Chapter 1
Anthony
Six Years Ago
I stare at the screen carefully. Two dark little blips show up in the corner of my handmade screen.
"Um... Luce?"
Lucille looks up at me. "Yeah?"
"Come look at this."
She gives me a look. "Ant, you know I don't get all that technical stuff."
"Just... Just come here."
There must be something in my tone that makes her realize the urgency of my request, because she pushes herself up and stomps over.
"What?"
I point to the rapidly moving dots. "The only thinks that show up black are metal, usually planes or such. But these don't move like normal planes. They're too fast."
She leans a little closer and squints at the screen. "Those are really fast." Her long blonde hair swishes like a silky curtain as she straightens up and glances at me. "Why is this important?"
I study the dots for about thirty seconds more before turning to Lucille. "Can you drive?"
"Well, I could, but I'm eleven. Ant, what's wrong?"
"Just find a car. I think I can hot wire it, just take Aaron and go."
"Ant? Ant, what's wrong?"
"Just trust me, please. Go. Now!"
Luce hesitates for a moment, then runs off after Aaron. She takes his hand and tows him along as she runs for the line of parked cars. I shove my equipment into a bag and take off after them. I hear Aaron saying, "Weeee! Is this a game?" but Luce doesn't answer, she just keeps running, her hair streaming out behind her and bobbing in sync with her steps. I can feel the ground under my bare feet. I left my sandals back in the park.
I hear a car door slam and look up in time to see Luce sliding into the driver's side. She holds something small and metallic up as I reach the car. The keys, thank God. Luce pushes my door open, I slide into the passenger seat and the engine roars to life. She carefully switches into reverse and backs out.
"Turn left on 5th street," I say, double checking that all the doors are locked. Aaron has a weird habit of trying to open them while the car's moving.
"5th street? That's a dead end!"
I lift the small bag full of equipment into my lap and start sorting it as I reply. "The Peterson's live at the end of that street, and they have a yard clear enough to drive through. It'll be the fastest way out of town, and, in case you've forgotten, you're eleven and driving a stolen car. We need to get far away, fast."
Luce shoots me a glare and I hear the tires screech as she slams the brakes. Aaron screams and then giggles. It's good that we all had seat belts on. A kid through the windshield of the car he stole would look bad.
I wait a moment for my laptop to load my hacking program. It won't be the first time I've broken into something, just the first time I've attempted to break into a government program, and I'm the first to admit my computer skills aren't as high as, for example, my math skills.
"Approximately seven minutes to drop zone," my computer says. I feel a rush of pride with my panic; I've just completed the voice system on it, and I must say it sounds as human as I'd hoped.
"Seven minutes to drop zone?" Luce screeches. The pride dissipates and the panic takes a tighter hold.
We're heading for the dead end. I feel the car slow a little as she prepares to turn.
"Go into their driveway and turn into the yard." My fingers fly across the keys as the car flies through the yard. A red warning flashes on the screen. "Oh crap."
"What's wrong?" Luce says. I can hear in her voice that she's trying to sound like she isn't completely freaked out, but there's still strain.
"I can't do this!" I say, turning my laptop off and then restarting it. "I don't know enough about it, and I can't do it!"
"What can't you do, Anthony?" Aaron sticks his little five-year-old face up next to mine and looks at me curiously.
"Just get back there and keep your seat belt on."
There was a very long silence. I watched the trees shoot by. Whenever I could I'd tell her to speed up. We needed to move.
"Ant, what are you doing?"
"The only thing I can do. Watching them. We're about..." I glance at a sign. "About seventy miles from Seattle, right?"
"Well, yeah. We've been driving for about five minutes and we've already covered about seven miles, but Ant, what's--"
There is a sudden feeling in the ground, almost like a low bass throb, and a rumble, and the horizon behind us hides what I know is a terrible sight. The mushroom cloud, all the people dead from the impact alone, all the people trying to run that will die from the radiation...
"Luce."
"What?" she snaps. I can see her knuckles are white.
"That was a nuke. They just hit Seattle. That's the reason we haven't had any TV or radio. They're slowly hitting everywhere major, and Seattle... well, I don't know if they're going to hit it again, and either way we need to be far from here because the radiation will spread."
"Ant."
"Yeah?"
"Do you think... Do you think our families... "
I close my eyes tight and shake my head. "I don't know. I doubt it. They were shopping in Tacoma, weren't they?"
Luce slowly nods her head and bites her bottom lip.
"The initial blast might have killed them. I think it was a relatively small bomb, so they might be alive, but if they are they're probably injured and, if by some miracle they're not harmed, they'll be poisoned by the radiation and will probably die soon."
I can see the horror in her face at what has happened, and I can hear that my voice just sounds tired, like that of a doctor who has just lost a patient and has to tell the family.
"Luce..."
"I'll wake you up when I'm too tired to drive anymore. Just go to sleep or something, okay?"
I can see a few silent tears sliding down her cheeks. I know Luce well enough to realize when she needs privacy. I obediently turn my head and close my eyes.
When I'm almost asleep, I hear something I didn't ever expect to hear.
Lucille's quiet sobs.
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