My fingers tap on the steering wheel in a quick rhythm as I wait for two Abominations to get out of the road before I hit the gas and never look back. I have a shift in ten minutes for Jackson. Jackson's company goes through the ruins of buildings that collapsed during the plague of disasters that tore through the United States. They also happen to be the clean-up crew after the monthly riots that eager Abominations wreak when they try to overwhelm the agents' forces.
Being on a clean-up crew is one of the few jobs Abominations can obtain in Haven. Our income choices are is limited, seeing that most of the population wants us dead. I don't have a reason to be on this crew. Since my parents send money that I can return monthly, I don't need to work. But the crew gives me something to do in this cursed place. I believe that I should be a part of the regular society, most of us do.
I speed through a four-way before a rapidly moving car runs into my truck. People are looking forward to the drag race tonight. That's usually when riots break out because of the crashes and the fights that break out when someone loses a bet. That's another popular way to get some money here. I've only done it once and I ended up with a black eye and a dislocated shoulder so I tend to keep my distance after that.
Jackson's married with a kid. He came here after he ripped the air out of a burglar's lungs when he broke into his house. His wife has the ability to generate and use force fields. Jackson and I are decent friends although I don't understand the man. I pull up to the warehouse as I see some of the crew messing and throwing beer bottles at a homemade target with a big red dot in the center. I turn off the engine of my black pickup truck.
"Yo, look! It's the big bad bomination, Forest! What's up my man?" One of the men walks over to me, swaying and tilting in the process. He uses Abomination slang. Abominations are shorted to bomination, agents are called Reapers, and Haven is known as the Slaughterhouse.
"Nothing interesting. Where's Jackson?" I ask the man, his breath stinking of some strong alcohol. He sways some more, and his red-tinted eyes move back and forth like he's processing information.
"No clue. I haven't saw him today yet." His incorrect grammar sticks out like a sore thumb. "I don't think he's here today. Probably chilling with Miranda back in their apartment. He canceled all the shifts today so we all be drunk and having fun." I nod and he turns to walk back to his comrades.
Jackson doesn't cancel the shifts unless it's an emergency or a big clean-up. I remember where Jackson lives after he needed me to help him move some equipment for the crew from his place. I know this prison-like the back of my hand after being here for eight years. Jackson lives ten minutes away from the warehouse, he lives close just in case something was to happen at the warehouse.
I open the door to my black pickup truck and start the engine to head over to Jackson's apartment while the drunk men wave goodbye to me. I carefully pull out of the small parking lot around the warehouse. I see some black SUVs patrolling the streets before the drag race starts.
I look back to the men enjoying their day off outside to see them quickly retreat into the warehouse to avoid the agents. I tend to keep my distance when it comes to law enforcement, especially after some bad choices I've made when I was dealing with some kids that decided to become brave and mess around with our equipment.
Agents could care less about us killing each other, but us killing actual humans or trying to escape to possibly destroy their lives? That's why they hate us so much. We could ruin their families or their chance to amount to something more than an Abomination babysitter. The SUVs roll by slowly as the people they carry analyze us carefully.
I take a right and head to the apartment complex to see if Jackson is there. After I talk to Jackson, I want to head over to the junkyard to see if there's anything Zak and I can have some fun stealing while his little sister's at school. This brings me to another way to get some money, stealing cars and selling them.
Zak and I usually do it for fun, but sometimes things get desperate and I help him out by a trip to the junkyard. Zak's parents died in a car crash when he was younger, which caused his examination to be moved up. He was sent here when he was six and his little sister was three, a family took them in here but they were killed in a riot a few years ago. I met Zak when he broke up a fight between me and another Abomination, and we've been friends since.
I pull up toward Jackson's apartment and turn off the engine. I open the truck door as the dark sky above is cracked in half by lightning that is followed by a deafeningly loud cracking boom overhead. I pull my black hoodie over my head as cold rain starts beating down on my truck.
I close the door and dart toward the stairwell to get to their apartment. I go up two flights of stairs to apartment 201. I knock twice and wait outside the door. The agents knock on your door three times and kick in your door on the fourth door, which is why most people only knock twice. Then you have Abominations that knock three times and kick the door to be funny.
I turn my attention back to the door instead of my imagination. I haven't heard any movement in the room yet. "Jackson? Miranda? Are you guys here?" I raise my voice to make it impossible for someone to miss. I knock on the door again, a little harder as my frustration starts to show. The door cracks open slightly, the door creaks on its hinges as I continue to push the door open slowly. I scan the door frame and see the cracked and broken wooden door frame. I become more alert as I run my fingers down the door frame.
Suddenly, I hear muffled whimpering and sniffling sounds coming from somewhere in the apartment. Once you enter the apartment, you're already in the living room area. If you walk toward the back of the place you enter the kitchen. If you take a right before the kitchen, it leads to a bathroom and three bedrooms. "Hello?" I call out to the empty but ransacked living room. "Allura, are you here?" I call out the name of Jackson's eight-year-old daughter.
I hear a faint rustle. "H-hello?" A quiet, small voice calls out from the bedrooms. I release a sigh and slowly move to the small hallway that connects to the bedrooms. She pops her head around the corner quickly. Her wide eyes relax and she runs over to me and hugs my leg.
I crouch down so I don't tower over her. "Where's mom and dad?" I ask calmly. "Have you seen them today?" Her black eyes widen again then she looks toward the front door. She lifts her shaky hand and points at the door slowly.
"Big scary men came through the door and took them. Mommy hid me in their room before they took her. I haven't seen them today." I nod. Another loud rumble from the storm outside echoes loudly, frightening her. She hugs me tightly as another cracking bang reverberates throughout the building. "When will they come back?" She asks quietly.
"I'm sure they'll come back soon," I lie. "How about you stay with one of my friends until they come back? We'll leave them a message or something to let them know you're safe, okay?"
"Okay." I don't know why the agents came for them, there's no telling. Maybe another Abomination said something about them to get the agents off their back. Maybe something happened with the warehouse or on one of the shifts. I don't know, and there's a chance I might not ever know.
After sneaking Allura out of the apartment to make sure agents weren't snooping around and surveilling the apartment, I take her to one of my friends.
"So they just left her? That's strange. They never leave someone like that, child or not. Are you sure reapers didn't make a trap?" Jasmine worries while I close her front door behind her to block Allura from hearing our conversation.
"Jasmine, I checked multiple times to make sure. No one was following and the reapers have their hands full with the drag race tonight. You know reapers only come after bominations when they did something seriously bad and Jackson wouldn't do something like that. Can you look after Allura, please? You know what reapers do to Abominations to get what they want." I plead.
She sighs and rubs her eyes with the heels of her hands. "Yes, I'll do it. Let me know what you find out, okay? And please, be careful, Forest." She tells me.
"I will." She heads back into her house as I walk down the steps of her porch. I open the truck door and climb in quickly and start the engine. I pull out of Jasmine's driveway and head to my place. When Jasmine told me to be careful, she didn't mean to watch the agents. She meant to be careful of me and to make sure I don't lose control. Or do something worse like I did last time that earned me a beating and a record.