Children of the After: Awakening (book 1) (5 page)

“C’mon, baby, please answer,” Sam yelled from above.

“Yeah, I’m OK,” Will shouted back. “And I’m not a baby.”

There was silence for a second and he was sure he heard Sam
sob loudly, but within little more than a few seconds their calls began anew.

“Are you hurt?” Jack shouted.”

“You OK?” Sam said at the same time.

“Yes I’m OK,” he replied, and looked around him as he
noticed his backpack just feet away. “I got my backpack too!”

“That’s good, buddy. Just stay where you are.”

Though he still couldn’t see them with the thick cloud of
dust raining down from above, he looked up at the girder that stretched from
the floor nearly up to the ceiling above. Against the advice of his brother, he
tested his weight on the girder, and the wires suspending the higher end of the
thing seemed to hold. Snatching up his backpack and the toys he dropped in the
plunge, he prepared to climb.

“Did you hear me?” Jack shouted.

“Yeah, I’m right here,“ Will replied with a smile, topping
the girder to look his older siblings in the face. “And guess what?”

“What?” Sam asked, her face torn between tears and a smile.

“I found a way down,” he said grinning.

Helping Will from atop the steel girder, Jack sighed loudly
before taking a deep breath to calm himself before talking.

“Let’s just get our stuff and get out of here,
like
yesterday.”

“Agreed,” Sam said.

Within minutes they had Will’s stuff all packed up into his
backpack and were ready to descend. Wanting to test the girder’s ability to
hold their weight, Jack went first to assure himself that Sam would be safe. Sitting
upon the edge of the hole ripped through their caved-in floor, he placed his
feet on the girder and carefully shifted his weight onto it. Though it swayed
slightly upon the wires that suspended it, it seemed to hold. Reaching out to
grab the wires for balance, he moved all of his weight to the beam and began to
half climb, half slide down its steep surface.

Once at the bottom he watched as Sam dropped all three of
their bags, which he caught one by one before placing them out of the way. Next
it was Will’s turn. Looking up and blinking as dust fell into his face, he
watched as Sam helped Will to step across the gap and onto the beam. Sitting
down, Will shuffled down the steel like some sort of caterpillar, moving his
feet, then sliding his bottom, before repositioning his hands and repeating. It
was slow, but he made it down without mishap and once he was low enough Jack
lifted him off the girder and lowered him to the floor.

“You OK?”

“Yup,” Will replied with a nod.

Next came Sam, as she reached out with a toe to begin
transferring her weight as well. The girder swayed, causing her to shift uneasily
as she made the transition from floor to angular steel, but she maintained her
balance after squeaking oddly and, sitting, she duplicated Will’s method nearly
perfectly.

Taking her hand to help her off the girder, Jack turned to
look upon their surroundings for the first time, to discover an apartment he
had never been in before.

Here and there cracks split the walls, as doors hung
crookedly in their jambs. The floor was buckled in places and like above, the
northern corner of the apartment was missing altogether. Shards of glass lay
scattered everywhere, making some surfaces dangerous to cross as the pieces
slid easily beneath their feet. Though much below was the same as above, this
apartment had a totally different floor plan. Where the kitchen had been in
their home, Jack guessed a bedroom or two had been ripped away when the corner
of the building had collapsed. It only took them seconds to find their way into
the still largely complete kitchen and begin digging through the already open cabinets.

Looking across the island in the center of the kitchen, Jack
watched as Sam stood upon her toes, looking into the cabinets above as Will
clawed his way like a rampaging puppy through those below. Assured that they
would find any and all available food, he began searching through drawers,
digging and discarding anything he did not need. On the third drawer he found
what he was looking for. It was not ideal. The blade was narrow and flimsy,
designed for filleting fish, but it had a case to protect him from accidental
injury. Unfastening his belt, he threaded it through the knife’s case before
buckling it once more. Satisfied, he turned his attention back to his siblings
to see what they had discovered, only to find a pair of disheartened faces
staring back at him.

Will was totally and completely empty handed, and Sam held
up a can of beanless chili and a small jar of spaghetti sauce. Hardly what they
had hoped for. And then it struck him. If the city had been destroyed almost
instantly, then likely the people that lived here would have had more in their
cupboards than this. Wouldn’t they? But the cabinets had already been open. Someone
had already gone through them. Another scavenger? If it had been, then that
meant that after the event, but before now, there had been a way up to this
floor. He already knew the area that led to the corner of the building where
the stairs and elevator were was missing. Back-tracking through the apartment
to where the fire escape should be, Jack stuffed his head out of the curtains,
careful not to brush against any of the broken glass that still clung to the
window frame. Sure enough, the fire escape was still usable here. Looking down,
it appeared it still spanned several floors before damage again made it
inaccessible below. Jack pulled his head back in the window.

“Bag it and let’s look down below,” he said to his siblings,
before sticking a leg out the window.

Pulling himself outside, he stood and looked across at the
neighboring building. It was burned, nearly in entirety, its empty windows
staring back at him like the empty eye sockets of a skull. Shuddering at the
thought, he turned to lift Will through the broken window before helping Sam as
well. Cautiously they began to climb down the rusted stairs.

* * * * *

Following Jack down the fire escape with Will in between
them, Sam watched as Jack disappeared into the window on the next floor. After
a moment to look around, he returned and she helped Will climb through into
their brother’s waiting arms before she too carefully passed through the
shattered maw of glass and metal. Once inside they were forced to circumvent
half of the apartment, only to double back through a broken wall in order to
find yet another kitchen. A quick search revealed only a can of tomato paste
and three boxes of corn muffin mix, all of which they bagged up before leaving.

Down another floor they climbed before repeating the process
for no food at all, and then back to the fire escape again to descend yet
another floor. Here the fire escape ended, as for several floors below it had
fallen away, taking some of the brick siding of the building with it. They
would have to find another way down.

Once inside what was left of this apartment, it was readily
apparent that they would not have any luck seeking food here. With a near
identical floor plan as their own, minus the security vault, the area where the
kitchen should have been had collapsed into the floor below. No longer was that
particular corner of the building missing, however, and as such she wondered if
they could make their way to the building’s staircase. Much of the apartment
here was charred, showing proof of the fire that nearly claimed it from below.

“Do you think we can get to the stairs?” she asked Jack.

“I was wondering that too. I don’t think we can on this
floor, but it looks like we might be able below.”

Looking down, she saw what he meant. The collapse of the
kitchen here had piled lots of debris in front of the exit door in the apartment
below. Wind blew up through the void in the floor and the musty scent of an old
fire filled it as it swirled about them. Looking around, she saw no way to
climb down in the room beneath them, and held fast to Will to be certain he
stayed away from the edge. Looking to her older brother, she could tell he was
trying to work out the same problem without any luck.

Feeling her hand tug several times, she looked down to see
Will testing the floor by bouncing up and down. Though it did seem to move with
his motions it held, thankfully, and she gave him a pair of eyes that quickly
stopped his actions. And then it hit her.

Looking up, not down, she found the answer to their problem.
In the previous floor there were several bedrooms surrounding a great void that
went two floors up. In the floor above that was the same. In those rooms were
mattresses that could easily be tossed down through the floors which they could
then use to drop down onto without injury. It was genius! Though she wouldn’t
mention that it was Will’s bouncing that gave her the idea.

Explaining her plan, it was less than an hour later when
they stood in the same spot looking down upon a mound of various mattresses
sprawled throughout the kitchen below. Again it was Jack who went first and Sam
watched, holding her hair back tight with both hands, nervous beyond belief.

Sitting himself on the edge of the hole, Jack used his hands
and pushed himself off the edge to plummet down several feet before landing
atop the mound and half rolling, half bouncing to the bottom. Standing with a
wicked grin, he gave a thumbs up and quickly made some adjustments to the
mattresses. There was no guiding Will this time. As soon as he saw that Jack
was done making adjustments, over the edge he leapt to land upon his back below
giggling and laughing as if it were an amusement park. Next it was Sam’s turn.

Tossing down their bags, she looked over the edge nervously,
picking out the spot she wanted to hit. Taking a step back to ease her nerves,
she closed her eyes and hopped over the edge in a seated position, hoping to
land on her bottom. Unfortunately she overshot her mark.

Hitting the mattress below, her eyes popped open as she
bounced forward, not up as Will had done, and rocketed into Jack’s legs who
toppled over her. In a mass of twisted arms and legs Sam fought to disentangle
herself from Jack when Will, thinking it good fun, jumped atop them both
yelling “
Weeee!”
, as he tackled them. Sam wanted to berate him for it,
but was simply happy he was being a kid. He hadn’t mentioned Mom or Dad a
single time since they began this little journey, and she was glad his
expectations had not been destroyed.

Finally free after a short bout of tickling Will, Sam
climbed to her feet as Jack shoved their little brother, who fell backwards to
bounce upon the mattresses once again with a
squee
of delight. Then it
was back to business. As Jack crossed the room to inspect the door and clear
what debris he could, Sam took to the cupboards, to be quickly joined by Will. Pulling
open one small wooden door after another, it was obvious that once again they
wouldn’t be finding much in the way of food. Even so she was sure to look
thoroughly, locating two cans of mixed vegetables. Once the cupboards were
exhausted, Sam looked to Jack as he pried the door open for what must have been
the twentieth time. Apparently having better success than on previous attempts,
he shouted in victory as he kicked a wide piece of wood into the doorway to
hold the door open before plunging his head through.

Rustling Will’s straw colored hair, she motioned towards the
door and together they joined their older brother expectantly.

“How does it look?” Sam asked.

“From here it looks good. We’ll just have to see how far it
will take us,” Jack replied.

“Do you think we’ll find a good spot to stop for lunch?”
Will asked with wide eyes.

“We’ll try, little man, but let’s get outside first,” Jack
said.

With that they each took turns ducking through the door and
climbed atop the debris outside. From the door they had a fairly unobstructed
view of the stairwell which circled the elevator shaft all the way to the
ground floor. From the apartment door it looked accessible and structurally
intact, and nearing it, Sam’s opinion didn’t change.

Though the old subway tiled walls surrounding the stairwell
were cracked, and the steps were littered with broken tiles, dust and other
small debris, it appeared that at least the first flight down to the floor
below was fine. She hoped they would have it easy from here on out.

* * * * *

For the first few flights of stairs, Will bounced down with
both feet until he realized that the stairs just kept going and going. Stairs
sucked big time. In all his years he could never remember having taken the
stairs. Mom usually took him down the elevator, and Dad always said he didn’t
have time to take the stairs. Now Will could see why. What a pain in the butt!

Floor after floor they climbed down, but after the first two
there was nothing really to look at. Once they reached each new floor, all they
could see was the steel beams of the building and dangling wires with bits and
pieces of floor or wall here and there. Everything was charred black and every
surface, even the stairs, was coated with a thick black, almost slimy residue
that reminded Will of his water color paints for some reason. The whole place
stunk like Will’s track bag, but overall they didn’t run into any major
obstacles.

Nearing the ground floor of the building, there was a
section of the steel and concrete stairs that had fallen away that they had to
jump to cross. Then one full rotation down the staircase they were forced to
climb over the broken pieces of stair that had fallen from above.

Finally reaching the ground floor, they passed what was left
of the wall of metal mail boxes and stepped right through the still closed,
glass front doors of the building.

Outside was even worse than inside, and Will shivered at the
sight. He used to walk this road every morning with either Mom or Dad to catch
the bus to school at the corner, but now it was almost unrecognizable. Glass
from the buildings surrounding them covered the sidewalk and street and
everything in between, in a glittering and shimmering layer of jagged edges.
The trees planted at regular intervals along the road were nothing more than
gnarled, charred posts rising up from blackened earth. And cars littered the
streets and sidewalks at random, burned to useless lumps, the metal and plastic
of their structures having crumpled and melted under whatever heat had burned
them.

Everything in all directions was laid bare and burnt black. It
was colorless. Lifeless. Nothing and no one moved upon the street. No cars
passed or honked in the distance. There weren’t even any pigeons. It was silent.
Too silent. A shiver ran up Will’s spine and his breathing felt labored. It was
the scariest thing he had ever seen, and they intended to walk through it.