Lost In Lucidity

Renee

With white knuckles gripping the wheel, I zip through the pines as my phone rings in my ears. When the line goes dead for another time, I panic. Nobody is answering. Not Val, not Claire, not even my dad. I look at the clock on the car's dash and see that it's the late afternoon. He would've been home by now. Everyone should be free to answer—why are they not answering?

As I spin the car around the last bend and back into town, the oxygen around me is sucked away and leaves me with no breath in my lungs.

The grid is dark, all the streetlights hollow, lifeless shells...

"No..." I sputter under my breath, "No no no..."

This can't be happening. The whole thing feels like a terrible, terrible dream. Maybe it's not what I'm thinking. Maybe there was some sort of grid failure, and right now the whole place was in lockdown. I'm probably wrong about all of those crazy theories about Lamb and Mason and the city...

'We have to be, right? All of that is too insane to be true.'

'Get us the hell home! Everyone is probably dead by now, or worse!'

The car flirts with the air as I crest the hill back into the part of Oregon city my neighborhood is in. I'm about to gun it up to my compound, but force myself to slow down, digging my nails into the steering wheel. No matter how hard I try to convince myself, I can't escape the fact that this is happening, and that means I need to treat it as real. If my theory was correct, back at my neighborhood right now were dozens of armored men and women armed to the teeth with enough firepower to wipe out the city. If they had already gotten to my compound, then that made me the only person outside that knew what was happening. I needed to be careful about how I approached next, and most importantly, I needed to not get caught.

If I did, then all of this was over...

I steer the car farther into the abandoned reaches of my neighborhood, then pull off into the driveway of a house closest to the wall. I need to walk a few blocks, but that keeps me stealthier than approaching in a car that's engine will be a sure giveaway. That doesn't mean I'm going to be able to stroll right up, however. Mason's men have access to all the cams around our compound, including every gate, and I imagine back at their little bunker below Portland, they'll have heavy eyes on surveillance, ready to radio anything in at a moment's notice. On top of that, the suits they have looked far more advanced than what my helmet can do. I'd be willing to bet that the sound map on those outclass my own by a mile.

Luckily for me, my usual entrance back into the compound at the red house is a distance away from any gate, so I start heading for there. Once I hit the house adjourning it on my side of the wall, I squat low and begin stepping my heels to the ground before rolling the rest of my foot slowly. The rhythm makes my steps ghostly, and I carry on till I reach the wall. Coming to a halt, I listen close.

Any hopes I had about all of this being a coincidence go out the window.

A distance away, maybe a block or two beyond the wall, I can hear voices shouting back and forth to one another in less than quiet voices, something no one would do during a lockdown. They sound authoritative and demanding, like military orders. Undercut in the background, another sound rings out, one that makes my adrenaline spike with anxiety. The sound of someone sobbing. Maybe even multiple people.

That's the last red flag I need. I move for the play structure next to me and start up, wincing at the groaning and creaking of the old wood the whole way. I move in irregular patterns to try and mask the noises as if only the wind, then, hands on top of the wall, I vault over.

I hang over the other side, until I hear one of the shouting voices yell again, and then drop to the shed roof, buckling my legs instantly to absorb the sound of the impact. It only creates a dull thud, and I hastily bail to the ground and duck behind the structure, waiting to see if anyone is going to come investigate. I hear another sob though, this time a shocked, fearful one, and decide that I don't have time to wait. My family is in trouble.