The Awake

The Day After

The next morning, I woke in a cold sweat. The dream of the man I had shot the previous day, still in my mind. I could see my family in an endless sleep. After calming down, I got dressed and went upstairs into the kitchen, where everyone except Zach was eating breakfast that Cailey had cooked.

"Good morning." I said as I entered. Cailey had set a plate aside for me. Cailey had been nice enough to cook eggs and bacon for us. She picked it up and handed me the dish. I sat down at the kitchen table, next to Ben and shoveled the food into my mouth. Before I could ask how everyone had slept, Zach bursted out of his room.

"I got it!! I know what it all is!!" Zach yelled as he ran down the stairs. Nearly at the bottom, he tripped and fell down the remaining stairs, onto his face. Staggered, he quickly recovered and slammed the file he had taken onto the kitchen table in front of me.

"What are you talking about?" Ben said shoving an egg into his mouth.

"I've been looking into these papers. That gas that the astronaut dude shot into the school was a new chemical bioweapon. The effects of it are a permanent sleep. These guys have been testing this thing for years. Look at this picture!" Zach said, throwing a photo onto the table. The picture was in black and white. There was a man in the picture that looked asleep. There was something written on the back of the picture. It read "Operation Sandman".

"What does this mean?" Elizabeth asked pointing at the words written on the picture.

"This is what they call their bioweapon plan." Zach answered. Even with all the excitement bursting out of him, I could see Zach had gotten little sleep. His eyes were droopy and slightly bloodshot.

"Sandman?" Ben asked with a mouth full of food.

"What does sand have to do with a gas?" Cailey asked. Zach shrugged and continued.

"Hillsboro isn't the only place that they attacked. By now, they've reached everywhere on Earth.." Zach said. We all got quiet. Was the entire world asleep? Was it possible? The thought scared me.

"Everywhere..?" Elizabeth asked in disbelief.

"Everywhere." Zach confirmed. He walked around us and examined my coffee machine. He messed with it for a minute, until Cailey had to help him get some coffee. He took little sips as I cleaned up my friend's dishes.

After we all ate, we gathered in the living room to plan our next move.

"First things first, we need to make sure they can't find us here. That shouldn't be too hard, because we are surrounded by woods." I started. "Next, we need to stock up on supplies."

"There's a gas station a few miles down the road. We passed it on the way here." Elizabeth said. "There's five of us in all. Someone needs to stay here and watch the house while some of the others go and find stuff we could use at that gas station. Then, I guess, the other people can do something else here."

"I can drive us to the gas station." Ben said yawning. He also didn't seem sleep well.

"No." I said firmly. "In that file, Zach said there was a map. That map showed that they will have people patrolling the town. It's a miracle we got here without being seen. If we go, we have to go on foot. Just to be safe."

"Dray and Zach will go to the gas station and get all the stuff they can carry. Cailey, will you stay and watch the house?" Elizabeth asked. Cailey thought for a moment, then answered.

"Sure, I'll stay here. But under one condition." Cailey said looking over at me.

"What's the condition?" I asked.

"I give you a list of food that I need to make some dinners." she answered. That didn't seem too hard.

"Sure, we can do that. Ben, Elizabeth, you two can start fortifying the house. My grandfather's gun vault has more than enough guns. I just don't know the combination to open it." I said looking at them. Up until this point Zach was half awake, half asleep.

"Safe?!" Zach asked, springing up, now completely awake. "Can I help with the safe?! I'll handle the safe. Where's the safe? Is there stuff in it?"

"It's downstairs. But like I said, I don't know the combination." I answered."Ben, do you know how to use tools?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. I built my own clubhouse once." He answered.

"There's a tool shed, full of my step father's tools you can use, right outside the back door." I said pointing at the back door."I give you permission to do anything to this house, that you think necessary, to make it safer for us, and harder for people to get in. Have Elizabeth help you." I told him as I stood up. Ben nodded and then looked around the room.

"Where's Zach?" He was nowhere to be seen. Then we heard the basement door open.

"The vaults open." Zach said emerging from the basement.

"How did you..." I started, but stopped myself. That was just Zach. I dismissed everyone to their jobs and followed Zach down the stairs into the basement. Past my room, was a gun vault that stood wide open. It had at least a dozen guns. Zach Entered the vault. How did he manage to open it so easily? I knew he was the Thief Lord, but I didn't know he could pull off a vault.

"We should bring some of these pistols with us to the gas station. Just to be safe." Zach said handing me a revolver. It was light and fit almost perfectly in my hand. The grip was made of leather with a design cut into it. The design was a very detailed flower. I nodded to Zach and looked deeper into the vault. There were thirteen guns in total. Four pistols, two shotguns, four assault rifles, two sniper rifles, and one chain gun. The chain gun was my favorite. It reminded me of the movie Scarface. My grandfather had been in two wars and collected weapons from each of them. By saving his injured commander and other soldiers from enemy fire, he had been awarded the medal of honor. The medal hung right above where the chain gun sat. We were able to take every firearm, except the chain gun because it was, by far, the biggest gun in the back of vault. It was locked in a large glass case. We didn't try to get it out because it was much too big for any of us to use. Before leaving for the gas station, we went back upstairs and said goodbye to the others. Me and Zach grabbed our backpacks and emptied them of all our school stuff. We needed all the space we could get. Approaching it, I spun the lock and unlocked the door. We stepped out the front door and started the walk to the gas station. If only I knew what I would find waiting for us.