Ravenous

by Erica Stevens

  His midnight eyes raked me; his dark eyebrows drew sharply together. Then, his face relaxed slightly and a small smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. It was so very rare to see him smile that I had forgotten how sweet and melting it could be. He moved slowly toward me. Reaching behind me he pulled the blind apart to peer outside. My heart kicked up a beat; I could feel the blood rushing through my ears as it tripped eagerly along. His arm was near my head, the heat of his body pressed against me as he took a step closer.

  His gaze came slowly back to me as he released the blind. I stared silently up at him, hoping that he wouldn’t kiss me again. Praying that he would. “I know you can take care of yourself, but wandering around alone isn’t safe. For anyone.”

  I swallowed heavily and managed a nod. “I didn’t want to be in that room.”

  “I know.”

  “Where did you get the guns?”

  Those onyx eyes were on me again, gleaming beautifully in the dim light. “I’ve been collecting them for awhile now.”

  I swallowed heavily, nodding slowly. I had hated driving in cars for a long time after my father was killed; it had been torture for me. Cade‘s parents had been killed in a home invasion, it seemed he had been trying to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again. I had dealt with my fear of cars by exposing myself to short rides that became gradually longer over time. I had never grown completely comfortable with them, but at least I was able to stay in them for a half an hour or so now. Cade had dealt with his fear by stockpiling guns.

  “How did you get them?”

  His mouth quirked slightly. “You can get anything you want if you have enough money, and know the right people.”

  “And you know the right people?” I retorted, slightly annoyed by his offhanded manner.

  “Yes. Or at least I did.”

  I nodded slowly, of course he would. That’s who he was after all. He had always been mysterious, always been whispered about. Rumors of dangerous and illegal activities ran rampant about him, everyone had eagerly gossiped about what they thought he was up to. Apparently at least some of it had been true.

  “But the aliens…”

  “Can’t take what they can’t find.”

  “That’s why you had to go back to your house.”

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, what to do. I was out of words and he was so tantalizingly close to me. I wanted him to kiss me, wanted him to do something, but I could hear Bret’s words echoing in my ears. He loved me, and Cade was a puzzle that I didn’t understand. I was completely confused and I didn’t know how to figure it all out.

  And then Cade was closer to me, over me. He was all that I could see or think about. His hand was on my cheek, in my wet hair. I felt my mouth part involuntarily. My head was telling me that this was a bad idea, that this was wrong. My heart didn’t care. All I wanted was to feel his soft, wonderful lips again. His scent engulfed me. It was sharper than it had been yesterday, his own odor more potent, his cologne not as strong, but it was still wonderful. A creak on the stairs caused him to pull swiftly away. Disappointment filled me, I felt unsatisfied, lost. I wanted more.

  The door opened and Bret stepped out from the cellar, he glanced questioningly at Cade before focusing his attention on me. “Are you ok?”

  I smiled wanly at him as I nodded slowly. “Fine.”

  His gaze traveled slowly back to Cade before returning to the window. “Are they out there?”

  “Not right now,” Cade responded. “But they will be.”

  “They’ll come in here.”

  “Yes.”

  I shuddered, my hands dug into my arms as I clung to them. “We need to figure out a plan then.”

  Cade said nothing. What was there to say? I turned back to him, feeling lost and hopeless. It was not Cade that came forward to console me though, but Bret. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight against his chest. Though there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement in his arms, there was a sense of comfort and rightness that was undeniable. Bret loved me, I loved him. Maybe I didn’t love him the same way that he loved me, but it was still love. Or maybe I did love him in the same way, and this strange attraction toward Cade was just clouding my judgment.

  Either way, I didn’t have the time to figure it all out and wasn’t entirely sure that I cared to. There were far more important things to worry about now. “Where are your parents?” I inquired softly, tilting my head back to look up at him.

  His jaw clenched, his eyes became sad as he shook his head. “My father is one of them. I thought…” He swallowed heavily and cleared his throat. “I thought we’d be able to get back to him after we checked on you and Abby. I didn’t know; I would have brought him.”

  I rested a comforting hand over his, hating the anguish that radiated from him. I could already sense his bright light growing dimmer and I hated it. “It’s not your fault,” I assured him.

  He nodded. “My mother wasn’t home, but I assume that she is probably like them also. It seems most people are.” He said the words, but there was hope still within his gaze. “I wish I’d left a note or something just in case, I really thought we’d be able to make it back.”

  There was nothing I could say to that, no reassurances I could give him. “The others are awake, we should go back down,” Cade said softly.

  I stiffened as Bret tried to lead me toward the stairs. Like a stubborn child I could feel my heels digging into the floor in an attempt to stop his forward momentum. “Wait.” He stopped, frowning as he looked down at me. His clear green eyes were narrowed with worry. “We should stay up here, we’re trapped down there.”

  “We’re trapped up here too. They might not be able to find us down there, and you need to eat.”

  “We won’t know if they come in and we’re down there!” I protested hotly. I hated the unreasonable panic already beginning to build in my chest at the mere thought of going down there again. I cursed this weakness, and cursed my susceptibility to it.

  “It will be fine Bethany, we’ll leave the door to the room open so we can hear them if they come in.”

  I was frantic, desperate not to return to those awful, dark depths, but there was little I could do about that. I couldn’t stay up here, it was too risky, and I was starving. I also didn’t want anyone else to know about my weakness. Certainly not Bret, he already thought I was fragile, already thought I was someone that always needed protecting. Even when I didn’t.

  I tried to choke back my panic, but there was little strength and courage left to draw upon. Those resources seemed to be quickly drying up. I clung to my pride as I relented enough to be pulled back down the stairs. I didn’t look back at Cade, I couldn’t. I didn’t want to see the displeasure over being interrupted, or the pity I was certain was burning within those dark eyes. He knew, no matter how hard I tried to hide it, he knew about my terror and he pitied me for it. I kept my attention focused on my feet; I concentrated on simply breathing in and out as Cade closed the door behind us.

  We stepped off the steps and into the darkness. Someone had been waiting for us as the light immediately clicked on at the bottom. Aiden stood beneath the bulb, string in hand as he surveyed the three of us. His clear mahogany eyes, so similar to Abby’s, were still swollen with sleep, but he was alert.

  “What’s going on up there?” he asked softly.

  “It’s quiet, for now,” Cade responded.

  Aiden nodded, his hand slid off the string. The door to the secret room creaked open and Abby poked her head out. “Can we eat now?”

  “I told them to wait until everyone was here,” Aiden explained. “Yes.”

  Abby ducked back into the room, she reemerged with the bag of food. My stomach felt empty, I needed nourishment, but my appetite was gone. “Is there any change in them?” I inquired softly about Peter and our mom.

  “No.”

  Abby handed me a thing of peanut butter crackers, I could only stare dumbly at it. “Wil
l they ever wake up?” she asked softly.

  My gaze drifted toward Cade as thoughts of the man from the street flashed through my mind. He had woken up. He had come back to life, either because the pain had been so excruciating, or because there was something about those suckers that reawakened their victims. Or maybe it was the aliens themselves that somehow triggered a reawakening in their victims. Maybe the aliens enjoyed watching people struggle, and suffer, before they died such an awful death.

  I shuddered, the crackers crunched in my clenched hand. “Bethany,” Abby scolded lightly.

  “We saw one wake up,” Cade said slowly.

  “When? What? How?” Jenna squeaked in surprise.

  Cade held my gaze for a long moment, but I wasn’t going to explain about the man’s reawakening. I couldn’t. He turned away from me. He told them what we had seen, and how the man had come back to life. And then he told about the man’s death.

  The silence that followed his statement was thick and heavy. No one made a sound, no one moved, I was fairly certain that no one even breathed. “So extreme pain, or those creatures, maybe even the aliens themselves, can wake people up.”

  “It could have just been that one man that was able to wake up again,” Bret pointed out.

  I tossed the crushed crackers back to Abby. We could not afford to waste any food, no matter how destroyed it was, and I was not going to eat it. “Well how do we find out which one it is?” Jenna asked quietly.

  The answer was obvious; no one wanted to say it. “The old man…” Aiden’s voice trailed off when Cade stiffened, bristling slightly.

  “What would we do to him?” Abby asked breathlessly.

  A muscle in Cade’s cheek jumped but he didn’t offer any protest. “I don’t know,” Bret responded.

  “Who would do it?”

  No one answered that time. I shuddered; nausea was boiling back through me. We would have to deliberately hurt Peter, deliberately be cruel to him in order to see if he would come back to life. The intentions were good, but carrying them out would not be. I also knew who would be the one to do it.

  Cade would not look at me now, he stared into the darkness of the cellar, his jaw clenched tight. I wanted to tell him that it didn’t have to be him, but I knew that it would do me little good. And I could not lie to Cade, I could not offer him false words; everything inside of me was against doing such a thing.

  “I won’t be long,” he said softly.

  I took a step toward him, hating the haunted look on his face and the pinched set of his mouth, but he had already disappeared into the room. Bret tried to stop me as I turned away, but I shrugged his hands off. Biting on my bottom lip I struggled to keep my tears from spilling over. I didn’t hear anything from the room, I didn’t know what Cade was doing to him, but the smell of burnt hair suddenly drifted toward me.

  I cringed, my hands dug into my arms to the point of bruising. I did not hear a yelp of pain, or a burst of motion like the man outside had shown. My heart sank. I didn’t turn back around when Cade reemerged, I was not disgusted with him; I was disgusted with all of us. He had possessed the strength to do what none of us had been capable of.

  And he hated himself for it.

  “Nothing.”

  The simple word was like a dagger to my chest. What had we done? What had we stood by and allowed to happen?

  What were we going to do?

  “How long can they stay like that before they die?” No one answered Abby’s question. No one knew. “They can’t stay like that for long, can they? I mean they have to eat, they have to drink; they have to go to the bathroom for crying out loud! Don’t they?”

  Still no one responded to her. “Don’t they?” she demanded.

  “We don’t know Abby,” Aiden said gently.

  A soft sob escaped Abby. I didn’t know the answers to her questions either, but I could at least give her some sense of comfort. I moved to my little sister, wrapping my arms around her as I took comfort in her warm body, and small arms. I still had Abby, I still had Aiden. I was more fortunate than most.

  Far more fortunate.

  I could not feel pity for myself; I could not cower in here, trapped and cornered. We had to survive, somehow. Abby had to survive, no matter what happened.

  “What are we going to do?” Jenna asked her voice softer and smaller than usual.

  “Not stay here,” I answered.

  “Bethany, how are we going to get mom somewhere else?” Abby whispered fearfully.

  It was Cade I looked toward, but it was Aiden that answered. “We don’t Abigail.”

  I closed my eyes, wincing as pain lanced through me. Agony tore at my heart, shredding it, destroying it, turning me into something that I wasn’t. I wasn’t cold, I wasn’t uncaring, but I could feel something creeping over me, through me, that left me frozen. Not even Cade’s dark eyes could melt the iceberg taking over me.

  “No!” Abby nearly screeched. I slammed my hand over her mouth, cringing as my gaze darted to the door at the top of the stairs. We all stood motionless, breathless as we waited to see if hell would descend upon us. I moved my hand slowly away from her mouth when it appeared that we were still safe. “No!” Abby hissed.

  I clung tighter to her, but I barely felt her anymore, not through the ice encasing me. Aiden sighed softly, Jenna looked terrified, and Bret would not meet my gaze, only Cade stared at me head on. His eyes burned with the intense desire to make me understand, to make me see, but I already understood, I already saw. I just didn’t like what I saw.

  We couldn’t stay here.

  It would only slow us down to bring her with us.

  Or maybe we could stay here. Maybe this would all blow over. We had food; we had water, a bathroom, and weapons. We had a secure hiding place; we could make a stand for awhile. It may even be better if we stayed. Why did everyone want to leave then, including me? Well, I wanted to leave because I hated to be trapped anywhere. For my mom though, I knew I could suck this up, I could stay in that room for however long I needed to.

  We could all stay here. It would be fine, they wouldn’t find us, we would be safe until someone saved us, and of course someone would save us. We still had military, or at least I thought we still had a military, at the very least some military personnel. We had been out of touch for so long; shut off for so long, that I wasn’t sure we had a military anymore. For all I knew the aliens had taken them out first. In fact, they probably had been the first target, even ahead of the government.

  Terror curdled inside of me. Although every part of me screamed against leaving our mother in that tiny room, a place I never wanted to return to myself, I wasn’t sure there was anything else that we could do. There had to still be some members of the military left, but I doubted there were enough of them to launch much of an attack. More than half, if not almost all of them, were probably frozen. Vehicles may still work, but no one could drive them without being spotted instantly amongst the deadened streets. And that was if they even did work anymore. No one, that I knew, had tried to drive a car in weeks. Never mind planes and helicopters, or tanks. There was no way to know if we could even attempt to mount any sort of defense against these monsters.

  There was no one coming to help us, no one out there to rescue us. The realization was not slow in coming. Yes, it had taken me a while to actually get to that train of thought because I hadn’t had time to go there yet, but the realization slammed me with sudden, horrifying insight. It hit me hard, and it hit me instantly. I was suddenly cold, numb with horror, choked with an agonizing pain, and yet oddly reserved. Oddly accepting of the unraveling course of our fates.

  There was no one coming. There was no help out there for us anymore.

  And we could not stay. To hole up in here and cower was to admit defeat. To hole up in here and cower, was to die. With no rescue coming the food would run out, the water would dry up. Maybe, just maybe, the aliens would move on from here before all of that happened, but there was no guarantee of th
at. They could stay out there forever, waiting for us to emerge like a cat looking to pounce upon a mouse slipping from a hole. We could stay here for a little bit, but eventually we would have to leave. We would have to.

  And when the time came, we would not be able to take our mother with us.

  Maybe we could stay for a bit, maybe we could wait, and we could hope, but eventually reality would catch up with us. It was better to face it now, rather than wait and see. It would be better if we broke free while the aliens were distracted with the remaining people, than to wait for them to come to us. Better to leave here before they came inside and discovered us.

  “Oh,” I said softly.

  “Bethy…”

  I shook my head, holding up my hand to stop Aiden’s words. I could not hear them, not right now. I understood them, but I could not hear them spoken aloud. Bret rested his hand on my shoulder; I did not shrug him off. He was a good man, strong, and I needed his comfort and strength right now. “We’ll stay today,” Cade said softly.

  “No, we have to wait a few more days,” Abby protested.

  “They haven’t reached this part of town yet, the longer we wait the more likely they are to come here. No matter how many of them there are, it will still take them awhile to go through all of the houses. We need to get out of here before they reach us, and we need to leave under cover of darkness.”

  “You don’t even know if they are going through all of the houses and buildings!”

  “What do you think they were doing last night at home?” Aiden asked gently. My mind was spinning, running through everything I did, and didn’t, know. Running through what they were saying, understanding that it was true, and it was right, but I still could not wrap my heart around it. Abby would have to go on, I knew that. Aiden would take care of her, protect her with his life. “We have to go light, carry as little as possible. It will be hard at night, but the darkness will offer us cover.”