The Seven
By Ark Means
Published By
Ark Means at Smashwords.com
The Seven
Copyright © 2011 by Ark Means
Introduction
~ Crystal Davis, a stay at home mom, started her Sunday morning on August 24, as she had for the past few years. She woke up and made breakfast for her husband Steven, who is a high school history teacher, and her two children Mark and Samantha.
The day couldn’t have been any lovelier as they stepped out to attend Sunday church service after the hot meal she’d prepared. The Sun was shining so brightly on this particular day that after service the Children ages 12 and 9 wanted to go home instead of out to lunch as usual so that they could hang out with their friends and enjoy the weather for a few hours before dinner.
Crystal really didn’t care about not going out for lunch because she had a ton of laundry to do anyway and she knew that Steven would be confined to the sofa watching any and every sport that he could without interruption from her or the kids. Yes it was a day that begin like many others but their lives as well as those of practically every person on earth were truly about to change and not for the better, either.
All of a sudden there was a loud noise which sounded like an explosion of some sort. Extremely startled, Crystal immediately rushed up the basement stairs of their suburban home. She ran out on the front porch to find her husband already out there trying to see if he could spot anything, like smoke or fire off in the distance and he did. About a mile away from their home something was ablaze.
“Honey do you see the kids anywhere?” Crystal questioned in a somewhat nervous tone.
“They’re probably in one of the neighbor’s homes….” Steven said, hoping that this would keep his wife calm. She had a tendency of getting rather hysterical in surprising situations, so much to the point that she began to have panic attacks and would pass out often due to lack of oxygen. “Don’t worry sweetie, I’ll call Mark’s cell to tell them to get home now and you check the news to see if there is any coverage of what just happened.”
Crystal went over to the television to find that there was a written warning stating that people should stay off of the streets. That they should make sure that all of their doors and windows are locked and obtain security behind the walls of the safest room within their homes until notified otherwise. After placing his cell back into his pocket Steven raced over by the sofa to where his wife (who is the short height of exactly five-feet tall) was. As they stood next to each other one would have suspected that she was one of his children.
Steven never had a problem with his beautiful wife’s height challenge because she made him at an average five-foot-ten appear to be much taller than he really is whenever the two stood side by side. Crystal was quickly joined by her husband in the shock of staring at the TV screen which was pretty much blank except for the urgent message flashing across it and the alarming sound jumbling his nerves. “What the hell is going on around here?” He questioned in almost a whisper.
Mark came running in with his younger sister not too far behind. “Why was the door wide open, didn’t you all hear the warning? We’re being invaded or something.” He said as he locked the door and raced around checking the windows and pulling down the shades. “We all need to get to the basement and stay there until we hear otherwise.”
Luckily for the Davis family, their basement was pretty much equipped with all of their needs. It had a working washroom with bath included, a refrigerator filled with food because Crystal was over obsessive about sales, so much to the point where they needed the extra fridge in order to store all the food that she’d buy.
The basement also housed a television, two sofas, solar powered flashlights and blankets. There was even dishware stored down there for when the couple had parties and although it was rarely ever used, there was even a microwave set up in their basement.
Steven insured his family that all they’d needed were a few changes of clothing just in case they became confined to the basement for a few days. The children ran up to their rooms to grab handheld video games and the chargers for their cell phones, laptops and any other electronics that to them, they just couldn’t do without and clothing came last. Meanwhile Steven and he alone had to gather up some things for him and his wife because she became frozen with sock and fear that pretty much had her planted on the sofa.
So many terrible things ran through Crystal’s mind while she sat down there alone listening to all of the commotion going on up above, as her family gathered their much needed belongings. She worried about just what was happening and prayed to God that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed and if it were, than she prayed that her family would survive it without casualties. She couldn’t imagine living through something like losing one of her children or her husband. Steven and Crystal had been inseparable since they were teens and she simply could not imagine her life without him.
* * * * *
~ Jessie Williams was a loner. He owned a one-bedroom bungalow on the corner a few homes down from the Davis’s. The man absolutely hated even the thought of saying one word to another person. He couldn’t stand to see people parading around with fake smiles like everything was okay. You see, Jessie had served in the US Army and had therefore learned to live each day as if it were his last.
Being a middle-aged black male standing over six-feet-tall at a weight of two hundred and fifty pounds of all muscle the man stuck out in the majority white community of Oakwell Wisconsin like a sore thumb. They all wondered about him, not just because he was black but because he had no family. No one ever came to visit him and even the mailman was reluctant to walk through his gate because of Jessie’s huge Pit-bull-dog, who had made his home lounging about in the front yard.
Jessie knew that he was feared and this was just the way he liked it. Whenever he walked pass, children were gathered up and pulled closely to their mother’s side as if he meant to snatch one up for his dinner or something. And the neighbors that did try to spark up a conversation with him from time to time like everything was cool, soon found out never to do such a thing again.
Jessie thought back to the last freckle faced white guy that approached him, the guys name started with an S and Jessie couldn’t even believe that such a man would have the balls to step up to him on any day of the week.
“You’re Mr. William’s right?” The short geeky white guy approached Jessie one Saturday morning about a month or so back as he got ready to drive to his job in the city as a fitness trainer. Jessie was very rude and just walked right pass as if he didn’t even hear the little man. He hoped that this would be enough of a warning to leave him the hell alone as he opened up the door preparing to hop in his black SUV but the dude just kept on talking.
“We’re having a block party later this afternoon, it’s free. All you can eat. Bring your friends and family.”
“Do I look like the block party type to you? Better yet, what in the hell makes you think that I have family and friends? You ain’t said two words to me in all this time and now all of a sudden we friends enough for you to invite me to a damn block party. Ask yourself am I really the type of person that you want hanging around your two kids and that pretty little wife of yours?”
It was Steven Davis, who had attempted to be so friendly with the evil ass bastard and after those words were said he regretted ever letting his wife talk him into approaching the heartless monster.
“I think that you’re the type of person that enjoys misery, so I’ll leave you to it. Have a nice day.”
Steven was the first to actually shoot something right back at him before running off and Jessie somewhat respected the little man for that. Yet all the others could kiss his natural black ass, because he knew how they hated him being there, which was the main reason why he’d never leave.
Jessie’s small home had been inherited from his deceased mother, they were never really close so he could have just sold it but he got too much of a kick out of scaring the hell out of people. He was the neighborhoods Ogre. No one in their right mind would come near his home and they all stayed clear of his path whenever he decided to take a stroll which was often.
Jessie couldn’t help but to admit that he really enjoyed his solitude and on that lovely August afternoon he was in his backyard spraying his dog Butch down with the hose. An old lady peeped through her curtain watching Jessie’s every move as if he planned on murdering his only companion. “Nosey old bitch!” He huffed under his breath and then he yelled out loud “Hope you’re enjoying the show, you peeping Tom.”
After that he didn’t see the curtain move again and he was quite satisfied with the result of his outburst as usual. A wet Butch ran into the house and Jessie followed up behind him with a huge dry towel trying to pat him dry and it was that moment that the two heard the loud explosion that was too close for comfort.
Butch bolted back into the yard kicking up mud barking and growling, ready for an attack and Jessie, well he was just the same minus the bark. He turned on his television and ran into his room where he slipped his m9 berretta from underneath his pillow and a huge black case from underneath his bed.
The case held an M16 rifle and after Jessie went into his living room to find an urgent message flashing across the screen he knew that this could only mean one thing, it was time to go to war. He threw on a pair of black cargo pants, boots and a black T-shirt. He strapped on two combat knives, one on each of his thick muscular thighs.
Jessie then grabbed a second hand gun from a locked cabinet in his living room and after loading and inspecting each pistol, he placed them safely in the leather holsters on each side of his chest. The rifle was also ready to be used whenever needed. Whatever this was, Jessie wasn’t going down without laying out as many as he possible could along the way.
* * * * *
~ Madison Valdez and her 13 year old daughter Melissa were doing what they do best and that is arguing with each other. Melissa didn’t want to spend her Sunday afternoon tending to the garden in the back of their home as her mother so enjoyed doing.
“You used to love spending this time with me. Tell me Melissa what has changed since last summer to where every time I ask for your help with something you make a big deal about it?”
“Mom, you really need to get a life!” Melissa shouted. “Your lack of one is really beginning to ruin mines. Why can’t I spend today at the beach with my friends?” She whined.
Madison had explained to her daughter that she’d been to the beach everyday that week. It really hurt her that her only child couldn’t give her a few hours of that one day a week. As a single mother whose fiancé left her at the altar when she was five months pregnant, everyday of Madison’s life seemed harder than the next.
Meeting and falling in love with Melissa’s father was supposed to be Madison’s fresh start. She had finally learned to trust someone and unfortunately the ending result was for her heart to get stumped all over as usual and now it felt to Madison like her daughter was doing the same thing. Melissa had told her own mother to get a life but this was something that Madison would not do until her child was grown and out of the house.