Awake

Kevin and Andrew sat down at the curb. They just sat there, as if nothing happened—or as if nothing was ever going to happen. Just a moment before, Kevin had gone to check up on Andrew to see how his mother was doing, but Andrew had simply replied with a solemn shake of his head. Their fears were confirmed. Everyone was asleep…and there was nothing they could do about it.

  Kevin stared morosely at the road. Andrew fell back on the lawn and gazed at the sky.

  After a long period of contemplation, Andrew broke the silence. “What should we do?”

  “I don’t know,” Kevin replied. “We could wait. It might be temporary. Like maybe everyone is just incredibly tired and they’ll be awake by tomorrow.”

  “That’d be good.”

  “And that’d be an understatement.”

  “Could we try calling someone else? Maybe this is just a neighborhood thing.”

  Kevin’s face lit up. “I never thought of that!”

  Kevin hastily dialed 9-1-1 on his cell. He listened to it ring for a while. Kevin counted the number of times it rang. If it reached twenty, he would hang up. To his surprise, it didn’t even reach five.

  “Hello?” A woman answered.

  “Hello!” Kevin jumped to his feet. “Hey! Is this 9-1-1 emergency?”

  “I’m terribly sorry,” said the woman, sounding frightened. “But we cannot help you at this time. Please try calling back at a later date.”

  “Wait! My parents aren’t waking up. I think it’s a coma. Hello?”

  “Again, I’m terribly sorry. But there’s…no one around at the moment. Goodbye.”

  “No, wait! Don’t goodbye me! We need—”

  The woman hung up rather quickly.

  Andrew stared at Kevin. “Well?”

  Disheartened, Kevin threw his cell phone over his shoulder and sat back down. “She said there’s no one around and told me to call back later.”

  Andrew yawned. “Back to square one.”

  Kevin became very quiet and went back to staring at the road, emotionless.

  Andrew hummed a single note. “Want to play video games?”

  Kevin turned slightly to see Andrew with the corner of his eye. “At a time like this?”

  Andrew shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like there’s anything else to do. No school. No homework. No life. Nothing at all.”

  Kevin thought for a moment. “True…but we could also do other things—things we normally can’t do.”

  “Like what?”

  Kevin grinned. “Like driving!”

  Andrew’s interest was piqued. “Do you know how?”

  “I practiced in a parking lot recently. Besides, the roads are empty. It’ll be easy.”

  “Isn’t it dangerous to drive if you’re tired?”

  “You’re right,” said Kevin. “I’ll take a nap first. After we get some rest then we can do whatever we want.”

  “You don’t think…” Andrew stopped and gulped.

  Kevin demanded, “What?”

  Andrew took a deep breath before continuing. “You don’t think we’ll end up like everyone else?”

  “I don’t know.” Kevin shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

  “That’s a big risk to take,” said Andrew reasonably. “Never waking up again.”

  “But we have to sleep sometime. It’s not like we can just stay awake forever.”

  Andrew said, “So…if we don’t sleep, we might die from lack of sleep. But if we do sleep, we’ll never wake up and will probably die in our sleep.”

  Kevin frowned. “You make it sound so depressing.”

  Andrew hung his head sheepishly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

  “Don’t apologize,” said Kevin. “You’re just stating the facts.” Kevin stood up, stretching out his arms and legs. “I don’t care anymore. Depressed or not, we have to do something!” He smiled. “Going to sleep to escape this nightmare. Oh, the irony.” Kevin marched up the driveway.

  A man’s voice said, “Hold it right there.”

  It wasn’t Andrew’s voice.

  “Who said that?” Kevin spun around, searching the area. “Is someone else here?”

  Suddenly, a dog and cat appeared before him, blocking the way to his house. It was the same dog and cat from before: the yellow Labrador and the black cat. The Lab was blind in the left eye, having a scar over it. The cat glared at the boys with intense eyes. Both pets looked intimidating.

  “I said that,” said the dog.

  Kevin froze. It was like his mind suddenly exploded. He gawked at the animals for a long time. Then, when he finally regained his composure, he turned to see Andrew’s reaction. Andrew looked just as shocked. Kevin faced the animals again, thinking of any possible explanations for this strange occurrence.

  Kevin broke into laughter. “Oh, that’s a good one, Andrew. You’ve been practicing ventriloquism?”

  The dog jumped on top of Kevin and barked, “Kid, can’t you see I’m the one who’s talking here?”

  “Okay…maybe I’m hallucinating.”

  The dog said, “This is no hallucination. Do you want me to prove it?”

  “How?”

  “Give me a test. I’ll prove that I can understand you.”

  “Um…okay. For starters, you could get off me.”

  The dog backed away and sat down. “And?”

  Kevin got to his feet and thought about it for a short time. Then he finally came up with a good idea. “I’ve got it. How about an act? If you can act like the cat is chasing you around, then I’ll believe you.”

  The dog gazed wide-eyed at Kevin. “You want me to do what?”

  “Act like you’re being chased by a cat.”

  “I-I don’t—I can’t—” The dog stuttered. Shivering, the dog slowly turned his head and stared at the cat in horror. He then stared at Kevin with these endearing eyes full of anxiety. The dog looked as though it was about to cry and maybe even faint. Kevin saw that the dog was reacting really strangely.

  Gloating, the cat sneered in a female voice, “Come on, run away! You heard the boy!”

  “No, that’s okay,” said Kevin, and the dog took a deep breath of relief. “If it’s a matter of pride, I can understand. I just want to know how you can talk.”

  The dog said, “We’ve lived long enough with humans.”

  “Then why don’t I normally see animals talking?”

  “We already have our own forms of communication. We only need to speak human language if we’re speaking to humans. Or if we need to communicate universally.”

  Kevin nodded. “I guess you have a point there. But why do you guys sometimes act like you don’t really understand us?”

  The dog explained, “It is our law not to speak with humans. How much more trouble would be caused if we could communicate easily? We don’t care about the things you care about. You work, you invent, and you engage in strange forms of recreation such as traveling or…leaping off airplanes. Your laws and rules mean nothing to us.

  “Think about it. What if we did speak with humans? In crime scenes they’d start to look for animal witnesses. They might try to use us for spying or killing. They might even start applying laws against us and we’d no longer have the freedom to go wherever we want, eat whatever we want or pee wherever we want. No, it’s better if the humans did not know.

  “More importantly, we live by instinct. How would you react if you knew that the chicken you ate could speak your own language? As animals we are in tune with nature and live by nature. We accept death as inevitable, but you humans see it in a different light, trying to create ways to increase your lifespan in any way possible.”

  Kevin furrowed his brow. “I’ll never look at a piece of chicken the same way again.” Kevin paused. “If it’s against your law, why are you talking to me?”

  The dog replied gravely, “Because these are desperate times. Humans all over the world cannot wake up from their slumber. We are not sure why, but we don’t think it’s natural. It’s because of this situation that
we’ve formed the HPC, which we are agents of.”

  “Agents? HPC? So is this like an organization with animal agents? What does it stand for—Hungry Pet Country?”

  His eyes narrowing, the dog looked annoyed. “No. The HPC is the Household Pet Coalition. It is a temporary alliance of all pets…except for fish—they’re pretty useless. As pets, we need humans to live. Not only that, but we love our masters. We are willing to set aside our differences to protect them,” the dog snuck an angry glance at the cat, “even if the differences go back for thousands of years.”

  Kevin cocked his head. “Then why don’t you go and solve this? What’s the point in coming to me about it?”

  “Because humans are more resourceful. Understanding your language does not mean we understand much of anything else about you. Your science is beyond what we could fathom. Those computers and cars and such would be very useful to our investigation.”

  Kevin shrugged. “I’m only thirteen years old. I’m not a scientist or anything. I’m not even smart…like, at all.”

  “The only reason we are turning to children such as yourselves is because you are the only ones we have found awake,” said the dog. “And I didn’t say you had to be alone. We welcome any humans for this task, even that friend of yours over there. If you feel you cannot help us solve the problem, at the very least we could use your assistance in finding humans more suitable for the task. Don’t worry about anything else. We are agents sent by the HPC and we will be your bodyguards. I’m Genesis.” The dog gestured to the cat with his head. “And this is my associate, Luna.”

  “Genesis and Luna? Who gave you those names?”

  “We named ourselves,” Genesis replied. “We’re strays.” Genesis continued, “So how about it? Are you in or out? I can guarantee that if you go to sleep…you’ll never wake up. Do you want that to happen? Your family and friends…they’ll all be dead. And so will you. On the other hand, if you stick with us, we might find a way to save the human race.”

  “It almost sounds like I don’t have a choice,” said Kevin.

  Genesis nodded. “Then you see things our way.”

  - Korgen -