Terror curdled inside of me. Although every part of me screamed against leaving our mother in that tiny room, a place I never wanted to return to myself, I wasn’t sure there was anything else that we could do. There had to still be some members of the military left, but I doubted there were enough of them to launch much of an attack. More than half, if not almost all of them, were probably frozen. Vehicles may still work, but no one could drive them without being spotted instantly amongst the deadened streets. And that was if they even didwork anymore. No one, that I knew, had tried to drive a car in weeks. Never mind planes and helicopters, or tanks. There was no way to know if we could even attempt to mount any sort of defense against these monsters.
There was no one coming to help us, no one out there to rescue us. The realization was not slow in coming. Yes, it had taken me a while to actually get to that train of thought because I hadn’t had time to go there yet, but the realization slammed me with sudden, horrifying insight. It hit me hard, and it hit me instantly. I was suddenly cold, numb with horror, choked with an agonizing pain, and yet oddly reserved. Oddly accepting of the unraveling course of our fates.
There was no one coming. There was no help out there for us anymore.
And we could not stay. To hole up in here and cower was to admit defeat. To hole up in here and cower, was to die. With no rescue coming the food would run out, the water would dry up. Maybe, just maybe, the aliens would move on from here before all of that happened, but there was no guarantee of that. They could stay out there forever, waiting for us to emerge like a cat looking to pounce upon a mouse slipping from a hole. We could stay here for a little bit, but eventually we would have to leave. We would haveto.
And when the time came, we would not be able to take our mother with us.
Maybe we could stay for a bit, maybe we could wait, and we could hope, but eventually reality would catch up with us. It was better to face it now, rather than wait and see. It would be better if we broke free while the aliens were distracted with the remaining people, than to wait for them to come to us. Better to leave here before they came inside and discovered us.
“Oh,” I said softly.
“Bethy…”
I shook my head, holding up my hand to stop Aiden’s words. I could not hear them, not right now. I understood them, but I could not hear them spoken aloud. Bret rested his hand on my shoulder; I did not shrug him off. He was a good man, strong, and I needed his comfort and strength right now. “We’ll stay today,” Cade said softly.
“No, we have to wait a few more days,” Abby protested.
“They haven’t reached this part of town yet, the longer we wait the more likely they are to come here. No matter how many of them there are, it will still take them awhile to go through all of the houses. We need to get out of here before they reach us, and we need to leave under cover of darkness.”
“You don’t even know if they are going through all of the houses and buildings!”
“What do you think they were doing last night at home?” Aiden asked gently. My mind was spinning, running through everything I did, and didn’t, know. Running through what they were saying, understanding that it was true, and it was right, but I still could not wrap my heart around it. Abby would have to go on, I knew that. Aiden would take care of her, protect her with his life. “We have to go light, carry as little as possible. It will be hard at night, but the darkness will offer us cover.”
“Wait,” Abby said softly, her words choked and sad. “We can’t.”
“It will be ok Abby,” I assured her, hugging her gently. “It will be ok, you’ll see.”
“But mom, we can’t leave her here, all alone. We can’t.”
“We won’t,” I promised.
“Bethy,” Bret said softly.
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 nightfall. 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 mywords; 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 notgoing 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 screeched. “You can’t tell meno.” 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.