These are all questions I have no answer for. I don’t know what’s going to happen or what I should do now. I look over at the injured guy and finally know something. I know he’s not going to make it because he’s stopped breathing.
Chapter 39 - Torrin
“I can’t go. We made a pact, a deal that we wouldn’t leave her. I’m not going to go back on that.”
Gage crosses his big arms over his chest with a frown while Jules rolls his eyes at me and Reid shoots nervous glances between the three of us. He’s the one who finally responds.
“You have to go. Luna would kill you if you don’t. She knows how hard you’ve worked for this, Tor.”
I start to shake my head but Gage butts in. “He’s right. She would be devastated to be the reason you ended your baseball career before it even got started. It’s been three months. She’s getting better.” He says stubbornly, like saying it aloud makes it true.
“Better? She’s barely functional! We all hear her crying through the walls every night! And after what happened…” I counter.
Jules throws up his hands. “That was a one-off thing, a misjudgment. It won’t happen again! She needs time. That’s the only thing that will make her better. You giving up on yourdream won’t help that. If anything, it will make it worse for her. She already feels guilty for surviving. You heap on dream-killing, and she might never get over it.”
Gage drops one of his big hands on my shoulder and gives a squeeze. “You have to go. We will be here for her until the season is over. It’s what she would want.” He lets out a small laugh. “I can already hear her raging at you that she didn’t fix your swing and almost break her hand for you to give up now. Come on, man. You have to go.”
I wish I had never listened to them. I never should have left her. Luna is so much more important than this fucking game I’ve chosen as a career. Knowing she’s all alone at the house during this is torture. Not being able to get through to anyone on the phone is making it even worse. My head is screaming at me to go, get back to her to make sure she’s safe.
The room behind me erupts with the voices of my teammates yelling out questions as the coach comes into the room.I turn my back on the fires and smoke plumes that are dotted over the city’s skyline and move to take a seat beside my catcher, Lanny. We share a loaded look as the coach barks at all of us to settle down. When he finally gets silence, he hits us with a grim expression.
“Listen up! The proverbial shit has hit the fan out there with whatever the fuck the moon has done but we are all here and safe for the time being. With phone lines and the internet being overloaded, we haven’t been able to get in contact with anyone. For now, with the unrest out in the city, the coaching staff and admin have decided to lock down the team here in the stadium. What that means is we need to wait it out until the authorities get control out there.”
Half the team starts bellowing about not being able to go back to their condos and homes until Coach lets out a piercingwhistle to shut them all up again. He glares around at the gathered players.
“You think we want to be stuck here away from our families, too? This is the call for everyone’s safety, so suck it up! It shouldn’t be for more than a few days until things settle or we get more information. There’s plenty of food in the cafeteria and we can bunk out on the mats in the gym again until we can leave. All doors into the stadium have been locked and I’d like you all to lend a hand with adding some barricades to the glass doors for added protection. I highly doubt we’re a target for any looters, but better to take precautions now than wait for a group of idiots to try to get in. See the assistant coaches to get direction on where your help is needed.”
He pauses there and his expression softens slightly before continuing. “We’re all nervous and worried about our families but I truly believe the best thing we can do right now is sit tight and see what happens over the next few days. Panicking is only going to make things worse.” With that, he gives a sharp nod and moves over to the assistant coaches.
The other players get to their feet and start milling around but Lanny and I stay put in our seats for now. He turns to me and asks in a low tone, “Thoughts?”
I rub the scruff on my jaw that’s grown overnight. We were in the eighth inning of a game last night when all hell broke loose as the moon cracked and came at us. It took hours to clear the stadium of fans in their panicked state. I don’t even know how to process that or the weird ripple that happened when the stadium disappeared and an open field with tall grass replaced it for a few seconds.
With very little to no information coming through the televisions and internet, no one really knew what to do. Radio was the only clear source of information, and even that just amounted to "Shelter in Place". The coaching staff took thatnews to heart and had us stay put in the stadium overnight. Rumors have been making the rounds since then of what some had heard on the radio as talking heads started making predictions of what this will all mean. Some of those predictions are what have caused me to want to fly out of here and drive the thousand kilometers back to Luna. I let out a deep sigh and focus on Lanny.
“Three days, that’s all I’m willing to stay for. If things don’t settle down by then, I’m out of here.”
He gives me a slow nod. “Worried about your girl?”
My hands fist in frustration. “She’s all alone. The first damn time all of us go out of town at the same time and this happens. She’s been through too…”
I trail off when my cell chimes a notification. I practically rip my pocket off to get it and blow out a relieved sigh when I see it’s a text from Luna.
I’m okay. Gigi and I are together at the house. None of my texts are going through so I’ll keep trying. I hope you’re safe. Xo
I immediately fire a text back but it doesn’t seem to go through. I look up at Lanny with a scowl.
“Make that two days.”
He pushes to his feet when Coach spots us and waves us over.
“I hear you. At least you can drive there. I wish home wasn’t so far away for me. If planes aren’t flying, I have no idea how I can get back to Florida.” He gestures to the window. “If you think it’s bad out here, just imagine that times ten and add in a gun in every hand. That’s what the cities in my country will be facing right now. Not something I want to fight my way through to get home.”
As we stand at the back of the crowd to get assigned an area, I think about what Lanny said about a gun in every hand. Canada has tighter gun laws than the U.S. but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. We’ve heard plenty of gunshots last night and this morning. Most of Winnipeg is a nice city, but it does have the charming title of the murder capital of Canada. Like any big city, most of the violent crime is concentrated in a few areas, but it isn't where I want to be trapped if the world is coming apart at the seams.
Like Lanny, Canada isn’t my home country. British born and bred, my family moved here when I was thirteen, after my father accepted a posting with the British Army Training Unit at the Canadian Forces Base Suffield and we’ve been there for the last nine years. The base is just west of the city of Prairie Gap, close enough that my mother and I were allowed to live off base in the small city and only had to suffer my father’s presence occasionally. Even then, it wasn’t enough to save my mother from his brutalness. She died just after my seventeenth birthday when she ‘accidentally’ fell down the stairs during an argument with him.
I never wanted to be anything like that man, but that night, I took a page from his ruthlessness and blackmailed the bastard into letting me stay and finish out my last year of high school alone in the house when he tried to force me to go to base housing with him. With his standing and record in the military, I wasn’t confident my testimony would be enough to prove that he was responsible for her death. Even if the charges had stuck, as a minor, I would have been forced back to England to either live with distant relatives I barely remembered or, worse, into the fostering system. Instead, I pushed the rage down and made my threats until he agreed to my terms. I haven’t seen him in person since. Our only form of communication has been email and the occasional sharp text message.
