Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series) (32 page)

   His words drifted off as the door creaked open. Relief and joy filled me when Aiden popped his head around the corner. A small cry of delight escaped me. I
hurried past the doctor toward my brother. He grinned at me, holding his arms wide as he easily caught me and lifted me off the ground. “Finally,” he breathed happily. I clung to Aiden, needing his solid reassurance right now. “You ok Bethany?”

   “Yes.” It was a lie, we both knew that, but it was a lie we clung to for now. Abby stepped into the doorway with Bret close behind her.
They embraced me gingerly, wearier of my wounds than Aiden had been, though Bret clung to me for a moment longer than I would have liked. “Are you guys ok?”

   “Perfectly fine,” Abby assured me.

   “What happened?” I asked softly.

   “You don’t remember?”

   I didn’t want to remember, everything in me shied away from those last moments on the beach. “No.”

   “One of those things got a hold of you, but thankfully
the rebellion had been in the woods when we reached land. They were able to fight it off. You were hurt pretty bad, but the doc took care of you so you’ll be ok.”

   I managed a small smile for Abby, but I was certain that I was
never going to be ok again. “The rebellion?” I asked quietly.

   “There are about sixty people upstairs
, eight are soldiers, and the rest are survivors. They have a fair amount of weapons, and it’s relatively safe.”

   “For now,”
I muttered. Abby’s eyes were soft as she squeezed my arm.

   I
had the crushing feeling that too much time had passed, felt as if it was all slipping rapidly through my fingers, but I didn’t know how to stop it. But it had to be stopped; it had to be changed, somehow.

  
“You have to be hungry,” Abby said softly drawing my attention back to her. “We’ve only been able to give you juice while you were out.”

   I nodded, surprised to realize that I was in fact very hungry
even though there was a hollow pit in my stomach. Abby continued to prattle on as they led the way down the hallway, up a set of stairs, and into the large warehouse. Her talk was nervous, on edge, and it took me a moment to realize she was trying to fill my head with her words instead of thoughts of Cade. I loved her even more because of it, but it wasn’t working.

  
I studied the people gathered within the building; some of them were sleeping on blankets and thin mattresses. Others were huddled in small groups, though none of them seemed to really be speaking. Lobster pots had been stacked against the back wall; they reached almost to the top of the cavernous ceiling.

  
“This way.”  

   I followed Aiden through a back door, surprised to realize that it was a small kitchen. There were a few people inside of it, talking softly as they put dishes away. The smell of food hit me, my stomach rumbled eagerly. I was given a plate that consisted of canned beans and a peanut butter sandwich.
I picked slowly at the food. I was starving but I found I didn’t have much of an appetite.

  
Curtains had been drawn over the windows, but I pulled them slightly back to stare out at the quiet day. As I ate, I planned. There were soldiers amongst the people, trained soldiers that would know how to hunt, how to attack, how to shoot with confidence and accuracy. Soldiers that could teach us how to hunt, how to
kill
.

   Soldiers that could help me either find Cade aga
in, or help me exact my revenge. Because if I didn’t find him, or if he was dead, I was going to take out as much revenge as I could until I was stopped. I left the kitchen; my attention was focused on the two men and one woman standing by the front door in army fatigues. I didn’t know how I would go about trying to find Cade again, but I did know that I was tired of running, tired of hiding. It was time to stand and fight. It was time to make an attempt at taking our world back from the monsters ravaging it.

   And the
se soldiers were the ones that were going to help me do that.