The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (66 page)

He was gone before the
teen could reply.

Sophie watched as Anthony
turned on the black, Mag-Lite four-cell flashlight, shining it into
the supermarket. “We should find as many flashlights and batteries
as possible. I have a feeling they’ll come in handy in the future,”
he said. He looked at her and smiled before he stepped into the
store and the darkness beyond.

Her heart skipped a beat.
She could only blankly stare as Mr. Patas and Kenai followed
immediately, then Joaquin.

“
They usually keep the
batteries by the check-out counters. The flashlights are in the
aisle where they keep the brooms and mops and crap like that,”
called out Joaquin once he was in the store. He turned back to his
friend. “You coming, man?”

Sophie looked over at
Jason, who shrugged his shoulders reluctantly. “I’m not sure I want
to go back in there, dude, after what happened this morning. I
think I’ll stay by the door and see if anything creeps up on his,
while you’re busy in here, ok?”

“
I’ll stay here too,”
added Sophie, watching some of the embarrassment leak out of
Jason’s body. “I’m still a little freaked out over everything - the
animals and all.”

“
Yeah, ok, that sounds
good. What about you little buddy, do you want to come and help us
get some food and supplies?” asked Joaquin, trying to put as much
excitement in his voice as possible.

He is not as smooth as
Anthony is with little kids
, thought
Sophie, grinning inwardly. She caught herself at the last
moment.
What the hell am I doing to
myself?
she demanded, half-scolding and
half-curious.

“
Yeah, sure,” answered
Louis. As an afterthought, Sophie heard him say to Joaquin, as they
walked away, “You think we could get some candy bars,
too?”

She heard the big teenage
boy reply in affirmation, but they were out of earshot to make out
exactly what he said.

“
Hey, thanks for being
cool,” Jason said when she turned away from the supermarket to look
outside.

“
Well, I
actually am a little weirded out over all this, you know? So, it
wasn’t out of
total coolness
that I volunteered to stay here. I just need some
down time, all of
this
has been quite a lot to take in with as little time as I’ve
had to process it,” explained Sophie, downplaying her
actions.

Jason seemed to take it
for what it was worth. “Yeah, I feel you.”

They stood there, a few
feet apart, in silence for a few minutes. Both of them watched as
the snow continue to drift down out of the sky, blanket after
blanket, the wind now blowing it back and forth, slowly, as if it
were as confused as the world around it. The uncanny cold was
inescapable. It slammed against their faces, an iciness that
shouldn’t have existed in southern California, but seemed quite the
norm here.

Yup, I’m definitely not in
City of Angels anymore…

Sophie peered back at the
boy opposite her, unwilling to think about all that had changed
overnight. She wanted to get away from the unsettling, double-sided
knot in her stomach. She was treading down an unfamiliar road. The
sense of foreboding stacked upon the thought was growing with every
minute. She couldn’t shake it, no matter how much she tried. Even
with the world becoming what it had, the sense of dread continued
to mount. Things were bad, yes, but she knew there was something
else, something more on the horizon, more horrendous than losing
every person she had ever known. She didn’t want to think about it
anymore.

Without warning,
there
he
was,
dropping into her life, almost out of thin air, confusing her even
more.

No, no, no, dammit! Stop
thinking about him!

“
So, why
are you afraid to go deeper into the store?” she asked to change
her train of thought, to get away from
him
. Already he was becoming too
much of a distraction for her.

“
This was where Joaquin
and I were first attacked,” was his simple reply, voiced monotone,
without inflection.

His answer shocked Sophie.
It was an answer furthest away from her consideration, the very
last sort she could’ve imagined. “Attacked? What do you mean
‘attacked’, by whom?”

“
Yeah, we were attacked,
and not by a ‘whom’, more like a ‘what’.” He leaned against what
was left of the metal doorframe, waiting to see if she understood
him.

“
You’re gonna have to
explain it better to me, Jason, because I am totally at a loss.
What are you trying to tell me?”

He looked at her for a few
seconds longer, his brow creasing with every passing second. He
suddenly came off the ruined frame, so swift Sophie leaned away
from him unable to catch herself. A strange look of morbid
curiosity flashed across his face. “Wait a minute, are you telling
me you haven’t seen anything out there, anything that might want to
hurt you?” He was so intense she didn’t know how to react, let
alone respond.

Sophie frowned. “Other
than those transformed animals with you guys… no… why?”

“
Sophie, I was really
beginning to think you were cool people, so please tell me you’re
not messing with my head. You truthfully haven’t seen any other
creatures out there?” Jason’s eyebrows were almost to his hairline
with the fierceness of his stare. His eyes were opened as wide as
they could manage for an Asian.

This made Sophie frown
even more.
What was he talking about? And,
why get so worked up about it?
“Well, I
thought I saw a man dressed up in a Halloween costume early this
morning, but it was at a distance. I figured the storm was playing
tricks on my eyes. Why, Jason what have you seen?” she asked,
concern beginning to fill her mind.

He ignored her question
entirely. “What type of costume?”

Why the funny
questions?
she thought. He wasn’t even
answering hers. “I don’t know like a medieval warrior
costume.
Why?
”
she asked forcibly now, not liking the turn in their conversation.
It was the directness of Jason’s speech, like she was a kid or
something less. He was talking down to her, condescending. She
hated that. She might be blonde, but she wasn’t stupid, not in the
least!

“
That wasn’t a costume,
Sophie. What you saw was a Swüreg warrior, probably out scouting
for one of us, so he could inform others of our location. What you
saw wasn’t even human,” he answered, deadly serious, draining the
anger she’d just begun to feel.

She stared back at him for
almost half a minute, saying nothing, not even moving, letting
everything sink in, as the pieces began to fall into place. “So,
earlier when you guys were talking about protection, you weren’t
talking about protection from the weather or from some sort of
random event. You guys meant protection from something tangible,
something intent on hurting us on purpose, correct? Is that what
Anthony meant by the animals being on your side, that all of this
was done on purpose?”

“
Yes,”
he began, taking a deep breath, seeing she hadn’t been acting or
fooling with him after all. She hadn’t known. “Something - and I
don’t know what for certain – but, some-
thing
wants us to hold us against
our will and take us to some place, some place unpleasant. Though,
I have no idea what it is or how far it might be or for what reason
it wants us to go there with it. There is no doubt in my mind; it
will stop at nothing to get us there. It’ll hurt us if it has too.
I have already been a witness to some of their brutality,” he
paused, swallowing deeply.

Sophie could readily read
the fear in his eyes. It sent a trickle of fear up her
spine.

“
Joaquin didn’t get that
nice shiner from a fall. He got it when one of those assholes
clocked him straight in the face when he tried to pull me away from
one of them. No warning, nothing. It just hammered him in the face,
so hard, it nearly knocked him out. I know how hard is it to do
something like that with a guy as big as Joaquin. He is always in
tip-top shape and he is strong. I mean, real strong. He’s in the
300 club at school. Do you know what that means?”

Sophie shook her head in
the negative.

“
It means he can bench
press more than 300 pounds. Actually, I think he’s up to 340 pound
now…,” he trailed off. “And do you know what?”

Again, she shook her
head.

“
That
thing dropped him like nothing, no problem, just another day at the
office and
boom!
Joaquin was on the floor
.
”

“
Oh my god,” was all
Sophie could muster. She tried to reconcile what Jason was telling
her, but it was too fantastic. She hadn’t seen anything like what
he was outlining for her - nothing like that at all.

She nearly jumped a mile
when Garfield came out of nowhere, quiet. One second they were
alone and the next he was there, staring at them.

“
Sorry, I did not mean to
frighten you, Lady-kitten. If the others should ask, the way is
clear out here. I am going to check the parameter should Kenai or
Tony-boy inquire,” and with that, he bounded away, gone as swift
and as silent as he had arrived.

“
Jeez,
that cat is something else,” Sophie stated, making Jason laugh
under his breath. “I’m not sure I could
ever
get used to seeing a cat of his
size and feel one hundred percent sure it won’t harm
me.”

“
I was like when I first
saw him too. He had just practically destroyed one of those Swüreg
dudes in like a second. He was holding what was left of its heart
in his claw at the time, so it was probably a bit more frightening
than your experience.” Jason was smiling, but his eyes told Sophie
he wasn’t lying.

She was certain he hadn’t
embellished either. “Oh! That must have been awful.”

“
It was. I almost blew
chunks,” he said, deadpan.

Sophie laughed
aloud.

After a bit he laughed as
well. “I’m not fibbing or fudging in the slightest, I promise, I
think I introduced myself to everyone by saying I was merely
trying
not
to
throw up.”

“
Yeah he did,” said
Anthony. He had come back up to the front of the store, flashlight
still in hand, smiling lightly. “Is everything ok up
here?”

“
Yeah, your big ass, scary
cat just came by and said the way was clear around the building, so
I guess we’re ok for now,” replied Sophie with a little more
indignation than she wished to convey. Apparently, Garfield had
unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.

Anthony laughed. “Yeah, he
can be a little intimidating when he wants to be. Just remember,
it’s all a big show, rub him on his chest and he’ll roll over like
a dog and purr like there’s no tomorrow.”

“
I’d like to see that,”
commented Jason, having already seen a taste of Garfield surly
disposition.

“
Oh! He also said he was
going to ‘check the parameter’,” she intoned in mock military
fashion, making Anthony smile broadly. She sniffed a laugh and
smiled back.

Their stare
lengthened.

“
How’s it going back
there,” asked Sophie quickly, shaking herself from the boy’s
eyes.

“
Good actually, we were
all a little worried over how we were going to lug all of the stuff
we need through the snow and everything. But, Joaquin found a bunch
of sleds perched on top of the freezers in the frozen food section.
So, the others are in the process of tying the five shopping carts
we found to five of the sleds he found. That way we’ll only have to
drag the supplies back to the cave in one trip.” Anthony seemed
very pleased with their progress.

Wait what, had he said
something about a cave?
A whole slew of
questions came swirling through her mind, but Jason spoke before
she could ask.

“
Oh man, that’s good news.
Were you able to find something for Andrew to wear?” said Jason,
hopeful.

“
We found only a bunch of
throw blankets he could use, maybe… Well, knowing him, he’ll figure
it out in two seconds flat. Anyhow, we grabbed them all, figuring
we could use whatever he doesn’t need at night when we sleep, you
know? We ain’t got shit to keep us warm at night,” Anthony
rationalized with a shrug of his shoulders.

“
Yeah, that sounds
–“

It was too much. Sophie
interrupted Jason with a wave of her hand. “Wait, you guys found a
cave?”

Anthony nodded, while
saying, “Oh yeah, I guess you couldn’t’ve known about that, huh?”
He chuckled, then, “Yeah, we found a cave. Well, actually, Kenai
found it, but that’s a long story. I will tell you about later when
we’re not so pressed for time. I really don’t want to be out here
any longer than necessary, especially since we really don’t know
what’s around the corner.