"We don't know."
"Was the mother around?"
It was Marianne that replied. "She's outside," she said, pointing to a small window in the back wall. "But she's dead. She was probably going out to get her babies some food when she came across one of thosethings."
One of those things?Adam thought.So that meant that they were still around. He didn't like the sound of that, not with the women were being so loud, playing with the kitten.
"We shouldn't stay here any longer," he said.
"Come see Cookie first," Claire said.
"Cookie?"
"That's what we named her."
Julie and Marianne laughed at the name.
Obviously some type of inside joke, Adam figured. He didn't bother to ask them about it.
He went over to the kitten. Scooter was already there, poking at it playfully with his finger. The kitten tried to bite at him with its little teeth.
"Wanna hold him?" Claire asked. It took Adam a moment to realize that she was talking to him.
"What? Me?" he replied. "No. I think we should get going."
"Oh, come on," Claire persisted. "Cookie wants to meet you."
Before he had a chance to say anything else, Claire picked up the kitten and placed it in his hands. He felt the ribs poking through the side of its body and knew that it must have been close to death before the women had found it.
*
They decided to leave not much longer after. Cookie was safely put away in Marianne's purse. Adam could see its head sticking out, looking around at everyone.
"How's Buster going to like having her around?" Adam asked. A quick look had told them that the kitten was female.
"He's going to love her," Marianne replied. She looked down Cookie and started talking as she would to a baby. "That's right, you're going to love your big brother. He's a dog, but I know he'll love you too." She poked at the cat's nose.
They went into the store to pick up the backpacks they had left there.
"Let me take that," Adam told Claire as she reached for one.
"Think I'm too weak?" Claire asked.
"I didn't mean that. I…"
She smiled. "I know you didn't. But don't worry, I'll be fine carrying it."
Adam smiled back. "Let me know if you change your mind."
He turned to Scooter. The young man was carrying Julie's backpack and he felt the urge to point it out.
He didn’t bother. That type of argument wasn't going to have much of an impact.
"Let's go," Claire said, strapping the backpack over her shoulders and walking toward the front door.
Adam and the others trailed behind her.
Chapter 11
They walked through the town, a lot more quietly than they had been in the store. Thinking about the creature that had killed the kitten's mother reminded them to be a little more careful.
When they got out of it, Claire walked up beside Adam and grabbed his hand. The happiness that had been on her face earlier had been replaced with concern.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Jane," she replied. "You didn't find her?"
Adam shook his head. "We went out the same way that Charles said she had run, but she wasn't anywhere around."
"Do you think she's okay?"
"I'm not sure."
"You okay?"
Again, he wasn't sure. He continued to feel guilty at not having done more to help her. Yet, at the end of it all, he didn't know if there was much that he could have actually done.Whatever had happened in her mind was a lot more complex than he was equipped to deal with.
He didn't answer her question.
Claire stopped and pulled at his hand. "You did your best," she said.
He nodded, not really believing her words.Had he done his best? Could he have done more?
He realized that they were the same questions that Scooter had asked in regards to John’s death.
And Adam had told the young man that it hadn't been his fault…
"Honestly," Claire added. She reached up and kissed him.
The others stopped as well and dug into their backpacks. Scooter pulled out a bottle of water and a box of cookies. Julie's eyes lit up at the sight of them -even though she had already had more than enough. Marianne took out her mini-cakes and broke off a piece for the kitten.
Claire opened her bag and pulled out a couple of chocolate bars. This time, it was Adam's turn for his eyes to light up.
"That's my favourite!" he said.
"This?" Claire asked, holding up one of the bars in her hands.
"I love those!"
Claire scrunched her nose and shook her head. "I didn't even know I had put them in here," she said. "If I had, I probably would've taken them back out again."
"Taken them back out again? You don't like them?"
Claire stuck out her tongue and made a gagging noise.
"I think we're going to have some serious problems if you don't like these," he said jokingly.
"Well," Claire replied, looking up at him, "if this is going to be our biggest problem, then I think we're going to be all right."
Adam agreed.
Chapter 12
It took them a while to get back to the school. The weight of the backpacks had slowed them down. And so did the kitten. They kept stopping to feed and play with her.
They were all excited with laughter. So much so that it was almost as though things had gone back to normal. Or as normal as could be expected.
"Shelly's going to love these chocolate bars," Adam told Claire as they walked up the driveway leading to the school. "We're going to eat them all. And you can't have any!"
Claire pretended to be hurt. Laughter bubbled from him once more.
*
From where they were, everything seemed to be fine. There was no noise coming from the school. All of the windows were still intact.
While they had been enjoying themselves on their outing, worry about those they left behind at the school had always been at the back of their minds.
Each felt their fears lift.
"Let's hurry and show Buster his new sister," Marianne said.
More laughter.
*
They walked closer to the school and came into view of the playground. They could see Shelly out there with Robert and Emily. There were two adults with them.
"Those aren't Charles or Alice," Adam said immediately.
Without waiting for anyone to respond, he readied his gun and picked up his pace. As he went, he kept telling himself that there might not be anything to worry about.They could be other survivors like themselves. They might not mean any harm.
As soon as he saw one of the men grab Shelly's arm and pull her toward him he knew that wasn't the case.
He started to run.
Chapter 13
"Let her go," Adam shouted.
The man turned and saw the people rushing toward him. His eyes opened wide at the sight of their guns. "Hold on, guys," he said. "Everything's fine." He didn't let go of Shelly's arm.
Adam warned him again.
This time, the man let go.
"What's going on here?" Adam asked Shelly. He kept his gun trained on the man who had grabbed her.
"Nothing's happening here," the man replied before Shelly had had a chance. "Put the gun down, man. We was just jokin' with her. Wonderin' what she was doin' out here with these little kids is all."
Adam ignored him. "Shelly, tell me what's happening." The man tried to speak again, but Adam cut him off. "Shut up! You talk when I want you to."
"Hey, that's no way to be, man. That's no way to treat me."
Adam took a step closer to the man and looked straight into his eyes to let him know that he was serious. He kept the gun pointed at him.It reminded him too much of the time at the farmhouse. He was never going to let anything bad happen to Shelly again.
"You think I'm joking?" he asked. "Do you?"
The man didn't reply.
&nb
sp; It was then that Adam saw a knife in the man's hand. He couldn't be sure if he had just grabbed it or if it had been there all along. "Drop it!" Adam warned him.
"What?This?" The man held the knife up for everyone to see.
Adam first concern was that the man was going to stab Shelly with it. "Drop it!"
"How about I just put it back in my pocket?"
"How about I blow a fuckin' hole in your face!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's no way to talk! There's kids here."
The man was right,Adam thought.This was nothing that the kids needed to hear. "Shelly, take Robert and Emily inside," he said.
Shelly helped the children off of the swings, grabbed each of their hands and rushed them away from the playground.
Adam watched them out the corner of his eyes.They were safe now. He turned to look at Claire and the others. "You can go to the school too," he said. "I'll be okay here with these guys. We're just going to have a little chat."
"I'll stay," Scooter said. He had his axe held out in front of him.
"Weall will," Claire argued.
Okay, Adam thought. It wasn't what he had wanted, but he wasn't going to fight with her about it.
"You've got some mighty fine women here," the man said.
Adam looked back at him. "Do you realize that you have a gun pointed at your face?"
"Ido. And there's no need for it. We were just passing by when we saw the young girl and the two little ones. We thought we'd see if they were okay."
"No, you thought you'd see if they were worth taking."
The man smirked. Adam knew that he had been right. He was dealing with scum. He felt his finger touch the trigger. But he wasn't ready to pull it. Not yet.
"Get the fuck out of here," he told the two men. "And don't come back."
Both men laughed. "Don't come back? Wehave to come back. There's some beautiful women here and we all...you know."
Adam pushed the barrel into the man's face. He either wanted to die…or he knew that Adam wasn't prepared to kill him.
"Fuck off," Adam said. It was the best that he could think of under the circumstances. His mind had started to reel. The man had saidwe. Did that mean him and this other guy? Or were there more of them?
The man raised his hands. "Okay, okay, we'll go. But we'll be back. There's a whole camp of us not too far away."
So there were more of them. Maybe a lot more.
The man started to back up. His friend followed suit.
Though before they got very far, Adam pulled the trigger.
The shot slammed into the man's shoulder. The force spun him around and dropped him to the ground.
The other man turned and ran. Adam tried to shoot him too, but missed. Scooter dropped his backpack and ran after him.
Adam walked over to the man lying on the ground, screaming in pain.
"What the fuck did you shoot me for?" the man asked.
"Because I couldn't have you going back to that camp of yours. I couldn't have you telling them about us."
"They're gonna know about you anyway." The man looked over at his friend running away. Scooter hadn't been able to catch him. "Skip's a fast bugger, eh? I'm sure he'll tell everyone all about this little school of yours. And all of the pretty women." He started to laugh.
Adam had his gun raised on him. His finger danced over the trigger again. But he didn't pull it. "You're sick," he said.
The man continued to laugh. "You might be right. But that don't change what's gonna happen. We're gonna…"
The blast cut off the man's words. His face caved in from the impact of the shot. Blood spurted from the back of his skull.
Adam stood, wanting to pull the trigger again. Instead, he lowered the gun.He had killed him. There was no need to do anything more.
Adam only looked up when he heard Scooter return.
"I couldn't catch him," the young man said. "He was too fast. Had too much of a start. These boots of mine didn't help."
"That's okay," Adam said. Though in his mind he knew that it wasn't. The man he killed had been right:Skip was going to tell his other friends. They'd come back to get them. He was sure of it.
He looked at Claire. She looked stunned, but not upset. She understood that Adam had done what he had to for their survival.
He grabbed her hand. "Let's get inside. They'll be wondering about the gunshots in there."
"What about the body?" Scooter asked.
"Leave it there. We'll think about what to do with it later."
Chapter 14
Shelly ran up to Adam and wrapped her arms around him. "What happened?" she asked. "We heard gunshots. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay. But..." He didn't know how to finish his sentence. Shelly was old enough to understand. She had seen enough bad things since they had been wandering around together. But he couldn't get himself to say it. There were too many emotions going through his mind.
This killing had been different from the men who had attacked him in town. It was also different from the man he had stabbed at the cage, the one who had been keeping guard.
Those men had been an immediate threat. This man had been walking away.
"Did you kill them?" Shelly asked. She took her arms from around him and grabbed hold of his hand. "Is that what happened?"
"One of them," Claire said, coming up beside her. "The other got away."
"I couldn't catch him," Scooter said.
Adam told him not to worry. "You tried. But now we have to think about what we're going to do."
Everyone gathered together.
"Why?" Charles asked. "Are you afraid that he will come back?"
"They will come back," Adam corrected him. "The man that I shot said that there was a group of them at a camp somewhere around here. Maybe not close. But somewhere that they could walk to."
"How do you know they'll come back?" Alice asked next.
"They're going to." He pointed at Claire, then the other women. "For all of you."
"Then we should go," Julie said nervously.
Adam shook his head. "I'm not sure about that."
Julie glanced at the others before settling back on him. "Not sure? Do you want to stay here? Do you think we can beat them?"
Adam shrugged. "I don't know if we can beat them. But I don't think we should start wandering around outside right now. It's getting late. It will be dark in an hour or so. And then what?"
Julie didn't know what to say. None of them did. While they didn't want to risk fighting these men -however many of them there might be - they all knew that Adam was right.
"We can leave early in the morning," Scooter suggested.
"We can," Adam agreed. "As soon as the sun comes up. At least that way we'll know where we're going. We'll be able to see those guys approach. And we'll be able to watch out for thosethings."
"Don't we have to worry about those guys coming back tonight?" Julie asked, nervousness continuing to riddle her voice.
It was something that Adam worried about as well, but it didn't scare him as much as wandering around in the dark. Besides, he reasoned, "I don't think they're going to want to come back here at this hour. We should be safe for the night."
Should be. It was still somewhat of a risk.
"What if they use a flashlight?" Shelly asked.
"I don't think they will. If they do, there's a greater chance that the creatures will see them. I don't think they'd want to risk it."
"Then we‘ll have to should take turns keeping watch," Claire said.
Adam nodded. "Good idea."
Marianne raised her hand. "I'll go first."
Adam nodded again. Then he added, "Maybe you should have someone join you."
"I'll take Buster with me. Since it's the first shift, I won't really need any more than him. But after that, I think everyone should have a partner. Just to make sure they keep awake."
Another good idea. "We can take shifts in twos," Adam said. "Marianne's first with Buster."
"I
'll go next," Scooter said.
"And I'll go with you," Julie added, though she didn't sound too confident about it.
"I'll go after them," Claire said. She pointed between Adam and herself. "We can do it together."
Before Adam had a chance to agree, Shelly cut him off. "I want to do it too," she said. "I want to help around here."
Adam raised his hands to tell her to hold on. He needed to think about it. But the more that he did, the more he realized he couldn't keep telling her 'no'.
"All right," he said. "This is what's we'll do. Shelly, you go with Claire. I'll take the last shift. I think I'll be okay on my own."
"You won't need to do it on your own," Charles said, taking a step forward. "I'd like to help as well."
Adam turned to the old man. "Okay," he said. "Charles, you'll come with me. That should be enough to get us through the night. And we'll leave first thing in the morning."
Everyone agreed.
Then Shelly screamed.
They all turned to look at her, scared that she had seen something horrible. But what she had seen was sticking its head out of Marianne's purse.
"A kitten!" she said, moving over to Marianne to pet the little animal. Robert and Emily were quick to follow. Buster had already been there for a while, looking up at his master, wondering what was in her purse.
Marianne lowered herself so that everyone (including Buster) could see. "Her name is Cookie," she said.
"I like that," Emily said.
"And I like cookies," Robert joked.
Claire patted Robert's head. "Then I have something else you're going to love." She reached into her backpack and pulled out a box of them.
Robert cheered and clapped his hands.
Claire handed the cookies around to everyone.
For the moment, it seemed to Adam that everything had gone back to normal.Almost. He was still wound up from all that had happened. And was worried about what was going to happen next. He knew they had a long night ahead of them.
Chapter 15
Adam sat with his back against the school wall. He was on watch with Charles. No one else had seen anything so far. No creatures. The men hadn't come back.
Glory (Book 5) Page 11
