“Truthfully, I wish things were different. Who wouldn’t, though?” I asked. It was the nicest way I could put it. To think about everything all at once, the shootings, the hunger, the turnings, and that awful barrier with the clouds and lightning, it all drove me senseless.
“You and me both, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” Glasses said. He was on edge. That good nature flipped on itself and disappeared. In its stead was a hard grimace.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m talking about the number, twenty-six.” He took those sunglasses off and shot me a look with a pair of deep gray eyes, streaming with intensity. This was nothing I had known before, this guise. “Tell me you know something. Anything.”
“What?” I asked, immobilized.
“The turning. Tell me you understand it. Tell me you’re close to a cure, or a treatment. Tell me something that I can share with the others. I need to tell them they don’t have to be afraid of tomorrow, that their brothers and sisters aren’t walking into the shade anymore. Tell me you discovered the way to combat the thing that kills more of us than hunger and murder. Just, tell me…”
Glasses trailed off. It wasn’t anger nor sadness. It wasn’t pain and didn’t seem like desperation. The plea coming off his lips wasn’t anything like that, but I couldn’t place it. I didn’t know if he was directing all of these emotions onto me or if he was just at the end of his rope.
“You were the best of us,” Glasses continued. “Are the best us. You kept more alive than you even know, and you’re the only one left who can help us.” His eyes blazed with passion. I could hardly believe this was the same person.
“I… I’ve… been… I mean…” I stumbled. I couldn’t find my tongue. No one had approached me like this before, especially not about the turning. Most everyone I knew made it the furthest thing from their mind, but Glasses seemed to have it always there. He’d been hanging onto the belief I was out there somewhere, still alive, and coming up with an enchanted remedy.
“You don’t have one…” Glasses said. It wasn’t a question. The fire in his soul extinguished just as quickly as it had started. “If you don’t have one, no one does,”
His eyes glazed over. Maybe he was so close to turning twenty-six. Then again, maybe he just knew there were so few of us left and wanted to help all of them.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Sometimes, hope is all we have. Some of us haven’t given up on that yet, haven’t given up on you either.” He returned the shades to his face, trying to mask the coming tears. He sighed, but managed a smile. “Best you remember that. Well, let’s get moving again.” Glasses turned around and picked up the familiar pace.
An orange glare erupted just above us, bringing our attentions skyward.
“That a flare?” I asked.
“Okay, look,” Glasses pointed the down the alleyway. “Continue this way until you get to Washington. Take a right, and when you get to Cicero you’ll be almost there. You’ll see that red glare from the numbers after few more blocks. There will be a movie theater on the left side. Move through that movie theater; it’ll get you closest to the tower.” Glasses had removed a pair of brass knuckles and wrapped them around his right hand.
“What’s going on?” I asked, worried.
“Mobs. We’ve been helping the officers fight them, but you just worry about the part you play, Jackson. I’ll try to keep this place alive long enough for whatever change you can make, if that is what’s supposed to happen,” Glasses said. He moved his arm slowly, laying the hand with the brass knuckles on my shoulder. The brass was slightly discolored with a red tint. “Now get out of here. Please.”
“But…?” I was cut off as Glasses circled around me. He took off his leather jacket, revealing his bare back. Tattoos covered his torso, and more scars rippled his skin.
This isn’t your fight! At least not yet. Move it, Jackson!”
Glasses shoved me backwards and pointed. I didn’t need any other suggestions. I took off as fast as I could and managed a few blocks before looking back. I didn’t see Glasses anymore. He had disappeared somewhere beyond the shadows.
I turned on Washington, running towards whatever I was meant to see.
Chapter 7: Being a Target
Washington Street was completely empty, void of everything I was used to. There was little damage, as if somehow our great disaster didn’t exist here. That’s not to say it was completely free of harm. The sidewalks on either side of the road were fractured. Weeds and grass burst through the cracks, and automobile wreckage dotted spaces here and there.
I wasn’t followed or chased. Whatever happened to Glasses, whatever that was, it didn’t spill over into this part of town. It used to be common for skirmishes and wars to take place here. This city was broken down into groups that controlled different parts of town, or at least that was how it was when we first started trying to live together. I could hardly believe these people could still be like that, though. Didn’t they understand? We didn’t have forever here. We couldn’t escape it. There was no leaving this town. These petty squabbles were of little use anymore. They should have known this after everything we have discovered about the turning and our twenty-sixth birthday.
I held my pistol at the ready as I made my way down the sidewalk. It was going to get more dangerous as I got further into the city, and just knowing I had the ability to defend myself made it easier to keep moving forward. But I vowed only to use the gun as a last resort. Popping off a few rounds meant an entire village of people could hear the sound. Some would come running, wondering, others might come with knives, brinks, and bats after the uncommon display of firepower.
“Come on! Where are we?” I said out loud. The directions were simple enough, but as time passed I grew no closer to my destination. It was exasperating. This was taking longer than I needed it to.
“Hey you!” a voice shouted from behind.
Twisting around, I held the gun behind my back. No reason to upset the gentle folk of Downtown. There were twelve of them. They held brinks, bats, knives, shovels, and any means of making an impact in a skull. I should have stuck to the shadows. This was going to get messy.
I didn’t dare respond. How had so many snuck up on me? I needed to be more careful than this. The urge to aim the gun at them made my finger twitch, but I didn’t dare make such a gesture yet. I took a few steps backwards, maybe instinctually, maybe out of fear. I turned my head slightly and caught a glimpse of a street sign. It read “Cicero,” the road that ran perpendicular to this one. I took one step closer.
I couldn’t tell if this was the same crowd that one of Glasses’ group would have fired the flare for. The mass of people failed to advance. They stood on the block across the street, sticking to the middle of the road. There was chatter amongst them. Incoherent shouts rippled from the center, along with screams. In an instant they were running, shouting, and searching for the kill, or whatever they were looking for.
I made no attempt to hide my only threat. I leveled the pistol and fired one shot into the air. I didn’t have enough ammo to shoot them all, and hope it would stun them. The blast struck a nerve, but only mine. The advancing crowd didn’t seem afraid at all. In fact, I think they just moved faster.
“Ah, fuck me…” I turned around and ran as hard as I could. I didn’t need to know what this was about. If I had wandered into some sector, some land war, it didn’t matter. Though I did wonder why Glasses would send me this way just to die. Shouts and screams leapt up louder, transforming, completing the terror I was hoping to avoid. Panic spurred my legs faster down the concrete.