Chapter 1
End of the World

I was five when the first dust cloud covered the entire earth; it was deadly. They think it may have come from space, or maybe it was just God telling us that it was our time to leave earth to make room for another round of species. Dinosaurs take two!

The ones who survived have called it by two names; some call it “Alien dust” while others call it “The Apocalypse”. Either way it’s some pretty serious stuff. Two weeks after the incident almost everyone on earth had become extinct. The storm reared its ugly head again in 2015; but for the past eight years it’s been eerily quiet.

I can’t remember much from that day, but the few things that I do remember are pretty hard to talk about. I lost everyone I loved and when it happened I had no idea. My father, he worked for the United States Government, some top secret crap. The week of the incident he was asked to go to Washington DC for a meeting, he took my mom with him. They dropped me off at a friend of the families in New York City; her name was Lacy she went to college with both of my parents.

I remember waking up excited to watch my morning cartoons. The sun wasn’t shining that day and everything was extremely quiet. I was staying in the city that never sleeps, it was never quiet. I was five at the time so really what did I care? All I wanted do was to eat a bowl of coco puffs and sit down in front of the TV all morning.

I sat down on the couch and flipped through the channels. Almost all of the channels were fuzzy, with the exception of a few including Disney channel which was playing re-runs of Hannah Montana. Hours had passed by before I knew it, my stomach began to growl and I started to worry about where Lacy had been. I remember shutting the TV off and checking every room calling her name. When I couldn’t find her in any of the rooms I quickly ran to the door and swung it open.

The city streets were hard to find, I could barely even see the steps in front of me. Fear and panic ran through my veins. My eyes welled up and I wanted to cry. Where had everyone gone? A few seconds later I started to see figures walking through what looked like fog at the time. As they got closer I could see flashes of light and the outline of their orange space-like suits. A few times a few rays of light would shine directly on me and then move away. As I slowly stepped forward hoping I wouldn’t fall down the stairs, the orange-suited figures came over to me.

“Where’s Lacy?” I questioned. The two of them who were standing in front of me eyed each other. I couldn’t really see their faces, at the time and I thought they were wearing fishbowls on their head, and that confused me. I think at one point I even asked them why they killed the fish to put the fish bowls on their heads… I was an odd child. They nodded to each other and then one of them reached for my hand. He was wearing black gloves. I was always told never to go with strangers, for some reason this time felt different, so I stuck my hand out and took the suited figures hand.

They led me down the deserted streets of Manhattan; cars were smashed into each other and abandoned in the middle of the road. I could see in the light from the flashlights papers flying by me. We stopped at a big white truck, the back was open and more orange-suited figures hopped out going in different directions.

One of the men handed me an oxygen mask, and the strangest thing happened to me as I put it on; it was almost as if I was seeing what had happened to the city. Slowly I could see what looked like a mixture of fog and dust coming from over the water. Slowly it creped over buildings and made its way through the city. I could see people dying and then nearly disintegrating on the streets. The last thing that I remembered was screaming and then falling into someone’s arms.

Chapter 2
Godzilla ate my Barbie

When I had woken up from what I’d hoped was a terrible nightmare, I was here… in the place I now call home. I live deep underground in a government facility for the “gifted” survivors of the May 2012 Apocalypse. There are about two-hundred known survivors. Still eight years after the second dust storm there is no answer as to how we survived. That is unless the Government is hiding something, which I wouldn’t doubt. I have asked them about my father, they claim to not know where he is, even those who had been in DC when the world came to an end, could tell me nothing.

Besides being survivors of this thing, we also came out of it with something out of the ordinary. Somehow we ended up with “super-human” powers. I say that and roll my eyes every-time, its so cliche it’s not even funny.

“Raine, you are going to be late for work again, if you are not ready in ten-seconds I am going to kick down your door and drag your butt out. Even if I have to close my eyes cuz’ your half naked, I don’t care!”

I let out a sigh, it was Cyrus.

The two of us had been good friends since the day I’d first arrived.

They had stuck us in rooms according to our ages; our room looked like a pre-school. There were toys galore. I remember I was playing with a Barbie dream-house when a young boy named Frank footers (yeah pretty bad name) stampeded over to me. Funny thing was a lot of kids started calling him Frankfurter, (like the hot dog ha ha) it still makes me giggle a bit especially after what he did to me. So anyways, I had Ken in one hand and Barbie in the other, they had just gotten married. I was about to place them in their new red convertible (a wedding present from Kens brother) when five-year old Frankfurter decides he wants to play Godzilla and step on the car with his new light up buzz-lightyear sneakers.

“Hey!” I shouted.

“Now you have to buy Barbie a new car,” I stood up and crossed my arms over my chest. Frankfurter laughed.

“Rawwr, I am Godzilla, I destroy your city … rawwwr.”

His hands were up in the air, and he was acting like a monster. Then he leaned down and picked up Barbie, looked at her, and pretended to make her talk in a girly voice, “Oh no! You can’t eat me, no, no, no.” Then he took the doll and put her head in his mouth and yanked it right off. That was it for me, I started bawling hysterically. Then that’s when Cyrus dropped in… literally. He jumped from one of the chairs and clung to the back of Frank. On his back he wore a red cape; and had white fruit-of-the-loom underwear over his dark brown hair.

“No one escapes the Cyranator,” Cyrus roared as the two of them hit the ground.

Yeah, he was pretty cheesy back then, still is as a matter of fact.

“I will rescue Barbie for you miss,” he told me, as he nearly flattened Frank.

A few minutes later one of the people watching us, stormed over to stop the chaos. She pulled Cyrus off of Frank and sat him down in the chair he jumped out of. In his hands were Barbie and her head.

“Before you punish me Ma’am,” he said politely.

“I would like to give that beautiful girl over there her Barbie back,” he said to her in a cute smart-aleck voice.

When the lady agreed he walked over to me, first he carefully re-attached Barbie’s head to her body and then held her out to me.

“Here you go miss, sorry for all the trouble,” he said politely to me.

I wiped the tears off of my face and reached for the doll. I didn’t get a chance to say thank you because the lady took him directly to a time-out chair in the corner of the room. Ever since then, Cyrus and I have been inseparable.

“8… 9… Raine, you know I am serious…,” if he was serious he would have counted to ten already.

I pulled open the door and came face to face with Cyrus. There was no red cape on his back, nor was there any underwear on his head. Although the one thing that remained the same was that smile of his he gave whenever I saw him. His lips lifted and two tiny dimples formed on both cheeks. His face wasn’t all soft anymore, he was growing up and had stubble starting to show through the baby face he once had. He stared at me with his intense green eyes.

“Are you ready or what?” he questioned tossing me my hairnet. The two of us worked in the Cafeteria, I served the food and he was one of the lucky guys who got to help cook the food.

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses,” I told him as I grabbed my bag from the hook hanging on the back of my door.

“You are so bossy sometimes,” I carried on as I shut the door behind me.

Chapter 3
About my cliché superpowers

Anyone who survived the “dust storm”, without the help of the orange suits was considered to be “special”. They rescued more and more of us as 2012 went on, but once the cold weather hit on the earths surface the numbers of survivors found were few and far between. Finally in December of 2012 they had given up. I still wonder to this day if maybe there were other facilities in other parts of the world. They call this place “The Core”, maybe like the center of the earth? Although I know we aren’t that deep in the earth’s surface.

My powers had officially been discovered a month after the incident, I remember the day all too well.

I was in the playroom when it had happened. Cyrus had become attached to my hip; he never let me be alone after the Frank incident on that first day. For a five-year old he was quite over-protective of me.

We were building a castle with building blocks, and I have to admit I really think for kids we made a pretty kick-ass castle. Cyrus was busy being obsessive over the color scheme; while I was busy deciding which Barbie would be the princess of the castle. (I did have quite and obsession with Barbie’s when I was a kid) Suddenly across the room I could hear Frankfurter causing havoc amongst another group of kids. When I looked over he was terrorizing a little girl who looked around my age. She had short curly brown hair, and wore round circular glasses. She was a lot shorter then Frank and he was holding something high above her head, out of her reach. She was jumping up and down trying to grab the object, but he kept laughing and pretending to yawn. I felt the need to interrupt, but I really didn’t want to, I knew I’d end up being the victim again so I tried to ignore him.

A few minutes later I felt something smack me in the back of the head. I cried out and rubbed the area that was hit. On the floor next to me was a small pendant necklace. It looked like a locket. I looked up to see tears streaming down the little girls pale white face. She started in my direction. I stood up with the necklace in my hand and was about to walk over to her when something happened. My whole body froze in place, my heart rate sped up and my vision blurred.

I remember seeing the girl, she was running with a few other people, behind them was the dust cloud. There were people running around them too screaming and crying. The cloud crept forward with each moment that had passed. Then out of nowhere the other people with her disintegrated into thin air like a vampire in fantasy novels after they had been stabbed. Dust scattered to the pavement below and the young girl knelt down and bawled her eyes out. The necklace lay in a pile of ash.

When I woke from the vision a crowd of adults and children had gathered around me. The little girl looked frightened as she stared at me. I heard a small voice in my head.

“How could you see that?”

I looked at the girl again and she nodded her head, she had spoken to me through telepathy. At the time I had no idea. I finally sat up and handed the young girl her necklace. She thanked me, Beatrice is her name… I just call her Bea now; she’s one of my good friends, we’re practically sisters.

I found out Cyrus’s power a few days later while we were playing a game of checkers. He had the black pieces and I got stuck with red. We each made our moves one by one, using our hands to make the movements (I say this now, because in a minute you will understand) It came down to only a few pieces left, Cyrus sat there with his hand on his chin contemplating his next move. What happened next freaked me out at first, I looked down at the board and without him putting his hand on the piece it moved to the next spot. My eyes grew wide and when I looked back up at him he had this huge grin on his face.

“Been meaning to show you,” he smirked as that smart-aleck look crept across his face.

It is my belief and a lot of others down here that the “end of the world”, wasn’t the earth trying to extinguish us, most of us think it was the government trying to kill us off. It was almost as if they knew some of us would survive, maybe they were trying to weed us out by creating this disaster. They also made me suspicious when they questioned our family background and I asked them about my father, told them he worked for the government… they claim they have no record of him.

Besides telekinesis, psychometry, and telepathy; there were several other types of powers on board our underground home. Several scientists have been researching us since day one. There have been several tests done on each of us, and we have had several vials of blood taken, but no one has been able to give us answers on why we had been the chosen ones. If you ask me everything about this is very fishy, but I try not to let it bother me. So far since I have been here I have made great friends and they have been like a family to me, the only thing I wish is that I could have my real family here with me.
“Day dreaming on the job Raine?” speaking of Bea, she stood in front of me as she passed through the breakfast line in the cafeteria. She held up her red lunch tray towards me. She no longer had short hair; her curly brown hair now swooped down to her shoulders in beautiful waves. She no longer wore glasses, contacts were her best friend now, and her once pale face was covered with makeup.

I plopped some vegetables onto her plate.

“At least I didn’t fall asleep in the pea soup again,” I reminded her. That was a really bad day, several items that I had touched has shown me images in random orders. By the time I had to go to work my body was drained from working so hard. I remember one minute I was serving the soup, the next my face was covered in the green goop.

“Very true, are we on for movie night?” she questioned.

“Movie night, right, wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I promised.

We always went to the video library every Friday night to take out a new movie.
(Yes they even had a regular library, a gym; it was pretty much like a small city or town, just underground) This place had almost everything, another reason to believe this whole thing was planned. I always enjoyed our movie nights; they helped us see what it had been like up there on earth. I remember few things, but I have been down here for almost eleven-years it’s hard to remember everything.

So what’s it like to have super-human powers? It’s a scary experience; at times it can be exciting and thrilling other times it scares me and I wonder what is really wrong with me. I wonder sometimes what is in me and the others that helped us to survive the storm. It’s a question that haunts me every day, and one day I will figure this all out… hopefully sooner rather than later.

Chapter 4
Can we really escape?

I was relieved when I finally got to take my hair net off and let my long brown hair fall down my back. I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom by the cafeteria. It looked like a public bathroom; stalls were lined up along the wall, sinks just opposite of them with rectangular mirrors above each, pink tiled floors, and a pinkwhite combo color for the walls.

My face was extremely pale, which had been the case for most of us down here. I never even had a chance to lie on a beach and tan, when I lived on Earth going to the beach meant playing in the water and building sand castles. My hazel eyes had dark circles under them from the sleepless nights thinking about what happened to my family. I couldn’t help splashing water over my tired eyes; I needed to be awake enough for our movie night.

After waking myself up I headed out of the bathroom. I promised Bea that I would meet her at the video library. The library was on the last floor; it was near the center of “the core”, that is where the latch was to leave. The entrance to the latch had been sealed for a few years back, but a couple of times I had seen groups of people entering the door to where the latch was. They always looked like maintenance men, but maybe that’s what they wanted us to think.

I got into the elevator with two others. They were part of the “special” population like me; and I had known them since I was at least seven. Roger Patton and Danielle Meyers were their names. They held hands and looked at each other like they were the only two in the world. I never really thought about relationships much, finding someone down here wasn’t the top thing on my list, but every time I saw these two I felt a twinge of jealousy, I think everyone did.

The button to the tenth floor lit up and the doors opened, Roger and Danielle waved goodbye and got out. The silver doors closed again and I was on my way up. Five floors later the door opened and I stepped out into the hallway. A lot of people were usually on the fifteenth floor, it was almost like a strip mall up here. The government had set up this floor for people to get books, music, convenient items like; toothpaste, hairbrushes, and other every day necessities. Of course all of the entertainment was nothing new, every movie or CD was anything that had come out at least a year prior to the incident. Each room was visible to anyone walking through, the entire hallway on either side had windows and see through doors, it gave it that mall appearance. I think it kept some people sane, it gave them a taste of what home had been like.

I turned the corner and continued down the hallway. Only three doors down from the corner was the video library. I didn’t see Bea yet so I decided to take it upon myself to go inside. It was very quiet and not many people had been searching for movies tonight. To my left was a counter, it was almost like a check-out counter, but we didn’t have to pay. The only thing that we had to do was show our identification cards to take the movies out and we would have a week to return the item; it was almost like a movie rental store. In front of me were rows of shelving containing DVD’s in genre order. The first row was television, then comedy, drama, horror, thriller, science fiction, family, special interest, and action. I was headed straight for the horror isle, because that is what I was being forced to watch tonight when I heard two voices coming from the drama section. I stopped for a moment.

“They are opening it up tonight,” a deep male voice whispered lightly. I listened through the shelves of the comedy isle.

“Do you think we’ll be able to go back up there soon?” a high pitched female voice responded.

“I doubt it, I heard that there are creatures up there that were once normal, but turned into some kind of mutants from the dust cloud,” the male voice said.

“Yeah, well I heard the other day that a group of people were planning on going up there. I also heard that there were more survivors in another facility,” the female said.

“HEY!” I nearly jumped to the ceiling when a voice echoed from behind me and a hand rested on my shoulder. I turned and placed my hand over my heart, it was only Bea.

“Don’t do that to me, you almost gave me a heart-attack,” I took in a breath. I could feel my face burning.

Bea giggled, “Horror movie night is scaring you before we even watch the movie.”

“No, I was concentrating on something and you snuck up behind me, that’s enough to scare anyone,” I explained.

“Oh, spying huh? You spying is not nice,” she shook her pointer finger at me.

“They were talking about the surface,” I said.

“Yeah what about it?” she questioned as we walked towards the horror section.

“Apparently tonight they are opening the door to the latch, and some people are going to check out the surface. They also said that there are people who say there is another facility with other survivors just like us… could you imagine?” I questioned stepping in front of her stopping her from walking.

“You don’t honestly believe that bull do you?” she questioned twirling her curly hair between her fingers.

“I don’t know, but what if they aren’t lying what if it’s true. And… what if my parents are in this other facility, they had to of survived my dad worked for the government and was in the capital when all of this went down. What if he…,”

Bea put both of her hands on my shoulders.

“Raine, I know you are set on this whole your parents being alive thing, but I just don’t want you to be disappointed. I am just trying to look out for my best friend.”

“I know,” I told her. I knew she cared about me and I felt the same for her. She accepted her parent’s death not long after she came here. She took it hard, but now she just pushes the sadness away telling her-self that they are in a better place.

We continued to the horror section, and I promised not to bring up the Earths surface. I bit my tongue and put on my usual happy facade and started our search for the perfect movie. We picked an appropriate topic for our situation, we decided on the last Resident Evil movie that came out before the disaster. Mila Jovich had always been my favorite bad-ass actress ever since Cyrus made me watch the first movie. After we brought it up to Edwin the guy behind the counter, we promised to meet up at 8 o’clock for the movie.

I still had an hour to spare before everyone was coming to my room to watch the movie. I decided to check out the door to the latch since I was already up here. I waited until Bea turned the corner and I knew she was out of sight. I walked around another corner a few feet ahead and staring me from down the hallway was the door that led to the surface. It was a humongous silver metal door with a key pad on the side to punch in a special code. I noticed the door slightly ajar and became curious. Cautiously I looked back and checked the darkened rooms as I carefully made my way to the door. I placed my hand on the door and nearly got a shock from the intensity of the vision.

There were two men; one had a shiny bald head, the other a full head of dark brown hair. They both wore the orange suits that I had remembered from the day they rescued me. The bald guy typed in the numbers 44920 into the key pad. They both stepped into the doorway, the bald guy held the door open while the other put a door stop at the foot of the door.
The vision faded quickly only showing me their entry. I took one more glance behind me to check if anyone was there. The only sound I heard was the hum of the electricity that I always heard when it was quiet. Quietly I snuck into the doorway. Inside were bright lights shining from above, and a large ladder was enclosed by a giant circular metal rail. I tip-toed over to the ladder and my eyes wandered to what was above me. A small amount of light was shining through the latch, it had been open and someone was out there on the earth’s surface. A mumble of voices came from above, my heart raced a million miles a minute as I jetted for the door, and I didn’t stop running until I reached the video library.

When I got back to my room I only had twenty-minutes to shower and get ready for everyone to come over. Our bedrooms here were like small apartments almost, minus the kitchen. The walls of course were metal like everything else, there were no windows and everything was dull and gray. We were given a full size bed, a dresser, and access to our own bathrooms. Mine was on the right side of my room opposite my bed. We were also given TV’s and stereos, they told us that they wanted us to think of this place like home not a prison.

Quickly I got into the cold porcelain tub to wash up. I shut my blue curtain and tried to get the hottest shower I could without burning myself. Maybe I thought the water would help me get rid of what I had just discovered tonight, but it wasn’t helping. My mind kept wandering to the fact that people were going to the surface and that I could get out of here maybe. I have been longing to find out where my parents were. I had to think of a plan, I knew the code to get into the room; the only thing I would need to know is how to open the latch if it wasn’t open when I got there. I had so much to think about. I really didn’t have much time once Bea barged into the bathroom and stuck her head into the shower, scaring me for the second time today. She yelled at me to finish up because everyone had come already, I really wish I wouldn’t have given her the spare key to my
room.

Chapter 5
Scary Movies & Friends

My group of friends had consisted of Cyrus, Bea, Walter (Walt), and Abigail (Abby or Abs). I had met Walter through Cyrus; the two of them had met a few days prior to the Frankfurter incident, and Abigail we met when we were ten at the video library. Out of everyone Abigail was the shy one, Bea was the resident loud-mouth, I was the normal one I guess, Cyrus always acted more mature, and Walt was the funny side-kick. As far as powers go, Abs can control elements, all of them but only one can become the better one for her to use. Walt can partially see the future. I mean partially because usually when he sees things it’s jumbled up and he can never figure it out. It doesn’t happen often and something has to trigger his brain for it to happen. It’s kind of like how for me it’s only when I touch an object that has a past. I always thought that the five of us made an interesting group.

Everyone sat with their backs up against the wall while sitting on my bed, Cyrus supplied our snacks while Bea and I supplied the movie. Cyrus always made me sit next to him during our movie nights; I didn’t mind it was someone to hide my eyes on if a movie really freaked me out, or a shoulder to cry on if the guys allowed us to watch a girl flick like “The Notebook”.

I usually compared our home to Umbrella Corporation facility in the Resident Evil films. They were deep under ground and had everything they could have on the surface. Half the time as I sat there watching the movie I’d always wonder if zombie-like creatures now roamed the earth. While we all lived on earth thinking about the zombie apocalypse was more like a fantasy, now it all seems too real.

I was always fascinated with these movies, especially with my girl crush on Mila it was one action packed scene after another. Bea, Abs, and I always jumped during the scenes when things jumped out of nowhere, even if we were expecting it. I practically choked on an M&M when Cyrus silently prepared to scare me, and was successful when a zombie jumped out of nowhere on the screen. There were several screams coming from each one of us girls, the guys could never control themselves when we claimed horror night.

Thankfully the movie ended with no casualties, well the movie had those but everyone was safe on my bed; meaning we didn’t kill Walt and Cyrus for freaking us out. The boys had brought a movie too; we usually kept the same genre through the night. Walt held up a copy of SAW a movie I had yet to see. He claimed that we had to stay up and watch all of them since none of us were scheduled for work in the morning.

Besides Cyrus and I, Abs worked at the regular library she loved reading, I bet she has read every book in the entire place, she claims she hasn’t. Walter was the youngest to get a job in maintenance, most of the guys working in that department were eighteen and older, but Walt was smart when it came to fixing things. Lastly Bea she had a job in the “convenience store”, she stocked shelves and help people find the things she needed, she hated it. The only reason they made her work there was because she was such a friendly person and could talk to almost anyone. Once we all turned fourteen we had to get job placements here, they wanted everyone to help out. Right now it pretty much means that everyone has a place here, there is barely anyone under the age of thirteen, with the exception of the few people who hooked up and ended up getting pregnant. Luckily there were Doctors here as well in case of illness or anything. Once again … a little too planned out of a system if you ask me.

Bea liked to ruin our scary movies by yelling at the person on the screen, especially when we watched slasher movies. She hated when the main girl actress would run around with no clothes and her boobs would get in the way of running and it always ended with her dying. Bea would yell like there was no tomorrow, luckily Resident Evil and Saw didn’t have that effect on her. The only effect it did have on her is her obsession with Carey Elwes, I think we had taken Princess Bride out of the video library thousands of times.

Abby usually clung to Walt every time we had horror night, they weren’t an item or anything, although she had been crushing on him for a while she never pursued him. Bea was independent, and I usually clung to Cyrus, but that clinging was in a friendship way, it was far from romantic. Saw was one of those movies from what I had been seeing so far where I actually did have to close my eyes. With body parts being torn and the tortured scream of the victims it drove me crazy.

The Saw marathon continued through the night. This place is nothing like a strict boarding school would be, once we turned thirteen we were really on our own. There were only two things we were forced to do, one was attend some classes so that we could learn basic math, English, and some history of the world; so we had an idea of where we had come from. The second was getting a job at fourteen, everyone had to contribute and that was the only rules that were really enforced. Co-ed sleepovers were allowed by the time we turned thirteen too, the monitor that used to patrol the rooms had disappeared once we turned that age. A curfew was also non-existent too. Usually on our movie nights we would all end up passing out in my room. The boys brought their sleeping bags, and the three of us girls would try to fit on the bed. Some nights, like tonight might turn out we’d all pass out watching the movie on my bed. From where I sat I could already hear Abs snoring, and Bea was soundly asleep, Walt was in heaven as the two of them ended up passing out against him. I could see even in the dark room, from the glare of the TV a small smirk crept up on his face. A few short minutes later I had passed out on Cyrus, his arm protectively set around me and his head close to mine.

I woke up a few hours later to static on my TV. I lifted my head from Cyrus’s chest and looked around the room; everyone had taken some pillows and crashed on the floor. I quietly got up to turn off the movie and then headed back to my bed. Cyrus now lay on his side; I could see the outline of his body from the small nightlight I always kept on at night. He patted the spot next to him and I lifted the covers and slid in. He scooted to me and I turned away from him as he put his arms around me. I sighed deeply.

“Something on your mind?” his warm breath lingered on my ear.

“I heard something tonight while I was at the video library,” I started.

“Two people were talking about the latch and that they were opening it to go out and explore. They also mentioned another facility that possibly exists. After Bea left to get ready for tonight I snuck over to the door and it was open, when I walked in the latch it was open someone had gone outside. What if they really knew about this other place? What if I could get there? What if…”

“Raine, shh, you can’t go up there you know that. It’s too dangerous we don’t know what kind of environment there is and what that storm has created.”

“If we were fine then, why wouldn’t we be fine up there now?” I turned to him.

“That was years ago, remember another one of those things hit a few years back, who knows what it did.” He brushed a piece of hair behind my ears.

“Cyrus I have to know. You guys all may be content with that has happened but I am not. They are out there I feel it,” I began to feel a little choked up that he didn’t believe.

“Do you really think I am content? Do you remember what happened to me?” I nodded.

“How can you say I am content, I am heart broken, but I have learned that I need to move on things are the way they are for a reason. None of us can change what happened.”

I didn’t feel like fighting with him anymore for the night, I turned back and curled up into a ball once again allowing Cyrus to wrap his arm around me.

“You aren’t alone Raine, you will always have me,” he spoke softly in my ear. I said nothing back to him.

Maybe he was making sense, but I was a stubborn person I didn’t want to believe it. His past was a bit rough; he had lost far more family members that I did. He told me the story once and I never forgot.

It was Cyrus’s fifth birthday May 20; his family was throwing him a huge birthday party in the backyard. He lived in Poughkeepsie New York and had a huge property. His dad worked in the New York City at the stock market and his mom owned her own arts and crafts business in Poughkeepsie, which did very well. They lived in a huge farm house miles from anyone. They also had a farm with horses and pigs, his older brother Mark who was 17 took care of the animals. Cyrus also had a little three-month old sister and another older sister who was twenty-five and pregnant with her first child. He could not wait to see her and his brother-in-law who promised him he was getting the best birthday gift ever.

Cyrus told me that he was impatient the entire day waiting for everyone to arrive. Finally at 4 o’clock in the afternoon they all arrived. He told me he got his very own two-wheeler bike from his brother-in-law and sister. His parents had given him a remote control car that did cool tricks. His other brother had gotten him a horse of his own. He blindfolded him and brought him into the barn. Cyrus told me he couldn’t contain his excitement and once the blind fold was removed he saw the brown horse in front of him with a bow tied around her neck. He loved the horse, she was perfect. He named her Madeline.

This is the part that kills him deep inside everyday, but he tries to hide it. He turned to his mom who was smiling and asked her if he could ride Madeline. His mother tried to explain that he could ride her tomorrow and then he should get back to the party to spend time with family. Of course any five year old would get upset over this. Cyrus through a temper tantrum and told his mom he hated her. She left him in the barn to get out all of his anger.

I cried for Cyrus when he told me the next part. He told me once he was done throwing a fit; he went to go finish celebrating his birthday. It had gotten late and the sun was set, or so he thought. He walked out of the barn and into a thick fog. He called for his parents and family, but no one answered him. Through the dark he made his way to the house, finally finding it by the porch light. He called everyone’s names again, but no one had answered. He went up the three stairs to the porch and slipped on something. He looked down to see his mom’s glasses lying on a pile of ash. He told me he called her name for hours, until the men in orange suits came for him too.

The worst part of his story was the fact that he always blames himself. He hates that he never got to say goodbye to his mom and family, and that she died thinking he hated her. I think if that were my case I would try to forget too, but I just can’t. Maybe if I talked to Abs and Walt, maybe they’d help me. That had turned into my plan, before I fell asleep again I made sure in my head that first thing I would talk to them, maybe I’d have better luck.

Chapter 7
Spying sometimes pays off

My childhood is now like a blur to me, like most people we all remember snippets of our young life. For me the one thing that never left me was the memory of waking up on Sunday morning to the smell of eggs, sausage, and bacon. Mom also made her own OJ; of course she de-pulped it for me I hated getting the little strings of pulp stuck in my throat.

Another thing I’d always remember was waking up in the mornings and just lying there, I’d watch the sun dance along the comforter of my bed. Mom always said if you watch them long enough you could watch them take various shapes. We had a game that we’d usually play on Sunday mornings while dad cooked. It was kind of like that cloud game where you would guess what the shape of a cloud, except this was with the sunlight that danced around my room. I wonder if still at sixteen if we’d still be playing that game every Sunday. I probably would have ended up being a stubborn teenager who tells their parents they are embarrassing them. It really sucks that now all I can think about is how much I wanted that again, they just have to be okay… I have a smidge of faith that they are.

“Are you crazy Raine? The surface?” Abs held the corners of the table we sat at, practically digging a hole through with her nails.

“Why does no one believe me, I thought you guys were my friends?” I questioned eyeing them as I set my strawberry down on my plate.

“Because Raine, it’s not worth getting killed,” Walt added.

“Finding my parents is not worth it? Well to me it’s worth it I’ll die trying to find them.” I argued.

Bea and Cyrus had gone to the video library to return the movies; they promised they’d meet us down here in the cafeteria. This had been my perfect time to convince Walt and Abs to come with me, but they were being just as stubborn as the other two.

“We didn’t mean it like that, we just-,” Walt looked at Abs for help. I angled my head down at them with a hateful glare in my eyes.

“We don’t want-,”

“Me to get hurt,” I cut Walt off.

“Not just you, but all of us think about it, what if some of us died trying to get there; wouldn’t you feel the least bit upset?” Abby said.

“Of course I would, but I know we’d be fine, we were the first time what make’s the atmosphere any different then it was then?” I was trying so hard to keep my cool.

“There was another incident after the first, who knows what it did to the surface,” Walt said.

“Yes, but then why are normal people going up there to check it out? If it wasn’t safe they wouldn’t do it. Walt out of all the people I know I thought you would be the one with me, especially since we both think this whole thing was not mother-nature.” … still trying.

“I am not saying I don’t believe that anymore, I am just saying even if it was made by them (he meant the government) that doesn’t mean it’s safer,”

I jumped when cold hands touched my bare shoulder, today I wore my favorite purple tank top, and a chill ran up my spine. Cyrus sat down next to me with one hand still placed on my shoulder.

“What’s all the yelling about over here?” Cyrus questioned examining all of our faces. Bea scooted in next to me on the other side. Both of them were so close I could feel their body heat.

“Raine wants to go to the surface,” Abs said.
“You are still trying to get us to agree with you even after our conversation last night?” Cyrus looked hurt.

“You know what guys…” I wiped my forehead; sweat was slowly starting to form.

“I just… I’ll just go myself, I don’t need anyone.” I stood up with my breakfast in hand and bolted for the door.

Did they not think that I had any sense? I knew what we were up against, but I would never intentionally put them in harms way. This gut feeling deep down told me that everything would be okay. Plus I think that Walt would tell me if there had been something he’d seen, or would he? I needed to find out more information about this other shelter so I can prove to them I am right. I get that from my father, he always had to be right even if he was wrong. All of these little pieces kept my parents alive deep inside.

A lot of floors in the core were restricted government employees only. It made me nervous not knowing what they were doing. There was one restricted floor that we regular people could get to, they were the conference rooms on the sixth floor down. I knew that if I was going to find things out that I could find them out there. Although it was a weekend they still held meetings. That floor also held the kid play room where we had all played when we were younger. That room is almost deserted now, like I said not many people here were together.

I made my way down to the sixth floor. When the doors opened I stepped out into the hallway. All of them practically looked the same, only the rooms varying in look. The conference rooms had blinds covering the windows, unlike the strip mall hallway where you could see into every room. I heard some commotion taking place down the hallway.
“He is at base two, he says they are running low on supplies, they are a smaller unit,” a voice spoke as I leaned my ear against one of the wooden doors.

“We have workers checking the surface as we speak,” a deeper voice spoke, both sounding very professional, definitely government workers.

“They are the shelter in DC correct?” A raspy female voice questioned.

“That is correct,” the deep voice answered. I heard someone typing frantically.

“The request comes from Mr. William Carter,” … As in the New York William Carter the one who I spent five years of my life with. The guy who introduced me to music, the one who took me to every festival in NY State before I could walk? Dad…

“Tell him we will be sending out some of our crew soon to head that way, we have to check on our vehicles make sure they are all working properly.” The first voice I heard spoke.

“He also asks if there have been any signs of his daughter,” the female questioned.

“Excuse me miss but you shouldn’t be down here,” a man in a security uniform walked towards me. The heels of his shoes clicked along the floor causing and echo. I began to panic and started to try and turn the door knob to the conference room.

“Miss,” he started again. When the knob didn’t turn I ran. I bolted past the guard and headed for the elevator. I heard two voices talking from behind me but ignored them. I turned to the elevator doors just as they were closing and the guard was just turning around from a conversation with someone who had been in that room.

I stood there staring at the elevator doors; I really don’t remember how many rides I had taken up and down. No one said anything when I didn’t get off. Eventually I slid down the walls and sat in the corner with my legs pulled up to my chest.

Cyrus found me later that night, I was still in the elevator someone had told him they saw me. He came over not saying a word, just reached down and pulled me up into his arms. He carried me off to my room and tucked me into bed. He was there for a while; he sat in my desk chair and pulled a book off my shelf that I’d taken from the library. He sat there like that for I don’t know how long just reading and not saying a word. He knew me too well, he’d wait until I talked to him and told him why I’d been there, he knew that if I didn’t talk first that I’d most likely rip off his head. During those moments I really did not have anything to say to him, so I stayed quiet, and he never left.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.05.2011

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