The Breadwinner Trilogy (Book 1): The Breadwinner (7 page)

“You get off me!  Get out!”  He shouted out at her through her hand that she immediately threw over his mouth as soon as he had opened it to yell.

Her eyes, although they could not focus on anything in such immense darkness, she kept wide open, fearing she might miss the minutest detail of her suddenly hostile surroundings.  She searched the depths of her brain for some sort of a plan or idea that could get them out of here alive but she could think of nothing.  She couldn’t get out of this one alone, she needed this man to get his shit together.

“Samson,” she whispered directly into his ear with the most sobering words she could have ever uttered.  “They’re here.”

Part II:  In the Beginning

I

“Government Officials are asking everyone to please stay indoors during this time.  A state of emergency has been declared for the following counties…” the television blared from the living room in the small apartment that the Williams family shared in the heart of Columbia Beach City.  James, the man of the house, sat on the couch with his bright eyes glued to the television set, attempting to make sense of the sudden sickness that seemed to be overtaking the world around him.  Outbreaks of violence and looting were breaking out all over the city, schools were closed, people were urged to stay home from work and there were talks of a curfew being set country wide.  No matter what channel James stopped on, news anchors all had the same blank faces as they spoke.  Their job was to give the people the news, not react to it, but it was becoming hard not to. 

James’ daughter Veronica was in her room down the hallway, chatting on the computer.  The TV set was so loud she could hear its muffled sound through the music she played on her laptop.  With a sigh, she got up and slammed her bedroom door shut.  She rummaged through the odds and ends that were strewn about her desk and found her bright purple headphones.  Stuffing them into her ears, she flung herself onto her bed, plugged them in and went back to instant messaging with her friend Dee. 

Deeeva95
: I can’t believe how my mom is acting!!  She won’t even let me come over...I’m so bored I could kill myself
.


Vr0n
: I know right?  My dad has the TV on 24/7, it’s gettin on my nerves like woah.

Deeeva95
: Oh well, at least we don’t have school again tomorrow!

Vr0n
: Yeah…but I’m totally pissed that track has been cancelled for what, almost a week now?  This whole thing will blow over and all the crazies will disappear and then I’ll lose my next three races.

Deeeva95
: Quit bein dramatic, you sound like my mother.

Vr0n
: Lol, whatever, you know I gotta get my run on!

Deeeva95
: Ugh, I gt
g
my mom wants me to be miserable with her and watch the news.

Vr0n
: Ahaha ok, text me later.

Veronica sighed as she closed out the IM screen, nobody else seemed to be online from her friend’s list.  “Lame!”  She shouted and threw her headphones down on the comforter.  Nothing was on
TV for days now, it was all the same emergency news casts on every channel, and unfortunately for her they couldn’t afford HBO or any of the other premiums.  She wondered what Isaac was up to and got up to leave her room when she heard a loud crash from outside.  She jumped and then laughed at herself for being startled so easily.  Some idiot had crashed into the telephone pole right across the street from her building.

“Holy shit.”  She muttered, scanning the streets for any sign of panic but nobody seemed too bothered by it.  The few people out on the street were ignoring the car as if nothing happened, going about their business, but a lot faster than they normally would have.  She let the curtain fall where it was and walked out of her room.  Isaac’s door was closed across the hall.  She knocked and didn’t get an answer.  She shrugged her shoulders and walked out to the living room.  Her father and brother sat on the couch, eyes fixated on the television screen.

“Will ya’ll please quit watching that already?”  She said casually as she walked to the tiny three point kitchen and grabbed a water from the fridge.  “Somebody crashed their car right across the street but everybody’s probably too busy watching the TV to care.”

Her father James, noticing the beverage choice quickly snapped, “Look, let the police worry about that kind of stuff and put the water back now.  Drink a soda.”

“Dad you know I don’t like-“

“I don’t care, we need the water V, put it back please.”  He cut her off and quickly turned back to the
TV set.  Isaac looked at her and pointed at the fridge and winked.  She smiled as she opened the door and pretended to put the water back.  She walked quietly into the living room and stood behind them.

“If you come into contact with any person who is exhibiting signs of violence or sickness, it is extremely important that you isolate them and contact your local authorities.  Help will be on the way shortly.”  The red haired news anchor announced.

Veronica narrowed her eyes, “Isn’t violent and sick half the world’s population already?”  She remarked.

Her father turned to look at her and noticed the water bottle.  “Damnit V.” 

“What?”  She giggled as she took another sip.  “You can’t stay mad at me pops!”

He shook his head and sighed, “I know darlin’, but things are lookin’ pretty bad out there.  I just want to have enough supplies on hand for you and your brother in case it gets too dangerous and we can’t leave.”

“Dad,” Veronica placed a hand on her hip and took another sip.  “You watch too much television.”  She walked over to the small window near the balcony door and pulled the blinds down a bit, trying to get another look at the crashed car.  The driver’s side door was now open, but no driver to be seen.  There were a few more people out that she could see now, and Veronica thought they looked like a bunch of panicked rats running around in the street with nowhere to go.  She flipped the blinds back up and scowled at her brother and father.  “I guess everybody out there watches too much television too.”

That night Veronica found it very hard to sleep.  She kept getting up and peeking out her window, trying to see what was going on.  Every so often she would hear people yelling, like they were fighting, and she
almost got nervous enough to wake her father.  She slept with her headphones in, her music playing and dreamt of monsters in her closet.

II

“This shit is ridiculous.”  Isaac mumbled as he threw his smartphone down on the table.  “I haven’t been able to get a text out all day.”  Veronica’s older brother plopped down onto the dining room chair with a grunt and scrunched his nose up at her.

“Mine’s no different.”  She responded without looking up from her laptop.  Veronica had been trying to get a hold of Dee for over a day but was getting no response.  “Nobody’s been getting online.  And the people that have been on I can’t even get through to.”  She furiously typed messages that would never send due to server errors or the internet consistently timing out.

Their father walked into the kitchen buckling his belt, eyes glued to the television in the living room as he did so.  “I hate to break it to you kids,” James said as he pulled his shoes on, “but it looks as if the internet might be down for now.”  He motioned to the other room where a news anchor nervously announced that the government was “temporarily suspending cell phone and internet connections in certain parts of the country in order to keep usage low and maintain emergency lines.”

“I don’t understand dad!  They just want to cut people off?!”  Veronica looked at him with pleading eyes, “What is even going on anyway?  A couple people get a fever and beat each other up and the rest of us have to suffer?”

“V, it’s a little more complicated I’m afraid.”  He walked over and placed a large hand on his daughter’s soft dark hair.  “It seems like things are getting a little scary out there and it’s time you two kids and I had a discussion about it.”  Veronica thought back to the night before and remembered the screaming in the streets.

Isaac got up and walked over to the sliding door of their apartment that led to the balcony.  He pulled back one of the blinds and stared.  “I watched enough of the news with you dad, and I know that this is just like any of those hurricane warnings they send our way.”  He dropped the blind and turned toward his father.  “It’s a bunch of media hyped mumbo jumbo that they’re cryin’ wolf about so that they can scare people into spendin’ a chunk of money they don’t have in order to stimulate the economy.”  He stuck his hands in his pockets and rolled his eyes, looking at his sister.  “Or some shit.”

“There you go,” Veronica smiled at her brother, closing her laptop.  “Gettin’ all smart on us.”  She giggled to herself and Isaac gave her the finger.

James, displeased with his children’s vulgarity toward one another pulled the remaining dining room chair out and sat down in it, slamming his big fist down on the table.  Not in anger, but as a warning.  “You two need to quit it now.”  His deep voice filled the apartment in only the way a father’s concerned voice could.  “You know I don’t like you usin’ that language around your sister, and I think you need to go ahead and sit back down with me to have a discussion.”

“Yes sir,” Isaac mumbled as he returned to his seat at the small wooden table.  The siblings, only two years apart, Veronica 16 and Isaac 18, looked as though they could be twins, and neither of them looked as if they belonged to their father.  James was a shorter build, muscular, with sandy blonde hair and small green eyes.  Veronica and Isaac were tall and lanky with catlike brown eyes and chocolate brown hair.  They were the spitting image of their departed mother. 

James grabbed the remote off the table and lowered the volume on the flat screen.  The family had little by the means of nicer electronics, but James made sure his kids had the entertainment he thought they deserved.  And by deserved, he made sure they had enough to keep the other kids from making fun of them when they came over.  Times had been tough since Nina had given up the long battle to breast cancer 3 years earlier, but James took up a second job and had tried to keep his children as comfortable as he possibly could since having to move into the apartment in the city.  “Look kids,” James started, wringing his hands, unnerved by the conversation he was about to have.  “I know it doesn’t seem so serious to ya’ll, right now, but whatever’s hittin’ this country,” he glanced at Veronica to make sure she was listening, “it’s hittin’ us awfully hard, and happening right outside.”

Veronica was the ace of the two children; fantastic grades, excelled in track and basketball, a nice group of friends.  She was a natural born leader with a good head on her shoulders.  Isaac on the other hand had failed his sophomore year in high school and was kicked off the football team for poor test scores.  His friends were into heavy drinking and experimenting with drugs and James had to struggle to keep him from following suit.  Before the country’s current crisis had even erupted, Isaac was enduring his second out of school suspension of his Senior year.  One more, the principal had warned, and he was out.

“So there’s a sickness.  I get that.”  Veronica twisted a strand of her hair nervously, catching onto her father’s uneasiness.  “But isn’t it just gonna pass?  I mean, I know what they’re sayin’, they’re sayin’ people are attacking one another, eating one another.  But who in the world just decides to start eating their neighbor?”  She put an emphasis on the word eating as she continued talking.  “But seriously, this just sounds like Isaac said, a bunch of hype they’re tryin’ to get us to buy into.  I mean, I’m okay with them cancelling school and all, but there’s been three accidents on our street in two days and they’re not even cleaning it up.  Why are they tryin’ to scare us like this?”  She looked over at her brother, who was busy with his phone despite knowing it would not work.  “If they’re tryin’ to scare us, it’s working a little, but I don’t see the point in shutting our internet off.”  She rolled her eyes and sat back in the chair when she was done speaking.

“I know, I know it seems crazy and pointless,” James started, “but if this is as serious as they’re making it out to be, then we need to just be patient and concentrate on the important stuff.  Maybe right now, we need to take it seriously, just in case it is.”  He noticed his son wasn’t paying attention and thought of Eliza, his son’s girlfriend.  “Look kiddo, I know you’re worried about her,” Isaac looked up at his father with a scowl. 

“I don’t even know where she is.”  Isaac mumbled.  “There’s a bunch of crazy shit, sorry, stuff, happening out there and she could be anywhere!”  Isaac realized he was raising his voice and thought of
his mother, she always taught them that when family discussion was in order, they never, under any circumstances, raised their voices at one another.  “I’m just pissed is all dad, I wanna check in on her.”

“I know son, but you need to realize Eliza is more than likely with her mom and dad, and she’s probably having a similar conversation with them like we’re having right now.”  He placed a reassuring hand on his son’s from across the table.  “What you two need to be concerned about right now though, is each other.  Not your friends, or girlfriends or whoever, you need to worry about the people sitting next to you.”

“Well yeah dad, I know that.  But are you ok?”  Concern suddenly haunted her voice.

“I’m ok, V.” James answered with a smile.  “I’m not worried about me.  What I’m more worried about are the two of you being able to handle what we’re supposed to be prepared for.  James got up from the table, taking the remote in his hand.  He motioned for the kids to follow him to the living room and have a seat on the couch.