The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) by Louis A. Affortunato

Ruth will be ecstatic to have Harley here. She absolutely adores him.”
    Ancil paused for a moment, thinking of how to
ask his next question.
    “There is one more thing I may need you to do
for me, Lee.”
    “Sure, anything,” he said without hesitation.
    “I have some personal documents stored away in a
lock box under the floorboards of my room. Legal papers and a will. If anything
should happen to me I’ll need you to come in and get that box and see to it
that everything is processed. It concerns Harley. Can you do that?”
    “Of course. I’ll take care of it.”
    “Thanks, Lee. I’ll see you in a bit.” With that
Ancil hung up the phone. He hovered over the counter for a moment then opened
the drawer and pulled out a knife. He hid the knife in the side of his military
combat boot and went back in the living room, forgetting all about the food out
on the table.
    Harley was asleep on the couch. Ancil didn’t
want to disturb him but he had to.
    “Harley, wake up,” he said, nudging him lightly.
Harley responded with a low groan a child makes in the morning when he doesn’t
want to get up for school. “Harley, you have to get up. We’re going to Lee and
Ruth’s.”
    Harley turned over. “Why?”
    “It will be safer there.”
    “You’re coming too?”
    “I’ll take you there but then I’ll have to come
back.”
    Harley’s lip began to quiver. “No, I don’t want
to go there.”
    “Harley, you have to do this. It’s the only way.
If you stay here, they’ll find you. It won’t be for long.”
    “No, please.” Harley’s whining angered Ancil
more than anything. He taught him better than that.
    “Enough,” he ordered. The tone of Ancil’s voice
made Harley flinch back. “I didn’t teach you to be a whiner, did I?” Harley
shook his head. “All our outings together and hunting trips and lessons were so
you would be prepared for this day. Now are you going to act like a child and
whimper or will you be the man I taught you to be?”
    Harley straightened up on the couch and looked
Ancil in the eyes. “I’ll be the man.”
    “Good boy. Now, I need you to listen to me very
carefully. If anything happens and you need to get to Lee’s on your own all you
have to do is go east until you reach to the Black Rock stream, then you turn
right. He’s right down that road. Do you understand?” Harley nodded. “Good. Come
on, we don’t have much time. I suspect right now there could be people coming
here.”
    “I need to go to the bathroom first.”
    “Make it fast.”
    Harley ran off to the bathroom. When Ancil heard
the door shut he hurried to his room and took his shotgun from the closet. He
checked the barrel and grabbed an extra box of shot from a drawer. He wanted to
get the car started and ready to leave once Harley got out. That’s when he
heard the sirens in the distance.
    He went to the window and stuck his head out.
The sirens were low but unmistakable. There was a slight rumble under the
sirens, like a fleet of cars moving along with it. It was growing with
intensity every second and it was heading right toward him.

Chapter 14
     
    The men sat with their gear on as the truck rode
along on its predetermined course. They were silent, their eyes cast down
looking at their feet, thinking private thoughts.
    The truck was guided by GPS and powered by the
road it was riding on, much like a trolley car. The road was made of hundreds
of individual segments that locked together, which allowed for easy replacement
and repair. It moved the truck through magnetic force, each segment pushing it
one after the other. This was possible only in the City Centre and the
immediate surrounding areas. The outskirts hadn’t been upgraded yet. When the
truck reached those areas it would switch over to the reserve battery power
instead.  
    Bruce was sitting next to Maxon in the front of
the control cab, watching as the illuminated road moved past them. The control
cab is where the first and second in