Seeking Hope: Book 2 in the Seeking Saga

by Becky Poirier

  We were nearing a national park area and were just about to set up our usual tree fort for the night. When we slept in the woods, we always slept well off the ground. We’d find a couple of trees close together and quickly make up several platforms with rails and sleep there for the night. It wasn’t ideal, but we could normally find what we needed and make it work. And with everything going on, we didn’t trust the town sites at all.

  But today was going to be different. Whatever force had been pushing us around, was done with playing the subtlety game. The first sign that something was off, was that after the men had done tying our platforms into place, with their amazing knot skills, was that the forest had grown eerily silent. We still had a couple hours of sunlight left but off in the distance I could see an overcast sky.

  Jack saw the worried expression on my face and came over to reassure me. “It’s okay. The platforms are done early. We just need to get up into the trees and we’ll be safe.” I looked over at poor April. She’d always been so fit, and trim and that figure had resulted in a rather noticeable basketball type belly with her pregnancy. It was getting harder and harder for her to get up into the tree fort, even with Billy’s help. And today she’d looked more exhausted than usual. She was lying on the ground and Billy was busy massaging her poor swollen feet. Would she be able to run if we needed to?

  “They’re already on their way,” I whispered. I didn’t want to scare the kids. Or worry my sister.

  “How do you know?” It wasn’t like he didn’t believe me. I could see he too wore a worried expression on his face.

  “The forest is too quiet, and I just have this feeling…call it intuition, or premonition or whatever. But they’re coming.”

  That was when the silence we’d been emersed in, completely disappeared. The game that we hadn’t seen in a couple of months, finally made its presence known and it was running, like it was running from a predator…or more likely multiple predators. I mean there were birds flocking out of the forest in droves, deer, rabbits. All the food we’d so desperately wished for was running our way.

  “What’s happening?” Charlie asked as he came to huddle into Jack’s side just as a deer brushed close beside us and scurried off.

  “I don’t…” Jack began.

  “Is that smoke?” Kaia asked.

  That’s when I caught the first whiff of it. We stopped using fires months ago, but the smell of campfire was unmistakable…well campfire times a thousand maybe.

  “Forest fire,” April blurted out. I turned to look at her and saw that Billy was already helping cram her enormous feet into her shoes. She bit her lip with the effort it took.

  “Everyone grab what you can now. Leave the rest,” Billy yelled urgently.

  We didn’t hesitate as we all rushed to grab our packs, leaving behind the few items we’d pulled out, including half the food we had left. My stomach growled in protest as I rushed past the deer jerky on the ground.

  My body was weak, and I wasn’t the only one. We’d cut back significantly today, planning on eating a larger meal tonight.

  The fire seemed to push us from all around. It was catching up to us fast and though it was still in the distance, we could feel the heat of it, and worst of all, we realized we were being herded right into one of the towns we’d already rejected because there were clear signs of recent hive activity.

  “Why are they doing this?” Kaia cried beside me as she fought to keep up. Jack had already grabbed Charlie and heaved him over his back, after discarding his own backpack.

  Tears were streaming down Kaia’s face. I was about to say that I didn’t know, but that was a lie. This was not typical hive behaviour. I looked at Jack and said, “It’s her.” There was no other explanation. We never knew how much of a person survived the transition. What if only the worst parts survived, like Michelle’s jealousy and need for revenge. Her hatred for me.

  Maybe the village was right to want me gone all along. Maybe because we were gone, they were left alone. I could only hope. But as I looked at Charlie and Kaia, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I’d signed their death sentences by bringing them with me.

  “Don’t you blame yourself for this,” Jack said to me. I felt tears stream down my filthy face. “You didn’t do anything, and this isn’t over yet.”

  “We still have time.” Jack turned towards his brother. “Didn’t that town have a manmade lake advertised on that brochure we found?”

  April smiled excitedly. “Yes, it did.”

  “The water will be freezing this time of year,” I reminded her. Yes, we were having an unseasonably warm October, but the nights were chilly and there was no way we wouldn’t all end up with hypothermia if we just stood out in the middle of the lake all night.

  “We’ll find a boat, or raft or something,” Billy supplied. “We’re not giving up. And we’re not going to let this continue. That bitch is done screwing with my family.” The anger in his voice had me quivering. He held the bow he’d found a couple of states back, tightly to his side. I looked at his quiver. He only had five arrows.

  “You can’t possibly take out a whole hive with those,” I said, trying not to let the defeat into my voice.

  “We don’t need to. Just the queen,” he said with a twisted smirk. I smiled back in return. He was a good shot…but at what distance. And if she’d managed to make herself the queen of a hive, wouldn’t she have lackies to sacrifice. “Trust me,” he said firmly, urging me on.

  By the time we arrived at the town, we were all exhausted. We’d left the fire long behind us, but now we had less than an hour until sunset, and we had to find the lake and set up the traps we’d talked about along our run.

  Jack and Billy made me leave with April and the kids to head towards the lake which thankfully was only a ten-minute walk. And walk we did. My gimp leg was barely supporting me at this point, as I hobbled on. I noticed April kept rubbing her belly. She assured me she wasn’t in labour. But I knew we’d pushed her harder than she should have been pushed in her condition. The lake was not big by any stretch of the imagination. I imagine April could have swam to one side and back in ten minutes, back in her athletic days at least.

  We were in charge of finding something that would work as a raft. Not surprisingly at all, all the boats we found had large holes in them that had clearly been carved out by claws.

  I was feeling really defeated when April pointed out an old tourist shop that advertised all sorts of rentals. The shop had been locked up tight with a secure wire cage. Thankfully, April had learned to pick locks a long time ago.

  Five minutes later and we were in the shop. Not only did we find a couple of paddle boats that were undamaged, but we also found food, and water.

  We grabbed a couple of backpacks off a shelf and quickly grabbed whatever food we could. Kaia grabbed another backpack and filled it with fireworks as she shot me a sheepish grin. She grabbed a few lighters for good measure.

  I made Charlie take April back to wait for us by the lake while Kaia and I did our best to awkwardly push and drag the paddle boats to the shoreline. By the time we’d managed to get them there, I was dripping in sweat and the sun was just beginning to make its final descent. I grabbed one of the hoodies I’d snagged from the gift shop and tossed it to Charlie who was visibly shaking.

  “I’m not cold,” he whimpered.

  “Just put it on Charlie,” Kaia said calmly as she passed my sister one two.

  “Kaia, you and Charlie are going to take April and the supplies out onto the lake.”

  “You’re not coming?” She asked, panic in her voice.

  “I’ll be just behind you. I’m going to wait and see if the men need my help.”

  April stood up awkwardly and moved towards me. “We’ll wait for you, and the men. We’re in this together.” A sudden pain had my sister stiffening as she rubbed her belly. Seeing the worried expression on my face she quickly declared, “It’s just Braxton Hick’s contractions,” through gritted teeth.


  “Whether they are or not, you need to be out on the lake. It’ll take your fat pregnant ass longer to get out there anywhere,” I teased.

  She tried to glare at me but just ended up smirking. “I don’t care if they’re not back on time. You will get on that boat and paddle like your life depends on it, even if you have to do it alone. Promise me,” she whispered as she pulled me in for a bearhug. “I need you.”

  “I promise,” I lied. She looked into my eyes, and I knew she could see the lie. I’d always been a terrible liar.

  Charlie started crying softly from the paddle boat, and April looked over her shoulder, making a decision I knew she hated. She walked over to the paddle boat and got in with Charlie as Kaia and I pushed it into the water.

  Kaia and Charlie quickly began peddling to move the boat forward, as April controlled the steering.

  I watched as the sun continued to dip and then the screeching filled the air around me. “Please hurry up,” I whispered as tears began to fall down my face. I turned from the water and watched in all directions waiting for my husband and brother-in-law to finally make their appearance.

  I don’t know how much time passed before I finally saw them through my tear-filled blurred vision. But when my husband and his brother appeared at the end of the street, I collapsed to the ground. I sobbed uncontrollably as Jack rushed towards me and collapsing to the ground in front of me, he encircled me in his arms.

  “I didn’t think you’d make it,” I cried out.

  “We were setting some amazing traps,” Jack smiled at me, wiping my tears as he planted a sweet kiss on my nose.

  “Let’s get out onto the lake and join my wife and the kids,” Billy said. “I think we’re going to have a perfect view of the show from there.”

  Jack insisted that I get into the boat as he and Billy pushed it onto the water. They rushed in cursing the cold of the water as they finally started to paddle out to join April and the kids.

  “It’s about time,” April angrily declared, but we could all see she’d been crying just as much as me.

  Poor Charlie was also hiccupping beside his sister. “We’re going to be safe now,” Jack told Charlie from our boat.

  Billy pulled out some rope from his pack and managed to tie our two boats together and then pulled out a large barbell weight that he attached to one end of the rope and dropped it down beneath the water.

  “That will keep us from floating back to shore,” Jack informed Charlie.

  “We’re safe out here?” Charlie asked. Jack and I nodded at the same time.

  “We found food, and clothes,” April smiled as she tossed us one of the bags. “Oh, and Kaia found fireworks too. Not sure what we could do with those exactly, but the least we could do is put on a show and taunt the bastards.”

  “We can probably do more than that,” Billy declared. “Can I see them Kaia?” Kaia handed over the large bag of fireworks. Billy smiled at her as he looked through her prized collection. “You did good Kaia. I don’t think these guys are going to like this too much, not with their sensitive hearing.”

  “What took you guys so long?” April asked as we all settled in with a water bottle and some protein bars.

  “We were busy setting up…”

  Jack was cut off by a rather large explosion that lit up the newly darkened sky. The shrieking that followed was unlike any sound I’d ever heard the beasts make before. If I were to guess, it was a cross between a painful cry and an outraged call.

  “How?” I asked as I looked at both Billy and Jack. It wasn’t like the beasts would have been stupid enough to leave explosives lying around, not when they’d clearly put so much effort into setting up this trap for us.

  “Apparently Michelle didn’t remember that our father was a munitions expert,” Jack supplied. I looked at him confused.

  “She left a van full of cleaning supplies untouched,” Billy laughed. “It was all I really needed, plus something to activate the trigger.” He smiled back at April and gave her a saucy wink. “I don’t suppose you found popcorn babe.” April tossed a package of stale licorice at his chest. He acted wounded and April just laughed.

  The shrieking had died down and now we could hear the regular snarling and grunting sounds, occasionally interspersed with another sound of panicked shrieking. I looked at Jack and he smiled. “We might have also managed to set up a few pits filled with rusted metal…thought that might serve Michelle right, for that other town.”

  I held out my hand for Jack and he intertwined his fingers with mine. Another explosion went off on the far side of the lake, causing me to jump and Jack to wrap his arms around me as the painful shrieking grew louder.

  “How many did you manage to set up?” Kaia shouted over the cacophony as she held tightly to her ears.

  “There are two more on that side of the lake and another just over…” Billy had started to say as another explosion went off in the distance. “About there,” Billy laughed.

  “It won’t take out all of them, but it’s going to reduce their numbers significantly,” Jack added.

  I only wished we’d had more time. Knowing that Billy and Jack had such useful hidden skills, I was sad we couldn’t take more advantage. Reducing her numbers was great and all, but it wouldn’t be enough.

  “What you say we light a few of these bad boys up, and put on a real show?” Billy asked Charlie. Charlie, who’d been clutching his ears quite tightly and had been visibly shaking in my sister’s arms, suddenly lit up with excitement. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Billy stood up carefully in our boat and lit the firework and held it at arms length away from his face. The firework launched into the air, lighting up the night’s sky as well as illuminating the amassing crowd of beasts that were now anxiously lining up the shore.

  “There are more than I thought,” I whispered to Jack.

  He held me tighter. “We don’t need to worry about them. Take out Michelle and they won’t continue to follow. We’re not worth it to them.” I knew he was right, but it didn’t help the trembling that took over my body.

  Billy lit another firework causing the crowd of beasts to shriek violently as they hopped along the beach, desperately searching for a way to attack us. Another explosion went off to the side of us. We watched as some of the beasts at our front began shrieking and started to head towards their injured hive members.

  They stopped dead in their path, when a loud snarling shriek cut through all the noise that was being made, by both the hive and the residual fire created by the explosion. An eerie silence overtook the lake as one individual beast emerged through the crowd.

  Months had passed, and the only reason I knew that it was Michelle that walked through, was by the still golden main that stretched past her pointed ears and landed down her back…that and the fact that she was staring directly at me.

  Jack pulled out a pair of binoculars from his brother’s pack and looked over the water towards Michelle. “Let me see.” I tried to pry the binoculars from his hands, but he hesitated to let them go.

  “You don’t need to see this,” he tried to convince me.

  I held out my hand, defiantly. I was not the same person he’d met in the woods a year ago. Had it really been a year already? I was stronger now. I could handle this. Reluctantly he handed over the binoculars.

  When I spied through them, I caught the site of Michelle’s smiling wolflike features. Her large k-9’s were on full display as she grinned at me. Her eyes were blood red, eerily illuminated by the embers in the distance. She shrieked again, and despite my best efforts I flinched, and she laughed…or what I thought was the beast form of a laugh. It was a trilling shriek sound that she made as she flung her furry head back.

  Several of the other beasts joined in on the laughter. She suddenly cut off as did the others, another barking shriek was directed towards the crowd of beasts. I watched as a few of them hesitantly stepped forward to test out the water but shrieked as soon as they came in contact w
ith it.

  “Not the oil,” Billy said relieved.

  “You thought it was the oil?” I asked.

  “We hoped it was the water…that they didn’t know how to swim, but we couldn’t be sure,” Billy replied honestly.

  “So, you had us come out into the middle of the lake on a hunch,” April snapped as she massaged her abdomen.

  I reached across the boat and took her other hand. “It was a good hunch April.” She sighed and nodded.

  I handed Jack back the binoculars. I couldn’t stand this stand still anymore. They obviously weren’t going to be able to come and get us, and it appeared that the water was not so much a deterrent because they couldn’t swim. The few that I’d seen step forward actually looked like they were in pain.

  “What’s she doing now?” Kaia asked as we heard an enraged shriek emanate from Michelle’s direction.

  “She’s actually attacking some of them, trying to shove them in the water,” Jack answered amused. “She just slashed one across the face with her claws.”

  “Jack you’re going to need to direct me on aiming this thing,” Billy said. I looked at him and he was holding a flaming arrow through his bow. I would have asked how but there was really no point. I just hoped he was a great distance shot. Jack pointed in the direction of Michelle who was apparently still attacking her lackies.

  Billy let his flaming arrow loose and quickly snagged the binoculars from Jack. “Dammit!” he yelled.

  “What?” April asked.

  “One of her stupid minions stepped in the way.”

  Billy quickly handed the binoculars to April who looked through them and cursed. The shrieking of her hive grew in strength as we smelt the charred flesh of their fallen comrade drift across the lake.

  “They smell worse, when they’re dying,” April began to gag over her side of the boat as she handed the binoculars back to me.