The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (83 page)

“
Why!?!” yelled Andrew
real anger filling his face. “I want to go home!” It was petulant,
childish.

“
Because, you idiot, we haven’t
even
found the rest of the Twelve!
Because, we don’t have the right kind of clothes -! Shit man, we
don’t even have a
change
of clothes. We don’t have sleeping bags, tents,
the proper kind of coats, or portable
anything.
What the hell are we going
to do if we get stuck in a blizzard or some kind of nasty weather
like that, huh? What are we going to do, Drew!?! Do you want me to
risk my sisters being caught in something like that? Jesus Christ,
man, can’t you, for once in your pathetic life, think of someone
else other than yourself for a change!” By the time he finished,
after the echo of his voice stopped resonating off the walls of the
cave, Anthony was still standing. He was breathing hard, fists
clenched at his side, decidedly looking away from Andrew. Instead,
he faced the fire, not trusting his control.

Mikalah was certain if it
had been anyone other than her brother who had spoken to Andrew in
that manner, the taller boy would’ve gone for his throat. His eyes
were that angry.

“
Anthony is correct Andrew
Ibarra,” rumbled Kodiak, trying to sound reassuring, lending a
calming voice to the conversation. “We cannot afford to risk any of
the Twelve.”

“
Oh,” said Andrew meekly,
sitting down on the log closest to him. He cradled his own head.
The sobs he was trying to hold back all day overwhelmed him, came
cascading out. He sat there, half-turned away from them, bent at
the waist, weeping.

Those watching him,
exchanged unsettled glances with one another, but none of them said
anything.

Both Jason and Joaquin
looked away embarrassed.

A few minutes later, Kenai
roused herself from the floor and strode toward Andrew, stepping
along the outer side of the logs. The great bear-dog came up behind
his left shoulder and began to speak to him a soothing voice. It
was so low in frequency and volume, Mikalah couldn’t hear what she
said to the boy. He was overburdened with fear and anxiety, finally
forced to face it. Every now and again, Andrew would nod his head
as pent up emotions fell away from him, leaving behind an exhausted
husk of a person.

“
Anthony
is right, though,” concluded Jason, breaking the awkward silence
with his quiet voice. Though, at the time, it sounded like a
sledgehammer hitting a solid block of granite. “We do need more
supplies before we go farther out into who knows what out there. I
mean, we’re good with food and drinks, and stuff like that. We just
don’t have the proper equipment, tools or clothing for long
excursions in the wild, especially with weather like the type we
have out there right now. We need to figure out how we are going to
find supplies of that type,
and
at the same time, we have to find the four
remaining members of our group.” He paused to take a breath. “I
hope to god Fenris hasn’t already got his clawed hands on them,
because then it’ll mean we will have to attempt another rescue with
only a small amount of our powers at the ready. We’ll be up against
an enemy who already knows we have the help of the Fingers of the
Light, so there will be no surprises this time around. They’ll be
prepared. Am I right, Joaquin?” he concluded
somberly.

Joaquin’s eyes glazed over
in thought, but a second later, “Yeah, that’s right. Even if we
found the Legacy of Truth, the Kring-Hël cannot be Reborn without
the powers of the remaining Eleven, in some manner, activated.”
Then, he too breathed deeply. “I hope the others are
ok…”

A thoughtful quiet
ensued.

“
So, there it goes,” began
Jason a while later, his friend’s answer confirming his suspicions.
“We have to find the other four, while at the same time, find
better supplies and clothes, then and only then, can we begin to
search for the Legacy. Does this sound correct to you
all?”

“
Yup, it sounds right to
me,” replied Joaquin almost immediately.

“
Yeah, I know it’s the
right thing,” imparted Anthony, but was shaking his head negatively
at the same time, “but I am sitting here trying to figure out?
Where are we going to find a whole crap load of camping gear within
easy reach? If we can’t travel far without it, then it’ll have to
be close by. We can’t last long outdoors otherwise. Any stash
that’s far away might as well be on the surface of the
moon.”

Jason laughed.

Mikalah was sure he’d lost
his mind. She shifted her attention toward Joaquin and saw he was
smiling as well. The two teenagers shared a quick glance. That was
when the little girl knew Jason wasn’t crazy. He knew
something!

“
Well, I was kinda leading
up to that,” prompted Jason, still grinning.

“
Leading up to what, Jay?”
Mikalah was surprised to see it was Andrew who spoke. Through tears
and shuffling, he hadn’t stopped paying attention to what they were
saying.

“
I was going to mention,
before my parents got divorced and my mother went back to China, my
parents were all gun-ho on trying to be American. You know, trying
to fit in, and raise a good, well-rounded Asian-American son, etc.,
etc., etc., which proved to be a bunch of bullshit in the end, of
course.

“
Anyhow,
it was what my Dad wanted, not her.” Jason stopped to re-gather his
thoughts after a brief silence and a hard swallow. “Well, like I
was saying -,” he cleared his throat, “we used to do all kinds of
what my parents figured were ‘
American
’-like things. So, my Dad
gets it in his mind that he and I should go fishing every summer
like all
American
dad’s do with their son’s every year. But, the funny thing
about the whole thing was my Dad didn’t know crap about fishing or
camping or being in the outdoors, you know? Because, he always had
his face in a book or in a computer case, he wasn’t a physical sort
of guy. So, one winter he goes out and buys all kinds of camping
gear and shit, right? He tells me, when the weather warms, us – him
and I – are going to go fishing.

“
Anyway,
long story short, we did go. We went way up in the mountains passed
some lake a few hours north of here. We had about three times the
camping gear we needed. It was just the two of us, you see, and we
had the Suburban packed to the freakin’ gills.
Plus,
we had a six-foot trailer
attached to the truck and it was full as well. I think we spent
more time making camp and, later, breaking camp than we did fishing
that weekend. Can you imagine two nerdy dudes trying to put up an
awning for shade or the monstrous eight-man tent my Dad had bought?
It was a total disaster. We came back home, dirty and hungry,
because we caught absolutely no fish. Shit, it was hard enough for
us to make bologna and cheese sandwiches in the mountains, let
alone try and catch a fish. Sand kept getting in all over our food,
you know, it sucked totally.” Jason was chuckling wistfully, though
it seemed like a disaster to Mikalah.

She could tell it had
meant something to him. It least his Dad had tried. Wasn’t the
effort worth something?

“
So, after we got home, my
Dad announces, fishing is not a thing for the Fong Family. It was
about a year later when things started getting bad between him and
my Mom. A few months after, she left…” He trailed off into the
razors and knife-edges of a hurtful past.

The fire crackled a few
times. Its’ ever-meandering light danced about the cave.

“
As you
can imagine, we never went again,” he continued, his voice
trembling. “
But,
the camping gear is still in our garage, a whole crap-storm
of supplies. Everything you can think of, it’s all still there
locked up, put away.”

“
Wow, Ant, do you think it
still might be there?” queried Andrew, his natural curiosity
returning, the usual vivacity of his personality returning in a
flash.

Anthony ran his hand
through his hair and stood, peering at the fire. “I don’t know,
Drew, everything with this Melded World is so whacked out. It’s
really hard to answer a question like that with any certainty. What
do you think, Joaquin?”

All eyes shifted toward
Joaquin.

The teenager held up his
hands in surrender. “Hey, I give up!”

Elena laughed at
him.

Mikalah felt herself
bounce around a bit as Sophie laughed as well. She jostled the
little girl sitting on her lap.

Mikalah just smiled and
stayed quiet.

“
Truthfully, though,”
began Joaquin anew, “it’s like you said Anthony, this place is just
too random when it comes to things from our world. I would guess
it’s like a thirty to seventy chance Jason’s garage still exists
here and that’s looking at things with the glass half-full, if you
know what I mean.”

Mikalah frowned for she
had no idea at all what he meant.

“
Thirty to seventy is
better than no chance at all, right? Shit, I bet that’s way better
than odds in Vegas!” Andrew implored anxiously.

“
How far would your house
have been from here, Jason, if we were still on our world?”
inquired Anthony, ignoring Andrew for the time being.

Jason’s head slumped as he
thought, muttering to himself. They all waited. Mikalah was sitting
upon the edge of Sophie’s lap filled with anticipation. This was
possibly the only way they could procure the supplies they would
need.

Then, “I used to live on
the corner of Grandola and Floristan in Eagle Rock, which was just
off Colorado Boulevard. From what I have been able to guess, this
cave is most likely located closest to the intersection of Colorado
and Figueroa than any other road crossing. So, that would make my
house about a mile and a half to two miles from here, you know, if
the roads were all here and everything was normal.”

“
Shit, man, that’s not
far. I used to walk about the same distance to and from school
every day,” piped in Andrew, real optimism in his voice.

“
Yeah, your right, Drew,
it isn’t far,” agreed Anthony, but he was still looking over at
Jason. “Hey Jay, does your Dad have anything we could tote back all
the gear or would we have to use the shopping carts like last
time?”

Again, Jason thought for a
while. “We have one of those car roof cargo carrier thingies. You
know, one of those things you put on the roof of your car. We can
put crap into it without having to tie it down and just drag it.
Couldn’t we do that?”

“
Is it big enough to hold
all of your Dad’s camping equipment?” entreated Sophie as
enthusiastic as the rest of them.

“
Probably not,” answered
Joaquin instead of Jason. “The dude is not lying when he said his
Dad bought a lot of stuff. It all organized and everything, but it
still takes up like a third of their garage from like floor to
ceiling. No joke.”

“
Wow, that’s a lot of
gear, Jay,” commented Andrew, eyebrows raised. He seemed
preoccupied imagining how much camping equipment it would take to
fill a comparable area.

“
Tell me
about it,” muttered Jason a little annoyed. “And to think it was
only used once, a pretty big waste of time and effort if you ask me
– not to mention the money he spent on it.” Mikalah got the
impression Jason wasn’t happy with his Father in many more areas
than just this one.
And when it came to
his mother… wow, probably best not to ask at all!

“
So, if we took like two
of the empty shopping carts to your house and filled up them up
along with cargo thing would they be enough to haul it all back
here?” ventured Anthony, his hand on his chin, the other crossing
his chest as he spoke.

Jason only thought for a
second, “Yeah, it might be enough.”

“
Then, there you have it?
Do we have a plan?” asked Andrew almost as if he were
pleading.

To Mikalah, it was as
though he needed to do something or he was going to go out of
mind.
What did Mom used to call it?
She asked herself.
Oh
yeah, Mom would’ve said he had “ants in his pants!”
She giggled silently to herself, causing Sophie
to look down at her with a questioning expression on her face.
Mikalah just smiled back.

“
I’d say we do,” retorted
Anthony, glancing around at all of them. “Let’s get some food
together for the journey, take some wood, so we can make a fire.
Andrew still has the flint and steel with him so we’re good there.
Let’s grab those shopping carts and get ready to head out to
Jason’s house. What do you guys think? Are you ready to get this
show on the road?”

All around the cave, the
kids and the animals were standing, heads bobbing up and down in
acquiescence – they had a plan!

“
Mr. Patas,” began Kodiak,
“why don’t you scout around the area and see if the way is
clear.”

“
At once!” he pined in his
high-pitched twitter and was gone.

They all continued to mill
about in random succession, gathering what they thought were
necessary to survive the trip. They were still doing so when Mr.
Patas returned, his face downcast and sorrowful. None of them
noticed at first, but upon hearing the first of his falsetto-toned
words, they eventually stopped and turned to look in his
direction