I walked into the kitchen and pulled back the curtain. Blake and Jay were standing by the SUV, still siphoning the gas.
“I guess it would be all right,” I said letting the curtain fall back into place. “Make it fast, though.”
“I will,” Maddie said with a little hop in her step.
She walked out of the back door, letting the screen door slam into place. Did she have her mask? I pulled back the curtain again, watching her walk over to Blake. Her mask was sticking out of her back pocket.
“She’ll be okay,” Whitney said. “Blake will protect her.”
I held my breath so I didn’t say something I’d regret. My hands tightened into fists but I forced myself to exhale.
Whitney didn’t know what it was like to have a daughter and especially what it was like to have a daughter at a time like this. The worry before had been significant, now it was extreme and most of the time, barely manageable.
I couldn’t lose her. I couldn’t survive that.
My thoughts popped like a finger poked into a shiny, soapy bubble floating through the air on a summer day. The gunshot shook my entire body erasing all my thoughts, all of them except for one.
Maddie.
Chapter Twenty
I started toward the door but Whitney grabbed my hand. Her eyes were wide.
“Look out the window first,” she whispered sharply. “Don’t walk into something… something bad. She needs you.”
It took a few seconds for her words to make sense. Whitney held my hand, dragging me with her over to the window.
“Shit,” she said holding on to me tighter.
“What is it?” I asked. The words barely made their way out of my mouth before I pushed her out of the way.
“Don’t go out there,” Whitney ordered.
Four people were standing there facing Blake and Jay. One of the men was holding Maddie, pointing a gun at the side of her head.
“Oh my God,” I said with a gasp.
I started toward the door but Whitney yanked me back. “Not a good idea.”
“I have to help them,” I said.
“It’ll be easier to help them if those guys don’t know we’re here,” Whitney said.
“They have guns.”
Whitney looked around, grabbing two knives from a wooden block on the counter. “We have knives. What good is this going to do?”
“I don’t know yet,” Whitney said. “Follow me.”
I followed her into the living room. It was surprising she was somehow remaining calm and not curling up in the corner sobbing uncontrollably.
Whitney climbed up on the sofa and looked out of the window. “There’s another car out there, parked behind the SUV. I think they live here. Shit,” Whitney said her eyes bulging out of their sockets. “This is all their stuff.”
“Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’s okay,” Whitney said. “They’re talking.”
“Can you hear anything?”
Whitney shook her head. “Nothing at all but it’s not good. Blake and Jay are setting down their guns.”
I knelt down on the sofa next to her. I reached out for the curtain but she swatted my hand away.
“Don’t move it,” she warned.
“Right,” I said.
It was like I had lost all of my common sense with Maddie on the other side of the wall. The only thing I could think about was how I needed to do something to save her and fast. It was just too bad I couldn’t think of what I needed to do.
I pulled in a deep breath and leaned to the side so I could get a better look. The group of strangers were working to tie Jay and Blake’s hands behind their backs.
I could see them better. There were two men and two women. The one that seemed to be barking orders had curly hair sitting wildly on top of his head. He hadn’t done any of the tying, he just stood there holding his gun at Maddie.
But now Maddie was tied up too. Blake, Jay, and Maddie were clustered together in a small group in the middle of them.
The curly-haired man said something and the group started toward the back door. I grabbed Whitney and pulled her to the front door.
“What are we going to do?” she whispered.
I waited and when the back door opened, we slipped out onto the front porch. We ran away from the house, stopping to hide behind the SUV.
I leaned back against the tire, pressing my hands to my forehead. A gasp squeaked out for between my lips and I quickly muffled it.
I wanted to scream. Of course, I couldn’t. Instead, I had to come up with a way to get inside the house to save Blake, Jay, and my daughter. And all Whitney and I had were a knife each.
Almost to Maine and we were screwed. Absolutely and utterly screwed.
Chapter Twenty-One
Whitney looked around. Her whole body was shaking like there was an earthquake under her feet.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
There wasn’t anything around except for trees and shrubs. We couldn’t even get inside the SUV because Blake had the keys… or maybe the bad guys had the keys.
“Did all four of them have a gun?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Whitney said. “At least two of them did. I’m pretty sure I just saw two of them holding… I think.”
I couldn’t remember exactly what I’d seen other than one of them holding a gun to my daughter’s head. It was all kind of a blur. Maybe all of them had been holding guns but even if only two of them were, they had Blake and Jay’s guns now, which meant there were at least four.
“How are we ever going to get them back?” Whitney said shuddering at a noise that came from inside the house. “What was that? Did they kill them?”
“That wasn’t a gunshot,” I said.
Whitney was slowly turning back into her usual self. She twisted her fingers together nervously.
“We’re too close to the house,” Whitney said. “If we get captured, we’re all screwed.”
“Where do we go?” I asked holding out my palms.
“If they leave, they could see us. We can’t stay out here forever,” Whitney said. “Hell, they could see us out the window.”
I shook my head. “They can’t see us here.”
“We can’t stay down here,” Whitney said.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “I wonder how often they leave.”
“They never have to leave,” Whitney said. “They have everything they could possibly need inside. Besides, they aren’t all going to leave when they have prisoners.”
“No, but maybe some of them will. Maybe we can take one or two of them down,” I said. “We just need to be patient.”
Whitney chuckled. “What’s going to happen is they’ll eventually find us. They’ll capture us too. Before we know it, we’ll all be trapped inside. That is if they aren’t going to just kill them.”
“IF they were going to kill them for no reason, they would have done it by now,” I said.
They had the perfect opportunity to just kill them and take the supplies from the SUV. They didn’t want them dead. Of course, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t kill them if they needed to.
We could just walk in there and demand they let them go. Maybe if we had something they wanted, we could make a trade but sadly, Whitney and I didn’t have anything except for the knives we’d stolen from the kitchen. Knives they eventually might realize are missing.
“So, what are they going to do with them?” Whitney asked. She frantically waved her hands. “I know you don’t know the answer to that.”
“Maybe they just didn’t know what to do,” I surmised. “I mean, look at all the stuff they have inside. They panicked. They wanted to protect their stuff. That’s all it was.”
“That’s like the best-case scenario,” Whitney said touching the pebbles on the ground. “We have to go somewhere. We can’t stay here behind the SUV. The sick could find us.”
I hit my fists
on my thighs repeatedly. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“We have to find somewhere to hide,” Whitney said. “Somewhere close by. Somewhere we can see the house would be ideal.”
“I don’t know how I can leave,” I said. “My daughter is inside this house.”
“She’s with Blake. Besides, you’re not going to get to her today,” Whitney said. “At least you probably won’t.” She frowned before burying her face in her hands. “I don’t know how we’re ever going to get to them.”
There was another loud noise from inside the house. It sounded like a door being slammed shut. Then the voices. I couldn’t make out a single word but it sounded like arguing.
“Maybe the people at the base your sister is in can help us,” Whitney said.
“I’m not leaving without Maddie,” I said staring into her eyes.
“Let’s go over to those trees,” Whitney said pointing at a small grouping of trees about a quarter of a mile away. “We’ll come up with a plan. We’ll get her back.”
I started laughing quietly. Whitney and I were a mess. It was like we were taking turns breaking down. How were we ever going to help any of them?
“Come on,” she said holding out her hand.
I took it and she helped me to my feet. I looked at the house over my shoulder but only for a quick second before we ran toward the trees.
The whole run, I couldn’t stop imagining getting shot in the back. Maybe it was good, though, because it made my feet move faster.
When we got to the trees, I pressed my palm on the rough trunk and leaned forward. The breaths were coming at me too fast. I thought I was going to hyperventilate, of course, then my thoughts shifted to Maddie.
Was she okay? Was she hyperventilating or having an attack? They wouldn’t take care of her if she were. She wouldn’t even be getting the rest of the antibiotics she needed to take. What if she got sick again?
When I could manage my breaths again, I dropped down on my ass. I didn’t even care that the ground around the trees was damp and soaking through my pants.
“I shouldn’t have ever let her go outside of the house,” I said my legs bouncing up and down.
“So, if we had Maddie with us, you’d just leave for your sister and let Blake and Jay rot inside of that home?” Whitney asked.
“No, of course not,” I said. “But I’d probably feel better about rescuing them with Maddie staying back here and hiding in the trees.”
Whitney snorted. “She wouldn’t have ever done that and you know it.”
She was absolutely right. I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to leave her alone here but at least she wouldn’t have been with the enemy.
Whitney started pacing. Her eyes occasionally darted toward the house.
“How long do you think we can survive out here without food and water?” she asked.
“We’re not going to be out here that long,” I said.
“What if they don’t leave again for days? Or even weeks?”
I lowered my head. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do about any of this.”
Whitney leaned back against a different tree. Her arms hung loosely at her sides. She didn’t bother to wipe away the tear that rolled down her cheek like a raindrop on a window.
“We’ll figure this out,” Whitney said. “I want to get Blake back just as badly as you want to get Maddie back.”
I suddenly remembered what I’d walked in on… Blake and Whitney kissing. Of course, she had no idea that I’d seen them.
“Oh, really?” I asked.
“I’ve known Blake my entire life,” Whitney said. “Of course, I want to help him. He helped you. You should want to help him too.”
“What makes you think I don’t?” I asked.
She grabbed her elbow. Her mouth opened slightly but she didn’t say anything. She just shook her head and looked away.
“I love him,” Whitney said. “This is hard for me too.”
“Right,” I said swallowing hard. “I know it is.”
Whitney pushed herself away from the tree. Her eyes were on something near the house.
She reached down and tapped me on the shoulder. Eventually, she found her voice. “They’re outside.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
All four of them were outside gathered around the SUV. They walked around it as if they were afraid it was going to explode at any moment.
After several long minutes, they opened the back of the SUV. It appeared as though they were having a conversation as they stared at the supplies packed in the back.
“Leave our stuff alone,” I said under my breath.
They started unpacking our supplies one by one, setting everything down on the ground around them.
“Jesus, they have more than enough,” Whitney said. “Why do they have to do that?”
“Because there is never enough,” I said.
They started carrying things into the house. When they were finished, they walked over to their vehicle and unloaded the supplies they had inside.
We were too far away that I couldn’t tell what anything was that they’d unpacked from their car. But we were close enough that I could tell it was more supplies.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“What?” Whitney asked.
“I bet they took Maddie’s medicine,” I said.
Whitney’s head moved side to side. “I didn’t see them go in the middle of the SUV. The medicine was under my seat.”
“They’re never going to leave,” I said with a sigh. “And the two of us, well, we’re not going to be able to rescue them on our own. Although the front doorknob was wobbly.”
“We can just walk inside and demand they release them,” Whitney said sarcastically. “I’m sure they oblige.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “No, but when they fall asleep… maybe we can go inside and do something then.”
“Go inside and slit their throats,” Whitney said. “With their own knives.”
“You really think you could do that?” I asked almost cackling at her suggestion. “I know I won’t be able to slit any throats.”
“Well, we might have to if it’s the only way we can get them out of there.” Whitney raised her chin. “I think I could do it. Hell, they tied them up and took them from us. They should be punished.”
I shook my head. “Have you taken out any of the sick? Even that isn’t easy.”
“People do what they need to do at times like this. They can do stuff they never imagined because you have to,” Whitney said. “I’m capable of more than you know.”
“Oh, please,” I said waving my hand at her. “You wouldn’t kill a fly.”
“I squished a spider once,” Whitney said. “But spiders are gross and it was crawling toward me. Those jerks are crawling too close. They need to be squished.”
“Talking about it is one thing but actually doing it, well, that’s another thing,” I said.
The people at the house didn’t come back out again. One thing I was sure about was that we weren’t going to get to them before the darkness swallowed us.
It was almost dark under the trees and it wouldn’t be much longer before the rest of the world was covered with the same blanket of darkness.
The crickets started. It felt like they were calling out to the people in the house trying to tell them where we were.
Whitney was still standing but it was obvious that she was getting tired. Every few seconds, she’d shift her weight and move her arms around.
“Sit down,” I said.
“No way,” she replied.
“Afraid of spiders?” I asked.
She looked around. “Not just spiders. Centipedes… millipedes… all of the pedes.”
“How about worms, beetles, oh, and slugs? Beetles are the worst.”
“Yeah, thanks, that’s super helpful,” Whitney groaned. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep standing up.”
“All those things could be climbing up t
he tree trunk right now.”
Whitney jerked away from the tree and shot me a dirty look. I couldn’t cover my snicker fast enough.
“You’re evil,” she said brushing off her arms as if they were covered in thousands of ants. “It’s not like I was going to be able to sleep out here anyway.”
“You also won’t be able to stand forever,” I said.
“You’d be surprised what I can do,” Whitney said.
Night came fast. But something told me it would take forever to see the morning light.
“It’s a good thing my stomach shrank because otherwise, I’d be so incredibly hungry right now,” Whitney said.
My hunger rumbled my stomach like it was a large maraca. I’d adjusted to less food as well but I hadn’t adjusted to no food.
My throat felt like a desert in the middle of July. I was tempted to squeeze the water from the mud around the tree.
If I thought about it too long, it might possibly cripple me. And I needed my energy.
The house was barely noticeable across the field. There were dim lights in two of the windows but otherwise, everything was dark.
I looked around to see if there were any other lit up houses but there wasn’t anything out there. It was just the house that had my daughter inside.
“Think they’re asleep?” Whitney asked.
“I doubt it,” I said. “If they’re smart, at least one of them will be awake.”
“What makes you think they’re smart?” Whitney asked.
I shrugged in the darkness. “We have to assume they are. We can’t underestimate them.”
“It’s so cold out here,” Whitney said shifting her weight back and forth even quicker. Her legs were tired but she was trying to keep herself warm.
It really was cold, though and the temperature seemed to be dropping rapidly. There had been a flicker of a moment when I thought maybe we’d actually make it to Polly but now I wasn’t so sure.
We stayed in the trees for hours without saying anything to each other. Occasionally, I’d look up just to make sure Whitney was still there.
“So,” I said hugging my legs to my chest, hoping it would help warm me. “I saw you and Blake the other night.”
What Remains Series (Book 3): Infected Page 10
