2048: A New Era: Part one
Reader Advisory: Language, Graphic Violence, intense scenes, and thematic elements. This is only to show the desperation of the situation. Even so, Reader Discretion is advised.
Soundtrack
"Before we get any further, why did you chose to call me now? Like at this time?"
"You had a blog. You talked about it when I was growing up. Not only that, but this time is where things started going south. They talked about it in US History." Tristan answered.
"Gotta love liberals," I said dryly.
"I know right. That is beside the point though. It wasn't just because of that. The investigation into Russian involvement got a little bit out of hand. I will give you some more information on that later."
"Ok. So where does your story start?" I asked.
"Like I said earlier, it starts on March 25th, 2045." Tristan paused the video chat and then some tapping on the phone that he was using followed. I did not ask any questions though since I had done the same thing during some of my Facetime calls I have made in the past. I just sent you a video, but be warned, you may want to grab a sweatshirt or something." I put down my phone, went to my closet and grabbed my neon orange Under Armor sweatshirt, and my fleece just in case. I came back to my phone, and the first thing I heard was "I like your taste." Tristan then gave me a rundown of what was about to happen. "On three you and I will press play. 1...2...3..." I did as I was told, and I was transported through time to the specific date that he mentioned. When we both got there, he was standing next to me and said. "Just so you know, you can't interfere with anything that is going on, and you will not be harmed by anything that will occur. This will just be a bit scary."
I looked at him sideways, and I noticed a little bit of a smirk on his face. I looked around for a few minutes to get my bearings. The first thing I recognized was Vernon Hills High School, which was just to my left and I could tell that I was standing on the Soccer field's sideline. Otherwise, It was really a weird sensation. I was trying to put a finger on what to compare what happened to something from 2018. Then it finally came to me: It was almost like I was watching a 360 video, but it was 4D. I was a little chilly, so I put on my fleece, but it was the happiest I had been in a while. Earlier in the day, I was baking in the sun, so this felt rather nice.
Tristan then introduced where we were. "It is March 25th at 3:20. I have just gotten out of school and I should be coming out of the fieldhouse soon." He then started counting down "5...4...3...2...1..." and right on cue, he came out of the of the fieldhouse followed by one of his friends. Tristan noticed my confusion and then explained. "That is Samuel. We are growing up together."
"Ah," I said. Soon enough the two of them were on the field.
Soundtrack
- Freebird: Lynard Skinner
- Nixon's Walk: Band Of Brothers
- Lavender: Marillon
"Before we get any further, why did you chose to call me now? Like at this time?"
"You had a blog. You talked about it when I was growing up. Not only that, but this time is where things started going south. They talked about it in US History." Tristan answered.
"Gotta love liberals," I said dryly.
"I know right. That is beside the point though. It wasn't just because of that. The investigation into Russian involvement got a little bit out of hand. I will give you some more information on that later."
"Ok. So where does your story start?" I asked.
"Like I said earlier, it starts on March 25th, 2045." Tristan paused the video chat and then some tapping on the phone that he was using followed. I did not ask any questions though since I had done the same thing during some of my Facetime calls I have made in the past. I just sent you a video, but be warned, you may want to grab a sweatshirt or something." I put down my phone, went to my closet and grabbed my neon orange Under Armor sweatshirt, and my fleece just in case. I came back to my phone, and the first thing I heard was "I like your taste." Tristan then gave me a rundown of what was about to happen. "On three you and I will press play. 1...2...3..." I did as I was told, and I was transported through time to the specific date that he mentioned. When we both got there, he was standing next to me and said. "Just so you know, you can't interfere with anything that is going on, and you will not be harmed by anything that will occur. This will just be a bit scary."
I looked at him sideways, and I noticed a little bit of a smirk on his face. I looked around for a few minutes to get my bearings. The first thing I recognized was Vernon Hills High School, which was just to my left and I could tell that I was standing on the Soccer field's sideline. Otherwise, It was really a weird sensation. I was trying to put a finger on what to compare what happened to something from 2018. Then it finally came to me: It was almost like I was watching a 360 video, but it was 4D. I was a little chilly, so I put on my fleece, but it was the happiest I had been in a while. Earlier in the day, I was baking in the sun, so this felt rather nice.
Tristan then introduced where we were. "It is March 25th at 3:20. I have just gotten out of school and I should be coming out of the fieldhouse soon." He then started counting down "5...4...3...2...1..." and right on cue, he came out of the of the fieldhouse followed by one of his friends. Tristan noticed my confusion and then explained. "That is Samuel. We are growing up together."
"Ah," I said. Soon enough the two of them were on the field.
***
Soon after, I heard Tristan tapping something on his phone, and all of the sudden I was standing right next to the group of students, and able to know what was going on in Tristan's head.
***
Free Bird solo (5:00 - end)
Practice for the upcoming lacrosse season was going to be beginning soon, so Tristan and Samuel were working on trying to get into top shape for the tryouts that were coming up in the next week. Tristan invited a few of the other boys to join them yesterday. Everybody started arriving at around 3:30, and talked for a few minutes, as they were already changed into their workout clothes. After a few minutes, The group did a warm-up jog around the field, followed by some stretching, Tristan leading the workout. Seeing all of the action on the field from his office, which was right at the south end zone, the coach decided that he should go out to the field to evaluate the students. On his way out, he stopped by the storage room and grabbed pennies, so that the teams could be easily spotted.
All of the boys that Tristan had invited were on Samuel and his team during the summer travel season, so all of them already had a large amount of team chemistry. The afternoon started out with some simple drills that the coach ran, then from there, the group split off into two teams of five. Samuel and Tristan were elected captains in order to keep the teams evenly matched. The two of them played rock, paper, scissors in order to see would pick first, and then the loser got to pick the way they wanted to go offensively and got the pennies. Rules-wise, they decided to have no goalies in order to keep the game interesting. The coach approached Tristan and Samuel and told them to throw on shoot. "rock...Paper... Scissors... Shoot." Tristan threw out paper, while Samuel threw out scissors. The two of them came together, shook hands, bro-hugged, and Tristan called the south side of the field as his team's offensive zone because he noticed the wind was blowing that way. Samuel shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and the opening face-off was set after the two of them picked teams.
The coach set the lacrosse ball in the middle and said, "On the whistle." Tristan and Samuel took their positions, and Tristan muttered under his breath, "That's what she said." The two of them shared a chuckle, while Samuel shook his head and then got serious. After the two of them sat still for a second, Tristan on one knee, and Samuel on both. Then the coach blew it.
Tristan was slightly smaller than Samuel, and faster so he had the quicker reaction on the whistle. The two of them tussled for the ball for a bit, but eventually, Samuel got it due to the size advantage he had over Tristan.
After he stood up, Samuel broke right, and Tristan matched him step for step, keeping an arm's length away because the 10 boys were not wearing helmets. Samuel then spun rapidly to the left and then to keep the pace up, passed the ball across the field. Tristan looked over at the coach and saw that he seemed slightly more interested in that spin move. Morgan received the pass and continued running north with it until one of Tristan's teammates landed a pretty solid body check on him. Because of the contact, Morgan lost the ball, and Tristan's teammate that landed the hit scooped it up and started running towards the south end zone. Morgan, who scrambled to his feet quickly started sprinting after Tristan's teammate. He closed up on the man rapidly, but Tristan's teammate made a nifty stop and go move that landed him on his backside again. The Tristan standing next to me let out a gasp, and I laughed at that reaction. So true I thought to myself. Any doubt in my mind that this was my kid went away.
The Tristan that was playing saw Morgan go down, and then took off down the right wing. A couple of passes later, the ball found Tristan, who was breaking towards the net. Samuel caught up with him after a few strides and paced with him. The two made eye contact and shared a smile, and Tristan faked left and broke right, dodging him expertly.
The move impressed the coach, who was now following the play. The Tristan that was playing was now at the 25 yard-line. He then drove towards the center of the net and soon met back up with Samuel, who was standing tall ready to block or take him out of the play. Making a quick ditch effort he dove and released a beautiful backhand shot that found the goal. He glanced over at the coach as he was sliding on the turf, and the coach gave him a curt nod. Tristan's teammates gathered around him, and the team celebrated. Shortly after, Tristan and his team started to head back to the face-off dot.
On the way there, Samuel ran closer to Tristan, gave him a wallop on the backside, and then between breaths said, "Nice shot!"
Tristan replied, "I had to impress the coach."
The two of them reach the face-off dot, and right as they did so, some clouds started to move in. The coach blew the whistle, but this time, Samuel hit Tristan pretty hard with a check. As Tristan went down from the hit, he called, "OK, I see how it is," Jokingly and hopped right back up and sprinted to catch up with Samuel. Before he could catch up though, he saw that Samuel's team had a breakaway going down the other way. Almost immediately after that he recognized the play and ran it through his head. Samuel would break right to the center of the field while the two player racing down the wing went straight down the field. As they got further down the field Samuel passed to Morgan, who was on the left wing, and Morgan passed across the field to the player going down the right side of the field towards the goal, knowing that that was where he was going to be for basically a slam dunk of a goal.
Then out of nowhere, it started to snow. It was steady, but it wasn't enough to call the game at a draw. Before the face-off, Tristan, Samuel and the coach decided to say next goal wins. The coach who was in on the conversation agreed and Tristan called out to the field, "Next goal wins!" And play resumed. Tristan won the draw and just as that occurred the snow started to pick up. In fact, a layer of about a 1/4 inch formed. With every step, the snow cleared, leaving a footprint. A few seconds later, it started to get into their cleats. Tristan looked over to his left and he saw one of his teammates gain a step on his defender. He sent the ball that direction but the teammate dropped the pass. The ball bounced around for a couple of minutes but eventually the teammate that dropped it recovered the ball. Once he had the ball firm in his stick, the teammate continued to sprint forward, spinning and juking trying to get Morgan off of his back. He eventually found some room, but one of the defenders stepped up, so he flipped it behind his back to Tristan who was crossing to take his position.
Tristan, who was keeping his head on a swivel saw that the attackman was open behind the net, so he passed it to him. He stood still for a minute and waited for his team to get settled. Once they did, he passed the ball to his teammate who was somewhat open on the left wing. The coach seemed like he was thoroughly enjoying this offensive possession. I could tell because he was trotting behind the last offensive man. As this was going on Tristan started to break towards the center of the net. The person on the left wing saw this occurring and noticed that Tristan had a step on Samuel, so he passed it to him. Tristan caught the net. As it crossed the line though, a siren that the boys had never heard before went off, bring the celebration to a screeching halt. The boys looked around for awhile and a few expletives were coming from the boy's mouths, who were on the field. Morgan seemed like he was petrified.
It did not take long for the coach to call them over. "Great game guys, but I think that you all should change your shoes and head inside." The last word kind of cracked out of his voice, so he pointed to the south. I followed his finger and saw a lot of smoke rising from that direction. I turned to the Tristan who was standing next to me, and asked, "Is this what you were hinting at?" He nodded his head. "Well Shit. You were right."
"Don't worry, we who are watching won't get hurt." Was that pride I saw in his eyes?
"I hope so."
From the looks of it, the smoke was still a ways away, so everyone changed their shoes, threw the cleats into their bags and put the bags over their shoulders. By the time that all was completed, rumblings started by heard off in the distance.
Soon everyone was done packing so the boys started to sprint towards the school, covered in snow because it had not yet let up. The group could not have been more than a quarter of the way to the fieldhouse when they got up close and personal with what was going on. A few of the boys started to open up their snapchats and updating their audience, giving some sort of monologue. The problem with what they were doing, whether they knew it or not was the fact that updating their stories was slowing them down. Those boys eventually started to get mowed down, one by one. The occasional plume of smoke was a sign that a bomb was going off. Right next to Samuel, a boy got shot at least 4 or five times by a weapon of some kind. For me, it was just brutal just standing there not being able to help but then again, what would I do? Seeing this happen, caused Samuel to start to dart towards Tristan, shielding his face from the dust that was being thrown up all around him.
A few seconds later, A bomb exploded less than 25 yards from Tristan and Samuel, who were running side by side, eyes wide with terror. Tristan was the first to go down, and then Samuel followed suit. The two of them were down for a couple of minutes as they shook off the ringing of their ears. As they were down they were soon engulfed in smoke as one of the automatic weapons mowed down one of the students right in front of them. Samuel crawled towards him, still shaking off the effects of the blast. He's still alive? I thought to myself. Samuel looked at him and it seemed like he was saying, "we'll be back OK?" Samuel then scrambled back to Tristan who was still clearly distraught. "We have to go! Come on!" Samuel grabbed his hand forcefully and Part helped/Dragged Tristan to his feet. They ran like that for a little bit dodging bullets left and right. One clipped Samuel on the shoulder, but it wasn't bad, so he shook it off.
By the time they reached the crosswalk by the parking lot, Tristan regained himself. The school in view the two of them started sprinting back at full speed. The coach was standing at the door waving them into the locker room.
I Knew Your Family
The two of them were the last two people to enter the locker room, so the coach slammed the door shut. All of the boys that made it to the locker room were visibly winded and looked awful. A couple of them had minor wounds with towels on them to stop the bleeding like Samuel was going to be, while others like Tristan were just messy with a couple of scrapes. Of the group of kids that were there, half of them were sitting down in front of the lockers, others were laughing some kind of anxious laugh, others like Tristan and Samuel were just in shock with what had just occurred. While they were scanning the room, Tristan turned to Samuel and asked, "Do you see Morgan anywhere?"
"Not at first glance, but I'll check again, then I will get a towel for this whatever it is on my shoulder. It hurts like hell." after a second or two he added, "Still no luck."
"You go get that shoulder looked at. I'll take care of Morgan. Yo, Have any of you all seen Morgan anywhere?"
The students looked at each other and then one piped up, "The instant he got in, he headed to the bathroom. He seemed pretty shook."
Tristan then headed into the bathroom, and knocked knowing something that the other kids didn't: Morgan had struggled with anxiety since the really ugly divorce that happened a couple of years ago. Tristan just didn't know the exact trigger. When he stepped inside, he saw Morgan sitting up against the far wall, head in his hands completely freaking out from the facial expression. Tristan approached him cautiously, one hand in front of his face so that Morgan would not get any worse. "Hey, how you doing?" Tristan's voice was soft.
Morgan took a few moments to at least somewhat catch his breath, "Fucking awful." He paused for a moment then added noticing the scrape that Tristan had on the other side of his face, "You don't look too hot yourself."
"I can tell." Tristan responded, and then added, "It'll just complement my other scar, but it's not that bad." Tristan took a knee in front of him and made notes of any signs of a panic attack. He then deduced that that was what was happening, "What can I do to help?" He asked as he started to notice Morgan starting to calm down.
"Just help me get my breathing under control," Morgan muttered between breaths.
"OK," Tristan replied. "With me." Tristan breathed in deeply, held his breath for a bit, and then released it.
"That works."
The two stayed there breathing for a few minutes. "You good?" Tristan asked as he started to notice Morgan was getting better.
"Thanks. It's been a long time since I have had one of those episodes."
"I hear you." Tristan stood up after a couple more minutes, offering Morgan a hand. Morgan grabbed it. The two walked back into the locker room and good 20 minutes of silence followed as the kids sat there, waiting for the bombing to pass. After that, the coach went and checked outside and decided that the coast was clear.
Tristan and Samuel were the first two to exit the building. Outside it looked like all hell broke loose. There were some red stains on the snow with around 4 bodies laying around on the way to the field. Tristan, seeing this decided to take a closer look for some survivors, though the chances were relatively slim. Samuel followed keeping one step back. Both of them were still covered in dirt from the explosion that happened directly next to him. Taking in his surroundings, Tristan had seen that some of the area surrounding the school had been demolished. The two continued on the walk when Tristan felt something grab his leg he looked down to see one of his teammates was still alive. He knelt down, Samuel right beside him. Samuel called to see if anyone was around to help. Morgan was the only one to respond as the coach was slightly out of earshot.
The trio started two bounce ideas off of each other, and the first of these was to toss some snow onto the wound. They tried that but the snow almost immediately turned a deep red. "Does anyone else have any better ideas?" Tristan asked.
""Put some pressure on it?" Morgan asked half gagging at what the wound looked like.
"Good idea," Tristan responded as he ripped off his windbreaker and undershirt. He then through his windbreaker back on. He put the Shirt, on the wound "Stay with us," Tristan added. "Samuel, call 911." Trying to stay calm.
Samuel stepped away and dialed 911. He put the phone up to his ear and waited. The phone didn't even ring. He tried again, and still had no luck. "Uh, Tristan. The phone lines are down."
"Shit!" Tristan cried out, and then added: "Run get the coach." He said, as he officially ran out of ideas. Samuel took off running, but on his way, he stepped wrong in a crater and went down hard. "Samuel, you alright!" Tristan turned to Morgan and told him to keep the pressure on the wound. Though Morgan disapproved, he followed Tristan's instructions.
Tristan started sprinting towards Samuel, as he had heard a very loud crack, and Samuel crying out in pain. The coach seemed to have heard the exact thing Tristan heard, as he busted through the door. Tristan jumped on top of him holding him down, in order to prevent him from going into shock. He turned around to see Samuel's ankle already starting to swell up. The visual was enough to let Tristan know that his ankle was badly broken. The ankle was bent awkwardly, practically parallel to the ground. The coach approached, and seeing Tristan, on top of Samuel, he called the Athletic trainer on his radio.
Not even 5 minutes passed and Tristan saw the trainer on his cart driving over. When he arrived, Tristan said, "he stepped wrong." The trainer hopped off of his cart and came right towards them to take a look.
"As far as I can tell he broke his ankle cleanly. We are going to have to set it out here, then I could take him in to get it wrapped." Noticing Tristan's bare chest beneath his sweatshirt, he asked, "Where is your undershirt."
"Morgan has it because he is tending to that kid over there. "
"I'll take a look over there. You keep this one still. I will be right back." The athletic trainer hopped back on his cart and saw to the kid that was badly wounded. From Tristan's angle it looked like the trainer told Morgan to move, and then sadly, Check for a pulse. A short time passed, and he and Morgan headed back towards Samuel. When they got back, the Trainer tossed Tristan his bloody t-shirt, and said, "He didn't make it. "
"Damn it," Tristan said.
"Let's focus on this kid now. Let's first get him on the cart."
Tristan and the coach got the upper body, and Morgan and the athletic trainer got the lower body, the trainer getting the broken ankle. "One. Two. Three." The group lifted him up, as the ankle just hung loosely, while the trainer put it into the proper position, being sure to not put to much pressure on the tendons. While they lifted him, Tristan noticed some tears on his face, which hardly ever happened. They laid him down. The trainer told Tristan to talk to him to keep his mind off of what was about to happen. After a few seconds, The Trainer turned his ankle hard and Samuel let out a howl and started to chuckle. Seeing Samuel smile gave Tristan a small amount of normality. The cart then headed back to the fieldhouse. When they got there, they carried Samuel back to the Training room. While they were inside, the trainer did some work.
While the Athletic trainer was doing some work, Tristan called his mom, who was at home, hoping that her car was all right because he did not want to put too much stress on Samuel's ankle.
"Mom... Yeah. I am alright... You? ... Glad to hear it ... Would you be able to give Samuel and Morgan a ride home? OK... OK... Thanks."
Lavender
He turned to Samuel and Morgan and let them know that his mom was able to give them a ride back to their houses, But it would be a few minutes before she got there. While he was gone, The trainer had started prepping Samuel to get wrapped up. His right foot had a shoe off and got some prewrap. It wasn't a cast, but it would work for the time being. He then sprayed his ankle and lower leg with some stuff that even though Tristan had had on before, he didn't know what it was called. The Trainer then put on layer one of the wrapping and then layer two which was colored blue, since that was the only kind that they had. He then disappeared into the back and grabbed a pair of crutches and a splint. He eyeballed Samuel's height which was around 5' 3", and set them to the appropriate height. While Samuel was trying out the crutches, He tossed Tristan the supplies that he used and said, "Change this wrap every day for around 6 weeks. It may be better before then, but he will have a slight limp after that. Did you see how I wrapped it?" He then called Samuel over and taped a splint on the ankle.
"Yes," Tristan replied, as he repeated the steps back to the trainer. The trainer gave him a few pointers and then Tristan got a text from his mom saying that she was by the front door. Tristan carried his friend's bag, and backpack for him while Morgan was walking right next to Samuel on the opposite. The school looked different this time through the halls. The lighting was slightly darker than usual since the local power plant had been hit by a bomb. The only lights that were seen were the exit lights, though the light from outside helped. During their walk back to the front door, there were areas that were exposed to the elements. In these areas, the snow drifted down through the roof like dust and settled on the floor. Even though it was unnerving, it looked really pristine. During this walk, a thought ran through his head: Life was never going to be the same.
The threesome arrived at the front door to the school and Tristan's mom was there, outside of her car. Tristan who was carrying 4 bags dropped Samuel's stuff and ran towards his mom. In her embrace, he broke down. In the process, the thought that had entered his mind during the walk through the school revised itself: Though most everything was never going to be the same, only three things remained: Faith, Family, and Friends.
Morgan was the first to be dropped off, and Tristan's mom then drove to Samuel's house which looked generally ruined. Tristan carried Samuel's stuff, and followed him into his house, and there in the entry, Partially under a pile of rocks was Samuel's mom. "Oh no," Tristan said as he raced towards the pile of bricks. Samuel was going as fast as he could. When both the kids got there, Samuel dropped his crutches on the ground. Together, they ripped the bricks off of Samuel's mom, Nearly blooding their fingers. When they were mostly done, Tristan ran to his mom who was in the car and beckoned her to come out. He dragged her into the house. When she saw Samuel's mom lying on the ground, she put her fingers on her wrist to check for a pulse. When nothing was happening, she leaned in to see if she could hear her breathing, and nothing was happening. Not willing to give up yet, especially since Samuel was right there, she started to do some CPR. She tried so many times that she lost count, and still, nothing was happening. She turned to Samuel, shook her head, and closed his mom's eyes. Samuel was an emotional wreck so Tristan's mom went over to him, and wrapped her arm around him, and gave him a few minutes to get his bearings. When he got his bearings back, She and Tristan helped him up and Tristan grabbed Samuel's crutches and handed them to him. On the way to the door, he picked up Samuel's bags. The three of them walked to back towards the car. When they got in, Tristan looked Samuel in the eye, and told him, "We'll come back later so you can collect some of your things. For tonight, you are going to stay with us, OK?
Samuel, who was still upset, nodded as the car left the driveway. He looked through the rear window with a desperate look. He had just lot everything he had ever had in one fateful afternoon.
_____________________________
2.9.18
All of the sudden I was back in my room. "How did that work? You were playing and next to me, and like the emotions -?"
I went on and on, and then Tristan interrupted me, "This is all done through a media sharing app that collects all of the perspectives from the given day, and then with your permission it shares it."
"Doesn't that invade your privacy?"
"Not really."
"How does it record though?"
"You can't see them, but in my eyes, I have these contacts that have the ability to record."
"but then how did we follow the action?"
"It's complicated and too much to explain in the amount of time we have."
"Brief explanation?"
"On the app, I turned on a setting to make it so that we were seeing everything up close and personal. What is this, 20 questions?"
"OK that works I guess. What happened next?"
On the way there, Samuel ran closer to Tristan, gave him a wallop on the backside, and then between breaths said, "Nice shot!"
Tristan replied, "I had to impress the coach."
The two of them reach the face-off dot, and right as they did so, some clouds started to move in. The coach blew the whistle, but this time, Samuel hit Tristan pretty hard with a check. As Tristan went down from the hit, he called, "OK, I see how it is," Jokingly and hopped right back up and sprinted to catch up with Samuel. Before he could catch up though, he saw that Samuel's team had a breakaway going down the other way. Almost immediately after that he recognized the play and ran it through his head. Samuel would break right to the center of the field while the two player racing down the wing went straight down the field. As they got further down the field Samuel passed to Morgan, who was on the left wing, and Morgan passed across the field to the player going down the right side of the field towards the goal, knowing that that was where he was going to be for basically a slam dunk of a goal.
Then out of nowhere, it started to snow. It was steady, but it wasn't enough to call the game at a draw. Before the face-off, Tristan, Samuel and the coach decided to say next goal wins. The coach who was in on the conversation agreed and Tristan called out to the field, "Next goal wins!" And play resumed. Tristan won the draw and just as that occurred the snow started to pick up. In fact, a layer of about a 1/4 inch formed. With every step, the snow cleared, leaving a footprint. A few seconds later, it started to get into their cleats. Tristan looked over to his left and he saw one of his teammates gain a step on his defender. He sent the ball that direction but the teammate dropped the pass. The ball bounced around for a couple of minutes but eventually the teammate that dropped it recovered the ball. Once he had the ball firm in his stick, the teammate continued to sprint forward, spinning and juking trying to get Morgan off of his back. He eventually found some room, but one of the defenders stepped up, so he flipped it behind his back to Tristan who was crossing to take his position.
Tristan, who was keeping his head on a swivel saw that the attackman was open behind the net, so he passed it to him. He stood still for a minute and waited for his team to get settled. Once they did, he passed the ball to his teammate who was somewhat open on the left wing. The coach seemed like he was thoroughly enjoying this offensive possession. I could tell because he was trotting behind the last offensive man. As this was going on Tristan started to break towards the center of the net. The person on the left wing saw this occurring and noticed that Tristan had a step on Samuel, so he passed it to him. Tristan caught the net. As it crossed the line though, a siren that the boys had never heard before went off, bring the celebration to a screeching halt. The boys looked around for awhile and a few expletives were coming from the boy's mouths, who were on the field. Morgan seemed like he was petrified.
***
It did not take long for the coach to call them over. "Great game guys, but I think that you all should change your shoes and head inside." The last word kind of cracked out of his voice, so he pointed to the south. I followed his finger and saw a lot of smoke rising from that direction. I turned to the Tristan who was standing next to me, and asked, "Is this what you were hinting at?" He nodded his head. "Well Shit. You were right."
"Don't worry, we who are watching won't get hurt." Was that pride I saw in his eyes?
"I hope so."
***
From the looks of it, the smoke was still a ways away, so everyone changed their shoes, threw the cleats into their bags and put the bags over their shoulders. By the time that all was completed, rumblings started by heard off in the distance.
Soon everyone was done packing so the boys started to sprint towards the school, covered in snow because it had not yet let up. The group could not have been more than a quarter of the way to the fieldhouse when they got up close and personal with what was going on. A few of the boys started to open up their snapchats and updating their audience, giving some sort of monologue. The problem with what they were doing, whether they knew it or not was the fact that updating their stories was slowing them down. Those boys eventually started to get mowed down, one by one. The occasional plume of smoke was a sign that a bomb was going off. Right next to Samuel, a boy got shot at least 4 or five times by a weapon of some kind. For me, it was just brutal just standing there not being able to help but then again, what would I do? Seeing this happen, caused Samuel to start to dart towards Tristan, shielding his face from the dust that was being thrown up all around him.
A few seconds later, A bomb exploded less than 25 yards from Tristan and Samuel, who were running side by side, eyes wide with terror. Tristan was the first to go down, and then Samuel followed suit. The two of them were down for a couple of minutes as they shook off the ringing of their ears. As they were down they were soon engulfed in smoke as one of the automatic weapons mowed down one of the students right in front of them. Samuel crawled towards him, still shaking off the effects of the blast. He's still alive? I thought to myself. Samuel looked at him and it seemed like he was saying, "we'll be back OK?" Samuel then scrambled back to Tristan who was still clearly distraught. "We have to go! Come on!" Samuel grabbed his hand forcefully and Part helped/Dragged Tristan to his feet. They ran like that for a little bit dodging bullets left and right. One clipped Samuel on the shoulder, but it wasn't bad, so he shook it off.
By the time they reached the crosswalk by the parking lot, Tristan regained himself. The school in view the two of them started sprinting back at full speed. The coach was standing at the door waving them into the locker room.
I Knew Your Family
The two of them were the last two people to enter the locker room, so the coach slammed the door shut. All of the boys that made it to the locker room were visibly winded and looked awful. A couple of them had minor wounds with towels on them to stop the bleeding like Samuel was going to be, while others like Tristan were just messy with a couple of scrapes. Of the group of kids that were there, half of them were sitting down in front of the lockers, others were laughing some kind of anxious laugh, others like Tristan and Samuel were just in shock with what had just occurred. While they were scanning the room, Tristan turned to Samuel and asked, "Do you see Morgan anywhere?"
"Not at first glance, but I'll check again, then I will get a towel for this whatever it is on my shoulder. It hurts like hell." after a second or two he added, "Still no luck."
"You go get that shoulder looked at. I'll take care of Morgan. Yo, Have any of you all seen Morgan anywhere?"
The students looked at each other and then one piped up, "The instant he got in, he headed to the bathroom. He seemed pretty shook."
Tristan then headed into the bathroom, and knocked knowing something that the other kids didn't: Morgan had struggled with anxiety since the really ugly divorce that happened a couple of years ago. Tristan just didn't know the exact trigger. When he stepped inside, he saw Morgan sitting up against the far wall, head in his hands completely freaking out from the facial expression. Tristan approached him cautiously, one hand in front of his face so that Morgan would not get any worse. "Hey, how you doing?" Tristan's voice was soft.
Morgan took a few moments to at least somewhat catch his breath, "Fucking awful." He paused for a moment then added noticing the scrape that Tristan had on the other side of his face, "You don't look too hot yourself."
"I can tell." Tristan responded, and then added, "It'll just complement my other scar, but it's not that bad." Tristan took a knee in front of him and made notes of any signs of a panic attack. He then deduced that that was what was happening, "What can I do to help?" He asked as he started to notice Morgan starting to calm down.
"Just help me get my breathing under control," Morgan muttered between breaths.
"OK," Tristan replied. "With me." Tristan breathed in deeply, held his breath for a bit, and then released it.
"That works."
The two stayed there breathing for a few minutes. "You good?" Tristan asked as he started to notice Morgan was getting better.
"Thanks. It's been a long time since I have had one of those episodes."
"I hear you." Tristan stood up after a couple more minutes, offering Morgan a hand. Morgan grabbed it. The two walked back into the locker room and good 20 minutes of silence followed as the kids sat there, waiting for the bombing to pass. After that, the coach went and checked outside and decided that the coast was clear.
Tristan and Samuel were the first two to exit the building. Outside it looked like all hell broke loose. There were some red stains on the snow with around 4 bodies laying around on the way to the field. Tristan, seeing this decided to take a closer look for some survivors, though the chances were relatively slim. Samuel followed keeping one step back. Both of them were still covered in dirt from the explosion that happened directly next to him. Taking in his surroundings, Tristan had seen that some of the area surrounding the school had been demolished. The two continued on the walk when Tristan felt something grab his leg he looked down to see one of his teammates was still alive. He knelt down, Samuel right beside him. Samuel called to see if anyone was around to help. Morgan was the only one to respond as the coach was slightly out of earshot.
The trio started two bounce ideas off of each other, and the first of these was to toss some snow onto the wound. They tried that but the snow almost immediately turned a deep red. "Does anyone else have any better ideas?" Tristan asked.
""Put some pressure on it?" Morgan asked half gagging at what the wound looked like.
"Good idea," Tristan responded as he ripped off his windbreaker and undershirt. He then through his windbreaker back on. He put the Shirt, on the wound "Stay with us," Tristan added. "Samuel, call 911." Trying to stay calm.
Samuel stepped away and dialed 911. He put the phone up to his ear and waited. The phone didn't even ring. He tried again, and still had no luck. "Uh, Tristan. The phone lines are down."
"Shit!" Tristan cried out, and then added: "Run get the coach." He said, as he officially ran out of ideas. Samuel took off running, but on his way, he stepped wrong in a crater and went down hard. "Samuel, you alright!" Tristan turned to Morgan and told him to keep the pressure on the wound. Though Morgan disapproved, he followed Tristan's instructions.
Tristan started sprinting towards Samuel, as he had heard a very loud crack, and Samuel crying out in pain. The coach seemed to have heard the exact thing Tristan heard, as he busted through the door. Tristan jumped on top of him holding him down, in order to prevent him from going into shock. He turned around to see Samuel's ankle already starting to swell up. The visual was enough to let Tristan know that his ankle was badly broken. The ankle was bent awkwardly, practically parallel to the ground. The coach approached, and seeing Tristan, on top of Samuel, he called the Athletic trainer on his radio.
Not even 5 minutes passed and Tristan saw the trainer on his cart driving over. When he arrived, Tristan said, "he stepped wrong." The trainer hopped off of his cart and came right towards them to take a look.
"As far as I can tell he broke his ankle cleanly. We are going to have to set it out here, then I could take him in to get it wrapped." Noticing Tristan's bare chest beneath his sweatshirt, he asked, "Where is your undershirt."
"Morgan has it because he is tending to that kid over there. "
"I'll take a look over there. You keep this one still. I will be right back." The athletic trainer hopped back on his cart and saw to the kid that was badly wounded. From Tristan's angle it looked like the trainer told Morgan to move, and then sadly, Check for a pulse. A short time passed, and he and Morgan headed back towards Samuel. When they got back, the Trainer tossed Tristan his bloody t-shirt, and said, "He didn't make it. "
"Damn it," Tristan said.
"Let's focus on this kid now. Let's first get him on the cart."
Tristan and the coach got the upper body, and Morgan and the athletic trainer got the lower body, the trainer getting the broken ankle. "One. Two. Three." The group lifted him up, as the ankle just hung loosely, while the trainer put it into the proper position, being sure to not put to much pressure on the tendons. While they lifted him, Tristan noticed some tears on his face, which hardly ever happened. They laid him down. The trainer told Tristan to talk to him to keep his mind off of what was about to happen. After a few seconds, The Trainer turned his ankle hard and Samuel let out a howl and started to chuckle. Seeing Samuel smile gave Tristan a small amount of normality. The cart then headed back to the fieldhouse. When they got there, they carried Samuel back to the Training room. While they were inside, the trainer did some work.
While the Athletic trainer was doing some work, Tristan called his mom, who was at home, hoping that her car was all right because he did not want to put too much stress on Samuel's ankle.
"Mom... Yeah. I am alright... You? ... Glad to hear it ... Would you be able to give Samuel and Morgan a ride home? OK... OK... Thanks."
Lavender
He turned to Samuel and Morgan and let them know that his mom was able to give them a ride back to their houses, But it would be a few minutes before she got there. While he was gone, The trainer had started prepping Samuel to get wrapped up. His right foot had a shoe off and got some prewrap. It wasn't a cast, but it would work for the time being. He then sprayed his ankle and lower leg with some stuff that even though Tristan had had on before, he didn't know what it was called. The Trainer then put on layer one of the wrapping and then layer two which was colored blue, since that was the only kind that they had. He then disappeared into the back and grabbed a pair of crutches and a splint. He eyeballed Samuel's height which was around 5' 3", and set them to the appropriate height. While Samuel was trying out the crutches, He tossed Tristan the supplies that he used and said, "Change this wrap every day for around 6 weeks. It may be better before then, but he will have a slight limp after that. Did you see how I wrapped it?" He then called Samuel over and taped a splint on the ankle.
"Yes," Tristan replied, as he repeated the steps back to the trainer. The trainer gave him a few pointers and then Tristan got a text from his mom saying that she was by the front door. Tristan carried his friend's bag, and backpack for him while Morgan was walking right next to Samuel on the opposite. The school looked different this time through the halls. The lighting was slightly darker than usual since the local power plant had been hit by a bomb. The only lights that were seen were the exit lights, though the light from outside helped. During their walk back to the front door, there were areas that were exposed to the elements. In these areas, the snow drifted down through the roof like dust and settled on the floor. Even though it was unnerving, it looked really pristine. During this walk, a thought ran through his head: Life was never going to be the same.
The threesome arrived at the front door to the school and Tristan's mom was there, outside of her car. Tristan who was carrying 4 bags dropped Samuel's stuff and ran towards his mom. In her embrace, he broke down. In the process, the thought that had entered his mind during the walk through the school revised itself: Though most everything was never going to be the same, only three things remained: Faith, Family, and Friends.
***
Morgan was the first to be dropped off, and Tristan's mom then drove to Samuel's house which looked generally ruined. Tristan carried Samuel's stuff, and followed him into his house, and there in the entry, Partially under a pile of rocks was Samuel's mom. "Oh no," Tristan said as he raced towards the pile of bricks. Samuel was going as fast as he could. When both the kids got there, Samuel dropped his crutches on the ground. Together, they ripped the bricks off of Samuel's mom, Nearly blooding their fingers. When they were mostly done, Tristan ran to his mom who was in the car and beckoned her to come out. He dragged her into the house. When she saw Samuel's mom lying on the ground, she put her fingers on her wrist to check for a pulse. When nothing was happening, she leaned in to see if she could hear her breathing, and nothing was happening. Not willing to give up yet, especially since Samuel was right there, she started to do some CPR. She tried so many times that she lost count, and still, nothing was happening. She turned to Samuel, shook her head, and closed his mom's eyes. Samuel was an emotional wreck so Tristan's mom went over to him, and wrapped her arm around him, and gave him a few minutes to get his bearings. When he got his bearings back, She and Tristan helped him up and Tristan grabbed Samuel's crutches and handed them to him. On the way to the door, he picked up Samuel's bags. The three of them walked to back towards the car. When they got in, Tristan looked Samuel in the eye, and told him, "We'll come back later so you can collect some of your things. For tonight, you are going to stay with us, OK?
Samuel, who was still upset, nodded as the car left the driveway. He looked through the rear window with a desperate look. He had just lot everything he had ever had in one fateful afternoon.
_____________________________
2.9.18
All of the sudden I was back in my room. "How did that work? You were playing and next to me, and like the emotions -?"
I went on and on, and then Tristan interrupted me, "This is all done through a media sharing app that collects all of the perspectives from the given day, and then with your permission it shares it."
"Doesn't that invade your privacy?"
"Not really."
"How does it record though?"
"You can't see them, but in my eyes, I have these contacts that have the ability to record."
"but then how did we follow the action?"
"It's complicated and too much to explain in the amount of time we have."
"Brief explanation?"
"On the app, I turned on a setting to make it so that we were seeing everything up close and personal. What is this, 20 questions?"
"OK that works I guess. What happened next?"