Like the Darkness, but not the Darkness (A Gone series fan fiction)

Realization (Chapter Three)

Ivy didn't even bother to look up at her whining brother as she pulled her leather gloves into place. Casting a sidelong glance at Hunter, she flexed her fingers- testing out the material of the gloves.

"Do you have the pepper spray?" He asked, finally putting his last plea to go with her to rest.

"Yeah, but I won't need it." Ivy answered easily, throwing her leg over her dad's old motorcycle with an excited feeling bubbling up in her stomach.

"You notice this is so illegal." He stressed for the tenth time that morning, gesturing wildly to the her on the motorcycle. "You're underage and you don't have a licence. In fact you've only ridden like three times- and the first and second times you crashed into a fence. You're going to either crash or get caught by the police-"

"Relax. I think this is kind of a serious moment, where no one would judge me needing to use the motorcycle. Our parents just disappeared, and we have no idea where they are- I'd actually be glad to find a policeman. I'm just going to drive into town, and try to find Grandma at her apartment. Everything'll be fine." Ivy explained as if it were obvious, which it should of been- but Hunter couldn't get over the uneasy feel he had.

"What if you don't come back?" He asked, now nervously playing with the helmet he had picked up for her.

She didn't answer at first, only holding out her hand for the helmet. Sighing, Hunter handed her the helmet- watching as his older sister ran her hair through her shoulder length dark brown hair once, before tugging the helmet into place.

"I'll be back." She answered firmly, giving Hunter a firm look that he couldn't see through the visor.

She had kicked off, and was driving, slowly at first but gradually gaining speed, down the dirt road before he could react.

It was just over a twenty minute drive into town at the careful pace Ivy was going at, probably half at a normal speed.

Ivy knew she could run the distance from her house to town in just over an half an hour and walk it in a little more than an hour, but she felt she needed to get to town faster than that. If she took the car, she'd be both in severe trouble with her parents and worse with the police- but she felt that using the motorcycle was understandable.

She hoped the police would have the same opinion.

By the time she'd gotten to actual roads, Ivy was smiling to herself- happy with how she hadn't crashed. But no one would've been able to see through the full face and head helmet.

Slowing as she started down the streets, she realized something was off in town.

First off, there were no other vehicles on the road.

Well, there were vehicles on the road, but they were all abandoned- and they didn't look parked. More like the drivers had just vanished, leaving the cars in a scrambled line as they stopped on their own. A good few of them were damaged.

The second thing were how many children she saw. At that moment she also noticed the lack of adults.

There were no adults at all out, while young children milled the street with confused and scared expressions on their faces. They were huddling together in pity parties, some crying and some trying to look brave.

Other's were clearly taking advantage of not having adults around to tell them what to do and what not to do. She had already passed by two houses with toilet paper littering the front yard, and most of the kids looked high off way too much sugar.

As she drove down the streets, most children she passed watched her- their faces lighting up with relief or curiosity.

One kid, maybe around her and Hunter's age- ran into the middle of the road, waving his arms.