by E S Richards
“It’s not over yet,” Jackson continued. “The Authority is aware of our uprising within the city now, and while they have sacrificed the children for the moment, I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of them in Houston. They’re going to come back stronger and when they do, we need to be ready for them.”
“How?” one man around the table asked, his bald head glistening in the candlelight that illuminated the room. “How do you think they’re going to come back? Where have they gone?”
“They’ve retreated from the theater district,” Jackson replied. “Beyond that, we don’t know for sure. I’ve dealt with this kind of group in the past. They’re not just going to give up without a fight. I’m still not entirely certain who they’re working for or why they’re doing all of this, but you can bet there’s a big payout for those involved if they complete their mission. We need to make sure that payout is never cashed in.”
“Money?” Cam asked, raising her voice in question after what Jackson had just said. “That’s what you think this is about?”
“Money. Power. Freedom. Survival. It doesn’t make much difference,” Jackson shrugged, rattling off a few reasons why the Authority could be doing what they were doing. “What matters is our city. Our children. We’ve beaten them once now; there’s nothing to say we can’t do it again if we play our cards right.”
“What about the children? What happens to them?”
“Those whose parents are with us will become their responsibility. Everyone is encouraged to stay with the group, but if whole families have been reunited, I’m not going to stop them from walking away and taking a chance at life again. If a child’s parents aren’t already with us,” Jackson paused, thinking over the many disappointed faces he had seen as they discovered their family wasn’t involved in the rescue attempt. “Then the child will be given the same choice. They can either join us, or go out and look for their family. I want everyone to be safe, but I won’t force anyone to stay.”
Murmurs and nods echoed throughout the room, the other adults agreeing with what Jackson suggested. It seemed fair. They had already done a great deal for the children of Houston, but they couldn’t do everything. Blake looked over at Vic and shared a look that both of them knew meant they had a great deal to talk about. Jackson was a promising leader and neither of them wanted to abandon him and what the faction was trying to do in the city; both had made promises to Chase and neither wanted to go back on that promise.
“How long do you think we have?” Vic asked, drawing the attention in the room in his direction. “How much time do you think there is before the Authority returns to full strength and tries to recapture the city?”
“I can’t say,” Jackson shook his head. “We have scouts out in the city as we speak, searching for any traces of them. Watching and waiting as they prepare. In all honesty, I don’t know. It could be weeks, it could be days. They might be ready within a matter of hours. I don’t think we should wait for them to attack first, though. The best form of defense is offense. I don’t intend to sit back and wait for them to recover; I intend to strike while the iron is hot and make sure they can’t reclaim the city. No matter how hard they try.”
“Hear! Hear!” A cheer erupted around the room again, the faction inspired by Jackson’s words. He certainly didn’t struggle to rally his troops behind him, everyone ready to charge into battle again, no matter how little time had passed since they prepared for the first wave of the rebellion.
“Vic,” Jackson turned to the Ukrainian. “Are there more supplies in your store that we could use? The addition of your weaponry will be invaluable from here on out.”
“Some,” Vic mused, unwilling to disclose the extent of his arsenal to such a large group. He also didn’t want anyone in and out of his store if he wasn’t around and that meant that a question mark punctuated whether he would be able to help Chase and his sister escape from the city. The matter needed more discussion, not least of all because the group of them—adults and children alike—seemed to be forgetting the most dangerous factor about the city. For all the damage the Authority could cause, their planet was still the site of a supervolcanic eruption and that was far more dangerous than anything a human could create.
Vic hadn’t slept much through the night. He had found himself climbing the stairs within the office building, reaching the top floor of the skyscraper where vast floor-to-ceiling windows gave him a complete view of the city of Houston. Without a working elevator, the ascent up the building had taken the best part of an hour. By the time Vic reached the top his heart was hammering in his chest, his legs complaining beneath him and begging for him to sit down. It wasn’t his body protesting that finally made the man stop and rest though; it was the sight ahead of him. The view of the city—a view unlike anything he had ever seen before in his life.
Vic was above the cloud. It was incredible. Only the tops of a few other tall buildings broke through at that level, the rest of the city completely consumed by darkness. He had been up in skyscrapers before and looked down at the city from above the white fluffy clouds, able to just make out the hazy outlines of buildings through the floating water vapor, signs of the city below still visible. Not anymore. The cloud that hung over Houston was now so dark that nothing broke through it. He couldn’t see the outline of buildings or the smaller properties below. The city had been completely consumed. It was like there was nothing left of it.
As the hours of nighttime gave way to dawn and then the morning, Vic peered through the cloud in the direction of the sun. Watching carefully, he waited for it to appear. A huge ball of orange light, bringing light and warmth to the world below. But it never came. No matter how long Vic waited, counting the minutes that passed by when sunrise should have been, he still saw nothing. The cloud was too thick. Too dark. Too deadly. Not even the sun had the power to shine through it; daylight was no longer a luxury any of them could afford.
Shut away inside, it was easy to forget how everything had happened. Focusing on the Authority and what they were doing to Houston was the easy course, Vic knew. He understood that it was a problem that needed to be tackled, but he didn’t want to forget what had caused it all. It kept him up all night worrying and wondering whether there would ever be an end to it all.
“Could you talk me through it later?” Jackson asked, sensing that Vic didn’t feel comfortable talking about what lay within his store in front of everyone. The self-appointed leader was good at that; he knew when people felt uneasy and he was good at reading a room, knowing what the right thing to say was at the right time and also when to keep quiet. Looking at Vic now, Jackson could see there was something other than the children and the Authority on his mind. Despite only having known the man a few short days, Jackson trusted Vic and didn’t want to cause any tension between them. Receiving a nod from the Ukrainian, he steered the topic elsewhere, sharing his plans with the rest of the room.
“You all right, man?” Blake asked Vic once the room emptied just over an hour later. Vic hadn’t said anything much for the last sixty minutes, merely nodding along and interrupting only if absolutely vital. “You’ve been pretty quiet.”
“Yeah,” Vic nodded, “I’m just wondering whether all of this is really possible.”
“Of course it is,” Jackson spoke up, turning to the two men after closing the door on everyone else, the other meeting attendees going off to start their day. “What’s on your mind?”
“I’m just worried we’re forgetting about what caused all of this,” Vic explained truthfully, finally pulling out a seat and letting his body rest. He had been on his feet for hours following his nighttime activities; in all honesty, he’d been close to falling asleep against the wall when he met Chase earlier that morning. “The effects of the eruption aren’t getting any better. I went up to the top floor earlier and it looks like the entire city has been covered by a filthy carpet of ash. The cloud has blanketed everything. The air isn’t suitable to breathe. We’re running out of
food and clean water. Yes, the Authority is a very real threat, but I don’t want us to forget about the threat we can’t control either. The threat we’re going to have to learn to live with. We can’t just blow this one up, my friends.”
Blake and Jackson looked at each other, nodding at Vic’s words. He was right. They were both aware of how dangerous the Authority was and how much damage they were capable of doing to Houston and the people within it, but there was little point in trying to protect those people if the effects of the eruption were only going to hurt them later down the line. They had to remember the enemy on their doorstep, the enemy that—as Vic rightly said—they needed to learn to live with.
Chapter 3
“Where would the keys be?”
“I don’t know, is there a staff room somewhere?”
“There’s got to be some sort of safe where they’re all kept, surely? They wouldn’t just leave them lying around.”
“What about in here?”
“Ooh, yes. Does it open?”
“Needs a key.”
“Here. Try this.”
“Yes! Jackpot!”
“Quiet, dude. Mia’s still asleep remember? She looks like she needs the rest.”
“Ah yeah, sorry.”
“How are we supposed to get a car started without waking her?”
“Umm…”
Mia sat with her eyes closed on the leather couch, listening to the conversation between the three boys. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but clearly her body had been so exhausted, she hadn’t been able to fight against it. Still, she had to admit, even after only being awake for a few seconds—and not yet opening her eyes—she felt a lot better because of the rest. For the first time in a long time she’d been able to switch her brain off from the traumatic events going on outside and allow her body to refuel. Mia had been close to running on empty and she knew it. She was grateful the three college boys had understood and had left her to rest.
Now, she had to let them know she was awake again. As much as Mia wanted to keep her eyes closed and keep believing that everything was fine—that the world wasn’t falling apart around her due to a massive supervolcanic eruption—she knew she couldn’t do that. Not only were the boys relying on her, but she had a family to get back to as well. They weren’t far from the Texas border now; it wouldn’t be long before she saw them again.
“It’s okay,” Mia announced, drawing the attention of the three boys who were now huddled together going through keys, figuring out which set was for which vehicle. “I’m awake. You don’t need to worry about the noise.”
“Mia.” Jadon immediately peeled away from his friends, walking toward her with a smile on his face. “How are you feeling? Sleep well?”
“Yeah, thanks,” Mia replied, still slightly embarrassed she had fallen asleep in such a manner. “My body clearly needed it. Ready and raring to go now.”
“Nice,” Jadon grinned. “And the worst of the storm has passed now too. Visibility is still pretty low, but I reckon we’ll be able to drive. We were just trying to decide which car would be best. Any ideas?”
Mia shook her head. “I’m afraid cars aren’t really my area of expertise. I’d say whichever has the most gas in it—we’ll have to siphon a fair bit off to fill the tank, I reckon.”
“Oh yeah.” Jadon slapped a hand against his forehead in a manner that suggested he was irritated with himself. “Why didn’t we think of that? Guys!” He turned and shouted over to Jesse and Marcus, the two friends still talking amongst themselves rather than coming to join Mia and Jadon. “We need to check them for gas. Might as well start them all up in that case!”
“You got it!” Marcus called back, giving Jadon a thumbs-up and scooping up a few sets of keys in his hands.
“Want to help?” Jadon asked, the young boy eager to try out a couple of the cars himself. There was a random collection inside the showroom, including a couple of very expensive vehicles. He couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel of them and see how they felt.
“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Mia nodded. “I’m just going to try and find somewhere to freshen up a bit, then I’ll come join you. Feel free to get started without me.”
“All right, cool,” Jadon smiled. “See you in a bit.”
Waving Jadon off, Mia looked around the room to try and ascertain where she could find some water to splash over her face and potentially a protein bar or something to nibble on. She carried both in her rucksack, but knew it was better to make use of the resources around her while they were available. Wandering down a corridor, Mia was granted a view of outside and she stopped to marvel at it for a second, finally seeing their surroundings without the storm stripping her sight from her.
The parking lot and outdoor show area of the dealership was completely destroyed, cars thrown onto their sides by the force of the wind, and shopping carts from the store up the street strewn everywhere. A dark layer of dirt and grime that reminded Mia of melted tar coated everything. It looked slick and wet, although Mia knew it would be quite the opposite, the volcanic residue hardening over almost any substance it touched. It had removed all color from the environment outside, all life covered instead with darkness. The grassy verge which ran alongside the road was completely black, no chance of the ground being able to produce life again for a long time.
It made Mia worry about how her parents, Chase, and Riley were coping at the farmhouse. Naturally, they relied quite heavily on growing their own crops, something that would no longer be possible for her family. She hoped they’d had the good sense to pick everything when the ash first started to fall. Hopefully at least that way they could’ve saved what they already had.
She worried for the animals too. If they hadn’t already, her parents would soon have to realize that they couldn’t waste resources on feeding the cows and the chickens. Even the small amounts the animals ate were vital; feeding the cows for a couple of days could be the difference between whether her family had food for another week or not. Mia knew when she returned another mouth to feed would bring a larger burden on her family—even more so because it wouldn’t just be her they had to provide for.
While Mia knew that Jadon, Marcus, and Jesse all had family on the East Coast, she thought it was unlikely that the three of them would continue their journey there without her. At least not immediately. The three college boys would need to stay at the farmhouse for a few days at the very least, and that meant even more food would be needed for the group of them.
It just added to the list of concerns rushing through Mia’s head as she finally found an old water cooler which she drained some of the water from to wash her face before filling her water bottle. They had to be conservative with food and water—that wasn’t a new piece of information—but now she had to think about scavenging additional resources as well. It only made the need for a decent car more paramount; the more space they had and the less they had to stop for other issues, the more they would be able to scavenge and prepare for their arrival at the farmhouse.
“How’s it going?” Mia asked loudly as she walked back into the main showroom, her voice needing to be raised to be heard over the sound of several car engines. Jesse, Jadon, and Marcus all sat in different vehicles, revving the engines and checking that the internal systems all worked.
“Everything appears to be working!” She laughed as she walked closer to the boys, none of them having heard her yet. Jesse was the first to notice Mia’s presence and he switched off the engine of the Mercedes Benz he sat in, Jadon and Marcus following suit once they also acknowledged Mia’s return. “Having difficultly choosing just one?” Mia grinned, aware that all three boys were loving the opportunity to play with a few cars. She knew it wasn’t the purpose of their visit, but she couldn’t force herself to crack down on them and get serious just yet. It was a good thing that they were still able to find joy in their daily tasks, and Mia didn’t want to take that away from any of them.
The boys all laughed in uniso
n in response to Mia, each of them aware, like she was. that of all the activities the eruption had forced them into, this was by far the most enjoyable. They had almost forgotten why they were in the auto dealership, letting the roar of the engines carry them away to somewhere else—somewhere their lives weren’t constantly in danger.
“None of them really have any gas,” Marcus spoke up, the first to break the spell of imagination among the boys. “They’re all just for show.”
“Only intended for a quick spin around the block, I reckon,” Jesse commented. “It’d take ages to siphon enough gas out for any of them.”
“Oh,” Mia’s face fell, disappointed by what the boys were saying. Marcus, Jesse, and Jadon looked at one another, their expressions giving something away between them. Mia could tell something was up, though she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. “What?”
“There is another way we can get gas,” Jesse smiled, leaving the end of his statement open for interpretation by Mia.
“How?”
“Well, they have to fill these cars up from somewhere,” Jadon stated.
“They’re not going to drive them to a gas station every time that’s needed either,” Jesse continued.
“Okay,” Mia replied, slowly coming around to what the boys were suggesting, but still unclear on their point. “So where…”
“There’s a gas pump out the front,” Jesse burst out, unable to keep himself quiet any longer. “We can just fill up whichever car out there when we need to.”
“What?” Mia didn’t know why she was so surprised by what she was hearing, but the revelation was fantastic. That meant that as long as the car they needed started up, nothing else mattered. “Hang on a minute,” she continued, looking at the boys who all wore cheeky smiles on their faces. “How long have you known this?”
“Oh, since about the third car we tried,” Jadon smirked. “Jesse noticed the pump a few hours ago.”