The 2nd of The Unveiling. Obviously a figment of my imagination - would be scary if it wasn't. Since I had completely left out the disclaimer in my first installment, I should do it now.
This is a work of fiction, that will eventually lead to romances on homosexuality. This chapter does NOT contain sex.
In the previous chapter, I had mistakenly put down a non-existent email address, my apologies. If any of you DID send me an email, I thank you for your thought, even though I did not receive it. However I would definitely love to hear from you, whether you've already sent me an email or not.
Please comment, and I mean please, at mask4truth@yahoo.com.au
The Unveiling Chapter 2
The cement floor felt cold beneath my bum, and the cracked brick wall scratched my back every time I shifted. I looked around the room at my friends. We were dispersed almost evenly around the musty room - all twelve of us had chosen solitude after what had happened. We needed time to be alone, I guess. Jase was sitting with Jay, listening intently as Jay poured out his fears and confusion. Jase had been comforting us emotionally, from one person to another, starting with Lil' Lily, who seemed the most shaken of them all, to Irene who cried as she shared, then Kevin who for the first time had not acted cool, and Jean, who wanted to deny that she had.. had killed a man. She wasn't the only one who wanted to deny it, I did too. And I'm sure Jase did as well.
We were in an abandoned building - though 'abandoned' may be too small a word for it. It was completely desolated, and had been this way for God knows how long. It was a large hall, a church maybe, but so old that the ground floor was covered with overgrowth. Somehow the cement floor, or whatever it was made of before, had been turned into earth by the merciless roots of the overgrowth. That was why we were on the top floor, where we could sit without getting sand into our pants and end up getting eaten alive by whatever insects and creatures that dwell below. And that wasn't the only reason of course, there were large square holes around the building, which we had assumed were once windows in its life. That was how we entered the building, since the doors were barred. But we wanted to be safe from the eyes of any wandering soldier outside the building.
I looked at Jase again. He was listening to Gary now. What would we do without Jase? Probably end up going mad and killing ourselves to escape reality. I was grateful for Jase and his heart. It was his nature, to care for his friends emotionally. Gary was crying as well, though he tried to be as macho as possible. He had always been the 'act tough' kind of guy. But we all know from his girlfriend that he actually was a real softie. I smiled at that. Jase side- hugged Gary for a last time and walked towards Simon. I watched Simon as he talked to Jase. While Jase only needed to be a lending ear to everyone else, he knew Simon wouldn't talk unless you asked him a question. I understood that, I was like that most of the time.
My thoughts drifted to the armies again. We did the right thing to take their weapons. When we left the hall, we saw the impossible. Hundreds, or thousands, of soldiers, going from house to house, building to building, taking naked civilians with them each time. It was plain impossible. How did so many soldiers entered the Melbourne in less than a day? Why were they taking the civilians? And where? I may not be a political or military fanatic, but I know that soldiers do not take civilians as prisoners. Soldiers fight other soldiers, and the civilians serve whoever owned the winning soldiers. That was how it had been for forever. And there were millions of people in the city alone - surely they had not planned on taking the entire city population as prisoners? They wouldn't have enough soldiers or place for the civilians. Unless they are not planning to keep them alive, I shuddered at that thought.
Jase had finished with Simon and was now talking to Terry, the big guy. He must be three inches past six-feet. Suddenly I found myself wondering why I was keeping track of who had Jase spoken to. Maybe I was just worried for my friends, and making sure that Jase had not missed any. Jon and Dean was left after Terry.
After leaving the hall, it was the darkness that saved us. We managed to duck out of sight and hid near the trees in the park. None of us could believe what we saw. Dean even wondered aloud if the leader was right - that their country had already been taken over by them. It was foolishness, I snapped at him. Australia was not a small country, and there was no way they could take a country in less than a day, unless they had been terribly uninformed. After a while we knew we had to move - look for a new hiding place. Soon the sun will rise and the darkness will no longer protect them. Remembering the building opposite the apartment I had once lived in, I suggested the abandoned building we were in now. I was sure the soldiers would overlook a building as desolate as this. They agreed, and so they followed my lead here. I still remembered the fear and adrenaline in my blood as we snuck around the alleys and buildings to get here. The soldiers seemed to be everywhere at once. I was glad that none of us broke down... we had never been through anything so intense before.
When Jase went over to Dean, I was disappointed. Then I understood why I had been keeping track - I needed his emotional support as much as the others. I had been unconsciously longing for him to sit by me, so that I could pour out as he listened, just as he did others.
Again I looked at my friends. Lil' Lily may be tearing silently in the corner, but we all had seen how reliable she was in a difficult situation. Earlier that night, when they were a few blocks away from this building, someone transmitted a message through the radio they had taken. This nearly gave all of us a heart attack. And as if to accentuate the situation, a whole lot of soldiers - about fifty or so - marched by them barely twenty feet from them. The army did not notice them in the dark of course, but someone had chosen that time to communicate through the radio again. If it weren't for Lil' Lily's almost immediate reaction to switch the radio off, they would have been discovered for sure.
This time I did not look up when Jase stood up. I already knew he would go to Jon, and leave me for the last. I had no idea why, or how I knew, but I knew. I wondered what came over me in the hall, taking the lead of my friends and all. Why I didn't I leave it to Jase, who was used to leadership? Or Kevin who had been in the army. Surely they would have done much better than I did. And yet my friends faithfully accepted my leadership, as if I had always been their leader. Then again at that time they were probably still in a shock to realize that. We all were.
Anytime now, then it would be my turn. I watched Jase as Jon hugged his knees and spoke. The handsome guitarist was almost expressionless as he shared with Jase. I waited impatiently as Jase gave Jon a side-hug like he had done with each of them and stood up. He was looking at me now.
"About time," I told Jase when we sat beside me, close enough so that our shoulders were pressing. We did that every time we sat beside each other. But I suspected every guy friends in Melbourne do that. "Leaving the best for last?"
He did not answer that. Instead, he surprised me when his hand went out to clasp mine. We have never held hands other than the times we shook hands. But I was grateful for this gesture - it comforted me. "You alright?"
I laughed softly. "You mean after I shot two men, got separated indefinitely from my family and had to go into hiding as if I was a criminal?" I did not know I had a grim sense of humor. But then again I never had the chance to find out until then.
Jase smiled. "Sorry, that was a dumb question. How are you feeling, I mean."
I hesitated, but I had to talk to someone about this, or I will go mad. "I killed two men, Jase," I felt him squeeze my hand. "His blood is still all over my chest." I felt a wave a sickness when I thought of it.
"We'll clean it up when we have the chance, I promise," he said softly.
"Sometimes I try to tell myself it was self-defense. But in the end it still didn't change the fact that I did kill. Not one man, but two. I never knew I had it in me to do that. I'm afraid, Jase. Of everything. This damned thing refused to be a dream."
"I know what you mean. But we'll be in this together. All of us."
I smiled at Jase. "Thanks Jase. What about you? I think its your turn now." He was surprised that I asked him that, and his hesitation told me that he had not thought about answering that question. I felt proud and moved by Jase. So selfless, even though he had been through as much as we did.
"I... truth be told I was scared as hell. And like you and Jean, I had only barely come to term with the fact that I killed a man." It was my turn to squeeze his hand. "And I still wonder about Helen. Do you think she... do you think she was taken too?"
"I don't know, Jase. I wonder that about my family too," I truthfully replied. Helen was Jase's girlfriend.
"And.." Jase turned to look at me. He had a strange light in his eyes. "When I saw you covered in blood, I thought you were shot. I was lost for a second until I noticed you were unhurt." Then he twisted to give me an awkward hug. "Look, no more stunts like that, okay? The soldiers alone are more than enough to give me a heart attack."
I mumbled my thanks to Jase. I was genuinely surprised to find out that he was worried for me. Surprised, and touched. I returned the hug and we stayed that way for a while. When we let go, I called everyone to huddle together because it would be a cold day. Since we could not go out on broad daylight, we decided to catch up on our sleep until it was dark. I regretted leaving our sleeping bags back in the hall; it was probably the only thing we have for comfort for a very long time. When everyone was huddled together, we whispered 'good night' to each other and slept.
When night came, I was the last to wake. Dean, Gary and the girls had switched on the radio we took from 'Eagle Dirrek's belt, and were waiting for messages to come through. Kevin was teaching the rest of the guys, including Jase who saw me looking and smiled, the techniques of using a gun. Jean sat near the girls, and were sketching something on a piece of paper. Curious, I went over to see what she was doing.
It was some sort of a correlation diagram, scribbled words with lines connecting them. "What is that?" I asked her.
She looked up at me, her face crunched from deep thinking. "I'll find out, hopefully," she replied. When she saw me raised my eyebrows, she continued. "I'm trying to find out what's going on by joining up what we already know with the... recent events."
I looked at the paper again. There were sentences in boxes like 'army taking civilians nude', 'impossible number of soldiers that littered the city', 'leader of soldiers said we're you're government now', and even technical information like the kind of weapons the soldiers were using, the political situation of several countries... "Wow, Jean. I never knew you were so knowledgeable," I commented, genuinely impressed.
She looked up again. This time I sat beside her before she started to suffer from neck problems. "It was my job you know." What was her job again? My question must have been naked on my face, because she said, "I was an investigator."
"Like the ones in the movies?"
"Yes. Like a police-detective, only without the gun and danger. I go to crime scenes and rebuild the events that was related to the crime, but never had to chase the criminals themselves."
"Wow."
She laughed. "Thanks." She paused. "But they did train us to use a gun."
I thought about that for a minute. "Do you want to have a gun?"
"God, no."
It was my turn to laugh. "Sorry."
She only smiled. Jean looked at the correlation diagram again. "It just doesn't make sense, you know. Nothing in the recent events seem to reflect the world that we used to know. Its like... we been transported to another world in our sleep that night."
Then we were interrupted by Gary. He had a stricken look on his face.
"They're here," was all he said. Jean and I understood. The soldiers were downstairs.
"Are they coming up?" I whispered, unsure of how close they were.
Fear was naked in his eyes. "I think so. They were searching the building. I think they were looking for us," he gestured at the radio.
I didn't want to do it, but I had to. The room they were in had only one exit. So I got everyone together and told them my plan. Nobody protested, and we got into our positions, our weapons in our hands. We were facing the door, which we had purposely left unlocked, waiting for the soldiers to open. My plan was simple - shoot when the door is open. Dean was right, unfortunately. After a few minutes, we could hear footsteps climbing up the stairs, and a voice giving orders to his soldiers to clear certain rooms. One of the footsteps were coming towards us. I could feel us tensing.
Then, like a dream, we watched the door knob turn and as it swung open. When it was opened halfway, we saw the soldier, and I pulled my trigger. The others fired too, so I wasn't sure whose bullet had hit him, but the soldier fell to the floor on his back. That was when I noticed four soldiers further down the corridor, who had spun around and saw us. Just as I was about to fire, Someone beside me fired his rifle, riddling all four soldiers with bullets. I took a quick glance and found out it was Kevin. It looks like his military training had saved us all. Not only he had reacted quickly, but he managed to hit soldiers who were further down the corridor.
"Are them all?" I waited.
"No," Irene answered immediately. "I counted how many when he was giving orders. There were at least six, if not only six."
One more. "We should get off the door. We are at disadvantage now," suggested Kevin.
I nodded at the rest and we moved as one to one side of the door, the side which still concealed the doorway. "How's this?" I asked without taking my eyes off the door.
"This is good."
Then we waited some more. After what seemed like eternity, Jon suddenly fired the door twice with his pistol, sending splinters flying. I was about to ask him what he was doing when a body fell forward through the open doorway. "I could see his shadow beneath the door," he said.
Six or more. So they were either safe or not. "Wait here, I'll clear the rooms," said Kevin.
"Wait, I'm going too," Jase said quickly.
"And me," Jon stepped forward.
I smiled. Since when my friends became heroes? Perhaps we were all heroes at heart. "Whoever who wants to can go. But we should leave at least two to protect the girls."
It turned out that everyone wanted to go, even the girls. I told them no of course, and had Terry and Simon to stay with the girls. For some reason, Kevin had chosen to give me the lead, which I took. I did not know which surprised me more - the fact that Kevin gave me the lead or the fact that I took it without hesitation. After a few minutes we found out that there was no one else on the upper floor, so we peeked into the ground floor. There weren't anyone in the building, we decided, but there were hundreds of soldiers right outside. They must be waiting for the soldiers they just killed.
Without wasting time, we collected the dead's weapons - six rifles and pistols. Dividing them, every guy and Jean carried a rifle, and everyone but Kevin had a pistol. He said he only needed rifles as he collected some 'magazines', which were bullets for the rifles. Lil' Lily found another radio on one of the men, which I nodded in approval. With two radios, they could communicate with each other in case they get separated.
When we were done we snuck to the ground floor, and out of the building through a window on a side that had no soldiers. We had been sneaking around in the night ever since, and sleeping in abandoned buildings like the one we were first when the sun was up, killing when it was necessary. Sometimes we stopped by and rested in one of our houses; we figured that since that it was already empty the soldiers won't return there anytime soon. All the telephone lines were dead, just like the mobile phones back then when we first tried after the hall incident.
At Jase's apartment however, we were surprised to find out that his broadband Internet was still working. So without wasting anytime, we did our research, checking out the online news in hope of finding out what was happening. We found nothing unfortunately, the last news was four days ago, on the 20th of November. It was the night before the hall incident. It was as if everything stopped working then. What really scared us was that there wasn't a single update on the net in the world after the 20th of November. Not only Australia was invaded, but the entire world? That was just crazy.
After downloading and printing the map of Melbourne, we started to plan our escape. After much debate, we settled on stealing a ship. The airport was too far away, and traveling by car was too obvious, plus none of us knew how to pilot a plane. However St Kilda beach was reachable by foot, and Dean's family used to rent fishing boats every year. While planning our route, Jase wanted us to stop by Helen's place. I couldn't tell him no, not after what we've been through. Besides, his girlfriend's place was on the way in the route we were planning, and she was known to be always well-stocked in food.
The next day, Jase packed his laptop into a bag and gave it to Dean, our computer geek. Dean suggested that it may be useful along the way. We set out into the roads when it was dark again and walked until we arrived at Helen's. She wasn't home of course, and like every other building they had been to, the door wasn't locked and the house did not have signs of struggle. And clothes were found in the dust bin. Jase sat on a chair in her room and brooded. The night was still early, but I did not want to push Jase, so I told them we'll be resting at Helen's that day. Again no one protested, as if I was their leader. I was uncomfortable at that treatment. I was almost the youngest among them. Now that I thought of it, only Simon, who was twenty years old, was younger than me - and only by a year. Jean, the oldest in their group, was twenty five. Most were at Jase's age, who was older than me by two years.
I sat beside Jase and put an arm around him. I wanted to say something, but I did not have Jase's gift to comfort a person. So I only sat with him and waited.
"What did they do to her?" he asked after a while, not hiding the grief in his voice.
I squeezed his shoulders but did not answer. The answer was 'I do not know'. But I had said that so many times since the hall incident. He turned and rested his head on my shoulders. At first I though he was about to cry, but he didn't. It pained me to see Jase this way. He had always been the strong one.
"Thanks, for being here with me, Tony," he murmured into my shoulders.