Project Aquarius (The Sensitives Series Book 1) (12 page)
Read Project Aquarius (The Sensitives Series Book 1) Online
Authors: Colleen Jordan
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Darnell
He was restless. It had been three days since everything had gone down and there was no need to stay trapped in the musty basement any more. He had memorized every drip and creak in the bowels of the old apartment building. He felt in his bones that it was time to run.
As Darnell munched on his morning can of Spaghetti-O’s, he approached his teacher. “When we gonna leave this place? I’m getting’ sick of it.”
Big Jim interjected, “I was thinking the same thing. I think it’s time you and Ms. Harding ventured out in the world.”
“Really?”
Darnell was suspicious of Big Jim’s sudden support. He was the one who had told them to stay still, hunker down, and let the danger pass.
“But Jim—”
“It’s time, Laura. Focus on food, shelter, and safety. Back to basics. Find a place to rebuild.”
“I don’t know if I can,” she said with resistance.
“Follow the plan we talked about and then get out of town,” he instructed.
“Get out of town? But government aid will be coming soon.”
Darnell made brief eye contact with Big Jim who rolled his eyes ever so slightly.
“Ain’t nobody comin’ like he been sayin’,” Darnell said.
“I told you two, you have to stay away from the government or whatever is left of it. Only people with serious money and power could have pulled off something of this magnitude. Feels like politicians to me.”
“But we don’t even know what happened, Jim.”
“All you need to know is that a big energy came and wiped out life as you knew it. The real question is: how large is the radius of destruction?”
“I was wondering that as well,” Ms. Harding agreed.
“You and Darnell should head out of town, check it out.”
“We should? What about you? You should come with us,” she begged.
Ms. Harding’s desperation was seriously unattractive. She was always trying to creep on Big Jim and the dude wasn’t into her. After three days, it was obvious to Darnell. Girls never knew when to back off.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ve spent my life preparing for this moment. I have my whole command center here. See those boxes? All dry goods. Food to last for months. I even know where to get clean water. This city has always been my home and I’m going down with the ship.”
“Then we’re staying with you,” Ms. Harding insisted.
“I’m a loner Laura, it’s what I do best.”
“Please, Jim,” she pleaded. She moved close and put her hands in his.
“Don’t make me push you away.”
Darnell couldn’t take it any longer. Whatever was out there in the world had to be better than sleeping in a moldy bunker on a lumpy-ass fake bed made out of an old futon mattress and pallets.
“We leavin’ today like he says, okay Ms. Harding?”
Big Jim backed him up. “The kid is right. It’s what is best for all of us. You guys should pack up your stuff.” He sat back in the lawn chair with finality and resumed cleaning his shotgun.
“See? We leavin’!” Darnell jumped in the air and clicked his heels together. He was up for an adventure.
Big Jim tossed an old green army pack at Darnell. “Pack up whatever stuff you need. I’m letting you take my best camping pack.”
It had lots of straps and buckles. It was a bag that wasn’t messing around.
“Cool.”
Ms. Harding went back to where Big Jim was parked in his chair. Like a moth to a flame. She wasn’t giving up. “But Jim…” she whispered while lightly touching his arm. He flinched and pulled away. What a soap opera.
To begin with Darnell packed several cans of Spaghetti-O’s, a water bottle, and a lighter. Then the fated bus drawing called to him. He wandered over and picked it up, staring at the cartoon image of himself. Those simple charcoal lines had profoundly changed his understanding of life. He couldn’t let it go. Darnell folded the paper into quarters and stuffed it in the front pocket of his pack.
“I’m not kicking you out, you know, just encouraging you to do what’s best,” the big man’s voice boomed.
It was a poor lie.
“You sure you want to stay?” Ms. Harding’s voice went up an octave at the end of the question.
Big Jim nodded. “You know me. I’m built for this. Boston is my home. I’m going down with the ship.”
He was a man who wasn’t going to change his mind.
“You’ve got enough for a few months, but what are you going to do after that?” Ms. Harding questioned.
“I don’t know if there is an after that…”
Darnell wondered if the world was really gone forever. No more video games, no more cell phones, no more Internet. Nothing would ever be the same. In one way that was good, but in another way…
Darnell pushed the fear from his head and kept his body moving. He packed some tuna and an extra rusty can opener. Staying in motion was a skill that had saved his butt more times than he could count. He stuffed a roll of toilet paper on top of the canned goods.
Blink. An angry pockmarked man held a gun to Darnell’s father’s head.
“Go hide, Little Man. Get outta here. You don’t hafta see this,” his Dad instructed.
Darnell hid in the cabinet under the sink. There was a lot of yelling, a scuffle. Then the gun went off. One shot, followed by the worst silence of Darnell’s life. When he finally gathered enough courage to peek out the cabinet door, the scarred man was face down in a puddle of blood. Darnell’s father sat in a kitchen chair, head hung low. He pulled Darnell onto his lap and said, “You get outta here while I clean this up. Go to your Auntie’s.”
He kissed Darnell on the forehead and set him down.
Blink. The basement scavenge was almost complete. Darnell went over to the makeshift kitchen area and spotted a 20lb bag of rice. It had a glowing edge, the sign of a good idea. Instinctively, Darnell stuck his hand into the bag. He took a fistful and put it in his coat pocket.
“Here you go,” Darnell whispered.
Instantly, there was a flurry of motion. His pocket turned inside out and his little secret scampered across the floor. Darnell startled and fell to the ground, kicking over the bag of rice, spilling grains everywhere.
Ms. Harding screamed, “A rat! A rat!”
Big Jim took action, grabbing a nearby broom. He swatted at the floor, chasing the creature that was running in a panicked zigzag. Clouds of dust flew off the concrete.
“No! Don’t!”
Darnell was back on his feet. He jumped in front of the swinging broom just as Big Jim brought it down with a thwack on Darnell’s leg.
“Get out of the way!”
Big Jim narrowed his eyes and gnashed his teeth. The broom was mid-air again.
“Stop! Don’t hurt him!”
The rat scurried under a pallet of food and the chase was over for the moment.
“Dammit.” Big Jim paced back and forth. “If there’s one, there could be a hundred. This could ruin my bunker.”
“It’s okay, you can come with us,” Ms. Harding suggested. She was back at it, rubbing Jim’s back, comforting him.
Barf.
Darnell slowly approached the food stash, bent down on one knee, and held out a single grain of rice. He made a soft clicking noise with his mouth calling the white rat. It appeared and looked franticly from side to side. Then it sniffed Darnell’s hand and walked confidently into his grasp.
“Good boy… gotchya!”
The adults stopped talking and snapped their heads in his direction.
“You got him?” Big Jim seemed pleased. He put his hands out. “I’ll take him outside and drown him in a bucket.”
“No!” Darnell defended. “I won’t let you kill DROID.”
“Droid? You named it?” asked Ms. Harding.
“Yeah, he’s my friend.” Darnell placed the rat gently back in his pocket. “I was tryin’ to feed him when he escaped.” He took in the destruction Droid had caused during the chase. “Sorry for the mess.”
Ms. Harding pieced it together. “You brought that rat here?”
“Yeah. He’s always with me in my pocket,” Darnell admitted. He winced as Ms. Harding scrunched her brow and bit her lip. He hoped he wasn’t in serious trouble.
“Always? You had him at school, too?” she asked.
The teacher chick was catching on. “Yup.”
“Every day?”
Darnell raised his eyebrows in a guilty arch. Quietly, he returned to lacing up his pack.
Ms. Harding took a deep breath. “Why Droid?”
She glared at Darnell with more eye contact than he was comfortable with. For once he decided to be honest.
“‘Because… my foster mom wouldn’t get me a smartphone.”
Ms. Harding laughed first. It sputtered out involuntarily, spittle flying. Seeing her laugh, made Darnell start to giggle. The laughter was contagious and soon Big Jim joined in too. The air tickled Darnell’s nose and a tiny snort escaped. This made them all laugh harder. Darnell’s side hurt from the laughter and it was the best thing he had felt in a long time.
When he finally caught his breath, Big Jim pulled Darnell close to his chest in a fatherly embrace. “Goodbye kid, it was good knowing you.”
The memory of their unfortunate first encounter came flooding back to Darnell, feet dangling and all. “Sorry about hittin’ you and stuff,” he said quietly. “And thanks for lettin’ us stay and stuff… Just sayin’.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Big Jim said while patting Darnell on the back. “Laura, my dear.” He pulled her into a warm hug.
Even with his big tree-trunk arms, Big Jim had a way of being gentle that Darnell appreciated.
Ms. Harding began to cry. “Leaving you behind is so hard. It feels like a definitive goodbye. And––”
“Shh.”
Big Jim kissed planted a kiss in the middle of her forehead.
Blink. Darnell felt his father’s scruffy chin on his forehead as he stared at the corpse on the ground, a strange mixture of safety and danger.
Blink. Big Jim whispered, “Be who you are meant to be Laura Harding and remember your soul contract for this life. You chose this.”
The big man turned to Darnell. “Remember, you chose each other.”
***
“Where are we going anyway?” he questioned.
Ms. Harding looked at the address on the paper in her hand. “To see someone else who survived this thing.”
Darnell’s stomach fluttered due to hunger. The perpetual apprehension made his stomach muscles tense. The stench of the dead baking in the street wasn’t helping the situation. It clung to the inside of his nostrils. The smell had worsened severely since their last walk.
“Big Jim told me that the smell is an bad omen or somethin’. That more bad stuff is comin’? That true?” Darnell asked his teacher.
“Maybe, I don’t know. Everything is riding on this slip of paper,” Ms. Harding said in a distracted voice.
Darnell wondered what it said. He had seen her working during the long hours in Big Jim’s basement, sitting on a makeshift chair, constructed out of boxes and other junk, pouring through old phone books, looking for something. The pile of discarded yellow pages had been as tall as an end table. Darnell didn’t get it. Researching in books seemed pointless to him. That’s what smartphones were for.
“We’ve only seen only one other human being since the catastrophe,” Ms. Harding reiterated. “If he’s still alive, there’s hope.” She looked down at the slip of paper again. “We’re close,” she announced.
She was being awfully mysterious.
“Who? If who is alive?” Darnell didn’t remember seeing anyone. “Ain’t nobody out here. Maybe you goin’ crazy, Ms. Harding.”
“Says the boy who talks to his rat,” she countered.
“Hey!”
“I hear you whispering sweet things to Droid. You aren’t as hard as you pretend to be.” She grinned pointedly.
Darnell appreciated her sass. “You watch it teacher lady,” he joked. “Don’t start somethin’ you can’t handle.” He punched her affectionately in the arm.
Truthfully, Darnell had started to really like her. Besides, on his way out of the bunker, when he’d looked back over his shoulder to get one last look at the place. Big Jim had mouthed, ‘Take care of her.’ And Darnell had nodded in agreement. Out on the street that was a pact. Darnell took it very seriously. He had given his word.
“Did I tell you what Big Jim said about us?” Ms. Harding asked, as if reading his mind. That was happening a lot lately.
“Uh… nah,” he stammered. She would have to be more specific. That dude did a lot of talking.
“He said you and I were born to change people. That we came to Earth to help people. That we are old souls.”