The Bag - Help Wanted

She could see the gadget buzzing and she could see the fear in her son's face.

"Don't answer it," she said.

He looked pleadingly at her and all she wanted to do was take him in her arms and assure him it would be okay. But this wasn't school nor a problem which could be solved with a word to the teacher. This was life and death, she could tell. You didn't get through wars without knowing a dire situation when it arrived.

It didn't matter so much about her. She was old and had long since resigned herself to her diminishing days. But she wanted Jim, her boy, to live a long happy life, maybe find someone. He was a good man with plenty to offer but had always been so career-focused. Look where that had got him!

The Comms. stopped and his relief was palpable to her.

"Let's move," she said, taking charge of a situation she knew nothing about.

Her decisiveness seemed to give him momentum and he said, "Where's your bag?"

She pointed to her overnight bag and another slightly smaller bag, full of yarn and said, "Don't forget my knitting."

*

Ella was concentrating.

"What do you need from me?" Jason asked.

But Ella honestly didn't know. Because she had no idea what Jason could give.

*

"He's not answering, Sir," the Comms. operator advised. This was not the news he wanted to deliver to Him.

This was not the news that He wanted to hear. He gave no reaction. He had already lost emotional control today, more than once, and He would not be subject to emotional weakness again.

He turned and looked at the Comms. operator who gulped audibly under His bloody reptilian gaze.

"Then, we must find him. Are the Drones still mobilised?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Then begin the hunt."

He smiled.

"Start at his mother's."

*

Ella's concentration was waning. She was trying but something was hindering it. She thought she knew what it was. Heightened Disruption.

Jason could feel something different too.

*

Anna could sense Ella's uncertainty across the miles. She could also, despite the shield, sense the Disruption.

She turned to her father.

"It's Ella. She needs our help."

***

366 words

I wonder how Anna and Malcolm will help them. I hope Jim and his mum get away but I just don't know...

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