The Light Brigade - Chapter 7
Should he tell his dad that he had been living through the zombie apocalypse everyday at school, and how Sydney was at the clinic? That this sleepy little town was in fact wide awake?
This is an installment of my new serialized middle grade novel - The Light Brigade. When new kid in town Will finds himself in the midst of a sea of brainwashed middle schoolers, he has to join the Light Brigade, an unlikely group of heroes, to save them. Can he trust the Man Upstairs who guides them with fortune cookie directions? Will he find his place in the Brigade? Will he be able to stop the shadowy New Moon Group from forcing his classmates to collect acorns for a cartoon squirrel until they all collapse? Subscribed? Get caught up here.
As Will neared his house, he was surprised to see his dad raking leaves in the front yard. He was sure his parents worked late on Tuesdays. It’s been a weird week, he thought, maybe I forgot what day it is.
“Hey Dad,” he said, “what are you doing home?”
“Oh hey, bud,” Mr. Sanders said, “I had a dentist appointment this afternoon, remember? So, I took the rest of the day off.”
“Right,” Will said, only vaguely recalling the conversation over dinner last night. He rubbed his forehead – all of this craziness was really starting to take a toll on him.
A look of concern passed over his dad’s face. “You ok? You seem worried….”
Will wasn’t sure where to begin. Should he tell his dad about everything that had been going on? That he had been living through the zombie apocalypse everyday at school, and how Sydney was at the clinic. That this sleepy little town was in fact wide awake and weirder than he could have ever imagined? He wanted to confide in his dad, whom he had always shared everything with, but he knew that the Light Brigade was supposed to be a secret. Is it the kind of secret that he should keep from his parents? If the New Moon Group was really as bad as they said, he should fight against them. But what if the Light Brigade were really the ones he should be suspicious of? Who can I trust, thought Will.
“Yeah...” he finally said, “I’ve just been hearing some bad rumors about your work. Like they can’t be trusted. Like they’re trying to hurt the town.”
“And you’re worried that the rumors are right?”
Will nodded. And that everyone at school is going to stay a zombie forever until they all collapse, he thought.
“Well,” said his dad, “sometimes when a business does something that people don’t like, they make up stories about it. Or maybe just exaggerate what happened to them. Like if a lady buys a bad pineapple from a store, she might say that all the fruit she buys there is bad. It’s not that the person is lying exactly, just exaggerating or being hyperbolic. But it can make it hard to know what is true.”
“So is it true? That the New Moon Group is doing bad things in town?”
“I don’t know about that. I think it has helped the town quite a lot. You know that our company bought the paper mill last year, right? Well, if it hadn’t, the mill probably would have closed for good. More than half of the town works there. Who knows what would have happened to the town without it.”
“That does sound like a pretty good thing for them to do,” said Will.
“I agree,” said Mr. Sanders, “And we’re trying to do even more for the town. We just bought the local radio station that was also going to close down.”
“Really? Maybe that’s why they started playing music in the hallways at school, sponsored by the New Moon Group.” Will broke into the jingle, “The New Moon Group, the start of something incredible. I’ve had that jingle stuck in my head for two days.”
Mr. Sanders laughed. “I bet. I was also working today on a bid that we’re putting in on the Food Land supermarket downtown. It’s hard to make a profit at a business like that, so the New Moon Group wants to help the community by keeping it open.”
“How about that...” said Will. The New Moon Group is buying the radio station and the grocery store? If we’re right about the zombification coming from the school food and the music in the hallways, this could be really bad. They could be trying to affect the whole town, thought Will.
Will picked up a leaf and started trying to pull the veins out absentmindedly. He said, “What if bad things happen here in town sometimes? Could it be the New Moon Group?”
Mr. Sanders raised his eyebrows. “Bad things happen here? It seems pretty nice to me. What kind of things are we talking about?”
“I just mean, like, hypothetically,” said Will quickly. “How could you know who is behind it? How do you know who you can trust?”
Mr. Sanders considered this. “Hmm, that’s a tough one. What do you think? Can you trust me?”
“Of course.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, you’ve always been there for me….You’ve helped me. The things that you have told me turned out to be true, so I know you’re honest. And you help other people, like when you mowed the yard for old Mrs. Stenbaum next door….Yeah, I guess that’s how I know.”
“That’s a pretty good answer. You’re an awfully smart guy,” Mr. Sanders said, tousling Will’s hair.
Will pulled away and ran behind the tree, his dad in hot pursuit. They chased each other around the yard until Will ended up in the leaf pile, laughing. Then he got suddenly serious, “I think people might be right about the New Moon Group. I think it might not be so great for the town as what it seems.”
Mr. Sanders pulled Will to his feet, placed a hand on his shoulder, and looked him in the eye. “The New Moon Group isn’t perfect, no company is, but it has done some good. Not the least for our family. Your mother and I have worked there for over 15 years, and that has allowed us to provide you with a good life.” He gestured grandly at their cozy little house, a broad smile across his face. “And now we’re here, with this castle of our own instead of that tiny apartment back in the city.”
Will couldn’t help smiling back. He might not like small town life, but he was genuinely pleased that his dad did.
“I know what will put your mind at ease,” said Mr. Sanders, “You should come visit me at work. Then you’ll see that the New Moon Group isn’t some big corporate overlord that is trying to destroy the town.” Now it was Will’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “Yeah, I’ve heard the rumors, too. But tomorrow after school, you should come see for yourself.”
“Sounds like a great idea,” said Will, “I haven’t even had gotten to see your new office yet. Did you get the rolling chair like you wanted?”
“Alas,” said Mr. Sanders with a sigh, “the quest for the rolling chair continues. It is my great white whale. Perhaps the New Moon Group is a sinister cabal – of chair hoarders!” He let out a laugh that echoed through the street and went back to raking the leaves.
As Will helped to bag them, he thought about everything his father had said. He knew he could trust his dad, but his version of the New Moon Group was just not jiving with what he had seen at school. How can they be good when they seem to be behind all of this, when their logo was on Acorn Grab. But, after all, a logo is just a picture; anyone could have put it there. What if the New Moon Group weren’t behind any of the crises the Light Brigade had been dealing with?
What if the other kids were just wrong about what was happening in town? Worse, what if they were behind what was going on, or at least Mr. Turner or the Man Upstairs. I don’t really know them. They haven’t really earned my trust yet. Then again, the New Moon Group does seem to be up to something fishy. I’ll go see my dad’s work tomorrow and see what I can learn. In the mean time I’ll keep my eyes and ears open, thought Will. Someone is trying to hurt the people in this town, even if I don’t know who it is yet.