Children of the After: The Complete Series: A Young Adult Postapocalyptic Action and Adventure series (29 page)

“Well, I suppose, but we have to be careful.”

“Have they harmed you?”

“No, but that one threw Gangit like he were made of Flopput.”

“He was defending himself. I can attest that these three are my friends and saved my own life. I will vouch for them and be held accountable for their actions. If that is not suitable to you, then we will leave.”

“Don’t leave,” a man said who had recently risen from the ground.

“No don’t go,” another believer said, followed swiftly by several more pleas.

“Your people believe, what do you choose?” Tammy asked, knowing she had played her cards correctly.

“Please stay. If they are as friendly as you say, perhaps we could learn more from them,” replied Phostus.

“Do you have a more suitable place for Jack to recover?” Tammy asked, gesturing to her friend’s limp body.

“Yes, of course,” Phostus said.

Within moments, Jack was lifted by several of Tammy’s people and carried away as she and her companions followed the procession through the cluster of agricultural buildings. Though she wanted to explain all that was transpiring, she was forced to simply smile each time Sam gave her a pleading look.

Entering one of the silos, they found numerous makeshift cots, pieced together from discarded pallets and canvas feed sacks. Without a word, her people left her and her companions to tend to Jack, leaving the silo and closing the door as they exited. Through the darkness, Tammy peered at each of her friends. Though it was a gamble, she hoped she was right about her trio of friends. If they
were
the star children, then she was their guide. She had to be. Why else would she have met them, befriended them, and learned their language? It had to be fate, didn’t it? She didn’t quite trust Phostus to keep his word. She had to be right. If not, then she might have doomed all of her friends to the same sort of torture she had been set to receive just a day ago.

For the first time since losing her parents on this foreign planet, Tammy lowered her head and prayed to the high prophet.

Jack awoke with a throbbing in his head of the like he had never before even imagined. With every pulse his whole body hurt as if he had somehow crushed every bone he had. Too afraid to open his eyes lest the pain in his head increase, he lay for many minutes trying to recall what had landed him in this predicament. He remembered awaking in the car. Sam had stopped them. He remembered the huge silos. They had gone to scavenge supplies, and he and Will had searched a building. Then there was the man. He had yelled, and shoved Tammy to the ground. Then Jack remembered. He had pushed… no. He had thrown the man like a rag doll across the grassy expanse between the silos as several more men closed in on him and those he was supposed to keep safe. Even with the crippling pounding in his head, he knew he couldn’t have been out long. He needed to get up and keep his family safe. Rolling to his side, he painfully pressed himself upwards to a seated position and began swaying back and forth. His equilibrium was off. Had he ruptured an eardrum? He knew a kid in school that had done it once and it took weeks for him to walk right again. Jack couldn’t afford a setback like that. Not now. Not with his family in danger. Not when they needed him to be strong.

Dizzy or not, Jack shoved himself the rest of the way up with a grunt as his feet fell... He wasn’t on the ground. Feeling about with his toes, his feet touched the floor below. He wasn’t where he remembered being. He needed to know where he was. Against his better judgment, Jack slowly opened his eyes as pain tore through him again and again. Though it was nearly unbearable, he fought the urge to close them once more and looked briefly around. He was in a round room of metal, likely one of the silos. There was but one door and it was currently open. Outside the door he could see Sam and Tammy, though no sign of Will. They talked to the strangers, though he couldn’t make out their words through the pounding in his own head.

That was enough. If Sam and Tammy were OK and talking to the people, then Will was OK. It was all he needed to know. Closing his eyes tightly once more, Jack slowly lowered himself back down to the surface below him and pulled his legs back up. It was both painful and tedious, but assured they were safe for at least the time being, he let himself drift in the pain until unconsciousness took him once again.

* * * * *

Sam was at her wits’ end with these people. She didn’t like a lot of attention, and sure as heck didn’t like people telling her she was some prophesized savior of the world. Didn’t they see her clothes? Her makeup? She wasn’t
that
girl. Puckering her lips in stern consternation she shook her head for the hundredth time with her hands on her hips.

“You’re wrong, Tammy. They’re wrong. You have to see it,” Samantha pleaded.

“I thought so too, but Sam, how else can you explain what Jack and Will have done?”

“I don’t know. Adrenaline? Freak accident?”

“It isn’t an accident. It’s not just coincidence that we met. I have to believe that now.”

They had argued the point back and forth until it was pointless. Sam refused to believe their alien religious mumbo jumbo, and Tammy had turned sides and was now trying to convince her. At least now the others of her kind had decided to shut their traps and let the girls hash it out. There was absolutely nothing different from her and any other girl on the planet. Jack and Will were no different than other boys. It was all some kind of misunderstanding. It had to be. How could people from another planet worship a man, creature, prophet thing, that had already known about them years and years before they were born? It didn’t make sense.

“Wisten… No. Listen, Sam. I know this can’t be easy, but it isn’t just about you and Jack and Will. The prophecy talks of a guide who will lead the star children too. It’s me, Sam. I’m your guide. But it’s still about more than us. Can’t you see it? It’s about hope. It’s about survival. It’s about making all of this stop,” Tammy said, waving her hands around.

“So the four of us are going to chase off an entire race of technologically advanced beings with weapons and motives we can’t even understand? Is that seriously what you are trying to tell me, Tammy?”

“I don’t know Sam. I wish I did, but I don’t. Prophesies are vague and left open to interpretation. I don’t know if we are to fight someone. I don’t know what our purpose is. Maybe it is to just stay here, learning and teaching each other. I don’t know, Sam. But I do know this, you are special. Jack is special and so is Will. We have to stick together. Even if I am wrong, would you risk the ends of both of our races on it?”

Sam had had enough. She didn’t want to hear any more. She didn’t want to even think about it. The whole thing was ridiculous. The fate of mankind? Seriously? The fate of Tammy’s people? The world? Who would put that on a person? She was just a kid still. She wanted to date and get a driver’s license. She wanted a sweet sixteen and spring break in Florida. This was not for her. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t bear any more stress. She already had Will to take care of and worry about. They were hundreds of miles from home, and even though it was gone she missed it and wanted to go back. And now, something had happened to Jack. Jack… The only person she had been able to lean on for months. Now he was sick or something and there was nothing she could do but try and be strong for all of them and it wasn’t fair. None of it was fair and none of it made sense. She just wanted to wake up in her own bed to the sound of a text message on her phone and realize the whole thing was a nightmare. But that wasn’t going to happen. Mom and Dad
were
gone. The world
was
destroyed. They
were
hunted and chased at every turn by races of creatures that they were somehow related to. The world, her family, her life, all of it was gone except for Jack and Will, and Tammy too she supposed. Tears began streaming down her cheeks.

Turning away ashamed, Sam felt the anger and frustration boiling up inside her. It was all gone. All of it. Those few things she loved and had left were barely hanging on and she wasn’t strong enough to hold them all together. She needed Jack to be OK. She needed him to be the strong one. Crying unchecked, she clenched her eyes closed and balled her hands into fists, letting all the pain and anger and rage out in a single mournful scream.

Taking a deep breath, she thought first of Jack. She knew she should be with him and look over him. Without speaking, she decided to go and check on him.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she blinked several times at the sudden lack of light. There, before her on a makeshift cot was Jack. He lay on his side, half curled into a ball, a look of pain on his face even in sleep. Sam gasped in shock. She hadn’t entered the silo. Hadn’t even taken a step. Behind her, she could hear dozens of footsteps rushing through the door and into the silo. Shaking her head, she cursed her bad luck. There wouldn’t be any arguing with Tammy now.

* * * * *

Holy heck! Sam had done it! Poof. She was a superhero too. Will was beyond ecstatic. Things couldn’t get any better. Now they were really real heroes. They could go and fight the aliens with their superpowers and find Mom and Dad and bring them home and start all over and everything would be back to normal. Spinning around, he noticed Tammy’s confused and excited look as he glanced through the door that had been behind him. There she was. Standing beside Jack, Will could see Sam wiping at her face. Wanting to be the first to congratulate her, Will ran as fast as he could the few yards through the door and into the silo.

“You did it Sam. You teleported. You really did it. Now we can be the Star Children. We need to practice and train and find tights and capes but then we can save the world!”

Will watched Sam turn around, with a smile on his face that quickly faded when she looked back. With her lower lip and chin quivering, Sam looked down at him with a makeup streaked face and rapidly falling tears. Will hadn’t seen her this upset since the vault. Sure she had cried plenty of times, girls cried for lots of stuff, but not like this. Rushing forward, Will jumped up into her waiting arms and hugged his sister tight. She was hurting inside and even though he didn’t know why, he knew he always felt better after a hug. For long minutes he clung to her, enveloped in her arms as her sobbing grew worse and then better. Her crying upset him, and even though he didn’t know why he cried a little too.

“It’s going to be OK, Sam,” Will tried reassuring his sister. “Jack is going to be fine, and we are all going to be fine now. Don’t you see it? We have a chance at really saving the world. Together. I know we can do it, Sam.”

Though he hugged her and couldn’t see her face, he could feel her sobs subside as she nodded, her hair dragging against the side of Will’s face. He knew she didn’t want to be a hero. He knew she was afraid. But Will knew too that he felt safe as long as they were together. They had gotten so far and beaten off monkey men and insect men and outsmarted the Resistance, all without superpowers. Who knew what they could do now? The possibilities were endless. One thing Will knew more than anything. He had read hundreds of comics and above all they had taught him this – with great power comes great responsibility. They were going to save the world and at least two races of people. Will was pretty sure you couldn’t get much more responsible than that. Remembering to clean up after yourself was one thing, but saving the world was a whole other level.

Using the back of his sleeve to wipe away any lingering tears of his own, Will leaned back in Sam’s arms and wiped hers away as well, taking with it most of her makeup. She was prettier without it anyhow. Smiling at his sister, and seeing her return his smile, he hugged her again once more before she put him down.

* * * * *

Tammy shook her head slightly. Neither Sam nor Will realized it, but she did. Tammy watched on, totally converted from disbeliever to believer. She had just witnessed little Will altering his sister’s mood with just a few words. He had stopped Sam’s crying with a sentence, and turned her from tears to a smile in under a minute. He was using his power without even knowing he was doing it. That was how he had taught her so quickly. And Sam… There was nothing to be said. Tammy had watched her vanish right before her eyes as if nothing more than smoke, only to reappear within the silo. Those around Tammy had seen too, and there was no doubt about what they thought. Looking around, she could see the hopeful looks on their faces. Their home, a home she had never actually seen, had not been well off to begin with. Her race had been failing long before they had been abducted, but now who knew how few remained?  It was up to her to save her people. Sure, Jack, Will, and Sam were the instrument of her race’s survival, but she was destined to show them how and where.  Too bad she was as clueless as they were about the whole thing.

Turning to Phostus beside her, Tammy nodded at the man solemnly.

“We have a lot to discuss,” Tammy said to the man.

“Indeed. I wish our priest was still here,” Phostus replied.

“Did you lose him in an attack?” Tammy asked knowingly.

“No. He traveled south with several men to find us a safer place to stay.”

“Then he is still alive?” Tammy asked, hopeful to find some answers.

“I would like to think so,” he replied with a frown. They have been gone sixteen days.”

Tammy’s shoulders sagged. That long with no word was as good as a body. More of her people lost to this planet. Shaking her head she mourned the answers she could have gotten from a priest of the prophet.  All they could do now was hope to figure it all out on their own, but first they needed Jack to be well. He was what kept them all together. He was their leader. All there was to do now was wait.