Read From the Indie Side for Free Online Page B

backward, clipping the side of the house
as it careened out of the crumbling garage.
    When their car became engulfed by the fog,
her mother slammed on the brakes. She was breathing hard, sweating,
her face full of shock and fear. Emily shrank back into her seat. A
thunderous sound came, and more debris pummeled the car, forcing
her mother to turn away. Emily reached over, taking her mother’s
hand, trying to ease some of the tears. She wanted to cry too,
imagining their house crumpled and destroyed, but they had to keep
moving.
    “Come on, Mom,” she said. “Nothing we can
do.”
    Emily grabbed for the GPS and tapped
furiously at the pale black screen. The small display sprang to
life. Her mother joined in, quickly finding the shopping mall, and
pinned the location.
    “You ready?” she asked, looking over. Emily
nodded somberly. “I’ll watch the road as best I can. You tell me
the direction to go.”
    Almost at once, they ran over something. Her
mother cringed at the sound, and the car lifted up and then
dropped.
    “Don’t stop, Mom!” Emily yelled. “If you
stop, you might get the car stuck on it.” Her mother pressed the
gas pedal, throwing the car over whatever it was they’d hit.
Emily’s heart tightened when she considered the dead bodies. What
if they’d run over someone?
    “It’s just the mailbox!” her mother yelled.
“I saw it at the very last second.” As they drove blindly away from
their home, Emily struggled to rid her mind of what their house
must look like. She shook her head, faced forward, and let the
sentiment fall out of her.
    “Almost at the end of our street,” her mom
announced. “We’ll be able to move faster soon. Just hope there
aren’t other cars.”
    A buzz came from her pocket, vibrating across
her bottom. It was a new message. Excited, she grabbed her
phone.
    “Is that a text?” her mother asked. “Is it
your father?”
    “Are you guys okay?” she read aloud. “Yeah,
it’s from Dad!”
    “Quick, tell him we’re on our way. Ask him
how he’s doing.”
    Emily typed, thumbing the keyboard,
shortening nearly every word to mere letters. She hit send, and
felt the car lift up and fall back down.
    “What was that?” But her mother only shook
her head, then glanced at the rearview mirror.
    “No idea. But I know what I hope it
wasn’t.”
    “How fast?”
    “I’m staying below ten. I don’t want to go
too fast… you know, in case we hit something.”
    “Yeah, but what if someone hits us!” Emily
answered sharply. Her mother raised her brow, realizing the danger.
Emily’s phone buzzed twice more.
    “Dad says that he’s nearly there. And that he
loves”—Emily’s voice choked up—“he loves us very much.”
    The car became quiet as Emily watched her
mother’s face grow red.
    “Call him,” her mother demanded, looking
over. Emily didn’t hesitate, and pressed the icon to make the call.
She put her phone on speaker, letting the unanswered rings echo in
the car. The tension weighed heavy with each jingling tone. The
call broke suddenly to an all circuits busy message.
    “Can’t do this now,” her mother said,
muttering more words under her breath. She stopped, becoming choked
up, and then continued. “He should’ve come with us, should have…
but he made his choice.”
    “Mom,” Emily said. “He’s trying to stop
this.”
    Her mother snapped her head around, glaring,
her expression filled with disappointment. The look made Emily feel
small and stupid for having spoken up to defend her father. Her
mother could always do that. One look was all it took.
    “He can’t stop it! He knows he can’t
stop it! They thought they could control the oceans, the weather,
like the planet was something they could just tinker with!” Her
voice grew, filling the car. “He should be with his family. You
tell him that!” While the words were meant for Emily’s father, they
still stung. Emily looked down at her phone, the cursor blinking on
and off, waiting.