The Luminosity Series (Book 1): Luminosity

by J. M. Bambenek

  “What are you guys doing here? What happened to you?” I asked as she backed up. She glanced back at Nick before swallowing.

  “We got caught up in the mess downtown when it happened. We had nowhere else to go, so we figured we’d come up here where it was less… chaotic...” Nick said between breaths, shaking his head in defeat.

  “Where were you guys? We looked for you two everywhere...” Kylie asked, her voice jittery with worry.

  “We drove out to Aubrey’s house,” Evan explained, still looking annoyed at Nick.

  “You’re lucky you got here when you did. They’re blocking off the streets with barricades. They’ve only just started seizing vehicles. Rescue helicopters have been swarming around ever since... The entire town’s on lockdown,” Nick said. I swallowed.

  “The guards mentioned an evacuation… Shouldn’t you two be at the auditorium?” Evan asked.

  “That was the plan, but they’re still waiting for more transports to arrive. I guess communication is still down. Emergency responders are everywhere trying to help the injured. And the military is too busy controlling the riots and scouting the town for rebels. We thought it’d be smart to hide out for a while, until things calmed down,” Kylie said.

  “Did they say anything about the other towns that were hit?” I asked, breathing heavily.

  “No. Why?” Kylie asked. Evan gave me an intense grimace. I clenched my jaw as tears streamed down my cheek, and within a matter of seconds, Kylie’s face went from curious to terrified.

  “Wait a second, so other places were hit too?” Nick asked in confusion. I couldn’t speak, nor could I shake the anxiety.

  “This attack came from the east with the obvious intent of wiping out a decent amount of the territories.” Evan stared off into space with a tense jaw. I closed my eyes as I cried silently.

  “Then—then who do you think did this? As far as they say, there aren’t enough people left out there who could get their hands on such weapons unless they came from within,” Nick said, looking confused.

  “I don’t know, okay? All I know is that Grand Junction was hit head-on according to the guards at the barricades. They didn’t tell us how many survived... but Aubrey’s mom and sister may have been there when it was hit. Boulder was hit too, but luckily they were evacuated first,” Evan explained.

  “What?” Kylie exhausted. Evan stared at me in pity as Nick looked down in utter shock.

  “This is worse than I thought...” said Nick. Evan’s face hardened as he grew more impatient with the situation.

  “The sooner we leave, the faster we’ll get to safety. Nick, go grab your bags,” Evan demanded. Nick complied.

  As Nick flew down the stairs, Kylie glared at Evan in a scowl.

  “Hold on a minute, think about this for a second! If her old identity shows up on their system, we could all be questioned,” Kylie whispered. He sighed.

  “She’s right...” I said, wiping away the tears with sweaty, trembling hands.

  “They already ran our information through the database before we came into town. If it was there, they would’ve stopped us then. Besides, we either risk it, or we stay behind. Now grab what you can and let’s go,” he snapped, glaring at Kylie and I in frustration. The determination in his voice rendered me speechless, his struggle obvious, but I had never seen him take charge like this before. With his words, he pulled our bags over his shoulder. And that was all it took for me to understand how serious our situation really was.

  27 ZERO HOUR

  Swarms of military helicopters hovered above, landing in rows along the highway leading north. Preparation for our departure was already in progress when we showed up at the auditorium. The entire town stood in line on the sidewalks. The National Guard occupied the streets, waiting beside the university grounds as a provision. FEMA and the Red Cross accompanied the area, supporting the wounded and in need.

  With no mercy to spare, the sun struck down on the tarps hanging above. With shade as our only protection from its threatening rays, the temperatures soared above average, typical for a May afternoon.

  My head pounded as soldiers passed out bottles of water, Evan’s gaze following me as I chugged one back in a matter of seconds. As the line inched closer, my nerves took hold. Ahead, the security search line divided between men and women.

  Without warning, footsteps interrupted the tension as they smacked against the heated pavement. Before I could turn around, a familiar voice chimed above the chatter.

  “Evan! Aubrey! Hey!” Janelle yelled from behind. I whipped my head back, grateful for the flash of her vivid red hair and eager tone.

  “Janelle!” I gasped, waving my hands in the air, Kylie rolling her eyes at the attention I was inviting.

  Janelle gave us a long, relieved hug.

  “Thank god! I was worried I wouldn’t find you guys! Evan… your mom is being evaluated right now at the hospital,” she said in a breathy grimace.

  “What? Why?” Kylie asked.

  “They said she suffered a heart attack...” said Janelle. Within seconds, Evan’s jaw tensed as the guilt filled his vision. I squinted at him in horror.

  “Is she—is she going to be okay?” he asked, his voice weakening.

  “She’s okay for now, but the emergency crew didn’t say when she’d be discharged. They’re monitoring her there as long as possible before the transports show up. But they recommended the civilian workers get down here right away,” Janelle said with a sigh.

  Evan looked sick. My focus proceeded downward, keeping my emotional outbursts to myself.

  “There’s not a lot we can do...” Janelle said. Evan swallowed back guilt. “Aubrey, where’s your mom?” My eyes fluttered as Evan rested a hand on my back in secret.

  “She’s um—she’s around here somewhere.” I winced, choking on my lie. “Where’s Aaron?” I asked, keen on changing the subject. Janelle wrinkled her forehead.

  “No clue. I was expecting to see him down here, but it’s hard to tell who’s who underneath those uniforms,” she said, nodding at the soldiers at the front of the line. The people behind us glared at the five of us, yelling hostile comments as the line inched forward. “Well, I guess I’ll see you guys inside. My family’s waiting at the back of the line. They’re probably getting worried,” she said, looking frightened by the looks given to her.

  “Stay safe,” I said quietly. She winced.

  “You too,” she said, giving Evan and I a final hug for comfort.

  At the entry point, a guard tore through my bag unapologetically, searching it on a thorough hunt for anything prohibited. That’s when I realized I had tucked the qualification letter and my mother’s diary carelessly underneath the stacks of clothing. Leaving them behind wasn’t part of my agenda. Then again, neither was evacuating. I gulped back the shame, putting my arms out as two more guards patted me down. Evan looked over at me from the other line, nodding with a tense expression on his face. I held my breath as they ran my citizen identification card through the system, mentally crossing my fingers they wouldn’t find the items suspicious.

  “Okay Ms. Adams, you’re clear. Good luck,” the female guard said, glaring at me. That was when I recognized her—the same woman I confronted in the bathroom at City Hall months ago. I nodded before taking my bag, giving her a smile of relief. Kylie winced as she waited behind me. Evan rushed toward me after being cleared, my panic obvious. As we strode to the doors, my eyes widened with relief.

  “What happened?” he asked in a frantic whisper as he glanced back at Kylie.

  “I forgot to take the stupid qualification letter out of my bag...” I whispered in a snap of shame as crowds of people filled the space between the doors. He studied my reaction.

  “Did they see it?”

  “No…”

  “Well, then you’re fine. We can still get rid of it.”

  “If they ever find out who I am...” I breathed a panicked whisper as I forced myself to keep it together.

 
“They won’t find out, alright?” he said. I pushed the anxious tears away as quickly as possible.

  Civilians flooded through the doors, chatter filling the auditorium as we made our way through the crowds. Hugs were exchanged as people came in contact with loved ones. Others scouted over the masses for lost family and friends. A few even wore gas masks as the paranoia of chemical warfare had shaken the town. Evan kept himself distracted by scanning the crowd. Every once in a while, I’d notice him nodding to someone he recognized, my focus glued on him as he put on a calming smile for each set of worried eyes he witnessed. Evan would have been a great leader—a mentor like his father.

  After an hour, people rested on the floor as we awaited instruction. Above thousands of heads, we scouted for Janelle, but finding her in the crowd was proving impossible. The four of us crammed up against the wall with our bags on our laps, the exhaustion overshadowing my anxiety.

  A middle-aged couple sat ahead of us with their young daughter. Now and then, I’d catch the girl peering back at us, her confused, oblivious face keeping me awake. Everyone’s lives were impacted by this event. But I had lived in a time better, safer, and happier than this. Young children weren’t lucky enough to have such a memory. And that was the moment I could no longer pity myself.

  After only a few moments of sleep, I snapped my eyes open to the little girl in front of us, the weight of the stuffy air hinting we had delayed there for hours. A trickle of sweat ran down the back of my neck as I struggled to sit up without disturbing Evan. The girl squeezed her way between her parents and skipped toward me in amusement, both inattentive to her wandering as monotone voices flooded the auditorium like a hypnotic lullaby.

  “Hayley! Damn it! Get over here right now! I told you to stay put!” the mother yelled. I looked at the young girl’s troubled expression, a frightened display of guilt as she meandered back to her ruthless mother. Shocked by her unfiltered words, memories of my own mother came to mind as the girl burst into tears, her sad brown eyes desperate for an escape from misery, like mine. Then, the thought of whether she would be chosen for a colony or not struck my brain, and with it, panic enslaved me again. I turned my head as I leaned forward, struggling to breathe normally. Evan shot upright as I exhaled forcibly, expelling the pain.

  “You okay?” he whispered, pulling me back.

  “I need to get out of here...” My eyes darted left and right as my claustrophobia set in. As I sprung upward, he yanked me back before my feet could grip the floor, sending me falling back to him.

  “Is everything okay over there, or do we need to babysit her too?” Kylie asked, leaning over. I winced in annoyance. When I faced her, the urge to flee consumed me once again.

  “She’s fine. She just gets these episodes...” Evan said, breathing harder as he kept his fluttering eyes on me in worry. But it was worse than just an episode. This was a nightmare—an ongoing hell I’d continue to suffer with. “It shouldn’t be much longer,” he reassured me.

  Just as Evan predicted, it wasn’t long before numerous guards shoved their way through the crowd of civilians. Upon seeing them, my heart stopped, the noise intensifying as more people stood up from the floor, peering over heads frantically. Anxiety slithered through my veins like a venomous chill, waves of acid turning in my stomach, making me nauseous over and over again. Sick with tension, I put one hand against my sweaty forehead, the stubborn strands pasting to me.

  A piercing voice blasted through the walls, jolting everyone’s sight in the same direction.

  “Listen up! Attention citizens!” the guard yelled through a megaphone, his words ricocheting in every direction. “In the past twenty-four hours, a wide range of bordered cities have been hit by a series of missile strikes. We believe we were targeted by a well-organized group of rebels deriving from the east. I regret to announce that half the cities inside this territory were destroyed in the attacks.”

  Screams, cries, and shouts of panic pierced through the auditorium within seconds. I cried out, my knees nearly buckling to the floor, Evan’s hold on me weakened by shock as we all jumped from the warning shot of a gun.

  “The President has ordered a mandatory evacuation for the remaining territories. Let me remind you, it is imperative you stay calm!”

  The severity of the guard’s words was undeniable as the shrieking continued. Before long, fights erupted in various areas of the crowd as gunfire pierced above the commotion in an attempt to regain order.

  “At seventeen hundred hours, all citizens are to report to our military base in the north section of the supply fields. From there, if you have not yet received your colony qualification results, you will receive them upon boarding the transport choppers. Regardless of colony selection, you will all be assigned a camp until evacuation day. Since the camps are of limited capacity, you will be divided by qualification ranking. Starting tomorrow, this city will be pronounced unregulated. Therefore, supplies and aid will end for the town. The need for your cooperation is imperative to our survival. We will not tolerate panic or rebellion.”

  Terror unleashed. My shallow breathing continued as the sweat trickled down the back of my spine.

  Slurs of profanity and the pitter-patter of gunshots penetrated my eardrums, the force of everyone’s bodies squeezing us tighter together in a suffocating swallow. Amidst the worried glances surrounding me, Evan had disappeared. Caught between a blackout and a will to escape, my eyes shot in every direction, blinking to focus. People climbed the walls leading up to the above seating area. Some made it. Others were trampled by the desperate thousands below. Gunshots rocked the stuffy air behind me, their popping sounds only worsening the hysteria.

  I gasped for air, striving to break free from the mad rush outside. Most didn’t get far before guards barricaded them in. I darted blindly in the opposite direction everyone else was going in. I had to find him, but it was too dangerous to turn back.

  The shouts and rage faded as I ducked beside an abandoned vehicle, cringing as I tended to my sore ribcage. Footsteps slammed against the roadway as I rested my head against the door handle. Someone was following me. In that instant, the desire to escape overwhelmed me. I crawled to the back of the car. As if by instinct, I beelined toward the trees bordering the parking lot, rejecting the urge to look back. And just when I thought I had escaped, my body tumbled to the ground.

  I screamed, thrashed, and struggled as my attacker tugged the bag from my grasp. It was a woman, not much older than I. After clutching my bag, she clenched her fingers around my neck in a choke hold. I coughed as I lifted my knee from under her, plowing it into her stomach with just enough force to push her off of me. She lost her balance within the agony, falling backward across the cement as I regained my breath, recovering my supplies. Ready to get even, the woman rose from the street, grabbing me by the arm to stop me. I couldn’t take much more. Using the rage to my advantage, I spun around, snapping my fist into the air, impacting her disgruntled face. And in the seconds it took for my fury to fade, she scampered off, allowing me a clear path to the trees.

  Ducking under the thick branches to hide was my only choice. That’s when I spotted Evan, sprinting in my direction. Grateful to see he still had his belongings, my vision made a full circle before I revealed myself. When his focus met mine, the determination to see me accelerated him forward, his momentum plunging us into a nearby pine.

  “What happened? Where did you go?” I panicked, brushing off the fallen needles.

  “Shh... It’s okay. Just stay quiet,” he said, shaking. I sighed in relief as he closed his eyes, taking a minute to regain his breath against the tree. “I—I don’t know how I lost you. One minute you were there and the next, people were shoving so hard I couldn’t reach you,” he said, pulling me down with him in exhaustion, sweat trickling against his cheek, the shame in his eyes abundant.

  “Where are your cousins?”

  “I’m not sure.” He swallowed.

  “What are we going to do? I can’t be evac
uated, Evan. I have to know if my mom and sister are alive!” I lost control. He gazed at me in pity before looking forward.

  “Look, I promise we’ll figure this out. But until then, we should get away from here,” he said, still gasping on air. I studied his face. Something about the way he avoided my eyes left me uneasy.

  By now, the late afternoon sun slipped across the sky, casting shadows against the mountains. We stuck to the back streets until we snuck up the trails leading to Cedar Ridge in secrecy.

  Later, as the winds died, we sat in his backyard surrounding a small fire. He cursed to himself as he propelled a rock into the flames. It was grueling for me to see him this way. Harder than it was for me to admit that I had lost hope for us ever making it out of this together. Our odds had been slashed in half, along with the population after the night of the bombings, the guilt striking me like a match as the whereabouts of my mother and sister remained uncertain.

  The fire crackled. The dry air sent a chill through me as the time got later. Evan was on the verge of desperation. We hadn’t spoken a word to one another since we had gotten back to the house.

  “I just want you to know I love you, Aubrey... and nothing that happened in the past, nor what happens tomorrow can change that,” he said, the words from his mouth an unstable tremor.

  I aimed my numb stare at the flames. A tear fell as I tried to stay nonchalant. He spoke with such finalization. But I refused to give in. This couldn’t be the end for us, and frankly, I was frustrated he allowed himself to believe it was.

  He stared at his feet as he cleared his throat.

  “The reason I was so upset after you came back wasn’t because you left. It was because once I saw you at the fields that day, I knew it’d be even harder to let you go a second time,” he said, wincing as he turned to face me.

  I looked away, letting my long hair drape like a shield as I cried in silence. He took a heavy breath as I stood up, my back turned to him.

  “But I’d rather live through the death of a thousand suns if it meant you still had a chance...” he said. And then, everything in my vision blurred. Another piece of me drowned in waves of shame. Losing control, I picked up a stick from the ground and pitched it into the flames before expelling my tears in a waterfall of endless guilt. I let him take my hand. But I wouldn’t allow him to convince me to be strong while he gave up. “Aubrey, please say something...” he said, clinging onto whatever energy remained.