Finding Home - A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 2) (18 page)

There was still food and water back at the house that we had to leave behind because there hadn’t been room, but these were in case we needed something along the way. I nodded, and we headed back staying off the road but close enough so that we could still see Owen and Penn if they were on their way back.

It had been dark for quite a while by the time we got back to the cabin. As far as we had been able to tell there hadn’t been any signs of Owen or Penn. None of us were able to hide the fact that we were worried. Dean tried his best to hide his concern, but it was painfully obvious when you looked into his eyes. I knew he was trying to keep it cool around Sienna and me, but I could see through it. I wasn’t fooled and Sienna probably wasn’t either. After we ate something we all went upstairs to watch out the windows. We weren’t watching for strangers as much as we were watching for Owen and Penn to return.

“Where could they be?” Sienna said rubbing her palms on her thighs. She knew we didn’t know either but asked anyway.

“They probably walked back to the SUV and saw we weren’t there. I bet they are on their way here right now,” Dean said, but he didn’t sound as though he believed it.

I paced back and forth between the windows squinting and blinking as if I was trying to make them appear in the distance. Something wasn’t right and it made my stomach twist into a knot. I didn’t know what, but something had gone wrong. Both of them would think to come back here. We hadn’t gotten that far down the road, they would know we would have come back here since it was somewhat safer than being out there. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the people from HOME had captured them and they’d be coming here for us next. They’d be here any minute.

“What should we do?” Sienna asked in a whiny voice as she twisted her fingers together.

“You guys sleep first. We’ll take turns keeping watch for them and anyone else. If they aren’t back by morning… well, I don’t know. We’ll talk about it then,” Dean said waving his hands at us. “Go on, sleep. I watch first. Right now there is nothing we can do but wait.”

But neither Sienna or I went downstairs to sleep on the sofa. Instead, I climbed up on the bed and motioned for Sienna to join me. The bed was big enough for the both of us. Dean turned down the flame on the little kerosene lamp I kept in the room but I would have been fine sleeping in the light.

“Wake me if you see them,” I said as I fluffed the pillow and stuffed it under my head. At first I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to sleep but then I realized that after the long walk back to the cabin I was far more exhausted than I thought. Add to that the emotionally draining car crash…. Well, sleep would probably find me.

“Me too,” Sienna echoed pulling the blanket over her shoulder.

* * *

When I woke up the sun was just starting to peek up over the horizon. Dean had forgotten to wake me for my turn. I looked over to see Sienna was still asleep and Dean had apparently dozed off in the chair with his head cranked to the side. The fact that he was sleeping in the chair and there wasn’t any noise downstairs meant they hadn’t returned.

I popped out of bed and dashed to the window hoping I’d see them coming. Nothing. My whole body was sore from the long walk last night. I stretched my arms over my head and groaned as I tried to loosen my tight muscles. There wasn’t anything I could do to shake the uneasy feeling that something had gone wrong. Even sleep hadn’t helped to ease the worry. My anxiety was high having slept the whole night without out them coming back. I didn’t know what I’d do if HOME captured Owen and Penn. They’d never let us back in. Not to mention they’d probably just kill them on sight just as they had Slade.

“Not back yet,” Dean mumbled sounding as if he was still half asleep. I wasn’t sure if he was asking, telling or dreaming.

“No,” I said unable to look away from the window. Sienna turned on the bed and put the pillow over her head as if we were being too loud with our hushed talk.

“I don’t like this.” Dean sat up in the chair and massaged his neck. I didn’t know what to say, so I nodded. It was surprising he hadn’t been more upset with himself for having dozed off. There was only so much a person could do, I didn’t blame him and thankfully nothing had happened to us. Yet.

The rest of the day we all moved around the house together in a pack. I didn’t know if it was fear that kept us together but none of us wanted to be alone for more than a minute or two to use the bathroom. Maybe on some level we were afraid that if we separated it would be for good.

The sun went down and Owen and Penn still hadn’t returned. I sat on the bed covering my face with my hands. If I looked up at either Sienna or Dean I thought I might just lose it. Neither of them needed to see me burst into tears. That wouldn’t help any of us.

“We have to talk about this,” Dean finally said cutting through the silence that felt like it had lasted hours.

I kept my face covered but moved my palm so I could speak, “I know.”

“What are our choices?” Sienna said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“We stay and wait, or we go back to the SUV… or we assume the worst and go on without them?” Dean said the last option with a hard swallow.

“If we stay… HOME will come. I just know it,” I said trying to hold my shaking fingers steady.

“If we leave they might find us too,” Sienna countered.

Dean cleared his throat and took a long pause before he spoke again. “We’ll give it another twenty-four before we go to the SUV. OK? Now let’s go get something to eat,” he said trying to sound as if he had it all figured out, which he clearly hadn’t based on his body language.

I wasn’t exactly sure what he was hoping to find back at the SUV. Maybe part of him thought that Owen and Penn were sitting there waiting for us, but I didn’t think that was likely.

Sienna and I stayed up and watched through the darkness, letting Dean get a good rest for once. We practically had to lay on top of him to get him to agree to it. But once his head hit the pillow and he stopped resisting, he was out. Our shift went by uneventfully. Dean tossed and turned for a while but couldn’t fall back asleep. So we switched, and Sienna and I rested.

When morning came, and they still weren’t back we were all beyond devastated. We had spent most of the day upstairs watching out of the windows, waiting for them to return. Or for the inevitable moment the people from HOME came to kill us. There had been a time Penn had me questioning myself about HOME, that maybe they weren’t really that bad and weren’t out to kill people. But that had all changed when I saw them kill Slade. I knew without a doubt I had been right all along. Not to mention the fact that Dean, Owen and Sienna all thought they’d kill us too, even after they had spent so much time at HOME. That was just another strike against them.

We started our dinner later than usual because we were all putting off talking about what our next move would be. Sienna sat on the sofa slurping her second helping from the bowl without even bothering with a spoon. Dean paced by the fireplace. My guess was he was waiting for Sienna to finish before he brought it up. I was sitting in the chair staring at the dancing flames in the fireplace when there was a loud pounding on the door.

Chapter sixteen.

Before we could even freak out or even prepare ourselves for whoever was out there, they pounded on the door again. Harder. I felt my body stiffen. I should have been reaching for my gun but I felt paralyzed with fear.

“Come on! Open up, guys!” Owen roared and pounded again. The whole door rattled with his aggressive knocking.

Dean dashed to the door and opened it to let him in. Owen barged in with his fist gripping the back of Penn’s jacket. He shoved him to the floor hard. Penn’s body slid for a second and jerked to an abrupt stop on the hardwood floor. His hands were tied together with a dirty piece of rope.

“What the hell Owen?” I said shaking my head. Nothing was making any sense. I mean, I knew they didn’t like Penn but to treat him like this was just uncalled for.

Owen tossed a strange, thin, metal device on the floor near Penn. He looked at me as if he thought maybe I knew what it was, but I had no idea. I shook my head waiting for some kind of explanation. My face felt contorted as I tried to make sense of what was happening. I was confused.

“We went to two houses, couldn’t find a working car. It got dark. We couldn’t see where we were, so we waited. I woke up during the night and found him with this thing. He was trying to communicate with someone. I took it away but I have no idea what he told whoever was on the other end,” Owen said, each word louder than the last. His face was red from the cold, but mostly it had been from rage.

Dean picked up the device and turned it around in his hands before he let it fall to the ground as if it were on fire. He took one large step towards Penn, pulled back his fist and punched him in the face. Hard.

A gasp escaped from between my lips before I covered my mouth in shock and surprise. My body jerked. “What is going on?” I demanded, my fists balled up so tightly I could feel my fingernails digging into my palms.

A thin stream of blood trickled down out of Penn’s nose. “Shit, man!” he said and rolled himself back and forth on the floor as if he were in agony. “You can’t hit someone who has their hands tied behind their back!”

Dean laughed, “I can, and I did. And God help me, I’d do it again. Maybe I should?” He pulled his fist back again but dropped it when Penn stiffened his body and squeezed his eyes shut.

“What is that thing?” Sienna asked looking just as confused as I was. Penn looked down at his feet. It was clear he didn’t want to explain.

“Tell them you piece of shit,” Owen said looking as though he might kick him.

“It’s a communication device,” Penn said barely audible. Thankfully, the house and everyone in it had been absolutely silent. I had been able to hear his muffled words.

“Communication device to communicate with who?” I asked hoping my eyes were burning a hole through the back of his head. I already had a guess, but I wanted to hear him say it.

“HOME,” he whispered.

I walked right up to him and turned his face so he had no choice but to look me in the eyes. “Tell me again, who were you talking to?” I shouted. I felt like I could punch him myself. Or worse. Thankfully the thought of my gun hadn’t crossed my mind.

“HOME,” he said as a tear leaked out from his eye. “I’m so sorry Ros,” he said looking at me, his eyes begging me to listen. My heart fell into my stomach, and I felt sick. I walked away from him not wanting to be anywhere near him. “I can explain!”

“Shut up,” Owen ordered. “I think HOME probably already knows we’re here. Why they haven’t come for us, I don’t know. Maybe waiting for some kind of signal from their boy Penn here.”

I paced between the fireplace and the kitchen, staying as far away from Penn as I could manage and still hear the conversation. The closer I got to him the more my stomach hurt. Even though I hadn’t ever fully trusted him, I had given him enough trust. I would have never guessed he had been connected to HOME.

“Ros, I think it’s quite possible they’ve known you were here the whole time Penn’s been with you,” Owen said with his eyes glued to Penn. He was watching and weighing every little twitch Penn made trying to get any kind of read of what the truth might be. But I knew Penn well enough to know, he had a pokerface like no other.

All this time. Penn had known so much about me. Surely he had relayed it all to HOME. They could have come in here and killed me at any time. They hadn’t, but that was beside the point. I lived in absolute fear of them, well and other crazy people too, but mostly them. And all this time they knew where I had been hiding. My stomach lurched, and I swallowed hard. I felt my stomach spin, and I knew I was fighting a losing battle. I dashed to the bathroom and threw up the small amount of food that had been inside me.

I sat on the floor with my back against the wall and my legs spread out in front of me. The room started to wave in and out of focus, and I put my hands on my temples.

Dean tapped on the doorframe holding a bottle of water out to me. “Are you OK?” he said squatting down beside me.

“Ugh, don’t come closer… I just threw up,” I said feeling self-conscious and a little embarrassed. All the things I had seen and heard since this all happened and this betrayal was the thing that had made me throw up.

“Don’t worry about it. Are you OK?”

I nodded. I was fine. Just disgusted. And confused. “So, they probably knew the whole time I was in HOME who I was. But they let me in any way. Did they know I was there to find you? Do they know about Ryan? How much danger is he in because of me?”

“I have no idea. I doubt Penn will tell us the truth, and even if he does we won’t know it. We can’t trust anything he says. He’s clearly a very good liar,” Dean said as he stood offering me a hand up. I took it and he held me until I was steady on my feet. My legs felt too weak to hold up my body. I didn’t know if it was from the lack of food in my system, being tired, or the emotional turmoil Penn had just caused me. Probably all three.