Restless

Ben's Party, Zach's Suprise

Two days passed and we pretended it was a normal day. We planned to take Ben out of the house so we could set up his Birthday party.

"Why are we going again?" Ben asked Zach. We had just told him that we needed him to drive Zach and Emilie to a park in the middle of town. Zach and Emilie would distract him for as long as possible, giving us time to create the party.

"We heard that the sandmen were stashing ammo crates in the park. We need to go steal them." Zach lied. Ben still looked confused when they left the house. Brianna and Elizabeth were in charge of decorating the house, so they had a pile of streamers and happy birthday banners. Elizabeth had found three rolls of duct tape to hang the decorations within the storage closet, in the basement.

"You guys need any help?" I asked as they ran throughout the living room.

"We're good. I think Cailey might need some in the kitchen though." Elizabeth answered, Taping one end of a streamer, to the wall above the couch. Cailey was baking Ben's Birthday cake. My sister, Madison, was being Cailey's assistant for the time being. Madison and I looked like we came from different families. She had very, pale skin and was a lot shorter than me. Her hair was light brown and she had bright green eyes. I looked more like my dad and she looked more like our mother. She was only a year younger than I was, but was smarter than I would ever be. She preferred to help Ty with his science stuff. When I opened the kitchen door, I was hit with an amazing smell. What I smelt was a fresh, warm Chocolate cake, straight out of the oven. Cailey spread creamy chocolate icing onto the cake, making sure everywhere had an even amount of covering. The cake was huge. We needed to have enough for thirteen people to have a slice.

"That looks delicious, girls. Great job." I said grinning, ear to ear. My sister stood in front of the cake, holding a tube of icing. She made designs along the edge of the cake. The blue icing seemed to glow because of the chocolate background. In perfect cursive, She wrote across the cake's top" Happy B-Day Ben!!!". I left them to finish the cake, so I could check on the guys. Tim, Parker, Brianna, Nick, Ty, and Luke, had all snuck out last night and found Ben his present. He only was getting one gift because of the size of it. They had brought it into the backyard and we're currently adding custom attachments to make it unique. Half of the boys were cleaning it, while the other half added the finishing touches.

"Almost done?" I asked my cousin, Luke, as I approached. He was using a blow torch to weld pieces to the surface of Ben's gift. Luke was thirteen and had short, dirty blonde hair. He was my best friend and I was always happy to see him.

"It should be done in five more minutes." Luke responded patting me on the shoulder. I helped them cover his gift with a tarp and we all went into the house. We got inside just in time. Elizabeth yelled from the front door.

"Here they come!! Get ready!!" She yelled to us. The girls had completely decorated the living room, from top to bottom. We all gathered in front of the door and waited for Ben to open it. After a few moments, the door opened and Ben stood in the doorway.

"Surprise!!! Happy Birthday, Ben!!!" We all yelled in unison. His face lit up and he proceeded to enter the house. He looked around at the decorated room in amazement. We sang him happy birthday and he made a wish, on his giant cake.

"I wish, everyone will stay strong." Ben whispered, blowing out his candles. At that very moment, there was a knock on the door. No one did anything, until I started to move towards the front door. Zach handed me my revolver and the pounding on the door continued. I grabbed the handle and swung open the door. Outside the door, was no one. Then I heard a voice.

"Hello?!" A familiar voice said. I looked down more and I saw who was knocking on the door. It was the leader of the Awake, Katherine. Katherine was extremely short, but had a huge temper. She had brown hair and had a strong, southern accent.

"Katherine!! How you doing?!" I asked, happy to see her.

"I'm just great. Big Ben has three holes in him and Hannah has a problem she needs to discuss with Mr. Zach. Thanks for asking." She said furiously. I called for Ben and Zach to help me get the Awake into the house. We ran out to the Awake's truck and Peter pushed open the trunk, from the inside. He sat next to their supplies with Big Ben lying on his lap. Big Ben's blood stained Peter's pants and shirt. There were three bullet holes in the upper left part of his chest.

"Where's Hannah?!" Zach asked Katherine. Just then Hannah stepped out of the truck. There was something about her that had changed. Her belly was enlarged and slightly rounded. Right then and there, I realized what it was. Hannah was pregnant. I looked over at Zach who was petrified. His eyes were frozen, as he looked at his girlfriend. She started to speak, but Zach turned around and walked back into the house.

"Let's get Big Ben inside." Peter ordered. Big Ben was breathing heavily through the pain. His face was very pale, as if he had lost a lot of blood. I helped him out of the truck and Ben, Peter, and I carried him inside and laid him on the couch. Madison rushed over and inspected his wounds. She had taken medical classes a year ago and was pretty much a doctor, in my opinion.

"The shots went straight through, so that's good. None of his major organs were punctured by the bullets. You'll live." My sister said to Big Ben. He grinned at her and I went to go check on Zach. He had left everyone and went up to his room. The girls were comforting Hannah as I climbed the stairs. Zach's door was shut when I got to it.

"Zach?" I asked, knocking on the door. There was no response so I opened the door. He stood in the middle of the room with something in his hand. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I can't do this." Zach said softly. He was shaking. He turned to me and looked me in the eyes. "The world is asleep and I want to sleep with it."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, slowly moving towards him. He shut his eyes and out of nowhere put his pistol to his head. He was suicidal. I tackled him to the ground and forced the gun out of his hands. Zach sobbed from under me.

"Please, let me go.. Everyone is asleep!!! I don't want to be a father!!!" He cried, as I held him down. I slapped him and got in his face.

"What are you doing?! Get ahold of yourself!! We have each other!!! You almost just did something that would have ruined everything!!! We'll get through this!!" I yelled at him. He stopped crying and took a deep breath.

"I'm not ready to be a dad, Drayton. Not in a time like this." He whimpered.

"Listen, your child almost lost their father. Think about Hannah." I said to him. He thought a minute, then nodded. I let him up and he asked me to send Hannah up to talk to him. I grabbed his gun off the floor and put it in my pocket. I didn't want him to do anything stupid. Stepping out of the room, I ran into Hannah.

"Is he okay?" She asked, looking down at the gun in my pocket. I nodded and stepped aside.

"He wants to talk to you." I said softly. She thanked me and entered the room. I left them to talk alone. Downstairs, Madison was cleaning Big Ben's wounds. While they tended to Big Ben, Me and our Ben, went out into the back yard.

"I almost forgot to show you your present." I said smiling, as I pulled the tarp off of his present. Stepping back, we both looked at his gift. It was a shiney blue, Mustang. The guys had taken it from one of the rich houses, across town. On the side, was a "B" painted in black. We had welded long, sharp spikes onto the front to make it look like a killing machine. We enforced it's outside with metal plates. I looked over at Ben, to see nothing but a dead stare.

"It's beautiful..." He finally said. I reached in my pocket and pulled out a key. The key to the car. I tossed them to Ben and he caught them in his left hand.

"She's all yours, Buddy." I said, watching my friend celebrate. It was a good day.