Blackout Experiment 1.0

Chapter 7

A/N
I was going to make this longer, but I was taking too long thinking up details. So here's this chapter, expect the next one by Friday. Love you all! Enjoy.

Chapter 7

Alpine, Calirornia, December 20

It was nerve racking. Waiting. Waiting and waiting.

Kaden had barely been anywhere but his own home and Tony's for the past three days.

His other friends came by to say goodbye. No one else in town had been listed apparently. What kind of a sick joke is that? Out of everyone in the world, Tony and he were the only ones he knew that were listed. He knew somewhere in the back of his mind that there were two best friends with single moms out there somewhere going through exactly what he was but he just couldn't stop thinking why him? Why out of everyone in the world was his mother being robbed of a son? Why out of everyone was he being robbed of his mother? He was spending as much time as possible with her. Tony was doing the same with his mom and his sister.
Kaden was secretly angry that Tony had a sister to take care of his mother when he left.

Kaden hadn't slept in days; he kept hearing sirens in his dreams and screams in his nightmares.

Experiments.
What the hell does that even mean?
Were they planning on torturing them? Turning them into Captain America or the Hulk (even though both were trying to achieve Captain America-dom)? Dropping them in mazes like lab rats?
Whatever it was, Kaden only hoped it wouldn't kill him. Wouldn't kill Tony. Wouldn't leave his mother entirely alone.

At about noon, a siren would go off, he and Tony were supposed to report to a bus that was supposed to take them to a checkpoint a couple miles out of town. There he was supposed to 'check in' and then he was going to be taken to wherever he was supposed to be 'studied'. And then it was anyone's guess.

"Do you want to eat lunch or are you going to- or are you not?" His mother had been dancing around it since he'd told her that he was going. He looked at her now. She had tears in her eyes but a smile on her face.

"I don't really have an appetite. But I'll sit with you while you eat." He could hear tears in his own voice too.

She shook her head. The smile slipped from her face and a sob tore from her mouth as she collapsed to her knees.

"Mom." Kaden was there, his arms around her shoulders.

"I can't lose you too. I can't. I- I don't know if I can take that." Now Kaden was crying too. His mother was a rock. She wasn't supposed to cry. And he wasn't supposed to be the one that made her cry.

"Mom, listen to me. I will get out of there. I will not leave you alone. I am not dad. I love you. And I'm not going to leave you." He looked at her. This wonderful, strong woman who'd raised him. And he loved her. He loved her so much right then that he had to look away so she wouldn't see the fresh round of tears.

They sat there, I'm not sure for how long. But they only got up when the sirens started wailing again. It was the same as the day with the message. Sound coming from car speakers and stereo systems.

"I have to go." Kaden looked down. His mother grabbed his hand and squeezed. It reminded him of his first day of kindergarten when his mother hadn't wanted to let him go.
But she had.

And so they walked, hand in hand to the end of the street. Tony was already there, his hands occupied by his mother's and sister's.

No one said anything. They just walked to where they knew the bus was waiting.

Tony's family hugged Kaden and Kaden's mom hugged Tony. Then they were ushered into a bus and their families were behind them.

"What did we just do?"

"The right thing. I hope."