Giving in to the urge to comfort him, I crossed to Blake and threw my arms around him. “We’re glad you’re here.”
He hugged me back, kissing the side of my head. “I am, too. Most of the time.”
I patted his back before pulling away.
“We might get hit.” Kellan had moved to the back of the plane. He wasn’t looking at us, but was instead staring at the dark sky.
Like his words had been a cue for the storm, a rumble of thunder cut through the air.
Blake rolled his eyes. “I think someone already said that.”
“We should stick close.” Kellan turned to face us. “If it gets too bad, we can take cover in the plane.”
“The plane?” I turned toward it, and the skeleton grinned back at me. When I looked back at Kellan, my mouth was hanging open.
Like the skeleton, he grinned. “That bother you?”
“I think curling up with a skeleton would bother anyone,” I retorted.
Kellan belted out a laugh as he turned his back to me. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find some animals brave enough to come out in this weather.”
We hiked a little farther, keeping an eye out for anything moving while the sky above us grew darker and more menacing. The wind picked up as the temperature took a nosedive that was probably very similar to the one the plane had taken the day it crashed. My skin cooled until I began to feel almost chilly. It would have been a nice change from sweating my ass off if I wasn’t worried the clouds would open up and pummel us with hail at any minute.
A fat raindrop hit my nose, and I lifted my head. Above me, the sky was gray. “Kellan.”
He turned as two more raindrops slammed against my head. The wind whipped hair into my face, and I had to hold it back. I twisted it around my hand, hoping it would help, but the loose tendrils still got in my eyes.
“It’s going to get bad,” Blake called.
A bolt of lightning cut across the dark sky, bright and jagged, and a boom followed less than a second later.
“It’s right on top of us!” I yelled.
Kellan swore as he jogged our way. “Come on! We can make it to the plane!”
More lightning lit up the sky, and it wasn’t until that moment that it hit me how dark it had gotten. It couldn’t be much past noon, but it felt like night was closing in on us as we ran for the plane. More drops fell, hitting my head and face. They were fat and spread apart, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before the clouds opened up. I hoped it only dropped rain on us, and not something far more destructive.
Kellan charged past me when we neared the plane and jerked the door open. The aircraft was small, made for only a handful of people, but would be big enough for the three of us. Even with the bodies in it.
“Sorry about this,” Kellan said as he leaned inside.
I stood behind him, staring up at the sky as the rain picked up. Lightning lit up the clouds and thunder rumbled through the air as the wind slammed into us, soaking us as we waited for Kellan to move aside. When he finally did, though, I froze instead of rushing to get into the plane. He’d wrapped the skeleton woman in a jacket so he could remove her body, and she was in his arms, stiff and brittle in her decayed state.
“Get in!” Kellan called.
Blake moved, but I stayed where I was, watching as Kellan gently laid the woman out. She was long dead—nine years now, probably—but he treated her with a reverence few people would have bothered with. That was Kellan, though. Sensitive. Caring. A heart bigger than the virus that had ended the world.
I looked away when tears clogged my throat, instead focusing on the footprints Kellan’s boots had left in the damp dirt and tracing the crisscross pattern with my gaze.
He turned back, and seeing me still standing in the rain, grabbed my arm and pushed me toward the plane. This time I obeyed and ducked inside.
There was room for maybe four passengers. Blake was in the back when I threw myself in the middle row. The rain picked up as Kellan climbed in next to me, pulling the door shut behind him. Water dripped from his hair, and he wasn’t alone. I was as drenched as he was, and in the back, Blake was shivering.
It wasn’t until Kellan turned toward me and I remembered that he’d just removed a body that I realized I was sitting right where the woman had died. A shiver shook me, and I scooted over until I was practically on Kellan’s lap.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I waved to the seat. “Someone died there.”
“Someone died nearly everywhere on this earth, Regan.”
Another shiver moved through me. He had a point, but that didn’t mean I was interested in sitting where a skeleton had been only a few minutes ago.
“You want to sit there,” I pointed behind me, “be my guest.”
Kellan rolled his eyes but moved so we could switch places. It was a tight fit, and after a few seconds of him awkwardly trying to climb over me, he sat back down, pulled me onto his lap, scooted over, and deposited me on the other side of the seat.
“Happy?” he asked, trying to sound exasperated but failing when his dimple flashed at me.
“Absolutely.” I twisted my hair around my hand and wrung it out on his lap. “This was exactly what I wanted to do today.”
Something pinged against the roof, and my eyes flicked up. Another ping followed, and then another and another. In seconds, the pings had turned to thuds as hundreds of balls of ice pounded down on us. Through the front window, I could see them bouncing off the front of the plane. A few even made it inside, pummeling the long dead pilot. They were huge, bigger than any I’d ever seen in person.
“At least we have shelter!” Blake called.
The glass that had managed to survive the crash years ago shattered, and I let out a yelp of surprise. With no barrier left, more hail made it inside.
I leaned away from the window next to me, afraid it would shatter as well, but what was left of the wings seemed to be protecting us. Thankfully, because there was nowhere to go to get away from it.
The hail didn’t last long, a few minutes at the most. It ended as quickly as it had started, and in the wake of the pounding, the world was shockingly quiet. The rain still pinged against the roof of the plane, but otherwise it seemed like the storm had already passed us.
“That was short and violent,” Blake said.
“Thankfully.” I scooted forward and scooped up a sizeable piece of hail, holding it up for the others to see.
It was round, but lumpy, and fit perfectly in my palm. Golf ball size or maybe even a little bigger.
Blake let out a whistle. “Wouldn’t want to get caught out in that.”
“Hopefully, the truck wasn’t hit too hard.” Kellan nodded to the door at my back. “We should get moving.”
I tossed the ice back into the front of the plane before shoving the door open. The sky had lightened to a soft gray, the rain was barely a drizzle, and in front of me the ground was littered with hundreds of balls of ice, many of them the size of the one I’d picked up. There were a lot of smaller ones, too, though, since they often broke up when they hit the ground.
Blake was the first one out. He swiped one of the larger pieces of hail up and tossed it in the air like a baseball.
“Wanna play catch?” He grinned.
I climbed out with Kellan right behind me.
“You laugh,” he said, “but if this hit one of the settlements, things could get bad. Severe hail can destroy a house.”
Blake’s smile faded, and he tossed it to the ground. “Shit. You think the storm cell is that big?”
Kellan’s gaze shifted to the distance. “Altus is probably okay since they’re south, but the storm looks to be heading right toward Quartz Mountain.”
Blake turned so he was facing the dark sky to the east, but my gaze was on the plane. It was covered in dents from the hail, its surface pockmarked instead of smooth the way it was supposed to be. I had no doubt we’d find the truck in the same condition when we reached
it. We’d gotten really lucky that we were able to find shelter.
“Let’s go in case something else decides to hit,” I said.
We started back down the mountain, sliding over boulders slick with rain and mud. Kellan stuck close to me, grabbing my arm whenever I wobbled. I shot him a look when he reached out to steady me for the third time, but he was concentrating on where he stepped, not me. Figured. Every time I found myself hoping his actions might be more than an obligation to keep me safe, I was disappointed. He was just being Kellan. Responsible and steady.
We’d made it halfway down and had reached a section where the rocks seemed to double in size when the sound of voices made me stop. Quick as lightning, Kellan slid down the rock he was standing on, wedging himself into a crevice. Before I’d even had a chance to decide what I needed to do, he was reaching for me.
“Come on,” he hissed, waving for me to move.
I lowered myself to a crouch, and he grabbed me around the waist, pulling me down beside him while a few boulders back Blake slid into a similar crevice. Once I was down, I found myself crammed into a tight space and practically pressed up against Kellan. It wasn’t exactly the safest place to be with the rattlesnake population in this area, but at least we were out of sight.
Kellan ducked, pulling me with him as the hum of voices grew louder. They were male and not the least bit interested in being quiet, which was never a good sign. It made them either stupid or overly confident. Neither was a good trait.
With my body pressed up against Kellan’s the way it was, I could feel his heart beating against my back. He had his arms around me and his body curled over mine. The voices grew closer, and Kellan pressed his lips against my ear, whispering shhh.
“Damn this state,” one of the men grumbled.
I couldn’t see them from where I was, but the scrape of their footsteps against the ground had gotten closer.
“Can’t wait to get our asses back to Atlanta,” someone else muttered.
Kellan stiffened at the mention of the new capital, and my own heart beat faster.
“Thought coming out this way we’d at least get a break from the heat, but it’s fucking hot as balls here.” The sound of someone spitting broke up the man’s words. “You ever seen hail like that?”
“Shit,” another man muttered. “I never saw hail ‘til today. Thought we were gonna get pummeled.”
“Can’t we throw in the towel and admit defeat? She’s gone! Face it, we fucked up.”
Something scraped against the rocks very close to where we were hiding, and behind me Kellan’s body seemed to turn to stone.
The men stopped walking.
“No. We’re gonna find her, and when we do, we’re not going to waste any more time. We’re leaving. Heading back to Atlanta.” Feet scraped again, only this time it seemed as if they were moving past us. “Next time we’ll head south. Florida or something. Hit the beaches.”
“Shoulda suggested that before we dragged our asses all the way out here,” a man grumbled.
They kept walking, their voices fading into the distance as they argued. It was clear these were the men we’d heard rumors about, but who they were looking for, I didn’t know. Whoever she was, I hoped they didn’t find her. As much as I wanted them to be on their way.
When the footsteps had faded until they were nothing more than distant scratches, Kellan relaxed. “That was close.”
I twisted to face him, and jammed into the crevice the way we were, found his face less than six inches from mine. My heart thumped faster, pulsing against my ribcage, but I swallowed down my nerves.
“Those were the men from Atlanta,” I whispered. “The ones looking for immune people.”
“Sure as hell seems like it.”
Kellan lifted himself up on his toes, holding onto me to give himself a boost. His hands were on my ribcage, right below my breasts. It made my heart pound faster, made me break out into a sweat. I swallowed and willed my body not to react to him, but he was so close. Inches from me.
When he lowered himself again, he was even closer than before. He exhaled, and his breath brushed across my face. “I don’t see them anymore, but I want to wait a few more minutes to be on the safe side.”
I nodded, unable to talk. His hands were still on me, and when he realized it, he pulled back like he’d touched a venomous snake. “Sorry.”
“Seriously, Kellan.” I let out a strained laugh. “You act like we’ve never been here before. I remember a time when you and I hid inside a tiny pantry for two hours. This is nothing.”
He blinked, surprise flashing in his eyes. “It’s not the same. You were a kid then. Now…” His gaze flitted down but quickly flicked back up so he was staring at the cloud-clogged sky. “You’re a woman now.”
My heart thumped harder. “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever acknowledged that.”
“Believe me, I’ve noticed.” He kept his gaze focused on the sky above us like he was intentionally avoiding looking at me.
“You have?” My voice squeaked like a teenage boy hitting puberty.
Kellan finally looked down, a small grin pulling up his lips and deepening his dimple. “Are you really surprised?”
“I don’t know. I guess. I thought you still saw me as a little girl.” I rolled my eyes even as heat crept up my face. “I mean, compared to women like Chelsea, I look like a little girl.”
Kellan chuckled, and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Sorry.” He lifted his hands and tried to take a step back but only succeeded in bumping into the rock behind him. “I’m not laughing at you. I’m only laughing at how oblivious you are.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I shot at him.
Kellan’s eyebrows lifted and he gave me a look that was half teasing, half knowing. “Regan, if you seriously think men—”
Footsteps scraped on the rocks above us, and a few pebbles dropped into the hole we were wedged in.
“You guys going to stay down there forever?” I looked up to find Blake standing over us, grinning. “The coast is clear.”
“We’re coming up,” Kellan said.
When I looked at him again, the teasing light had disappeared from his eyes and he was once again all business. Silently, I cursed Blake for his timing. I wanted to know what Kellan was going to say, but I knew I’d never have the guts to bring it up. Especially not in front of Blake.
Kellan pulled himself out before turning to offer me a hand. His calloused skin was warm when he wrapped his fingers around mine, something I never would have noticed a year and a half ago. Now, it was all I could focus on as I hauled myself up over the rock.
The second I was out, Kellan released my hand and stepped back. I was on my hands and knees, and I looked up to find him surveying the area, not focused on me.
“You hear everything they said?” Blake asked.
“Every word,” Kellan said. “I was really hoping those rumors were wrong, but it seems like they were spot on.”
I climbed to my feet, doing my best to look around so I could avoid glancing in Kellan’s direction. “Who do you think they’re looking for?”
“Not us.” Kellan started walking. “Which is a good thing. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
I rolled my eyes at his back but followed without argument, this time keeping step with Blake instead of our fearless leader. It was kind of nuts when I thought about it like that. Kellan, after all, was the youngest of the men. Blake and Cade were both in their thirties, but Kellan was only twenty-four. Still, there was something about him that made him a natural leader, and he fell into the position when we were out without even noticing it.
We descended the mountain slowly, careful as we climbed over the smooth surface of the boulders. They’d been slick on our way up, but the heavy rain had made them twice as treacherous, and more than once I found my feet slipping.
The third time my feet slid forward, Blake was at my side. He reached for me, his hands grasping my
waist to steady me before I could fall.
“Careful there,” he said, laughing.
I swatted him playfully. “Trying to cop a feel?”
“It has been awfully lonely down there lately.” Blake’s grin widened.
I belted out a laugh that echoed through the air, earning me a stern look from Kellan.
“How about you keep it down and stay focused?” He shook his head. “This is exactly why I didn’t want you to come out.” His gaze flitted to Blake, and he shook his head as he started walking again. “Let’s go. I want to get back to the shelter before we run into those assholes again.”
“He’s in a mood today,” I mumbled.
“Maybe he’s lonely, too,” Blake said.
“Maybe we’re all a little lonely,” I replied.
The truck finally came into view, parked right where we’d left it. Too bad it wasn’t in the same condition.
“Wow.” Blake let out a whistle. “You think it’s still drivable?”
Kellan jumped from the boulder he was standing on, landing on the ground with a soft thud, then headed over. “Only one way to find out.”
I alternated between watching my footing as I continued down the rocks to staring at the now destroyed truck. The hail had nearly all melted, leaving only a few chunks here and there—none of them bigger than a quarter. The damage was horrendous. Pockmarks like the ones that had been all over the plane dotted the truck’s hood, sides, and top of the cab, and the windshield had shattered. Luckily, the back window hadn’t, but it did have four holes in it that were the size of my fist.
Kellan ripped the door open as I hopped off the final rock, landing right on top of one of his crisscrossed footprints. Blake was right behind me, and the tinkle of glass cut through the silence when Kellan wiped it off the seat and onto the floor of the truck. I headed for the passenger side, pulling the door open as Kellan slid behind the wheel.
He put the key in the ignition but paused for a second, glancing my way. “Here goes nothing.”
The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 9