Tested

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

For the next two weeks, Dad slept, and daylight evaded us. Nobody understood why the sun went away. Why it was dark all of the time. Rumours spread like wildfire, but all we knew for sure was that the new authorities said it was safe to go outside.

I didn’t care. I was too worried about Dad and Parker, too concerned with the way my life would go if Dad died. I had no idea what to do next. I had stood up for myself, and it led to Dad’s injury. I could lose Dad because I wanted to make my own decisions. I had lost all of my confidence.

As the country grew more settled, people began to leave Gerard’s safety. I couldn’t stay there forever with the rest of the hangers-on. The Irish Council had been taken down, and a new system was being put into place, but the politics of it all bored me. All I knew was that something terrible had happened one day, and it made everyone afraid. People said strange things had happened, that they had seen impossible things, but nobody knew what to believe, and there had been little official word because nothing official properly existed any more.

Every day, I wandered the streets alone. I couldn’t sit next to Dad anymore, couldn’t watch his chest rise and fall while waiting for the time it stopped. I couldn’t bear the guilt.

I pretended to myself that I was looking for Parker, but he was gone, and I had no way of finding him again. If he wasn't dead, somebody was using him, and I didn't know how to fight back against that kind of enemy.

And everywhere I walked, I felt eyes on my back. Someone was watching me, and yet I still kept walking, waiting and hoping they would make their move.

“He’ll wake soon,” Gerard kept telling me, but I didn’t believe him.

“And if he doesn’t?”

“He will.”

I tried to make plans, but it was impossible when I didn’t know if I would be alone or not.

And then a sign came. Everything felt full circle.

I was wandering the streets of Dublin’s city centre when I noticed people gathered around a pub, pushing at each other to get closer to the door. Sound was blaring from a television, and I moved closer to hear what was going on.

Some kind of press conference about the things that were happening was being held. They were talking about the changes in the country and what would happen next. Behind the speakers stood a large screen. Huge numbers had been plastered there. New emergency phone numbers to call if you needed a different kind of help. I wondered if ringing those numbers would be useful if the hooded figures attacked again.

Bored, I was about to walk away when I saw her. The redhead. Ava Delaney. It was just a quick glimpse as the camera moved, but I was certain it was her. Dad and I had been through so much, but she had been the shadow in the background all the way through our journey.

“Where is that place?” I asked a woman next to me. “Is this live?”

“It’s live,” she said.

So she hadn’t died. After further urging, the woman gave me directions. I prayed Ava Delaney would still be there when I found the place. I ran through the streets, not bothering to see if anyone followed me. All I concentrated on was that one thing: finding her at last. I could warn her, tell her that the first would be after her because she had exposed herself. And if Dad wasn’t going to be around, maybe she would know what to do. Dad had been right. I couldn’t make decisions. I needed somebody to lead me. Maybe she would do.

But when I arrived, I wasn’t allowed in.

“Nobody without a security badge,” the suspiciously Guardian looking guard at the door said.