Ephemeral: An Apocalyptic Novel

Chapter 10

Elijah

"Oh shit," Junho exclaimed. "She called?"

My senses slowly started to come back to me and the shock was wearing off.

"No, I called my aunt Adina to talk to my dad. She kept saying he was too busy and when I asked what he was doing..." I trailed off, staring at the floor.

"What, Elijah?"

"She said that 'it's classified, Melissa'. I don't understand. It's so..."

"It's fucked up," Junho exasperatedly said. "Do you want to call her again?"

I looked down at my phone, thinking hard. Would I keep pestering for something that my head could understand or could I just leave it be?

I took a deep breath and exhaled, "No. Let's just go back to leaving this place. Did you guys find a place?"

Junho stayed silent for a few seconds but brushed off the topic, which I appreciated more than he thought.

"Yeah. There's a dumpster against the wall next to the cars. Isaac told me to come get you to see if it was any good."

"Well, do you guys think it's good?"

"Depends on what car we're going for."

"There's a Crown Victoria that pulled up while we were looking around. Closest here, too."

"Let's do it."

We started walking back to the parking lot. Isaac jogged up to me.

"Dulce's got the lists and she's heading here now. We've got an okay from Derek. You guys got a distraction yet?"

"No, but I found the perfect place. The music room's got a bunch of instruments and is just around the corner. If we get a couple of people to play, that should make enough noise to get the sucker over there."

Junho nodded. "So how can we get those couple of people?"

Dulce joined the circle. "Couple of people for what?"

"Making noise in the music room so the guy gets distracted," Isaac quickly explained.

"We could call some choir kids to go there with a blocked number," Dulce suggested and then looked at me. "Better do it fast because we won't know when the guy's gonna leave."

"Why do you assume I know some choir kids?"

She scoffed. "Elijah, you have everyone in your contacts."

I shrugged. "Fair enough. Alright, I'll start making the call in a few minutes. Get Derek on watch now."

Isaac whipped out his phone and started texting him. Junho led us along the lot to a wall where the Crown Victoria was near and the music room was in sight. The smell of the dumpster made my gag reflex awaken. We all scooted just a little further from the dumpster.

I started scrolling through my contact list and got to Aden Parks, who was a huge stoner and conveniently, a part of the school choir.

As I began typing in his number with *67, I snickered. "We'll be lucky if he has a stash of weed with him. Buy us more time."

The dial tone began whirring. Suddenly Dulce snatched the phone from my hands.

"The hell?" I nearly yelled.

"He'll recognize your voice. Let me do it."

"And he doesn't know yours?"

"Never talked to him."