Kids With Guns: Endure

65 Days / 12 Hours / 08 Minutes

It was Saturday, or at least that’s what day of the week James thought it was. No one really kept track of that sort of thing anymore. Saturdays were by far the best day of the week though, no work or school, well some would have to be at work, although James Stone hadn’t really experienced anything like that, being sixteen and all.

It had been around two months by his count, that he gathered from the weather which had only started to get a fair bit warmer these past weeks and if James’ math was correct that meant it was only May. Normally you would have some form of a calendar somewhere, your smartphone nowadays, or just a classic paper one you ripped up as the days went by; but no one had smartphones anymore, not since the adults all disappeared.

Yes, that’s what happened, one day they just vanished. In one big ‘poof’ as some of the other kids had said. No one could come up with a decent explanation as to what happened that day, but kids did try to. Aliens? The government? Or maybe it was God, the rapture had come upon them which did get quite a lot of the kids back at home into believing the end times had come. James didn’t believe in that sort of thing, though the thought of it did cross his mind a few times.

Like now, as James had his head leant against the window of the car he was in. Which to be honest wasn’t that comfortable as every now and again the car would go over a rougher part of road sending vibrations right into his skull.

“I don’t think it’s that much further,” he heard from the person to his left. That person was his best friend in the whole wide world, Carlos Lopez. James and Carlos were both insuperable, they’d been friends since they were toddlers which for James was since he could remember anything discernable, but still, they had some differences.

Both were athletic, Carlos maybe more so. The two liked the same things, sports, comics, video games, they were the same age, but if there was any main difference between them, it was that Carlos was definitely a hit with the ladies. James had thought over every reason it could be, but it was probably down to looks because how could it be anything else, like personality or something? Carlos was more ‘dashing’ maybe, due to his tanned skin which was due to his Hispanic ancestry which also gave him thick raven hair, also he looked more muscular, was taller and had a jawline that could cut through butter like a knife.

Maybe James thought about that a bit too much, although he did have a reason to be that jealous. That was because Carlos had plenty of girls all lining up to be his girlfriend, but he never did use the opportunity, ever, which couldn’t be more infuriating. It was like James was Ronald Weasley and Carlos was Harry freaking Potter!

James lifted the temple of his head away from the window. “Good, I was starting to get really bored.” He yawned.

Carlos then smiled replying, “Not like it takes you a long time to get bored though, does it?” James just rolled his eyes who then more focused his eyes on Carlos, his hands very firmly holding the steering wheel of the car, making his knuckles go almost white.

“Still afraid you’re going to crash?” James laughed.

“Well, I did crash into a tree a few weeks ago.” He said still looking at the road very carefully, which was still dangerous with no other moving cars, the thing that was dangerous was the fact there were pileups of broken down cars that once had people driving them, and the next second they didn’t. That had caused them to swerve off the road or make big blockades that made Carlos have to drive off-road and back on.

“I know, I was there remember?” It did make sense for Carlos not to be the best driver in the world, mainly as he only had started about a month ago, also there was the fact he was sixteen but again, there were no parents left to teach him.

“Well, hopefully, we can find what we’re looking for because the sooner we get back the better.” Carlos sighed, the reason they were out was to get more supplies, the main one being medicine as some of the kids back home were getting sick and being hungry as well didn’t help.

They were about 70 miles south of home, heading down route 93 towards interstate 90. That home was the very small town of Whiterock, which was just left of the centre of Flathead County, Montana, USA. It was a sleepy town where nothing really happened but James and Carlos loved it, they had all manner of animals like bears and wolves, there was also a ski resort up near the top of Big Mountian, a very self-explanatory name as it was a mountain that was big. But their favourite part was the lake, that was like a beautiful mirror when it wasn’t frozen over for about two-thirds of the year.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to get myself all clean. My clothes are awful.” James was right, his jumper had seen better days but his jeans and shirt were filthy with sweat and dirt as he hadn’t worn anything different for about five days.

“Same, I really need a shower,” Carlos said although James wasn’t sure he needed one that bad, his hair looks fine unlike his which was greasy and messy but at the moment with all that was going on looking his best wasn’t the biggest priority.

“I still can’t believe it has been so long,” James said, mainly to himself.

“Yeah... It’s been 2 months and 6 days.” Carlos said with confidence.

“Have you been keeping track that much?” James laughed looking over at him.

“I write it down,” He replied keeping his eyes on the road.

“What in like a diary?” James laughed.

“You could call it that, I call it a journal, hermano” Carlos responded.

“God, no wonder you haven’t got a girlfriend,” James sarcastically remarked.

Carlos then quickly returned, “Says you.”

“You’re going to go there, are you? Low blow man,” James said pretending to sound hurt while his friend just laughed. James knew he could throw a comeback but he didn’t want to make it awkward as they were stuck in a car for a bit longer.

After that, they didn’t speak for a few minutes. Carlos again had full concentration on the road while James put his head back letting his mind wander. The big question he had in his head was, How? Not how did everyone 17 and over just vanish in a single second? But how they were going to deal with it all. It was only a few weeks ago James and a few others had managed to take control of the chaos but he didn’t really want to think about the fighting he had endured again.

Kids were depending on him as he was a leader of sorts, they were running out of food quickly now.

By the first month, most of the candy and other snacks were gone due to people hoarding them in their homes. Now they were digging into the actual supply of food, luckily water wasn’t a problem as they had the lake but they still had to purify it first which took a lot of planning and work. Just another thing to add to the list of worries.

About half an hour had passed, it must have been about noon as the sun was directly above him in the sky.

“Crap... This looks like a massive pileup ahead.” Carlos said as he slowed down the car, James looked up and he was right. It spanned the entire highway, even off the road and into a ditch. There must have been about thirty odd empty cars.

The car came to stop about 20 feet in front of the pileup, “What do you want to do?” James asked, looking at the pileup, for some reason it looked strange.

“Well, we can’t go around because we won’t be back by dark... I don’t really like the thought of sleeping out here.” James nodded along.

“We’ll have to move them to make a path,” James said, he then opened the glove box and pulled out a Glock 19 pistol.

“It’s just some cars,” Carlos laughed.

“I know, I’m taking it just in case,” James said, pulling out the clip and checking it.

“I guess you’re right,” Carlos shrugged and leant into the back of the car to retrieve is fathers pistol, an old Colt M1911. He was very careful with it, it was one of the only things Carlos had left of his father so it meant a lot to him.

Both James and Carlos climbed out of their car, James pushing his gun into the plastic holster strapped to his leg. It was very quiet, just birds chirping, nothing else. Carlos walked forward looking at the pileup rubbing the back of his neck.

“I don’t know where to start,” He looked at James for any ideas.

James moved towards the first car and climbed on top of it. When both his boots were securely on the roof of the car he looked at any way they could move the cars at the other end of the pileup, his eyes widened as he then noticed the cars on the other side were facing him, like they had been parked like that. He felt a chill down his spine, something wasn’t right.

It was a set-up. An ambush.

Carlos made a cry of pain making James quickly pivot on the spot, looking down he saw Carlos on his knees, a thin stream of blood running down his face from a cut on his head, next to one he got the first day this all started.

A kid with short blond hair stood right behind Carlos, one hand roughly grabbing his hair lifting his head while the other was holding Carlos’ gun, its barrel pushed into the side of Carlos’ head.

Adrenaline hit James like a truck as he quickly jumped down from the car, his gun already levelled at the attacker, nostrils flaring, blood boiling.

James’ senses were going haywire as he then heard more clicks and slides of metal against metal. More people appeared, two to his left both holding handguns, aimed right at him.

Then one other to his right, holding a large semi-automatic rifle levelled at him. All of them were adorned in leather and wore face masks, all bandanas, mostly black laced with white markings.

Except the one holding Carlos, his bandana was around his neck. James could see he was smiling a bit.

“Put the gun on the ground!” The kid holding onto Carlos shouted, James just kept the gun pointed at him not wanting to give in. “I said! Gun down!” He shouted again.

“Don’t listen to him, James!” Carlos shouted, the blond kid the yanked Carlos’ hair back so he was looking at him.

“Shut up, you wetback!” He snarled through gritted teeth.

“Now I’m going to count to three, if you don’t put the gun down I will blow his fucking brains out!” The blond said, more calmly than before.

James’ hands gripped his own gun tighter.

“One!” James looked at Carlos, his face was fearful but his eyes were telling to put the gun down as well.

“Two!” James quickly pulled his hands apart and he put both hands up like he was surrendering but his gun was still in his hand, now only pointing towards the sky.

“Good start, now put it on the ground.” The blond kid instructed smiling happily, he was really enjoying it. James’ eyes held defeat as he slowly put the gun on the ground.

“Ok, we’re getting somewhere.” The blond then whistled loudly, a large grey van drove out of the trees, well hidden from the view of the road. It drove up, then turned so it’s back was behind Carlos. The back opened and there stood another goon but he wasn’t armed.

“Now, on your knees!” James didn’t move though he kept his hands by his sides, Carlos knew what he was going to do.

Apart from the adults disappearing something else had happened that no one could explain. Certain people, not many, but some had gained abilities like something out of a superhero movie.

One of those people was James.

James just stared at his attackers, his fists clenched as he felt the heat emanating from his body, down his arm and into his palms. He could feel the energy build up, pulsating energy.

“I said get on your knees!... Jesus Christ, can someone just make him do it,” One of the goons quickly walked up to James, a gun aimed right at his head.

“Down!” They said in a gruff voice.

“Bad idea,” James snapped, quickly his right arm shot out, palm open. A short bright red pulsating beam fired from his hand. It hit the goon square in the chest, there was a loud crack, probably one of his ribs breaking, before he was sent flying while the red energy disapparated.

Quickly, James had a glowing orb in his left hand before sending soaring into one of the other goons’ legs making hin cartwheel several times in the air before landing on his back.

“Shit! We’ve got a mutant!” One of them shouted, guns started going off.

James was firing off more beams of kinetic energy, missing both in the chaos before he felt a painful burning sensation left of his abdomen as a bullet ripped its way through him sending him to the ground.

His head felt light but he could still hear shouting.

“Get him in the van! Also quick take their car!” He heard vacantly, it sounded miles off to him.

“JAMES!” Carlos screamed.

“Quick before he gets up!” James was in agony, blood was seeping into his shirt.

It was a pain like nothing else, all his concentration was to get back up but his body wouldn’t let him, all of his nerves had ignited in a great fire on excruciating pain.

“What about Cooper?!” He heard someone shout, it sounded hazy and far off to him.

“He’s down! We have to go!” James could hardly breathe but he still tried to get up, but as he did all he could do was watch as the tires of the van screeched as it sped off away from him.

James was left there, beaten and bleeding.