The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (4 page)

His bloodshot brown eyes met hers in the
mirror. She'd assumed all he required was some rest but he hadn't
gotten much sleep in the past few days. His hair stood on end as he
met her gaze in the mirror. His once neatly trimmed mustache was in
desperate need of scissors, or a razor, or whatever it was that men
with mustaches used to keep them neat. She'd once considered him
handsome, but right now he looked more like an emperor Tamarin
monkey that had managed to ingest speed. The Tamarin monkeys had
always been her favorite things to see when she'd taken Rochelle to
visit the zoo.

Peter shook his head and focused on the road
again. A chill slid down her spine, she wasn't scared of him, or at
least that was what she kept telling herself. But she'd also kept
telling herself that he would get his act together. It felt like he
was slipping further and further away from them.

Her gaze traveled to Josh sitting beside the
teacher. The teenage, Asian boy had stood stalwartly by his teacher
throughout all of this but she could see the unease in his onyx
eyes. His black hair had been spiked when they'd first encountered
him, now it was flat against his skull. He pushed it back from his
eyes as a strand of it fell against his eyelid.

Mary Ellen turned her attention away from
them as they crested over top of another mountain. Blue rest stop
signs began to appear and she wondered if the others would pull
into the rest area. A bathroom break, and some time to grab
something to eat, sounded great to her right now as her stomach
rumbled. At the same time, she wanted to cover as much ground as
possible today. She also wasn't much in the mood for encountering
anything that was looking to feast on one of them.

Her heart leapt into her throat when the
blinker on the truck clicked on and the vehicle began the descent
down the steep road. There were two buildings below, tucked into
the side of the mountain. Three tractor-trailers were parked on the
side of the road, along with a handful of cars. Peter sighed and
shifted in his seat before leaning forward. His breath tickled the
back of her neck and she had to fight the urge to grab her gun from
the dashboard.

"Haven't we done this before," Peter
muttered as they drove by the building with the bathrooms.

"I don't think we've exactly done this
before." Donald pointed with his pen to the small building Riley
was stopping the car in front of.

Mary Ellen leaned forward and shadowed her
eyes to make out the words on the sign in front of the building.
"New York State Police," she said aloud. "No, we definitely haven't
done this before."

Donald placed the notebook and papers on the
dash and grabbed hold of the door handle before Mary Ellen came to
a complete stop. She threw the car into park, pulled the keys out
of the ignition and stepped out of the car. By the time she joined
them the others had already gathered by the front steps of the
building.

Carl glanced over at her as he lit a
cigarette and stepped away before inhaling it. "There could be
weapons in there. I'm not so sure anyone would think to, or
want
to rob the state police."

"No, I can pretty much guarantee a lot of
people would prefer
not
to rob this
building," Mary Ellen agreed.

"What do you think about those trucks and
cars?" Xander asked as he nodded toward the vehicles parked on the
side of the road.

"Either abandoned due to lack of gas or we
might have some company floating around here," Carl said. "We can
get back on the road and…"

"No, after everything that has happened, any
chance we have to grab more ammo and weapons shouldn't be ignored,"
Riley interjected.

"For once we agree," Peter said.

Riley's freckled nose wrinkled as she turned
away from him. "Lucky me," she murmured. Xander wrapped his arm
around Riley's waist and pulled her against his side.

"There's no reason for all of us to go in,"
Carl said. "We'll keep the vehicles running and someone should stay
behind the wheels in case we have to make a quick retreat."

Mary Ellen nodded her agreement and pulled
the keys for the Cadillac from her pocket. She went to turn back to
the car when Donald took hold of her hand and slipped the keys from
her. "I'll sit in the car; you can be with your daughter."

Mary Ellen gave him a grateful smile; she
released the keys to him. "Stay with the truck," Carl said to
John.

John started to protest but he glanced at
Rochelle and closed his mouth. Mary Ellen lifted an eyebrow at the
bottle of water in Rochelle's hand with a Twizzler sticking out the
top of it. She suspected John had something to do with the candy
water bottle, and the fact that Rochelle was actually looking up
and around again, instead of staring at her feet. If John had been
any closer, she may have kissed the kid, but he had moved toward
the stairs of the building with Carl.

Draping her arm around Rochelle's shoulders,
she pulled her daughter against her side. "How's the drink?"

"Good," Rochelle said and actually gave her
a little smile. Relief filled her, she ruffled Rochelle's hair and
kissed the top of her head. Rochelle didn't protest the gesture,
but she did straighten her hair before taking another sip from her
drink.

John turned away from Carl and hurried over
to the truck. Mary Ellen watched as Riley, Xander, and Carl
cautiously approached the door of the building. She was well aware
of the shaggy brunette head missing from the back of the pack, one
that had always been with Xander and Riley. The tears that had been
brimming in her eyes spilled free. She brushed them away and was
about to move Rochelle toward the truck when Josh trotted past her
and jogged up the steps of the police station to join the others.
He'd been so hesitant and frightened ever since they'd left
Xander's grandmother's house, it was good to see him coming out of
his shell now. Good to see him trying to help out more.

Riley and Xander turned to look at Josh but
they didn't speak as Carl twisted the handle and shoved the door
open. Mary Ellen said a silent prayer for their safety when they
cautiously entered the building. It wasn't until they had all gone
inside that Mary Ellen realized there were no police cars in front
of the station. She glanced around the parking lot, but she hadn't
missed the emergency vehicles, they simply weren't there.

Rochelle squeezed her hand before pulling
away and walking over to the open passenger side door of the truck.
Mary Ellen's attention was taken from Rochelle when the car in
front started up again. Al climbed out of the car and walked over
to join her.

"Think they'll find anything?" she
asked.

Al shrugged and pushed his glasses up on his
nose. His blue eyes were even larger behind the frames of the
glasses; his gray hair had been brushed to the side, away from his
lined face. There were dark shadows under his eyes but he was still
alert as he pinned her with his gaze. "Let's hope so," he said.
"Rochelle seems to be coming around."

Mary Ellen glanced at Rochelle. Her daughter
stepped away from the truck and stretched her back. "She does."

"Kids are much more resilient than we adults
give them credit for."

"Yeah," she muttered and glanced toward the
building. "She's not the only kid here though."

"True," Al agreed.

"Where are the police cars?"

Al shook his head; he stared at the empty
parking spots around them. "They probably took them to answer calls
when everything started. Judging by the size of this building, I
think it's only an outlet for the state police on the highway. The
main barracks is probably located somewhere else. I doubt they even
have extra vehicles here."

"Makes sense," Mary Ellen said.

Movement behind one of the windows drew her
attention back to the building. She thought she spotted Xander but
couldn't be sure, it was almost impossible to see inside the dark
building. She glanced around the deserted parking lot again; her
eyes lingered on the trucks and cars parked on the hill before she
turned toward the bathrooms. Maybe they'd get a chance to use the
bathrooms before they left, but then she might prefer to go outside
rather then enter a building with plenty of hiding places.

Her gaze traveled over the picnic tables set
up next to the bathroom building. On a normal day, she could have
pictured families gathered around the tables. It would be a great
place to share their lunches as they enjoyed the panoramic view of
the mountains spread out before them. She couldn't get over the
amount of green within these mountains.

"It's so different here then the shore," she
whispered.

"It seems as if the quakes weren't as bad
here and they definitely didn't have any tsunamis."

She gave a small laugh at Al's words but she
couldn't tear her gaze away from the trees. "No, definitely no
tsunamis. I did see a burned patch on the side of one of the
mountains."

"I'm sure some areas were still hit hard
here, and I'm sure there are also sick people in these mountains,
but it's already not as warm and the plants aren't dying as rapidly
here."

Mary Ellen took in the reddened sky, but
even that didn't appear as vibrant as it had in Connecticut or
Massachusetts. It was pinker here, almost like cotton candy instead
of fire. Her gaze was torn away from the mountains when Josh
stepped back onto the porch and placed a duffel bag down on the
ground. Mary Ellen couldn't see what was in the bag as it was
zipped shut but it was big enough to hold some shotguns or rifles.
At least that was what she hoped it held.

"I'll get the doors on the truck open," she
said and hurried to the back of the truck.

She glanced at Peter leaning against the
Cadillac, but his attention was focused upon the calm highway.
Throwing the doors on the truck open, she refused to look at the
bloodstain they had been unable to completely scrub from the
truck.

She had just pushed the right door
completely open when a muffled crash sounded. Mary Ellen's head
shot toward the building as another crash echoed from within. Her
heart leapt into her throat, she jumped away from the truck and
bolted across the parking lot toward the doors of the police
station.

Al was already on the porch and heading
inside when another crash sounded and Carl began to shout, "Whoa
whoa whoa!"

Mary Ellen had just stepped onto the porch
when the window beside her broke out. She jumped back and nearly
fell over as glass shattered outward. Her eyes widened at the sight
but she darted toward the doorway. "We're not going to harm you!"
Xander yelled as she and Al stepped into the shadowed building.
Pictures of men and women in uniform, and awards in picture frames,
lined the empty hallway before them.

Mary Ellen clasped her gun before her as she
poked her head around the corner and into a room with three large
desks inside it. Carl and Xander were on the floor. Xander was
sitting on someone's back; blood trickled down his right cheek from
the three scratch marks that had been raked down his face. Carl was
holding down the person's legs as angry, muffled cries escaped the
thrashing person. Josh sat in a rolling chair with his hand pressed
against his jaw. Mary Ellen could already see a red welt forming
upon his chin. Riley was kneeling before whomever they were holding
down, but she turned to look at them when they entered the
room.

Mary Ellen realized it was a woman lying on
the ground beneath Xander. The woman's eyes rolled in her head; she
continued to try and kick her legs as infuriated cries escaped her.
Mary Ellen didn't know what to make of the scene but her heart went
out to the woman pinned to the floor.

The woman lifted her head and her eyes
locked on Mary Ellen's. The woman's one clear green eye and one
clear blue eye startled Mary Ellen; she'd never seen eyes quite
like them before. The woman was petrified, she was irate and half
crazed, but there was recognition and intelligence within her
astonishing eyes.

"You're safe with us, I promise. Please just
calm down," Riley said pleadingly. "We'll let you go. You can even
stay here if you want; we just can't have you attacking us
again."

The woman's eyes shot back to Riley, her
thrashing began to ease. Mary Ellen crept closer as a sob escaped
the woman and she collapsed upon the floor. Xander climbed swiftly
off of the woman's back but he kept his palm in the center of it.
Carl's grasp on the woman's legs eased.

"It's ok," Riley whispered. She soothingly
rubbed the woman's tangled blond hair. "I know you're frightened,
but you're safe now. I promise."

The woman only cried even more as Mary Ellen
knelt beside her and the men stepped away.

Riley,

Riley didn't know what to do as the woman's
shoulders continued to heave and heart- wrenching sobs tore from
her. Riley had experienced this kind of crying before a couple of
times that she could remember. Once when her dog, Jingles, had been
hit by a plow when she was eight, and then again when Carol had
died. She hadn't sobbed like this over Lee and Bobby, but the awful
feeling of
needing
to cry lingered
within her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe.

This kind of crying was an awful form, the
kind where no matter what she did she couldn't stop the tears from
flowing and the snot from pouring out of her nose. The fact that it
often resulted in a struggle to breathe would eventually bring on a
bought of hiccups that just added insult to injury. Riley had cried
like this a time or two in her life, but she had no idea how to
handle a stranger doing it before her. She awkwardly rubbed the
woman's shoulder as the woman began to take in heaving gulps of air
that would cause the hiccups.