Read The Omega Protocol Chronicles (Book 1): Exodus for Free Online

and found Kim standing beside her.
    “Thank you…” Her voice was choked with emotion and she took a long breath before continuing. “Thank you for making me listen to your brother.”
    “No thanks necessary.” The world began to blur as tears filled her eyes. “I’m just glad everyone is okay.”
    “But how long will that last? What happened back there…if we aren’t safe with the army, what are we supposed to do now?”
    Janet didn’t have the answer for that one. She sighed and shifted Ruthie up higher on her hip. The weight of her daughter was getting heavier by the minute and she wasn’t sure her strength could hold out much longer.
    As if reading her mind, Kim reached out for Ruthie, moving the sleeping girl into her arms with the practiced hands of a mother.
    Janet shook her arms as feeling returned to them, ignoring the pins and needles to look over to where Ana was shepherding the boys into the van while Jose and Trey packed their things in the back of the truck. Malcolm and Travis helped Alan into the cab of the truck with Jenny following close behind.
    All of them were working together towards a common goal.
    “I know what we do now,” she said, clasping Kim’s hand. “We stick together and help each other. As long as we aren’t alone, we’re gonna be fine.”

----

    Subject File # 744

    Administrator - It must be difficult to be raising a teenager under these circumstances.
    Subject - I suppose it is. He had to become a man on the road but in my eyes he’ll always be my little boy. It’s a struggle not to hold on too tight.
    Administrator - Maybe he has a chance to be a kid again now that you are here.
    Subject - I don’t think so. He was done being a kid the moment he saw innocent people gunned down by the men who were supposed to protect them.

    Kim sat with Trey in the bed of the pick up, his head resting on her shoulder as they stared out at the road. They had been silent since they had loaded up in the truck with the Wakefields and followed the van that held Janet and the others. Kim knew she should say something to Trey, offer him some reassuring words like a good mother should, but she was at a loss.
    He had watched men, women and children get gunned down without mercy. He was old enough to know what was going on and the implications of it. She could tell him everything would be all right but he would know she was lying. They had watched people die tonight; empty platitudes were not going to cut it.
    As his mother, she wanted to find the right combination of words that would erase the fear she saw in him but she knew there were no words. She could not change what had happened. He had seen the worst humanity had to offer tonight and he would bear that scar on his soul the rest of his life. All she could do was try to keep it from eating away at him.
    “We should talk about what you saw tonight,” she said and he lifted his head from her shoulder, leaning back to rest it against the cab.  
    “I don’t understand. They said on the radio we should go to the base. Janet’s army friend told her to go there,” he said. “Why would they kill everyone who did what they said?”
    “Because they were scared. When you’re scared you do things that don’t make any sense.”
    “But they mowed those people down like it was nothing,” he said, his voice rising in volume along with his growing frustration. “I was scared too but I didn’t start killing people. They’re soldiers. They are supposed to be honourable and protect people.”
    “They are soldiers but they’re also human. A lot of them are only a few years older than you and they’ve had it drilled into their head to follow orders no matter what. There is no excuse for what happened down there but I think there are several soldiers back there right now who are torn up inside over what they’ve done.”
    “Things are changing, aren’t they Mom?” She nodded. “We’re not going home any time soon, are we?”
    “I’m