Sanctuary's Aggression Complete Collection Box Set: A Post-apocalyptic Survival Thriller Series

by Maira Dawn

  "Oh, Daddy." Skye ran a hand down her face and wrapped her arm across her aching body.

  "I know, Baby, I know," he said with a catch in his voice.

  When he got control of himself, her father said, “Your sister-in-law is still here with me. Bobby and Janie were here too. We were doing okay, but Janie ran out the other night. She got upset about... well, about everything. Bobby ran after her. They haven't come back yet. Charlotte is beside herself with worry.”

  The door of the cabin opened and shut behind her, but Skye paid no attention as she brought her hand up to wipe her eyes. "What? Dad, no! When? When did this happen?"

  "Going on three nights ago now, I guess. It doesn't mean they’re not coming back, though. We're still hoping that they will."

  Skye rubbed the growing ache in her chest with her palm. “You need me, Dad,” she said in tears.

  There was a brief hesitation before her father said, “I need you safe even more, that means the world to me.”

  “I can be there in a few hours,” Skye said. “If I have a full gas tank, I won't even have to stop. I’ll help find Bobby and take care of you.”

  “No, baby. You can’t come, it’s too dangerous. We can't know what the roads are like between here and there. Promise you will stay there.”

  "Dad." Skye shook her head.

  “Promise me,” he demanded, “I hate to say it but there's nothin you can do here. Charlotte and I are either going to get sick or we're not. Bobby and Janie are going to come home or they ain't. You coming here won’t affect any of that.”

  “Don’t say that.” She whispered the words. There was no denying the truth of what he said but there was more to it. He was a frailer man than he'd been as she grew up. Now he often sat in his recliner, a cane resting against his leg. He had battled cancer and won, but it had taken a toll. He needs me. My dad needs me.

  “Skye, baby, please listen to me. Don’t make me worry I’ll lose you too.”

  Skye struggled but gave in, "For now, I’ll stay here. I will check in every day I have a signal, but my cell phone won’t work much longer. It's a miracle it’s worked this long. Maybe Dylan can help me find a landline. Hopefully, that will work, so it may be a different number next time."

  Her dad breathed a sigh of relief, "Ok, sounds like a good deal. Now put that boy on."

  Surprised, she said, "Jesse?"

  "Not the little one. The man. Dylan."

  Still confused, she said, "Uh, okay." She turned to start for the front door only to see Dylan leaning against the cabin.

  Skye said her goodbyes, and sent her love to Charlotte, then passed the phone to Dylan with a shrug. He took the phone as she tried to quiet her grief.

  Dylan’s side of the conversation was short and to the point. There was a "Glad to meet you" and a lot of "Yes, sirs" and few things that didn’t make much sense to her, a goodbye, then he hung up. When Skye sent Dylan a questioning look, and he just shrugged.

  “Real sorry about your mom,” he said.

  Skye nodded and sobs welled up. Dylan moved closer and reached a hand out to her. She moved to him and let his arms give her the comfort her father's could not.

  Skye tossed and turned all that night. She had promised a couple more days, but the feeling she should be with her father continued. They were her family; all she had left. All the reasons she shouldn't go rolled through her head, followed by all the reasons she should, over and over, through those dark hours. Grief for her mother tumbled with fear for her father.

  What was the last conversation she’d had with her mom? Probably a normal call about everyday things. If she would have known it would be the last time, she would have said so much more. Mom was aware she loved her. Skye knew her mom loved her in return. It wasn't about that, it was about a conclusion, a finish. For now, anyway, for herself. She believed she would see her mom again someday, that she would be happy and healthy again, but Skye still felt the sharp pain of her loss.

  Now it was just Charlotte and her dad in their house in Ohio. How worried Charlotte must be about Bobby and Janie! Her sister-in-law must long for the comfort of her own family.

  If Skye could get to her dad that would allow Charlotte to go to hers. They lived just a half-hour away, and she could easily make it.

  The situation was dire. Charlotte was not a strong woman, and a man with a cane wouldn’t fend off the Sick or anyone else trying to do him harm. Even I’m better than that.

  Skye stopped tossing and turning and her sobs turned to steady breathing as she made her decision. She had no choice. Her dad needed her. She was all he had left. She had to go.

  The now familiar sound of Dylan putting on a pot of coffee came to her. Somehow, she would have to tell him, tell all of them. They would think her foolish, stupid even, and they may be right.

  This is not going to be easy.

  Dylan poured the water into the back of the coffeepot as Skye’s bare feet padded across the floor. He was aware of what was coming. She didn’t need to say a word, he’d heard her tossing and turning all night.

  He turned and watched her come the rest of the way. Her head bowed, arms hugging herself to ward off the chill, dark hair tousled from her troubled night.

  Skye yawned, covering her mouth with one hand before lowering it back to her arm. She looked up at him, her green eyes wide and sad.

  This ain't gonna be easy.

  How he would keep his promise to her father to hold her here, he didn't know. Dylan picked up an afghan off the couch that an old neighbor lady had kindly given them and wrapped it around her cold body.

  First things first. Might as well get this over with.

  Eighteen

  All Along

  "You can't go!" Wade’s face became redder with each word.

  "I have to. This has always been the plan.” Patiently, Skye explained for the third time what her plans were as the four of them sat, ill-tempered, around the table.

  This has gone even worse than I imagined. I understand, I feel it too, but I have to go.

  "Well, we can't take off just like that," Wade said, offering another excuse. "Dylan has been checkin in on people. We gotta let them know."

  Her brow wrinkled. "I didn't mean for you two to take us.”

  Dylan’s face flashed bewilderment, and it confirmed what Skye had been suspecting. For Dylan the attraction between them was far more serious than it was for her.

  It's best to leave now and make a clean break. Something started in me, and him, on that little trail, but it’s something I‘m not ready for yet.

  Skye’s mouth dried as she tried to reason with them. “I didn’t expect your help to get there, I mean. I’m aware you have others relying on you.”

  Dylan pushed back on his chair and crossed his arms. He refused to look at her.

  Skye reached out to him but stopped. “I never kept this a secret. I’ve always said I was worried about Frankie coming for Jesse."

  Skye looked from Dylan to Wade and back again. “But you’ve done so much for us. I can’t thank you enough. What we have been through has drawn us closer together, and that makes it hard to leave, but this is probably best."

  Dylan didn't say a word, instead he sat looking out the window as if wishing he were anywhere else as he gnawed on the side of his finger.

  Wade was the one that fought for them to stay. "After the beating we gave Frankie, I doubt he would try to come after Jesse. 'Sides he's pry, you know," he said with a side glance at Jesse. He’d lowered his voice ignoring that Jesse was sitting right beside him and understood he meant dead from the AgFlu. "And if he ain't, well, he don't know where we live."

  Skye sighed and held a hand to her forehead. “If that were the only problem, I know you two would take care of it. But I can't... not... go. I can't sit here worried my family will get sick and die when I can do something about it." She wiped away a stray tear.

  Dylan sat up a little straighter in his seat. He spoke bluntly, staring at Skye’s startled face. "
Whatever’s gonna happen, is gonna happen. You dying alongside some road somewhere ain't going make any difference."

  Jesse looked from Skye to Dylan. “We can come back, can’t we? Dylan and Wade wouldn’t let anyone take me away from you, I know they wouldn’t.”

  Skye gave Jesse a concerned glance. “But if the police ever got involved, they really couldn’t stop—”

  Dylan bristled. “Not even the cops. Nobody’s takin the boy.”

  Jesse smiled. “See, Skye, they’re like me. We help each other, and you help us. We all need each other. Say we can come back.”

  This depth of emotion was a rare thing for Jesse. He was attached to these two men. If he felt this strongly about leaving, it was something she had to consider. Skye gave his arm a little squeeze.

  "Okay then,” Skye shot a questioning look at Dylan, “what if we do come back? How would that work?”

  Wade looked from Dylan to Skye and sucked in his lip. It made a squeaking noise.

  Dylan shook his head. “If you made it back, your family would have everything they need. We wouldn’t let them go hungry.”

  Skye smiled, she’d never though he would. “You’re right. It would be better here for them here. They’ll run out of food where they are, but here they would be able to farm if this thing keeps up. Could we take one of the empty cabins?” The idea grew on Skye and her enthusiasm showed. “What about that, Jesse?"

  She looked at each of the men with her eyebrow raised. “Would it be okay if my family came here?"

  Dylan frowned. "If you leave here, you ain't going to make it back. I go ten minutes down the road yesterday, and your whining at me I went too far. And you want to go, what? Hours? And expect us to be all right with that?"

  Skye’s wide-eyed gaze lowered to the table. I did say that. He has a point. Why does he always have a point?

  She tried to reassure him and her churning stomach. "It'll be okay. I told you, I won't get out of the car and I—.”

  "It won't be okay. Why can't you see that?" Dylan threw his hand toward the door. "You don't know what is out there, and it'll kill you."

  "What you taught me will keep me alive."

  "I ain't taught you nothin. You'll need a lot more'n that." Dylan reinforced Skye’s own concerns. "You don't even know what Colton is like, and it's hardly down the road."

  “Maybe it’s better than when I left?” She couldn’t stop herself from sounding hopeful.

  "It ain't gonna be better. Things started in motion aways back, and things aren't getting better. Ever. This is the way it is now."

  Skye totally missed his point, instead, focusing on one thing. "So you've seen it? Colton?"

  "From the hill," Dylan said. "Ain't nothin hardly moving down there."

  "So, it is safe to drive through?"

  "No, that ain't what I'm sayin." Dylan leaned toward her as he ran a hand through his hair. "Why won't you listen, woman?"

  "Why won't you stop yelling, man?"

  At that, Dylan leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and in a mocking tone said, "Tell me Doc, what exactly is the proper reaction when you see someone tryin to kill themselves?"

  Skye lowered her head to her hands and groaned. This is getting nowhere.

  Dylan calmed himself and leaned forward in his chair. "I made you a promise out there in that yard, and I can't keep it if you go runnin off." He paused for a minute and his voice gentled. "I'll do better. I can try harder... just stay."

  She raised her eyes to Dylan's guarded expression. With a catch in her throat, she said, "Oh Dylan, this isn't about you or anyone else not doing well. It is just about getting to Dad."

  It was quiet for a minute; they could hear only the tic of some old clock. Skye took in a deep breath and blew it out again with each beat.

  She stayed calm but determined. "Wade and Dylan, I need your help to map out the safest route, to make sure the car is in working order and to help my dad when I get back. And I am coming back. But I am going with or without your help. I have to. Don't you see, I have no choice. He will die if I leave him there.”

  Skye looked at each one of them in turn. “We're leaving in the morning.”

  This time it was Skye who strode out the door.

  Shoulda known this was coming, but I thought she’d change her mind. The fire that had been building in Dylan’s belly doused with his take of the situation. I figured something was starting up with us. Apparently, she doesn't.

  He hung his head. Why should she?

  For all he knew, she went around hugging all kinds of men, looked up at them with those big eyes of hers. Probably not a man like me. A woman like her would have gone for a different kind of man than me.

  He pressed his lips a few times as he picked at his fingers. They were dirty from the fire, from being in the woods, from any number of other things he did today. He brushed his hands together trying to get some of the dirt off but was unsuccessful. Every night he scrubbed but there was always some stain left behind.

  It's wore into me.

  This is who I am, and it ain't likely to change. I need to stop lookin at a woman who isn't lookin at me. I‘d reckoned she'd at least want me around to help keep her and the boy safe. She's always going on about that, but then she just up and takes off like this.

  Dylan ddin’t know how he was going to keep his promise to her day, short of tying the woman up, and he didn‘t figure her father would want him to go that far. Dylan looked at Skye and saw the distress on her face. Maybe when you’re raised by parents that actually care for you, this is how you feel, willing to do anything for them.

  I shouldn’t have taken that obligation. I only did it cause I thought— Don't matter what I thought.

  That promise and the one he’d made Skye would haunt him. Dylan always kept his word, and now he’d broke it with two people.

  Foolish, naïve, cantankerous, mule-headed woman. She won’t listen to one word of reason.

  Dylan raised his hand and hit the table with his palm. Jesse jumped, but Wade just looked away. She will die out there.

  Dylan picked up some breakfast dishes and took them to the sink. As he did so, he caught his reflection in the mirror. He looked at himself the way he imagined she saw him, calling himself the names others had often called him. Dirty redneck, hillbilly idiot, son of an abuser.

  He'd figured out a long time ago that he wasn't high on any woman's Man List. He didn't know why he‘d reckoned any different now.

  A flash of anger shot through Dylan, and he slammed the stack of plates in the sink, ignoring the crack of the dishes as they hit the stainless steel. "I ain't gonna be any part of this. Sendin her off like I don't mind it a bit.” Dylan’s words ground against the back of his throat.

  He crossed the room, grabbing his filled backpack and took to his refuge, the forest.

  Nineteen

  You Never Know

  Jesse was not happy. He sat on the living room couch his hands shoved deep into his pockets and kept quiet. When adults were fighting, he knew it was best to keep his mouth shut.

  He listened to the back and forth between Skye and Dylan as it got angrier and angrier. Jesse wanted to stay here. It had been good here, better than he had ever remembered, and he didn't want that to change. Going somewhere else, anywhere else made him nervous. You never know how people are gonna to be.

  He didn't know Skye's dad. He was probably a good guy since she was good, but you never know. Sometimes even good people have bad parents. What if he was a bad one?

  What if her dad doesn't like me? Tells Skye not to keep me? It's not like she has to, she didn't adopt me or anything. It can be hard to have a kid. That's what they always tell me. He might tell her to take me back, or just leave me on the side of the road.

  Jesse shook his head. He knew Skye wouldn't leave him beside the road, but she might find another home for him. He didn't want another place. Jesse wanted this one, with Skye, Wade, and Dylan. He liked Wade and Dylan. They understood him, and he unders
tood them. It was like they all spoke the same language or something. He didn't have that with many people. And Skye knew more about him than any other person alive. She accepted the way his past made him act, that it made him, him.

  But if Skye’s dad died, Jesse didn’t want that either. It seemed easy enough to drive up there, spend the night, and bring the old man back down here. Skye’s done a lot for me, I can do this for her.

  Jesse got a funny feeling in his stomach as he watched Skye walk out of the house. He turned to Dylan and saw the pained look on his face. Jesse kicked the leg of the kitchen chair in anger then growled in pain. Now angry at himself and them, he ran outside.

  Seeing a good-sized stick on the ground, Jesse walked over and picked it up, then hit the biggest tree in the yard with it.

  After a few good, hard whacks, Jesse felt a little better, but when he saw Dylan cross the yard to the woods with his backpack, he started hitting the tree again.

  Why do people have to be like this?

  The sharp crack of wood against wood continued. Whack, whack, whack. The sound was familiar to him.

  “Jesse.” Skye’s voice floated to him, soft as a late spring breeze, managing to be heard through the loud thumps and his hot anger. “Jesse. I’m sorry.”

  He turned to the sound. Skye stood there with her hands out to him, tears on her face. Jesse dropped the thick piece of wood and ran to her.

  He jerked to a stop just before he reached her arms and shouted, “Why do you have to yell?”

  “I’m sorry, Jesse. I didn’t think about how it would upset you. You’re right, it’s not a good thing to do.”

  Jesse stared at her for a moment, a fierce frown on his face. As much as he wanted to stay angry, the red-hot feeling was melting away with the sight of her sad face.

  Jesse took a small step toward her outstretched arms. “Don’t leave me.”