We drove for hours on end. We stopped for gas, for food, for a small game of musical chairs, but we were always getting back into the car.
"Should we try a hotel?" Francis was talking to my mom, a map sprawled over her lap in the front seat of the car. My mother, who was driving, kept glancing over.
"Not sure, the phones aren't working through here. We'd have to see if they'd do a walk in," my mom said as she took turned down the vacant freeway. There were very little cars here.
I slouched down more in the very back seat, pinched between Sam and the window. Charlie and Lucas were asleep in the regular back seats. Elliot was in the other car with the adults.
"I saw a new map with some of the safe-zones and cellular function areas. I wish I would've grabbed it," my mom huffed. Her words were heavy. I closed my eyes, trying to get a lick of sleep, but the constant vibrating of the car pounded against my temple painfully and completely obliterated any chance of shut-eye.
Sam was reading a book (nerd) next to me, but his long legs were spread out across me. I hadn't minded it earlier, but his heavy limbs were pushing down on my lap and making me lose feeling in my toes. My knee brace pinched against my jeans, cutting through.
"Sam, can you get your feet off now? It's been like 2 hours," I huffed, trying to push him off. He looked up for a moment, his shamrock eyes wide and confused for a moment as he registered my words.
"UGh, but it's so comfortable," he whined for a moment. I turned a glare to him, waiting impatiently. He huffed, but then bent his knees and curled his legs close to his body. I breathed, savoring the loss of heavy weight and hard bone off my legs. I shifted my toes, preparing for the static that was going to fill them surely within the next few minutes.
I spent the rest of the car ride shifting around, searching for a position that would let sleep swoop in and claim me. It finally did about 20 minutes before we pulled up to a small motel. Talk about serious bad luck.
"Hey, up up," a voice called. I uncurled, blinking sleep out of my eyes. It was dark, but I could make out small lights outside the car.
"Wha...Where are we?" I slurred, still bogged down with fatigue. My brother shrugged and hopped out of the car. I was the last one still in.
Rubbing my eyes harshly, I clambered out of the backseat, sliding out of the door and slamming it shut behind me. Immediately, cold air bit at my skin. I hurried around to the back, grabbing my heavy aviator jacket out of the corner of the trunk and slinging it over my bare shoulders. I had only been wearing a plain black tank top before, and goose bumps had already begun to litter my arms.
We met up with everyone, exchanging "hello's and "how was your drive's. Elliot was also rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he hopped down from the car, his long hair rumpled and messy.
"Where are we?" he mumbled as he walked over to stand by me. I shrugged, waiting for someone to tell us. The adults had gathered by the front seat of the car I had been in, huddled with flashlights around a large map. The kids had been abandoned by the back of the car Elliot had come in, playing in the dirty snow.
Elliot and I watched for a moment before the parents came back and shoved us back into the cars. Their sudden change in behavior made my heart rate spike.
"What's going on? Why did we stop?" I yammered, grabbing onto the hem of my father's jacket. He glanced back at me for a moment before telling me to hop back in. There was a scramble as people found a seat, but I ended up in the other car as we pulled out. Elliot was crushed into the backseat with me, Darren and Ashley in the seats in front of us with my father and Scott in the very front seats. Both cars tore out of the hotel parking lot, wheels screeching. I held on for dear life in the back, more confused than ever.
"What the hell was that all about?" I spat as we straightened out, speeding down the highway. Ashley turned her hazel eyes to me.
"There was a group of phasers in that building. We didn't know until we pulled up. We can't stay there - it's not locked down properly, and the phasers in there looked like they had guns and ammunition," she said sternly. Her words sunk in, leaving me staring at her with wide eyes. I glanced back at Elliot, my lungs dry and empty for a moment.
"How did you guys know?" he asked quietly. His bright blue eyes shone in the darkness of the
Car. Ashley glanced back at us, but it was Darren who spoke.
"There were bullet casings on the asphalt. Big ones too - and there was peppered wood on the windows that we didn't see until we pulled up. They've set up sniper posts. We had to get out of there fast, before they noticed we had stopped," Darren explained. His voice was gravely.
I sat back, trying to breath. It was like another slap to the face, this reality. It was real, it was here, and it was now. There was no stopping it - only surviving it.
⏀⏀⏀
FINN
We finally found refuge in a large housing complex. There were other people there, and they had the Phase 43 test a mandatory check off to come in. We all passed, thankfully, and we were let into the complex. There were loads of other people, but we stayed together in our small group and didn't really engage with the others.
While we got some down time in our small apartment we had been given, I took the time to use the owners laptop and look some stuff up. It took a while, but I finally stumbled upon a tiny piece of paper in the back of a drawer that had a password scribbled on. Catlover392. How original.
With a flutter of fingers and keys, I was in. I quickly accessed the internet, scrolling through news feeds and blog articles. Unfortunately, there was almost nothing recent - nothing after the day the media shut down. After a depressing half hour, I slammed the computer shut and collapsed on the bed.
After a few days of exploring the compound, there was another attack. A group of phasers, who knows how many, had completely blasted through the front gates and tore apart the security building. It was terrifying, yes, but by now I was almost immune to the shock of attacks.
We were off before the phasers reached us, tearing through the back gate of the compound with our stuff shoved messily in the back of the cars. I was once again squished between my brother and the window, face pressed against the glass as I tried to shut out the sounds of gunfire and destruction from behind us.
It took a while for us to find another rest stop, but when we did, it was not what I was expecting. Instead of locating one of the many high-security checkpoints that had popped up in the last few weeks, the adults decided to inhabit a vacated neighborhood that had makeshift walls thrown up around it. The city, I couldn't quite remember it off the top of my head, was a tiny little thing - not a soul around. After stopping at an abandoned gas station to restock on food and water, we found a large house in the back of the neighborhood complex and piled in.
It was a really nice house, had it not been torn apart in what was obviously an abrupt evacuation. Clothes had been tossed on the floor and empty picture frames had been scattered in shards around the desks and shelves. We all pitched in some time to clean up, and after about half an hour, the house was much nicer inside.
"Kids, before you're off to bed, we have to give you a talk," my father said quietly as he leaned on the doorframe of the living room. Elliot, Sam, and I had been entertaining Charlie and Lucas with a game of apples to apples, which we had found in a cabinet. We all looked up, our cards forgotten in our hands.
"What kind of talk?" Sam asked. I caught his glance. My father took a deep breath, then motioned for us to follow him.
Walking into the kitchen, I was surprised to see a fairly large arsenal of guns laying on the table. There was everything from a huge sniper rifle to a tiny hand gun, the one you always see in movies. The adults were sitting around the table, either cleaning or loading the guns.
"What's this?" Charlie asked quietly as he stepped into the room. Ashley stood up.
"We've decided that if we are going to make it to Minnesota, we need you to be able to defend yourselves. Yes, I know, this is dangerous... But the world outside is more dangerous than a six year old with a gun. So we need you to learn, and learn fast. This is a world where if you don't defend yourself, you won't have anything left to defend," she said solemnly. I noticed that Elliot's mother was staring at the floor with her lips pursed tightly.
I inched forward, brushing my fingers over the small handgun. It was cold, and heavy. I picked it up, turning over in my hand.
"Are you going to teach us to shoot?" I asked quietly. My father nodded.
"Can you guys handle this?" he wondered out loud. After passing a look from my brother to Elliot, I nodded. Charlie was still standing statue-still in the corner, but Lucas had a small smile filled with wonder plastered on our face.
"Tomorrow the boys are going to get up and take you guys out. Target practice, if you will," my mother said. I nodded at her, tucking a strand of hair behind my ears. We would be shooting. Shooting people. There was another large rock forming in my gut, but I shoved it down.
After that bomb was dropped, we were shuffled to bed. The next morning, the fun began.
Turns out, Lucas was the best shot out of all of us. Using just the small handgun, which I had learned was an XT 22 magnum, he had managed to hit every target my father gave him. It was impressive. Elliot came next, only centimeters away from the targets he had been instructed to hit. I had spent the day making fun of Sam, since he had managed to miss every target he aimed at by about 7 inches at least, but he had gotten me back when I completely missed the target my father had set on the roof of the adjacent house. However, by the end of the day, all the kids had managed to hit some sort of target with a small degree of accuracy.
I also ended up killing my first phaser that day. It was a stray, a "zombie". They were way past the tipping point, not even considered human. Still, it was hard to sleep that night. I remembered when I told Elliot a few years ago that I could never kill anything. I wasn't even the type of person who killed bugs, to be honest. However, when you know you just shot something that used to be a human being, sleeping was something that didn't really come easy.