“I’m not so sure about that,” Leland said. “Maybe you just made things move a little quicker.”
Henry felt a flash of anger. “I think we’ll cross in front of my brother’s apartment first.”
Leland didn’t say anything for a few moments, probably considering the pros and cons of looking for Sam first.
“Are you sure about the location?” Leland asked.
“I’m pretty sure,” Henry said. “I haven’t actually been to his apartment before, considering I’ve been in prison for the last five years. But I do know this neighborhood a little bit. I used to live here for a short time.”
“Well, if we come across his apartment first, then we can check it out. But if he’s not there, I’m going straight to Cora’s apartment.”
“And what if Cora isn’t there?” Henry asked.
“Then we will reevaluate. We may have to split up.”
Henry thought that was a terrible idea. Splitting up in the middle of the city like this? It was dangerous. Leland knew this, but the man probably wasn’t going to relent. He was here to find his daughter. Everything else was secondary.
Henry was willing to help Leland with his family, but it was time for the sheriff to help him. Sam was out here somewhere, Henry was sure of it. It had been a long time since he had seen him in person. A very long time. In fact, the last time they had seen each other had been on bad terms. Had they talked on good terms in the last few years, though? Henry didn’t think so. He knew that their relationship had deteriorated, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care for his brother.
Henry wanted to see him. He wanted Sam to know that he was free. It would relieve Sam to no end. But how long would his freedom last? Regardless of what had happened with this power outage, things would get back to normal eventually, wouldn’t they? That would mean the justice system would start looking for escaped convicts. Power outages didn’t erase records. He still had a file out there. And when they did start looking for escaped prisoners, they would go after the lifers first.
Henry would be hunted.
Still, it meant a lot to Henry to make sure his kid brother was alive and well through all of this. Despite their differences, despite everything that had happened between them, Henry still loved Sam. His little brother was all the family he had left.
It was weird to think that. No aunts or uncles or cousins or grandparents. No mom. No dad. No Scott—not that Scott would have ever been considered family.
It was just the two of them, and Henry didn’t want to be the only one left.
“You’re right,” Henry finally said.
“About what?”
“We may have to split up.”
“Okay…”
“I haven’t seen my brother in a long time, so I just want to make sure he’s okay. That’s all.”
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Leland said.
“But we can work together,” Henry said. “Focus on one person at a time.”
“I’m not delaying finding my daughter any more than I have to.”
Henry nodded. “Well, we will just have to see. Maybe Sam will be there and we will have someone else to help us look for her.”
“That would be good,” Leland said.
Yeah, Henry thought, it would be.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Henry tried to clean himself up as best he could. He got the prison barber to make him look as clean as possible, and he hoped his eyes weren’t too sunken in. He was three years into a life sentence, and today he was going to see his little brother.
It was a bittersweet anticipation. Henry longed to see Sam, but he knew the visit would be heavy. It was always heavy, but this time it would be worse.
Henry was led by a guard into the common room where Sam waited at a table. They weren’t allowed to hug, but a smile was all Henry needed from his brother. Sam looked so grown up now. It had probably been a year or more since they had seen each other in person.
They were silent for a few seconds as they sat down, looking at each other. Henry’s eyes filled with tears, and he felt embarrassed by the display. He swallowed and blinked his eyes. “You look well,” he said.
“Thanks,” Sam said. “I’ve been running some.”
“That’s good,” Henry said. “Good for you, I mean.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
Another long moment.
“How was the funeral?” Henry asked.
“Short,” Sam said. “To the point, just like she would’ve wanted.”
“She grieved herself to death,” Henry said. “Couldn’t let it go.”
“She was unhappy, yeah,” Sam said.
“I blame myself,” Henry said.
“I think you’ve gotten enough of the blame to last a lifetime,” Sam said.
“Literally,” Henry said. “Considering I will spend my whole life here.” He sat back in his chair and smirked. “I don’t even get parole.”
Henry had nearly dropped the phone when he got the call about his mother. She was the last person in the world he expected to die, and he felt sick by it. She had spiraled into depression, blaming herself for Scott’s murder. Blaming herself for losing her boys. Blaming herself for all the wrong that had befallen the family.
Henry never told her she wasn’t to blame.
“Henry, I’ve been thinking about everything, and I think I should—”
“No,” Henry cut him off. “I told you, you don’t need to be thinking about any of this.”
“But I feel like I have to,” Sam said. “I can’t get it out of my head.”
“Just stick to the plan,” Henry told him. “Live your life.”
“That’s not much of a plan,” Sam said. “I’m thinking about dropping out of school.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Henry said.
“I mean, I guess I should say, I’ve already quit school,” Sam said.
“Well, get back in it,” Henry said. “You drop out of school, you make all this pointless.” Henry waved around the room, then tapped his uniform. Then he dropped his hands to his sides. “Wait,” Henry said, “that’s why you’re dropping out.”
“That’s not the only reason,” Sam said. “But yeah…”
Henry swore, then looked all around him and lowered his voice. “Listen, Sam,” he whispered. “I was going to kill Scott if you didn’t. There’s no point in turning yourself in.”
“I will get a lesser sentence,” Sam said. “I was fifteen.”
“First of all, you don’t know that,” Henry said. “Fifteen-year-olds can be tried as adults. And I swear to you I was going to kill him.”
Sam looked away. “It doesn’t matter,” he finally said. “You weren’t the one who killed him.”
“I see it from your perspective, Sam, I really do. But it doesn’t matter now. There was plenty of evidence against me. There was a knife. I was there. It might as well have been me.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“Sam, I’ve got knife fights on my record,” Henry said. “I wasn’t the friendliest kid in high school. I never killed anybody, but I fit the description of one who would.”
“Not to anyone who knows you,” Sam said.
“There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t think it was me,” Henry said.
“Because you plead guilty,” Sam said.
“And they threw the book at me.”
“That’s what I can’t take,” Sam said. “You think I can live with that?”
Henry shrugged. “I won’t be here forever.”
“Yes, Henry, you will be. That’s the point.”
“Listen,” Henry said, leaning forward. “You’re the kind of person who has a future ahead of him. I’m not. I’m the kind of guy who was kicked out of two schools and barely passed the third one. No wonder mom and Scott didn’t show up for my graduation. They probably didn’t think I deserved to wear a cap and gown.”
“Henry…”
“Sam!” Henry’s vo
ice carried across the room and a few heads looked in his direction. He lowered his head again and talked low. “Use your brain. Go to school. Get a good job. Get a girl. Do something with your life. I was likely gonna end up here anyway.”
“I don’t believe that,” Sam said. “As much trouble as you caused, you never hurt anybody.”
“Knife fights, Sam.”
“Did you ever even cut anyone?” Sam demanded.
Henry hesitated. “Well, no, but…”
“But nothing, Henry. You aren’t a criminal, and you don’t deserve to be here.”
Henry shrugged. “Yet I’m the one wearing the jumpsuit, little brother. Accept it and move on. I’m here on purpose so you don’t have to be. I actually kind of like it.”
“That’s a lie.”
Henry snorted, then shrugged again. “I suppose it is, but the food’s not bad.”
“That’s a lie, too.”
“That’s actually the biggest lie of all,” Henry chuckled.
A guard called out, saying visiting time was over. It felt like it had just started, but it was always that way. Henry hadn’t proven he wasn’t a troublemaker yet, so meetings were short. Good behavior granted certain privileges even to the lifers. Especially to the lifers. Apparently, three years wasn’t enough.
Henry was grateful for his years of causing trouble as a kid, though. He had been able to fight off other prisoners who wanted to dominate him. He was left alone for the most part, and except for the occasional run-in, he kept to himself as much as he could. Henry hadn’t always been a loner, but he didn’t fit in with this crowd. It was something Sam could easily see. But Sam wouldn’t fit in here either. Henry hated the idea. Sam wouldn’t be able to fend for himself here as Henry could. He wouldn’t be able to beat back the rapists. He wouldn’t know how to avoid the troublemakers. He would be destroyed in Lone Oak.
“I love you,” Henry said.
“Yeah, you too,” Sam answered.
Henry didn’t feel good about their meeting. Something was off, and he feared Sam was about to do something stupid. Almost as though he thought it would add some protection, Henry said, “Stay smart, little brother. Don’t do anything stupid, you hear me?”
Sam didn’t answer, and that worried Henry the most.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The prison was too dark. It took a while for Alex’s eyes to adjust to the light coming in through the windows, but it was still hard to see the ground. Whenever there were deep shadows or lumps on the ground, he knew to stay clear of them. They were probably bodies.
It was strange to be back here. Year after year, he had come, clocked in, and did what he always did. Guarded. It was almost surreal to be in here without his uniform. To be in here without prisoners sneering at him. He remembered when he first got the job he had been nervous. The nervousness hadn’t gone away for a long time. This was worse than that ever was.
As creepy as it felt, he didn’t expect to come across any prisoners or prison guards. Anyone who had a chance to get out of here would have done so already, if for no other reason than because of the smell. The stench outside was nothing compared to the stench inside where the bodies had sat for two whole days in the dank halls of the prison. It was the kind of smell that left you on the edge of nausea but wouldn’t quite let you purge. It was also the kind of smell one would never forget. The stench in the air clung to him as though he was being wrapped up in a damp cloth.
He knew it was up to him to lead the way to the infirmary. First, he needed to get to the kitchen and hopefully find preserved food.
“You used to work here?” Bryson asked.
Alex looked at him and shook his head. “I guess I still do. I mean, if all this gets fixed.” The question had made him realize something. This power outage was potentially a permanent problem. It hadn’t occurred to him until now that the prison may never reopen. First of all, there were no prisoners yet. With such a massive breakout, if this power outage were a small problem, then SWAT teams and helicopters would’ve already descended upon the prison, and teams would be investigating what had happened. Seeing the prison two days later, and the fact that nothing had been done about it since added gravity to the situation for Alex. Sure, the breakout had been a terrible thing and would have been unprecedented in scale, but he never would’ve thought of it as a permanent dilemma. If there were emergency services somewhere out there, if there were investigators who would be interested in what had happened here, then they seemed to be far more interested in something else. Which could only mean that this problem was gigantic. In the history of prisons, there had never been a breakout on this level, and yet there were no reporters, nothing. The event would go unnoticed by anyone who wasn’t a part of it. The idea was completely baffling to Alex.
With each step, he wanted to turn back. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was probably more afraid than the rest of them. They shouldn’t have been here, but they needed the supplies, didn’t they? Wasn’t this the logical choice? Trent had made a compelling argument about coming here, but was the man even sane?
As they walked through hallways and corridors, Alex purposefully avoided the area where he had been captured. It was the same place they had executed the warden, and his coworker, Roger. Alex didn’t want to revisit that scene because he was afraid of the images that were playing over and over in his head. He had faced death that day, and he shouldn’t be alive now. But on the whim of a madman, Alex still walked. And now, perhaps foolishly, he was walking in the same place that should have been his grave. For every body he saw on the ground, he wondered why one of them wasn’t his. He hadn’t done anything special. The only difference between him and the ones who didn’t make it was that Alex hadn’t put up a fight. Did that make him a coward? He hoped not. Of course, if it hadn’t been for Roger, Alex would probably just now be leaving the key room. It had been an impenetrable room that was only opened by Roger in a moment of panic.
In some places as they walked, it was almost pitch black. There were even a couple of moments where his foot hit something on the ground, something soft, and he knew it was probably a body. In those moments, he would direct the others to step to the left or the right. One time he stepped on a hand and the feeling was unmistakable.
His first goal was to reach the mess hall. If they could find some food to take back to the town, then all of this would be worth it. It would also give the others something to do and hopefully get them out of a place where they felt completely creeped out.
There were only one or two bodies in the kitchen area, and thankfully they were off to a corner. But they were two guards.
It had taken them all by surprise. The prison break. The fight in Hope.
Seeing Henry outside of the prison had been strange. True, the two of them had worked together against the other prisoners, but it didn’t change the fact that Alex had a sworn duty to keep someone like him behind bars. There was one thing he could take comfort in, however, and that was the fact that Henry was not in the prison when the power went out. He hadn’t fought the guards. He didn’t kill any of them. Outside of the prison, it was no longer Alex’s duty to bring him in. Alex had the responsibility to keep the prisoners inside the prison, not chase them once they escaped. He had failed. They had all failed.
Alex directed the group to the kitchen where there were pantries and refrigerators. Gwen mentioned it would be a good idea to check everything in the pantry first and get all the dried and canned goods. Once they got everything out of those, then they could salvage what they could from the refrigerators and freezers. Alex wasn’t sure what could be done with the refrigerated stuff considering there wouldn’t be ways to keep food cool in Hope.
Alex was the first to go into the kitchen, followed by Gwen, Bryson, then Trent.
Alex wished he had been as ready as Trent in this situation because when he looked up, he saw a group of people standing on the other side of the kitchen. His heart nearly jumped out of his throat. Trent pointed his g
un at them, but he held off from shooting since there were about four guns trained on them.
“Easy there,” the woman at the front said. “We’re all friends here.”
“It doesn’t seem like we’re about to be,” Trent said.
“We’ve already gotten most of the stuff out of the pantry,” the woman said. “I’m sorry, but we got here first. We can’t split it with you.”
Alex racked his brain to try and figure out who could’ve gotten here before them, but it had been a whole two days.
“Where are you are from?” Alex asked.
“Eastern Springs,” the woman said.
“That’s thirty miles from here,” Trent said through his teeth.
“Where are you from, Hope?” the woman asked.
“You were thirty miles away and you thought to come here?” Alex asked. “What would even make you think that the prison was part of the power outage?”
The woman hesitated and looked over her shoulder at one of the people behind her. Then she looked back at Alex and the group. “We have family members in the community who worked here, or at least some people in our community worked here,” she said. “Before the power failure, we’d heard about the lockdown. Then the power failure happened. We got one of the vehicles working so we decided to come here and look for our friends.”
“So you decided to ransack the place and steal all the food for yourselves?” Trent said.
The woman shook her head. “Once we realized this place was empty except for the dead bodies, we decided it might be a good idea to get some food for Eastern Springs. You would’ve done the same thing. Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“I worked here,” Alex said. “Hope was hit pretty bad by a bunch of the prisoners. I was held hostage, and so was the town for the most part. We all survived it though. Well, most of the town survived it. Some people in our town have family in Chicago, so they went out that way. We aren’t sure how big this thing is.”
“We got here early this morning,” she said. “We didn’t know what to expect. We certainly didn’t expect to see this.”
Fallen Earth | Book 2 | Aftermath Page 11
