Erratic // Thomas+Female OC & Newt+Male OC

Chapter Fifty-Two : A City of Outcasts

TRIGGER WARNING - This chapter has scenes of abuse

READ WITH CAUTION

ARMIRILLO, TEXAS

2 DAYS BEFORE SOLAR FLARES

16:21 HOURS

Buck

   I just got off the bus from school, Joey's hand gripped to mine as we walked forward to the house. He was telling me about his day, how he made a super cool project in his art class and one of his friends did something funny during lunch that got his whole group in trouble. Me and him walked up the steps to the house, my hand gripping onto the door before opening it up wide. When we stepped inside, it was like all hell was breaking loose.

   Nor my mother or father knew we were back home, so hiding this fight wasn't in their cards. My mother was screaming and throwing things at my father who was standing in the corner of our living room. Glass was shattered, the TV had fallen off the table it had previously been sitting on, and there was blood falling down my father's head.

   He never made any advances towards my mother and his face had no anger, but my mother was fuming. She knew he couldn't hear a word she was saying, but screaming I guess made her feel better. I don't know whether he was afraid of her, but I was and so was Joey, but we were so scared that we didn't move, just watched.

   "You can't leave me you son of a bitch!" She signed loudly to my father, but he did not move. "YOU CAN'T!"

   "I can." My father responded to her. "I can and I will. I am taking the kids far away from you."

   "And who is going to believe you Matthew?" She then asked him. "I am their mother, who do you think the court will give the kids to? Their mother who has been abused by her husband? Or you, the deaf father who hurts his wife?"

   "None of that is true!" He signed back at her with anger in his eyes. "God knows."

   "God can't save you now Matthew." She signed back to him. "If you leave me, I will make those kids' life a living hell, and that will be your fault."

I've never seen my father so scared.

OUTSKIRTS OF DENVER

DAY 186 BACK IN THE SCORCH

12:08 HOURS

Buck

   My breaths were heavy as I felt my body almost shut down in the back of Jorge's truck, the wind blowing through my hair and the sun burning my eyes. My body was in a lot of pain that I wouldn't be able to explain. It wasn't shooting or stabbing, it was more like an ache that I couldn't shake. You know when your leg falls asleep and you do everything in your power to wake it up but it just doesn't work? Yeah, that's what this felt like.

Okay, I guess I can explain it.

   Brenda laughed heavily as she turned around in her seat, looking back at me with a smile, but it quickly faded when she saw me in the state I was in. She climbed to the back two seats, sticking her head out the back window and looking down at me.

   "Jesus, what's up with you?" She asked me but I took one last huge breath before lifting my body back up, resting it against the back of the truck.

   "Six months wasn't enough healing time I guess." I said, thinking about all the injuries I had after the attack against the Right Arm.

   "Hoe, you and I both know you never gave yourself a second to heal. You were literally burned like a damn chicken nugget" Brenda laughed and I smiled, looking at Jorge through the rearview mirror.