The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (60 page)

“
He’s
just hoping some hot chick from school will see him and make a big
fuss over the fact he’s behind the wheel of a car,” interrupted
Jason, standing and changing his voice to an overly shrill, girly
tone. “
Oh look at Joaquin with all of his
big muscles, driving that wonderfully beat-up Camaro his dad gave
him that’s like a thousand years old. Eewww, he’s so cute and
cuddly, I just wanna have his baby!
”

“
Dude, shut up!” shouted
Joaquin, very embarrassed and blushing as well.

Besides, ever since
Clarisse there’s been very little need to go trolling around for
chicks, dickweed!

The girls squirmed with
glee, covering their mouths at Joaquin’s discomfort.

“
I’m trying to explain
things here. Damn, man, can’t you be serious for like one second in
your life?”

Anthony and Andrew were
laughing as well and mouthing short sentences silently to each
other:

“
Oh, snap!”

“
He got moded!”

All the while, the girls
stifled the mirth threatening to overwhelm them.

The animals just stared
back and forth between both boys, expressionless, except Garfield,
who appeared to be asleep.

“
Ok, ok, man, if the truth
hurts… Well, all I’m saying is, you know, be true with yourself, my
brutha,” said Jason as if apologizing, though he wasn’t. He sat
back down with a satisfied look on his face.

“
Dude,
can I get on with the story now?”
Why does
this dude always feel like he has to butt in?
Joaquin could feel his cheeks flushing, his face warming. It
wasn’t from the fire burning beside him.

“
Sure, man, sure, sorry I
brought it up,” began Jason. Conspiratorially, he muttered behind
his hand, shielding it from Joaquin, speaking loud enough for all
of them to hear. “Touchy, touchy, huh, must’ve hit a
nerve…”

There were smiles all
around.

“
Whatever, ass-chunk,” Joaquin responded, making the girls
squeal with a loud,
Eeewwwulll!

“
Continue, my good man.”
Jason ignored his comment, doing his best English Butler
impression.

Joaquin took a moment or
two to center himself and his thoughts. He went on. “Ok, like I was
saying, before Beavis here interrupted me was that… Yeah, ok, I do
some errands for mom from time to time and last night my mom asked
Jason and me to go get some last minute Thanksgiving stuff for her
at Vons. Now, the only reason why this Numb-nut was even with me
last night –.”

“
That’s me!” proclaimed
Jason in mock happiness.

“
- Was because his Dad,”
Joaquin just continued like Jason had not even spoken, “is out of
town on business, and since –.”

“
My Mom and Dad are
divorced,” interrupted Jason for the third time, although his tone
had turned somewhat serious when he continued. “I live with my Dad,
because my Mom wanted to go back to China when they separated. She
didn’t want to take me, so she left me in the U.S. with my
Dad.

“
He’s a network engineer -
my dad - and had some emergency in butt-hump Egypt somewhere and
couldn’t be here for the holiday. Sooo, I asked if I could stay
with Joaquin while he was gone and he said that was a good idea.
That’s why I was stuck with his sorry ass last night at Vons.” He
stopped abruptly as if he’d wanted to say everything as quickly as
possible and just get it out there and get it over with. He
motioned for Joaquin to carry on as if nothing had
happened.

“
Seriously, Jason, can I
tell the story now?”

“
Well crap, man, it’s my
family. I feel I have the right to tell them about my family. Is
that cool with you?” retorted Jason running his hand through his
coarse hair, messing it up even more, but by now the hairdo was
beyond repair. It was a disaster. He just shook his head back and
forth without a care, motioning, once again, for Joaquin to
continue.

“
Alright, whatever, now
please just have a Coke and smile, and shut the hell up,” pleaded
Joaquin clapping his hand together, rubbing them as if they were
cold. “So, for the third time… We were at Vons last night like
walking down the baking aisle, or some shit like that, when we
heard this really, very strange sound. It sort of frozen me in
place, you know? Jason thought it was like some kind of earthquake,
because he went up against the shelves holding the groceries and
sort of knelt down. Next thing I can remember is everything in
front of me eyes seemed to blur with green, or something, almost
like when you’re tearing up, but this was different.

“
Then,
Jason, asks ‘did you see that?’ I replied to him that I had, but
when I looked at him, he seemed to be getting sick to his stomach.
I was really confused. It happened again, the sound followed by the
green blurring, but this time I could’ve sworn I saw the old lady,
who was picking up a bag of floor half way down the aisle, just
melt away like smoke. It was so weird and… and… man, even now, I
can’t really explain it. I guess, it just felt wrong or dirty… no
–
tainted.
Yeah,
that’s the word.

“
It felt so tainted, it
made me sick too, just like Jason. I could feel my stomach all
twisting and turning inside my body. I wanted to throw up big-time.
I think I kind of hunched over, holding the middle of my body,
because I don’t remember seeing anything but the floor. When it
happened again, I heard Jason tossing chunks. I guess I did too,
but I couldn’t have told you at the time, because I freakin’
blacked out, you guys. I freakin’ just felt like I was in a tunnel
of darkness that kept getting smaller and smaller, until there was
no tunnel, you know, just blackness.”

Anthony, Andrew and his
girls were staring at Joaquin, nodding every so often when he
highlighted something similar to what they’d
experienced.

“
Next thing I remember is
waking up exactly where I blacked out on the floor of the baking
aisle. I looked around. I saw Jason already sitting up, looking at
me saying something like ‘I thought you were dead’ or some
wacked-out shit like that. We sat there for a bit, you know, just
getting our stuff back together, sort of leaned up against the
shelves, wiping all the crud from our faces. We were looking at one
another in like complete confusion.

“
How long did we sit
there, Jay?” he asked trying hard to piece the experience together
for the others to comprehend.

“
Not long, man, maybe ten
minutes,” said the other, reluctantly, as if he didn’t want to
remember.

“
Yeah, not long,” agreed
Joaquin looking up at the others, “because that’s when he heard all
this glass breaking at the front of the store. That brought us to
our feet. You know, because it wasn’t some random accident, there
was a lot of glass breaking, repeatedly. It sounded on purpose, you
know? There was something strange about it. So, we started walking
slowly toward the front of the store when one of those gray looking
guys comes like plowing around the corner and down the aisle. I
mean, the fucker was coming balls-out, gunning for us like he knew
we were there the whole time. We ran back the other way, you know,
back toward the meat department. He had completely freaked us out.
I mean, he looked amped-up, like he was on five or six Red Bulls,
real savage and determined, so we booked out.

“
We just get to meat
counter when another one of those dudes comes hauling ass from
somewhere by the pharmacy, so Jason and I just ducked into the area
where they cut up the meat, you know? The Butchery? I guess that’s
what it’s called.

“
Anyway,
we fly through there and into the storage area at the back of the
store and out one of the rear doors, the type with the panic alarm
on it, so when you go through it, an alarm will sound. Well, it
didn’t go off when we went through,
thank
God
. So, we ran around the building toward
the front of the supermarket, on the side where the auto-repair
shop is. We didn’t see anyone. All the houses that should’ve been
across the street were gone as well as most of the streets. The
only ones left looked like trails, you know, freakin’ wagon trails
from like in the old Wild West days. We were even more confused. We
really didn’t know what to do when this wolf-guy starts yelling
from the store. He was inside the building, but positioned near the
front, where we couldn’t see him, at first. Then, the chase was
on.

“
We ran up La Loma or what
was left of it. When we got to the top we decided to take the
smaller trail, you know, to throw them off our tracks. It didn’t
matter, they caught us about two hundred yards or so down the other
side of the hill from where we first saw you guys.

“
When I
tried to get one of the dudes off Jason, another one clipped me in
the face. We pretty much stopped struggling after that. They were
too big, and there were more of them than us. Plus, they had
weapons and shit. There wasn’t much else we could do until…” He
paused to chortle quietly, warily eyeing the Familiars. They all
possessed such a gentle nature, it was quite easy to forget how
devastating their attacks could be. “…until your
pets
came along and took
them out like they were nothing.” He was shaking his head now.
“That was the craziest thing I have ever seen in my life… Their
bodies pulverized in like seconds! Boy, when you guys decide to
battle, you come hardcore…” He finished peering through the fire at
Kodiak as voice dissipating like air from a
balloon.

“
Well, not sure what
‘hardcore’ means actually, but if it describes what the Fingers of
the Lord of the Light can do when they become a Fist, then what we
did atop the ridge was ‘hardcore’. We will take it as a compliment,
and accept your gratitude,” uttered Kodiak with a slight
nod.

“
I sort of like the ring
of the word - ‘hardcore’,” said Mugzy, trying the sound, the feel
of it in his mouth.

He garnered a flummoxed
snigger from Garfield and a quiet chuckle or two from Mr. Patas,
who was leaning up against of the logs Kenai had positioned around
the fire, silent up until then.

“
You’re funny, Poochers,”
cooed Elena at her former pet, using his secret name she’d given
him when she’d first seen him and took him in her arms. Even then,
he had been stinky.

Mugzy beamed.

“
Damn, man, your story
sounds about as bad as ours,” responded Andrew, shaking his head
along with the bigger boy, ignoring the interplay between Anthony’s
sister and the tall dark haired man-dog.

“
Yeah, I know, huh,” began
Anthony, “but all of the food and stuff was still there when you
woke up, right?”

“
Yeah, dude, all of
it.”

“
Then, that solves it. A
group of us should go and bring back as much as we can carry,
right?” he both stated and questioned simultaneously.

Joaquin was slowly
beginning to like the other teenager. He had a solid head on his
shoulders.
There was just no bullshit with
Anthony…

Ok, ok… he’s a cool
nerd.

“
I think that is the best
immediate course of action, Anthony,” added Kodiak with another
regal nod of her huge head. “We all need sustenance to continue to
ward off the cold. My daughter has found us more than adequate
shelter, but we are still in need of many items, if we are to
survive this unwanted winter. The Fist can hunt and forage, but
even we will need some sustenance hoarded within this cave for
emergency purposes. Whereas, you children… well, you will be in
need of much, much more than us Familiars.”

“
Ok, good, so who will go
and get us something to chow on?” Joaquin watched as the other boy
stood up and made it obvious that he wanted to go.

“
The party should include
most of the strongest of us, but not all. Some of us will have to
guard those of us that are a bit weaker and not as capable of
defending themselves against the likes of Fenris and his foul ilk,”
mentioned Kodiak, seated upon her haunches, glancing about at the
various faces, staring back at her.

“
I think myself, Jason,
and Anthony should go of us teenagers. Andrew should stay behind,
because he’s not dressed for the weather outside, while being
pretty strong at the same time,” rationalized Joaquin, glancing
about to see if anyone disagreed.

Everyone was just looking
at one another in silence.

Kodiak broke the silence
with her deep rumbling voice. “And my daughter should accompany you
as well given her adeptness at scavenging as detailed by her work
with this cave, along with Garfield because of excellent scouting
skills and Mr. Patas because of his exceptional auditory senses.
That would give you a well-rounded party, while leaving us adequate
forces to hold this cave should the need arise. Although, I think
Fenris might have quit searching for us for this day, knowing now
what he’s truly up against. He will no doubt marshal his strength
for a larger push with the rise of the sun tomorrow.”

“
I sure hope you are right
about that,” murmured Anthony, and then louder asked, “Does
everyone agree that it should be myself, Joaquin and Jason with
Kenai, Garfield and Mr. Patas going to Vons to forage for supplies,
while Kodiak, Mugzy, Andrew, Elena and Mikalah stay
behind?”