Chapter 174
- Becky -
The sirens are screaming all around.
City District Two trembled beneath our boots as red emergency lights strobed across concrete and steel. The massive district doors at the far end of the corridor began to move inward.
Two reinforced steel walls, a few hundred feet tall, sliding shut.
Slow, heavy, and absolute.
At first, people didn't understand what was happening. If this happened before, how can everyone be so panicked?
Then someone screamed.
"WAIT! THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE DOWN THERE!"
Head turned toward the narrowing opening that led back into District One. Water was surging through the canal systems below, forcing spray through the widening seams. It splashed across the threshold, crawling over the floor towards District Two.
The doors kept closing.
"STOP THEM!"
The engineer shouted. Civilians backed away.
As the gap narrowed, a figure appeared.
A man.
Soaked to the bone. Blood was running down one side of his face. One arm clutched tightly around a small boy.
"HOLD THE DOOR, PLEASE!" He shouted.
Josh was moving before anyone else processed it.
Evan was right behind him, hot on his heels.
They reached the door and grabbed each side, trying to stop the doors from closing. This only slowed it down a bit. The hydraulic grind deepened—the sound of pressure systems forcing thousands of pounds of steel inward.
Josh braced his body against the right door as flames exploded from his shoulders.
Evan's blue lightning crackled along his arm as he dug his boots into the stone on the left side.
"HOLD IT!" Josh roared.
The impact as they shoved jarred their whole bodies.
Gears screamed as they faltered back, sparing only a few seconds.
Water blasted through the gap, slamming into their leg with violent force. It wasn't a gentle overflow. It was irrigation pressure—engineered canals were rerouted and forced open somewhere below.
The man ran.
The water hit his knees.
His thighs.
The current was slowing him as he tread through the raging waters.
"COME ON!" Evan thought through his clenched teeth.
The boy clung to his father's neck, sobbing.
A large rogue wave was now building behind them.
He's not fast enough, and they're not strong enough. I don't have my powers, or I would stop time to get them or put up an ice wall.
Josh and Evan could barely keep the door open as it pulled them closer and closer to the closet.
In that single heartbeat, his expression changed.
Not fear but a decision. He stopped trying to outrun it.
He grabbed his son by the shoulders.
"I love you and don't give up," he said to his son as he threw his with all his might."
The rogue wave, moving much faster than they could run, swallowed the man whole.
The water's flow now pushed the child launched by his father's strength as it hurled through the narrowing gap to the city district level two.
"NOW!" Evan bellowed.
The boy shot through as Josh lunged to grab him, releasing his flames before the body could be burned.
The ending impact and release of the doors lunged Evan back from the door.
The doors slammed, sealing shut.
The hydraulics locks engaged with a deafening finality.
Water sprayed violently against the door on the other side.
Silence followed for a second.
Broken only by the child's screams.
"Dad! DAD!"
Josh picked the boy back up again before he could scramble towards the door.
Evan remained standing for a moment longer, both palms still pressed against the steel.
As if he could feel through it.
The only thing left of District One is the roar of the water that claimed it.
Evan lowered his head slowly.
Josh held the boy against his chest as the child shook violently. He lit a small flame from his back like wings, covering the boy and himself, warming him.
"It will be okay," Evan said, his voice loosely steady despite the tightness in his throat. "You're safe."
The boy sobbed harder.
"He was right there..." I whispered through the tears.
Josh looked up at Evan.
"I get it."
Josh spoke quietly in a hollowed-out voice. "He didn't hesitate. "
Evan swallowed.
"He chose his son over his own life."
Evan brushed the boy's wet hair away from his face.
"He truly loved you," he said gently.
The child cried into Josh's shirt.
"Your dad did what dads are supposed to do," Josh said. "He made sure you survived."
The words lingered in the air.
Josh's jaw tightened slightly.
Evan was the one who had been left behind.
Abandoned.
Josh had been chosen to stay, but at a price to be used as a test subject, pushed until he was strong enough to leave on his own at fifteen.
"If it had been different..." Josh murmured.
Evan gave a small, weak exhale.
"If he had been different, you would have had to survive him."
"And if things were different, we would have met sooner, and you wouldn't have been alone from the start," Josh replied.
They looked at each other.
Not as rivals or soldiers.
Sons imagine a version of their lives in which a father runs toward them instead of away.
Josh looked down at the boy, almost asleep.
"You think he was scared?"
"Who is the man?" Evan asked.
"Yeah, but that's what a good father does," Evan chuckled. "Duke was the closest thing to a father I had. He was never to reveal himself as my guardian angel until I was of age, but he broke the rules to protect me. I was adventurous and impulsive, always getting into danger."
Duke sighed. "Rosa was young and inexperienced; you would have literally walked off the balcony floor one day when she was cleaning if I had not grabbed you. In my dog form."
Duke rubbed his temple.
"It was like this almost every day with you. Eventually, when you were old enough to understand me, I told you to cut that crud out. But even now, you're a hardhead."
"The little boy stirred in Josh's arms as he was drifting off to sleep. "You're going to remember what he did," Josh told him as he slowly closed his eyes. And one day, when someone needs you to be strong..." he whispered.
The child didn't fully understand, but he heard every word before he drifted off.
Josh turned slowly, holding him.
"Let's find Frank and see if he can figure out where to take the boy."
"Maybe they have an orphanage here like where I work," Micah suggested.
When we were back with Maxwells and Frank, they told us how children are just adopted through the system; there is no orphanage; they always have a place for them. He would be cycled in, then shortly after some paperwork, and go to a home if no relatives were found.
"I will take him for a bit." Elise added, "I live in City District 5. And while this craziness is going on, you're more than welcome to come."
"That is great; we have a plan for him and them, and I know he will be in good hands," Josh said, relieved.
Josh handed him to Frank, and he and Elise, with the Maxwells, started to leave for the 5th city.
The evacuation alarms started back up. Level two shook faintly again as pressure redistributed below.
Life didn't pause for grief.
It never did.
Duke shouted back to the Maxwells, "Get to the 5th floor; we will meet you there after we handle things here."
Frank nodded and sprinted alongside the Maxwells, and poor Mary was only two days out of labor with her newborn.
"Hold on," I shouted, shoving a cart toward them. Carry Mary and the children.
Mary looked relieved as they waved goodbye to us.
Josh extended his hand toward Evan.
This time, they team up: no competition, just balance.
Evan nodded.
The waters in some canals and aqueducts began to rise again.
Evan and Josh were never given the love of a father, but they grow daily into kind, strong men.
I watched as they walked towards Duke and Baby to work out a game plan for the next evacuation. But I couldn't take my eyes off Josh as he pulled back his dripping wet hair.
I would be lying if I said moments like these don't make me want to have a family of my own with Josh one day, once we complete college.
"Becky, are you okay? You look a bit lost," Kaysi wheezed.
"Oh, my lord, Kaysi, in the commotion, we didn't get you healed."
"I am fine; Baby patched me up as best as possible. She can heal wounds, but not reverse time like you." I am only out of breath because I ran over here when the alarms restarted. Did I miss anything? The guys are soaked."
"I will tell you on the way. You may not be at full power, but I hope the patchwork holds up." I said, sighing in defeat.
And before any more chaos spreads, I need to talk to Duke and Baby; we have maybe 20 minutes with alarms going off.