Killshot (Icarus Series Book 1)

by Aria Michaels

  Despite the fear and uncertainty I sensed from him, he had made no effort to escape. Somehow, he was trusting in my ability to keep him safe. In that respect, Johnnie reminded me very much of Bella. After all, both had offered blind trust and unconditional loyalty, based purely on instinct. The parallel caused a stab of guilt deep in my gut and before I knew what I was doing, I was on my knees, my hand resting gently on his clenched fingers.

  His skin was tough and scaly but not as abrasive as it appeared. The second my hand came in contact with his, Johnnie’s anxious movements stilled. The muscles in his fingers relaxed, and his grip on the wood slackened. He flattened his hand to the ground and slid it out under the door as far as he was able to. I gently laid my hand in his and whispered beneath the door.

  “You didn’t ask for this, Johnnie and you sure as hell don’t deserve it.” My breath stirred the dust into a small cloud that swirled around my face. “I’m sorry. I wish I could fix it for you, but I can’t. I don’t have any answers and I have no idea how to help you.”

  The dust puffed back at me in short bursts, as his breath shot out from the other side. I sensed panic and sadness, as his hand struggled to clasp at mine. He whimpered as I pulled my hand away.

  “I know you are scared, but you can’t come with us, Johnnie,” I said, my voice shaking. “Trust me, you are safer here and as far away from me as possible.”

  “Liv?” Zander whispered.

  Johnnie’s hand retreated back into the tack room at the sound of Zander’s voice. Then his hand landed softly on my shoulder. I had been so lost in my grief I hadn’t even noticed him approaching. Johnnie shuffled back away from the door and went silent as Zander helped me to my feet.

  “None of this is your fault, you know?” he said, his eyes gleaming at me. “You have to stop blaming yourself.”

  “I just feel so helpless,” I said, staring down at my feet.

  “News flash, Liv. We all feel helpless,” Zander said, wiping the dust from my face. “There is no instruction manual for this kind of thing, you know?”

  “I know,” I said. “I just feel like I should be doing more.”

  “Liv, you may be infected and you may be an alpha, but you are still only human,” he said, pulling me close. “All we can do is what we can do. Take it one challenge at a time and we will get through this, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.” The words tumbled flatly from my mouth.

  “Liv.” He wasn’t buying it. “I’m serious, you cannot do everything yourself, okay?”

  “Okay, you’re right,” I said, pulling back and offering him a weak smile. “One challenge at a time. I got it. So, on that note, I am going to go see if anyone needs help.”

  “I’ll come with you,” he offered.

  “No, really, I’ll be fine. Anyway, Jake needs you,” I said, pushing gently against his chest. “You guys just do your thing and I’ll go check on the others, okay? Be back in a few.”

  “Be careful,” Zander said. A hint of his crooked smile tickled at the corner of his mouth though it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  “Always,” I smirked and then turned to leave the barn.

  By the time I made it back to the house, Falisha and Riley had collected four lamps and lined them up, down the center of the butchers block island in the galley kitchen. I followed the echoes of chatter to the second floor and found the girls digging through a bedroom just to the right of the staircase. Riley moved carefully about the room, while Falisha tore through it like a hurricane, leaving a pile of clothes and bedding in her wake.

  “How goes the search, ladies?” I asked, puffing my tank top against my chest to cool off.

  “I’m kickin’ your girl’s ass, is how it’s going,” Falisha boasted. “Three to one, baby.”

  “Whatever,” Riley said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not a competition.”

  “Obviously,” Falisha laughed, as she dropped to look beneath the bed.

  Riley closed the drawer she had been sifting through, and paused to admire the beautiful trinkets on the dresser. A gold wedding band and a herringbone hairbrush rested on its matching mirror next to a wooden jewelry box. She reached past them and picked up a silver picture frame from atop a lace doily.

  “This is him, isn’t it?” Riley nodded her head towards the window facing the barn, then held the picture up so I could see. “Look at them, Liv. They look so…happy.”

  Inside the beautiful antique picture frame was a black and white photo of a young couple. The young man wore a military dress uniform adorned with countless honors. His smile shone brighter than the row of medals on his chest. The girl looked like she was about my age, but the soulful set to her eyes made her appear wise beyond her years. She wore a simple white gown that draped gracefully into a soft puddle of chiffon at her feet. Her fair locks had been meticulously arranged into a pile of loose curls at the crown of her head.

  Despite being almost a foot shorter than him, Johnnie, and his wife fit together perfectly. His arms were wrapped around her and hers around him. I could almost hear the music in my head, as I watched them dance. They were focused so intently on each other, it was as if no one else existed to them, at that moment.

  It was beautiful…and sad.

  “At least he had it, you know?” Riley placed the frame back in its place on top of the bureau. “I mean, if it all had to end like that, at least he got to experience that kind of love.”

  “Ry, it’s going to be okay,” I said. I placed my hand on her arm, wishing there was something I could do to mend her broken heart. Unfortunately, I was an accomplice to the crime, and the guilt was eating me up.

  “I know,” she said, half-heartedly. “It’s cool. I’m fine, really.”

  “Whatever,” Falisha shook her head as she dug through a wooden blanket chest at the foot of the canopy bed. “The simple fact is, that boy ain’t got his head on straight and you deserve better.”

  “Well, there’s no sense in dwelling on things we can’t change, right?” Riley squared her shoulders. “So, for now, I am just going to focus on the things that I can.”

  “Amen to that, sister,” Falisha chimed in, as she disappeared into a closet in the corner. A few seconds later, we heard a muffled cheer from within. “Booyah! I found another one and this baby’s full.”

  She danced out of the closet, cradling the lamp in her hands. She shimmied past Riley and I and raced out of the door. Her footsteps echoed like thunder as she tromped down the wooden stairs to add it to the collection in the kitchen. Riley shook her head and smiled when Falisha started singing.

  “I found another one…the score is four to one,” Falisha chimed. “La, la, la, la, la, whoopin’ your ass is fun!”

  “Please tell me I don’t sound like that when I am excited,” she chuckled, rolling her eyes at the ridiculous song.

  “Not at all,” I said, bumping her with my hip. “You are way more obnoxious.”

  “Don’t you have someone else you could be helping,” she laughed, sniffling as she made flying quotations with her fingers. “We’ll catch up with you guys in a little bit. When we are done in here, Jake wants us to check the metal death garden.”

  “Okay,” I said, turning to head out of the room. “But watch out for the flamingos.”

  I whistled for Bella and headed out to the barn to see if the guys had made any progress on the tractor. They were covered in grease but satisfied with what they had accomplished so far. I poured Bella some water and left her with them as I headed off to check on Micah. I found him, waist deep in the weeds behind the barn, digging through a pile of rotted two-by-fours.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey,” he muttered, not looking up as he tossed a board to the side.

  “Need some help?” I asked.

  “Nah,” he said.

  “Micah, everyone else is busy,” I said, shrugging. “I need something to do or I am going to go crazy.”

  “Okay, I guess,” Micah said, wiping his face on the sleeve of
his long-sleeved shirt. After a few minutes of working together in silence, he stood and faced me. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I know it wasn’t fair of me to put you in this position, but I appreciate you backing me up.”

  “Yeah, about that. I don’t know how much longer I am going to be able to keep this up, Micah.” I tossed a board onto the pile he had created, and offered him a hard look. “Riley is my best friend and she is torn up over this whole thing. You broke her heart, Micah, but I think she still has hope that things will work out. Every time you shut her out, that wound is reopened.”

  “I know,” he said, dropping his head.

  “You need to just rip off the Band-Aid,” I glared at him, “because this is cruel.”

  “I know, okay? You think I don’t get that?” He rubbed at his chest. “I know it’s selfish, Liv, but I just want a little more time with her.”

  “Why torture yourself,” I asked, as he raked his fingers through his hair.

  “Every minute with Riley is worth it, Liv, even if I have to spend my last few hours watching her grow to hate me.” When his arms dropped limply to his sides, his fingers were full of hair.

  “Jesus Christ, Micah,” I rushed over to him. “Your damn hair is falling out.”

  “Whoa,” he said, looking down at it in awe. He shook the strands loose from his hands and watched them drift softly to the ground. “That’s new.”

  I reached over and ripped his shirt up, exposing his slender chest. The blackness had spread considerably. It had advanced beyond the edges of the large bandages I had applied to the bite mark earlier that morning. The entire left side of his chest was covered in leathery black leech flesh. The root-like tendrils pulsed and throbbed at the outer boundaries of the darkened areas. The skin just past the charring was already a pale gray. Despite the unbearably hot temperatures, Micah’s skin was cool to the touch, and dry as a bone.

  “God, Micah,” I said, covering my mouth with my hand.

  “I know,” he said, pulling his shirt back down. “Look, I’ll do it when we get to Morrison, okay? I just—give me today, okay?”

  “Sure,” I said, swallowing back my tears. “Of course.”

  “Thanks,” Micah said, wiping his eyes. “Let’s just get back to work, okay? This stupid trailer is not going to dig itself out.”

  Ten minutes later, we dragged a small flatbed from the wreckage of the back lot and parked it next to the house. It was about the size of a sheet of plywood and sat just shy of two feet off the ground. Short walls made of aluminum piping, rose a foot up from the bed of the trailer. It was nothing fancy but if we could figure out a way to replace the obliterated tires, we’d be in business.

  “I think I can make this work,” Micah said, cocking his head. “I’m no mechanic or anything but I used to build models and stuff when I was a kid. This can’t be that much more complex right?”

  “Right,” I snorted, handing him a bottle of water from my side cargo pocket. “Good luck with that. I am going to go check on Zander and Jake.”

  “Liv.” Micah grabbed my hand. “Thanks again, you know, for everything.”

  I didn’t deserve his gratitude any more than I wanted it. I just shook my head and walked away towards the barn. The sun sat high in the sky, raining heat down on me from above. The pile of thermometers I passed on the way through the trash heap ranged anywhere from one hundred and fifteen degrees, to broken. Even with frequent water breaks, which we could not really afford, the stifling heat had a way of sucking the life right out of you.

  “How’s it going in here?” I asked, grateful for the slightly cooler temperatures that, the shaded barn, provided.

  “I think this might actually work,” Jake chirped. “Between Zander’s mechanical talents, and my genius I.Q, we have a real chance, here.”

  “And your modesty,” I said. “Don’t forget about your modesty.”

  Zander smiled and shook his head as he slid his arm around my waist. All I could see of Jake were his skinny legs sticking out from beneath the tractor’s giant yellow wheels, but I could hear the smile in his voice. He prattled on excitedly, from beneath the big green monster, explaining how the Model D’s engine worked, and that there were only about one hundred and fifty thousand of them produced.

  Zander’s eyes met mine, and suddenly I lost focus on what Jake was saying. The corner of his mouth twitched up into that crooked smile and the world began to fade away. My heartbeat cranked up a notch, completely drowning out the sound of Jake’s voice as it echoed in my ears. Zander bit his bottom lip and slid his hands into the loose hair at the base of my neck.

  “I missed you,” he whispered, smiling as he pressed his soft lips against mine. It was a short, sweet kiss, but it set my blood (and my face) on fire. Zander smirked, brushing his fingers lightly across my cheek. “Red is a good color for you.”

  “Shut up,” I laughed, nudging him playfully.

  He pressed another kiss to my mouth, dipping his tongue past my lips as he did. Just as I was settling into Zander’s arms, Johnnie banged against his door. The whole wall shook, with the impact. Zander spun on his heel and my heart jumped up into my throat.

  “What the hell,” Jake shrieked, sitting up so fast he slammed his head into the tractor’s undercarriage.

  Johnnie slammed into the door again, snorting and growling in frustration. He started hissing and scratching at the door as he threw his weight against it, repeatedly. After hours of subdued silence, Johnnie had finally lost his cool. Equipment clanked to the ground, as he threw himself against the walls of the tack room.

  “What’s he so pissed off about?” Jake scooted from beneath the tractor, rubbing at the new lump forming on his head.

  “He’s not pissed, he’s scared,” I said, panicking. “Everyone shut up for a minute!”

  It was faint at first, but then I heard it, like a mosquito buzzing past your ear. I stepped out of the shaft of light and into the shadows between us, and the door, craning my neck to listen. Everyone froze, and went silent. Even Johnnie stopped banging inside the tack room. After a few seconds, I heard a low rumble from outside. I took off running towards the house and Zander and Jake fell in at my heels. Micah took off after us when we ran past him, the four of us kicking up dust as we tore across the yard.

  “Do you guys hear that?” I shouted over my shoulder.

  “Hear,” Jake huffed, trying desperately to keep up with me. “What?”

  “It sounds like…engines,” I said, skidding to a halt as I reached the end of the front porch. I held my hand out to stop them and peeked around the corner. “Someone is coming!”

  Chapter 35

  Small Victories

  “What on God’s green earth going on out here?” Riley screeched as she and Falisha came barreling through the front door.

  “Over here guys,” I shouted, frantically waving at them. “Hurry the hell up and get down. Someone is coming.”

  We had not seen a working vehicle since Icarus hit and I couldn’t help but wonder how it was even possible. From what we understood, the flare had wiped out all electronic components, including those which would allow modern vehicles like the ones in the caravan headed our way, to function.

  Alarm bells sounded wildly in my head; Danger!

  We crept across the lawn and quickly dropped to the ground behind the raised flowerbed that spanned the front of the house. The cloud of dust down the road grew closer with each passing second. Finally, a sleek black Hummer rolled past us, leading a procession of large trucks in its wake. The Hummer had a strange logo on the passenger door, but I was so shocked by the sight of working vehicles, I didn’t catch what it said. The twenty or so trucks that followed were very distinctly military. Each was painted in flat camo, with a matching canvas drape over the bed. Every one of them had a serial number stenciled in black on its front bumper.

  “I don’t get it. Why are we hiding?” Riley whispered, pushing aside the fried grasses that were tickling her face. “That’s the army, right? A
ren’t they supposed to be the good guys?”

  “Maybe,” I said, staring down the road after them.

  “The trucks are army. Those are personnel carriers, there. The flatbeds down there, probably carrying food and water, or maybe medicine, but that?” Zander pointed down the highway to the black hummer at the front of the pack. His eyes locked on mine, his mouth set in a grim line. “That is not a military vehicle. I don’t know who it is, though. Could be the CDC or Homeland Security, but there is no way to know for sure.”

  “Maybe it’s the Men in Black,” Jake whispered nervously.

  “I love me some Will Smith,” Falisha winked nervously at Jake.

  “Guys, focus,” I said. “Okay, from now on, until we know for sure, we trust no one.”

  “How are their trucks even running?” Riley said her brow furrowed. “I thought that wasn’t possible.”

  “This is the U.S. government, we are talking about here, Riley.” Zander’s jaw clenched. “They sort of have their own set of rules.”

  We watched in silence as the last of the rumbling vehicles, a small open-top jeep, rolled past. A man stood at the back of the jeep, bracing himself against the roll bar, with a large caliber gun against his shoulder. The end of his rifle swept back and forth as he dutifully scanned the area. His focus rested entirely on protecting the rear of the caravan.

  The driver of the jeep was a matching image of military discipline. He was dressed in full military fatigues, sweat dripping from every sharp angle in his face. He chartered on through one-hundred-plus degree heat, weaving around the craters the lightning had created, his concentration unwavering. His back was rigid, his shoulders square, his steady gaze trained on the road ahead.

  In the midst of such rigidity, the man in the passenger seat looked more than a little out of place. He wore a plain white T-shirt, faded blue jeans, and nondescript black tennis shoes. His gaze shifted nervously in all directions, causing the thin crop of dusty blond hair atop his head to slash about on the breeze, whipping against his face. He cradled a dark colored backpack, protectively against his chest.