January 30, 2138 (Late evening)
I don't have much time left before we leave, but Tommy and I have had our stuff prepared for a long while now. So both of us took a little bit of time to get with Mom and Karl and try to mend this rift that's growing between them and Dad. So I went to Mom and Tommy went to Karl. Mom was outside with little Alan, holding him as she stared in the direction of the city. She heard me coming and she looked at me as I approached her, but she didn't say anything. She just stood there with her eyes open wide, and all that I could think of to say was, "I love you, Mom."
She stood there still with the same expression as I could see a tear stream down her face and she said, "I can't lose you. I can't."
"You won't. I promise," I said back as I walked to her and hugged her.
I stayed with her another minute and started to walk away and she said, "Look after each other and be careful."
I turned back to her and said, "Trust me Mom. Tommy won't take his eyes off of me."
This brought out a short laugh out of her and she said, "Yeah, I've noticed."
After leaving Mom in hopefully a better mood I went to see Tad. Once at his door I could see that Sarah was already there, armor on and watching Tad showing her how to do something that I didn't recognize with her combat knife. It must have been something Dad or Kim had shown him. Even when you're in a bed they won't just let you rest. Not a wasted moment goes by in their eyes.
Sarah was obviously in a better mood than the other day as they kept messing with the knife. It was almost too good for some reason. As I approached them Tad spoke up first saying, "I hate this, you know? This waiting here and letting everyone else take care of things. It's pathetic."
I was kind of expecting a more emotional greeting from both of them. The ones we usually have before one of these missions that might separate us forever. It wasn't like they didn't know that we were going. What did they know that I didn't? I would find out a minute later.
Sarah said to me, "Are you ready to go?"
I said, "Yeah, we're just waiting for Dad and Kim. They're supposed to come for us any time now."
"Yeah…us," Sarah said back to me as Tad pulled the sheet down from himself and revealed that he was fully dressed underneath it all along.
"What are you doing, Tad? You shouldn't be…," I said and was interrupted by Tad.
"I'm not. Well, I'm not going with you, anyway," he said.
"What are you talking about? You guys are staying here," I replied.
"Not exactly. Tad is staying here and taking my place, and I'm going along with you," Sarah said to me with a grin.
"Who agreed to this," I asked her as she kept grinning at me.
"Well, Karl did actually. And it was more my idea than his because he really wasn't fond of it at first, even though he told me about what Mom has been seeing lately. But someone has to keep an eye on both of you and that can either be me or he's probably not going to let Tommy go with you. I think being presented with that choice will be enough to get Dad and Kim to go along with it," Sarah said.
"You mean Dad and Kim don't even know yet," I asked.
"They will," she replied.
Tad spoke up again saying, "I don't want her to go either, and she knows it. But we can't just sit here and do nothing knowing what your Mom is seeing. And Dad is getting fed up with this war. Seeing me in this bed is just making his mood worse. If nothing else, we're doing it for him too. If he can see that I'm all right and can function it might help him a little."
"Have fun dropping this on Kim and Dad. They're going to love this and I don't see how you will convince them to allow you to go," I said as I worried about how Tommy and I could hide what we were doing from another set of eyes.
Tad said, "Well, I'm going to talk to your Dad and Sarah is going to talk to Kim and just lay it all out there. So, we'll see. But I think it will be easier to take her along and let me take her place than to risk another argument with Dad. I don't know about Karen. She might not like the idea, but she's not stopping you from going even though she knows what she's been seeing. I can't imagine her not seeing the value of having another person watching out for you even if it's Sarah."
"Speaking of getting with them, we need to get going. Can I have a minute with Tad, Sis," Sarah asked me."
"Yeah, of course," I said back to her as I walked over to Tad and hugged him. I wanted to tell them everything so badly at that moment I felt like I would burst.
"Please be careful, Amber. Just look out for each other and get back here fast," he said as we held each other.
"I will," I said back and left them to say what I knew they had to say to each other.
January 31, 2138 (Early morning)
Somehow Kim and Dad relented and allowed Sarah to come along with us, but I'm not sure how. Dad wasn't as much against it, but Kim seemed bothered a lot by the idea. I don't know if she's just worried about how stable Sarah is or if she just doesn't want to risk another person. It didn't matter in the end though because she went along with us anyway.
After our usual tear jerking goodbyes, we got about halfway down the trail and could hear explosions coming from within the city again. This scared the hell out of me even though I tried not to show it. Every explosion that we could hear made a chill run down my spine. Kim looked back at me and said, "You get used to it," as she continued down the trail.
In the meantime Tommy was watching Sarah more than she was watching him or me. She was busy looking around us into the trees and trying not to show her fear. Tommy caught on quickly and put his arm around her as he walked with her like this for the rest of the trip down the trail.
Dad spoke up from behind us and said, "Baby, are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Dad," Sarah replied. This caused Kim to glance back again and look at Sarah, then she turned back and kept leading us on.
After a short time we reached the bridge. The wind picked up a little as Kim said, "I'll see you in a few, kids." We waited in the trees as she walked ahead and started crossing the bridge. About halfway across she stopped and knelt down. Then she pulled out a pair of binoculars and started looking in the direction of the power plant. She stayed there for a few seconds, then she rose up and moved on to the fields where we would meet at shortly. She disappeared from our view and it really started to hit me how important she had become to me and the rest of us.
We waited our standard three minutes with nothing happening, then continued after Kim. About halfway across the bridge we could see why Kim had stopped. We could see a Phantom Striker landing near the plant and what looked like little lights flying in the air from where we were. They must have been winged biodreads working on the plant and trying to repair the damage that our attack on it had done. Tommy paused to look to the plant too, but Dad came up behind him and gave him a light shove forward and said, "Get across the bridge, son." Tommy shook his head and kept moving like dad told him.
Shortly after crossing the bridge without incident we came upon the overgrown fields and Kim was waiting for us. Trying to break up the feelings of worry we all had, Kim stuck her head out of the field she was in as we approached her and said, "Boo!" Tommy spoke up saying, "Kim, what the hell is wrong with you," as we all were startled and yet found her antics to be really funny at the same time. After Kim's attempt at comedy we were told to stay close to each other as we headed across the fields so that we wouldn't lose each other. The overgrown plants blocked a lot of the wind as we moved on. As we continued I felt like I should talk to Dad and try to get him to make things right with Mom if he could.
"Dad, are you and Mom ok," I asked him as we moved through the fields.
"Your Mom's just worried about you and Tommy. She's you mother and she's supposed to do that, you know? We'll be fine," he said back to me.
"Are you sure? She really lost it with us back in the lounge. I don't remember ever seeing her like that before," I said back to him.
"We just need to get this done and get back safe. I think she'll be all right after that. Maybe she thinks I'm questioning her ability, but I'm not and she should know better. I believe in her and I always have. I just need her to believe in me for once," Dad said as I started getting the impression that he had felt this way for a while.
Kim spoke up again saying, "I'm telling you, you're going to be sleeping on that couch in the lounge if you keep going, buddy."
Dad laughed a little at this, but I couldn't really find any humor in my parents fighting with each other and Sarah apparently didn't either as she kept taking it all in without speaking. After her saying that it shut us up as we kept moving through the fields. After we reached the edge of the fields we came upon more open areas with some trees, but not as much overgrowth as before. We were rather close to the hospital at this point and all of us kept quiet as we looked in the direction of it. It made me think of Kim's friend Carrie and what happened to her as we escaped with the medications before. I could see Kim's face once in a while as we were passing through the area and she looked in that direction too. Her mood had changed and I could see her cold look appear again as she glared in the direction of the facility.
We could see it from where we were, but it appeared as though the machines hadn't left anyone or anything to guard it. That seemed odd to me, but they probably took everything from it that was of any value anyway. Maybe they didn't have the resources to keep any kind of a garrison there after the message we received from the Carillon about the resistance taking over part of the city. At least we were able to get by it without any trouble, regardless of what they had done after we escaped it.
After getting past the hospital the terrain started opening up more than I was comfortable with, but we were told to expect that. Dad and Kim made us all keep up a fast sprint so that we could pass through the open area as fast as we could. As we ran forward there were more explosions that were getting louder as we ran. After a short time we started running into more rubble and debris as we moved farther into the outskirts of the city. We could see a variety of intact and damaged buildings everywhere. Most were smaller and we were able to move forward using the buildings and debris as cover. It wasn't long after this that the mall we were looking for was in sight.
It was scary approaching it. Even with only having two floors it looked huge, and we didn't know what might be inside. Knowing this, Dad and Kim approached it first and started crossing the parking lot outside of it as the moved through the abandoned hover vehicles. They made us wait until one of them reached the nearest entrance before the rest of us could move forward. The good part of it all was that there really weren't that many windows except for the stores located on the ground floor. The upper floor of the mall had no windows at all, so there weren't any opportunities for anyone to be shooting down on us. So we just had to watch the windows on the ground level, which eased our approach a lot.
Dad opted to approach the nearest set of doors that he could find, which was an entrance directly into one of the stores rather than one that would lead into one of the open hallways. Kim had stopped behind a small tree in the lot behind Dad as he looked inside of the store. He motioned her forward and stayed on one side of the door as she took place on the other side and looked in herself. Another explosion sounded and the ground shook a little as it seemed like it was coming from a few blocks away.
Dad looked back at us and motioned us forward. We ran forward as Dad entered the darkness of the store, and Kim turned to us saying, "We need to pick up the pace. Those blasts are too close to here and we need to get out of here as fast as we can. Tommy, you need to stick with me. Amber, stay with your dad and look for anything looking like a computer shop. Sarah, I need you to grab any camouflaged or dark clothes you can find in here and move to the inner entrance to the store and wait for us. Keep an eye on the door we came in as you do this. Can you do that?"
I could sense Kim's hesitation to leave her in this dark store alone with the frame of mind she must have felt that Sarah was in, and it seemed to get confirmed when Sarah failed to answer her. We both looked at Sarah and we could see the fear in her eyes.
"Sarah? Are you all right," Kim asked.
As Kim was asking her this I could see what Tommy and I were after right inside of the store we were standing in. Mounted up high on a display was a mannequin of a female wearing what were the latest fashions before the war had started.
Before Sarah could speak up and answer I said, "I'll stay here. Take Sarah with you and I'll get what we need from here."
"That wasn't part of the plan, Amber," she said as she looked at me confused.
"I think Sarah is better off with you, you know? Besides, she can do as well as I could. Give her the chance," I said hoping that Kim would read more into what I was saying than I could come out and say in words.
Sarah spoke out and said, "No, I need to stay with Amber."
Another explosion shook the floor we were standing on and the mannequin I had spotted fell to the floor. This prompted Kim to agree to take Sarah with her as much as I think she knew what I was referring to when I said she would be better off with her. Sarah tried to speak up again and I said, Sarah, it's all right. Go with Kim. I'll be fine. All I'm doing is getting the clothes and moving to the door. Nothing can happen to me there."
"Amber, no," she said as she looked back to me.
"Just go. I'm fine," I said back as Kim took her hand and they ran off to the inner entrance of the store.
Once they had cleared the door I started towards the fallen mannequin. The fall had caused one of its arms to become disconnected. This just made my job easier as I started removing its clothes and figuring out how to disassemble it. As I took it apart and kept looking for the remote that controlled it I started thinking about how easy this was becoming for Tommy and I to accomplish what we had wanted. Neither of us expected it to go like this. I started cramming the parts of it in a bag as I started wondering how the rest of the group was doing. Not wanting to have them return too soon I started getting nervous about not finding the remote right away and hurried my pace so that I could have more time to get it and get the clothes she wanted too.
I finally got the thing disassembled and bagged up when I noticed a cabinet underneath of the stand the mannequin was on. I looked inside of it but it was empty. At this point I was in a panic because I knew that the whole plan would be ruined without it. As I started looking around for another cabinet another explosion hit what seemed to be part of the building, and another mannequin fell on top of me, knocking me to the floor. It was heavy, but I shoved it off and said, "Aren't you being a little too outgoing there, friend?" I thought saying it would ease my nerves, but it didn't really work. As I turned to get up I noticed a small box on the floor. It was the remote and I grabbed it quickly and crammed it in the bag.
After this I felt a little more relaxed to start grabbing things. Unfortunately I couldn't find any camouflaged clothing and began to gather the darkest colored clothes I could find when Kim spoke on the communicator and said, "Amber, are you doing all right?"
"Yeah, I'm good. What about Dad and Tommy," I replied.
"We're fine, but that last blast hit the mall somewhere. Nobody go to the North side of the mall. It came from there," he said back before Kim could answer me.
Kim spoke again saying, "We're already on the North side of the mall, David. There's some smoke coming from about four stores down the hall, but we're going through a sporting goods store. There are some things that we can use here."
"Hurry and get out of there. You can't stay on that side of the building with whatever is going on outside. That battle going on out there is too close to here," Dad said.
Kim went on asking Dad how he and Tommy were doing when I could hear Sarah speaking in the background to Kim. She said, "It's locked, Kim. I can't get it to open." I could hear a laser firing and the short sound of the blast it had made as Kim said, "It's not locked any longer. Get me the long one with the scope and grab the other two."
Dad chimed in at that moment saying, "Tommy and I can't find what we came here for. Do you know where there's a shop for what we're after inside of this place?"
"Maybe on the second floor on the Southeast side. There used to be a shop that sold and repaired electronics and such," she said back to Dad.
I spoke up from the inner entrance of the store we came in from and said, "I can see the smoke from where I am. Maybe I should look through this store and see if there's anything that might work with your machine, Dad."
"I thought you were in a clothing store, Amber. How can you get what I need there," he asked.
"I can see a lift about sixty feet from me. Hanging from the ceiling in front of it is a sign that says hardware, electrical, and computers with an arrow pointing up. Any more questions," I asked.
I could hear him say, "Tommy, go back to where Amber is and secure the store while she looks upstairs. I'm going up to the second floor and I'll try to find the store Kim is talking about. And son, stay on the first floor. I'll make my way across to her upstairs in a few minutes."
I could hear Tommy answer him and run off to meet me. I kept looking down the hallway to see if I could see him when another explosion hit the building again. This time I could see some of it as the wall in the store at the end of the hallway I was looking down fell inside of the store. Tommy rounded the corner and came into my view as I looked on in horror of the noise and destruction it had caused. He glanced at it, and turned to run in my direction. He kept looking back at it as he ran to me, and behind him I could see Sarah and Kim appear. Kim motioned for Sarah to follow Tommy as she stopped and went inside of the store where the wall had fallen in. I wanted to get up the lift and get this done, but seeing Kim go into the store stopped me and I said to her, "What are you doing. You've got to get out of there."
Dad spoke up saying, "What's going on down there?"
"I want to see if I can tell what the hell is hitting this building. Give me a second," Kim said before I could reply.
"Kim, get out of there," Dad said in a worried tone.
I kept looking towards where she was but I still couldn't see her. Then she started speaking again after a few seconds saying, "Guys, we have a problem."
At this point I could see her shaded figure making her way back to the entrance of the store as Dad said, "What are you talking about, Kim?"
As she kept moving through the store towards the door she said, "There's a group of Dread Youth running in this direction. It looks like they're running from something, but they're headed right towards us."
Tommy had cleared the center court of the mall while Sarah was running behind him. Dad spoke again saying, "Get back to the South side of the mall," when another blast could be heard and pieces of the ceiling down the hallway started falling in. I could see the glass from the windows on the ceiling rain down at Kim as she cleared the door of the store she had went into. She couldn't seem to move out of the doorway and Tommy looked back and could see her looking up as she tried to move forward. More of the ceiling came falling in and she couldn't move through it to get to us as Tommy turned back and started running back to her. As he did and started yelling her name, Sarah stopped and started looking back to her also. Then she looked back at me and I couldn't stay there any longer. I sat the bag that I had down and ran towards all of them as Sarah started back as well. Sarah was carrying two long laser rifles and was slowed down a little by them as I started to catch up to her. I reached her and took one from her. Then I strapped it over my shoulder and pulled my laser pistol so that I could move easier. I could hear Tommy yelling her name still when Dad started talking to us again. He said, "Kim, where are you?"
"I'm cut off from the kids. The ceiling just fell in front of me. I'll have to go down the West hallway and cut through the store beyond the rubble, and come out through the entrance of it. Then I can get back to the South side," she said as she disappeared down the hallway to her right and my left. A second later a laser flew through the air from the store she had just exited and I could see a couple of shaded figures moving in our direction.
"Dad, they're in the mall," I said as Sarah and I stopped moving forward and aimed our lasers down the hallway from the center court. Tommy had already ran into the store that he expected Kim to come through to our left.
Dad started talking to us again as we kept aiming down the hallway at what we could see of the store, saying, "Get to the South entrance where we came in from now. I can see the store from where I am." We both looked up and dad was aiming his weapon at the store front from the rail above us on the second floor. Suddenly Dad started yelling in the direction of the store Kim had came from as Sarah and I turned back and started moving to the store I had just left. I looked back and could see a dark haired guy and a brown haired girl in grey uniforms emerge from the store, but the debris was blocking the rest of my view.
Dad was aiming his laser in the direction of the entrance to the store as he said, "Drop your weapons, now."
I could see the guy raise his laser and fire at Dad. The blast hit the rail in front of Dad as he ducked back, then fired back at him. Dad's shot hit the wall behind the guy and blew a hole in the concrete wall as the girl ran off in the direction that Kim had run off to. Other shots started appearing from behind the rubble where Sarah and I couldn't see, and they were all going in Dad's direction. Sarah stopped and turned back. She knelt down in front of me and fired at the guy that was originally shooting at Dad. Her shot must have grazed his arm since I could see him holding it as I started firing at him too. My shot also hit the wall and he jumped off in the direction that Kim had moved to also.
There were at least two more people firing at Dad from behind the debris, but Dad stopped shooting at them and backed away from the rail for a second. Sarah thought that maybe one of them had hit Dad and she started screaming to him as I ran forward so that I could see him. It began to dawn on me that I couldn't see any way for Tommy and Kim to get out of the store they were in without being shot up by the two that were behind the rubble. They couldn't see us from where they were standing, but they could see the entrance to that store easily since they were practically right next to it and could be in the doorway if it weren't for the ceiling being in the way.
A second passed and I could see something fall from where Dad was at. It bounced on the floor near the entrance of the store Kim and Tommy were in. It exploded and smoke started filling the entrance and the hallway as another explosion shook the building again. Dad started firing in the direction of the other two from the rail again as he backed away to the Southern part of the mall. He looked down at us as he ran by above and said, "Go, move it."
Sarah got up and ran back to the store I had come from and I glanced back towards the smoke. I could see Tommy running out of the entrance of the store and Kim was right behind him with her laser aimed back into the store. Tommy stopped and fired back into the store as Kim passed him when I could see another figure of a person with them. Kim had the brown haired girl by her hair and was holding her in front of herself as she moved back in our direction. Having a captive was not part of our plan, but she was keeping the enemy from shooting back at her as we slipped away to the store we entered from. As I ran back I grabbed the bag I'd been filling and looked back again to see Kim aiming back down the hallway still with the girl in tow, and Tommy still shooting randomly down the hallway to keep anyone that might follow us back.
We cleared the hallway and ran through the store to the exit as Dad came up behind us. Kim came through the store with her laser aimed at the girl's head. I looked at Kim and said, "What are we doing with her?"
She looked at me and said, "Go. Get across the lot and back to the trees."
I looked at the girl and she looked like she was my age. She looked terrified at me when I could see her face. One of her eyes looked discolored in some way, but Kim kept pulling the girl around by her hair and she kept closing her eyes in her expression of pain so that I couldn't make it all out.
"Kim, what are we doing," I asked again.
She looked back at me and I could tell that she had something in mind that she didn't want to tell me when Dad approached and said, "Bring her. And whoever you are, you'd better run as fast as we do or I'll kill you as soon as I see you slow down. Do you understand me?"
"Yes," she said as Kim shoved her in the direction of the door and aimed her laser at her back.
"Then move," she commanded as we headed for the exit.