The Touch

Chapter 27 - Haven

We sat there in silence for another hour to make sure that no one came back and that the Watchers were gone. When we ventured out of the room and walked back towards the blown out door we could see that it was abandoned.

Slade walked over to the apartment block and ran through the rooms one by one looking for anyone. But they were all gone.

I walked towards the building where we had had the meeting just hours before. The windows where blown out and the door was hanging on by only one hinge. I stood there looking at the debri and smoke that was coming out of the shops further down the street. The feeling of love and community had been wiped out within minutes. Everyone was gone and all the children that had the Touch were on the back of trucks frightened and scared.

Tears started to roll down my face and I couldn't stop them. In only a few minutes our lives had all changed forever and I was powerless to stop it from happening.

My body started to shake and I felt myself slump down to the ground. I held on to Marlena's diary and the hard drives and clung to them like they were the taken children. The diary was all we had now. The last piece of humanity was held in my hands.

Slade came up behind me and lifted me back up on my feet. He wrapped his arms around me and held me to him as I cried.

"It will be alright Lacey. We will get them back, I promise" Slade whispered as he moved my hair away from my face.

How was everything going to be okay? At this moment I felt like we had lost everything.

I felt Slade move slightly and turned towards the area he was looking at. There was something written on the door to the meeting room. Slade knelt down to look at it closer and I saw that one word was scrawled on the door. Haven.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It is a clue from my father. I think he is alright after all. Come on, we have to leave now".

"Where are we going?" I said as I wiped away the tears.

"We have a place that I was told about by my father that is called Haven. It is another safe house where my father told us to go to if something ever happened to the CWT here. It is a known network of the CWT and there will be people I know there. They will be able to find out what has happened and where everyone has gone to. But we have to leave now as my father could be meeting us there."

"What about my apartment? I have to warn Blind Bird just in case they know about me".

"We can't go back to your apartment because if they know about you then they would already have been there. We have to go to the safe house now and get help. We can't do this by ourselves Lacey". Slade placed his hands on each side of my face and looked into my eyes. "It is our only chance".

I knew he was right. It could be too dangerous to go back now, and if I go back we could also be taken away by the Watchers.

"Okay. Let's go, but I have to tune into her and I haven't done this outside of my room before".

"Well let's see if we can do it while we are on the road. I will drive and you can try tuning into her okay?".

"All I can do is try" I replied.

Slade picked up a backpack from the floor and he quickly raided a few of the apartments for some supplies and also retrieves a gun and some ammunition from a hidden draw in his fathers room. He hands me another backpack that is half empty.

"Put the book and hard drives inside the bag and don't let it leave your sight. Although we are going to a safe house that has other members of the CWT in it, we don't want the book or the hard drives getting into the wrong hands".