(20)-A Search In The Dark.

Two Hours Later...

A sweaty Kyle ran down the streets through the dark city of Arvada as fast as his legs could carry him, in search of Cobey. As he did, he looked around and saw that most of the buildings didn't have their lights on and that the only ones that did were the police station he'd ran away from earlier, restaurants, hotels, motels, gas stations and grocery stores. He also people rioting, robbing and looting the buildings without power. He had seen this quite a few times since he'd fled the police's place and it had only gotten worse as he went further into the city.

Officer Karter was right. Most of the city was in the dark...and people were committing crimes because of it. He hadn't really paid any attention to his surroundings when he and Megan were being brought to the police station, as he was still in shock from the events of Cobey being sucked up by the twister, the cops kidnapping him and her and bringing them back to the police department for statements and questioning like they were criminals. He knew for certain that there had been no riots, robbing or looting at the time, but that had been an hour ago at the time.

An hour ago. One hour. One...single hour. One single hour without electricity was all it took for the entire city to descend into chaos and madness. And that was then, this was now. Two more hours had passed since he'd fled from police headquarters. He could only imagine how bad it had been an hour later vs how bad it was now. But from the way Officer Karter described the events, it sounded like it was pretty bad. Maybe not as bad as it was now, but bad none-the-less.

But that wasn't his main focus right now. Finding Cobey was the real factor. He didn't know where he was going or where to start looking, but he didn't wanna go back to the hotel...or spend the night in a holding-cell at the police station. And he sure as ever didn't wanna go back to sleep and wake up the next morning. Because then it would be real. There'd no longer be any posibility that he suddenly found himself in bed or in a cell, having just awoken from a terrible nightmare. Kyle knew that once he went back to sleep, he'd wake up to find that this nightmare was the new reality. Cobey would be gone.

"Cobey!" Kyle called. But there was no reply. "Cobey!" He repeated, but got no response. "Cobey!" The boy yelled. Nothing. "Cobey!" He called again. He had been calling Cobey's name for the last two hours, but each time he did, there was no answer. He then stopped in his tracks. "COOOOBEYYYYYY!!!!!" He shouted, with his hands to his mouth. When he got no response, he dropped his hands to his sides. Adding the previous hour that had gone by earlier, Cobey had been missing for three hours altogether and Kyle knew that the more time that passed, the more likely the chances were of him never being found.

He knew he was putting his own life at risk by just being out here, exposing himself to all the crimes that were occuring around him. He also knew that there was a slight chance another twister could come at anytime, as he had witnessed this at least a few times while growing up in Prairie Grove, as the state of Kansas experienced a large number of twisters each year-with the average number of them increasing over time.

. 1950-2012: Kansas averaged 61 twisters per year.

.1983-2012: Kansas averaged 80 twisters per year.

. 2003-2012: Kansas averaged 112 twisters per year.

. 1997-2022: Kansas averaged 86 twisters per year.

. 2023-2024: Kansas averaged 39/89 twisters per year.

Twister season in Kansas was typically April through June. May was the most common month for twisters while winter seasons saw the least of them. Kansas was in the middle of twister ally and was one of the most active twister-prone regions in the world.

But Kyle wasn't concerned about his own safety right now, he was more focused on finding Cobey.

Kyle was then snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of a siren. He looked behind him and saw the sound was coming from a police car that was making it's way towards him, with it's flashing blue/red lights and headlights on.

"There he is! Hold it, kid!" Came the voice of Officer Ivan from the police car over the hand-radio.

Kyle then turned forward and took off running down the street, with the police vehicle persuring him.

"Stop, in the name of the law!" Came the voice of Officer Ivan through the speaker.

But Kyle didn't listen. He just kept running...and running...and running...and running as fast as he could.

The police car then stopped, it's front doors opened, and out stepped Officers Karter and Ivan from the driver and passenger-seats, followed by them chasing after the teenage-boy.

"STOP!" The voice of Officer Karter shouted through the speaker, to no avail, as Kyle kept running.

Once the officers were close enough to Kyle, Officer Ivan got his yellow taser out of the left side of his holster, aimed it at the boy and fired it at him, hitting him in the upper-back, stopping him in his tracks, shocking him, and he fell to the ground face-down. Karter and Ivan ran up to the twitching Kyle where Ivan dropped the taser and he and his partner started kicking and punching the boy, followed by getting their batons off the right side of their holsters and pounding away at him with them.

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