“Do you have a flashlight?” she asked, feeling for the shelves she knew were there.
“No,” he snapped.
“Follow me and watch your step,” she instructed. “It’s back here, through this door,” she added, shoving aside the shelving that she had put in place to hide the door.
She pulled open the door then, flooding the room with light and waving Geno outside. He quickly went around to the driver’s side.
“Keys are under the mat,” she said, looking up and down the alley to make sure they didn’t have company. She held her breath, waiting to hear good news. Seconds later, the engine groaned and choked out a few puffs of blue smoke before it finally turned over. Geno revved up the engine a few times, sending more smoke into the air.
He jumped out and came back around to where Regan was waiting.
“It’s got a full tank of gas. It doesn’t sound like the best running engine, but it’ll work. Let’s get the others and get the hell out of here,” he said, stomping past her.
Regan and Geno had gotten back into the small store room when Wolf came through the door, followed by an unsteady Tabitha and Fred.
“They’re here!” he announced, the urgency in his voice sending adrenaline pumping through Regan’s veins again.
“What?” Geno asked. “How the hell—” He turned and looked at Regan, his eyes revealing his anger and accusation.
“I didn’t tell them anything,” she hissed. “They don’t even know that van is back there!”
“We need to go,” Wolf ordered them.
“This way,” Geno said, moving to help the others navigate the boxes and shelves scattering the small space.
A commotion in the front of the clinic was all the motivation they needed to get moving. Regan wasn’t leaving without the EpiPens she had hidden and moved to grab the box.
“What’s that?” Wolf asked as they pushed their way outside to the waiting van.
“EpiPens.”
“Oh,” he said, but he didn’t get much time to press her for more information.
Fred jumped in the driver’s seat and the rest of them piled in the back, which was thankfully empty of anything. Fred hit the gas and they rocketed down the alley as the men from the cooperative burst through the back door shouting at them to stop.
“Faster!” Geno shouted out even as Fred floored the gas pedal and sent the van crashing through the privacy fence that had been blocking the alley’s entrance.
“Hold on!” Wolf yelled out from the passenger seat as gunfire rang out. Regan sprawled on the floor of the van and Geno dove to cover Tabitha’s prone form but the bullets missed the vehicle. The van bounced violently forward, throwing them around the empty back end and jarring Regan’s teeth so that her whole body couldn’t help revisiting the fading bruises covering her body.
“Ow!” Tabitha screamed, holding her head after a particularly brutal jolt.
“Hold onto her!” Wolf shouted to Geno, who was fighting to gain stability.
Seeing them struggling to remain stable, Wolf forced his large body from the passenger seat, back between the seats and into the cargo space, where he threw his arms around Regan and used his body to absorb the blows from the bouncing van’s walls.
“Where am I going?” Fred yelled. “I don’t know these roads! There are disabled cars everywhere,” he shouted out without waiting for an answer, at the same time jerking the wheel hard to the left, sending them flying into the wall.
“Slow down,” Wolf ordered him, releasing Regan and crawling back toward the passenger seat.
Fred let off the gas and the abusive ride slowed. Regan sat up, smoothing her hair back and away from her face.
“Are you okay?” she asked Tabitha, her own arms and legs tingling with pain.
Geno shot her a glare. “I’ve got her.”
“I’m okay,” she said in a weak voice. “I feel a bit like a milkshake, but I’m okay.”
Regan smiled. “Good.”
They listened as Wolf directed Fred. There was a lot of zagging and jerking as Fred weaved in and out of cars and took sharp corners. Regan braced herself into the corner between the passenger seat and the side door, but she still slid around the bumpy floor of the van, helpless to stay put. The three passengers in the back sat in silence, Wolf having clambered back into the passenger seat. Geno kept giving Regan dirty looks. Regan would normally have defended herself against the visual assault, but she felt like she deserved it.
Tabitha had been hurt because of her. She was only thankful the injury wasn’t as bad as it had initially looked. As they drove, Regan closed her eyes, letting herself remember that horrifying moment when she’d seen Tabitha’s head bounce off the sidewalk. Tabitha had gone completely still. She hadn’t tried to move or run. The sight had sent Regan into a blind rage that she was only now remembering. It had all been a blur, but now, in the silence of the van, her brain was giving her a vignette of how it had all gone down, and the danger they’d so thinly managed to escape. If Wolf and Geno hadn’t come running in, they could have died. Regan for sure but she suspected that Carla would have done her best to make sure Tabitha survived, even if she would regret every moment.
“I’m going to be sick,” Tabitha blurted out.
Regan’s eyes looked around the empty van. The box of EpiPens was toward the back. She scrambled to grab it, dumped out the remaining pens, and tossed Geno the empty box. He held it under Tabitha’s face in time.
Regan watched as he rubbed Tabitha’s back, whispering comforting words to her.
“Concussion,” she said when she finally stopped puking. “You’ll need to wake me up every hour or so if I pass out.”
“I won’t let you pass out,” Geno assured her.
Seeing the agony and misery on Tabitha’s face physically hurt Regan. Tabitha wasn’t the kind of girl who could get beat up, dust herself off, and keep on going. Her friend was used to being protected and cared for. Regan’s own stupid decisions had cost her a great deal.
“We’re on the freeway,” Wolf announced.
The ride became much smoother from then on. Fred had to go far below the posted speed limit in order to safely navigate around the stalled vehicles, but the going was smooth. He only had to go off-road a couple times, sending the van bouncing into the air and jarring the passengers when he did. The road got a bit bumpier when they moved from a highway to a road that paralleled the coast and would take them closer to Wolf’s, but all of them welcomed the sign that they were getting that much closer.
“Pull over there,” Regan heard Wolf say.
The van slowed before coming to a complete stop on the side of the road. They all sat frozen for several minutes, each of them lost in their own thoughts as they accepted the fact that they had finally made it out of the city, and reached their destination. The cooperative was behind them. Regan felt her breath hitch as she realized she had escaped. They couldn’t hurt her anymore.
The relief was short-lived as she finally looked around the van. Everyone was staring at her. And not with looks of joy or welcome.
25
Wolf’s scrutiny made Regan squirm. “We’re here,” he said in a low voice.
“We’re where?” Regan asked.
“The boat to get to my island is nearby. This is the point where we make a decision.”
Regan’s eyes darted around the van once again. Everyone, including Tabitha, was staring at her with such intensity that she felt like she was on trial for her life.
“A decision?” she choked out.
“My island is right out there,” he gestured out the window to the ocean. “I want all of you with me. Together, we can survive. There’s enough food, water, and other supplies to sustain us. That doesn’t mean we won’t have problems. Things are going to come up and we have to prepare for the possibility that someone is going to figure out we’re out there and want what I’ve stocked up. I could use the extra hands. However—” he paused.
“However?” Regan as
ked, her frustration making her voice sound clipped.
Wolf took a deep breath. “However, Regan, I only want the people who want to be there to come along. I need to know you are committed to making this work. We need to know that you’re committed to us,” he emphasized.
Regan stared back at him, both humiliated and fearful that he put her on the spot like this.
“I need some air,” she murmured, and moved toward the back of the van. She yanked on the handle, trying to open it. It wouldn’t budge. The familiar sense of being locked up in a box crept back in. She violently jerked on the handle, once and then again, but it wouldn’t open.
Seconds later, the van door opened. Wolf was standing there, extending his hand to help her out. She took it and lurched out to the ground, immediately taking a few steps away from the van and drawing in heated gulps of fresh, salty sea air.
Everyone else clambered out of the van after her, and Regan looked past a line of trees to the ocean beyond. The sound of the waves crashing in and the seagulls screaming above helped relax her. She could hear the others talking in low voices behind her.
Wolf had handed her another ultimatum. It felt a lot like what the cooperative had done. She had to be all in or get lost. Was this what this world would expect of her now? All or nothing?
She turned to look at the four people she had come to depend on over the past couple weeks. Geno was still fussing over Tabitha and Fred was busy searching the van for any resources they could take with them. Only Wolf was simply standing there, watching her with that way of his that always made her feel like he could see inside her soul.
He walked toward her when she caught his eye, and upon reaching her, he gestured with his head for her to follow him. They walked off the roadway, beyond some trees to a rocky beach where they found a modicum of privacy.
“Are you truly okay?” he asked gently.
She nodded. “I am. If you’re referring to the bruises, they’re days old. I’m healing.”
“The bruises are fading, but what about what’s in here?” he asked, tapping his finger against his head. “Do you know how you feel, what you’re thinking? Are you prepared to stick with us? No more dumping us for what you think will be a better set-up if something new comes along?”
“Wolf, you have to understand my reasoning,” she tried to explain.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t. You wanted to go. We didn’t stop you. But Tabitha came to say goodbye and ask you to reconsider, and she got hurt. If we’re going to be moving toward that happening again…” he trailed off, his implication clear. “Now that you have seen what’s out there, are you prepared to throw in with us?”
“It wasn’t personal,” she whispered.
He chuckled. “Gee, why would I think it was personal?”
Regan swallowed down further excuses and looked out to the water. “I’m sorry. How is Geno, by the way?”
“He’s much better. Tabitha thinks it was a virus after all.”
“Good.”
“Regan, what’s it going to be? The van is here. It’s yours to do with as you please if you want it. You can get in and drive to wherever it is you want to go.”
She nodded her head. “Thank you.”
“We can’t wait all day. We won’t. We’re leaving. Once the boat is gone, your opportunity is, as well,” he said in a low voice.
“I’ll go,” she blurted out, suddenly whirling to meet his eyes. Her heart was pounding with the decision, but it was what she wanted. It was what made sense. “With you. I’ll go,” she repeated.
He grinned. “Are you one-hundred percent sure? You can’t change your mind. I suppose you could jump overboard, of course. That does seem to be your way of doing things,” he quipped.
She cocked her head to the side. “Ha. Ha. It was one minor indiscretion,” she teased.
He laughed. “One that nearly got you killed, and if I remember right, you’ve been trying to ditch us from the very moment you realized what was happening. Do we stink?” he joked.
“Actually…” she said, smiling for the first time in days.
“You don’t exactly smell like a rose,” he shot back.
She giggled and felt the weight of the world shift from her shoulders. It felt good to laugh. There wasn’t an immediate threat to their lives, either, which gave her a chance to catch her breath.
Her laughter stopped on a gasp and she choked back a sob. She wasn’t going to cry. Suddenly the full weight of everything that had happened—that had almost happened—hit her and she began to cry. Wrapping her arms around her torso, she could feel her knees begin to collapse but Wolf was right there. Pulling her tightly against him, he held onto her as she turned and sobbed into his chest.
Everything had been happening so fast, she felt like she’d been caught up in a snowball crashing down a mountainside. She had finally slammed into the wall at the bottom when Tabitha had nearly been killed. One of the few people she could have called a friend would have died and it would have been her fault.
Wolf stood there quietly rubbing her back as her sobs eventually ran out and she let out a long, shuddering sigh. Stepping out of his grasp, she wiped at her eyes and nose before nodding to him that she was ready.
“Let’s go tell the others,” Wolf said lightly, grabbing her hand and leading her back up the slight incline and through the trees.
“Oh, I can tell you Geno is going to be thrilled to know I’m tagging along. I might not have to jump overboard. He’s going to toss me in, especially if Tabitha’s injury is worse than we think,” Regan groaned.
“Relax. I’ve got your back. Once Tabitha starts feeling better, Geno will relax.”
“Well?” Fred asked when Regan and Wolf returned to the van.
Tabitha was sitting on the bumper now, leaning her head against Geno’s arm for support.
“Regan will be joining us on the island,” Wolf announced.
“Great,” Geno huffed. “Just what we need.”
Tabitha sat forward and caught his eye, gripping his arm hard. “Stop it. She tried to protect me, Geno.”
Everyone looked at Tabitha. “What?” Geno asked. “She nearly got you killed. You never would have gone in there if she wasn’t so damn stubborn.”
Tabitha shrugged gingerly, catching Regan’s eye. “I chose to go in. It was my fault I got hurt, and she protected me.”
“What happened before we got there?” Wolf asked.
“Regan tried to tell me not to help one of the kids,” she started to explain.
“Of course she did. It’s all about Regan,” Geno said, sneering at her.
“That’s enough, Geno,” Wolf said in a firm voice. “Let her talk.”
Geno looked as if he was ready to argue, but Tabitha reached out a hand, touching his arm.
“They wanted me to stay, because of my medical experience. Regan tried to warn me, but I ignored her. I didn’t realize it was a bad thing, what I was doing. I thought I was helping, and giving Regan time to think about coming with us. I missed all her cues. All I ended up doing was make myself look like a real prize. They agreed to let Regan go, but they weren’t going to let me leave. We tried to walk out of their together, but they grabbed me. Regan could have kept on going, Geno, but she didn’t,” Tabitha said, tears filling her eyes as she looked between her husband and Regan.
Wolf looked at Regan, making her blush under all the attention.
“You should have seen her, you guys,” Tabitha said, grinning with pride. “She told a man bigger than Geno that she was going to stab him in the throat. She looked serious, too.”
Geno looked at her, his mouth open. “You stabbed him in the throat?” he asked, appearing horrified.
Tabitha giggled before grabbing her head. “Nope, she stabbed him in the balls.”
Geno winced as Tabitha went on, “He let go of me. Regan was surrounded. I heard her screaming and shouting at me to run. I did. I looked back once and thought for sure it was over. I turned back and kept
running before another man knocked me to the ground. That’s how I hit my head,” she said, gently shaking her head. “Regan, I am so grateful it was you in there with me. You could have left but you didn’t. You saved my life.”
Regan wasn’t sure she could handle too much more of everyone’s eyes on her. “How did you know to come in?” she asked them.
“We were outside waiting for Tabitha when we thought we heard screams,” Wolf told her. “Next thing I know; Geno is walking across the street from where we were hiding. I told Fred to stay behind to make sure no one else entered the building and I followed him. We heard more screams and Geno was running through the gate. I’d no idea what we would find and I certainly didn’t expect to see you brandishing a bloody knife at a group of people.”
Wolf stopped talking and was examining her once again. His eyes roamed over her body so that she couldn’t help cringing. He reached out a hand to her waist, but she batted it away.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You’re bleeding,” he said, pointing to her stomach.
“It’s old blood from the other day. I had a bloody nose,” she explained.
He shook his head. “That’s fresh blood. Lift your shirt.”
She rolled her eyes. “If only I had a nickel for every time I heard that.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, clearly not amused.
“Fine,” she said, and yanked her shirt up, exposing her belly.
Tabitha gasped. “Regan! You’re bleeding. You’re cut!”
She jumped off the bumper, but stopped up short when the impact of her feet hitting the ground caused her to wince in pain so that Geno had to nearly catch her from tumbling sideways.
Regan looked down, probing at the injury, and shrugged a shoulder. “It’s a small cut. It’s no big deal.”
Wolf lifted her shirt a bit higher, staring at the large yellow bruising covering her ribcage. “Did they crack a rib?” he hissed.
Regan pushed her shirt down. “I don’t know. Didn’t exactly have an x-ray.”
His jaw was clenched, and Regan realized the man looked as if he could tear through metal with his bare hands. “You’re safe with us. You know that, right?”
Surviving the Swamp (Survivalist Reality Show Book 1) Page 25