Underground

48

Estelle
"She bit me!" September yells, kneeled in front of Cirus.
"We aren't ready for war, E." Leeciy says, pushing white hair out of his face nervously.
"We have a few good fighters." I lie, more to myself than him.
"Half of our group is underaged or underweight." Leeciy reminds.
"What do we do?" I bury my face in my palms.
August's hand on the small of my back breaks me out of my stressed trance. "How can I help?"
"I don't know if you can." Leeciy says. "It's going be very dangerous."
"How are we even going to come up with tactics?" I say.
"I have an idea." September says, standing up.
"What is it?" Annaliesee says.
"We'll need a headquarters, so I think we should find some ghost town and inhabit that."
"Well, are there any ghost towns around here?" Leeciy says.
September shrugs. "I doubt there would be one around here, we'd have to go somewhere a little more rural."
"Why do you keep saying we? September, you're only fourteen."
"Fifteen, and I'm older than Yeeva." September says.
"She goes by Neeva now." Annaliesee corrects.
"Why?" I say.
"Yeeva reminds her of Michoon, she doesn't want to be reminded of him." Annaliesee sighs.
"Anyway, ghost towns." Leeciy says, folding his arms. "Where would we find those?"
"Rural areas, so more North East." August answers.
"Like Montana?" September asks. "My class learned about a pretty modern one in northern Montana."
"Oh?" I ask quirking an eyebrow. "There's a hospital and a school, and a few looted supermarkets."
"How many houses?" Leeciy asks. "It's more of a ghost city, there's loads of town houses, houses, and apartments."
"Why did it shut down?" Annaliesee asks. "Surely if it were that good, nobody would want to leave."
"The mines collapsed and the lumber business got corrupted, everybody moved, then it was declared a ghost town. That's what Ms. Johnson said."
"What's it called?" Leeciy asks.
"Willowdale." September answers.
"Luca." I remember.
"Hmm?" Leeciy asks.
"Luca lives in Montana." I say. "We can meet up with whoever that is." Annaliesee says.
***
I sit at the computer, Willowdale pulled up on a search engine.
"What do you think?" September asks.
"I like it." I say. "Especially the forest."
"Do you think that's where we're going?" He asks.
I nod. "I like it, seems nice."
"How are we even going to take everyone there?" He asks.
"We'll cram." I say, thinking over it.
"One-hundred-fifty people in twelve cars?"
"I could drive." I say.
"You wish."
"You could drive." I suggest.
"I wish." He laughs.
"It wouldn't be that hard." I say. "Then we can have ten people in each car."
"It'll be like a clown car." September starts, but it would take about fifteen hours."
"We would need trailers also." I say, pondering to myself.
"A few could take planes, a few could drive." September suggests.
"Well, who's going to pick them up from the airport?"
"They could just wait there." September says.
"We'd have to sell the house." I say.
"That's not a problem, it's a nice house in a good location." He says.
"What about Reiba?" I say.
"Reiba could come, you're overthinking this."
The door opens and Cirus walks in. "Hi."
"Hey."
Leeciy walks in behind her, his hand landing on her shoulder. "Willowdale?" He asks.
I nod. "We just gotta get there."
***
First thing to we did is pack up, and got a trailer for all of our personal belongings.
Then, we sold the house, which took two weeks.
September was right; nice house, nice location.
Then, we rounded up all of our friends willing to drive ten frightened Pangaeans to northern Montana.
Ned, Melissa, Jane, Logan, August, Annaliesee, Marilane, Nigel, Jackson, Leeciy, September, and I. Not as many as we originally wanted, but we had enough room to transport all of the pangaeans.
Titanios even got transferred to a Montana old-persons' home.
It was convenient, which brings up to where now.
Willowdale.
There is enough places for every individual person to have a house/apartment/townhouse.
A lot of houses weren't even packed up, so there were a plethora of Pangaeans getting a furnished house all to themselves.
August, September and I are currently unpacking our belongings into a furnished townhouse with two bedrooms.
I light a candle in a feeble attempt to light up the place.
"I wish there was electricity." September says.
"I wish the reception was better." I complain back.
"Tell me about it." August says.
"I can't believe you guys came up here with me." I say.
"We had to." August says. "We can't just let you go."
"You left your life for me, September just started highschool and you were about ready to publish a book." I breathe. "That's too much to ask for."
"Estelle, I'll follow you anywhere, no matter the repercussions." August says, lightly kissing my temple. "You're worth everything."
"Thanks, Aug." I say, kissing his cheek.
"As sweet as this is, stop." September says. "Anyway, I'm going to go check if there's plumbing." He says, walking up the stairs.
I turn to August, who was staring lovingly at me. "Honestly, this could be the start of the rest of our lives."
"Or the end of our lives but still, it's a big step." I say.
He pulls me into a hug and nuzzles his nose into my hair. "I love you."
"I love you, too." I say.
August's phone and mine both go off at the same time.
We both pull them out and look at them.
"A text from my mom." August says. His phone rings after. "I've got to get this."
I open the text from Kathryn.
'Please tell me you're breathing' It read.
'August, September and i are fine.' I reply, yet it takes a few seconds to send.
August walks back from the top of the stair, where he was talking to his mother quietly.
"Why's everybody freaking out?" I ask, raising a brow.
He stays silent for a second before speaking. "South-side, Oregon was just bombed."