𝐙𝐚𝐫𝐚|𝟏| [𝟏𝟖+] ✔

Chapter 19

I had my brother buried next to the waterfalls, not far away from here.

I took him to this beautiful place last year and his smile would have lit up a room, it always did.

I would give anything to see his little dimples again. To hear him talk crap for hours, and even comforting him back to sleep when he woke crying.

I took so much for granted, listening to his stories of how the trees would save the world and get our family back.

A five-year-old's imagination is fucking fabulous.

I'm never going to hear him say my name again, hear him mistakenly call Thomas Dad, repeatedly. Even though he never corrected him, I think Cole knew he wasn't his actual dad, he just wanted him to be.

Do you know how I feel? I'm angry.

My stomach twists when I see his face, his grey beard, his awful accent.

I want that horrid man to suffer for what he did, I want him to feel what it felt like to lose someone close to you.

Who am I kidding, I'm no murderer, I couldn't even kill a spider crawling along my sleeping bag.

But I could try.

"Zara, I need you to come to see something." One of Adrianna's men called out to me, knocking me from my daydreaming of blonde curly hair bobbing around the water.

"I'll be right there," I mumble into my spork. Sitting in the empty canteen, scooping peaches into my mouth.

We walk towards one of the metal huts that are used for the guards, no-one was allowed in without clearance.

Why is he taking me here?

When I enter I see a huge map that's been drawn out. The clusters of towns stretched out and trees to indicate the large forest that takes up most of the map. The towns are scattered like the ones where we live, lettered alphabetically from left two right.

There's a square drawn around them with red Xs over different towns, A where the hangar is.

"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the map and furrowing my brows at Crawford, who stands with his head down.

"This is a project Adrianna and I have been working on since the start. We gathered information from all the towns affected and eventually found the surrounding walls." He points at the thick black lines and turns to me. "We can't get past them, there's no doors, no passages. Nothing. The walls are at least thirty metres high, so climbing isn't an option."

"Hold on, a wall?" I ask, confused.

What does this mean? And what do they expect me to do?

"Yes. Please pay attention, Zara. This is.... was... important to Adrianna. These towns here were gassed, which could've only been done from the inside of the walls."