Gone Forever by Brielle Kin (all ebook reader TXT) 📖

at what it was. Nothing could have survived this explosion. So there couldn’t be anything alive underneath that pile. I knelt down besides my sister and gave her a hug. She seemed to feel more relax after I gave her that hug. Then I heard a moan. To be honest, it made me jump. I stood up immediately after I heard that moan. It seemed like the moan was coming from the pile of ashes I saw move earlier. I slowly made my way over to the pile. Then a black hand popped out of the ashes. I jumped back in surprise. Then it dawned on me. Someone was trapped in that pile, alive! I rushed over to the hand and started digging. I didn’t know who I was digging up but the thought of there being someone alive made me dig faster. I dug and dug until I came across a head. The head was black from the ashes but I recognized it immediately. It was my mother! She opened her eyes and just stared at me. I just started back at her. My sister must have finally realized what was going on because she was standing right beside me with her hand covering her mouth. My mother was still starting at us when I looked back at her. Tears started to accumulate in her eyes. She just looked at us and tried to smile. Even with the smile I could see the pain in her eyes. She looked so fragile and so pale. My sister was now bending down besides our mother grabbing her hand. My mother’s lips started to move. I could tell she was trying to say something. Her voice was so quiet. Almost like a whisper. I couldn’t hear her so I leaned in closer. My ear was touching her lips. She then whispered again. All I could hear was “I love you guys. Get help.” I raised my head and just looked at her. I nodded and then stood up. I told my sister that we had to go but she wouldn’t let go of our mother’s hand. I finally had to pull her by her arm to get her to let go. She stood up to follow but before she followed me, she bent back down and gave our mother a kiss on the check. She then ran to me. I was already out of the house and on the street. I turned back around to get one last glance at my mother. I could still see her head but she wasn’t moving. From where I stood, I could see that her eyes where shut and the pile of ashes on top of her stopped moving. She wasn’t breathing so that meant she was dead. My mother was dead just like everyone else in this town. I looked over at my sister who was holding something up to her lips. She just turned at started at me back. She then dropped her hand and showed me what was inside. It was a necklace. I remember our mother wearing it before we left her. My mother had given it to my sister before we left. I grabbed my sister’s arm and started running to these woods. I had to get out of that dead place. We were about fifteen minutes away from here when the President Cove found us. He’s the president of Sten. He took us to Sten and cared for us. Raised us up like we were his kids.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” I said after Jake was done. Now I felt really embarrassed that I asked. “Austin said you have had a rough life but I seriously didn’t think it was that rough. I’m really sorry I asked about your personal life. I’m really sorry Jake.”
“No no. It’s fine. Actually, I’m glad I told someone. The only people I’ve told this too are to President Cove and Austin. Besides them, I haven’t told anyone else. Now you know.” Jake said grabbing another bottle of water. “I only share personal information to people I trust.”
“So you’re saying you trust me?” I asked with a smile. “For all you know, I could kill you with my mad spear throwing skills.”
Jake laughed and then said, “Yeah, I’m sure you could. But I’ve got to warn you, I’m pretty fast when it comes to battles. I could kill you before you could kill me. And yes, I do trust you.”
“You wish you had my skills don’t yah?” I asked sarcastically.
“Yes Kate. I sure wish I had your mad skills.” Jake said smiling at me. “But Kate, please don’t tell anyone this information. It’s not that it’s embarrassing, but it’s still useful information. If this information is put in the wrong hands, it could become a weapon to use against me.”
“Don’t worry Jake. I won’t tell anyone. Someone would have to kill me to get information out of me. You should know that I don’t spill any information out about anyone easily.” I said remembering when I first met Jake.
“Yeah, you’re pretty good at not sharing information out about someone. I knew I could trust you.” Jake said with a chuckle. “Looks like Austy is waking up.” I looked over to where Austin was lying. He started to move and moan again.
“Looks like your right.” I said still staring at Austin. “And really Jake, Austy?”
“What? He calls me Jakey. I have to have some nickname for him. He’s as much trouble as you.” Jake said getting up out of his seat.
“I’m not that much trouble.” I said getting up out of my seat too. “What do you mean that Austin’s as much trouble as me? Why do you say that?”
“Trust me. You don’t know him like I do. Remember, you just met him yesterday. I’ve known him for about a year and a half. He’s a huge trouble maker. He begged President Cove for him to do this mission. He must be very fond of you.” Jake said with a smirk on his face.
“Yeah, I’m sure he is. We’re just friends.” I said sitting back down. “Look Austin’s coming back.” Jake walked over to Austin’s side as he started moving.
“Hey Austin, feel better?” Jake asked Austin as he was opening his eyes.
“You could say that. What happened? All I remember was that I was going to get some logs for firewood and then I fell.” Austin said sitting up.
“You must have gotten scratched by that mutation when you were fighting it. Next thing we know, you’re on the ground screaming. Kate wanted to help you but I wouldn’t let her because, well, you know why you shouldn’t get close to a person who’s been scratched.” Jake said helping Austin to his feet.
“Okay, first of all yeah, you wouldn’t let me go close to him and second of all, you weren’t even going to do anything like you should of!” I said looking at Jake.
“Yeah, yeah, but we did do something.” Jake said looking at me back. “We saved him. Isn’t that all that counts.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I said looking a little embarrassed.
“Wait, so how did you guys save me if you couldn’t go near me?” Austin said trying to get into our conversation.
“Well, Kate insisted that I do something so I did. She was like yelling at me again.” Jake continued. I just gave him a long hard glare. He of course gave one right back at me. “After I shot you with medicine, Kate put matters into her own hands. She has had experience with snake bites before so she knew what to do.”
“Really? Well doesn’t that sound like the Kate we all used to know?” Austin said with a smile on his face. “It’s good to have the old Kate back.” The smile on my face disappeared when I heard Austin’s last words. It’s good to have the old Kate back. What does that mean? I knew I had changed but I didn’t think I’ve changed that much.
“What do you mean?” I asked a little puzzled and mad.
“I mean, a couple of years ago you would always help the school nurse. After your father left, you’ve changed quite a bit.” Austin said catching himself from falling.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said quickly. I knew exactly what Austin was talking about but didn’t want to admit it. I’ve never really talked about my life after my dad died. Occasionally I would talk about it but not very often. That’s one of those things that I only say aloud when I’m in the forest alone.
Before my father died, I used to help him at school. He was one of the doctors there so he let me help him in between classes. That’s how my whole interest in medicine got started. My dad always said that I was really good at being a doctor and said I should go into the field of medicine. I loved that idea at the time and wanted it more than ever. I decided right then and there that when I got older, I would follow in my father’s footsteps. Of course, that was before he left us. After he left I made up my mind that I would never be a doctor. I didn’t want to do anything that reminded me about the times I had with my father. Apparently everyone still remembers my love for medicine.
“Of course you do!” Austin said bringing me back into reality. “Remember, you always helped your dad at the school and the…”
“Okay okay. I think we get it.” I said cutting him off. I didn’t want any more talk about my past being brought up. By now everyone was staring at me like I just did something really bad. “Um…are you hungry Austin?” I said trying to change the subject.
“Yeah, I’ll eat something if there’s anything left.” Austin said giving Jake and I a hard glance.
“Oh trust me Austin, I made sure Kate didn’t eat it all.” Jake said trying to cheer me up. I just lightly smiled and kept my head down.
“I can see Kate doing that!” Austin said laughing. Apparently, he didn’t see me behind him upset. Otherwise this conversation would have ended. I watched Austin make his way to a log. He stumbled a couple of times but he got himself back up. Austin seemed a little weird. He didn’t ever talk about my past to other people unless he had my permission. And I centrally didn’t give him my permission. I started to think that the venom got to his brain and made him go loopy.
“Kate?” Jake asked me. Jake slowed down so that he was right next to me as we were watching Austin make his way to a log.
“Yeah?” I asked realizing he was right by me.
“Is everything okay?” he asked. “You seemed a little upset after Austin started talking about your life. It’s almost like you didn’t want him to talk about it at all.”
“Yeah. I don’t really like it when people talk about my past. Especially if that person you’re talking about is standing right next to you.” I said shaking my head. “My life isn’t that great and no one really knows about it unless I told them.”
“I see. So you’ve had a rough past. We’ve all had one of those. Take my past for example. I didn’t want my parents to die. Do you think that was easy for me to just leave them there buried under all that rebel? I’ve had hard times just like you. I know what you’re going through. Trust me.” Jake said looking at me with his