Emmy Laybourne - Monument 14

“How are you, Josie?” I asked.

Alex nudged me toward the other big kids. He wanted to hear what they were thinking about the chemicals. I did, too…

“I don’t understand,” Astrid said. “It made Niko blister up, Dean turned into some kind of a monster, and Brayden started having hallucinations. But Sahalia and Alex and Jake were fine?”

“It doesn’t make any sense but, yeah,” Jake said, scratching his head.

“Maybe they attack based on age or something…,” Brayden said.

“I noticed that the effects seemed to wear off very quickly,” Alex piped up. “It makes me think they attack the central nervous system.”

“That anyone could make this kind of poison is just horrible,” Astrid said. “The people at NORAD should be shot.”

“Hey! That’s my dad you’re talking about,” Brayden said.

“But why would they make such awful things?” Astrid asked us. “I mean, a chemical that makes people turn into savages? Or makes them blister up and die? It’s evil.”

“They made them to protect us.”

“Protect us from what? From who?” Astrid demanded.

“From our enemies!” Brayden answered.

“It’s inhumane,” I spoke up. “Just making those compounds violates the Geneva Convention. It’s illegal.”

“Nothing’s illegal if the government itself is doing it,” Brayden asserted, like an idiot.

“That’s just amazingly wrong,” I said.

“Hey, Brayden,” Astrid said. “What exactly does your dad do for NORAD, anyway?”

I’d been wondering that exact thing. I had sort of fantasized that Brayden’s dad was like a janitor.

“That’s classified, Ass-trid,” Brayden replied.

Then we heard some rattling.

Chinka-chinka-chink.

“Hello?” came a distant voice.

We jumped up.

Someone was at the gate!

Beyond the plastic sheeting and the blankets, someone was rattling the gate.

“They came!” shouted one of the little kids. “They’re here for us!”

“Anybody home?” came the voice from outside. “Hello!”

We rushed to the gate. Everyone started clamoring at once: “Hi! Hello! We’re in here! Who are you? Hello! Hello!”

“Open the gate!” the voice shouted. “I hear you in there.”

“Yes, yes! We’re trapped inside, we want to get out! We want to go home!” shouted all the little kids in a big jumble.

Chloe turned to Niko and commanded him. “Take down the plastic. He’s here for us!”

“Don’t you touch it!” Niko growled. I’d never heard him so intense.

“Well? Open up! Come on! I’m hungry!” came the voice from outside.

The little kids were still bouncing with excitement, but I saw the others stiffen.

Listening real attentively. Something about his tone.

“We can’t open the gate,” Jake yelled. “It’s stuck.”

“You can! You can open it if you try! Come on!”

Chinka-chinka-chink.

“We’re locked in,” Jake tried to explain.

“Who’s in there?” the voice shouted.

“We’re kids from Lewis Palmer!” Jake continued. “We took shelter here from the hail and—”

“Open the gate, little kiddos!” the voice shouted.

“We can’t open it, dude!” Jake yelled. “It’s some kind of a security gate. But we want to get a message to our parents—”

“Get them a message?” The voice started to laugh. “Sure. That’s a great idea. I’ll get them a message. Open the gate, so we can make a message!”

There was something very, very off in this voice. I exchanged a glance with Alex. He knew it, too.

“Like I told you, we can’t!” Jake yelled again.

“Open it, you little twits! Come on, I’m hungry! Just open it. Open it.”

“We can’t—”

“OPEN THE F GATE! OPEN IT!!! OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!”

And the man outside started rattling the gate again. Chinka-chinka-chink .

I could see the fear wash over the little kids. Their faces, one moment ago bright with hope, went cold and pale.

Caroline and Henry, standing behind me, each clutched on to one of my legs at the exact same moment. I pried them off and crouched down, hugging them to me.

When the man outside shook the gate, our wall of plastic and blankets bobbed with the air pressure.

“Our wall,” I said to Niko. “Is it going to let the air in?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” he answered.

“Go away,” Jake shouted, his voice gruff.

“LET ME IN!” the man shouted. “BY THE HAIR OF MY F CHIN, LET ME IN OR I’LL HUFF AND I’LL BLOW YOUR EFFIN’ GREENWAY DOWN!”

He was shaking the gate now.

Chinka-chinka-chink . CHINKA-CHINKA-CHINK. CHINKA-CHINKA-CHINK . Wobble-wobble-wobble went the sheeting.

Astrid stepped in front of the little kids.

“Come on, guys,” she said. “Who likes puppet shows? I’m going to do a puppet show for you guys.”

No one moved.

Obviously their failure to move had nothing to do with their feelings about puppet shows. They were rooted to the spot in utter horror and shock.

“OPEN THE DOOR, YOU LITTLE SONS A BITCHES!”

“Go away!” Jake yelled. “Go away and leave us alone!”

CHINKA-CHINKA-CHINKA-CHINKA-CHINK .

“Guys!” Astrid yelled. “Free candy! Come on. Whatever toys you want! Let’s party! Come on.”

She was working so hard.

“OPEN THE GATE OR I WILL KILL YOU. I WILL TEAR YOUR LITTLE KIDDO HEADS OFF AND I WILL MAKE A SOUP OUT OF YOUR LITTLE SMART-ASS KIDDO BRAINS AND—”

I started to sing.

Yes, sing.

“I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy. Yankee Doodle Do or die.”

I let go of Henry and Caroline and started marching, like I was the leader of a parade.

“An old old something something la la la, born on the Fourth of July.” So maybe I didn’t know the words, exactly.

Alex joined in. Astrid, too. All three of us marching like idiots.

“You’re my Yankee Doodle sweetheart, Yankee Doodle do or die.”

I led the three of us, making up the words somewhat and we walked in front of the gate, getting between the eyes of the little kids and the plywood, just trying to break the terror spell of the monster outside.

Who now started to yell, “YOU SINGING ‘YANKEE DOODLE’? ‘YANKEE DOODLE DANDY’? I’LL F KILL YOU!”

Niko joined in and that guy, I am here to tell you, is entirely tone deaf.

But the little kids kind of snapped to. We caught their attention.

“Yankee Doodle went to town a riding on a pony. I am a Yankee Doodle guy.”

And the kids started marching and I led the parade, the saddest parade in the history of the world, away from the front of the store, away from the monster outside, and right to the stupid cookie and cracker aisle. We ate fudge-covered graham crackers for a good long while.

The kids fell asleep, after a while. It was maybe three in the afternoon—hard to tell inside because the lighting was the same all day long. I don’t know what time it was, but Astrid had told them it was time for a nap and the kids dropped into their sleeping bags like the walking dead.

The twins slept together, and Max and Ulysses moved their bags next to each other. Chloe and Batiste were sort of the odd men out. Batiste tried to snuggle up to Chloe, but she wouldn’t have it.

“Quit it, Batiste,” she said. “You smell.”

She pushed him away.

“It’s a sin to push,” Batiste mumbled.

“Yeah, well. It’s also a sin to try to hug someone who doesn’t want to be hugged!”

“No, it’s not!” Batiste protested.

“Yes, it is!”

“No!”

“Yes!”