“We need him,” Eli pipes up.
“Then, I need Cara,” she says calmly.
“Rose!” Cara steps forward to protest.
Rose raises her hand to Cara again, but this time she does not make contact. Now, she is using the threat of hitting her to keep her quiet.
“We would never do that,” I say.
“And what is that?” she asks.
“Hit her!”
“My people get what is coming to them,” Rose spits the words at me.
“And what is coming to them?” Shawn asks. “Did I get what was coming to me when my parents left me? When Chris and Pop-Pop died, and my grandmother beat me and sent me away? What about all of that?” Shawn is yelling at her. “Did I deserve that? Cause I sure don’t see it.”
“We all get what is coming to us whether we deserve it or not,” she responds.
“That is a load of shit lady,” Shawn counters, “Cara will be coming with us, like it or not.”
He grabs Cara by the arm, walking out of the room with her. Seconds later, Hector scurries into the small room to check on his mother.
“What’s going on here?” Hector asks Rose while looking back and forth from Jake, to Eli, and then me.
“These people are thieves,” Rose demands. “Kill them, Hector! Kill them now!”
Before any of us can respond, Hector pulls Cara’s small pistol from his pants pocket, aiming it right at his mother.
“Wha…wha…what’s going on?” Rose demands through a shaky voice with her hands in the air.
“We have had enough of you, tyrant.”
“Hector,” she pleads.
“Don’t Hector me,” he shouts back at her. “Cloe is never coming back because she is happy where she is, and Tawnya, Bryan, and I could never be a true family with you sticking around.”
“Don’t you say that,” Rose yells at her son. “Cloe will return, and who cares about that witch and her good for nothing son? I should have killed them when I had the chance.”
“Well,” Hector says while aiming the gun towards his mother’s head. He breaths in and I close my eyes. A gun shot rings out into the little room causing a deafening effect to ring in our ear. “You will never have the chance. Sorry, Mom.” I gasp audibly. Hector turns towards me. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I see Cloe once a week, and she is more than happy to be rid of her,” Hector says, dropping the gun to the ground, running back into the store room.
The three of us stand in stunned silence. The remaining members of both groups run out to see where all the commotion is coming from. Mar throws a hand to her mouth while Magi hides Día’s face in her shirt.
“I guess he hated his mother,” I say.
Tawnya enters the room and screams while hiding Bryan’s face away from his dead grandmother. Cara reaches down and grabs her gun, putting the safety back on, placing it her waistband when she is done.
“I didn’t know anyone knew where this was.”
“I have known since the day you moved in with us,” Hector says while coming back into the room with tears in his eyes.
“Oh, Hector, it’s okay,” Cara whispers while awkwardly patting his back.
“You are free to go with them,” Hector smiles at Cara.
“What will happen to the three of you?” she asks.
“We will go to The Facility to be with Cloe.” Tawnya smiles.
Hector, Tawnya, and Bryan all hold each other, half sad for their loss, half elated they are free from the tyrant who ruled their lives for so long.
“You may all go,” Hector smiles. “Take Cara with you, and get as far away from here as you can. We will not speak of you at The Facility if you will not speak of this to anyone.”
“We would appreciate it,” Shawn says.
“Your secret is safe with us.” I send a half smile in his direction.
Within an hour, a blanket is placed over Rose, bags are packed, and we stand watching Hector, Tawnya, and Bryan walk down the road in the direction of The Facility. It was a bitter sweet goodbye, but even Cara knows they will all be better off this way.
Jake has fixed the IOUSC truck and maneuvers it down and over a few blocks to avoid the hole in the middle of the road. He was also able to get a few supplies from what Hector and his family left behind. With the addition of Cara, there are twelve of us now, and we need all the food and supplies we can get.
Now we are all loaded into yet another truck on our journey out of the city. Robert isn’t talking much, so for now, we aren’t for sure how exactly to reach old Washington D. C. We know Zac had kept watch on our way in, and he believes he has it narrowed down to about four hundred miles almost straight North. It is located dead in the middle of where the North, East, and Central Corridors intersect.
“There is no telling what we will find so close to corridor intersections,” Jake says.
“I know,” I whisper.
He is driving, with me in the middle, right next to him. Eli sits in the seat to my right with Mar on his lap. That leaves eight people in the back of the truck including Robert.
Morimoto, Johnathan, Robert, first truck, utility van, second truck, third truck, when will this all end?
“When will any of this be normal?” I ask.
“I’m not so sure it will ever be,” Jake laughs, “but for now, all we can do is our best.”
I smile at him, letting him know I agree. I picture in my mind what our life will one day be like. A life without war
