Earth's Survivors Apocalypse
Page 15
~
The silence seemed to go on forever as Conner and Janna waited. Sudden gunfire erupted in the distance again. Janna moaned and Conner pulled her closer to him. “Ssss alright,” Conner told her. “Alright.” He didn’t believe it anymore than he had the last time he’d said it. The burst of gunfire came and went just that quickly, and then silence fell hard on the still morning air.
Janna held herself rigidly. Conner could feel her tremble against him. He patted her head. A stupid, useless, meaningless thing to do, he told himself, but he continued nonetheless, patting her head and stroking her hair. Useless, but if nothing else, it seemed to help calm him.
He drew a deep breath, and the radio squawked. “Conner?” James asked.
Conner took a deep breath and swallowed hard before he trusted his voice to answer. Jan let go of her breath in a deep whoosh and drew in a long, deep shuddering breath. Conner stroked her hair once more.
“Yeah,” Conner answered quietly.
“It’s bad,” Bobs voice broke as he spoke. “It’s bad, Conner. It’s bad.”
In his head, Conner could already hear the words he didn’t want to hear. He had heard everyone’s voice except Katie’s. It only stood to reason… Still, he didn’t want to hear it.
“It’ll be okay,” Jan told him. She pulled him tight. Her own hands trying to pull his head against her breast. “Conner… It’ll be okay.”
“It’s Lydia,” James said. His voice choked with emotion.
“Katie?” Conner asked. He hated himself for asking. He hated the weakness in his voice. How could it be Lydia, he asked himself. I just heard her voice. How could it be?
“I’m here, Babe,” Katie said through the crackle of static. Behind her voice they could hear what sounded like sobbing. The sobbing came across clearly as she stopped talking. “We’re on our way back… We’re coming back… It’s over,” Katie said. She held on to the button for a split second longer, the smooth silence spitting quietly, then the radio in Conner's hand went back to solid static once more.