The Children

The Children

An e-Book by:

Douglas Kapin

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Smashwords Edition

Science Fiction at its best

Copyright © 2010 by Douglas Kapin

Email: OneOfTheChildren@Hotmail.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This story is a work of Fiction, Science Fiction. It’s all made up. That means that these aren’t real people or real places, or real events. I really made it all up. This is Science Fiction, not Fantasy, or nightmares. Once upon a time, in an imaginary time, in an imaginary place, and most of all an imaginary society, the ‘Children’ emerged with John. Enjoy then this story about John and his ‘Children’.

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Dedication:

To ‘The Dreamers.’

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Thanks:

I am really blessed; I have many really good friends. The foremost of my friends is my wife of now thirty years, Linda. She put up with the long nights of my writing my first book, and she’s never read it, probably never will. (It’s really awful) When I started this book, I took the first few pages to her and she loved it. She’s put up with my jabber about the various aspects of the story. My Cat, Gumball (Then ten, She’s gone now) has taken her usual place on the table beside my keyboard and settled down for her nap. Even after the long hours on this book, they still love me.

My friends have been busy reading and bleeding all over my manuscripts. If it weren’t for my computer and Microsoft’s wonderful Windows ’95 and ‘Word’ program and spell checker, this would have taken years to write. I would have given up around page ten. I use Windows 7 and Word 2010 now.

So then I give my special thanks to:

My wife Linda for her faith in me

My cat Gumball for her patience and companionship

My friends and family (Too many to mention)

Microsoft Corp.

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Foreword:

There are many who spend years of their lives analyzing the older TV Series like. Star Trek, The prisoner, Doctor Who?, and many, many others. They would have you believe that the author hid many secrets and that there are many underlying and valuable truths hidden within. A deep and exhaustive analysis of this book would be a total waste of time.

"The Children’ are a wonderful association where love, trust, respect, and loyalty are values worth their weight in gold. Where selfishness, greed, rudeness, and lying are put away voluntarily. Where the rights of others outweigh our personal rights. Where social standing, occupation, race, sex, and age have no bearing. Where all have the same rights, the same worth. With eternity in view, aren’t we all really children? . . . . I am!

Please enjoy then, my offering to the Magical World of Science Fiction.

The Author:

Douglas Kapin - ‘One of the Children’

The bracketed notation as in {All those who didn’t make it.} denote mental communications (ESP), not verbal.

The bracketed notation as in [Johnny, are you going to introduce your guests?] denote verbal Computer communications. I know, this is silly, but really most of the time the speaker is not visible.

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The Children

Table of Contents:

Dedication:

Thanks:

Foreword:

Chapter 1: - John:

Chapter 2: - The Hall of Remembrance:

Chapter 3: - The Little people:

Chapter 4: - The Shotgun:

Chapter 5: - I’ll Draw the Line:

Chapter 6: - School:

Chapter 7: - Karen:

Chapter 8: - A Wedding?

Chapter 9: - A Honeymoon:

Chapter 10: - The Founders:

Chapter 11: - The Attack:

Chapter 12: - Only the Beginning:

Chapter 13: - The First Class:

Chapter 14: - A Surprise?

Chapter 15: - Mars:

Chapter 16: - The First Graduation:

Chapter 17: - Graduate the Third Class:

Chapter 18: - The Gathering:

Chapter 19: - The UN:

Chapter 20: - You Cannot Kill Me!

About the Author:

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Chapter 1: - John: - (Go to Top)

Its eleven-thirty, Friday night; we leave on vacation at five AM. I lay there in bed; eyes wide open, my heart pounding like I had just run the hundred-yard dash. Sleep? They told me to get some sleep, who do they think I am?

It’s been three years since we’ve been on a vacation. Dad is trying to make up for it; we’ll be gone for three full weeks.

I have three little sisters, seven, eight and nine. Dad said I could bring a friend along for me. That was a relief, and a real concession on his part. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sisters, but we’ll be in the mountains and there’s fishing and hiking and exploring and all that neat stuff. I sure don’t want three little girls trying to traipse around with me. After all, I’m sixteen!

Bill and I are the same age. His dad takes him out all the time. Bill’s dad is letting him bring a bunch of their neat stuff with him on the trip. They have climbing ropes and stuff and they even have metal locators. There’s gold where we’re going, and who knows, maybe we’ll find an old gun or something. Maybe we’ll find one of those old mines and a big cache of gold. I could handle that.

Oh, I’m sorry, my name is John. My birth certificate says Johnny; I’ve gotten just about everyone to quit calling me that. I’m sixteen years old and I have one more year of school. I run track and cross-country, I’m not heavy enough for football, and I’m too short for basketball, and I think baseball is boring.

Bill and I spend a lot of time together. We’re both on the cross-country team and we both like biking and hiking. This vacation should be a ball. I made dad promise that we don’t have to babysit the girls.

I lay there running over the stuff I packed for the trip. I have everything I can think of. We finished packing the motor home a few minutes ago. It is all gassed up and we’re ready to go. Dad got keys from someone he knows, and we’ll be able to get in on one of the maintenance roads that ends at a maintenance shed, they have electricity and water, which will make it a lot nicer. There’s not supposed to be anyone else there at the shed, so we should have the whole place to ourselves.

Bill and I are bringing a tent and of course sleeping bags. They say there are no wild animals much bigger than a squirrel. They have deer, but then no one really classifies them as dangerous.

I heard someone in the bathroom. I guess I’m not the only one who can’t sleep.

The door opened slowly and the light from the hall streamed into my room. John! Four-thirty, time to get up.

Thanks Dad, did you get any sleep?

Are you kidding, I feel like a young kid again. How about you?

Not a wink, you didn’t really think I would did you?

Nope, but we made your mother happy. He smiled and winked at me. There’s a lot more kid in dad than mom wants to admit, or dad either for that matter.

I got up and got dressed. It’s amazing how fast the time flew last night. Bill slept on the couch, they knew that if they put us together, there’s no way we would have slept. I grabbed the last of my stuff and headed downstairs. Bill’s up and dressed, and ready to go.

Mom and the girls came downstairs. They look terrible, they must have actually gotten to sleep, they aren’t awake yet. They’ll probably go right back to sleep when we get started.

We loaded the last minute stuff in the motor home and counted noses to make sure we didn’t leave someone sleeping on the couch. All accounted for. Gumball our cat has plenty of food and water and the neighbor will check in on her when they bring in the mail. Dad locked the door and double-checked everything. We are really ready to go! Dad started the engine; we’re finally on our way.

We live in Pismo Beach, which is on the Central Coast of California. It’s half way between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. What that means is that there aren’t really any big towns or companies around so it’s obviously a tourist trap.

We went south toward Santa Maria and then took the only road east. Actually there’s another road east but it’s way too far north to be practical. We’ll go about fifty miles east, and then cut north into the mountains. Dad says the road is paved, and they bring the big trucks and equipment up there all the time. He doesn’t expect to have any trouble with our big motor home.

Well, let me tell you about the road. First of all, there are no signs. We must have tried five or six gates before we got the right one that the key fit. The road had been paved around fifteen years ago. They don’t have pot-holes, they are bucket-holes. Fortunately it’s already light enough to see. We dodged holes and washouts and bounced around for what seemed like hours. All of a sudden, as we crested a small hill the road smoothed out and widened out. It’s a full two lanes wide and very well maintained. Dad figures that they left the visible part a mess to discourage off-roaders from coming in.

We drove for about fifteen miles right back between the mountains. It’s really awesome. We went through three more gates and finally arrived at the maintenance yard. It looks like a commercial campground. They have marked parking spaces with hookups and tables and barbecue’s, it’s great! They even have showers, and public toilets, and everything.

There isn’t a soul around. We opened the gate and made sure we locked it after us. They warned us about that when dad picked up the key.

It didn’t take any time at all to get the motor home parked and leveled and all hooked up.

Mom got out and just stood there, Quiet!

We all stopped. I had forgotten what quiet sounds like. We can hear the creek and the birds. I can even hear my heart beating.

We just stood there; no one moved or said anything. It seemed almost sacrilegious to disturb the peace.

All of a sudden there was a rush of leaves and a big yellow dog came charging out of the brush. He came running right at us, his tail wagging so hard it almost threw him off balance. He came sliding to a stop and then started licking everyone and beating us with his tail. Obviously this is the camp dog. He is sure glad to see us. He’s a golden retriever and really a nice looking dog. We took time out to get our hearts calmed down and to pet him. He scared us so bad, we couldn’t even move. Now if that would have been a bear or something like that, we’d of been dead meat.

Bill and I headed down to check out the creek; supposedly there are some real nice fish up here.

The creek is beautiful. It looks like a private garden. There are ferns and waterfalls, and deep pools everywhere. We can see the fish swimming around, big fish. I saw a couple that would weigh in at five pounds or better each. The water is cold and clear. I wanted to dive right in, but Bill warned me that it’s probably pretty cold.

I can’t imagine water being that cold here, at this time of year, there’s no snow even in the wintertime. I thought I might as well humor Bill though. I knelt down and put my hand in the water, it isn’t cold, it’s frozen. This must come right off of snow; it would turn a body blue in seconds. I shook my hand to get the circulation going again. Wow! I’m not going swimming in there; I’d freeze to death in no time.

Bill laughed and pointed downstream to a cloud of steam. We followed the nice trail down to another pool that is obviously fed by a hot spring. I tested the water again; it’s warm and nice like a Jacuzzi. I bet it’s still real cold in places though. That waterfall is real cold water. We’ll have to check this out later this evening. Bill laughed; he had already started to take his shirt off. He dressed again and we headed up stream. I’m curious about that ice-cold water, its summer and there isn’t any snow anywhere.

We walked about a mile up the valley; the stream is just beautiful and clear. There isn’t a can or any trash anywhere.

The stream stopped at a sheer rock wall. It’s smooth but not cement. The water seems to come from under the rock. We looked all around the rock, it is just part of the mountain, and the stream definitely starts right here.

Bill got a big stick and tried to find the source of the water, I’m sure not curious enough to get in the water to find out. The best we can determine, there is a big pipe about two feet under the surface of the pond, it goes right into the rock.

I heard mom calling, it is probably lunch time, we didn’t tell her where we were going either. I’ll bet we get it for that.

We yelled to her, and headed down the valley to the camp.

Mom’s smiling as we came into camp; Thought you boys would like some lunch. You can eat it here, or take it with you. You find anything interesting? Are there any fish?

We’re so relieved that she isn’t mad at us that we’re speechless.

You boys OK?

Oh Yea! Just a little surprised at your attitude, we figured to get read the riot act for runnin off like that.

Contrary to common belief, I was young once too. With everyone gone, it’s just so peaceful here, how could you be anything but happy?

We sat down and ate our sandwiches, mom had some warm soup and coffee made too. For being summer, it’s cool back here in the canyon; it makes all the food taste especially good.

Well, you boys see any fish?

Boy did we! There’s a bunch of five-pounders down in one pool. Oh, there’s a hot spring not too far downstream too. I sure wouldn’t plan on going in the water anyplace else though; it’s real cold. John put his hand in and it turned blue.

Hot spring? That sounds yummy, I can hardly wait. Jason and I used to go to a hot spring before Johnny was born.

Mom, please, don’t call me Johnny, it sounds like a little kid.

You were a little kid until just recently. You will always be my little kid.

Mom has one of those smiles that could take the sting out of a bumblebee. Love you Mom.

My mom calls me Billy when she wants to get my goat. My name is really Bill, but she does it anyway, just for fun, or to tease me. I like is sometimes.

Moms are like that sometimes. We get to remembering and we don’t want you to grow up. She turned around and went into the motor home. She made like she’s busy, we both know better.

Let’s go catch some fish for dinner. Your mom seemed to think that would be good.

We got our gear and went down to the stream.

Those fish were real friendly, they’ll come right up to the bait and nudge it and then swim away. Dad told me about places like this. Lots of fish, but they aren’t hungry for bait.

Bill turned a rock over and found a big bug. He hooked it on and threw it up above the waterfall, and let it come down natural like. That big old fish took that bug and tried to go up the waterfall with it. It took both of us to land him. Man oh Man! He must be at least five pounds.

I expect he’ll weigh in about seven pounds.

We spun around like the devil himself was standing there. He just smiled at us. That’s very clever, you casting up on the waterfall like that, you fooled him good. I’ve been after that un for about three years now, never could get him to bite. Oh, sorry, I’m Sammy, I live here. We’ve had so much trouble here that they decided to have someone stay here all the time. I got hurt on the job and they sort of retired me to this place, said I could stay as long as I want. They even pay me to stay here; you ever hear the like of that?

They said there was no one here. You shook us up pretty bad; I expect we did you too, us driving in here like that.

Oh, I knew you was commin, besides that, there’s alarms on every one of them gates. He smiled at us. I feel a lot better.

Is this stream man made?

Not that I know of. They did some work upstream a few years ago. Probably looks like that don it?

We found what looks like a big pipe coming out of the rock. It didn’t look like cement at all.

Oh that! We use a special mix of cement up here so’s it looks natural. We don’t like the look of plain old cement at all.

You did a real good job of it. It looked just like native rock.

Sammy walked back to camp with us. That one fish will be enough for the whole family. I’m sure we’ll invite him to dinner. He looks like he’s about as lonesome as the dog.

See, I tol you, seven pounds four ounces. That’s a big un. We stock three and four-pounders in here along with a bunch of half-pounders. They go wild in no time; it’s a real challenge to catch one. There’s a pool downstream that’s hot enough to cook a fish, takes about an hour for a couple of half-pounders. That thing would take forever.

Mom came out of the motor home. She just stood there in shock.

Sorry mam, I guess they didn’t tell you folks that I live here. I scared the somethin out of the boys. Name’s Sammy. He sorta bowed and extended his hand to her.

Mom shook his hand. Nice to meet you Sammy. We were just having a discussion of names, seems the boys prefer the shortened names, say they sound more adult.

Yep! I did the same thing til I got older then I started using Sammy, makes me feel young again. You know, speaking of that, I’ve been here almost a year now, and you know, I feel younger and spryer than ever. Must be the good livin.

We all laughed about that and mom got Sammy a cup of coffee. We all felt so good to be able to talk without all the make-believe of city society. Up here we are all just people, it doesn’t even make any difference that some of us are kids.

Dad returned from his walk with the girls. He and Sammy hit it off right away. Sammy gave us the grand tour and showed mom where the laundry is. It isn’t much but they have a washer and a dryer and I guess that’s enough. We sure don’t want to go back to town anytime soon.

We ended up inviting Sammy to dinner. He brought a salad. He gets fresh groceries all the time.

We sat around talking after dinner.

I bet it gets lonesome up here?

Not really, we have trucks in here all the time. They call ahead and bring my groceries an mail in for me. I have satellite TV and telephone and my computer, so I have a lot of things I could do if I want to.

I guess what I mean is that you don’t have a lot of excitement up here. No police cars and fire engines and shopping in the mall and stuff like that.

You know, I don’t miss that stuff. We do have the little people though, not so much anymore, but there were a lot of them around when we put up the towers.

Little People?

Well, we called them that, you know like leprechauns. No one is ever seen them, but they sure raised havoc with the construction crews. You see that row of towers goin down the valley? They’re supposed to be straight. You’ll notice that two of them are out of line. Every time we surveyed those poles the little people would move our steaks. We had a geologist and an engineer out, and they both agreed that it would be better to move the towers. Something about wind and ground conditions, they both agreed, that was really something. We were going to do some blasting on the road, they brought up the drills and got everything ready and they couldn’t find the dynamite. In the morning the rocks were all broken up. It was just like they had been blowed up, but there was no explosion. It sure got a lot of people talkin. Then there was all the missin stuff. We’d wake up and find little stuff missin. Like food and personal stuff even tools from time to time, then two maybe three days later the stuff would show up right where we had left it. Boy! I tell you that is really somethin.

Boy oh Boy! You still have them around here?

Well John, after they put in the gates and all, we had a lot of false alarms. The gates would open and close at the darndest times all night long. I’d check them and we even changed locks, didn’t make no never-mind. I did that secret agent thing where you put a hair or dust or something so’s I’d know whether it really happened. Sure enough, the gates were being unlocked and opened. Never found any fingerprints though. I even tried a tape recorder and a video camera, nothing. The video camera was blank just before the gate opened until it closed; it was like someone knew where it was and blocked it on purpose. I finally stopped watchin. They must of figured out the alarm on the gates or somethin cause they don’t go off no more. Worked fine when you folks came in though.

Sammy, do they come in the camp grounds?

I wouldn’t worry none Mary, they’ve never done no one no harm, never even been seen, no footprints no nothin. Strangest thing you ever saw. He laughed a course little laugh. I should say didn’t see.

We all chalked it up to camp ghost stories. I’ve heard some real duzies in the summer camps I’ve been to.

I decided to change the subject before the girls got scarred. Sammy, why did they put that pipe in at the top of the stream?

Oh that? There’s an old mineshaft runs into the mountain there. Kids and folks were always goin in and getting hurt or lost. We blocked off ten or twelve of them. We had to put in the pipe to let the water out. Did the same to all of them just in case, smaller pipes though. They’re too small for even ‘dog’ to get through. ‘Black’ could probably get through but I can’t figure out why she’d want to.

Dog? You mean the beautiful yellow dog here in the camp?

Yep, no one ever named him, just started callin him ‘dog.’ He answers to it, so I guess it’s his name now. Now ‘Black,’ she’s different. We didn’t know what she was. She’d come in at night and get food. She just looked like a shadow. Everyone started callin her ‘Black’ since they didn’t know what she was. We started leavin food out and pretty soon she stayed in the camp. Darndest thing though, Dog never did have a problem with her. She’s the biggest black cat you ever did see. Not like a mountain lion or anything like that, but still and all she’s big. I feed her, and she hangs around but she’s her own cat for sure.

It’s getting a little chilly. Dad built a fire in the fire pit and we all gathered around. It’s weird, here we are in midsummer and we’re sitting around a fire. I guess the narrow valley and all the trees and moisture have a lot to do with it, of course right now, I’d say that Sammy’s stories were adding to it.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, when I looked over there was nothing there; probably a shadow from the fire. Laura brought out some marshmallows and Molly got everyone drinks. Sammy and Dad have beer, I want hot chocolate, I’m cold.

I’m beginning to feel a little nervous. I kept seeing things that aren’t there; my imagination is working overtime. Then I felt it. Something touched my leg. I’m too scared to move. I slowly turned my head, and was greeted by two big shinny eyes. There’s no body, just the eyes. I jumped; everyone else jumped too. Sammy just laughed, Oh it’s you, been playing tricks on John have you?

This cat, or whatever you want to call it, came walking into the circle and went straight to Sammy and then made the rounds of everyone. She smelled us and rubbed her face on us. Cats do that to mark their territory. She finally got to me, and she just curled up in my lap and closed her eyes.

Well if that don’t beat all! ‘Black’ ain’t never done that afore. She’ll mark everyone and then leave, she don’t take to people at all. I’d say she’s put her mark on John here for sure.

No one said much; it was just one more strange occurrence. The girls are a little jealous, they like cats.

‘Black’ is heavy; I’ve never had a cat this size sit on my lap. I moved a little to get comfortable and she extended her claws like she was padding my leg. She didn’t hurt me, but she let me know in no uncertain terms that I am disturbing her.

We sat around the fire till about nine or ten, it’s too dark to see my watch. Mom took the girls in to wash up and go to bed. Everyone said good night to Sammy and kissed dad good night.

‘Black’ got up and stretched and walked off into the darkness. Bill and I went in to wash up for bed. We’re planning on sleeping out in the tent but we’re both thinking about the little people. Since neither of us would admit that we’re scared, we slept in the tent as planned.

I lay there in the dark; it’s so quiet that my heart beat sounds like a drum. I can hear the water in the creek, and once in a while an animal moving around or calling in the night. My imagination is running wild, I expect any time, to have one of the little people come in and carry us off to who knows where. Maybe they would examine us and bring us back in two or three days like the other stuff they took.

I was finally slipping off to sleep when the tent shook like crazy; Bill and I sat straight up. I turned the flashlight on and we sat there looking at each other. The tent shook again, I shined the light at the door, there is a big black paw through the hole where the zippers comes together, it’s ‘Black.’

I opened the zipper and she came in like she owned the place. She walked around us and finally settled down on the corner of my sleeping bag, right against my leg. Our sigh of relief must have been audible. We laughed to ourselves and settled down to sleep. I left the door unzipped a little incase she changed her mind in the middle of the night.

‘Black’ was gone in the morning. We got up and headed for the bathroom. It’s cool, not cold like winter but just not warm yet. According to Sammy, it will warm up about ten, and then start cooling down about three. The campground is in the shade of the mountains the