The Luminosity Series (Book 1): Luminosity (27 page)

“I was the director of the Solar Dynamics Observatory
before the collapse. I’ve been hunting your family for over fifteen years. We
know who you are, Aubrey Ellis. And your father will pay for what he’s done,”
he said. I grimaced, swallowing back my fear. But this time, something inside
me snapped.

“My father tried to save us before you let the world die,”
I burst out, my breathing heavier. I looked around at the eyes surrounding me,
accusing and unforgiving.

“What your father did
was
destroy this world,
Ms. Ellis. This war may have been prevented had he not committed treason
against our government. Had Andrew not intervened, you and your family could
have lived out your lives in peace, people could have died… calmly, unknowingly
and unaware, as they were supposed to,” he stated. I shook my head, my voice
cracking, my eyes in tears.

“Peace? You think keeping us from the truth would have
kept us at peace? Your secret enslaved us in ignorance. Those years we lost to
secrecy could have been spent preparing. They gave up on the people long before
this—before we woke up to their lies!”

“Your father caused the early death of millions of
innocent Americans by revealing top secret knowledge. Keeping our knowledge
secret prevented our world from falling into collapse,” he said.

“No! Your secrets are what led our world into collapse,
not my father. My father wanted as many of us to survive this as possible. Not
just a select few,” I scowled. He smirked, shaking his head.

“You understand nothing of the perils of human nature,
Ms. Ellis. People must be controlled, people must be punished, people must be
sacrificed, or else humans would never survive this catastrophe. And you,
Aubrey Ellis, will never escape who you truly are—the daughter of a terrorist,
a rebel, a man who gave up humanity’s chance for the sake of his own moral
agenda. I know he’s still out there, ducking away off the grid somewhere like
the coward he is. But one day, before this is over, we’ll find him, and we will
see to it your bloodline ends with the world,” he said. And with that, he
nodded to a guard standing by the door.

The guard pushed an emergency button on the wall
behind him. The door buzzed open, revealing four armed guards in a small exit
chamber.

“Get DNA evidence of her identity to send to the
President and then take her to the prison. I will decide how she should be punished
from there,” Edwin ordered.

The prison. I had heard of this place many times, but
no one ever returned from there. Now, it was certain. I’d never escape. They’d
kill me. They’d do to me what they failed to do to my father. They’d end my
world for good.

I dove toward Edwin, my hands around his neck in a
stranglehold as the guards rushed over to pull me off. I ducked lowly to avoid
them, preparing to dash toward the exit, but there was nowhere to escape to.

“No! Let me go! Get off of me!” I shrieked as they
pulled me back, one covering my mouth, the other concealing my face. And with
the force of the guard’s weighted blow, my head snapped forward, the pain searing
through my skull. I was knocked into unconsciousness. Struggling was no longer
an option. This was it. This time, I’d wake up a prisoner.

♦  ♦  ♦

Everything was black.
Was I dead? No. At the
prison? Maybe.
The piercing screams of an emergency siren blared from a
distance, screeching into a high-pitched, deafening cry. I blinked, but the air
surrounding me remained dark. Someone was breathing behind me. The touch of
hands gripped against my mouth. I wanted to scream, but my throat burned. The
pulsing ache inside my head crippled me into a sudden vertigo. In a state of
confusion, I moaned in pain.

“Shh...” the voice whispered. But I couldn’t tell who
it was.

Outside the room, guards yelled, their voices echoing
against the walls.

“Search the cargo area! We’ll get
the rest of them out of here!”

A faint white light gleamed from three large bullet
holes on the wall. I panicked in a sudden squirm, but the body behind me was
strong with fear, shackling me in place. The shadows of footsteps outside
passed. After a few seconds of silence, the grip on me loosened as a hot breath
released against my neck.

“We’re okay. They won’t find us in here,” he said. To
my relief, Evan’s voice emerged.

With a sudden memory of what happened, I leaned into
his chest, my teeth gritting as I cried, my tears saturating his dusty shirt.

“Shh… You’re fine. We’re going to get out of here. But
we have to lie low for a while,” Evan said. I glanced upward as my vision
adjusted to the darkness. The walls and ceiling appeared like waves, creating rippling
shadows. Crates sat beside us, piles of collapsed cardboard stacked against one
another. Only then did I recognize where we were—inside an abandoned shipping
container.

“All units prepare to evacuate!
We’ll send a team back into the area to find the rest! It’ll be a miracle if
they aren’t dead by morning anyway!”
a soldier yelled. I held my breath as the voices faded in the distance. After
several seconds, Evan confessed.

“Damn it. I should have listened to you,” he whispered
in a shameful, exhausted tone.

“What happened? How did you find me?” I sobbed.

“Not long after you were called in, there was a bunch
of commotion outside. Soldiers started running through the warehouse doors, so
I snuck out to see what was going on. People were yelling obscene things. Then
the name Ellis was being shouted. That’s when it finally dawned on me that your
cover had been blown,” he said.

“Shit…” I sighed.

“I don’t know how they found out, Aubrey, but you
escaped the prison truck. And I… I found one of these in your hand…”

Evan lifted a syringe filled with black serum, wrapped
inside a small, plastic bag. The bag had a warning label on it, the same warning
on the needle Charlie was injected with—dripping with the same poison anyone
who ended lives used.

“You’ve always been so fearless of death…” he said,
before whipping his head to the other side.

“Because maybe death is our only escape,” I whispered.

“Not the
only
escape,” he said.

In that second, he broke into vengeful sobs as he
pulled me close. I choked on the gasps that came, my mouth open, blood from an
open wound saturating his shoulder.

“I never meant to drag you into this mess…” I nodded my
head. Evan winced as he looked down.

“This isn’t your fault,” he said, running his hand
down the back of my neck. “But we can’t let them win. If we die, if we don’t
stop what’s happening, the only ones left who survive will be the ones who’ve
controlled our lives from the beginning, Aubrey,” he warned. I gave him a
haunting glimpse, his lips quivering as the angry tears trailed over them.

“Then we’ll find a way to stop them,” I said. He
leaned closer to me, his eyes inches from mine, knowing that at last, we held a
purpose—a final mission. In the end, it wasn’t just about surviving. It was
about choosing how to live, how to die, and what to live and die for. My future
was never promised, no matter what choice I made. But I still had to choose,
regardless of how difficult the options would be, regardless if I’d die
fighting for that purpose, that one final breath of hope.

By the time we snuck out of the fields, the sun had
set as soldiers did one last sweep of the town. The final aircraft prepared for
takeoff, the scene of desolation remaining before us a chilling reminder.

As we hid behind an empty shipping container, the
remaining citizens lifted higher into the sky. Evan examined me in doubt, the wind
whirling the dust around as it roared into the sky, abandoning us. The guards
were on their way out, leaving the remnants of barricades, vehicles, and looted
buildings. There was no time. The burning flames on the hillside greeted the
deserted town. And in the moments to follow, the air turned quiet.

On foot, we didn’t make it far before cries of the few
left behind civilians carried through the air. By now, everything had been
ripped to shreds—torn and ravaged. Windows of local shops were shattered.
Smashed cars stood in disarray on the streets. Trash littered the pavements as
the fire ignited along the slopes.

Now, we crept through the emptiness of town with the
bags on our shoulders, with nowhere else to go but my mother’s cellar. Looking
at Evan, I couldn’t help but feel guilty for who I was and how I had influenced
such a large portion of his life.
Maybe they were right. Maybe my father had
created this mess.
I wanted humanity to persevere just as much as he wanted
me to. But in our era, life was selfish. It demanded a risk, a sacrifice, a
surrender.

Evan glanced back frequently as we slipped farther
from town. I understood what he was going through—the second-guessing, the
what-ifs, the torment of shamefulness that leaving brought. The only difference
this time was there’d be no return.

I gazed at the smoky orange sky behind us. The highway
neared as the screams echoed from a distance. That’s when he stopped in his
tracks.

“What are you doing? We can’t stop here.” The looming
guilt in his eyes captivated me.

“I can’t leave like this,” he said in a flat tone,
beaming at the ground.

“We have to. It’s too late now and you know it,” I
said.

“What if my mom’s still back there, Aubrey?” he asked,
squinting as his voice rattled.

Just then, another scream repeated in the background.
The misery within it gave it away. People were trapped. Lost in the fiery
wreckage. Abandoned. There was no guarantee his mother wasn’t one of them. He
pressed his eyes shut, sliding a hand down his face, struggling to catch his
breath.

“I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t at least make
sure she got out.” The torture of not knowing what happened to his mother was
wearing on him, just like it was with my own family. “I don’t want to put you
in danger, Aubs... but I have to do this.” I slumped my shoulders in surrender.

“You got me out of danger, remember?” I peered toward
him as he turned to face me.

“The hospital isn’t far from here, but we don’t have
much time. Come on,” he said.

Twilight set in when we arrived. Screams continued
from neighboring blocks as fire overtook a corner of the hospital building. As
the sky became darker, the flames grew brighter. We ducked behind a car in a
remote section of the hospital parking lot, keeping ourselves as low-key as
possible, the lights of the auroras peeking through the smoky clouds, creating
a dramatic haze of greens and blues above us.

“This isn’t a good idea,” I hesitated to say.

“No, it’s not,” he said. “But it’s the only way I’ll know
if she’s still in there.” He stared at me. I nodded as I held in the tears. “Stay
here, okay?” Evan asked, handing me his bag. I agreed, struggling to be strong
for him as he drifted toward the entrance.

“Wait...” I said. He jerked his head back. “If she’s
in there, she’d probably be on the second floor.” I glanced up at the flames
rising higher from the deserted fifth floor, much of the east corner now ablaze.
He gave me a grateful glance before turning around. I closed my eyes as the
dread set in, fearful of what he would find in there. “And hurry,” I warned as
he took off.

My breathing got faster the farther away he drifted.
Watching him careen low around the cars stirred my nerves. I intended to stay
as calm as possible, but we played a whole new game now—a dog-eat-dog
competition to survive—a kill-or-be-killed hunt. It started ever since before
the military was called in to support the structure of our crumbling society. With
law and regulation absent, people would go to extreme lengths to get what they
needed. Now, there were no rules.

Twenty minutes passed. Nothing but the smell of smoke
and the roar of flames surrounded me. As fate would have it, this was where I
ended up the night of the accident—back when this new life started. Ironically,
it was also the place where I had spent so much of my time after my return to
Golden. Now, I’d let it burn.

My eyes darted across the lot, searching for any sign
of him. Nothing.

“Shit,” I whispered to myself.

In a second of panic, I pushed aside every thought
that prevented me from going after him, ejecting myself forward into the open
lot. Inside my head, doubts screamed for me to turn around—to hide—to give him
another minute, but I ignored them.

When I reached the lobby area, I coughed in an attempt
to expel the toxic smoke. Everything was in shambles, tables, chairs, papers,
and medical supplies all scattered across the floor like a tornado had ripped
through it.

Before I could figure out which way to run, Evan’s wretched
cries bled into the hall. I followed them toward the stairwell, the sweltering
heat setting in from the opposite end. I already knew what he had seen as the
sight of red X’s on the doors struck me, the terror seeping in from his continual
wailing.

“Evan!” I called out, bolting faster toward his
bellowing moans, covering my nose to ignore the burning stench.

Out of the corner of my eye, he came into sight as I
approached the room. I stopped dead center in the hallway as his panic
unfolded, every ounce of him shattering upon me. This was the second time I had
to witness it. First with his father’s death. This time his mother.

Tears flooded his eyes as anger crept through his
expression. I dashed over to him as I gazed upon her. She was beautiful as
always, with her golden blonde locks and youthful appearance, her comatose body
resting beside him. He kneeled next to the bed, grasping her boney fingers. I
glanced at the red X on the door. Now, it was clear to me. The remaining
hospital patients were abandoned with the town, left for dead, just as we
feared.

Behind Evan, a large whiteboard hung on the wall.
Written on it were the words
“Tracy Maxwell – Diagnosis – Coronary Artery
Disease – Status – Terminal.”
Underneath it was a letter to Evan that read
“I
apologize for what I’ve done, Evan. I was only trying to protect you. But I
deserved this. Find a way to survive. I love you,”
penned in blue marker.
It seemed choppy and rushed, like her arm had weakened amidst writing it.

Evan looked up at me, launching up in agony. But I was
too shocked by her words to notice. He grabbed onto me, rattling my shoulders
as he lost all sense of control. Then, the fatal black needle appeared in my
vision. It remained on the floor next to her bed, empty and used. After
blinking several times, I wished to speak, to say something to explain what I
discovered, but I had no words.

“How could they do this to her? Why would they—Why…”
he huffed in disarray. I burst into cries of guilt. “How could they... just
leave her here to die?” Evan asked me, his eyes bulging with panic.

Tears soaked into my pores as I attempted to come up
with a reasonable response. But I couldn’t. I never could reason with their
decisions for killing people. Not until the bitterness of knowing how cruel
this world was poisoned me with defeat. In those moments, the shame flashed
through me again. And I knew right before the needle pierced her veins, his
mother must’ve understood how heavy a lifetime of secrets really was.

He continued staring at her. My face trembled, unable
to find the right words as my body froze in fright. I pressed my eyes closed
while covering my mouth. Evan screamed out in a long cry, kicking the table
stand over, knocking a vase, a tray, and a tangle of tubes onto the floor, the sound
shuddering me as the flames drew nearer. Smoke loomed in our direction—black
and menacing—like death itself wanted us. The shattering of glass and the
crashing of medical instruments echoed from a distance. We had to get out now.

“Evan, we have to go.”

I tugged on his arm as I leaned back, urging him to
move. He didn’t budge, his weight too much for me to shake. He choked on his
grief, struggling to regain his breath, both his hands atop his head. But
before I could warn him again, part of the ceiling started to cave in under the
pressure, sending down a shimmer of white dust from above us. He looked up
before glancing at his mother, his eyes enlarging. I tried to pull him away
again. Stubbornly, he denied my efforts before grabbing his mother’s hand again.

“I never meant for this to happen, mom...” he said in
regret—a hint of bitterness dwelling in his tone. He trembled violently as he
expelled a breath. Then, out of nowhere, a roaring thud came from outside the
room. The building was giving way, and fast.

“Evan!” I screamed.

In that second, his survival instinct kicked in, and
with the grip of his hand, he jerked me out the door with him. He pulled me
through the hall, confronting the thick, black wall of smoke. There’d be no
telling how far from the exit we were. We coughed, breathing into our shirts to
avoid the smoldering fumes.

“Stay low!” he said, pulling me down with him. From
there, the glow of the sign came into view.

“The exit’s to the left!” I shouted, coughing on the
plume of smoke.

Flames rose from both directions as we dodged the
obstacles in the lobby. Evan clutched my hand as we passed through the door.
But after he released it, I kept running, not thinking of anything else apart
from distancing myself from the building.

By the time we reached the parking lot, I could barely
breathe. I floated in slow motion, unable to get away fast enough.

After we reached a safe distance, Evan looked sick,
focusing in on a center point ahead of him. Tears shrouded his dark eyes in a
blanket of despair, their wetness shining against the light, the heat sweltering
against my face as he fell apart.

“We tried,” I coughed between breaths, my voice still
raspy from smoke. The fire exploded as the glass from the lobby windows blew
out. I had seen this vision in my nightmares once before—a fear—a premonition.
We became victims in the twisted illusion of my subconscious. Only this wasn’t a
nightmare.

“She needed me...” he said in a lifeless tone, his
words delivered roughly.

All this time, my shame for leaving Evan that year
mirrored the shame he felt for his own mother. Perhaps this was why it had been
so hard for him, pushing her away for reasons I didn’t understand until now.
Never once in those days did I see just how alike our lives were beneath the
surface. The misery we shared stemmed from the same core in our hearts. It
ached and burned behind every smile, every glance, and every tear.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I reassured in a sob. Evan
shook his head, swallowing back tears.

“I was too late. Being too late will always be my
legacy, Aubrey,” he said, the hurt pouring out as I recalled what happened with
Jake.

“But you can’t let death hold you down, Ev. Not if
we’re going to get through this,” I said. He winced. It was the same thing I
told him after his father died. “You told me I needed to give up my guilt. Now,
so do you. We’re here because we have to be. It isn’t our fault, remember?” I
looked to him. His face was weary, his brows wrinkled in despair. He nodded at
me in defeat, the seconds ticking away as the blaze grew higher. Then, gunshots
in the distance jolted us into panic. Evan’s eyes grew wide as he snapped out
of his stare.

“Let’s go,” he said, swallowing back the pain.

♦  ♦  ♦

Downtown became an inferno. Main Street was the only
outlet free of flames, and it wasn’t a long distance from the highway. We strolled
through the street as the old diner caught fire. The boarded up bars, taverns,
cafés, and boutiques would be next.

Searching for reliable transportation proved useless
as we slithered though the array of empty cars spread out across the road. Even
with keys still in the ignition, none of them would start.

“Damn it! They’re all out of gas!” Evan yelled. Flames
lit up the entire town under the night sky, making us visible from anywhere
along the main drag.

Before I could spend another second worrying about how
we’d escape, another gunshot rattled me, its popping sound echoing in the air.
I spun my head around, my eyes widening as more gunfire struck the sky.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

A ping, ting, and clink noise followed as bullets
ricocheted off the car Evan stood beside, and in that second, I screamed.

“Shit! Aubrey, get out of here!” he yelled, ducking
down.

Frustrated by the lack of ignition, Evan stomped on
the gas pedal, attempting to start the engine on fumes one last time. But it
was no use.

Down the road, the rumbling of engines approaching
stunned me as I stood behind a car. But these weren’t normal engines. These
were monstrous, mean, and obnoxious. I hyperventilated as more bullets flung
off the car. And then came their arrival. Evan ducked behind the door, spying
out the rear-view mirror as a group of men approached the side of the vehicle,
their motorcycles rattling the ground.