Children of the After: Awakening (book 1) by Jeremy Laszlo

and cardboard was illuminated. Yet still the source of the smell
could not readily be discovered. Pinching her nose, Sam was the first to step
into the metal confines, and rifling through the few boxes that had not been
already broken down and flattened, she deemed the cooler empty of anything
putrid, disgusting, or foul. Then, lifting one of the empty boxes to her nose
she quickly changed her mind. The smell was from the empty containers
that once held food products.
    “We could toss them outside,” Sam offered.
    “No,” Jack replied, “If we can smell them, so can anyone
else who might come this way.
    “We can find a place that doesn’t stink,” Will suggested.
    “It’s not safe, buddy,” Jack answered, “It’s getting too
dark and we don’t want to be out shining around your light. Someone could see
us.”
    Figuring that their decision was finalized, Will removed his
backpack again and dropped it upon the floor. Stink or not, he was hungry.
    “If we’re staying, can we eat now ?”
    “Sure can,” Sam smiled, dropping her own pack before bending
to clear a space for them to eat.
    Within minutes the floor was cleared as discarded cardboard
was piled into stacks in the back of the cooler, and they all sat down to enjoy
a meal of the spoils they had found in the morning and previous night. It
wasn’t much, and it certainly wasn’t the healthy foods any adult would suggest
they eat, but they ate anyway, and each enjoyed it without complaint.
    It wasn’t until after their meal that Will and Sam were both
enlisted to help Jack rig the door closed using pieces of the shelving in the
cooler and a bit of wire scavenged from just outside the door. Pulling the door
closed as tightly as he was able, it was when he pressed his shoulder into the
shelf, wedged there by Jack, that his head rested against the outer wall of the
cooler beside the door as it was sealed closed for the night, when he thought
he heard a sound outside. It sounded very much like the shuffling and crunching
of broken glass accompanied by a clip clop, clip clop that caused the hair on
his neck to stand up. The darkness was finally playing tricks on him too.
    Jack secured the last metal unit into place, allowing Will
to stand clear of the door and wall. The room was sealed and the sound vanished
into the darkness outside.

Chapter Nine
    His eyes popping open, Jack reached out instinctively to his
side where the night before he had placed Will’s light. Brushing the floor with
his fingers he fought through a second of panic, skimming the concrete surface
of the cooler’s floor until he felt the cold hard plastic of the light. Snatching
it up, he gave the light a shake and waved it around, brandishing it like a
torch into the darkness. Rising, he felt as his muscles tensed, his shoulders
and legs threatening to cramp if he pushed them too hard. He was dehydrated and
malnourished. He couldn’t expect his body to handle the abuse he had put it
through the previous day without it reminding him of his limitations.
Cautiously, he rose to a kneeling position and shined the already dimming light
into every corner of the room, noting both Sam and Will still asleep as he
sought the source of the sound that woke him. Could it have been a dream?
    Nothing found, he sighed loudly and allowed the light to
fade again into darkness as he sat silently still, a perfect mimicry of death. With
naught but darkness he focused his hearing on the breathing forms of his
siblings, and smiled to himself as he noted Sam’s low snoring. He wished he
could record it to play back to her at a later time as proof, knowing she would
deny it if accused. Before long, Will began to thrash about a bit before
rolling to his side, a sign that he would soon be waking up. Jack was surprised
how loud their small sounds were inside the confines of the cooler, that is,
until his attention was drawn elsewhere.
    With a loud clatter, a series of crashing sounds erupted
outside as the tinkling