Journey Into The Aftermath |✔

Chapter four: The Cover Up

"I'm so sorry." I tried to comfort him. He had a lost look in his eyes and shrugged his shoulders after another mourning sigh. He suddenly snapped to attention and looked down at me.

"How did you find me?"

"Databases, phone calls, flight records...eventually I figured out that you've been coming here often from your jail records and then you signed your name under a house that near that police station for a credit card denial."

"Smart girl," he applauded. "But then how did you actually find this place?"

"That was the easy part." I smiled carelessly. "Knowing you, you had to be in some gathering or 'safe house' of some sort. When I realized a lot of people have been going in the same direction, I simply asked where they were going and most of them said a village in the rainforest down by the Florida/Georgia state border. A friendly person led me here, but they turned around a little bit before the cave."

"Quite the adventure, huh?" he yawned. "Just like our dear old Uncle taught us right, you know, before...he...killed himself." he veered off. "Did you ever know why he would do such a thing?"

My mind when horridly blank. "I..." I turned away so he wouldn't see my face blush by pretending to fiddle with something around my belt. "I have no idea."

He bought it and stood up again. "So what were you about to show me before Senior Farina busted in about the bear?"

This time, he saw my face drop like a pile of loose bricks and I couldn't look him in the eye. "That..."

"What? What is it?"

"Dad was a part of the team that caused the 'eind dagen' that wiped away half of the planet and was framed for the cause of it." I divulged. He was taking a minute to process so I pulled out the wrist phone. "I have his video that he made, explaining all that he could."

As the video played his face grew more and more grave and I don't blame him for his reaction. He had no preparation like I did and this was a total shock on top of me suddenly appearing here and the bear attack. I wouldn't be surprised if he had fainted right there and then.

"How did...how did you...get...get ahold of th-this?" he stuttered in between sobs of some emotion I don't recognize. Maybe it was a mix of multiple.

"Now that is a long, long story that you are not prepared for."

"Tell me."

"All you need to know is that I am going to need your help if I'm going to prove his innocence."

"And how the hell are we about to do that?" he chocked. "The government and jail system was kind of thrown into the air when half the world became fair game."

"Well he was arrested before the eind dagen and since half the world is 'fair game' the other half isn't and he is held accountable."

"Do you even know where he is or how exactly he's innocent?" he countered. "Do you have any proof?"

"If I knew the answer to these questions I would have never come to this hell hole now would I?"

"What help do you expect me to be on this crazy thing you have planned?" he asked me angrily.

"Does that mean you won't go with me?"

He went silent as he looked back up at the ceiling then got comfortable under the thick wool blanket he fetched from some house. I tucked myself in and rested my head on my arm and we both faced the opposite way of each other.

Noah shifted behind me. "Why don't we just sleep in the village instead of these sharp rocks?" he hissed as he shifted again.

"Because we can't have anyone notice when we leave in the morning."