Chapter 2: Time To Leave
*Sniff*
The busty blonde woman sniffed and wiped away her tears as she broke apart from the three-person hug.
“We don’t have time for this right now. We need to get moving.” Standing at the vehicle’s open door, she leaned her head back, shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand in a mock salute, and gauged the sun’s position overhead. “Maybe four hours before sunset, four and a half before the Feral start hunting. Hey, Vivi.” She lowered her hand and directed her attention to the little girl still clinging to Lucas’ chest, although, thankfully, no longer weeping into his dirty shirt.
“Yeah?” A weak reply was all the girl could manage in response to her mother. She finally released Lucas and sat back in the seat beside him. The child-sized, army-green combat gloves she was wearing were now being used as a replacement for tissue paper as she wiped the snot from her nose onto the back of her glove. Vivi looked up at her mother and tried to sit a little straighter, putting on a stern expression. There she goes again, acting tough in front of others, struggling to control her emotions rather than letting them control her, thought Lucas, she’s really impressive for someone her age.
“Give me the keys, then help your brother get strapped in for travel. We’re leaving.” Vivi’s mother was in full professional mode. She had a list of priorities and was taking action without hesitation. Her posture and tone gave her a sense of authority and reliability. Everything she did was magnetic to Lucas, drawing his attention and desire.
“Yes ma’am.” Damn, Vivi was doing a decent job imitating her mother’s behavior. Her voice was a little firmer now, and her posture a little straighter. Lucas could tell she wanted to be just like her mother. They dressed the same, except Vivi didn’t show her exposed stomach, had the same face, made the same expressions, spoke in the same tone, cried the same way, and Vivi was doing her best to give off the vibe of reliability her mother had. It reminded him of the way he acted with his grandfather when he was Vivi’s age. Well, not only then. He still wanted to be a good, dependable, capable man like his grandfather.
Vivi fished a set of keys from the pocket of her shorts and held them out for her mother, who swiftly received them and closed the door before walking around the vehicle, bending down at each wheel. Is she checking all the tires before we leave? She’s super thorough, probably has some military training, civilians don’t avoid blowouts, they just call for help after getting stuck on the roadside. Deadly in combat, smokin’ hot body, protective nature, composed under pressure, big breasts, possible military training, obviously intelligent, and a smokin’ hot body? It should be illegal to be that perfect, thought Lucas.
*Click*
“Okay, all set. Strapped in and good to go. We’re ready mom!” Vivi called out to her mother who was just finishing the cursory vehicle inspection.
The driver’s door opened. “Vivi, reach behind you and shift some gear to your side of the roller. We don’t want any chance of an uneven load giving us tire problems on the way home. Be sure it’s all secured after you shift it.” The sexy warrior bent over to climb up onto the driver seat, giving Lucas an unobstructed view down her shirt. No bra. Dark pink. Lovely. The door closed and the car engine started about the same time Vivi completed he quick organizational task. The engine didn’t sound like any car Lucas ever heard before. It was a barely audible humming sound coming from behind him. In fact, he wouldn’t have even known it was on if not for the dashboard instruments blinking to life with a green light indicating the engine had been started.
Maybe it really is one of those electric cyberpunk trucks. But those aren’t 4-door. A rival billionaire must have entered the ugly truck market. I mean, those two asshats were already competing with rockets, why not compete with trucks no one wants to buy? This silly thought brought a small smirk to his face.
Vivi situated herself back in her seat and fastened her own seatbelt. Her mother noticed she was ready to go after glancing at the rearview mirror. The car accelerated much faster than Lucas had anticipated, making him throw his arms out to the sides in reaction. Feeling a little embarrassed, and more than a little impressed by the cars performance, he straightened up in his seat and leaned forward to address the beautiful lady while she drove.
“Uh, so, can you fill me in on what’s going on? Are we going to look for Eli now? I assume he’s in some sort of trouble, can you give me any details? I’d like to help you two find him quickly, I really need to get to get to the Beaver Lake area in northern Arkansas as soon as possible.” Lucas wasn’t about to leave a mother and daughter in distress without helping them, but he was anxious to get home and check on his grandfather. Shit. How was he supposed to get there? He was in his old sedan one second, and woke up in a broken down church in some random desert the next, with nothing but a dingy brown t-shirt and old denim jeans.
“No sweetheart. We’re not looking for Eli anymore.” She said, a slight tremble of sadness in her voice. She didn’t look back at Lucas even once as she spoke, she kept her eyes forward, all of her focus directed at the road ahead.
“Huh? Why not?” Lucas had no idea why she would give up looking for Eli. She was beyond distraught about him, and Vivi said they spent three days trying to find him already. Surely if he was that important to them, they would continue their search until they found either him or his corpse. Lucas planned to do exactly that if his grandfather wasn’t home when he arrived. The old man is the last of his family after all.
“We don’t need to look anymore. We found him. Sweetheart, my beautiful boy….” She took a slow, deep breath and released an equally slow sigh before continuing. “I don’t know what they did to you in that basement, those machines were too old for me to recognize, but whatever they did must have messed with your head. You’re Eli. Your name is Elias Hawkins. Your older sister beside you is Vivian Hawkins. And I’m your mother, Julianne. Just Julianne, or Julie, no family name.”
Lucas slumped back into his seat and began rubbing his jaw near it’s hinge with the fingers of his right hand. He had this habit for as long as he can remember. Whenever he needs to do some serious thinking, he unconsciously rubs at his jaw. Massaging the tension out of his jaw muscles always seemed to do the trick and help him think clearer, so he never bothered trying to break his little habit.
Damn. Did I misjudge these people? Is she so sexy that I missed some tell-tale sign of crazy? Wouldn’t be the first time. Shit. This woman is clearly dangerous. I mean, she fought off at least four armed attackers, most likely killed them all now that i think about it. And now she’s trying to convince me she’s my mother and my name is Elias? Have I actually been abducted instead of helped?
On this possible revelation, he stopped rubbing his jaw. That nervous habit of his notified him of another problem.
Did they shave my face? They must have shaved off my stubble to make me look more like this Eli guy they were supposedly looking for. Dammit, I’ve heard of mothers going insane following the death of their infant and stealing some other woman’s baby from a hospital as a replacement, grief can make people lose their minds. Is this like an even crazier version of that? Hell no. Nope. This shit is not okay, and it stops right now.
Lucas put his hands on his knees and leaned forward once more, fully intent of setting this maniac straight. He didn’t like to fight, but he wasn’t afraid to fight either. And if things did come down to a fight, this was a good place for it to happen. He’s seated behind her, she’s preoccupied with driving, her twin machetes aren’t anywhere in sight, and the car is so heavily armored it should allow everyone inside to survive if it somehow crashed or flipped during a struggle.
“Hey, Julie. Listen, I know yo-” Shock hit him like a sucker punch to the gut. When he looked into the rearview mirror to monitor Julie’s reactions, he caught sight of his own reflection. Or it should be his reflection. No one else is here except Vivi, and this kid in the mirror certainly isn’t Vivi. It’s close to Vivi’s appearance, very close in fact, but the clothes, hair and seating position are all wrong. Furthermore, he could see Vivi’s left side in the reflection, no possible way this other kid is also her. A quick visual scan of the car’s interior confirmed there were no additional passengers.
His undergraduate studies in biology forced the scientific process into his normal way of thinking. If all other possibilities fail to reject the hypothesis, the hypothesis is accepted as true. He was all out of other possibilities. The little kid with shaggy, unkempt blonde hair hanging down to just below his jawline, a skinny build, and gray-blue eyes must be him.
What the fuck! Give me back my muscles! I worked hard for my body! Five days a week, every week, for over a decade! I practically had a second home at the gym! And I could finally grow a full beard this year, no more patchiness! And this hair! Well, the hair’s not bad, actually. The blonde looks pretty cool. Definitely needs a fresh cut though. And the eyes are cool too, but I think I prefer my dark brown eyes. Argh! Shit! That’s not the damn point! Too much is happening, I can’t even think straight anymore. I’m getting dizzy.
Lucas, overwhelmed by the absurdity of the situation, slumped over in his seat, the seatbelt the only thing preventing him from falling to the floor.
“Eli? You okay?” Vivi asked as she reached over and rubbed his back.
“Eli? Talk to us baby, does your head hurt? Are you in pain? Can you breathe alright?” Julie sounded concerned as she slowed the car down in case she needed to stop for a while.
“I’m okay. No problem. Just……this is a lot to process. That’s all.” With no reason to elevate tension, and no answers immediately available, Lucas hastily decided it would be best to just play along until he knew what the hell was going on. He sat up and looked out the window. Derelict, broken, decayed buildings everywhere he looked. They had been driving for several minutes now, he had assumed the church they left behind was part of an abandoned rural town, based on the horrible state of the place, but the fact that they’re still passing old houses and buildings in this barren desert landscape must mean this is some abandoned city. Way too big to be some little village community like he initially thought.
“Hey Julie. Where are we?” He asked, still gazing out the window at the devastated cityscape around them.
“We’re in the Wastes sweetheart.” Was her simple reply.
“Wastes? No, I mean, what city is this? What country?” The buildings didn’t look European, not that he’d ever been to any European countries, but the layout of the city seemed typical of North America in his limited opinion. There are deserts in North America, but the only big desert city he could think of was Las Vegas, and this sure as hell wasn’t Vegas.
“Hmmm. City. My grandmother used to tell me about her material retrieval missions here when she was young. She said there used to be huge metal signs on the larger buildings, and they all had the same thing written on them. She thought it might have been the name of this place. But those signs were salvaged pretty quickly, the government doesn’t let good metal go to waste after all. Now, what was it she said was on those signs? Little…..something. Little Bone? Little Boulder? Little…”
“Little Rock?” Asked Lucas, horror sinking into the pit of his stomach. “Little Rock, Arkansas?”
“Yeah! That’s it. Little Rock. Funny how they named a city this big Little, isn’t it?” Julie chuckled cutely at her own lame joke, completely clueless to the turmoil raging inside Lucas’ mind behind her.
It’s all gone. Even the Arkansas river is gone. Little Rock is dead, and Arkansas is a desert. Everyone’s gone. More than one bomb must have dropped, but how many? How wide is this destruction spread? The whole state? Maybe even the whole country. No, that’s not right. MAD. Mutually Assured Destruction. Fearmongering morons on national news stations used to scare old people with possible global destruction every time their ratings needed a quick boost. MAD was brought up whenever someone talked about potential war scenarios. If one country launches their nukes, all the other countries retaliate in kind. Everyone dies. If Arkansas is gone……the world is gone.
Just when he was about to ask Julie about his assumptions, a high-pitched scream, louder than humanly possible, rang out and echoed off the buildings around them. Then a second scream. Then a third. The area was soon filled with dozens of throat-tearing screams and screeches. The screams never seemed to get any further away, like they were always coming from the nearest house or building. Vivi immediately reached into the cargo space behind them and moved cases around, searching for something.
“Fuck.” Julie said. “We must have passed a Feral hive. Their sentinel spotted us.”
