The Survivor Chronicles (Book 2): The Divide (10 page)

"What are you doing?" Lee asked Riley from his position by the window.

"It's going to get dark soon, we have to be prepared. I don't think it's safe for us to drive, not in that, and not with groups of people just randomly traveling down the road doing god knows what, for whatever reason."

"I don't think they're zombies," John told her.

"I didn't say zombies did I?" she retorted. Then she lifted her head and took a deep breath. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be… just sorry."

"It's ok."

"Not zombies, they looked alive, but they're not right. They're not…" She shuddered as she broke off. "They're not normal and I don't trust them. I'm not going to be surrounded by any of them anytime soon, even inside a moving vehicle."

"What if they find us in here?" Rochelle asked.

"They didn't find us just now," Riley answered but her hand shook on the flashlight as she placed it on the bureau.

Carl stepped back into the room; he looked a little less pale as he surveyed them. "We can block the window with one of the mattresses so they won't see the light. Riley's right though, we won't get far in this rain, not safely, and not with the condition the roads and towns are in now. We have no choice but to hunker down here for the night."

"Should we move the vehicles closer?" Lee inquired.

John was tempted to drive the truck right into the room with them in order to protect it, but at the same time he wanted to get it as far away from them as possible. It felt like a beacon, a bright shining,
here we are
announcement to the freaks in the street. Carl opened his mouth, but threw up his hands and shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted.

"I say we leave them there. They're close enough that we can defend them, but they don't seem to be drawing any attention," Al finally said. "If we move them someone might notice."

"I don't think those people are noticing anything right now," Rochelle whispered.

"Do you think it's in the rain?" John finally blurted his tumultuous thoughts. "Do you think whatever is wrong with them is in the rain? Like some kind of poison that's seeping through their skin."

Riley looked like she was going to vomit. He'd never seen a person turn green, but she came about as close as a person could as she stared at him. Al looked down at his bandaged hand and then around at them. Lee took a step back. He pressed closer to the wall as he stared at them with an expression that made John think that he might just shoot them all before they could eat him like a pack of rabid hyena's. John wasn't entirely sure he would blame Lee if he did.

"No," Carl said as he shot John a scathing look. "It is
not
in the rain. Those people weren't in the rain for that long, not much longer than us even if they were in it the whole time. For all we know they could have been inside somewhere and wandered into the rain right before we saw them."

"You can't know that," John told him.

Carl looked like he was contemplating throttling him. "No, but I still believe we would be reacting by now. And even if it is in the rain, there is nothing that we can do about it, so just let it go."

John was tempted to argue with him but he didn't have it in him, not anymore, and he thought Lee might actually start firing on them. "We're not going to eat you Lee!" Riley snapped at him. "I feel perfectly fine. John?"

He thought about it, because he honestly did half expect to start saying brains and craving red meat, but he
did
feel fine. He didn't feel feverish, he wasn't particularly hungry, and he felt saner than he thought he should given the events of this day. "I feel fine too," he finally agreed.

"Carl?" Riley asked.

"Healthy as a horse."

"Al?"

"I feel fine too. I think Carl is right, it's not the rain, and it may not be anything at all. People do crazy things all the time, especially when they're panicked and
every
one is panicked after today. Perhaps those people really are just trying to get home. For all we know there's a shelter nearby and they decided to leave it before the rain started."

John would like to believe that, but those people were as creepy as a clown with piranha teeth and a butcher knife. He shuddered at the image and silently cursed himself for allowing it to enter his mind in the first place, now he'd never get rid of it. "You might want to keep an eye on the outside," Riley said.

John didn't feel like rising back to his feet, he was grateful when Lee pulled the curtain partially back and peered out. "It's quiet," he murmured.

"I suggest we start getting things settled now, it's going to get dark early tonight," Carl said. Riley nodded, though she still looked a little green as she placed the second flashlight on the bureau. "John, keep a lookout with Lee."

"I'm not opening the door again."

Carl shook his head. "No, I wouldn't."

John forced himself back to his feet as Carl and Riley disappeared into the other room. He took a deep breath as he braced himself to look out the eyehole again. Lee would warn him if he was about to come eye to eye with a flesh eating freak show, but even still he was convinced there would be someone on the other side of that hole. There was only endless rain and broken asphalt.

Though… John squinted as he stared at the outside world and tried to process what it was that he was seeing. It couldn't be, but it appeared that it was. "Is the rain not as black?" he croaked.

"I think so." The relief was so intense in Lee's voice that John thought he may very well be on the verge of tears. "I really think so."

Al and Rochelle rose from the bed, Al's shoulder brushed against John's as he pulled the curtain back a little for them to look out. "It does look like it."

John turned around as Rochelle began to sob softly. "What's wrong? Are they back?" Carl demanded from the doorway. Rochelle shook her head, and though tears ran down her face she managed a reassuring smile as she wiped them away.

"No, it's the rain," she elaborated when Riley and Carl continued to stare at her.

They dropped the mattress that they had brought in from the other room and hurried over to the window. Rochelle and Al stepped aside to let them have a chance to look out. John thought Riley was going to start crying too as her shoulders sagged, and a small sound escaped her. "That may be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," she whispered.

"I agree," Carl said.

John couldn't take his eyes off of the water that no longer resembled a chunk of coal but more a beam of steal. He still had no desire to be out there in it, and it still wasn't normal, but he also didn't feel like cowering in the corner from it anymore either. "The world is washing itself clean," Al murmured.

"What?" John inquired.

Al shook his head as he settled on the bed and held the wrist of his wounded hand on his lap. "A cleaning after the extermination so to speak," he elaborated.

"Yes, perhaps," Riley agreed. She let go of the curtain and followed Carl back over to the mattress. They hauled it over and Lee helped them to place it in front of the window and fit it into place.

"The other window is already blocked," Carl told them. "We can keep watch out of both rooms."

"We're not going to be able to see anything out there after dark," Lee said.

John swallowed heavily. He didn't want to be blinded, he didn't want to be susceptible to the psycho clowns parading around outside and preparing for them. They wouldn't be preparing balloon animals for them, he knew that much for sure. "I'll go out there," Carl stated.

John's mouth dropped. "Have you lost your
effing
mind!?"

"Someone should be out there to watch over the vehicles and supplies. I can sit in the truck, keep watch, and if something goes wrong I'll blow the horn and alert you or I'll drive up here. We can't all be trapped in here, cornered, and at the mercy of others. It has to be done John."

"Not alone," Al said. "You'll have to sleep."

"I'll be ok."

Al shook his head. "No, not alone. You're right, someone does need to be out there, but if you sit out there all night you'll never be able to stay awake, and we'll all be in danger."

"I'll be cranking butts like a champion."

"Oh that's brilliant, little flickering red orbs to alert everyone to your location," John told him.

"I can smoke beneath the dash John, not my first time at having to hide the habit," Carl retorted.

"Al's right, I'll go with you." Riley stepped away from the mattress. "I don't relish the idea of staying in here anyway, and I'd feel much better if I was out there."

John wondered if she had images of killer clowns running through her head too. "That's fine," Carl agreed.

"What about the car?" Rochelle asked.

"No one wants to sleep in that thing," Al muttered.

"I'll go out too," Lee volunteered.

"No, there's still a chance you might be able to see something from in here. We need as many eyes as possible, from as many different angles as possible, and you guys will also have to take turns sleeping. Plus the car is open, and easier to see into. We'll be less noticeable in the truck because of the bed, and it's easier to hide within it. If we can get notice to any threat, Riley can get into the car, if not we'll have to call it a lost cause. I'm hoping we'll be able to get some of the supplies back into the truck, maybe behind the seat."

"Sounds like a plan," Riley said. "I'd like to take a shower first though."

Carl nodded as she grabbed another bag and slipped past them into the bathroom. John winced as the water turned on, but though it seemed loud to him, he knew that it was muffled and didn't drift beyond this room. Even so, he turned and put his eye back to the hole as sweat began to trickle down his back again. It had been bad enough with the hideous sunlight illuminating the earth; he was dreading the rapidly descending shadows of the encroaching night.

CHAPTER 8

Mary Ellen

Franklin, Mass.

"Where is he?" Bobby inquired anxiously.

Mary Ellen didn't know; she couldn't see anything inside the shadows of the school. Her hand shook and for the first time in over twenty years she began to chew on her nails. She hadn't bitten her nails since she was ten, and her mother decided to paint them with a foul tasting nail polish that had quickly broken her of the bad habit. Now, she chomped at them like a rabbit chewed on clover.

A shiver ran down her spine as a small gust of wind blew her hair around her. Frowning, she turned away from the shadowy interior. Her eyes widened, she fell back against the brick building as she spotted the rolling black clouds sweeping across the horizon. She'd never seen anything like them as they slid insidiously across the sky. Though the clouds didn't seem to be coming their way, they had already covered the town of Foxboro and were seeping out toward the surrounding towns.

"Maybe I should go in there," Bobby muttered. "He could be injured; he could have gotten turned around." Mary Ellen couldn't turn away from the dark clouds as she fumbled out to the side for him. Her hand came in contact with air a few times before she found his sweaty shoulder. "What?" he asked though he didn't move away from his position at the window.

Mary Ellen had to swallow the lump in her throat before she could find words. "Bobby."

"What?"

"Bobby, look."

She could see him looking at her out of the corner of his eye before his shoulder slipped away from her grasp. A quick exhalation escaped him as he sat back on his heels. "What is that?" he managed to croak out.

Mary Ellen shook her head; she didn't even have a guess as to what it was. As she watched lightning shot out of the clouds and slammed into the ground with enough force that she felt a small vibration beneath her feet. The hair on her arms rose, she wondered if the hair on her head was beginning to stand on end as was Bobby's.

More lightning slashed across the sky in a cloud to cloud pattern that lit up the massive black clouds as a deluge of rain pounded against the earth. Mary Ellen pressed closer to the building as more lightning zipped into the ground and sparks flew into the air. Smoke billowed up as something went up in flames.

"I uh…" Bobby broke off. "I'm going to find Xander."

"I think you should," she agreed.

He scrambled away from the wall and she listened as he slid into the classroom. She heard him calling Xander's name, but she couldn't bring herself to look away from the mammoth storm as she chewed on her nails. Her mother would be absolutely irate with her right now.

A loud clap of thunder caused her to jump and a startled cry escaped as she spun toward the window. Peering inside, she searched for Bobby amongst the shadows but couldn't see him. The sound of something skidding across the floor sounded before Bobby began to curse. The dull thud of rubber, or something like it sounded and she realized that he was jumping around, probably hopping.

"You ok?"

Bobby let loose a string of curses that would have made a trucker blush before he finally answered her. "Yes."

Mary Ellen had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing as she listened to him shuffle forward while calling Xander's name. She glanced nervously over her shoulder. The clouds continued to spread sideways over the towns, but they didn't appear to be coming toward them. She didn't know what she would do if that storm started coming their way.

"Hurry," she whispered, though there was no one to hear her.

"Xander!" Mary Ellen flinched at Bobby's loud shout, but she supposed it didn't matter. "Xander!"

She lowered her head to the window again as the ground once more vibrated with the force of the lightning. Her forehead furrowed, her hand clenched on the wall as she waited for the loud clap of thunder, but it didn't follow. Sitting up, Mary Ellen chewed on her nail as she turned back to the ominous clouds on the horizon. Lightning continued to streak across the sky, it wasn't hitting the ground but the earth continued to rumble beneath her.

Her heart plummeted into her stomach. The hair on her neck now standing on end had nothing to do with the electrical charge in the air as the rumbling increased. "Aftershock," she whispered seconds before the earth heaved and lurched. She threw her arms up as dirt and rocks shot up around her. Her cheek smacked off of a brick as she fell to the ground, but she managed to bite back a cry as she covered her head with her arms.