Adam (Genetic Apocalypse Book 1) Read online

  “Well, your husband heard him from his tables. He ran out there and shouted at Adrian to, ‘Get the hell outta here,’ and some other things that I missed. Adrian said something to him that I couldn’t hear, but he did call him Dad, so I knew it was him. Your husband cuffed him a couple of times, and then slapped him, quite hard, across the face. Adrian lost it, and punched your husband three times before he hit the cement. Then all hell broke loose.

  “Some of the other vendors jumped in and so did the rest of the hybrid kids. Pretty soon, even the girls were fighting with other men and women. That same policeman showed up again and tried to break it up, but there was no chance. He actually shot one of the boys in the shoulder with his pistol. That stopped everyone for a second. One of the girls screamed the name ‘Donald’ in that split second, then the boy that had been shot grabbed the cop and threw him into the stall that had sausage samples heating up, knocking it all down around him. The stall caught fire and the propane tank in it exploded and flew into the library, catching it on fire. Luckily it was closed, so nobody was in there.

  “As soon as the fire broke out, the kids fought their way back across the dam, grabbed their kayaks, and took off downstream. They had a good amount of time to get to wherever they were going before the dam burst. I hope they’re all ok,” I said.

  Chapter 6

  Adam:

  There was more commotion further downstream that caught everyone’s attention. We could hear loud thumps and cracking noises. Women shrieked and squealed. We could see people running off of the Bridge Street bridge. Mom dragged me in that direction, I guess to see if Adrian was over there. As we hurried across the library parking lot, I could see that the gazebo and stage were gone too, and that whole area was now beneath a torrent of rushing water. Suddenly, from up ahead, there was a loud crash, then a huge splash. Mom stopped dragging me and hugged me tightly to her body, trying to protect me. The concrete and metal bridge over the river on Bridge Street had fallen into the river. As we watched, the basement wall of the tall green building just on the other side of where the bridge had been, fell into the river too, and the whole building started leaning that way. Kind of in slow-motion, the entire building fell into the rushing water and began breaking up and washing downstream. More people screamed and ran. We didn’t see any sign of Adrian, or any other gray kids.

  “Mom,” I yelled. “We should go back home and see if Adrian made it there.”

  “You’re right,” she agreed. “Let’s go help your father load up, so we can get going quickly!”

  We found Dad, and helped him load the last pieces of our market stall and remaining produce into the truck. He agreed that we needed to get home and see what was what. We piled into the cab and went back towards home the same way we had come. This time, he drove normal and slower, while telling Mom the whole story, the way he saw it. He only knew it from the part where the vendors had started yelling for the kids to get out of town and quit scaring the customers away.

  “I was having the best day of the season for sales. I was positive that I’d sell-out and be home early, for once. All of a sudden there was a bunch of yelling, and when I looked up, there was Adrian. He was the source of the commotion, of course. It took me a second to collect my thoughts, but when he started yelling at the adults, telling them to, ‘Shut the hell up,’ well… I flew out there and told him to take his damned gray friends and get.”

  “I was told that you hit him, Howard. Did you have to do that?” Mom asked.

  “I cuffed him a couple of times to put him in his place and calm him down. He was getting out of control.”

  “Then you slapped his face, really hard! Don’t leave that part out,” she snapped.

  “The little bastard threatened me, Colleen! He said if I ever touched him again, he would kill me. So yeah, I laid a good one on him,” Dad said.

  Dad was turning red in the face like he does when he gets really angry. It kind of starts on the top of his head where his hair is just about gone and works its way down his face and neck. Usually when he gets like this, it has something to do with Adrian. Mom was crying her ‘I’m furious’ cry.

  “As soon as I connected with him, he got a look in his eyes that I’ve never seen before. I’ll be honest Colleen, it scared me. Then, he punched me harder than I’ve ever been hit by anyone or anything. It was every bit as bad as getting kicked by the horse. I was done, but still on my feet. Then he punched me again. That’s all I remember.”

  “I was told he hit you three times. Once for every time you hit him, not that it makes it right,” Mom spat.

  “I don’t know anything about a third time. The next thing I knew, people were yelling ‘Fire’ and running all around. Some of the vendors looked banged up and bloodied, and a policeman was being loaded into an ambulance. I don’t know what we we’re going to do with Adrian, but he can’t stay with us any longer.”

  To my surprise, Mom agreed with him. “No, you’re right, he can’t,” she said. “Right now, we have to find him. Then we’ll pray about what to do with him.”

  Dad seemed to buy into that. “The fire spread quickly in the library. The old timbers and wood siding went up like gasoline. The stone and mortar basement wall along the river crumbled from the heat of the fire, and the whole building fell right on top of the dam. I guess the impact and the heat of the fire cracked the concrete and weakened the dam. As soon as I saw it crack, and water beginning to leak through the cracks, I knew what would happen next. That’s when I dropped everything and ran to the truck to come get you guys.”

  Mom thanked him for that by giving him a big hug as we turned onto McCaslin Lake Rd. They kept on talking, but I kinda quit listening to them. I thought about how much trouble Adrian was in for his part of this mess. I thought about Dad saying Adrian couldn’t stay with us anymore… What was he supposed to do? He was six! Where would he go? Dad would never do anything like that to me, and I was seven, so how in the world could he be so mean to Adrian? I cried quietly the rest of the way, but they didn’t seem to notice.

  Chapter 7

  Adam:

  When we got to our turnoff we could see that the bridge was still there, down the hill, but there was all kinds of crap on top of it. Stuff was piled up against it on the upstream side, all the way up to the top edge of the safety rails. There were pieces of docks, houses, boats, cars, even a dog house I could make out. Dad said that the bridge was doomed.

  We turned down the dirt drive that went back to the houses. It was dry, because it was high enough up the side of the hill that the water didn’t get to it. We saw trash hanging off of all the lower tree branches down closer to the river like what was caught on the bridge.

  “Look at that,” Dad said, pointing. “That’s how high the river got at some point. Good thing we got the hell out of here! The neighbors must have already come back to their homes, because nobody was on the road anymore.”

  The first place we came to was the Kelley place. Their house and barn were both gone. Nobody was around. Not even any of their animals. The foundation where their house had been, looked like a giant swimming pool full of muddy water.

  “Dear Lord!” Mom said. “Look! Were the Kelleys at home? Do you remember?”

  “No, I don’t,” Dad said. Then he turned to me.

  “I don’t remember seeing them either,” I agreed.

  “Maybe they’re ok then,” Mom said, “but their house, their barn! Gone!”

  Next, were our neighbors the Andersens. Their house looked ok, and they were outside walking around looking, so our hopes rose. Ours was further up the hillside than theirs. As we drove around the curve, we could see that it was all good. The water hadn’t made it up to our house. What a relief.

  “Thank-you Lord!” Dad shouted, as we all bailed out of the truck.

  “Adrian? Are you here son?” Mom began shouting as soon as her feet hit the ground. She ran into the house calling for him over and over. “He’s not in here Howard,” she cried, running b
ack out of the house.

  “Come on,” he said, taking her hand. He helped her down the boardwalk, shouting for Adrian, and whistling loudly, as only Dad can do.

  I followed them, dodging my crazy dog, who was jumping all over me, shouting for Adrian too. He didn’t answer. There was no sign that he had been there either. No kayak, no gear. Nothing.

  The dock was gone, and so was our swimming raft. The bend in the river where it had been was all piled with junk, just like the bridge. There was going to be a bunch of kids that were going to be very sad…

  “That’s probably parts of the Kelleys’ house,” Dad muttered, kind of to himself.

  Our chickens, guineas and Muscovy ducks were all up in the trees, and didn’t look like they planned on coming down anytime soon.

  “Chick-chick-chick,” I called. “King? Henrietta? Come down here you silly birds.”

  “They’ll be fine up there, they’re just scared,” Mom told me.

  The goats were bad about climbing on things, and always in trouble for it, but today they had outdone themselves. They’d apparently climbed the wood pile, and were on the roof of the covered front porch. They wouldn’t come down either.

  The pigs had broken out, and were nowhere in sight. “Don’t worry about them,” Dad said. “They’ll come back when they get hungry.”

  “My rabbits!” I screamed. “They’re all dead!”

  Actually, we’d lost about half of our rabbits and most of our quail, because they were in cages and couldn’t run away from the water when it came.

  “I’m sorry Adam,” Dad said, hugging me to his side with one strong arm over my shoulder. “We’ll rebuild your herd, and move them to higher ground.”

  The lower garden was the market garden. It was totally ruined. “Ugh… That’s it for this season from this,” Dad muttered.

  “We have enough food for the winter, and enough money in the bank to carry us through spring, Howard. Don’t worry about it. I want you to find our Adrian. Please!”

  Dad went to the barn and got his boots on, and began walking the side of the river, heading upstream, calling for Adrian. I heard Mr. Andersen yell that they hadn’t seen him.

  Dad came back tired, muddy and wet a couple of hours later, but no Adrian. Dad and Mr. Andersen took the truck, planning to go to every bride between us and Linden and look. They came back pretty soon, but without him.

  “Did you find him?” Mom called, as soon as the door opened.

  “Yes and no,” he said. “He’s fine, but sit down. We need to talk.”

  Chapter 8

  Suzy:

  All of us big kids except Adrian and Donald were walking home from Donald’s house, when Mr. Powell and Mr. Andersen came along in the pickup truck looking for us. They pulled over to the side of the road in front of us and got out.

  “Are you kids all ok?” Mr. Andersen asked.

  “Yes sir,” I told him, since I knew them both the best, I elected myself to do the talking.

  “Where are Adrian and Donald?” Mr. Powell asked. “They were with y’all, right?”

  “Yes sir,” I answered. We all kind of looked at each other, and studied the ground pretty good.

  “So where are they now?” Mr. Andersen asked, obviously getting angry.

  “With Dave,” I mumbled.

  “Dave? Who’s Dave?” Mr. Powell demanded.

  “Donald’s father sir,” I mumbled.

  “Alright, damn it! Where are the three of them? Out with it girl!” Mr. Powell raised his voice with me. I reacted poorly. “Because of you, you big bully, they ran away!” I screamed in his face, and began crying my eyes out. That shut them both up. All of us took a step back, because Mr. Powell was famous for his bad temper.

  “Alright, in the back of the truck. We’ll give you all a lift home, and then we’ll want to talk to you again with your folks present Suzy,” Mr. Andersen said calmly. “No more yelling by anyone. Got it? It isn’t proper.” He looked at Mr. Powell as well when he said that. That made me feel a tiny bit better.

  “Yes sir,” we all chorused.

  ~

  When we got to our drive, which is almost across the road from Adrian’s drive, we had already dropped off all of the other kids, except for me. There were police lights at my house, and when we pulled in, Mom and Dad came running to the truck and hugged me. I told them that I was alright, not to worry.

  “We need to get some answers from your daughter on where Howard’s boy Adrian is Don,” Mr. Andersen said to my dad.

  Dad looked at me and asked what I knew. “They ran away with Donald and his dad because Mr. Powell beat him at the market in front of everyone!” I cried. Mom was hugging me, and all eyes, including the policeman’s turned to Mr. Powell.

  “Now, that’s not what happened…” Mr. Powell began.

  “It is too! You hit him in the head three times!” I bawled. Mr. Powell was really mad looking, so Dad said that was enough.

  “We’ll sort that part out later,” the policeman said. “What is Donald and Dave’s last name Suzy?”

  “Peterson,” Mr. Powell said kind of mean like.

  “I was asking the young lady Howard! Let her talk,” the policeman said to him. “We know what happened in Linden, at the market already Suzy. Now, can you tell me what happened after you kids left in your kayaks?”

  “Tell him Suzy,” Mom whispered to me.

  “Well sir, we knew that we were in trouble for fighting with adults…”

  Mom gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “Why on earth would you kids do such a thing?” she asked.

  “Because Mr. Powell hit Adrian three times, so Adrian kicked his butt! Then some other men jumped on Adrian and started hitting him, and a policeman shot Donald!”

  “What?” Dad yelled.

  The policeman nodded his head yes.

  Mom began crying and hugged me. “Then what happened Suzy?”

  “Then we ran as fast as we could to our kayaks and took off before he could shoot any more of us! We had been paddling for quite a while, and began to slow down a little, when suddenly the river rose up right over its banks, and shoved our kayaks right out of it. The next thing we knew, we were sitting in shallow water, in a swampy field of tall grass and reeds. We were within sight of the house where Donald lives. Then we heard a roaring sound coming from upstream, so we grabbed whatever we could and ran towards the house, uphill through the trees. It looked like one of those tsunami things! We barely made it far enough up the hill in time.

  “We were scared and all wet, so we went inside Donald’s house to dry off and hide. About then, Dave, uh, Mr. Peterson came home. At first he was all freaked out because Donald had been shot in the shoulder, but when he checked it out, it didn’t look like as big of a deal as we all had expected. The bullet went all the way through, and it had already stopped bleeding and was beginning to heal up some.

  “Mr. Peterson told us he’d heard that the library burned down and the dam had burst when the library fell on it. We all started crying then, because we figured we’d be in big trouble! Dave thought for a minute, and then he told us that Donald would probably be arrested for what he’d done, and be sent to a detention camp. He told the rest of us that we’d better go home, because he and Donald were bugging-out of there. Adrian begged Mr. Peterson to take him with them, because he said his dad would probably kill him for what he did today if he went home,” I said. All eyes went back to Mr. Peterson, and they didn’t look too impressed. What I didn’t tell them was that we all helped them load up the van really quick with whatever Dave said should go. Oh, also that they were headed south to some property that his family owned in Florida, by the swamp, and they were never coming back.

  “Where did they go Suzy?” the policeman asked.

  “I don’t know,” I lied, and shrugged my shoulders. Mr. Powell swore and got in his truck with Mr. Anderson, and they left. The policeman thanked me for answering the questions, and he left too. Thankfully, Mom and Dad didn’t lo
ok too mad.

  New from Boyd Craven Jr.

  About as far from politically correct as a book can be

  We rate this one R for language and violence

  Chapter 9

  Adam:

  Mom and I both cried at first as Dad repeated the story to us, but deep inside, I think we all knew that it was probably for the best. It was better than Adrian and Donald getting locked up somewhere. Since Dad didn’t want Adrian back here, he told us just to play dumb if the cops came back, and act like we didn’t know anything at all.

  Later, when they did come back, we could tell that they were just glad that Adrian and Donald were gone. They didn’t even try to find out what had happened to them. Mom was pretty angry over that, but Dad made her keep quiet. She told me that if it had been “normal kids” that were missing, it would have been a bigger deal. Since it was “just two gray kids,” nobody cared. Dad said it was “history repeating itself in a different way,” whatever that means.

  The Andersens let the Kelley family stay in their big travel trailer. They moved it over to the lot line closest to the Kelley place and hooked power up to it, after the power got fixed down our drive.

  After all of our neighbors were provided for, and things settled down a bit, we all began helping each other to clean up the mess and to repair the things that were trashed. There was mud and silt from the river bottom in and on everything. What a mess.

  In Linden, we heard that the City Council had immediately made rules about what gray kids could and couldn’t do, and where they could and couldn’t go. We heard that there couldn’t be more than two of them together, and that they were never allowed to be unsupervised. In other words, if they weren’t with their parents, they couldn’t be out in public. We figured that that rule was going to be a tough one, because just about all of the families with kids had a gray kid now, and they were getting SO big!