“According to officials, the President will remain in lockdown at an undisclosed location indefinitely,” the newsreader reported. “He will continue to run the country from the state of the art location.”
The President’s face appeared at his final press conference. He looked grim, as did his multitude of advisors that surrounded him. He assured them he would still do his job but it was necessary for the survival of the political system for him to go into protective security.
Leila switched off and let her mind wander. The President wasn’t going into hiding because it was for the good of the people, he was doing it because he was scared. Just like every other one of his citizens. The only difference was they couldn’t do anything about it.
“I guess they need to protect him,” Matilda commented. “If someone attacked him we would never be able to form another government. Nobody would dare vote.”
“We couldn’t even give postal votes, the mailman hasn’t been around for weeks,” Matthew added, agreeing. “It’s all got to come to a head eventually, we can’t go on like this.”
Leila stood and kissed her parents. “I’m going to bed, goodnight.”
“Sleep tight, Honey,” Matthew answered.
“Sweet dreams,” her mother said with a smile and a pat of her back. “We’ll see you in the morning, love you.”
“I love you too.”
She snuggled into bed, trying not to worry about the new developments from the news stories. More people had been killed, even more had been robbed and attacked, and the police were still powerless to do anything about it. The world was sliding down a slippery slope into a point of no return.
Leila’s sleep was not peaceful. Images of the man watching their house filtered through her brain. No matter what she did, he was just there – watching. He never moved, despite how much she wanted him to.
In the early hours of the morning, her dreams got worse. She could smell smoke, it was making her cough as it filtered through into her lungs. She had to gasp for air in her nightmares, confused about what was happening but certain it was the man’s fault.
Suddenly, she awoke, her throat screaming for fresh air. She quickly realized it wasn’t a dream. Her bedroom really was filled with smoke, the thick haze infiltrating every crack and crevice. She coughed with the effort of breathing.
“Emily, wake up,” she yelled across the room at her sister before jumping out of bed.
“What’s going on?” Emily asked sleepily. Once she was awake, she quickly got up too. “Leila, what’s happening?”
“There’s a fire somewhere, we have to get out and wake everyone up.” She tried the door, it felt hot but not so hot she couldn’t touch it. Leila opened it slightly as more smoke filtered in. “Try the window, Emily, see if you can open it. We might not be able to get out through the door.”
Emily followed her orders and opened the window, the smoke instantly went towards it. In an effort to protect his family, Matthew had installed grills on all the windows of the house. Emily put all her weight behind it as she pushed against the bars. “They’re too strong, I can’t move them.”
Leila hurried over and helped but Emily was right, there was no way two teenage girls could muster enough strength to make them budge. Escaping through the window was not going to be an option for them.
They went back to the door and tried to make sense of what was going on in the hallway. It was thick with smoke and dark. The only light was an orange glow, but Leila couldn’t make out where the fire was. It seemed to be everywhere.
“Get on the floor and follow me. We’re going to have to crawl through the smoke and try to get to the front door. Understand?”
“I don’t want to, I’m scared.”
“We don’t have a choice, just do it without thinking. All you have to do is follow me. Got it?” Leila waited for the head nod of assent. She opened the door wide enough for them to crawl through.
Fire crackled, filling their ears with the horror of listening to their house burn. They got halfway down the hallway and stopped. A ceiling beam was hanging down, threatening to fall off completely. Leila hesitated, if it landed on either of them they wouldn’t stand a chance.
“We don’t have much time, Emily, I need you to go first and hurry underneath,” Leila urged. Every second they spent talking about doing it was taking them closer to the beam actually falling. They needed to hurry.
“I can’t, you go.”
“It’s going to fall, I need to get you through.” Emily just shook her head, too frightened to go first. Leila relented, not wanting to waste any time. “Fine, but you have to follow. As soon as I’m past it, you have to come too. Promise me.”
“I promise,” Emily replied sincerely.
Leila sighed and quickly crawled underneath the beam. She had never moved that fast before, the adrenalin from the fear surging her forward. She turned around, waiting for Emily to follow.
Suddenly, the beam creaked. With one almighty crack, it broke off and tumbled to the ground. The hallway was blocked completely.
“Leila!” Emily screamed.
“Emily, turn around and go back. Go to the window and wait. We’ll find a way to get the grill off the windows. Go, now!”
Leila couldn’t see whether her sister followed her instructions, all she could do was hope. She half-stood, crouching over to move faster instead of crawling. She didn’t have someone to follow her now, she was on her own.
Racing down the hallway, her feet burned as she stepped on loose embers. The house was crumbling around her, the smoke only growing thicker. She covered her mouth with the edge of her pajamas but it barely worked to keep the acrid stench out of her system.
Having to rely on mostly her memory, Leila hurried through the corridor and through the living room. She opened the front door and burst outside, gasping for air.
There was no-one in the neighborhood to help her. If anyone did see the fire, they weren’t brave enough to come to their rescue. Leila was on her own as she pounded on the windows. Her fingers grazed with the effort of removing the grills.
But it was useless. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t do anything to save her family. As she stood on the lawn, covered in black ash, Leila watched the roof cave in first. The walls crumbled shortly afterwards.
She waited and waited but nobody else emerged from the house. She didn’t want to believe it, if she just stayed there then perhaps they would all join her. Mom, Dad, Kate, and Emily. They would all come out and they would hug and everything would be alright. It had to be that way, it just had to be.
But it wasn’t. In that one night, Leila had lost her entire family. With the sun came the realization that they were never going to come. She was alone in the world now, entirely and utterly on her own.
She couldn’t stay there any longer, it was like she couldn’t breathe all over again. She started running and never looked back.
CONTINUE ON WITH LEILA AND JEROME’S STORY IN:
A WORLD WITHOUT ANGELS
OUT NOW
TURN OVER FOR A SNEAK PEEK AT THE FIRST CHAPTER.
VISIT WWW.JAMIECAMPBELL.COM.AU
FOR MORE DETAILS AND EXCLUSIVE WEBSITE ONLY CONTENT
A World Without Angels
Sneak Peak
Before The Fall (An Aron Angels Prequel) Page 8
