Descent

Chapter 4

I was humming to myself, dancing to the music in my bulky headphones.

Tony and Sam, my little brothers, were wrestling on the floor. My parents were at the store, and I wasn't about to break them up if they were leaving me alone, so they just went at it. Tony was blind, and he was four years older than five year old Sam. It didn't affect him much, at least not when it came to things like fights.

I heard the sound of tires spitting gravel. I glanced out the window, thinking maybe Mom and Dad got back home early. It wasn't them. Seven or eight black vans parked around the yard, surrounding the house. My heart leapt into my throat.

No. No no no no no. This wasn't supposed to happen, much less when I was only thirteen. In every movie we had watched, the bad guys had waited til the hero was at least close to being an adult. And my parents weren't here and they should be.

I yanked off my headphones and grabbed the boys by their arms. Where do I go? The house was surrounded on all sides. That left the attic or the basement.

Okay, quick, pros and cons of the attic. Pros: it is secluded, no one ever uses attics so maybe they won't think of it, and the entrance is in a closet they might not see. Cons: we'd be completely trapped, cornered, just waiting to be found. That's no good. But how is the basement any better? It's not like there's a secret tunnel down there leading to safety.

I gasped. I'm a genius. I ran downstairs, clutching my brothers' wrists too tight and dragging them behind me. The red notebook also followed, bobbing and weaving in the air because I couldn't concentrate.

"Rosie, what's going on?" Sam cried.

"Don't call me Rosie. Hold this and be quiet," the notebook landed in his lap. Tony murmured quietly to him, trying to calm him down.

The huge basement TV moved off the wall and set itself against a chair. I had the wall where it had been cave in on itself, pushing the material tightly together and creating a hole. I broadened the hole, creating a small tunnel.

"Okay. We're going to crawl in the tunnel now, and keep crawling. Everything's going to be fine, trust me," I said.

I led the way so I could carve out the path. The boys crawled in after me, first Sam, then Tony. I lifted the huge TV up and hung it back in place, sealing over the hole. The room would look completely normal from inside. I hoped.

I dug and dug and dug. My knees and palms got covered in dirt, and my head kept brushing against the ceiling and knocking clumps of dirt into my hair. It gave new meaning to the phrase 'dirty blond'.

The crawl was getting harder. The mental effort was such a strain that I was starting to get short of breath, my skin heating up. But Sam and Tony couldn't breathe either. Were we running out of air?

Panic filled my mind. I flipped onto my back and started tunneling upwards, packing the dirt together airtight. It didn't take much, we weren't that far down. The ceiling broke and blinding light hit my eyes. I gulped in huge lungfuls of air.

I pulled myself up onto the grass and helped my brothers up. We were in the Trenshaw's yard, just barely past the fence. Okay. Time to run. We might not come back. I couldn't Lea be without telling Tia goodbye.

"Who were those guys? Why were they at our house?" Sam was asking. "I don't get what's going on."

Tony whispered an explanation to him. I don't know what he could have said, since I didn't know why this was happening either, but Sam was quiet then. As long as they were quiet and running, they were the best brothers in the universe.

I knocked hurriedly on Tia's door, every millisecond grinding on my nerves. Who takes this long to answer the door?

Her mom opened the door. "I need to talk to Tia," I said, not wasting time with formalities.

"She's at practice, but I can tell her what you said when she gets back," she said. That was nice of her.

"Uh... Uh, just say that she was the best friend I ever had, and I'll see her soon," I glanced down the street at my house. We needed to leave before they saw us.

"Is something wrong, Rosemarie? Do you need help, or--"

"Sorry, I've got to go. Tony, Sam, c'mon."

We ran. I had to slow down because Tony was cautious since he was blind and Sam was too young to be really fast.

We ran until Sam got too tired and had to sit down. After a break, we walked. We walked past dark and out of town.

Then we fell asleep next to a field, huddling together and being insanely thankful that it wasn't winter.