Waiting for Amber Skyy

Chapter 52

The world was different after that.

News stations poured over the Paris explosion and videos captured the crater that enveloped the Place de La Concorde. Hospitals and emergency rooms were overflowing with kids and other attendees of the massive rally. Cleanup teams were already swarming the area, and officials were reporting any signs of radiation, such as a lingering, unidentifiable gas. Military experts and bomb squads assessed the situation, confirming to the news teams that The Doomsday Group was behind all of it.

On top of that, Fang's gang and those bird kids were there.

Shots of helicopter cams captured a girl lifting massive chunks of asphalt to help trapped victims. Grainy video caught a kid with large headphones pushing kids out of the area minutes before the blast. A blonde girl and boy were carrying or aiding other kids to ambulances. Winged teens were caught flying above the debris, looking for survivors.

They were the highlight of the entire debacle, showing how the most unusual of forces could help. Reporters were applauding the bird kids for their aid, putting their two cents on the situation and encouraging others to donate to help rebuild the plaza. Supporters ranged from adults who were relieved to have their child back and alive from the blast, to clearly injured children who thanked their saviors endlessly for finding them. Most of the rally participants were young, which painted the Doomsday Group as a child-trafficking cult.

In the U.S., rallies screeched to a halt and any visible support for the group was hushed as quickly as possible. Everybody was astounded at the news in Paris, making schools close in some areas and parents holding their children closer. The few who were still adamant about the group were hated beyond all means; they were yelled at, physically fought against, and arrested for their overly joyous and creepy dedication.

The kids who were genetically different though, were nowhere to be seen.

Speck and I stayed as low as possible for a week until we got the long-awaited message from Fang about next steps on our brand new laptop - Speck encrypted it and everything, making it faster than our previous one too. Fang said they were aiming for somewhere in Colorado, which I wasn't expecting because of Paris, and told us to meet in a mountainous location. I wanted to type back and ask why there, and why he's still willing to help but restrained myself. He had his reasons, and if there was some link there for him, I wasn't going to judge. The last thing I wanted was for us to get wrapped up in it.

I just wanted info on my brother. I just had to ask him where he was, direct me there, and we were gone. I didn't want to linger, especially with a group of people that size, but the idea of talking to somebody like me made me rethink my plan.

The only mutated people I've interacted with were Leon and Speck, and only Speck made it out. The others were mindlessly following a leader who wanted to wipe out the non-mutated ones. So, my social skills were pretty-limited. What would he say? What would he do? Would he try to weed information out of me? Would he treat me as different as I already am? Would he even try to help me?

So many thoughts went through my mind that week. I wanted to scream. Again, I was one step closer to meeting my family, and I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I was so anxious; I didn't know how to speak at times whenever the thought came up.

Speck, on the other hand, was more excited to meet the renowned Fang of Fang's Blog. I didn't want to damper her spirits, so I kept my mouth shut. That was the only thing brightening up her day now, since everything we worked for was basically gone. I was able to steal another laptop, but with Speck being mostly down, it was taking longer to set up firewalls and protection services. I had to let her do it at her own pace; she went through a lot.