Read Online After The Apocalypse (Book 2): Church of Chaos by Gen Griffin - Free Book Online

him.”
    I nodded and wondered whether Lola knew we were trading Gauge a gun for his help. If I'd learned one thing in the last month, it was that everyone in the world outside the Cube was big on keeping their own secrets. Honesty seemed to have flown out the window around the same time as my parents had disappeared from our apartment without a trace.
    “Don't give up hope.” Lola put her hand over mine. Her skin was soft and warm. “If your dad is in Ra-Shet, Gauge will find him. Gauge may seem a little scary but he's a good guy. He takes a lot of pride in reuniting families whenever he can.”
    I nodded again as the tears came. I turned my face away from her so that I didn't have to look at Lola as I cried. The lights of the city were so close and so bright that they burned my eyes.
    Lola scooted closer to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “It's okay to cry.”
    “I just thought we would find them today,” I whimpered as tears streamed down my cheeks. The sobs were coming faster now. “I just want to know where they are. Not knowing whether they are alive or dead is so hard.”
    “Oh honey.” Lola stroked her fingers through my hair and then pulled me tightly against her. She smelled like roses.
    “I just want this nightmare to be over. I want my parents back. I want to go home,” I cried.
    “Maybe we can find them,” Lola tried to sooth me. “And then you can go home.”
    “I can't go home,” I said. “I'll never be able to go home again.”
    “Then make a new home,” she said calmly. “You're still alive and hopefully we can help you find your parents. As long as you have your family, you can build a new life.”
    Her words struck a chord of truth with me. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and pulled back from her slightly. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”
    Lola smiled prettily at me. She reached out and brushed my hair away from my eyes. “You have to try to see the positive in your situation. You didn't get your parents back to today, but you didn't find out for sure that they were dead either. You still have hope, right?”
    I nodded.
    “Then buck up, kiddo.” Lola's eyes were incredibly kind. “You can't give up yet.”
    “She's not going to give up,” a familiar voice echoed from the doorway behind us. “It's not in her nature.”
    “You have too much faith in me,” I stood up and began to walk towards the shadowy figure in the doorway.
    Lola's fingers dug into my arm as she gasped. “Jeremiah?”

Chapter 11
    “Hello Lola.”
    “Jeremiah? Is it really you?” Lola released my arm just as quickly as she had grabbed it. She ran across the room and then stopped abruptly when she was less than a foot away from him. I could hear her breath coming in heavy, almost frantic gasps as she stared up into a pair of mirrored sunglasses.
    “No, it's me.” Seth flipped the sunglasses back onto the top of his head, revealing his dead white eye to her.
    “Seth.” Lola took a step back from him, her voice shaky. “Oh god. Seth.”
    “Not happy to see me?” He slipped the glasses back down over his bad eye.
    Lola's slender chest heaved as she took a visibly deep breath and then flung her arms around his neck in a tight hug. “You know I'm always happy to see you. I just wasn't expecting to see you here. I thought for a minute that you were Jeremiah. You look so much like him now that you're older. ”
    Seth wrapped his arms back around her. “Jeremiah's dead.”
    “Have you found his body?” Lola pulled back away from Seth.
    “No, but-.”
    “But nothing. You're assuming he's dead, but you don't know for sure.” Lola ran her hands back through her hair and titled her chin up at Seth. “He's not dead, Seth.”
    “He's dead.”
    “He doesn't feel dead here.” She pointed to the spot on her chest where her heart would be. “I'd know if he were dead.”
    “It has been four years and he hasn't come back. He was being held in the catacombs when they