Read Online Humanity Gone: Facade of Order by Derek Deremer - Free Book Online Page A

and Caitlyn. Those he wouldn't get a chance to talk to on the bus he would talk to in the gymnasium. He used to ask about his old girlfriend, until he learned she was dead.
                  I'll never forget when he finally stopped asking about her. It was bittersweet for me. I was in the gymnasium helping with a fractured pointer finger when he talked to that old man. I was the one who lifted him to his feet and took him back to his house. I don't think he remembers that it was me.
                  My eyes continue to search the crowd under the light of the propane lanterns along the sidewalks. Carter usually sticks out among the many white faces - just as I do. The bus empties, and he is nowhere. My heart starts to race as my head turns frantically around the caravan of cars to all of the workers and soldiers filling the streets. Some of the men are obviously injured. I walk closer towards the cars and the people brush by me as it becomes more crowded. Where is he?
                  My heart settles as I see Carter get out of the third car in the convoy. He helps a woman behind him out onto the asphalt and into the crowd. The darkness hides their faces, but I am sure it is him.
                  Is the woman one of the twins? I feel warmth spread throughout my body. This will really make him happy. They both share smiling looks and then look from person to person in the crowd. As their faces arrive under the lantern, it illuminates them both and I can see them clearly. It isn't one of the twins. I remember her from his picture.
                  Jocelyn.
                  The warmth from before quickly fades to numbness. I don't know how to feel or what this means. Before I can comprehend it, they are both standing in front of me and Carter is introducing me.
                  “I'm so glad you turned out to not be dead,” I reply while awkwardly shaking her hand. Well that sounded awful. “I mean... this is great.” I force a smile. She seems to force one, too. There's something off about the movement of her eyes, but I can't quite figure it out. They seem to dart from side to side a lot. She spent five years essentially being a slave. I don't know much, but I imagine that will leave some kind of damage. Many of the workers who have joined us took a while to acclimate themselves to living normally.
                  “Carter has talked about you,.” she says. I guess she is cutting to the chase. “I'm glad things are okay for you two in this hell-stricken world.”
                  “Thanks. Here let's show you where you will be staying. I don't think you need to go to the gymnasium with the rest of them.” I feel like I sound desperate to try and appease them both. I don't know what to expect. Carter has two rooms ready just in case he would find the twins. Despite my uncertainty, I know he probably wants her to be in one of them.
                  The three of us make our way through the commotion on the street and head down a side street that leads to Carter's and my house. Dozens of the houses we pass are occupied by those who live with us in the Resistance. I try to take my mind away from Jocelyn and Carter...
                  The neighborhood has grown a good bit since that first winter when Ryan saved thirty of us from freezing to death. From there, we grew and now we number nearly two hundred spread out over a few square miles of houses that surround a middle school. During the heat of summer, many sleep in tents in their yards to stay cool. When winter comes, the majority of us move to the school where proximity, and a modified gas furnace keep us warm.
                  The world beyond our neighborhood turned to chaos in the beginning, and many of those who survived the plague came to our home looking for trouble in the first year. Ryan had already prepared us for such violence, and