Road to Clover (The Breanna Raven Series) (11 page)

We’re heading up Nereus
Pass and coming around a bend when we spot what is left of Olympus Bridge. It looks like mangled chaos with a huge portion missing in the middle. There are cars and metal in the water. I can even see body parts floating around. Agni decides to head straight for the shore. It’s safer since there’s no telling what’s in the water and could hang up the boat.

We
see an empty dock ahead. Agni pulls into it, and I climb up with the rope in hand. After mooring the boat, Agni and I work to get King off. It proves to be extremely difficult. He’s huge and squirmy, but we manage to get that bullmastiff on the wooden dock. And the whole entire time that silly dog would not let go of his bone. Miss Kiki is a thousand times easier. Agni simply hands me the little dog, and I set her down on the dock. Both dogs take off running up to dry land.

We don’t waste any time. We walk up to the parking lot, and that place looks
horrible. It looks like people decided to park any kind of way possible. Some cars are on their sides. Others are crashed into one another, and unfortunately, there are dead bodies all over the place. I don’t even stick around to sightsee. I run over to the edge of the parking lot and head to the main road. Agni is right with me.

The streets have no traffic, but t
here are cars still running with no passengers in them. They were simply abandoned, and just like in the parking lot, some are crashed or piled onto one another. The roads are blocked, as well.

The buildings themselves
are not spared. Even a gas station down the street is on fire. Stores that normally might be open or beginning to open are rampaged or gutted. Everywhere we see it looks like a warzone.

I call Miss Kiki over to me. I don’t want her to be running o
ff out of my sight. There are too many things that might hurt her. I find their leashes in Agni’s backpack, and I clip them onto the dogs. Agni takes King, and of course, I have Miss Kiki’s leash. They walk beside us like good dogs, but it’s not long before King starts whining. His nose is fixed down the road.

We see what has his attention
. It’s a tank, and there are more than one. I finally notice the ground is trembling beneath our feet. Those things screech to a halt. Has the soldiers inside that thing spotted us? The top part swivels around, and much to my relief, the gun points to the side. We can’t see what they’re shooting at, and I’m not trying to stick around to find out.

We go in the opposite direction. The ground rumbles more, and just as we look back at the tank again, it shoots
out what looks like to be a bright red beam of light. The recoil jolts the tank where it stands, and it sounds like thunder. The other tanks are doing the same thing, taking aim at what’s on the side of the road. Everything they are shooting at becomes a cloud of black and gray dust. Cement is crumbling to the sidewalk and street. Glass is spraying in the air. The tanks simply drive over the debris and any cars in the way. The lead tank moves forward again but then stops one more time, swivels around, and it shoots in the opposite direction. Another flash of red light, smoke, and then the smell reaches us. It smells like burning wires and rotten eggs. It’s awful, and I’m nearly gagging.

“
Let’s get out of here, Agni.” I say as I pull on his arm.

“That’s not a normal tank. Did you see what they were firing? That’s
a laser, Breanna.” Agni twists around to look at the tanks one last time, before we disappear down a side street.

We start jogging
, and we can hear more tanks, car alarms, the crushing of unknown objects and the destruction of buildings. The streets are empty as far as the eye can see, but every so often we run into a line of tanks that are doing the same thing as the first ones we saw. We change our route many times trying our best to avoid being caught or seen. I’m getting really tired and very hungry, and I know there’s no time to stop. We have to get to my sister’s school, and we’re very close.

As we’re approaching an intersection, we begin to hear quick footsteps. It sounds like a lot of people are running in boots. King is growling, and that’s our que to hide. Agni looks around, and we see a strip mall across a parking lot. We take off running. There’s
a store with the door off the hinges, and the front window looks to be bricked in. Agni and I are thinking the same thing. It’s a perfect place to hide. We duck inside behind the wall, and we wait to see where the noise is coming from.

Within a few minutes, we see soldiers dressed in
black uniforms, a yellow patch on the shoulder with a black capital ‘E’ in the center of the patch. They’re running in formation. Their boots are hitting the ground at the same time, and they are all looking ahead. The soldiers are wearing helmets. There’s so many of them. The line of soldiers seems to go on and on. Then they stop. Someone that we can’t see is screaming commands into a bullhorn, and the soldiers break from their formation. They have their weapons out in front of them, and they are running all over the place. I realize as the first shot rings out from across the street that they are searching for people that are hiding, and a few of them are heading right for us. Agni stands, and just like always he takes my hand. We take off running towards the back of what looks like a restaurant. We hear whispering and shuffling as we burst through a swinging door to a kitchen. The room is full of people. They are cowering against the wall and behind counters.

“They’re coming!” Agni screams. “
Everyone, you have to get out of here!”

That statement alone set the room in motion. People r
un out of the swinging door that we just ran through, and we try our best to stop them. Then without warning, gunshots! Rapid gunfire and people are screaming out in agony. They’re getting killed. Agni and I take off for the back door, but there is a jam of bodies trying to get through all at once.

Finally, we feel the crowd move forward, and we’re through the door as gunshots go off behind us. Agni and I are running like crazy. My main goal is to stick with him, to not lose the back of his blonde hair. The yelling and crying are overwhelming from the people around us, but soon, we separate from all the others.
We come to a street that has tanks coming fast up the street. That’s enough to set our feet going again, and we go behind another strip mall. There is a wall of ten feet tall shrubs that goes all the way down behind the shopping center, and we duck behind it only to discover a fence is blocking our escape. I shake that thing wanting to get to the other side. It’s safety over there. A wide open football field, and the soldiers are not on that side. Agni starts crawling. I am right with him. The twigs and leaves from the bushes are scratching up my face and arms. My backpack is getting snagged. I take it off and drag it along.

I crawl right into Agni, not realizing he has stopped. He has found an opening in the fence, and it’s big enough for us to fit through. We come out on the other side onto
the football field. Our high school is way on the other end. I want to run over there, but I turn and see Agni whistling for the dogs. He is pushing the opening in the fence wider, and he has his head through it. I run back over and call for the dogs, too.

Miss Kiki is the first to appear, and she looks like a dirty mess of leaves, twigs, and dirt. The loop end of her leash is caught on
a bush which is preventing her to get through the gate. Agni crawls back behind the fence and unhooks her leash from the collar. Miss Kiki runs to me, and I fall to my knees to catch her. I’m hugging her and praising her for being so brave. She is licking my face and barking and whining.

I look back up, and
to my surprise, Agni is gone! I can’t see him at all. I rush over to the fence, and as I’m about to call his name, I hear the soldiers. Their running and shooting. I pray that Agni and King are okay. If anything happens to either one of them, I’d just be sick forever.

Then t
he shooting stops. I stand there holding my breath looking at the fence and bushes. I still can’t see anything, but I’m praying that Agni and King will appear through the opening. The footsteps of the soldiers are becoming faint. They’re getting farther and farther away.

The silence begins to take over, but not for long. I hear the familiar rumbling of the tanks. I start backing away from the fence with Miss Kiki in my arms. There’s a low hum,
and then a bright flash erupts. I see an explosion flash over the fence a few feet away. Then another low hum, and a blast of red light shatters part of the fence not too far from where I’m standing. It knocks me to the ground, but Miss Kiki lands on her feet. I can’t stick around any longer. I have to find someplace to hide. I take off running full speed across the field to the high school. More blasting is going off behind me. I can feel the energy and the heat. It seems like I can’t get away fast enough.

I
finally reach the closest door, and it’s locked. No matter how much I twist and pull, it doesn’t give. I see a rock on the access road I crossed to get to the school. I run back, grab it, and throw it in the window. It makes a huge racket, but I don’t care. I reach in carefully and unlock the door. I slam it close as soon as Miss Kiki is inside. I go down the hallway to the first classroom, and I hide in there.

As I slide to the floor with my back to the door, I start crying.
Where did Agni and King go? I hope they made it to a safe place, but I have to find a way to get in touch with him. He has one radio, and I have one, too. We can track each other down easily.

I look around and suddenly realize my backpack is still out in the football
field. I run over to the window, and I can see it. It’s still there among the destroyed remnants of the fence, the bushes and burnt grass, but am I brave enough to go back and get it? I have no choice. My only communication with Agni is in that backpack. I sit down on the floor to catch my breath.

Miss Kiki starts barking and scratching at the classroom door. I go over to listen. Is there someone out there? Please, God, I hope not. I crack open the door and look down the
hallway. It’s almost dark except for the splashes of light that breaks through the classroom door windows. I step out into the hallway, and Miss Kiki scoots around me. She runs to the door that leads outside, and she yelps. She’s holding up her right front paw, and there’s blood. She’s cut herself on the glass from the window that I broke earlier. I run over to pick her up and check her paw. I pull out the glass and wrap the bottom of my shirt around her tiny white feet. She’s whining and licking my hands.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” I say to her. I look back out the window, and from what I can tell, no one is out there. Why was she so itching to get out of that school?

I open the door, and still I see no one. I can hear rumbling, but I don’t hear soldiers running around. I go across the access road back into the field. My heart is crazy pounding in my chest. I’m looking around in all directions, checking and rechecking to make sure no one is coming. I’m halfway across the field, and Miss Kiki starts squirming in my arms. I put her down, and she starts skipping over towards the bleachers. I can’t follow her. I have to get my bag. I watch to see where she’s going, and she darts out of the opening in the fence by the bleachers. Now, she’s out of sight, and I’m all alone. I want to go after her, but I can’t. I run the rest of the way to my bag. The bushes and fence is shredded to pieces all around me. The grass is burnt to a charred black. Agni was right. Those are no ordinary tanks.

I put on my backpack, and I turn to go where Miss Kiki went. Unfortunately, I
run into the muzzle of a gun. A woman soldier demands that I halt. I raise my trembling hands. She’s a young girl, probably a little older than me. Her blonde hair is pulled tight to the back, and she looks absolutely terrified.

Her rifle is pointing square at my chest, and she is shaking bad. The tears pool in my eyes. I’m not ready to die, not like this. She’s about to pull the trigger when we both hear a deep growl. King!

She cuts her eyes to him, but she keeps point blank aim at me. Agni and Miss Kiki appear at the opening in the fence. I am so happy to see them that my tears flow freely.

The woman turns her rifle to King, and
I make a split second decision. There’s no way I’m going to let her shoot my friend. I charge her as fast and as hard as I can, and before she whips the gun back in my direction, I’m all over her. I have no idea how to fight like a guy, but I manage to punch her in the face with all of my strength.

Why in the entire universe did I do that? I know why.
I watch way too much television. Any actors I’ve seen fight act like nothing ever affects them, like they’re immune to whatever aches come their way. But that’s not the case in real life, in which I’ve quickly learned. I can’t even begin to explain the level of pain that explodes through my fingers, hand, and arm.

I get off that soldier and hold on to my
aching hand. I can’t even think straight because the discomfort is just too much. I’m just oblivious to everyone and everything around me. Stars are blurring my vision, and I fall to my knees. Hitting someone in the face is overrated.

I feel Agni at my side, and his arms are around my s
houlder. He helps me to my feet, and I just follow his lead. I don’t know where we’re going, but at least, he’s beside me. Finally, we get to someplace where I can sit down. The ground is cool, a little damp, but I will not complain. My eyesight is finally better, and I can see we’re in someone’s backyard. There is a seven feet wooden fence surrounding a space fully overridden with kids’ toys, a swing set, and what looks like a huge playhouse. I finally realize we are hiding in the yard of a daycare center. The alphabet is painted on the inside of the fence, and they’re in different colors. It’s actually very cute, serene in a way, and I smile thinking what a fun place to be.