Seeking Daylight

by Becky Poirier

  To my wonderful husband, thank you so much for all your help. I couldn't have finished this without you. Love you Alan.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Introduction

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Epilogue

  About The Author

  Introduction

  The world had been descending into chaos for several decades. War, famine, and natural disasters had ravaged the planet. But none of them caused as much devastation as the outbreak that changed the course of humanity forever. At first the disease killed most, but then it mutated. No longer killing the host, it transformed them into something monstrous, demonic. Paige has lived most of her life in isolation. Her only priority was to keep her sister alive. Now she’s failed at that. With no reason to keep fighting against the inevitable. She’s decided to go out in a blaze of glory, taking as many of the demons as she can, along to the grave with her. Only one thing stands in her way. Seth is the stranger, who for some reason is hell bent on convincing Paige there’s a reason to keep fighting. She’ll play along for now, until she can steal some supplies and exact her revenge.

  Chapter One

  The doorbell clanged as I pushed open the already half demolished door, which barely hung by one hinge. The sound echoed throughout the store. I stood there for a moment trying to catch my breath. It was getting harder to breath now. My ribs were cracked or bruised, not that it really mattered much. This nightmare would be over soon enough and then I could rest.

  I dragged my useless left foot behind me as I hobbled deeper into the weapons store. The pain had dulled a little now that I had tossed my shoe a few miles back. My foot and ankle were too swollen to wear it any longer. Now all I felt was a dull ache.

  “Please don’t be empty,” I whispered to myself searching the vastness of the store. Everywhere I looked all I saw were shelves collapsing in on themselves, broken glass, long since dried blood spots. There didn’t even look like there was anything that could possibly be used as a useful weapon.

  I stumbled on searching. What was I looking for? I didn’t know. Guns would have been the first things the looters took. It’s what I would have taken. There were stray bullets flung all over the floor but the ones that hadn’t been fired weren’t of much use to me without a gun to shoot them out of and there were clearly none of those. I held my head tightly with my hands pushing in on the pain. “Just focus you idiot,” I scolded myself. “What do you need?” If I had chemicals and a little time maybe I could rig an explosion.

  Painfully I twisted my neck around to look out the window. The sun would set soon. I had no idea how much longer I had. The days were growing shorter now, colder. There was no time to search for another store. I had wasted the entire day just walking or rather limping. It wasn’t until I saw the broken down ‘Leeroy’s Gun and Supply’ that I’d even thought about what I was going to do. Now I had a plan and no time, no supplies to put it into action. It was too late to find a decent hiding spot. No, this was going to happen tonight. I could not endure another night. I had gone on too long. My body and soul were beyond exhausted.

  The daylight’s fading sun reflected off an old dusty shard of glass. It hurt my eyes. I blocked the reflection with my good arm as I limped towards it catching a glimpse of myself. With my body blocking the light I slowly lowered my arm as I gingerly touched the puff of auburn tangled hair that was matted to the side of my head. It was pulled out of its normally tucked in French braid, hairs were scattered everywhere. It looked so funny that I briefly forgot how bad my head hurt. I chuckled to myself. “Hey Molly, why didn’t you tell me I looked so ridiculous?” I turned around to where my little sister should have been. The smile quickly fell from my face as I turned back towards the glass staring at the ragged figure in the reflection.

  “So stupid,” I said shaking my head trying to fight back the tears. I didn’t have the time for them. Nor did I have a right to them. I grabbed the old silver angel locket that hung by my chest, as I always did when I needed to focus. It would be night soon and the demons would be sprawling the streets and then there would be no chance for me, not that I really cared much anymore. I just needed to finish one last thing first, for her.

  I let my hand fall off the locket. “She’s dead,” I shouted at my reflection, my face burning red. As if saying it out loud would make it any more real. If it weren’t for the pain, I might think this was all just some horrible nightmare. But it was true. Molly was dead. I was alone and it was my fault. I glared angrily at the person staring back at me. In a fit of rage, I smashed the broken glass onto the floor shattering it into a dozen mismatched pieces.

  My body slowly crumpled to the floor. “I’m sorry Molly,” I wailed into my hands. I let the grief overrun me for the first time since I’d lost her. My whole body shook as I sobbed. It wasn’t fair. Just yesterday we were laughing and joking around. Yesterday everything had been perfect. We weren’t afraid. We were safe. There had been hope for a future free from the nightmare we’d been living. Now she was gone, they all were. The cowards! Thinking about the others helped snap me back into reality. “They left us,” I spat out angrily pushing back the tears. “He left us. I hope they got what they deserved, but as for you Paige,” I said addressing myself as I pulled my body painfully up off the floor. “We have things to do. You failed Molly once and you’re not going to do it again. This is for her.”

  I owed her so much and with my dying breath I would get revenge on the demons that took her from me. I was in a manic state now, thrashing things around the store. “Shelves? Seriously?” I shouted out. “Please give me something useful.” I brushed my hand against my nose roughly, to stop myself from crying again. A sharp pain in my nose drew my attention to my hand. A small drop of blood fell down the large diamond ring on my left hand. The anger rushed back through me as I ripped the lie off my finger, tossing it across the store. Focus, I told myself.

  Glass, and shelves, and busted up shell casings, that was all there was. No decent weapons to speak of. I yanked my pack off of my shoulders searching frantically. I had an empty water bottle, some string, a bloodied-up t-shirt. Everything that had meant something was back at the old safe house. I hadn’t had any time to grab any of it. It didn’t matter. I wouldn’t be around much longer to miss those things.

  I stumbled around the store some more. I picked up a large glass shard. It wasn’t going to help me kill a whole lot of them, but maybe I could get at least one kill. I w
rapped the shirt around the glass as tightly as I could with my one good hand as I held the glass delicately between my legs. With the string I managed to secure the shirt. I set my newly made weapon on the only standing shelf left. “One down,” I sighed. “Just a couple more to go.” The demons were fast. I’d have to be precise with my blow. “Hit the big vein in the neck. Now you’re starting to think like yourself again,” I smiled wickedly.

  It wouldn’t be enough to kill just one, no I had to set up a trap or something. I searched through my bag again. “Ow,” I shrieked. Quickly I snapped my hand back out and clutched my injured finger between my teeth. My blood tasted salty on my parched tongue. With more caution this time I searched my bag for the cause of my fresh pain. My bag fell to the floor as I pulled out the half empty syringe. I didn’t even remember putting it back in my bag. I stared at it for awhile. It was like it was taunting me, trying to make me relive my last night with Molly. I could see her eyes pleading with me. Her blonde strands of once soft locks clung to her neck with dirt, sweat and blood. “Please…” she cried.

  “No,” I shouted at it thrusting it beside my new knife. “No, I won’t let you distract me.” Molly’s face faded from my mind. I didn’t know what affect the drug would have on the demons, it was enough to kill a human for sure, but the demons were stronger than we were. The doorbell clanged echoing through the store, bringing me back to my senses. My whole body froze.

  “Talking to yourself is a sure sign of an unbalanced mind,” an unfamiliar male voice responded.

  I whirled around putting myself in front of my new weapons. Standing in the doorway of the gun shop were three of the roughest, vilest men I’d ever seen before and I’d seen a lot of nasty in my short lifetime.

  I didn’t say a word to the man that spoke. I was too busy assessing him and his companions. It was what I always did when I met strangers. The man in the middle was short, but thickly built. His front teeth were half bashed in and he was covered in sweat and caked on dirt. If it were just him, even in my battered-up condition I could take him easily. His two companions were the ones I had to worry about. They almost looked healthy. They were both tall and strong. They were easily three times as heavy as I was, and they were armed with far better weapons than I had managed to scrounge up. One held an axe and the other a loaded crossbow.

  While I was busy assessing their threat level, I could see they were eyeing up my injuries to see if I had any chance of fighting back. I must have looked pretty bad because all three wore the same sickening smile. My stomach twisted in on itself. After everything I had endured, I was not about to let this be the way my life ended. My mother had warned me before we were separated that these kinds of people made up the majority of the survivors. “Trust no one,” her words echoed in my memory.

  So stupid, the words repeated in my mind. I was good at avoiding their kind, but today I had been clumsy. It wasn’t the first time I’d run into men like them. Hell, I’d killed men like them, tougher, faster…but now fate was not on my side. By the looks of them I guessed they had been stalking me for awhile now. They would have wanted to make sure I was alone, unarmed.

  I would fight. Of course I would fight, but in my condition I’d be lucky to manage to sink the handmade knife into one of them and that was only if I could manage to distract them. At least the demons were easy to distract.

  I backed up into the shelf, feeling slowly with my good hand for my weapon. “She looks like she might have been a perdy looking thing once upon a time,” the short fat one said to the bald-headed guy to his left. I glared back at him. The world was nearing an end, humanity all but extinct and yet somehow these backwoods hillbillies had managed to survive. I didn’t know if that was irony or another one of God’s sick jokes.

  “It doesn’t really matter much what she looks like to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed the companionship of a woman,” the bald one chuckled.

  “Enough with the talk,” the other one said. “Sunlight’s a wasting and I for one don’t plan on being here when those things start prowling the streets.”

  A hint of fear crossed his companions’ eyes. They stalked forward in unison. I would not cry; I would not scream. I would do everything in my power to kill them, even one. At this point the demons were no longer my focus. These men might as well have been the demons. They were every bit a soulless and ending any one of their lives would make this world a safer place. If that was all I could accomplish with my dying breath, then it would have to do.

  As they edged closer to me, I looked away trying to act afraid while still searching for my weapon. I had put it on the shelf but where was it? I searched frantically now. Real panic coming through, then my hand finally fell on something. It wasn’t the knife. It was the syringe. I grasped it firmly in my hand.

  I looked back up just as the doorbell rang out again. This time the men were startled. I was mostly annoyed. I was so sick of people interrupting me. Two people walked through the door, a tall lanky young man who looked only a little older than me: with dusty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Beside him stood an older woman, maybe mid-fifties with cropped off silver hair.

  “We found her first. She’s ours,” the short creepy guy said. He was standing just a little in front of me. I could easily sink the syringe into his neck. But he wasn’t my target. I needed to take out one of the big guys. They were going to be harder to kill, even with this newfound distraction.

  “Well she doesn’t really look like she feels like staying in your company,” the young man spoke forcefully, but calmly, with a thick British accent. His eyes smiled at me. For some reason he made me even more uncomfortable than the three scum standing in front of me.

  “You should mind your own business,” the bald one replied. “If you knew what was good for you, you’d get goin’. After all, daylight’s a wast…. Urgh!” He yelled out as I plunged the syringe deep into the large vein in his neck.

  He staggered around for a moment or two before his body crumpled to the floor. I was in shock. I didn’t actually think that would work. It had worked in movies before but it always seemed like it was way too easy to actually be able to kill someone that quickly. Now I was the one distracted.

  Everything in that moment felt surreal. The bald man was on the floor, his friends were staring at me in disbelief. I was grabbing for my knife. It was in my hand but I wasn’t fast enough. The other tall one grabbed me by my throat, thrusting me up off the ground. I was still holding the knife but I couldn’t remember what I needed to do with it.

  I heard it smash on the floor, shattering as I clawed at the hands that were cutting off my air supply. My feet kicked feebly beneath me. Well, I thought as the room spun out of focus, at least they didn’t get what they wanted. If I had to die, at least I didn’t have to go out that way.

  The darkness was just starting to pull me under when a loud shot rang through the air. The hands around my throat loosened and fell away. Next thing I knew my body was smashing hard onto the concrete floor. What little air I had in my lungs at that time flew out with a moan.

  The room was spinning again. My head pounded. I could hear voices now but they were hollow, like they were coming through some poorly operated loudspeaker. “If you don’t feel like joining your friends I suggest you leave.” My ears were ringing.

  There was someone beside me now. She was talking to me, the silver-haired woman, but I wasn’t listening to her. I was too captivated by her companion. He was holding a small revolver pointing it at the ugly one.

  The ugly one looked like he might pee his pants…if he hadn’t already. He nodded quickly and then rushed past the young man.

  The young man stared out the window after the ugly one. “Is he gone?” The woman beside me asked.

  “Yeah. Without his big friends I don’t think he felt very brave. How is she?” He asked coming over to kneel down on the floor beside me. I wanted to pull away, but my body wouldn’t respond. My eyes must have betrayed my fear because he
immediately tried to reassure me. “No, we’re not going to hurt you. I promise we’re not like them.” His eyes were a haunting blue. So beautiful. They reminded me of another pair of eyes just as warm, just as inviting. They had been a lie. I felt the tears start to roll down my cheeks. I had no more strength to wipe them away.

  “We need to get her out of here. The sun will be down in less than an hour. They’ll be drawn to all the blood, and the ones nearby surely will have heard the gun shot,” the woman said wiping away my tears.

  “Do you think it’s safe to move her?” The man asked.

  “Safer than staying here.”

  He nodded. “My name is Seth,” he said gently. “And this here is Jane,” he pointed to the lady who smiled back at me sweetly. “We’re going to bring you with us back to our sanctuary. We have a doctor there. He’ll have you fixed up in no time.”

  “Pleaaase,” I managed to croak out. Seth stared back at me with a look I couldn’t quite place. It was a mix of sorrow and pity with something else. I didn’t like it. He didn’t need to pity me, just leave me.

  “It’s okay dear,” Jane said. “It’s not too far away, and with the jeep we can get there quickly. Don’t try to speak now. Your throat…just try to stay calm. You’ll be okay.”

  They didn’t understand. My voice wasn’t working properly to make them understand. My throat was so sore. It hurt so much just to get the one word out. How was I supposed to make them see the truth? I didn’t want to see their doctor. I didn’t want to be safe in their sanctuary. I wanted this to be all over and they were planning to make it all last longer.

  My tears flowed now constantly over my dry cheeks. Jane wiped them away gently with her coat sleeve. “We need to get moving,” Seth said urgently. “Where’s the other girl?” He asked me. I stared back at him confused. “The other girl who was with you.” My head felt so heavy. My eyes couldn’t stay open any longer.

  “No one else,” I rasped out hoarsely.