FULL ECLIPSE (Book #2)

𝕺𝖓𝖊

© 2017, @fur_el. All rights reserved.

"Dad..."

"Hey, kiddo."

My dad looks a bit older than the last time I saw him. A few more thin wrinkles appear on his forehead when he smiles, his face is a lot darker with some smudges of dirt here and there, and his hair is wet with sweat.

How'd he find us? Does he know about Mum? Does he know why this is happening? Or the bombs? So many questions to ask him but the first thing I do is...

"Missed you, Dad," I hug him, leaning on one of my elbows for support.

"Me too, Son," he hugs me tighter. "Told ya we'd come back for ya."

I slightly lighten my hold around him. What does he mean by 'we'? Who'd he come with? I look up at Amber who's standing behind him. She tries to speak to me through her eye contact but I don't get it. She quietly kneels next to Dad.

"You took good care of her, Dean," Dad looks across at Amber.

But my thoughts are still on, "'we'?"

"Yes, your mother and I."

Huh?

"Speaking of which, where is she?" Dad looks around. "I thought she'd be the first one to greet me."

"Dad... What?"

"Your mum. She stayed behind for you and Amber with your neighbours. All comms were down; I had to go and check what was happening or when the bombs were going to be deployed."

Oh... Who's gonna tell him? Amber's eyes gloss over, she doesn't want to tell him which means that I'm forced to. Being the bigger brother, I haven't a choice anyway.

"What is it?" Dad looks from Amber to me. "Where is she?"

"She's... Mum's gone," I stare at the ground. "She never made it to us. She's one of.. them."

There's a pause and Dad takes a long blink, his face building in fury. "I told her," he stands up in all his black SWAT attire and shakes his head. "I told her that we'd come back together! But your mother, as stubborn as she is, insisted that she'd stay behind. And look where that got her..." Dad chuckles in sorrow.

"Sorry, Dad," I stand up too, still wobbly from jumping back into this reality.

"The virus was proliferating at an alarming rate," Dad goes straight to business. "The government gave the order for deadly force to be applied for containment – 'shoot to kill' in other words. The army took those who would cooperate in school buses to the border but the rest wouldn't leave without their kids or whatnot."

We've been knew this.

"It got real messy real fast," Dad recalls. "People were getting infected left and right. It was time for Plan B – the missiles."

Bray cracks his knuckles, "fucking knew it."

"The missiles are still happening?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" Dad gives me a confused look. "It was never was not going to happen." Then static breaks through his walkie-talkie.

"Kyle, we dornt have much time! Have ye found Naomi and the kids?" Uncle Emmett! That's Uncle Emmett. He works with Dad in all that FBI/SWAT stuff.

"Yes, Emmett, I've got them here with me," Dad looks around the aisle at Carmen, Bray, and Jace. "And I've also got a few of their friends, but Naomi," he pauses and pinches the bridge of his nose, "they got to her."

"Jesus, Kyle, am deeply sorry. I dornt know am gonna tell the good wife. They were so close to each other. But Amber and Dean, includin' the rest ye have there, ye need to get them to the rendezvous. This city will blow! Time's runnin' out!"

"How much time do we have?" Dad presses the buttons on his black watch.

Uncle Emmett's voice starts breaking up with static.

"How much time, goddamit?!" Dad urges.

"4-.-.-.hoors.-.-.-.Ye hae 4-.-.-.-hoors."

The signal cuts off. The growling outside Monty's supermarket with our inhales and exhales are the only things that fill the silence. We've got just 4 hours? 4 hours to live. Going back out there would mean death but staying here would also mean death. From looking at Dad's face, it seems like the choice has already been made.

"We've got 3:59:00," he announces. "Get ready because we're moving out in 10."