{"id":499,"date":"2011-08-12T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T04:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=499"},"modified":"2011-08-12T00:00:06","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T04:00:06","slug":"day-10-chapter-9-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=499","title":{"rendered":"Day 10 – Chapter 9 – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The trio made their way the long way around the edges of the ravine, moving toward what used to be the Lakes Plaza, where most of the university\u2019s old classroom buildings were now in various stages of ruin.\u00a0 J.T. kept looking at Carolyn, trying to mask his concern.\u00a0 Her jaw had a hard, determined set as they moved, but her eyes were worried.\u00a0 Drew looked as grim as she did, and J.T. got the sick feeling that both of them had more of an idea what was going on around them than he did.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t sit very well with him, especially since he\u2019d been the quietly self-declared protector of most of their female friends for the past four years.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The loop took them around, past the place where Thom and Rory were gridding the walls and the shelters.\u00a0 J.T. waved and Thom waved back, then turned back to his work.\u00a0 At least he and Marin had quit fighting for the time being.\u00a0 That freed J.T. up to worry about other things and other people\u2014people like Carolyn and whatever she was starting to see.\u00a0 That worried him more than he\u2019d have worried about anyone or anything else, though he imagined that if it had been Jacqueline, he\u2019d have been pretty concerned, too.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t that he didn\u2019t think that Carolyn could handle it\u2014whatever it<\/em> was\u2014because he knew she could.\u00a0 He was just worried.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They rounded the ruins of Mackinac, heading toward the hilly lawns in front of the clock tower, where they would maybe expand their little village someday in the future, if they survived that long and had the need to do so.\u00a0 J.T. kept stealing glances at Carolyn, paying more attention to her than their surroundings.\u00a0 She stopped abruptly as they rounded a pile of rubble that had once been the registrar\u2019s building.\u00a0 He and Drew kept going a few more steps before her voice stopped them.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOh my god.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 J.T. blinked, staring at her for a moment.\u00a0 Briefly, he saw a small figure on her shoulder, cloaked in a blue-green light, then it was gone and he was following her gaze toward the heart of campus, where the clock tower had once stood.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLook\u2026it\u2019s still there.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIs it\u2026is it standing straight again?\u201d\u00a0 Drew squinted at the spire, brow furrowing.\u00a0 It was hard to tell without much frame of reference, but it certainly looked<\/em> like the tower had trued up since the last time any of them had come this way.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMust have been the big quake, squared shit up,\u201d J.T. murmured, then shook his head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t believe it.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn smiled.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t believe it either, but I\u2019m not going to complain.\u201d\u00a0 The smile faded after a moment.\u00a0 \u201cThank god for small favors.\u00a0 C\u2019mon.\u00a0 We still have to check the garden.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J.T. barely stopped himself from taking her hand.\u00a0 Instead, he fell into step with her, Drew flanking her on the other side.\u00a0 Something flickered in Drew\u2019s eyes as they made their way between collapsed buildings and skirted the boggy ground surrounding what used to be a retention pond.\u00a0 The library was still standing, though most of the glass was gone.\u00a0 Their shoes crunched on that shattered glass as they moved through the library\u2019s shadow, passing out of it well within sight of the\u00a0 half-collapsed Lake Superior Hall and the hedgerows that bounded the Shakespeare garden.\u00a0 The building had collapsed away from the garden\u2014more toward the PAC and the mass trench graves they\u2019d dug to bury the dead they\u2019d found\u2014and so the Shakespeare garden should\u2019ve been more or less intact.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They slipped between hedgerows and into the garden proper to find the tiny gazebo at the far side blasted to kindling.\u00a0 Half of the plants, from the carefully tended wildflowers to a bed of roses, were torn up, dirt and roots and shredded greenery littering the ground.\u00a0 The stone bench that sat at the center of the garden was broken into three pieces, and the birdbath had been dashed to pieces along the flagstone path into the garden.\u00a0 Tendrils of ivy waved in the breeze, tattered as if some kind of wild animal had taken claws to it.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn gave a little gasp, her hands going to her mouth as she slowly made a circuit of the small garden, once so lovely and peaceful, now so utterly destroyed.\u00a0 Shock and horror marked her face as she moved around, crouching here and there to brush her fingers along broken stones and trampled flowers.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J.T.\u2019s heart rose into his throat as he watched her move around, even as the hairs stirred at the back of his neck.\u00a0 Something didn\u2019t feel right here, and a glance toward Drew confirmed that the other man had come to the same conclusion.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThis wasn\u2019t wild animals,\u201d Drew said quietly.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J.T. shook his head mutely, drifting toward the edge of the garden nearest to the PAC.\u00a0 There was something out there, something he couldn\u2019t quite see, shadows and light playing over the turned earth that had once been a lawn.\u00a0 He suppressed a shudder.\u00a0 Some of them looked like they had faces, and the more he looked, the more he thought that they looked sad<\/em>.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOh,\u201d Carolyn sighed after a moment.\u00a0 J.T. tore his gaze away from the shadows, looking toward where she knelt next to the shattered remnants of the gazebo.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat is it?\u201d\u00a0 He asked quietly, stepping away from the hedgerow.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLook,\u201d she said softly, holding a trailing bit of ivy away from the flagstones.\u00a0 She looked up at him and smiled bleakly, and he had to smile back.\"\"<\/a>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sitting beneath the ivy, somehow sheltered from the destruction of the garden, sat two tiny cups made of thimbles and bits of old clip-on earrings, laid out as if its tiny owners were ready to sit down to tea.\u00a0 They sat there, ready and waiting, for their owners to return.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They were a small bit of simple magic amidst the ruin, the most powerful magic in the world.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hope.<\/p>\n

\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The trio made their way the long way around the edges of the ravine, moving toward what used to be the Lakes Plaza, where most of the university\u2019s old classroom buildings were now in various stages of ruin.\u00a0 J.T. … 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":[25,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-9","category-day-10"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-83","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","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=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}