The Survivor Chronicles: Book 1, The Upheaval (35 page)

How long would it be before they were willing to leave each other behind?

No, it wouldn’t come to that. He wouldn’t let it. But he wasn’t entirely sure he could stop it either. This was only the beginning of what could be weeks or months or – shudder at the thought – years.

“I’m not leaving here until I know what happened to my family,” Bobby insisted.

Would Bobby be the first one? Xander wondered. Would he be the first one they left behind, the first one they sacrificed in order to try and ensure their own survival?

“Well, you can’t stay here when we leave.” Xander had been so engrossed in his own thoughts that he hadn’t realized the shower had turned off. Riley was standing in the doorway with a towel in her hand. Her dark hair tumbled around her shoulders in wet spirals that accentuated the delicate lines of her jaw and cheeks and caused his heart to skip a beat. “That’s crazy, Bobby.” She stepped out of the bathroom, allowing a puff of steam to follow behind her. Like a wolf on the hunt, Xander scented the enticing soap that drifted from the room.

“We’re rocks, paper, scissoring for that,” Lee announced as he leapt off the bed with renewed vigor at the prospect of a hot shower.

“Go ahead,” Bobby said.

Xander waved him away as Riley padded across the carpet and sank onto the bed next to him. Xander quirked an eyebrow as he stared at her. He’d expected some avoidance for a few hours, a lot more dirty looks and perhaps even another punch in the face. Instead her arm nearly brushed his as she ran her fingers through her tangled hair.

“We ought to find some clothes, and a hair brush,” she muttered.

“The little things,” Bobby said with a half smile.

“Yeah. You would really choose to stay here?”

“You would really choose to leave your family behind?”

Her hand dropped into her lap, Xander held his breath as he waited for her answer. “It’s not leaving them behind, it’s moving on, trying to find somewhere better. If it exists.”

“And if it doesn’t?” Bobby pressed.

“It sure doesn’t exist here, Bobby. This isn’t right. I don’t know why I feel like that, but I just can’t shake the feeling that this relative calm and peace isn’t going to last. I feel like a refugee in this place, and not a well-liked one.”

She turned toward Xander, her eyes pleading as she stared at him. She didn’t have to convince him though; he was ready to leave here right now… Or at least as soon as he got his chance at a shower, too.

“I’m ready to go,” he told her as Lee emerged from the bathroom. “Go ahead, Bobby.”

Bobby stared at them, reluctant to leave, but he climbed to his feet and disappeared into the bathroom. “We can’t leave Bobby,” Riley muttered as she returned to trying to untangle her hair.

“If none of us want to be here, we may have to,” Xander told her.

He was unable to resist the impulse to touch one of her lengthy curls. It was as silky as he'd always thought it would be as he wrapped it leisurely around his finger. She didn't tell him to stop as her eyes met and held his. He found himself wishing that Lee and Bobby weren't here as she pulled her full bottom lip between her teeth and held her breath. He forced himself to unravel the curl, before he couldn't, as his pulse began to speed up.

Her shoulders slumped, she held out her hand to shake off the long strands of dark chocolate hair entangled around her fingers. They shimmered in the light as it floated toward the floor on the still air within the room. He watched until they landed upon the dull beige carpet. It was such a normal act, one he’d seen his sister do countless times and for one instant he was caught up in the swirl of grief that memory aroused in him.

“I’m not staying.” He was jerked from the memory by Lee’s heated words. “I don’t like the idea of leaving Bobby behind, but it’s his choice to make. He’s an adult.”

Riley snorted. “We’re all supposed to be adults, but let’s face it: we don’t have a freaking clue right now. All we have is each other, and we can’t just leave one of us behind.”

“So we all stay because one of us is acting like a child and stubbornly clinging to his family?”

Riley was the queen of making someone squirm. That look wasn’t even directed at him and yet he felt uncomfortable for Lee, who actually tugged on the collar of his shirt. “You and Bobby have been friends since elementary school,” she grated.

Lee released the collar of his shirt and focused on the wall behind Riley. “I know Ri,” he muttered. “But you know we shouldn’t stay here. You know it’s dangerous. Do you want to die?”

“Of course not,” she retorted. “But…”

“Shh,” Xander said as the shower turned off.

He rose and stretched as he cracked his back. He doubted there was any hot water left and he didn’t care. It took everything Xander had not to run Bobby over as he emerged from the steam. The water was tepid, but it was still the best shower he’d ever had in his life and it gave him some time to formulate a rudimentary plan. His nose wrinkled as he slipped his filthy, stinking clothes back on afterwards.

Yep, they definitely had to find some clothing. He reemerged into the bedroom to find Riley standing before the window staring silently out as Lee and Bobby sat hunched on the bed. “We’ll leave notes for our parents telling them where we’re going,” he said.

“And where exactly is that?” Riley asked but she didn’t look at him as she continued to focus outside.

“For now I think we should head toward my grandparents in Sturbridge. It’s relatively rural there. Unless someone has a relative closer that they think might be a good start.” Bobby and Riley shook their heads in response.

“My aunt’s in Worcester, but that city’s probably a disaster now, too,” Lee said. “We have to go by Worcester anyway to get to Sturbridge.”

“So western Mass it is. We should get going.” Bobby wouldn’t meet his gaze as he focused on the folded hands in his lap. Riley wouldn’t turn around. “Does anyone have a better idea?” Xander demanded, growing frustrated by the stubborn silence. His patience frayed even further when he got three head shakes in response. “Then let’s go!”

Bobby finally looked at him; he opened his mouth to say something but Riley’s words cut him off. “There’s something happening out there.”

A cold chill slid down Xander’s spine. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they had run out of time, that their desperation to get clean may very well have cost them their lives. Riley’s knuckles were white as her hand curled around the curtain she was holding back. Lee and Bobby jumped to their feet and rushed over to join her. Xander stood on his toes to peer over her shoulder.

It didn’t take him long to see what had caught her attention as people split and flowed in different directions. Instead of coming toward the building they were flowing away from it, running as if the hounds of hell were on their heels and closing in fast.

“We have to go.”

He grabbed hold of Riley’s hand and pulled it away. Due to her death grip on the curtain his brusque tug caused her to pull it down, rod and all. They could send him the bill, he thought crazily as he spun on his heel and practically flew toward the door. All of his tiredness and pain from earlier were distant memories as adrenaline spurred him on.

Eighth floor! They were on the freaking eighth floor, and they were out of time!

He didn’t remember throwing the locks on the door, didn’t remember opening it and fleeing into the hall but he was suddenly in the stairwell, plummeting down steps, taking them two at a time. Riley was at his side, staying close to him as she somehow managed to keep up with his frantic and reckless plunge.

On the fourth floor the stairwell became congested with people pushing and shoving their way down. He should have listened to Riley; they never should have entered this building. He shoved his way through the fray, refusing to relinquish Riley’s hand as people pushed and tore and pounded against them. Somewhere, someone began to scream. It was a long wail of agony that caused him to halt abruptly as it echoed eerily within the stairwell.

He pushed back, shoving Riley into a corner as he stared helplessly at the sea of heads surrounding them. Continuing to try and force their way through the mob was pointless, and he refused to aid in crushing someone to death. No matter how badly he longed to live, his last moments would not be spent climbing over top of someone else, and he couldn’t shake the notion that these were, in fact, his last moments.

His heart hammered as he pinned Riley against the wall. He tried to keep her sheltered from the worst of the crushing impact as he searched for some solution to the problem. Then, over top of the sea of heads he spotted another door. He nodded to Lee and Bobby and pointed over top of the horde. He was trying to be discreet so as not to alert everyone to the fact that there was an escape from this mess.

Grabbing Riley’s hand he pulled her through the crowd. He elbowed people with little remorse as they tried to shove him toward the stairs. Lee appeared at his side as Bobby made it to the door and flung it open.

Xander practically fell into the hallway, but they had little reprieve as people rushed at them in an attempt to escape the hall. “Here!” Riley pulled him to the side and dragged him into another room. It wouldn’t get them out of the building but at least they were out of the treacherous stampede.

He rushed toward the window. They were on the other side of the building now, on the side people had been fleeing from. A dim hellish glow danced like a fairy in the garden over Riley’s pale features before they even reached the window. This was no fairy though; this was something straight from Satan’s wildest fantasies. He was certain of that even before he looked out the glass.

His mouth dropped, the feeling that shot through his body was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. It seemed as if every fluid in his body rushed to his feet, leaving him empty and cold.

“Is that lava!?” Lee exploded.

Xander could only stare at the mass moving and flowing toward them. A mass that did in fact, impossibly, appear to be lava.

CHAPTER 25

John

Foxboro, Mass
.

Carl pulled the truck over and parked in front of the post office. “What are you doing?” Rochelle asked worriedly.

“There are cops over there.” Carl leaned across them and pulled the glove compartment open. Rochelle’s breath hissed in as she spotted the gun stashed inside. “Maybe they have some answers.”

“I don’t think that gun is the best idea,” John told him.

“I have no intention of going over there with it,” Carl assured him. “But I’m not leaving this truck unprotected.”

“Then what do you expect to happen?”

Carl’s eyes met his briefly. “For you to go.” John pursed his mouth as he glanced at the expanse of undamaged lawn and the crowd gathered upon it. A large number of the crowd was already staring distrustfully at the company name and locale emblazoned on the side of the truck. He would have bet an arm that most of the time out-of-towners weren’t even looked at twice in this town, especially with the stadium on the outskirts.

And Carl was asking him to walk right into the middle of it. He thought he’d rather dress in tights and start dancing the Nutcracker.

“I’ll go, but you’ll have to stay here,” Carl told him. “With the gun.”

John cursed under his breath and threw the door open. Rochelle was smirking at him as she slid out of the middle. “Sorry for swearing,” he apologized.

Rochelle shrugged. “Like I said, I’ve heard it before.”