NaNoWriMo (Day 10 of 30) "Strangers in the Dark" (46,606 words left)

I'm working today at the Chamber and then I have the rest of the day off. I'm thinking a little bit of shopping could be in order. What are you guys planning on doing? Oh, and here's the rest of Chapter One of Strangers in the Dark!

Strangers in the Dark

(The end of Chapter One)

“Oh, no,” I breathed.

“What?” my mom ask, desperately trying to see through the fence.

“Grenades. We’ve got to go.” I pulled on her desperately.

“No, we can’t leave your father and Jensen. Where are they, Talis? Did you see them?”

“The Recruiters have already pulled the pins, Mom. We need to leave…”

The explosion built a wall of heat that forced me away from her, pushing me onto my back and singeing the threads of my jeans and sweater. And as the other grenades went off, it began to snow.

With ears ringing, face flushed, legs weak, I rolled over onto my stomach and crawled over to my mom. The explosion had appeared right behind her. Like a fox sneaking up on a poor rabbit, no one saw it until it was too late. My hand reached hers, and despite the warmth of the burning fires around us, her hand was cold. But she couldn’t be…I cradled her head in both my arms and tried to rock her awake. Her limbs were heavy and her clothes badly burned, but still I thought she was merely knocked out. She wasn’t breathing and I couldn’t find a pulse.

Finally, I succumbed to the tears. They choked me, cutting off my breathing and my voice. I couldn’t call to my Dad, but I saw him running toward us with Jensen. There were men in black following him, though. One hit him over the head with the butt of his gun and then shot a police man that had snuck up behind him. Another grabbed Jensen and started carrying him away like a rag doll. I couldn’t hear him, but I could tell he was yelling my name, ripping his vocal cords just to get me to help him. I cried a little harder as I looked back down at Mom.

“I love you, but I have to go now.” I brushed her hair away from her forehead and gave her one final kiss, like I used to do when I was a little girl. “Good bye.”

It was hard getting up off the ground. Ever muscle seemed to be fighting me and the world looked like a blur of black and blue, but my hearing was coming back and Jensen’s voice sounded through all the fog. In moments, I was in a full out sprint towards him, skimming around the pot holes and fires in the road, jumping over the poor souls that were now lost just like my mom. Dad was still on the ground, just a few feet away, but I knew he wasn’t dead. All I had to do was get to Jensen and then we could come back for our dad.

I was almost to my brother. I paused a moment to pull a metal baton off a fallen officer; it would be something to defend myself against the man that had a hold of Jensen. I made a quick turn to face his captor, but ended up running down a young woman instead. Then, everything went black.

Chapter Two: The Awakening

I awoke in an unfamiliar room. (520 words)

That's all you get of Chapter Two today, but I sure am happy to have started it!