When All The Adults Were Gone

Chapter 7 - Parade of Children

It was a very strange sight. A large group of kids congregated in the middle of a street in the middle of winter. Some wearing pyjamas, some dressed in a hurried mish-mash of clothes. It looked like a strange sight to me. As soon as the words had left my mouth, every face in the huddle of children fell. Then a wave of whispering surged over the group. It sounded eerie in the quiet of the street. Like the wind rustling the leaves of a tree. Except there was no wind. Only the hushed voices of grief stricken youths.

My auburn haired friend, Darcy, put up her hands to silence the group. "So if there aren't any adults left... What do we do?" She questioned the whole group. Everyone turned to me. Even the older 19 year olds. "I have no idea. But I think we should round up the other kids from the other streets." I told the crowd. One of the older boys put his hand in the air, "I'll go. We should go in groups of three. There are only 6 streets..." I looked him up and down. "What's your name?" I interrogated. "Sam. Sam Barnes." He replied. Sam Barnes. I had heard of him. He had quite the reputation. He was a few years older than me so I thought he would have been intimidating. He was actually quite friendly and helpful. "That's almost everybody... Ok but be quick. Bring everyone back here so we can explain." I gave the instructions to the older teenagers. I turned to the younger children and said "You stick with the older ones. They'll tell you what to do." And with that they all walked in different directions towards each street.

I looked at who was left. Tom, Darcy, Jamie and me. "Ok. What now?" Asked Darcy. I looked at her clothes and giggled. "Well, firstly I think you should go and get changed. Billy will be here soon. He won't fancy you with your pyjamas on!" I mocked. Darcy flushed a faint red which clashed horribly with her hair and pyjamas and ran off into her house to get changed. I chuckled as I watched her red hair whip around her front door. I then awkwardly turned to Tom. I had never really spoken to him before. He was staring at his converse as if they were the most interesting things in the world. I had to admit... For a nerdy kid he was quite cute. My thoughts were suddenly shaken from my head as Jamie tugged on my sleeve. "What about the papers?" He asked. I had forgotten about the papers. I had gotten so caught up in the moment. Tom sharply jerked his head up. "Papers?" He asked, his tone confused. "Yeah... In my dad's study there were some papers about some experiment..." I replied casually as if I just happened to carry important papers every day. "Experiment 103?" Tom said, suddenly excited. I nodded my head. He looked at me for a moment and ran back into his house.

Jamie and I looked at each other and just shrugged. What was he doing? Did he know something about the experiment? A few minutes later he came sprinting out of his front door carrying a thick blue file. "This. Is. My. Dads. He. Was. Explaining to me. How it works." He panted, breathless from rushing to find the file. I hurriedly pulled my rucksack off my back and pulled out the papers. On the front of Tom's blue file was the same symbol. The triangle with the atom symbol in the centre. I finally understood my dad's note. 'Find someone who understands.' I looked up into Tom's round, hazel eyes. "You." I whispered.

Before he even had time to open his mouth to question what I had just said, we heard a loud rumbling of voices. From each direction of the road and swarming from the alleyways were all of the children and teenagers who lived on the army base. It was such a relief to know that we weren't the only ones. We weren't alone. The parade of children moved swiftly towards us, and to be honest, it was the most amazing sight I had ever seen.