This Is War

six

I unbuckled all the belts and swung off the motorcycle in excitement. Stumbling a bit from the lack of leg use. Hal stepped off after me and went inside a store with a large part of the Mass. Everyone else started clearing room for new supplies.

"How long did it take?" I questioned.

"About four hours since we came into California. Weaver took half the Mass into that grocery store to get some food." Ben pointed to the chain of little stores.

Von's was the biggest store, than connected to it was a Rite Aid, a small pizza place, a dry cleaners, etc.. All the trucks, motorcycles and the bus were lined up in the parking lot. Across the street was a large church and a school with an iron gate surrounding it. Half the school was destroyed, but the church was strangely intact.

"My house isn't too far from here," I told Ben and started running up a hill full of houses, Ben following. I decided to leave Ky with Lourdes, just in case. We ran up steep hills, down steeper ones, nearly ran into some kid's bike, turned sharp corners, and sprinted at least four blocks to an intersection. The intersection had been busy when the aliens attacked. Now cars were flipped over, stomped on, crashed into each other. Dead adults lay everywhere, decomposing. I didn't stop to mourn them, although it smelled awful, I just kept running, leaping over a tire. I could see my house now. The worn brown wooden gate covered in weeds. The front door was still slightly ajar. This is when I slowed down, panting. Slowly, I walked up to the door and pushed it wider open. Dust covered, like, everything. I shuffled into the kitchen. Everything, the bowls, forks, even the food, were all still where we left them. I cautiously stepped down the hallway, into Conrad and Leven's room. It was a complete mess, as usual, basketballs and footballs everywhere. Lots of less-then-stellar graded papers covering the desk. I knelt to the ground, this is when, no matter how hard I tried to keep them in, the tears began to fall. One by one.

Ben hadn't said a word this whole time. Now he knelt next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off, wiping away the tears. Now, onto my room.

It was cleaner than Con and Lev's, if you ignore all the dust and sand from trips to the beach. I unzipped my backpack, took my iPad and memory box and fit them both into the pack with the Harry Potter set and journal with pencil pouch. Totally miscellaneous, I know, but my iPad has my entire world in the pictures app. And my memory box for obvious reasons. I lifted the polka dotted lid. Inside was so much random stuff, I laughed a little. It sounded high and probably a tad bit insane to Ben.

An empty Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans box held a bunch of fortunes from fortune cookies. A silk Chinese coin pouch had all my valentines from sixth-grade. Unwrapping a tie-dyed handkerchief, I discovered my whole third-grade collection of Pokemon cards. Ribbons from first-grade swim races, a play script from fifth, pictures of me and my first school buddy from grade two, pictures of me and friends on a boat in third. Finally, on the bottom of the box, I pulled out a picture of my old crush. My heart stuttered. I'd almost forgotten about Kendrick Paramas. He was such a goofball. Maybe he's still alive. Hiding somewhere, like Ky and I were. . .

"Who's that?" Ben had apparently followed me. I hadn't noticed him yet. I shoved the picture back into the box, then stuck the box into the backpack, "No one."

He observed the room, noticing my wand collection. I had Harry Potter's, Hermione Granger's, Ron and Ginny Weasley's, Neville Longbottom's, and Luna Lovegood's. Hermione's was my favorite, it had leaves carved around most of it, and was a greenish brown color, like moss.

Ben took down Harry's and pointed it at me, "Aguamenti!" The spell meant to produce water from the tip of the wand. Nothing happened.

"Fail!" I laughed at him. Then hopped across the bed and snatched Ron's, my favorite character, and pointed it at my model dragon on the bookshelf, "Accio, ice dragon!"

The dragon fell off the shelf.

I turned to Ben, mouth open, "Whoa! Did you see that? Pown!"

Soon we were having a full-out duel, dramatic movements and all. When I disarmed him with, "Expelliarmus!", we fell on the bed, laughing. After a minute, Ben sighed happily, "Take them. Take them all."

I frowned a little, "Why? They wouldn't be any use. They might break in my backpack. And that would be a bummer. If we survive this thing, I can come back here, clean up and live the rest of my life with all my unbroken artifacts. If I don't survive, but you do, you can come back and-"

"Don't say that."

"Don't say what?"

"You aren't going to die. At least, not on my watch. Or Hal's for that matter. Or anyone's in the 2nd Mass, not even Pope. And Hal would rather die himself than watch someone else die."

"Oh, I know. I'm just saying, just in case, make a story of me, okay? Just a small one. I've always wanted to be a story, an adventure. It's a well-known fact that I'm a very interesting person." I don't know why I was opening up to this guy. I barely knew him. Maybe it was the lack of trust in the past nine months, maybe I wanted just ONE friend I could talk to easily.

Ben thought for awhile then replied, "I can do that," and sat up. I noticed little studs down his spine, like a short lion fish spine.

"What are those? On your back?" I blurted out, before I could think about what I was saying.

He didn't look offended, though. Just a bit sad. "The aliens got me. In the very beginning. They put a harness on me, allowing them to control what I do, every action. I hated it. I hate the skitters and what they did to me and hundreds of other kids. Luckily for me, the 2nd Mass got me back and managed to get the harness off without killing me in the process."

"A harness? On all the kids? They took my brothers! What if my brothers have got harnesses? What if they're being controlled? Will they be okay? Could we get them back, like the 2nd Mass got you back?" I was rambling, but I didn't care, I was really worried now. I didn't want my brothers to be under anybody's control. They could barely follow directions from teachers, let alone our parents. I imagined them walking around like automatons. None of their actions actually theirs. Just cold human cases with beating hearts, walking around, doing the skitters' dirty work.

Ben turned doubtful eyes to me, "We could try. We have no means of contacting or locating them at all. Even if we do get them back, they will never be the same as before. They'll be enhanced, more athletic, keener senses."

Conrad, even MORE athletic? Well, that was a strange thought. I don't think he's ever even attempted to read the packets teachers send home with him for homework. He studied for tests by playing basketball games of PHOTOSYNTHESIS. A game of HORSE, but whenever he missed a basket, he had to relay a fact about plants. He got average grades, but loved sports more than anything. Leven, on the other hand, loved to learn. He played Scrabble all the time. His first grade teacher had adored him. He and my mom read every night, Curious George, Magic Tree House, stuff like that.

I loved both of my brothers a ton. Even though they had annoyed me to death every single day, there were times when they were pretty cute. The little flaws that had killed me a year ago, seemed priceless now.