Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series) (14 page)

  
I shook my head, hugged my sister tight again and released her. It would be ok I told myself, knowing full well that I lied.

CHAPTER 9

   Night came faster than I had expected. It wasn’t until I crept back upstairs to peer out the window that I realized it wasn’t true night
fall. The larger ship had moved; it was above us now, blocking out the light of the sun. The sun’s rays peeked around it, illuminating its dark color, reflecting brightly off of it, but the day was nearly dark now. I turned away from the window, hating the sight of that awful thing.

   “We should get moving
soon,” Bret said softly.

   I said nothing, there was nothing to say.
The bag of food was by the backdoor. Abby was crying silently, tears rolled down her youthful cheeks. Aiden couldn’t bring himself to look at either of us, I knew what he was thinking, but it wasn’t going to happen. He was the stronger one of us; he would have to be the one that stayed with Abby.

   “I’m not going.”
   I turned toward Cade, my eyes widening as he uttered the words. Those were supposed to be
my
words; that was what I was supposed to be saying, not
him
. He was not going to be the one who stayed. “No.”
   “It’s not going to be you Bethy.” I gaped at Cade; his eyes were hard, distant. His jaw was clenched tight. “No matter what you may think.”

   “You don’t know what I think!” I retorted sharply, my hands fisting at my sides.

   “Yes, I do, and it is
not
going to be you.”

   “That is our mother!” I snapped.

   “Peter has been very kind to me, I will not leave him.”
   “Then I’ll stay with you.”
   “No.”

   “No!” I nearly s
creeched. “You can’t tell
me
no.” I was rapidly losing control, rapidly spinning toward panic and chaos. I took a deep breath, managing to gain a little more control of myself before I continued to speak. “You can’t make my choices for me.”
   “Bethany,” Abby whimpered.

   I glanced sharply at her, breathing rapidly as I struggled to contain my
fear and anger. Even if I hadn’t told anyone else about it, they seemed to have guessed that I’d intended to stay. Aiden was my brother, Bret was my boyfriend. They knew me well, yet I felt it was Cade that had first discerned the fact that I wanted to stay with my mother.

   I met his dark gaze, seeing the truth in his steady
stare. He was not going to budge on his decision. It had been alright when I had decided that I would stay. I had been in control, I had been accepting of the fact that I would be alone. But the thought of Cade staying here was terrifying to me. I couldn’t leave him here. I would never be able to live with myself if I did.

   “It has been decided,” Cade said firmly.

   “By who? When?” Jenna asked her eyes wide and terrified.

   “By us,” Bret answered. He took hold of my hand, holding tight to it when I tried to pull free.
“Last night when you were asleep.”

   “You knew last night you were going to do this?” I breathed, unable to tear my gaze away from Cade’s dark beauty. I had just found him, I barely knew him,
but I knew I couldn’t lose him. I simply
couldn’t
. I would be empty without him, I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did. I would be hollow, broken, a shell of myself without him.

   “Yes,” Aiden answered. “We have to go now Bethany.”

   “No. I’m not leaving.”
   “Please Bethy, please,” Abby pleaded. “Don’t leave me.” I opened my mouth to protest. I felt lost, hopeless, stunned by this revelation. It was more than just Peter, I knew he was doing this for me, to keep
me
safe, and I couldn’t let that happen. “Bethany.” Abby’s hand tightened on my arm, her grip was hard, painful. “Bethy please,” she whispered.

   I didn’t know what she wanted me to
do, what she wanted me to say to her. I didn’t know much of anything at the moment. “Abigail.”

   “
Don’t leave me. We can’t leave mom, and you, behind. Please Bethany I can’t lose you both.”

   I closed my eyes, groaning inwardly at her soft, heartfelt plea.
I bit hard on my bottom lip, fighting against the tears that burned my eyes. This was awful, just awful.

   “
Bethany…” Aiden’s voice trailed off. He hadn’t stopped because he didn’t know what to say, but because a soft rattle had begun to shake the store. Abby clung tighter to me as she started to tremble. The ground beneath my feet vibrated; the merchandise on the shelves began to clink together.

   I held my breath, my heart
pounded loudly in my ears. A loud, thumping bang shook the store, causing me to stumble slightly. A soft sob tore from Abby. The windows shook within their panes, the glass rattled more forcefully. Somewhere within the store something slid off a shelf, causing me to jump when it shattered upon the ground.

   Abby clung to
me, burying her face against my chest as something else fell to the floor, breaking on impact. I barely managed to bite back a scream as the store lurched violently. Jenna was not able to do the same; her startled cry rang out. Cade slid his hand over her mouth, pulling her against his chest as the store shook and heaved again. We waited breathlessly to see if Jenna’s scream had been heard over the growing noise.

  
The store pitched violently. The earth seemed to drop out from underneath it as the floor beneath my feet seemed to disappear for a moment before coming back up to stabilize us once more. Fear pounded through me, as boards began to splinter from the powerful upheaval. The front windows shattered, glass splayed inward. I ducked over Abby, covering her with my body as I tried to protect her from the cutting shards. Bret grabbed hold of us, pulling us back as another violent thump knocked shelves over, and caused one of the light fixtures to fall. Abby sobbed loudly, a cry of terror escaped her.

   “
Shh Abby,” I whispered frantically. “Please be quiet, please.”

  
Lights flashed over the windows, blazing into the darkened store. Bret pulled us further back, stepping in front of us as the lights danced over the broken frames before moving on. “What’s going on?” Jenna whispered the panic in her voice evident.

   “Quiet
!” Cade hissed.

   Another rattling bang shuddered
through the building swaying us all back and forth. Though I had never experienced an earthquake, I imagined that this was what it felt like. There was a heaving, rolling, sensation that staggered me to the side. The world was completely unstable beneath my feet, and the ground felt like it was going to plummet out from under me again at any minute.

   It was awful
, and it was petrifying.

   A loud twisting screech filled the air. I cringed, clutching tighter
to Abby as the noise grew in intensity, piercing the night with its shrill sound. Abby’s moan was drowned out by the ever growing din. Bret pushed us back, keeping us behind him as light flared through the store once more. A twisting, heaving, drop caused the floor to fall out beneath us and more boards to splinter and crack. This time I could not bite back my startled cry of terror as we were lurched violently to the side. I staggered, struggling to keep hold of Abby as I fought to keep my balance on the rocking floor.

   “We have to get out of here!” Bret
hissed, pulling me back as more windows shattered and the shelves began to tumble rapidly, destroying the precious contents upon them.

   The whole store was going to come down on our heads if we stayed
in here. A shelf crashed behind me, catching the back of my leg. I stumbled awkwardly forward, nearly dragging Abby down with me as my legs gave out. Bret and Abby managed to keep me on my feet, but just barely. “We have to go! We have to go!” Jenna screamed.

   Cade was pulling her toward us, his jaw locked and his nostrils flar
ing as another rousing crash shook the building. It wouldn’t be long before the whole thing toppled in on us. This was not the west coast; this building wasn’t built to survive the shaking jolts that it was receiving, it wasn’t built to survive anything more than a moderate hurricane. If even that.

  
Aiden was coming at us, his arm raised protectively over his head as bits of ceiling began to rain down. “Mom!” Abby was yelling. “What about mom?”

   “Backdoor!” Cade
shouted, pointing behind us. “Head for the backdoor.”

   No one tried to be quiet anymore. There was no need to be
. If the aliens could hear us over the screeching, tortuous racket echoing outside, then they deserved to get us. There was no way that we would ever be able to constantly elude their grasp if they were that much more advanced than us. If they were
that
superior to us. That would mean they were even more powerful and dangerous than I had ever imagined.

   Abby was tugging at me, Bret was pulling me, and I was desperately trying to elude
the merchandise that had gone from being inane to dangerous and deadly. I thrust Abby at Bret before we reached the backdoor. “Mom!” Abby was still yelling but I could barely hear her over the crashing bangs resounding throughout the store.

   “I know.”

   I turned away, struggling to get back to our mother, fighting to keep my balance in a rapidly unraveling world. Aiden grabbed hold of my arm as a resounding crash rocked the store. We tumbled to the side, slamming off a set of rattling shelves. A silver elephant toppled off the shelf striking Aiden in the shoulder. He winced, darting away from the shelf as it began to rock treacherously back and forth. It was a heavy shelf, large, and if it fell on us we would be trapped, pinned within this store at the mercy of the monsters outside.

   For a moment I was frozen
as my terror over being trapped anywhere flared to hot, vivid life. I couldn’t move; my panic was too strong, too intense, and all consuming.

   Aiden threw himself away from the shelf
. He wrapped his arm around my waist as he dove forward. We fell to the floor in a tumbled heap; the breath was knocked out of me, my tailbone screamed in protest as we bounced across the hard ground. The shelf toppled, spilling its contents upon the floor, and us. I was able to breathe again, but not very well.

   A huge crack fissured across the ceiling,
a resounding bang rocked every wall of the building. Debris began to rain down on us, plaster coated the floor, covered our clothes, stuck to our hair and skin. Hands seized hold of me, lifting me roughly up. Bret’s deep green eyes were kind, worried, and terrified. He hauled me to my feet as the front of the store suddenly crumpled. I stared in wide eyed horror as plaster, wood, and nails toppled as if they were no more than tooth picks.

   Bret was pulling me forward, dragging me toward the open backdoor. Aiden was behind us, limping slightly
as we stumbled forward. Cade appeared suddenly, striding purposely toward us through the store. He took hold of my other arm, hurrying me forward as we fell into the warm night air. I inhaled the fresh air greedily, trying hard not to cry, trying hard not to panic as I spun rapidly back around. I pulled free of Bret’s grasp, stumbling back toward the store. Peter! My mother!

   Lights flashed
throughout the night, illuminating the crumbling buildings around us as it flared hotly. The awful screeching noise seemed to be moving away, but the building was continuing to crumple before us. Two by fours cracked, heavy roof beams caved like toothpicks. My heart plummeted; I fell limply to my knees, my hands clasped before me as I stared in horror at the back wall, the only piece of the store that remained.

   The rest of it
was gone. It was nothing but a pile of rubble.

   How could we possibly dig them out of there?

   I knew the answer to that question before I even answered it. We couldn’t. We simply couldn’t.

   My heart was aching; my whole body was trembling, shaking.
Broken. I was so broken. My father had died because I had failed to get out of that car, because I had failed
him
. And now my mother was dead because I had failed once again. I had left her in there, and she was gone.

   I was shaking, numb with horror and grief. Aiden shush
ed Abby softly, as she began to weep openly, and loudly. I turned to look at my siblings, my gaze landed upon Aiden’s wide, distraught eyes. I saw the answering hopelessness in his eyes, the tears that rimmed them.

   In his
gaze I saw the truth. We were now orphans.

***

   Abby was crying silently, her head bowed, her dark hair falling around her slender shoulders. I couldn’t comfort her, not now, that had fallen to Jenna. She had her arm around Abby’s shoulders; her head was bent over Abby as she tried to ease her sorrow. It was impossible, we all knew that. Jenna herself was struggling with the likelihood that she would never see her parents again. The only difference was that Jenna had not received the violent confirmation that they were dead that we just had.