Lost But Not Forgotten (NaNoWriMo 2013)

17.

Okay, I wrote yet another flashback because I am too lazy to write some of the main part of the story right now. What should happen next? I don't want to reveal teh big 'secret' just yet though, maybe later on. I am currently on 17,333 words so I am super duper happy. I plan on getting 30,000 by Nov 30st but I will try to continue my novel after that by finishing it and adding more detail and extra chapters and maybe try and extend it to 50,000. I don't know, we'll just have to see... Here is chapter 17 and yes it kind of sucks :P

*Flashback*

The sky wore a menacing look as the Thorne family approached the border that separated their old home Wyoming from Montana. Hundreds of cars surrounded him and thousands of fugitives wandered the streets nearby, homeless, their faces sullen knowing that they had been defeated and there was no hope left. The cars around them weren’t moving and the family of four awaited nervously but Joe Thorne was getting impatient, they had been waiting for several hours already.

“What the hell is going on?!” he shouted out loud to no one of his family members in particular, they all just gave each other a very confused look and went back to silently waiting.

“I’m going out there” Tired and impatiently, Joe pressed his hand against the door handle ready to step out into the frozen cold air but his heavily pregnant wife stopped him.

“Joe please, stay in here with us, I think they are rioting somewhere in front of us, you could get hurt...” she said worriedly, the wrinkles in her once young face had now become more noticeable and her black unkempt hair stuck out in all places, she was very worried; Julie was almost nine months pregnant and there was no nearby hospital, everyday was getting harder and harder.

Joe ignored her but didn’t quite get out, he was about to before a colossal crowd of angry people charged towards them. He quickly shut the door and started to panic. Furious faces pressed against their windows, they held baseball bats, knifes and a minority were even in possession of guns. The world had now turned upside down as the end to the world as they knew it was looming on them and most could do nothing but wait to die.

The car started rocking slightly, the protesters were getting to violent, and they were shaking the car side to side and shrieking so loudly that you could hear it from inside the car. No one knew why everyone was so angry, the words they were shouting weren’t so clear but they all knew that they were in serious danger.

Numerous gunshots were heard every few seconds, the sky got darker and darker until in a few seconds it was pitch black. Night had fallen. More people surrounded their miniature car, the young kids in the backseat held tightly onto each other, terrified while their mature parents struggled not to panic and go wild.

April, the eleven year old daughter of Joe and April, sat on the far right, her hands pressed into her fourteen year old brother Jesse’s; the two stared out the window at the mob pressing guns at the windshield.

“Mama!” April’s voice screamed alarmingly, tears started falling and her face scrunched up in complete fright. A man was hacking at the window closest to her with a long silver knife; he slowly started making a crack in the thick layer of window. He guy seemed to be drunk and insane, he kept his eyes fixed on April and banged the window continuously until his hands bled.

Her parents turned towards their loving daughter and stared in horror at the crazy lunatic.

“April dear, move closer to your brother” Joe instructed her and she willingly obeyed as she slowly edged towards Jesse who was cowering in his seat.

Joe shuffled over to his small burgundy backpack and removed four guns, all fully loaded. He passed one to each member of his family, no one refused but Julie hesitated.

“Don’t worry Julie, you don’t have to use it unless you really need to, it’ll keep you safe and scare away the creepers” her husband reassured her. She took the metal object and held onto it tightly but being careful not to make her hands go anywhere near the trigger.

The moment Jesse had been handed the gun, he pointed it straight at the man trying to break the window; the guy immediately froze upon seeing it and quickly hurried away, scared of being shot. Cowards...

“Th-thanks...” says April, she was shocked at the amount of courage her brother had inside of him, she knew Jesse was brave but she didn’t know he was that daring but she was glad to have someone like him, someone to protect her when needed. April just hoped she would never have to mourn the death of her beloved brother.

The family sat in silence all night, every one of them were wishing for all of it to be over. The kids and Julie were lucky enough to fall asleep but Joe, being the overprotective father figure that he was, stayed up all night to keep an eye for anything. Luckily, the night went by without a hitch and by morning, the crowd had disappeared into the forest and the cars beside them started moving again. Joe aroused the kids, the bags under his eyes grew darker and he had trouble keeping his eyes open. His wife spotted his predicament and offered to drive but Joe refused, she was pregnant and would pop out baby Bethany any day now and he didn’t want it to happen while she was driving.

Jesse stayed half asleep for most of the morning as like his father, he was not a person who liked the mornings but April who was more like her mother was wide awake, keeping a close eye on any sign of danger but everything seemed to be golden and happy. She was starting to forget the traumatic experience but there were various scenes that stuck in her mind and were crystal clear. During her sleep, she had dreadful nightmares that caused her to wake every few hours only to be coaxed back into a dream by her father’s soothing voice. When April had nightmares, she almost always woke up screaming. Her biggest fear was losing her family and in each one of these nightmares, a member of her family would tragically die in some gruesome way, they seemed so clear, so realistic that April would believe it so much that sometimes she refused to think it was a dream even after waking up.

The sunshine poured through the clouds and highlighted the trodden snow on the ground. The skies were blue and it was as if nothing had happened the night before, the family finally felt safe again and they continued their travel towards Alaska hoping there would be now more trouble but they were so very wrong...