The Survivor Chronicles: Book 1, The Upheaval (4 page)

Carol had fallen back, nearly tripping over Riley as she scrambled to get out of the way. Carol was not the one screaming; instead strange almost grunting and animalistic noises were coming from her as she fell against the uprooted, thick dirt base of the maple. Other members of the team had fallen back; Jenny turned and bolted into the street. The girl was running faster now than at any time during practice. Alice was screaming at the top of her lungs, alternating between pulling at her short brown hair and reaching and retreating from... something…

From something that Riley was sure couldn’t possibly be real. But it was. Riley stared, astonished, gaping; her mind slowly accepting that what her eyes were seeing was, in fact, real.

Their second baseman, Kelly, stumbled first to the left, then to the right, before bobbing forward and back again. But something... wasn’t right. Kelly’s hair, her beautiful, shimmering, nearly impossible blue black hair was gone. It seemed to have shriveled, curled up and disappeared as if it had been lit on fire. Only a few strands of hair remained attached to Kelly’s now visible, puckered, and reddened scalp.

Riley didn’t really understand why the lack of hair bothered her so much when she was looking at the gaping hole of the right side of Kelly’s face. A hole that revealed blood, and muscle, and exposed bone where Kelly’s bronzed skin had been just seconds ago. A side that seemed to have simply shriveled up, and disappeared with Kelly’s hair. The left side of Kelly’s face was almost intact... minus the lips, ears, and eyelid. But who needed those things anyway, Riley thought hysterically, when all of those beautiful locks were gone?

Who gives a crap about the hair! Riley snarled at herself. Get a grip, get a grip! Oh God, she was an idiot. She dimly realized she was in some sort of shock.

A low groan escaped Riley as Kelly’s one remaining brown eye locked onto her. Riley felt that connection deep in her soul, felt her friends suffering as if it were her own. Tears of loss slid down Riley’s face. How was Kelly even still alive?

Then that brown eye rolled up, Kelly took a stumbling step back and fell into the steaming hole that had appeared beside her, the explosive vent that had been the source of her destruction.

More shouts filled the air. Riley shoved her fist into her mouth; she bit down on her knuckles as she screamed against them. She didn’t know why she didn’t just scream out loud, like the remaining members of her team as they staggered away from the boiling remains of their friend. But Riley was still clinging to the improbable, and insane, thought that as Captain she had to set a strong example. Though she was fairly certain that no other Captain, ever, in the history of time, had watched one of their team members practically parboil in the middle of a freaking sidewalk!

Hands seized her arms, causing her to jump. “Riley! Riley, get up!” Carol’s words finally penetrated the haze clinging to her. “GET UP, RILEY!”

Riley allowed Carol to help her to her feet. “What’s happening?”

Carol shook her head. Her hazel eyes were frantic as they darted over the street, the homes, and the falling trees. Riley could barely bring herself to look at Carol, never mind the chaos surrounding her, the death she felt in the air.

She couldn’t keep her head buried in the sand though; it would only get her killed. She had to be aware, alert, even if she didn’t want to see what was going on. Little by little, she found the courage to lift her head.

All around her, there were people running, screaming, crying. The ground had stopped shaking, but the chaos was spreading like wildfire as the earth continued to crumble and pockets of deadly steam sprouted up. Dogs were barking crazily. Something else was shrieking, and she finally realized that it was the squirrels as they fled into the street, into the trees, or just ran heedlessly into things. She winced, unable to look as some of them battered themselves to death.

Carol’s hands tightened on her arms, they were bruising but Riley found that she almost welcomed the pain. It meant that she was alive. To her left, another unfortunate person fell into a hole. Three more looked like they’d been electrocuted by fallen power lines, a car was embedded in the front porch across the street, and at least two houses had flames shooting out of their roofs.

The remaining members of the team huddled close to her. Other than losing Kelly, and Jenny bolting, they appeared to have all remained. Most of them had been together since elementary school. They were friends, or at the very least friendly. They relied on each other; they trusted one another.

Now they were all staring at Riley as if she might somehow have the magic answer to this mess. But this wasn’t knowing what glove was best, or what kind of dress to buy... she didn’t have the first clue as to what was happening. Judging by the hysterical people surrounding her, young and old, no one else seemed to, either. She didn’t know if they should try and go to Carol’s, whose house was closest, or if they should stay here. Apparently the earth beneath their feet was no longer stable, apparently it was looking to cook them like lobsters, or crush them like nuts.

She shuddered at the comparison and purposely tried not to think about how many nuts she had cracked every Christmas with her grandparents. The thought of her grandparents caused a tug at her heart. Her family. That’s where she should be, and she didn’t care if it was safe or not to try and get to them.

But she did care. Tears burned her eyes, she couldn’t abandon the girls, her team; her friends. With new determination, she turned toward them. “Brie, do you have your phone?”

Phones were supposed to be left behind during practice and training runs, but Riley was well aware of the fact that Brie always kept hers stashed between her ample breasts. The girl was unable to part with the thing for even a minute. For the first time Riley was truly grateful for that fact.

“Huh? My uh… Oh! Yeah! Yeah, I do!” Brie responded dazedly.

Riley thrust her hand out and seized hold of the small phone. “Who are you calling?” Carol asked tremulously.

She was tempted to call her family, but she wasn’t the most important thing right now. She quickly dialed nine one one. She hadn’t known what she expected, to get through, perhaps not. To get an all circuits are busy was a more obvious choice. But the dead silence, the absolute nothing that accompanied her pushing of the send button was enough to make her skin crawl. She swallowed heavily, pulled the phone from her ear and hit the buttons again with a trembling finger.

Nothing.

She blinked back the tears burning her eyes and numbly handed the phone back to Brie. The faces surrounding her were all ashen; their eyes were larger, rounder; more childlike as they looked to her. For the first time she wished they had elected another Captain this year.

“We can’t stay here; we have to find shelter, or somewhere safe. Carol we should go to your house first. Perhaps a landline…”

Riley broke the sentence off. If a cell phone wasn’t working, and all around them lines were down, what were the chances a landline would work? Somewhere in the distance a siren began to wail, followed swiftly by a second one. Something popped and exploded with a loud BANG. Riley ducked, instinctively throwing her arms over her head. A few seconds later, she peeked out from under her arm as the transformer across the street began to smoke.

They had to get out of there, now.

“Go. We have to go.” She couldn’t stop the tremble in her voice.

“Yes,” Carol agreed. Carol took a few tentative steps backward before she seemed to recall what had happened to Kelly and looked nervously over her shoulder.

Riley and Carol led the way down the suddenly hostile sidewalk. There were plenty of times they had to move into yards, into the street, and go well out of their way to avoid the multiple holes. Though not all of the openings were steaming, but none of them were brave enough to chance going near the possible death traps. As they ran they passed dead birds, but when Riley looked to the sky she didn’t see any in flight.

She continued to hear sirens, but saw no emergency vehicles. Though not everyone seemed to be losing it, confusion still ruled. The screaming had died down, and some people were gathering their wits, while others wandered in a haze that frightened Riley even more than the suddenly deadly world surrounding them.

Carol’s house came into view, the vivid blue of its front door clearly visible from anywhere within eyesight of the structure. No one could miss that blue. It was worse than The Smurfs. Carol’s mother liked things bright, and thankfully her father was colorblind, but the rest of the world had to deal with the color. A fact that Carol’s mother found entertaining, and laughed about when people complained. She somewhat enjoyed aggravating people, said the color amused her. It embarrassed Carol, but Riley thought it was hilarious.

She broke into a jog, mindful of obstacles in her way as she began to move faster. Her legs pumped vigorously as she bolted up Carol’s stairs and thrust open the hideously blue door with no thought to any peril that may linger within. Her only thought was the phone.

She’d been in Carol’s house often enough to know where everything was located. She shoved the toppled coat hanger out of her way in her rush to get to the living room. The once tidy room was a mess, but she scarcely noticed the broken glass, scattered books, shattered TV, and fractured ceiling. She picked the phone up off the floor, slammed it back into its cradle, and waited a few seconds before snatching it back up.

Silence.

Frustration filled her; she bit back a groan as she placed the phone down, impatiently tapped her foot, and counted to ten. The team remained silent as they watched and waited from the doorway. Riley snagged the phone again. This time silence didn't greet her on the other end.

As she pressed the receiver to her ear, a strange, almost electrical whistling rattled across the line. It clicked, hissed, popped, and whistled again before once more going silent. Riley’s hand clenched the phone tighter, and she found she was paralyzed as the silence was broken once more by the same series of sounds. She would have preferred silence; there was something eerie in the noises, something inexplicably terrifying.

Something inhuman.

Her hand shook as she gently placed the phone back in its cradle, suddenly frightened of the inanimate object.

“Nothing?” Carol asked.

Riley swallowed heavily. Her eyes traveled over the frightened faces standing behind Carol. “Nothing good,” she whispered.

Carol frowned. She hurried across the room and grabbed the phone. Her face scrunched as she stood and quietly listened. “What... is that?” she breathed.

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t like it in here,” Kelsey muttered, warily studying the cracked ceiling that Riley had chosen to ignore. She couldn’t ignore it now as the house made a strange groaning sound. The structure seemed to be sagging in on itself, but would tremors do that? And then Riley understood; it wasn’t tremors that had caused this sagging, but the holes. There were holes under this house.

“We have to get out. Now.”

She practically shoved them out the door and down the hideously blue stairs of the drooping porch. She ran toward the street as the house released a heaving sound. It did not collapse on itself, not yet anyway, but the second floor was gradually making its way into the first floor, and Riley was certain the first floor windows were lower than they had been.

The horn blared behind her. She whipped her head around in time to see a car swerve frantically to avoid one of the holes, pop the curb, and spin out of control. Riley was frozen, trapped within the headlights as the Honda barreled down upon her. “Riley! Riley, move!” Carol screamed.

Her legs remained frozen though, locked in place. Her gaze was riveted upon the badly battered and bleeding man behind the wheel. She felt arms wrap around her waist as she was propelled out of the way of the oncoming car. She bounced over the ground, her breath knocked out of her. She lay, staring up at a pristine and beautiful blue sky that was completely out of place in this horrific new world surrounding her.

Then a new face loomed over her, a face that she instantly recognized. Carol’s older brother, Alexander, stared back at her. She dimly recalled Carol saying that Xander had returned a few days ago from his college trip to Australia, but Riley had blown it off, as she did with most everything that had to do with him.