Free Charged by Casey Harvell Page A

past each other on the sidewalks. Scared, I turn from the window and grab my phone. I try calling my mom, but it beeps at me, saying there’s no service. I frown and try Brie’s house phone. It’s dead, too.
    I see Mason with his phone in his hand. He shakes his head. Brie rummages through her backpack and pulls hers out. I can tell by her frustrated expression that it’s not working either. My mind is racing. I want to find my mom, and I’m sure Brie does too, and Mason his parents. It doesn’t seem safe to separate. We need to stay together.
    I take my backpack and dump it out on Brie’s kitchen table. I pluck a few things out of the pile, and rummage through Brie’s kitchen. I find matches, an LED flashlight, and a can opener, throwing them in my backpack. “We have to go.” I tell Mason and Brie. “We can try to find our parents, but once we do, we can’t stay here. BioNano is less than an hour east of here. If these things are spreading, we need to go west as quickly as possible, and judging by the traffic outside, we better go on foot.”
    The contents of their bags have joined mine. My mind is still racing. “Brie, pack a change of clothes, and anything else you think you might need, but make sure you can carry it. We’ll leave a note for your mom to stay put. We can go check my house and Mason’s and then come back.”
    “What if nobody’s there?” Brie looks terrified.
    “We can go look for them.” Mason suggests.
    I bite my lip. “I think we should take everything on an individualized basis right now. And I really don’t think we should assume anything.” I pull some water out of the fridge, two bottles for each of us, and toss Mason and Brie their bottles. “We should hurry.” A scream out front confirms this.
    Brie takes off to her room. I throw a couple cans of food into my bag and Mason’s. When I stop, I break down. Mason holds me as I lose it for a minute. “What if they’re not there, Mason? What do we do?”
    He sighs. “I don’t know. I think your right. It seems crazy out there, we’ll have to take it as it comes.”
    I nod, slightly mollified that I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what to do. Before I can freak out anymore, Brie is back and ready to go. She’s changed into more suitable walking clothes. “Got everything?”
    She nods, “Oh, the note!” Quickly, she jots down a note to her mom leaving it in plain view on the counter.
    We make sure the house is locked up tight before we stand by the back door. The back yards appear empty, but we can still hear the panic on the streets out front. Locking the back door behind us, we creep through the backyards without incident, until we reach the street we have to cross, in order to get to the next set of yards.
    I’m not surprised to see it’s as chaotic as Brie’s street. Everyone is hysterical, and trying to get out of town at once, with no regard for anyone’s safety. “We have to get across, try to stay together and not to draw attention to ourselves. The last thing we need are people catching onto our plan and tearing through the yards after us.” I whisper.
    I take another look, and Mason pulls me back quickly, as a car comes flying down the sidewalk. It misses me by inches. Seconds later, it crashes into a telephone pole, and the front of the car catches fire, smoke billowing from it a few feet away. I figure this is about as good a chance as we’re going to get. “Go!” I yell, and take off weaving through the mess of cars and people, hoping Brie and Mason are behind me.
    When I round the corner behind the house across the street, I stop, resting my hands on my thighs, trying to catch my breath. To my relief, Mason and Brie appear next to me almost instantly, mirroring my actions.
    “That was like an obstacle course.” Mason says.
    “Really,” Brie agrees, taking big gulps of air.
    I want to wait to catch our breath more, but another explosion from the road tells me it’s time to move again.