January 24, 2138 (Afternoon)
Emotions are running high as we are all waiting for the time for the group to leave and attack the power plant. And I'm a wreck too after hearing Dad and Kim talking. I felt like I needed to talk to someone and tell them what I had heard. I needed to tell someone anything that I could just to get some of this nerved up feeling out. I went to Karl and told him everything that Dad and Kim had said as he was getting things ready to go with the group tonight. He took it all in and was fairly silent as I talked. I don't think he knew what to do exactly at this point. So he told me that he would keep an eye on him too. He also said, "Remember, we're a team." He had so many other things to keep an eye on already that I was afraid that he couldn't watch us all at the same time.
I visited with little Alan a little bit while I was there. He was back with Karl, so that he could watch out for any changes in his hand as he kept treating it. It was getting better and Alan was really happy today. It was a short but nice distraction for a few minutes. It reminded me why we're doing what we are as he tried to come running to me. I had to catch him halfway because he doesn't have his running and walking down to an art yet. He gave me a big hug and we played for a bit.
As I left Karl's building I started walking over to Sarah's building to check up on her. Her condition hadn't seemed to change any for the better or the worse since last I saw her. As I approached her building I was greeted by a sight that I wasn't prepared for. It was Cane coming out of her door. I couldn't get the conversation between Dad and Kim out of my mind and the nerved up feeling was too much for me I guess, and I went over the edge. Rather than walk up to the door, I went after Cane. As I caught up to him I said, "Hey! What are you doing in my sister's room?"
He didn't seem that surprised by my harsh reaction to him being there as he grinned a little and said, "Nothing. I just have this thing about trying to make people feel better when they're sick and down."
"Like Carrie you mean? Just where the hell were you and how were you helping her when she was down as the biodreads shot her in the back, and she fought to get up and keep going and couldn't," I snapped back at him.
"Don't talk to me about Carrie. It wasn't my choice that I wasn't right there with you guys, "he said back to me in an angry voice.
I said back without changing my own tone, "Oh?"
Suddenly his tone changed back to a much calmer voice for no apparent reason at first, and he smiled sarcastically and said, "Wait, I get it now. That crackpot Sergeant has been getting in your ear and saying things about me to you, right?" I wasn't going to answer that one and it left me speechless for a second as he went on saying, "Well, we all have a story and our versions don't always match. But if you're convinced that hers is the only one you want to hear, what more can I say?"
"A lot, if you wanted to. But you haven't so far," I told him as his grinning about this was bothering me.
His tone changed back to being angry again as he said, "How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen? What the hell do you know about life? Or me? Or the Sergeant for that matter? You hear one side of something and you believe it like it's the gospel." At that moment I could also hear footsteps approaching us. Tad stepped around the corner of the building Sarah was in as though he came there to see her, but he stopped as he saw us standing there and didn't move. He just stood there in silence and stared at us, like he was waiting to hear one of us speak first. I kept looking back at Tad. It was like time just stopped for a second or two. I wanted to speak up and tell him that things weren't cool here, but before I could Cane spoke up again with a completely friendly tone and said, "Things aren't the way that you might think. That's all that I'm saying. Now I'm more than happy to talk more to you later, but I have to get things ready."
Then he started to walk off, and Tad turned away from us and started to walk towards Sarah's door when Cane looked back in Tad's direction and said, "You might want to wait on that. I think she's sleeping." Acting oblivious to what Cane had just said and without looking back, he kept going and entered her room like he hadn't heard a thing at all. I don't know why, but I couldn't hold in this huge smile as I looked at Cane, grinning from ear to ear, who was trying not to react to Tad ignoring him. He glanced back long enough to see me smiling back at him, trying not to laugh outright at him and he walked off towards the North of the zoo.
January 24, 2138 (Evening)
Apparently Sarah was the same. Tad didn't indicate seeing anything worse from her and didn't speak of the events that took place a few hours ago. He didn't even indicate to me whether she was awake or not when he went in to see her. He just said, "She's all right," and left it at that. God, why does Tad have to be so impossible sometimes?
Everyone was packed up and ready to go. Everyone was sharing their warnings to be careful and such. It felt a little better seeing the six of them all armed and equipped as best they could be. Seeing that they weren't helpless made me feel better about things, but there was still this feeling that something could go wrong. And knowing that the silent wait was coming was more than anyone could stand without saying how they felt about each other.
Mom and Dad had their moment. The guys and Karl had theirs. Sarah and I had ours with Mom and Dad, and then Karl. Even Kim spoke up, but mostly with guarantees that everything would go smoothly. Cane stood back saying nothing at all. Before they left Mom and Dad let me have a moment with Tommy. I know that Mom and Dad are aware that we have feelings for each other, but we're both still afraid to act on them a lot in front of them. I tried to look at him and hold it in, but my eyes started tearing up as I stood there looking at him. He hugged me and kissed my forehead and told me that they would all be back. Trying to remember that I needed to respect my parents I kissed him back on the cheek and hugged him again. Then I tried to wipe my tears and stay strong for them all. They started moving out through the door and Kim lagged behind a bit. As most of them cleared the door Tommy looked back at me and moved his lips as if to say, "I love you." Then he turned and exited the door as Kim snuck up to me and whispered, "I'll take care of him for you." Then she left with them. Sarah, Tad and I all ran to the gate and watched them until we couldn't see them any longer. Then Sarah returned to her room while Tad started locking up the perimeter and I went to the tree stand, watching and waiting.
January 24, 2138 (Late evening)
I can see the fireworks from here. The sky is lighting up to the Northwest and it's making me feel like with every light that I see another light in one of my family's eyes is going out. Or Tommy's. Maybe Kim or Cane's. I wanted to jump down and run to them all but I had to stay. Tad spent a moment here and there with both Sarah and me, and then back to making his rounds. He took some time to make both of us a cup of hot chocolate as he came around to both of us. As he approached me in the tree stand we could both hear a distant explosion. It made us both look away in the direction of the power plant for a second. Then Tad handed it up to me and said, "Are you ok?" I said, "Yeah, how about you?" He said, "Yeah, I'm good." He stood there for a moment longer, listening to the sounds coming from the Northwest of us. Then he went back to his rounds like before.
When the sky lit up brighter than normal I could only imagine the interlocker turrets firing on all of them. Right after I could hear another small explosion as though it was disintegrating something in front of it. After what seemed like an eternity of this I saw a brighter light and heard a louder explosion and it seemed like part of the city became darker off in the distance. Shortly after the explosion things quieted down. Then the silent waiting continued for hours.
January 25, 2138 (Very early morning hours)
None of us were sleeping when they returned. I could see that all six of them were there, but one of the taller guys was being helped along as though they couldn't walk right. Once Tad allowed them to enter the gate I could see who it was. It was Cane. Limping along with the help of Karl and Dad. Kim seemed rather quiet and so did Mom. Tommy was looking behind them as if to make sure nothing had followed them back here. I ran out and hugged him quickly as they all entered through the gate. Karl and Dad took Cane into the medical station that Karl was staying in, trying to be quiet and not wake up little Alan. This wasn't working as he kept stirring. So Mom came in and took him with her.
That's when it started. As soon as Mom cleared the room with Alan, Kim started in on Cane.
She asked him harshly, "What happened to you?"
He replied, "I had to dodge the interlocker turret that you weren't dealing with. It hit near me and it knocked me to the ground and I couldn't get back up."
Kim replied, "The turret that I told you to stay away from. What part of that didn't you hear me say?"
"The part where you failed to mention that Tommy would get hit by it if I listened to you," he barked back.
"He wasn't anywhere near it. He was with me you idiot. Shooting the hell out of the dreads on the catwalk. Get your damn story straight before you ever talk back to me," she snapped back.
Trying to break up the argument, Karl looked at Kim and said with a half grin, "You know, you're kind of cute when you're angry." Her expression didn't change as she looked over at Karl, then right back at Cane. As she glared a hole through Cane he moaned in pain. Karl told everyone to leave because he needed to look at what was wrong with Cane. The whole thing left me not knowing what to think and I was tired. I was just happy to see them all back here. Especially Tommy.
January 25, 2138 (Late morning)
I woke up this morning and things were very quiet. It was kind of unsettling to me. So I hurried up and got dressed, and then went outside. Maybe I was the first one to get up besides Mom and Dad, who had taken the pathway out of the zoo and were patrolling the trail like we had before. Things didn't stay quiet for long as I had woken up to one of the worst days of my life.
As I walked around I didn't see anyone that was up yet. During my looking in on everyone I went to check up on Sarah, but her door was locked. This seemed very strange because this wasn't something that she normally did. As I stood before her door wondering why she would lock it I could hear footsteps running up the pathway. It was Mom and she was yelling to me. She seemed really concerned and started yelling for Kim and Karl too. Tommy and Karl came out first with their weapons, and ran to Mom. Then Kim came out of her room and looked back at me as the other three were running off. "What's going on," she asked as she turned back towards the trail. I didn't know and told her that I thought Mom and Dad had seen something. Kim turned and started running after them with her laser drawn. Her golden blond hair blowing in the wind as she ran off after them.
I didn't have my laser and needed to get it, but I felt like I needed to warn Sarah of what was going on and help her too. So I ran back to her door and tried to open it again, but it was still locked. I started yelling for Sarah and she didn't answer me. I started banging on the door and she still didn't answer and I started wondering if she had gone with Mom and Dad for some reason. I had to know, so I backed up and kicked the door in. Then I realized why the door wouldn't open. Cane was there.
As the door fell inside of the room, I could see Cane on top of Sarah. He was choking her as she had her hands on his wrists, trying to break his hold on her. I was in shock at what I was seeing, but as he started turning in my direction I ran at him and jumped on him from behind. I started clawing at his eyes and face as he rose up off of Sarah with me on his back and grabbed at my wrists. Then he spun around and I couldn't keep my hold on him. I twisted in the air and fell off of his back against a table. I can remember the mirror falling off of it and shattering on the floor as I hit the back of my head on the back of the table. The room was spinning for a second and I tried to get up when I could see Cane pulling the knife out of a sheath he was wearing. He ran back to Sarah again and raised it up as she remained there unable to move and coughing. I screamed, "No," when suddenly I could see something darting across the room. It was Tad.
He ran across the room and dove at Cane, tackling him and they fell across the floor of the room in a mangled heap. Cane was trying to stab Tad with the knife as he was holding him by the wrists to keep him from bringing it down. I scrambled over to Sarah as she was still coughing uncontrollably and couldn't catch her breath. I looked back in time to see Tad let go with his right hand and punch Cane in the face, causing the knife to fall on the floor and blood to stream from Cane's nose. Cane started to stumble backwards but Tad still had his grip on his right wrist and pulled him back towards him as he brought his knee up into Cane's abdomen. He grunted loudly and fell to his knees, but Tad had lost his grip on Cane's wrist by now. Cane grabbed the broken frame of the mirror as he was on his knees, and Tad hadn't seen it. At this point I was yelling, "Look out Tad." But it was too late and Cane swung it around and hit Tad in the front left side of his head. The metal pieces sprayed across the room and blood started flowing from Tad's temple and running down the side of his face. Tad stumbled back stunned, and I knew that I had to do something. I didn't know if Tad could even see as he raised his hands to his face for a second and I knew that I had to do something.
Cane reached for the knife again as blood was running down his face. Just as he grabbed it I had gotten to one of the broken pieces of the glass from the mirror. As he started to rise up from reaching for it I slashed at him with the glass and it cut through his sleeve and his arm. This caused him to swing backwards, off balance for a second. I could see his sleeve becoming red as he straightened himself out. For that second it dawned on me that there wasn't anything wrong with him at all. His leg was fine and he had been faking the whole injury thing since the group returned.
Cane slashed back at me and I stepped back a little to avoid it. At this point Sarah started screaming my name and I told her to stay back. He kept moving at me with the knife I kept backing up because it was longer than the glass that I had. He slashed at me again and almost caught my wrist with it as Tad slammed into him again and they both went tumbling out the front door and down the steps outside. I got myself to the door and noticed that the knife had fallen out of Cane's hand again. I could hear Sarah yelling Tad's name now as she couldn't see what was going on through me.
Outside it was a madhouse. Tad and Cane were punching and kicking the hell out of each other and seemed to be evenly matched, until Cane threw some dirt in Tad's face and he fell backwards. This gave Cane enough time to grab his knife another time and he jumped on top of Tad. Again Cane was trying to drive the knife into Tad as Tad struggled to hold it back away from himself.
I didn't know what to do as I could see them on the ground in front of me and the blade kept getting closer to Tad's chest. I could see the blood running down Tad's face and the look in his eyes as Cane kept driving the knife down at him. The look in Tad's face started to change slowly to the empty look he would have when he was losing himself, and then I could see this look of rage take him over. I've never seen Tad look like that before as he started forcing the knife away from himself and started turning it back towards Cane. I don't know where all of his strength came from as this look of rage seemed to take him over even though he was bleeding all over the place. Cane's eyes started to widen and his hands started to shake as he kept trying to turn it back on Tad and was failing to do so. It kept turning back until it started to angle its way back at Cane. Cane kept trying to stop him until he finally let go of the knife with one hand and punched Tad in the head again. The effort to do this threw him off balance enough for me to run forward and push him to get him off of Tad. Cane fell backwards onto the ground.
Cane jumped back up and started to turn back to Tad when I started running towards him with the broken glass again, causing him to stop and start running towards the open front gate. I stopped and turned to Tad who was getting up, but stumbled as he tried to move forward. I reached out to help him up and he grabbed my arm. Then pushed me backwards towards Sarah's room as he ran after Cane. I wanted to stop him, but Sarah was standing in her doorway and I stopped long enough to yell at her to get her laser in case he came back. Then I turned and ran after Tad as he ran out of the front gate after Cane.
I was running down the trail trying to catch up with Tad and I noticed him veer off of the trail and start running through the woods towards the lake. He seemed to be catching up to Cane as he struggled to break through the foliage and Tad just kept smashing through it all, tearing up his sleeves and arms all of the way. As Cane neared the edge of the trees and had just broken through, Tad tackled him again and they both smashed through into the openness of the bank of the lake. They both tumbled out of the woods and into the water as I tried to make my way through the path that they had made to get to them. Tad managed to get up faster and hit Cane again. Then he started to wale on Cane with punches until he splashed water in Tad's bloody face and he couldn't see again.
Cane grabbed Tad from behind and started forcing his head under the water. I had cleared the woods by now and started trying to make my way to the water as Tad forced his head up again for a second, just for Cane to push him under the water again. I was so scared for Tad and didn't care if I got killed getting to him. I wasn't going to let him die alone. I dove into the water and started forcing my way to him, but I could see that Tad wasn't forcing his head out anymore. Cane seemed to be enjoying drowning Tad as he was clenching his teeth in this sick smile and kept holding Tad under the water. I got to within ten feet of them and reached up out of the water with the piece of glass so that I could help Tad when this beam of light shot over my shoulder and it scared me, causing me to scream out.
I glanced back to see where it came from and didn't notice at first. Then I turned back to the immediate threat and I could see Cane frozen in place for a second, a burn hole coming from his chest and he fell backwards into the water. I looked at him as he floated there at the top of the water. Then I looked back again and could see Kimberly standing next to a tree at the edge of the woods. I could hear her say with this icy cold look in her eyes, "You're relieved, Mr. Cane."