It wasn’t more than two minutes before I saw a girl. She was near a shrub, looking at something.
“Um, hey,” I said.
She was soaked to the bone. Her frightened eyes were the color of the bright California sky before the world fell apart.
I watched as she quickly reached down and picked up a stick. Her shoulders were rising and falling quickly. Instantly, I knew she didn’t belong.
I held out my hands. “I’m not going to hurt you but you’re not safe here.”
“I figured as much,” she said, her words spilling out of her mouth.
“They won’t hesitate to shoot you,” I said narrowing my eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
I carefully took a step toward her, not wanting to scare her off. She raised the stick and my head dropped slightly to the side.
The girl wasn’t going to hurt me. At least I was almost positive she wouldn’t.
“You need to go,” I said.
“Hey!” Leo shouted. “What’s going on?”
“Go!” I said begging her with my eyes to move her feet. I didn’t know what Leo would do to her if he got his hands on her.
She shook her head. Her eyes moved for a split second toward one of the sheds. “My friend.”
“You have to go,” I repeated. I was tempted to pick her up and run but I couldn’t do that because I’d never be allowed back. It would prove I couldn’t be trusted.
I turned as Leo moved quickly toward us. He raised his gun.
Someone burst from the brush and grabbed her. They ran down the hill, sliding on the mud.
“What the hell, man?” Leo said as he stepped around me. The gun was up, aimed at the duo.
I ducked at the pop of the gun. The guy fell to the ground.
I stayed down, like a coward, worried the next bullet would be for me.
It wasn’t long before Leo came back. Anger reddened his cheeks.
He grabbed my shirt and pulled me to my feet. “What the hell was that? You were going to let them get away.”
“I wasn’t armed!”
“You should have come to get me,” he shouted. “Didn’t you see they were stealing from us?”
“No!” I said. “I thought she was alone!”
Leo sneered. “Sure thing. You’re a traitor.”
“No, I just didn’t know what to do without a gun,” I said.
“Bullshit! You were going to just let them go,” Leo said. “Eva was right, you can’t be trusted.”
My heart pounded in my chest. She was behind it. Everything was going according to her plan. I would be gone… or maybe I was going to be dead.
Leo dragged me along the path. Eventually, I stopped fighting because I didn’t have a choice. Even if I broke free of his grip, I couldn’t leave Leah behind.
At least this way, she’d know what happened to me. She wouldn’t know why I was killed but at least she would know I hadn’t abandoned her. That had to be better.
Except I didn’t want her to see them shoot me. She’d find out what happened, though… eventually. She’d know.
I could feel the barrel of the gun pressing into my back. Leo growled as he pushed me along. “Let’s go, asshole. Time to face the music. Traitor.”
27
Stevie
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
Shawn sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t dream that, did I?”
“Pretty sure that was a gunshot. You heard it too, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
I clicked the battery-powered lantern on as I got out of bed. I hopped on each foot as I hastily pulled on my shoes. “I’ll be right back.”
“Me too,” Shawn said slipping into his shoes. He didn’t even bother to put a shirt on. I stared at him. “What? I’m not letting you go alone.”
“Then keep up,” I said grabbing the lantern by the handle at the top. I opened the door and looked down the hall. Both Gage’s and Kieran’s doors were open. “Wonder if they heard it too.”
Shawn shrugged.
I moved quickly, first flashing the light into Gage’s room. He was sleeping on his stomach with his leg hanging off the side of the bed.
Kieran’s room was empty. No Kieran and no Lucy.
“Huh,” I said.
“It sounded like it came from outside,” Shawn said as he turned and dashed down the stairs.
I followed close behind. Apparently, it hadn’t been loud enough to wake Gage.
At the bottom of the stairs, Shawn stopped and placed his hands on his hips. He stared at the empty chair by the window.
“Shit!” he said. He turned and hit the wall with his closed fist. I flinched at the sound and stared at him for a long moment before noticing he’d dented the wall.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“I overslept,” Shawn said. “I missed my shift.”
Lucy was curled up on the sofa with her hands folded under her face. My lips pressed together but I couldn’t say anything. It wasn’t entirely his fault that he’d fallen asleep.
Maybe it wasn’t his fault at all.
Kieran stepped out from the kitchen. She hesitated for a second before continuing toward the steps.
“What are you both doing up?” Kieran asked.
My eyes narrowed. “Did you hear it too?”
“Hear what?” she asked holding up a cup of water. “I was just down here to get a drink.”
“Oh,” I said. “Is Josh still in the garage?”
Kieran shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Hell, if I’m going to go in there and check either.”
I touched Shawn’s arm. “Can you watch the window?”
“Yeah, no problem,” he said but I could tell he was still angry with himself.
My eyes shifted over to where we kept the gun. It was still there. I started to question if maybe I hadn’t heard the sound at all.
I checked down the hall to the left where Ella, Noah, and Winter slept. Ella and Noah were in a room with bunk beds. Noah was on the bottom and Ella on the top. Neither of them were awake.
Winter’s door was open a crack but I could see that she was in bed… alone. Truth be told, I half-expected to see Josh in the room with her.
But he wasn’t there.
I passed through the kitchen, glancing through the window above the sink. It was too dark to see much of anything.
The door to the garage was closed. I stopped, not wanting to disturb Josh if he was asleep.
I slowly turned the handle, wincing when it squeaked at the halfway point. My fingertips lightly touched the door as I pushed it open.
The supplies we were sorting through were everywhere. I found that Josh had set up his sleeping area near the garage door but I also discovered that there was no one in the blankets.
“Josh?” I said softly as I took a step into the room.
I stopped when I spotted three dark spots on the floor. I lowered myself down and touched one of the perfectly round circles. My hand started to shake when I put my fingertip next to the light.
The red color was unmistakable. There was no doubt I had blood on my finger.
“Josh?” I called out louder. I was less worried about waking him.
He wasn’t there. As far as I could tell, there were only the three drops of blood.
I raced out of the garage and through the kitchen. The gun was at the back door where we always left it. If I hadn’t found blood and if Josh hadn’t gone missing, I would have convinced myself I’d been dreaming.
I walked through the living room without stopping when Shawn looked over his shoulder at me.
My feet pounded the stairs as I raced upward to get Gage. I paused when I reached his door.
Instead of charging in and waking him, I turned toward Kieran’s room. The door was closed.
I swallowed as I took a step toward her door. Without much thought, I knocked.
Kieran yanked the door open as though she’d
been expecting my visit. “Yes?”
“Do you know anything about this?” I asked holding up my finger.
“What is it?”
“Blood.”
She scowled. “Why would I know anything about that?” Kieran didn’t wait for my response. “Look, Stevie, I was just about to crawl back into bed. It’s been a really rough day.”
“Josh is missing.”
“Good.”
“And you don’t know anything about it?” I asked boldly.
Kieran crossed her arms. “Of course not. Are you trying to accuse me of something?”
“I’m not sure exactly but I think you know what happened to Josh,” I said.
“Fine,” she said. “I went to talk to him. I told him that neither Lucy nor I wanted him here, so after begging for twenty minutes, he gave up. He left.”
“You let him leave?”
Kieran shrugged. “I sure as hell wasn’t going to stop him. I wanted him gone.” She leaned in closer. “What are you going to do about this? Send a search party in the middle of the night with those lions out there?”
“No,” I said swallowing down the sourness that bubbled up the back of my throat. “What was the gunshot about?”
“It was probably just the neighbor shooting one of those things,” Kieran said.
“In the middle of the night? I don’t think so.”
Kieran pressed her lips together. “What are you going to do? Throw Lucy and me out of here? Can you live with that?”
“So, you do know what happened to Josh?”
“Yeah, like I told you, I made him leave. Lucy’s already upset about what happened with her dad, not to mention she’s still traumatized from our travels. It’s going to be hard enough on her that Josh left but you want to make this worse for us?” Kieran asked. “If you send us out on our own, we won’t make it more than a day, maybe two. I don’t think you can handle that on your conscience, can you?”
My teeth pressed together. The tension in my temple was like a rubber band that was about to snap from being pulled too far.
“He ran off,” Kieran said. “That’s on him. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some sleep.”
I turned but I didn’t make it far. “Kieran?”
“What?”
“Whose blood is this?” I asked.
“Josh’s. Bloody nose,” Kieran said with a blank expression. “I punched him.”
There was a chance she was telling me the truth. If she had shot Josh, there would have been a lot more blood than a few drops. Then again, it had sounded as though the gunshot had been outside.
She was right, though, I couldn’t kick her and Lucy out. They wouldn’t make it. And I couldn’t live with that.
It wasn’t like they were a danger to anyone else in the house. Unless, of course, Kieran decided to make Winter pay.
“Will that be all? Or do you have more questions for your investigation?” Kieran asked.
“Good night,” I said
Kieran closed the door.
I walked back to my room and dropped down on the bed. The thought that Kieran had done more than chased him away wouldn’t leave me. But maybe it bothered me more that there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
I was a failure.
In the morning, I’d have to talk with Gage and figure out a plan. He had to take over. I couldn’t do it anymore.
No one had woken me. It had to have been sometime after breakfast.
I walked to the window and stretched my arms over my head. My back cracked several times. I was stiff and achy, and still, I didn’t feel as though I had gotten anywhere near enough sleep.
My breath caught in my throat and I coughed. There was a couple with fear streaking their faces as they ran toward the house.
More people.
Could I handle more people?
“Dammit,” I muttered.
It wasn’t like I could stand there and ignore them. I stepped into my shoes and ran down the stairs.
28
Joss
I could hear the mud slopping around under their feet as they approached. If I died out here in the middle of nowhere, Robby wouldn’t ever know what happened to me. It would be like I just vanished. They would never guess what happened since I was fairly certain no one knew we’d even left the town.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I got to my feet and ran as fast as I could.
The gun popped again. I squeaked as I ducked my head down.
My foot slipped in the slick mud and I crashed to the ground. I slid down the hill at least twenty feet before crashing into a shrub. It was like it had swallowed me whole.
I didn’t move.
I could hear their voices but couldn’t make out a single word. Would they see my tracks in the mud? Would they come after me? If they did, it would end with a bullet in my brain.
My hand shook as it moved in slow motion to my mouth. I pressed down, making sure I didn’t let out even the tiniest of peeps.
Their voices didn’t get louder.
I couldn’t hear anything except for the rain falling around me. I couldn’t stay there hiding in the shrub forever. In fact, I needed to try to make my way back to the town while there was some light. If night came before I could move, I’d be stuck until morning.
I told myself ten more minutes. And after that passed, I told myself ten more. It was like a game… but I was losing because I was too scared to move.
I slowly rolled to my side. The shrub rustled but not more than it did with the falling rain.
Carefully, I peeked out, looking up the hill and then in every direction around the shrub. I didn’t see anyone around.
Maybe the guy that had told me to run had convinced the other guy to leave or maybe to look somewhere else. I had a chance to run and I was going to take it.
It felt like I was flying as I clumsily slipped and slid down the hill. The one thing I could be sure about was that I was going in the right direction. The town was downhill. I just had to make sure I didn’t go too far.
Five miles… we’d roughly walked uphill five miles.
With my heart pounding and my thoughts racing, I couldn’t even guess what a mile was. Or how much ground I’d already covered.
I was scared about how they were going to react once I got back. It wasn’t like I could run to Robby and everything would be over. Eventually, I’d have to tell Rex what happened.
If I ever found my way back, I never wanted to leave Robby’s side again. I’d managed to get away. I was safe but I didn’t want to go through anything like this again. I wanted this hell to be over.
Somehow, I managed to keep the tears from streaming down my cheeks. I had to stay forced. Stay determined. If I didn’t find my way back, I’d never survive in this world.
I’d be lost… with nowhere to go. No food. No water. And no shelter. I sure wouldn’t last long on my own.
It felt like I was being followed but when I looked over my shoulder, there was nothing there. I was scared but I kept moving.
I needed to get to Robby more than I had ever needed anything in my life.
It was faster moving downhill. I covered more ground alone than I had walking with Bill.
I saw the roofs of the town’s buildings. I bit down on the excited squeal that started to leak out of my mouth.
No celebrating. Not until I actually was able to throw my arms around Robby. And Caleb too.
There were eyes on me as I ran down the street toward the hotel. I wasn’t sure if Robby would be back yet but I didn’t have anywhere else to go.
My feet pounded the stairs as I ran up to our room. I turned the knob and pushed open the door.
“Robby!” I called looking into the bathroom as I passed. Empty. “Dammit!”
“Hey,” Caleb said. “What’s going on?”
Jenna was standing in the doorway across the hall. Her arms were crossed and her eyebrows were slanted with concern.
“Are you okay?
” Caleb asked.
I smiled but it poured off my face. Tears stung my eyes as I shook my head.
“No,” I said swallowing down a hard lump. “I’m not okay.”
“Did he do something?” Caleb asked.
“No!” I said. “Not Robby. I’m looking for Robby.”
“Then what happened, Joss? Tell me! You’re scaring me!” Caleb demanded.
I wiped the bottom of my nose with the back of my hand. My lips cracked as I pulled them apart.
The sounds of someone coming up the stairs caused me to grab Caleb’s arm. Robby turned the corner and froze when he saw us all standing there.
“Well, this is weird,” Robby said.
His eyes darted in my direction and the second he took in my expression, he came to me. He wrapped his arms around me.
“Hey,” Robby said softly. “It’s okay. You’re with us now.”
“I can’t be away from you.” My throat was sore and every time I tried to speak, it pinched tighter. “Never again.”
“Did someone hurt you?” Robby asked anger deepening voice.
I buried my face against his chest for a long moment before I let everything spill out of me. Two sentences into my story, Jenna crossed the hall and closed the door behind her. My body jerked at the sound of the door lock flipping into place.
I kept talking as Robby led me to the bed. My heart didn’t stop pounding even after Jenna offered me a water bottle.
“What are we going to do?” Caleb asked Robby after I finished talking. “They’re going to wonder what happened to Bill.”
“They are not going to like that their people keep turning up dead when they’re with us,” Jenna said.
“We’ll all go,” Robby said. “We’ll talk to Rex together.”
Jenna whimpered. “Are you sure about this? There’s a doctor here. I… I can’t get kicked out of this place. It’s the safest place for me and my baby.”
“You can wait here,” Robby said. “I’ll take her.”
“I’ll go too,” Caleb said.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said.
Caleb placed his hand on my shoulder. “I want to.”
The Reset Series | Book 4 | Swamp Page 14
