“And double the risk of you being found out? No. If our military captures them and one of them speaks, your secret will be out. We can’t do that and they know it. The only way to avoid having your cover blown is to kill them,” he said. I looked at him, frantic and petrified.
“We have to warn my mother before they get to her,” I said.
“We can’t.”
“But we can’t just—”
“It’s after curfew, Aubs. It’ll be even more risky for you if we try to drive out there now. We’ll have to wait until morning,” he said, swallowing. I drew back my glance.
“Fine,” I agreed, knowing he was right.
After washing the blood from his face, we relaxed by the fire. His head rested on my lap as I ran my fingers through his coarse hair, the sweat from his forehead shining amidst the flames. It was hard to look at him like this, so fragile and unprepared. Catching me in an instant of regret, his shame became evident.
“I had to tell Kylie who you were,” he said with his head forward, his eyes dead set on the fire. I stayed quiet as a tear dribbled down my cheek, nodding in guilt.
“It’s fine…”
“I had no choice after she saw me take those documents. Damn it. I should’ve been more careful,” he said.
“Don’t worry about that now, okay?” I whispered, my voice quavering.
“Aubrey… I swear I wanted to tell you I knew. I did. I just didn’t want to see you so upset again,” he sighed. I continued to hold back tears as I examined his swollen eye and bruised cheekbone.
“We’ll never be safe, will we?” My lips trembled as I shifted my focus into the fire.
“We never were,” Evan said, shaking his head as I closed my eyes.
♦ ♦ ♦
As we drove down the hill the next morning, many of the condemned houses in town had been raided. Doors were blocked with wooden boards, windows sealed with black tarp, the siding still marked with a red X. I glanced at Evan’s battered face, my eyelids fluttering as he took one arm off the steering wheel to grab my hand. But it never gave me much comfort.
It wasn’t until that week our food supply began to diminish. Shelves at the food bank stayed empty, longer, even though fewer people were getting the proper quantity to support their hunger. Now frightened by the food crisis hitting our territory, rioting escalated. Fights over politics, rumors of rebels along our borders, and the threat of war over precious resources also became a daily predicament. Religion spread across the entire town like a plague, desperate citizens praying in the streets and city parks, growing more reliant on their dwindling faith. Now, a new wave of protesters held up cardboard signs reading “We all deserve a chance” and “The colonies won’t save us from corruption.” The territories were failing, just as Evan predicted.
We approached the familiar gravel road leading up to my mother’s house, the dust from underneath the tires obscuring the morning rays of sunlight that peeked above the hills. My mother’s car sat in the driveway, the back doors and trunk wide open as if she were attempting a getaway. Terror stabbed through me like a knife as I jumped out of Evan’s jeep, jogging to the door. He appeared beside me seconds later, and as we stood breathless in the open doorway, my mother stumbled down the stairs in a hysterical snuffle.
“Mom? What are you doing? Where are you going?” I asked, looking up at her.
When she turned to expose her face away from her blackish curls, I put a hand to my mouth in surprise. Burn marks trailed down the side of her jaw, and she had the same distinct bruising underneath her eye as Evan did. Trembling under the weight of the bag in her left arm, she crashed forward.
“Mom!” I hurried to the steps to grab her.
As she collapsed into my arms, Evan rushed to help ease her weight on me. Step by step, we pulled her into the kitchen. I slid out a chair while he helped guide her to the table. After grabbing a glass of water for her, we both surrounded her, a sudden, dreadful curiosity banging in our hearts as we observed her injuries.
“Mom… what happened? You need to tell us.” Seconds later, she spoke.
“Tracy came over here last night, right before curfew,” my mother said to Evan, giving him a painful eye. “She was looking for information on Andrew. She blamed me for stealing something from her, and threatened to burn our house down all over again,” she explained, blinking in distress. Evan conveyed a ferocious glance as he towered over the table, clenching his fists.
“What’d she do to you? What happened to your face?” he asked.
“We had a fight. She used a lighter to threaten me. When I got control of the situation, I tried to run, but she pinned me down and demanded I get in the car with her. Then we heard yelling coming from the trees, so she ran off. I had just enough time to get into the cellar before… before I realized what was happening.”
“Yelling?” I asked.
“People were looking for us, Aubrey. Tracy was—she was held at gunpoint. They wanted to kill her, but instead they released her. She must’ve told them something. And I’m guessing that’s how they knew where to find you,” my mother said, her glare meeting Evan in a wince.
“Who were they?” he asked, giving her a direct eye. My mother’s focus drifted downward.
“I have no idea,” she replied, spaced out at the table.
“That better be the truth,” he said with a tight jaw. I squinted at him while he walked away, tears of resentment flooding his eyes. My mother stayed silent.
“Mom, we can’t let them find us. We have to go somewhere where it’s safe, where they won’t be able to get to us,” I said. She shook her head in a sob.
“We’re no safer anywhere else than we are out here,” she said.
“We have to do something,” I slammed my fists onto the table, fuming from her dismissal. She jumped. Evan turned around.
“It’s not that simple. Our situation is so much more precarious than I thought. People haven’t forgotten us… and that’s bad enough,” she said in a ghostly gaze, staring at the wall. I glimpsed at Evan, thinking of Kylie. His eyes darted as he sat there, the shock and fear hitting him all at once before peeking at her car outside.
“Then where were you planning to go?” he asked. Suddenly, it dawned on me. I slid out from the table and stood up.
“You were going to run, weren’t you?” I huffed, looking around at the house now in shambles—torn apart like the day I left. “You were going to leave us here and run,” I repeated in a tearful shriek, covering my mouth.
“No.” My mother’s eyes beamed at me as if they could hold me in place. “Aubrey, it isn’t what it looks like.”
“She was going to bail, Evan,” I said again, shaking in disbelief before rushing outside to avoid her lies again.
Seconds later, I heard him calling my name from behind me. I caught myself against his old jeep, belting out air as I squinted at the bright sky. Moments after, as I recovered my breath in the morning sun, he grabbed my shoulder.
“You need to listen to what she has to say. It’s about your sister,” he said. And in that second, I spun back around in shock.
My mother cried at the table when we returned inside the house. Resting beside her was a piece of paper, creased and crumbled, as if it had been read over a thousand times.
“What is that?” I asked. She took a deep breath before looking at me.
“Two days ago, I received a letter from Andrea. She wrote me to tell me Marcus had withdrawn himself from the colony selection…” she said.
“What?” I whispered, suddenly horrified.
“He told her that he couldn’t live with himself for what he’d done. That taking himself out of the qualification was what he deserved. Your sister won’t go through with our plan to hide now.”
“But she has to…” I huffed in panic.
“She wants to stay there. She thinks she can get Marcus to change his mind, but… there’s no time. And she has no idea people are after us. Nor does she realize that she’s in desperate need of medical c
are and resources for the baby. The entire territory is under a precautionary evacuation alert. Something to do with enemy threats, or even the risk of a high category solar flare.”
“What?” Evan swallowed. She nodded.
“I overheard rumors in town the other day that the military has been warning certain cities to prepare their bags in case of an unexpected event. It’s only a matter of time before it happens here,” my mother explained.
“Oh my god…” I said.
“The entire city of Grand Junction is on alert due to violence alone, but she won’t leave, Aubrey. So I’m going to her. I have to get her out of there while there’s still time. That’s where I was off to,” she explained.
“But—but it’s happening here too, mom. People have been rioting in town. Patients have been disappearing at the hospital, and more houses are being condemned. It’s too dangerous for you to travel right now,” I said in a shaky voice as my eyes raced across the floor, as if to find solace.
“I know, Aubrey, but if we’re separated during an evacuation, we may never see each other again. They won’t put families together. They’ll divide us into separate regions based on our qualification results, and who knows what will happen after that. At least we have the cellar to ride things out if things get worse. I have to bring her back here where she’s safe, okay?” she asked. I shook my head in horror, glancing at Evan who was silent, gazing at the floor.
“But mom…” I said, out of breath. But before I could continue, my mother glided over to me, resting her boney hands on my shoulders.
“Listen, Aubrey… I’ll be fine. I have to do this. I love you. And I promise you I won’t let this family fall again,” she said, her body weak with regret. She turned around, carefully grabbing two dark, shiny objects out of the duffle bag. “Here. I want you both to have one of these for protection. They’re loaded, so be careful, and make sure you hide them someplace where the guards won’t find them,” she said, handing us both a handgun with a firm grip.
“Whoa… where did you get these?” Evan asked, his eyes exposing too much white.
“I’ve had to hide my family from the government for years. I’ve learned a thing or two about preparation,” my mother said. He swallowed before nodding to her in acceptance. “Aubrey, in case I don’t make it back, there’s enough supplies in the cellar to last two years. If things spiral out of control, you two can hide there, okay? Don’t wait until it’s too late. When we make it back, we’ll know where to find you,” she said.
“But how will you get to Andrea with what’s happening? Isn’t travel restricted during an alert?”
“I’m not using the transport system…” She gave me a fleeting glance before she looked down at the bag full of weaponry. I made a confused face.
“But you—”
“I’m going to the fields… they’ll have plenty of transportation to choose from there. They won’t even see me coming.”
“Mrs. Ellis, this is a bad—”
“It’s the only way,” she said, interrupting Evan’s train of thought. Then, she stepped over to him. Raising both hands to touch his cheeks, she smiled through a spurt of gratified tears. “I knew you were loyal, Evan. And I can’t thank you enough for keeping our secret safe all this time. Your father would be proud to see the man you’ve become,” she said, withdrawing her glance. Then, she clutched the duffle bag, swinging it behind her. Evan remained wordless while my mother’s comments propelled me back to his father’s funeral again…
We were nineteen. I stood against a tree at the cemetery that day, observing the burial ceremony from a distance. I waited until his family left, knowing he’d kept his promise to meet me afterward. But instead of showing empathy, the toxicity his mother poisoned him with echoed off the headstones, her words haunting me ever since.
“I don’t want you near that girl anymore. Her family is dangerous,” his mother said, grabbing Evan by the wrist.
“You don’t know anything about her family,” he lashed out as she grabbed his wrists tighter.
“If it weren’t for that girl, your father never would have fallen from that canyon!” Tracy yelled in tears. With red eyes, he pulled away from her grasp, but then, something unexpected happened. In a wrathful impulse, she caught Evan by the arm, lugging him back to face her, his struggle morphing into an excuse for physical force. And within the seconds of escalation, her palm collided with his jawbone. Six times she shoved him back before he was thrown onto the hollow ground. He rested on his side, traumatized by her allegations as he watched his mother abandon him beside his father’s lowered coffin.
As she walked in my direction, I flung out from behind the tree, jolting my head back to glance at him when my foot stumbled on the uneven grass. He called out to his mother to stop, his voice reverberating across the cemetery. Crawling toward the road, I struggled to my feet, but she had already caught up to me, grasping me around the waist to pull me backward. And when her lips reached my ear, her whispers became a haunting melody—a curse that incorporated itself into my nightmares.
“Hide. Run and hide, little girl. Because I know who you are and what’s coming. No one will make it out of this alive. Especially not you,” she whispered.
Only now did the happenings of that day at the cemetery make sense. She had uncovered my father’s secret, blaming my family for the unexplained death of her husband to justify her loss…
“Mrs. Ellis…” Evan said, interrupting my memory to bring me back to the present moment. Tears engulfed his vision as my mother spun around. “Be careful…” he said, his face stubborn with warning.
She turned in my direction now, tears accompanying her heavy breaths. I looked toward the window to avoid the pain, my vision just as glossy. As she hugged me, I released an array of sobs, regretful of my departure all over again.
“It’ll be okay,” she said. I nodded, swallowing the guilt.
That day, my real mother stood in front of me for the first time. That day, she was no longer the same woman I had grown up knowing. She was a warrior—a fire still burning amidst the rain—a symbol of strength in a fragile world. Now, even the simplest of things such as a name were but a memory—a fragment of the past we had been forced to let go of. But we couldn’t allow the fire within us to burn out. Now, we had no other option than to fight for what justice remained in this world before the end came. And from then on, I would.
I waited until her car disappeared, satisfied of my ability to forgive her in that moment. Afterward, I broke down. Mortified of the risk she was taking, I threw myself against the back of the door, clicking it shut in an expulsion of guilt. Evan’s voice was muffled as he lifted me from the floor, my vision an aura of different blurred colors. My body swayed, the pull of gravity lowering me down.
Moments later, I woke to the chopping of helicopter blades and a fading amber light illuminating the wall.
“Aubrey,” Evan whispered. He sat beside me on the bed, facing me as my eyes flickered open. “Are you okay?”
I nodded as he clasped my hand, his grip a symbol of worry. Attempting to wake myself, I pulled the damp cloth off my forehead. His face tightened as he observed me in pity.
“I should get to my place so I can grab a few things before it gets dark. I figured we should stay in the cellar tonight just to be safe. Maybe you should stay down there and rest while I’m gone,” he said, looking down as I groaned in shame, blinking again.
“What? No. I’m fine. I’m coming with you,” I said stubbornly. He nodded, his eyes tracking my hesitation. “She’s—she’s not coming back, is she?” I asked, choking on a release of sobs. He struggled to look me in the eye.
“She knows what she’s doing, Aubs,” he assured. Still unsatisfied by his response, I nodded my head.
“So do they…” I said, glancing out the window as a flock of choppers soared across the horizon.
“I tried to stop her. But you can’t stop someone who’s willing to sacrifice themselves, no matter how high th
e stakes are,” he said. Suddenly, Jake came to mind. “Sometimes we just have to trust that we’ll be okay, even if the rest of the world won’t be,” he said, blinking away the pain. He leaned toward me in that moment as if he knew I was about to give way. And within his grip, I unraveled.
♦ ♦ ♦
Within the aftermath of our deadly truth, we sat together on the floor of his bedroom as he packed a bag of his belongings. One day, we’d all have to say goodbye to our possessions. The government had a strict list of items that could be brought with us during an evacuation, most of it narrowed down to just essentials. Not that we had many luxuries left anyway. But never had I realized the small things I had once taken for granted. Already, simple pleasures like chewing gum, the smell of freshly brewed coffee, or the indulgence of chocolate had become a luxury of the past.
As he finished packing his bag, we heard a pound at the front door. We looked at one another, reluctant to answer it, certain the rebels would return to take me. But after a second loud knock and the roar of engines, we had no choice but to respond. And after moving the blinds, military vehicles invaded my vision of the once empty street. I hesitated before he opened the door, but a guard had already let himself in.
“Sir, I’ve been given direct orders to place this home under immediate military surveillance. You and anyone else on this property are to stay inside until further notice. A marshal will be assigned to your residence momentarily,” the guard said. My pulse stopped.
“What? Why? What’s going on?” Evan asked with a quick breath.
“We’ve been informed of a possible threat. We must follow protocol in the event of a full-frontal attack. Civilians are to obey military command until the situation is under control,” the guard replied.
“What situation?” Evan asked.
“It’s just a precaution to keep you safe, sir. Please step aside,” he ordered.
“No. I want to know what’s going on,” Evan demanded. The guard turned around, waving and whistling. Just then, a group of soldiers came running to the door, armed with assault rifles. To our surprise, Aaron was amongst them.
The Luminosity Series (Book 1): Luminosity Page 20