Perseverance ( completed! )

Unkempt

I jolted up with a yelp of terror, my body shaking as I looked wildly side to side. My breathing coming out in rough and shallow pants.

Liam quickly blinked his eyes open, sitting up and looking at me with a... worried expression?

"Gabe? Gabe, what's wrong? Are you okay?" He asked quickly, his hand making circular motions on my back.

The repeating pattern soothed me, as it did every time I had a nightmare.

Sad, right? A high schooler suffering from night terrors. The same man in every dream. Over and over. The same man.

I took a shaky breath, holding it for a moment, and then releasing it slowly. As I had been taught to by Liam. As whenever we had camp outs and sleepovers and stuff, I always seemed to have a nightmare. So he had dealt with this plenty of times.

"I-I'm fine," I stated softly, sighing. "What time is it?"

Liam still looked worried and suspicious, not totally believing me when I said when I was fine, but rightfully so.

But nonetheless, he got out of bed and made his way over toward the window.

"Looks like it's about 7:00," Liam guessed with a shrug.

I nodded, pushing black the blankets and sliding off of the couch, shivering as the cool air assaulted my body. Luckily I chose to wear the jacket. Sheesh. I zipped it up to my chin, putting my hood on.

"We should probably get going again," I spoke lightly, rubbing my hands together in an effort to create some warmth.

Liam nodded in agreement, walking back over toward me with a gentle smile.

"You just have zero tolerance for anything thats not completely in the middle don't you," He teased playfully, throwing an arm over my shoulder like he always does.

"Ya ya, you big oaf," I huffed jokingly, but leaned into his side. I never understood how one person could carry so much heat in there body without dying.

"Pfft. You're just mad I'll always be a foot taller than you," he stuck his tongue out, eyes amused.

As much as I wanted to use continue joking with him like always, something bad was happening, and I still has no idea what it was. We had to find out somehow.

"Come on," I sighed gently, hating to ruin the light-hearted mood, but knowing we had to get going.

Liam followed after me with an expression that I couldn't quite figure out.

We walked toward the front door, unlocking it. But we peeked out the windows first, checking to make sure the coast was clear.

It was, so we made our way out of the house, and continued walking.

Reaching up, I drew my hand through my brown hair that was probably sticking up in weird places now. But I was way past caring. But honestly, I never really did care about how I looked. I think that's why I got along well with upperclassmen. I was carefree, and didn't care what others thought. I fit in well with anyone really. Though, I am a bit biased, oops.

Anyway, me and Liam kept a watchful eye out, continuing on the street.

"What do you thinks going on?" I finally asked the question I had been dying to ask since the power went out.

"I'm not really sure Gabe. Sure, it's not totally out of the ordinary for the power to go out. But it wasn't just the power. It was like, anything powered by technology just, stopped working."
So everything.

"But how can that happen? What can just cause everything to suddenly stop working?" I asked the next question I had been wanting to.

I could practically see the cogs moving behind Liam's eyes, things clicking into place, school actually coming in handy for once. Liam's eyebrows drew together, his nose scrunching up in thought. One of his habits when he was trying to figure something out.

Suddenly, Liam looked up at the sky. I watched his eyes widen, I could practically see the pieces clicking into place. I could see the problem forming in his mind.

"Gabe. I know what this is."

"Radiation?! What?!" I exclaimed in panic after hearing him.

"Yes Gabe. Radiation. In 2019 they predicted that in this future this could very well happen, and was going to happen, but everybody just ignored it. They decided out of sight out of mind."

My mind was racing, confusion and fear working its way in.

"So, what do we do? Can we do anything? Once people figure out, is there going to be a full out war? Is this happing everywhere? Or just here?" I fired my questions at him unintentionally.

Liam put his hands up, as if surrendering.

"Gabe, I'm not sure. We cant really, do anything. Except hope not many people know. We have to gather as much food as we can. Water, anything. Once people figure this out, they are going to be at each others throats for food and water," Liam spoke urgently, his voice low, as if someone might over hear.

Liam's sudden seriousness and urgentness was worrying, but I couldn't blame him.

"We need to get to my mom," I said, panic laced with my tone. What if she didn't know? Forgot to lock up and someone already got in, who knew?! My mind was going crazy with possibilities.

Liam knew this, as he quickly tried to calm me down.

"Gabe, hey, it's okay. We are going to find your mother. Let's pick up the pace," he stated confidently.

Gulping, I nodded and jogged beside him.

Luckily we both had a pretty good amount of stamina.

We ran and ran, and continued to run.

Finally, after about thirty minutes of running, stopping, running, stopping, we began to get back to the more wealthy part of town, meaning we were getting closer to finding my mother!

But we did have to slow down. People were wondering the streets, looking confused and trying to start their cars, complaining about being late to work.

Why hadn't people noticed last night?

Ah, thats right, it was late, so everybody was sleeping. They haven't had time to think about this yet. I glanced at Liam, asking an unspoken question that was clear in my soft eyes.

Liam nodded.

We had to run.

Once these people found out, well, I don't want to know what's going to happen. Not in the slightest.

Me and Liam both brought the pace up to a sprint, not caring about being discrete anymore. We got weird stares and eyebrow raises, but no one seemed to read too much into it. We probably just looked like two teenage boys going for a run.

After a good 4 miles, we finally made it to my neighborhood. We were panting and gasping for air, and continued forward. At a walk now. Unable to do any more.

After what seemed like a millennium, I saw the familiar dark brown shade of our house. A gasp of relief left my lips.

Me and Liam sprinted up the stairs, across the driveway, and to the front door.

But something wasn't right.

The door, it was open.

-

A/N
Hello my lovely readers! I hope you enjoy the new chapter!! My apologies for the cliffhangers😝

I would really appreciate some insight on how you guys are liking it so far? What do you like, dislike, etc.!! My main goal is to appeal to my amazing readers so don't hesitate!😊😊