Rising (42 page)

“No, Ben!
 
It can hear you,” I said.

There was a whooshing sound passing me and
running for the door.

“Come on, Jeremy.
 
Now!”

“Off to never-never land!” he screamed.

An electric splintering sound vibrated near the
door, revealing the scout who was silhouetted by the grayish light
outside.
 
I pushed out forcefully,
blowing the shadow scout the last few feet to the exit, sending him crashing
into and shattering the glass door.
 

“Come on, Mr. Jaden,” I heard Ben trying to
coax him to go with us.
 
“We’ll explain.”

Someone outside screamed.
 
It was Mrs. Jaden.

“Sarah!” yelled Mr. Jaden, dashing past us and
out the door.

We ran after him, leaping over what was left of
the shadow scout.
 
Mr. Jaden was fast,
but Ben was faster.

“Get him out of the way!” I yelled.

I didn’t even need to.
 
Ben was already thinking like me.
 
Mrs. Jaden was running toward us, crossing
the parking lot with her daughter in her arms.
 
Behind her stalked a fearsome reaper.
 
He moved in long determined strides, but
seemed in no hurry at all.
 
It was like a
snake with a mouse in a hole.
 
He knew he
would get his prey eventually.
 
The
creature hadn’t even taken notice of us as it came steadily on.
 
Or, if it did, it was completely unmoved,
thinking us more food for him.

“Jeremy, break his shield. Now!”

There was no time for his serenade.
 
He knew it.
 
Ben tackled Mr. Jaden down to the ground in the middle of the street.

“Get down, Mrs. Jaden . . . on the ground!”

I passed Ben, who was struggling to keep Mr.
Jaden on the ground.
 
He was fighting
like mad to get to his wife.
 
I couldn’t
blame him, but there was no time to explain that he would only get in the
way.
 
Jeremy was running alongside
me.
 

“Now, Mrs. Jaden!
 
On the ground!”

She dropped to the pavement, cradling Michelle
underneath her.
 
Jeremy let out a short,
staccato yell at the same time he released a sharp object from his hand.
 
It glinted in the air on the way to its
target.
 
A meat cleaver embedded into the
invisible shield a few inches from the reaper.
 
Green sparks of electricity spattered outward where the cleaver hit,
then it fell to the concrete.
 
The reaper
stopped instantly, finally realizing what we were—
Setti
.

I immediately threw out a sphere of energy,
shooting it across the parking lot.
 
With
a wave of its sword-like arms, the reaper rebuilt its shield.
 
My energy crackled around its massive frame
into nothing, not even touching the beast.

Jeremy and I both stopped, sizing up our
opponent.
 
It gave us a wide grin,
showing us that viscous black fluid lining its mouth that glittered with
electricity.
 
I felt a jolt of anxiety
from Ben behind us.
 
The thing whipped
its cloak back over its shoulder, exposing its muscular body in an attempt to
prove it was mightier.
 
Even in the dark,
I could see the electric current rolling under its greenish-black skin, giving
it morbid vitality.
 
Its gleaming eyes
shifted from Ben to Jeremy to me.
 
I knew
what it was trying to determine, whether one of us was a Guardian.

“This time,” I said in a low voice, “we’re
going to do this simultaneously and you’re going to have to give it all you’ve
got.”

“No problem.”

Without warning, the creature jolted into a
sprint closing the distance between us.
 
Jeremy let out a long, barbaric yell, while I pushed out an unending
stream of power.
 
I could feel his sound
waves vibrating through me.
 
As the
creature bounded toward us, a shower of green sparks flew into the air,
bouncing off of its shield.
 
It was
stronger than the other ones.
 
My thoughts
went back to Clara and the last reaper I’d seen.
 
Fueled by a new rage, both my arms went up,
pushing out my power with brutal force.
 
The reaper was a few yards from us, a wicked glint in its glowing
eyes.
 
Its shield finally gave way,
splintering then cracking under the pressure.
 
I continued my attack, pushing even harder than before.
 
The creature wielded its sharpened black arms
perpendicular to its body, preparing to stab us both through at the same
time.
 
Unyielding, Jeremy and I refused
to back down.
 
The reaper was nearly
within arm’s reach, growling as it came.
 
I took one quick breath, yelling as I loosed a final blow out through my
chest.
 
Upon impact, the reaper’s skin
crackled then exploded into black fragments and dust.
 
A cloud of odorous ash swept over and past us
with the momentum of the creature’s stride.
 

It took a second to realize we’d done it.
 
The adrenaline finally slowed.
 
Jeremy and I were both panting from the
exertion.
 
I looked at Jeremy whose face
was covered in sooty ash.
 
He was smiling
at me, all white teeth in a gray-powdered face.

“Well, Gabe.
 
It’s a dirty job, but someone’s
gotta
do it.”

He chuckled at his own joke.

“Jeremy.
 
That’s a bit lame, even for you, man.”

I laughed anyway.
 
I could always count on Jeremy to lighten the
mood, no matter how utterly dark it was.
 
I brushed some of the ash out of my hair, turning to see Mr. and Mrs.
Jaden hugging one another with their daughter in between them.
 
Ben was beaming more brightly than I had ever
seen him.

“Hey, look at this,” said Jeremy, “we’ve got
our own lighthouse to lead the way.”

“Mr. Jaden,” I called back to the others.
 
“The three of you need to go to my Pop’s
camp.
 
Right now, I think it’s the only
out-of-the-way place that’s safe.
 
There
are others hiding there.
 
It’s three
miles south of Badger Bridge on Old Spanish Trail Road.
 
The turn is kind of hidden.
 
It’s a gravel road on the right-hand side.”

“I just can’t believe what I just saw.
 
What were those things?” he asked.

I didn’t know how to answer that question.
 

“I guess you could think of them as the new
terrorists,” said Jeremy.

“What did you do to it?
 
How
did you do it?” asked Mrs. Jaden.

My teacher had the most peculiar look on her
face, a mix of confusion and amazement.

“I don’t know how to explain it, Mrs.
Jaden.
 
But, I think it’s safe to say
that maybe some of those ancient tales you used to teach us about magic might
have been true.
 
I wish I could tell you
more, but we truly have to get going.”

“Mr. Jaden,” interrupted Jeremy as we started
back to our cars, “what did you come out here for anyway?
 
What did you need from the store at this time
of night?”

He lifted Michelle into his arms, who laid her
head on his shoulder.

“I was coming to get our insurance policies,
thinking we’d certainly get storm damage.
 
I know that it’s first come, first serve, so I wanted to be ready to
call them if I needed to.”

There was an awkward silence.
 
Leave it to Jeremy to break it.

“Well, Mr. Jaden, I don’t think you’ll need
that policy or that number anymore,” he said lightly.
 

It was slowly dawning on all of us that the
world would be irrevocably changed from what we had always known.
 
As the reapers spread across the state, the
country, the world, our entire way of life would change.
 
Insurance companies becoming obsolete would
be the least of it.

“Look on the bright side,” said Jeremy,
grinning.

“What’s that?” asked Mr. Jaden.

“You won’t have to wait on hold for an hour
listening to crappy elevator music.”

“We’ve got to get moving,” I said to Ben and
Jeremy more urgently.
 
“Like I said, Mr.
Jaden, it’s about three miles past Badger Bridge.
 
Look for the gravel road on the bayou side.”

“We’ll find it,” he said, shifting Michelle to
his other side, and extending his hand for me to shake. “Thank you for, for
helping us.”

“Just get to my Pop’s camp quickly and safely.”

We all shook his hand, which seemed strangely
out of place but I suppose the most appropriate thing at the time, then marched
back to the Durango and headed away from town.

***

Ben still held the note in his hand telling him
that his parents had gone to his grandmother’s since she had the generator.

“Don’t worry.
 
Your grandmother lives right down the street from my house.
 
As soon as we grab my parents, we’ll get
yours.”

He remained silent, still emitting that white
glow from his skin.
 
The streets were
deserted, but that was to be expected.
 
Wind bands were coming and going, like the storm was breaking apart and
spreading in different directions.
 
My
house was only one of three on the street.
 
It was old land, passed down through generations.
 
Pop had built this house set on a plot of ten
acres when he was first married.
 
It was
always nice living out here in peace and quiet, but now it only made me feel
more anxious, more isolated.
 
The trees
seemed to close in on us.
 
As we pulled
up my long drive, I heard a noise, a loud motor.

“What’s that?” asked Jeremy.

I looked at Ben and we said it at the same
time.

“A generator.”

“That should be good news, right?”

“We’ll see.
 
Ben, you hang back just a little on the porch.”

“Why?”

“If everything is okay, then I’ll need a minute
to prepare them for your, uh, condition.”

“Oh, right,” he said, looking at his glowing
arms.

Jerking the car into park, I ran up the steps
with Jeremy behind me, busting through the door.
 
I had prepared myself for all kinds of
horrors, but I’d never imagined what was actually waiting there.

Pop was sipping iced tea and cutting into a
steak at the dining room table.
 
There
was a Scrabble board, half-finished, spread out on one end with two lamps and a
fan blowing.
 
All the wires were plugged
into an extension cord that disappeared into the kitchen.
 
I knew Mom had it trailing to the generator
on the back porch.
 
Pop looked up,
unsurprised, stuffing a piece of steak into his mouth.

“Hey, boys.
 
Come pull up a chair and get some dinner.”

Then my mom shuffled into the room, holding a
second fan on a long stand.

“There you are, Gabriel.
 
I’ve been worried sick about you.
 
Where have you been all day?
 
And, what in God’s name have you got all over
you?”

“Mom,” I said calmly, not stopping to explain
that I was covered in reaper ash, “we’ve got to leave.”

“No we don’t, baby.
 
The evacuation isn’t mandatory.
 
That’s what they said on the radio before the
power went out, and that’s what I’m going by.
 
Get that worried look off your face.
 
We’ll be just fine.
 
I’ve got a
couple of fans.
 
We’ll have to make beds
in here so we won’t sweat to death, but I—”

“No, Mom, you don’t understand,” I said
gravely, crossing the room, “we all have to leave.
 
Now.”

“Why, Gabriel?
 
I’ve got all that meat from the freezer, so we’ve got plenty of
food.
 
That is if the ice holds out in
the ice chest.
 
Of course, your Pop had
to have the steak tonight and—”

I grabbed hold of my mom’s shoulders, gently
but firmly, and looked at her directly in the eyes.
 
Her brow pinched in the middle the way it did
when she was worried about something.