Flight 118

Chapter Eighteen

Finally seeming to shake out of whatever funk she was in, Clarisse nodded and ran up the stairs behind me. Through the window, I can see someone had lit a few trees on fire. Gosh, that is so dangerous. How are we going to put the fire out? And before it spreads, I thought to myself. It wasn't like we had fire stations. Or did we? There was still so much to this world I needed to learn.

Shaking my head, I cleared my thoughts. Now was not the time to panic or think about any of that.

Reaching the room we had given the kids to stay in, I opened the door to see no one. "Liam! Where are you guys?! Liam!" Looking over at Clarisse I tried to contain my growing panic, "They're not here, and not answering!"

Clarisse's eyes widened in concern. I could tell she was realizing what I did. They did not wander off without anyone. Ever. The girl barely even came out of the room and Liam did not like to leave her. I watched her back up a step and look both ways down the hallway. "You check here more! Look in all the possible hiding spots! I'll start looking in other rooms. Maybe they're just scared and hiding!"

I nodded, impressed with how she figured out they may be hiding somewhere when she had just seemed like she was in shock moments ago. "Okay! I'll look in other rooms after this one. You start at the end of the hallway and work your way toward me so we can go faster!"

I ran back into their assigned room, yelling as I looked under the beds, in the closet, and anywhere else someone could hide. Once I realized no one was in the room I moved to the next. Three rooms down I paused as I heard something like voices. Frowning, I stopped to listen to what seemed like the end of the conversation. It sounded like a girl or a young child's voice but it was hard to hear clearly.

"Downstairs, the woman Ana. You'll be safe there. Yes. Quickly, go. We'll be right behind you." I heard Clarisse say as I stepped out of the room.

I frowned, not seeing who she was talking to by the time I made it out of the room. "Did you find them? Where are they?"

Clarisse jumped, almost as if I startled her. "It was the girl. She doesn't know where Liam is. I sent her on to the basement and said we'd keep looking."

My brow furrowed a little in confusion but I nodded. I did not take the time to process what she said past the fact Liam was missing. I turned, already moving back into search mode. "Okay. Let's keep looking. We need to hurry."

"She's already checked up here, apparently. Said she had been looking for him before she saw me."

A chill ran through me a little as I stopped from turning. "Really? Then where could he be?"

She shrugged and responded a little evasively. "I don't know but-"

"Wait-wait a second. She talked to you? She hasn't talked to anyone." I could have sworn I had heard voices, more than one. If she did randomly talk, that would explain why I was not sure who I was hearing.

Clarisse glanced to the side and shrugged, "Uh, yeah. I guess maybe she did it because it was a serious situation. I don't know."

Confused again, I asked, "She said that much? You weren't talking that long were you?"

"Yeah, she did. Hey look, we need to get going if we are going to find him. I have an idea of where to look. Come on!" She was gone before I could respond, running down the flight of stairs. "Come on, Em! Hurry up!"

I shook my head but went after her. Things weren't making sense but it must have been the stress of the situation or something. My mind was running a million miles per hour. At least, that's what it felt like. Besides, now was not the time to be having conversations instead of trying to find Liam. He was only ten years old and was all alone with all of the chaos going on outside.