Frozen in Time: Chapter 6

Kalle and the others watched the group of teens fall apart and frankly Kalle hated it. They were all weak! Death was the way of life here! If people died, people died, end of story, maybe a few tears here and there, but not a whole shut down!

“Okay look, I know you guys just found out that you lost your families, but we got to go or the Super-Surchargers might …” Kalle was cut off by a sudden scream in her ear.

“KALLE WHAT THE SWARVE IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Ever screamed in her ear, and all of the boys winced along with Kalle.

“Hardez it Ever, what the swarve was that for?!” Kalle shouted back at Ever.

“I always knew you were heartless but this is taking it to the extreme!” Ever shouted at her and Kalle was quickly getting ticked off.

“What are you talking about?” Kalle growled at her.

“They just found out that they lost their entire families! Their entire lives! And all you can do is be like, alright let’s go, you can cry later!” Ever shouted at her.

“Well what do you want me to do?!?” Kalle hissed. Ever knew as well as any one that Kalle hated when people got emotional, she really hated when people cried or were sad, it ticked her off because that meant Kalle had to pity them and feel bad for them and Kalle hated that! You didn’t survive by being pitied! Surchargers didn’t give you pity if you were having a bad day!

“Give them some time! Let them get over it a little bit! Let it sink in all the way!” Ever exclaimed. “You don’t have to pity them! Just let them have some time!” Ever said and Kalle sighed angrily.

“Fine, I’ll give them some time to let it sink in.” She said like it was one of the worst things in the world she could do.

“Good!” Ever remarked. “Now, so you don’t bother those poor teens, go get me a picture of the pod’s they were in. I want to match it to some databases and stuff, see what they really are.”

“They called them Cryo-Chambers, I think.” Kalle said as she avoided the broken teens and headed for the other room.

Jake watched her leave, still sitting on the floor. His eyes then shifted over to the teens that were sitting on the floor. One girl by the name of Carter was holding her legs, sobbing a little bit.

Jake instantly started to wonder why they were feeling that way. Jake had never had a true family before the team. He had never known his parents. And the old lady who had raised him died long before he understood or cared about death. Really, he still didn’t know what it felt like to have someone die or leave.

When he had joined the JKS Killers they had all been there. Sayer, Ever, Shawn and Kalle, there were no more and no less. All of their families had died over the years and they had just lived on. So no one he knew had ever expected death when he was there, so he was intently curious on what it felt like.

After a few minutes of watching the deteriorating teens Jake got up and walked over to where Xena was. She was still standing with her back against the crate, her eyes closed.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked and Xena jumped a little and opened her eyes.

“No,” Was all she could manage to say. She was trying too hard to hold back tears, she just hated crying! It made her look weak and helpless!

“Why?” Jake asked, he knew that she was upset about her family, but he wanted to know exactly why she was upset.

“I JUST FOUND OUT THAT MY LIFE IS GONE! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK?” She screamed at him suddenly, but he didn’t even flinch. Her anger hadn’t even fazed him a little bit. She wasn’t scary like Kalle was, no she was just mad, scared and confused, it was much different from Kalle’s anger, maybe because Jake knew that Kalle would try to kill him if he ticked her off too much.

“But why are you sad that they are gone?” He asked, fully prepared for her to star screaming at him again. But she didn’t, all she did was look at him in a confused and scared manner.

“Why?” She repeated and Jake nodded. “Because I loved them, because they loved me!” She said raising her voice and Jake finally understood … well slightly, Jake didn’t exactly know what love was, but he had been told by Kalle and Shawn what it was. Kalle said it was the need to protect someone, Shawn had said that it was when you couldn’t stop thinking about someone, when they were always on your mind and you always wanted to be around them, because they always make you smile even if they didn’t do anything. But those seemed kinda weird considering a family.

Maybe that’s a different kind of love. Jake thought to himself.

“Oh,” Jake said suddenly, remembering that he hadn’t responded to her yet. But Xena just looked away; she just didn’t even feel good any more. She felt sick and like she was gonna pass out and throw up. The stress and news of her family being gone was just to much for her.

Jake looked at Xena and noticed she was looking a little pale and he was about to ask her about it when Kalle walked back into the room, talking to Ever through her head set. Jake’s had turned his off when Ever had started screaming at Kalle, he rather liked his hearing.

“So they really are from 2012.” Kalle said and Jake wondered what she and Ever had been talking about. Then all of a sudden his thoughts were pulled away from Kalle as he heard a soft thud behind him.

Instantly he turned back to Xena and saw her, pale as a ghost, sitting on the floor with her eyes closed. Instantly Jake got down on his knees and leaned in close to Xena trying to get a better look at her face, while getting awkwardly close to her.

“Are you okay?” He asked again. “You don’t look good,” He said, still super close to her. Jake had a problem with personal space, and the problem was that he didn’t understand it. Even though everyone on the team had tried, no one could make him understand that people didn’t want to be so close, unless it was in a loving manner, if it wasn’t it was just awkward.

“I don’t feel good,” Xena moaned slightly before opening her eyes to see Jake in her face. Instantly she jumped and tried to move back, but she was already pressed up against the crate. She opened her mouth to tell him to move back when all of a sudden he reached up and put his hand on her forehead, only moving his face back a little.

“You feel really warm!” He told her. “I think you are sick!” He told her. He then quickly turned around looking at Kalle. “KALLE!!! XENA’S SICK!!” He shouted and Kalle stopped talking to Shawn and looked over at him.

“What do you mean she’s sick? She looked fine a minute ago!” She said and Jake just shook his head.

“She is really hot and her face is really pale!” He told her and Kalle just sighed.

“Great,” She muttered under her breath. More problems, she thought to herself. “Alright, I guess we should head back now then, before any more of them get sick.” She said before looking around at the group of teens still falling apart. She let out an annoyed sigh but then tried to think of a nice way to tell them to get up and follow them into the wreckage, but she couldn’t find a way. So she just turned to Shawn.

“Can you tell them to get over themselves and follow us?” She asked him and he just chuckled.

“Can’t find anything nice to say?” He asked and she just glared at him.

“You know I hate when people cry and want pity,” She told him and he only nodded.

“Yes, I know full well,” He said with a smile, he then walked past her and towards the group of teens.

“Hey guys,” He said gently and most of them looked at him. Carter wouldn’t look up and Xena was being preoccupied with Jake. “I know that you guys are feeling really horrible, but we really do need to go, we don’t want the Surchargers to find us.” He said just like a true leader. He was gentile, caring and compassionate, unlike Kalle. She could be all of those things when she was in a good mood and when she wanted to, but she just despised when people were weak, she just couldn’t be nice towards them, it just wasn’t how she was raised.

“Where will we go?” Dia asked and Shawn looked over at her with a soft smile.

“Back to our hide out. It’s very big and it has and endless amount of rooms. You will all have a room to yourself with a bed and you will be left alone.” He said gently.

That got the attention of all of the teens, accept Xena of course. A room and a bed? That sounded pretty good! Especially after what they had just learned, most of them just wanted to go lie in a bed and sob their hearts out.

A few of the teens nodded in response and Shawn just grinned.

“Great, we’ll give you about five minutes, and then we are going to leave.” He said. “Get whatever you want from this place, we probably won’t be coming back.” He told them and instantly everyone thought of their drawers full of stuff. “And make sure you can carry and run with it.” He told them before turning and walking back over to Kalle.

“That’s how you do it.” He grinned at her and she just punched him in the shoulder.

“Shut up.” She told him, but with a hint of teasing it her voice. Sometimes she really did envy Shawn. He could always calm any situation, no matter what the problem. She on the other hand could only make things worse, unless it came to fighting, she was good at fighting.

The two talked a little bit, as the teens got up and headed over to the other warehouse where all of their stuff was. None of them wanted to leave anything behind, everything in their drawers were the only things they had left of their old lives. Quickly each teen made their way to their pods and started collecting everything from their drawers. Nothing was left.

Meanwhile Jake was back in the other warehouse, still harassing Xena’s personal space. He was looking her up and down, he wanted to see if anything else was wrong with her, and if he could do anything to help her. After a few moments he determined all he could do was carry her back to the warehouse where they could help her.

He then nodded to himself, agreeing with the plan in his head before putting it into action. Without thinking of what Xena would think, Jake put his hand under her legs and one behind her back, before standing to his feet with Xena in his arms. Xena let out a halfhearted protest.

“What are you doing?” She demanded, it wasn’t as loud as she wanted it, but it got her point across.

“I’m gonna carry you back to the hide out!” He told her as if it was obvious.

“But my stuff.” She complained and Jake raised an eyebrow.

“What stuff?” He asked. He hadn’t seen her with any stuff!

“The stuff in my pod,” She told him.

“Oh okay,” He said even though he didn’t understand.  “Don’t worry; I’ll get it for you!” He told her with a soft smile. “Just go to sleep and when you wake up we will be at the warehouse!” He told her with his soft smile, and for a second or two Xena felt like everything was going to be okay. But then Xena felt sick again and she just closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder.

 Jake then turned around slowly and saw Sayer over by Shawn and Kalle, who were talking.

“Sayer!” Jake said softly but loud enough for Sayer to hear him. Quickly Sayer jogged over to him and Xena.

“Yeah?” He asked looking up at him.

“I need you to go get her stuff from her pod!” Jake told him, and Sayer looked at him for a moment.

“Only if you charge the Cube tonight.” Sayer told him and Jake let out a slight moan. The Cube was a small pocket devise that could hold almost anything in it. It was something that Ever had created. You could literally stick anything in there … well everything except living things. Anything alive wouldn’t survive in there for long, Ever had tested it on some cockroaches, even they didn’t survive. But other than living things it could hold anything, any size!

It was super complicated and Jake didn’t even understand half of it, but he didn’t need to, all he needed to know was how to work it, and the fact that whoever had to charge it didn’t get power for the night.

Each room that was currently in use was hooked up to a private generator, so you couldn’t blow out everyone else’s power, another idea of Evers. But the Cube took up so much power that if you hooked it up to a generator the generator couldn’t power anything else because the Cube took all of the electricity! So the poor person who got the responsibility got to sleep in the dark with no air control of any sorts, it was miserable.

Jake thought about it for a moment, looked down at Xena who looked like she was asleep in his arm. Jake gave a little smile at her and then nodded.

“Alright.” He told Sayer. If it would make Xena happy then he would gladly give up his power for the night! Anything to see the girl smile again!

Sayer nodded then turned around and ran off to the other room, to get Xena’s stuff for Jake. Jake watched him until he disappeared into the other room. Jake then turned and looked over at where Shawn and Kalle were conversing and he decided that it was best to be over there over with them.

Slowly and gently Jake made his way over to them, trying extremely hard not to wake Xena up.

“I think we should take it slow.” Shawn said to Kalle

“Why?” Kalle asked, in a rather annoyed tone. They had been discussing what to do for the past five minutes and she was starting to wish they had never found the group of teens.

“They just found out that their whole lives are basically gone Kalle! They are heartbroken and devastated! If we suddenly expose them to our world it might just shut them down all the way!” He argued. He knew he was treading on thin ice, but Kalle was rather thick skulled and he was one of the only ones who could get through it!

“And just what is wrong with our ‘world’?” She asked him sharply. She knew full well what was wrong with their world. It was destroyed and devastated. It wasn’t a world worth living in.  But she wasn’t about to admit that for a bunch of annoying teens.

“It’s completely different from their world!” He told her.

“What do you know of their world?” She retorted. “All we know of their world is what the elders have told us! The blue sky! The yellow sun! Streets without rubble. Tall buildings everywhere! Thousands of people in the streets all with smile and laughs and none of them are fleeing for their lives! And no Surchargers!” She told him, quoting what her grandfather had told her.

“Exactly!” Shawn said. “Our world is nothing like that!” He said and Kalle just looked away and started muttering under her breath.

“Maybe I should go jump into one of their ‘pods’ for a hundred years and maybe when I wake up the world will be a better place.” She murmured but Shawn just reached out and grabbed a hold of her chin, turning her face towards him, trying to get her to look at him.

“It won’t, Kalle.” He told her and Kalle just kept her gaze away from him. She knew full well that it wouldn’t be any better, it would be even worse. In a hundred years they suspected that all of the humans would be gone. They didn’t even know how many humans were left but they figured there weren’t that many. And if they didn’t do something soon, in the near future there wouldn’t be any left and the Surchargers would be the only things left.

“Hey guys,” Jake suddenly interrupted and Shawn took his hand off of Kalle’s face and Kalle looked up at Jake. “I think we should start going soon! Xena is getting really warm!” He said with a slightly worried look on his face. Kalle looked down at Xena, who was laying in Jakes arms. She then reached forward and put her hand on the girl’s forehead and waited a moment. She then nodded.

“She is really warm.” She said. “We should get going; Sayer needs to take care of her soon.” She told Jake and he nodded. Kalle then looked over at Shawn and opened her mouth to ask him to go get the teens when she heard footsteps and she turned her attention to them and saw that a few of the teens had come back from the other room. She watched them for a moment and then saw another teen walk through the door, then the rest came and was then followed by Sayer, who was last.

“Looks like everyone is ready.” She said stepping forward to address them. She then looked around at the teens and saw the looks on their faces. The looks of despair, heartbreak, and grief. Some of them had a little bit of hope, but that was only because they were going to get a bed and a room.  Kalle instantly started feeling regret and pity, something she almost never felt for anything or anyone.  Maybe it was the fact that she had been the one to cause all of that pain. She had so carelessly just told them that their lives were over, that they had nothing to look forwards to. She had crushed them all and she realized it now.

Kalle took another moment to look at the group of teens standing before her. A few of them were looking at her but the rest didn’t care. Kalle then turned and started walking towards the door. She got to Shawn’s side and stopped for a moment, not looking at him.

“You tell them … your better with words.” She said. That was the best excuse that she could come up with other than. “I can’t tell them that they have to go out and face their destroyed world, I’ve already devastated them enough.” No, she couldn’t say that, even to Shawn.

“Alright.” He said softly, looking over at her. Kalle kept her eyes away from him, not wanting him to see the regret in them.

“I’m gonna go scout head, check for any Surchargers,” She told him before she started walking over to the door out of the warehouse. Shawn watched her for a minute before turning back to the group of teens sulking in front of him. He took in a breath and gathered his thoughts. How did you tell someone that their world was destroyed and that they would have to go face it, lightly? Somehow Shawn was going to have to do it.

“Alright every one,” Shawn started and almost all of the teens looked up at him. “I know you have all been through a lot, but we need you to do one more thing and then you can just disappear into a room for a the rest of your life.” He said and that got the attention of the rest of the teens. “We are going to go out and to our hide out, but first there is something you need to know.” He said. “Our world is completely different from your world.” He said.

“What do you mean your world?” Zach spoke up and Shawn looked over at him.

“Our time, I should say.” He said. “Our time doesn’t have a blue sky, we don’t have a sun, and we don’t have giant cities. Our streets are covered in rubble, and our buildings are crumbling. There are no people in any of the streets. Our world is completely destroyed.” He said and all of the teens turned even paler than before, if that were possible.

“You mean … everything is … gone?” Dia whispered and Shawn nodded slightly.

“But before any of you shut down, we have to go!” He said and that was when Zach about lost it.

“We just found out that our lives are gone and now our world is destroyed as well! You really expect us to just accept that and go!” He shouted, losing his temper.

“No I don’t.” Shawn said firmly. He wasn’t shouting, but his tone was the equivalent of a shout. “But you are going to have to accept it if you want to survive here in this time.” He said firmly. Shawn then took in a breath and let it out in a sigh. “Look,” He said calmly. “I’m sorry that this is happening to all of you, but the sooner you accept what has happened the better.” He said calmly.

“Well what if I don’t want to accept it!” Zach shouted again, he wasn’t done. His anger and temper were getting the better of him. It was his way of expressing sadness, he just got mad.

“You don’t have to accept it now!” Shawn said in his firm tone again. “But at least pretend you accept it for now! Just until we get back to our hide out! Then you can just never accept it and sulk for the rest of your life! But if you do don’t expect us to take care of you!” He told Zach sharply.

“So you’re saying you’ll just starve us?!?” Zach shouted.

“Yes I am!” Shawn said, getting a little louder. “Look, I don’t know any of you and in this time period food is short, and people are scarce. So I’m gonna take care of my family first before any of you. And if you are wasting our valuable food, which I could be using to feed my family then for sure I am going to cut you off. But if you suck up your pain and make yourself useful then I will treat you like my family and I will feed you and make sure you are okay. But if you just sulk around all day then I’m gonna make sure I don’t waste anything on you.” Shawn said sharply at Zach. Shawn hadn’t meant for this go so long. But he wanted to make a point. This time period wasn’t as nice as it might have been in the 2000’s. In this one you had to fight to survive.

After that outburst Zach just looked away, he understood now, but that didn’t mean he liked it all that much. The other’s understood as well.

Shawn let out a sigh, he didn’t want to be the bad guy, he didn’t want to seem evil and unforgiving, he really wasn’t. It was just that if his family was threated he would never back down from trying to protect them, even if it was from other humans.

“Look,” Shawn said softly. “I’m not saying that you all will sulk around and not hold your weight, but if you do, you aren’t going to survive. Not in this time. Here you have to fight for your life. And getting to our hide out is going to be your first test.” He said gently.

“What do you mean test?” Dia asked softly, looking up at him only a little.

“I mean, if you can’t keep up or you get lost, we aren’t going to come back for you.” Shawn said bluntly and that caught every ones attention. “If you get lost it is not our fault. I know that sounds harsh, but you are not our first priority. As I said before, we look out for ourselves. We look out for our family, and you are not out family, not yet. So until you become a part of our family, you better keep up and stay close.” He said bluntly. “Now in a minute you are going to go out into our world and we are going to make our way to our hide out. Now outside is a war zone. That is how you should think of the outside from now on. There are Surchargers everywhere. If you hear any of us yell hide or get down, you better do it fast otherwise you are a goner.” He told them. “Kalle is outside now checking for Surchargers. We shouldn’t run into any of them since it is around Feeding Time. So if we move quickly nothing bad will happen.” He said.

“What’s feeding time?” Dia asked and Shawn just shook his head.

“I’ll explain later, but for now just prepare your selves. We leave in a few minutes.” He said before turning around and heading over to the door Kalle had gone out of a few minutes ago. “Kalle?” Shawn asked over the intercom.

“It’s all clear.” Kalle suddenly said over the intercom. “Ever scanned it and they are all out a range. It’s Feeding Time after all,” She said and Shawn nodded even though he knew she couldn’t see him.

“Yeah I know. Any stragglers though?” He asked.

“Not as far as Ever’s scans can tell.” She replied and Shawn nodded again.

“Good, we’ll be out in a minute.” He said.

“I’ll see yah out here.” Kalle said and then the intercom went silent.

Shawn then turned back around and looked at the group of teens, Sayer and Jake. The teens looked better than they had before, but he could tell they were all just trying to put their brave faces on. They may have lost everything, but they still wanted to survive.