The End Boxset: Postapocalyptic Visions of an Unstoppable Collapse (26 page)

“Trust me, they're not going to be here,” Mark answered.

Mark exited the gym, as a large group of parents followed. One of Mrs. Crabtree's students, Jill, pulled on her dress while rubbing her eyes. “What is going on?” she asked.

“We're going to go home soon,” Mrs. Crabtree answered.

Before entering the school and undertaking a long search and potentially unsuccessful search for Kiya, Alice walked around the courtyard looking for any child that resembled her. She called out several times for Kiya and caught the attention of Shelly who was wandering around courtyard trying to find her parents. “Did you say Kiya?” Shelly asked. Alice immediately looked down and saw Shelly standing before her. “Yes. I'm calling for my daughter, Kiya,” Alice said.

“I know a Kiya, she's in my class. She was standing right over there,” Shelly said pointing the front gate. “She helped open the gate.”

Alice looked over to the gate, only to see more adults shuffling through the opening and into the school. It was hard to see. She looked back down to Shelly. “Thank you. Thank you so much. If you do see Kiya, tell her that her mother, Alice, is here looking for her,” Alice said.   She touched Shelly's shoulder in gratitude then ran towards the front of the school where she prayed that Kiya would be waiting. There was a young girl ahead. She seemed to appear out of nowhere. Alice slowed, nearly colliding into the girl. The girl looked up in a panic. Alice halted. 

“Kiya, is that you?” she asked.

“Mom?” Kiya asked back.

Alice knelt down and grabbed on to Kiya's arms, then yanked her towards her in a loving embrace. “I can't believe this, both of my children. We're blessed. We're so blessed.” Tears streamed down Alice's cheeks, Kiya squeezed her back. “I knew you would come,” she said. Alice lifted her head up and wiped her eyes. It was time to fight through the crowd and get back to the car.

“We have to get out of the school and walk to the car. It's close, don't worry. Brian is waiting for us.”

“Brian's here too?” Kiya asked with a smile.  

“Yes, we're going home.”

“You wouldn't believe what happened. They rounded us up and they tried to make us go to the gym, but me and some other kids escaped, and then they shot at us, and then we opened the door, and we ran and hid, and this Oliver kid ran into the tower, and then the other kids got into a fight—”

“You can tell me everything later, just stay at my side until we get out of here.”

“Okay,” Kiya said. Daughter in hand, Alice walked back out the gate of the school making it one step closer to her plan of survival.

When they got to the car, Alice spotted Brian sitting in the back seat, much to her relief. She looked around and didn't see too many people around. Once the other parents had their children, they would be relieved and joyous. But the next thing they would face would be immobility. Or at a realization that they were stuck, aside from walking. If one parent got word that Alice had an operational car, which actually started, she had no doubt that they would instantly take it from her. “That's not our car,” Kiya said as they grew closer to it.

“It is now,” Alice said.

“Where did you get it?” Kiya asked.

“Kiya, not now. Just get in the front,” Alice said opening the passenger side door. Kiya got in and Alice shut the door. “Wow, she actually found you,” Brian said.

“Nice to see you too,” Kiya said.

“What the hell were you doing in there?” Brian asked.

“They closed the school and wouldn't let us leave,” Kiya said.

“The power went out at my school,” Brian said.

“Mine too!” Kiya said.

“Children, quiet for a moment,
please
,” Alice said with her fingers wrapped around the steering wheel. Both kids did as they were told. Alice carefully placed the key in the ignition, said a quick prayer and turned. The car rattled to life in no time. She placed her forehead against the steering wheel, not in frustration, but in relief. “We're going home kids,” she said. She drove the car further, without the headlights on, trying not to draw attention to them. She had to drive past the school in order to find a clear path. The opposite direction was completely blocked by a graveyard of cars in the road. People filtered back outside the school, taking immediate notice of their moving car. A family only a few yards behind them, pushed their station wagon down the road, trying to start it with the gears in neutral. She wasn't the only car moving, but she was the only car that appeared to have a working engine. Most people took little notice of her as Alice cruised by—at a steady ten miles per hour—but those who did looked at her with awe and suspicion.

“Why is everyone looking at us, mom?” Kiya asked.

“Because their cars don't work,” Brian said. “And they're gonna want our car.”

“Why don't their cars work,” Kiya asked.

“Who knows? Why doesn't anything work now?” Brian asked.

“Well this car works,” Kiya said.
“Yeah, because it's like a hundred years old,” Brian said.

“So.”

“Old stuff works. New stuff doesn't.”

“How do you know?” Kiya said.

“I just know,” Brian said.

Once the groups of people thinned out Alice looked for a clear path in the road and gently accelerated the Valiant. It chugged its way to thirty miles per hour. Alice turned on the headlights. The odometer flickered back-and-forth. Alice glanced at the fuel gauge. Though it still displayed half a tank, Alice didn't know if it was even reading right. She would have to trust it. A million thoughts raced through her mind: fuel, food, clothes, shelter, power, terrorists, money, people, danger, weather, safety. It was overwhelming for her to consider. They were nearing their suburban neighborhood and a familiar area where she felt safer. They passed car after car on the side of the road. She swerved around many that were directly in the middle of the road. Brian and Kiya stared out the window and watched as several people ran out of the darkness and followed after the car. Alice grew more nervous. All these people working together could easily construct a road barrier meant to block their path. Alice tried to rid her mind of thoughts of her and her children being ripped from the car and thrown into the street. “Just get us home. It's all I asked,” Alice whispered with her eyes close.

“Who are you talking to?” Kiya asked to no response. Alice was too focused on the road. In the distance a large fire illuminated the sky. “Not another fire,” Alice thought. This time it was a house fire in their neighborhood. A house on the corner was ablaze as a small crowd stood outside watching it. The people standing outside paid no attention to Alice’s car. She glanced at them and could see tears pouring from the eyes of one of the women.

“Whoa,” Brian said leaning against his window watching the fire. The house fire was now behind in the distance, a stark vision in Alice's rear view mirror. “We're almost home,” Alice said. It would be only a few minutes to safety, so she thought.

She turned down a residential street, miles closer to their home. Everything was dark, except for their headlights, and another small blaze ahead. “Another fire,” Brian said, climbing into the front seat.

“Brian, stay in your seat,” Alice said. About a mile ahead another house was on fire. The odds of two fires in a single residential area were very unusual. In the shadows of the fire she could see a large group of people walking down the roads towards their direction. The closer they got, the more Alice could make them out. They were young. All young-adult to late-teen and grouped together like a menacing herd. Alice noticed something unusual. They were carrying weapons of some sort. Bats, pipes, bars—they were armed to the teeth. Like an oncoming wave, they flowed directly into Alice's path, blocking the road, just as she feared. She had moved directly into the path of a flash mob; looters and vandals that join together at a moment's notice to wreak havoc following any disaster or emergency. In normal times, flash mobs are dangerous, and known to attack tourists or locals with the element of surprise and violence. Now, without anyone to stop them, or any infrastructure to minimize their influence, they were a true force to be reckoned with. They formed a human barricade a half mile directly in front of the approaching Valiant.

“Shit!” Alice said.

“What's going on?” Brian said from the backseat.

“Nothing. Both of you strap yourselves in.”

After a moment of searching, Brian spoke, “There's no seatbelts back here.”

“Just hold on to something,” Alice said.

“Mom!” Kiya said. “Watch out for those people.”

“Close your eyes, Kiya,” Alice said with her hands tightly gripped around the steering wheel. The car moved closer and closer towards the inflamed house. They moved closer to the group that blocked their path. The fire cast a glared onto the determined faces of the group. They wanted the car, and nothing was going to stop them. Alice looked for alternatives. They had the entire road blocked off through a human chain. She had to think fast. “Mom, what are you doing?” Kiya asked.

“I told you to close your eyes, now do it!” Alice demanded. Kiya went quiet, but didn't close her eyes. Alice had to maintain her resolve and stay focused, she believed, if she was going to do what was necessary to get home. The natural inclination to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting several people came to her, but she fought it. Instead she maintained her speed and prayed that the kids would move out of the way. Brian looked up from his seat; he could see the line of people in the beam of the headlights. “Mom, look out!” he called. Kiya screamed and shut her eyes. The car plowed through the line like a pile of leaves. Several rattling thumbs vibrated throughout the car. Alice kept pushing on. The boys directly in front of the car attempted to jump out of its way, but they had waited too long. One of the boys flew into the windshield, rolled onto the roof of the car, off the back and onto the road. A large crack appeared after his boy smacked against it. The others flew off into different directions. Taking a bit of her own advice, Alice closed her eyes to block out the carnage. Within seconds she was through the ranks and the coast was clear. A few thumps were heard underneath the car as well. She looked into her rear view mirror. The standing members of the group ran after her car, screaming and waving their weapons in the air. She could see several young boys on the ground crawling around. No one, it appeared, seemed to be seriously injured. Though she could have just as easily killed one of them and not have ever known.

Clearly shaken up, Kiya started crying. Brian, in his own manner of shock, was dead silent. “Everything is okay,” Alice said, placing a hand on Kiya's knee. “We're going to be fine.”

Kiya's crying increased. “Why did you do that?” she asked. “We have to help them!”

“No, Kiya. They were going to hurt us.”

“You don't know that,” Kiya cried.

“I'm sorry,” Alice said. “Just please calm down. We'll be home soon.”

Kiya's loud crying soon turned to sobs. Brian turned around to look out the back of the car. He could see the silhouettes of people still in hot pursuit of them on foot. “They're chasing us now,” he said to Alice. Alice glanced in her rearview mirror and then back to the road. “I know, but they're not going to catch us,” she said. They turned a few blocks and neared Worthington Drive, their street. Just seeing the old familiar stop sign at the end of the road brought a rush of relief to Alice. At last, they were almost home. 

Alice slowed the car as they neared their home. Randall's Jeep Cherokee was still parked in the driveway. She pulled into the driveway, parked, and shut the headlights off. “What if they track us here?” Brian asked.

“Brian, don't say things like that, you'll scare your sister,” Alice said.

Kiya was still visibly shaken and unresponsive. “I think we all just need to get some rest,” Alice said. “Sound good everybody?” She received no response and then thought it odd that Randall hadn't come out of the house to greet them yet. The lights were out, obviously, the garage door was shut, and the house looked as if no one was home. But there was no mistaking their arrival.

“Mom, what's going on?” Brian asked, in his most serious tone yet.

Alice thought to herself for a moment. “There's a lot going on. But nothing that we can't handle. Like I told you kids, everything is going to be okay.”

Alice opened the driver's side door and exited the car. “Come on guys, let's go.” Between her constant yawning, Kiya fiddled with the passenger’s side door and pushed it open. Brian got of the car, took one look at the house, and stopped. “What happened here?” he asked.

Alice paused mid-stride and looked at the house. On closer inspection she noticed that the door was busted open and the front windows were smashed in. She grabbed Brian and pulled him to the side.

“You and your sister wait here,” she said. Alice leaned into the car near the driver’s side and grabbed the old flashlight that they took from the school. Brian and Kiya stood at the front of the car with noticeable worry across their faces. “Just wait here. I’m going to do a quick check of the house.”

“Where’s Randy?” Kiya asked.

Alice looked towards the house. “He should be somewhere inside,” she said. With a few steps she approached the house carefully. She turned the flashlight on. The power had drained considerably and only a dim light that projected. Alice shook it a few times to keep it from flickering out. She crept up to the front porch and shined the light against the door. Large footprints were imprinted on the front. She moved the flashlight over to the windows. There were three large panels to the right of the door still intact. The three to the left were smashed in, only their frames remaining. Broken shards of glass covered the area. Alice moved the light to the inside foyer. No one was there. Her heart was pounding and she attempted to control her rapid breathing the best she could. What waited inside could have been simple vandalism or it could have been so much more. She resisted calling out Randall’s name as to not expose herself, as if the flashlight wasn’t doing a good enough job already.