“Please,” Kate begged. “Try again.”
Will stepped back and lunged forward kicking the door harder. It bent inward slightly, but it didn’t break free.
“It’s working!” Kate said.
Will made another attempt, and the metal snapped loudly. He bent down and yanked the metal door off the broken hinges.
Kate helped Max out just as the building to their right collapsed in on itself. Will grabbed Kate’s hand and pulled her back from the skin burning blaze.
“This way,” he said leaning her away from the building and back to the main road. The flame on the boards that had fallen were dwindling just enough they could make their way over. “Go on, jump.”
Kate looked back at Will and swallowed before she took off leaping over the boards. Max followed her and jumped at nearly the same time.
Kate turned and waved at Will to follow. He sucked in a deep breath and glanced over his shoulder. For a second, it seemed as though something had caught his attention.
“Come on!” Kate shouted.
Will moved his feet and jumped over the boards. When he landed his feet slid on the gravel, but he’d somehow managed to regain his balance.
He looked up at her and smiled. There wasn’t anything standing in the way of them and the east gate. Will grabbed Kate’s hand and then ran.
“What did you see back there?” Kate asked.
“Nothing, I just have this fear of jumping ever since I was a kid,” Will said with a serious look on his face.
“What?” Kate asked shaking her head.
Will chuckled. “Kidding. There were a couple people running down the street, toward that area with the trucks.”
“Oh.” Kate wasn’t surprised.
Even at the sight of the gate, Kate’s pulse continued to pound inside her veins. As they drew closer, and she saw that no one was there waiting, it felt as though her heart was threatening to stop beating altogether.
Kate’s feet slowed to a walk, and Will noticed the change in her pace. He looked her up and down.
“What’s wrong?” Will asked.
“Ethan,” Kate said with a quick breath. “He’s supposed to be here.”
“Well, then,” Will said pulling at Kate’s hand again. “Let’s go wait for him. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”
“No, he… I took too long… he should—”
“We’ll wait.”
Kate bit her lip and nodded. She fought the urge to turn and run back inside the hotel. She couldn’t stop worrying that Ethan was still trapped inside… or that something far worse had happened.
Will and Kate made their way into the shadows. Being out in the open made them feel too much like they had targets on their backs and neither of them were in the mood to become dinner for The Unholy.
The ground behind them crunched, and Kate spun around. Her blade was in her hand before she’d even completed her turn.
“Kate!” Nikki, the new girl, said with a smile. There was dirt and ash smudged on her cheeks, and her hands were shaking. “I saw you come out. We’re waiting over there.”
“We? Who’s we?” Kate asked shaking her head as hope made her heart throb hard once.
“A bunch of us that managed to escape. We don’t know what we should do?” Nikki said with a frown.
Kate and Will followed Nikki further away from the fence. As they got closer, they spotted a group of fifteen huddled inside a dark shadow. All of their tear-streaked faces were covered in ash and fear, but none of those faces belonged to Ethan.
Several of them mumbled a hello, but Kate couldn’t help but wonder how many of them would have gone with Maya if they’d been given a chance. She didn’t trust them. In fact, she didn’t even like standing there with them.
Off in the distance, Kate could see the headlights from the trucks as they headed north away from the burning town. She could only assume that Chuck was in one of them, but what she didn’t know was what had happened to Maya.
They’d probably taken most, if not all of the food, and she already knew that Chuck had taken a large bag of weapons. She wouldn’t be surprised if they had taken them all.
Kate hugged herself as she looked away from the trucks and back toward the still empty gate.
“Where is he?” she whispered softly. Will turned to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“If he doesn’t come, we’ll have to go,” Will said looking away from Kate. “We aren’t safe out here.”
“Go where?” she asked. If Ethan didn’t come back, Kate wasn’t sure what she’d do. “I should go back inside and look for him.”
Will tightened his grip. “You know I can’t let you do that.”
Max barked.
“You don’t understand,” Kate said.
“Oh, I think that I do. I understand all too well. Sometimes people get taken away from us, and it hurts like hell. Trust me. None of us are safe. None of us are promised a tomorrow.” Will sniffed hard and Kate knew he was thinking about his son and brother. If a child could be taken away from his father, then anyone could be next. Anyone.
Kate bit her lip trying to stop the tears with physical pain. Will sighed as he wrapped his arm around Kate’s shivering shoulders. He squeezed her tightly hoping to offer some comfort.
“We’ll give it a few more minutes,” he said.
Kate covered her mouth and nodded. Her stomach ached. It felt as though she’d swallowed a thousand pins and they were all poking into her overly acidic stomach.
She sucked in a breath and swallowed hard. Kate didn’t know how she’d be able to go on… without him.
“I should have never let myself…,” Kate said letting her words fade into nothing. She didn’t know if she could finish the thought without crumbling to the ground.
“Let yourself what?” Will asked.
Kate shook her head. She stared at the gate waiting for the fire to light up Ethan as he stepped into view.
But it wasn’t happening. He wasn’t coming.
Chapter 27
The group huddled around Kate, worry and fear filled their eyes. They all had countless questions to which Kate didn’t have any of the answers.
“What do we do now, Kate?” an older man asked as he took off his cowboy hat and scratched his scalp under the few gray hairs that remained.
“The whole town is gone,” a woman with smeared glasses said between her tears. “Just gone!”
Kate shook her head. “I… I’m not sure.”
She lowered her head and scratched Max behind the ears. Kate wasn’t sure if she could simply back away and leave everyone standing there not knowing what to do. She was sure she could outrun them, all she had to do was turn around and go.
Her gaze shifted up toward the horizon. She wasn’t surprised to see countless shadows of The Unholy making their way to see what the light was about. They were curious, desperate creatures who wouldn’t stop at anything to find a snack.
Will crossed his arms and pointed at the approaching crowd with his chin. “We’re going to have to get out of here.”
“I know, but,” Kate said turning sharply to face the gate. She hoped that this time he’d be there emerging from the blaze, but all she saw was more flames.
“If he makes it out, is there anywhere we could go that you know he’d check?” Will asked. “A place he’d know about? Something you’ve talked about?”
Kate shook her head, but then froze as she remembered the storage facility. The problem was that she knew it would be locked and the keys were on the desk back inside her office probably melted into an unrecognizable hunk of metal.
“East. I guess we can go to the other town,” Kate said wishing she hadn’t implied they were all together. “Maybe he’d check there.”
Will and Nikki simultaneously narrowed their eyes.
“East?” Will asked.
Kate nodded. “The sister town to this one. Run by a guy named Jet.”
“How do we know that it hasn’t also been
burned to the ground?” the older man asked.
“How far away is it?” someone at the back of the group asked.
“We can walk,” Kate answered. “I don’t know if anything has happened there, but I feel quite confident that it was only our town that was a target.”
She could have told them about her talk with Maya and that they’d been after her, but she didn’t.
“Do we have any other options?” someone asked.
Kate rubbed her elbow. “None that I can think of… sorry.”
Will set his lips close to Kate’s ear. “Will Ethan think to go there?”
“I’m not sure,” Kate said swallowing down the smoky, sour taste at the back of her throat. “I could stay here and wait.”
“We don’t know the way,” Will said softly. “We should go before those things, The Unholy, get any closer.”
“Five more minutes,” Kate said pressing her lips together. “Please.”
Will gave her a single nod.
Kate’s hands shook as she stared at the gate. Max rubbed his wet nose against her fingers and released a soft whimper before pushing its head against her leg. Even the dog wanted to get her away from the town.
She wasn’t sure when it happened, but there was no longer any screamed and cries coming from inside the fence. There was no way anything could still be alive inside the town.
“Okay,” Kate said unable to hold in her shaky sigh. “Let’s go.”
When Will locked eyes with her, his shoulders sank down. He hadn’t been able to miss the pain in Kate’s eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” Will said softly.
Kate bit her lip and nodded. If she even attempted to speak, her sorrow would have crushed her.
The group followed her and Will as they walked into the darkness doing their best to make a path away from the approaching Unholy while still heading toward the other town.
Kate’s shoulders rounded forward as she hugged herself around the middle. The dread she felt was tearing her apart.
They’d only gone roughly twenty feet when Max’s sharp barks cut through the near silence. The others in the party gasped and whined, afraid he was drawing too much attention to them.
“Shut that damn dog up,” one of them hissed.
Kate turned around to glare at whoever had spoken, but she couldn’t tell in the darkness who it had been.
The dog breathed heavily several times before it took off running. Max turned a full circle before taking off back toward the burning town.
“Good riddance!” someone whispered, and Kate grimaced at the whole group.
“Max!” she said in a loud whisper as she turned to go after him. She stopped in her tracks when she saw what he was doing. The dog had only been trying to get her attention.
Coming out of the shadows near the north side of the fence were two people. At first Kate was worried they might be Unholy, but they were moving far too fast to be diseased.
“Someone’s coming,” Will said.
Kate’s nerves twitched, and her heart started to pound. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand as she waited for the approaching pair to come into view.
She didn’t want to get her hopes up. Kate refused to even let herself think about it.
Her fingers wrapped tightly around the handle of her gun. Even if it wasn’t The Unholy, it still could be one of Simon’s supporters that had been left behind. Maybe someone was coming back to finish her off once and for all.
“Hey!” one of the approaching people shouted. “Wait up! Don’t leave us out here!”
The glowing town behind them made them into unrecognizable dark shadows. One of the shadows hesitated, but the other kept charging forward. When he got closer, Kate recognized him. It was Jasper from one of the other eradication teams.
“Boy, are we glad to see you guys,” he said holding a wrapped arm tight to his body.
“Who is we?” Will asked.
Jasper smiled and shook his head. When he turned around, he realized that no one could see the shadows face.
“Oh!” Jasper chuckled. “It’s Ethan. He stopped to save me and thank God he did.”
Kate tried to swallow but the attempt pinched her chest. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she suddenly recognized the outline of his body. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that it was Ethan walking toward her.
Max ran back and licked Kate’s hand. Jasper had already started to tell everyone how Ethan had saved him, but Kate pushed her way through the group and made her way over to Ethan.
She stopped a foot away from him and covered her mouth. Kate could see his face better, but not completely… only enough to be certain that he was smiling at her.
“Hey Kate,” Ethan said in a thick, raspy voice.
She sucked in a sharp breath and took several quick steps forward. Kate threw herself against his chest and Ethan wrapped an arm around her. He kissed the top of her head.
“Did you miss me?” Ethan asked.
Kate pounded her fist half-heartedly against his chest. She opened her mouth to tell him just how much, but before she could say anything, he kissed her.
She turned when she heard someone coming up behind her.
“We should get moving,” Will said softly.
“Right,” Kate said.
“Where are we going?” Ethan asked.
Kate winced when she met Ethan’s eyes. “We’re taking them to the other town.”
“Great idea,” Ethan said wrapping his arm around Kate. It felt like he never wanted to let go of her again.
Kate looked over and noticed he was holding his other arm perfectly still.
“What happened? Where were you?” she asked gesturing at his arm.
“I couldn’t get through town and had to make my way around to the other gate. That’s when I found Jasper struggling to get free. His arm had gotten lodged between some wood that had fallen near one of the houses.” Ethan lowered his voice and leaned closer to Kate. “After I got him out, we went to the west gate, but had to wait for… you are not going to believe this. We heard them talking… they started the fire.”
Kate already knew, but she wanted to hear what Ethan had seen. “Who started it?”
“Maya and her crew. I don’t know why, but they hightailed it out of there.” Ethan gestured toward the north.
“Was Maya with them?” Kate asked. “She may have been bitten.”
Ethan shrugged. “Couldn’t tell.”
“Will and I ran into her on the way out of town.”
Kate told Ethan everything she knew about Maya and revealed that Chuck was still alive. He didn’t look at all surprised by any of it.
“So, we’re really doing this, huh?” Ethan asked. “Taking everyone to the east? What if Maya and her crew are there?”
“They headed north. I think we’ll be okay at least for now.” Kate chewed her lip. “And if not, we run.”
“What about running now?” Ethan asked.
Kate looked down at the ground before shifting her gaze up at the small group in front of them.
“It’s just a small detour,” Kate said. “They need our help.”
Ethan nodded.
“It’s not like we can just leave them out here to fend for themselves,” Kate whispered defensively.
“I know, it’s just that,” Ethan lowered his voice as his eyes focused on the small group. “We don’t know who we can trust.”
Kate cocked her head to the side. “We can trust Will.”
Ethan rolled his eyes but couldn’t stop the smile the spread across his face.
“And Max.” Kate returned the smile.
“The dog?”
“Yes, the dog. And I think he likes you,” Kate said glancing at Max who was protectively strutting at her side. “Is your arm okay?”
Ethan raised it up slightly, and Kate could see how red it was even in the darkness.
“Burned. It’s sore, and the skin feels tight, but it’ll be okay,” Ethan
said touching it lightly with his fingertips. He squeezed her with his good arm and pulled her closer. “For a second there, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again.”
Kate’s stomach twisted as she remembered how she’d felt when he wasn’t at the gate waiting for her.
“It’s going to be okay now. All that shit with Simon is burned to the ground. We never have to think about it again.” Ethan glanced at the backpack Kate was still carrying. “I lost mine.”
“That’s okay. After we drop everyone off, we’ll have enough for a while,” Kate said. “Just one quick stop then we can get away from all of this once and for all.”
Ethan held her close as they walked off to the east. Everyone was exhausted and frightened, but they didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t stop for the night… it would be far too risky.
Kate wasn’t sure Jet would let them in once he found out what happened to Simon’s town, but they had to try. She had to hope he’d welcome them with open arms.
Then Kate and Ethan could wave them all goodbye as they walked far away from everything and everyone. They’d be okay. Life would go on.
Kate and Ethan could make their way doing whatever they wanted without having to worry about taking care of anyone but each other.
She drew in a deep breath clearing her lungs of smoke. The fresh air, although chilly, felt refreshing.
Kate could already feel the freedom enticing her. They’d made it outside of the fence, and even though plans had changed slightly, it would only be temporary.
Everything was going to work out. And in no time, she’d be far away from everything, and she couldn’t wait.
HUNTED
Book Three
Chapter 1
It had taken them longer than expected to make their way over to the other town. The dense plants and weeds had grown so thick it was hard to navigate, especially in the darkness.
Kate led the group of nineteen toward the town that had once been led by Simon’s sister. Now, Jet was in charge and hopefully would welcome them with open arms.
All they had was a backpack, and there wasn’t nearly enough inside for the group. Kate hadn’t expected to have such a large group to worry about. In fact, she had wanted the exact opposite.
Falling Darkness Series - A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller - Books 1-3 Page 33