Kingdom Come (7 page)

What a freakin’ psycho.

I looked up, and everyone was walking much closer together than they had before the last round of tornadoes touched down. I wasn’t too far behind, but I wasn’t thrilled with being around people at the moment, either. I just wanted to be left alone, though I knew if I went off on my own, that was it for me. There was no way I could survive all this by myself.

I kept my eyes focused straight ahead, because every time I so much as glanced to the side, I was met with nauseating devastation. Every building was demolished. Houses were reduced to piles of splintered wood that scattered across the fields. Trees were now nothing but firewood. These were people’s homes. Their
lives.
All destroyed overnight by
him.
And judging by the black clouds still swirling above, it was far from over.

My eyes burned, and I squeezed them closed to force the tears away. Now wasn’t the time for crying. It wasn’t the time for weakness. Now was the time to accept that this was my new life. Now, I was homeless. I was an orphan.

I was alone.

As I opened my eyes, I slammed into the back of Ethan, who’d slowed to join my pace. Disoriented, I stumbled a little, but he placed both hands on my shoulders to steady me.

“I’m okay,” I muttered, dragging my feet forward and walking ahead of him. “You can stop asking me.” I knew I was being flat-out rude, but my filter had disappeared along with any emotion left in me. I was just . . . numb.

“Hey!” he called out.

I groaned and stopped, rubbing my forehead. He was a nice guy and all, but why couldn’t he just leave me alone for a while? I didn’t
want
to be around people. I didn’t want him to be all sweet and concerned when I just felt like curling into the fetal position somewhere. When he caught up with me, he didn’t force conversation, for which I was grateful. We fell into step with one another and picked up our pace so we weren’t so far behind everyone else.

I felt like a jerk. I mean, he
had
saved my life a few hours earlier. He’d been so nice to me all night—even let me sleep on his shoulder while he sat on the cold cement floor. So why was I incapable of at least being civil to him?

“I’m sorry,” I said after we’d been walking for a few minutes.

He shrugged, but kept his eyes trained ahead. “No worries.”

“I’m just so tired of people treating me with kid gloves,” I continued. “You have to understand that about me. I’ve been handled like a mental case for most of my life, especially these past couple of years. Not saying you treated me that way.” Tears pooled in my eyes yet again, and I wiped them away with a bitter laugh. “Just kind of on edge considering my family’s dead. No big deal.”

Instead of tuning me out like I’d expected, and probably deserved, Ethan tossed his arm across my shoulders again. It was comforting, but the contact tripped off another floodgate of tears. They streamed down my cheeks without mercy, but I kept my pace.
Stray from the group, you’re no longer part of the group.
He didn’t say anything, just squeezed my shoulder as we kept on.

“Does no one else care?” I asked, nodding toward the group ahead. Nate and Danny walked side-by-side behind Dr. Fowler, and Haven trailed behind them with her head hanging down, kicking at rocks that littered the crumbled road. Haven reminded me far too much of my sister. She was slender and frail, and with her black hair and pale skin, she was an older clone of Bethany, right down to that purple streak. Simply looking at the back of her head made my heart clench. A sob caught in my throat, but I cleared it away. I was so stinkin’ tired of crying. “Don’t they care about their families?”

“I can only speak for myself, but honestly?” He shook his head. “Can’t say I care.”

“Why not?”

He paused for a minute before answering. “I was in Sunrise for a reason, Kerrigan.”

“So, you’re saying it had something to do with your family?” I asked.

“It had everything to do with my family.” His jaw stiffened. I wasn’t sure if it was because of my questions or something he was thinking about.

“My parents sucked,” he said after a pause. “My mom liked to yell. My dad liked to hit. The two didn’t mesh well together.” I stared up at him, speechless, as he kept on. “One night, my dad went too far. My mom . . . she was a fucking mess. Blood was everywhere. I yanked him off her and broke his nose. The next day, Mom screamed that
I
was out of control and they tossed me into Sunrise.”

“I’m sorry.” It was all I could think to say. I mean, what else could I say to that?

“So now, I’ve been deemed a kid with anger management issues.” He scoffed. “You’d think she would have been happy that I kind of, you know, saved her life. But whatever.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve been deemed emotionally unstable with possible schizophrenia.” He looked down at me, and I managed a small smile. “We’re a pretty awesome pair, huh?”

Finally, his grimace shifted into a smile of his own. “A crazy girl and . . .”

“A ragey guy,” I finished with a slight pep in my step. “See? They even kind of rhyme. We’re perfect for each other.” I stopped short at that, realizing what I’d just said and praying to every god in the universe that he hadn’t heard. Judging by the barely suppressed smile on his face, he had.
Whoops.

Danny turned to face us, walking backward to keep up with everyone else. “Hey!” he yelled. “You two lovebirds bringing up the rear need to get a move on!”

“Oh God,” Ethan mumbled, but I couldn’t help but laugh, too. “Danny Cooper, ladies and gents. A twelve-year-old stuck in a seventeen-year-old’s body.”

Just as Danny turned back around, Dr. Fowler came to an abrupt halt, and Danny nearly walked right into him. Ethan and I caught up with them seconds later. With his arm still securely around my shoulders, I leaned into Ethan’s side while searching the area for any sign of trouble. We were out in the middle of nowhere, walking down a road that ran through what used to be a forest in the outskirts of some town. A few massive trees were left standing, but that was it. I’d lived in Pennsylvania all my life, but without GPS, or at least internet directions, I was pretty much useless. I was starting to wish I’d taken my dad up on all those camping trip invites.

“What’s up, Doc?” Danny asked. The mood of the group tensed immediately.

“I thought I heard something,” Dr. Fowler said. He glanced down at his watch. “We can stop here for a few minutes if you all need to eat, but it wouldn’t hurt to hold out on the food for a little longer.”

We all murmured that we were good to go, even though my stomach raged.
The food’s only going to last for like, a day
, I reminded myself as we resumed walking.
Keep going. You can make it.
I really hoped we’d get to this woman’s house sooner than expected. I wasn’t sure whether we would make it on our current supplies or not.
And how the heck were we supposed to get through the night? Temperatures dropped down to the twenties, if not lower, this time of year. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the worry aside as best I could. Worrying created weakness. Weakness was no good.
Keep going.

“Tell me about your family,” Ethan said.

My heart dropped the second the words were out of his mouth. I’d managed to forget about things for a while there, but now, the grief threatened to consume me again.

“Happy things,” he added. “Tell me about happy things. It sounds like you loved them a lot. I like hearing about normal people, if that makes any sense.”

“I’m far from normal,” I said. “But my parents . . . they were pretty much perfect, as far as parents go.” I stared straight ahead, willing the tears away before they even came to my eyes.
There
. Maybe I could do this, after all.

“They adopted me when I was four. Most couples want to adopt a newborn, or maybe even a toddler, but a four-year-old? Even as a kid, I didn’t get my hopes up. I knew my chances.” Despite the ache filling my heart, I smiled at the memory of the day my mother told me I should call her “Mom” instead of “Mrs. Monroe.” “They found out Mom was pregnant with my sister before the ink was even dry on the adoption papers, but they treated us exactly the same once she was born. I was their daughter. I never questioned their love for me at all.”

I glanced up at Ethan to see him nodding along with my story, with his lips pressed into a thin line. He looked deep in thought. “They sound like good people,” he finally said.

“They were. The best I’ve ever known.” After a moment, I added, “But honestly? Maybe this was for the best. At least they don’t have to go through this.”

“Go through what, exactly?”

“Not knowing if you’ll be alive an hour from now. Or five minutes from now, for that matter.” My gaze lifted to the sky, where the clouds were still black as coal. My heart pounded. “Not knowing? I think that’s worse than death itself. And now, they’re in a better place than this.”

“You really believe that?” he asked.

My lips curved up into a small smile, and I shrugged a shoulder. “I have to.”

Chapter 7

We’d walked miles, and miles, and miles, and there was still no sign of life anywhere. Reality was settling in: the scope of all this was even bigger than I could have imagined. Maybe the doctor was right. Maybe this
was
the end of the world.

I had no clue where we were. All I knew was that my feet and calves were tight and on fire, my head was pounding, and I felt like I couldn’t walk another inch. Even after Ethan forced me to share a bag of crumbled chips with him and take a gulp of water, my stomach cramped, making it painful to so much as move. And while the temperature was steadily dropping degree by freezing degree, sweat was soaking through my long-sleeved shirt by the time we came upon what Dr. Fowler deemed an acceptable campsite for the night.

The six of us stopped in front of a tiny run-down shack in the middle of the sparsely wooded area he’d led us to. It looked more like a storage shed made of Popsicle sticks than a building capable of housing all of us.

“All the houses and buildings we’ve seen destroyed today, and
this
thing made it through the storm?” Ethan asked.

He’d been my saving grace during our trek throughout the day, allowing me to lean on him when I was weak, and even carrying me on his back at one point when I became light-headed. He and I stood side-by-side in front of the shack in what seemed to be his favorite position, with his arm resting across my shoulders. I wasn’t complaining.

“Are we sure no one lives here?” I asked, hardly recognizing my own voice. The lack of water and food was taking its toll on me—on all of us, actually. I had no idea how we were supposed to make it through another day of this. I wasn’t sure we could.

“Does it
look
like anyone lives here?” Danny asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, no, but someone could still be using it for shelter. I mean, that’s what we’re doing.”

Danny started ahead of us, walking toward the shack. “If someone was using this place for shelter, they would have left some sort of trace behind. Only one way to find out.”

He jogged up the three steps leading to the doorway of the shack. Well, it used to be the doorway. Without an actual
door
, it was just an opening in the wall. Danny peered inside the tiny space, then stepped in.

“See?” he called out, his voice echoing off the walls. “Empty. Excuse me while I plop my tired ass on this floor and sleep for five days.”

“More like five hours,” Dr. Fowler said. “This is only for the night. We’re heading back out first thing in the morning.”

Danny groaned from inside the cabin. “You serious, Doc?”

“We’ll get a fire going out here,” the doctor continued. “Warm ourselves a bit before you all get some shut-eye.” He hesitated, eyeing each of us before speaking again. “I’d prefer to have at least one of you stay out here with me, even if it’s done in shifts.”

“What for?” I asked.

His gaze lifted to the ever-present clouds still blanketing the sky. “You really want to risk sleeping through what that may have to offer?” he asked. My silence seemed to answer his question, as he stepped around me and made his way to a clearing next to the shack.

“Are you even supposed to make a fire in the middle of the woods?” Nate asked. “Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

Dr. Fowler blew out a heavy breath, and it was obvious he was as exhausted and irritated as I was. Who could blame him? “And what would you have us do?” he asked. “Freeze tonight? Because that’s exactly what’ll happen if we don’t have some source of heat, even for the time being.” He stormed across the short distance between us and grabbed Nate’s hand. He pushed up the sleeve of his hoodie, then pinched his arm. “Did you feel that?”

With his lips pressed together tightly, Nate shook his head. Dr. Fowler dropped his arm.

“Precisely. Your skin is ice-cold to the touch, boy. Our bodies can withstand more than what we’d imagine, but it can only go through so much before shutting itself down. Take care of it at any given opportunity. We’re fighting a battle far beyond the scope of your imagination. You’d do well to listen if you want to survive.” When Nate remained silent, the doctor backed away. “There’s a small clearing here. It’ll have to do for now. We’re going to need some old wood.”

“How are we sleeping?” Haven asked. “We only have three blankets.”

“Cuddle party!” Danny said, appearing in the doorway and waving me over. “Come on over here with me, Pretty. I’ll share a blanket with you.”

My cheeks heated, and Ethan stiffened. My gaze flickered from him to Danny. “I think I’m going to help collect wood, actually. You going?” I asked Ethan, who nodded in response. He narrowed his eyes at Danny before starting for the trees without saying a word. What was that all about?

Danny shrugged, as if answering my unspoken question, and I hurried along to catch up with Ethan. The two of us walked in silence, each picking up scraps of wood here and there. Once our arms were full, we headed back in the direction of the shack.