Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 by Quil Carter Page A

gently she pried the nails out of my hands and when I fell forward she took me into her arms.
    I whimpered and she held me. She shushed me and kissed my cheek.
    “You need to leave, Sami, you need to run away,” Nan whispered. Her grip on me tightened and she kissed my head.
    I pulled away and shook my head. “I don’t want to go.”
    Nan gently took my shoulder and started walking with me into the dark. I glanced behind me once and saw the lights of Sunshine House far away. They looked so warm and welcoming… I wanted to go back home and go sleep in my car bed.
    “Gill’s leaving you up here to die, Sami.” Nan looked behind her and sucked in a breath. “I got you a bag with Barry inside and some water and jerky. You need to run for Nan.”
    “Linda!”
    I jumped and so did Nan as Gill’s booming voice sounded behind us. We both turned around and froze when a shadow could be seen in front of the Sunshine House lights.
    Nan grabbed my shoulder and pushed me towards the greywastes. She gave me a pack.
    “Where do I go? When can I come back?” I cried. Nan looked behind her again. She was crying and her hands and everything were now shaking.
    Gill was looking around; we were in the dark and he was looking for us. My night bright started showing me more of him and I realized he was carrying an axe.
    “Go towards where the sun sets, go to the west towards the towns. You can’t come back, Sami. You’ll do fine, you’re a smart smart boy.” Nan suddenly let out a sob and hugged me, but Gill heard her crying and he started walking towards us with the axe. In the chaos kids were looking out the dorm windows and some walked outside behind him, and when they saw that Gill had an axe, I heard some of them cheer. They all wanted me to get axed and they wanted me with the nails in my hands.
    Everyone but Nan.
    I was bad.
    “Run. Go, Sami… run for Nan. I have Barry inside of the bag,” Nan sobbed, putting the bag into my arms since my hands hurt too much. She turned me around and gave me a push. I walked a few steps but everything was so dark I turned around. Everything outside was scary, the kids were scary and Gill was especially scary… Nan was all I had.
    “Nana…” I took a step towards her but she shook her head and started walking backwards. Nan blew me a kiss but I was too scared and I didn’t catch it.
    “Linda!” Gill suddenly bellowed. “I said not to fucking touch him!” I jumped and gasped and as he came closer and closer I took one last look at Nan and I ran. I ran into the greywastes with Barry.

Chapter 4
    Sami age 6
     
    I ran and ran where I had seen the sun set every evening and I didn’t stop until I had to throw up.
    I looked behind me and saw Sunshine House was nothing but a glowing blue light. It was the only light I could see besides the moon up in the sky. I couldn’t hear yelling at all – but I couldn’t hear anything.
    I wasn’t tired though and I could see darker shadows in the distance. I had never been this far away from Sunshine House except when I was a baby and I had a mom, so I wasn’t sure if it was a shack or a town. So I decided to walk towards them and maybe there I could sleep until morning.
    I bet I wouldn’t be able to sleep though; all the stuff happening around me had numbed the pain in my wrists and arm but it was coming back now. It was throbbing and nothing helped. I cried about it at first but eventually the tears stopped. I knew there wouldn’t be any water to dunk my burns in like Nan used to do when we had burns. Sunshine House had a well but there weren’t any wells here and if there was I didn’t know about them.
    Eventually I saw that the shadows were abandoned houses. I was too tired and in pain to feel relief about it though. I went inside one of the houses with a half-open door and I started looking around.
    Everything was a mess. There was a ripped up couch with all the fluff everywhere and the fluff was covered in dust from the broken plaster