The Free-dom, Post #1

Prologue:


"Twenty-six, twenty-five, twenty-four..."

Outside her aunt's apartment the people in the streets were counting down to midnight. She snuck out of her room and crept to the window overlooking the crowds, watching for the fireworks. It was minus seventeen outside according to the thermometer and she could see the people's breath, hovering above them like a thin puff of cotton.

"Twenty-three, twenty-two..."

She listened down the hall to her mother and aunt snoring in the living room. Her older sister was down the hall in the spare room with her younger brother. She pressed her nose to the window and watched the lights outside distort as the glass fogged with her breath. The bated excitement of the people rushed through her nerves in little bursts and she would have jumped with joy if it hadn't been for her feeling of foreboding.

"Hey, Skitch," a voice whispered behind her. She whipped around, wide eyed with guilt, to face her sister. She started babbling.

"Don't worry, I'm going back to bed right now. It's like mom said, that's all a bunch of nonsense." She started walking back to her room. Her sister held out an arm to stop her.

"You weren't. And we both know mom is being stupidly skeptical." The older girl frowned. "I just know something is going to happen tonight." She paused for a moment. "Which is why we're leaving."

"Eighteen, seventeen..."

"Does mom know?" the younger asked in a tiny whisper. A shake of the head was her answer.

"Hurry and grab your bag. I know you still haven't unpacked it. We'll meet you on the landing." They both nodded and walked into their rooms. Five seconds later they were outside the door. Her sister put a finger to her lips and led the way down the stairs in less than ten seconds. They burst out unnoticed into the street and slid through the crowd.

"Three, two, one!"

Silence.

Everyone froze and the sudden nervous tension made the air seem a degree colder. Seconds of cold passed. Then someone, a man, laughed throatily, breaking the tension as the mass of people joined him. Fireworks were set off, making people clap and cheer. A half-drunk teen jokingly trolled out a line of Auld Lang Syne, bringing a few more chuckles. The foreboding was still in the back of her mind.

"We should keep moving," her sister said. She was holding their eight-year-old brother's hand. Skitch nodded and they stepped forward.

And fell to their knees as the Earth shook. The short silence that followed the rumbling was broken by the sound of a single red firework exploding. She looked around at the people as they began to speak and cry. Somewhere a young woman was swearing repeatedly. A few people stood up, knees shaking.

"Get up and start walking," her sister whispered in her ear. "We have to move as fast as we can to the alley ahead of us." The three of them stood up and began to jog down the street past all the crying people. People began to scream as they came out of the initial shock, filling the streets with noise. One old woman grabbed her sleeve and looked at her with teary eyes.

"It's finally happened," she said. "I've been waiting for this for years." Then the woman started and looked at her shrewdly. A smile split her face and she let go. "Get going young indigo. Your destiny is waiting." The woman trotted off down the street and she just stood there, bewildered. She turned to see her sister getting close to the alley. The ground started to shake again, this time a low rumble that grew gradually in size and sound. Beneath her she heard a low hissing and when she looked down steam was escaping from the manhole below her feet. She stepped off it as more steam seeped out. To her left she heard a loud pop followed by a rushing noise. Further down the street a manhole had been shot off and a stream of hot water was gushing out. Another geyser erupted out of the next one, sending people flying and filling the street with a growing fog. She began to run toward the alley, hoping there were no manholes in it. By this time her sister and brother had already disappeared around the corner. She turned when she reached it and nearly ran into her brother, who had been waiting for her while their sister talked with a friend. He reached his arms up in a silent question. She put hers around him and held him close.

"So, you’re Skitch," her sister’s friend said. He was a man in about his mid-twenties with long hair in dread locks. "Cactus told me all about you and Desmond. Your real name’s Molly, right?"

"Yeah, but only my mom and some of my teachers ever call me that. Everyone else calls me by some sort of nickname." That made him smile and he opened his mouth to say something else but was cut off by a huge crash as the rumbling increased. They all looked back into the street but all they could see was orange glows in the rapidly thickening fog.

"We should get going," he said. "With this earthquake that was probably a building collapsing. Which means any one of these could be next." He patted the quaking wall beside him.

"Not to mention the fires that have started," Cactus added. "Probably gas leaks from cracked pipes or electrical fires." The man nodded and led them out of the alley into another fog-filled street. Behind them a banner fluttered to the ground, it’s ends smoldering from the burning building it had been attached to moments ago.

"Happy December 21, 2012!"