Julius left the tunnels. The man either was dead or left through a surface exit. Either way, Julius didn’t have any reason to be down there anymore. Hunger and sleep were calling.
He slept deeply that night. Mom was moving him, Christophe was gone, a man had gone into the sewage and not returned. This city isn’t right. The move will help Julius thought.
The clock read 11. A late start for Julius. He switched the TV on. The background was no longer filled with sand and blasted out buildings. Rather, a developed looking city filled the TV screen. Penelope's picture still lingered in the lower left hand corner of the screen.
Bzzzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzt.
"Mom?"
"Julius, are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be."
A black, shiny car pulled up to the curb in front of the apartments. The blackness of the car brought color to the single gray color of the city and sky.
"Black. Typical. Everything is black with them. Like my second shadow..." Julius thought.
Julius slid into the back of the car. Mom sat across from him.
"Julius."
"Mom."
"We..um. Your new location is, sensitive."
"Everything with you is sensitive, why else would we call you mom?"
"No. I mean to you."
Julius slightly furrowed his brow at Mom. Mom rarely beat around the bush. Or just bottled it up.
"Spit it out Mom. I'm tired of this town."
"Well, Penelope is involved."
Julius couldn't swallow. His stomach turned into a baseball sized ball of lead.
"...wha.." he gasped.
"She's alive. We believe."
"Where?"
"Remember 3 years ago..."
The black car that brought color drove out of the city. The sun began to sink. Igniting the gray, old newspapered sky into a canvas of fire. Halfway across the world the sun began to rise. Breaking the cold of the desert night and warming the face of a woman with sandy brown hair and piercing gray eyes.
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