Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series) (18 page)

  
It was the middle of the summer and the bridge was completely deserted. Last summer the bridge had been packed with traffic, the sound of cars had filled the night as tourists came and went at a slow pace. Now there was nothing there except for the lights, and almost certain death.

   “The lights are on,” Jenna said softly. “We can’t go across if the lights are on. They’ll spot us instantly.”

   “We’ll try the Bourne bridge,” one of the members of the other group said.

   “The
lights will be on there too,” I told them.

   “You can’t know that,” a woman retorted sharply.

   No, I couldn’t know it for sure, but it was more than likely true. They just didn’t want to believe it, yet.

   “We’ll go to the other bridge,” Cade said reasonably
. “It’s not that far. If we stick to the edge of the woods and move quickly, we can get there before daybreak.”

   I licked my lips nervously. We hadn’t discussed if we were going to attempt the crossing. I knew that Jenna was for it,
but what did everyone else feel? I didn’t want to split up our group, I didn’t want to stay on this side, but I didn’t want to cross. I looked to Aiden, but he was quietly conversing with one of the men.

   I thought of the other bridge, and then I thought of something else. “What about the
military base?” I asked quietly. They all turned to me, frowning as they stared at me in the night. Their eyes were oddly lit by the moonlight filtering through the trees. “I know it’s closed. I know the aliens kicked everyone off of it, but it’s big, and it’s wooded. There are a lot of places to hide there, a lot of buildings we can sneak into. And there might be weapons still there, or maybe even food.”

   They were silent for
a long moment as they thought over my words. “I don’t know the base very well,” one man said.

   “The aliens could be out there,” another woman
replied. “Wouldn’t it make sense for them to take over that place, and use it as their own?”

   I co
uldn’t argue with that, it
would
make sense, but I doubted the aliens were on the base. I didn’t think they would want to take up any sort of permanent residence down here. They hated us; they thought nothing of us, which was very obvious by the fact that they were hunting us like rabid animals and putting us down without hesitation. And now that I had thought about the base, I wasn’t ready to let it go. There could be weapons out there still; there
would
be places to hide. There may even be places that we could make a stand, places we could defend ourselves from. We couldn’t run forever, we wouldn’t survive long doing that. Our supplies were limited.

  
The bridges were a terrifying thought, and one that I did not want to commit to.

   But as much as the base was taking root in my mind, I could tell that they were
dead set against it. “We need to get to the mainland,” another man in the group said.

   I sighed softly, Abby’s hand tightened on my arm.
There was no reasoning with them, no arguing with them. They had their minds set. I looked toward Aiden, but he wasn’t going to argue, I could see that on his face. He felt the mainland was the best option also. Terror rolled down my spine, they were going to get themselves killed, and they were going to take my friends and family with them.

   I didn’t argue as we fell into step with them. Though it was a
lmost five miles, we arrived at the Bourne bridge far faster than I would have liked. I stared at the impressive metal structure arching gracefully over the canal, it was the twin in many ways to the Sagamore. It was utterly eerie and frightening. I kept waiting for the Twilight Zone music to start playing, kept waiting for
something
to happen. I suddenly felt as if we were the only people left on earth, as if we had been sucked into some strange time loop or perhaps were even being punked. I kept waiting for someone to jump out and yell, ‘Surprise, or Gotcha!’

   Neither of those things happened.

  The lights of the bridge blazed brightly, lighting up the dark night sky. It was hauntingly beautiful, achingly empty. The roadway leading to it was as bright as day to me. It almost seemed as if the lights were trying to entice us forward, trying to lure us onto the soaring structure like a mouse to cheese. I was certain we would be snapped up the minute we stepped out of the shadows of the forest.

   Abby stood on tiptoe, pulling me closer to her. “I don’t want to cross it.”

   I shook my head, pressing my finger against my lips for her to keep quiet. The others gathered together, talking softly amongst themselves. Abby and I stayed back. I didn’t want to separate, it was the
last
thing I wanted to do, but I was not going to cross that bridge, and I was not going to let them make Abby cross it either. I didn’t know what we would do if we were left behind, but I was willing to take my chances on this side rather than step onto that death trap.

  
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Cade was shaking his head firmly, his arms crossed over his chest. Abby clung tighter to me; I could feel small tremors running through her petite frame. Jenna was behind Cade, nodding as he shook his head. Cade looked troubled and worried as Jenna eagerly followed the conversation. Aiden was hanging slightly back, looking unsure of either option while Bret was listening to each argument intently, trying to decipher which course of action he felt would be best.

   “I need you to stay here Abby.”

   I tried to free myself from her grip, but she only clung tighter to me. “No.”

   “Abby…”

   But it didn’t matter; the group was beginning to break apart. Aiden was coming toward us. I could tell by the set of his shoulders, and the determination in his eyes, that I was not going to like what he had to say. I braced myself, my jaw clenching tightly.

   “We’re going to go over in groups.”

   “I’m not going over.”
   “Bethany…”

   “No Aiden, I am
not
crossing that bridge. It’s suicide to do so.”

   “It’s suicide to stay here.”
   “Crossing that bridge is
instantaneous
suicide and you know that. Why would you even want to try it? We still have a chance over here; we can come up with a different plan if we just think about it reasonably.”

  
“The aliens might not have considered the bridges.”
   The sheer stupidity of that statement caused my mouth to drop as I gaped at him. They somehow had the technology to navigate galaxies with ease, and freeze a good chunk of the population, but they wouldn’t have the foresight to monitor the only two ways off of Cape Cod? I had no idea what anyone was thinking, but they sure as hell weren’t using their brains to do so. “Aiden…”

   “We can’t stay here Bethany.”

   “There has to be another way.”

   “What way?”

   I didn’t know how to answer that. The canal was known for its dangerous currents, and to swim it would be almost as obvious as running across the bridge, but even that seemed a better option to me than this. And then I knew. I knew exactly how we could get to the other side. “What if I have a better plan Aiden?” I asked softly.

  
He stared at me for a long moment. “What is it?”

   “We can swim across. If we find some diving gear, we could use it to swim across.
We could stay under water, stay out of sight. It could work.”

   He was silent for a moment; Abby stared up at me in wide eyed awe, while Cade seemed to be thinking it over. “None of us know how to use scuba gear
, and where would we even get it?”

   I didn’t
care if none of us could scuba dive. I was far more willing to take my chances with it than I was with the bridge. “Someone here might know how, and there’s a rental place a few miles away. They have all kinds of beach supplies in there; they may have something that we could use.”

   The other group had moved closer to us, but none of them spoke out when I mentioned scuba diving. “We can figure it out,” I whispered.

   “It’s not something you just figure out Bethany.”
   I glared fiercely at him. “I would rather take my chances with that instead of running across something over a hundred feet in the freaking air Aiden!” I snapped, unsure why he was so stubbornly clinging to this crazy notion. He was one of the smartest people I knew, but he was being adamantly stupid right now. My idea wasn’t without risk, and possibly death, but it was still better than this
absolute
insanity. Yet I could tell that few people even wanted to consider what I had to say.

   “She has a point,” Cade said softly.
“We can swim around the canal, avoiding the currents, and come up somewhere more sheltered on the other side.”

   “We don’t know how to use scuba gear,” one of the other
group insisted firmly. “We would never be able to do it.”
   “And we are never going to be able to do this!” I insisted.

   “I know how to scuba dive.” My attention was drawn to a young woman in her late teens or early twenties. Her long reddish hair
, so dark that it was nearly brown, hung in thick curls to the middle of her back. Her cat green eyes were bright as she surveyed the group. “My father and I used to go lobster diving. I’m not an expert, but I do well enough with it. I could help.”

   Hope sprang through me, I looked eagerly to Aiden, but his jaw was clenched and I could tell he was still against it. “We don’t know for sure that the store will have rental gear
.”

   “It’s worth a shot,” Abby said softly.

   “There may not even be enough for all of us, and then what?” another woman in the group inquired.

   I si
ghed loudly, growing impatient and frustrated. “Then we come back here tomorrow night, but at least we would have tried,” I said sharply.

   “You can stand here and debate this all you want. I’m not waiting any longer
. The closer it gets to dawn, the less likely our chances of getting across are going to become,” a man amongst the group insisted. “And we may not have another night. This may be our
only
chance to escape, and I am not going to blow it.”

   “
But this isn’t a chance, this is death!” I insisted angrily. “Please don’t do this. It’s foolish.”

   I didn’t understand their absolute instance upon this
course of action. Was it because it was the only plan they believed in? Was it because they believed the other side of the bridge was magically better? Or was it simply because they finally had something to do, something to cling to and hope for other than fear and uncertainty? Because they finally had a firm plan, and a course of action?

  
Whatever it was, I knew that I was not going to be able to stop them, and I was terrified that I would not be able to talk sense into Aiden either. Would he leave Abby and I here just to do this? Just to prove a point?

   “You’ll see Bethy, when we get to the other side, you can join us.”

   “No Aiden, please no.”

   My heart was hammering. Abby was shaking even more, her fingers dug painfully into my arm. “Aiden don’t,” she pleaded.

   He looked at her in surprise; apparently he’d thought that she would be eager to go across too. “Why don’t we just think over what Bethany is saying,” Cade said softly.

   “What is there to think about?” The burly man shoved his way through
the group to us. He hoisted his spear higher as he swung his pack onto his back. “This is the plan.”

   My heart was hammering, my mouth was completely dry. There didn’t seem to be any way to stop this. They were
fixed on their course. “At least stay with us,” I urged Aiden. “If they make it to the other side then maybe we’ll consider going.”
   Aiden looked torn; he glanced back at the group of four that was starting to gather near the road. “We are in the third group, we’ll go then.”

   A
pparently I had already been divided without my knowledge, or approval. “Why are we even splitting up?” Abby asked softly.  

   “Smaller groups will be harder to notice.”

   “Yeah, that’s gonna help,” I retorted angrily.

   “You know I love you Bethy, but optimism has never been
one of your stronger qualities,” Aiden said quietly.

   I glared at him, fighting to keep control of my rising temper
as my hands fisted at my sides. He may be my brother, and one of my best friends, but there were times when our personalities completely clashed. Unfortunately this was one of those times, and his stubborn insistence may very well get us killed. No matter how much I did not want to cross that bridge, I knew that I would not let him go alone. I couldn’t. “Realism is not the same as pessimism. You’re being foolish Aiden; you’re not even listening to reason.”

   “This is a good plan.”

   I bit my lip, arguing with him was getting me nowhere. He wasn’t listening; he wouldn’t listen, not until something bad happened. I looked toward Cade, but his attention was focused upon the people already leaving the woods. I closed my eyes, made a silent plea for their safety, and then forced myself to watch. I couldn’t keep my eyes closed against this; I had to know what was going to happen no matter how awful it might be. I couldn’t pretend that it wasn’t going to happen.