The Red Sky Series Box Set Books 1-4: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series Read online

  “Hopefully, we’ll be off in the darkness before they can figure out what’s going on,” Nick said.

  Molly chewed her lip. “And if they don’t?”

  “It’s a risk we have to take, don’t you think?” Nick asked her.

  “I guess so,” Molly said.

  “It definitely is,” I said. “I don’t want to get stuck here another night. If I have to have dinner with those two creeps again, I don’t know what I’ll do. Not to mention, we have no idea when they might act on their plan.”

  “They called the cook, Miss Lecky, mom,” Molly said looking toward Nick. “They’re really messed up.”

  Nick didn’t seem surprised. “All the more reason to get the fuck out of here, am I right?”

  “You’re absolutely right,” Bronx said.

  The rest of the night I watched out of the window. I’d been crouched on top of the wash machine so long my legs started to cramp up.

  Nick was at the top of the stairs with his ear pressed against the door. He was convinced there wasn’t a soul outside of the door guarding it.

  Bronx was searching the room for anything he might be able to use for a weapon. He was tempted to break apart the sofa and use a thick piece as a club.

  The moon was high in the sky illuminating everything outside of the window. There were still two people sitting out by the fire.

  I didn’t have a good view of the house that White and Ripley had taken us too, but there were several houses that had a dim light glowing through the window. Whether or not that meant people were awake, I didn’t know, but the candles had been burning since it had gotten dark.

  “All right,” Nick said softly as he rubbed his palms together. “We ready to do this?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said, worried there were too many people awake.

  “What choices do we have?” Nick asked.

  I shrugged. “We could give it more time.”

  “And what if we give it too much time and morning comes? Then we’re stuck here and God only knows what they’ll do to you… to Bronx and I.”

  “We’re doing this,” Bronx said silently placing his food on the first step.

  It didn’t creak and it didn’t squeak. He looked at us over his shoulder and smiled. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

  “I’d like to see you silently knock down the door,” I said and Bronx’s lips curled into a grin.

  “Don’t think I won’t try,” he said.

  I shook my head. “Try all you want.”

  When he got to the top of the stairs, he pushed on the door in several spots as if trying to feel for where the lock was located.

  “Think it’s here,” Nick said pointing to the top of the door.

  “It’s a bit lower,” I said as I turned back toward the window.

  One of the people at the campfire got up. It seemed as though they were telling the other person there goodnight. The person still sitting there slouched down and pulled a blanket over himself before pulling the brim of his baseball cap down slightly.

  “Wait,” I said holding up my palm. “I think they’re going to bed.”

  I watched the man walk into the darkness. He crossed the street and vanished into one of the houses.

  “There’s just one guy out there,” I announced.

  “Okay,” Nick said turning to Bronx. “This is it.”

  He drew in a deep breath and they counted to three before ramming their shoulders simultaneously into the door. The door rattled loudly, but it didn’t budge.

  “Harder,” Nick said and Bronx nodded.

  He counted again and they slammed into the door again. Again, nothing.

  “We can do this,” Nick said.

  “It’s just too hard at this angle,” Bronx said shaking his head.

  They had to stand close to one another and balance on the top step. It wasn’t enough to get the door to move.

  “I have an idea,” Nick said pulling out his gun. “Maybe I can shoot it up.”

  “That’ll definitely draw attention,” I muttered.

  “Again,” Nick said shaking his head.

  They both took a small step back and Nick counted to three. As they were moving forward, the door opened and both of them reached forward catching themselves with their hands out in front of them.

  “What the hell are you guys doing?”

  I jumped down off of the washer and saw Ted standing there looking at them with his nose scrunched up.

  “You’re making so much noise,” Ted said.

  “Um, sorry?” Nick said looking at him as he pushed himself back to his feet.

  Ted looked over his shoulder and drew in a breath as he turned back to Nick. “If you guys are breaking out of here, I won’t say anything as long as you do one thing.”

  “What’s that?” Nick asked.

  Ted exhaled. “Take me with you.”

  Chapter 29

  It wasn’t like we had a lot of time to discuss our options. Nick gave us each a brief glance before he agreed to Ted’s terms.

  “You probably have it easier here,” Nick warned.

  Ted was shaking his head before Nick even finished his sentence. “I don’t want to die here. I’d rather die out there.”

  I nodded in agreement.

  “If you do anything to any of us, I’ll be the one that makes that happen for you,” Nick said.

  “Understood, but I have no desire to do anything to anyone. In fact, that’s the main reason I want to get out of this place,” Ted said holding up his hand and looking over his shoulder again. “Thought I heard something.”

  Molly’s eyes widened. “Did you?”

  “No,” Ted said. “I’m the only one guarding you. Stupid White for giving me this job. I thought I was going to have to drive his stupid horses out there tonight. Anyway, there are usually people out there by the fire. Surprised they haven’t come running to see what all the racket was about.”

  “I think there is just one guy out there,” I said. “And he might be sleeping.”

  Ted cocked his head to the side. “How do you know that?”

  “I looked out of the window,” I said with a shrug.

  “Oh. Nice,” Ted said. “We still need to be quiet. We’ll head out the back door and down the road out that way. There are several vacated houses along the way, but we should be able to make it to the edge of town. I hope.”

  Molly started up the stairs. “How do we know you aren’t leading us right to them?”

  “That’s a great question, but since you’re the ones that were trying to break out by loudly pounding down the door, that wouldn’t make much sense. I didn’t come down here dragging you out, did I? Trust me, if they wanted you, they wouldn’t be sending me to trick you into following me anywhere.” Ted snorted. “They’re not smart enough for something like that.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Nick said rubbing his palms together. It seemed as though he was excited about our little adventure.

  “Let’s go,” Ted said waving us along.

  Bronx nudged Nick with his elbow. “It’s too bad we have to leave our supplies behind.”

  “We could try to get them,” Ted said without turning. “But that would be incredibly stupid.”

  “Right,” Nick agreed. “We’ll find more stuff.”

  We followed Ted through the house. He paused several times listening before moving to the back door.

  He held up his hand and looked out of the small window before opening it and stepping out onto the small patio. It felt like the bright moon was like a spotlight shining down on us alerting the entire base to our location.

  The air was chilly, but I didn’t mind it. Being out in the cold was far better than being trapped in the slightly warmer basement.

  “That way,” Ted said pointing to a road that went by the back side of several houses.

  It was hard to put trust in Ted, but he had seemed to hate it there. And if push came to shove, Nick had a gun that Ted knew nothing
about.

  We moved quickly down the street until Ted stopped abruptly. Nick tried to stop in time but he ran into him with his shoulder so hard they both almost fell over.

  “Shit,” Ted said.

  I followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at. Someone was looking out of a window seemingly at us. There was a candle behind them, so all I could see was an eerie silhouette.

  At first, I hadn’t been sure if they were looking at us, but when they started pounding on the window, I was sure.

  “Oh, oh,” Ted said picking up his feet into a backward jog. “We need to alter our route.”

  The shadow disappeared, and I heard a door open.

  “Someone’s in town! Strangers!” a woman shouted. “Help me! Help!”

  A cacophony of doors being opened and people shouting filled the air. I spun in a circle trying to locate the owner of the voices, but I couldn’t see anything but shadows dancing in the distance.

  “Run!” Ted said and he took off disappearing behind one of the houses.

  “Christ,” Nick said grabbing my hand and then Molly’s. He shook it until my arm vibrated. “We gotta move. Stick together.”

  Nick let go of our hands and we followed him even though he had no idea where he was going. I hadn’t remembered the town being as large as it felt in the darkness. Hopefully, we weren’t going in circles.

  I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being followed. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop myself from constantly looking over my shoulder, expecting to see a group charging after us.

  There was a voice that sounded rather close, but I couldn’t make out what they’d said. We hid behind a large shrub while Nick checked to make sure the coast was clear.

  “Move, move, move!” Nick whispered leading us across the street.

  I could see the houses behind us, little glowing orbs in many of the windows. It felt like we were leaving it all behind because there wasn’t anything glowing in front of us.

  Until the light from a flashlight hit the ground to the right. Nick tried to turn us away, but there was another light coming from the other side.

  They’d found us.

  Chapter 30

  Molly moved to the left and then to the right. “What do we do?”

  She looked like she was going to take off and go her own way. I wasn’t sure when he’d taken it out, but the moonlight hit the side of Nick’s gun.

  “Back,” he said and we moved back into the town.

  “Where did they go?” I heard someone say faintly.

  “Keep looking. They couldn’t have gone far,” another said. I was almost positive it had been White.

  “We found someone,” someone said.

  I could hear Ted shouting. “You got the wrong guy! I’m helping!”

  “You were supposed to be guarding them!” the man I was sure was White hissed.

  “They knocked me out,” Stephens said.

  “Lies,” someone said. “The door had been opened you let them out!”

  “Take him back,” White said.

  We were about a block away when I couldn’t hear them any longer. Even though we were trying to move silently, it felt like we were making too much noise.

  We’d turned so many times I wasn’t even sure which way would take us out of town and away from the center. Nick waved us forward, but we didn’t make it more than six steps before the light was flashed in our faces.

  “Hello, there,” White said. “Nice night for a walk?”

  My stomach sank and it felt like my lungs didn’t know how to work correctly.

  “So, I take it you don’t like it here? Or maybe you’re off to spread the word about the nice place we have?” White asked. The moonlight glinted in his eyes and yet I could see nothing but darkness, evil, and hate.

  “We just don’t like being locked up like animals,” Molly said.

  “You got a mouth on you, don’t you?” White asked. “I’m glad Ripley got first pick. Gwen is much more my style. Soft, quiet… a good listener.”

  His fingers moved up toward my cheek and I reflexively slapped his hand away. I had moved so quickly it had even taken me by surprise.

  “But she can be feisty when she wants,” White said with a grin. “Perfect.”

  I looked around at the men around us trying to see who was armed. It was too dark to be certain, but I was sure that at the very least White and Ripley were. We were lucky that the beast wasn’t there because if he had been, he probably would have been able to pick us all up at the same time and bring us back to the basement.

  “We have a pretty big problem now though, don’t we, Ripley?” White asked.

  His head was bobbing as he touched his finger to his chin. “We do… we do.”

  “You see,” White continued, “we can’t trust you now. There’s only one thing we can do with you.” White turned to me. “Well, not you, you’ll be fine.”

  “What are you going to do?” I asked not wanting to hear the answer.

  “What we should have done when we found you,” White said with a little shrug as he looked at his fingernails. “Have you join the rest of those who couldn’t cut it in our perfect little town.”

  Ripley’s head was down as he looked up at us with a creepy grin on his face. He was far too excited at the thought of putting an end to us.

  “You’ll live with me,” Ripley said pointing at Molly. “I’ll keep you safer than these two twerps were able to.”

  Molly looked both horrified and relieved at the same time. Relieved she wasn’t going to die tonight. That was the difference between me and Molly… I would rather die than live a single day with these insane people.

  White jerked his chin and two men quickly moved, roughly grabbing Bronx around the upper arms. As they moved to get Nick, he raised his gun and shot Ripley in the leg.

  “Jesus!” Ripley cried out as he dropped to the ground. “He shot me! Why would you do that?”

  “Let go of him,” Nick said aiming his gun at White. Before Nick could even pull the trigger, White’s gun was aimed right back at him.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy to my left reach behind his back. I twisted my body and kicked my leg, landing a hard blow into his stomach. The man gasped and leaned forward trying to catch his breath. I didn’t let him. I drew my fist back and threw it into his face without thinking.

  I shook my fist. The hit had hurt my fingers far more than I had imagined it would.

  White stepped forward and wrapped his arm around my middle. He pulled me back away from Nick and Bronx and held me against his body.

  “Maybe a little too feisty,” he said into my ear so that only I could hear him. “But I’ll be able to fix that.”

  “Think whatever you want.” I spat the words out.

  “We have all kinds of wonderful things that can tame a wild creature such as yourself,” White said placing his lips so close to my ear I could feel them. “And I’m going to enjoy every minute of taming you, my sweet.”

  Bronx could tell he was saying something to me although I was nearly certain he could hear him.

  “Let her go, asshole,” Bronx said between his teeth.

  White chuckled. “I don’t think you’re in any position to talk to me that way.”

  “I’ll talk to you any God damn way I please and don’t think for a second your stupid gun is going to stop me,” Bronx said.

  “I think you should listen to him,” Nick said cocking his head to the side as he readjusted his aim to line up to the spot right between White’s eyes.

  White chuckled. “Please. You kill me, I kill you. Do you even know how to use that thing? You could have shot Ripley in the face but instead, you choose his leg. Tsk, tsk.” His jaw stiffened as he jerked it toward the men holding Bronx. “Do it!”

  The man holding Bronx pulled out a blade and held it to Bronx’s neck. I tried to move toward Bronx, but White pulled me back with a laugh.

  The blood that dripped out of the small cut a
t Bronx’s neck sent fire through my veins. I jerked my elbow back into White’s chest. He hadn’t been expecting the hit and coughed back a breath. I flicked my wrist upward popping him in the nose.

  White loosened his grip and I broke free. I jumped onto the back of the man with the blade just as I heard a gunshot ring out.

  The man with the blade and I crashed to the ground. I saw Bronx move quickly, pulling the arm of the other man behind his back. He used him as a shield.

  White took a step forward with the gun. And then another, but even in the darkness, I could see the life leave his body. He pulled the trigger at the sky as he collapsed.

  Molly grabbed the gun and aimed it at anyone that moved. I quickly stood up and kicked the guy on the ground at my feet. He didn’t move. He stared at me, but he didn’t try to get up.

  “Okay,” Nick said breathing heavily. “We’re leaving… anyone have a problem with that?”

  They all shook their heads. Ripley was staring at White’s body, looking as though he might burst into tears.

  Nick grabbed Molly’s arm and pulled her back. We walked backward away from the stunned group.

  Nick was ready to fire his gun again if he had to. We were several blocks away when Molly looked at the gun she was holding as if it were a week-old dead fish.

  “Take this,” she said pushing it against Bronx’s chest. He took it from her and her entire body shook. “I’m not sure we can get far enough from that place.”

  “We will,” Nick said. “They won’t be coming after us. They lost their leader.”

  “His acting Mama is going to be pissed,” I said mostly joking. She was too old to come after us, but then again maybe she’d ride up on a horse and shoot us in the back for taking away one of her fake sons.

  Out in the middle of nowhere, I was thankful for the moonlight. We were able to see where we were going and the quiet night helped reassure me that we weren’t being followed.

  There was no way we were going to stop. We’d probably walk day and night for several days making sure to put as much distance between the horrible town and us.

  What we needed was a break. A safe place with food and water where we didn’t have to worry about anything for weeks… months. But that probably didn’t exist.