“If you leave me, I’ll just follow you again,” Danny said gulping down his emotions as best as he could.
Nick walked back and forth in front of Danny causing small waves to splash against his middle. I chewed my cheek, tempted to say something. But then Nick stopped.
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to do what we were going to do originally,” Nick said pulling out his gun. “I guess we’re going to have to kill you after all.”
“Fine!” Danny shouted as he got to his feet. “Do it then,” he screamed in Nick’s face. “Let’s get it over with once and for all!”
Nick pressed the barrel of his gun to Danny’s forehead. He was calling his bluff.
“Oh, God,” Danny whimpered.
“Ready, Danny boy?” Nick said between his teeth. “You really ready to go see your family?”
Danny started crying harder, and it made Nick laugh. I couldn’t stand there and watch him torture Danny, and I definitely couldn’t stand there and let him shoot the poor guy in the head.
“Nick,” I said softly. He jerked his head to the side as if only remembering I was there at that very moment.
“What?” Nick growled.
I tried to find the words, but all I could do was shake my head. There was a distant look in his eyes, and after a moment he lowered the gun.
“Maybe we should just let him come with us,” I said forcing myself to keep my eyes locked with his.
“Are you kidding?” Blair said throwing her hands into the air.
“I’m not,” I said without looking away from Nick. “You both said Danny never did anything to either of you.”
Blair took a step forward. “He didn’t stop them either.”
I wanted to remind her that she was the one that gave away the information that led the gas mask wearing men right to us, but I couldn’t. We all would have done the same in her shoes after what they’d done to them. And after seeing what they’d done to Maggie.
“I’m sure he was afraid,” I said, and Danny was nodding vigorously. “I’ll bet you can understand that because I sure as hell can and I didn’t go through anywhere near what you both endured.”
“You’re putting words into his mouth,” Blair huffed as she crossed her arms.
“She said it, but it’s true,” Danny said finally wiping at his tears with the back of his hand. “I’ve been afraid of my dad since I was five, probably even earlier.” Danny shook his head. “That wasn’t even our house. It was a buddy of my dad’s. That morning when the sky was red, we drove there… my dad knew he had supplies.”
Nick turned his back to Danny.
“The car stopped working,” Danny continued. “We put on the masks and walked the rest of the way. When we got there, my dad’s buddy was sick… he sped up the inevitable.”
“Jesus Christ,” Nick said, turning back to Danny. He was inches from his face. “Your dad was a lunatic.”
Danny’s head bobbed up and down. “The red sky pushed him over the edge.”
“You should have pulled his mask off,” Blair muttered.
“Maybe I should have,” Danny said with a shrug, but after a moment the tears started back up. He looked at Blair with eyes redder than the sky. “He was my dad.”
I grabbed Nick’s arm and turned him toward me. It took a minute for the words to find their way out, but I was sure the look in my eyes had already convinced him to let Danny tag along.
“No one should be alone in this,” I said. “He shouldn’t be punished for what his dad did.”
“And his brother,” Blair muttered.
“Who’s going to watch him? What’s he going to eat?” Nick asked.
“I will,” I said narrowing my eyes. We had enough, and we could easily find more. “I’ll share until we find more.”
Blair sighed loudly. “We aren’t really going to allow this are we?”
Nick looked at her for a long moment before turning back to me. He raked his fingers through his messy hair.
“I guess it’s your lucky day,” Nick said staring into Danny’s eyes. “Don’t make me regret this, because next time I won’t hesitate to pull that trigger.”
“I won’t. You won’t regret it. I promise,” Danny said. “If there is anything I can do to help out, just let me know.”
“You can help by staying out of the way,” Nick said bumping him with his shoulder as he walked past.
Blair walked quickly to catch up with him. She didn’t even bother to lower her voice. “Are you really allowing this?”
“For now,” Nick said.
“I don’t like it,” Blair said flashing a sneer over her shoulder in Danny’s direction. It didn’t seem as if he noticed, and if he had, he probably would have ignored it anyway.
We started back on our journey through the city, and Danny stepped up next to me. He flashed me an apprehensive but thankful smile.
“Thanks for letting me come along,” Danny said. “He would have killed me if it weren’t for you.”
“Nah,” I said pressing my lips together. I wanted to tell him that Nick’s bark was worse than his bite, but decided not to. Perhaps Danny fearing Nick would be a good thing.
“Well, thanks for speaking up. I appreciate it,” Danny said. “It’s scary out there by yourself. It feels like everything is haunted. I barely slept.”
I nodded. Sadly, I could relate. Both to the lack of sleeping and the feeling of the ghosts that haunted the city.
But after everything, I still didn’t want to have a conversation with Danny. Just because I didn’t want Nick to kill him, didn’t mean I wanted to be friendly with him either.
We’d made it through downtown and nothing had changed. The city was a disaster, and there was no end in sight.
To our left was a large flooded parking lot in front of a grocery store I’d stopped at once or twice after work in what had felt like a past life.
There were abandoned cars and rusting carts scattered about the lot. Trees were broken at the base of their trunks, laying on their side blocking the way toward the entrance.
“Maybe we should just keep going,” Blair said.
“There could be more inside that we could use, not to mention we save our supplies if we have our lunch inside,” Nick said with a half-shrug. He elbowed Blair lightly and flashed her a smile that made her bat her eyelashes. “We’ll be quick.”
“Okay,” she said. Blair would have done anything my brother asked, and it made me want to puke.
Jamie nudged me and leaned in close. “Are you sure you two are related?”
“As sure as I can be without a DNA test,” I said.
We made our way through the thick branches and soggy leaves, squeezing our way between the broken doors. Empty plastic bags floated around our feet.
Other than the flooding, the store was in fairly good condition. The shelving units were all in their places, some of which were still stocked with goods.
“Looks like someone else got here first,” Nick said.
“Yeah, but they couldn’t take it all,” Bronx said raising a brow.
“Maybe they’ll come back for it,” Blair said twisting her fingers as she looked anxiously over her shoulder.
Nick cocked his head to the side. “Maybe they’re long gone. Packed up. Moved on, just like we’re going to do.” Nick looked at Danny. “Perhaps you should see if you can find your own bag. Get your own things.”
“Okay,” Danny said drawing out the word. He wasn’t sure if Nick was being serious or if it was some kind of trick.
Nick turned to face us and raised his arms up. “Well? What are you all waiting for? Let’s go shopping.”
Chapter 4
We walked up and down the aisles together. Nick and Blair were several feet ahead of us, looking at things on the shelves as if they were really shopping.
Blair grabbed a bottle of shampoo and shoved it into the already tightly packed bag. She probably already had a bottle or two stuffed inside.
“Maybe you s
hould grab one,” Blair said jerking her chin toward the shelf. “That’s the expensive kind. Works amazingly.”
I swallowed hard and bit my tongue. Having silky hair full of body was probably the absolute last thing I was worried about.
We walked up and down the rows, some of the items looked as though they hadn’t been touched, and other items were completely out of stock. Medicine was gone. Feminine products and toilet paper, each only a few packages left. It appeared as though all of the meat products had been removed. Nothing had been left behind to rot.
“That’s weird,” I said stopping to stare at the empty cases and freezers. Jamie stopped, but the others kept walking.
“What?” Jamie said looking into my eyes. Bronx glanced at us over his shoulder but kept following Nick.
“Why would anyone bother to remove the meat from the store?” I asked.
Jamie shrugged. “Maybe people ate it before it went bad.”
“All of it? I guess maybe it’s possible, but we haven’t seen that many people.” I shook my head. It didn’t make sense. “That would have been a lot of meat for just a few people. Some of it would have spoiled before they got to it.”
Waves splashed up around my legs. Nick and the others had already turned to go down one of the aisles.
“We should probably catch up,” Jamie said lightly touching my hair. His fingertip brushed against my cheek sending a shiver down my spine.
I pressed my lips together and drew in a short breath. “We should.”
Bronx stepped out from one of the aisles, and I reflexively took a step back. He whistled and curled his fingers for us to join them.
I turned away from Jamie and walked over to join the others. The water splashing behind me let me know that Jamie was right behind me.
“We found lunch,” Bronx said avoiding my eyes as I neared. I was almost certain his eyes were focused on Jamie. “We should probably stick together.”
Blair and Nick were already digging into the boxes by the time we joined them. Danny was holding a box turning it in his hands as if he was trying to figure out if he should spend money on it.
“It’s free today,” I said smiling at him.
Danny chuckled. “Right. Hard to get used to. I always had to ask permission for things I wanted from the store from my parents.” He shook his head. “They never let us have anything like this.”
“All the more reason to have it now,” Bronx said slapping him on the back so hard his whole body jerked forward. “How old are you anyway?”
“Nineteen,” Danny said pulling his shoulders back.
Bronx narrowed his eyes. “And you had to ask permission every time you wanted to get something from the store?”
“My parents were strict,” Danny said with a shrug.
“And crazy,” Nick added. Nick eyed Danny for a long moment while he put some trail mix into his mouth. “You are just a boy.”
He hadn’t meant it as an insult even though it may have sounded that way to Danny based on his pinched expression. But to me, it sounded more like a realization… something he hadn’t seen until that very moment.
Everything was quiet except for the occasional package being opened. We were having our fill since nothing we were eating was from our packs. We’d even found a couple of long skinny bottles of water still on the shelves. Perhaps no one had taken them because they were lightly flavored with cucumber.
After Nick finished, he walked up and down the aisle as if patrolling the area. Or maybe he was just anxious to get back on the road. After all, we hadn’t covered much ground in the time we’d left my apartment.
Walking through the water and with waterlogged shoes wasn’t all that easy. In fact, I was pretty sure I was getting a blister at the back of my heel where the back of my shoe was rubbing against my socked foot. But it wasn’t like I could let that stop me. There wasn’t anything that I could let stop me.
“I need to use the restroom,” Blair announced turning to me as if she expected me to join her.
“Not alone,” Nick said shaking his head.
Blair raised her eyebrow and looked away from me. She was obviously much happier with Nick as her escort which was perfectly fine with me.
“I’m going to go too,” Danny said.
“Me too,” Jamie said.
Nick and Bronx exchanged a glance and Bronx nodded just before his eyes settled on me. I was about to tell Nick I didn’t need a babysitter but he’d already turned away.
Bronx leaned back against the shelving unit and crossed his arms. The second the others were out of earshot, he opened his mouth.
“What was going on back there?” he asked. “I felt like I was interrupting something.”
“Oh, nothing.” I looked away from him. “I was just telling him how odd it was that all the meat was gone. Like everything… all gone.”
Bronx’s head bobbed up and down. “I see.” His eyes narrowed for a moment, and I wondered if he was going to question me further about Jamie. I didn’t even know what I’d tell him. “Is everything okay with us?”
I gulped.
“What? Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked.
Bronx took a step closer. “I thought there was something between us.”
Heat pulsed through my veins so fast my fingers tingled. My body’s reaction was a clear indication that there was definitely something between us. But I’d be lying if I said my body didn’t have the same reaction with Jamie.
Bronx was different. He wasn’t going to sit back and wait. He’d take what he wanted and probably move on quickly if the feelings weren’t reciprocated.
Jamie was wishy-washy. I didn’t have any idea what he wanted, and I was pretty sure he didn’t either.
“Things are weird,” I said wanting to smack myself. What the hell kind of response was that? “I mean, with traveling and all of us together.”
“I see,” Bronx said, and I didn’t think that he did. It looked as though he’d been punched in the gut. “You want space.”
I shook my head, but before I could say anything more, my brother and the others were standing at the end of the aisle watching us.
“Time to go,” Nick said.
Bronx jerked his thumb toward them. His jaw was stiff, and he was refusing to look me in the eye.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I should have been telling him how I felt. Explained. He deserved someone better than me, and so did Jamie. Neither of them needed someone like me to bring them down. Not in a world like this.
Ever since I lost my mom, I wasn’t the same person. It was traumatic. Life changing, and not in the good way. There wasn’t enough of my heart left. It couldn’t endure any more breaks. I wasn’t even sure it could handle a slight crack in its current condition.
At some point, I’d have to explain to both Jamie and Bronx that things would never work. On some level they probably both already knew it. Maybe that’s why Bronx had seemed so distant recently, and Jamie was always flip-flopping and sending me mixed messages.
At the end of the aisle, we joined the others. Bronx still wouldn’t look at me, but Jamie was wearing a half-smile when our eyes met. When it started to fade, I wondered if he could see my thoughts through my eyes.
“What the fuck?” Nick muttered as he raised up his gun toward the front door.
I blinked several times noticing the shadow standing in front of the exit. He had a gun pointed at us.
“Step aside,” Nick said inching us closer, his gun drawn.
“I wouldn’t take another step if I were you,” a voice said, just as I felt a slight pressure at the side of my skull. Seconds later someone gripped my arm so tightly I knew it would leave a bruise.
I stopped in my tracks. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Jamie, Danny, and Bronx had too.
Nick spun on his heel, raising the hand with the pistol over his head. “Okay, okay,” Nick said. “We don’t want any trouble.”
“Oh, it’s no trouble,” the man
next to me said. “It’s just that we can’t let you leave.”
The woman next to Bronx laughed, her snarled pigtails bouncing with each vibrating snort. “We haven’t had any guests in a while,” she whispered loudly into Bronx’s ear. Her tongue snaked out of her mouth and licked his cheek. Bronx tried not to wince but failed. “I’m super excited to see what’s in store for you.”
“Ha! That’s funny!” one of them said laughing. He slapped his thigh. “In store!”
I swallowed hard as the man’s other arm curled around my waist. He nuzzled his chin tight to my neck and inhaled deeply. I could feel when he shifted his gaze upward in Nick’s direction.
My breaths quickened, and I threw my elbow back, digging into his stomach deeply. At first, the man laughed at my weak attempt, but his odd chuckles turned into coughs. When he recovered, he grabbed a fistful of my hair and twisted it.
“Put your fucking gun down!” the man shouted. He was so close to my ear it started ringing.
It was bad enough the vision in my one eye was still blurry from our incident with Danny’s family, but now I’d have to deal with this constant hum. I suddenly couldn’t even remember what it had been like to hear without the steady buzzing tone.
Nick slipped his pistol into his holster and raised his hands back up. He steadied his breathing keeping himself cool and calm. The complete opposite of what I was doing.
“What do you want from us?” Nick asked.
The whole group of them laughed, stopping the instant the man next to me stopped. “Let’s have a little fun before we get down to business.”
Chapter 5
My eyes moved slowly around the room trying to take in as much of it as I could. There had to be a way to swing things in our favor.
At the front door, there was one man. There was a woman next to Bronx and a man each by Danny and Jamie. The last man was behind me. Five of them as far as I could tell, but at the moment they clearly had the upper-hand.
They were armed, but our weapons would blow them out of the water, literally. Not that we were going to get a chance to use them. Even if I got the chance to use mine, I still had no idea how and I didn’t think I was going to intimidate this group by pretending that I did.
The Red Sky Series Box Set Page 18