Take Back the Light

Chapter 41

"Where do they live?" he called over to Alana, who fired a Frostcrawler behind a woman, creating an ice wall that blocked a stray Grimmstone from hitting her.

"Next town over!" Alana replied.

"Go on ahead, we'll take care of things here!" Kord called, jumping off his Mecha and loading his blaster. Eli nodded, transforming his Mecha back into bike mode and driving down the town's mainstreet, Alana following suit.

The farther away they got from the edge of the cavern, the less destruction they saw, but word had spread. Slingers were gathering their slugs and gear. Parents were corralling sleepy children onto Mechas and riding away, hoping to avoid the conflict. The flickering light of flames was gone, but streetlamps and buildings were still lit up as if to tell everyone that this was no time to be resting.

Children in the streets would see Eli and Alana pass by and wave or give cheers. The two singers would wave back, but their smiled turned halfhearted when they saw the panic and fear in the eyes of anyone old enough to understand what was happening.

The first town faded away into a small stretch of mushroom trees before the terrain opened up again to an area mostly occupied by homes. The large neighborhood was spread out, each house with large yards and the occasional patch of mushroom trees. It all looked familiar to Alana, who'd seen Dana's house once before, but in the dark, every street looked the same.

"Can you find it?" Eli asked as the two slowed to a stop in the middle of a street. Word had spread here, too. Families were evacuating homes, and some slingers were gearing up to defend their town. People seemed relieved at the sight of Eli and Alana, but they didn't slow their rush to escape. From the looks of it, none of Blakk's workers had reached the town yet.

"I can't remember the street," Alana muttered, cursing her younger self for not paying better attention. She rode up to a woman who stood at the street's corner, loading slugs into a sniper blaster. "Excuse me, do you know the Edwards family?"

The woman's eyes widened when she saw the Shane star on Alana's bandoleer. "Yeah, why?"

"We need to find them," Alana said urgently as Eli rode up beside her. "Where do they live?"

"214 Libel Street," the woman said, her brows furrowing. "What's wrong? Those three have never had issues with Blakk."

"Don't worry, we just need to check- wait," Alana said, freezing halfway through pulling up a street map on Midnight's screen. "D-did you say three?"

The woman nodded, looking confused. "You're talking about Mara and Damien Edwards, and their daughter, right? They've got two other kids, one moved out and I'm not sure where the other one went off to-"

"How old is their daughter?" Alana asked, her eyes wide. "The one living with them?"

"I-I don't know, four, maybe?" the woman stammered.

Alana didn't answer. She just turned Midnight around and tore off down the street, finishing opening the street map. Eli followed after her, catching up and riding Lucky alongside Midnight.

"Dana has a little sister?" he asked.

"I didn't know," Alana said fearfully. "And I don't know if Dana knew, either. But now it's not just her parents in danger."

"She wouldn't hurt a four-year-old kid, especially not her sister," Eli said, but it came out sounding like a question. Alana veered right onto Libel Street.

"I don't know," she said quietly, looking around. There were less than a dozen houses on the street, and all were completely silent, already evacuated. Alana and Eli stopped their Mechas, jumping down onto the street and running the rest of the way.