Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (25 page)

Derek seemed to snap out
of his thoughts as if rebooted or something like that. He stared at
Jason, seeing him for the first time. “What?”

Elena and Mikalah both
laughed at him.

Sophie’s brow
tightened.

Anthony shook his head
from side-to-side.

“
Just curious, that’s all.
You know, wondering where you guys came from. I’m assuming you’ve
been here as long as we have, right? So that means you’ve been here
for what… three and a half, almost four days.”

Elena could not grasp
where he was going with this, the extent of it eluded
her.

“
Where have you been
hiding from all this nasty weather?” asked Jason, pointing up at
the advancing clouds, stressing his point.

Derek turned peevish. “Ah,
sorry man, I just didn’t catch the question, that’s -,” but there
was an interruption.

“
We were
hanging out at the mall having a love fest this
whole
time,” interrupted Kimberly
with more than a little sarcasm. She sounded
indignant.

What’s up with you, Little
Miss Crotchety?

There were a few startled
chuckles and a near-silent
“what?”
from a few mouths.

Only Joaquin did not have
an immediate reaction.

Elena watched him as he
stewed in his own thoughts for a second or two, and then: “The mall
is here?”

Hyun glanced over at him.
“Yeah, it’s here or at least it was there when we left it this
morning. Why?” There was deepening interest written on her
face.

“
You guys all knew each
other? I mean, before the Rending?” wondered Andrew, stepping
around Louis and a bit closer to the three newcomers.

The changing of the
subject irritated Elena, because she felt Joaquin had been on the
cusp of something important.

Hyun and Derek exchanged a
quick glance. Then they looked away. The boy’s head was downcast as
he stared at his feet.

Elena saw her brother and
few others frown.

“
Was that a tough
question?” Andrew implored, echoing everyone else’s
sentiments.

“
No,” replied Hyun, her
body stiff of a sudden, her tone timid. “Derek and I know each
other from the gymnastics team at school. He’s on the Boy’s Junior
High squad and I am on the Girls’ Varsity squad. Because we get out
late and all, we kinda walk home together. You know safety in
numbers. Right, Derek?” she asked the boy, throwing out a lifeline
that did not seem necessary at that point.

Elena’s frown
deepened.

Derek did not answer
outright, but added an emphatic nod.

Hyun’s eyes drifted toward
Kimberly.

Elena could see the
reluctance grown upon her face.

“
Kim and I go way back,
but that… Well, that was a long time ago. We don’t –, we aren’t
-.”

“
We’re not tight anymore,”
rasped Kimberly, leaning on her back foot, crossing her arms under
her breasts.

What the hell is going
on…?
thought Elena as she looked over all
three of them - one after the other.

“
Yeah,” Hyun agreed with a
shrug.

Elena could tell there was
still much more left unsaid, but neither girl, nor Derek, made a
move to speak.

All Derek did was continue
to look at the ground, pushing at the snow with tip of one of his
boots.

“
Were you guys all at the
mall the night of the Rending?” questioned Anthony. Either he was
completely ignoring the tension around them or too deep in thought
to notice. He crossed his own arms, his brows knitting - a
thoughtful stance.

Hyun glanced from Anthony
to Joaquin. “You guys have said that word ‘Rending’ twice already.
I’m confused, because I have no idea what are you talking about. I
don’t understand what that means,” she said, confused, but happy
over the change in the topic of conversation. Her expression belied
only curiosity.

Something’s going on
here
, concluded Elena.

“
I can only describe it to
you in relation to time,” replied Anthony. “That way it’s easier to
understand.”

Hyun nodded, intrigued to
the core.

“
The Rending is what
happened the night of our abduction from our world. The same night
we came onto this one. What we are experiencing now is The Melding,
which is the merging of some of our plane of existence with that of
another. Only the merger is out of balance. That's the reason for
the bad storms. That's also why some of the bushes, trees and
animals we recognize from earth, while others look so strange. And
they should. They're from Storm."

The quiet was
complete.

“
So in those terms,” he
seemed to get stuck. “No, that’s not right. What I mean is, were
you all at the mall together the night all the weird shit happened
and you woke-up here?” rehashed Anthony as slow and measured as he
could so the girl and the others would understand.

“
Oh, ok, I didn’t know
there were names for things now…” Again, Kimberly Madison soaked
her tone in derision.

Why is trying so hard to
be mean?

“
You have no idea, girl.
In this place names are everywhere and they're all screwed up,”
piped-in Andrew with a sardonic chortle.

Kimberly turned her stare
in his direction. It was not kind at all.

Everyone else shared
uneasy looks, shuffling their feet.

“
To
answer your question, the answer is no. We didn’t all
go together
to the mall
the night of the Rending, as you put it,” began Hyun placing her
hands on her hips. “I was Christmas shopping and was in one of the
small clothing stores when it all started. I woke-up still in the
shop when it was over. Everything looked the same, but there were
no people. I searched for a while before I ran into Kimberly.” She
glanced at Derek.

He nodded. “I was in the
arcade waiting for my mom to finish whatever she was doing at
Target. Like Hyun said, I came-to on the stinky-ass, arcade floor,
laying in someone else’s chewed-up bubble gum.” He grimaced at the
memory. “I went into Target to look for my mom, but I couldn’t find
her. I looked all over that place. Finally, I just sat down at the
second floor entrance not sure what to do when I heard people
talking and went to go investigate. That was when I found the two
of them.” His voice pinched off into silence. He did not look at
Kimberly.

She sucked her cheek in
disgust, a heavy sigh upon the heels of the gesture. “I was walking
with a friend down one of the concourses on the upper floor of the
mall. We were just walking along minding our own business...,”
Kimberly got a few nods of comprehension. Then, for the first time,
her face softened.

Elena felt she was gazing
upon the real Kimberly and not the bitch she was trying so hard to
portray.

Kimberly brought a hand to
her head and scratched in an offhanded manner. “…And then the
lights got all strange and I felt sick. There was this sound or
vibration, or whatever. My eyes got real watery and when I wiped at
them, Shawn just sort of evaporated. I thought he might have run
out on me, because of the way I was feeling, but then it happened
again. I almost lost it. You know chunks and all. I remember I was
sort of bent over on one knee when it came the third time. I can
only remember everything being like I was in tunnel. Only it kept
getting smaller and smaller, until everything was
black.”

“
Dang! Well, at least you
made it to the third gong and you still didn’t blow your cheese.
That’s better than I did,” decreed Louis, his cheeks reddening when
everyone turned to stare at him. “Well, it is!”

Surprised, Elena turned to
see Kimberly smile at Louis as if she was thankful for his comment.
A small weight seemed to lift from her shoulders. Her hardened
carriage melted to something wan, less intimidating. She turned
when Joaquin spoke up again, the moment shattered.

“
But, like you guys said,
when you left earlier today, the mall was still there,
right?”

“
Dude, why do you have
such a hard-on for the mall?” asked an incredulous Jason. He stared
at his friend, annoyed, because he kept asking the same question
over and over.

Derek and Andrew laughed
at the same time, though most of the females frowned at the
remark.

“
Because, you dumb shit,
there’s a Target at the mall,” retorted Joaquin. He raised his
eyebrows as he leaned toward his friend with an exasperated look on
his face.

“
So, who gives a
–?”

“
On my god, Joaquin, your
right!” exclaimed Anthony as Joaquin’s point struck
home.

Many of the others peered
at one another in confusion.

“
Don’t you guys remember?”
he pleaded with his sisters.

Then it hit Elena like a
ton of bricks. “That’s where Dad buys almost all our camping stuff!
He goes there or to Wal-Mart, but nowhere else. It's because of the
prices,” revealed the little girl, her face flushing with
excitement.

At first, there was
nothing but a thunderstruck silence. Then each of the original
eight companions realized one after another the import of Elena’s
words.

Then from Anthony: “You
see why I keep my little sister around? I mean even though she’s so
ugly and all, she’s still freakin’ indispensable?” He looked her
way with sparkling eyes. “They always say the horse-faced girls are
the smartest!”

Now I am going to bitch
slap you, Tony!
she thought as she looked
over at Mikalah and saw her sister staring back with eyes that
gleamed and a small grin.

But, the others were not
paying any attention to the byplay between the three
siblings.

“
Holy crap, that’s right!”
exclaimed Jason. “Why didn’t I get it before? Man, I’m sorry, bro.
I wasn’t thinking,” added Jason, striking out at Joaquin’s
shoulder.

The other boy dodged it
with ease, remaining quiet for the time being.

“
Why is that so
important?” asked Hyun, hands still on her hips, but with
interest.

“
Do you have a change of
clothes?” was Andrew simple inquiry.

“
No.”

“
Yeah, neither do we, but
there’s so much more at Target than just camping equipment, right?
There are clothes there. There are backpacks, underwear,
toothbrushes, mouth wash and deodorant. There's butt wipes, tampons
and a whole bunch of other shit,” spelled out Andrew with an
ever-growing smile.

Some of the others let out
outraged gasps at his comments.

“
It would be like finding
fucking buried treasure or something!”

“
Andrew!” bellowed
Anthony, incensed.

“
What?!?”

“
Language, dude! Jee-zuz,
chill out!” chided her brother.

“
Oh,” was all Andrew said.
His gaze darted from her to Mikalah, his face sheepish.

“
Shoot, man, we were so
dead-set on finding our houses, we didn’t even think about taking
some of that stuff. It might've helped big-time. Some of the
survival gear we were already using. Dammit!” admitted Derek, full
of regret, shaking his head from side to side.

“
Don’t bang yourself over
the head, dude. Your eagerness to find our homes led you to us,
which is pretty much saving all our butts. I know none of us are
complaining. Besides, we were sort of looking for you guys in the
first place,” explained Anthony. His grinned widened, glancing
about for support.

“
I guess so,” he muttered,
not catching the import of Anthony’s last phrase.

Not Hyun though. She
tilted her head to the side. “Why would you guys be looking for
us?”

Anthony looked over to
stare at Hyun. He seemed about to say something more when suddenly,
Kimberly screamed at the top of lungs.

They all ducked or spun
around, attempting to find the threat. A few covered their heads,
cowering in fear.

Elena had crouched lower
to the ground, certain the enemy had surrounded them on all sides.
Now, they would descend upon them in vast numbers. This time, there
would be no hope of escape. They would be prisoners once
again.

Then, her eyes caught
sight of the end of Kimberly’s finger, pointing in the direction of
the forest. She was peering toward the opposite side of the
intersection, relative to their position. An instant later, she let
out a sigh of relief.

Pounding from the forest,
through the snow blanketing the landscape, was Garfield - one of
the Fist and a dear friend.

Thank
god
, she thought.

Then she saw his face was
a mask of worry. His body strained with urgency she only seen
course through him when the situation was dire. He was hurtling
toward them.

Her fear returned with a
vengeance.