Kate exhaled loudly as she forced her body to relax. It wouldn’t be long before the morning sun would peek through the curtains.
“You really did seem awfully worried about me,” Ethan said, and Kate could tell by his tone that he was smiling.
Kate’s jaw tensed. “Of course I was worried. I would have been just as worried about Tommy or Wayne.”
It was mostly the truth, except that it wasn’t. She would have been worried, but not just as worried, but Ethan didn’t need to know that.
“I see,” Ethan said, but it sounded as though he was still grinning.
Kate rolled her eyes. It didn’t matter what Ethan thought. Hell, maybe she should be flattered that he seemed so interested in how she felt about him.
Kate started to think about what it was going to be like out there with Ethan, Tommy, and Wayne. Would every day be a struggle fighting off The Unholy? Or maybe they’d have trouble finding food or water. No matter what problem crossed Kate’s mind, it always came down to one simple thing… that whatever it was, it would be a lot better than whatever would happen if they stayed in Simon’s town.
All the thoughts hindered Kate’s ability to fall asleep. She tossed and turned. The bed creaked with every movement. Time was passing, but she wasn’t getting any of the much-needed rest her body craved.
“What’s going on over there?” Ethan whispered into the darkness.
“I can’t sleep.”
Her heart still seemed to be beating fast from when she was afraid Ethan wasn’t coming back. She refused to admit it to Ethan, but she’d been terrified of losing the one friend she had.
Kate was scared. Of course, she’d make it on her own, she’d done it before, but suddenly she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
“Come over here,” Ethan said. Silence filled the air.
“Where?” Kate finally said.
“Next to me.”
Kate’s heart fluttered for a second before returning to its quickened rhythm. “I’m not sure—”
“Just get over here,” Ethan said. “You’re keeping me up, and I want to get some sleep.”
The bed squeaked as Kate pushed herself up. She sucked in a deep breath before crawling over Ethan and into the empty space next to him. Kate laid back and stared at the ceiling through the darkness. She didn’t feel better. If anything, being next to him was making matters worse.
Ethan turned on his side and brushed a strand of hair off of Kate’s forehead. “Now, close your eyes.”
He stroked the side of her face next to her eye with his thumb. Kate’s body started to relax, and her heartbeat slowed.
“My mom used to do this when I couldn’t sleep as a boy,” Ethan whispered.
“Mmm,” Kate said, taking in deep controlled breaths. Her body felt heavy as it sank into the mattress.
“Want me to sing?”
Kate’s eyes popped open, and Ethan chuckled softly. He shook his head.
“Only joking. I can’t sing to save my life. Sorry.”
“The other thing was working,” Kate said closing her eyes again. She was positive it was the first time her body had felt like jelly since the disease had taken everyone away. Then again, it was quite possibly the first time she’d relaxed since the day she was born.
25
When Kate woke up in the morning her cheek was pressed against Ethan’s chest, and his arm was wrapped around her shoulders. She felt so warm and comfortable for a moment she considered going back to sleep, but when she heard the faint voices down on the road having conversations, she knew they’d overslept.
“Shit,” Kate said moving away from Ethan before he woke up. She lightly shook his shoulder. When he didn’t wake, she moved him harder. “Ethan, wake up!”
He groaned and started to turn onto his side but stopped. Kate figured he must have seen the light coming in through the curtain.
“I think we’re going to be late,” Kate said scooting off of the bed and hastily pulling on her shoes. “I’ll head out first. Don’t go back to sleep.”
“Kate,” Ethan said grabbing her hand and pulling her closer. She stood next to him, her leg lightly touching his as she looked down into his eyes. “This is it. This is the day.”
“God, I hope so.” Kate smiled back at him. She pulled her hand free and waved at him as she went toward the door. “See you soon.”
Ethan didn’t say anything before she closed the door. Or if he had, she hadn’t waited to hear it.
Kate ran down the stairs, and down the road without bothering to look at anyone as she made her way to the truck. As she approached the lot, she slowed her pace. There was a crowd gathered, and Simon was standing there pointing at bodies of The Unholy on the other side of the fence.
He looked at Kate and waved her over. She stopped when she joined the crowd, but he waved again and pointed with his eyes to the spot at his right. It was the place his second, Maya was most often seen, but Kate couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Maya. It may have been that day with the women in Simon’s bedroom.
“You’re late,” Simon whispered without moving his lips. The smile he had pasted on remained securely in place for everyone to see.
“I’m really sorry,” Kate said, and Simon blinked hard.
“I forgive you,” Simon nodded his head once and turned back to the crowd. “I heard of the trials of last night, and I must say that those who were out here battling The Unholy in the darkness are truly doing His work.”
Simon paused as Ethan walked up to the back of the group. Kate kept her gaze forward, not wanting to meet his eyes.
Simon continued praising the men who’d fought in the darkness for several minutes before he ordered everyone to stay on the premises for cleanup. All eradication teams were to stay behind and guard the area as the bodies were moved inside for burning.
Kate’s stomach had dropped so quickly she was afraid she was going to vomit. Luckily, her stomach was empty, and her mouth was so dry that not even bile would come up.
It was almost as though Simon was doing it intentionally, but he couldn’t know about their plan unless Ethan, Tommy, or Wayne had said something. Kate didn’t want to believe it. She pushed the thought out of her mind. If Simon knew he would have done something to them by now. It was just random circumstances that were keeping her team inside the fence even though in all her time working on the eradication team, they’d been asked to stay back once before.
“All right then, get to work,” Simon said grabbing Kate’s hand. “You’re coming with me.”
Kate caught Ethan’s eyes for a second. With how much worry was bubbling out of them, she knew that he couldn’t have told Simon anything about their plan. Unless he was a tremendous actor.
Simon’s guards flanked them as they walked away from the fence. “I couldn’t help but notice Ethan was late too.”
“Was he?” Kate said.
“Kate,” Simon said tightening his grip.
“Okay, I noticed, but I already know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong.”
Simon cocked his head to the side. “Am I? You don’t even know what I’m thinking.”
“I wasn’t with him,” Kate lied.
“Okay, you do know what I was going to say,” Simon said with a smirk. “You must admit it’s fishy, yes? You both consistently show up late. Once together and this time only minutes apart. Kate,” Simon said adjusting his grip, “I’m not a fool.”
Kate shook her head. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at. I just want to get out there and get back to work.”
“I know you do, and you’ll be back out there before you know it,” Simon said letting her go. “But today, I need your help.”
“My help?”
“Indeed!” Simon said enthusiastically. “I don’t really think hauling those evil corpses to the burn pit is a job for someone like you, my beautiful Kate.”
Kate's stomach started to swirl like a malfunctioning wash machine. “Oh, I don’t mind I like watchin
g them burn.”
“Who doesn’t?” Simon grinned. “But I don’t really trust anyone else to do this job.”
“What do you want me to do?” Kate asked.
“Well, since you’re going to be helping me out a bit more around here, I want you to become familiar with certain tasks.”
“What kind of tasks?”
Simon raised an eyebrow. “Eager, I like that. When people in town do things wrong or if they are a danger to themselves or others, they need to be, how should I put this, isolated.”
“Okay,” Kate said dragging out the word.
“Philip will take you to several locations. The two of you will bring them food and make sure they are alive.” Simon said gesturing toward one of his guards. “That’s Philip, have you two met?”
Kate shook her head. “Not really, but I’ve seen him around.”
Philip was a wide man. He was built like a brick wall… an unfriendly, hairy brick wall.
“Steven will stay with me. When you two are finished come back to my office,” Simon said pointing at a light blue building on the block next to the church. “Use the food in there.”
Philip nodded and grunted at Kate. “Let’s go.”
Kate was almost surprised that the job was exactly what Simon had said it would be. Philip took Kate to the buildings, he unlocked the door with a numbered key, and they went inside throwing food inside the occupied rooms.
In most cases, the occupants cowered away from them, but there was one man that pulled at his chains like a wild animal trying to break free. The aggressive action made Philip smile.
It was toward the end of the day when they approached the house Kate had found with the barred windows. An icy chill ran down Kate’s spine when Philip opened the front door.
A long hallway stretched out in front of her, and an empty living room to the left. All of the doors were closed.
She followed Philip down the hall, and he stopped in front of a door with a sign telling them not to enter.
Philip jerked his thumb at the sign. “We don’t go in this one. Ever.”
“Okay,” Kate said pretending she didn’t already know what was on the other side of the door.
She wondered if Philip knew what was inside the room. He hadn’t seemed the least bit concerned, and really neither was Kate. It would take her half a second to put the thing out of its misery.
“I’ll do these two, and you do those,” Philip said gesturing at the two doors to Kate’s right. “Just do what we’ve been doing, drop off the food, and leave the room. No talking.”
“Got it,” Kate said grabbing one of the boxes of food they’d brought inside and sliding the lock that had been installed to the side.
She stepped into the room and walked to the corner. Kate set the box down and turned to leave. The man she’d seen through the metal bars only days ago caught her eye.
“You’re new,” he said, his voice was as rough as sandpaper. She was tempted to take out one of the bottles of water from the box and offer it to him.
“I guess,” Kate said.
He held up his shackled hands. “Please, help me. I haven’t done anything.”
Kate frowned and shook her head. She moved quickly over to the door. “I’m sorry.”
She sucked in a sharp breath after she slipped the lock back into place. Maybe the man had been innocent, but Simon had put him in the room, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
Kate grabbed the last box and entered the final room. She tried not to look at the person occupying the room, except just enough to know she was keeping her distance.
“Kate, right?” a voice said.
Her eyes shot up and instantly locked with the bright blue eyes of Joel. She looked at the door to make sure Philip hadn’t followed her into the room.
“You’re alive,” Kate whispered.
“Lucky to be, I guess,” Joel said turning his arm so Kate could see the deep lines that had been cut into his left forearm. They were healing.
“Why did he do that?” Kate asked.
Joel shook his head. “Punishment? I’m in here repenting for my sins.”
“He made you do it,” Kate said leaning toward him. She could hear Philip moving down the hall. “I have to go.”
“Kate,” Joel said, his voice softer than a whisper, “do me a favor.”
She shook her head but couldn’t hide the fact that she was intrigued. “What?”
“See if my wife and kids are here. Her name is Laura,” Joel said turning away from Kate as the volume of Philip’s footsteps increased. “I don’t believe they’re dead. Tell her I’m here.”
Kate didn’t respond. She didn’t know what to say. She probably should have told him that she’d already found them and that they were inside the town, locked inside her hotel room. But she didn’t.
Her fingers wrapped around the doorknob and Joel softly cleared his throat.
“Please,” he said as she stepped out into the hall and closed the door.
After she locked the door, she turned and found herself face to face with Philip. His face was stretched into a nasty snarl.
“Told you not to talk to them,” he said pulling his hand back and smacking it against the side of Kate’s face.
Her head jerked sharply to the side from the force. Kate placed her hand on the spot where Philip had hit her and drew in a deep breath. It took everything in her power to keep her hand from grabbing her blade and taking him out just as she would one of The Unholy.
“Let’s go,” he grunted as he turned his back to her.
Kate’s fingers twitched. If all Simon would do to punish her for killing Philip would be to carve some lines into her arm and force her to repent inside one of the rooms, maybe it would be worth it. Then again, it would make it much harder to escape The Way if she was locked inside a building and no one knew where she was.
She let out a slow breath from between her slightly parted lips and followed Philip out of the building. Before she knew it, they were standing in front of Simon’s office, and Philip’s closed fist was pounding against the door.
26
Simon was pulling up his pants as he opened the door. He glared at Philip.
“What the fuck is it? Can’t you see I’m busy?” Simon growled before his eyes shifted over to Kate. His expression softened only slightly.
“You told me to bring her back when we…,” Philip said, his words trailing off into nothing.
Simon cocked his head to the side. “Well, that was quick.”
“Quicker than when I do it myself I guess,” Philip said with an uneasy smile.
“Leave,” Simon said flapping his hand at Philip. “Go do something useful.”
Philip bowed his head slightly and turned to leave without another look in Kate’s direction.
Kate stood there gripping her hands tightly together behind her back. She could hear giggles erupting from inside Simon’s office.
“I was hoping your new home would be ready, but it’s probably going to take the crew another day,” Simon said taking a small step toward Kate. “They’re hauling over some of the nicer furniture from one of the other houses, cleaning it up… I really think you’re going to like it.”
Simon took another bold step forward, and Kate could smell the alcohol on his breath. His hand jerked forward, and he hooked his finger through the belt loop on Kate’s jeans.
“Maybe you should stick around. You could always stay here until your place is ready,” Simon said raising an eyebrow.
Kate managed to display the sweetest smile she could. “Oh, I’m really sorry, but I’m exhausted. It’s been a long day.”
“Hmm,” Simon said touching Kate’s cheek with his thumb. “You have been coming to work late a lot lately. Are you having trouble sleeping, Kate?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Kate shrugged.
“Has anything changed? Maybe something on your mind?”
Kate shook her head. “Just a run of insomnia. It
happens to me sometimes.”
“I sleep like a baby. Every night.” Simon released Kate, almost pushing her away as he stepped back inside the building. “I need to get back to business. See you in the morning. Oh, and Kate?”
“Yes?”
“Try to be on time, would you?”
He smiled as he pushed the door closed. Simon’s guard stepped in front of the door as if he thought Kate might have a strong, sudden urge to go in after him.
Kate flashed him a sneer-like smile and walked away. She grabbed a quick bite to eat, barely looking up when someone entered the cafeteria. She wondered if Ethan was still working on burning the bodies or if he was back in his room.
Kate wanted to talk to Ethan about the hole in the fence. She wanted to tell him that her home near Ethan’s office would be ready for her tomorrow, and if they didn’t get out of there, she’d be stuck inside the fence for the rest of her life. Of course, the rest of her life wouldn’t take long considering what she’d probably do to herself, or what she’d attempt to do to Simon which would likely result in her death no matter what the outcome.
Kate finished her food and walked out past the burn pits. The bodies were smoldering. She covered her nose and mouth with her palm as she hastened her pace.
Maybe he was back in the room waiting for her. She turned to head back toward town when she heard something crunch behind her. Kate turned, but there wasn’t anyone there.
She didn’t increase her pace. Instead, she listened. It didn’t take long before she heard someone attempting to take soft steps behind her.
Kate bent down, pretending to tie her shoe and peeked out of the corner of her eye. Philip. Why was he following her? And why on earth would Simon send the noisy goon instead of someone who could at least attempt to be stealthy?
She started to walk again, and the second she heard his movements she pulled out her gun, spinning and aiming it at Philip in one swift movement.
“What do you want, Philip?” Kate asked, as he slowly raised his hands up.
Falling Darkness Series - A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller - Books 1-3 Page 16
