Chapter 26: One Step Behind
A tight crease settled between her eyes as she continued, "And my daughter?"
"If the residential teams reached her building, they’ll register her too."
Amara looked toward the exit. "I am going home."
The officer nodded toward the registration area. "Then join the southwest group. Don’t travel alone."
She nodded and followed the instruction.
It took almost another hour before they were allowed to leave. She spent most of that time thinking about the two children she had raised after Tomas disappeared.
Eleven years earlier, her husband had gone to work and never returned. At first, officials said rescue teams were searching. Then they said the structure was unstable. Later, Tomas was listed as missing.
Eventually, presumed dead.
She had waited for information because there had been nowhere else to go.
Her children were different. They were still somewhere inside the city. Occupying her heart and mind was the thought of finding the two of them. She needed to see them, safe, as soon as possible.
The group leaving the hospital had more than twenty people and two security officers. They moved slowly.
Some streets were blocked by damaged vehicles. Others no longer connected where they had before.
They passed a school surrounded by temporary fencing. Government vehicles were parked outside.
Amara noticed people standing in lines inside the courtyard. Almost all of them had visible Marks.
"What is that?" someone asked.
One of the security officers answered, "Temporary stabilization center."
"How many people are in there?"
"I don’t know."
"Are they prisoners?"
"No."
"Can they leave?"
The officer did not answer immediately. Amara looked toward him.
"Once their manifestations are considered controlled enough," the officer replied.
The person beside her muttered something, but her attention wasn’t centered on anything else other than her children. Unless it concerned their safety.
They continued walking.
She watched the school until the buildings disappeared behind them.
Marek could be inside one of those places, and so could Mara.
That possibility had not occurred to her until the officer at the hospital mentioned it. She no longer only had to search the apartment and university.
There were registration centers.
Medical units. Converted schools. Stadiums. Convention halls. Temporary facilities filling with people whose families did not know where they had been taken.
The government was trying to keep people safe. She understood that. It just did not make finding her children easier.
They reached Residential District Four several hours later. The apartment building still stood. Mrs. Dela Cruz’s husband saw her near the entrance.
His expression changed immediately. "Mara’s mother, Amara!"
She walked toward him at a hurried pace. "Where is she?"
Mrs. Dela Cruz approached from inside. "She was with us."
Amara stopped.
"Was?"
"They registered everyone downstairs."
"And?"
"Her Gemini ability was still manifesting."
Amara knew enough from the emergency broadcasts to recognize the Sign. "What happened?"
"She copies voices."
"Did she hurt anyone?"
"No."
"Then where is she?"
"They transferred her."
Amara stared at her.
Mrs. Dela Cruz continued quickly. "They said it was temporary. A stabilization facility."
"Which one?"
"I don’t know the proper name. A school west of here. They said everyone from this district would be processed there first."
"When did she leave? She’s just a fourteen-year old child! I just hope they did not hurt her or do anything bad to her." Amara balled her fist.
"She left a few hours ago," Mrs. Dela Cruz replied.
Amara closed her eyes for a moment. She had walked across the city expecting to find Mara at home. It turned out... Mara had already been moved somewhere else.
"And Marek?"
"We haven’t seen him."
She looked toward the stairs and thought about something. "Did Mara leave anything?"
"I think she wrote something, because I told her to. I’m just not sure whether she really did."
Amara quickly went upstairs.
Arriving at their empty apartment, she immediately checked every room. She wanted to look for clues about whether she was doing okay.
Mara’s bag was gone. Marek was not there.
She then saw a note on the dining table.
She read it.
Marek,
The building is being evacuated. They are taking me to a temporary stabilization facility. Mom isn’t answering. I will try to contact the hospital from there.
If you get here, don’t leave without finding out where they took me.
You still owe me noodles.
Amara sat down. She read the note again, mainly to make sure she had not missed the location. Unfortunately, Mara had not written one.
Probably because nobody had told her enough to write it.
She placed the paper back on the table.
Then she found another sheet and wrote beneath it.
Marek,
I came home. Mara was transferred to a stabilization facility west of the district. I am going to find out which one. If you get here, ask the evacuation team before you leave.
She stopped.
Then added:
Do not go alone.
Marek would probably ignore that if he thought one of them needed help. She knew him well enough. After all, Marek was her son.
Still, she left it there.
---
Mara had been inside the temporary stabilization facility for almost three hours. The building had once been a secondary school. Most of the classrooms were now holding areas. Tables blocked several hallways. Medical personnel checked people as they entered. Security officers moved between rooms with laminated Sign cards attached to their uniforms.
Mara had been photographed twice upon registration. They then asked her whether she could control her voice six times.
Her answer was always the same.
"Mostly."
Apparently, that was not considered good enough. The Gemini room had twenty-seven people in it. Nobody was allowed to speak without warning the others first.
That rule lasted eleven minutes.
Someone near the window coughed. Four people copied him.
One woman laughed. Two others copied the laugh.
Everyone became quiet after that.
Mara sat near the wall with her bag beside her.
A security officer entered. "Anyone trying to contact family, write the name and last known location on the sheet outside. Communication teams are sending lists between facilities."
Mara stood immediately. She wrote two names.
Marek Vale—Linden University.
Mother—Linden Central Hospital.
The officer looked at the first. "University evacuees were divided between several facilities."
"Which ones?"
"We’re still getting the lists."
"What about the hospital?"
"Same problem."
Mara stared at him. "So you don’t know where either of them is."
"Not yet."
"When will you?"
"I don’t know."
At least he was being honest with her.
Mara returned to her place near the wall.
A few minutes later, a girl sitting nearby asked, "Who are they?"
"My brother and my mother."
"Your dad?"
Mara looked at her. "He died."
"Oh."
The girl became quiet.
Mara did not mind. There was nothing else to explain. Their father was gone. That just left Marek, their mother, and her.
Finding one of them would eventually lead to the other. That was what she told herself.
It was also the only plan she had.
---
By the time Amara reached the first stabilization center west of their district, the entrance was already crowded with families.
A security officer stopped her. "Registered Awakened only beyond this point."
"My daughter was brought here."
"Name?"
She gave it.
The officer checked a tablet.
Nothing.
He checked again. "What Mark?"
"Gemini."
He moved to another list. There were too many names. Finally, he found something. "Mara Vale."
"Yes."
"Fourteen?"
"Yes."
The officer looked toward the building. "She was processed here."
Relief came too quickly for Amara.
"Where is she?"
"She isn’t here anymore."
The relief disappeared. "What do you mean?"
"Gemini overflow was transferred about an hour ago."
"To where?"
The officer checked the tablet again. "North District Civic Hall."
"Where is that?"
He hesitated.
Amara noticed. "The old North District?"
"Yes."
"Does the old road still reach it?"
"Not directly."
She closed her eyes.
The officer turned the tablet toward her and pointed at a marked route. "This is the current confirmed path."
"How long?"
"On foot?"
"Yes."
"Several hours."
She looked at the route.
The officer continued, "There may be another transport leaving here later."
"When?"
"I don’t know."
She noted the location.
---
Mara was moved again before her mother reached the school. Nobody asked whether she wanted to go. The school had too many Gemini Awakened and not enough rooms where people could be separated from unfamiliar voices.
A government bus took them north.
Mara sat beside the window. The city outside moved slowly past. Some streets were familiar. Others were not.
Every few blocks, she saw another converted building.
A gymnasium with dozens of Taurus Awakened being taught how to hold simple objects without breaking them. A clinic surrounded by people with injured arms and legs. A stadium entrance where hundreds waited beneath signs marked with different Zodiac symbols.
Government vehicles continued moving people from one place to another because nobody had enough space and nobody yet knew which facilities were supposed to become permanent.
Mara pressed her forehead against the window. Somewhere behind the bus, her mother was trying to find her.
Mara did not know that, while her mother did not know Mara had already been moved again.
And neither of them knew that Marek had spent the same day being transported through another part of Linden City for exactly the same reason.
All three were still inside the city.
At that moment, that was the closest any of them had managed to get to one another.