Ravenous (Book 1, The Ravening Series)

by Erica Stevens

  ***

  It had taken Cade nearly a half an hour to find Jenna and bring her back to the tree house, by that time it was almost dusk. The group was divided on if it would be best to keep moving, or wait until daybreak. A majority vote had us packing up our meager supplies and moving on. I preferred to keep moving, we had stayed here too long and I felt we would be pushing our luck if we continued to do so.

  Bret worried over me as he cleaned my cuts with some of the water we had left. One of the members of the other group had bandages. I wanted to tell Bret to stop and not to worry about me. I was certain if he knew the truth about me, the last thing in the world he'd choose to do was touch me. I wouldn't blame him in the least.

  I forced myself not to turn away from him, none of this was his fault, it was all mine. I felt like a mummy with my hands wrapped up, but apparently my dive into the thorns had done more damage than I'd realized. "You have to be more careful," Bret muttered as he finished tying the bandage.

  He looked at me in amusement. We both knew that was a near impossibility. After all, I was the girl who had tripped over her own feet and sprained an ankle last year. A fact that, until all of this happened, Aiden and Bret had found highly amusing. "I'm fine Bret," I assured him.

  His clear green eyes were warm and caring as he squeezed my hand. "You're a train wreck, but I love you."

  Guilt coiled through me, I shied away from the words. I wished he would stop saying them. It took all I had not to jerk away when he bent to kiss my cheek. I could feel Cade's gaze burning into me from across the clearing, but I couldn't bring myself to look at him. I felt like the lowest of life forms, and I wasn't ready to deal with the realization I was now a cheater. Ok well maybe I wasn't a full-blown adulteress, it had only been a couple of kisses, but I was still a horrible person and I knew it.

  I just wished Cade wasn't so damn irresistible, or I wasn't so damn weak.

  I went to grab the bag of food but Bret beat me to it. "Let your hands heal."

  I wasn't going to argue, there was no need. I fell into line beside Abby; she slid her hand through my arm. "I'm glad we've found others."

  "Yes, me too."

  Though I still wasn't certain how all of this was going to work out. Heading toward the bridges meant heading toward more populated areas with a higher concentration of frozen people, and aliens. And crossing the bridges? We couldn't, we simply couldn't. Unfortunately, I knew some people were determined to do just that, and I was a little scared Jenna was completely for it. She was nearly hysterical after Cade had brought her back and was hell bent on getting off of Cape Cod.

  I didn't realize I was staring at her, and Cade, until I caught him staring back at me. My face colored and I ducked my head. Abby giggled beside me. "I think he likes you."

  "He's just a friend," I responded quickly, perhaps a little too quickly.

  She had only been teasing but my reaction to her, and my focus on Cade, hadn't escaped her attention. Abby might have written off the kiss she had witnessed earlier as the heat of the moment, or temporary insanity, but I could see a dawning realization in her gaze. "Bethy..." she whispered.

  "How are you doing?" I asked as a way to change the conversation.

  "Bethany what are you doing?"

  "Nothing Abby. How are you holding up?"

  I could tell she was tempted to say more, but eventually she decided to go with my change of subject. "Surviving, just like everyone else."

  I wondered how we were surviving at all. How we were still moving and carrying on through all of this. I could barely stand to think of our mother, I was frightened I would turn into a sobbing mess if I did. We were all exhausted, hungry, and terrified, and yet we continued to fight for our lives no matter how uncomfortable and uncertain we had become. Abby leaned against my side and rested her head on my arm. She was strong, but I knew she wouldn't be able to take much more. I wasn't so sure any of us could.

  "We are going to survive this though," she muttered.

  I turned my attention back to Abby and forced a smile. "Yes we are."

  I hoped I wasn't lying to her, but deep down I felt I was. We moved through the woods, skirting the roads and staying within the shadows. As we approached the Sagamore Bridge, I was surprised to see all of its lights were still on, and blazing vibrantly. I stopped to stare as I recalled all the times I had seen the bridge lit up like this. It was a beautiful, sweeping, glowing beacon against the night. Yet, even though it looked much the same, it was completely different.

  It was the middle of summer and the bridge was completely deserted. Last summer the bridge had been packed with traffic, the sound of cars had filled the night as tourists came and went at a snail's pace. Now there was nothing there except for the lights, and almost certain death.

  "The lights are on," Jenna muttered. "We can't go across if the lights are on. They'll spot us instantly if we do."

  "We'll try the Bourne Bridge," one of the members of the other group said.

  "The lights will be on there too," I told them.

  "You can't know that," a woman retorted brusquely.

  No, I couldn't know it for sure, but it was more than likely true. They just didn't want to believe it, yet.

  "We'll go to the other bridge," Cade said reasonably. "It's not that far. If we stick to the edge of the woods and move quickly, we can get there before daybreak."

  We hadn't discussed if we were going to attempt the crossing. I knew Jenna was for it, but what did everyone else feel? I looked to Aiden, but he was conversing with one of the other men.

  I thought of the other bridge, and then remembered something we were all forgetting about. "What about the military base?" I asked. They all frowned as they stared at me in the night. Their eyes were eerily aglow in the moonlight filtering through the trees. "I know it's closed. I know the aliens kicked everyone off of it, but it's big, and it's wooded. There are a lot of places to hide there, a lot of buildings we can sneak into, and there might be weapons still there or maybe even food."

  "I don't know the base very well," one man said.

  "The aliens could be out there," another woman replied. "Wouldn't it make sense for them to take it over and use it as their own?"

  I couldn't argue with that, it would make sense, but I doubted the aliens were on the base. I didn't think they would take up any sort of permanent residence down here. They hated us; they thought nothing of us and hunted us like rabid animals who had to be put down. Now that I’d thought about the base, I wasn't ready to let it go. There could be weapons out there still; there would be places to hide. There may even be places we could make a stand, places from which we could defend ourselves. We couldn't run forever, we wouldn't survive doing that. Our supplies were limited.

  But as much as the base was taking root in my mind, I could tell they were dead set against it. "We have to get to the mainland," another man in the group said.

  I sighed in resignation, Abby's hand tightened on my arm. There was no reasoning with them, no arguing with them. They had their minds set. I looked toward Aiden, but he wasn't going to argue, I could see that on his face. He felt the mainland was the best option also. A shiver rolled down my spine, those people were going to get themselves killed, and they were going to take me and my friends and family with them.