Children of the After: The Complete Series: A Young Adult Postapocalyptic Action and Adventure series (32 page)

“You couldn’t get all googly-eyed and go show Tammy?”

“Nah, she’s already seen.”

That figured. For a second Sam almost felt special.

“You’re a dork, let me go back to sleep.”

“Really? Your brother is telekinetic and you want to go back to sleep? What? Cause I beat you to learning how to use my ability you’re gonna be all grumpy about it?” Jack prodded.

“No. Because my jerk brother stuffed a feather up my nose to wake me up I’m gonna be all grumpy about it.”

Reaching beneath her, Sam grabbed her pillow and hurled it at Jack as hard as she could, with a wicked grin. Unfortunately, the thing stopped just inches out of her grasp and came hurling back only to smack her upside the head. If she had known how to use her own ability she could have gotten out of the way in time. Now it was on.

“OK, big brother. You think you’re so cool with your superpowers. Just wait until I get mine all figured out and then we’ll settle this score.”

“Yup, and I’ll win,” Jack hurled back with a grin.

“We’ll see about that, dork,” Tammy replied with a smile of her own.

He had won. Not only had he woke her up but he got her to smile. Their fake fight was all over. Stretching, Samantha watched as Tammy strode into the room looking like she had been run over by a truck.

“Tammy, what the heck happened to you?” Sam asked, surveying all the bruises and scrapes on her arms.

“Jack let me fall over and over again without catching me.”

It didn’t take any explanation at all. Tammy had used Jack’s hot girl syndrome against him in order to teach him how to use his ability. Smart thinking… devious but smart. Sam liked Tammy even more now.

Finishing her stretch, Sam sat up again upon her cot and smiled at her older brother’s very obvious stolen glances at Tammy. He was smitten. It was so obvious.  Deciding not to embarrass him over it, at least not yet, Sam instead turned her attention to Tammy.

“So I guess I need to learn how to use my ability now too, huh?”

“It would be good to,” Tammy replied. “Though I can’t think of any way to help you. Yours is more difficult.”

“Maybe I’ll just have Will tell me I can do it, and then I’ll be able to.”

“That might actually work,” Tammy said with a grin. “That would have been way easier for you too, Jack,” she added with a wink.

Even though Sam didn’t know the specifics of how his night had went, all three laughed together, only to be suddenly interrupted.

“You guys sure are rude,” Will announced, causing Sam to turn around.

“Sorry, buddy,” Sam apologized.

“Jack woke me up by stuffing a feather up my nose. Consider yourself lucky.”

“Really, Jack?” Will asked giggling.

“Yeah like this,” Jack replied.

This time it was Sam’s turn to laugh as Jack’s feather darted out of the air and brushed across Will’s face. Even though her younger brother swatted the thing away, he sat with his fingers pinching his nose closed just in case.

“If I can’t use my powers on you, you better keep yours to yourself too,” Will warned, sounding all nasally like a miniature country singer.

“I suppose we better get this day started,” Sam suggested.

“Did someone say breakfast?” Will asked.

Shaking her head at Will’s seemingly endless hunger, Sam rose from her cot and collected her brother in her arms and hugged him tight.

“Ok, lil guy. Let’s eat and figure out how I teleport so we can save the world.”

“Now that sounds like a plan!”

* * * * *

Will didn’t think Sam’s training was going too good. He had tried to just make her able to do it but that didn’t work. Instead, she spent most of her time just staring off into the distance or closing her eyes and trying to make it happen. It never did though, which was a huge bummer for all of them. Tammy’s people had chipped in for breakfast, but left them alone for the most part while they tried to teach Sam how to use her ability.

After hearing the story of how Jack learned to use his powers, Will thought it a great idea to try something the same for Sam, but no one could come up with any ideas of just how to do that. Leaving Sam with Jack and Tammy, Will decided to go explore a bit on his own. There were still several silos he hadn’t been in yet and a couple of storage buildings as well as the two semis parked out front. Even burned, they could have something useful in them.

Walking around and in between the silos, Will found nothing of immediate interest. All were empty but one, and that one held the corn that Tammy’s people were using to survive on. Watching the crows take to wing as he approached it, it was obvious how they managed to hunt the birds as they were everywhere around the corn silo during the day. Turning his attentions elsewhere, Will strode out from beneath the shadows of the large cylindrical buildings and crossed the narrow swath of knee-high grass to the first storage shed. Dragging it open, he cringed as the old rusted hinges screeched in protest. Once it was open, he looked inside to reveal any number of interesting implements. There were pitchforks, shovels, a sledgehammer, and dozens of large tools he didn’t have any names for. Some had one handle and others two, but nothing really caught his interest. Pushing the door closed again, he turned back the way he had come, thinking to search the semis on the other side of camp, when he saw one of Tammy’s people walking about in the grass-covered lot a few hundred yards away. Turning, he waved to the man when something caught his eye. Looking back towards the silos, and up, he could see a crosswalk that spanned the distance between them where a large tube or pipe went from one to the other. Smiling, Will ran back towards the silos, looking for the way up to the crosswalk.

It didn’t take long to locate the steel ladder fastened to the side of one of the silos that led up to the crosswalk. Climbing up, he stopped half way to get his breath, and continued on towards the top. It was higher than it looked from the ground and harder to climb too. Will was glad the ladder had a cage around it, the climb got scarier with every rung. Reaching the top, he climbed out across the catwalk cautiously and looked all about. From here he could see the road clearly and even where they had hid the car. A ways off he could see Jack, Sam, and Tammy still in the field on the other side of camp, and several of Tammy’s people wandering here or there or watching his siblings out in the field. Holding the handrails, Will turned round and round but could find no other way up. It was perfect.

It took significantly less time to climb back down than up, and as such Will rushed quickly between the silos and into the one they had spent the previous night. Locating Sam’s bag, he snatched it up and went back the way he had come. Inside dead dolly’s tummy was everything Sam held near and dear to her heart. Her brush, her eyeliner, and all the other ooey gooey stuff she plastered on her face. Slinging her pack on his back as he reached the ladder, he began climbing again.

It took less than fifteen minutes to climb up, place the pack on the walkway and climb back down, but when he was done, Will looked up triumphantly. Now it was time to hire some local muscle. Striding confidently across the way to the adjacent silo, Will poked his head inside.

“Hey guys, come with me,” he said, watching as a handful of Tammy’s people complied.

It was super cool that he could make people do stuff, but even cooler that they didn’t have to speak his language. Leading his workforce back to the ladder he pointed at it and gave his orders.

“You guys take this down, there are tools in that shed,” he said, pointing over their shoulders.

Without delay the five men were inspecting the bolts on the ladder and making their way to the shed. Minutes later they were back, and Will sat against the side of the silo for nearly half an hour as the ladder was removed.

“Thanks, guys,” he said as they finished the job. “Just go and toss that in the weeds so my sister can’t use it.”

Off the men went with the ladder and Will was happy to have done his practice for the day. Now it was time for Sam’s.

Jack was nearly as frustrated as Sam was with her lack of ability to perform. They had tried everything they could think of, but still she had not managed to teleport even a single inch. Out of the three of them, Tammy was the calmest and most patient, though Jack couldn’t understand how she wasn’t unnerved by the whole thing. Watching Sam try again, for like the billionth time, Jack stood back with his arms crossed, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. Yawning as again Sam stamped her foot and half growled half screamed out her frustration, Jack almost wanted to rub his own ability in her face. Almost. With her frustration and anger it just didn’t seem like the right time to torment his poor sister, so instead he busied himself picking up small objects about the gravel-paved lot. Tossing a rock here and hitting it with a stick there, he made at playing his own game of baseball, going so far as to set leaves upon the air as bases and making a twig run them as the makeshift ball sailed through the air. With every pitch and swing it was getting easier and easier to control his ability, almost as if it had been a part of him his whole life. Sure, he occasionally dropped a base, or lost control of the running twig man, but all in all he did well, juggling multiple items simultaneously. So caught up in his game was he that he almost didn’t notice when Will came running back from the silos, a giant grin on his face.

Letting his baseball diamond scatter to the wind, Jack watched his brother approach, knowing nothing good could come from the look his youngest sibling had on his face. It was the same look he would give when he was younger right after loading his diaper. That ‘guess what I have for you’ look that toddlers had when they refused to potty train. Turning to intercept his younger sibling, Jack strode back across the overgrown lot to where Sam and Tammy remained.

“What’s up, little man?” Jack asked.

Whether it was from his running or his excitement, Jack couldn’t tell, But Will just paused, shaking his head with an ear to ear smile that spoke volumes.

“What did you do?” Jack demanded.

“Nothing much,” Will smirked.

As Will neared, both Tammy and Sam turned to watch his approach and Jack noted the fearful look in Sam’s eyes when she too registered the devious mask their brother wore.

“Spit it out,” Jack insisted once again.

“I had an idea of how to help Sam,” Will replied. “It was pretty simple really. You used your gift to protect Tammy, and I used mine at first to protect all of us, so I thought what could I do that would make Sam use her gift?”

“Mhmm?” was all Jack could muster, his own smile broadening.

“So I thought… What would Sam want to protect? Obviously she would want to keep us safe. Duh, but then I thought of something else,” Will grinned even bigger.

“What did you do to my makeup?” Sam demanded.

“Bingo!” Will shouted as his giant smile erupted into laughter and he fell to the ground in a fit of giggles.

“Seriously, you little monster, what did you do?” Sam demanded.

Jack began laughing as well, though he tried not to. It really was comical that his sister would be so vain, even after the end of the world. In his own opinion she looked better without it, and that was when it hit him. That was her problem. It was the reason why she couldn’t use her gift. She didn’t wear the makeup to make herself more attractive. Sam wore it as a mask. A way to blend in, not stand out. She didn’t want to be special, she just wanted to be left alone and excluded from all the teenage drama that came with high school and cliques. She donned the whole goth punk image to keep people away. She did it to hide.

“Look up there,” Will said, pointing back towards the silos. “You see the bridge thingy between the silos?”

“Yeah,” Sam answered cautiously.

“I put your backpack up there and had the guys take the ladder down and get rid of it.”

“Why would you do that, Will?” Sam asked with a hurt tone in her voice.

“To help you, Sam,” Will replied, his own smile fading as he picked himself up off the ground.

Though Sam was taking offense, Jack could see the genius behind the plan. If she wanted to keep her mask, she had to go up there and get her pack. If she decided she no longer needed it, then maybe she would realize it was OK to stand out, and then she’d be able to use her ability. It was a win-win situation so far as Jack could tell, but judging by the look on Sam’s face he decided to keep it to himself.

* * * * *

Sam stormed across the lot, her eyes turned skyward, affixed to the very point where her dead dolly pack rested, one leg dangling over the edge of the catwalk up above. She knew her siblings and Tammy followed but was too upset to care. It was rude and uncalled for, taking her pack and stashing it up there. Not to mention that she really wasn’t too keen on heights either. Inspecting both silos where the catwalk terminated, she found no way up to the structure above. It was just like her brothers to go and pull some mean prank on her and think it was funny. No way would she do something like this to them.  Sam was so angry she wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. Instead, she would find another way of getting the bag down.

Seeing as it already dangled over the edge on one side, Sam approached it from the opposite side and picked up a rock. If she could hit it just right, it might topple over the side and she could catch it. Testing the weight of the rock, she drew back her arm and hurled it upwards. Appearing right on target, the rock soared and Sam grinned for an instant until it struck the bottom of the catwalk with no effect other than a metallic clang that reverberated from the buildings for several seconds. Reaching down she picked up a second rock, this time bigger than the first, and let it fly. Falling short, the rock missed her pack and the catwalk by several feet to crash loudly into the side of the silo opposite her. Gritting her teeth, Sam bent again and retrieved a rock.

Again and again she threw the stones and again and again she was met by defeat. Every time she missed it angered her more and finally, after several dozen stones, she wiped the tears from her eyes, and looked up into the bright sky again. There was her pack. It was right there, but she couldn’t get it. Refusing to give up and let her brother win, Sam closed her eyes so those watching wouldn’t see her tears, and bent to retrieve another stone. Instead of the ground, however, her fingers met canvas as she opened her eyes once more in confusion.

Immediately she wished she had kept them closed. Standing atop the catwalk, at least forty feet in the air, Sam’s knees threatened to buckle beneath her as she clung to her pack, pulling it tightly to her chest. The surface she stood on appeared to be little more than woven pieces of wire and she could see the ground and those watching from below clearly. Though some of them cheered from down below, she could take no courage from it, and grasping the handrails she fought the urge to scream. Feeling dizzy, she clenched her eyes closed, lest she faint. Then, as if torn from her grasp, the handrails gave way and Sam was forced to open her eyes as she toppled over to the ground, which she already stood upon. The punk had done it. He had made her use her ability, not once, but twice, and even though she felt that she should still be angry at him, she couldn’t help but smile with tears still upon her cheeks as her terror faded. She knew the trick now. At least she was fairly certain.

Closing her eyes as tightly as she was able, Sam focused on where she wanted to be, pouring her emotions into her desire. Without the terror or anger of her previous attempts, Sam could feel the change when it happened, and opening her eyes, several of Tammy’s people who had gathered oh’d and ah’d as she found herself directly behind her brothers. Reaching up for one, and down for the other, she smacked them each in the back of the head.

“That is for messing with a girl’s makeup, you jerks!” she said mockingly to a growing applause.

“What? Hey, I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Jack protested.

“No? Well you certainly laughed when he pointed out my pack and you sure as heck didn’t use your own powers to float it on down to me, did ya?”

“OK. Fair enough,” Jack smiled.

That was it. Sam had figured it out, thanks to Will’s devious little mind. Shaking her head at them as they rubbed their own, she held up her arms as they gathered into them and they hugged. It was a good moment. Now that they all knew how to use their abilities, it was just a matter of practice.

* * * * *

It was late afternoon when Will joined his siblings and Tammy on their way back to the silos. They had spent the day in the overgrown lot surrounding the structure or in the fields nearby, practicing any number of things. They had learned that Sam was at least as of yet unable to teleport with another person, though she had tried countless times. She had started off pretty slow but now was getting good. She could port herself basically anywhere she could see within a few seconds’ time. Jack’s ability was cool too. He had used it to pick up Will and spin him around through the air like a carnival ride, though Sam had protested frantically. Will didn’t know when he would be able to practice his own power, though supposed he had been practicing it for some time. Having plenty of time to ponder it while the others were practicing, he thought the first time he had used it was on himself, recalling stopping an asthma attack simply by commanding it to stop. All in all, he supposed they were all ready to figure out what it was that they were going to do next. There was plenty of corn and crows to stay here a while, but Will was anxious to leave. If he was supposed to be a superhero, then he’d rather be out doing superhero stuff like fighting villains. For now, though, it was time to eat and his tummy was growling like a polar bear after hibernation.

Sitting down to a dinner of roasted crow, and several concoctions consisting mostly of corn, Will was surprised to find the gathering of Tammy’s people very boisterous. They talked loudly and laughed frequently, and all throughout their meal they nodded to Will and his siblings as if they could understand. Though it was obvious they were excited, Will didn’t quite understand why. More or less he simply stuffed his face with as much food as was offered to him and when he was finally full he sat back and tuned everyone out.

Letting his mind drift, Will daydreamed of a lot of things. First it was old times, back when Dad or Mom would pin him to the floor and tickle him till his tummy hurt and then it was what he imagined fighting the aliens would be like. After some time he noticed the room had become quieter and looking up he saw Jack and Sam both stand in preparation of leaving.

“You coming, little man?” jack asked.

“Yeah,” Will replied, bouncing up to his feet. “Where we going?”

“To our silo, silly,” Sam replied. “Haven’t you been listening at all?”

“Yeah… Well, no. Not really,” he admitted.

“Wow. We’ll let’s go to our silo while Tammy talks with her people and we can fill you in,” Sam replied, looking at him with Mom’s disappointed face.

“Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“How come whenever I do something you don’t like, you open your mouth and Mom comes out?”

Will watched as Sam choked on her reply, pointing one finger towards the door, while Jack stifled a laugh of his own before opening it for them both. Walking outside ahead of his siblings, Will looked up hoping to see stars, but clouds blanketed everything. Oh well. Better luck tomorrow. Skipping ahead, he opened the door to the silo and jumped, nearly wetting himself in the process. There, just inside the door, crouched down to meet him eye to eye was Sam with a wicked look on her face.

“That’s not fair! You scared the crud out of me!”

Will watched, his heart still hammering in his chest, as Sam literally rolled to the ground laughing and Jack joined in too, grabbing and dragging Will to the ground with him. Together all three of them wrestled around on the floor of their makeshift room, pinching and tickling each other until all of them were out of breath. After recovering and dusting themselves off, Jack and Sam sat Will down with serious expressions and told him of their plans for the days to come.

* * * * *

Out of her friends, Tammy alone remained behind with those of her kind. For all she knew it might be the last time she would see others of her race. She wondered what would become of this place after they left. They had plenty of food and water, but lacked any way to really defend themselves. Leaving felt more like abandoning them in Tammy’s eyes, but she knew there was no help for it. Knowing she must tell her people of their plan, Tammy turned to Photus, their leader, and smiled at him sadly.

“We’re going to leave tomorrow, Photus,” she stated simply.

“I thought you might, though wish you could stay longer,” he replied.

“We plan to head south and look for your prophet in hopes of learning more about the star children’s destiny. I’ve never heard what happens to them after whatever event awaits them. I know it isn’t likely that I’ll return, but what of them?”

“I wish I could tell you, child, but I don’t have the answers. You run along now, back to your friends. I’ll tell the others of your plan to leave. May the high prophet protect and guide you.”

“Thank you, Photus. Keep our people safe.”

“I will, child.”

Without another word, Tammy stood from the makeshift table and turned to go. Many smiled in her direction or nodded their heads towards her and she nodded to each in turn before making her way to the door. Pulling it open, she exited the building, pausing outside for a minute alone.