Chapter 16

A Christmas Miracle

Seven Months Post Apocalypse

Faith, Ian sensed the girl's name. Their ten-year-old rescuer's name was Faith. The little six-year-old boy was Evan.

Ian dragged himself painfully to his feet. There was an iron spike being pounded through his head. He squeezed his nose and tipped his head back, but his nose kept bleeding.

The underground bomb shelter was one large room made of concrete. A combination of candles and floating alien lights saved the room from total darkness. The inhabitants had tried to make the place look nice, putting pictures and at least one wooden cross on walls that weren't covered by shelves. A small artificial Christmas tree sat in the center of the shelter, decorated with tinsel and a colored paper chain. A nativity scene sat beneath it.

One of the childish drawings on the wall suggested that this had once been a family of five. Ian tried not to think about what happened to the other three.

Four inches of Kitykity tentacle lay on the floor next to him, cut off when Faith had slammed the hatch door on it, showing how close their escape had been.

The wall on the far side of the shelter held shelves with supplies, including a couple of large, mostly empty, water containers. A covered bucket sat next to the shelves, no doubt what passed for their restroom.

“Did you bring more of that fruit?” the boy Evan asked in a shy, quiet voice.

“Yes, but it's in the jeep,” Ian said, still pinching his nose and keeping his head back. “Sorry.”

Ian felt the three Kitykity watching the shelter hatch the way cats might watch an inhabited mouse hole. They weren't leaving anytime soon.

Crazy Steve groaned and slowly sat up. He reached into his pockets and pulled out three smushed Kityfruit. “All I got, kids,” he said, handing the two least smushed fruit to the boy, then stuffing the third into his mouth.

“You can have mine,” Faith said to Evan. “I don't like them that much.” It was obvious to Ian she was lying.

“Thank you for rescuing us,” Ian said.

“You spoke to us, in our minds, from outside. That's how I knew you were in trouble,” Faith said. “How did you do that?”

“When all this started, and I was in the blue room, I asked BG to make me a psychic,” Ian said. “I've been using my gift to hunt those creatures you saw. Unfortunately, three of them ganged up on us. We barely escaped with our lives, thanks to you two.”

“One of those things killed our parents and big sister,” Faith said. “Two months ago, Mom and Dad left for supplies. We thought they returned when we heard Mom's secret knock. Chloe opened the hatch. The monster yanked her out with its tentacles. It couldn't fit through the hatch or it would have gotten us too.”

Evan started crying. “Why would God do this to us?”

Faith went to comfort him.

Ian had definite ideas about the monstrous god or gods who let things like this happen to good people, but felt it best to keep silent on that subject.

“This may be small consolation, but I helped killed that one,” Ian said.

Soon, they all sat around the shelter dinner table. After a quick grace, they were eating stale candy bars, and Ian and Crazy Steve were drinking equally stale instant coffee while the kids drank water. Ian wasn't crazy about the stale chocolate or the coffee, but he knew Faith had been saving the chocolate for a special occasion, and the kids were almost out of propane for boiling water. Together with Crazy Steve, Ian told the two kids how he'd learned to use his power, how he and other survivors had built a fortress in the center of Cirsium City. He told them he'd sensed the Kitykity that had killed their parents and sister, but had been unable to stop it from sneaking into the fortress. How he'd mind-dueled it and Mabel had killed it, but he hadn't been able to stop it from killing his sister.

For a long minute, they looked at each other.

“So what do we do now?” Crazy Steve asked. He pulled out his tobacco pouch and started rolling a cigarette.

“We can't leave,” Ian said. “They're out there waiting. Anyone who pokes a head out of that hatch is dead. The two wuffles took off at least. They won't be a problem.”

“We can leave eventually, right?” Crazy Steve asked. “You talk about how they get bored quick. Maybe they'll take off and badger someone else.”

Ian nodded. “We pissed them off a bit, so I expect we're stuck here at least a week.”

“You can stay for Christmas!” Evan said. “In two days Santa Claus is going to come through the shelter air vent, and he's going to bring lots of presents.”

“Santa Claus is a pretty amazing guy,” Crazy Steve said. “You know I used to work as a Santa Claus?”

“You are not Santa Claus,” Evan said.

“I'm not that Santa Claus, but I was his assistant,” Crazy Steve said. “I stood on street corners ringing a bell.”

Faith smiled sadly at Ian. “We don't have much,” she said quietly, so Evan wouldn't hear, “but we'd love to have you.”

“We're honored. Thank you,” Ian said.

Ian listened to Evan and Crazy Steve chatter, lost in thought. He'd been lying. If it was just the other three humans hiding in the shelter, the Kitykity would get bored and move on in a few days. But because he was down here, the Kitykity would wait at the entrance for years if they had to. Ian was the threat and as long as he was here, they weren't going anywhere.

Ian spent the long night lost in thought. In the back of his mind he hatched a desperate plan.

He got up before the other three. Grabbing a piece of paper and pencil, he went to the table and wrote a note.

I lied to you yesterday.

They will never leave as long as I'm here.

I'm going up to do battle, but the odds don't look good.

I'm sorry we couldn't have met under better circumstances.

I'm leaving my credits on the table. If I don't make it back, they're yours.

If I don't make it back, the Kitykity will leave. Wait one week to be sure.

Steve's a good man, he'll get you kids to safety.

Merry Christmas

Ian put his credits on the table. It was surprising how little space some 231,863.00 credits took. Just a small pile of glowing coins.

He went up the ladder, shaking so badly from fear he almost lost his footing. It took him a few minutes to figure out the locking mechanism for the hatch. Before opening the hatch, Ian pounded on it for about a minute.

Crazy Steve and the two children heard Ian fighting with the hatch and woke up.

The hatch opened with a loud squeak. There were shouts from the shelter. He hoped they wouldn't do anything stupid.

Kitykity-one charged him with a loud roar. Ian tried to counter with his gift, and paralyze it. He failed. He was still weak from the day before. A paw came out of nowhere and sent him flying. He slammed into what remained of the jeep. His armor kept him alive, but he felt something break.

Kitykity-two charged him. Ian didn't even try to counter. Tentacles picked him up and threw him over twenty feet in the air. A second paw smacked him, sending him flying across the desert. He fought to remain conscious.

The next thing he knew, Kitykity-two had him pinned, its front right foot on his chest pushing him into the sand, claws digging into him, pushing through his armor and into his chest.

He looked up, fighting to breathe, and saw the stuff of nightmares. Three Kitykity, with their twelve angry green eyes, eighteen tentacles, and three snarling mouths, looked down at him. He was the mouse, and they were pissed off cats about to tear him apart and eat him.

Now! This was his one and only chance. He reached down for reserves he wasn't sure were there.

Rraaaa! He screamed, mentally hitting the three Kitykity with everything he had.

His counter succeeded. The three were paralyzed, for a minute if he was lucky. You just couldn't resist, could you? He thought. They could have killed him from a distance, but they enjoyed playing with their food too much.

“I can't hold them long! You need to kill them now!” He couldn't breathe enough to speak, so he let out a desperate mental shout.

He heard shots from the shelter entrance. A bullet bounced off Kitykity-one's eyelids.

“Come on Evan, you can do it!” Crazy Steve shouted.

A blur of what looked like a little boy ran up to Kitykity-one, and stabbed its eye with a large kitchen knife, sliding it sideways underneath the Kitykity's multiple eyelids and up into its brain. The boy-shaped blur pulled out the knife and kept moving. Ian felt Kitykity-one vanish, then Kitykity-three, Kitykity-two.

He was free; he felt like he was floating. This wasn't so bad, he tried to say, but realized he couldn't speak or move.

This keeps happening to me, was his last thought before losing consciousness.

***

“Deck the halls with lots of holly, falalalala-lalalala,” Ian woke up to Christmas carols being sung off-key. He went back to sleep again.

***

Later...

“Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!” It was Crazy Steve.

“You are not the real Santa Claus,” Evan said indignantly.

“I told you I work for the guy,” Crazy Steve said, “but if you don't want these presents, I'll go back to Santa and tell him you don't want them.”

“Nooo!” Evan shouted.

Ian opened his eyes. “Oh my god.” He itched like crazy where rejen boosters were healing his injuries; he also had a nasty headache, and he was starving.

Crazy Steve had somehow acquired a Santa Claus outfit, complete with red hat, black belt and black boots. He carried a huge sack.

The entire shelter looked like a Christmas bomb had gone off inside. Flashing Christmas lights were everywhere, Christmas stockings hung next to what looked like a five-foot-high glowing green gingerbread house, and some kind of music box played Christmas carols.

Ian sat up slowly. “Is it Christmas?”

“You're awake!” Faith ran up to Ian and hit him surprisingly hard. “Why didn't you tell us you were going out there?”

“If I'd told you guys, those creatures would have read your minds and my plan would have failed,” Ian said. “I'd say things went pretty well, considering I had no idea what I was doing. Did I wake up in time for Christmas?”

“No, it's a day after Christmas. We've been waiting for you to wake up!” Faith slugged him again.

“I told you Ian would be fine,” Crazy Steve said. “He passes out, but he always wakes up again. Merry-day-after-Christmas! Who wants presents?” Evan let out an excited cheer.

“We bought a bunch of Christmas stuff with the credits we got from killing those monsters,” Faith said, “and we gorged ourselves on Kityfruit from our three new Kityfruit trees. Steve says you hate Kityfruit. How can you hate Kityfruit?”

“I hope you got other things to eat. I'm starving,” Ian said.

“We have a big Christmas dinner planned,” Faith said. “We bought a turkey from the galactic market. It looks strange though, it's got way too many wings on it.”

“Wings are the best part of a turkey,” Crazy Steve said. “Don't worry, I used to be a French chef. We're going to deep fry this thing.”

***

“Well,” Ian said, eating one of the turkey wings at dinner. “It doesn't taste like turkey, chicken, pork, beef, fish, or tofu, but it's not bad. It tastes like monster turkey. I think that's the best way to describe it. Alien monster turkey.”

Faith was right. Their galactic market turkey had way too many wings on it. Also, the stuffing tasted different, and Ian was pretty sure cranberries weren't supposed to be green and sweet potatoes weren't supposed to glow. But as a late after-almost-being-killed-by-aliens Christmas dinner, it was nothing short of fantastic.

The four of them talked, stuffed themselves, and tried to forget their problems for a while. Later that evening, they opened presents. Ian got a lucky rabbit's foot, a used Amazing Man action figure, and a big bag of fresh roasted coffee.

The two kids got more toys than they knew what to do with, courtesy of “Santa Claus”.

“You need that more than I do,” Faith said, about the lucky rabbit's foot.

“I'll treasure it,” Ian said. “Did Evan kill the three Kitykity?”

“Evan told BG he wanted to be the cartoon Road Runner,” Faith said. “BG said she couldn't make him a lower animal, but she could make him really fast, so she did. He can only do it for ten seconds, then he gets tired. I asked BG for super-strength.”

“I can't thank you enough for your help,” Ian said, “and Merry Christmas.”

***

“The Fortress isn't perfect,” Ian said, “but it's safer than your bomb shelter. There are lots of kids for you to play with, and there's a school where they'll teach you to defend yourselves.”

They'd talked about this. The two kids didn't have any living relatives nearby or friends they could move in with. And staying in the bomb shelter was out of the question. So they'd decided the Fortress was the best option.

***

They were parked near the fortress entrance. The long drive in the cold January weather was a welcome change from the stifling bomb shelter. The jeep had been surprisingly easy to fix. With Faith's help, they'd removed the boulder, and 20,000 credits-to-the-galactic-market later, the jeep's body had been replaced, and it looked and ran like new.

“Come with us,” Faith pleaded. Faith and Evan looked scared. Ian couldn't blame them. He'd delayed this parting as long as he could. The four of them had stayed in the bomb shelter until after New Year, but Ian didn't see any better options.

“I can't come with you,” Ian said. “I'm banned from the fortress, and other kids out here need my help. But you'll be okay. Me and Steve will check up on you the first chance we get. I'm giving you guys two letters, one is for my dad, Carl Anderson, the other is for Mrs. Wilcox. She runs the place. I told them you're good kids and you saved my life. They'll make sure you're taken care of.” He handed them two letters and a small package. “The package is for my brother, Gabe. It's a late Christmas present. I know you'll make sure he gets it.”

On the package, Ian had written Funding for you know what, Gabe. Merry Christmas.

The two children looked small and frightened as they approached the entrance and spoke to guards.

Ian wished he could go in with them, but considering Dad had banned him from the fortress, and Mrs. Wilcox might not let him leave, it would be best if he didn't.

He turned to Crazy Steve and handed him some alien coins. “I promised you 100,000 credits for helping me out, and you went above and beyond. Think of the extra as a Christmas bonus.”

“Wow. You didn't have to do that,” Crazy Steve said. He seemed at a loss for words.

“I suppose you want to take off,” Ian said. “They'll probably let you back into the fortress, since Dad's mostly mad at me, or I could take you somewhere else.”

“I can't do that,” Crazy Steve said. “You wouldn't last a day without me. Besides, we need to get you a girlfriend.” He started up the jeep.

“No time for that. We got monsters to kill. Besides, who'd you have in mind?”

“The girl we met a few weeks ago, The Ice Princess.”

“You mean Angie, the girl who shoots ice crystals with her hands?” Ian asked. “She seemed nice enough, but her parents are scared of me.”

“We can work on the parents,” Crazy Steve said as they left the fortress behind. “I used to be a lifestyle coach and a relationship counselor.”

Ian sighed. “Good to know.”