The Survivor Chronicles: Book 1, The Upheaval (40 page)

Even as she thought it she knew it would never be possible. There was far too much out there right now, it would be far too risky to stay out in the open, so exposed and vulnerable to every horrible thing that now crept over the earth. They would never be able to stay with each other, especially as the fire encroached upon them.

Mary Ellen and Bobby stood behind Xander; the looks on their faces echoed the despair that was rapidly spreading through Riley. Dirt skidded out from beneath Lee as he arrived at her side. A low curse escaped him.

“There’s got to be some way for them to get across,” Riley said frantically. “We can cut down a tree or some wood or…”

“What are you Paul Bunyan all of a sudden?” Lee demanded. “And do you happen to have an axe handy?”

“Lee.” She was ashamed by the whimper that escaped her, ashamed by the almost childlike plea that radiated within it, but she couldn’t help it. She’d lost her family today, she’d lost Carol, and now… Well now she’d lost someone that she’d punched just seven short hours ago, but he'd somehow become her rock.

She felt broken, hollow, she didn’t know what to do, and she simply couldn’t just stand here and watch them burn alive. The firelight played over Xander’s dark blond hair, turning it strangely red in the hideous illumination. She couldn’t lose him too, she simply couldn’t.

She took a few steps forward, halting at the edge of the river as he turned back to her. More tears sprang into her eyes as a smile played over his face. “Xander.” His name left her on a bare whisper that she knew didn’t carry across the water.

“Go Riley!” Though she knew he shouted, she barely heard the words. He pointed up the hill. “Go!”

Bobby grabbed his arm and said something; Xander nodded briskly before turning back to her. “Sturbridge! I’ll find you in Sturbridge!” She said the words, and labored to believe them, no matter how improbable they were.

Though he smiled at her, she sensed the sadness and grief just beneath it. “You bet you will!” He turned briefly away before spinning back to her. “I love you Dumbo!”

A short burst of laughter escaped Riley, she didn’t know what he meant by it, and she didn’t care as she shouted back, “I love you too you ass!”

Mary Ellen waved to Al who gave her a brief wave. “I’ll see you soon, in Sturbridge!” Al shouted to her.

Mary Ellen nodded, she lingered briefly before she turned and started to jog away. Xander gave one last wave before turning and running with Mary Ellen and Bobby. They followed the direction of the newly created river as they fled the flames and lava. Riley clung to the tree as she watched them until she couldn’t see them anymore. Her chest hurt and she was finding it increasingly difficult to stand.

“Riley come on, we have to go,” Lee said gently. She blinked back the tears she didn’t know she was still shedding as she tried to focus on him. “We can’t stay here, we have to get the supplies and get moving.”

Riley glanced up the hill; taking a deep breath she braced herself for the climb back up the awful thing. She refused to think about what was over that hill, what was beyond the stadium and what else lurked within the town that she no longer knew. She had no idea what hazards and new threats waited for them on this side of the river, or what other dangers awaited them on their long journey to Sturbridge. She’d been to Xander’s grandparents house twice before, but she wasn’t entirely certain she’d be able to find it again, or if it even still existed after today.

It took everything she had not to sit down and cry, not to give up like she longed to do. Not ready to die, she reminded herself firmly. And sitting down and caving was almost certain death.

She wouldn’t mind a chance to sit down and throw a pity party for an hour or two though, she felt she deserved one. But then, so did Lee and Al, and just about every other person that had somehow managed to survive for this long.

“I’m sorry we were separated from Mary Ellen, was she a relative?” she inquired as a way to distract herself.

“A neighbor. We’ll find them again, apparently in Sturbridge.” Al smiled as he grasped hold of her arm. “I know we will.” Riley managed a wan smile as she nodded. “You’re right, we will.” She hoped she sounded as positive as he looked right now.

“Was that young man your boyfriend?”

“Just a friend,” she mumbled. “I think.” Lee rolled his eyes but refrained from commenting as they swiftly made their way through the woods toward where they had hidden their supplies. “His sister was my best friend. She ah… she died today.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Riley couldn’t meet his kind eyes as she shrugged. She had to fight against the tears that threatened to fall again. She felt like a broken spigot as she couldn’t seem to turn them off. “It seems there’s been a lot of death today.”

“That there has,” Al agreed as he squeezed her arm reassuringly. “But it hasn’t been us.”

“And it won’t be,” Lee said firmly.

“What do you have for supplies?” Al inquired.

“Some guns and food, but not much,” Riley told him. “We’ll have to find transportation somehow.”

She met Lee’s stern frown with a defiant glare. She knew it was stupid to trust people, but Al wasn’t one of those people. She believed that Al was trustworthy and that he wouldn’t hurt them. The circumstances of this day had thrust them together for at least the journey to Sturbridge, and if they were going to survive they were going to have to work together.

“I have a car. It’s not much of one, but with any luck it will get us there. It will at least get us out of this town.”

Riley perked up at Al’s words. “As long as it has wheels, I don’t care if I have to peddle it with my feet.”

“That could end up being a real possibility!” he retorted with a laugh.

Though she still felt on the verge of tears, the pressure in her chest was easing as they arrived at the supplies they’d stashed away. Lee handed her the revolvers and belt. “I can handle a rifle,” Al told him. “I used to do some hunting.”

Lee hesitated before finally handing Al the gun. “Where is this car?”

“About a mile away, we hid it in a driveway, underneath a fallen pine.”

Lee nodded and was rising to his feet when the loud fracture of a twig caused them all to jump and spin in the direction of the noise. Riley’s breath froze in her lungs, her hand fell to the gun as another loud snap, followed by a muffled curse, drifted through the woods. Lee placed his finger against his mouth and nodded in the opposite direction.

Riley nodded agreement, the last thing she wanted to do was encounter anyone in these woods. Especially armed, terrified civilians much like herself.

She barely breathed as they crept through the woods, heading away from the pathway that had led them to the stadium. Though they moved away from the people that had been on their right hand side, she could hear other people creeping through the forest around them. She never spotted any of them, but she knew they were out there. She had never desired to be out of anywhere so badly in her life, as she did these woods, and they had weapons.

Xander and the others were out there alone, vulnerable to the whims of humans and the brutality of the ever changing earth. She could only pray that they would somehow make it, that they would be able to find something to defend themselves with, and more food supplies. She didn’t pretend to know or understand what was going on, but she did know that Mother Nature was one royally pissed off bitch right now, and she was letting them know that with everything she had.

The only thing Riley knew for certain was that she was going to get in Al’s car, and she was going to do everything possible to find Xander again. All she longed to do was hug him, and savor in his solid presence. All she craved was the person she’d hated this morning, come to rely on sometime during the day, and kind of thought she might actually be starting to fall in love with now.

It was insanity, she knew, but it was an insane world right now.

But then, if she thought about it, perhaps there had been feelings there all along. She’d always watched him, and been unreasonably angrier when Xander teased her than when others did. She’d always been excited to see him at Carol’s, even if she’d never admitted it to herself, and would have denied it vehemently to anyone that asked. She’d been so intent upon being mad at him, upon not ruining her friendship with Carol, that she hadn’t realized she actually had feelings for him.

She would find him again, and she didn’t care what she had to do to make sure it happened. She focused on the goal of seeing him again, of escaping this town, as they stepped clear of the woods and onto the paved road of North Street.

CHAPTER 28

Carl,

Foxboro, Mass.

“What the…” John’s voice trailed off as he leaned forward to peer out the window.

Carl eased up on the gas, unable to believe his eyes as trees bent and splintered like toothpicks beneath the crushing force of whatever was rocketing toward the truck. Rochelle’s mouth dropped as she pressed her fingers against the dashboard.

Carl stomped on the gas pedal as he realized that the ground was shaking again. “What is that?” Rochelle demanded.

“I don’t want to find out,” Carl muttered but he knew they were going to.

The truck bounced over the uneven road as the increasing crash of trees and echoing rumble barreled through the woods toward the road. They were out of the way of impact, but even so Carl couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't going fast enough.

Rochelle turned around to look, but the bed of the truck made it impossible to see anything through the window behind them. She craned around John to peer into the side mirror as a wave of water burst free of the woods behind them. Carl gawked as trees, road, and people rocketed past within the newly created river that effectively blocked off the roadway behind them.

Carl eased off the gas, the truck idled as the water eased in its initial torrent. “It’s never going to stop,” John said.

“It has to, eventually. Doesn’t it?” Rochelle asked. “I mean how much more can the earth take before it just implodes? How much more can we take?”

“As much as we have to,” Carl informed her as he pressed on the accelerator again. “We don’t have any other options.”

“Not any good ones anyway,” John agreed.

“Do you know where we are now?”

“No, but I know we’re not going back.”

Carl snorted as he shook his head. “That’s for sure.”

There was no turning around, and there was no way to know what lay ahead of them. Uneasiness grew in his stomach, his hands tightened on the wheel as he tried not to think about the possibility that they may be trapped in between one horror and another now. There were no side roads, or at least not any that they had come across yet. All he could do was pray that the road remained clear of any obstacles, or that they would at least come across another road.

Some of the houses around them were toppled and broken. Others were just the burnt remains that had ignited the trees around them. He saw no flames now, but that didn’t mean they weren’t just ahead of them, or in the woods that enclosed them on both sides. Then there was the lava, that hideous lava creeping through the town and more than likely running beneath it.

Over the years, he’d thought about the many ways he would probably go, lung cancer being number one, but never once had he entertained the idea of being consumed by lava. It had never even occurred to him that it was a possibility, and now that it had, he realized that it might quite possibly be one of the worst ways to go. In fact, he really couldn’t think of anything worse. Well perhaps being eaten by a shark, but no matter how crazy this day had been, he was pretty certain he could still cross out the possibility of Jaws chomping down on him.