PART II

JOURNEY TO HAVEN

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Phillip’s Perspective,

One Day Later.

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“Our wonderful city, a place of peace, justice, and beauty! To our city!”

“To our city!” The words spread through the room like a wildfire, followed closely by the sound of refreshed sighs and empty glasses being placed back on tables.

“And now, let’s give a warm welcome to our governor, the honorable Mr. Phillip Reeves!” He looks over at me and holds his bubbly glass of liquid in my direction, a big smile on his face.

My heartbeat quickens, I never was good at these kinds of things. I’d rather be behind the scenes, solving Haven's problems without threat of public exposure. Yet here I am, coming onto the stage with a waving hand and a smile so fake it gives me a headache. It's a wonder no ones called me out on it yet.

I reach the podium and place a hand on Rick's shoulder, pointing at him theatrically with my other. “Let’s have a round of applause for Rick everyone!”

I hate this.

The crowd claps and whistles, soaking up my socialite act like a mop.

When the applause begins to die down Rick heads off stage, he takes a deep breath as soon as he’s clear, ditching his public personality and slipping back into his usual quiet self.

I can’t think about that now, not while I have a fake personality of my own to uphold. I lean forward on the podium and scan the audience. A few dozen richies from the high class end of Haven, all of them wearing some combination of fancy watches, shiny jewelry, bright suits, and shiny revealing dresses.

Of course I could never say this out loud, even to someone I trust, but these people seriously bug me. Honestly if they weren’t the biggest contributors to the city's treasury I would’ve…I don’t know, exiled them or something by now.

“Thank you all for coming tonight,” I say, suppressing the thoughts I’d been having beforehand. “As you already know, this banquet was orchestrated by myself, and the council, as a fundraising event for those who were affected by the terrible disaster that struck Haven only three months ago.”

It happened just after dark on a day that had already been trying its best to stress me out. I had finally made it home, also known as my office, and was preparing for a much needed rest, when Rick burst through the doors. His face was coated in sweat and his eyes were wide like a madman.

“Fire!” He spit out between quick breaths. “Fire on the east side!”

I remember pulling open the curtains to a fire in the distance so bright and vast that I felt my heart drop, then and there I thought, ‘this is it, the end of everything we’ve built.’

The fire raged as we tried our best to extinguish it, nearly the entire city took to the streets to form lines that would transport buckets of water to and from the blaze. (At the time we hadn't yet gotten water flowing through the fire hydrants again.) This went on for most of the night, until something miraculous happened.

Clouds filled the sky, and a parade of lightning and thunder came with them. Giving way to a downpour of rain stronger than anything I’d seen before. The fire was all but gone as the sun rose the next morning, leaving behind a smoldering section of Haven filled with the ashes of ruined lives.

In total nearly one hundred and thirty buildings were rendered uninhabitable. Their burnt carcasses left standing due to the brick used to build them. Worse though, was the death toll, a number that is still technically unconfirmed three months later.

“On that day our city suffered, losing two hundred and fifty-four lives to the inferno. With twenty five still missing,” I look among the crowd and see a few wet eyes, some look fake, others real.

You may wonder why I harbor such a persistent bias toward these people, they are attending a banquet to raise money for those left without a home after all.

That day, when we took to the streets in an effort to quell the fire, I saw all manner of people. Young and old, big and small, men and women, any color or heritage you could imagine.

What I didn’t see that day was a single person from ‘The Hills’. A place where the rich and powerful people of Haven reside, which sits only a five minute walk from the edge of Eastside. Not one person there lifted a finger to help, even if the fire threatened to endanger their own lives and property.

Not one person in this crowd helped that day.

“Today, three hundred families remain homeless, left with nothing except the clothes they wore on their backs, and they need your help. So grab a drink, talk with your friends, and please, donate what you can, thank you.”

They clap, but I’m already off the stage and using a wall to keep myself steady, my heart beats a mile a minute, threatening to jump out of my chest. A dull pain fills my torso, and my vision seems to flicker.

It’s another anxiety attack, the third this week.

“Hey! There he is!” A man with a silly fake British accent calls out from behind me. A second later he pats my back and chuckles.

“Good job with the speech! How’d you manage to make yourself look so emotional? You’ll have to teach me someday!"

Something inside me shatters, whether it’s my sanity, patience, or both is up for debate.

“Get your hand off of me.”

“Hmm?” The man removes his hand from my shoulder and takes a step back.

“How 'bout you run back to your group of kings and queens, and drown yourself in wine.” I say, severely limiting myself.

“Excuse me?” He says, the fake accent absent entirely from his voice. “You can’t speak to me that wa-“

The next thing I know, my fist is buried in his mouth, his teeth leaving little red marks on my knuckles.

He stumbles backwards, covering his mouth with his hand. A tooth falls from his hands and clatters onto the floor, followed by a muffled scream from his covered mouth.

Rick appears behind me, from a door that leads deeper into the building, he takes in the scene with a look of horror. “What happened!” He yells over the screaming of the man.

“What I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” I say.

As if on cue, a trio of security officers appear from the side entrance.

“What’s happening here?” The one closest to me says.

“He assaulted me!” The man yells.

“Governor Reeves, is this true?” The officer asks.

Three long years, and this is probably the end of my time as governor. The elites living in The Hills won’t let this go, when they really want something done, it gets done.

At least in the end I could say I cared for my people, well, most of them. And I went out punching one of the ones I didn’t.

“Yes officer, it is.”

“I’ll take that as a confession then,” he says, motioning for one of the other officers to cuff me. “Governor Phillip Reeves, you are hereby placed under arrest for the assault of this man, do you have anything to say in your defense?”

Well, guess I might as well go out with a bang.

“I do,” I say with a smile.

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Flynn's Perspective,

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The afternoon sun beats down with a wicked intensity. Coating my skin with a thin layer of sweat that drips into my eyes and burns.

“I’m hungry,” Sky says, along with a dramatic sigh.

“Ok, we’ll stop in a-“ It suddenly clicks that I’m talking to someone we found in a lab just a day ago, “-you, don’t think I look like food…right?”

“What?”

“Uh, nothing…oh hey, look,” I say, pointing at some trees up ahead. “We’ll stop in the shade, then I’ll get some snacks out of the bag. Sound good?”

She makes an ‘mhm’ sound, and is quiet until we reach the cluster of trees a few minutes later.

I hop off Rose and tie her to a tree that sits towards the center of the cluster, taking my backpack off and unzipping it. Meanwhile Sky scans around us, sniffing the air a few times.

“What do you smell?” I ask, taking two pieces of dried meat from the bag and holding one out for her.

She takes it and sniffs it a few times, then takes a bite. Chewing for a few seconds before letting out a satisfied sigh.

“A lot of things,” she finally says. “Trees, grass, dirt, Rose, and you.”

“Me? What do I smell like?”

“I don’t know,” she replies. “Or, I cannot explain.”

I nod slowly, then take a bite of the dried meat. It’s dry, and salty, not the best snack on a hot day, but at least it’s something.

Sky sits in the shade quietly working on her snack, I can’t help but notice another difference between her and me, her teeth, she seems to have longer, sharper, canines. As well as more than the average person.

“Why are you staring at me?” She asks with one eyebrow raised and her head tilted to one side.

My cheeks turn red instantly, or at least it feels that way.

“Oh, uh, sorry-“

She stares at me for a moment blankly, then her lips raise into a smile.

“It’s ok, I’m just messing with you,” she says, her smile turning into a short giggle.

“Wow,” I say with a laugh. “Nice one.”

“I totally had you!” She says, chuckling as she takes another bite of the dried meat.

“Yeah, yeah,” I zip up the backpack and pull the straps over my shoulders. “We should get going, we’ve got a long way to go,” I hold out a hand to help her up, expecting her to ignore it like last time, but she doesn’t, instead she grabs it and rises to her feet.

We stand face to face, close enough to feel the air from each other’s breath. I gotta say it, she’s really pretty.

She looks into my eyes, hers darting back and forth as she switches between mine.

“Thank you, for saving me, for letting me travel with you, and for teaching me about the world,” she says. “Thank you for everything.”

She wraps her arms around me in an embrace. Catching me off guard, she squeezes for a few moments, man she’s strong. She releases me and steps back, a smile on her face still.

I smile, while also trying to hide how happy I am to breathe again.

“It’s no problem Sky, unlike some people out here, Levi, Emma, and I actually care about other people.”

“But I’m not like other people,” she says, turning serious. “I don’t really know what I am.”

Her words catch me by surprise. “Hey,” I say firmly. “That doesn’t matter. You breathe, you think, you feel. That makes you no different from anyone else, heck you're better than most of us from what I’ve seen so far, and I’ve only known you for two days.”

She blushes. “Thank you Flynn.”

“Don’t mention it,” I say with a smile.

Then we continue on, Rose’s hooves pattering the ground beneath her as we hobble along. Our precious shaded ground abandoning us to sweat in the warm sunlight.

“Hey, Flynn,” Sky says quietly a few minutes later.

“Yeah?”

“Why shouldn’t I mention it?”