The Survivor Chronicles: Book 1, The Upheaval (13 page)

“She is.” But he wouldn’t look at her as he said the words, and lines that hadn’t been there before were now etched onto his features.

Riley’s hands twisted, she searched the crowd frantically, bouncing on her toes as she hopped about. “Xander,” she whispered impatiently.

“I’ll find her. Stay with Bobby.”

She frowned at him, not at all liking the idea of being told what to do. For that reason alone she followed him through the crowd again, Bobby close on her heels. “I’ve seen enough scary movies to know that splitting up is never the right choice,” Bobby informed her.

“It’s not,” she agreed.

Xander frowned at them both, his mouth pinched as he stared at her. “Do you see an ax murderer around here?”

“I think I might prefer it,” she retorted.

He shook his head before turning and storming through the crowd. He’d handled the horde of people a lot better than her before this, now he pushed through with the same impatience that she had exhibited. She spotted a couple of girls from the softball team amongst the swarm, but she didn’t go to them, and she didn’t see Carol with them.

Smoke hung heavy in the air, she pulled her shirt over nose in an attempt to ease the cloying scent, and to block some of her inhalation of it. “Carol!” Xander bellowed.

“Xander!”

Riley spun, searching the crowd as she heard the distant cry. “Carol!” she yelled.

“I’ll give you a leg up.”

She blinked at Xander in confusion; she didn’t comprehend what he meant until he knelt before her. “Oh. Ah, yeah.”

Resting her hand on his shoulder, she slipped her foot into his joined hands and braced herself as he lifted her up. She searched over the crowd and through the increasing smoke. She hadn’t realized that the forest behind the state hospital was on fire. Flames shot high into the air, they consumed the trees with hungry ferocity. Riley shuddered as she realized it wasn’t just the heat of the day that was causing her to sweat so much, but also the heat from the growing inferno less than three hundred yards away.

They had to find Carol and get out of here. Soon.

Then she spotted her friend, jumping up and down as she waved frantically at Riley. Lee was at her side, a cloth pressed against his cheek. Relief filled Riley, she grinned as she waved enthusiastically back. “I see her!” she cried, patting Xander on his shoulder.

“Wonderful,” he muttered, his cheek pressed against her thigh, and his face twisted as if he were in pain. Jeeze, she didn’t weigh that much.

“You can put me down now.” He nodded and dropped her to the ground. “The forest is on fire.”

“Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be with everything else that’s going on?”

“And I thought you were a ‘glass half full’ kind of guy.” She found a small amount of pleasure in needling him as he shot her a dark look. She smiled sweetly at him before turning on her heel and leading the way toward where she had seen Carol and Lee.

“Thank God!” Carol cried as she threw her arms around Riley and hugged her close.

“I’m okay, too,” Xander informed her grumpily.

Carol rolled her eyes but happily embraced her brother. Riley didn't often see them together anymore and she was struck by how similar they were in appearance. They had the same eye color, though Carol's hair was a shade darker. Xander was slightly above six feet while Carol was just under. At one point they had both been lanky and Carol was still as slender as a reed. Xander had filled out over the past couple of years, and become more muscular while at college. “What happened to you?” Bobby asked Lee.

Lee pulled the cloth away from his tanned face. Riley winced at the uneven wound that sliced his cheek nearly to the bone. “I think it was a rock.”

“That’s going to need stitches.”

“I don’t think stitches are the priority right now,” Lee informed him as he glanced at the people flowing around them.

“No, they’re not. We have to move,” Xander stated.

“Where?” Carol asked quietly. “Where do we go?”

“The stadium. Hopefully it’s still standing,” Riley said as she glanced at the sky in search of another flare. There was nothing. There had to be survivors over there still, there had to be.

“Just as long as it’s not here.” Bobby said as he looked over top of the crowd toward where the smoke curled high into the air with growing intensity. Riley swallowed heavily; the angry glow of the inferno was stark against the dark day. Her gaze darted involuntarily toward the blackened sun.

She felt like cattle being herded to the slaughter as she fell into step with the bustling and jostling crowd, but there was nowhere else for them to go. Carol’s hand wrapped around hers and then took hold of her brother’s. The murmurs of the crowd began to die down as a sense of urgency started to fill it. The blaze would spread; there was no way to put it out right now. There were those that thought the whole town would burn.

Goosebumps broke out on Riley’s skin, she pressed closer to Carol as Xander led them onto a sidewalk, separating them a little from the jostling mob. She was grateful for the distance, for the air that seemed freer now that she didn’t have so many people pressing against her or the madness she sensed swelling amongst them. “This could get risky,” Lee muttered as he watched the throng from guarded eyes.

“Could?” Xander inquired.

“You know what I mean. A panicked crowd is a dangerous crowd.”

Riley swallowed heavily; they held further back in an attempt to avoid the stampede if one happened to break out. There were still emergency workers in crowd, shouting instructions, trying to keep people calm, but Riley could sense an unraveling within it.

Glass shattered somewhere to her left. She turned to watch as two men broke out the window on a door across the street. One man lifted his head to glance swiftly around. His gaze found hers. For one long moment they stared at each other across the street. He didn’t appear a bit remorseful as he turned away, stuck his arm through the broken window and opened the door.

Riley stood, uncertain and suddenly more frightened than she had been when she’d thought she was going to fall into the very depths of hell. There were more than just earthquakes and steaming holes to fear here, she realized as the hair on the back of her neck stood up, and a cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

There were also humans.

She wasn’t sure what frightened her more.

CHAPTER 10

Carl

Cape Cod, Mass.

Carl drove like a bat out of hell, or as fast as a bat of hell could drive with the ruts, chunks of asphalt, trees, power lines, and downed streetlamps blocking the path. One light was on red as he drove over top of the lines connected to it. He’d been unable to make it down Route three after the new earthquake, and instead had been forced off the exit and down what was known as Scenic Highway. Normally it was scenic, now it was a nightmare that he was determined to get as far away from as possible. The road ran parallel to the canal and was far too close to it for his liking.

The truck bounced and jumped over the highway. The canal was still empty, the mud and rock of its bottom clearly, and horrifyingly, visible.

“Faster,” John urged. He was still holding onto the handle as he leaned forward and stared unblinkingly down the road.

Carl’s arms were deadlocked before him as he pressed harder on the accelerator. If he hadn’t been fired for stealing the truck, he definitely would have been fired if his boss could see the way he was driving now. In the side mirrors he spotted the Toyota having more difficulty than he was, but staying surprisingly close as the woman drove as recklessly as he did.

He swerved around a downed oak, fish-tailed briefly to avoid a hole, and almost went airborne over a broken branch he was unable to avoid. “A tsunami. A freaking tsunami,” John breathed.

“We don’t know that yet,” Carl grated through clenched teeth. He was too wound up to even smoke a cigarette; he hadn’t known that was possible until now. He eased on the gas, having to slow in order to navigate a part of the road that was nearly blocked by debris and ruined highway.

“What else would make the water go away?”

“For all I know an enormous hole opened in the middle of the ocean and all the water was sucked into it.”

John gawked at him; his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. “Could that even be possible!?” he croaked.

“I don’t know! I don’t know anything anymore.”

Carl stomped down on the accelerator again and the truck lurched awkwardly forward. Thankfully the road was mostly straight, and there were only a few cars that had been abandoned, or wrecked, on it. They never would have made it this far, they wouldn’t have even made it to the bridge, if this had occurred on a weekend. He never thought he’d be grateful that it was a Monday.

He dodged another tree and aimed the truck at the parking lot of a gas station. It was nearly clear of debris as he swerved into the exit and back out the entrance of the station. The truck skidded briefly, turning sideways on the highway before the tires caught and it lurched forward. A truck, half hanging into a hole, blocked the entrance of the rotary. Carl swerved to the side, driving into the other lane as he skirted the lane barrier and turned onto the rotary with a squeal of tires as the ass end of the truck kicked out.

He was relieved to see the Toyota in his mirror still. He didn’t know the woman, but he didn’t want to see anything bad happen to her or her children. He aimed the truck at the exit ramp as a sound much like an oncoming train pierced the turmoil around him.

His arms began to shake. John was deathly pale. He had nearly made it to the exit ramp when he saw the overturned delivery truck blocking it. He swung to the side, slammed on the gas and shot onto the empty entrance ramp of the highway. TGIM, he thought crazily as the truck lurched forward. The overpass rose over the road before speeding rapidly down toward the highway. Steam rose in pockets, the road wasn’t any better here, and yet a sense of relief and joy began to grow within him.

The entrenched thought that far from the ocean would be the safest option had been driving him heedlessly onward. Now, his muscles relaxed, and some of the tension in his body eased as he spotted the Bourne Bridge in his mirror. Unlike its counterpart, it was still standing, still rising above the canal.

For now, he thought.

The rising roar of the train reverberated in the air. John had turned in his seat; his hands were resting on the down window as he hung his head and chest out like a dog. Carl wouldn’t have been surprised to see his ears flapping in the wind, or his tongue lolling from his mouth. He shook his head, trying to clear it of the ludicrous thought as a hysterical laugh rose in his chest.

He was losing his mind.

And then he felt a forceful collision that seemed to reverberate through the earth. John swore loudly. He jerked back from the window as water heaved violently into the canal. It smashed into the bridge, ripping it ferociously from its moorings and taking it away in the space of a heartbeat. Carl, too busy watching the wreckage behind him, nearly ran straight into the back of a car.

A hiss escaped him; he swerved aggressively, barely missing the Kia as water poured over top of the rocks. John leaned back, his mouth gaping, his eyes as large as saucers as he watched the water barreling toward them.

“Faster!” John shouted.

Carl slammed his foot on the accelerator, speeds this fast were hazardous and could get them killed, but any slower meant certain death. He was not a risk-taking, careless driver; he hadn’t been since he’d wrapped his first car around a tree and nearly killed his best friend. But somehow he managed to channel the eighteen-year-old hellion he’d once been, and found that years of experience had made him far more adept at swerving around obstacles at such high speeds. The woman was gaining ground on him. If he hit something there was no way she was going to avoid smashing into his ass end. For the first time he didn’t even remotely mind someone tailgating him.