Guardians of Iron: Beginnings. Chapter 1

This is the rough chapters of an upcoming novel I'm working on. The final form will probably depend on the gentle touch of my editors and  beta readers. It will be released on a weekly basis, one chapter at a time. 

***

The jangling ring of the alarm woke Alyana up from under her nest of blankets. She yawned once, then reached out and hit the alarm, stilling it.

“It’s early…” a sleepy voice murmured from the other bed.

“No, you didn’t wind your clock up,” Alyana said as she threw the blankets off and walked over to the window, staring out at the rising sun. “If you don’t hurry, you’ll miss breakfast, Dana.”

“Don’t care…” the vaguely person-shaped pile of blankets said.

“How late were you out last night?” Alyana asked. She ran her fingers through her dark hair, pulling it over her shoulder. 

“Late. I was on a date with Timmis.”

“Timmis.” Alyana frowned. “From Wilson Academy? Traitor.”

“They don’t have curfews.”

“Maybe that’s because Timmis is 18?” Alyana asked. “You know that if you get many more late demerits, you’re going to spend the rest of your school year here with a complete restriction to the campus.”

That got a reaction, as the covers went one way and Dana went the other way. The blond got to her feet, running her hands over her silk nightdress, staring at Alyana in dismay. “They can’t!”

“Pretty sure they can…” Alyana looked over at her half-completed model of the Skyskipper Orbiter prototype and shook her head. “You know, how about if you have Timmis visit you so that if you lose track of time, you can just head up to the dorm room instead of trying to sneak back from across the city.”

“But everyone would gossip!” Dana said.

“Everyone gossips anyway,” Alyana said. “Do you want the shower first?”

“No.” Dana said. “I’ll be here. Thinking about the horrible possibility you brought up. Tell me, if I’m imprisoned, will you use one of your model planes to send my message to Timmis? Telling him how much I miss him?”

Alyana shook her head as she turned to head for the shower. “You know, I think they still let you use the phone…”

“But that wouldn’t be romantic.”

“Right…” Alyana shook her head. “Do you want me to paint it pink?”

“Thank you!”

Alyana giggled as she closed the door and turned the shower on. The nice thing about being in your last two years at Miran was that you got a two person dorm room that had its own attached bathroom. One thing Alyana didn’t miss about her earlier years at the school was sharing a room with three other people, and having to run down a hallway to the common bathroom, hoping that everyone remembered to clean up after themselves.

Because someone always forgot.

It didn’t take long to wash up and put her school uniform on. She walked out, buttoning the skirt up, and shook her head. Dana had retreated back under her covers.

“You’re going to miss breakfast,” Alyana repeated.

Dana threw the covers off. “I was just waiting for you to get finished.” She sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. “So, I see you have another book. Still gonna be the first person on the moon?”

“Maybe,” Dana said. “Daughter, at least,” she gestured at the book on her nightstand. “They’re talking about the first expedition being to the Daughter.”

“Seems a waste,” Dana said. “Why not just go to the Father?”

“The Daughter is only 75 miles in diameter,” Alyana said. “No gravity, or close enough to nothing it doesn’t matter, so we don’t have to worry about landing and taking off. They’re thinking of putting a base there to set up the lander for the Father.”

“Seems like an awful lot of effort,” Dana said.

“It’s going to another—” Alyana cut off her words at Dana’s smirk.

“And that’s my payback for you hinting that the love Timmis and I have might be thwarted by cold words like ‘broke curfew’.” Dana swept by Alyana on her way to the bathroom.

“Broke curfew five times in the last two weeks!” Alyana called. She shook her head. That girl. Hope she doesn’t get restricted, because I’ll be the one hearing about it. With that, Alyana grabbed a book to read and headed to the door.

***

The school’s dining hall took up nearly half of the dorm’s first-floor, broad windows letting in the morning sunlight. Alyana paused, admiring the view. Port Marin was built into an ancient harbor which over the years had come to form the best deep-water port on the continent. Alyana watched as a big container ship steamed into the harbor, escorted by some sailboats.

Then she looked around, seeing a familiar blond sitting at a corner table, safely far away from where the proctors were trying to ride herd on the little kids.

Alyana snorted. She’d never been that rambunctious. Grabbing a tray, she got her breakfast and then headed to where Miklos sat, engrossed in a book of his own.

“You’re late,” he told her.

“Talking to Dana,” Alyana said. “New book?”

“Yeah,” Miklos said. He glanced up at her. “They’re talking about putting a reactor into the harbor.”

“What?” Alyana sat down by her friend. “Why?” she asked.

“They can use the tides for natural cooling,” Miklos said, gesturing at the book. “This is so neat. It’s a plutonium/breeder cycle. I guess the Energy Commission had already decided on it last year, because that’s when they cleared off Coris Island.”

“Dad works at the research institute in Coris,” Alyana said. She stared at her cereal and poured the milk into it, adding a little cinnamon. “I guess they decided to combine everything.” She glanced over at Miklos. “Something new for you to obsess over?”

“Says the girl who spent all last year building, from scratch a 1/50 scale Marsdon Supersonic Bomber, because…”

“The store model was inaccurate!” Alyana said, then stopped and glared when she realized that Miklos had said the same thing in unison with her words. “I’ve said that before.”

“Only once a day for a month,” her friend said. “But the model you made was great.”

“Yeah.” Alyana said. “Hopefully the siblings don’t try to fly it before I get back.”

“Hope they don’t either,” Miklos said. “Because I’m going to sell it when you’re famous as the first girl to land on the Father and use the money to fund my college education.”

“Don’t I get to say anything?” Alyana said, leaning into Miklos.

“Sure, but you’ll be on the Father at that point, so you can’t do much.”

“So I should dump my cereal on your head right now, that’s what you’re saying?”

“I don’t think that would look good in a budding space-pilot.” Miklos grinned. “But if you are, just let me put my book in a safe place.”

“Humph.” Alyana frowned, then smiled. “You get off without milk in your heard, this time—” The boom that rolled through the room rattled the windows and cut off all the conversation.

“What the…” Alyana stared at Miklos. “That was a sonic boom. They don’t let aircraft do that this close to the city…” She got up, abandoning her meal, and headed to the windows, pushing past some of the smaller kids. Miklos followed her.

Outside, everything looked the same except for… A five fighter formation roared just over the school, before zipping up above the clouds, heading almost straight up, their afterburners roaring. Down at the bay, Alyana could see warships casting off, heading for the open sea, one aircraft carrier launching its own aircraft.

Mostly prop-jobs, Alyana thought. Only a few aircraft carriers had jets, and none of them were based here. 

“What’s…” Miklos frowned. “There’s no show or festival scheduled.”

“Is it a war?” one of the little kids asked.

Alyana looked down at the girl and shook her head. “Against who? We’re at peace, and even so we’re a long way from any other nation.”

“Yeah, but I—” Miklos fell silent as another sound started rumbling through the air.

Air raid sirens. Silence filled the room as the chatter and questions were stilled. Then she heard the loud voice from the school intercom.

“Attention, this is Director James. All students proceed to your dorm rooms and retrieve one change of clothes and no more than one bag of personal possessions. You are to return to the main courtyard within 10 minutes. By order of the Office of Civil Defense, we are temporarily relocating to a rural location where your parents may pick you up if they are so inclined. There is absolutely no danger so long as you follow these instructions.”

Alyana stared at Miklos. No danger, my ass. They’d never done this. She’d never even heard of such a thing. She glanced back to where Dana had been coming into the room, her friend’s face pale. Then the younger kids started yelling and asking questions…

“Get your stuff.” Miklos said. “We’ll meet at the third stair on your floor and go down together. Then we stay together, no matter what.”

“Yeah.” Alyana said. “I’ll meet you there.” With that she turned and headed for the increasingly crowded stairs, grabbing Dana on her way and pulling the stunned girl after her. 

***

“Alyana, what are you—Alyana!” Dana shouted as Alyana tossed a bag at her.

“Get your clothes, the good clothes, not the school uniform or your sexy clothes.” Alyana opened up her bag and tossed her outdoor clothes in. She paused, staring at her boots, then nodded, kicking off her light school shoes and pulling the boots on. People were shouting at each other in the hallway, some kids running back and forth to ask other kids what was going on.

As if anyone knows. Two more sonic booms had sounded, and now there was a growing clamor from the town, honking horns and the indistinct sounds of shouting.

“C’mon!” Alyana said, shoving the last of her clothes into her bag. She paused, then filled her pack with some of her books and slung it over one shoulder. If this turns into a big bunch of nothing, I’ll have something to read. “Dana!”

“I…” Dana was pale, and Alyana grabbed her friend and started tossing clothes in her bag. Finally, it was full. “Go!” she shouted and pushed Dana into the hallway.

There were small clusters of people, including some girls by the phone at the end of the hallway.

“I’m trying,” one said, “but nobody is picking up at the operator’s office.”

Of course not. Alyana doubted the school switchboard was going to be worried about calls from the dorms right now, whatever was happening.

She looked up and saw that Miklos was standing by the stairwell. He’d actually grabbed the little battery-powered transistor radio he kept in his room, one of his high-tech gadgets.

“Whatever it is, it’s not just us,” he said. His face was pale as he turned up the volume.

“This is an announcement from the War Department. All reserve and off duty military personnel are to immediately report to their units. If you are unable to report to your unit, report to any local police or military units and place yourself at their disposal. I—”  There was a squeal of static, drowning out whatever else the announcer was saying.

“Did he say what was going on?” Dana said.

“No. Just that something has happened, and we’re being attacked… but not by who.” Miklos shook his head.

“I have to wait for Mommy, she’ll come get me—” the three looked down at a younger student, one of the eleven-year-olds heading in the wrong direction, tears running down her face.

Shit, Alyana thought. Her parents would kill her for saying it, but right now it seemed appropriate. She lashed out and grabbed the kid by her arm. “Downstairs!” she shouted. Miklos and Dana nodded and then added their voices to Alyana’s.

“Downstairs!” Miklos shouted, his deep voice cutting through the babel. “Now! Everyone! You don’t want to be here all alone!” Dana and Alyana moved along the floor, pulling doors open and grabbing people.

Normally, Miklos would be in so much trouble for being here. This was a girls’ floor, after all. But now nobody cared as he pulled closed doors open and stared into rooms, once or twice going in and pulling someone out. More and more people were listening to them and heading out. Alyana got to the far end and glared at the phone. The idiot girls were still trying to talk to someone on it. She grabbed the handset out of a girl’s hand and yanked it until the cable was pulled out of the phone.

“You—you broke it!”

“Yes!” Alyana shouted. “Now go! Outside! Get your bags—”

The sound of the explosion was deafening, the shock seeming to rock the building to the sound of shattering glass. The lights flickered and went out.

“Go!” Miklos shouted. “Everyone hurry!”

Where are the teachers? Alyana wondered. One kid tripped on the stairs and fell down, and then others tripped on her, and they were forming a pile at the bottom of the stairs. Most of the kids from the upper floors had gone down already, so Miklos, Dana and Alyana were able to start pulling kids up and off the floor. The kid on the bottom was sobbing, holding one hand to her bloody nose.

“Go outside!” Alyana shouted. They kept pushing and shoving kids, and Miklos actually grabbed someone who was holding on to the side of the door and pulled her after him.

***

When Alyana got outside, she stopped and stared at the city in shock.

What… what happened?

Downtown was on fire. She could see some of the big warehouses blazing away, looking like they’d been bombed. There was a bright flash and something just streaked down onto the waterfront. Alyana blinked furiously as her dazzled eyes filled with tears, and then the sound of the explosion roared through the streets, a gust of wind blowing her skirt back.

I should have worn pants today, who cares about the dress code. She giggled at the ridiculous thought.

“Everyone! Get onto the busses!” Mr. Hanks was waving at them, and Miklos and Alyana headed for the lead bus. Dana followed them, but Mr. Hanks grabbed her by the arm. “No! I need you in bus five. There aren’t any older students in that one.”

“But—”

The teacher cut her off. “But nothing, go!”

With one last glance at Alyana, Dana headed to the bus. Miklos and Alyana got to their bus, standing by the doors, looking inside. There were mostly younger grades in there, some kids crying, some looking terrified, some just sitting like it was an ordinary trip where the older grades would be helping the teachers watch them. But there was no driver, no teachers telling the kids to calm down.

“Where’s the teachers?” Miklos shouted.

“They’re doing a sweep through the school. Just wait for them!” Hanks scribbled something down on a map. “If you have to, here’s where you need to go.” He looked back. “What is keeping—stay here.” He turned and started running back to the school. There were still some kids coming out, but no—

The world turned white. The bus rocked from the blast and Alyana screamed as she was knocked on her ass. Blinking her eyes, she stared at the school.

Or what was left of the school.

The front of the school was shattered. There was just rubble where the dining hall had been, and oh, spirits, had there been people in there? Alyana saw Mr. Hanks arm sticking out from some rubble. She ran for him, Miklos next to her.

“Hang on!” she shouted. “Mr. Hanks, we can get you out!” she and Miklos grabbed his arm and pulled—

And the severed arm just came out of the pile, strings of bloody flesh hanging off it. Alyana stared at it, then screamed and tossed it away.

Where is Mr. Hanks? Where is the rest of him? He needs to get his arm.

Alyana stared at the building. Most of the teachers had been in there making certain everyone was out. Nobody was coming out now.

“Alyana, c’mon!” Miklos shouted.

“But—”

“We have to go, now!” Miklos pointed to the sky and Alyana looked up. There were jets streaking across the sky and… other things.

Angular things. She didn’t recognize what they were. But they were spinning and one fired what had to be missiles, which unerringly homed in on the fighters.

Nobody has missiles like that. Nobody has planes like that!

Miklos was pulling her to the bus, and then one of strange aircraft hit the downtown with a sun-bright beam, like something from a bad movie, causing a building to collapse in on itself.

“I—dammit!” Miklos paused. “Who is going to drive the buses?”

Alyana shook her head. “We will.” She looked at the map. “The Farmington Lodge—remember, we went there last summer? The place that used to have the old copper mine?”

“Yeah, yeah, the school owns it,” Miklos said. “Right, you take the first bus, you’re better than I am with directions, I’ll follow you.” He glanced back. “I’ll tell them to follow us!”

“Right.” Alyana grabbed his hand. “Be careful.”

“I will.” Miklos said. Then he was running back, pausing to grab someone who had been trying to get off the bus and throwing them back into it, before shouting at someone inside.

Alyana got onto the bus, the sounds of screaming kids in her ears.

“Shut up!” she shouted. “I’m driving us, but you all need to sit down and shut up!”

They were mostly younger kids. She guessed that the front buses had been loaded with the little kids, or maybe it was just chance. Nobody was in charge.

Except me. I’m in charge. Oh spirits.

She got into the driver’s seat. I can do this. I’ve got a license. She reached down and turned the key to the on position, checking the water and fuel levels. They were full. Good. The hum of the heater filled the air and moments later, the green light came on, showing that the flash boiler was ready.

“Hang on!” Alyana said. She pulled out, the other buses following her. Miklos was right behind her.

The gates were partially open, but Alyana didn’t hesitate, the bus hitting the wrought-iron gates, pushing them aside in a shower of sparks.

“Dammit,” Alyana snarled. There were people running all over the place, but there was room to get onto the main road.

I don’t think many people know about the Lodge. They just think this way leads up into the woods with no way out to the rest of the country, so not many are coming this way. She leaned on the throttle, the bus speeding up. Above them, there weren’t any more of their fighters, just the strange attackers. That and…

A streak of light slammed down a few blocks away, bouncing the bus to a chorus of screams. Alyana saw the shattered office building it had destroyed in the rear-view mirror…

And then she saw something rise out of the wreckage. It was smooth, made of gleaming metal, six spindly legs coming out of an oblong body, daintily stepping out of the flaming rubble. It had no head that she could see, but it seemed to be looking around.

And then, a slot opened up in the sides, and tentacles emerged, gleaming in the light, as bolts of energy connected the monster and a fleeing car.

There was an explosion as the car flew into a thousand pieces.

Nobody could survive that, Alyana thought. She pressed the throttle down, the kids screaming even louder as the bus started to go from side to side. She’d never driven this fast in her life.

People were still running, and suddenly there was a man in front of them, waving at them to stop. He had a gun.

Alyana didn’t stop. If they stopped, all the buses behind them would be stopped and there were more people coming out and staring at the buses.

She whimpered and held her course. He didn’t move, but at the last moment he raised his gun and fired it. The windshield shattered, and there was a malignant cracking sound next to her ear.

And then the man disappeared under the front of the bus and the wheels rolled over something.

It’s just a bump. He dodged. It’s just a bump.

Alyana didn’t look into the rear-view mirror.

There were other cars and trucks on the road, but they kept clear of the line of buses. Most of the explosions and fighting seemed to be happening down closer to the bay.

If it’s fighting. A few police cars had shot by them, sirens screaming, but she hadn’t seen any soldiers and the military forts at the mouth of the bay were gone, towering columns of smoke rising into the sky.

Just like the capsized aircraft carrier was sinking into the bay.

Just keep going. The bridge was just ahead. Alyana gritted her teeth and dodged a wreck, the other buses following her. There was the old bridge, largely ignored after the new highway got in. There were some people walking or running over it, but not many, only a few cars. Beyond it, the road vanished into the deep canyon that would rise up into the forests that surrounded the city.

“C’mon, c’mon…” she rolled over the bridge, Miklos right after here, and another bus and—

And something struck the bridge. Another attack from the sky. The girders screamed as they twisted and broke, and Alyana saw people tumble from the bridge, falling into the waters far below. Behind them, another bus stopped, its wheels screeching, barely avoiding falling to its own doom.

What do we do? What do we do? The bus pulled back and turned to the right, heading down the cross street. Alyana saw Dana’s face in the window, her eyes wide, and then the line of buses were gone. She shook her head and turned around, grabbing the wheel just as the buses that had made it over the bridge started honking. She started driving as another series of explosions erupted from the town.

We can get to the lodge and then wait. Someone will come for us.

With that thought, she drove into the canyon, the high walls cutting off the sun, and more importantly, shielding them from anything in the air that didn’t fly directly over them.

Alyana kept driving, wiping her eyes every so often with angry motions. Behind her, nobody was screaming. They were just whimpering and whispering to each other.

 

***

Normally, it took about two hours to drive to the lodge.

But now it took longer. Alyana bit her lip, focusing on driving along the narrow road. There was nobody to go back and get a tow truck if they had an accident, nobody to talk to them. She didn’t even know if any teachers had made it into the buses.

Why didn’t some of them stay here with us? The answer was simple. Because everything happened too fast.

At least we have full tanks. That could get them back to the city when this ended… if it did.

There was nothing on the radio. Just static.

But reception is terrible out here. Maybe that’s it. I think there’s a short-wave set at the lodge. We can use that.

“I’m hungry,” a girl said.

“We can, um, eat when we’re at the lodge.” Is there food there? There was a civil defense storage site in the basement… Miklos had shown her that, back when they’d first become students. But is it still there? Is the food still good? She looked into the rear-view mirror. There were three buses behind her. About 120 people, if every one was full. Okay, there will be someone at the lodge to tell us what to do.

As they drove, the sun started to go down. They exited the canyon, the terrain opening up into a deep valley, with waterfalls plunging down from the mountainsides. 

They were—There was a whining sound in the air.

Alyana didn’t hesitate. She pulled the bus over to the side and opened the door. “Get out!” she shouted. “Something’s coming.” The kids didn’t argue, running out of the buses and heading deeper into the forest. The other buses had stopped and were doing the same thing.

“Miklos,” Alyana said. He ran to her. “Did you see anything?”

“No, but—” the whine got louder. “Let’s go!” he shouted. They were running, a disordered mob, just trying to get away. And then the whine became deafening, and Alyana saw it. It was a large object, somehow floating even though its jets were too small to carry such a large device.

It’s so big—the jets should be kicking up a storm, but they aren’t…

Then a spotlight blazed from the craft, picking out the buses.

“Get down!” Miklos hissed. Everyone else flattened out or hid behind trees. The light flicked over them, and then the craft turned away, rising up and heading back the way they’d come.

“Did it…” Then there was the sound of an explosion from down the road, followed by the sound of collapsing rock.

“The canyon!” Alyana said. “It collapsed the canyon. Why?”

“So we can’t go back? So nobody can come here?” Miklos shook his head. “I don’t know, but we can’t use the buses now.”

“Miklos, we’re nearly eight miles from the lodge. Half the kids aren’t even wearing hiking shoes.”

“And how did it find the buses?” Miklos looked at her. “I think the only reason it didn’t blow them up was that we had stopped.”

“Why?” Alyana asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was waiting to see if we could come back, maybe it was only going after military forces, but the thing is, it found us. It was probably waiting to see if anyone was using the road.”

And if it found them, it could follow them. “Right.”

Alyana looked around. There weren’t a lot of older students. Doreen, Casan, maybe a dozen others. Nearly everyone else were younger kids, from the first three grades.

And no adults. None.

Alyana glanced at Miklos and nodded. “Right!” she shouted. “We need to walk to the Lodge.”

There were groans and protests, but Miklos cut them off. “Do you want those things to find us? We can come back and get the buses, put them somewhere safe, but we have to stay to the trees.”

“What about Mommy?” One boy asked.

“Once we get to the Lodge, I’m certain the school will tell someone how to get us,” Alyana said. Everyone fell silent. “But we have to go, now.”

“So you’re in charge?” Doreen asked. Her red hair was going every which way, but she had her arms folded and was staring at Alyana.

“No, but we need to move,” Alyana said. “What if the reason that ship didn’t blow up the buses was that it’s coming back with whatever it uses for soldiers?”

Doreen’s blue eyes widened. She shook her head. “Fine. Let’s go.”

The walk took hours. They couldn’t use the road and most of the group had school shoes, designed to be comfortable in a school building or house—not to walk through rocky ground. Before they had gotten halfway there, some of the younger kids were crying—this time from pain. Other’s couldn’t keep walking and Alyana found herself carrying a younger girl, piggyback style. Miklos and a few others were doing the same.

Spirits, how much further is it? At least the Father was full, the light keeping them from needing to use the few flashlights they had. More importantly, it kept them from needing to use the few batteries they had.

“Okay, here’s the driveway!” Miklos said. “Everyone keep to the trees!” They did, but now people were running. So was Alyana. They could get to the lodge, get help and…

Alyana came to a halt. The parking lot was empty. The three story lodge was dark, and there was no sign anyone was in the cabins that lined the small lake.

Except for the wind, everything was quiet.

“Hello?” A kid called. She was shushed by the boy next to her.

“Everyone stay here,” Miklos said.

“No, I’m coming with you,” Alyana said. They walked onto the asphalt lot. “There’s nobody here…” Alyana stared down at the lot. Even in the light of the Father, she could see the thick coating of dirt. “Nobody’s been here at all.” She looked over at the place where the caretaker’s car normally was. It was empty.

“We don’t know that, they might have walked here,” Miklos said. He glanced up at the empty sky. “But let’s hurry.”

They moved to the front door, and Alyana tried to turn it. Locked. She peered into the front room through the door’s glass window. Nothing. The room was dark. 

“I—let’s try the back.” She moved around and tried each door as they came to it. They were locked. “Nobody was here.” Alyana said. “Why did they tell us to come here?”

“I think they expected the teachers wouldn’t be—would be able to come with us.” Miklos said.

“Yeah.” Alyana stared at the door, then shook her head. “Okay, I guess I don’t have to worry about getting expelled for this.” She reached down, grabbed a smooth stone that lined the little planters that ran around the building and smashed the window out. The sound was loud in the night air, but Alyana didn’t care. Carefully avoiding the jagged glass shards still in the window, she reached around and unlocked the door. 

“There we go.” Alyana pushed the door open. Miklos had a flashlight from the bus’s emergency kid and shone the beam around the room. The furniture was covered with white sheets, the little kiosk where they registered when they came out for the summer closed.

“Nobody’s been here.” Miklos said. “Nobody’s been here for months, except maybe the caretaker, and he’s gone.”

“At least that means that nobody was here to warn… whatever they were.” Alyana shook her head. She walked to the door and started waving. Soon the kids were moving inside, the bright light of the Father casting long shadows on the ground as they headed to the lodge.

“Stay in the front.” Miklos said. “I don’t want people wandering off.”

“But—but what about the other teachers! What about our parents!” one kid said. Soon others were joining in, even some of the older ones.

“Hey. HEY!” Alyana shouted. “They’re not here.” She waited until the noise died down to some sniffling. “But we’re here, and we’re safe. There’s food here.”

“There is?” someone asked. “But the cook isn’t here.”

“There’s a civil defense storehouse under this building,” Miklos said.

Hopefully it’s still there, Alyana thought. “And we’ve got the lake and the river, so we can fish. But we have to be quiet. We can’t turn on a lot of lights, at least not at night.” She took a deep breath. “We have to wait. But while we’re waiting, we have to be smart, and do what needs to be done.” She counted off the upper graders. Twelve. Twelve kids over fourteen and about a hundred younger kids. Spirits. “First thing, we’re spending the night in here. Doreen, you and Carl get those sheets off the furniture and put them over the windows.”

“Right.” Doreen rolled her eyes, but went with Carl.

“Everyone else, stay here while Miklos and I find the civil defense storehouse.” Alyana smiled. “And then we’ll have something to eat.” I hope.

***

“So, what are we going to do?” Alyana asked as they walked down the hallway, the sounds of the people subsiding to a low murmur. Some of the kids were crying.

“I don’t know,” Miklos said. “Those machines… they weren’t like anything I’ve ever seen or even read about, well except in my scientific fiction.”

“Those would be the books with the girls in tiny spacesuits and the guys with blasters?” Alyana asked.

“Yeah. I don’t think they’re going to be much of a help.” Miklos gestured at a door. “Here it is.”

“Spirits, I hope that it’s still here.” Alyana said. “I bet there’s nothing in the pantry.”

“No.” Miklos shook his head. “Whatever happened, nobody had any warning, at all. The government would have… done something. Maybe use an atomic bomb.”

“On the city?” Alyana shook her head. “I can’t see that, and you saw what happened to the planes. By the time they might have thought about it…” She helped Miklos pull the door open. The hinges screeched as they opened the door, the short flight of stairs ending in a small concrete room. There was a heavy door, with several latches, but none of them were locked.

Pulling the door open, Alyana blinked as the ceiling lights came on. This must have a battery backup. It was a large room, with racks and racks of cans and boxes. Miklos picked one up and stared at the stenciled information. “Canned meat…” Miklos frowned. “Well, it’s not expired.”

“Here’s fruit juice.” Alyana nodded. “We can bring this up. It’s enough to eat for now. Besides, I don’t think we should risk a fire right now.”

“Hey, a radio!” Miklos said. “Survival radio.”

“Don’t forget the shortwave set.” Alyana said.

“Yeah, but let’s get all this back.” Miklos waited until Alyana was out and closed the door. “No reason to drain the batteries for the lights,” he said.

The trip back up was silent. When they got into the front room, the kids were scattered in small groups.

“We covered the windows,” Doreen said. “And we found some mattresses.” She gestured to the kids on the floor. “What now?”

“Food.” Miklos handed Doreen a can.

“Preserved fish.” Doreen shrugged. “It’s food.”

“Yah.” Alyana frowned. Doreen wasn’t the friendliest, but she was just being… Hey, maybe it had something to do with the world ending. “I’ll check the kitchen. They probably don’t move the plates and silverware.”

“Right.” Miklos said. “I’ll get the people together.”

It didn’t take long to get everyone fed, and the complaints about the heavily salted and preserved rations didn’t last long when people realized how hungry they were.

“What do we do now?” Carl asked. He was a little older than Alyana, his thick glasses gleaming in the dark. They only had a few flashlights lit to preserve the batteries.

“We wait,” Alyana said. “Someone launched a surprise attack. But they couldn’t get everyone. So we stay here, we stay quiet and we wait until someone comes here.”

“When will that be?” A younger kid asked. 

Alyana smiled. “I don’t know, but someone will come for us. Now, everyone finish your food. We can’t keep using these flashlights, so we’ll turn them off. Miklos and I will stay up for a while in case someone else shows up.”

It didn’t take long for everyone to settle in, the younger kids clustered together on the mattresses that Doreen had found. When they turned off the flashlights, the room fell into darkness, the light of the Father only dimly penetrating the cloth they’d put up to block the windows.

Alyana and Miklos quietly opened the door and walked out onto the porch.

The Father shone down. She saw the bright spark of the Daughter moving around it. In a few minutes the Daughter would go dark, journeying into the Underworld while the Father reflected the light of the sun to bring her home.

But that wasn’t the only light. There was a reddish glow over the mountains.

“Home.” Alyana hugged herself. It’s burning. The whole city must be burning. Dad, Mr. Hanks, everyone she’d known at the school, all the teachers, Dana…

“What do we do?” Alyana asked, leaning against Miklos. She remembered how Mr. Hanks's arm had just flopped when she’d pulled on it.

“What we said. We wait.” Miklos looked around. “I didn’t want to turn the radio on in there, but…” He fiddled with the batteries, then turned it on. Static.

He turned the dial, from the local news to the music station the students weren’t supposed to listen to. 

Nothing. Just static, or an odd whining sound that Alyana had never heard before.

“They said listen to the radio.” Alyana looked to the glow over the mountains. “Listen and we’d be told what to do. They never said what to do if they couldn’t tell us anything.”

“We’ll have to figure it out ourselves.” Miklos stared out at the night. “I don’t think we have any choice.”

Alyana angrily drew her arm over her eyes, wiping the moisture away. “Yeah. I don’t think anyone is going to come to rescue us.”