{"id":4349,"date":"2020-06-29T16:51:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T20:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4349"},"modified":"2020-06-29T16:51:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T20:51:55","slug":"eight-02-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4349","title":{"rendered":"Eight – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

My heart started hammering faster, like it was trying to batter its way through my breastbone to reach open air. \u201cWhere? Why?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDad said to take you below where it\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below.<\/em> She meant the old steam tunnels, the ones that had been our shelters from attacks when we were young and remained shelters now when the weather got well and truly foul. Bile slicked my tongue and burned at the back of my throat. There was nothing wrong with the weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d I asked, my stomach dropping. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

You already know.<\/em><\/p>\n

I tried to ignore the voice at the back of my thoughts, slowly getting out of bed. It was harder than I thought it\u2019d be. I\u2019d known that everything hurt, but I hadn\u2019t been prepared for exactly how much, or for the alternating chills and fever that didn\u2019t seem to want to quit\u2014not at all.<\/p>\n

Was this what it was like for Mom and Dad?<\/em><\/p>\n

I tried to shove the thought away. Kailey just stared at me, starting to seem a little impatient with what I\u2019m sure she mistook for recalcitrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cKay,\u201d I said quietly. \u201cTell me what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I should. Come on. It\u2019s not safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n

She almost punched the doorframe. \u201cDammit, Lin! Can\u2019t you just for once in your damn life do what you\u2019re asked without it turning into some kind of game of twenty questions? You\u2019re not<\/em> always entitled to every godsdamned answer you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swallowing hard, I just stared at her for a second.<\/p>\n

Then I sat back down on my bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo below,\u201d I told her. \u201cI\u2019m staying here.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a lie, though not a bluff.<\/p>\n

If she wasn\u2019t going to tell me, I\u2019d just have to go find out what was going on myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] My heart started hammering faster, like it was trying to batter its way through my breastbone to reach open air. \u201cWhere? Why?\u201d \u201cDad said to take you below where it\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,337,351],"tags":[340,150,171,170,345,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-08-book-8","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-kailey-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-189","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4350,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions\/4350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}