Yellow Heat - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Red Sky Series Book 6) Read online

  “I’ll go first,” Kellan said. “You know just in case.”

  “Okay,” I said picking the dirt out from under my nails.

  “Um, excuse me,” the man called from above. “You’re not armed, are you? I just want to be certain you aren’t going to try anything.”

  Kellan looked at me knowing I had the blade. He blinked once before turning back to face them.

  “No, I’m not armed,” he said. Kellan wrapped the rope around his middle and gave me a quick glance. “Wish me luck.”

  “Good luck,” I said feeling the butterfly wings making extra air inside of my stomach.

  I grabbed his hand for a second not wanting to let go. Not wanting to be left alone in the pit… not even for a second.

  Kellan gave my hand a quick squeeze before the rope tightened and he started climbing up the wall with ease. I crossed my arms and watched him. When he climbed over the top edge, I listened but I couldn’t hear much of anything.

  My heart pounded. It halted abruptly when I heard Kellan’s soft voice.

  “What are you doing?” Kellan said or at least that was what it sounded like he’d said. “No! We need to—”

  Thud.

  My heart stopped. The thud was a period at the end of a sentence. There were no more voices just the rustling of dirt and leaves as they moved about.

  “Kellan?” I shouted.

  I waited for what felt like eons for a response but there wasn’t anything except for more random sounds of movement. A sharp hiss of someone’s voice cut through the air. It sounded like someone was being scolded.

  “Kellan?” I repeated, but this time my voice was softer… more apprehensive.

  Something was wrong or he would have answered me. I wasn’t even sure why the man that had rescued Kellan wasn’t answering.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Help me out of here!”

  I waited for an answer but all I heard was what sounded like something being dragged across the ground. The noises got softer and softer. I knew they had left me.

  I was alone.

  Twenty

  I wasn’t sure how long I had been down in the hole since Kellan had been taken. The sun came and went so many times I couldn’t keep count but mostly because I felt like I was always in the darkness.

  There was food left but it wasn’t much. I’d been rationing the water but it wasn’t going to last much longer either.

  When the water was gone, I was going to be in trouble. My lips were already feeling dry and cracked, not to mention my muscles were weak.

  I laid there most of the time staring at the wall or up toward the sky. Dreams and daydreams began mixing with reality. Sometimes I couldn’t be sure what was real and what wasn’t.

  Sometimes I saw Nick’s face but when I reached out to him, all that was in my hand was dirt. Why hadn’t they come? Had I missed them? Maybe Molly’s ankle had been much worse than they thought.

  Or maybe something had happened to them. Maybe my brother was in a pit somewhere thinking about what had happened to me. Maybe he was wondering if he’d ever see me again.

  I pushed myself up but my head felt like it was a twenty-five pound weight. It rolled this way and that before it settled with my chin down almost touching my chest.

  I reached into the bag and peeled open the wrapper of one of the last bars. Instead of just eating half, I devoured the whole thing. I needed energy. There was no way I could get out in the condition I was in.

  I was halfway done with a second bar when I managed to stop myself from swallowing down everything I had left. The wrapper crinkled loudly as I wrapped up the remaining half and tossed into the backpack. Eating all the food in the pack wouldn’t do anything to get me out of the pit. Kellan and I had tried everything and nothing had worked. Stuffing my face would only lead to one thing, an early grave.

  And maybe I should have put myself out of my misery, but I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe in just one more day and Nick would walk by. Just one more day and someone would find me.

  I had to stretch out what I had left. I couldn’t just give up. Nick wouldn’t give up. Bronx wouldn’t give up. There was no way I was going to just give up either. At least not that easily.

  I laid on my back and looked up trying to see the sky between the branches above. It was either early morning or dusk. Inside the pit, it was hard to tell the difference.

  I closed my eyes and my thoughts drifted. I wondered what Bronx was doing if he was still alive. Was he waiting in Winnipeg for me? Or had he given up on me?

  A rustling above caused me to sit up abruptly. I’d moved so fast it took a second for my sight to catch up with the movement of my head.

  Was I dreaming?

  I touched my cheek. My finger slid down to my lips and over the cracked, sore spot to the left on my bottom lip which made me wince.

  I was awake. Definitely awake. At least, I was pretty sure I was.

  Scratch. Rustle. Scratch.

  There was no doubt there was someone up there and it sounded like it was more than one person. Then again, I could have been hallucinating.

  “He—hello?” I said but my voice didn’t carry out of the pit. I cleared my voice. “Hello! Please help me! I’m down here.”

  My shoulders shook with each breath I drew in. It didn’t matter who was out there, there wasn’t anything I wanted more than to get out of the pit.

  “Please,” I said standing. I pressed my hands against the wall as I looked up. “Please, help me!”

  The sounds of whoever was up there got louder. They didn’t respond but I saw a hand curl around the edge. My body stiffened. The same man that took Kellan looked down at me with a grin on his face.

  I drew in a breath so quick it made me feel lightheaded. My fingertips dug even deeper into the dirt.

  A rope fell down and landed to the right of my feet. I looked at the man for a long moment before shifting my gaze to the rope.

  “Don’t delay, we both know you’re going to take it. What choice do you have?” the man shouted to me.

  He was right my choices were limited. If I stayed in the pit, it would be my grave.

  I picked up the rope and wrapped it around myself. It was frightening to walk into the unknown but it would have been worse to stay in the pit. At least getting out would give me a fighting chance.

  I looked up at the man and waited for the rope to tighten. When it finally did, I was surprised I didn’t freak out. I drew in a breath. If my muscles would have been working properly, they would have tensed and I would have been ready to face whatever was above me with my hands clenched.

  My feet dragged up the wall as the man pulled me up. I kept my palms flat against the wall to keep myself from spinning out of control.

  Near the top, a woman stretched out her hand to me. Her frizzy hair made her look like she’d recently stuck her finger in a light socket.

  “Take it,” she said her voice was flowery soft like spring lilac.

  I took her hand and she pulled me up with very little effort. At the top, all three of them worked to drag me over the edge. I looked up and saw the gun pointed at me.

  “Don’t try anything stupid,” the man said.

  “I won’t,” I said feeling like I’d just finished a marathon.

  The frizzy-haired woman looked at me with softness in her eyes. “She couldn’t if she wanted to. Look at the poor thing.”

  The other woman with long stringy black hair and icy blue eyes looked at me as if I were a dying little bird. Her eyebrows sagged and her brow wrinkled.

  “Check her,” the man said.

  The women poked at me awkwardly. One of them took the knife Nick had given me and held it up. The man gestured for her to hand it to him and she didn’t hesitate to give it to him.

  “What’s this for?” he asked with a raised brow.

  “For foraging and hunting,” I replied.

  “Sure,” he said with a chuckle as he tucked the knife away.

  The ma
n lowered his gun and the three of them helped me to my feet. As he turned away, I reached forward and grabbed his wrist, wrapping my fingers around him as tight as I could. I jerked his hand back and tried to pull the gun from his hand.

  “What the—” the man said jerking his hand forward roughly. He looked more annoyed than angry. The man pushed me back and I tripped over my own feet. I crashed down to the hard, dusty ground.

  “I’m sorry,” I said covering my face with my hands as if that would somehow protect me if he decided to pull the trigger. “I’m just scared. That’s all.”

  The man bared his teeth. “Try that again and it’ll be the last time you try anything, got it?”

  “Loud and clear,” I said lowering my hands just enough to see his black, soulless eyes.

  There was a reason, although I didn’t know what it was, that he was giving me a second chance. It was a change in the air or a shifting of a small muscle in his face… something that told me just how lucky I’d been that I was still breathing.

  “Tie her up,” the man grunted. The women instantly grabbed my arms and pulled them behind my back. They weren’t gentle nor did they leave even the tiniest bit of slack in the zip tie they used.

  The man kept the gun in his hand. He looked me up and down before giving the women a nod. “Let’s go.”

  Twenty-One

  My eyes darted around wildly as I tried to keep track of my surroundings. If I was able to break free, I’d need to be able to find my way back to the river. It was the only way I’d be able to find my way to Winnipeg.

  Everything that went through my mind was a mish-mash of random markers… big tree, small tree, a tree with reddish leaves that looked dry and crispy. It was too bad much of it looked the same.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked keeping all of the panic out of my voice.

  “Don’t worry about it,” the man said.

  “I wasn’t worried,” I said keeping my eyes moving around the scenery. “Simply curious.”

  The man glanced at me. “Does it matter? Anywhere is better than that hole isn’t it?”

  “Definitely,” I responded.

  “Yeah, yeah maybe you owe me and my wives a thank you,” he said.

  “Thank you,” I said swallowing back the bitterness of the words.

  I looked at the frizzy-haired woman on my left. Her hands were folded in front of her. She took long strides and her spine was as straight as a pin. Her clothing looked far too thick and heavy for the heat.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “What’s your name?” she echoed without turning. Her eyes seemed to be focused on the back of the man’s head.

  “Gwen,” I said unable to think of any reason not to share it. “And yours?”

  The women exchanged a glance. The frizzy-haired woman twisted her fingers together.

  “I’m Donna,” she breathed.

  “Marie,” the one with dark hair said.

  “We don’t need to be on a first name basis with the girl,” the man said flapping his hand into the air.

  “Sorry Lyle,” Donna said.

  The man, Lyle, shook his head as he muttered various curses. It seemed as though he was not too pleased with his wives.

  “Donna,” I said her name as soft and sweet as cotton candy. “Where are we going? I only ask because I’m so weak and… and thirsty. I’m not sure how far I can go.”

  “Oh,” Donna said removing a canteen from her hip. She held it out to me but I looked at it like it was a foreign object. “Here. It’s water.”

  I was tempted to reject it. Who knew if it was safe? But my thirst… every cell in my body for that matter wouldn’t let me turn down the water.

  I took it from her, my hand shaking. My fingers were brown from being covered in soil. I brought the bottle to my lips both nervous and excited at the same time.

  My first gulp was apprehensive. I felt the tepid water trickle down my dry throat. It was like I could feel it carving a path all the way down my esophagus and into my stomach.

  I took another drink. A bigger one and Donna didn’t do anything to stop me.

  The canteen felt much lighter as I passed it back to her. I thought she was going to be upset but she just hooked it back onto her hip and smiled at me.

  “You must be so thirsty,” she said.

  “And hungry,” Marie added.

  “Yes,” I said as if I was only first realizing the extent of my needs at that moment. “I really am. How much further must we go because my knees are feeling weak?”

  Lyle grumbled from a solid ten feet ahead of us. “We’ll get there faster if you shut up and keep walking.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just that, I’m not sure…,” I said my voice fading.

  It felt like I was entering a tunnel. Had there been something in the water? Everything in front of me narrowed. Lyle looked like he was being pulled away from me.

  And then everything went black.

  My eyes fluttered like an anxious summer’s butterfly drifting from flower to flower. The room was cooler than it had been outside. Outside.

  I’d been brought somewhere. Where was I?

  My hand touched the gritty concrete floor as I pushed myself upward. Spasms flickered through every muscle in my body as I tried to hold myself up.

  My ankles were tied together with a rope that was fastened high above me to a hook in the ceiling. There was a little bit of slack so that I could move around but if I went too far, the rope would tighten and I’d probably fall on my face.

  There was a dirty wall behind me and even though I couldn’t see the spiders, I could sense their presence. A shiver zipped through my body as I spun myself around and leaned back for support.

  I was in some sort of basement or something and I wasn’t alone. There was a woman to my left that appeared to be tied to a chair that was bolted to the floor. She looked at me like she didn’t know if she should hide from me or try to launch herself at me like a hungry tiger going for its prey.

  Across from the cat-like woman was another woman. She was much older than I was. One of the lenses of her glasses was broken and her graying hair hadn’t been combed in a very long time. The woman’s feet were chained together and affixed a grate in the floor.

  In the far corner, there was a man curled up. His clothing was dirty, much in the same way mine was. His back was to me.

  “What is this place?” I asked looking at the cat-like woman. Her eyes were half-closed as she settled herself.

  “Shh!” she hissed. “We can’t talk. It’s against the rules.”

  “It’s a stupid rule,” the older woman said. “We hear them coming long before they can hear us. They just don’t want us communicating with each other.”

  I shook my head. It felt like dirt sprinkled out from my scalp making soft littler pitter-pats as it hit the floor.

  “Why can’t we talk to one another?” I asked.

  “I don’t know maybe they're afraid we’ll come up with a plan to escape,” the older woman said. “But look at this.” She gestured to her feet. “I’m not getting out of here without a key.”

  “I can’t even move my arms,” the cat woman said. “Twice a day when they let me use the bathroom, I get to move them. Last time I could barely force them to work.” She turned to the older woman. “You don’t have it so bad.”

  The older woman cocked her head to the side. “Thought you didn’t want to talk?”

  “What about him?” I asked.

  “He doesn’t talk much. Sleeps a lot,” the older woman said.

  “He mutters in his sleep. He’s done something he regrets,” the cat woman said.

  I shrugged. “Haven’t we all?”

  “Sure,” she said. “But his is something bad. At least it seems that way to me. Too bad too because he’s awfully good looking. Rather, he would be after a shower.”

  I narrowed my eyes but couldn’t make out much more than his shadow.

  “Is he tied up too?” I ask
ed.

  “Of course,” the older woman said.

  I looked around the square room. Straight across from me was the staircase that would take us out of this place. If only we could get free.

  There were no windows. Everything that had been in the basement, if there had been anything, must have been removed. It was a giant concrete cell, and it wasn’t much better than the pit.

  “How did you get here?” I asked keeping my voice low.

  “Fell in a trap,” the older woman said. “Was out getting water and bam! Wasn’t watching where I was going, I guess.”

  The cat-like woman nodded. “Pretty much the same for me. I was with a large group we were heading to safety. I walked off to use the bathroom and got lost. Now, this is my home.”

  “How long have you been here?” I asked.

  “A few weeks,” the older woman said.

  “Longer,” the cat-like woman said.

  I nodded. “How about him?”

  “Not long. Three or four days I think,” the older woman said. “It’s hard to keep track of time down here. The only time we see any light is when they open that door.”

  “Which they do, twice a day,” the cat-like woman said clearly feeling better about talking. “At least, I think. Once in the morning and once at night. That’s my guess.”

  The older woman nodded.

  “How about him,” I asked jerking my chin toward him. “What’s his story?”

  “He doesn’t talk to us,” the older woman said. “He’s too good for me and Veronica.” The older woman glanced toward the stairs and looked back at me. “What’s your name?”

  “Gwen,” I said, and the man in the corner shifted.

  The older woman’s head bobbed up and down. “Nice to meet you, Gwen. I’m Wendy.”

  “Gwen?” It sounded more like a noise than it did my name. The man in the corner twisted his neck to look over his shoulder.

  When I saw his profile, even in the shadows, I knew it was him. “Kellan!”