|Chapter 12|

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Chapter 12. Fear

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My hands burst through the doors of the warehouse, scanning the room for the obvious blond hair. Blood rushes to the surface of my skin at the sudden stop in motion, flushing my face red from the run. Adrenaline is the only thing I'm running on.

I weave my way in between the by-standards of the camp, trying my best to keep from crashing into anyone. Tom's figure moves through the crowd with ease as I shout to get his attention.

"Hey,"

He turns his gaze to the call, rushing forward past the moving bodies. His expression is laced with concern as he comes to a stop in front of me.

"What's going on?" Tom asks.

"Have you seen Lilly and Devin?" I stand on my toe's to glance behind him into the dining area, looking for either of their faces. My hands shake as I can't pick them out in the crowd .

"No," Tom says, his brow furrowed in question. I rush to the stairs taking them up two at a time, getting to the edge of the top and streaming past the first door to the second—empty.

Fear floods all hope. Shit.

"She's not here," I shout as my feet hit each stair with a hard thud. My heart racing at the impending doom of my missing sister.

Would Devin take her in the wrong direction? He shouldn't have gone far... It was only a two block walk to the beach.

My mind rushes past each possibility as I pound down the stairs two at a time to the main room, out of the corner of my eye I see Tom pushing his way through a group of Liberties from the hallway door. A gray strap is tied around his arm, and strapped to his back as he struts up to me with three pairs of tracking glasses held tight in his hand. They're only used by the Liberties for searches and border controls, but I'm sure he grabbed them to make our search easier.

Blake strides beside Tom with the same expression I can only assume is plastered on mine as well.

"Second by second...what happened?" Tom asks as he pushes through the warehouse doors onto the main alley street, the setting sun streaming onto our skin. Lighting it with the heat of the day.

I huff. "We were down by the beach; Lilly saw a truck. It was so close... so I had Lilly take Devin back while I tried to get it to steer towards me to misguide it." We pass by the softly lit buildings, the late evening sun casting itself on the frames.

"Why did you have Devin take her back?" Blake asks—his tone a sharp blade of accusation.

"You and Allison were at the top of the hill before we could even reach you." I look to the side of me, his hard jaw clenched in tension. His bright blond hair shines in the shadowed sunlight, causing his frame to look that much more rigid.

"Did you expect me to take Lilly, and Devin distract the truck? Or could we have just let the truck follow us?" My snap in response combats him. I did the best that I could, and him not seeing that only makes the hurt harder to bear.

"Okay you two,. It doesn't matter, either way, she's missing. And the runaway is a high alert for any watchman. " Tom interjects our spits between each other as we walk half way down the block, he hands over a pair of tracking goggles to the both of us.

The black sleek design to the glasses are simple, you wouldn't guess they have night vision installed in the lenses as well as thermal radar. They're a recent invention of the science team from the Eastern camps.

"Just press the button on the side to activate the night vision and click again for thermal radar." I test them and it switches to both, making it a bit harder to see the path ahead of me. Pressing the button again it disappears, clearing my vision.

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