Dark Realms (67 page)

Austin smiled and I found myself returning
it. With his southern drawl, blond hair, and rugged good looks, he
actually reminded me of some cowboy I’d watched on television as a
child. One I’d had a small crush on.

“Excellent. I’ll just find the rest of my
clothing and we can shoot out of here.”

“Austin?” I said, trying to swallow the lump
forming in my throat. “How was my sister when you last saw
her?”

His eyes clouded over and he took my hand.
“She was struggling, I can tell you that.”

I looked down so he wouldn’t see the tears
in my eyes. “I hope they can help her. I don’t know what I’ll do if
I lose either of them.”

He lifted my chin up and stared into my
eyes. “Your mom’s a fighter, you’re obviously one, too. If Allie
takes after either of you, then the odds are in her favor.”

I nodded but the tears still escaped, the
enormity of my family’s situation was overwhelming.

Austin wrapped his arms around me and pulled
me close. “Shh…it’ll be okay. We’ll find a way to contact your mom.
Shit, if I have to take you to her myself, I will.”

“Cassie?” interrupted Bryce as he walked in
the door with Eva trailing close behind.

I moved away from Austin and brushed away my
tears. “Um, this is Austin. He’s the soldier my mother had
rescued.”

Bryce frowned. “Okay? So, where is she?”

I explained everything that Austin had told
me. When I told Bryce that he’d be joining us, he shook his
head.

“No, he should stay here. The zombies are
getting pretty out of hand out there. They need soldiers to protect
the crisis unit.”

“Sorry, but I’m coming with y’all. I made a
promise to Kris that I’d find a way to keep Cassie safe, and I’m
not going back on my word.”

Bryce and Austin stared at each other and
you could cut the tension in the air with a knife.

“Well, I think that’s a great idea,” said
Eva as she stepped next to Bryce. She looped her arm through his.
“We need all the help we can get fighting off those zombies.”

I scowled at Eva. “We? You’ll be staying
here. You don’t have to worry about fighting zombies, not like you
helped much anyway.”

Eva glared at me. “You don’t have to be such
a bitch.”

My mouth dropped open and before I could
show her how much of a bitch I could really be, Bryce interrupted.
“Eva’s coming with us. Her mother’s been bitten and they’re flying
her to Atlanta, too. She has nowhere else to go, Cassie.”

A wave of guilt rushed through me. “Oh, I’m
sorry, Eva. I didn’t know.”

Eva shrugged her shoulders and looked
away.

“Well, why doesn’t she just go to Atlanta to
be with her mom?” I asked Bryce.

“They said she couldn’t. They are
quarantining all bite victims,” he replied. “They won’t even allow
her near Veronica to say goodbye.”

“Oh, well she should stay here so they can
keep her updated on her mom’s condition.”

Bryce shook his head. “The zombies are
getting too out of hand for this small group. It’s not safe to stay
here anymore. In fact, we’d better get moving now before we end up
getting stuck here.”

Just then Kristie and Sara walked in. “Oh,
thank God you guys are here. Look, we have to get out of here…now,”
said Kristie. “The zombies are either getting smarter or their just
plain lucky. They’ve broken through the entrance now and the
soldiers won’t be able to hold them off too much longer.”

Austin pulled on a T-shirt. “Let’s get
going,” he said. “I’ve got some grenades, we might need them.”

Kristie smiled at Austin. “Well hey there,
soldier. I take it you’re the newest member of our team?”

He shrugged. “I’m just coming along to
protect Cassie. I made a promise her mother.”

Bryce scowled. “That’s very noble but she
doesn’t need your protection, she has me.”

Austin nodded towards Eva. “Looks like you
already have your hands full with that one.”

Bryce took a step away from Eva and folded
his arms across his chest. “We’ve done fine without you.”

“Hello? Guys, I can protect myself,” I said,
walking towards the door.

The two men stood glaring at each other,
neither of them saying anything.

Kristie snorted.
“Okay,
everyone
,
time to leave. The testosterone in this room is going to either
make me go nuts or grow a pair; frankly I don’t want to do
either.”

I walked out the door and started towards
the location of our SUV. Sara and Kristie caught up with me
quickly.

“Men, you can’t kill ‘em…unless they try and
eat your brains,” said Kristie with a wry grin.

I stopped walking and turned to Sara and
Kristie. “I just wanted to say thanks to both of you. I know each
of you lost your husbands and yet you’ve still found the strength
to help me try to find my mom. I don’t know what I’d do without
you.”

We were still hugging each other when Eva,
Bryce, and Austin caught up.

“You boys work it out?” asked Kristie,
pulling away.

Bryce shrugged and Austin smiled. “Nothing
to work out, darlin’. I’m coming with whether Billy likes it or
not.”

“It’s Bryce,” he muttered, walking ahead of
him.

“Southern boys,” said Kristie as we started
walking. “I once had me a cowboy. Oh, the things he could do with
that rope…”

Chapter
Twenty-Five

There were several dead zombies lying around
as we neared the parked SUV. Three of the soldiers were repairing
the glass on the door where the zombies had broken through.

“You guys leaving?” asked
one of them. “Through
this
mob?”

“Yes,” replied Bryce.

“Well, they are getting pretty damn restless
out there,” said the soldier. “Be careful.”

We got into the SUV and the soldiers
reluctantly opened the garage door. Kristie was in the driver’s
seat again so that Bryce would have his hands free to shoot, if
needed. Bryce sat next to her with his gun ready.

“Damn, those zombies stink,” muttered Austin
sitting close to me.

“Vicks works wonders,” I said, handing out
my jar.

He nodded in approval and rubbed some under
his nose.

“Look! Sweet Jesus, they’re getting in,”
said Eva as two zombies barreled through the garage door before it
was closed all the way. The soldiers shot them in the head and they
dropped.

Bryce opened his window and shot two more
that tried sneaking in.

“You have a gun, cowboy?” Kristie asked
Austin.

“Lost it a couple days ago. I found a couple
of grenades, though,” he said, holding them up in the air.

“Careful driving,” mumbled Bryce.

Zombies were definitely getting more
ferocious as we drove through the parking lot. The smell of blood
was drawing more of them towards the hospital and now there were
hundreds attacking each other.

“How in the hell do we get out of here?”
growled Kristie.

“I guess now is as good of time as any,”
said Austin as he opened up his window and leaned out. “Get
ready.”

He launched the grenade at a crowd of
zombies blocking our path. Less than ten seconds later, body parts
were falling from the sky and landing on the SUV.

“Drive!” yelled Bryce.

Kristie hit the gas and we drove over the
remaining mutilated zombies, all of us bouncing around in the
SUV.

Eva closed her eyes. “Lord help us,” she
said softly.

Another group of zombies were coming
straight for us and Austin threw another one, clearing the path yet
again with a loud explosion.

“Yes! Well, thank God Austin decided to come
with us. Otherwise we’d of had a hell of a time getting through
these bastards,” said Kristie.

Bryce looked out the window and mumbled
something expletive.

When we finally made it out of the
zombie-infested parking lot, I wanted to scream for joy. But I knew
we weren’t out of danger yet. Zombies were still wandering the
streets, looking more aggravated and alert than ever.

“What’s going on with these guys?” asked
Kristie. “They seem like they’re in some kind of frenzy or
something.”

“They are,” said Austin. “They need blood to
sustain, and if they don’t get it, they actually become more
violent and ferocious. Once they start to lose more of their body
mass, though, they’ll eventually slow down.

“Great,” I sighed.

“What makes you an expert on these things?”
asked Bryce.

Austin shrugged. “Bits and pieces of things
I’d heard from other soldiers. They’ve been studying their
behaviors.”

“Do they know for sure if you’ll turn into
one if you’re bitten?” asked Eva.

He nodded. “They believe you will. Some of
the people who’ve been bitten are showing signs of very erratic
behavior, similar to the zombies. Some have just…died,” he said,
his voice getting quieter as he glanced at me.

I looked out the window and sighed heavily.
It sounded pretty hopeless for my sister. I was thankful that my
mom was with her, but I could only imagine the agony she was going
through in Atlanta. I only wished I could get out there somehow so
she wouldn’t have to face it alone.

When we’d finally made it back to my house,
everything seemed surreal. There weren’t any zombies wandering in
the neighborhood or even the yard, just a shiny black GMC Sierra
parked in our driveway.

“Were you expecting company?” asked Bryce,
getting out.

I shook my head and ran up the steps. As I
put my hand on the doorknob, it burst open and I gasped in
surprise.

“Daddy!” I screamed, jumping into his
arms.

“Oh, thank God,” he replied, holding me
tightly.

“Where’ve you been?” I cried.

He put me down and grimaced. “It’s a long
story. Let’s just say the traffic was bad coming home.”

I smiled and wiped the tears from my
face.

“Did you…did you find anything out about
your mom or sister?” he asked sadly.

We went inside and I told him everything I
knew while he sat in silence. When I was finished he didn’t say a
word, he just stood up and went downstairs.

“He needs some time,” said Kristie
softly.

I nodded. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to
my room to be alone for a while.”

Bryce squeezed my hand as I stood up. “Let
me know if you need me, Wild.”

On my way to my bedroom I stopped in the
kitchen for some water. Eva was sitting alone at the counter,
staring at her clasped hands. She looked up. “Oh, it’s you. Tell
me, what…what do we do now?” she asked, her face a mess of tears
and make-up.

I was about to respond when my dad stepped
into the kitchen. He was dressed in military camouflage and
carrying two very impressive rifles that I’d never seen before. The
determined look in his eyes gave me the chills.

“What next?” he asked, setting the guns
down. “We go find them, all of them.”

“But is it safe?” I breathed.

He looked at me. “Cassie, we’re a family and
I won’t be apart from any of you, ever again. We’re going to
Atlanta as soon as possible.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” he said, a half-crazed look in his
eyes. He lifted one of the guns back up and smiled humorlessly.
“Let the games begin…”

***

End of Book One

Book Two – Running Wild
Available Now!

Venom

(A Night Roamers Short – Slade and Chelsey’s
Story)

By

Kristen Middleton

Copyright©2013 Kristen Middleton

The characters and events portrayed in this
book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead
is coincidental and not intended by the author.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise without express written permission of the author.

Prologue

The music in the club was
beginning to give her a headache, but Melody ignored it. She was
about to go to an after-party with the band members of
Venom
, who’d just
finished their last encore at Club Nightshade. She was also pretty
confident that if she played her cards right, she’d be in the lead
vocalist’s arms before dawn.

Slade.

Just thinking about him
made her tingle all over. Damn, the guy was
hawt
and had a voice that made her
want to jump his bones. With those hypnotic green eyes, and that
sexy infamous half-smile of his, she knew she wasn’t the only girl
lusting after him in the club. But, she’d definitely mastered the
skill of flirting and had eventually gotten Slade’s attention.
She’d done the pouty lip thing and made sure he’d gotten an eyeful
of cleavage, dancing as close to the stage as possible, twerking
with her girlfriends until every guy in the club had been drooling.
It had obviously worked because she’d gotten a note from one of the
waitresses with an invite to some party being hosted by the owner
of the club, compliments of the band. Thankfully she’d gotten the
fake I.D. the week before or there was no way she’d have been able
to step inside of the club, let alone party with the band
afterwards.