The Survivor Chronicles: Book 1, The Upheaval (30 page)

She hadn’t been holding out much hope they would be here in the first place, but she still felt a stab of disappointment in her heart. “It would take them awhile to get back here.”

He nodded, but his attention was pulled away from her as Lee reappeared. “My parents aren’t listed either,” he informed them. “I lost Bobby.”

Xander nodded behind her. Riley turned to find Bobby rapidly searching the list; he didn’t seem to be having much luck as he shook his head and muttered to himself. He turned toward them, frowning fiercely.

“We’ll check again later,” Riley assured him.

“Yeah,” he muttered, unappeased by her assurances. She shook her hand free of Xander’s and wrapped it around Bobby’s arm. He managed a small smile, though it looked strained and didn’t reach his eyes.

She kept hold of Bobby, half pulling him along as they walked up the long ramp and then back down before reemerging outside again. She lifted her free hand to the sun, blinking against the harsh glow. She tilted her head back, not at all liking the vision of the furious scarlet orb burning in the sky.

She shook her head and turned away as Xander touched her arm in order to draw her attention to the fact that Lee was standing by the propped open door of a restaurant. There was a mass of people inside. They reminded her of a serpent as they coiled and flowed through the building. Apprehension bristled through her as she wondered when this serpent would strike. She was wary of going anywhere inside right now, but the building had withstood the other tremors so she hoped it would survive future ones. Besides, if she remained outside the thing might just fall over on top of her.

She moved into the building, beckoned more by the prospect of some shade and a place to sit than anything else. The scent of food hit her, as did the overwhelming stench of body odor. Her nose wrinkled but she imagined she didn’t smell any better; in fact she was probably worse than a lot of people in the room.

Xander stepped into the line; he studied her as he took hold of her free hand, trying to gauge her reaction. She didn’t know how to react to him, or even what was going on, but she did know that she required his strength and familiar presence more than anything right now. She managed a small smile as she squeezed his hand. It was strange to realize she actually enjoyed holding it.

She released Bobby. Taking a step closer she wrapped her arms around Xander’s waist and buried her face in his chest. She thought it should feel strange to hug him, feel awkward. Instead it felt right as he embraced her back, rocking her slightly as he held her. The reassuring beat of his heart lulled her further as she closed her eyes.

She continued to hold him as they inched through the line. People blocked her view of what was being offered, but when they were close enough she spotted the pile of rice in a large metal serving tray. Next to it was another tray of baked beans and small pieces of chicken. The people dishing out the food were wearing uniforms and it took her a minute to realize that they were from the restaurant, as well as a couple of the surrounding stores. Their faces were expressionless as they mindlessly heaped food onto the plates being held out before them. Riley was so focused upon the workers that she didn’t notice the soldiers standing behind them until one of them shifted subtly.

The soldier’s faces were remorseless, their jaws clenched as they surveyed the crowd with uneasy distrust. Xander released her and thrust a plate into her shaky hands. She pushed back a straggling strand of hair as she took her place for a spoonful of rice. She imagined things were going to get ugly pretty fast if some semblance of normalcy didn’t return soon.

What’s going to happen when the food started running low? she thought, then shuddered. Human beings were all just animals after all. She may have been fortunate to have never witnessed it in her lifetime, but she knew what people were capable of, how horrifically savage they could be come when stripped of the basic comforts and routines.

Xander watched her worriedly as she took an instinctive step closer to him, pressing against his side. “What’s wrong?” he inquired.

“It’s going to get real ugly,” she whispered.

He lifted his head to study the crowd as they crept forward. Riley held her plate out to receive her small piece of chicken. She went to turn away but something stopped her. She turned back, her gaze focusing on the toughened soldier standing guard at the end of the line. The rifle he held made the rifles they had confiscated look small and highly inefficient. It was intimidating, but she’d had enough of being intimidated and afraid.

“What is going on?”

The man’s eyes barely flickered to her. “Move on, ma’am.”

Her nose wrinkled at being called ma’am, but she braced her feet and focused on the ice blue eyes that refused to meet hers. “Do you know anything? Have you had any contact with the outside world?”

His gaze finally shifted toward her, his hands tightened on the gun as she stepped toward him. “Keep moving, ma’am.”

“If you know something you have to tell us!” she said forcefully. Xander grabbed hold of her arm, trying to pull her back as she stepped closer. She thrust her plate at Xander instead, refusing to be pulled away. “We deserve answers. We need answers!”

“Ma’am, you have to keep moving or I will have you removed from this area and escorted back outside of the gates.” Frustration filled her, it took everything she had not to stomp her foot. “Now!” he yelled.

Despite her intention to stand against him, she jumped at his barked command. Xander thrust her plate back into her hand, wrapped his arm through hers and pulled her forcefully away. Another uniformed man had started to come forward, apparently with the purpose of removing her from the premises. She stared the man down as he met her gaze with a solid, unflinching stare.

“We deserve answers,” she muttered.

“We’re not going to get them from him, and until we decide what we plan to do, getting yourself kicked out of here isn’t exactly the best option,” Xander grinned as she scowled at him. “Ah, now there’s the look I’m most familiar with from you.”

Her scowl deepened but he wasn’t paying attention to her anymore as he surveyed the tables that had been pushed closer together in order to make more room for the crowd within the building. He led her toward the back, claiming a small table in the far back of the building. He pushed aside the plates and silverware still piled on it and held the chair out for her.

Her forehead furrowed as she studied him. “When did you become a gentleman?”

“Always have been, you just never noticed,” he replied flippantly.

“I doubt that.”

He pushed her chair nimbly in and sat beside her. She surveyed the restaurant, searching for a familiar face in the crowd but she didn’t see anyone she knew. There had to be others from town that she would recognize, but none of them were in here. She picked half-heartedly at her food. She knew that she should eat, but the knot in her stomach and the aching grief in her chest made it difficult. Apparently she wasn’t the only one, as Bobby barely took a bite and Xander and Lee seemed far more intent on watching the crowd than focusing on their meal.

Gradually, she began to tune into the buzz of conversation around her. She leaned over as a middle-aged man in a suit spoke in low tones to the two women across from him. “Aliens,” he was saying as he waved his fork in the air. Riley stifled a snort as the women listened raptly to him. “I think it’s an invasion.”

Riley rolled her eyes, and though the conversation amused her, she turned away from it before she started to laugh at the man. Xander was staring at him with a raised eyebrow and a forkful of beans halfway to his mouth. “Do you believe that crap?” Bobby muttered.

“Not even a little bit,” Riley answered as Xander finally shoved his food in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Apparently he found the conversation a lot more interesting than she had as he continued to listen.

At the table behind Bobby there were two men in their thirties and another in what appeared to be his mid-forties. They were all wearing town uniforms that had a patch for the water department on them. The three of them were silent, unmoving as they picked absently at their food.

“A super volcano.”

She turned to her right as a man in his fifties with large bug glasses nodded enthusiastically at her. She didn’t realize it was her he had been talking to, but there was no one else around him, and he was staring directly at her. “It would explain the earthquakes and the heat of the day. The animal’s going crazy. They say if one of those things goes it’s the end of the world.”

“What about the eclipse?” she inquired.

He shrugged as he dropped his fork and leaned across the table toward her. Xander stiffened beside her as the man grabbed hold of her hand. Riley leaned back as his sweaty hand clenched enthusiastically around hers. “Was it an eclipse?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

She glanced worriedly at Lee across from her. He was staring at the man as if he were an actual talking puppet. The man's eyes were a little crazed as he leaned even closer. She could almost smell the eccentricity pouring off him. “Maybe it was a cloud of ash that blocked out the sun. ‘Cause that eclipse lasted an awfully long time.”

“Maybe it was a UFO that blocked out the sun,” Xander interjected. He was trying to sound casual, but he stretched around her and grabbed hold of the man’s hand. The man stared at him as Xander tried to pry his hand away from hers. The stranger's gaze drifted to their joined hands before he released her and sat back.

“Now we both know that’s a bunch of nonsense,” the man continued. Xander pulled her hand away and enfolded it in both of his as he held it beneath the table. “But a super volcano – maybe the one in New Zealand or Indonesia – would explain it. I don’t think it was any of the ones in this country, I don’t think we’d still be alive if it was. But I don’t know much about them, only what I’ve heard and briefly read, ‘specially about Yellowstone. Can’t exactly Google it right now.”

Riley pondered his words as she studied him. “I’ve heard about them. He’s right, it would explain a lot of it,” Bobby said as he leaned closer. “Do you really think that’s what it was?”

The man shrugged, some of his intensity seemed to be calming down now that he had a captive audience. “There’s no way of knowing for sure. Not right now anyways, but I think it’s far more likely an explanation than aliens.” He snickered for a second. “That just sounds crazy.”

“What about a simple apocalypse?” Riley inquired.

“You think it could be so simple?”

She didn’t know what to think, not anymore. All she knew was that she had to keep moving, keep surviving, and that it really didn’t matter what had caused all of this. Knowing the cause wouldn’t change anything, their lives would still be disrupted, their homes destroyed, and Carol would still be dead. Even if they knew, they would still be sitting in this restaurant and everything she had ever known would still be gone. She was surprised to realize that she didn’t really care what had caused the events of the day to unfold, the cause wouldn’t change anything, and she might not like the answers she received. She simply wanted contact with the outside world, someone that could organize everyone, give them some sense of security and information about their loved ones.

“What about terrorists?” she hadn’t realized that the table behind Bobby and Lee had been listening to them too. “What if it was a bomb or something? A nuke? Maybe we’re just inhaling radiation right now and we’re all going to be dead in a month.”

That was an unpleasant thought. Riley shifted uncomfortably as she tried not to focus on the image his words conjured.

“It was aliens,” the other man insisted.

“I could see terrorists,” a woman said.

Riley was suddenly struggling to breathe. Taking a deep breath, she tried to steady her pulse as she listened to the theories being bantered about. “Does it matter?” she asked.

“No, it doesn’t,” Xander answered. “Not unless there’s something we can do to protect ourselves against it. I haven’t seen a way for that yet, so it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”