Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) (4 page)

   I sighed softly as we moved
slowly down the hill. The only good thing about all the moving was that Dr. Bishop had to leave behind all of the frozen bodies he’d collected. He still had one, but the roomful of unmoving people had been abandoned in the lobster warehouse. I thought I should feel more guilt over that decision, but I found there was little room for emotion
,
or compassion
,
within me anymore.
Those things had to be suspend
ed in this new and deadly world,
t
hey would eat me ali
ve if I dwelt on them too much.

   There
had been
nothing th
at we could do for those people;
Dr. Bishop had trie
d everything he could think of to rescue them.
To reawaken them from their frozen state.
Nothing had worked. I
’
d disliked leaving them behind,
I wasn’t completely dead
and hard
inside,
but if we were to survive losses had to be cut. And I could not dwell on those decisions. Not if I wanted to keep my sanity anyway.
We had not happily abandoned the frozen people, we had simply moved on because we’d had to
survive
.

   Survival was the number one concern now. It was what drove us all.

   As we approached
the warehouse a few people emerged from the shadows.
They were holding guns, prepared to
defend the people within if ne
cessary
. More emerged as it became clear who we were
,
and what we carried with us. Silence came over the group as we slipped into the darkness of the cavernous building.

   Most of the people were asleep, scattered about on makeshift beds
. The
dim
light of lamps flickered over the
room,
cast
ing
shadows over the metal walls.
There were no windows within th
is part of th
e building so the lights
were
allowed.
There had originally been sixty people
within the group; there w
ere only
thirty or so left. Some had left to go out on their own,
some had wanted to search for
family members
, o
r had refused to move on
. Others had been killed.

  
My younger sister,
Abby
,
made her way toward us. She moved swiftly
and gracefully
through the
people
sprawled on the floor.
Her resemblance to our mother never failed to amaze me, from her long dark hair, to her gleaming dark eyes, and petite stature. Our mother
may be gone, but there was no denying that she lived on in Abby.

   She was almost to us when she stopped, her eyes widening in horror as her hand flew to her mouth.
She fixated on the thing between Bret and I.
“What happened!?” she cried.

   “Long story,” I muttered, wanting to find some place to put our load down.

   “Are you ok?”

   I managed a nod, but I
knew she didn’t buy it. Who could with what we held between the four of us?
“Where’s Bishop?” Bret asked quietly.

   “Where else would he be?” Abby retorted.

   Bret and I carried the thing toward one of the back rooms. Dr. Bishop set up a laboratory and medical area
in every new place that we moved into
. His main
area of
interest
had been
research
;
unfortunately
with The Freezing
I had become his prime
target
. In the few weeks I had known him I
’
d been stuck with more needles than in my entire seventeen years. If I’d been a dog I probably would have bit him by now, but
I
’
d actually come to
l
ike
Bishop
, needles and all.

   The doctor appeared in the darkened doorway of his newest laboratory area. Even in the dim light I could clearly see the excitement that filled his gaze
as he stared at the thing we held
. “You’re a strange man,” I informed him. “Where do you want this thing?”

  
He hurried in behind us, a surprising
ly bright
spring in his step
.
He
shoved papers off a long counter that had been
used for equipment repair
s
before the aliens
,
and The Freezing
,
had left all sense of a normal life nonexistent
.
“Up here! Up here!” he said excitedly before flitting quickly away.

   Bret rolled his eyes and shook his head. I had grown to like the seemingly frantic and discombobulated doctor, but most still found him a little creepy and annoying. Bret also didn’t like the extra attention that Bishop focused on me, even if it was only bec
ause I was his favorite pin cushion
,
and specimen
.

   I breathed a sigh of relief as I dropped the damn thing on the counter, grateful to be rid of the weight
of
the hideous creature
. I walked over to the
sink
to wash my hands and arms in the large metal
basin
.
I scrubbed vigorously, using the small scrub brush to clean the blood from under my nails.
“This is amazing! Amazing!” Bishop
m
utter
ed
excitedly
. “Maybe we can find a live specimen.”

  
I shot him a dark
look
, while Bret gaped at him incredulously
. “Count your blessings with this one doc,” I informed him.

  
Bishop
wasn’t listening to me though as he peered close
ly
at the strange creature before him.
His grey eyes were narrowed behind his glasses as he bent close to the thing.
It appeared that I had been replaced as Bishop’s favorite thing to poke at
,
for the time being
.

  
“It’s true.” I turned slightly, I hadn’t heard
my older brother
Aiden approach,
but
there
he was in the doorway
.

  
“Yes, yes,” Bishop said quickly. “We are very lucky. Lucky indeed.”

   Aiden’s dark eyes
fixated keenly
on the creature lying on
the counter.
He
had become
the doc’s assistant, eager to explore and learn anything that
Bishop
had to
teach him. Before the aliens arrived
a year ago
Aiden
had wanted to be a
doctor, a
scientist,
or
had wanted to work
for
NASA
even
.
He had wanted to know the secrets the skies held.
Unfortunately we knew the answers to those secrets now, and they had not been as wonderful as Aiden
, or any of us,
had dreamed.
After the
aliens
arrived our education had become more restricted and NASA had been shut down six months
after
. Aiden may have lost his dreams, but his curiosity had never waned
and he was eagerly turning that curiosity and intelligence to research
,
and medical training
,
with Bishop
.

  
“Awesome
,” Aiden
breathed
.

   I shook my head at my brother as he hurried forward.
We were blood, good friends, and I loved him, but he confounded me.
Abby must have just woken
him
as his honey blond hair, so similar to mine, was disheveled and standing on end.
His brown eyes were still swollen with sleep but he was very alert.
“You wo
uldn’t think it was so awesome
if you had seen what it did to Sarah,” I said softly.

   He turned back to me
, his face going slack with horror
. “Sarah’s dead?”

   “Yes.”

   Regret flashed across his handsome features, he looked slightly abashed. “What did it do?” Bishop asked quietly
and for the first time not with excitement
.

   It was Bret that filled them in on the awful events as I couldn’t find the words to describe the horror.
I didn’t think there were any.
I leaned against the wall, staring at my ratty shoes
as I fought the urge to vomit
.
Darnell joined us in the room, his
dark
eyes
were
haunted
, his full lips clamped tight
. I didn’t know where they had placed Sarah until she could be buried, and I didn’t want to know. I had seen enough of the damage that had been done to he
r
.

   “Amazing,” Bishop murmured when Bret finished filling him in on the details.

   “Stop saying that!” My tone was far sharper than I had
intended
, but my fear and anger came surging to the forefront.
“They’re
not
amazing. They’re awful Bishop, they’re
awful
.
”

   They all stared at me for a long moment.
I had been so emotionless lately that any sign of
feeling
was a surprise to them.
Though they seemed stunned, relief flickered over Aiden’s features.
“You’re right,” Bishop said softly.