Then there was hail.
My gaze moved toward the truck, still parked outside the fence, and memories of the day Blake, Kellan, and I had huddled together in a wrecked airplane while hail as big as golf balls pummeled the earth came rushing back. The events of that day were written in the damaged truck, in the marred body, pockmarked from where dozens of balls of ice had slammed into it, and the missing windshield. The back window, although still intact, bore even more evidence of the violence Mother Nature could bring, this time in the form of holes. The truck didn’t look pretty, but it was still drivable, which was the best we could hope for these days.
A strong wind swept over us, lifting my damp hair so it blew across my face as Kellan headed for the gate. I followed, and he’d just started working on the chain when footsteps pounded against the ground at my back.
I looked over my shoulder to find Cade staring at the sky as he headed our way. “Gonna rain.”
“Might screw with our plans,” Kellan replied, not looking at him.
Metal clinked against metal as he unwound the chain, and before Cade had reached us, Kellan had the gate shoved open.
“We’ll make it work,” he said.
I said nothing as I stared at the darkening sky. It was the direction we had to go, and it looked ominous.
3
Kellan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles were two shades lighter than his normal brown skin tone, while his eyes bounced back and forth so much I started to worry he was going to drive off the road.
Outside, the Oklahoma landscape whirled past us, the monotonous browns and greens broken up by crumbling buildings and trees long dead from lack of water. For them, it didn’t matter that the sky was dark, signaling more rain was on the way, because they’d already succumbed to the harsh elements of this new world.
I covered Kellan’s hand with mine, trying to urge him to relax, but only succeeded in making him tense even more, as if my touch reminded him of my presence in the group and what he could lose.
“Calm down,” I whispered.
He pried a few fingers from the steering wheel and flexed them, and the muscles in his biceps bulged against the sleeves of his shirt, but the tension didn’t ease.
“Can’t.” He swallowed, his gaze darting my way before returning to scanning the area as we sped down the road. “Not until we’re back home.”
“We’ll be back soon enough,” Cade said from behind us.
Kellan didn’t reply.
The drive was almost an hour long but seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, even with the wind whipping me in the face and filling the truck’s cab with dust. The lack of windshield was a nuisance, but eyeing the dark clouds, which seemed to grow blacker the closer we got to our destination, I realized how much worse it could get. When the storm finally hit, we were going to get soaked.
Kellan slowed when we reached the wildlife refuge, and I leaned forward, studying the area for any sign of Andrew and his men. We wound our way past mountains and rocky areas in utter silence, moving deeper into the refuge, but saw nothing. At least no people. There were longhorn cattle in the distance, grazing in the newly green fields, and dozens of other animals. Birds perched in trees, watching us drive by with black, accusatory eyes, and even a little field where prairie dogs scurried into holes at the sound of the truck’s engine, their heads jutting up in curiosity as we drove past.
The further we went, the larger the mountains got, rising around us in the form of reddish-brown rocks, with green shrubs and gnarled trees bursting from crevices and between boulders. After years of drought, the rain had brought new life to Oklahoma, transforming the once brown landscape into a palette of colors I’d forgotten could exist together in nature. It would have been beautiful if I wasn’t terrified, but at the moment, I was too out of my mind with worry to give the landscape more than a passing thought.
Kellan pulled to the side of the road when we reached the first area we’d marked on the map, and by then the silence in the cab had grown heavy. Still, no one said a word, and we didn’t move for a few minutes as we studied the surrounding area. The world was utterly still, the only sign of life a lone bird circling the sky above us, and there was nothing to indicate humans had been here anytime over the last nine years. No discarded trash on the side of the road or twisted in the brambles, no footprints or smoke from a nearby fire. Nothing but nature as undisturbed as it had been hundreds of years ago when the first settlers rolled into this area.
“Looks clear,” Cade said.
Kellan’s hair, now dry from the wind that had whipped him in the face during the drive, flopped across his forehead when he nodded. When I reached over to push it back, he captured my hand in his and pressed it to his lips.
“Be careful. Promise me.”
“I’ll be careful if you will,” I said.
Behind us, Cade scooted across the seat and shoved the door open. “Let’s all be careful.”
Kellan released my hand so he could climb out, and I followed, sliding across the seat and pushing the passenger door open.
Outside, the guys got to work unloading the bodies while I hauled myself onto the roof of the truck to stand lookout. Thick, gray clouds filled the sky, but the sun had managed to break through in a few places, making me squint even after I’d shaded my eyes, but again there was no movement. No sign of zombies or people.
“Last one,” Kellan said with a grunt.
The truck rocked beneath me as he pulled the body out, and I braced myself so I wouldn’t fall. The stench of death was thick, magnified by the hot sun, and I swatted at the flies buzzing around my face, knowing it was no use but unable to hold back.
“Done,” Cade called as he slammed the tailgate.
I lowered myself to the ground, landing next to the open passenger door with a thud that sent dirt puffing up around me. On the other side of the truck, Kellan was already climbing into the cab, and Cade climbed in back just as I pulled my own door shut.
“One down.” Kellan shot a quick glance my way as he threw the car into drive, giving me a tight smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “One to go.”
I looked over my shoulder as we drove away. Through the cracked rear window, I could see the beginnings of flames as they worked to consume the bodies. There were weeds and bushes and trees all around them, and we ran the risk of starting a major wildfire, one that no one would be around to put out. I had to pray it was worth it and we were able to get Harper back and get out of here alive.
The scene played out in an almost identical manner when we reached the second stopping point. The guys unloaded the truck while I stood watch, once again not spotting a single thing that looked threatening. In the distance, a pillar of smoke rose from where we’d been only a few minutes ago, but at the moment it was still small. We needed it to get big enough to cause alarm, but not too big. I didn’t want to destroy the entire wildlife refuge.
When the guys had dragged the last body from the bed of the truck, Kellan and I once again climbed into the cab while Cade started the fire, and like before, we were well on our way before it had grown too big.
“I want to try to park somewhere inconspicuous when we reach the next stopping point,” Kellan said as he drove, raising his voice over the rush of wind. “I don’t want to risk anyone finding the truck before we can get back to it.”
“No one else is around,” Cade pointed out.
“Just Andrew and his men,” I said.
“Yeah.” Kellan wrung the steering wheel again. “Hopefully, if they go out, they head toward the fires.”
The atmosphere in the truck was silent and tense when Kellan made the turn onto an unpaved road that used to lead to hiking trails—according to Jasper’s notes, anyway. It was pretty overgrown now, and like almost everywhere else in Oklahoma, the weeds were knee to waist high and thick, bending under the truck as we drove. I looked back, curious if they had popped back up or if anyone passing by would immediately be able to tell a
car had driven this way. A few weeds were still down, but for the most part the weeds seemed to be as resistant to the truck’s massive frame as they had been to the drought.
“Not a bad place to park,” Cade said.
“Yeah.” Kellan was leaning forward as he drove, scanning the area for a good place to stop. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s driven back here in years.”
“Why would they?” I said. “Sightseeing is about as useful as computers these days.”
Kellan only snorted in response.
He turned the wheel to the right when he reached a spot he must have thought looked good, and the scratch of weeds and branches as they clawed at the truck’s already ruined body echoed through the cab. By the time he came to a stop, the weeds had engulfed us.
“Are we even going to be able to get out?” I asked, eyeing the surrounding greenery.
Kellan gave me a half-hearted smile. “Are you doubting me?”
“Never,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.
Getting out was easier than I’d thought it would be, assuming it didn’t matter that I got scratched up by branches and stuck with burrs on the way. By the time I stumbled from the mass of weeds, my arms were itchy and irritated, and I had a scratch across my chest from a sharp branch, right above the neckline of my tank top.
Kellan saw me rubbing at the scratch and gave me a teasing smile, the first one since leaving our condo. “Need me to kiss that?”
“If you think your saliva has some kind of magical powers, feel free.”
His smile widened, his dimples growing deeper, and he lifted his eyebrows at me, a playful glint in his eyes. “I guess you’d be the only one who could answer that question.”
Cade, who was going through supplies at the back of the truck, made a disgusted sound and muttered, “I feel like I’m listening to my brother hit on my sister.”
“Gross.” I gave him a little shove. “Don’t ever say that again.”
“That’s sick, man,” Kellan piped in.
Cade rolled his eyes. “So is this conversation, believe me.”
“Whatever.” Kellan threw his pack over his shoulder and grabbed a rifle from the bed of the truck. “It’s time to get serious.
The way he could turn his serious side on and off had always amazed me, like he’d been born with a switch in his body the rest of us didn’t possess. Now was the perfect example. He’d gone from smiling to stoic, from focused on me to scanning the area and on alert, almost like he could put his emotions in neat little boxes inside his head, shelving them when one wasn’t needed and pulling out another more appropriate one.
I tried to do the same, pushing how I felt about him down and focusing my thoughts on Harper, but no matter what I did, Kellan was still there. He would always be there, a constant nagging thought in my brain that told me I could lose everything today if we weren’t careful.
“Okay,” Kellan said, once again cutting through my thoughts. “We’ve got a good hike ahead of us, and we’re going to have to stay focused.”
He passed me a small pack while behind him Cade checked his weapon over, making sure it was loaded and ready to use. The guys both had rifles with sights while I only had a handgun, but I still followed Cade’s example and released the magazine, double checking my ammo.
While I was doing that, Kellan started grabbing fallen branches and tossing them into the bed of the truck. His rifle slipped forward and banged against the open tailgate, and the sound of metal clanging against metal rang through the air. I looked around, as did Cade, but Kellan didn’t stop scooping long dead branches up off the ground so he could toss them inside. When he finished, the truck’s bed was loaded down with branches. The vehicle was tucked into the brush, half engulfed by weeds in addition to the branches Kellan had tossed in the back, and between its rusty, dented body and the missing windshield, it almost looked like someone had crashed it months—or even years—ago and abandoned it. Good. The last thing we wanted was to get stranded out here with no transportation.
Happy with the results, Kellan turned his back on the vehicle and started walking, motioning for us to follow. Cade moved after him, as did I, and in no time we’d made it back to the road.
Once there, Kellan started moving at a swift jog. The cloud-clogged sky had blotted out more of the sun, but it was still hot, and we had too far to go to keep this pace for very long.
Kellan, as usual, had a plan. He only jogged a short distance before leaving the road, heading into the tall brush where he started moving at a much slower pace. Cade and I walked behind him, the three of us silently picking our way through the vegetation as we headed for a rocky hill. We’d have to climb, then hike a little farther before going down the other side. From there, we’d circle around a body of water that was somewhere between a lake and a pond before finally reaching the mountain we’d climbed the first time we were here. It would probably take us a couple hours.
“Keep your eyes open,” Kellan said when we’d reached the hill. “We don’t want to surprise a rattlesnake.”
He didn’t need to say it, we all knew rattlers were bad this time of year, but it was so Kellan that it was impossible to be irritated. Or maybe our new relationship was what made his previously annoying habit of bossing me around less infuriating.
We didn’t pause to catch our breath until we’d reached the top of the mountain. The sun was now completely obscured by clouds, which had gotten thicker and more ominous, especially in the distance. From our vantage point we were able to get a good look at the surrounding area, and I allowed my gaze to move across the landscape as I took big gulps of water from my canteen.
There were two pillars of smoke now rising in the distance, the one in the direction of the first fire we’d started twice as big as the other. If Andrew’s men were outside, they wouldn’t be able to miss it. Hopefully, the impending storm held off long enough for them to check it out but swept in just in time to stop it from becoming a full-fledged wildfire.
“You think he’ll take the bait?” Cade asked, nodding to the largest pillar of smoke.
“Depends on how injured they are, I guess.” Kellan shoved his hand through his hair as he studied the sky. “I honestly can’t pretend to know how someone like Andrew thinks, though. He’s opportunistic, but how far will he go to get what he wants?”
“It’s impossible to say,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” Cade agreed.
Kellan only nodded before he started walking again.
The trek down the hill was easier, especially since this side was less rocky than the one we’d climbed up, and we didn’t run into anything dangerous. No zombies, and no snakes—thankfully.
A flat stretch of land sat at the bottom where a small herd of buffalo stood grazing, forcing us to make a wide arc around them so they didn’t get spooked. They watched us with dark, weary eyes as we passed, some of them chewing mouthfuls of grass while others did nothing but swat their tails at the flies buzzing around them. The animals’ bodies were round and stocky compared to the longhorn cattle prevalent in this area, and up close their heads seemed massive.
“What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?” I huffed.
Despite the lack of sunshine beating down on us and the wind sweeping across the field, a bead of sweat had begun a slow descent down the side of my face, but I didn’t bother wiping it away. There would be more. Sweat was an unavoidable result of being outside in Oklahoma during the summer months—not that we’d even reached the hottest part of the season yet.
“I don’t know.” Cade’s shoulders lifted and fell in a quick shrug.
“Those are bison.” Kellan waved over his shoulder to the animals, and I glanced back as he said, “American bison. People always call them buffalo, but real buffalo live in Africa and Asia. Or at least they did. Who knows what that part of the world is like now.”
“You’re a walking dictionary, you know that?” Cade said.
“Encyclopedia,” Kellan co
rrected.
I rolled my eyes even though I was smiling. “A smart-ass, you mean.”
“A smart-ass is someone who thinks they know everything.” Kellan shot a look my way, grinning. “I actually do know everything.”
Cade snorted while I gave Kellan the finger.
He chuckled and reached out to grab my hand, pulling me forward until I was walking at his side instead of behind him.
The pond or lake—I wasn’t sure how big a body of water had to be to earn that title—came almost out of nowhere. We stepped through some trees, and it was in front of us, the surface smooth and undisturbed except where a handful of ducks floated, cutting their way through a group of lily pads and making the water around them ripple. A mass of trees surrounded the right side of the lake, blocking our path, so we moved left where the tree line sat a good eight feet from the water’s edge. Although the grass was tall, it was at least passable.
The ground surrounding the pond was soft and damp, threatening to suck my boots into its depths with every step I took. Twice a frog jumped from the edge, splashing into the water and scaring the shit out of me with its sudden appearance. The first time I managed to bite back my yelp of surprise, but the second time it broke out before I could stop it, earning me a grin from Kellan. I ignored him and kept moving, pulling my boots from the mud that seemed to want to engulf every inch of me.
We’d almost reached the other side when the moan broke through the silence, and Kellan dropped my hand so he could step in front of me like a human shield. Every time he did that, I wanted to remind him that I was the one who was immune. If anyone should have been putting themselves on the line, it was me, because I could survive a bite or a scratch, while if something happened to him or Cade, they’d most likely be dead. I mean, what were the odds of two people in our little group being immune? Pretty slim.
“What do you see?” Cade, who had also moved so he was in front of me, asked.
“Nothing.” Kellan moved forward, his steps light and his focus on the trees to our left.
The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 33