Sole Survivors: Crux Survivors, Book 2 (5 page)

Lifting the urn, she bit her lip. “Until now.”

She carried it to the small table next to the futon, sat on the mattress, and wrapped both arms around her raised knees. “People showed up today. The first ones were bad—just like the gang we ran into. I used your moves, fought them off. But another man came and helped me.” She rested her cheek on her knee, stared at the urn.

“I know I said forever when we spoke our vows in the clearing under the moon. I still mean it, Dax. I’ll love you forever. But I might have a chance to not be alone anymore.” She swallowed the rest of what she wanted to say. It was possible she’d never see Chase or his brother again, but the thought made her gut clench. She didn’t think that would happen. Not with the way Chase had looked at her.

“His name is Chase. He’s scarred up, been through a rough time. Like any other survivor, I suppose. But he and his brother are the first I’ve seen who didn’t come at me with a weapon. I’m going to meet them tomorrow. Take them some food and some clothes. The brother is about your height, though he’s a lot skinnier.”

She finally brought herself to look at the shelf with the wooden box. It held poison. Stored for when she thought she couldn’t take being alone anymore. She’d never really considered using it, not even when she’d thought her heart was shattered from the loss of Dax. She’d still had her father. And even in the last three years, she’d kept going, kept making life work…kept hoping something would change.

It wasn’t until the last few months she’d started to feel differently. The nights seemed to be getting longer and the stories she’d used to write had stopped coming.

“I’m sorry I moved you down here, Dax. I won’t be opening that box after all. And not only because of the people who showed up today. I’d already decided I couldn’t do it. I left you here because…well, I think I was starting to go crazy. Was talking to you so much.”

Keera stood and walked to one of the lower shelves with the cedar chests. She opened the one she knew had cloth bags and began filling them. Clothes, shoes and jars of food she’d canned herself. Those she wrapped in towels she’d stored, and even a few she’d made. Those weren’t so bad. It wasn’t that hard to make a towel.

“There’s something about this Chase, Dax. I think you would have liked him.”

Before she left the shelter, she carefully replaced her husband’s urn on its shelf. “I’m not going to take you back to the house this time.”

She couldn’t. All she’d done was talk to the urn and losing her sanity was her biggest fear.

“I’m also going to invite them here. Instead of playing it safe as I have my entire life, I’m going to take a gamble.” She touched the urn one last time. “If I’m wrong about these guys, I won’t be back.”

Chapter Four

Chase cursed and slammed his fist on the steering wheel. The slices of road they’d been able to follow were gone completely now, and trees and cars—covered in twisted brown dead vines—had stopped forward movement. “We can’t get further.”

“We’ll have to walk there.”

Chase closed his eyes, and kept his face away from his brother. “It’s too far to carry back food, and we can’t risk leaving the RV—not with raiders still possible in the area.”

“We can’t just not show up!” Tripp got out of the passenger seat to pace the small space between the table booth and counters.

Turning to watch him, Chase took in the holes in his brother’s clothes and the ratty condition of the once red booth seats and faded flowered couch behind the booth. The RV had been nice in the beginning—a luxury vehicle meant for rich retirees who could afford the tripped-out solar power choice. But he’d found it years before trying to live in a house again with his brother and sister, and over the last year, the roof had leaked, damaging most of the inside. Chase had repaired it, but it was time to find another RV.

Or find a home.

He really wanted to give Tripp a real home. Keera’s image came to mind. She could do that. Give Tripp what he needed. That knot reappeared in his gut. She could do that for him too.

“Chase.” Tripp sat in the passenger seat, and rested his elbows on his knees. “She could have family, could have been protecting them. People, Chase. Breathing, talking people with food.”

Chase had thought she could be lying about others, but he had a strong feeling she wasn’t. She had an aloneness to her—a solitary aura of one who only relied on herself. He smiled at his brother. “Breathing, talking people, eh?”

Tripp nodded, bright blue eyes full of a light Chase wanted to see more often.

“Okay. I’m going to stay with the RV this time.” He handed Tripp the map. “Take one of the compasses because it’s going to be hard to find the place. She said her car is little. Maybe it can make it back to us.”

His brother’s eyes grew huge. “Really? You’re not going to throw a fit about me traveling on foot in what’s basically a jungle full of wild cats and wolves?”

“I don’t like it, but you know how to stay safe. Take extra ammo.” Tripp was a man. Chase told himself that over and over as he checked the guns, hoping he’d be convinced at some point. Once Tripp had a pack of food rations and extra ammo, he shot out of the door with a hollered “Be back soon!” before loping into the woods.

Chase restarted the RV and drove it into a stand of trees. Tripp would know to search once he got back. They never left it in the open. Restless, Chase slammed out of the door, then regretted it when the thing lost one of its hinges.

Sighing, Chase hurriedly dragged broken limbs across the ground and propped them against the RV, camouflaging it. Then, he went back inside and grabbed his toolbox. An hour or so later, when the gunshot sounded, Chase’s blood froze. He dropped the toolbox and grabbed one of the solar flashlights, his rifle and the Glock he kept under the driver’s seat. He checked it for ammo and grabbed a box of extra.

He set off toward the sound at a full-out run, his heart beating so loud, he felt it despite the hard slams of his boots on the ground.

Another shot came from his right. Closer than he expected. Chase halted and squatted behind a tree to quiet his breaths so he could listen. The dried vines under his boots crunched. He stood, and dodged a few trees.

When he spotted movement ahead, he halted and crouched behind a bush.

Another shot rang out, and then someone whooped. “Fresh rabbit!”

Holy hell. Another woman.

Chase wished he’d brought his family to Louisiana years ago.

“Why’d you use the gun? It’s probably rabbit mush now.” The man’s voice carried affection and amusement.

“She said she needed the practice.”

Chase closed his eyes and leaned his head back on a tree. Three separate voices, one female, two male. They could be raiders.

They could have his brother.

Their voices grew quieter as they moved away. Chase followed silently, glad they continued to bicker. A clearing showed through the trees and he stopped to watch the three walk into a small campsite. Another man stood up from where he’d been sitting on a rolled-up sleeping bag. This one was young—possibly a teenager still—but he was too far away to see clearly.

He grinned when he spotted the rabbit. “Is there any left after you used the twelve gauge?” He started laughing harder.

Chase moved closer so he could hear over the forest sounds.

“I’m sorry I hid your crossbow,” the kid said.

“You hid it?” The woman stalked fully into the light as she approached the youngest man. Blonde hair so pale it was nearly white glowed atop a long, slender figure. She held out bloody hands and he backed up.

“Sorry! Sorry! Come on, I already bathed today and that creek was fucking cold!”

She growled loudly. “Why’d you hide my bow, Cadmar?”

“A joke?” He backed into the side of a semi-truck. “Sorry, Jenna. I’ll dress the rabbit, okay? Will that make you forgive me?”

“What if we’d come upon a raider?” One of the other men asked. This one made Chase lift a brow. Broad shoulders sat wide on a six and a half foot frame. He sounded angry, but he was stroking his hand down a shorter, dark-haired man’s arm, so he wasn’t too mad.

“I would have grabbed it right away.” The kid spoke fast, though humor still laced his tone.

“He hid it because he’s flirting again,” the dark-haired man said as he leaned into the other’s side.

“I’m not! I wasn’t! I swear!”

The big guy laughed. “We don’t blame you, Caddie.” With one last squeeze, he walked up to the woman. “How could you not flirt with this beautiful thing?”

The kid scowled. “Don’t call me Caddie. It’s not dignified.”

Big guy bit his lip, then stepped back when the woman turned to him, raising an eyebrow.

“Thing?”

Chase held his breath when she grinned and leaned up to kiss the man. Not an affectionate peck, but a full-on, tongue-in-mouth kiss. Chase’s eyebrows went up. He could have sworn the big man had been with the other guy, but that one only laughed harder as they pulled apart and the big guy realized she’d put her bloody hands on his shirt.

“That’s what you get for calling me a thing.”
Jenna.
The kid had called her Jenna.

Chase settled in to watch longer, though he was pretty sure they weren’t raiders. He couldn’t see inside their truck, but he didn’t think his brother was in it. They roasted their catch over a fire and the smell of warm, cooked meat made his stomach growl. When they pulled out jars of vegetables, he sighed. He really had to settle somewhere and learn to do this.

The woman was a stunner. Her white-blonde hair glowed in the sun and her body was long, lean and elegant. He figured out quickly she was with two of the men. The big one was called Ross, the other Dorian. The affection between the three of them spoke of the long term. It wasn’t a bond of convenience—it was a true-love match. Small touches, ready smiles and teasing banter filled the morning air. Throughout it all, Chase noted that none totally let down their guard. How could they? He’d bet his shitty RV they’d spent their lives as he, Tripp and Maggie had.

Carving out some kind of survival. Avoiding raiders.

And it wasn’t like the raiders wore matching outfits to give themselves away. No gang colors or identical leather jackets like in movies he’d seen as a kid.

No, they could look exactly like these people. Or not, he thought as he watched Ross rest his lips on top of Jenna’s pretty hair before he nuzzled his nose in it. The most incredible expression of belonging spilled over his face.

Raiders had a harder edge, usually looked at you like you were food. Sometimes they shot before even looking.

Sudden grief slashed through his stomach as he thought of Maggie. It had been a year since her death and the pain felt as fresh as it did the day he’d awakened to more agony than he’d believed possible. He’d also awakened to a permanently changed brother.

The knot in his chest grew heavier as he watched the people snuggling by the fire. Though they seemed to be on their way somewhere because their conversation centered mostly on plans to rescue the youngest man’s family, no one was hurrying to leave. The boy said they were close, only an hour and a half south of his family’s farm.

He shivered as the temperature dropped and clouds filled the sky. He should start back, but the combination of seeing people again and exhaustion from a sleepless night kept him from moving for a long time. Despite the homey scene, all four kept fairly quiet and watched the woods around them. They’d hear or see him moving. So he waited while they cleaned up their site, then bickered over who had to drive first. Ross won the argument and Chase’s heart clenched as he watched the big man kiss Dorian and Jenna before they all climbed into the semi-truck.

Chase took advantage of their movements to sneak away. As much as he had wanted to find other people, find a settlement, he couldn’t risk approaching them in case he was wrong and they were raiders—not with Tripp off on his own. Regret slowed his steps as he made his way back to the RV, even when it started to rain
.
He didn’t bother to open one of the freeze-dried packs of food. They were running low and if Keera didn’t show, the food would have to be stretched. He changed into a pair of clean, dry jeans and another T-shirt, then fell onto the bed in the back of the RV. He curled under the blanket and stared into the hazy room as rain pattered the outside of the vehicle. He couldn’t help but worry about Tripp as he fell asleep.

He’d only been out a short time when he was jerked awake by a woman’s voice and the point of a crossbow aimed at his face.

“Did you know the sound from all those crunching dead vines under your feet carries?”

It took Keera a lot of time to circumnavigate all the fallen trees, but she finally parked her little car next to a statue of a woman in a long toga dress. And kudzu. Only her head, one bare shoulder and part of her dress showed under the tenacious gray vines.

Keera stayed in the car, frowning at the hard and fast rain that had made her trip take even longer than she’d expected. Water poured down the Spanish moss carcasses hanging from the huge trees, the streams louder on the roof of her vehicle. There would be no running into the building for shelter. Part of the roof had caved in years before. It was possible some of the porch remained, but it didn’t look so good. She remembered a pretty trellis around it, but everything was covered in vines. Something moved behind that gray.