Kids With Guns: Divinity

Without guidance, a child’s mistakes may be perceived by them as success, it is a parents navigation that protects them from failure.

Elkwood was a normal small, rural town in Kentucky, nothing out of the ordinary ever seemed to happen, it was the kind of sleepy town that wouldn’t ever be recognised by the rest of the world just because of how plain it was. A small river that slithers through the centre of the town was only the real attraction and even that seemed like a stretch to the locals who usually settled into this town for the sole factor of not being bothered by tourists and being familiar with the people around them. As mentioned, this was only a small town, but after the events on the 10th of March 2018, the previous population of just over a thousand would seem much bigger than ever before...

Dusk had fallen quickly on Elkwood that day, not much differently to any other March evening but something about it seemed abrupt and out of place. Mason Callahan was the one to bring this up with his two friends Joel and Caleb as they snuck onto their high school field for a game of baseball in the dark, this was typical for them to do in their evenings, and as it was starting to get warmer in the day it almost seemed like they were out there every night.

‘I’m just saying the sun should be going down later. Summer is meant to be coming’ Mason ranted as they climbed over the chain fence, each of them almost stumbling over as they dropped onto the grass below them. Mason was kind of the leader of the trio, not self-elected or willing to be called this but he was always the one who seemed one step ahead of the others.

‘Winter is coming’ Responded one of the others, failing to put on an accent and ignoring the subject matter completely, this was Joel Holt.

Joel was the anomaly in the group, originally one of the more popular people in the school, he was held back a year for failing most of his subjects, he wasn’t unintelligent, actually he was the opposite but it was the people he associated himself with that really held him back. Either way that seemed to wake him up and led him to find new friends who ended up being the people he was still with now. He looked like the stereotypical jock, well built and tall with a shaggy hair cut that usually became a joke between the others over how he should get it shorter or how he apparently looked homeless.

‘I don’t think you’d be laughing if there was another snowstorm’ Mason Replied

‘Neither would Caleb, you remember when he thought he broke his ankle from slipping in the snow?’

‘Yes, very funny’ Caleb interrupted condescendingly, as he picked up his bag and bat while he walked towards the plate.

Caleb Watts thought of himself as the mould that held the group together, if it wasn’t for him accidentally sitting next to Joel while studying they may have never crossed paths and ended up being as close as they were now. Caleb was the son of the town’s sheriff, and it showed, he was the kind of kid that turned up to every local event and always helped the community, it was assumed throughout the town that one day his father would step down and he would take his place, in a way he expected that from himself too. He was very similar to his father, both had short ginger hair and weren’t very tall, Caleb was pretty much just a younger version of him.

They each instantly went into the same positions they always did, Mason was pitching because he had a good throw. Joel was batting because he actually had experience playing baseball back when he played for the school, it was just unfortunate for him that when he got pulled back a year it meant he was banned from playing for any of the schools teams, he was a good player even though he hadn’t officially trained since the start of the school year. Then there was Caleb, who was somewhere between a catcher and a ball-boy, because they were only pitching and his job was to go collect the ball if Joel hit it, Caleb didn’t mind though, it came back to his idea of him being the mould of the group, without him they would be lost, or they’d just have to do it themselves.

The game continued through the evening, about half an hour had passed with them continually repeating the same task of throwing and batting until they felt like they’d never want to play again, ultimately they still knew that they’d be back the next night for the exact same thing.

As Caleb and Mason both started to pack whatever they had brought back into their bags Joel began to search through his quickly, pushing books and papers around to find a couple of cans of Bud Light stashed down in the bottom that he snuck past his dad earlier that day. Both of the others looked over unwillingly, they had drank before but in small amounts and never anywhere near the school, it was bad enough getting caught trespassing but with alcohol on you, that meant their evenings were over, especially for Caleb.

‘Well I’ve always been a sucker for peer pressure’ Mason responded as he put out a hand and took two of the cans, offering one to Caleb.

‘You don’t think my dad won’t notice?’ Caleb said reluctantly ‘He wouldn’t let me out of the house for a month.’

‘C’mon man, if one beer makes you noticeably drunk I’ll take the fall’ Joel joked ‘He already doesn’t like me so nothing will change there.’

‘I guess, but only one...’

Time passed while they drank slowly and watched the world go by, it wasn’t crazy, they weren’t irresponsible, just kids enjoying their youthful days on the edge of adulthood. They each had a laugh over the broken window of the science department opposite them reminiscing over the time they’d accidentally broken it during their game and ran for at least twenty minutes before realizing they’d left their bags containing personal information and possessions laying on the ground, it almost seemed impossible that they made it back and got away again before anyone responded to the alarms flashing.

Joel sat juggling a baseball in one hand staring into the distance while the rest just enjoyed the peace of the situation, it was one of the calmest nights they’d seen in months, no noise or wind, just the world around them, turning slowly.

Almost as if out of nowhere a crashing roar disrupted this peace.

Mason, Joel and Caleb each darted their eyes over synchronously with shocked expressions as one of the roads to the side of the school occupied two cars, each as far into each other that the drivers could practically touch each other. The sound of metal colliding and crumbling before falling into silence lasted a few seconds, none of the boys moved, they just stared in shock and horror at the scene in front of them.

One was a small grey sedan and the other was a large red pick-up truck, the truck crushed the sedan so it was practically on top of it, completely crushing the top of the car underneath.

‘Holy shit!’ Caleb exclaimed as he sprinted towards the cars at full speed.

He arrived at the car seconds before the others, confound by what he saw.

‘They’re gone, there’s nobody here’ he questioned as the others saw for themselves

‘That means they got out, maybe they’re around here’ Joel responded

‘What you think that in the last ten seconds both drivers got out of their cars and went for a nice walk?’ Caleb contended ‘There is nobody here! This has to be a test or a mistake or- or-’

He was lost for words, much like the others, stuck in a moment of illusion. There was truly no explanation to what had happened but they continued to search for one, Mason was the first one to spot something.

‘There’s no skid marks, neither of the cars braked’

‘Yeah, but maybe they didn’t see each other’ said Caleb

‘Their lights are both on, unless they’re both blind they would’ve seen each other from miles back, especially this dark’ Joel added ‘And that still doesn’t explain where these people have gone, people don’t just disappear’

‘We need to find my dad’ Caleb said ‘or phone an ambulance or something, this is serious shit’

Mason took out his phone and dialled 9-1-1 into the phone still with shaking hands from the shock. No response, nothing at all. ‘Something’s up, there’s no reason they wouldn’t pick up, someone else try’ Mason suggested as he attempted to phone the same number again with another failed call followed by static sounds leaving his phone.

‘Nothing from me’ Joel answered back looking down at the unresponsive phone, each of them stood there clicking buttons trying to find something. They called their parents, nothing, They tried relatives, nothing. They knew something was wrong, dreadfully wrong, the kind of dread that you can feel down in the bottom of your stomach as everything around you falls down to the ground, and that’s what they felt. Dread.

***

Luke Simmonds lit a cigarette with shaken hands, only 16 years old and couldn’t go more than an hour without one. That’s the trouble with growing up in this small town, there wasn’t somewhere for him to go to beat it, the shops were so local that they’d sell him whatever he asked for even though they definitely knew his age. Luke had grown up with most things handed to him, money came from his parents, friends came from his money and with the amount of friends he had came the influence. Everyone knew Luke Simmonds in Elkwood, Everyone...

He stood on one of the bridges linking the two sections of the towns over the river sweeping through the middle, looking around more and more people were beginning to swarm around the area, it was almost like a meeting point for the children who had realized that something was wrong. The area was surrounded by crashed vehicles and people crying, screaming out various names of parents and guardians hoping for some sort of answer or recognition of their situation, the only problem was that everyone else had the same problem and was too caught up to even try and consider someone else problems.

One car had swerved from the left lane over the road into the barriers of the bridge at exactly 8pm, much like the rest of the cars. It now stood there motionless slightly off the edge of the bridge, hanging there.

‘They’re waiting for you, you know that right?’ came a voice from next to him, it was the voice of Matt Harbour, the closest thing Luke considered to be family right now.

‘Well they can wait another few minutes to finish this if I’m that important’ Luke joked as he leaned against the railings on the bridge looked up at the sky and took a long drag from the cigarette ‘What makes you think they’re waiting for me?’

‘Well you were the first person to see any of this and you have more power than anyone else stood around’

It was true, both facts. Luke was out with an older friend of his, Mike, they were both walking on their way to the underside of the bridge with the intention to smoke and spray paint crude images on the wall, Luke had walked ahead to make sure nobody was already down there when he heard the sound of the spray paint cans hit the floor out of the bag and the world around him suddenly turned upside down with cars crashing around him and figures in the distance just disappearing, without a trace.

‘There’s no way of explaining what’s happened Matt, everyone is gone, we’re all that’s left. Do you want me to tell children that their parents are dead or gone wherever everyone else has gone, because I don’t!’

‘Just organise stuff so that people can have something to believe in’

‘I’m not promising anything’ Luke muttered as he dropped the cigarette to the ground, stood on it and began to walk over to the crowd.

***

Mason, Caleb and Joel were making their way back to the centre of the town in hopes of finding someone to explain what’s happened or to at least reassure that they’re not the only people left on the planet, which is what it seemed like for the most part.

More cars were smashed into various objects like trees, buildings and in most cases each other. Each time they passed one Caleb seemed to exclaim the same thing, over and over without any filter or end.′

‘Shit there’s another one’ Caleb repeated, rubbing his hand down the side of his face as if it was the first one he’d seen all over again.

‘We know, the sooner we get into town, the sooner we can start to figure out what all this means’ Mason suggested

‘If it means anything’ Joel added with a tone of gloom ‘I swear this could be the end of everything if we’re all that’s left, we can’t even play a proper game of baseball...’

Nobody spoke, what Joel mentioned seemed impossible to a certain degree but everything around them suggested the impossible so anything they thought was suddenly a possibility. Houses around them still had lights on in most rooms, but each time one would peer in all they would see it an empty room, to this moment there still was no exception.

The first time they actually saw another person was when the passed the local pizza joint, “Tony’s Slice” the shop was called, Tony the owner was a kind man who would give discounts to the kids and even sometimes purposely burn the crust slightly when he recognised kids who didn’t have much money so he couldn’t make them pay full price, it never financially benefited him because he was the only fast-food pizza shop in the town so it wasn’t exactly like people could find a better option. These kind of memories were the things Mason thought of as they turned the corner past Tony’s onto main street, it was there where the crowds of children were surrounding.

‘People!’ Joel said with a hint of surprise and excitement in his voice as he tapped Caleb on the arm and ran towards the people

‘I guess it’s not just us’ Caleb mentioned as he looked around to see the wrecked cars and abundance of young people stood around ‘Do you see what I see?’

‘I can tell you what I don’t see’ Responded Mason ‘Adults, seriously, not a single one.’

Caleb rubbed his hand across the side of his face, trying to keep as focused on the situation as possible, it wasn’t the time or place to get emotion. Yet there seemed like no other solution.

‘My mum, my dad, my entire fucking family’ He cried ‘They’re all gone! every one of them!’

‘We need to go over there and start to support other people, there are many more vulnerable than us right now’ Mason said, understanding Caleb’s struggle but needing his support just as much in this moment ‘If this truly is something we have to work out or live with I’d rather have us together than apart, grieving will come later’

Joel made it to the nearest group of people to him, he was still oblivious to the fact that nobody over the age of 16 was stood around him, if anything he was just focused on the idea that there were other people. He started speaking about what happened to his group and by the time Caleb and Mason had made it over he seemed to be done even though nobody was fully listening.

‘We were just watching a film, I looked away for a split second and nobody was there, my mum and older brother both just gone’ Explained the girl next to Joel.

Her name was Olivia Guinn, she seemed to be wondering between groups as she caught the end of Joel’s story and decided to share her own, he didn’t seem shocked or too bothered by the situation, actually she was probably the calmest person in the whole area, but that was on the exterior, inside she was terrified of what had happened, she must have spent at least 20 minutes after coming to terms with them being gone just staring at a wall, thinking of where they could have gone. Were they dead? or worse than dead?

‘We thought we could’ve been the only people left alive, it was so empty where we were and we didn’t see anyone for ages’ Mason said

‘Did you see anyone go? or was it just the three of you?’ Olivia asked

‘Not really, but a pick-up truck crushed a sedan, there wasn’t any bodies in either of the cars though’

‘Wait, what colour was the Pick-up?’ Questioned another girl stood in the same area, her voice was struck with fear like she didn’t actually want to know the answer ‘My dad left in his truck earlier and never came back, I-I don’t know if it was him’

‘it... it was red’ Mason responded, hoping that his answer was the opposite of whatever her father was driving.

His hopes were denied. The girl let out a single tear that sat on her cheek for a moment before falling to the ground silently, she looked around for support. Caleb walked over and gave her a hug, he understood her pain, deeply, he had as much fear as she did in that moment.

At the same time a familiar face to most people stood on the raised deck of the entrance of the local hall, a place where people would put on events and host parties, it was a place everyone knew.

‘I know we all have a lot of questions’ came the voice of Luke Simmonds over the crowd, all groups suddenly became dead silent and all eyes were focused on him ‘For now I can’t answer these questions and I don’t know anyone who could. Right now we need to stick together by keeping ourselves calm, Tomorrow we will start forming groups, search parties, jobs for people and an explanation but until then I want everyone to go home and get some sleep if you can, we won’t solve anything on our own. Those who aren’t comfortable alone tonight I have spoken with people so that mattresses will be moved into the hall here for people to sleep so you aren’t alone, tomorrow we will begin a new day and while I don’t know what that day will hold I promise that we will get through this, one was or another’

Everyone seemed content in that moment, Luke’s charisma solved many people’s anxiety over the situation and while many people started to wander towards the hall instead of laying in an empty house for the night, the three boys decided to all go to Caleb’s house for the night, someone had to watch over the sheriffs house.

‘I guess we’ve found a new mayor’ Joel joked as they walked towards the empty street ahead of them.

‘I don’t think we should be joking right now, but that was a very presidential speech’ Mason added, even allowing himself to chuckle at the whole idea that Luke Simmonds, one of the biggest douche stereotypes in the town was able to sort out this with just a short speech.

‘All hail the new lord of the exodus’ Joel continued to mock.

They arrived at Caleb’s house and set up makeshift beds in the lounge, none of them properly slept, Mason would watch the clock tick round from 11pm to 1am in an instant, did he sleep? or was he just seeing things? It got to 6am and Mason realized he wasn’t getting any more sleep than the few hours that he may have slightly slept through. During one of those hours of sleep the lights had gone out, while in the moment Mason assumed that someone got up and turned it off, when he finally arose and none of the lights turned on he realized that all electricity was out, throughout the town.

By 6:30 both Joel and Caleb were also awake, Joel tried to make a cup of coffee before realizing there was no power and Caleb just sat around almost as if the past 12 hours were a blur to him, that wasn’t far off though, he was purposely being vacant to try and forget it all.

‘We need to get out, start working things out’ Caleb muttered as Mason sat down with a cheese sandwich quickly assembled minutes before.

‘I thought our new leader Luke was working things out?’ Joel questioned jokingly as he put his shoes on in agreement with the idea of getting out.

‘He’s a bonehead, he’s going to need all the help he can get’

Outside it was still dark and the air was crisp, without any street lights or lights from houses the hills surrounding Elkwood seemed much bigger, almost dominating to them, they suddenly felt much smaller in scale than ever before. The hills swept around the town in the shape of a ‘C’ with the river creating a small path dividing the two sides, they truly were enclosed though.

‘Maybe we should start thinking of things that are important for surviving without our parents’ Caleb said ‘Joel you were friends with Luke when you were in his classes, you could help us speak to them’

‘We’re not friends any more unfortunately’ Joel added ‘He pretty much hated me since I left’

‘Either way I think it’s important we look at what people are doing, like right now it’s calm... but what happens when people start looting, taking alcohol and picking up guns’ Caleb responded ‘We need to keep these people safe you know, before it’s too late’

They silently walked into the hall in hopes to find Luke to speak to him, they found him quickly, the only issue was that he was sleeping in the chair at the end of the room, while he promised to stay awake in case anyone needed him. Joel silently mocked Luke by mimicking his sleep before pointing that the back office door was slightly open, maybe someone was in there they could talk to.

They entered the room pushing the door slightly to let out a small creak, inside was something more deadly and disturbing than watching every adult disappear or watch children cry out for their parents. It was the girl from the night before whose dad disappeared in the crash, she laid there motionless in a pool of her own blood, with just a knife in one hand.

Dead.

‘It’s already too late’