam trailed behind a few steps. Mounting the opposing curb, they stepped into a blackened parking lot belonging to what used to be a fast food restaurant connected to the service station. Though the plastic emblem of the yellow arched “M” on the building had melted away during the event, Will recognized the franchise by its telltale roofline despite the fact that most of the building had collapsed. It seemed Jack recognized it too as he aimed them towards it without a second’s hesitation. Will found it peculiar that Jack had hated working at such a place just a few months prior, yet now he was leading them into one in search of a safe haven to spend the night. Will just hoped they still had chicken nuggets, though he seriously doubted he’d be
that
lucky. Oh my God, and ketchup, everything was better with ketchup.
Picking their way through and over portions of collapsed roof and ceiling, they dodged between steel tables that remained fastened to the concrete and tile floor as they approached the bent and twisted stainless steel counter where once a teen like his brother would have stood wearing a stupid hat. Will chuckled. He
had
to say something.