Chapter 74
The laboratory was gone, swallowed by fire. Only broken stone and twisted, rusted-out steel beams remained scattered in the rubble.
The air was thick with black smoke, choking us and blinding our eyes. Every breath burned our throats. The scent of scorched chemicals and ash that blew through the air coated our tongues with a bitter taste.
Becky staggered forward over the debris, coughing violently. Her face was smeared with soot, and tears streamed down her cheeks. She cried out into the devastation, "Josh! Josh!"
She called, but no answer.
Only the sound of crackling flames and the hollow groan of collapsing beams echoed in the distance.
Evan followed a few steps behind her, his fist bleeding from where he had torn through the jagged wreckage. Desperation clung to him. You could see the shallow, ragged breaths that he took, his face empty with grief as hope drained away.
"We waited too long, " Evan said, his voice raspy and breaking. We should have pulled him out the second we saw him."
Becky collapsed to her knees, her whole body in trouble. "We left him." She pounded her fists into the dirt. "We should have taken him out the second —" She choked up, unable to finish her sentence.
I stood hunched over on the ground, grasping onto my ribs, the pain clawing at my body and mind as I tried to choke down the memories flooding my mind.
Waves of nausea crept up my throat as I tried to breathe through the smoke and flashing lights of ember and flame. Visions assaulted me—cold, sterile hallways. Transparent pods filled with strange liquids. Wires snaking over my body. Shadowed figures in white coats were watching from a distance.
The memories looped in my head: being drugged, restrained, studied like some broken animal. A subject. A mistake. An experiment that somehow survived.
As I struggled to rise up, I pushed the memories down deeper and more. Tumbling and swinging in the wind. Every nerve in my body was screaming, forcefully shaking me to my core from what I had endured not long ago.
Breathe. Focus.
This wasn't about me.
This wasn't about my past.
"This wasn't the place..." I whispered hoarsely. This was about Becky. About Josh. About their family.
I bent down, brushing off my knees and collecting my wits. I've never had it easy. I've already pushed past this chapter in my life once before, which is why I still stand here. These memories are nothing but echoes of my past that I have already suppressed so that I may move on. I can do it again.
I shook my head, the vision still spinning, and rushed to Becky's side. Her hands were scraped up and bruised from moving to Rubble. I wrapped my arm around her and held her tightly.
If somehow he's still out there, we will find him.
Duke stood grimly at the edge of the smoking crater to check using the Sourusensa again. He shook his head. "There are no signals, no signs of life. His voice was hollow and sorrowful.
A deafening silence chilled the air through the flames of the wreckage.
Becky attempted to crumble to the ground again. This time, Micah was on the other side, catching her. We stood there and cried.
Baby stepped in front of us. "We need to move," Baby said softly but firmly. "It's too dangerous for us to stay here."
Becky barely seemed to hear her, eyes locked on the burning ruins, silently begging for any sign that Josh had survived.
Evan stood frozen, his fist clenching at his side, his face carved in grief.
I nodded at Baby, "Help Beck, as I go over to get Evan."
Hearing me call her name must have jolted Becky from her trance, because she looked up and met my eyes, wide with realization.
"That name... Oh, Kaysi, your memories just came back. I haven't heard you call me that in so long," she cried, mixed emotions colliding inside her.
"Some memories returned," I said, my voice low. "But they're still blurry. And honestly... some things, maybe it's better if they stay that way."
I hugged her tightly as I transferred her into Baby's arms. Both she and Micah carried her over to where it was safe.
As I approached Evan, he was still locked in emotion, staring at the debris. I wrapped my arms around his trembling body. No longer able to keep his head up. His strength gave out, and he collapsed his head against my chest, sobbing. For the first time, I saw Evan truly break.
We stood there as the night wind shifted, carrying embers across the sky.
Both of us trembling, lost between two worlds: the horrors of our past and the aching of the present.
The Waymakers stood amidst the ruins—broken, but not defeated—bound together by grief, by hope, and by a silent vow:
This wasn't over.
Later that night, after the flames had died down and the Waymakers retreated to the edge of the ruins, Becky sat alone on a broken slab of concrete, staring at the dark sky.
Her eyes were swollen from crying. Her arms wrapped tightly around her knees like she was trying to hold herself together.
Quietly, I sat beside her, close enough to touch, but not forcing anything.
For a long while, neither of us said a word. Only the night wind whispered through the skeletal remains of the laboratory.
Becky finally broke through the silence.
"I kissed him goodbye... And now there doesn't seem to be any hope that he's still alive."
I swallowed hard, an aching lump in my throat. I knew the pain of losing someone you love. Even if my memories were faded, the feeling was still there, etched into my soul—that familiarity.
I leaned in closer to her as she rested her head against my shoulder. And I laid mine across hers.
"He's alive," I said firmly, voice steady and sure. "I can feel it. I don't care what anyone says—we're going to find him and bring him home.
Becky hesitated. "But what if—"
"No," I cut her off sharply. "No 'what ifs.' You have to believe, Becky. Josh needs you to believe. Look at me—you all thought I was lost, and somehow, I made it back. So will he."
Becky shivered in the cool wind and nodded her head slowly.
"I believe!" She whispered.
I gave her a small smile and held out my pinky finger. Becky linked it with mine.
A silent promise between us—fragile, but Unbreakable, we will keep hope!