Black Parade (18 page)

I lifted the pendant. The child cried, disrupting me for a second.

“Hurry, Danny,” Billy said. The banging on the door growing louder.

Code in. Enter.

The Aragon window illuminated.

Billy stepped through with the child, Ag lunged our way at the same time the door blasted outward and an LEP stood there.

I went through.

And luckily, the doorway closed before the LEP could join us back in our own time.

When it came to the time police, there was an immediate trial and conviction. The second we stepped through we faced our destiny in our own time.

The child was evidence of what we saw, and Ag’s testimony protected us from prosecution. Word would never get out. However, it didn’t stop the dismantling of the Aragon window.

The time machine was done.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t change the future.

In the morning I requested Jack to come and see me. I didn’t tell him what we did or even why. I merely said to him, “Tell me what you need, and do what you need to do.”

By afternoon Jack’s voice carried through the streets and in the galleys of our safe centers.

“There is more out there. There is life, different than this. Freedom. We just need to find it. We need to be brave, to face our challenges, instead of hiding. We need to forge ahead and venture out into the forbidden zone in order to carry on.”

His spoken words.

Who would listen? Who would follow?

It didn’t matter. I firmly believed in Jack’s mission and applauded his efforts to achieve it.

When I was a young boy, maybe thirteen, my father took me into the city for the funeral of my grandfather.

It was an amazing experience until I caught a glimpse of our pending future.

My grandfather was a great man, as was my father. The strength my grandfather projected carried through like a rippling energy.

It seemed and actually was, in the snap of a finger, the moment he died, all hell broke loose.

We’re all theorized that the presence of my grandfather scared the LEP. They just didn’t know what he’d do.

Maybe they feared him or respected him. No one knew for sure. But once he was gone, they emerged.

At the funeral, just before the LEP attacked, my father told me that it was my destiny to lead the people from destitution and misery. I didn’t quite understand back then, but I do now.

With each passing day and year, we become more and more prisoners of our own mistakes. We live behind walls, hide when needed, run and die.

It isn’t life. It is existence.

From what I learned, this great country was founded on freedom, yet mankind was no longer free. Despite what Dan told us.

And despite the democracy that this country was founded upon, we turned totalitarian.

I was fortunate enough to have my father and family teach me what I needed to know about history. But the rest of our young were taught a selective history.

Our society did what we were told. We worked the jobs we were supposed to work. We stood in line for our food rations and never asked questions. We didn’t stop questioning out of fear, we stopped for lack of knowledge.

Most didn’t know it was all right to speak your mind. The younger generation, my generation was 90% without parents. We had been raised in farms or camps and taught nothing but obedience.

We were raised from birth to work a specific job based on genetics and build.

My destiny wasn’t to just save the people from the LEP and lead them to safety. It was to save the people from everything this country had become and lead them to freedom.

It’s hard to believe that merely forty years earlier there were things called ‘States’. Of course, that was when it was all just government. States ran like mini countries within a country. Fending for themselves financially, medically and through their own government. They were governed by the country, but were self sufficient.

Now, the government governed all. There was no need for states.

So the maps weren’t any good. Not anymore.

We had people draw newer maps, which were based upon satellite images and zones.

Zones.

Not states. There were no state lines like there used to be.

Only in very old history books would you find a map like that.

There were four main zones.

The Safe Zones which were small, scattered and in cities.

The Savage Zones – they were territories that were run by LEP.

The wastelands were land and areas that had been destroyed by war and were uninhabitable

And the forbidden zones were unknown areas. Perhaps previously savage or waste.

Most Safe Zones were around bodies of water.

Further south marked on the map were Savage Zones. LEP didn’t like the cold.

So much wasteland was along the eastern portion of the country and the Midwest, and it seemed like everything from the halfway point of the country heading west was forbidden.

Legend told that a great meteor had come, flooded the area and left nothing. Then what remained was destroyed by the Great War.

Not even the LEP could survive there.

So the wastelands north and west and the forbidden zones was where I placed my focus.

I asked once when the last time was that anyone was there. I never received an answer. The last recorded journey was twenty years earlier.

Good God, how did we become so isolated?

Danny told me it was for safety. We didn’t know if the air and water was safe, or if things could grow in the soil. The last testing showed it wasn't inhabitable. By all accounts and by satellite photos, it looked mostly dead with only patches of life.

And we didn't know if, within those patches of life, the LEP existed.

Armed with supplies based on the number of people that followed, we carried with us testing equipment and weapons. I marked my map. I planned my route. I laid out my destinations, those patches of green within the brown forbidden and wasteland zones.

What did we have to lose? If nothing was there, we had enough supplies to turn back.

A journey I thought I would take alone, ended up being a journey with seventy people.

A pilgrimage of hope.

Charles was my right hand man on the journey. Having known him since training, I moved on to a level five LEP fighter, while he maintained a three. Not because of his skill, but by his own choice.

He was a man of little words and a non-emotional thinker. A skill that was totally needed on this trip.

Most of our people were young, very young. In fact, I don’t think a person over the age of 27 took part in our pilgrimage. Which was fine.

We left in February. Though the starting portion would be cold, it would also be safe. The LEP hated the cold, and this gave us a good head start through this unknown land.

Not to say we didn’t run into problems. But our armored buses were well protected during any attacks.

We had crossed into the northern territory, and made our way west at the Three Finger lakes.

We had passed two green spots, as I called them. Places on the satellite that didn’t seem dead.

There were more were out west.

The first green area was ten miles west of the Three Finger lakes.

It was a heavily wooded area, extremely overgrown. Lincoln, our science adviser, tested the soil. It was good, perfect for growing. Something the maps could not have told us. This gave me hope.

The area though, was vulnerable to attack. We’d have to build if we wanted to stay there, and figure out a way to get water flowing.

Danny was pleased at this news. Especially when I told him no LEP were spotted in days.

We moved for days at a time and stopped to rest just as long. We needed to. The solar engines wore down. Our supplies held up well and I really wasn’t worried about it.

We moved north, west and south, everywhere but back to where we came from.

Charles commented that we seemed to zig-zag.

A wasteland area, in the south west part of the country, was dry. But the soil proved hopeful.

Unfortunately, people started to get restless.

Two months into the journey, we had found many places. But nothing felt ‘right’ to me.

Perhaps the dreamer in me was hoping to find a ready made place. Maybe that was just wishing for too much.

I made a deal with Charles and Danny. I would give it two more weeks, bringing us to the three month mark. Had I not found what I felt we needed, we would backtrack and set up in that small south west town. It would be a week’s journey to return there, but at least we’d have a goal.

General Allen asked for coordinates of this southwestern place, and said he would be ready to begin sending start up supplies.

That was the plan.

See, out west, there were no LEP. We hadn’t seen them in forever. Common sense would tell people to all move out there, but then common sense would be wrong. Because if all of the people moved, so would the LEP. But just a few of us wouldn’t be missed.

We trekked north toward an area deemed both forbidden and wasteland. There was a small patch on the satellite map that I wanted to investigate.

We had neared the two week mark and as people approached the area, they grew fearful. It was a double dose.

So Charles and I journeyed the last two hundred miles alone.

The whole area was green. My God, there were large hills covered in trees. We walked the last ten miles up a steep slope.

“This is insane,” Charles said. “Even if there is flat land up there, to get here would be impossible.”

“Yes, but think of the possibilities,” I retorted. “Safety.”

“And water?”

“Some mountains have lakes on top.”

“What geographical teacher informed you of that?” Charles asked.

“I can dream.”

We made it to the top.

“I feel it,” I said as we approached a line of trees. Clearly, we could see the trees ended. Something was there. “I feel it.” My voice picking up with enthusiasm.

“Jack.”

I took off in a sprint. I heard him grunt, but I didn’t pay much attention. I ran through the trees and as I emerged, I stopped.

Land. But dry. Dirty. Rock. A mountain top that was flat, but all rock. I could barely keep standing.

“What were you hoping for?” Charles asked as he joined me.

I dropped to my knees.

Charles walked past me. “Flat, green, farmable land?”

“Yes.”

Charles laughed. “Jack, I appreciate your dream. But realistically that wasn’t happening.”

“There are mountain tops where people farm, live …”

“Yes.” Charles walked onward. “But this isn’t one of them.”

I lowered my head, my fists grabbed at the rocks. How could I feel so strongly about something and be so wrong? I didn’t look up. Charles kept moving. I could hear the rocks moving with each step he took.

He voiced echoed across the empty mountain top. “Your quest was noble. But it wasn’t in vain. We still have the southern town. All this was a learning …”

He stopped talking. Did he get hurt? I raised my head.

Charles stood there, staring out.

“Charles?” I called.

He spun around, his face shocked, eyes wide. “Jack. Oh my God. Jack.”

“What?”

Charles waved to me and then tuned again. “You followed the right instinct.”

I scurried, wondering what he spoke of. When I arrived, and stood next to Charles, I understood. I gasped.

“You were right,” Charles said. “If this is clean, then this is perfect. Let’s get water and soil samples for Lincoln.”

I was too shocked for words. Charles actually sounded excited. I felt it. And I felt something else. Even though we would take the land, air, and water samples, there was no need. It was clear visually, and in my gut, that mountain, was the place for which we had been searching.

We had arrived.

I nearly fell out of my chair when Jack called and said he found the perfect place. He was filled with so much enthusiasm, he rambled his words together and I had to tell him to slow down.

“Uncle Dan, it’s perfect. Just perfect. I think this place all died out during the reaping plague back in ten.”

I thought about what he said. How everything was really turn of the century old in the small town, even the houses. He told of how on the outskirts there was a big farm and the town was secluded.

They tested the land... the water … everything was clean. The town sign was even still intact. Begtana.

Instead of just having Jack make a list of what he would need, I decided that Billy and I would go out there ourselves. Billy would check the small clinic they had in the town.