by E S Richards
“What now?” Riley asked her brother, equally aware of what had just happened to Leo. She was torn between watching the happy embrace between Joel, Hazel, and their mom and looking over at Mike and Leo, both still waiting for the people they loved to return to them.
“Why don’t you four follow me?” Blake interjected again, cutting them off from Joel and Hazel, who were clearly going to be staying with their mother. “I’ll get you guys some food and get you settled in here.”
“Thanks,” Chase smiled at Blake, the only one among the group who seemed to be comfortable talking. He was fighting with a whole mess of emotions and feelings himself, yet Chase knew he had to keep it together just a bit longer. When he was alone again later that night perhaps things would be different. For now, he had Riley and his friends to watch out for. He was quite used to being the protector; another few hours in the act couldn’t hurt too much.
Later that night, after Blake had given them a tour of the facility, provided them with food, and set them out in a sleeping area for unclaimed children, Chase finally let himself break down. He felt so much relief that he was out of the pit and away from the Authority, but he knew how risky their position in Houston still was. He had witnessed the full power of the Authority, whereas he didn’t fully know the capabilities of Jackson’s group. Even though they had broken them out, he still wasn’t completely certain that the Authority wasn’t still a threat while they remained in Houston. He and Riley needed to get back to the farmhouse and they needed to go quickly, just like his sister had said to him.
As he leaned over and watched Riley sleep, he felt yet another blanket of pressure affix itself to his shoulders. They weren’t out of the woods yet. The farmhouse was still many miles away, and Houston was a dangerous playground to travel through first. But Chase was confident. They would make it back to their grandparents; soon, they would be a family again.
Debris
The Escaping Darkness Series Book 5
Chapter 1
Waking up to the white, tiled ceiling above him—panels of fluorescent lights placed throughout, now left without any power—Chase was immediately reminded of the office building where he had spent the night. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, the old camping bed beneath him groaning as he moved. It was a sound that he’d heard well into the night, each of the beds creaking and grating any time anyone rolled over. With nearly twenty children crammed into the designated dormitory, it was a wonder any of them had gotten any sleep at all.
Looking over to his right, Chase smiled at his sister, Riley. She was still fast asleep, her hair having fallen over her face and acting as a blanket from the rest of the room. On her other side lay Hazel, Riley’s friend, sandwiched in between her and Joel, Hazel’s brother. Everyone had expected Hazel and Joel to stay with their mother, their reunion inside the office facility touching everyone’s hearts as they watched. Limited spacing meant the two siblings had returned to the dormitory though, their permanent residence with their mom yet to be finalized.
In fact, Chase doubted whether anyone could be certain of where they were going to call home in the near future. He wasn’t sure how the rest of the raid on the Authority in the theater district had gone. The children had all been left out of the way when it came to the passage of information, and almost as quickly as they had been whisked away from the Authority, they had been pushed to one side by Jackson’s group. Chase figured he needed to come up with a name for the faction working against the Authority, but as of yet he hadn’t managed to formulate one.
The group was definitely interesting though. Comprised of mostly parents and a fair percentage of determined and courageous do-gooders, the faction had revolted against the Authority that was taking over Houston, freeing the children and attempting to liberate the city. Chase hoped they had been entirely successful, a key question for his day ahead finding out exactly what had happened. As much as he wanted to get back to his grandparents’ farmhouse, Chase had come to realize that he couldn’t just go back out into the city without knowing how things had ended the day before or, in fact, if they were even over yet.
For the first time since leaving his grandparents behind, Chase hadn’t dreamed of them overnight. As he sat waiting for everyone else to wake up, he tried to decide whether that was a good or a bad thing. Chase was plagued by worry about his grandparents. He saw their faces in his head when he closed his eyes, the pair of them standing in the doorway and waving him off as he drove to find supplies to fix the house. Nearly two weeks had passed since that moment and Chase could only guess at how they were surviving. It worried him a great deal and he knew that now that he was able to, both he and Riley had to get back to the farmhouse before things were too late. A frightened part of him worried that they were already; he tried to stop the thought from entering his mind, but Chase couldn’t help it. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t dreamed about his grandma and grandpop. Perhaps it was because it was already too late.
As another bed creaked to the side of him, Chase found himself looking over at a random boy he recognized slightly from the pit. Smiling at the half-stranger, Chase tried not to think about everything that had happened while they were under the Authority’s control. He decided he needed to get out of bed and start his day with purpose, swinging his legs over the side and navigating around the other camp beds without looking back. He didn’t really want Riley to wake up and find him gone, but Chase couldn’t spend another minute stuck with his thoughts when he knew answers were just beyond the door.
The second the door to the dormitory swung closed behind Chase, he realized he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He’d left his shoes inside, so in bare feet he began to pad down the hallway in search of anyone who could give him information. In his head he was looking for Blake or Jackson, the only two adults whose names he could remember and who he believed might be able to help him. He hadn’t seen Jackson since the man parted ways with them in the pit, but as Mike’s father, Chase knew he could rely on the man. Mike hadn’t slept in the dormitory with the rest of them, which Chase assumed meant his dad had returned with his brother, Rylan. As he wandered through the halls of the office building, Chase realized that the complete opposite might well have been the case instead.
“Where are you going, my friend?”
A voice layered with a thick Eastern European accent startled Chase, making him jump and his heart hammer against his ribcage. Turning his head to the source of the voice, Chase rested his eyes on a slightly portly man, probably no more than an inch or two taller than the sixteen-year-old.
“Uhh, hey,” Chase replied, “I was just trying to find…” he paused, struggling to come up with a reason why he’d been roaming the halls. “The bathroom.”
The man looked at him and smiled, the smile slowly turning into a low chuckle that made Chase feel both nervous and relaxed at the same time. “You don’t need to worry around me, my friend,” he spoke. “I’m not one of the original group here. I won’t send you running back to your room.”
Chase smiled back at the man, uncertain of what to say. If he wasn’t a part of Jackson’s original group, could he trust him? He definitely didn’t sound like he was from Houston, though Chase knew he couldn’t be sure. Lacking a reply, he just smiled at the man like a clueless teenager, hoping for the floor to open up and swallow him, saving him from the awkward situation.
“I’m Vic,” the man eventually continued. “Can I interest you in a cup of coffee?”
“Sure,” Chase nodded after a second, the allure of coffee too strong to turn down, along with his teenage curiosity stopping Chase from walking away. “Nice to meet you. I’m Chase.”
“Hello, my friend,” Vic grinned as he poured out some coffee from his thermos into the mug in his hand, then handed the thermos with the remaining liquid over to Chase. “How do you like this place compared to that pit the Authority was keeping you in?”
“Better, I suppose,” Chase shrugged. “I mean, I’m definitely
glad to be out of there. Were you part of the raid?”
“I was,” Vic confirmed proudly. “It was my explosives that made it all possible. Ironic when we weren’t even originally working with Jackson.”
“You weren’t?” Chase asked, realizing that he might be able to get more answers from this man than he had first thought possible. “Who’s we?”
“Aha,” Vic smiled, “there is so much you are yet to discover, isn’t there, my friend?”
Chase nodded, hoping that Vic would shed some light on his questions, even if he was going about it in a rather twisted manner. “I just need to know if the city is safe,” Chase declared. “I need to get back to my family as soon as possible.”
“Are your parents in the city?”
Chase faltered. It had been a long time since anyone had asked him about his parents, everyone he normally interacted with well aware of what had happened. He’d told Joel and the others in the pit right away that he and Riley were trying to return to their grandparents, disliking the awkward atmosphere that emerged when he was forced to tell people that his mom and dad were dead.
“My grandparents,” Chase replied with a shake of his head. “They’re farther out of the city, on a small farm. My sister and I need to make it back there quickly. They’ve been left on their own for far too long now.”
Vic pursed his lips and nodded, understanding what Chase was saying. There was clearly an issue at home that the teenager didn’t want to discuss, and Vic respected that. He knew each of the children had been through terrible things under the Authority’s control and he knew they would need time to recover from that. For this young man to already be trying to solve his next problem was an admirable trait that Vic couldn’t help but respect.
“As soon as the city is under control, my friend, I can help you get back to your family if need be. I joined this faction with my friend, Blake,” Vic started to explain, going back to the beginning, as he felt like Chase deserved an explanation for everything.
“Blake?” Chase interrupted. “I met him yesterday, I think.”
“Ah, did you?” Vic smiled. “He was on my team, helping us to break you out of the theater district. You can trust him. He’s one of the good guys.”
“Yeah,” Chase agreed, “he said he’d help me and Riley to get out of the city once it was safe.”
“I bet he did,” Vic nodded, leaning back against the wall where he sat and relaxing a little bit more in Chase’s presence. Chase felt the action and mirrored it, sitting more comfortably and taking a sip of the coffee Vic had offered him. “Blake stumbled into my store several days ago,” Vic spoke, finally sharing the story with Chase of how he and Blake had met and how things had escalated since that day to the point where they were breaking into the theater district and helping to free the children.
Chase sat back and listened carefully, eager to absorb as much knowledge as he could about what happened to Houston and how Jackson’s group were battling against it. It shocked him to discover the extent the Authority had gone to to house all the children of the city. He had guessed they would need to control the adults to some extent, but he had never imagined they were all effectively being doomed to death. Chase was incredibly aware of how toxic the air outside in Houston was, although he struggled to believe that a whole city could be wiped out because of it. He only hoped the toxicity lessened the farther from the city one traveled, thoughts of his grandparents filling his mind once again.
Deep down, though, Chase knew things wouldn’t be any different at the farmhouse. Yellowstone erupting had done a number on the entire country. Houston was thousands of miles away from the national park itself and yet the effects of the eruption were equally clear there as he was sure they were at the very epicenter of it all. The darkness had claimed the whole country and Chase knew there was little chance of escaping it entirely.
“Do you know if Jackson returned?” Chase asked, Vic’s explanation reaching the moment they burst into the theater district with his explosives. “I came back with his son, Mike. Then Jackson went back in to find Mike’s brother as well. Did they make it back?”
“Yes,” Vic nodded. “Jackson wasn’t going to let his son or anyone else stay in that hellhole any longer. He got everyone out, Rylan included.”
Chase grinned, thankful that his friend would have his father and brother back. That left only Leo, who he had arrived with, who was yet to reunite with his family. Chase felt sorry for him, knowing how much it must hurt to know that his parents were within the city walls and yet had chosen not to join Jackson’s faction. Chase saw it in Leo’s eyes yesterday when he first received the news: he was devastated. He must have felt like his parents didn’t want him—a heartbreaking thing for a child to think.
“Is it all over then?” Chase continued to ask his questions, eager to learn whether Houston was safe for him to venture out into again. It was still a long way back to the farmhouse and Chase couldn’t bear to waste any more time.
“Not exactly,” Vic shook his head. “From what I know, the children have been liberated and the Authority pushed back, and there are now reports that they are strengthening their resolve. That they are going to try and fight back. Try and get you kids back.”
“Great,” Chase replied, his tone heavily laced with sarcasm. “What are we doing then? Jackson isn’t going to let that happen, right?”
“None of us are,” Vic answered. “I don’t have children myself, but I won’t stand by and let these people take over my city. We’re going to fight back and we’re going to win. And,” Vic paused, looking down at Chase with a smile, “if you need to get out of the city and get back to your grandparents, I’ll make sure that you make it there.”
Chase looked up at Vic and returned the smile, truly believing what the man was saying. There was something trustworthy about Vic—the same characteristic that Chase had seen in Blake the day before. He felt lucky to have met both men and was confident that they would help him and Riley to escape, not only from the Authority but from Houston as well. The office facility was only a short pit stop on his journey home. Chase knew it wasn’t over yet and he wasn’t going to stop trying until he walked back into the farmhouse with his sister by his side.
Chapter 2
“You’ll never guess who I’ve been talking to, my friend.”
“Who?” Blake looked up at Vic, smiling at the Ukrainian man as he sat down beside him in the makeshift cafeteria the faction had set up.
“A little friend of yours,” Vic teased as he started to eat the sandwich in front of him. “A young man you met yesterday?”
Blake furrowed his brow. He had spoken to a rather large collection of children yesterday following their liberation from the Authority’s control, though he had to admit there was one boy who stood out to him. One boy whom he had told he would help find his way home; a lost soul, someone whom Blake related to for some reason.
“Chase?”
“You got it!” Vic laughed, his conversation with the teenager suggesting that Blake would remember him. “He told me you’d spoken yesterday.”
Blake returned the smile. “Yeah,” he nodded, “nice kid. Wants to find a way out of the city.”
“I know,” Vic confirmed. “Sounds like both of us have volunteered to help in that department.”
“Really? You said you’d help him find a way out as well?”
“I did, my friend,” Vic replied. “Both him and his younger sister. He is desperate for them to find a way back to their grandparents’ farm.”
“I’m surprised,” Blake stated honestly. “I would’ve thought you’d want to stay here and help Jackson take the city back again.”
“I do,” Vic nodded. “But I think—”
“There you are!” Cam interrupted the conversation between the two men, charging into the room and not bothering to stop the door from slamming into the wall behind it. Both men looked up at the woman, her comment clearly aimed at them despite the ten or so other people in the
room with them. They had all been part of the same team during the raid on the Authority—even though it hadn’t lasted very long, it had already bonded them quite closely. “Jackson’s looking for you,” Cam explained. “Debrief in the boardroom upstairs.”
“Your thoughts will have to wait,” Blake winked at his companion, already on his feet and halfway behind Cam. “You coming?”
“Absolutely,” Vic abandoned the rest of his sandwich, the cardboard-flavored meat not bringing him much enjoyment. There was plenty of better food back at his store that he would return for in the next couple of days, once he found out exactly how things were going out in the city.
“Ah, good,” Jackson clapped his hands together as Cam entered the boardroom, Blake and Vic following closely behind her. “Thank you, Cam,” he smiled. “Now that we’re all here, we need to make a decision on what we’re going to do about Houston.”
“What’s the latest?” Blake asked, nodding to the select few other people in the room. He was both surprised and proud that he and Vic had managed to distinguish themselves as important members of the group so quickly, their input and knowledge highly valued by many members of the faction.
“Initial mission accomplished,” Jackson declared proudly. “All the children are out with zero casualties. Thank you all for your help and hard work over the last forty-eight hours. We’ve achieved what we set out to do. We have our children back.”
A brief cheer went around the room, men and women congratulating each other and clapping one another on the back. The celebration didn’t last long though, all of them aware that liberating the children was only the beginning.