After all, what was the point if we were all going to die anyway. If the attacks didn’t get us, the other survivors would. We weren’t armed, and we were lost… what chance did we have to survive any of this?
“You have to keep moving. You promised,” Danny said.
I didn’t care about any stupid promise I’d made.
“You know he’d want you to keep going,” Danny said shaking his head. “The only reason I’m still alive is because of you, so I’m going to repay that favor. I’ll get you back to Nick, or to your grandma’s, whichever you want.”
“What if I don’t want either?” I asked, the words tasting bitter.
“I don’t believe you. Your grandma—”
“Who says she’s even alive. It was a stupid plan.”
Danny shrugged. “A plan is better than no plan at all.”
“Says who?”
“Probably someone.”
As we walked, my mind kept drifting back to my time with Jamie. When I thought of the feel of his lips on mine, the tears started to flow faster.
He’d been different. In control and in charge. It made sense why he’d told me he wished he would have told me how he felt sooner.
If those women, Shannon and Monica would have just left him alone, he’d still be with us. I was glad they were dead because if they would have still been alive, I would have killed them myself.
Danny and I kept moving. My heart ached more and more with each step. It had felt as though I’d left a part of myself behind, but Danny was right about one thing… Jamie would have wanted me to keep going. That was why he stayed inside the fence. He’d sacrificed himself to delay Tom and his men long enough that Danny and I could get away.
I didn’t think for a second that if Tom survived the battle at his base, he would give up on us, but if we kept moving, we’d be able to stay ahead of him. Eventually, we’d lose him, and he’d go back to collecting people to put to work for him and his camp. We just had to hope we’d never cross paths with him again.
It was sometime the next morning we came across what had once been a busy highway. An interstate. Abandoned cars were strewn about, some on the roads and some in the ditches.
“Which way?” Danny asked pointing left, and then right.
“Left,” I said with a shrug. “I guess?”
“Sorry I didn’t remember the way back to the gas station,” Danny said keeping his eyes focused on the long road ahead.
I shook my head. My eyelids scratched with every blink. “It’s okay. I didn’t either.”
“He’ll go there you know,” Danny said with confidence. “To your grandma’s.”
“I hope so.”
Danny and I hadn’t stopped for rest, nor had we stopped long to try to find food and water. We were both terrified of stopping. It didn’t matter how badly my feet hurt, or how sore my calves were, I forced everything to keep working.
“Hey there’s a sign up there,” Danny said. “Maybe we’ll find out if we’re on the right track.”
I didn’t respond. Danny had kept trying to talk to me about anything and everything, but I wasn’t a good travel companion because I answered as little as possible.
I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was forgetting something. Maybe I never would.
As we approached the sign, the words became readable. It was only fifteen more miles to my grandma’s house.
“Three days,” I said squinting at the sign.
“Think that gas station is around here?” Danny looked up and down the road.
I shook my head. We definitely hadn’t been on the four-lane highway when we’d been traveling all together.
“My guess is it’s back at least ten miles, maybe more,” I shrugged.
“Think so?”
My shoulders slumped. “No, I don’t know. I have no idea.”
“They’ll meet us there,” Danny said placing his hand on my shoulder. “Who knows, maybe they’re there already.”
If he’d said that hoping I’d feel better, the thought had the opposite effect. All I could think about was having to explain to Nick, Bronx, and Blair how we’d lost Jamie. I wouldn’t even be able to do it.
Blair would probably somehow blame me which would only sting more because I already blamed myself enough. We shouldn’t have left him. I shouldn’t have ever crawled under the fence.
The remaining miles and days went by in a hazy blur. I couldn’t remember the events, not that there had been much to remember. We’d stopped for food and water a few times, finding more than we’d expected.
It was hard to eat with the storms that were raging inside my stomach. Grief had taken over, but somehow my mind had been able to figure out a way to keep my body moving.
It was two days later when my grandma’s house came into view. We’d made better time than I predicted, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that both Danny and I were worried we were being followed. We hadn’t ever stopped to rest for longer than we had to.
“That’s it?” Danny asked.
“Yep,” I said looking at the closed curtains. The wooden fence around the backyard was completely intact as were the barns behind the house, at least as far as I could tell.
It looked weathered but nearly identical to what I’d pictured in my mind.
“You ready?” Danny asked glancing at my unmoving feet. I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped walking.
“She’s not in there,” I muttered.
“How can you be so sure?” Danny asked.
I swallowed hard. “No one is in there.”
Danny shook his head.
“I can just tell. If Nick was in there, he’d be hobbling out to see me, and if my grandma was in there, I’d feel it.”
“Sorry,” Danny said, taking my words as if they were facts. He hadn’t even tried to argue. “Well, I guess we’ll go inside, have a look and wait for nick and the others to arrive then.”
“Okay,” I said knowing there would be food inside the house. There would be water from the well out back. And as long as no one had followed us, we’d be safe for the time being.
The stairs leading up to the front door creaked noisily. Danny stood close as I pulled open the screen door and wrapped my hand around the cool metal front doorknob.
I slowly turned the knob, but it didn’t budge. Grandma had locked the door.
“Locked?” Danny asked.
I nodded. The only time grandma locked the door was when she left. She’d been trusting, not to mention she lived in the middle of nowhere.
I could remember Nick asking her one time what she’d do if serial killers just walked in. She’d gestured to my deceased grandfather’s shotgun and told us she wasn’t worried.
Grandma didn’t worry about much. Maybe the only thing she worried about was Nick and me.
“Yeah she’s not here,” I said lifting up the corner of the welcome mat and spotted the glint from the almost never used spare key.
“She didn’t hide that very good,” Danny said.
“Good enough I guess,” I said with a shrug. “No one found it.”
I opened the door, and we stepped inside nearly at the same time. My eyes moved around the living room noticing everything was still how I remembered it.
All of the same paintings and photos on the wall. Even the same brown and orange afghan over the top of the sofa. I could still remember my grandma wrapping me in the old itchy blanket one time when I wasn’t feeling well.
I listened in the silence of the room hoping to hear the footsteps of my grandma moving down the upstairs hallway to come down and greet me. There were no noises. Only the feeling of emptiness.
We searched the house, but as I suspected, she wasn’t there. Maybe she’d survived the attacks. Maybe she was out there somewhere. Or maybe she’d been out when it happened.
“So, I guess now we wait?” Danny said pulling the curtain to the side with his fingertip.
“Guess so.”
Danny and I spen
t the rest of the day going through my grandma’s supplies. There were so many jars of canned goods downstairs, some she’d bought from the store and others she made herself.
We collected some water from the well and boiled it using the fireplace. Danny and I would be fine for a long time… years. Of course, that was as long as Tom or his men hadn’t followed us.
“Check this out,” Danny said holding my grandpa’s old shotgun. “You think this thing still works?”
“Probably.”
“Only one way to find out,” Danny said holding up some shells he’d found.
I shrugged. “You know more about that stuff than I do.”
“Hmm, yes,” Danny said not meeting to sound cocky. “I’ll give it a few more days. The sounds could alert someone.”
“Good idea.”
Danny tucked the shells into his pocket. “I loaded it just in case.”
I nodded as I turned my back to him to stare out the window. The only movement outside was the leaves in the trees gently rustling around in the breeze. My grandma’s house was peaceful. Calm. But I knew the quiet would also allow my thoughts to go down deep where I didn’t want them.
It was hard to go even a minute without my thoughts shifting to Jamie. It was like a deep urge inside of me to walk out the door and run back to Tom’s to get him. Even though he was gone, I didn’t want him there… stuck inside Tom’s forever.
“Hey,” Danny said sitting down on the sofa. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, um,” I said not realizing that tears were dripping off of my cheeks. I quickly wiped them away.
“Thinking about him again?” Danny asked, tears welling up in his eyes.
I swallowed down the hard lump at the back of my throat. It hurt to speak. “Yeah.”
“I’m really sorry,” Danny said shaking his head as he stared at his feet. “Really, really sorry.”
“I wish he would have told me sooner,” I said.
“There wasn’t anything we could have done. That stuff was poison,” Danny said shaking his head. “You saw what it did.”
“I know, but… I— I just wish I would have known. There is so much more I should have said to him,” I said brushing away the tears that refused to stop.
Danny stood up and stepped up next to me. He looked out of the window with me.
“We’ll figure this out,” Danny said.
It was like Danny had grown up overnight. In this world, you had to.
“Want me to make you something to eat?” he asked.
I didn’t answer with words, but my stomach answered with grumbles.
Danny chuckled. “I’m on it.”
He leaned the gun against the wall next to me and walked out of the room. I could hear every step he took as he moved around my grandma’s kitchen.
It was torture just how much I missed Jamie, but I had to keep fighting. It’s what he would have wanted. I couldn’t just abandon Danny, and besides, maybe Nick would find his way here.
I was in pain from the grief, but I’d fight. Danny and I would figure it out. It would take time, but we’d do it. Somehow, we’d made it, and somewhere Jamie was smiling at us.
BLACK RAIN
By Kellee L. Greene
Chapter 1
Every morning I woke up in tears, and every night, when I laid down in bed, I had the same horrific nightmare. I was reaching out for Jamie, trying to save him, but no matter how hard I tried, I failed. Each and every time.
Danny and I had been at my grandma’s house for at least two weeks, and still, there had been no signs of Nick and the others. There hadn’t been any signs of life at all except for Danny and me.
Tom’s men never came after us after they’d kidnapped us and tried to make us part of their community. Not that it had been much of a community. I wondered if any of Tom’s men had survived when their enemies came in and shot their guns.
It wasn’t like I cared if they hadn’t survived. In fact, it would have made life easier knowing they’d all bit the dust and weren’t out there looking for us. But the only thing I knew for sure was that Jamie hadn’t survived. He died in that horrible place, and I was reminded of it every time I went to sleep. Not that I didn’t also think about it every single minute of every day.
Danny was kind though. He made sure I ate. He kept watch more than his fair share. And he sat with me every night until I fell asleep.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had gone wrong and we wouldn’t ever see Nick, Bronx, or Blair again. Maybe Tom’s men had lived and found them. Or maybe Tom’s enemies had gotten to them.
The back door creaked before closing with a heavy thud as Danny pulled the door closed. The lock clicked into place before Danny stomped through the kitchen. He muttered something as he kicked off his shoes.
His soft steps tapped down the short hallway from the kitchen to the living room. I turned away from the window and caught his eye.
Danny’s hair was dripping wet, and his shirt clung to his body. “Sorry, but I tracked a bunch of mud into the kitchen.”
“What were you doing out there?” I asked, worried he may have already told me and I hadn’t been listening.
“Working on the garden. Don’t worry, I’ll clean up the mess before I make dinner,” Danny said, shifting his gaze toward the window next to me. “Anything?”
He always asked that even though I was pretty sure he knew I’d let him know if I saw them. Or anyone for that matter.
“Nothing.”
“They’ll come,” he said. It was what he always said.
I shook my head. “Maybe.” And that was the same thing I always replied when he told me that.
“Isn’t the ground too wet to work on a garden?” I asked as Danny peeled his shirt off and started up the stairs.
“I said I was sorry for tracking in the mud,” Danny said running his hand through his hair. The damp pieces spiked up toward the ceiling. “If the sun keeps shining, it’ll be ready in no time.”
I could hear Danny splashing water around in the bathtub in the downstairs bathroom. He dashed up the stairs holding a towel in front of himself, and it wasn’t long before he came back downstairs wearing fresh clothes.
“What do you want for dinner?” Danny asked stopping in the hallway.
“Cheeseburger with fries, really, really salty fries,” I said grumpily as I leaned forward in my chair.
“I can do the salt, but I’m fresh out of burgers, buns, and potatoes.”
I sighed and turned back to the window. “Rice?”
“White or the kind with seasoning?”
“Surprise me.”
I clasped my fingers together tightly as I stared out of the window. My heart fluttered and ached as I imagined Jamie stepping out from between the trees.
I knew he wasn’t there, but I could see his face. His smile.
I hadn’t even realized I was standing there with my hand pressed against the window until Danny tapped me on the shoulder.
“Whoa! Sorry,” he said taking a quick step back when I spun on my heel raising my fist to him. When he saw my face, he took a quick step forward, concern nearly spilling out of his eyes. “Are you okay? Can I help?”
I felt the cool tears streaming down my cheeks. “What? Oh. No.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry… I hadn’t meant to….” Danny slipped his arm over my shoulder. “Dinner’s ready.”
My fingers were shaking, maybe my whole body was, as he led me away from the window. There was a bowl of rice on the coffee table in front of the sofa. I hadn’t even heard Danny bring the food into the living room.
He helped me down before sitting next to me. I looked at him as he grabbed his bowl and held it up in front of him. He spooned a big scoop of rice into his mouth before turning to meet my eyes. Danny must have felt me staring at him. He didn’t ask why and instead he pointed at the bowl and then at my mouth as he flashed me a smile.
I couldn’t smile back, but I ate. Not because I wanted to but because I
knew I had to. There was always a chance, although small, that Nick would find his way to us, and I wanted to see him even though I was dreading having to tell him what happened.
“Did you get far in your book today?” Danny asked. He didn’t care, he was just trying to make conversation.
“No,” I said taking another bite.
“I saw you reading earlier.”
I shook my head. “Was just holding it.”
“Sounds like me in high school,” Danny said smiling and shaking his head at the memory. “If only I could tell those teachers I was right.”
“Right about what?” I asked narrowing my eyes.
“That I wasn’t going to need any of that stuff they were teaching.” Danny frowned but tried to hide it from me. “So many unnecessary lectures from my mom about my grades.”
I wished I could have told him he was wrong, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t sure how much of what we’d learned would matter with what we were facing. What I needed to know was how to find food and water, growing a garden, hunting, tracking, and sadly how to use a gun.
Surely the other stuff would matter at some point. But I couldn’t help but feel as though it was a long way off before I needed to worry about math, history, or any of that other stuff.
“Anyway,” Danny said setting down his empty bowl. “Maybe one day things will go back to normal, and all the kids will go back to school. They’ll have all of this in the history books.”
I barely managed a shrug. Danny didn’t want to hear how I didn’t think things would ever go back to normal. Not ever. The world as we knew it was over. Those that survived would have to find a new normal, and hopefully, we would. Eventually.
Danny got up and sat at the window. He tried not to be obvious about it, but I could feel it each and every time he looked at me. Losing Jamie had been hard, really hard, and it wasn’t just him that was twisting my insides. All of the grief I’d experienced after losing my mom came back to the surface. And on top of that, I couldn’t stop thinking that Nick, Bronx, and Blair were probably dead too. And even though my grandma’s body hadn’t been here, that didn’t mean she hadn’t succumbed to the attacks elsewhere.
The Red Sky Series Box Set Page 31