Shade (Shade Chronicles Book 1)

by T. K. Bradley

  I swish it around in my mouth, just barely enjoying the warm water before swallowing, willing it to soothe my dry throat.

  Nobody says anything, but our eyes keep flitting to the horizon. We’re all watching for Tony and Beth. Dusk is the safest time for us to travel, but we still have to rush against the threat of night.

  Tony may have been the last addition to our merry band of survivors, but he fit in with the group as if he’d always been here. I admit it…at first, we only agreed to let him stay because he was still fit, healthy from a steady diet of canned food from raided pantries, while the rest of us were too-quickly wasting away. We saw a use for him. And he never begrudged us that need. It’s because of him that we’re still hanging on, and if he doesn’t come back…

  I hate to be the one to break the silence. “We can’t wait anymore.”

  The others nod, but nobody wants to take the first step. It’s too final, as if we’re giving them up for dead.

  Selena flinches. If Beth dies, it’ll kill her. They’ve been like sisters since the beginning, and she needs whatever hope she can get.

  I decide to give her that hope for one more day. “Hey, you know they just had to go a bit further than usual to set traps. No doubt they’ll be here by morning.”

  Selena looks at me with a glimmer of a smile. A single tear spills and she’s quick to catch it with her finger. She slips the tear into her mouth. Not a drop of moisture to waste.

  It’s rare for two survivors to be together for as long as Selena and Beth. They escaped the city together, and showed up here one day a few months back in a Ferrari. We asked them how they got it, but they shut right down. Whatever happened to them, it was too much to talk about. Man, I miss that car almost as much as I miss cheeseburgers. I got to drive it down to Commack once to raid a gas station, and I was pushing 200 the whole way. I even got to put the top down for a little while, and seriously, the memory of the wind on my face is the only thing that keeps me going some days.

  I push myself up the wall into a crooked upright position. “Come on, guys. They’ll be here when they’re here.”

  I offer my hand to Seth and pull him up next to me. We all give a round of stretches, where joints pop and creak. The skin hangs loose off our bones with no muscle beneath. I’m sure I could count my ribs through my shirt if I had the energy to look down.

  In the beginning, we tried to exercise, sprinting back and forth, tossing a large rock between us. The problem was that it made us sweat, and water is more precious than gold. If someone offered me the choice of a bottle of water or a million dollars, I wouldn’t even have to think about it. I’m practically drooling just thinking about a mouthful of water. It doesn’t even have to be cold. Or clean.

  I’ll take a sip of warm, muddy water please.

  Oscar pulls up the door to the storm cellar with a grunt. It’s a solid wood door that swings out from the ground, revealing the small hole within. A waft of cooler air greets us. It smells stagnant, with a faint whiff of moldy potatoes.

  Oscar hesitates before stepping down the steps. It’s his turn for the back of the hole. The roof is at least tall enough for us to stand up straight, but the walls are too close for us to lay down. But without Tony and Beth…

  The guilt at that thought hits hard. I don’t really want them to be dead, but maybe missing for a day or two wouldn’t be the worst thing. What I wouldn’t give to lay down on the floor for the night instead of propping myself up between sweaty bodies. The way that Oscar steps into the hole without kicking up his usual stink makes me think that I’m not the only one with the thought.

  The cellar is nothing more than hard packed floor and bare walls. It originally had shelves stocked with canned goods. Creamed corn and beets mostly. Of course, we ate all the food in the first couple months, and when Beth and Selena showed up, we had to rip out the shelves to give us more room.

  We step through the narrow door one by one. The darkness closes in around us, and I can’t suppress the shudder that runs down my skin. Dean comes in last and leans back out to close the door. We all hold our breaths, waiting for the last daylight to be closed out, but Dean hesitates. I look over at him and see that his spine is rigid and his knuckles are white on the handle.

  “Hey, Dean. What’s up, man?” I ask.

  If at all possible, when Dean turns to me, his skin has turned an ashy pale color. “Come here and tell me you see this.”

  I step up onto the stairs beside him and look out the doorway. There, glowing in the light of the setting sun, is a cloud of dust.

  “Is that a car?”

  This gets the attention of the others behind us, and they begin to push us forward to get a look.

  Oscar shoves his way to the front. “It’s the army! They’re coming to rescue us!”

  “Don’t be an idiot. If it was the army, they woulda been here years ago. Maybe it’s bandits,” Dean says, ever the optimist.

  “Both of you, shut up!” Selena smacks the boys on their heads. Now the attention is on her. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the army, or a goddamn circus. What we need to decide is whether or not we want to head out there and find out.”

  In that moment, she reminds me of my wife.

  She’s right. Of course, she’s right. Sarah always liked that about Selena. The two of them were always right, together.

  We all turn our attention to the approaching vehicle. As it gets closer, we can see that it’s larger than just a car. A truck maybe?

  “It’s a tank!” Oscar is bouncing up and down like a kid on Christmas.

  “You’re such a moron! Tanks don’t drive that fast.” But Dean doesn’t look so confident now.

  They keep bickering back and forth and I can feel a headache starting to brew at the base of my skull. I try to keep my attention on the approaching vehicle, but as the light fades, it becomes harder to see.

  That’s not the only thing we have to worry about, though.

  “Guys? We need to barricade the doors.”

  They taper off behind me.

  We probably have ten minutes before full dark.

  It takes all of two minutes before the vehicle is in sight. We’re still squabbling over whether or not we should flag it down when Seth breaks in. “Hey! It’s slowing down, guys!”

  Sure enough, it slows down and pulls off the main road, heading straight toward our shelter. Dean gives a huff of disappointment as he sees that it is not, in fact, a tank. It’s a beaten and battered RV so thickly covered in grime, it’s hard to tell what color it originally was, and it’s completely stripped. Someone has clearly taken off any pieces they deemed useful, leaving only the bare bones.

  It drags a cloud of dust behind it, and as it stops in front of the house, the dust billows around us. We can hear the door open, more than see it, as the sharp groan echoes through the dim evening.

  Shadows move, and as the dust settles, we’re left staring at a disappointment.

  The man is a little under six feet tall and is so stick-thin, I’m surprised the wind hasn’t carried him off. He has a few burns on his arms and on the side of his face, but they’ve been treated, covered in gauze in places.

  It isn’t until Oscar speaks that we realize the man hadn’t even known we were there. “Keep your hands where we can see ‘em.”

  The man jumps, and takes a step back towards the RV, cowering behind the open door.

  I can’t help but notice his clothes. They look almost like scrubs, the kind doctors and nurses wear; they’re practically brand new. I finger the frayed hem of my t-shirt. Where are you from? I wonder. Scrubs and gauze? Can it be possible that a hospital still exists?

  The rear passenger door swings open, and I find myself being shoved aside as Selena steps forward with a battered 2 by 4 in hand, ready for an impending attack. Two figures step forward from the vehicle, and Selena winds up for a swing.

  “NO!” I reach out and grab the end of the wood, at the same time as the man in scrubs throws himself forward and ta
ckles her around the waist. Selena, the man, and I, end up in a heap. Selena flails her feet, her kicks almost making me lose my grip on the 2 by 4, but I hold tight to her makeshift weapon. I take an elbow to the teeth, and I hear a grunt from the stranger. I blindly grapple and manage to get a grip on her arms.

  “Let me go, James!” Selena seethes, still thrashing.

  Clenching my teeth against the pain in my jaw, I manage to mumble one word. “Look!”

  Selena begins to lose steam, and I can tell when she sets her gaze on the new arrivals because her body sags in my arms.

  I relax my grip and we all stagger to our feet.

  I spit out a mouthful of blood and half a tooth.

  “Sorry James. I didn’t know.” Selena’s voice rings with a new level of grief, fresh and intense.

  It’s not grief over my lost tooth, either. I turn my attention to the newcomers. Two kids stand cowering next to the RV, clinging to each other like a life vest on a sinking ship.

  Kids!

  I know they’re not exactly toddlers or anything, but the youngest I’ve seen since this all began. They’re probably in their early teens, one boy, one girl. They both have the same look to them; wide, sunken eyes, with a healthy dose of terror. Though I can see that they too sport bandaged injuries in places, their skin isn’t tan or leathery, like ours, but sickly pale, and they almost glow in the dimming light. Wherever they’ve been hiding, they haven’t seen the light of day for a very long time. All three of them have the same lank brown hair and blue eyes; pretty safe to assume they’re related. How has a family managed to stay together and alive? The kids, like their dad, wear brand new scrubs, like it’s some kind of uniform. If you look past the dirt and blood, you can see the pants still hold creases.

  We all just stand here, not saying a word. This isn’t exactly a situation we planned for.

  My first instinct is to trust the man, I mean, he’s a father after all. But I’m sure we’ve all seen enough by now that we can’t expect manners and fair play at this point in the game. The fact that he’s a father should actually be a strike against him. To have kept his kids alive this long, it shows that he’s probably willing to do anything to protect them…

  We all stand awkwardly in a loose circle, eyeing each other up. Nobody seems ready to make the first move. Finally, the stranger gives a sigh and steps forward with his hand outstretched.

  “The name’s David.”

  I stare at the hand with its unblemished surface and manicured nails. I can’t trust a man without a callus.

  After a long awkward silence, Seth is finally the one to meet him halfway and shake hands with the man. “I’m Seth. That’s James, Oscar and Dean. And the slightly violent woman is Selena.”

  Selena steps forward to shake David’s hand. “Have I apologized yet?”

  “No harm done.” His words are friendly, but he keeps himself angled between Selena and his kids. His eyes are wary as he takes each of us in.

  Full darkness is settling around us, and I can hear scuttling through the night. The hairs on the back of my neck tingle. David’s eyes dart to the growing shadows, and he shuffles his feet in the dry earth.

  “I know we just met, and it’s presumptuous of me to even ask, but…any chance we can bunk with you guys tonight? We’ll move on first thing in the morning,” he assures us quickly. He pats down his pockets. “You can frisk us if you want. No weapons, I swear it.”

  The rest of my group is getting skittish. We need to get into the shelter. Now. The night is coming alive around us.

  “Fine, fine. Just get in. Quick.” Seth roughly pushes the man towards the door, and the kids scurry in behind him.

  As I’m about to climb in, I hear a voice. It’s faint, but getting louder, and there’s no mistaking what it’s saying.

  “Wait! We’re coming! Wait!!”

  From out of the blackness, Tony and Beth come barrelling into me. “Thank God you haven’t locked the door yet!” Tony pants, his hot breath in my face. His clothing is sticky with old sweat.

  “Where the hell have you been?” I hiss at them. “We watched for you all day!”

  “We wandered out too far and had to hole up for the day,” Beth says. “The tiniest little patch of shade under some old clunker on the highway. The tires were flat so I spent the whole day with the axle digging into my back.” She is still shaking with nerves, all the while sidling closer to the cellar.

  “We can talk about it later. Let’s just get inside,” Tony calls, but he stops short when he sees David and the kids standing in the doorway. “Who the hell are they?” His voice is acidic. It’s obvious that he has already done the math, and he knows there’s no way that we’ll all fit in there.

  Somebody will have to leave.

  David slides his daughter in behind him, while his son stands taller, puffing out his chest in some macho attempt to look tougher. There’s no way that these two can stand a chance against Tony, even two on one. David’s scrawny and his son is just a shorter, thinner version of him. Tony, on the other hand, is our main hunter and scavenger. He goes out on supply runs almost every day to check on traps and look for canned goods. He gets first share of everything he finds. His arms and chest are muscular and his legs are strong from running.

  David sees that he’s at a disadvantage. “It’s alright. We don’t want any trouble. We’ll just go.”

  They step out of the cellar and shuffle back toward the RV, never turning their backs to Tony. Just moments ago there was a tenuous trust forming between us, and now, there’s a cold brick wall.

  A twig snaps in the deep dusk, and now everyone is moving. David grabs his kids and bolts for the RV. Oscar pivots to the cellar, and shoves the others down the steps. That just leaves me.

  I stand in the middle. I haven’t moved an inch.

  I can’t help but stare after the kids. Their RV isn’t secure. They have zero chance of surviving the night, even if they have enough gas to keep driving.

  I can’t stop myself from calling out. “Stop.” No one hears me over their frantic scrambling, so I shout, “STOP!”

  An uneasy quiet settles around us. Even the insects have paused in their incessant chirping.

  “What’s up, Jimbo? You gotta get in the hole.” Seth tugs at my arm, but I don’t budge.

  “We have room.” I can see Seth is already shaking his head, an anguished sadness on his face. He’s begging me not to make this decision harder. “No, just listen. I know we can’t fit them all in...but we can take the kids.”

  I’m bolstered when no one immediately says no. I continue my frantic rambling, determined to convince them. “They’re not that big! They can take Sarah’s place.” That’s hitting below the belt, and we all know it. I can see the guilt swimming in their eyes and I know I have them. I wasn’t the only one who stood by and watched Sarah die. David stands frozen at the RV door, holding his breath, nodding slightly.

  Seth looks back over his shoulder at the others. Their eyes are darting back and forth between the cellar and the beyond. They don’t care anymore about how cramped we’d be. They don’t care if they get a wink of sleep or not. They just want to get in the hole.

  “Alright. Quick.” Seth darts forward and grabs the son by his arm.

  David is already pushing his daughter, and she shrieks, “NO! Daddy, you can’t do this! I won’t leave you out here!” She claws at his arms, and her feet slide through the loose soil as she tries to push back.

  “Like hell you won’t!” He pulls her into a final hug, and Seth releases the boy for a hurried farewell. “No matter what happens, just remember that I love you both. Don’t ever forget that.”

  Seth and Tony pull the kids in, kicking and screaming, as they watch their father run for the RV. His silhouette is quickly swallowed up by the night, and the doors are pulled shut with a final squeal of rusted hinges.

  We stand, shoulder to shoulder in the pitch black, our heaving breaths sounding loud in the close space. For the span of a heartbe
at we all stand there, listening to the girl’s sobbing. Then a match is struck and the oil lamp’s faint glow warms the small space around us. I glance over at the boy, clenching and unclenching his fists at his side. He’s just barely holding it together.

  I bump his shoulder and he turns his burning eyes to me. “Hey. What’s your name?”

  “B-Brent,” he stutters, his breath hitching in his throat.

  “Nice to meet you Brent. My name is James.” I offer him a hand, and he shakes it weakly, bumping his elbow into Seth. He turns to apologize and steps on Selena’s toes. Before he can injure anyone else, I give his arm a squeeze. “What about your sister?” I would ask her, but she’s clearly not in a talking mood.

  “Lori. Her name is Lori.”

  “That’s great, Brent. You know, we could sure use your help. Do you think you could help us lock up?”

  I slide up one of the boards leaning against the wall and pass it over to him. He gives a short nod and gets to work, wedging boards across the door. It’s the job of whoever is standing next to the door, but in this case, Brent’s sister doesn’t seem to be much help. She’s still blubbering softly, and Tony gently trades places with her, moving her to the back of the cellar while he steps up to help with the barricade.

  It’s a tight squeeze with the extra people, even though they’re children, and barring the door takes longer than usual. Slowly, we settle in for the night. Someone blows out the lamp, and we lean against each other in the pitch black.

  It’s amazing that even when it’s the blackest night, your eyes will find the dimmest of lights, the moon’s glow from between the wooden planks, and ever so slowly, the darkness will take on a light of its own. Black turns to gray. I can see the outlines of the people beside me, and in time, I can even tell who they are.

  We all try to make ourselves comfortable. With the kids wedged between us, there’s less space to be had for the rest of us. Selena and Beth both lower themselves to their knees and doze resting against the wall. Seth talks calmly to the kids for a while, his voice even and smooth. I find myself being lulled into sleep, regardless of Lori’s sniffling.