Where are our Children: A Novel: Complete and Uncut Read online

Where are our Children: A Novel

  By Gary Sapp

  Copyright 2016 Gary Sapp

  Table of Contents

  Episode 1 411

  Prologue: The Dying Man

  Chapter One

  Louis

  Serena

  Thomas

  Chapter Two

  Angel

  Seth

  Chapter Three

  Chris

  Xavier

  Angel

  Chris

  Episode 2: Deliverance

  Chapter Four

  Roxanne

  Thomas

  Serena

  Chapter Five

  Xavier

  Serena

  Xavier

  Angel

  Chapter Six

  Thomas

  Chris

  Louis

  Episode 3 Rapture

  Chapter Seven

  Chris

  Roxanne

  Xavier

  Chapter Eight

  Louis

  Roxanne

  Angel

  Roxanne

  Chapter Nine

  Seth

  Chris

  Louis

  Episode 4 Past Prologue

  Chapter Ten

  Thomas

  Xavier

  Thomas

  Chapter Eleven

  Chris

  Roxanne

  Angel

  Seth

  Chapter Twelve

  Chris

  Xavier

  Seth

  Episode 5 Zero Hour

  Chapter Thirteen

  Louis

  Chapter Fourteen

  Thomas

  Chris

  Roxanne

  Chapter Fifteen

  Xavier

  Serena

  Angel

  Chapter Sixteen

  Seth

  Thomas

  Chris

  Episode 6 Betrayal

  Chapter Seventeen

  Seth

  Angel

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chris

  Xavier

  Serena

  Chris

  Chapter Nineteen

  Roxanne

  Louis

  Thomas

  Seth

  Episode 7 Scar

  Chapter Twenty

  Serena

  Seth

  Thomas

  Chris

  Chapter Twenty One

  Angel

  Louis

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Roxanne

  Chris

  Serena

  Seth

  Episode 8 Tempest Rising

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chris

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Angel

  Chris

  Hugh

  Serena

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Thomas

  Angel

  Roxanne

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Serena

  Thomas

  Episode 9 Whirlwind

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Angel

  Chris

  Thomas

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Angel

  Roxanne

  Angel

  Chris

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Angel

  Seth

  Epilogue: Another Dying Man

  Dedication

  Nest Egg Publishing Note

  No Rules Just Write: Nest Egg Publishing

  Where to find this author Online

  Episode 1: 411

  Prologue: The Dying Man

  The Dying Man told fellow inmate Xavier Prince and his other three assailants, he knew who murdered the first black president.

  More importantly he knew how, the real reason, not the one that the one that had been manufactured for the entire world to see.

  He told them that Serena Tennyson and her Pandora associates had hoped that Adolphus Sweet’s demise would accelerate the dissolution between the two most influential races in this country forever.

  He’d told them while South Georgia’s early afternoon March sunlight glistened through the prison bars of Calhoun State Prison behind all of the inmates into the otherwise cold corridor.

  He’d told them through gasp of stolen breaths from his broken ribs and blood gushing through his mouth and nose, thanks in no small part to Xavier’s muscle that had accompanied him.

  He spat out a mouthful of bruised blood. And then he told them that a further escalation of this dissolution was coming.

  And soon.

  Yet, the dying man was no fool. He had no loyalty to Serena or her cause, so he’d spill his beans about the when and the where…for a price.

  Xavier Prince slid his toothpick with his tongue from one side of his mouth to the other, stole a quick glance at the cracked face of the clock striking 12:30 on the molded wall…tic…tock…tic…tock, and shook his head once then again, no deal.

  Xavier Prince:

  He was an undersized black man in his early 40’s whose reputation and presence, The Dying Man thought, almost seemed to cast the shadow of a much larger man behind him. He was the tone of charred charcoal; he wore his hair cropped short and his sideburns thick around his ears. He had a drunkards eyes and nicotine stains on his teeth. His reputation had preceded him that he was as a man of few words, even now, though when he had choose to speak his voice resonated smooth, silky, like a sweet ballad. Every one of his movements seemed measured or calculated, and he pimped more than he walked.

  He said, “Once, someone very dear to me said that beams of sunlight radiating throughout small pockets of space like in this room were like the eyes of God piercing through. And that the guilty shied away from this light for fear of His judgment raining upon them.”

  So when Michael Davenport, The Dying Man failed to accept Xavier’s offer of life in exchange for his information, the leader of A House in Chains ordered the other man silenced forever.

  The largest of his executioners, with biceps the size of barbells unsheathed a machete and got on with the business of dislodging The Dying Man’s sorry head from the remainder of his body.

  Fear of his end coming…or perhaps something as simple as sheer curiosity caused The Dying man to use the final seconds of his life to watch Xavier Prince instead of the machete’s edge swinging to greet him.

  Tic.

  Once, someone very dear to Xavier said that beams of sunlight radiating throughout small pockets of space like in this room were like the eyes of God piercing through. And that the guilty shy away from this light for fear of His judgment raining on them.

  Tock.

  At the instant that the machete’s blade severed Davenport’s curiosity—and his head—he watched Xavier Prince step backwards into the light and let God’s judgment rain upon him.