Children of the After: The Complete Series: A Young Adult Postapocalyptic Action and Adventure series (43 page)

Sobbing, she realized the truth of the situation. She had failed in her duty to guide them. She had failed to lead her friends to victory. She had failed her race, who would now remain slaves until at last they perished into a history that none would be left to retell. Crying angrily, Tammy twisted, ignoring the pain, and began to kick and thrash as metallic bodies moved aside for her abductor to pass with her in tow.

Slow and steady they progressed across the expanse of the immense room, and though she fought, as best she could, the being that carried her away, it was all for naught. As she was carried into one of the light-filled elevator type transporters, Tammy heard Will scream in the distance one final time as her heart broke yet again with the knowledge of her failure.

Jack awoke with a start, and lifting his chin from his chest he was surprised to find himself standing. More or less. With his back against something solid, and his abdomen, wrists, and ankles restrained, he was upright but unable to move. Trying to turn his head, he found that it too was somehow held in place as piercing pains erupted from his forehead and temples each time he struggled. Unable to break free, he did the only thing he was able, and turned his attention to the room around him.

He could hear breathing to either side of him, a sign he took as good. If he had been captured and contained here, it was likely that Sam, Will, and Tammy were still with him. At least they were safe. Kind of. They were alive. That was what mattered. They were all alive and they were still together. They could get out of this and get through this if he could just figure out a way. Jack quickly began to scan the room.

Nearly vacant of anything at all, the wall directly in front of him appeared a patchwork of stainless steel, welded and riveted at irregular intervals to secure the many pieces of its surface together. The floor was likewise manufactured, and the walls to the right and left, that which he could see with his peripheral vision, appeared to look much as they had in the reactor room. Pipes, wires, and tubing coiled and twisted up each wall, broken only by an occasional valve. Unable to look up, he could barely see the top of the wall in front of him, and only mere inches of the ceiling above.

Defeated and angry, he turned his frustration against the wall before him and bore down on it with his telekinetic gift with all his might. The wall of overlapping steel plates stood unaffected against his power. It was no use.

Taking a deep breath, he did his best to let go of the anger and think, something his dad had told him to do a thousand times when he was little. It wasn’t easy. Not by any standard. But he did it.

After another deep breath, he looked around the room again, this time in the opposite order. More slowly and more concentrated than before, Jack studied the ceiling and then the wall in front of him, noting that the two did not appear to be welded together. Instead, there was a deep, solid line that ran the entire length that he could see, appearing as if they simply met at the ceiling but were not attached. It was peculiar, but if they had the ability for interplanetary travel, who was he to question their building methods?

Examining the wall he looked from one piece of metal that made its surface to the next, studying each one for weakness. After several minutes he only found a single rivet that appeared to be improperly installed. No dice. Down to the floor his eyes traveled and immediately his search stopped. Jerking his head forward for an attempt at a closer look, he reeled back against the structure that bound him as pain shot through his head, something digging uncomfortably into the flesh of his forehead as something hot dribbled down his face.

Blinking away the tears from his eyes, he pushed the pain aside and again looked to where the wall met the floor, or rather where it passed through it. It was a hardly noticeable detail, but there was an obvious gap of perhaps an eighth of an inch where the wall disappeared through the floor into what he presumed was another chamber below. In Jack’s mind there was only one reason for a wall to pass through a floor with clearance, unless of course the aliens simply had far different approaches to building, but he doubted it. No, the wall had to be mobile. If it could come up from the floor, then it only made sense that it could also go back down through it. That was why Jack couldn’t locate a door. The rest of the room they were in was hidden beyond the wall in front of them. If they could manage to get themselves free, maybe they could find a way past the wall and into the chamber beyond. There had to be a way out, didn’t there?

Wriggling his wrists and pulling against his restraints, Jack huffed and puffed, pushing and pulling with all his might as he flexed and relaxed all of his muscles. It was useless, the bindings were too tight. If only he could see how they were fastened, he could use his ability to undo them. His ability… Jack cursed himself.

“Sam!” Jack half shouted. “Wake up.”

Nothing. Jack listened and all he could hear was the breathing to either side of them. Perhaps they had been drugged. There was no way of knowing. All he could do was keep trying.

“C’mon, Sam. I need your help,” Jack pleaded, and quickly held his breath as a cough sounded to his right.

“Sam?”

“Tammy!” Will screamed, as if waking from a nightmare.

“Will. It’s okay. Calm down,” Jack said, wishing he could see his smaller brother. “It’s okay. We’re all here.”

“You’re sure?” Will asked after a moment.

“Yeah, I think so. Listen, we need to wake up Sam so we can get out of here.”

“Okay,” Will replied. “Wake up, Sam!” he shouted.

“I tried that.”

“Did you try this?” Will questioned, an odd tone to his voice. “Sam, your makeup is melting!”

* * * * *

Sam jumped awake, if you could call it that, and instantly began to struggle. Unable to move her head, arms, or legs she immediately began to panic until she heard the familiar voice.

“See,” Will giggled. “I told you it would work.”

“Will?” Sam asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yup. Well, as okay as a bird in a cage,” came the reply.

“Are Jack and Tammy here too?” she asked.

“Jack is. We think Tammy is too, but she’s not awake yet.”

“Sam,” Jack interrupted. “Teleport yourself out of your bindings and set us free.”

“Are you sure?” Will asked.

“Why wouldn’t she?” Jack questioned.

“If we’re all tied up then shouldn’t the bad guys be nearby, ready to come insult us for failing or something?”

“This isn’t a comic book or cartoon, Will,” Jack said.

“I know, but, maybe we should wait at least a little bit until we can figure out what they want or what is going on?” Will continued.

“We’re not going to figure out anything from here,” Jack replied. “Besides, there isn’t an exit here so far as I can tell, but I think that wall in front of us moves and there might be a way out behind it.”

“Are you expecting the wall or the possible door past it to suddenly run away?” Will questioned sarcastically.

“Of course not,” Jack said.

“Then why don’t we wake Tammy up, and see what she thinks we should do? After all, she is our guide. Remember?”

“I think he’s right,” Sam confided.

“Alright. We’ll wait and talk to Tammy,” Jack agreed.

Sam looked about as best as she was able and found the room sparse at best. There was no furniture, no windows, no perceivable doors, nothing. It was very much the cell that it appeared.

Knowing that she could leave her bonds at any given second somehow made Sam okay with being tied up. Able to relax, she let her mind wander in an effort to ignore her pounding head as both Jack and Will passed time trying to rouse Tammy.

Not sure how long had passed as she daydreamed about the ‘good ole days’, the tone of desperation in Will’s voice pulled her from her reverie. Listening to his words, it was apparent they had not yet manage to wake their friend. Sam tried to focus, but her head hurt beyond measure. Pushing her ability to its limits earlier was taking its toll.

“Wait, guys,” Sam pleaded to silence their yells. “How did you guys know I was here?”

“We could hear you breathing,” Jack replied.

“Okay, so let’s be quiet and see if we can hear her,” Sam suggested, both for her head and as a means to determine Tammy’s location amongst them.

Several minutes passed and none of them made a sound. Sam listened as best she was able, but all she could hear was the pounding of her head and the hammering of her heart in her chest. It was no use.

“Anything?” She asked.

“No,” replied Jack.

“Me either,” Will answered. “Where else could she be?”

“I dunno, buddy, but maybe because she isn’t a human they put her on the other side of that wall or something.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Will replied reluctantly.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Jack added. “Sam. Are you ready to set us free?”

“Wait. What if something else is over there? What then?” Sam asked.

“Then we fight it and go find Tammy.”

“I don’t think I can fight,” Samantha admitted. “I feel sick and my head is pounding. I don’t know if I could blink more than a time or two without passing out again.”

“Then Will and I will fight,” Jack said with determination in his voice. Sam couldn’t help but wonder if he knew how much he sounded like their father.

“Wouldn’t it be better to know what is there first?” Sam asked.

“If you have a plan, just tell us,” Jack said, obviously becoming impatient.

“If I free us, then what is your plan?” she asked.

“To see if I can use my power to move that wall.”

“You don’t have to be free to do that, right?”

“You win. I get it. Move the wall and see what is there before setting ourselves free. That way if something is there we don’t pose a threat and get ourselves killed. Got it.”

Sam would have shook her head if she were able, and if it wouldn’t have made her vomit. Boys could be so obtuse sometimes.
Charge in. Save the damsel in distress. Throw caution to the wind.
Idiots. What would they do without her?

* * * * *

Will was impressed. Sam was thinking like a hero too. All those bedtime stories she had used to read him must have taught her something after all. It was a smart plan - see what they were facing, then confront it together. It was simple, and lacked the flair of a comic, this was true, but it was a good plan.

For just a second, Will wondered if the aliens intended to bring them any food, when he realized that he needed to focus on more important matters. Watching the wall ahead of him, he listened as Jack took several deep breaths in rapid succession beside him. He did the same thing just before a track meet and had explained once that it was to oxygenate his blood. Whatever that meant. Either way, Will knew that Jack was about to do something. He hoped it was totally awesome like ripping the wall out of the floor, crumpling it up and tossing it aside.

Without waiting more than a few seconds, he heard Jack exhale one last time, followed immediately by a strange shuddering that seemed to be focused primarily in whatever contraption held him to the wall. Then, without warning, dust began to rain down from somewhere above as the wall ahead lurched suddenly downwards by several inches. Just as quick as it began, the shuddering stopped and the wall ceased its movements. Beside Will, Jack again began taking deep breaths.

Jumping in surprise, as much as was possible, Will’s mouth fell open as the wall began to rise once more, a sudden humming sound coming from below. Jack’s breaths ceased. The floor began to shudder and shake anew. Will knew his brother was doing silent battle against the mechanics that drove the wall. Watching intently, not that he could do anything else, Will saw the wall slow to a stop just before it reached the ceiling above and begin once more in the opposite direction.

Down the wall came as steam and smoke began to seep up through the tiny gap between the wall and floor as screeching sounded from below. Beside Will, Jack was panting loudly, occasionally grunting in exertion as the wall slowly ground lower and lower, inch by painstaking inch. Then, without warning, the wall jolted down nearly an entire foot as a loud metallic cracking sound issued up from below. From that point on the wall moved steadily downward, revealing the room beyond an inch at a time. Will watched on, both enthralled and terrified.

Opposite the wall, the room glowed an eerie yellow green color that seemed to fluctuate and change in intensity. As the wall fell further, the golden tops of three metallic columns were exposed, each of them with wires and tubes protruding from the tops and sprawling across the ceiling to then climb back down the walls again, only to disappear into the floor below. Down the wall they continued and just moments later, Will was astonished to realize that the columns were not as they appeared, but were great transparent, illuminated vials, filled with a strange greenish liquid. They were the source of the odd light. Inside the giant fluid-filled vials, bubbles arose from somewhere below, and as Jack continued to force the wall downward the large glass-like tubes were exposed further.

Will stood with his eyes transfixed on the giant vials. He knew somehow that something about them was important. It was mere seconds later when the wall suddenly collapsed the rest of the way through the floor that their entire contents were revealed and if Will had been one of his favored cartoon characters, his jaw would have literally hit the floor. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was something straight out of a comic, straight out of a movie. There, before him and his siblings, stood three alien beings contained within the giant glass vials. Each of them had tubes running into their chest, and each was unmoving, appearing like the jars of specimens Dristan Connor, a local scientist, had brought to his class to show them several species of fish he was working with.

The aliens were odd but familiar in a way that in itself was peculiar. Like aliens had been depicted in science fiction time and again, they had long gangly legs with arthritic-looking joints. Their feet ended in three wide toes without nails, and their hands held only three fingers with an opposable thumb at each side. The head was the most familiar, though. Will had seen it similarly drawn in dozens, if not hundreds of comics and cartoons over the years. Egg-shaped, with a narrow chin and slit for a mouth, each face composed of two nose holes and a pair of huge almond shaped eyes that now were transfixed on him and his siblings. Though the beings appeared dead, they were very much alive, given proof by their eyes that all blinked simultaneously. Creepy. Very creepy.