Ephemeral: An Apocalyptic Novel

Chapter 7

Dulce

I pushed my way outside where two police cars were parked and many people were outside, calling people or being consoled.

The scene made me so scared. My hands started to tremble uncontrollably and I had to grip them together to ease my nerves.

I gulped. "Isaac, could you go find them? I need to find Acid."

I didn't wait for a response and took off running to the neighbor's house.

It didn't take more than two seconds for a police officer to call me out. "Young lady! Hey!"

"Fuck," I whispered under my breath as he walked over.

As I saw who was coming, my heart eased slightly to see a familiar face. It was the police officer that Detective Kane had called "Brooklyn".

"Are you alright?"

I nodded promptly. "I just need to see my sister."

"Where is she?"

I pointed at the house I was only a few steps from. "Now if you'd excuse me..."

"I'm going to have to escort you ma'am. This is a dangerous area and anything could fall over at any second."

I sighed. "Okay, fine."

I walked into the door that was open ajar and saw at least ten kids crying or sitting on the couch, being talked to by police officers and siblings.

I looked around for Acid, but to no avail.

"Do you want to check upstairs?" he asked.

"Alright."

I couldn't even hide the shakiness in my voice. My heart pounded more and more each time I took a step. The house was thankfully sturdy and there wasn't much destruction except some fallen items...and then I saw it. The collapsed roof in one of the rooms upstairs. I almost choked thinking of Acid inside.

"DULCE!"

My head shot up to see Acid, standing right in front of the stairs.

I ran up and hugged her so tight that it hurt both her and me. The relief that rushed through me was a feeling I craved more and more as time passed by in my life. I couldn't help but let a few tears pass down my cheeks.

Elijah

"I'm Officer Branham. We've been notified by an anonymous source that this area is at a high vulnerability level for a tremor. It is our responsibility to evacuate everyone."

I crossed my arms, pondering with all the policemen standing in front of me.

"Who was it?" I said.

"I told you, it was an anonymous source."

"Show me your identifications."

The man chuckled and took his badge out. "Good enough?"

Shit. He was legit. I had what, dozens of intoxicated teenagers and a lot of cases of beer. I needed to clean up everything as much as I could.

"Well let me just go round everyone up then."

"That won't be necessary. We will help you escort your partygoers to the help center."

"Help center?"

"Yes, there's been a help center set up inside Willburry Elementary. It has supplies, beds, and everything we need to sustain however long until we find out what is happening."

I nodded. "Cool. So let's get going?"

"Of course. Also, we'll be discussing about the alcohol tomorrow."