The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (12 page)

A sound like glass shattering filtered in
from outside. Carl and Al both winced but Mary Ellen couldn't tell
if it had come from one of the vehicles across the street, or a
nearby building.
Please, let the others still
be safe,
she pleaded silently as she tried not to let
her anxiety for them swamp her.

Riley glanced toward the front window, and
then at Mary Ellen. Mary Ellen could only shrug her shoulders in
response to Riley's unspoken question of where the noise had come
from. Riley didn't move for a minute, a muscle in her cheek jumped,
but finally she turned her attention back to Nancy and returned to
comforting the crying woman.

Mary Ellen froze, a chill slid down her
spine as something scratched across the front window. She was
gripped with the certainty that Jim was right, that those people
out there were just playing with them until they were ready to
pounce and devour them. She could almost believe a tree branch was
tapping against the glass, but she knew better. That hideous
laughter drifted through the building, the scraping of their
fingernails continued across the front window.

It took everything she had not to start
screaming as her stress level built to nearly epic levels. She
waited breathlessly for the window to explode and people to launch
themselves into the store. Her eyes shot nervously to Peter when he
began to shift from foot to foot. His eyes bounced around the
store, the muscles in his forearms and biceps bulged as his hands
twisted on his gun.

Not now
, she
prayed.
He can't melt down now
. She
found herself unable to move as she waited for him to start firing
at the front window. Carl shook his head and grabbed hold of
Peter's arm when he lifted the gun. "They don't know we're here,"
Carl hissed.

"You can't know that," Peter snarled.

"They'd be in here if they did. They're like
animals now, smart and lethal, but they don't hesitate when it
comes to their food. They don't deny themselves. Firing that weapon
will only bring them in here. Stay quiet."

Peter looked about to argue with him further
but footsteps running across the roof caused all of their heads to
tip back. The image of children laughing as they scurried into the
woods in search of some kind of mischief filled her mind as those
things raced across the roof. There were at least three of them up
there. They weren't laughing but the sound of it echoed in her
head.

Al moved to stand before the counter, Jim
stood beside him as the fingernails moving across the plate glass
window bounced over to the front door. Mary Ellen's head snapped
back toward the window as the bouncing continued. They tapped out a
beat, one she believed she might have heard before, but she
couldn't quite place it as their nails continued their relentless
melody.

A loud bang rattled off the other side of
the building; she assumed it came from the storage area that Jim
had pointed out. They were like cockroaches she realized,
everywhere at once. Like cockroaches these things didn't like light
either, but she didn't think they would scatter if the lights were
suddenly turned on. The sun may chase away some of them, but it
wouldn't chase away
all
of them.
Even still, they would have a much better chance of escaping this
building in the daylight than they had now. They just had to remain
hidden and pray that none of the doors or windows gave out.

Another loud bang shook the building, her
gaze returned to the ceiling as two new distinct sets of footsteps
ran across it. She moved closer to Rochelle, seeking her touch in
some way. Rochelle's eyes were troubled as she glanced at her, but
her daughter was in control and relatively calm. Nancy had stopped
crying, Riley still had her hand on Nancy's arm but her gaze was
focused on the scratching at the front window.

The footsteps on the roof stopped, she heard
a distant thump of what sounded like feet hitting pavement. The
scratching continued for a few more minutes before it suddenly
stopped too. The unnerving silence was almost worse than all the
movement had been. The burning of her lungs reminded her that she
was holding her breath. She inhaled a deep breath as she strained
to hear more. The rush of blood in her eardrums and the distinct
thud of her heart against her ribs were the only things she
detected.

"They've moved on," Jim said. "They normally
don't come back twice in the same night."

"They do that often?" Al asked.

"Often enough," Claire answered in an
ominous tone.

Mary Ellen couldn't imagine having to endure
that every night for weeks on end. How had these people not gone
insane?

Mary Ellen shook her head; she had to
unclench her hand from the grip of the gun in order to stretch her
cramped muscles. She turned back to the others in the room. For a
second she had the unsettling impression that they were all dead
and she was looking at a room full of ghosts. They all stared at
her with nearly identical haunted expressions, from faces as pale
as the moon, and eyes made more vivid by their pallor. Peter's body
shook; he tugged at his hair and turned away from them.

"Can I look outside now?" Riley asked
nervously.

"Don't make too much movement," Jim told
her.

Riley nodded and hurried over to the window.
Mary Ellen wanted to go with her, to see for herself if the others
were still safe, but her feet wouldn't move. Al walked over to join
Riley; he rested a hand on her shoulder. "I'll look," he told
her.

Riley shook her head. "No, I have to do
this."

Al nodded but he kept hold of her shoulder.
Riley took a deep breath and reached forward with a trembling hand
to pull the curtain back. Rochelle took a step forward and froze.
Mary Ellen silently counted the seconds in her head until Riley
slid the sliver of curtain she had moved aside back into place.
Tears brimmed in her eyes when she turned back to the room.

"They're still there," she breathed.

Mary Ellen's shoulders sagged in relief, she
felt so limp and exhausted that she almost slid to the ground. She
somehow managed to remain standing. She walked over to join Carl
and Jim by the backdoor. Jim pulled out his tin of chew and tapped
it between his fingers as he spoke. "You've made it pretty
far."

"We have," Carl replied.

"We've lost some of us along the way," Mary
Ellen murmured.

"To the sickness?" Jim asked.

"One to the sickness," Carl answered.

Jim leaned his bulky frame against the door.
"We lost Claire's sister to the sickness, and her husband. They
didn't die, but…"

"What those things become is even worse," Al
said when Jim stopped speaking.

"That it is," Jim agreed.

Silence descended over the room. She craved
sleep but she doubted she would be getting much of that tonight as
she settled onto the floor with Rochelle. Riley and Al stayed close
to the front window, while Peter paced restlessly back and forth
between the storage room and the main room. Mary Ellen grew tired
just watching him but she didn't say anything.

"Is he all there?" Jim asked Carl in a low
whisper.

"Not anymore," Carl muttered as he leaned
against the wall.

Jim nodded but Mary Ellen noticed that his
eyes didn't move away from Peter again.

Riley,

The sun was beginning to peak around the
edges of the curtain when her chin hit her chest again. Riley's
head shot up, she blinked in confusion as she stared around the
small room. She'd been waking up in some pretty strange places
lately, but it still took her a minute to figure out where she was.
She bolted upright when she recalled the events of the night and
grabbed hold of the curtain. Taking a deep breath to brace herself,
she pulled the material back a little to peer out at the dawning
day.

Her eyes instantly went to the large pickup
truck the others had taken shelter under last night. She saw
nothing beneath it. Panic clawed at her chest, she gaped at the
empty place where Xander, Donald, and John had been less than an
hour ago. Her hand clenched around the curtain as she rose to her
feet. She scanned the parking lot but saw no sign of them amongst
the vehicles in the lot.

"Did you see them?" she demanded, though she
was the closest person to the window. She hadn't been able to move
away from it throughout the night. A few heads lifted to look at
her but the others remained asleep. "Did you see where they
went?"

By the backdoor, Carl placed his hand on the
floor and pushed himself to his feet. His bones cracked as he
strode toward her. Riley focused outside again. Carl stopped on the
other side of the window and pulled the curtain back to peer out at
the parking lot. "Shit," he hissed. He rose onto his toes to try
and search over top of the vehicles.

"I'm sure they just moved," he muttered but
the tension in his voice was palpable.

She'd heard Al's approach before he rested
his hand on her arm and stepped next to her. Riley's heart hammered
in her chest, tears burned her eyes but she refused to shed them as
she continued to scan the parking lot. They had to have moved, but
where
? How could she have fallen
asleep? How could she have lost track of them in the night?

Self-hatred and dismay were beginning to
swamp her when she spotted the door of the truck inching open. She
couldn't see who was opening the door but she leaned forward in
search of her friends. John's head popped up for a second and then
disappeared again. He reappeared once more when he squirmed onto
the bench seat of the truck. She'd never felt so relieved in her
life but she saw no sign of the others with him.

She watched as the truck pulled out of the
parking spot. Behind it, she spotted the two cars pulling out. The
overwhelming urge to cry swamped her but she took a steadying
breath and turned away from the window. "They're coming," she told
the others. "We have to go."

Mary Ellen shook Rochelle's shoulder to wake
her and Jim lifted his head. Carl turned away from the window to
survey the family that had given them sanctuary last night. "Do you
plan to stay here?" Carl asked them and shot a look to where Peter
was sitting against the wall with his chin on his chest. He may be
acting like it, but Riley wasn't convinced he was sleeping.

Jim looked toward Peter too and then his
family. "Where are you going?" Claire asked.

"To a cabin in the Catskills. We might be
able to make a home of it there or at least a stand for a bit," Al
informed them. "You don't have to stay there with us, but I don't
think staying here is a good idea. Not anymore."

Claire and Jim exchanged a look that Riley
couldn't read but they were having some kind of silent
conversation. "We have no food here, no supplies, but we might be
able to find more, and they haven't found us here." Claire wrapped
her arm around Freddie as she spoke. "We don't know what's out
there and we've made a stand here for this long."

"It's not safe in here," Jim said.

Riley heard the truck's engine as it pulled
around to the back of the building. "They can't wait out there for
us," she told them. "Not without drawing the attention of some of
those things."

"I want to go," Freddie said. He twisted to
look up at his mother. "I don't want to be alone anymore and I
think it's only a matter of time before they find us. What happens
if we can't find any more supplies? Or what if they get dad? What
do we do then mom?"

Claire stared at Freddie before looking
toward her husband again. Riley could see the indecision on
Claire's face but she also felt the sway that her son's words had
over her. Riley looked toward Nancy as she lifted her head to study
the family. She'd had a bit of a breakdown last night but she
seemed to be back in control of herself now. Nancy rose unsteadily
to her feet and leaned against the door.

A soft knock on the backdoor drew all of
their attention to it. Nancy's hand shook as she unlocked the door
and pulled it open to reveal Donald standing in the doorway. Riley
strained to see past him to Xander, but Donald blocked most of the
frame.

"We'll come with you," Claire finally said.
"I don't want to be alone anymore either."

Jim gave a brief bow of his head. "Someone
is going to have to ride in the back of the truck," Carl said.

"I will," Freddie volunteered eagerly.

"I will too," Josh said and knelt down to
shake Peter's shoulder.

The man confirmed Riley's suspicions that he
hadn't been sleeping when he immediately lifted his head and
focused on Josh. Riley waited to hear what he would say but he
remained mute as his eyes drifted past Josh and latched onto her. A
shudder rippled through her, there was something about his gaze
that made her flesh crawl. The certainty that during the night
something inside of him had completely unraveled suffused her. A
madness, even worse than the sickness outside, now slithered
through his mind.

A part of her that was tempted to lift her
gun and destroy that madness before it swallowed them all whole.
She didn't bring her gun up, instead she found herself frozen by
his stare, unable to look away. She may
feel
like he wasn't there anymore, but he'd done
nothing threatening to any of them, yet.

Peter broke the stare first and focused on
where the others had gathered by the back door. Riley found herself
finally able to draw a breath but she couldn't shake the memory of
that stare or the sensation of ants crawling over her skin. She
rubbed her arms but it did nothing to ward off the chill creeping
through her.

Trying to shake off her lingering dread, she
walked over to join the others. She wanted to speak with Carl or Al
but the words were lodged in her throat. She didn't even know what
words she would use, or have any idea of what she would say to them
about Peter.