all god's orphans

Kite and Grey stood beneath the enormous vaulted ceiling watching daylight pour through holes in the roof. This place confounded them. It was a building with other, smaller buildings inside of it.

“What is this place?” Kite wondered aloud. Grey shook his head.

“I don’t know.” It felt almost religious in its size. Something big built to make humans feel small. There were three levels and from the top, they could look down and see tier upon tier of strange windows, all displaying something different. Some displayed bright plastic things, others held clothing. Black rectangles filled another. Everywhere there was something to catch the eye and attract their attention, even if they had no idea what any of these things were. Millie had brought them to this place, but they didn’t know why. They didn’t even know her name. They had simply followed her because she seemed intent on them doing so and because they had seen enough of the general’s camp to know they didn’t want to be there anymore. Mile by mile they had realized that she wasn’t going to kill them but that didn’t mean they had a clear idea of what she actually was going to do with them. Whenever they tried to ask her a question, silence was the only response.

When she drove off the big road and came to this place, they followed her inside hoping to learn what was going on, but she had told them nothing. Instead, she had set about going from room to room gathering supplies. Once she had found everything she had been looking for, she set up shop in one of the rooms that was filled with wires and strange looking tools. After that, she basically ignored them and they both stepped back into the cavernous part of the building to explore it. She hadn’t seemed to notice.

They strolled, almost casually, through the arcade marveling at the various displays. Some of the places were open while others were covered with metal grates.

“Look at this one.” Kite chirped. She stood before a display showing a happy family of mannequins enjoying a picnic in front of a painted pastoral backdrop. Something about it stirred deep emotions in her. Emotions that she could not begin to name or articulate. There was a father. A mother. A little boy and a little girl all seated on a blanket. She felt a familiarity with this concept. Family. Children. She knew this wanting.

Grey moved to her side but he could not understand what she felt. To him, this was just a bunch of plastic people arranged to tell someone something. That message was lost on him.

“Those are the children.” Said Kite and her heart shuddered at the word, as though it knew something she didn’t. Sadness momentarily darkened her face until a glint caught her eye. She moved quickly to it and removed several thin bangles from a display stand and put them on her wrists. “I like these.” She said, admiring them on herself. “They feel familiar.” She shook her arm slightly and listened to the delicate ‘ting’ of the bands. Grey watched her with a smile on his face. It brought him peace to see her so happy. In the distance, they heard a crash, like someone had knocked something over. Maybe it was that strange girl who had brought them here.

“Hello?” Grey called. The sound had come from a store with a dog painted on the sign. No one answered him. They crossed the bridge that led from one side of this sky bound marvel to the next. The dog room was open and there were more sounds coming from within. “Who’s there?” Grey tried again. This time, the rummaging sounds stopped. A moment later, they heard the low, feral growl of an angry dog. Grey and Kite froze at the sound. It awoke some primal terror deep in their bones, which were now turning to rubber.

The animal emerged from the back of the room, hair standing up on its back. Sharp teeth bared in a fearsome grin. Kite and Grey backed up against the glass railing that separated them from a three-story fall.

“What should we do?” Whispered Kite.

“Don’t move.” Said a strange voice behind them. “Dogs can smell fear.” The voice did not sound human, but they obeyed nonetheless. The animal was now near the front of the store, its eyes fixed on Grey. It moved slowly forward, growling as saliva fell from its jaws.

Just as it neared the slightly open gate, a small object flew past their heads and skittered across the floor at the dog’s feet. It flinched, stunned, and closed its mouth. It seemed confused, and when another object hit its front paws, it yelped and turned back into the store, retreating out of sight. Grey and Kite turned to find Millie standing there with some strange contraption hanging around her neck. Her hands flicked across part of it and a voice from inside the device said.

“Let’s go. Follow me.” She spun and led them away from the pet store, walking quickly, but careful not to run. When they had reached a section of the building filled with baby clothes, she stopped and faced them.

“Testing. Testing.” Said a tin, robotic voice. “Can you hear me?” The sound was coming from the thing she had built. Grey and Kite exchanged a look of confusion and fear. “Do like this if you can hear me.” Said the voice as Millie nodded her head slowly up and down. Grey and Kite nodded. “Good. My name is Millie. We need to get as far away from here as we can.” She started for the door but Grey stopped her.

“Why?” he asked with desperation coloring his voice. “What is happening?”

“I don’t know but it’s going to happen again and if we don’t want it to happen to us we need to get the fuck out of dodge.” Her fingers danced across the keyboard and the little red box lit up with green letters on a black screen as she did this. Whenever she typed, the voice would speak. It was flat and emotionless, with no kind of inflection or human characteristic, but her eyes expressed the urgency she felt. They could see that she wanted to get “the fuck out of dodge”, whatever that was. She turned and strode away.

“Wait!” Called Grey after her, but she didn’t stop or even slow down. “Wait!” He repeated and ran to catch up to her. Millie jumped as Grey grabbed her arm. She stopped and faced him, anger flaring in her eyes.

“What?” She typed, glaring at him.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere else.” She replied and tried to turn away again but Grey spun her back.

“Somewhere else?” He repeated. “You mean out…” words failed him and he resorted to simply gesturing grandly in no single direction. “Out there? In the world?” He sounded like a child to Millie, but that made sense. In fact, he had even less experience with the world than an average kindergartener.

“Yes.”

“We can’t do that.” He stated plainly. Millie wasn’t sure she had read his lips correctly.

“What?”

“We can’t go out in the world.” He said. “It’s dangerous. People are dying. People are stealing and killing.”

“How do you know?” Asked Millie, genuinely curious where he had picked this information up.

“The general told me.” Millie guffawed spontaneously and snorted a little. She covered her mouth in embarrassment but saw that Kite and Grey didn’t think it was funny.

“The general?” She clarified. “You mean the guy who had you in jail and would probably have shot you at some point? Him?” Grey considered this. He failed to see how the two connected. From what he had seen, the world was a dangerous place. The general had simply confirmed it. Of course, the world had gotten significantly more dangerous with the general’s arrival. “Let me tell you something about the general.” Said Millie, “He promises safety and then fails to deliver. Did you see what happened back there? The entire camp had their memory erased and general Joe was nowhere to be found. He was strangely not around. I’m not entirely sure he’s not the one who blanked everyone’s mind.”

“How could he do that?” Kite asked. Millie shrugged.

“I don’t know. I also don’t know how it happened to everyone else. But I have seen him do horrible things and you shouldn’t believe what he tells you.”

“So,” Grey was desperately trying to piece it together. “Are you saying that the world isn’t dangerous?”

“The world has always been dangerous.” Millie replied. “You just have to be smart.”

“No thank you.” Grey finally said. “I’m not going.” This took Kite by some surprise as she thought they were doing quite well following Millie. She had freed them, after all. Millie was decidedly not happy with this answer.

“That’s not an option.” She told him. “I need you to come with me.”

“I said I’m not going.” Grey folded his arms. A child, Millie thought.

“Fine.” She typed. “Alexandria is about forty-five miles back east. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding it.” With that she turned to leave. Kite stayed by Grey but her eyes begged him to reconsider. Millie stopped and turned back. “And make sure not to run into any more deranged, hungry dogs.” She walked away. Kite took one last look at Grey and then started after her.

“Wait for me.” She said, but Millie couldn’t hear her, forcing Kite to jog to catch up, putting more distance between them and Grey. He watched them walking away, their footfalls clanging around the emptiness. He now felt even smaller than he had when they had first entered this building. Somewhere off to his left, he could feel the dog watching him from the shadows of one of the shops. He cursed under his breath and trotted off after Millie and Kite.

Back on the highway Millie kept it floored. Every so often she would have to slow down to dodge abandoned cars, usually around some small town or off ramp. The sun was sinking fast and it was starting to shine right into her eyes. She cursed herself for not picking up some sunglasses at the mall, but that was typical of her. She was never up-to-date on current trends so it always seemed a safe bet to not even try fitting in. Her parents would never give her money for the mall anyway, so she rarely thought of it as a place to buy things, but rather a place to escape her parents.

All her life they had talked about the end of the world. They ardently believed Jesus was coming back “any day now”. She wasn’t convinced that Jesus had anything to do with this, but she had grown up with Mad Max and zombie movies, hidden from her parents, naturally. These movies told her much more about the world than church ever had and they always seemed to agree that you had to find a safe place by nightfall. Millie tore down the highway hoping to find a safe place. It was starting to get dark.