Chapter 7

Superman

Date: May 28th 1999

Time: 7:14 P.M.

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

+ Kevin +

My palms were not only sweating but also clammy. That’s how I knew I wasn’t quite right, not that anything about this situation was quite right anyway but ever since we landed in this godforsaken place, I have felt slightly off kilter. I am the one everyone looks to for guidance. I’m supposed to have all the answers and make everyone else feel at ease. It’s always been my job, even when I was a kid. Even in my own family. When things fell apart everyone looked to me. When my dad died, even though I was the youngest of my family, it was me who helped with all the funeral plans while my older siblings stood by trying to cope with their grief. My mother tried to be strong but in the end, it was all me. I’m not bitter about it at all, in fact it kind of helped me heal since I wasn’t really around to slowly watch my father die like the rest of them were. Anyway, what I’m getting at is it’s my job to make people feel safe.

I haven’t been able to take on that role for days now. When the guys looked at me for guidance right after we got here, all I could do was shrug. There was no reassurance. Not here. As I saw things happen, people dying, bombs exploding around us as if we were in some mid-east country, celebrities and younger people being hunted down for no good reason, I found myself scared and hiding just like the others. They all looked confused when I cried that first night. What else was I supposed to do?

And now we are all separated. I don’t know if any of them made it or not. Part of me hopes that maybe they didn’t. That maybe they were lucky enough to die a nice quick death. I’m even a little jealous that maybe they did manage to cash out early. That doesn’t sound like me at all. I can’t help it though.

Everyone thinks of me as Superman. Why for the life of me can’t I take on that role right now when I need to the most? Our lives are literally at stake here and I feel like crawling under the table and calling it quits. I can see the fear in my cousin’s eyes and I can’t think of a single word to say to ease his mind.

That’s why when the doorknob jiggled and it became clear that someone was trying to break in. I went into action.

I sat up and immediately put my fingers to my lips so this way Brian wouldn’t say anything. I stood up and walked slowly to the door, looking for anything I could use as a weapon along the way. Luckily there was a fire poker right beside the fireplace. I picked it up and motioned for my cousin to stay where he was.

I admit that I wanted to run and hide when I saw that door knob move. That’s the clammy, sweaty palmed me. The new me that I wasn’t really much enjoying. I forced that version of myself down into the depths of my brain knowing he’d pop up again soon enough. For now I needed to be the Kevin everyone counted on.

Whoever was outside also had a flashlight and they tried shining it into the window. Luckily, we had thought to close the blinds although the stupidity of lighting a fire overshadowed that fact. They knew someone was inside. It’s not like the house just suddenly decided to warm itself, although who knows, in this place it could be a possibility.

It sounded like the person at the door finally gave up and walked away. Thank God for small favors. I had already almost killed once since ending up here and didn’t much feel like doing it again. Brian stood up and finally allowed himself to breath. He had been holding his breath since the knob jiggled as if that would magically stop time.

“Are they gone?” He whispered to me as if I would know.

“I think so. I don’t hear them anymore.” I whispered back and lowered the fire poker to my side.

“Maybe it was the people who live here.”

“If it was they would have just let themselves in, don’t you think?”

 “We should probably get the hell out of here before they come back.”

I nodded at my cousin, but was unsure of where exactly we should go. It was snowing outside and growing darker by the hour. I knew we didn’t want to be outside when night finally fell.

Suddenly there was a crash in the kitchen. It sounded as if a window broke into a million pieces. I looked at Brian, tightened my grip on the poker and stood frozen in place. I know I should have moved to the kitchen but why would I do that? Instead I motioned for Brian to climb up the stairs. We would go hide in a bedroom until whoever it was, was gone.

Brian took off like a shot up those stairs and I have to say I followed pretty quickly but it was too late, whoever had broken in were quickly on our tails and I felt a hand on my leg as I started up the steps.

“Hey!” The person shouted as he grabbed on to me. I tried to shake him off but lost my footing and toppled down the few steps I had managed to climb.

Brian stood at the top of the staircase watching the scene unfold and seemed unsure of what to do. I was hoping he’d just go and hide but I knew that wouldn’t happen, so he made his way down the steps to help me.

In the meantime the other two people who had entered the house were now crowded around the two of us squirming on the floor. One of them grabbed my poker while the other helped his friend to his feet.

“Are you morons or something?” The guy I was wrestling with asked.

I felt a little bit of relief, knowing that maybe they weren’t the bad guys after all. “What?”

“You lit a fire! You might as well put up some neon signs saying come on in and kill us!”

One of the guys had already extinguished the flames from the fireplace. “I hope it’s not too late.” He said as he made his way back towards the rest of us. Brian now all the way back downstairs.

“We were cold.”

“It’s always cold.” One of the men was quick to answer.

I was trying to access our new company as quickly as possible. I’ve always been a pretty good judge of character and I could tell these men meant us no harm. If I had to guess I would say they were related. One of them was at least in his mid to late fifties and the other two looked to be about late to early thirties. A father and his two sons was my guess.

The older one was looking out the window while the younger two were just staring at us. “Let me see your arm.” One of them said as he grabbed me and pulled up my sleeve before I could say anything. “He’s not one of them.” Then he looked over at Brian, “Let’s see yours.” Before he could forcefully do the same to my cousin, Brian showed the guy his arm. We were both confused.

“They’re both clean, just idiots I guess.”

“Why did you want to see our arms?” Brian asked. We always tried not to ask too many questions so as not to look too suspicious.

“You’re not from around here huh?”

We both shook our heads.

“They brand themselves now with a little maple leaf, it’s a badge of honor for them, but it’s also made it easier for us as well. We managed to catch three of them just the other day.”

“What did you do with them?” Brian asked in barely a whisper.

“What do you think we did with them? Take them to the prom? Who is this idiot?” The younger of the two siblings asked. Maybe in another time and place, I would have liked these guys.

“I’m Kevin and this is my cousin Brian.” I’m sure he wasn’t being literal when he asked his question but I found that as good a place as any to make my introduction. I held out my hand for him to shake but instead he just looked over at me and rolled his eyes.

“I’m Ralph, that’s my brother Scott and our uncle Matt and because of you two, we’re probably going to have to move on. It’s no longer safe here.”

“Why?”

“It’s only a matter of time before someone reports that they saw a fire coming from this chimney.”

“Wouldn’t they just come in and attack if they saw?”

“They don’t have to see. Not when people are willing to tell on each other.”

I looked over at my cousin with shock. “Are you saying that neighbors are tattling on each other to the enemy?”

Ralph nodded, “It’s how most of us are surviving. If we spy on our neighbors and turn them in, they tend to leave us alone.”

I was looking around for my fire poker again. There was no way I was going to let these guys turn Brian and I in to anyone. “Is that what you plan on doing to us?” I asked trying to sound as brave as possible.

“No, we are in hiding ourselves which is why we came in here to make sure you put your stupid fire out, jackass!”

“Where were you hiding?” I asked, deciding to ignore the insults being rained upon us.

“Up the street. We found this block virtually untouched about a month ago and have been hiding out here, until now.”

“So, you didn’t live here originally then?”

Scott walked towards his father and looked out the window as Ralph continued to be the family spokesman, “No, our homes were destroyed in the initial attack. We’ve been roaming around ever since.”

I wanted to ask about the initial attack, why it happened, who did it etc… but once again that would draw too much attention to ourselves. When we first got here, I asked one too many questions and it almost got us killed. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake.

“So, is it just the two of you? What’s your story?” Ralph sat down on a couch and helped himself to some of the cookies we were munching on earlier.

Brian looked at me to talk. He was a really bad liar by trade so I kind of nodded at him, “We’re from Florida.”

“Wow, you’re a long way from home.”

“We were on a vacation to Philly when it happened.”

We decided to just use the term ‘when it happened’ because that’s what we heard everyone else say.

He nodded in sympathy. “That sucks, so you were never able to make your way back then?”

I shook my head, “We are trying to make it to New York though.”

“I heard it’s really bad there.” Ralph said glancing over at his family, “Anything going on out there?”

The uncle turned, “It’s quiet…a little too quiet.”

“I thought quiet was a good thing.” Scott said now looking at his uncle clearly concerned.

“Not anymore. That last attack….”

“We didn’t hear it coming like the others.” Brian was quick to add.

Matt looked over at Brian and nodded. “We need to get out of here soon. Are there any supplies we can take from this place?” He asked me.

“There’s food in the pantry and flashlights.”

“What about weapons?”

The question made me want to gag. I hadn’t thought about looking for guns or anything when we broke in. “Didn’t see any, but there was an entire drawer full of knives.”

That made all three of our visitors crack up.

“Scott, go check upstairs and see if you find anything useful. Ralph is going to go check the basement. You two best go round up the food and I’ll keep an eye out for any signs of trouble.”

I found myself just nodding to this man who was barking orders at us as if we were part of his battalion.

 “Are we going with them?” Brian asked once inside the kitchen and out of earshot.

Once again I wasn’t sure. Every ounce of my being told me to say no, we’d manage just fine on our own, but honestly, I didn’t believe that to be true. I didn’t see us surviving the night if we left on our own. This was a new world where knives were considered laughable weapons and neighbors tattled on each other as if they were in kindergarten. Brian and I didn’t stand a chance out there.

“I guess maybe we should, if they ask us.”

“Well if they don’t we shouldn’t let them take all this stuff.”

He had a good point. We were basically letting them ransack the place only to leave us with nothing if they abandoned us. I found a garbage bag and quickly put as much food as I could into it, thinking about taking some of the sodas from the fridge as well just as Ralph came up from the basement carrying a shotgun.

“I found this and a few rounds of ammo.” He took the ammo and placed it in the bag with the groceries as if it naturally belonged there.

When he left the kitchen both Brian and I followed. Scott was just coming down the stairs with his hands empty. “There was nothing up there at all besides some blankets and pillows.”

“Maybe we should take those just in case we can’t find a place to stay tonight.” I suggested, also hinting at us going with them to see the reaction I would get.

“I’m sure Clara and Randy have plenty of blankets.” Matt said with certainty.

“Who are they?”

“Friends.”

“They wouldn’t mind taking my cousin and me in?” I hated the way I sounded. I felt like a homeless guy begging for a place to stay for the night.

“They live in a shack but they’ll always make room for anyone in need.” Ralph said just as we heard a rumbling coming from somewhere off in the distance. It was faint but definitely there.

“Did you hear that?” Scott asked his uncle who quickly looked out the window.

“What was that?” Brian asked me.

The small ceramic bud vase that was on the coffee table fell off as the earth started to quake just slightly.

“We’re too late!” Ralph said accusingly, “They found us!”

The roar became almost deafening as Matt went to look out the window.

“It’s a tank!” he warned. “We better get down in the basement.”

He motioned for us to move quickly as it settled right in front of the house, gun aimed right at us. I could see it from the small crack in the blind left opened by Matt. It was aiming for the very window I was looking through.

“We’re going to die.” I said as someone grabbed a hold of my arm and ushered me away from the window and towards the basement door leaving my Superman suit behind.