“We appreciate at that but we really need to get on the road,” Austin said.
Jimmy hesitated. It seemed as if he was considering not letting us leave.
“Where you headed?” Jimmy asked.
“We’re hoping to find survivors,” Austin said.
Jimmy laughed and several of the men behind him chuckled along. “You’re not going to find anything out there. We went about two hundred miles in nearly every direction and it’s like this everywhere.”
Austin didn’t respond. There was a long pause before Jimmy spit again and shifted his weight.
“Well, if you change your mind our door will be open. You know where the shop is?” Jimmy asked.
“I do,” Austin nodded.
“Our place is safe. They don’t like the lights, but I can see by your vehicles you’ve already figured that out,” Jimmy said.
Austin nodded. “I appreciate it and we’ll keep it in mind.”
“All right,” Jimmy said taking several steps closer to Austin and sticking out his hand. “We’ll let you get back on your way.”
“Thanks,” Austin said.
The two men shook hands for a few seconds longer than what was normal. Jimmy pulled Austin closer for a second and whispered something before letting go.
He gave him a wave and Austin stood there watching as they started their bikes and drove away clearing the road. When we couldn’t hear the sounds of the noisy bikes, he got back into the truck.
“That was weird,” Marty said as Austin climbed back inside.
“Yeah, yeah it was,” Austin said waving his hand out the window as he stepped on the accelerator. He looked into the rearview mirror as if he was checking to make sure we weren’t being followed.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
Austin looked at me and then back at the road. He forced a smile before meeting my eyes again.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he said. “It’s just if we have to come back, we can’t come through town.”
“He said that?” I asked.
“Basically. He’s letting us go because he knew my dad.” Austin was trying to play cool but there was a slight shakiness to his fingers that hadn’t been there before. “This is their town now. Their stuff. We’re lucky we didn’t stick around.”
Marty looked at the bed of the truck. “Guess we’re also lucky they didn’t check the back.”
“Very lucky,” Austin said. “Next time won’t go as smoothly.”
I looked out the window and wrapped my arms around my body. A shiver ran up and down my spine that shook my body.
“Cold?” Austin asked moving his hand near the door ready to roll up the window.
I shook my head. Maybe I was cold, but it wasn’t from the temperature outside.
“We won’t have connections in other towns. If survivors have already marked their territory, we’re in trouble,” I said.
“We’ll just have to stay out of the way,” Austin said.
“How do we do that when we’ll need to restock our supplies?” I said patting my thighs with my palms.
Austin let out a long breath. “Marty will give more weapons training. We’ll have to be ready to defend ourselves and our stuff.”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” I said with a frown. “Sure, I can threaten people but to actually pull the trigger? I don’t think that’s something I could ever do.”
“Hopefully, we won’t have to,” Austin said glancing in his rearview mirror to make sure Noah was still behind us. “Most everyone is gone. Out of everyone back home, the other survivors were us and a handful of bikers.”
Marty made a strange squeaky noise. “Why the bikers?”
“No idea,” Austin said. “They must have found a way just like we did.”
“Well, we did it, they did it, surely there are others who did it too,” I said scanning the horizon as if I’d just find more survivors glowering at us with their weapons pointed at us.
“And we’re all just looking for the same thing,” Austin said. “We can’t assume the worst.”
“Maybe we should,” I countered.
Austin turned and looked at me. He kept his eyes off of the road for so long I started to get nervous.
Austin shook his head. “You’re right. Dammit, you’re right.” He slammed his hands against the wheel. “Shit!”
I placed my hand on his tensed bicep. I wished I could erase having voiced my worries. It hadn’t done any good. The only thing it had done was to worry both Austin and Marty as well.
“Should we go back?” Austin asked slowing the truck.
There was a long pause before Marty spoke. “If there is help at the church, we’ll be better off there, won’t we?”
“I don’t know,” Austin said taking his hat off and tossing it onto the dash. He ran his hand through his hair that was slightly damp just above his ears. “I don’t know anything.”
It seemed as though Austin had been shaken by the bikers. The encounter had rattled his confidence.
“We’re not that far,” Austin said. “We could go back and plan this trip better.”
“No,” I said firmly. “Those bikers know you. Maybe they recognized me. They might go there. I’m not sure if we’d be safe there.”
The second the words were out of my mouth, I wished I could take them back. Austin stepped on the brake. He looked down at his thighs, keeping his hands on the steering wheel with his elbows locked.
“You’re right. We’ve essentially lost everything… because of me,” Austin said.
“None of this is because of you.” I rubbed his shoulder. “We all wanted to go. And we should go.”
I looked out of the back window at Noah getting out of the parked SUV. He was coming to see what was wrong.
“What’s going on?” Noah asked with narrowed eyes as he looked at his brother.
“I’m not sure this is the right thing,” Austin said.
Noah shook his head. “What did those bikers say?”
“They knew dad, that’s the only reason they let us go,” Austin said.
“What does that mean exactly?” Noah asked looking at me and then at Marty. It didn’t seem as though he understood what was going on.
“I don’t know,” Austin said. “They would have taken our stuff? Maybe even our vehicles.”
I wondered if Austin knew more than he was saying.
“We can’t go back,” Austin said turning to look at Noah. He let his arms fall to his lap.
“Thought we were going to that church?” Noah said.
“What are we going to do if we run into something like that again? What are the six of us going to do?” Austin asked.
Noah shrugged. “We’ll do what we have to do, right?” He slapped his brother on the shoulder. “Come on, man. This isn’t like you. We’ll be okay.”
“What if I can’t keep her safe,” Austin blurted.
“We’ll all keep each other safe,” Noah said.
Austin lowered his head. I could feel everything he was feeling as if it were radiating out of him like a contagious disease. And I understood.
We hadn’t been able to keep our families safe. How could we even think for a second that we could keep each other safe?
It wasn’t just the creatures out there… we had to worry about other dangers as well. Desperate humans.
Chapter Nine
We didn’t stop driving when night started to fall. Austin took a small break around dinner time, letting Marty drive his truck.
Marty sat pin straight, his hands at ten and two as he grinned the entire time. Driving Austin’s truck was some kind of victory. Austin’s truck was his baby and I was surprised he’d let Marty behind the wheel.
He must have been absolutely drained. I never even liked Marty driving the car we shared. He drove fast… turned sharply. Every road was a race track.
Austin wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I rested my head against the top of his chest. I tried to absorb his w
armth.
There was still a pinch of sunlight on the horizon but the lights on the truck and the SUV were doing most of the work lighting the way.
“Oh, shit!” Marty said slamming on the brakes.
Behind us, the SUV screeched to a stop only inches away from Austin’s bumper. Marty flashed Austin a worried look.
“I had to stop,” Marty said pointing at the road. “Noah shouldn’t follow so closely.”
There was a large hole in the middle of the road. I was almost certain I could hear the wretched creatures releasing their sharp screeches.
“Move over,” Austin said to Marty as he started climbing over me to get to the driver’s seat. His masculine, woodsy scent would have made me swoon if I hadn’t been worried about the hole in the road.
Marty scooted over to the middle and I was pressed against the cold door. All the warmth I’d taken from Austin gone in an instant.
I reached over and checked to make sure the door was locked because even though the area was glowing brighter than the sun, I was still terrified of the creatures.
“We’ll just go around,” Austin said as his phone buzzed. He picked it up and I didn’t have to look to know it was Noah asking what was going on. Austin’s finger moved rapidly as he typed in a quick message.
He stared at it for a moment.
“Dammit,” Austin said tossing his phone roughly on the dash. “Not delivered.”
“Try again,” I suggested.
“Not going to bother… it’s been spotty for the whole day,” Austin said turning to Marty. “Don’t lose that address for the church.”
“I won’t,” Marty said. “Besides, I have it memorized.”
Austin stared at him for a long moment before finally blinking to break the connection between them. It didn’t seem as though he believed him but at the moment, perhaps, he didn’t care.
The hole was massive. It was at least four times the size of the one I’d found at the house and probably even more massive than the one that they’d made through the basement floor of my house.
Austin turned the wheel slowly, making a large circle around the hole. We bounced a bit as the truck went halfway into the ditch as he made his way to the other side. The sounds of the creatures increased in volume and their hands reached up out of the hole like weeds waving in the breeze.
I twisted myself to look out the back window to make sure Noah was following the same path Austin had taken. Austin drove slowly down the highway as if he expected to see another hole in the road.
“Maybe we should stop for the night,” Austin said.
“We’re so close to that hole,” Marty said running his palms up and down his thighs.
“Further ahead then,” Austin said jerking his chin forward.
Marty’s hands were still moving. “Those things could be all around us in the shadows.”
They probably were. I couldn’t see them moving and I couldn’t hear them, but something told me they were out there watching us.
Every so often, I thought I’d caught a glimmer of their glowing blue eyes but I’d blink and it would be gone. It was just little flickers like fireflies on a hot July night.
“What if we could find another house,” I said staring into the empty distance.
Outside of our globe of light, there wasn’t anything out there. There was a moon above and stars that twinkled, both reminding me that we were still on earth. Everything beyond that was a blank canvas at night, or maybe it would be more accurate to call it a black hole.
“There’s nothing left standing,” Marty said.
“Our house was… maybe we could find another,” I said. “If something in the middle of nowhere had been abandoned, maybe we could make it our own.”
I could feel Marty’s eyes on me. “You don’t want to see what’s at this church?”
“I guess I do,” I said with a shrug. “But we should have a backup plan, right? Maybe we could build our own place with all the wood around.”
“I don’t see how that’s even remotely safe,” Marty said.
I lowered my voice trying to keep the hopelessness out of it. “There isn’t anywhere that is safe.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Austin said. “We know the light will keep us safe.”
“But we can’t light the ground below whatever we build.” Marty threw his hands into the air. “They’ll just dig through and get us just like they got mom.”
“There has to be something we can do to protect us,” I said. “The bikers are doing it. The people in the church are doing it. Maybe there is something we’re missing.”
Marty shook his head. “They’ve just been lucky so far, just like we’d been. I’m sure their time will come.”
“It won’t hurt to try,” I said sourly.
“We’ll try the church first, then, if we need to, we’ll find a place to rebuild,” Austin said. “While we’re making our way, we can think about our backup plan.” He looked at me from across the truck. “Okay?”
“Yeah, sounds good,” I said forcing a thin-lipped smile.
The more time we spent outside, the more I realized how unprepared we were. What we were going through wasn’t something anyone could ever be prepared for.
I didn’t know how in the hell I was going to take care of Marty. It was like we were all delicious fresh meat dangling down just above the holes. We’d bounce up and down just ever so slightly out of their reach, but one of these times the creatures would get us.
It was just after midnight according to the numbers on the clock. There were far too many hours of darkness left and I didn’t know what to do to stop myself from having a panic attack.
My heart was racing and my breathing was quickening. Marty looked at me cocking his head to the side.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said in an odd squeaky voice.
“You sound just like I do right before I start hyperventilating,” Marty said with a chuckle. He stiffened and then turned to me. “Oh, shit, you’re not going to, are you?”
I held up my palm taking in breaths that made my lungs feel like they were being stabbed with a dull blade. My fingers wrapped around the armrest tingling with numbness.
“I’m fine,” I said releasing a breath as calmly as I could manage between my lips.
I wasn’t going to hyperventilate, it was the truth, but a panic attack? That was possible. And even likely if I didn’t pull it together.
I cleared my throat. “I think we should keep going. We can go slow, but we should keep going, don’t you think?”
The words flowed out of my mouth like rain down the window pane during a thunderstorm. If I hadn’t pressed my lips together, I probably would have still been talking.
“Yeah,” Austin said in a tone that was comforting but one that didn’t hide the fact that he was worried. He light jabbed Marty with his elbow. “See if you can send a message to Noah. Let him know.”
Marty nodded as he powered on his phone. “Will do.”
He typed in the message and the word sending appeared. It stayed on the screen for a long moment before it showed that the message hadn’t been delivered.
Marty sighed but he tried to resend. And even after the sixth failed attempt, he didn’t stop trying.
Chapter Ten
When the sun came up, Austin stopped the truck. We were in the middle of nowhere.
There were trees on the left side of the round and to our right was a long fence along the road that appeared to have once gone around a field. If there had been a farm, it was no longer there.
The birds in the trees sang and tweeted back and forth likely talking about the strangers in their area. Or maybe they were trying to warn us about what was lurking inside the dark woodsy area below them.
We all gathered at the back of Austin’s truck to stretch our legs. Mallory was the only one who didn’t have eyelids that were half closed.
Austin dug around and pulled out several bottles of water and a
couple boxes of toaster pastries. I knew I should eat but my stomach felt like it was shrinking into itself.
“We’re going to have to stop for a break,” Austin said and everyone bobbed their head in agreement.
I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt but I knew it wouldn’t be safe to keep going with nearly everyone half asleep. I didn’t want to stop. Driving at night was slow and terrifying. During the day, we could go faster and make much better time but it wouldn’t be worth it if someone fell asleep at the wheel.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Noah said rubbing the corner of his eye with a knuckle. “So damn exhausted.”
“I could drive,” Mallory said with a casual shrug.
Austin and Noah exchanged a quick glance. I didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that just wasn’t an option. Oddly Mallory had picked up on it, too.
“Don’t be like that,” Mallory said puffing out her lower lip. “I can drive just fine. I’ve never been in an accident.”
“It’s time for a break,” Austin said.
Mallory crossed her arms. “I have to pee.”
Austin held up a finger and reached into the back of the truck. He opened one of the tied-up garbage bags and pulled out a roll of toilet paper. He tossed it in her direction.
Mallory stepped to the side as if he were tossing her a dead rat. She looked down at it and after a moment squeezed her eyebrows together.
“Lucy?” she said sweetly.
My eyes widened as she picked up the roll of toilet paper. I already knew what she was going to ask and I was trying with all my might to think of an excuse.
“Come with me?” she asked as she tugged on my arm.
I bit my lip. “Oh, I’m not sure if I should.”
“I don’t want to go alone,” Mallory whined.
I turned to Bradley as if he should be the one going with his fiancé.
“Fine,” I groaned as I looked into the bed of the truck. I wanted to take something with me — a weapon — just in case.
“What are you doing?” she asked as I leaned over the side of the truck.
I didn’t answer as I grabbed my dad’s shotgun from the back and his heavy-duty flashlight from the cab.
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