EMP Catastrophe by Hamilton, Grace (books to read in your 20s female .txt) 📗

to her, his eyes still trained on the guards blocking the exit. “Kathy, listen to me, okay? This whole thing is getting out of control. I want you both to get out of here as fast as you can.”

“Uncle Max, we can’t leave you here,” Allison said, sounding scared, but Max only had eyes for his sister. “Listen to me, okay? I left a secret go-bag at a building a couple of miles from here at Levi’s Warehouse. Do you remember that old store? It’s in a sketchy area of town and looks abandoned, but it’s not. Virginia is for lovers, right?”

“Sure, I remember. Why would you ever have...have a go-bag, Max?” Kathleen said, shaking off old memories and recognizing how harsh she sounded, but there was nothing she could do for it.

“I thought I might have to leave the country at one point.” He shrugged.

“You’re an idiot,” Kathleen said, heated. “The stupidest person I’ve ever known.”

“Yeah, I love you too. Now listen, for once in your life, listen to me. Anything happens? You get that go-bag, okay? And in a couple of minutes, I’m gonna get you out of here. You take that chance and make a run for it. You get out of here, and you’ll be safe.”

“Max, I swear to god if this is you exploring a savior complex—”

“Please. The cocaine drug mule has a savior complex?” He thought on it a moment. “Okay, maybe. Let me test it out. Allison, don’t do drugs.”

“You’re stupid,” Kathleen hissed. Allison snorted a laugh.

“And you’re uptight. Give Matt my love.” Max let go of her hand and then suddenly stood up. He flashed the room a smile, one of those bright winning ones that could charm a snake. “I know I’m going to sound like a broken record,” he started, “but I have to state my case. I think it would be in everyone’s best interest if the visitors were allowed to go home.”

The guards moved toward Max. Kathleen reached up to grab Max and pull him back down, but Allison reached for her hand instead. “Let him be, Mom,” she said, and it was as if her baby girl had grown up in moments, that she was looking at a woman of forty and not a teenager.

“Sit back down,” one of the guards growled, advancing on Max like a shark smelling blood.

“The power looks like it's going to be out for a while, fellas.” Max’s grin widened. He held out his hands as if making a compromise. “It really will be safer for all of us if we let our friends and family leave.”

“I said sit back down. Or did you lose your hearing?”

One of the guards lunged for Max. Max stepped up on the stool and onto the top of the table in one fluid motion, towering over everyone. His smile stayed in place as he surveyed the room. Kathleen watched the other inmates make eye contact with him for a moment—even the one she thought had been giving him the stink-eye earlier.

“It would be such a shame, wouldn’t it,” Max continued, backing up to the table’s edge as the guards approached. Allison abruptly stood up, and Kathleen, shaking, followed, wondering how she’d let herself and Allison become a barrier between the guards and Max.

“Such a shame if a riot happened with civvies inside. Big liability, I’d say. Might get all of you fired for incompetence.” Max spread his hands out wide, a politician in the making if circumstances were different. A laugh was stifled somewhere in the room. The visitor’s center had a lulling silence to it, a predatory feel.

Kathleen saw Max as a toddler when she’d pushed him around in a wagon. She saw Max as a confident teenager with a girlfriend on his elbow and his hair a wild mess as he headed out to homecoming. She saw Max now, the swagger of a leader, inciting trouble in a prison, and realized she had no idea who Max was. All her memories of him didn’t add up to this man, this moment.

“Get down if you ever want to see your family again,” the younger guard commanded.

The threat was the spark that lit up the room. As one, the other inmates stood, coalescing around the guards, their heads held high. Kathleen couldn’t breathe. Her mind had gone blank. She wondered, when push came to shove, what she would do.

She would do what Max had said. She would make a run for it.

The older military-affiliated guard let out a sigh and eased his hands off the Taser and gun holster. “You make a good point. Max, is it? We talked about not doing anything stupid earlier. This looks like a stupid mistake we could all avoid.”

Max raised his eyebrow. “You got that right.”

“Visitors, you heard the man,” the older guard said. “Please form a line and head for the exit, please. You can gather your items at the front.”

Kathleen put her arm around Allison and managed to stick her hand out and squeeze Max’s foot in goodbye. Together they headed for the exit. Angie’s soft sniffles filled her ears, her arm wrapped around Brady. As Kathleen moved away, she heard the young guard who’d pushed Brady down snarl up at Max, “You can take it to the bank that you won’t see your family for years after this stunt.”

Kathleen looked over her shoulder one last time to see Max step down off the table before the door to the visitor’s area thudded shut behind them.

Hands shaking, Kathleen took back her items and slipped on her rings. Allison studied her with the eye of a hawk, her mouth pressed into a tight line as Kathleen struggled to find her car keys in her purse.

“Mom, you look white as a sheet.”

Kathleen nodded, but she couldn’t break down here. Not until they were outside and Allison was safe and back in the sunlight, blasting Taylor Swift out of their speakers and texting up a storm to her friends