“It’s okay,” Jesse replied with a brave face, not letting on how much helping with the burial proceedings outside had hurt his arm. The cold had numbed it somewhat, but now that he was back inside it was really starting to sting. “I’ll go out and get some in a bit. Don’t worry about me.”
“All right,” Mia nodded to herself, unable to stop from looking around the room and checking up on everyone. As it always had been, her way of dealing with her emotions was to deflect her attention to other people. To avoid being sad and breaking down over the death of her father—and more predominantly, the fact that she hadn’t been able to say goodbye—she focused on looking after everyone else. It made her feel like she was being useful, like she wasn’t just an additional mouth to feed.
“Well everyone, help yourself to some food,” she continued, reaching out and picking up a bowl and the large serving spoon. “There should still be enough to go around. Mom? Do you want some?”
Linda hadn’t said anything since they returned to the house, sitting quietly in front of the fire as she warmed her hands and allowed the tears to dry on her cheeks. Looking at her daughter, Linda understood what Mia was trying to do. It was the same as after Brogan had died; she kept herself busy every second of the day so there wasn’t time to stop and grieve. Currently, Linda just wasn’t up to dealing with it. With a small shake of her head she declined her daughter’s offer and merely pulled her clothes closer around her body, longing for the warmth to come from her husband’s arms instead.
Mia furrowed her brow, worried about her mother and how she was holding up. Her grieving process didn’t let her slow down though, handing the bowl of pasta to Riley and serving up another one for whoever was next.
“Ah, no thank you,” Blake shook his head politely when Mia offered him a bowl. “We don’t want to take up your rations.”
“Eat, please,” Mia encouraged. “There’s plenty to go around.”
Blake looked over to Vic awkwardly, before finally accepting the bowl. “All right, thank you. But following this, we should really be going on our way.”
“What?” Chase exclaimed, surprised by Blake’s statement. “Already?”
“The roof is almost fixed, my friend,” Vic replied to the teenager. “There isn’t much more to do and now that you have even more mouths to feed here, we should return to the city and get out of your way.”
“We’ll stay until dawn tomorrow,” Blake continued, “and make sure that everything is sorted in that bedroom. Vic is right—we shouldn’t stay here and use up your resources when there’s plenty waiting for us back in Houston.”
“Are you sure?” Chase argued, suddenly not wanting Blake and Vic to return to Houston, even though that had always been the original plan. After losing his grandfather, he felt like he wanted more men around who he could look up to. He was happy to be the man of the house, except inside he knew he was still only sixteen and there was still a lot more that he had to learn. “I’m sure you can stay for a bit longer if you want. It’s not like we’re running out of food already.”
“I know,” Blake replied. “Nevertheless, two mouths make all the difference. And besides, we are needed back in the city. The Authority isn’t going to back down without a fight.”
“The Authority?” Mia interjected, surprised to hear those words being spoken as her companions discussed Houston. “What do you know of them?”
“That’s the group that basically kidnapped us in the city,” Chase explained quickly, not focusing on the matter. He and Mia had yet to catch up in detail so he hadn’t told her everything that had happened to him and Riley in Houston—there just hadn’t been the right time for it, both of them focusing on more pressing matters. “The people that these guys,” he nodded to Blake and Vic, “rescued us from.”
Mia’s mouth dropped open slightly, realizing that meant that the people who had tried to stop them at the border were also part of the same group that had taken control of Houston. The Authority seemed much more widespread than she originally could’ve imagined and there was definitely more of a conversation that needed to be held on that. Putting a pin in it in her mind, Mia backed down in the conversation again, allowing Chase to continue speaking to his companions.
“I’m sure Jackson is managing fine without you,” Chase continued. “No offense, but it’s not like the Authority was banging down the doors when we left.”
“I know,” Blake tried to reason with Chase. “We’re still needed more there than we are here now. We said we’d get you home safely and we’ve done that. Now it’s time for us to leave.”
“I’ll miss you.”
Everyone in the room turned to look at Riley, the young girl having been silent for most of the afternoon. Originally, she had been suspicious of both Blake and Vic, but after spending several days with them both and learning more about them, she had grown not only to trust them but to like them both as well. Granted, she still preferred Vic to Blake, but she knew that both had been a great help to her family since meeting them and she couldn’t deny that they would be missed.
“We’ll miss you too, my friend,” Vic beamed at her. “And don’t worry. We’ll get your old room fixed up properly before we go.”
“Aha, thanks,” Riley laughed. “Make sure you say hi to Hazel for me when you get back too. Tell her I miss her.”
“I will,” Vic confirmed, knowing that he would be sad to say goodbye. He had grown fond of the children over the past few days and he could see that life at the farmhouse wasn’t going to be easy. They were all dealing incredibly well with Jerry’s death so far, although Vic had seen this sort of thing happen before. It was very likely the family were all still in a stage of shock. Soon the reality of it all would hit them, and that would be when the pain would come.
Emotions in the front room were tense as everyone looked around, understanding that their group of ten would soon be down to eight. It wasn’t unsurprising, it was simply a stark reminder of how fleeting everything was in the new world. If Jerry’s death wasn’t enough to signify that, this was.
Mia acknowledged each person in turn, proud of how Chase and Riley were dealing with everything, grateful for the support of their friends, and worried about her mother. The next few days were going to be anything but easy, but as she had said to Chase in the kitchen, she knew there was nothing that could be thrown at them that they wouldn’t be able to deal with. This was her life now and she was determined to make the most of it.
Chapter 13
Mike paced along a corridor inside the pit, hurrying to get back to his room before he was spotted. Things were very different this time around, despite the Authority still maintaining a strict regime and set of rules. If he was found deliberately breaking them, he would be in serious trouble and that was the last thing he needed. Several officials were already suspicious of him and Mike needed to keep a low profile if his mission was going to be a success.
It was his job to rally support for his father’s rebel faction, while at the same time gathering information on what the Authority was really up to and where they had come from. There were other people from the faction working undercover for the Authority or as refugees—his cousin Gemma among them—but Mike was the only one who was under twenty-one and therefore a part of what the Authority had set up in the first place. Rumors of the breeding program still floated around the pit, but since the Authority had been forced to open its doors to adults as well, things had certainly changed.
Mike was still housed in a theater designed only for children—except instead of being segmented by age now, he was living with boys of all ages. The thing that grouped them together was that none of them had any family to speak of. From what he had learned so far, there was one area for unattended boys, one for girls, and then also family areas where the adult refugees had been taken with their children—if they had any. He had only managed to speak to Gemma once about the other sections within the pit, learning the life she had seemed very different from the one he
was leading. The Authority still controlled the orphaned children and they made sure that they were aware of it too.
Thankfully, they weren’t locked in cells overnight anymore. That was the key advantage that Mike had, the spy using the darkness of night to creep around the pit and gather information where he could. Time was quickly running out before the morning rounds began though, and he needed to get back to his room before a familiar and unlikeable guard—Scarface—found him out of bed again. It had already happened once and now Mike swore that Scarface started his morning rounds earlier and earlier just in the hope of catching Mike out.
“Out for an early morning stroll again, Jessop?”
Mike swore under his breath. He couldn’t believe it. Scarface was literally standing outside the door to his room, waiting for Mike to return. The guards of the Authority had taken to calling the boys by their last names, in an attempt to belittle them or make them feel like they were losing their identity. Mike didn’t mind it so much though; he was much more concerned about what was going to happen to him next rather than what Scarface called him. How long had the guard been there? Based on the smirk on his face, Mike guessed it was quite some time. Scarface was probably aware that Mike’s bed had been vacant for the last hour at least.
“You know me,” Mike replied confidently, acting like he’d done nothing wrong and like Scarface couldn’t ruin his life in a heartbeat. “I’m an early bird.”
Scarface wasn’t in the mood for playfulness, snapping into action in a flash and pinning Mike up against the wall, his beefy forearm pressed against his throat. “I’m on to you, Jessop,” he snarled. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to.”
“Oh yeah?” Mike taunted Scarface, struggling to get the words out because of the pressure the guard was exerting on his windpipe, the bigger man holding him in such a way that Mike’s feet only just touched the ground. Just like he’d said to his father back at the office facility, Mike wasn’t a confrontational boy nor was he an aggressive one, but when someone challenged him, he refused to back down without a fight. He was incredibly proud of himself and his family and he wouldn’t let anyone belittle him if he could help it. “What’s that?”
Scarface literally growled at Mike, pressing even harder against his throat in an attempt to silence the boy. It angered him that Mike had questioned him, finding the young boy insubordinate and disrespectful. In truth, he had no idea what Mike had been up to, but the teenager didn’t need to know that. All that mattered was that Scarface was in charge and he could make Mike do what he wanted. He refused to be talked down to by the child.
“You’ve got nothing,” Mike teased the guard, pushing himself up onto his tiptoes to try and be less at his mercy. He knew he was taking a risk goading Scarface the way he was, yet Mike couldn’t resist. Four long days had passed since he had turned himself back in to the Authority and he was getting fed up of having to live by their rules again. He wanted his father to act soon and take them down. He just wanted it all to be over.
Scarface looked at him like he was considering putting an end to Mike once and for all. Mike maintained eye contact with his rival and dared him to do it, narrowing his eyelids until he was practically glaring at the older man. Scarface’s fist closed in response, cutting off Mike’s airflow completely and slowly suffocating the boy until right at the last second he dropped him, leaving Mike gasping for air on the ground like an injured animal.
“You’re pathetic,” Scarface spat down at him, kicking Mike in the leg before starting to walk away down the corridor. “I’ll catch you eventually, just you wait.”
From his position on the ground, Mike turned his head and laughed, watching the guard walk away. “Yeah,” he sneered, “right. I won’t hold my breath.”
His words had the exact desired effect, Mike seeing Scarface tense up in response to them and clench his fists by his side. It was only once the guard was completely out of sight that Mike put a hand to his throat and winced, feeling the bruises that had been left there. Scrambling to his feet, he dragged himself through the door into his room, the adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins during the interaction wearing thin and his body suddenly feeling completely wiped out.
“Whoa, dude,” Zeke—the teenage boy whom Mike was sharing a room with—commented as he stumbled back inside. “You okay? What happened to your neck?”
“Nothing,” Mike mumbled in response, staggering over to his bed and collapsing onto it, curling into a ball and facing the wall.
“Suit yourself,” Zeke replied with a shrug. “No point getting back into bed though. It’s breakfast time and you know they’ll be checking bodies. I’d get dressed, get out, and keep your head down if I were you. Try and avoid whoever messed you up like that.”
Mike didn’t reply to his roommate. Zeke meant well and they were usually civil with each other, but that morning Mike just wanted to be left alone. It had taken more out of him than he would ever admit going head-to-head with Scarface; at one point he had actually been frightened that Scarface would try and kill him. He tried to think what his father would’ve done in that situation and questioned whether he had made the right choices. But the moment was over now, and he had the battle scars to prove that he had at least tried.
Allowing Zeke to leave the room in his own time, Mike remained curled up facing the wall until he was alone again. Only then did he unfurl his body and take a deep breath, shuddering at how close he had likely just come to the end. Gritting his teeth, Mike decided that he couldn’t wait much longer for his father. He needed to find his cousin Gemma again and he needed to get a message to the outside. Their rebel faction needed to strike back, and they needed to do it quickly.
Getting dressed for the day and rushing out of the room so he wasn’t late for breakfast, Mike tried to come up with a way to meet up with Gemma again so he could get the message out to his father. When he’d seen her before it had been completely by chance, his work detail for the day taking him to her. Sadly, it hadn’t happened since, despite Mike often trying to return to the same area in the hope of seeing his cousin. As he sat down with a bowl of oatmeal, keeping his head down so the bruises on his neck weren’t noticed, Mike tried to guess where his cousin would be and how he could find her again.
Unfortunately, other people had different plans for the teenager.
“Quiet,” one of the guards—one Mike hadn’t seen during his first stay in the pit whom he had named Skinny—announced as he did every morning. “Listen in for your work detail.”
This was a routine that Mike had grown used to. Again, it was slightly different from how things had been before, but overall it was the same. The boys filed into the cafeteria, they ate a disgusting breakfast, and then they were sent off to carry out some sort of mundane task for the duration of the morning, followed by lunch and more mundane tasks in the afternoon. It was dull and difficult, the extracurricular activities that Mike carried out overnight the only thing keeping him entertained.
He listened with one ear for the list of names and their tasks to be read out, only paying attention properly when Skinny reached the letter H in the alphabet. The assignments were given in alphabetical order by surname, so Mike knew that his would be along shortly. After Peter Jennings was told he would be working in the kitchen that day, Mike Jessop was omitted from the announcement and Skinny went straight on to Daley King.
Looking up and around the cafeteria, Mike wore a confused expression until he locked eyes with Scarface, the guard staring directly at him with an unpleasant smirk on his face. Refusing to back down, Mike stared at him for several seconds before looking away, realizing that the guard had something more in store for him that day. It wasn’t enough to strangle him half to death, so now Scarface had another trick up his sleeve. Sure enough, as everyone else filed out of the cafeteria and headed off for their work assignments, Scarface and Skinny sauntered over to where Mike sat, both of them grinning maliciously.
“Don’t worry, Jessop
,” Scarface announced as the cafeteria emptied and only the three of them remained. “We haven’t forgotten about you.”
“Oh, phew,” Mike exhaled in mock relief, switching back on his arrogant attitude and using it as a way to protect himself to some extent from the guards. “Lined up something special, have you?”
Scarface looked over at Skinny and let out an amused grunt. “Oh, you have no idea. You, Jessop, have been chosen for the program. Congratulations. You’re one of the first up.”
Mike stared at the guards for a second, not fully understanding what Scarface was referring to until he remembered the rumored official reason behind the Authority taking over the city. Everyone had whispered about it since day one, but no one had ever really known for sure, no one had ever been a part of it. Now it seemed that was about to change.
“Not so clever now are you?” Scarface jeered, pleased with himself that he’d managed to shut Mike up finally. “Let’s hope your girl still likes you with that ugly rash around your neck. Looks like you’ve had a nasty reaction to something.”
Mike swallowed and refused to rise to the bait that Scarface was laying out for him. If they wanted to make him be a part of some twisted breeding program, then they were welcome to try. He’d cooperate to a point, but they had another think coming if they thought they could force him to do anything he didn’t want to. Rising slowly from his seat and taking a few calm steps toward the two guards, Mike smiled politely at them and nodded.
“Okay, then,” he announced. “Lead the way, gentlemen.”
Chapter 14
“Are you sure it’s okay? You’re not going to need it?”
“Honestly, it’s fine,” Mia replied with a nod. “We’ve still got the Jeep, remember?”
“Yeah, except aren’t those guys planning to head back to Philly soon?” Blake responded, worried about leaving the Clarke family stranded at their farmhouse without any working vehicles. “Won’t they take the Jeep then?”
Escaping Darkness (Book 6): The Shadows Page 9
