~ 5 ~

Running Up that Hill

Date: May 28th 1999

Time: 3 PM

Place: Nazareth, PA (8 days after the emergency landing)

+ AJ +

I’m not sure what to do. I really am lost. I must have stayed in this one spot for about an hour, not sure if I should move forward or try to retrace my steps. What I really need is guidance. Someone to tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do!

“Hello?” I screamed for about the ten thousandth time. “Can anyone hear me?”

By this time, I already knew no one was around and if they were, they couldn’t hear me at all. Not sure why I even kept trying. When the blast hit, we were all separated. You would think we would have been able to find each other by now, but the way the bomb hit, made it pretty impossible. They went up and I went down, simple as that.

I was pretty sure I was a goner. Nothing is scarier than feeling the ground beneath your feet suddenly give way and the next thing you know you’re just free falling. Not even sure where or what to expect when you finally hit the ground. It’s a feeling I’ll never adequately be able to describe. I was sure I was about to die. When that time came, I always thought I’d be a little more reflective. Maybe say a quick prayer and watch as my life flashed right before my eyes, but all that really happens is a lot of screaming and cursing. It’s a good thing I didn’t die because I would hate to have to explain to whoever met me at the pearly gates why my last word was “FUCK!!!!”

I actually laughed at myself. What else was there to do? Since being all alone I have run the gamete of emotions. Now I guess I’m at the let me pretend this is all a big joke that I’ll look back on and laugh at, phase. It beats all the other phases.

“Hello?” I screamed once more.

At least I was out of the hole. I never thought I’d get out of there. When I finally did land, it hurt like hell. I’m pretty sure I managed to sprain my ankle. It’s a little swollen now. But since the fall I took was so big, I guess I should just be amazed that I made it out of there alive.

I had to hope the others were as lucky.

I was in charge of taking care of Nick right before the attack. I had just reached out for his arm when the ground collapsed. I frantically looked around hoping he had fallen right beside me, but he was nowhere to be found. None of them were. How was that even possible? They can’t be dead, because things like that don’t happen in real life. There was no way I would be the only one to survive this.

No way!

“Hello?” I screamed louder still. So loud in fact that I could swear I heard my own voice echoing down the abandoned street I was on. I was hoping that by now I would have encountered someone. I can’t be the only person alive.

I took a deep breath because once again I felt the urge to have a mental breakdown. This was all a little too much for me. I am one of those people that cannot be left alone with their thoughts. I know some consider that a healthy thing, taking time for yourself, not me though. Solitude and I are arch enemies. In fact, this really is my version of hell.

“Maybe I’m dead. Jesus is that it? Am I fucking dead?”

“You’re not dead!”

I quickly turned when I heard the voice.

“Hello?” maybe I’m losing my mind. Maybe this was a figment of my imagination talking to me or something.

“You need to stop screaming.” She said in barely a whisper.

“Where are you?”

“Didn’t you just hear what I said, God what a dumbass.”

“Excuse me?” Okay I know this wasn’t a figment of my imagination because my brain wouldn’t insult me.

She stepped out from behind a tree. “I said you need to stop screaming. The last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself out here.”

“I’m looking for my friends.”

“If they didn’t answer you by now, they won’t be answering you at all.”

“Have you been following me?”

She nodded. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed.”

“Well thanks, I think. I’m AJ by the way.”

She walked closer to me and I was able to size her up. She was a little shorter than me. I couldn’t really tell the color of her hair because it was up and tucked under a very dirty baseball cap, but it looked like maybe it was a light sandy blonde. She was kind of petite in her jeans but the flannel shirt she was wearing along with the vest and gloves made her look a bit rugged. I think she was my age, but again it was pretty hard to tell.

I extended my hand to her but she only looked at it, so I awkwardly put it down. “What are you doing out here by yourself?”

She rolled her eyes at me, “Follow me.” She turned and went back behind the tree where she started climbing a pretty big hill.

I just stood there not really sure if I should go with her or not. I mean, she wasn’t exactly exuding a friendly unicorn and rainbows type feeling. For all I knew, she was one of the people who wanted to kill us.

When she figured out I wasn’t moving she turned her head towards me, “What are you waiting for?”

“Maybe an explanation?”

“How about, if you don’t hide now you’re going to die? Is that a good enough explanation for you?”

 “Why would I die?”

She shook her head and continued to climb. “Your funeral, I’m only trying to help.”

I looked all around the street just once more, making sure I wasn’t leaving any of the guys behind. If Kevin was here, would he go with her? My feet answered that question by making their way to the hill and climbing. “Shit!” I said only a few steps up the steep incline. My ankle was really killing me.

Once again she turned, “Would you please stop being so loud!”

“I hurt my ankle. I think it’s broken.”

“Trust me, if it was broken you’d know.”

Well, she wasn’t the nursing you back to health type that was for damn sure. I grabbed on to a branch of one of the trees and tried pulling myself up that way but it hurt just as bad. I almost fell. “Please…”

She turned around and started heading back down towards me. “Hang on.”

When she got to me she put my arm around her shoulders, “Just treat me like a crutch I guess.” She said as she started to climb again. I was kind of amazed at how strong she was. I had to outweigh her by at least 50 pounds. We managed to get up to the top of the hill in record time. We ended up on another road.

After we managed to jump over the guardrail, she let go of me so abruptly that I fell. “Jesus.” She muttered under her breath as she bent down with her hands on her knees trying to catch hers.

“Thanks for helping me. Do you know who I am?”

She turned her head towards me while she was still bent over, “Is this a quiz? You said your name is AJ.”

I wasn’t sure if I should tell her who I really was or not. It seemed like she didn’t know I was famous. “What is your name?”

She stood up straight and leaned up against the guard rail, “That’s not important.”

“I guess, but it would be nice to know who helped save my life.”

“The reason I have survived this long is because I keep to myself.”

“Obviously you don’t.”

She glared over at me as I continued, “I mean…you came out and helped me.”

“Keeping to yourself doesn’t mean you let someone who seems to be dumb, die.”

“I’m not dumb.”

She laughed. She had a really pretty smile. “Well, whatever.”

I managed to stand up by myself, without asking her for help. I needed to show this girl that I wasn’t totally helpless or dumb. “So, where are we going?”

She pointed in a random direction, “Somewhere safe before dark and before the snow really starts falling hard.”

Funny, up until she said that, I hadn’t even really noticed it was snowing. Now that I was aware, I found myself getting cold. I wrapped my arms around myself and started to walk in place to warm up.

“You said I was in danger, why? I don’t see or hear anyone out here.”

“That’s because you’re not really looking or listening.”

I looked around and there really was no one anywhere in sight. “Nope, still not seeing or hearing anyone.”

“You didn’t see or hear me either, but I had been watching for at least two hours.”

“What took you so long to come to my aide then?”

Just as I said that she placed her finger up to her mouth, motioning for me to shut up and listen. It sounded like thunder almost but the ground was quaking a little and that’s when I saw it turn the corner. It was a huge army tank. We ran partway down the hill using the trees to hide us and then lay down on our bellies as it came closer. The snowy ground bit at my bones and I actually groaned which caused her to give me a very angry and annoyed look. My heart was beating so fast in my chest I thought I was going to die. What if they saw us?

“Keep your head down.” She said just as the thing was about a half mile away.

It stopped suddenly and the gun on top slid back and forth as if it was looking for something to shoot at. “Do you think it saw us?” I whispered.

“Shut up.”

A few minutes later the top propped open and a soldier stuck his head out. “This is not good.” She whispered to me as we continued to watch the scene unfold.

He was holding a pair of binoculars and looking up and down the street, luckily he wasn’t focusing on the guardrail or the trees we were hiding behind. If he looked this way we were sitting ducks. What seemed like hours went by, although it was probably only minutes before he stuck his head back into the tank. A few seconds after that it started to move down the street and right past where we were hiding.

“Is that the Canadian flag?” I was expecting to see the American flag on the back.

“Yeah, who puts a leaf on their flag, morons!”

“Why are they here?”

She laughed again, “You can’t be serious?”

When she saw the baffled look on my face she quickly stopped the laughter, “You are serious?”

I nodded.

“They’re rounding up survivors like we are stray dogs.”

I let out a sigh of relief, “Maybe that’s where my friends are. Maybe the Canadians are helping them out. I moved from my hiding spot and started to head back up the hill, ready to flag the tank down when she literally tackled me to the ground.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Get off of me! They can help us maybe.”

“Help us?”

She pushed herself off of me, “That isn’t even remotely funny.”

“I’m not trying to be funny.”

“Why would they help us? They are the ones that started this stupid war in the first place!”

“What?”

She gave me a look as if I was the most ignorant person on the planet. I admit I was beginning to feel like it. “How can you not know that? Have you been living under a rock this past year?”

As much as I would have loved to tell her the truth about where I really did come from, I just kind of played up my ignorance. “I don’t really read much when it comes to current events.”

She took off her baseball cap and scratched at her hair. It was actually a shade darker than I thought it was and a lot longer as well, even a little curly. “They attacked us when we least expected it. Took us by surprise, you know they want to be the super power and all.”

“Canada? Like the ones who say “Eh? And zed, those people?”

“Yeah.”

“They did all of this?”

“Yeah, how can you not know that? Who are you?” Her mood suddenly switched and she stood up quickly looking me up and down as if she just realized she was hanging with a serial killer.

“Look, I think I’m just in shock after the last explosion. I lost my friends.”

“Haven’t’ we all.” She said unsympathetically.

“Why are they rounding us up? What are they doing?”

She shrugged at me, “I have no idea, all I know is when they take you away, you don’t come back.”

I bit on my bottom lip, “Are they the ones hunting down the celebrities too?”

“No, those are the Star Troopers. Call it justice. I hope I catch one of those fuckers myself!”

Well, that wasn’t a very encouraging thing to hear. At least she doesn’t know who I am. I tried to calm myself down after she said that though. Last thing I need is to draw attention to myself.

“Star Troopers, really, they couldn’t come up with a better title?”

She stood up and motioned for me to do the same and together we once again jumped over the guardrail and as much as it hurt, I didn’t even wince.

Suddenly my little sprain didn’t mean as much to me anymore when I started to consider that maybe the guys were in the hands of our enemy, the place that made us super famous here in the USA in the first place. How could Canada be behind this? It made no sense, but did any of this really make any sense?

“So, where are we going now?”

She rolled her hair back into a semi bun and placed her dirty Mets cap back on. “Our plan was to go that way. I have a hiding place in a sub division about a half mile down, but my guess is that’s where they are going.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s one of the few places that was untouched and see that over there,” She asked pointing to a smoke flume in the distance. I nodded as she continued, “Some idiot was dumb enough to start a fire in their fire place. They might has well have sent out a flare!”

“So where are we going instead?”

“To a friend’s place.” She once again jumped over the guardrail. Come on.”

I sighed and followed my new unnamed friend down the hill as we continued to hear the roar of the tank in the background.