“Yeah,” Bronx answered before I could say another word.
“Everything out there is covered with that slime. Looks to be maybe a quarter of an inch thick?” Nick threaded his fingers together in front of his stomach. “Sky is still dark… meaning no sunlight.”
I frowned. “We need sun. Plants need sun.”
“I think they’re killing off plant life.”
“Why on earth would they want to do that?” I asked.
“Doubt we’ll ever know,” Nick said. “What we do need to know is if it does anything to us.”
I shook my head. “Why do we need to know that? We’re safe in here.”
“For how long? What if that shit never goes away?” Nick questioned.
“We’ll be good for a long while,” I said.
Nick raised a brow. “But not forever. In any case, I had to assess the situation.”
“And did you learn any more than we already knew? Let me answer for you, no, you didn’t.”
Nick rolled his eyes, but he didn’t argue with me. “I think whatever is going on out there was meant to kill off plant life. Whoever is behind this is doing everything possible to make sure no one survives.”
“Seems to be working so far,” I muttered.
“I disagree,” Nick said cracking his knuckles. “We might not be doing the best job, but we’re fighting back. It’s not like any of us are superheroes or even have the slightest idea about surviving this kind of a shit storm, yet here we are.”
“Yeah,” Bronx said with a nod. “No one really knows how they’ll react when something like this happens. It’s not like any of us were prepared in any way whatsoever. We aren’t doing that bad.”
“Luck,” I said.
Nick shrugged. “Maybe. All I know is that I’m not giving up that easily. They keep throwing shit at me, and I’m going to keep dodging.”
“So confident,” Bronx said as he blew out a puff of air.
“Overly so,” I said.
“Anyway, we just need some real rain to wash away the black rain and things will be good as new,” Nick said. “Except no more eating animals… any maybe not even plants.”
I shook my head. “What do we do once all the supplies are gone? We can’t eat plants, and we can’t hunt animals… I see no reason to be confident we’re going to survive this.”
“Oh, my dear sister, there is plenty of food out there boxed up and stored away. We’ll just have to find it,” Nick said jerking his chin toward the window. “You know, when the black shit is washed away.”
“If it gets washed away,” I said. I didn’t look up, but I could feel both Nick and Blair’s eyes on me. I pushed myself to my feet. “It’s time for me to head back upstairs. This conversation has exhausted me beyond belief.”
Bronx stood and held up his palm when Blair started toward me. “I’ll help her up. I’m going to get some more rest myself.”
“Good,” Nick said. “You guys go fight off the poison. The sooner we’re all back to one hundred percent the better.”
“Do you need me to take a turn keeping watch?” I asked as I placed my foot on the first step.
Nick chuckled. “Nope. There isn’t a soul out there, and even if they were, I doubt they’d come to the house coated in black slime. If they can even see it.”
“So, no one has been keeping watch?” I asked glancing at Bronx. He shrugged but didn’t seem all that concerned.
“It’s not necessary. We can’t see out of the windows anyway.” Nick flapped his hand toward the upstairs as if he was trying to shoo me away.
He didn’t have to flap twice. Even though I wasn’t happy with the idea of no one keeping watch, I was still too ill to give it a lot of thought. I had to trust him. Something I don’t think I’ve done with Nick since he was seven and even then, it was reluctantly.
Bronx helped me to bed, glancing at Danny lying so still on the bed as he spread out a different blanket on top of me. Danny’s breathing had seemed even slower than it had earlier. To say I was worried would be putting it mildly.
There wasn’t much we could do about it other than for all of us to keep fighting. I felt as though I’d been hit by a truck, but I had improved enough that I no longer feared the reaper. At least not the one that would come for me having ingested the poisoned wolf.
I slept decently only waking a few times in the night… or rather what I assumed was night. Each time I woke up sweaty and warm, but it didn’t take long to cool down and fall back asleep. I was convinced my body was fighting off the sickness.
My throat felt dry, and when I pushed myself up in the bed, I saw the glass on the side table had recently been refilled. I watched Danny’s chest rise and fall as I sucked down a long, slow drink. The water was so cool I could feel it trickle down my throat and chill my stomach.
I was tempted to wake Danny and offer him some water, but maybe the rest was better. I wished I knew how to take care of him like he’d taken care of me.
Quietly, I climbed out of bed and headed down the dark hallway. The only light upstairs was the small amount of light that came from the candles in each of the rooms.
Blair was zonked out on Nick’s small mattress, her leg hanging off the side as if she hadn’t quite made it to the bed before falling asleep. At the bottom of the stairs, I heard a voice.
Nick was sleeping, his head tipped back against the armrest of the sofa. I took several steps down the hall when I recognized Milo’s voice.
His mom was groaning, and he was begging her to get better. Hearing his little voice crack, broke my heart. I wanted to rush in there and give him a hug, but I knew that was probably the last thing Nina would have wanted.
I raised my hand, hesitating for a second before tapping my knuckle against the closed wooden door. No one responded.
“It’s Gwen, can I get you anything?” I asked.
There was a long pause before the door opened. I was looking up to meet Nina’s eyes, but she wasn’t there. I shifted my gaze lower connecting with Milo’s sad eyes in the darkness.
Milo stretched out his hand with the nearly empty glass of water. “Can you get her more? I don’t know where it is.”
“Sure,” I said taking the glass from his small shaking hand. “Do you want anything?”
Milo shook his head.
I moved as fast as I could through the kitchen. I filled Nina’s glass and grabbed one of the small granola bars from the blue box.
Milo had left the door open a crack, so I pushed it open. Nina’s lower half was covered with the blankets. There were small goosebumps over her arms.
I set down the water and placed the bar next to the glass. “If you can get her to take a few bites, it might help.”
“Okay,” Milo said. “Should I wake her?”
“Probably not, but next time she needs water try to get her to eat,” I said.
“Blair got her on her feet earlier,” Milo said blinking his wide eyes.
I smiled. “That’s good.”
“She likes Blair,” Milo said.
“Blair is taking good care of us,” I said crouching down next to where Milo was playing with the toy cars. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” he said focusing manning on the car. “Nick said the wolf made us sick.”
I chewed my lip for a quick moment. “Maybe.”
“I’m not going to eat any more meat ever again,” Milo said.
I smiled at him just as Nina groaned again. She didn’t more than reposition her leg before falling back to sleep.
“I should go,” I said stepping toward the door. “Let me know if you or your mom need anything, okay?”
“Or Blair, right?”
“Sure, but she’s sleeping right now, and I think she needs it. If it’s anything I can help with just find me,” I said before stepping out into the hall and closing the door behind me.
Nina had done a good job of making sure Milo didn’t trust anyone Nina didn’t approve of. Although I hoped it would chang
e and both Nina and Milo would learn to trust me.
I walked over to the window and tried to take a look outside. The window was still completely coated with the unknown black slime, but I sat down in the chair next to the window anyway.
I wasn’t sitting for more than a few minutes when Blair released a cry that nearly shattered the windows. Nick’s eyes popped open and glowed in the darkness.
In a second he was on his feet.
Blair’s voice cut through the air like a razor. “God, no! No!”
Chapter 16
Nick was at the bottom of the stairs looking upward as if he were face to face with Mount Everest. I pushed past him and started up the stairs.
I hadn’t even made it halfway up before Bronx stepped into view. His eyes were down toward his feet.
“We lost him,” Bronx said, his voice so low it felt as though it vibrated through my stomach.
“What? No, that’s not possible,” I said shaking my head. “I was just up there. He was breathing.”
Bronx made his way down the stairs, blocking me from going up any further. I didn’t even know why I was trying to get up to Danny. If he was gone, there wasn’t anything I’d be able to do for him.
“Please, no,” I said shaking my head as my insides started to swirl uncontrollably. There wasn’t much of anything inside of me food-wise, but I could feel it trying to find its way up and out of my body.
He couldn’t be gone. There had to be something we could do. Danny didn’t deserve to die and especially not like this.
“I’m sorry, Gwen,” Bronx said attempting to turn me around. “There was nothing we could do.”
“Of course there is! We can try CPR,” I said between my hectic gasps for air. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks.
“We tried,” Bronx said.
Somehow Bronx had managed to get me into the living room. No matter how hard I tried to think about my steps, I couldn’t remember them. Someone was next to me with their arm around my slumped forward shoulders.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nick sitting there next to me.
“You wanted him dead,” I said. The words had found a way out of my mouth, but I wished I could take them back. I was lashing out, and Nick was by far the easiest target.
It was true though, when Danny had followed us after we’d sent him packing, Nick had threatened to kill him. Danny had said I’d saved his life.
I hadn’t. I’d failed him.
“This is all my fault,” I said hoping my words would somehow erase what I’d said to Nick. I wanted to be forgiven without having to ask for it.
“This isn’t your fault. It isn’t anyone’s fault,” Bronx said.
“Bull shit!” Nick said. “The fault lies with whoever is behind these attacks.”
I shivered when the floorboards above me creaked. For a second, I felt a twinge of hope that they’d been wrong, but when I remember Blair was still up there, my sadness returned… and intensified.
I could tell by her footsteps she was making her way down the upstairs hallway. She hesitated at the top of the stairs before clearing her throat.
“Bronx,” she said, her voice sounding the same as it always had. “Can you come up for a minute?”
“Yeah,” he said glancing at Nick. After Nick nodded, he started to walk away, and I stood.
Bronx froze in place, staring at me. “Stay,” he said with a hard swallow, “with Nick.”
“I can help,” I said pressing my hands against my upper thighs. “You’ll need my help.”
“We can manage,” Bronx said placing his hand on my shoulder and guiding me back toward the sofa.
“No,” I said stopping as if my shoes had suddenly been super-glued to the floor. “I want to help. Please, let me do this. For Danny.”
Bronx glanced at Nick again, and I stepped in the way. My eyes narrowed as I drew in a short breath.
“Don’t look at him. I can make my own choices. Nick isn’t in charge of me or any of us for that matter.” I pushed my shoulders back and straightened my spine. “I’m helping, and that’s that.”
Bronx offered me a single nod before we headed upstairs. Blair was standing there with her arms crossed in front of her chest. It didn’t look as though she had shed a single tear for Danny. It was infuriating, but somehow, I managed to keep it inside.
After all, she’d taken care of him, and that was something after what his family had done to her. It was a hell of a lot more than some people would have done that’s for sure.
Danny’s body was wrapped in a sheet. Probably not even cold. Blair shook her head and kept her eyes away from mine.
“We have to get him outside,” Blair said. “Or something.”
“Okay,” Bronx said.
“We can’t do that,” I said glancing up into Blair’s clear but slightly dazed eyes.
She shook her head looking at me as if I didn’t understand. I knew we couldn’t keep his body in the house.
“The black stuff… we can’t go out there,” I said.
“We don’t have a choice,” Blair said.
Bronx tapped his fingertip to his chin. “Maybe your grandma has some plastic bags or something for our shoes, and we can wear some old clothes?”
“And what if inhaling that stuff kills us?” I asked.
“It probably won’t,” Bronx said with a shrug.
“Comforting.” I chewed my lip. “But maybe you’re right, if it were that lethal it surely would have seeped in and killed us all by now anyway.”
Blair cocked her head to the side. “Just like the blue cloud seeped inside?”
“She has a point,” Bronx said, before he let out a long breath. “But I don’t think we have a lot of options.”
There was a long silence before Bronx cleared his throat.
“I’ll do it. I’ll bring him out there,” he said.
The last thing I could handle was losing Bronx too. “The hell you are.”
“What choice do we have?” Bronx asked throwing his hands into the air.
“Okay, okay, maybe we should just ask Nick what to do,” Blair said waving her hands in the air.
“He’s not going to have any better ideas,” I muttered.
Blair blinked twice. “You’re right. Nevermind, we shouldn’t bother him. Okay… um, we’ll just slide him out as quick as we can and then close the door with our fingers crossed.”
“Wait,” I said holding up my palm. Both Bronx and Blair turned to me. “Nick can do it.”
“Nice,” Blair said crossing her arms as she glared at me.
“No, no, no, he’s been out there, and he’s fine. Remember? He had a look,” I said nodding slowly. “Yeah, and he opened the door, and he didn’t get sick or anything so… I think it’ll work.”
Blair sighed clearly exasperated with me. “Nick doesn’t have the strength or energy to push him out of the door.”
My heart twinged at how we were talking about pushing and pulling Danny’s body as if it were nothing. We should have been burying him or doing something better than just sliding him out of the house.
“I said I’ll do it,” Bronx said bending over to pick up Danny’s body. It looked like he was going to attempt to throw it over his shoulder like it were a sack of potatoes.
“Seriously, I think Nick is the better choice,” I said.
Blair groaned. “Oh my God, of course you do. You don’t care what happens to him. Why do you hate your—”
“I’ll do it,” Nick said from behind us.
We all turned at nearly the exact same moment. Nick’s eyes instantly connected with mine.
“She doesn’t hate me. Gwen’s right. It makes the most sense for me to do it since I’ve already been exposed. If it was going to do something to me, the damage has already been done thanks to my curiosity,” Nick said with a nod in my direction.
“You shouldn’t be up here,” Blair said pressing her lips together. “It’s not good for y
our leg.”
“My leg is fine,” Nick said clearly trying to shut down her worrying. He elbowed Bronx lightly. “Help me get him down the stairs.”
I tried to help them, but there wasn’t a lot of room for us to maneuver through the hall and down the stairs. My grandma probably never imagined that one day her grandkids would be hauling a dead body through her house. Or at least not that I would be.
Once we got into the kitchen, Nick waved us back. “Wait in the living room.”
“I should help,” I said looking down at the street that covered Danny’s body. “It’s the least I can do after everything.”
“And I’d be willing to bet that he’d rather you stay in here, just in case,” Nick said holding up both hands.
I shook my head.
“No, seriously,” Nick said. He exchanged a quick glance with Bronx and Bronx nodded before placing his hand on my shoulder.
“Wait,” I said as Bronx started guiding me toward the living room. “No… wait!”
I wiggled my shoulders trying to break free of his grasp. I wasn’t even sure why I was fighting so hard. Maybe it was because once Danny was outside, I’d have to accept that he was really gone.
Bronx held me tight as Nick opened the back door. My heart pounded with a sadness I couldn’t even comprehend. Everything was falling apart so fast I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to find a way to cope.
I made one last attempt to break free from Bronx’s grasp. When I failed, he turned me toward him and wrapped his arms around my body. My bones stiffened as he held me tightly, but when I heard the door close, and the lock click into place, my knees weakened. I sighed before pressing my face against Bronx’s chest.
Nick stepped into the hallway, and I turned. He rubbed his hands together. “It’s done.”
Chapter 17
Several uneventful days passed by. My mood had deteriorated, not that it had been all that good in the first place, but the constant thoughts about Danny, only made me remember what had happened to Jamie.
It was impossible for me not to question who would be lost to the attacks next. Would there be more attacks? Did any of it matter if we were all just going to die?
The Red Sky Series Box Set Books 1-4: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series Page 39