Sequel to Fear: A Gone Novel by Michael Grant
Beyond the barrier where all the mothers and fathers of the children they had waited so long to see, stood staring in disbelief at what they were seeing. Their kids were out there, except none of them looked like kids anymore. Every child was skinny, elbows sticking out and their clothes that once fit, hung loosely on their bodies.
Among the crowd was Connie Temple, Sam Temple's mother who stared in horror as she watched her son shoot fire out of his hands and burn a half dead girl to ashes. The whole time she had imagined a nice setting: kids getting along and just having the time of their lives without parents around, but no. Instead, her two sons were in there and one of them, Sam, was killing right in front of her eyes.
Natasha Ellison, Astrid Ellison's mother, was not too far away from Connie and little did she know that her child loved Sam and Sam loved Astrid. Natasha searched the crowd until she found her beloved daughter, but she didn't see her little Pete. As soon as her husband came back with a poster, she wrote in big letters, where is Little Pete? Is he with you? And the moment Astrid's eyes read the words; they were filled with sorrow. That made Natasha think, but she was confused. Little Pete should have been with her and finally she got the answer out of Astrid by a little shake of her head. Inside, Natasha just knew. Knew that Little Pete was dead, but she didn't know how and Astrid hoped from the other side that she wouldn't find out.
Sam Temple and Astrid Ellison walked along the trail back to the houseboat in Lake Tramonto, away from the crowd of watching parents and cameramen. They just had to get away from it all, just had to. Or else Sam would lose it.
He was kind of like that nowadays. Sam Temple, the fearless leader wasn't so fearless anymore. He knew now that he was afraid of the gaiaphage, the darkness, the god that lived inside of Diana and Caine's baby. That didn't stop him however from wanting death to come over all of them: Diana, Drake, and that creature, the gaiaphage.
"Sam, look at the sun! It isn't going down yet and its almost eleven pm. Can you believe it? Instead of eternal darkness, it's eternal light. You don't have to be scared anymore," Astrid said giving him a big hug.
Sam Temple hugged her back with so much joy, he felt like he could burst. This is the kind of thing that matters, he thought smelling her white blonde hair. Even though it was filthy and felt like straw, it still smelled like Astrid.
They let go of each other and looked at the mess the kids made during the days of sudden panic. Buildings were nothing but ash, burned down from the bonfires trying to create enough light to see and weapons were lying all over the place where anyone could easily step on a knife.
"Boy they made a mess. Ugh, how are we going to get this all cleaned up before they come back?" Sam asked.
"How about we don't."
This wasn't like the old Astrid at all. The old Astrid would have a plan, the old Astrid would say something smart like the genius she was, but no one was the same anymore. Here in the FAYZ since the minute the world was covered in darkness, everyone changed. Once darkness took over the FAYZ, it wasn't about relationships and enemies anymore; it was just about surviving. Even Sam wasn't the same.
People had changed and probably for the better.
Diana, Gaia, Drake (a.k.a. Whip Hand) continued on their journey to nowhere. Only Gaia, the little baby in Diana's hands, the gaiaphage knew where they were going. They were going far away, farther than Lake Tramonto, farther from Perdido Beach away from civilization.
"We need to stop and rest," Diana panted, stopping dead in her tracks.
Drake whipped the ground with his whip hand just to scare her and growled, "No. Do you want Caine and Sam coming after us again?"
Silence.
"I thought so." He slapped his whip against the ground again, "Move it cow. Oh and while you're at it, why don't you give a moo." Drake cackled a laugh and they began moving again.
Diana looked into Gaia's eyes and knew immediately what she was thinking. They had a kind of connection to one another. Some would call it a mother daughter connection, but she knew it was stronger than that. Gaia got her, she knew what Diana was thinking, and she could easily search through her memories to find what she was looking for.
"Drake no move," Gaia said.
He stopped and turned to look at the baby. "What do you want me to do?"
Gaia couldn't say anymore, she didn't know how so Diana was forced to say the words Gaia thought to her. "She wants you to kill Sam. Just get it over with, she thinks the faster the better."
Back at the houseboat, Sam Temple was lying with Astrid on his bunk remembering back to old times when they were just middle school kids in math class. When the FAYZ started, everyone had been so confused and it had gone to total pigging out on junk food to eating humans out of starvation. Astrid's eyes filled with tears as she remembered back to the time when she had been forced to kill Little Pete, her brother.
"Sam, when my mom and dad find out what happened to Petey, what will they think? I'm a murderer? I would be put in jail for sure," Astrid said letting the tears drip down her face.
Before he could answer or comfort her in any way, Edilio burst in panting so hard his lungs sounded like they could explode. "Is Sam here?" he asked Astrid.
"Yeah, what's up bro?" Sam's face appeared out from the darkness of his bunk.
"They're coming. Mommy Diana, Uncle Drake, and the baby monster."
Sam got up out of bed and smiled. Let the adventure begin.