AJ sticks his head out the window of the Browers’ house before quickly pulling it back inside quickly. All hell had broken loose in the few short hours that had passed. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he was taking the bus around the city and getting looks from people on the streets? No wait he was still getting looks from people. But here he was sitting on the Browers’ couch with the six Browers and a guy named Kevin, who was supposed to be the revolutionist for their kind, and his human cousin Brian as Kevin attempted to explain what was going on. AJ felt like his head was going to explode at any minute with all the intake of material that he was trying to do.
Ok it went like this according to Kevin. Kevin had supposedly known for some time that this was going to happen along with only a select other amount of people in the world. According to him the whole world, not only New York City, was going through this. Everyone who was not between the ages of thirteen and thirty was dead…gone…deteriorated into thin air. The Browers seemed to take it all very well because hell they were all each other had. Their father was dead and their mother had died two years ago. Brian on the other hand had broken down into tears and started screaming that Kevin was lying. He still didn’t believe that his family was gone. Kevin seemed prepared for it though and AJ knew inside he was hurting like everyone else was for his family, but on the outside he was a rock. And AJ? AJ was in a daze with it all. The fact that his only living family member, his mother…his best friend, was dead hadn’t hit him yet.
The reason for all of this…Kevin wasn’t sure of. The only real question they all had couldn’t be answered. He told them they had to wait for it all to play out. Some of them would have a role to fill, while others didn’t. Kevin only knew a small amount of information, but what he knew was that he had to wait for someone. He needed to wait here for someone that was going to come from the east. Why he needed to wait he wasn’t sure of it was just a feeling inside him. When they asked him why he needed someone who spoke Latin he only shrugged. He said he needed to find someone who spoke Latin…another one of his feelings.
“Does anyone know why this is happening?” Jordan asks Kevin as Kevin shrugs his purple eyes glowing brightly.
“I know that one person has the key, but I don’t know what that means.”
“How do you know all this other then your feelings?” Stanton asks.
“I saw it all.”
“You saw it all?” AJ asks, “How?”
“Dreams,” Kevin says, “I’ve been seeing them for a year now. Others see them too. Some of us have found each other over the year, but others are still out there among others.”
“What others?” AJ asks.
“You know them,” Kevin says looking at Brian.
“Me?” Brian says.
Kevin nods, “A young couple…one Halfling one human.”
“The people in the café?” Brian asks.
Kevin nods smiling, “Pilar and Jackson.”
“Pilar,” AJ says, “I met her…on the bus. Short girl…brown hair…tan skin…bright green eyes?”
Kevin nods smiling, “That’s her. One of my best followers.”
“She sees things?” Brian asks.
Kevin nods, “I don’t understand what hers mean though, but since she’s met Jaxs they happen more frequently. He sees them too, but different ones.”
“Are there others like them?” Jordan asks.
Kevin nods, “Many and many more who feel a pull. I can’t explain the pull though. I don’t feel it. They tell me that it feels like something is pulling them towards a certain place for whatever purpose.”
AJ shakes his head, “So why are we all here?”
Kevin smiles, “All of us have a purpose in this. Some to live. Some to die. Some to lead. Some to follow. I met Pilar and Jackson on coincidence. The Rooks were put in charge of watching me by my best man, coincidence, and then there’s you.”
“What about me,” AJ says.
“You’re help is going to be needed.”
AJ looks at him oddly before looking down at the floor.
“You feel the pull don’t you?” Kevin says looking down at the floor.
“Me?” AJ asks.
“No, you,” Kevin says looking up at Brian, “In your stomach and in your head.”
Brian stares at him hard before looking down at the ground.
“What were you doing to do before this all happened?”
“I…I…was going to go to Rhode Island for vacation.”
“Rhode Island?” Jordan says.
“There is nothing there,” Cole adds.
Kevin looks at Brian and nods, “You need to follow your gut then…not your head.”
“What are you saying?” Brian asks him.
“You need to go,” Kevin says looking at him.
“This is insane,” Nick says looking into Pilar’s green eyes, “You’re lying to me.”
Pilar shakes her head no.
“Why should I trust you?” Nick asks.
“Who else is there to trust?” Eli asks.
“You…you’re all…”
“Say it and I kill you,” Jackson says staring at him hard.
Pilar looks from Nick to Jackson before turning around and walking out of the room as Eli runs out after her.
“I swear to God if you even think of saying anything about them I’ll kill you,” Jackson says walking over to him and placing one hand on his throat, “Don’t even think for a minute you can walk all over them. I don’t care what the hell kind of blood she has in her or not DO NOT think you can use that against her. I thought maybe you were different like me, I was wrong wasn’t I? Why’d you take her? What thought you could have some fun? Thought maybe…”
“I thought she needed help ok!” Nick yells throwing Jackson off of him.
“I know who you are. We went to school remember? Of course you wouldn’t,” Jackson says in response to his shocked face, “You were always hanging out with Griffin Anderson, jackass. Biggest bigot I ever met in my life. I don’t think you understand what we are dealing with her. Our world is fucked ok. It is shit right now. Our food will run soon enough. The power companies won’t run. The gas will run out soon enough. No heat, no light, no food, no drinks and no order. Our world was enough of a shit hole before this now…now its hell,” he says staring at Nick, “I had to watch her back every damned day and night when the cops were around. There are hundreds of people out there who hate her because of what she is. I need to be frickin clairvoyant,” he says looking at Nick hard, “I think you should go.”
“What?” Nick asks.
“I think you should go,” Jackson says again, “You aren’t needed here. You helped her now you can leave.”
“This…this is my house!” Nick yells.
“Fine,” Jackson says calmly, “PILAR, ELI,” he yells as the two of them walk back into the room, “We’re leaving…now,” he says turning around to look at the two of them.
“I dunno if it’s a good idea to go back out there,” Eli says to Jackson.
“I said we’re leaving,” Jackson snaps.
“Ok,” Eli says.
“We’ll see you around,” Jackson says nodding at Nick before turning around and walking over to Pilar putting an arm around her waist, “Thanks,” he says before walking over to the door with the other two and back out into the hallway.
“Fuck,” Nick says to himself as the door swings shut.
Now he really was alone.
Brian stares at Kevin and shakes his head no, “I’m not leaving here. I’m not leaving you.”
“It’s not your choice,” Kevin says calmly, “It’s in yo…”
“SHUTUP!” Brian yells, “You used to be normal remember that. You used to just be my cousin who would pick on me. Remember? We were the ones who always hung out in Kentucky playing pick up games of basketball or football. You were never a leader or whatever the hell you are now and if you think I am going to leave the only family I have left now…you’re wrong. I’m not going anywhere.”
Kevin stands up and looks down at him, “Look in my eyes Brian. Was I ever really normal? I didn’t live a normal life. Think back Brian. I never was normal. I’ll never be normal because of what I am, but now…now I have a chance to make sure that this won’t be what its like for the next generation. I refuse to give up that chance. All of us in this room know how much hate is out there in the world for us all. You need to try and understand. You need to try and see it through my eyes…my eyes that will never be accepted now.”
“What does that have to do with me leaving?” Brian asks.
“Brian trust me you’ll only hurt yourself if you don’t leave. The pull will only get stronger and if you don’t leave you’ll die from it.”
Brian shakes his head no.
“What if I sent someone with you?”
“No.”
“Brian please.”
“No.”
Kevin looks at him sadly before backing away from him, “I can’t make you go now, but you will eventually.”
Brian shakes his head no.
“We need water,” Jordan says walking into the room from the kitchen, “The water here is going to run out soon and people are gonna raid the grocery stores. We should go now and get some.”
“I’ll go,” Stanton says.
“Me too,” Cole says, “You’ll need some help.”
“I need to get some things from my place,” AJ says.
“Grab a bike you know how to drive,” Stanton says motioning for him to follow the two of them as they beginning walking towards the garage, “We’ll get some food too!” Stanton yells back into the house as the three of them reach the cycles.
“What’s gonna be out there?” Cole asks Stanton as he puts the two discs over his ears and automatically the folds of metal begin encasing his head in a helmet.
“Hell,” Stanton says simply as the two discs on his ears begin to encase his head in a similar fashion and he walks over to his bike hopping onto it, “We ready to go?” he asks looking over at AJ and Cole who are suited on two cycles next to him.
“Yeah,” they both say into the microphones of their helmet and it echoes in the others.
“Stay close,” Stanton says, “Let’s go.”
Stanton, Cole and AJ kick their cycles into ignition at the same time and the three bikes roar as they come to life beginning to hover a foot above the ground. The jet-black cycles become outlined on the bottom by a green light as the three of them head out of the garage. AJ knew the track well enough for getting out of the Browers house. The six of them lived underground in a lower part of the city and in order to get to the garage you needed to make your way through a series of curves, dips and climbs. It was probably the best idea they had to move down there because for an untrained person crashing into a wall was inevitable. With the cycles though it all went by extremely fast until you ended up shooting out of an opening in the New York pavement.
Something was wrong though as soon as the three of them reached the opening and came out onto the New York streets. The sun was shining brightly, but there was a weird feeling in the air. It only hit them what it was though when they started to reach Time Square. All hell had broken loose. Cars, motorcycles anything on wheels was stopped in the middle of the roads or burning in the side of a building. There were a few cars though like them who were flying down the streets with kids this age driving them. On the sidewalks kids were staring at them with haunted eyes in front of broken display windows. The looters had already hit they knew that much.
They reached the store soon enough to find the windows already broken and decided it was a better idea to just ride their cycles into the actual store then risk them being stolen on the streets. Each of them grabbed four large bottles of purified water and hauled them over to the bikes then strapped them tightly on. They grabbed what was left of the canned food and cereal along with some other foods and put them into their holds under the passenger seats of the bikes. Various boxes and cans were lying on the floor already trampled or opened. There was no doubt in any of their minds that by the end of the day most of it would be gone anyway. As soon as they were done they hopped on their bikes as fast as they could and high tailed it out of the inner city and over to AJ’s house.
AJ didn’t own a lot as it was, but the few things he did owned he took with him. His clothes, his pictures, his little trinkets and anything that was small enough to take. The locks on the doors still worked though surprisingly, so his building was free of raids. The more weight their bikes had on them the slower they went, but for them they were going fast enough, close to 90.
“Fuck,” Stanton mutters as he makes a sharp turn toward the right on their way home and stops his bike underneath a lamppost.
Cole and AJ follow close behind and stop next to him looking up at the lamppost as the body of a young male swings from it in the light breeze.
“It’s a whole new game now,” Stanton says looking up at the orange eyes of the young man that were still glowing faintly, “It’s a whole new fucking game now.”
JC looks around the docks of the shipyard eyes darting everywhere. He needed to find some kind of boat. There was no way in hell anyone would be able to fly an airplane, so he needed to find a boat. A boat that would take him back to the States. He had ran as far as his legs would take him and his veins had battery acid in them earlier until he finally decided to steal a car and use it instead. The guy who owned it wouldn’t be using it anytime soon anyway. So that was how he had made his way to the docks and now he needed to try and find a way to get home.
“Looking for something?” a voice asks behind him.
“What?” JC asks spinning around quickly and looking at a younger male with dark blue eyes staring at him.
“Looking for something?” he says again folding his arms across his chest this time. He was tall, taller then JC at least with a pale skin tone and a mess of brown curls on his head. His blue jeans were dirty from the dust and a worn leather jacket covered up the blue shirt he wore. And he was American at that.
“Who are you?” JC asks backing up. He knew not to trust people already.
“Justin,” Justin smiles, “Looking for a boat?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Everyone is looking for a boat now,” Justin says, “They say it’s not like this back home.”
“Really?” JC asks walking up to him now.
“Yup,” Justin nods, “There’s a boat over there, that big one…pretty loaded though.”
“What kind of boat?”
“Luxury liner. Tourists were probably on it,” Justin says shaking his head.
“And it’s going to the states?”
Justin nods, “New York City.”
“Can you get me on it?” JC asks.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Justin smiles, “You gotta trust me though,” he smiles.
Nick knocks on a large wooden apartment door as it swings open slightly and looks in the small crack before opening the door completely. He looks around the room before walking in completely and shutting the door behind him.
“Who the hell are you?” a voice hisses as Nick feels the barrel of gun being pressed to his head.
“Griffin? It’s me Nick,” Nick says as he feels the pressure of the metal being lifted.
“Nick?” the voices says as Nick turns around and stares at Griffin.
“Just coming over to check on you with all the shit going down,” Nick says as Griffin lowers the gun and puts it into the waistband of his pants.
“What the hell is going on Nick?”
“I don’t know.”
“C’mon in the back,” Griffin says walking over towards an archway leading into a back room, “Heath and Patton are already here,” he says as Nick follows him into the back room.
Heath and Patton were the same age as Nick only a little harder around the edges. Heath had brown eyes, blond spiked hair and a slight tan to his skin. Patton was Latin with tan skin, deep brown eyes, dark brown hair that almost seemed black at times. Both were close to Nick’s height with about the same kind of build, maybe a little more built though. Both were currently sitting on the couches in the back entertainment room in front of a TV that was playing a video. Personally Nick never really liked either of them. He understood well enough that humans were not supposed to associate with the Halflings, but the two of them took it a little too far.
“It’s a war out there now,” Griffin says to Nick throwing himself onto a recliner.
“What do you mean?” Nick asks.
“It’s us against them now,” Heath says,” The Halflings.”
“Oh,” Nick says.
“You aren’t getting soft on us now are you?” Griffin asks Nick.
“No…no,” Nick says.
“Good,” Griffin says, “We’re gonna need all the help we can get.”
“For what?” Nick asks.
Heath looks at Patton and smirks.
Nick had a bad feeling…a very bad feeling.
JC stares out over the railing of the boat and down at the tossing blue water. Well he was going home. Justin was standing next to him calmly leaning on the railing with a pair of sunglasses covering his blue eyes. Josh sighs slightly as he feels the scroll tucked into his waistband shift slightly as he moves from leaning on his right foot to his left. Well at least he had someone to talk to now.
