V-WARS VOLUME III by Jonathan Maberry

Author:Jonathan Maberry [Maberry, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Day in the Life, Part 2

Jonathan Maberry

Chicago, Illinois

“Stay down.”

First Joe said it, then the other kids began chanting it.

“Stay down! Stay down! Stay down!”

Though they all wanted Trey to get back up again. That was the game. He got up and Joe knocked him down.

Trey lay on his chest, blood dripping from his lips and nose. Fireballs seemed to be bursting in the air around him and there was some darkness creeping in at the edges of his vision. A strange darkness. Dark red.

It scared him.

“Stay down! Stay down! Stay down!”

Trey placed his hands on the cracked pavement and took a breath. He wanted to stay down. That would be fine. That would be smart. Stay down, maybe take a few kicks. He could endure it. It wouldn’t be the worst thing that would happen, and not nearly as bad as some of the stuff that the kids had done to him over the last six months.

Trey knew that all he had to do was stay down.

Down.

He spat blood onto the ground. It was as red as theirs. As red as anyone’s.

“Stay down! Stay down! Stay down!”

He gritted his teeth and pushed.

Raising himself off the ground was so hard.

Shame was such a heavy thing.

Humiliation was every bit as ponderous.

Try pushed himself up. First to his hands and knees. Then he sat back and looked at Joe. And around at the circle of kids. Seemed like most of the damn ninth grade was there. Surrounding him. Laughing. Chanting. Some of them so into the moment they looked high.

He dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, looked at the red smear.

“Stay down! Stay down! Stay down!”

Yeah, well.

Trey got a foot under him. He took another breath, then pushed, standing slowly, knees protesting, joints creaking.

Joe stared at him with a mixture of surprise and wonder. And some doubt. They both knew how hard Joe had hit him. Way too hard. Harder than the ninth graders thought. Joe had overdone it, and the kid knew it. He was big, too, with chest and shoulders that spoke to the brute he’d become by twelfth grade. A cornerback on the team who might even have a shot at a college scholarship. All muscle, very little brains. Some heart, but a conscience that bent under any pressure.

“Stay down! Stay down! Stay down!”

Trey stood up and turned to face the boy. He had to look up at the ninth grader, even though they were thirty-seven years apart in age. The kid balled his fists and took a tentative step toward him, ready for the next round. The next hit.

“Don’t,” he said to Joe. It wasn’t a plea. Not a request. It was merely that word, letting Joe take from it whatever he was capable of grabbing.

He saw the flicker of doubt in Joe’s eyes, and it confirmed something Trey had guessed before. Joe didn’t really want to do this. Given any kind of chance he’d walk away.

But even though Joe was stronger than his peers, and tougher than any five of them, he wasn’t nearly as tough as all of them.

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