Find Us

Chapter 3

It's only been 30 minutes and we searched everything in my dad's office. I ran my hands over my face trying to calm myself down so Kyle wouldn't see me freak out. "What are you thinking about?" He asked, walking over to me. I shrugged my shoulders, I didn't know where to go from here, we've been left with nothing. I hear an unfamiliar knock at the door. I was hesitant at first, then opened and saw a kid from school. "Can I help you?" I asked, confused on how he even knew my address or who he was? "Some friends and I were sent by Logan to tell everyone to meet at the entrance of Crossgates Mall." I nodded my head and watched as he walked to the next house knocking on the door. "Who was that?" I turned around and saw Kyle with the map in his hand. "We have to go now." I went over to Bryson and buckled him into his car seat. "Where are you taking him?" I still haven't made up my mind if I wanted to take on the responsibility of taking care of Bryson or if I should drop him off at the daycare down the street. "I don't know yet, so he's staying with me."

4 weeks later

I walked up to the massive door, still debating whether or not it was a good idea. I finally knocked on it, immediately ready to run before anyone could answer, but I couldn't... I needed Amanda to finally help me bring power back. "What do you want?" I looked up at the door but couldn't see anyone "Amanda?" I asked, hoping she would say yes and offer to help. "Who's asking?" This isn't going to be easy. "I'm Yesenia from Albany, and I'm here on a mission." The door opened more, revealing her standing behind it. She has gloves covering her hands, which I assumed were probably for her gift or used until she learned how to control it. "What do I need to do?"

Back to Present

Kyle and I finally made it to the mall. We started walking around until we saw everyone sitting in the food court. I saw Josie sitting with her little sister and made my way over to them. "Do you know what's going on?" I asked Josie while setting Bryson's car seat on the table. She looked at the car seat, confused and not answering the question. "Whose baby is this?" She went to touch him and he started crying and screaming. I pulled him closer to me. "I don't know what's wrong with him, when Kyle showed up at my door he did the same thing until he wasn't in sight anymore." After turning him away from Josie he stopped crying. "Anyways, do you-" I was cut off by an air horn.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE!" Logan screamed into a mega phone. Everyone's attention fell on him, standing in the distance. "Since it's clear that there are no adults, we all need to take action fast." I don't know how he's able to stay so calm during this. "So right now our main goal is to find a way of communicating, walkie talkies." I saw Josie looking confused "What are we going to do with those, play a game?" She asked me quietly. I hold back a small laugh, I love Josie I really do but sometimes I swear she doesn't think before she speaks. "No, with no power we can't use phones but walkie talkies run on batteries." She shrugs to herself and redirects her attention to Logan. "So I need a group of 10 people to go around and find those." No one moved, I waited a couple moments before getting up. I grabbed Bryson's car seat and made my way to the front with Josie and her little sister right behind me. As soon as we made our way to the front more girls started to join. We were about to walk off into the mall until Logan stopped me. "Is this your brother?" He asked pointing to Bryson. I looked down at Bryson and shook my head no. "I found him in a crashed car on my way home." He reached his hand out to take the carseat. "We already have some people at daycares making sure all the babies are safe." I handed him the carseat waiting for Bryson to cry so I could get him back but he didn't. Josie grabbed my hand and pulled me away. "This thing is really starting to freak me out Yessi." I know how she feels, I'm beyond freaked out and what bothers me is we didn't get a warning or we don't even get to know what's going on. It's like a test we have to figure out on our own. "I know Josie but we'll all be okay, I think you guys should come stay with me though." She nodded her head. I know she's not good at taking care of her sister by herself so I figured I'd make it easier.

We made our way into Best Buy and started looking around. I found some girls playing with cameras. I walked away disgusted. How could they make this a joke? It's the end of the fucking world and they want to look at cameras. "I FOUND THEM!" A voice yelled out. I started running to the girls hand she had held up in the air. When I got there she was already tearing open some boxes. Two more girls came running over with batteries. We all started to put batteries in all of them making sure they worked. I realized Josie wasn't with us, but Lily was. I moved closer to Lily and say gently, "Where's Josie?" She shrugged her shoulders. I looked around then the ground started to shake. We all looked at each other. Then it shook again but harder. "EVERYBODY GET TO A POLE AND HOLD ON TIGHT!" A voice yelled, I looked around but couldn't find one. I felt someone grab me and take me to the ground shielding me. Everything was shaking out of control, things crashing off the shelves, glass shattering. I closed my eyes shut hoping this was all a dream that when I was awake this whole day never even started.

4 weeks later

"So what's your plan?" Amanda and I have just made it back to my house. "My plan is to make a generator and with your electricity it should be able to work." She nodded her head and we walked to the back into my dad's study, which, as it turns out, I guess is more of an experiment lab. She started to look around at all the papers on the wall. "Wow, you're really into finding out what's going on, huh?" I looked over at her while grabbing a screwdriver from my dad's toolbox. "My dad started it... I just want to finish it." I started to tighten up all the screws making sure everything was all set and ready. "Okay, are you ready?" I asked, turning towards her. She simply nodded while taking off her gloves. "You might want to stand back." I wasn't about to argue, so I did as told and moved closer to wall. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath then raised her hands to the generator.

ZAP.

"How much do you need?" She asked, beams of electricity still shooting out of her hand. "Until it turns on!" I yell over the loud zapping noise. I really hope this works... it's my last idea for getting us some type of power. A couple seconds later the lights flashed on. She stopped and quickly put her gloves back on. "How did you do that?" She asked me. "I've been studying it for awhile now." I went over to the generator and turned it off and back on to make sure it works. "So everyone in town in getting one?" I shrugged my shoulers while putting up all the tools I had scattered around since I started it. "How did you make it light up the whole house?" I smiled, no one really cared about electricity or how it worked before, but now that we're without it, it's the only thing we talk about. "She learned from the best" I looked over at the door and saw Logan. "How soon can we get these out?" With Logan, it's all business, no socializing. I shrugged my shoulders, he walked closer to me and put his arm around me like I was his best pal. "How about we shoot for next week?" I looked at him confused and started laughing abruptly. It took me a whole week just to figure out how electricity even worked. "No way a month tops." He didnt say anything. "We don't have a month. We're running low on supplies." I could be that type of person to just be like, who cares about everyone else if I'm good, but it wouldn't feel right. "If you took me off of my duties maybe I can try to hurry." We both stared into each other's eyes.

"Deal."