He looked at me but it was like I was made out of glass and he was looking right through me. It was like I wasn’t even there.
Blake blinked several times.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Blake wiped away the sweat at his temples and worked to control his breathing. “Yeah, yeah… I’m fine.” He looked around the room again as if double-checking where he was. “Nightmare.”
“Do those happen a lot?” I asked.
Blake raked his fingers back and forth through his hair. “Enough. Maybe too much. Did Dax finish packing everything for the trip?”
“A couple hours ago,” I said.
“Did he bring everything out to the garage?”
I chewed my lip. “I think so but I’m not sure.”
“I’ll check and then you can get some shut-eye.”
He got up and stretched his arms over his head. His shirt raised, revealing his smooth six-pack in the dimly lit room. I quickly looked back toward the window feeling a touch awkward about starting at his body.
It wasn’t like me to stare. Having been married to Freddie for as long as I had been, I was used to claiming I had a lot of headaches. And truthfully, Freddie gave me a lot of headaches.
I cleared my throat and shook the thoughts from my head. Blake came back into the room and stood behind me. He was so close I could feel the warmth radiating out from his body.
“Go on, get some sleep,” Blake said in a low, silky voice. He placed his hand on my shoulder and I shivered. “The sun will be up in a couple hours.”
I popped up out of the chair. “Okay. Good night.”
“Good night,” he said in a deep, quiet voice that was like hot chocolate during a snowstorm. The chair squeaked slightly as he lowered himself down to take his post at the window. “Hey,” he called after me.
“Hmm?”
“Not going to sleep on the couch tonight?”
“Oh, umm,” I stammered thinking of nothing but how I needed my own space. “Was going to try the air mattress tonight.”
His head bobbed. I left the living room taking in a long breath as I stepped into the bedroom.
I closed the door and leaned back against it trying to stop my thoughts. There was only one thing I needed to focus on and that was getting to my daughter.
In a few hours, we’d be on the road. I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms around her.
I flopped down on the bed and closed my eyes. Even though I knew she wouldn’t message me, I gripped my phone tightly as if it were somehow a connection to Maddie.
I was exhausted and sleep found me easily. It didn’t hang around long… I was awake just before the sun peeked over the horizon. There was a yellowish tinge touching the curtains.
I got out of the bed and looked out of the window. The world was the same as always except that I knew it wasn’t. Everything was completely different.
I shivered and hugged myself as I stepped out of the room. Whitney and Dax’s bedroom door was still closed.
I was worried I’d wake them by walking around but also, I wanted to get going. The sooner everyone was awake, the sooner we’d be on the road closing the distance between Maddie and me.
My steps were careful and cautious as I walked toward the living room. I hoped that Blake was getting more sleep instead of sitting at the window.
I peeked around the corner. And saw him sitting in the chair. His spine was curved and he was slumped forward.
“Blake?” I whispered.
“Hmm?” His body jerked and twisted as he turned toward me. He stood up and rubbed his eyes. “Shit.”
“Did I wake you then?” I asked unable to stop my lips from curling at the ends.
He groaned. “I guess so. Apparently, I suck at this keeping watch stuff.”
“You doing great. But seriously… You fell asleep sitting down? How does one do that?”
“I’m not sure,” he said smiling back at me. “I was mostly awake. I just drifted a bit. You should know I’m a light sleeper. Anything would have woken me.”
“Why should I know that?”
He shrugged. “So, you can be quieter when you enter a room.”
“My apologies,” I said with a laugh that made his smile grow. “So,” I said biting my lip for a second. “Are you ready to drive? Or better yet have you changed your mind and you’ll stay here.”
“I’m ready to drive.”
“When do we leave?” I asked.
Blake looked at the hallway over my shoulder. “Dax! Whitney! Time to go!”
Chapter Nineteen
Blake checked our supplies twice before hopping into the driver’s seat. He backed out of the garage and pressed the button hanging from his visor to close the garage door.
“Off we go,” Dax said leaning forward from the backseat.
Whitney was sitting next to him, staring out the window with her arms crossed. Her bottom lip was puffed out into a pout that everyone ignored.
“You have the map open?” Blake asked glancing at the phone in my hand.
“Yeah, but the GPS isn’t working,” I said.
“Doesn’t surprise me,” Blake said. “We’ll figure it out though.”
I nodded.
I knew how to get to Chicago… the tricky part would come when it was time to find Maddie’s new friend’s apartment.
Blake cleared his throat as he turned down the road that would take us out of town. “So,” Blake said clearing his throat as he stared at the road in front of him. “I hope you’re comfortable with the idea of carrying a knife.”
“A knife?” I asked as if it were the first time hearing the word.
“For defense,” Blake said daring a glance in my direction. He quickly flicked his gaze to the rearview mirror. “Both of you need something to protect yourselves with… just in case.”
“In case what?” Whitney said with a snarl. “In case we’re attacked? Because we shouldn’t even be out here.”
“Exactly. To protect yourself. Dax, would you mind?” Blake said stepping on the gas.
A hand reached up between the seats. It was holding a sheathed blade of some kind.
I took it from him but shook my head. “I don’t even know how to use this thing.”
“It’s just a hunting knife,” Blake said. “It’s sharp, so be careful.”
“You know me so well. The person most likely to get hurt with this is myself,” I said.
Blake flashed me a half-smile. “You just stick it in the bad guy.”
“We shouldn’t be close to bad guys,” Whitney said.
“Hopefully we won’t be,” Blake said.
“That’s wishful thinking,” Whitney said tapping on the window. “Look. I guess I should take out my new knife.”
I leaned forward and looked out of Blake’s side window. There were three of the sick looking in our direction. Their mouths were open as if they were shouting at us. One of them pointed.
“Holy crap,” I said sitting back. My eyes darted around, looking for more of them. I was worried they would swarm us and that would be the end.
“We’re fine,” Blake said. “They can’t catch us.”
“This time,” Whitney muttered.
“Just keep your blade and your mask close,” Dax said.
Whitney huffed. “If it were that simple, there wouldn’t be so many sick people.”
“They didn’t know it was happening,” I said. “Everything spread so quickly. If they would have known, people could have protected themselves.”
“You don’t know anything about it,” Whitney said. “We wouldn’t even be out here if it wasn’t for you. Whatever happens out here is your fault.”
“Dammit, Whitney, that’s enough. I can drive you back to the house if you prefer to stay there and wait for us to get back?” Blake said.
The silence in the SUV was so heavy I could hear my heart beating. And it wasn’t beating slowly.
“Is that what you want?” Blake asked stopping the SUV in the mid
dle of the road.
I shot a quick glance back toward the sick people who were mere dots in the background. It chilled my bones that they were still making their way toward us.
“Blake!” Whitney whined.
“Do you want to go back?” he said staring into the rearview mirror.
There was a brief hesitation. “No! Just drive, please!”
“I don’t want to hear another complaint,” Blake said stepping on the gas. “And if you’re rude to Kit again, I might just kick you out of my car. I’m seriously sick of how you’re acting toward her.”
My mouth dried. I couldn’t remember a time anyone had ever defended me. Usually, I was the one accepting the blame… saying things were my fault just to make things easier.
“It’s okay,” I said softly.
“It’s definitely not okay,” Blake said exhaling. His voice was just barely above a whisper. “She should apologize for how she’s been treating you.”
He hadn’t meant for her to hear him. It sounded more like he was embarrassed for how she was acting.
She had every right to feel the way she did about me. I came into Blake’s home and changed everything.
I wanted to tell them to go back again but there was no point. They wouldn’t listen.
Whitney was right though… whatever happened to them would entirely be my fault.
Blake drove the SUV out of the city limits. The houses and the small town started to disappear.
We weren’t more than a mile out of the town when Blake started to slow the SUV.
“What is that?” Dax asked leaning forward.
I squinted as I pulled down the visor to block out the sun. “Cones? Construction? A roadblock?”
“This wasn’t here before,” Blake stated.
“Can we go around?” Whitney asked.
“I think so,” Blake said. “But I don’t remember seeing any detour signs.”
The closer we got, the stranger it looked. The entire road was blocked with barrels and a sign that said the road was closed.
“Maybe we should go back,” Whitney said. Blake shot her a quick look in the mirror. “I mean to go around all this. There are other roads we can take out of town.”
“Hmm,” Blake said slowing the SUV to a stop as a small group of men walked out from a gas station on the left side of the road.
“What’s going on?” I asked. The blood quickly pulsing through my veins ran cooler.
One of the men flicked a cigarette butt to the ground before waving at us. Blake placed his hand on the shifter.
“Do you know them?” Dax asked.
Blake shook his head. He shifted the SUV into reverse but we didn’t move back more than a couple feet.
“Shit!” Blake said shifting the SUV into park.
I looked in the mirror. There were three men setting out another road closed sign and lining up barrels behind us. We were trapped.
“What do they want?” Whitney asked.
Blake ignored her. Not because he was being rude but probably because he didn’t know what was going on.
“Put your masks on,” Blake ordered.
“They’re not sick,” Whitney said.
“I don’t care,” Blake said. “Maybe they’re carriers.”
Whitney gasped. “Is that a thing? Do we really need to worry about that?”
Blake shrugged as he rolled down his window. He waved his hand at the man.
“Can we get through?” Blake asked his voice slightly muffled by his mask.
“Where you all headed?” the tall man asked looking into the car.
“Out of town,” Blake answered quickly. “A place out in the country. You know, somewhere safer.”
The tall man nodded. “Everyone in this car wants to be in the car?”
“Of course,” Blake answered narrowing his eyes.
“I was asking them,” the tall man said.
We all answered at nearly the same time. The tall man stared at me and then leaned back to look at Whitney.
“We’ve got a nice set up here,” he said. “We can protect you from those things.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “We’re working on a fence.”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Blake said.
The sharp pop from a gun ripped through the air. My body shook. I spun around to look out the back window toward the noise.
“They aren’t shooting at you, honey,” the tall man said almost snickering at me. He gave a thumbs up to someone near the barricade behind us. “He was shooting at one of those things. You haven’t been around much, have you? Did this guy have you locked up in a basement or something?”
He laughed but I could see the seriousness in his eyes. I wanted to tell him that Blake was the one to save me from the man who got a thrill from locking me in the basement but I decided not to mention it.
“No, just not used to people getting shot,” I said. After all, it was only the second time in my life a gun had gone off near me. The other had been when Blake ended Freddie’s life.
“Well, shooting them stops them for a while,” the tall man said.
“For a while?” Whitney said hugging herself.
“That’s right, miss. You need to decapitate them, burn them, or cut out their hearts to stop them completely.” The man laughed. “Or they just keep popping up over and over again like disease-carrying jack-in-the-box clowns.”
Someone behind us shouted something at the tall man I couldn’t make out. He gave another thumbs up and moments later, black smoke started to rise toward the sky from somewhere behind us.
“Are you sure you folks won’t stay here a while?” the tall man asked. “Those things are still crawling the streets. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to any of you.”
“We really need to be on our way,” Blake said.
“Meeting someone?” the man asked.
The muscles in Blake’s jaw tightened. “Something like that.”
“You got a lot of supplies back there?” the tall man asked pointing his chin at the back of the SUV.
“Only enough for us and it’s all mine,” Blake said. “From my house.”
“Well, it’s not like it’s my town,” the tall man said without a hint of a smile. “We’re just setting up here. Ain’t no help coming. It’s a new world and we all have to find our place in it, don’t we?”
Blake nodded.
After a long stare, the tall man whistled and waved his finger in the air. Several men slid the barricades out of the way.
“One last thing before I let you go,” the man said placing his hand just above Blake’s window. “This is your last chance to stay with us. If you leave, don’t come back. It’s a trust thing. Wouldn’t want you to bring any disease back to the area. We will act accordingly.”
Blake didn’t say anything but nodded his understanding. He wasn’t agreeing to the man’s terms, but he acknowledged them nonetheless.
The man tapped the top of the SUV. “Take care now.”
Chapter Twenty
As we drove away, all I could think about was how I’d taken them away from their safe place. They shouldn’t be with me. They should be safe inside Blake’s home.
Tears rolled down Whitney’s cheeks but she didn’t say anything. It was because she was afraid that Blake would take her sadness as a negative aimed at me but she had every right to feel nothing but anger toward me.
I felt it myself.
I should have refused their help. If I was being honest with myself, I’d been glad that both Dax and Blake had offered to help me get my daughter. I was scared. Even with them next to me, I was still frightened.
Scared of what was out there.
And scared about what I’d do if I couldn’t find Maddie. Or… if something had happened to her.
“I’m so sorry,” I said keeping my eyes glued to the road ahead. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“It’s not your fault,” Blake said.
Dax leaned forward and placed his hand o
n my shoulder for a second before pulling it back. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. That guy was all talk. More importantly, there are other ways back. It’s not a big deal. He was just trying to scare us.”
“It worked,” Whitney said.
“Not on me,” Dax said raising a brow. “They’re just as scared and they don’t know what to do about any of this either.”
“It’ll be awhile before any of us learn how to live like this,” Blake added. “We’ll figure it out too.”
Whitney wiped her palms on her cheeks. “Someone will come to the rescue and tell us what we need to do or where to go. Help is on the way.”
Blake glanced at me. My teeth were already digging into the raw flesh on the inside of my cheek. I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her she was wrong.
Hell, there was a chance she wasn’t so might as well let her have hope. But somewhere deep down inside of me… I knew there was no help out there for any of us.
The countryside zipped by quickly. I was almost positive that Blake wasn’t going anywhere near the posted speed limit and really there was no reason to. There were no laws other than those people choose to obey.
No laws.
No one to make sure people did the right thing.
It was a terrifying thought.
Every few miles, there was a wandering sick person. They’d look at us and start to follow behind but they were too slow to even come close to us. But that didn’t stop them from trying.
It was chilling to see them shouting to us. Their mouths moving and their arms waving. It was like there was a part of them that was still human but really all they wanted was to spread their sickness.
Their blood-red eyes were haunting. The vomit stained clothes they were made my stomach swirl. Even though they looked like they were in desperate need of help, there wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that they were sick.
With how fast Blake was driving, it wasn’t long before the city came into view. My fingers felt cold and my heart drummed inside my chest.
“Let me know where I need to go,” Blake said.
I turned my phone on which only was at fifty percent power. The battery seemed to drain faster even though there was little I could actually do on my phone.
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