As a teenager, he was as thin as a rail and had yet to reach full maturity, however he was already head-and-shoulders taller than she was. She smiled to herself as she realized that he was as tall as his father and just as handsome. While she stared into the same emerald green eyes her mother had possessed, Miki realized how much Salazar also looked like his grandmother.
She reached up to run her hand through his chocolate-colored hair, also thick and lush like her mother's had been. It was the first time that Miki realized her son's resemblance to Serena McKay, his late grandmother; it was astonishing.
Funny how we don't notice certain things until it might be the last thing we remember, she thought.
Miki took a few deep breaths to try to stay calm and to remind herself that she had to remain strong for her son. She didn't want to feel this overpowering fear and helplessness. If this was it, if she was to die this very night, she wanted to go out with a smile on her face not cowering in terror. She wanted to be with her family. She wanted to be with Rob and Salazar. It was what she wanted most of all, but it was not what she feared would happen.
"Your father will be here in only a few minutes," she insisted as glanced at the clock on the wall and then once again gazed out the window. "It's only five past six. He'll be here soon and we have to wait for him."
"Even if the bus ran on time, even if he managed to get out of Summerhaven before this campaign began, he would not want us to wait even one minute on him. He would want us to take cover and you know it," Salazar argued while Miki continued to stare into the distance. "Mother!" he sharply called out. He knew she was in shock and he had to draw her out of whatever untimely reverie she had slipped into. He had to get her moving. "We have to go now!"
"Where on earth can we go?" she scoffed before she wiped away the tears that now streamed down her pale cheeks.
Now, they both stared out the window that overlooked a main thoroughfare in Fallhaven. The street below had filled with curious onlookers.
Miki looked down at her neighbors and choked back a sob. She felt obligated to warn them, however she also knew they wouldn't listen. They never did. People could only take so much truth before they shut down. Even if they did believe her, what hope could she offer them?
Despair washed over her.
Those people were her friends and even though she felt an obligation, she knew them well enough to know that it was as if they had always worn blinders. They had never wanted to know the truth of what the government had always done and they would never believe what was in store for them now. They had always been at ease putting in their ten hour days and ignoring everything else.
They came home to a beer and spent their evenings watching television or playing card games on their computers. They felt safe while distracted from the truth.
They were asleep and there was no way to awaken them now, especially with only a moment's notice. And that's all any of them had… a few fleeting moments as their destruction raced towards them. She wondered if Rob had more than a moment's notice. She wondered if he was dead or alive and the thought that he might be lost to her forever further devastated her.
4| Decisions
"Mother, we both saw the spacecraft launch; now we have to worry about what is headed our way. Those red clouds and the rumblings are the evidence that Summerhaven and Springhaven are under an aerial attack. It's an air raid pure and simple and it's getting closer to us. I don't know why this is happening, however, I do know that if we wait, we won't survive it. We've been left here to die and we can't let the bastards win. Snap out of it, Mother!"
Now, as he stood with his mother in their small home located in Fallhaven, his gut continued to command him, screaming at him that they must flee. However, he also knew that his mother was right… where could they go to find safety? Should they simply try to hide in the bathroom and turn the hard-porcelain tub over as protection?
He scoffed at that notion. It might protect them for a few moments and then they would be buried alive under what remained only to die anyway. That certainly wasn't the answer.
At first, he didn't know what to tell her. It wouldn't do any good to run blindly through the streets. There was no sense in leaving the comfort of their home if they didn't have a destination in mind.
With a deep-seated urgency in the pit of his stomach, Salazar briefly closed his eyes and drew inspiration from the chronicles he had memorized as a child. He listened closely to his long-dead grandmother's voice as if she was with him still:
"In the maze beneath August City there are streets and buildings... almost a mirror image of the city above, for you see August City was built entirely over the rubble and ruins of another unnamed city. I must admit there are doorways that led nowhere and many dead ends, but there are also streets that follow the same course as those running overhead and many structures there are undamaged and inhabitable. Your great-grandfather and I investigated it before you were born, Salazar, and it appears to be quite secure. When you're older, I'll take you there myself."
His grandmother, Serena McKay, had been one tough broad. She had found the entrance to those tunnels when she was a new detective for the August City Police Department. During her career as a Cop and later as a Private Eye, she had done a lot of amazing and courageous things. However, even with those successes, she was no stranger to torments and losses either. She had paid the price on more than one occasion for her bravery.
Serena had never followed through on her promise to take him into those tunnels, however, she had pointed out the location to him before she died. It was an abandoned building in Fallhaven's decaying inner city and very near Winterhaven's border.
Suddenly, he realized that his grandmother had brought up the topic of those tunnels several times during their quiet and private conversations. Apparently, it was very important to her that he know about it and remember it. Now, he conjured up another conversation and listened closely to Serena's voice:
See that abandoned building, Salazar? It has been damaged for as long as anyone can remember. However, once inside it, there is a path that leads down to a basement. Next, there's a cold dark labyrinth of twists and turns that keep going down and eventually opens into a large cavern.
I once chased a suspect in there. Even though I carried The Department’s best-issued flashlight, it was difficult to see twenty feet in front of me. If you ever venture there, be sure to take the best torches you can find.
As I recall, I heard trickling water and the suspect's footfalls in the distance. I tracked the faint sounds to lower levels, constantly going down. Then, silence as I lost the trail completely. He was gone and I was lost in that maze. Unable to find the way out, I wandered in that pit for over two hours.
It's a maze of darkness and abandoned street passages… a city beneath a city… and it's all beneath Fallhaven... a vast network of channels that burrow underneath like gopher holes.
It might come in handy one day.
Recalling that conversation, Salazar became convinced that the tunnels Serena had told him about were part of his and his mother's destiny.