“What are we going to do now?” Chloe asked in a soft, shaky voice.
I shook my head.
“Dammit!” one of the two men shouted seconds before the sound of glass shattering into little bits cut through the air.
Eva covered her mouth. There was nothing in the building except for a frightening silence that made my ears buzz.
I turned toward the door, expecting it to open even though it had been locked. Whoever was out there could easily have a key, although, really, they wouldn’t even need one. A large man could easily plow through the flimsy door.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” the one that had been called Charlie sang.
I handed Chloe the poker. “You should take this. Use it if you need to.”
“No,” Eva hissed stretching out her hand. The way she spoke and the way she moved was still too sloppy. “Give it to me.”
“No way,” I said. “You’re wasted. You passed out.”
“I’m fine,” Eva said with a small hiccup she tried to cover with her hand. “I’ll be able to do what needs to be done, she won’t.”
Chloe’s eyebrows sagged. “She’s right, Adam. I won’t… I can’t.”
“You can. I know you can,” I said squeezing Chloe’s hand around the handle. “But I’ll do what I can first.”
“You won’t be able to do anything either,” Eva said with a snort. “Neither of you have the guts.”
“Shut up!” I said almost too loudly.
Their footsteps were right outside the door. One of the men, Ron I assumed, was snickering.
There was no escape.
We’d have to face them.
The handle twisted but the door didn’t budge.
“I think we found what we’re looking for, Ronnie,” Charlie said still in his sing-songy voice. “Come on out or we’ll shoot!”
“Yeah!” Ron echoed. “We don’t take kindly to thieves!”
I jerked my head to the door. “Let’s go.”
“You’re just going to walk out there?” Eva asked sharply. “Not even going to put up a fight? Make them come in here and then kill them!”
“They have guns,” I said.
“You don’t know that!” Eva said. “They’re probably lying. I would.”
There was a harsh crack at the door. The wood snapped next to the doorknob. I turned just as the second kick popped the door open.
“Well, look at what we have here,” the voice I recognized as Charlie said.
He was several inches taller than I was and I hated to admit that it was intimidating. His hair was wild and there was anger in his dark eyes.
I tightened my grip on the little shovel.
“Come on,” Charlie said. “Let’s go have a little talk at the bar.”
He tried to make it sound friendly but I knew it wasn’t. We walked out of the office one by one, leaving all of our supplies behind. Charlie reached out in front of me as I passed and grabbed the little shovel out of my hands.
“I’ll take that from you,” Charlie said. He hadn’t noticed the poker Chloe had in her hand pressed up against her leg. Charlie followed behind, with his gun aimed at our backs. “Up against the wall.”
“We didn’t know this was your stuff,” I said.
“Shut up,” Charlie said.
He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. His eyes were on us as he tapped out a single smoke, popped it into his mouth, and lit it all with one hand.
“What makes you folks think you can walk on someone else’s property and just help yourself to their things?” Charlie asked.
“We didn’t know this stuff belonged to anyone,” I said. “If you haven’t noticed, things out there have changed a bit. Everyone is dead.”
Charlie looked at me. “What made you think I was talking to you?”
My mouth dried. It was liked I’d swallowed a glass full of sand.
“Maybe we need to ask each one of them in private to see what they’re up to,” Ron said gesturing toward Chloe as he looked her up and down. “I’ll start with her.”
“No, no, no,” Chloe repeated softly as her body tensed.
Charlie took several steps forward until he was only a foot away from Eva. He looked down at her but she didn’t look at him.
“Beautiful,” Charlie said lightly touching her hair just below her shoulder.
Eva cringed and pulled back slightly.
Charlie chuckled at how uncomfortable he was making Eva. “I bet you’re a wild one.”
Eva’s hand moved so fast I’d barely even noticed her reach in front of me. She grabbed the poker from Chloe’s hand and rammed it into Charlie’s chest without hesitation.
“Holy shit!” Ron said.
Eva screamed. She let go of the poker, which stayed deep inside Charlie. Eva’s shaking hands were balled up at her sides.
Charlie stepped away from her slowly. He looked down as if he wasn’t exactly sure what had happened and that he couldn’t make sense of why something was sticking out of his body.
“Charlie?” Ron said walking toward him.
Ron touched the poker and Charlie opened his mouth to say something. Blood poured out like a faucet that hadn’t been shut off completely.
“Oh, good God,” Ron said grabbing Charlie by the arm. “What can I do? I love you, man. Tell me what to do!”
I grabbed Eva’s hand and pulled her toward the door. Chloe didn’t move. Her body shook as she stared at the men.
“Chloe!” I shouted and she shuddered as if awoken from a deep sleep. “Let’s go!”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Ron said inching toward us with his gun drawn. His hands were shaking. I was pretty sure he’d never shot a gun in his life, not that I could talk. “Someone is going to pay.”
I pushed Eva out of the door and grabbed Chloe’s hand. The bullet ripped through the air the second I jerked her toward me. I heard a soft thud when the bullet hit its target.
It took me a long second to realize it hadn’t hit me. Chloe was on the ground. She didn’t move as a dark circle pooled out around her middle. The rain instantly worked to wash it away as if it hadn’t ever happened.
Ron’s eyes bugged out of his head. He drew in a breath that puffed his chest before he dropped the gun.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry,” he repeated over and over again. “Forgive me.”
I picked up the gun and aimed it between his eyes. Ron opened his mouth to apologize again but I didn’t want to hear him speak. With a steady hand, I pulled the trigger.
My heart stopped.
What had I done?
Charlie stared at me for a long moment with his glassy, nearly dead eyes. Strings of blood and saliva dropped out of his mouth, landing on his shirt.
I tucked the gun into the back of my pants and ran to the back office to grab the laptop bag. I slung it over my shoulder and carried the pop-up tent with me.
Eva was standing outside already soaked with her hands under her chin as if she were praying. I could tell the drops on her cheeks weren’t from the rain.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said.
I led her to the garage. Eva followed, dragging her feet. We both stopped next to the motorcycle and I wrapped the pop-up tent around her back.
“We’re taking the bike,” I said staring into her eyes. “You’re going to keep this on your back like this. We’re going to be okay.”
“Why are we hurrying?” she asked without blinking. “They’re both dead. We don’t have to rush.”
She was absolutely right. Again. I couldn’t hate it. Not now. Because I still wanted to get away.
The further we got away from the pub, the sooner I could start to pretend I hadn’t just shot a man.
I swung my leg over the bike and gestured for Eva to get on. With the tent strapped to her back, it was awkward for her to get herself onto the back of the bike. I was surprised when she didn’t complain.
“How long is it going to take?” she a
sked.
“For what?” I asked.
“To get to Colorado?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know but I’m not going to stop driving until we get there.”
“Good.”
I started the bike and drove out of the garage. The headlight lit the road well enough that I could see where the road was. I could even see where the puddles and cracks in the road were.
Eva held on tighter than she ever had. We were both completely different people than the two people that had entered that pub. We both had killed someone.
Eva had done it to protect herself. I didn’t have a reason.
Fear?
Anger?
I couldn’t wait until we got to Colorado. With the conditions as they were, I couldn’t go fast but it was still a lot faster than walking.
I ignored the feel of the gun tucked into my waistband. I barely even remembered taking it. It didn’t matter. I had it and I just hoped I wouldn’t have to use it again.
What happened to Chloe was awful. Thinking about it brought an icy tear to my eye.
I don’t think I could have handled it if I would have lost Eva along with everything else that had happened. I owed it to her to get her somewhere safe.
There was no doubt in my mind that we would get to Colorado. I wouldn’t let anything stop me from getting us there.
I owed it to Eva.
27
Joss
Caleb moved forward but Billie didn’t budge. He stepped to the side and she mirrored his movement.
Jake laughed with delight.
There was a darkness in her eyes and I knew that she wouldn’t give putting her knife through Caleb’s throat a second thought.
“Caleb,” I said softly. “Just forget about it. It’s not worth it.”
“The hell it’s not. It’s the only thing that will keep us alive,” Caleb said. “Without it, we’re as good as dead.”
Caleb pivoted on his heel and turned like he was on a basketball court trying to find an open shot. He managed to get around Billie but not for long enough.
She swung the blade out around her skillfully. It didn’t appear as though it was her first knife fight.
Caleb rolled his spine back, dodging her attack. I stepped forward but Lucas grabbed me and yanked me away from Caleb. Clover leaped to the ground with a harsh meow.
“Let go of me!” I said twisting my body hard from side to side. Lucas had my arms twisted together like a pretzel behind my back.
Caleb looked like he was dancing as he rolled his hips and shoulder, making his way closer to our back. Jake laughed as if he were an uncle playing keep-away with a group of his nieces and nephews.
The laughs and smiled stopped when Caleb got a hold of the bag. He jerked it away from Jake, smirking as he turned away.
But the smirk evaporated almost instantly.
Caleb’s eyes widened and he dropped the bag. He grabbed his arm.
Billie stepped away from Caleb, dropping her hand to the side. I could see dark shadows on the blade and I knew what I was seeing… blood.
“Caleb!” I said.
“I’m fine,” he said raising his hands in the air. “They win.” Caleb turned to Jake. “You win. Take it!”
“No!” I shouted. No matter how hard I twisted my body, I couldn’t break free of Lucas’s grip.
Caleb shoved the guy holding me with his good hand. “Let her go, man. I said you could have the stuff.”
“Hey, Jake, should we take her too?” Lucas said laughing.
“Hmm,” Jake said looking at me as if he were contemplating what he was going to order for dinner. “Okay.”
There was no way in hell I was going to go with them. I’d rather take a slice to the neck from Billie’s blade.
Lucas’s fingertips dug into my arms, which was definitely going to leave behind little bruises. I wasn’t going to be able to twist free so I threw my head back as hard as I could.
The crack of his nose breaking sent a chill through my body. He released me and I screamed as I turned and threw my tightly clenched fist into his face.
“Get them!” Jake shouted.
“Come on,” Caleb said pulling me away. “We gotta go.”
The darkness helped us disappear. We kept running but I could hear their voices behind us. It seemed as though they were getting softer and harder to hear but it wouldn’t be enough until I couldn’t hear them at all.
“Wait,” I said stopping. “Clover!”
“We can’t go back,” Caleb said. “They’ll kill us.”
“We can’t leave her behind,” I said.
There was a tiny meow from behind Caleb. I couldn’t see her, but I knew it was Clover.
I crouched down and she placed her paws on my knee. I scooped her up just as Caleb grabbed my arm.
“We have to move, Joss,” Caleb said.
The voices were still behind us. Caleb was just as nervous as I was that they were coming after us but maybe they weren’t. They had our stuff, what more could they want from us.
The three of us clutched onto one another as wee carefully moved through the darkness. My breaths came at me so fast, the top of my head tingled.
“Is your arm okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Caleb said. “Just a scratch.”
“It didn’t look like a scratch,” I said.
Caleb and I continued walking throughout the night, even though it was a challenge. We were lucky we didn’t run into water that was deeper than our thighs.
It was so dark that I had no idea what direction we were walking. There was a chance we were walking completely the wrong way and would end up back where we started.
My body wouldn’t stop shaking. I was cold, wet, and terrified they’d come for us. And even if they didn’t, we no longer had food and water… we wouldn’t survive long without something.
When morning came, we could see through the raindrops that we weren’t being followed. The group hadn’t cared about killing us, they’d only wanted more supplies. We’d been foolish not to even consider it a possibility.
That was a mistake we wouldn’t make again.
It wasn’t long before we saw a single, large building that looked as though it hadn’t been touched by the storms. Seeing the big blue sign on the front almost made me cheer. I knew there would be food, water, clothing… everything we could possibly need inside.
The only problem was… other survivors would need it too.
“What do we do?” I asked looking into Caleb’s eyes.
“We don’t have a lot of choices right now,” he said continuing to move his feet toward the store. “I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”
I nodded but I knew there were things that could happen where he wouldn’t be able to keep me safe. But I also knew that we would have to take risks until we built our supplies back up.
The store was set on top of a hill. My shoes squeaked as we stepped onto the wet concrete parking lot, leaving behind muddy footprints the rain would soon wash away.
As we got closer to the building, we could see that paper covered the glass doors. It appeared as though cracks had been reinforced with duct tape.
My heart sank.
We couldn’t even attempt to go inside. Caleb rested his hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” he said softly. “We’ll find something.”
I nodded but they were just words. He knew as well as I did the odds of finding food and water were slim. Everything was flooded… and getting worse.
“Come on,” Caleb said.
“Wait!” a voice called out.
Over my shoulder, I could see a man waving his hands in the air. He wasn’t armed but for some reason, that didn’t make me feel any better.
“Come back! There is help here!” the man said.
“What do you think?” Caleb asked.
I shook my head and held Clover close to my body. Her little body was soaked.
The man lowered his arms. He stare
d at us with a look of confusion on his face. Almost as if he were suddenly apprehensive of us.
“Let’s check it out,” I said.
Clover needed to warm up and eat. We needed to warm up and eat. It wasn’t like we had anything left they could take from us.
The man smiled as we got closer. He placed his hands on his hips and studied us.
“Looks like you two have been to hell and back,” he said still smiling what seemed like an authentic friendly smile.
“You could say that,” Caleb said.
The man bobbed his head and the thick wavy hair on top moved with it. He wore a dry flannel shirt and cowboy boots that looked like they were brand new.
“I’m Robby Wood,” the man said sticking out his hand.
“Caleb and this is my friend Joss,” Caleb said.
Robby’s hand was warm and his handshake firm. “Why don’t you two come on and in and dry off. There are a few of us in here, making the best of things.”
Robby closed the door behind us and wedged a metal rod between the door and the wall. If someone came, they wouldn’t be able to open the door but of course, they’d be able to break through the glass if they were desperate.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Robby said holding up his palms. “They can just break the glass. But if they do, we’ll hear them. And we have ways to protect ourselves. You’ll be safe here.”
Several people were staring at us. None of them smiled but they didn’t look scared either. They were just curious.
“Introductions can wait,” Robby said. “Let’s get these two some food, water, and dry clothes. Oh, and some cat food for their little friend too.”
Everyone headed off in different directions, leaving us there with Robby. He looked us up and down, still smiling.
“We’re good people,” Robby said. “You’re going to be all right now, you got that?”
It was hours later when I sat up on an air mattress and looked around. Caleb was next to me staring at the ceiling.
My heart jumped and my eyes darted around as I looked around for Clover. She jumped up onto the mattress as if she could read my mind.
The Reset Series (Book 1): Flood Page 14