14

“It’s Happened Again.”

On Monday morning Alyce arrived at H.S. L-1378-55, about 15 minutes early. She carried her edu-computer into the crowded Lobby. Jimmy Haskins was standing outside the door to the Principal's Office, looking nervous. Larry Landis and Sarah Denski stood beside him.

Alyce went over to them and asked, "What's going on?"

Jimmy spoke with a peeved tone. "Avery wants to talk to me, about something that happened during the game yesterday."

"What happened?" Alyce laughed, "We won; by 15 kills!"

Jimmy told her, "The problem is that when I killed one of the Yeshiva Warrior Girls, my sword ripped the front of her tee shirt open, exposing her boobs."

Alyce shrugged and made a face. "So what do people expect? That happens in combat games all the time."

Larry added, "And sometimes that's the uniform."

"Yeah." Now Sarah spoke. "Remember a few weeks ago, we fought against one school, where their teams' top garment was their belt. Two weeks from now, we'll be the ones who'll be fighting with bare boobs."

"The problem," Jimmy told them, "is that every girl who attends a Yeshiva School is expected to be modestly dressed at all times."

Sarah laughed, "Even during battle, with all those blades ripping everything and everyone open? When Louise Torelli got killed, the front of her tee shirt got ripped wide open too, showing everything and nobody's complained about that."

Jimmy said, "It wasn't just that. You see, when I pulled the sword out, it pulled both the tee shirt and the warrior girl forward, and she collapsed against me, and her naked boob fell into my hand."

Alyce said, "Yeah-right. Your hand and her boob just happened to be in the same place at the same time, by accident; so you could give the dying girl a firm comforting squeeze?"

Sarah said, "I still don't see why anyone's complaining. Any girl, who fights on a combat team, ought to expect to have guys grabbing her boobs during a game. It happens to me all the time,” She grinned “and it’s nothing I’d ever complain about.”

"Besides," Alyce said, "that girl's in Paradise by now, along with Louise, and they both arrived dressed to party."

Larry spoke. "You know what this is really all about. Yeshiva High doesn't like the fact that we scored 15 more kills than they did, and they're being sore losers."

Sarah noticed that many of the kids in the lobby were turning to face the entrance. She turned to look at what was going on.

"Larry." She spoke uneasily. "That's 14 kills."

"14? What are you talking about?"

She said quietly, "It's happened again."

The other three turned to see what she was looking at.

Louise Torelli stood just inside the entrance to the lobby, completely alive and intact. She was dressed in her High School jacket and knee length skirt. All her fellow students were staring at the girl who they'd seen getting stabbed with a spear through the heart, during yesterday afternoon's game.

Then Louise shouted at the top of her voice. "I didn't hear anyone pray, and I didn't hear the voice of God either!"

She made her way through the crowd. Her fellow students backed away from her.

She came over to the very nervous looking Alyce, Jimmy, Larry and Sarah, outside the door to the Principal's Office.

Alyce stammered. "H--hi L-l-ouise."

"I didn't hear any prayers," she repeated "and God didn't speak to me either, but I did see Dave and Karen; alive and intact."

They were all taken aback, not knowing what to say.

"Sarah." Louise told her, "Have I got a news story for you." She chuckled. "The biggest news story in the last 1,322 years, is about to be broken by the H.S. L-1378-55 Student Newsletter."

The door to Mr. Avery's office opened. He stepped into the lobby, where he faced Louise and the others.

"Miss Torelli," he said, "I assume that all of your assignments are completed, and ready to be handed in."

She said, "Yes sir."

"That's good to know Miss Torelli. That's all that anybody in this School needs to know, or the School Board either. Nothing else. I'm sure you don't want to risk losing your family's extra rations; and the rest of you don't want to lose yours either. Do you?"

The five students all shook their heads.

Jimmy said, "None of us want that sir."

"Miss Denski." The Principal looked at Sarah. "I believe that the Student Newsletter should print a correction about one of the casualties that occurred during yesterday's game. Miss Torelli's name should now be listed among the wounded. I'm sure you agree, don't you Miss Denski?"

Sarah nodded, "I certainly do Mr. Avery."

"Good." He said, "Then everything's settled."

He looked at Jimmy. "You can come into my office now Mr. Haskins."

He and Jimmy stepped away from the others and entered the Principal's office, as the bell rang.

Around 3:30 that afternoon, Sarah and Larry were in the Vanderland apartment cubicle, alone with Alyce and Jimmy. They were seated on a couch. A large steaming platter of sausages and meat patties was set on a coffee table in front of them. They had just been cooked in the microwave oven that was embedded in the wall, and the four had begun munching on them.

Larry asked Jimmy, "So how'd things go with Avery?"

"I'm not in any trouble." Jimmy told them, "I've actually got some really good news. I've been chosen to receive a sports scholarship."

They all cheered. "Hey that's really great!"

"It's 'cause we beat Yeshiva by 15 kills! Believe it or not, seeing me rip that girls tee shirt open, clinched it for me with the people from the Athletic Scholarship Board."

Larry said, "Then you know what you can tell those people at Yeshiva High, what they can do with their complaints."

"Yeah!" Jimmy laughed, "I wish we had that girl to eat!"

They then returned to their meals of sausage or meat patties.

Alyce stuck her fork into a sausage, picked it up and put it in her mouth. She bit off a piece, chewed and swallowed. Then she sighed.

Sarah asked, "What's the problem?"

"It just suddenly feels wrong."

"What does?"

Alyce told her. "Eating people."

The others made faces. Sarah said, "What?"

"I know," Alyce told them, “that all there is to eat is us, and everyone has a responsibility to contribute to the food supply. If we'd lost yesterdays game and I'd been hanged, the students at Yeshiva High would have been eating sausages made of me at lunchtime, and it would be the right thing for them to do and for me too."

"Then why" Sarah asked "do you suddenly think there's anything wrong with it?"

"On Saturday afternoon, Jimmy and I found out that the reason we're sealed inside the City Building, with nothing to eat but each other, may have had nothing to do with any environmental disaster."

Sarah looked even more puzzled. "Nothing to do with it?"

Alyce asked, "Have either of you ever heard of the Kaczynski Brigade?"

"Kaczynski?" Larry asked, "You mean Kasin's Keys to Paradise? The weapons supplier?"

"No. The name's spelled different. It was a terrorist organization that had a lot to do with the construction of the City Building. Dave Krendell had some questions about it."

"Dave?" Sarah asked, "I've heard that Dave Krendell and Karen Bennet went outside the City Building, and discovered a few things. I was talking to Louise Torelli yesterday before the game. She told me that Dave called her from outside, using his cell phone. She was saying that all we've been taught, about there having been some kind of an environmental disaster, has turned out to be a major hoax."

"That's right." Now Jimmy spoke. "Alyce here and I were right beside Louise on Saturday afternoon, when she played a recording of Dave and Karen's call. They asked us to find out what we could about the construction of the City Building. We did the research, and found out that there never was any environmental disaster."

"There never was?" Sarah exclaimed, "Wait a minute! Louise did say that she had a major news story for me. She wasn't kidding. I'm the editor of the student's newsletter, and I'd like to talk on a cell phone with Dave and Karen myself! If I can verify that they really are outside the City Building. That really would make a great story to put in the Students Newsletter."

The doorbell rang. Alyce got up from the couch, went to the door, and slid it open sideways.

Then she said, "Come right in Louise."

Louise Torelli stepped into the room. Alyce slid the door shut behind her.

Jimmy said, "Hi Louise. There's something I've been wondering about all day. Karen told us that when she was being hanged, her pussy was coming. How about you? Were you coming and going at the same time too?”

Louise, Alyce and Sarah all rolled their eyes and groaned in annoyance.

“Sorry Jimmy.” Louise told him, “The spear that was ripping my heart open had my full attention. I really didn’t notice what any of my other parts were doing. What I was thinking was, ‘I’m killed. I’m part of the meat supply. It’s a good thing, and it’s the right thing to do.’ Now that I’m back in the Land of the Living, I’m thinking that this isn’t good and this just isn’t right.”

"Forget that!" Sarah spoke, "We've got serious things going on here. Tell me Louise. What is this major news story, other than you being the second High School L-1378-55 Warrior Team Girl, to get resurrected?"

Louise told her and everyone in the cubicle. "The major news story is this. David Krendell and Karen Bennet are not only still alive and in this world. They are in a place called Zabelton, Pennsylvania. I'm sure you'd want to print everything I can tell you about it, Sarah."

"I sure do Louise. Everything you can tell me," Sarah said, "And everything Dave and Karen can tell me too; so could you please tell me Dave Krendell's cell phone number?"

"I can't get him on the phone any more."

"Then can you tell me your story?"

"Sure Sarah. I can't wait to see what happens when people read it. Everything is about to change."

Louise looked at them all and said, "Yesterday at this time, I was another ordinary half naked dead girl, with a deep, wide gash between my exposed boobs, and all was right with the world. Today I'm alive, and the world's about to be turned upside down."

Sarah reached into her handbag, which was on the floor beside the couch. She took out her edu-computer, put it on the coffee table in front of her and switched it on. Then she put her fingers on the keys.

"Okay Louise." She said, "Tell us."

"Before I revived," Louise told them, "I had a vision. I found myself outside the City Building, in a fertile valley, surround by green mountains, and farmland. I was at a crossroads, with a small white Christian Church on one side of a road, and a single building with a porch, across the road from the Church.

"I saw a teenage boy and girl from the City Building, speaking with two men from that crossroads. One of the men was the Pastor of that Church. The kids I saw were Dave Krendell and Karen Bennet. The name of the crossroads is Zabelton, Pennsylvania. The Pastor's name is Dominick Luzak. The other man is named Frank."

Sarah repeated, "Zabelton? Pennsylvania?”

"Yes." Louise told her, "I looked it up. Would you like me to show you?"

"Please do."

Louise came over to the coffee table, and stood beside Sarah.

"Log on to 'ancientmaps.com'."

The others on the couch leaned over, to see what would appear on the monitor.

Following Louise's instructions, Sarah made a few clicks, and the screen display showed a roadmap of northern New Jersey, with southern New York State and western Pennsylvania included. There was a bright red line traced across roads on the map.

Louise said, "The red line traces the most scenic route, from New York to Zabelton. See it begins here, at what's called the Lincoln Tunnel. Then it goes along this Route 3, which goes into Route 46, which goes into Route 80. Then it turns north here, between Dover and Sparta, and goes along this Route 15, which goes into Route 206, which goes all the way to the Delaware River.”

Now Sarah joined in. "Once it crosses the Delaware River, it goes into Pennsylvania, at this place called Milford. The route goes from Milford, along this Route 6, through what's called the Pocono Mountains. Then it turns west onto Route 590, just north of this Lake Wallenpaupack, and south of this town called Hawley. Then it goes on to about halfway between Hawley and Scranton. It stops at that dot on the map called Zabelton."

Larry said, "Or it stops where people would have found Zabelton, 1,322 years ago."

Sarah pointed to the screen. "Look. 'Average Driving Time: 2 & 1/2 Hours'. Of course that was the driving time, 1,322 years ago."

"Today it'd take a lot longer." Louise told them, "Now all these routes have probably eroded away. Do you see all these rivers? The bridges that went across them were probably all washed away centuries ago."

Alyce quoted the Kaczynski Brigade's ancient e-mail. "'No place to go and no way to get there'."

"But there is a place to go." Louise tapped the screen. "And if Dave and Karen could get there, so could anybody else."

"Anybody else? Like who?"

"Like me."

"You want to go outside the City Building, and try to find Dave Krendell?"

"Not just me." Louise said, "Any of you who'd like to come along are welcome."

Jimmy said, "Any one of us?"

"Right." Louise asked, "How about you Sarah?"

The Student Editor was startled. "Me?"

"It'll be a good way to verify anything I tell you, before you print it in the Newsletter."

Sarah said, "I don't know about that Louise. Leave the City Building?”

"That's the reason why Dave and Karen went outside; so they could verify that life exists outside the City Building. Wouldn't you want to do that? If you're the one who breaks the story, you'll have a great future in the News Business, wouldn't you?"

Now Jimmy spoke, "Hold it Louise! You two can't go off and leave the City Building, and start searching through some wilderness, just like that. You're gonna have to make a lot of plans and preparations first."

"Right Jimmy." Louise told him, "Dave and Karen didn't make any plans, and that's why they're stuck out there."

Sarah said, "I'm glad you said that Louise. If we do decide to go outside the City Building, we'll make all the plans we need, and take all the time it takes. If I'm gonna do anything like this, I'm gonna do it right."

Louise said, "I agree with you completely."

Jimmy, Larry and Alyce also nodded in agreement.

"Okay then." Louise asked, "What's the first thing we have to do?"

The other four all looked puzzled.

Larry said, "Good question."

Now Jimmy spoke. "Aren't you forgetting something else Louise?"

"Like what?"

"Remember what we learned about the construction of the City Building of Manhattan? During its construction, the Kaczynski Brigade imbedded hundreds of very powerful bombs inside the structure. Then the construction was finished, and all our many millions of ancestors were sealed inside. Then the Kaczynski Brigade announced that all those bombs had been set to go off, if anyone tried to escape. The entire City Building of Manhattan would be blown to bits, killing all of us millions of people inside."

Sarah and Larry were both startled.

Sarah said, "Then you can forget about me going outside."

Louise told her, "Dave and Karen went outside, and the City Building hasn't been blown to bits."

Then she told Jimmy, "You told me that all the bombs have probably corroded away by now. You said that if any do get detonated, they'd probably just go 'poof'."

He told her, "A bomb did go poof Louise."

"It did?"

"It was on the News this morning. An explosion occurred down around Level 920. It killed 32 people. It was mentioned in a traffic report. It blew a hole in the corridor floor, and passenger traffic was blocked off along the entire block."

"Just 32 people killed?" Louise spoke with scorn. "It really did go 'poof'. That's less kills than you'd get in an average combat game. If that's the worst that can happen, there's no reason not to go outside and verify what Dave and Karen told us."

Jimmy said, "That may not be the worst that can happen. There is always the possibility that even after 1,322 years, something we do might still get the entire City Building blown to bits."