The Touch

Chapter 26 - Ambush

Slade picked me up right on 10am and we drove out to the CWT in silence. I could see he was very apprehensive and was wondering what he could say so that he could break the ice, but I could also feel that he was trying to give me space.

I had had a restless night and Blind Bird's voice was still in my ears. I knew that she was right, that I needed to let someone in, but could I trust him? I knew that he was sorry about what he had done by bugging my apartment but I was torn between anger over that and the overwhelming feeling that I did love him and that I had to let him see me just being myself with no barriers up.

The church came into sight and I felt relieved. I knew I would have to say something soon but I was hoping that I could wait until after I talked to Jefrrey. There were a few things that I needed to make sure would never happen again. I needed to know that I could trust them and Slade was included in that trust.

He jumped out of the van and then came around the passenger side and opened the door for me. I took his hand and hopped down onto the dirt parking area.

Slade looked at me as he held my hand and opened his mouth to talk when we suddenly felt the ground shake and heard a loud sound like an explosion. Slade grabbed hold of me as I saw dust falling down from the top of the church.

Looking up at Slade I saw the fear in his eyes. We were running towards the tomb when Slade pulled me down behind a large grave stone. He placed his fingers up to his lips and pointed to an area off the side of the tomb. Looking where he pointed I could see that there was something moving over in the far field and I gasped as I recognised a group of Watchers moving towards the pond area.

He signalled with his hands for us to go towards the cottage and I understood what he wanted to do, he wanted us to go back down the tunnel entrance to see what was happening. I nodded at him and signalled that I would follow him.

We kept as low as we could in order to not be seen and then ran down the forest lined pathway towards the cottage. Slade pressed the button again above the cottage door and then hesitated. He looked around for something to use as a weapon and found a thick branch.

"It's better than nothing" he whispered to me.

The cottage was untouched still and we quickly made our way inside and then down the hidden staircase. Slade and I ran through the tunnel but when we came to the last corner an overpowering stench of gas came across us making our eyes water.

Slade took off his shirt leaving him in his t-shirt and tore it in half then tied it around my head covering my nose and mouth area, then he did the same for himself.

We moved towards the door slowly and listened. There was no sound. Slade opened his watch and flicked on the camera screen. He punched in some numbers and the screen changed to a view of the inside of the CWT. There were clouds of smoke but nothing else, there were no people anywhere. It looked totally abandoned.

"Could they have run through the tunnels and made their way to the factory?" I whispered.

But we both knew deep down that that is where the explosion seemed to come from, underground further down the tunnel.

Slade moved the camera around and we saw the Watchers dressed in black camo gear with gas masks on their faces. There were around thirty Watchers searching through the buildings.

I could hear a few screams as someone was found and then we could just make out trucks further down the street with people loaded inside. I could just make out a few of the children I had seen from of the apartments and they were crying huddled together with their parents.

It was like a nightmare, watching through the camera as they loaded them up on the back of these large army trucks. Only yesterday we had been here and everything had been fine. Now it looked like a bomb had gone off and our safe sanctuary was gone. Slade was studying the trucks closely and I knew he was looking for his father, Theon and Tori.