Desolation - An Apocalyptic Novel (From Below Book 2) Page 4

  I turned and looked at him. It was probably the smartest thing he’d ever said.

  “What?” he asked with a grin and a chuckle.

  “Nothing,” I said hardening my jaw.

  “No tell me,” he pleaded and his smile didn’t waver.

  I straightened my spine as I turned away. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Wow,” Bradley said with a laugh from deep within.

  “Wow, what?” I said jolting to face him.

  He wilted slightly but his jolly expression didn’t change. “That’s not something I ever thought I’d hear. I’m right. I like it. It sounds really good.”

  “I said maybe… maybe you’re right.”

  “Close enough. I’ll take it.”

  I shook my head as I walked away leaving him standing there grinning like a fool.

  Austin eyed me as I approached. If he wanted to ask me what Bradley had said to me, he didn’t.

  “Are you ready?” Austin asked.

  My nerves tingled and I wished he would have asked me about Bradley instead. I could feel my blood pulsing through my veins and the back of my neck rose in temperature.

  Austin must have sensed my apprehension. “We don’t have to do this.”

  I lowered my gaze to the ground before shooting a quick glance in Bradley’s direction. His words echoed in the back of my mind.

  “No,” I said filling my lungs with oxygen. My body was overflowing with nervousness and fear, but I did all I could not to let it show. “I’m ready.”

  There was no place in this world for tears and fears. I had to be strong and tough with a hard shell around me always… always.

  “When will they learn to shoot?” I asked. “I could use a refresher.”

  Austin nodded. “Hmm. Now? Maybe we shouldn’t leave today.”

  “No,” I said sharply. “We can learn as we go. We’ll make stops.”

  “Okay,” Austin said looking at me from under the brim of his hat. “Maybe an hour before we leave? Noah and I can check everything, go over the list, and eat.”

  It was almost as if he was asking for my permission. “Sounds good.”

  “Marty,” Austin said before releasing a short, sharp whistle.

  “Yeah?” he hollered from the lawn chair. “Time to do some training.”

  Marty clapped his hands abruptly as he hooted. He walked over the Bradley and slapped him on the back.

  “Class is in session,” Marty said loud enough for everyone to hear.

  I turned to make my way over to Marty but Austin grabbed my hand and pulled me to him. My breath hitched as I slammed into his chest.

  The breath I let out from between my lips was heated. He was looking at me with a passion that reminded me of our night together in my room.

  It looked like he wanted to say something but his words weren’t finding their way to his lips. My eyes focused on his soft lips.

  Austin cleared his throat and smiled as he reluctantly took a step back. “This is frustrating.”

  I grinned back as I shook my head. “What is frustrating?”

  “I have the girl of my dreams but I can’t spend the night with her and roll out of bed at noon. Our breakfast is a stale granola bar instead of eggs and pancakes in bed,” Austin said brushing his thumb across his lower lip as if he were trying to taste the warm meal. “I wish I could give you better. I wish I could give you something more.”

  “We’re together,” I said biting my lip. “I don’t need more. Although eggs would be so great. So, so great.”

  “One day, I’ll be able to give you something more,” Austin said but I knew it wasn’t something he could promise.

  Our lives would be drastically different but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still be good.

  “I should get going,” I said holding his hand as I took a step backward. “Looks like class is about to start.”

  Austin tightened his fingers around mine and pulled me closer. He gave me a quick, passion filled kiss before releasing me.

  I stepped away from him like I was weightless… I was a feather blowing in the wind. My insides were cotton candy and rainbows and gumdrops, right up until I caught Marty’s scrunched-up face.

  His eyes brows squeezed together as he looked at me with concern. “Are you going to be sick?”

  I drew in a long breath and sighed still feeling Austin’s lips on mine.

  Marty shook his head as he handed me a gun. The cool metal popped the bubble Austin had put around me.

  Dirt swirled around the rubble where the barn had once been. Reality.

  Marty shook my arm.

  “Hmm?” I said twisting at the waist to look at him.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this?”

  I pressed my lips together as I swallowed hard. If there was ever going to be a chance that Austin and I were going to lazily roll out of bed on a Saturday morning at noon, we’d have to find it somewhere else. Somewhere far away from the holes in the ground. Somewhere the creatures wouldn’t go.

  We needed to leave. There probably wasn’t much of a chance that Austin and I could have that life, but if we could, it wasn’t here.

  I flicked my brow upward. “I’m so ready.”

  Chapter Seven

  As we drove away from the house, various moments from my life flashed before my eyes. I thought of summer days where the sun was so hot I could barely stand it. Marty and I would take turns spraying ourselves with the hose while dad worked in the barn.

  I thought of nearly every Christmas morning I could remember. Marty and I running down the stairs to open presents. And the year dad had gotten a tree so tall we hadn’t been able to put the star on top.

  There had been a few times my mom had hosted Thanksgiving, cooking in the small kitchen before dad had it remodeled. Aunts, uncles, and cousins that I hadn’t seen in years had come to enjoy the feast my mom had worried hadn’t been good enough. There hadn’t been enough butter in the potatoes or enough poultry seasoning in the stuffing, but in reality, it had been delicious and everyone wanted to come back again the following year.

  Then, I thought about all the barbeques my dad had during grilling season. Though, as far as he had been concerned, it was always grilling season. I smiled at the memory.

  Austin and Noah had been there even when we were younger. Those younger years we’d run around in the yard trying to catch fireflies and toads. I hadn’t even remembered those moments until we were driving away from the house.

  All of my good memories floated to the top of my mind and if there were bad ones, I couldn’t remember them. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I could remember the most recent two that if I gave too much mental energy to, I’d probably burst into tears.

  Losing your parents wasn’t something you ever would get over. At least, I was almost sure that would be the case.

  The visions of losing my parents would always crush the good memories out of existence. All I could do was push them away before they could erase the good ones completely.

  Marty and I were with Austin in his truck. They both had the windows rolled down and their arms hanging out as if it were any other day driving down the road.

  I was in the middle trying to keep my hair tucked behind my ears so it didn’t blow in front of my face. Each time a strand whipped in front of me, I thought it was a creature’s claw reaching toward us.

  I wanted to be constantly aware of our surroundings but it was difficult. And exhausting.

  As we drove into the town to pick up a few things on our way to the address Marty had found on his phone, beads of perspiration tickled the back of my neck. It was hard to believe all the destruction around us was our town.

  We’d go there almost every weekend to go grocery shopping and run errands. Just off the main street, about six blocks to the south, was the high school I graduated from. My class had been a group of seventy-five and now they were probably all gone.

  The buildings were nothing but half-standing walls and piles and
piles of rubble. It looked like one giant junkyard.

  Broken glass scattered the roads and sidewalks making everything sparkle like a fairy wonderland but what we were living in was far from anything wonderful.

  Everything was gone and it had been demolished so quickly. The creatures had torn everything down until nothing worked and we’d lost communication. We’d been lucky to have electricity for as long as we had. Even if they hadn’t destroyed the buildings, there would have been no one left to work in them because the relentless creatures had devoured everyone.

  Noah drove my mom’s SUV close to the back of Austin’s truck. With how often Austin glanced back in his rearview mirror it almost seemed as if he was annoyed by just how close he was.

  When I turned back to look at them over my shoulder, I could see them all gawking out of the window wearing the same shocked expression. The devastation was hard to take in… hard to believe… nearly impossible to comprehend.

  “I think this used to be the grocery store, right?” Austin said pulling his truck to a stop at the curb.

  Sadness wrinkled my brow. “Yeah, pretty sure this was it.”

  Austin sighed as he shook his head. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel.

  “There’s nothing left,” I said worried he was going to get out and try to dig his way around.

  “Yeah,” he said releasing his grip on the wheel. He pulled off his hat and scratched the side of his head. “Maybe it’s not going to be as easy as I thought to find supplies.”

  Noah walked up to Austin’s window and leaned in slightly. “What’s our plan here?”

  “We’ll take a look around, I guess,” Austin said pulling his hat back on and wiggling it until it was in perfect position. “But it doesn’t look very good.”

  “No, no it doesn’t,” Noah agreed.

  I chewed my cheek for a quick moment. “Are you sure about this? You guys could get hurt.”

  “We’ll be careful,” Austin said giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before opening his door and sliding out of the truck. He placed his hands on the door and locked eyes with me. “Stay in the truck.”

  “Of course,” I said innocently.

  “So bossy,” Marty teased in a soft voice.

  Noah waved his hand at Bradley and Mallory… a signal of some sort to indicate they should stay in the vehicle. Not that it was likely that Noah had to worry about either of them jumping out of the SUV to help them crawl around in a pile of shards and broken wood and metal.

  I wondered what was going through Bradley’s head as he looked at the store. Mallory was probably just glad she didn’t have to call in sick.

  “If every city looks like this, we’re in trouble,” Marty said.

  He was absolutely right. It had looked like a wild pack of bulldozers had been driving about after a long night of partying.

  “I don’t even think it was this bad when Austin and I came to get gas a few days ago,” I said looking at the buildings behind us.

  “You think it’s getting worse? Why would it get worse?” Marty asked his eyes filling with worry.

  “Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe the creatures are desperate. This could be what they do to make sure they aren’t missing any food.”

  “Food being us,” Marty said twisting his fingers together.

  I lowered my head but kept my eyes on Austin. “It’s possible they hear things that aren’t there. Or maybe they just like to destroy things. I don’t think we’ll ever know.”

  Marty’s complexion paled. “We don’t have a shot at surviving this, do we?”

  I wanted to tell him that we’d be fine. That we’d figure it out in time but I couldn’t. It felt much too close to lying and I didn’t want to do that.

  “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I said feeling as if my body was suddenly shrinking. “All we can do is try, right?”

  Marty sighed. “I guess but is there any point in trying?”

  Thankfully, I didn’t have to answer his question because Austin and Noah were on their way back from walking around the heaps of debris. Their hands were empty which wasn’t even a little surprising.

  Austin climbed into the truck and turned the key. The engine roared to a noisy start.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Austin said in a comforting tone but I wasn’t exactly sure which of us he was speaking to the most. “There will be other places and we have enough food and water to last for days, maybe even weeks if we ration. We have everything we need.”

  “For now,” Marty mumbled.

  “We could dig through the rubble,” Austin said as he turned the wheel, driving around an abandoned car. “It would take time we don’t have right now. Noah and I both decided it makes more sense to drive as far as we can while we have the daylight hours. It might be harder to drive at night.”

  Marty snorted. “Even with all these lights?”

  “I don’t know,” Austin said with a shrug. “We’ll see how it goes.”

  I kind of wondered if maybe he was worried about his brother being separated from him during the night. I’m sure he didn’t want to lose the only family he had left either.

  “We probably aren’t going to find anyone there when we get there anyway,” Marty said. “That building probably isn’t even standing anymore.”

  As we drove out of town, a loud noise filled the air. The three of us exchanged a confused glance and I looked up toward the sky.

  It sounded like the chop-chop-chop of a helicopter above but the sky was empty except for a few scattered gray clouds.

  “What is that?” Marty asked. He looked at his side mirror and his mouth dropped. “Oh shit.”

  I whipped my head around to try to see what Marty was seeing. The only thing I spotted was the confused faces of Bradley, Mallory and Noah looking back at me. It was clear they heard the sounds too.

  The noises roared louder and my hand covered my mouth when I spotted what Marty must have seen in his mirror.

  “Oh, no,” I said as the gang of thirty or more motorcycles started zipping around the side of the SUV.

  The motorcycles roared like angry lions as they sped by turning in front of Austin’s truck. Each motorcycle was driven by a man dressed in nothing but black, some of them with what appeared to be long swords strapped to their backs.

  The biker leading the way waved his hand over his head as he pressed on his brake. Austin stepped hard on the pedal to stop us from slamming into the back wheel of the man’s bike.

  “Dammit,” Austin grumbled giving the bed of his truck a quick glance. All of our supplies were in the back, none of which we wanted to lose.

  The bikers spread out in front of us making a half-circle. A gray-haired man with a long, braided beard that had been leading the group stayed on his bike. He crossed his arms as he stared at us.

  He spit on the ground several feet in front of his bike before cocking his head to the side. “Step out of your vehicle.”

  Austin looked around as if trying to find a way to drive out of the situation. The man shook his head as if he could read Austin’s mind.

  He drew in a deep breath and placed his hand on my thigh. Austin didn’t take his eyes off of the men in front of us.

  He reached over, sliding his hand onto the door handle. “Stay in the truck.” Austin swallowed so hard I thought I’d heard it. “No matter what happens, do not get out of the truck.”

  Chapter Eight

  Austin took several steps away from the door and stopped at the front end of his truck. If he was armed, I couldn’t tell.

  He was trying to look casual and unafraid but I wasn’t sure if it was working.

  Noah didn’t get out. He stayed in the SUV keeping his eyes glued to his brother. I knew they’d put several guns in the SUV but whether or not he had access to one was another story.

  Even if they did have access to their guns, it wouldn’t do much good. The bikers were probably armed beyond their swords too.

  My stomach swir
led as the biker with the braided beard made his way over to Austin. He stopped about five feet away and shifted his gaze to Marty and me before focusing on Austin again.

  “What are you folks doing here?” he asked sloshing something in his mouth side to side.

  “This is our town,” Austin said.

  “Ain’t no one left in this town but us,” the man said.

  Austin’s head bobbed up and down. “We lived out in the country. We had a farm.”

  “No shit?” the man said. “Which one?”

  “My dad was Franklin Brown,” Austin said.

  The man shook his head. “Noticed you said was.”

  “Yeah, he didn’t make it,” Austin said.

  “Shit,” the man said spitting out a thick, brownish wad of saliva. “He was a good man. You his boy, huh? Think I see the resemblance.”

  Austin nodded.

  “Aw man, really sorry for your loss. He stopped in my shop from time to time for repairs.” The man shook his head and stuck out his hand. “Name’s Jimmy.”

  When Austin didn’t seem to recognize him, the man smiled.

  “From Jimmy’s Fixin’ and Towing.”

  “Oh sure,” Austin said and the two men stood there in silence.

  The man took another look inside the truck. “Your dad’s farm is out the other way. What you kids doing out here?”

  “We were going to pick up some food in town before leaving,” Austin said shaking his head. “But everything’s gone.”

  “Yeah, those damn things don’t quit,” Jimmy said. “You all hungry?”

  “We’re good for now,” Austin said. “Was hoping to find more.”

  Jimmy spat again. “We don’t have much or I’d offer some. I still got a lot of mouths to feed you see.”

  “Yeah,” Austin said. “How have you been surviving?”

  “Was just about to ask you the same thing,” Jimmy said.

  Austin shrugged. “Been lucky so far.”

  “Same,” Jimmy chuckled. His eyes darted toward me again and I couldn’t help but squirm a bit closer to Marty. “Say, we have a place at the other end of town. If you need a place to stay, we’ve got room.”