The wind picked up before the storm even reached us. Trees were nearly bent in half with the blustery winds.
“Whoa,” Blake said adjusting his steering to keep us on the road. “See any funnels out there?”
I looked out of every window to make sure I had a three-sixty view. “No… nothing.”
“I don’t see anything either,” Jay said. “Just really windy. Want to switch places?”
Jay had napped on and off ever since Blake had taken the wheel again. He was probably much more alert than Blake was considering Blake rarely slept.
But Blake was stubborn. He waved his hand at Jay. “I’m good for now. It’ll probably pass soon anyway.”
“Okay, well, just let me know if you want to switch,” Jay said.
“Yeah, yeah, I will,” Blake said.
The rain came down in thick, heavy sheets. I couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of the SUV even with the headlights on.
“Maybe we should pull over,” I suggested.
“I’ll just go slow,” Blake said gripping the wheel tightly. His knuckles were as white as cotton balls.
I couldn’t even tell if we were still on the road and I wasn’t sure if he could either. The hairs on my arms were standing on end not only from the frequently lightning but because of the stressful situation as well.
I glanced over at the dash and saw that Blake was only going about twenty miles per hour. Over my shoulder, I noticed everyone was staring out of their own window watching the storm. They all wore the same frightened expression.
“Let’s pull over,” I said. “It’s not like anyone else is going to be out tonight. And even if they are, we’ll just look like every other abandoned car out there.”
“There’s no need to stop,” Blake said. “Like I said, I’ll just go slow. Better to make some progress than no progress, right?”
He flicked me a half-smile but it quickly vanished as the SUV bounced upward. Blake had driven over something with the front passenger tire.
“What was that?” Whitney said with a gasp.
“Just something on the road,” Blake said.
“Do we have a flat tire?” she asked.
Blake shook his head. “No, it’s fine.” He chuckled but there was a tinge of nervousness behind it. “You all need to relax.”
The front end of the SUV slammed into something hard enough to cause the headlight to flicker. There was a brief tightness inside my chest.
“Holy crap!” I said feeling like I couldn’t take in a full breath.
I’d seen what Blake had hit. My fingertips felt numb as I gripped my mask.
We’d smacked right into one of the sick. And if there was one thing, I knew about the sick… it was that they rarely traveled alone.
“You saw that, right?” I said keeping my voice down. I didn’t want to send everyone into a panic.
“I did,” Blake said.
Blake smacked into another. And then another. Sick were swarming us like millions of hungry mosquitoes.
The front-wheel drove over one of the sick at the same time one stepped in front of the SUV. It felt like time started moving in slow motion as the car flipped onto its side.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I blinked several times. Lightning flashed and my eyes focused on the broken bits of glass from my window sprinkled on the wet concrete at my side.
The seatbelt was holding me in place but still, I felt like I was going to fall out of my seat. I glanced over my shoulder as searing fear raced through my veins.
Jay was wide-eyed staring back at me and Whitney’s head was flopped to the side, hanging toward the ground at our right. Her eyes were closed.
“Maddie?” Panic shook my voice. “Maddie, are you okay?”
It felt like forever until she answered.
“I’m fine,” she called as she poked her head up.
Blake groaned. There was a small cut near his eyebrow and he was rubbing his shoulder.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Shoulder is messed up, but yeah. I’m alive,” he replied.
“Whitney’s out,” I said.
Jay hadn’t noticed until I’d said something. He started shaking her shoulder and repeating her name.
“I’ve never been in an accident before,” Jay muttered as Whitney started to come to.
“Oww,” she said grabbing the back of her head. “My neck is killing me.”
“We need to get out of here,” Blake said.
“Where are we going to go?” I asked my words blending together like a fruit smoothie.
Blake was still holding his shoulder. “No idea but we can’t stay here.”
“Didn’t you see them out there?” I asked.
“Yes,” Blake said touching the cut by his eye.
He held his fingers out in front of him and saw the blood. It only took a few seconds for the rain to wash it away.
“We’re like fish in a barrel in here,” Blake said. “My window is broken. Nothing will stop them if they find us. Put your masks on.”
“How are we going to get out of here?” Whitney asked. “I’m kind of stuck here, I think. If I unhook myself, I’ll crash down on Jay.”
Blake looked over his shoulder. He wasn’t looking at Whitney.
“We can help you down. Then you’ll go out the back. I’ll climb out of my window and open it,” Blake said. “Once we’re all out, we’re going to need to run.”
The rain was still coming down as hard as it had been earlier. It was relentless. It was going to be hard to keep our eyes on each other, considering I couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of myself.
Maddie started to climb over the back seat toward the back hatch. Blake winced as he squeezed his shoulder.
“Everyone ready?” he asked as he looked at each of us. “Be ready to climb out.”
“Should we really do this?” I asked looking into Blake’s eyes. I wanted to make sure he hadn’t bumped his head because this idea seemed dangerous. Then again, of course, staying didn’t seem any better.
“We can’t sit horizontally here forever. The sick could surround us, leaving us no way out or maybe even climb inside,” Blake said. “This could be our only chance before they swarm us.”
Desperation filled my eyes. “We don’t even know how many of them there are out there. You have hit all of them. Maybe there is no rush to escape.”
“But we don’t know that,” Blake said. “I saw at least ten. My window is shattered. If it’s just a few, we can maybe manage that but if it’s more, we need to get out of here and fast.”
“What if we’re already surrounded?” Jay asked.
Blake swallowed hard. “Then, it’s already too late.”
“Do you have the knife?” I asked.
Blake felt his body, which was odd, considering the knife had been on the dash. He shook his head.
“Jesus! That could have killed someone… just flying around in here,” Whitney exclaimed.
“I wasn’t driving that fast,” Blake said.
I felt around on the ground around me. Maybe the blade had dropped as the SUV rolled. It was too dark except for the occasional flashes of light to see much of anything.
My fingers touched something and I instantly realized it was the handle of the knife. “I think I found it.”
It was lodged between the ground and part of the SUV. Sheer desperation allowed me to yank it free. Luck was the reason I didn’t injure myself in the process.
“Here,” I said handing it to Blake. “And be careful.”
“All right. Are we all ready?” Blake asked.
I nodded but I was still dreadfully nervous about the plan. I wasn’t sure if any of us were ready or if we ever would be.
Was leaving the SUV the right choice? Maybe staying would be better? Neither option really sounded very good.
We’d been so close to finally getting to Polly and now we were without a vehicle. Maybe it was time to just call the whole thing of
f before someone else got killed or hurt. That was if we even managed to survive the sick and the storm, both raging outside the SUV.
Blake pulled himself out of the window but he struggled because of his shoulder. His hair was already plastered down over his forehead.
He looked inside. “Everyone, move fast.”
Blake adjusted his mask and disappeared from sight. Seconds later, he was at the back, pulling at the hatch. It seemed as though it must have been stuck.
Maddie kicked with both feet against the hatch.
“It’s not opening,” Maddie shouted.
Somehow the rained seemed to have gotten louder. I was pretty sure that I could hear the pleas for help from the sick. But hopefully, that was just my imagination.
Jay climbed in the back with Maddie. He grunted as they pushed at the back door with both feet.
It squeaked noisily as it started to open. Whitney grabbed my arm and helped me between the seats. I crouched awkwardly as I helped her down from her seat.
Whitney didn’t let go of me as we made our way to the back. It was like she needed to hold on to something for comfort and support… or maybe I was more like a life preserver.
Or… maybe I was a shield.
I’d already been wet from the rain that and poured in from Blake’s broken window but stepping out into the open was a whole different kind of wet. The rain hurt as it slammed into me and my drenched clothes felt heavy on my body.
“Which way?” Jay shouted.
“Hold on to one another,” Blake shouted back. “Don’t let go.”
The water on the ground was at least half an inch deep. Lightning crashed around us and thunder rumbled the earth below our feet.
It felt like any moment we were going to get swept away by all the rainwater. I grabbed Maddie’s wet shirt and dug my fingertips into the fabric. There was no way I was going to let go of her.
“This way,” Blake shouted.
Blake held Whitney and I held onto both her and Maddie. Jay was behind us, holding onto Maddie’s other arm. She was like a rag doll between us but it didn’t seem as though she cared.
“Shit!” Blake said.
Whitney’s other hand was suddenly empty. She was squeaking as she was frantically reaching out for him… only he wasn’t there any longer. One of the sick was standing where he’d once been.
Its red eyes penetrated through the rain. Whitney screamed and attempted to punch the sick guy away from her but she missed as he was pulled away. Blake had grabbed the sick man away from us and thrust the blade into the side of his skull.
Another was behind him, reaching out for his shoulder. Its mouth was moving but I couldn’t make out what it was saying. Every other word was drowned out by the intense storm.
Blake roared as he yanked the blade from the first and rammed it into the second. He was moving fast enough though his right arm hung limp at his side.
“We gotta get out of here,” Jay shouted as he ducked away from one of the sick. He pulled Maddie toward him as he moved but I yanked her closer to me.
Another reached out for Maddie but she dodged its reach.
“Help us!” the sick said.
“No,” I said kicking it in the hip causing it to lose its balance. “There are too many of them!”
Whitney let go of me as she struggled with one of the sick. I kept my eyes on her and grabbed her back as Blake lunged toward the sick she was fighting with and knocked it away from her.
“It touched me!” Whitney screamed looking into my eyes. I wasn’t sure if the wetness on her cheeks was from the rain or if it were tears.
“You’re okay,” I said. “You have your mask on.”
Lightning lit the area around us in a short blinking flash.
“Let’s go this way,” Jay said pulling on Maddie, who pulled on me. “It’s clear!”
“Blake!” I shouted. There was no way he’d heard Jay over the storm. “This way!”
There was another flash from the lightning that lasted several seconds. I blinked the rain off of my eyelashes and was shocked by the sight. All I could see in front of us were sick. Hundreds and hundreds of the sick gathering together as if they were standing around waiting for a rock concert.
There were no sick behind Jay, at least not that I could see. But in front of us, they would just keep coming, one after the other.
“Blake!” I screamed as my body tensed. “We need to run this way!”
He caught my eyes and grabbed Whitney’s hand. We turned and ran, only seeing the path ahead when lightning flashed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eventually, we found a small cabin next to a wooded area. The door pushed opened and we could only see that it was empty when the lightning flashed.
There was a flimsy lock but at least there was something. The scent of mildew and stale cigarette smoke filled the room. It appeared to have been used as a hunting cabin but I was only basing that on the deer antlers hanging on the wall.
“Do you think they followed us here?” Maddie asked as she took in quick breaths.
Her hand was on her chest as she tried to maintain control of her breathing. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the inhaler Whitney had tracked down for her.
“I don’t know. It probably would have been hard for them to stay on us,” Blake said honestly. He pointed at my hand. “You took those?”
I looked down at the bag of medicine in my hand. I’d barely even remembered taking it.
“I almost stepped on them when we were getting out of the SUV,” I said. “I thought we might need them.”
“You’re always thinking,” Blake said. “I guess we can take off our masks now.”
“Wait!” Whitney said holding up her palm. “You can’t. Not yet.”
Blake cocked his head to the side as Whitney walked over to him. She stayed back but leaned forward so she could place her hand on his chest for a quick moment.
“I’m really sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have even come back this far but I was afraid you wouldn’t keep running. Hopefully, it’s contained within my mask.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
Whitney lowered her gaze and stepped closer to the door. She shook her head.
“I… I can’t stay here,” Whitney said swallowing hard.
“Of course, you can. We’re fine now,” I said even though I wasn’t exactly sure how safe we were.
Whitney chuckled. Her eyes were still on Blake. “Really, I should have you shove that blade into me now but I don’t want to die. Not like that. Really, I don’t want to die at all.”
“Why are you talking about dying?” Blake asked with confusion narrowing his eyes.
“I can tell I’m different already. Something is changing inside of me,” Whitney said pressing her hand over her mask. “That one that you pulled away from me… it was too late. It’s not your fault. It was mine. That thing pulled down my mask. I’m sick and if I stay, you’ll all get sick too.”
“You just need rest,” Blake said. “You’re tired and not thinking clearly.”
Whitney shook her head and Blake sniffed hard. “I’m sorry. I wish that were all it was. I love you, Blake. Always have, always will.” She turned to me. “Find your sister, okay? Don’t let anything stop you. You will. I know you will.”
Whitney flashed us a quick smile before she unlocked the door and slipped outside. Blake was stunned. He shuddered with the slamming door.
“Whitney!” he said as he dashed to the door and yanked it open.
He stood there, staring out into the pouring rain. Something kept his feet glued to the floor as his hands balled up into the tight, nervously shaking fists.
“Whitney!” he shouted. He waited for her to answer but there was nothing. Before his feet could become unglued, Jay grabbed him and pulled him back into the room.
Blake tried to fight him off as he shouted for Whitney to come back. Each time he called her name, it was softer and softer.
The tears that streamed down my cheeks were surprisingly warm compared to the rain that fell on my face from my drenched hair.
“Whitney!” Blake cried out again. “Come back! We can talk about this! We’ll figure something out!”
Jay slammed the door and flicked the lock into place. He pressed Blake’s shoulders against the wall and held him there.
“Let go of me,” Blake hissed.
Jay kept his eyes on Blake. He didn’t say anything. He just held him there, waiting for reality to set in.
On any given day, Blake would have plowed Jay over but the injury to his shoulder had probably slowed him. Or maybe he realized that we couldn’t be around Whitney. We couldn’t risk getting sick.
I couldn’t believe that she was actually gone. She always seemed too afraid of being alone. She’d left on her own so that we could still make it. So that we wouldn’t get sick and had a chance at surviving this.
I didn’t know why but it surprised and saddened me immensely that she had done that. It couldn’t have been easy. There was no way I could ever repay her nor a way to tell her thank you.
Whitney was gone.
And she wouldn’t be back.
As the hours passed, Jay stayed at the small window watching for the sick. Blake sat on the floor with his back against the wall and his head buried in his arms. He hadn’t spoken a word since Whitney ran off.
He probably blamed me for everything that had happened. Hell, I blamed myself. We shouldn’t have ever left Blake’s house with them. Maddie and I should have found a way to go off on our own. We should have insisted on it.
The storm continued to rage and I hoped that it would for much longer. As long as it was storming, we had an excuse to stay inside the cabin.
It was going to be harder to get to Polly now that we were in the middle of nowhere without food, water, or a vehicle.
Maddie had fallen asleep curled up on the small couch. My fingers tapped against the pills in my pocket. It was the only way I’d be able to get some sleep.
I got to my feet. It was an odd feeling surging through me because I hadn’t even remembered when I had sat down on the wooden chair.
What Remains Series (Book 3): Infected Page 13