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  As quietly as I could, poking my finger into the opening of the tent’s exit, I pulled the material to the side just enough for one eye. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. Matt was packing up their camp, loading everything into the back of Blaine’s truck. Remembering Blaine had the keys in his pocket, I took ease at knowing they would have to get them from him, and he would never just give them up. Then I realized why Saundra was not helping Matt with packing. Seated on the driver side of the truck, crouching nearly to the floorboard, was Saundra. She focused intently on her task as a flicker of light shone on her face, indicating a spark was being ignited. She was hotwiring Blaine’s truck!

  “STOP!” I heard it escape my mouth, before registering the thought to shout.

  Groaning, Jared stirred, then Blaine. When they saw me frantically clawing at the tent’s zipper, they went from sleep to sober in three seconds flat.

  “They are trying to steal the truck!” I squeaked, ripping at the zipper like a dog digging a hole.

  “What?!” Blaine managed before the sound of the first attempt at ignition became obvious. Saundra was getting closer to succeeding, and we were stuck in the tent.

  Blaine wrapped his arms around my waist and threw me to the back of the tent. Pulling his hunting knife out of its sheath, he tore through the front of the tent like butter and leaped out into the open, Jared following suit.

  Blindly, I rushed out behind them as I collided, head first, into Blaine’s back. It was then that I realized neither Jared nor Blaine was moving. Looking up, I saw Matt had a pistol pointed at us, and I straightened up, raising my arms into the air.

  “Don’t move!” shouted Matt, shaking. He was nervous, constantly glancing to his wife, checking if she was close to accomplishing her task. Saundra stopped, only for a second, to see what was unfolding outside of the truck, and then continued frantically, fingers quivering.

  “How can you do this man?” asked Jared. “We thought you guys were cool. Now you do something like this? Why?”

  “Why?!” Matt was hysterical now. “For the same reason why there is looting, and murders, going on all around us! To survive! You kids were ready. I don’t know how you were able to be so prepared, but you were. We need this truck to go find my brother and Saundra’s mother.”

  Blaine was fuming and, although my abilities did not include mind reading, I was sure he was cursing himself for not thinking to grab the gun on the way out. As if on cue, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jared take a step back toward our tent.

  “Stop!” called Matt. “I mean it. I like you kids, but I am not afraid to shoot one of ya.” He used his other hand to pat the bed of the truck. The dogs hopped in without protest. Then the engine turned over, indicating Saundra’s success, roaring as she pumped the gas pedal.

  “Come on. Let’s go!” Saundra shouted from within the cab. Matt made his way toward the passenger side of the truck, constantly keeping the gun aimed at the three of us.

  And then it happened. In less time than it took to blink, Jared fell to the ground in pursuit of the handgun in the tent. In this attempt, his foot caught Blaine’s ankle, causing Blaine to lose his footing. I watched as Matt reacted to the scuffle, the look on his face a direct connection to his thoughts. He knew Jared was going for the gun, and he would likely get to it before Matt could get to the door of the truck. He took aim at the guys and suddenly everything moved in slow motion. I saw Blaine, stumbling backward, vulnerable to Matt’s weapon aimed at his chest. I had seen Matt shoot enough to know he would not miss, and I was reminded of my two years without Blaine. It was then that I acted. Turning into him, I threw my body onto Blaine and braced myself for the worst.

  My shoulder exploded in pain, as the wind was knocked out of me from the fall. “KARA!” I could hear Jared’s voice as the sound of the truck diminished in the distance. It was gone.

  Chapter 33

  Pulling up, onto his knees, Blaine gently positioned me onto my back. Jared was out of sight, rustling through what little supplies we kept in our tent, gathering items useful for first aid. The pain was unbearable. I had once broken my ankle in the third grade, requiring crutches for eight weeks while the bone healed. As a nine year old, I thought the initial break was the worst pain of my life. That injury paled in comparison to this one. My shoulder was on fire, burning with pain constantly, and dull roaring spasms periodically. I tightly closed my eyes with the next spasm.

  Blaine was holding my head up, stuffing a bunched up blanket under it, and smoothing the hair out of my face. As Jared continued to search for some form of treatment for my injury, Blaine assessed the extent of my bullet wound. Trying to deflect the worry from both him and Jared, he said, “What made you do that?”

  “He…” I replied before a sharp, searing pain shot through me. Pushing through it, I continued, “He was going to shoot you.” In response to the pain, I bit down hard enough to taste blood on the inside of my cheek. At least it took my mind off of my shoulder for a second.

  “I thought I was supposed to be the hero.” He forced a laugh and kissed my forehead.

  Jared returned with a roll of bandages and a jug of water. “This is all we have. They took the real first aid pouch, the one with all the medicine and antiseptic stuff.”

  Blaine’s attempt at concealing his concern was poorly executed. He pulled out his hunting knife, pulled the fabric near the wound up away from my skin, and cut away most of my shirt and my entire sleeve. “Okay, I am going to clean it, but we need to try and stop the bleeding.” He carefully rinsed it with the water, its cool temperature only slightly soothing my pain.

  After balling up a bandage, he placed the wad on my wound and applied pressure. I couldn’t help but scream as the pain from the added pressure intensified. The screaming didn’t last long before I was out of breath. I began to feel my body getting weak from pain, and the urge to sleep was now overriding the uncontrollable shaking that had started just after the guys were able to slow the bleeding.

  It was the middle of the day now. For a moment, I thought the pain was lessening, but, with another spasm, I realized it had been that I was getting used to it. Blaine did not leave my side, and I watched the worry deepen on his face as I drifted off to sleep.

  I slept but, between the pain and Blaine and Jared waking me to give me sips of water, it was not very restful. However, each time I was awakened, my eyelids remained heavy. I was drowsy not because of sleep, but rather my body’s reaction to the pain.

  Drifting in and out of consciousness, I could hear Blaine and Jared discussing their next move.

  “We need to find her a doctor,” stated Blaine, worry laced his words.

  “We are in the middle of nowhere, man. Even if there was a doctor out here, there is no telling if they survived the attacks or not,” Jared replied, pacing.

  “We have to try,” he hissed. I assumed he was trying not to wake me. “She is only going to get worse if we just sit here waiting for someone to come along. That could be days, even weeks. It could get infected.”

  Jared paused at this statement then continued pacing. “We’ll have to make it on foot, and she is in no condition to walk.”

  At Jared’s remark, I felt Blaine slide one of his arms behind my knees, tucking the other hand into my left arm pit taking care not to disturb my sore shoulder. “Then we will just have to carry her.”

  I heard Jared mumble something in reply, but I was drifting back into blackness before I could make out what it was.

  When I woke again, it was dusk. Still wrapped in Blaine’s arms, I saw Jared stringing a tarp over the branch of a large oak tree for shelter. The roots were huge, jutting out of the ground as if the massive tree would use them to climb out of the ground and walk away at any moment. The bulging roots created a cradle between the ground and the trunk. It was there that Blaine sat, curling me into his lap, stroking my hair. And I was asleep again.

  I must have missed the morning light because when I opened my e
yes we were walking through the woods again, the sun high in the sky. It was at least noon, and something was different. Looking up, I saw Jared was the one carrying me now. I wouldn’t have expected Blaine to carry me non-stop. Although I have always been on the light side of the scale, constantly having to carry 120 lbs. across the state could become quite exhausting. It made me angry that they had to carry me at all. If I wasn’t so weak, I would have insisted on walking myself.

  Taking in my surroundings, I noticed that the pain had become more bearable, my shoulder slightly numb. The burning was still evident, but the spasms were less intense. I was shivering now, feeling the unseasonably cool air, my eyes burning in opposition. I shut them tight, hoping wetting them would ease the discomfort. It didn’t. Despite all of this, I was drowsy once more. Fighting the heaviness of my eyelids once again, I retreated to blackness.

  Chapter 34

  My mind was swimming. Wait. I was swimming, submerged in water. Long periods of time passed before I surfaced for air. Blind, my body sensed everything around me. Rising to the surface, I could hear a screeching followed by a low groan. I couldn’t understand the words, but I know what they implied. There is nothing left here. We will starve. Another round of clicks, and a groan, later, and it’s time to move out. I could feel the moonlight encroaching as we exited the mouth of the cave. Hesitation struck me, and the scent of food sent me running in its direction. We ran toward the villages of the strange creatures and their deadly rolling monstrosities. Frightened, I forced myself to approach the foreign area, drawn by an aching need. There was no more food in our home. We would die without it. As I ran, the trees sped past me and became a blur…

  It’s nightfall, wet and raining. We were not covered well, although the guys have given me all the shelter of the tarp while they were left to be drenched in the cold downpour. Blaine did not leave my side, and I could not tell how long we had been traveling. After taking a sip of the water that was offered, I question Blaine, “How long have we been walking?”

  Surprised to hear me speaking, he said, “This is our second night away from the camp. How are you feeling?”

  “Cold,” I replied. My hands were freezing and my body was riddled with spasms of shivering.

  He cupped my hands in his and blew warm breath into them, stopping to rub the heat back into my frozen fingers. Looking up at my face, he brushed the back of his hand across my cheek. “You’re burning up.”

  In an attempt to sweat my fever out, he pulled me in tighter, always careful of my injury. He then pulled something out of his pack. It was compact, silver, and shiny. After pulling a sticker tab off of it, he shook it open to reveal a large flexible sheet of what resembled aluminum foil. Wrapping it around me tightly, he began rubbing on my good arm to try and warm me up.

  “What is this thing?” I asked, drowsily.

  “It’s an emergency blanket. Kind of like a space blanket. It reflects your body heat back at you. Sort of like foil does with a baked potato.”

  The thought made me smile, though my smile was weak. “Then it is doing its job. Because that is exactly what I feel like, a baked potato.”

  Blaine snickered, but I was too weak to laugh. I nestled my head in the crook of his neck and drifted off to the sound of Jared snoring next to us.

  …I was out in the open, under the sunlight. But nothing had harmed me. My fragile skin was still well intact. I was sitting alone, my body bound in a strange looking vine. It prickled and scratched when I struggled. Something was poking a strange, cold stick into my back. I had come across a stick like this before and knew that it was deadly. Suddenly I felt something sharp pierce my neck, plunging through my delicate skin. I heard myself scream, as the earth around me began to tilt. My head felt heavy and I couldn’t support its weight, letting it fall freely from one side to the other. Something was trying to communicate with me, but I couldn’t understand the language. It became even more difficult to hear, my senses failing me one by one. I struggled to stay aware, resisting against the vines that bound me, the raw discomfort growing more unbearable. In protest, I screamed....

  I awoke to the steady bouncing of Blaine’s footsteps, the trees moving up and down, up and down. My entire body ached, chilled with fever, but my arm was now mostly numb. My mouth was dry, caked with a putrid taste. Until today, the motion of being carried through the woods was comforting, almost soothing in its own way. But now, with the bouncing and rocking, I was feeling queasy. I could feel the bile rising in my throat, and it burned horribly from not eating anything the past few days. I managed to squeak out the word “Stop!”

  Blaine stopped, kneeling down to the ground, and I pushed his chest away with my good arm. On my knees, I wretched until I had no strength left in my body to heave. Blaine held my knotted mess of hair back while I embarrassed myself on the ground, in the middle of the woods.

  When I was finished, Jared opened up my canteen and handed it to me. Swishing the water around in my mouth, I spat, clearing as much of the taste out as I could. I didn’t dare swallow, as I knew my stomach couldn’t handle it. Gasping, I managed, “Are we even remotely close to civilization?”

  Behind me, Jared replied, “We passed through a patch of houses while you were asleep. Nothing. They were hit badly by the Intruders and must have packed up and left because there were no cars either.”

  Disheartening, but better news than I expected. At least it wasn’t hopeless to find someone. We just had to find a place with people that hadn’t been run off by the Intruders. Feeling a tear run down my face from the strain of the vomiting, I wiped my eyes.

  Blaine pulled a baggy from his pack. I could see there was crackers in it, and my stomach began to flip again. “You need to eat something. This will settle your stomach.” He opened the bag in front of me, offering for me to take one. Swallowing hard, I used my good hand to push it away, shaking my head. The thought of putting food in my mouth threatened the release of what little was left in my stomach.

  Returning the crackers to his pack, Blaine then scooped me up and we hiked on. Many things took their turn, attributable to my lack of sleep. The nausea, chills, and returning pain in my shoulder kept my body from resting as the guys walked again. I ached for my body to just let my brain shut off, a release from the discomfort. But it would only partially comply, allowing my eyelids to give in, while my brain remained fully aware.

  Jared was carrying me now. As the warmth of the sun was less apparent, I concluded we were coming to a third night with no relief. And suddenly I felt him stop. Forcing my eyes open, I could see the cabin. Smoke rose from the chimney, a good indication that someone was home. I felt my heart skip a beat with the anticipation of not having to track any farther.

  Blaine was in front of us now and I could feel Jared’s steps quicken. He was full of adrenaline now, and it showed in his walk. Perhaps the idea that he would not be lugging my heavy self around anymore gave him the motivation he needed to hike up to the top of the hill where the cabin sat.

  Blaine reached the door, a few feet before Jared, and knocked. Holding onto the handle of the gun, tucked in the back of his waistband, he waited for an answer as we caught up to him. There was no answer. Blaine knocked again, this time much harder, and pressed the side of his face to the door to listen. “Can’t hear anyone,” he announced in a whisper.

  Jared began getting antsy. “There has to be someone here. There’s a fire going.”

  “Maybe they left to hunt. It’s almost dark. If they left, they should be back soon. Unless they don’t know that the Intruders only come out at night.” He knocked one more time. “Hello! If anyone is in there, we don’t want trouble. We need help. Our friend is hurt.” Nothing.

  “I think our chances are better if we wait until they get back,” said Jared, arms quivering. He was clearly losing the strength to hold me another minute. Setting me down on the ground, he sat beside me, massaging his biceps. Blaine turned his back to the door, wrapping his arms around me, allowing me
to sink into him for comfort.

  As we looked off into the distance, down below the hillside, we heard a click. From the way every muscle in Blaine’s body tensed, I knew exactly what would make a clicking sound like that. A shotgun.

  Chapter 35

  I felt Blaine’s arm begin to rise behind me. “Don’t move,” growled the voice of the shotgun’s owner. It was a man. I could tell little else than that. He continued, voice shaking, ragged, “I don’t want any trouble. Now please be so kind as to leave, or I will use my friend here as an escort.” He nudged the barrel of the shotgun up, referring to it like it was a person.

  Blaine was shaking now, composing himself with a single deep breath. “Please. Our friend is hurt. She was shot and badly needs medical attention. We have been walking for days trying to find someone that can help. We aren’t here for any trouble.”

  Behind me, the man grunted. I felt Blaine’s body sway as the barrel of the gun was dug deeper into his back. The man must have grabbed Blaine’s gun because it was then hurled above our heads and rolled down to the bottom of the hill. “Stand up,” the man ordered, almost in a whisper.

  Knowing that standing was not an easy feat for me to accomplish, Blaine clamped his arm around my waist and supported me as we rose together. The pressure of my wound on his chest was excruciating, and my breathing became staggered. I got a head rush from rising so quickly. I hadn’t stood in days, and it was not agreeing with me at all.

  “Hands where I can see them!” growled the man behind us.

  “But, sir, she can’t…” Blaine pleaded.

  “Where I can see them,” he growled again.

  Blaine looked at me, apologies in his expression, and slowly let go of my side. The pressure of my weight on my legs sent my severely weak knees to buckling, falling on my left side. All of my body weight sent me landing on my left shoulder, pain instantly shooting through my body in a jolt that caused me to howl in agony. My breathing became ragged and shallow, my body convulsing with pain, the fever spinning my surroundings like a horrible version of a carnival ride. Everything at that moment was just too overwhelming for my body, and I felt my world getting dark.