Starseeds- Chapter 2

I posted the first chapter here: https://steemit.com/fiction/@aliacomics/starseeds-chapter-1

Chapter 2:

I looked over Mom's lap to Eli who was still transfixed on the truck's dashboard. His comatose state started to worry me. I couldn't blame him for being so vacant—so distant, but still right there in the truck close to me. I was fortunate that he hadn't been killed. I was lucky that I still had my twin brother.

I had seen the monstrous mass with my own eyes. I should've been more afraid then I was but the fear I had seemed to be replaced with curiosity.

If the monster wanted my brother so badly, why didn't it just strangle him with its tentacles? If it was after what was inside the TV, then why would it want a human? I didn't understand. Things just didn't seem to line up.

I peered out the window spotting a car that was sitting on the side of the road. As the road went on, the stranded cars seemed to increase in numbers. The engines smoked with fumes. The cars must have been hit by something but there was no sign of impact.

"Shut your eyes, Right now," Dad commanded us. But I had already seen them along the road. A few dozen bodies, scattered. They had been trying to run, but couldn't make it far. I shut my eyes anyway hoping it would all go away.

The truck jerked to a sudden halt. Mom's arms flung in front of Eli and me, preventing us from hitting our heads into the front window. Before us was a sea of cars, all of them abandoned.

"This is still outside city limits, isn't it?" Mom asked Dad.

"It is. Something doesn't seem right about this. We better go check it out."

We had no other choice with the cars blocking every angle of the road and trees in every direction. There was nowhere else we could go but forward, toward the light in the distance.

I got out of the truck, Mom and Eli followed while Dad led the way.

We weaved in and out of the cars eventually making it to a huge blockade. Armed men dressed in armor with masked faces stood in front of a crowd of people.

"What's going on?" Dad said anchoring his head in every direction.

The people in the crowds cried some of them were screaming out loud. Desperation filled the air.

In the distance, I noticed a man. He was among the crowd of people and was yelling at one of the armed men. His face was red with anger as he spat and shouted at one of the masked men, "Where are you taking my son? I want my son back right now!" The masked man did not budge.

The man fell to his knees and cried muttering the words, "You can't do this. You just can't do this."

Turning my head in every direction I noticed something strange. There wasn't a single kid among a crowd of adults. I thought there might have been at least one person around my age. No kids. None.

"We have to get out of here," Dad whispered to us as his shoulder touched with Mom.

One of the men standing near the blockade pointed over to where we stood. We now had several frightening men rushing straight towards us, pushing people to the side.

"Dad, what do we do?" Eli asked his eyes sweltering with tears and gripping Dad's arm.

I held onto Mom. I wasn't letting go. Not if they wanted to take me away.

They were close. There was nothing we could do. We couldn't even run. They would shoot my parents and then take us away if they really wanted to.

It would have been our best option to run but by the time I thought it through a hand reached out ripping me away from Mom. It didn't take much strength. After all, I was just a child and was no match for a strongly built and full-grown man.

Then they took Eli. He screamed and kicked, but he too was no match.

Mom burst out in hysterics as the men pulled Eli and me away. Her two babies that she brought home from the hospital twelve years ago were being taken.

Dad tried to pull Eli from the men, but they forcibly pushed him onto his back and onto the road where crowd continued to cry.

I reached out, screaming for Mom and Dad. I cried out to them with all my might but nothing was going to bring them back to me.

The stream of tears continued to spill down my face when I gave up struggling against the man's strength.

He carried me behind the barricade that was placed in the middle of the road. There were several military-grade buses and armored vehicles lined up in a row.

I couldn't hear Mom's crying anymore but I could hear Eli in the distance as he bawled. He was always more of a fighter then I was, at least in arguments.

The man who kidnapped me placed me on my feet in front of one of the buses. "Get on," He ordered.

I had no choice If I wanted to live, I stepped up and into the bus.

There were a couple dozen kids seated in rows. Some of them looked about the same age as Eli and I. Some were much younger.

The man watched me walk down the aisle until I sat next to a kid with freckles patterned across his cheeks. His face was sheet white, his eyes were piercing blue, his fiery orange hair haphazardly strewn atop his head, and his body shaking like Eli was just before the monster attacked.

The man watched me take a seat then turned to the driver. "That's it, there are no more." I watched the doors to the bus close. No Eli. The engine of the bus roared. I wished my brother was sitting next to me. I hoped I was going to see him again. I hoped my parents were on their way to me. Hope was all I had if I wanted to see my family again.

The bus accelerated, the light from the moon gently spilling into the metal sheeted slits that were the windows.

I braced myself as the bus ricocheted, launching my body into the kid next to me, "S-sorry," I muttered to him.

His blue eyes lit up. "Where do you think they are taking us?"

"I...I don't know," I stuttered.

"I want to see my dad again. I want to go home," He sobbed.

"Me too."

I braced myself against another large bump in the road only to fly into the air, almost hitting my head into the seat in front of me. I don't think they cared if any children arrived damaged or bleeding to wherever they were taking us. The bus just seemed to press on into the fading night.