The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (5 page)

"It's ok," Riley said over and over again
but her words didn't seem to be getting through to the woman.

Eventually either a lack of tears, or just
plain exhaustion, caused the woman's heaving sobs to subside. She
drew her knees up against her chest and hugged them to her as she
began to rock back and forth in an attempt to comfort herself. Her
sobs lessened even more and eventually even the rocking eased. She
finally lifted her head to take them in with bloodshot, swollen
eyes.

"Ma'am I don't know what you've been through
but I promise that you'll be safe with us," Josh said
hesitatingly.

"Oh God kid, don't call me ma'am," the woman
moaned. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Riley
couldn't help but smile; Carl stepped forward and thrust a box of
tissues toward the woman. "Thank you," she muttered as she took the
box from him.

She pulled out a handful of tissues and
began to dab at her eyes before blowing her nose. Those strangely
colored, amazingly vivid eyes focused upon her. Riley could almost
see the wheels spinning in the woman's head as she tried to figure
out if she really was safe with them. Riley put her gun away and
held up her hands. She crab walked backward from the woman.

"Are you alone?" Carl inquired.

The woman nodded. "Yes."

Even still, Carl moved toward the door and
stood in the doorframe. He stared down the hall toward the rear of
the building with his gun before him. "Do you have any more weapons
on you?" he asked.

Carl had knocked a small revolver from the
woman's hand when she'd first emerged from the trunk she'd been
hiding in. The woman shook her head but Riley highly doubted she
told the truth,
she
certainly
wouldn't have if the roles were reversed.

She wasn't nervous about the fact that the
woman may still have a weapon, she'd put her gun away but Xander,
Josh, Mary Ellen, Carl, and Al were still holding theirs. Riley
knew they would shoot without hesitation if it came to keeping
someone safe.

"You really are safe with us," Riley
said.

The woman tossed aside the tissues and
turned toward the window. She rose up a little to look at the
vehicles parked out front. "How many of you are there?"

"Ten."

"There's ten of you?" she croaked out.

A pang shot through Riley's heart and she
had to blink away her own tears at the yearning and disbelief she
heard in the woman's voice. "There were more of us, but…" Riley
couldn't find the words anymore so she became silent as she looked
toward Xander.

He rested his hand on her shoulder and
stepped closer to her. His hazel eyes were flecked with beautiful
shades of jade green and gold that she found fascinating. His dark,
sandy blond hair curled around his ears and forehead. "But it looks
like you've been through hell too. You know what it's like now,"
Xander said.

Fresh tears began to stream down the woman's
cheeks. She released her first hiccup. "What is your name?" Riley
inquired.

"Nancy, Nancy Wainthrop. It's so odd to say
that." Her gaze drifted to them, her brow furrowed. "I haven't said
it in… days… weeks?"

"I don't even know what day it is," Riley
assured her. "But it has been weeks since the beginning. I'm Riley,
that's Mary Ellen, Xander, Josh, Carl, and Al. How long have you
been here?"

Nancy's eyes remained distrustful as they
slid over each person Riley introduced. Her gaze lingered on Al,
and Riley didn't miss the fact that she moved closer to the older
man. If Nancy believed Al was the weakest of them because of his
age, or the most easily taken advantage of, she was in for a
shock.

"Days, I think," Nancy replied.

Riley sat back on her heels as Nancy's eyes
took on a glazed look. Her hand dropped down by her side and she
edged further away from them. Riley didn't try to stop her. Judging
by Nancy's tangled and matted blonde hair, torn clothing, and
bruises on the exposed skin of her arms and neck, she'd been
through a lot over the past few weeks.

Nancy again dabbed at her eyes with the
tissues before focusing on Riley and Mary Ellen. A noise in the
hall drew Riley's attention to John stepping into the doorway.
"Everything ok in here?" he demanded.

Carl nodded and stepped out of the room with
him. "Help me search the rest of the building; we have to get out
of here soon."

Riley turned back toward Nancy as she
hiccupped again. "What happened to your family or friends?"

Nancy's gaze focused on the wall behind
Riley. "I was with my family for awhile, but I was on my own for a
couple of days before arriving here. There were five of us left,
myself, my brother and his wife, and my mom and dad. My younger
sister was away at college when it started. We were trying to get
to her in the city but we were jumped by some of those rabid
humans." Her lower lip began to tremble as she tugged at her hair.
"And now it's just me."

"Where are you from?" Al inquired.

"Plattsburg New York, it's near the Canadian
border."

"What was it like by you? Did the quakes
cause a lot of damage?"

"It wasn't so bad in the beginning," Nancy
whispered. "Some homes were lost in the quakes and fires. Lake
Champlain overflowed when parts of it were dammed up and new
outlets were formed. Our area held up better than some of the
others I've been through but then the sickness started. At first no
one knew what was happening, but then people started changing. They
stopped speaking or they started speaking gibberish. My best
friend…"

She shook her head and took a deep breath
before continuing. "Well the gibberish and silence were the best
part of it all. When they started turning on us things just became
complete chaos. We'd been holding off on trying to get to my
sister, certain that someone would come to help us, or that she
would somehow get a hold of us. We were scared we would leave and
she would be coming to us. When it became obvious things were only
going to get worse we decided to try and get to her. We never made
it. There are so many of
those
people out there, and so few of
us
."

Riley touched Nancy's arm when fresh tears
began to fall, but Nancy moved it away from her. Riley dropped her
hand back to her side. "I'm sorry for your losses," she
murmured.

Nancy's eyes took on a haunted look, she
seemed to stare right through Riley. "I can still hear their
screams," she said with a shudder.

Riley's skin crawled at those words. "Have
you encountered any other, normal humans?" Xander asked.

"Are any of us normal anymore?" Nancy
muttered bitterly.

"No, no we most certainly are not," Riley
conceded.

"I've encountered no one; it's just been
me."

Riley glanced at the small trunk Nancy had
been curled inside of. Upon first entering the room, she hadn't
considered the trunk big enough to hold a child, but Nancy was
almost as tall as she was, a little heavier, and had somehow
managed to cram herself inside it. She couldn't imagine the terror,
or what Nancy had endured that had driven her to do such a
thing.

Riley didn't know what she would do if she
was the last one standing, if she lost everyone else within this
group. It was a bleak prospect that made her think she might even
enjoy Peter's company at that point, though he'd probably feed her
to the first hungry human they encountered.

"You look like you could use some food," Al
said kindly. Nancy's face became slack at the mention of food and
she began to nod enthusiastically. "Josh, run out and grab some
food and water. Let the others know everything is ok and to stay
with the vehicles."

The boy nodded and hurried from the room.
"Thank you," Nancy whispered.

"We don't have much," Al told her.

"I've been soaking and crushing up acorns, I
don't need much."

Nancy looked nervously down at the frayed
edges of her jean shorts; she absently began to play with one of
the strings hanging from the edge. Bruises and scratches marred her
legs but they were already beginning to fade and heal. Riley looked
toward the others, they had no words either as they watched Nancy
closely.

"You know, when you opened that trunk I
didn't know if I was relieved or terrified." Another tear slid down
Nancy's face as she spoke, but she didn't wipe it away. "I thought,
finally it's over
, and at the same
time I thought,
I don't want to
die
. How insane is that?"

"That's not insane," Riley assured her. "I
think we've all experienced that same kind of reaction
recently."

Nancy lifted her head, her startling eyes
latched onto Riley's as her full mouth parted. With a hairbrush and
some soap she would be attractive. Her nose was a little too large
and crooked, her mouth a little too wide for her to be considered
beautiful, but there was something striking about her.

Josh stepped back into the doorway and
hurried over to them with a bottle of water and a bag of trail mix.
"Mr. Dade wasn't too happy about this," he whispered to Riley when
he knelt to give her the bag of food.

"I don't freaking care what he's happy
about," Riley responded in a low hiss.

Josh's black eyes were troubled as they met
hers but he released the bag to her and took a step away from
Nancy. Fighting to keep her temper under control, Riley forced a
smile and handed the bag to Nancy. The woman snagged it from her so
fast that Riley barely had time to process that she wasn't holding
the food anymore before Nancy was ripping the bag open and diving
into it.

"There's nothing else of use in the
building," Carl said as he reappeared in the doorway. There hadn't
been much they could use in the building to begin with, other than
a duffel bag to pack future supplies into. John's eyes were riveted
upon Nancy as she shoved another handful of nuts, raisins, and
sunflowers into her mouth.

Riley stared at Nancy and then at the
others, she was uncertain what to do with her. They didn't know
her, she didn't know if they should take the chance of inviting her
to join them? Then again, the only person she'd known in this room
only a short month ago was Xander. "You can come with us," Riley
offered.

No one protested her words and she didn't
sense any displeasure in the people surrounding her. Nancy paused
in the middle of shoving more food into her mouth. She studied all
of them before swallowing. "Where are you going?"

"Further upstate," Al answered. "A cabin in
the Catskills, near Monticello."

"I don't know that area," she said softly.
"Until my sister went to college, I'd only left Plattsburg to cross
the Canadian border." She wiped the tears from her eyes and shook
her head. "Twenty-six years old and the only time I was brave
enough to leave home was so I could drink at nineteen and buy
cheaper booze."

"We've all lost family and friends; we've
all lost dreams and homes," Riley told her. "We've all seen things
that none of us
ever
wanted to see
and that will probably haunt us for the rest of our lives. You can
either get up and come with us, or you can remain here and cry
about it until some freakish monster shows up to eat you alive.
That's a choice only you can make and we have to get back on the
road."

Riley was reluctant to leave her here but
she rose to her feet and took a step away. "I'll be safe?" Nancy
asked.

"I can't promise you that, there's no way to
know for sure. What I can promise you is that no one in this group
will harm you." As soon as she uttered the words, she wondered if
they were true. Her thoughts turned briefly to Peter.

"We'll keep you as safe as possible," Carl
said from the doorway. "But we're leaving, now."

With that he turned on his heel. Riley heard
his booted feet hitting the steps of the porch as he left the
building. John hesitated in the doorway before turning to follow
Carl. "The men won't hurt you, if that's what you're thinking,"
Mary Ellen said. "My twelve year old daughter is outside."

"She's right," Xander said and slid his hand
into Riley's. "You can ride with Al, Riley, and I."

Nancy still looked uncertain as Riley took
another step away. "We really have to go. Night comes so fast now,"
Al said kindly. "If you don't come with us, good luck to you. I
think it would be best if you weren't alone." Al nodded toward the
doorway and walked out with Mary Ellen and Josh.

"Coming with us is better than being alone,"
Riley said as Xander tugged her toward the door. She tried not to
look back, but she couldn't help but cast a glance over her
shoulder at Nancy. She looked so lost sitting there in the middle
of the room that it broke Riley's heart.
Please come with us,
she pleaded silently when
they stepped onto the porch.

Xander led her toward the car and opened the
back door for her. The cat was curled up on the backseat; she
lifted her head, gave an unladylike yawn, and plopped her head back
down. "Is she coming?" Riley inquired.

"Not yet," Xander answered. Riley grabbed
hold of the roof and turned to look at the building, she willed
Nancy to walk outside. She imagined she saw movement from within
the building, as the shadows shifted and bunched over each other,
but Nancy didn't appear in the doorway. "We have to go Ri."

She heaved a heavy sigh before bowing her
head and sliding into the backseat. Xander was about to close the
door when Nancy shuffled onto the porch. She lifted her hand
against the sky and winced away from the light. Riley climbed back
out of the vehicle and took a step forward as the woman made her
way cautiously down the stairs. Josh, Donald, and Mary Ellen gave
her a little wave from the Caddy but Peter slid behind the wheel
and slammed the door. Rochelle glanced at John who rested his hand
on her shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.