{"id":4365,"date":"2020-07-17T08:33:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T12:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4365"},"modified":"2020-07-17T08:33:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T12:33:09","slug":"eight-06-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4365","title":{"rendered":"Eight – 06"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It was controlled chaos around us as she dragged me along to the tunnel\u2019s entrance. She had no way to know that I had zero intentions of going below, especially at that point. I stuck close, not wanting to tip her off to what I was planning.<\/p>\n

I could hear my uncle shouting something from near the gates. We were maybe a dozen yards from the tunnel entrance we were heading toward, and I nudged Kailey gently. She startled, turning to me, blinking rapidly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

I gestured toward the sound of her father\u2019s voice. \u201cYou\u2019d better get going. I\u2019m sure he didn\u2019t expect that it\u2019d take as long as it did to convince me. Whatever\u2019s going to happen, I think it\u2019s going to be starting pretty quick here and you\u2019ll want to be near him when it does, if that\u2019s what he\u2019s planning to have happen, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m supposed to\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

I pointed ahead of us with a wince. \u201cThe tunnel\u2019s right there. Where the hell else am I going to go? Like you said, there\u2019s not anywhere else that\u2019s safe if someone\u2019s about to attack us, and you\u2019re right, I\u2019m in no condition to fight or anything like that right now. Go. I\u2019ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hesitated, biting down hard on her lower lip. \u201cStay down there until the all-clear\u2019s called, okay? They\u2019re really worried about you.\u201d Her voice cracked a little. \u201cI\u2019m<\/em> really worried about you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d I said quietly, stomach twisting. I pecked her on the cheek and nudged her slightly. \u201cGo. Be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

After another hesitation, she nodded, turning away and taking off at a jog toward the sound of her father\u2019s voice, which had come from the direction of the gates.<\/p>\n

I took a slow, deep breath, then continued on toward the tunnel\u2019s entrance, just in case she looked back to make sure I\u2019d gone in that direction. I knew her too well\u2014she\u2019d look back and check. I saw the motion of it from the corner of my eye after I\u2019d gone another dozen steps, and then she moved out of my sight\u2014and I moved out of hers.<\/p>\n

Once I reached the tunnel\u2019s entrance, I changed direction. The noise was getting quieter, the number of people rushing a round dropping to a trickle\u2014the last few headed to the tunnels, the last few headed to the wall.<\/p>\n

Steeling myself and hoping no one thought to ask any awkward questions, I turned and slowly, slowly headed for the wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] It was controlled chaos around us as she dragged me along to the tunnel\u2019s entrance. She had no way to know that I had zero intentions of going below, especially … 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":[340,150,171,170,345,181,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4365","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-matthew-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-18p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4365","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=4365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4366,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4365\/revisions\/4366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}