The Break Free Series Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Fitch, E. M.

  They dragged an old mattress out from one of the buses, placed it by the large cook fire they had going in the center of the circle. Kaylee could see the slow turn of what smelled like venison over the open flame. She bit her cheek and turned away, willing her eyes to focus on Andrew.

  "You must be starving." A woman slowly approached them. She had soft brown hair, a little wild around her oval face, and she was wearing a faded red flannel shirt. Kaylee was instantly reminded of her mother. The gentle eyes, the slight pull of her mouth as she watched the beat up survivors, this woman was a mother to someone, or she had been. "My name is Rebecca, I'll get you some food.”

  Several people watched the exchange, some with hostility, some with restrained curiosity.

  "Food would be wonderful," Kaylee said. Her stomach was already folding over at the thought of the venison.

  "Water, too," Anna added in a low voice, "if it's not too much trouble.”

  Rebecca smiled and turned away.

  Anna squatted by Andrew's head, adjusting the water bottle drainage system and murmuring lowly to him. When the food came, she encouraged him to take a few bites. He managed to, propped up by a stray backpack. But his head was drooping and it was only a matter of moments before he was asleep.

  "That's a pretty impressive piece of work," Rebecca said, pointing a bent fork towards Andrew. Anna offered a strained smile in thanks. Rebecca had brought them four plates of food, one for each and one for herself. She sat next to Kaylee, not speaking as Anna coaxed Andrew to eat and Kaylee inhaled her food. The venison was tough but flavorful. Kaylee tried to focus on chewing slowly, not gulping the bites of meat down. She knew her stomach would pay for it later, letting the food slam into her empty belly. But hunger struggled to overrule senses and she ate faster than she wanted to. Still, with the rush of sustenance entering her blood stream, she felt sated and at ease. Andrew was asleep, but breathing easier.

  "He's better," Kaylee said, letting her eyes drift over him. "How long does the tube have to stay in?”

  Anna shrugged. "I'm really not sure. It could be a day, it could be a couple of days.”

  "Not a couple of days," Andrew muttered, his eyes still closed. Anna frowned.

  "You're supposed to be asleep," she admonished, shushing him.

  "Michael said he rescued you all from those men at the Wal-Mart," Rebecca said softly once Andrew quieted down again. Anna nodded. "I hope you're not hurt too badly?”

  Kaylee let her eyes drift back from Andrew. She caught Rebecca's eye. She wasn't looking to the battered boy, her eyes rested firmly on the girls in front of her. Kaylee stiffened. "You know them?”

  "Too well," Rebecca murmured. There was an old sadness there, one Kaylee and Anna recognized without ever having had to experience it.

  "Sorry," Kaylee murmured.

  "It was a long time ago," Rebecca answered, shrugging. There was a tightness at the corner of her mouth that suggested that no matter the length of time, what happened would never be forgivable. "Are they dead?”

  "Most of them," Anna answered. "Some escaped. At least, we hope some did." Her eyes flit over Andrew and Kaylee was sure the same thought was racing through her mind. Bill.

  "How is it here?" Kaylee asked, mostly to cover the awkward pause. The rest of the group seemed to drift to their own pursuits. There was still a small cluster of women around the cook fire. The venison had been removed from the spit and was being carved on a flat slab of rock nearby. People were starting to line up, dented tin plates and tupperware lids in hand. Some had utensils, pocketknives, most seemed to use their fingers as Kaylee and Anna had.

  "No one will attack you," Rebecca rushed to say. "I mean, it's safe. Enough.”

  "We met Michael," Anna prompted. She still had some food left on her plate and she was chewing slowly.

  "Yeah, Michael usually leads the raids. James and Patricia run things in the Circle.”

  Kaylee looked up and felt her eyes drift to who she felt must be James and Patricia. Set a little apart, they stood, leaning close to each other, but with their eyes roving the crowd. They were similar in features, their skin was dark and beautiful, almost blending with the beige fatigues they both wore. They both had short, cropped black hair. The only distinguishable difference was that there was no mistaking Patricia for male. Her form, the way she held herself, even in the combat gear and with a gun slung over her shoulder, she was indisputably female. Her eyes shifted and locked on Kaylee's, pale hazel and striking. Kaylee attempted a smile and after a moment, Patricia simply looked away.

  "Brother and sister?" Kaylee asked Rebecca. The woman smiled.

  "Cousins," she answered. "Both in the National Guard. They were stationed somewhere near here in an evacuation center. Of course, that was overrun. We all found each other and now we're here, in the Circle. We move around a lot. Add new vehicles when we find more people. Keep mobile.”

  "How many are here?”

  "It fluctuates. Today, around thirty.”

  A shadow fell over Kaylee's shoulder and she stiffened, her hand stretching automatically for her weapon. Before her fingers could wrap around the handle, she spoke.

  "Michael said you were held hostage, one injured, one missing." Her voice was softer than Kaylee expected and it caught her off guard. She turned to find Patricia staring down at her. Her gaze was intense and unflinching, something about the challenge in those eyes stirred Kaylee to action.

  "One injured, three missing," she answered. "My sister and... and Jack were in the town you flooded with biters.”

  "That's right, Mike did mention that," James said. He came from behind his cousin and squat on the ground next to Anna. He examined the water bottle drainage system propped next to Andrew. "Nice work, that.”

  Anna thanked him while Patricia kept her eyes locked on Kaylee. Andrew was asleep, no movement near him except the occasional bubbles that broke the surface of the water bottle.

  "What are your plans?" Patricia asked, still staring at Kaylee. Kaylee took a bite of venison before answering.

  "He needs rest," Kaylee said, nodding towards Andrew, "a couple days at least. Then we'll be going.”

  "Back there?" Patricia asked, jerking her head in the direction of the parked jeeps. Kaylee nodded. "There's no one left back there. It's pointless.”

  "Our family's left back there and we're going to get them." The words were firm and Kaylee locked eyes with Patricia as she spoke them. James's lips quirked in an amused smirk.

  "Well, we have safety and food," James said. "You're welcome to come with us.”

  "Come with you?" Anna asked, frowning.

  "We don't stay in one place for too long," James answered. "Especially with the fences we took down. In fact, we're giving the order to pack up in the next hour, after everyone's done eating."

  They didn't wait for Kaylee's reply, both standing and getting in the growing line for food. Kaylee shot Anna a quick look and knew in an instant, they didn't have a choice.

  "When do you think he'll wake up?" Kaylee asked, nodding towards Andrew. Anna shrugged.

  "Definitely if we have to move him, maybe before.”

  "I want to tell him," Kaylee said. In her mind she was picturing his reaction. He would be angry. She didn't blame him. His father was lost, possibly hurt. There was a chance Bill was dead. Andrew would want to run back the second he could stand. But the reality was, Andrew couldn't stand. He couldn't run. And Kaylee and Anna alone couldn't keep him safe. Their best shot at staying alive was to stick with these strangers, even if it meant moving further from Bill. It was the hard reality they were facing. It should be Kaylee who explained this to Andrew. She owed him that.

  Anna nodded and scraped her plate clean. "Why don't you rest then," she suggested, pointing to the ground next to Andrew. "I have to keep an eye on him anyway.”

  The ground was hard, rocky and unforgiving. But with her arm propped under her head and her eyes sliding closed, the noise of the camp around her and Rebecca's soft murm
uring to Anna, Kaylee fell to sleep without hesitation.

  Chapter Seven

  Emma awoke before Jack. The scraping and stumbling of the infected below dragging her out of pleasant drowsiness and into painful alertness. For a quick moment, she thought about the vodka in the backpack they had. It was only a pint, tucked under the essentials she had managed to scrounge from the bed of the truck before they had to abandon that, too.

  She dismissed the thought, taking minute to stretch her legs, pointing her toes and pulling at the muscle that ran underneath the damaged skin of her calf. She didn't need the liquor. It would probably be easier with it, but she didn't need it. She pulled the gallon of water to her instead, checking to make sure it was hers. Jack's gallon had a blue top, hers had red. Red, for danger, which is exactly what she was, a danger to everyone around her.

  She took a quick swig, swishing it around in her mouth before swallowing. The water was cool. She squinted up into the sun. It was directly overhead, clear but weak, not even able to warm the jug of water that had been sitting out in plain sight. The air had that frosty bite to it and Emma knew it would snow soon.

  They'd have to find somewhere to wait out the winter before that happened.

  She slid from her nest of blankets and got to her feet, rolling her neck and stretching her arms to the the sky. She took the fifteen steps necessary to get her to the edge of the gas station canopy that she and Jack had slept on. The infected were milling everywhere, kicking through trash, stumbling through broken windows and into the store below. Emma still wasn't sure how they hunted, sight or smell or sound, but she kept far enough back from the edge to avoid being seen.

  The horizon shimmered with distance. There was a lot of empty nothingness surrounding them. Except in one spot. She could see the outline of a small city. Nothing large, not New York or Los Angeles, but the buildings were tall enough for her to see, shimmering in the noon day sun.

  Jack was moving behind her, she could hear the soft rustle of his blankets as he awoke. She kept her back to him, giving him privacy for those few precious moments of alertness that came over everyone as they woke.

  She sometimes hated those moments, they felt like lies. Her mind, still partly in dreams, convinced her she would wake to her mother's grumpy demands for coffee, to her father's tousled head and faded pajama pants, to Kaylee and her hair dryer, always buzzing away in the background. Her city, the one they bombed to the ground, alive and whispering around her. Car horns and taxi cabs, cursing and loud music, the laughter of kids in the park across the street and the call of street vendors. And then her eyes would flit open, a smile tugging at her lips, and she would remember in the noon day sun. Lost. It was all lost.

  And yes, she had found new comfort in the call of the cicadas, in the soft rustle of tree leaves and the birdsong that replaced the shuffling of a crowd. She grew to love it. But she still dreamed of her city, woke expecting to find it calling to her, and experienced that hollow pang of disappointment when it didn’t.

  "Hungry?" Jack asked, shaking out of his blankets. Emma nodded. He threw her a chocolate bar and a package of Ramen noodles.

  They couldn't cook it so they ate the noodles straight out of the package. They were crunchy and tasted of salt and broth. Emma was surprised to find it wasn't as gross as she had been expecting.

  "Where do you think we are?" she asked after Jack had tossed his wrapper over the edge. The infected below didn't even flinch as the wrapper fluttered around them.

  "I'm not sure," he answered. "South Dakota, maybe?”

  She nodded, her eyes scanning the ground. She had never been to South Dakota before. He could be right. She had no way of knowing. The larger questions remained unasked. Where were the others? And where would they go to survive the winter?

  The day was passed in silence. Emma stretching her limbs and dozing in between, snuggled into the warmth of her fleece blankets. Jack paced. She didn't think this was the best thing for him. But he wasn't bleeding and she didn't feel it was her place to tell him what to do. It was just before sundown when he finally spoke.

  "You know what I think?" he asked, pausing only long enough for her eyes to rest on him and not waiting for her reply. "I think we should blow up that city.”

  Emma felt her brow scrunch in confusion. "That city?" she asked pointing to the skyline. "What the hell for?”

  "Because they'll see it and know it was us.”

  Emma's mouth bobbed open but no words came out. Jack turned his back on her, his eyes once more on the city. He was speaking again, words tripping over themselves. Fertilizer, replacement fuses, gasoline, bomb placement and the buildings he thought, from this distance, they should take down. There was a highway that cut through, they could see the shining band of cracked concrete from here. Emma didn't answer, hadn't even moved from her makeshift bed.

  "And there's another thing. We should try to get these roads cleared. If I can get their attention, maybe get them to chase me a bit, so that when the sun falls they're off the road-“

  Emma laughed, just a short burst of noise through her lips and then louder, loud enough that the shuffling and moaning below them shifted in cadence and drew closer. Jack stared at her in confusion and then his eyes drifted to the edge of the canopy in concern. She pressed her lips together and stifled the noise, shaking her head.

  "You are not running anywhere," Emma said, nodding pointedly to his side. "You'll start bleeding again and drive them into a frenzy. Besides, if you got bit, what then?”

  "Yeah, but your leg," he argued. She shook her head.

  "Look, I think this is insane," she whispered. "But I'm all for getting them off the road and getting us a car. I can draw them away.”

  She didn't let him argue and she didn't elaborate. It was insane. Not drawing them away, not finding a car, but the thought that Kaylee and Andrew and the rest were alive and looking for them, that they should focus on sending some kind of smoke signal to them in the form of a blown up city. It was cold enough to snow at night. They had no food, no shelter, nothing but a backpack, some cans of food, and a few blades. Emma had spent the day wrapped in blankets thinking up the best way to survive the winter, where to barricade and how to survive with no food. Apparently Jack had spent the afternoon trying to figure out a way to get back to Kaylee, her sister, who was probably already dead.

  "We'll wait to just before the sun goes down," Jack said, moving to the edge and looking down. "It doesn't have to be much, just enough of a distraction to get them moving off the road.”

  "You don't think we should wait. What if someone comes looking for us?”

  She didn't say their names, couldn't. Andrew's face, her sister, Anna and Bill, they float through her mind in a taunting loop, interspersed with her father's and mother's, Quinton, a dozen other friends and relations that had died or been eaten.

  "If they go looking, they're going to find our mark and then that truck with our stuff in it," Jack said. His words were slow, thoughtful. He shook his head. "The place was overrun, even if they were able to come back for us, whatever they find won't look good. We didn't have a contingency plan. No, this is best.”

  She grit her teeth, biting back her words. Because none of it mattered if Kaylee and Andrew were already dead. This plan, Jack's plan, it hinged on the fact that Kaylee had somehow gotten to the rest and freed them, that they were alive and well and able to look for the lost members of their group.

  "It's getting cold," she said, watching him as he started to pace the edge of the canopy again.

  "Yeah, that's why a car would be best. We can blast the heat all night." It brought a small smile to his face.

  "No, I mean, it's getting cold. We don't have any food, shelter. Are we supposed to wait outside the rubble of whatever city that is? Camp out through the winter?”

  Her voice was rising in pitch and volume, she heard it but couldn't bring it back down. Hysteria was bubbling up through her throat and it pinched the words, made her breath come short a
nd raspy. Jack stopped his pacing.

  "What else should we do?" he asked. His voice was deceptively calm. "Push north? Forget about your sister?”

  "Kaylee! Her name is Kaylee!" Emma yelled. "You haven't said it once. When? How long until you do? Do we have to find her body first?”

  For a short, insane second, Emma thought he might punch her. The muscle in his jaw bounced and his eyes bore holes through her.

  "I know her name," he bit out. "Don't you dare act like I don't care.”

  "She's gone, they're all gone!" Emma said, spitting the words out. "Lost. There's no way-“

  "There is a way!" Jack hissed, pointing at the city. "It's in that direction. It's with bombs and explosions and smoke blacking the sky. She'll see it. She'll know.”

  Emma shook her head and for the first time since Anna held her leg to the open flame, tears slid from her eyes. "If we were overrun, so were they.”

  "You don't know that.”

  "Jack," she said softly.

  "We're going to set fire to that city. We're leaving tonight. Do you want to draw them, or should I?”

  Emma lowered her eyes and looked away. She didn't answer. Jack didn't need one. Emma knew, just as he did, that she would never allow him to be the one to draw the infected away.

  The sun was a sliver on the horizon as Emma hung over the side of the canopy. She swayed from the ends of the leather jacket Jack was using to help lower her closer to the ground. Andrew's jacket, the only thing she had left of him. The biters were uncoordinated, especially at this late hour. But they were still moving.

  There was a housing complex behind the gas station, one of those developments with two families condos laid out in neat patterns, the exteriors all matching. From atop the canopy, Jack and Emma had mapped out her route. It had looked relatively abandoned, most of the infected milling around on the road and weaving among the gas pumps below them. The main drive was wide and the plan was for Emma to get the attention of the horde and then sprint up it. The drive curved in a long sweeping arc but she wouldn't follow. Instead she'd dart through two of the buildings, hopefully forcing the infected to try to press through, creating a bottleneck for the reeking bodies. After that, the plan got murky. She wouldn't have to be out there long, not if they timed it right. She'd either keep running or find an open condo in which to hide.