Next Gen

Chapter 1

I was in the back seat, losing another battle with the worn puzzle cube dad custom made for me when he let out a face stretching yawn and asked me to drive the last leg.  Megan got so pissed.   Driving is a huge deal to city kids.  You don't get your permit when you turn sixteen, you get an unlimited ride Metro-card.  So, of course I didn't have a license, mom who was big on rules protested from the back seat and Megan did her best to ruin my case.  Dad handled them both. 

     He was a big napper.  The man could fall asleep in a tornado.  I'm just resting my eyes...and he's out. Mom usually ran co-pilot duty and probably saved our lives more than once.  This was the first time he'd let me steer on the open road.  Felt pretty cool to be behind the wheel of a Ford Taurus rental and huge added bonus that it burned up my sister. 

     We were on our way back from what was probably going to be our last real family vacation.  Meg and I had turned eighteen this spring and we were probably too cool even for this last trip.  We'd gone upstate to the usual stomping grounds, managed to relive some old memories amidst texting and checking facebook pages when we could get a signal, but there was a sadness lurking in the shadows the whole time.  Time was moving on, and we could all feel it. 

     The black SUV that roared past us was the first car I'd seen in five miles.  Slow day on I-80 I guess.  The sun had started to set and I dropped the driver-side flap to avoid having my eyes burned out.  I adjusted the driver's mirror so I could see Megan steaming in the back-seat.  She gave me the finger. Mission accomplished.

     "Hey mom, did I tell you what happened last week, just before we left?" She didn't wait for a response,  "Didn't think so.  Well Alex was talking to Heather Morrison, who he's pretty much completely in love with..."  Megan had a tongue that could shred you in seconds.  The girl was lethal but she usually had my back. 

     "Really?  That's sweet.  I always liked her." Thanks, mom.

     "Hey, whatever Megan is about to tell you is completely, totally, untrue," I said, trying to mount some kind of defense.  We were twins, but even if we weren't, I had a very clear premonition of what was coming next. 

     "If by untrue, you mean a scientific fact?  Then yeah, it's totally untrue.  So, as I was saying, they're chatting near the lockers and lover-boy opens his and every book shoved in there falls directly onto her foot.  Splat!  Pancake city.  A broken big toe later, I think he still might have a chance.  Lil' bro, smooth as sandpaper." 

     For the record, Megan was two and a half minutes older, yet she'd referred to me as her little brother since she could talk.  I passed the shiny black SUV that had sped past us minutes ago.  Out of my way, snail. 

     "Leave your brother alone Megan.  If he's anything like his father, he'll be alright with the ladies."  She hit me with a knowing wink. She was always good for that.

     "Blah.  Gross." Megan added a puking noise for good measure. 

     "Right Vic?  Vic?"

     But of course there was no response.  Dad was out and as if in answer to mom's question began to snore like a bulldozer. 

     Then all hell broke loose.  

     CRACK!  The back window smashed in as something hurtled into our car.  Dad leapt up and smacked his head on the roof.  Mom screamed and Megan cursed her head off.  I snapped my head around and saw a softball sized cannister settle on the seat between Megan and Mom.  It began hissing and spewing forth a smoky gas.  Everything became a blur of screaming, coughing and screeching tires. 

     Dad took control of the situation and used the master panel in the front seat to slide all the windows down.  "Hold your breath," he bellowed, but the acrid smoke had already filled my lungs.  I saw mom grab the cannister and hurl it out of the car.  Her eyes met dad's and it was almost like they had an entire conversation in that split second.  Wish I knew what they had said. 

     As I struggled to control the car, dad pulled up his pant leg and snatched a black cylinder from his sock, tore his button-down shirt open and snapped the cylinder into a round object holstered to his body.  It looked like a gun, but like none I'd ever seen before.  What?  Dad has a holster?  And a freaking gun?  If we weren't under siege I probably would have asked where the hell that thing came from but I could barely focus as it was.  I was about to pull over when mom screamed, "NO!  Keep driving.  GO!"  I turned to dad but his expression mirrored the frantic urgency of my mother's plea.

Click-clack.  He chambered a round.

     Just before impact, I caught a flash in the driver's side mirror of the black SUV accelerating towards our rear.  It couldn't have just been smoke in that canister because I went limp before the air bag exploded in my face.  The car swerved so hard it jack-knifed and flew off the road.

Rubber burned.  Metal crunched.  And everything turned black.

     You know the expression, seeing stars?  I think I saw a whole universe of dancing constellations. There may have been a unicorn in there somewhere too.  I couldn't feel my body but in between slow blinks, I could see my left hand flexing so I knew it wasn't that bad.  My right hand was clutching my cube so hard, veins were counting down to explosion.  I slowly turned to the passenger seat but it was empty.  Dad must've gotten thrown from the car.  That thought got a knife in the back when my eyes narrowed and focused on his seat belt, which I knew he was wearing.  It'd been cut clean in half. 

     I shoved all the horrible scenarios tearing through my mind into the back of my brain and sharpened my focus on moving my tingling legs.  A faint groan from the back-seat told me someone was still in the vehicle.  I managed to maneuver out of my seat and crawl into the back.  Megan was coming to.  A few scratches and a purple bruise on her forehead but she looked ok.  Mom was gone.  

     "Megan.  Meg, can you hear me?" 

     She nodded, her eyes fluttering as the lights started to come back on. 

     "Mom and Dad must've gotten thrown from the car.  Stay here.  I'm going to find them." 

     Would have been better if I'd stayed numb because once I started moving, my body screamed.  I squeezed out where mom's door used to be, tried to get my bearings.  We were completely off the road. 

     A giant shadowy shape with glowing red eyes sat up ahead of our smoking car.  Focus.  Oh shit.  The black SUV.  It was all starting to come back but a shot of adrenaline momentarily damned the creeping dread.  The trees lining the road looked huge and still.  Always kind of had a thing about trees.  Think it was that scene from The Wizard of Oz.  You know, the one where they come alive and start rifling apples and insults at Dorothy and co.? 

     Then I realized some of them weren't trees but very tall people, or maybe they looked very tall since I was belly to the ground.  They were standing over something.  I staggered towards them.  When your body goes through an intense trauma, the fear receptors must go on sleep mode, because I wasn't afraid at all. 

     I got closer and the figures seemed to grow.  They hovered in shadow and I couldn't see their faces but as I neared something reflected, glinting off what little light beamed over the horizon.  It was the figure in the centers face.  There was something very wrong with it.  I closed my eyes, hoped I was hallucinating and all of this would just disappear but I finally blinked and saw what they were standing over.  My father. 

     Then something flew out of the woods and landed in a heap at my feet.  I didn't flinch at all.  

     I knelt down, pushed the hair away from her face and held my mother like she used to hold me. 

     "I'm sorry Alex...thought this was over.  Did the best we could to protect you.  Promise me you'll take care of your sister...they will come for you, but trust your feelings...you'll know what to do...it's inside you both."

     And those were the last words she ever said to me.