Grace Lost (The Grace Series) (38 page)

“What now?” I whispered. 

No one seemed anxious to answer.

“I need to think,” said Gus. 
He had his hands laced together at the back of his head.  “Zoe, are we
alone?”  I knew he wanted to know if I sensed any of the living dead
nearby.

“Ya,” I said. 
“All clear.”
  I began coughing again.

“Gus, we need to move,” said
Boggs. 

“What about the Explorer?” asked
Emilie.
 

“None of us have shoes on, darlin’. 
It’d be a long, cold walk,” answered Gus.

“The raft?”
I asked.

“No good,” said Boggs.  “It’s
been losing air, Zo.  With five of us it’d likely sink.”

I sighed heavily.  I was
feeling hopeless.  “We can’t stay here,” I said, tears starting to fall. 

I felt Boggs wrap an arm around
me.  It was then that we saw headlights coming down the drive.  A
large camouflaged military truck came to a stop well away from the burning
cabin.  Thick black smoke was rising to meet the clouds above and morning
light was starting to fill the sky. 

Gus held his arms out to his
sides
signaling the other girls to stay behind him. 

Three men exited the vehicle and
surveyed the fire.  They seemed unaware of us.

Boggs said to me very clearly,
“stay here.”  He chambered a round in his Kahr and tucked the pistol into
the back waistband of his jeans, then stepped out of the tree line.  The
other girls and I stayed concealed amongst the trees.

Gus followed Boggs.  The men
in the driveway took notice of them and raised their rifles.

“Stop!” yelled one of them.

Gus and Boggs both put their arms
out, Gus holding his shotgun off to one side.  The strangers proceeded
forward slowly. 

“Stop there!” said the smallest of
the three men.  He spoke in a slight accent.  I thought it might be
Russian but wasn’t sure.  “Proceed no further.”

“Who are you?” called Gus.

“Friends,” answered the man. 
“We were out scouting and saw the flames from the highway.”

Having had enough tension, I
stepped from the tree line despite Emilie’s efforts to hold me back. 

Em and Susan joined me, although I
could tell it was against their better judgment.  Emilie held my arm at
the elbow.  Her grip told me she was frightened.  I could sense Susan
standing just behind us.

The shock of our home burning was
beginning to set in.  I wanted to scream, cry, or somehow throw a
fit.  With strangers there holding rifles, I felt compelled to not do much
of anything.  No one spoke for a moment, and my ears were filled with the
sound of the fire continuing to rumble.  I watched helplessly as it
destroyed the remainders of the home and life we had built.

At last one of the men facing us
spoke.  “We can take you with us.”  He was slight in stature,
clean-cut, and well dressed in black slacks and a black knit turtleneck.

“To where?” asked Gus.  I
could tell by his posture and his voice that he was leery. 

“We’re running a colony not too
far from here,” answered the man.  “We saw some of the dead nearby, so I’d
strongly suggest you take us up on the offer.”

“How near were they?” asked Gus,
obviously not believing a word that the stranger in black had said.

“Bastards ran off,” replied the
short man.  “Some of them headed this way. We figured the dead fucks set
the fire.”

“Uh-huh,” said Gus.  “Mind lowering
your weapons?”

I didn’t understand how Gus could
actually be talking to these men.  It was obvious they were lying. 
Still, I trusted Gus fully. 

Boggs had slowly backed up to be
closer to me.  He now stood at my side.  “Zo,” he whispered.  I
didn’t answer, but rather just listened.  “You can’t let them know about
you.”

The heat from the burning building
was starting to grow uncomfortable.  “Ok,” I said under my breath.

“Not you, and not the baby,” he
added.

“’Kay.”

He took hold of my hand. 
“Stay close to me.”

I squeezed his hand in
acknowledgment. 

I focused back on Gus.

The man in black signaled his two
companions forward.  “Help any of them that needs help,” he said.

“We need to leave,” said the
smallest of them.  “We’ll take you to our compound.”

Tension surrounded us.  Gus
held his hand back to signal us forward.  Boggs guided me onward and I
could hear Susan and Emilie walking behind us.  “Keep your cool girls,” I
heard Boggs say under his breath.

Gus spoke quietly.  “Follow
my lead.  Stay together.  We have no choice, nowhere else to go.”

One of the men had fallen in
behind all of us.  Before long we were marching down the drive.  My
feet had grown cold and my stomach growled. 

“Nadine!” barked out the short man
as we approached the military truck.  “We have company!”

“Send em on back,” said the
woman.  “You have a knack for picking up stray pups, Miles.”

“Let’s go,” said the short man who
we now knew was named Miles.  “I want to be back before breakfast.”

We were ushered to the back of the
vehicle, where dark green canvas covered the rear opening.  We were told
to climb in.  The step up was tall, so Boggs helped boost me up.  Gus
had climbed in first, so was there to receive me.  Boggs assisted Susan
and Emilie before joining us.  There were bench seats on both sides of the
truck bed.  The five of us sat together on one side, while two of the
three men who met us at the burning cabin sat across from us.  They
remained silent, and never stopped watching us.  Miles and the woman named
Nadine sat in the cab, out of our view.

Boggs held one of my hands
tightly.

“Adam?” I asked quietly.  I
knew by using his first name it’d alert him in some way.

“Hmm?”

“Your picture of
you with your parents.
  It’s
gone.”  I hadn’t been sure of what to say, and it’s the first thing that
came to mind.

“It’s ok, Zoe.  It’s just a
picture.  It’s not important.”

I sighed.  I wished I felt
able to speak freely.  I wanted to mention that there had been none of the
dead near the cabin.  That my mind had never sparked with their
signatures.  I wanted to cry freely over the loss of our only home. 
I looked at Boggs, meeting his eyes with my own.  I hoped he would look
into them and know how scared I was.

“Zoe.”  Hearing my name, I looked
at Gus.  He was looking back intently.  “How’s your head feeling,
darlin’?”

“Fine,” I said knowing we
understood each other.  “I’ll let you know if my headache comes back.”

He answered with an almost
imperceptible nod. 

“Is she sick?” asked one of the
men sitting across from us.

Boggs looked at the man and took
his time before speaking.  “No.”

“Where are you taking us?” asked
Susan. 

The other man who sat across from
us smiled at her.  I didn’t like the way he looked at her.  I didn’t
like it at all.

“You’ll like it there,” he said.

“I liked it at our cabin just
fine,” said Susan almost venomously.

“Mind your manners, girl.
 The guys in charge don’t like sassing,” said the man.

“My name is Susan.  Not
girl
.” 

“And who
is
in charge?”
asked Gus in a calm yet commanding voice.

“You’ll be introduced soon
enough,” said the man directly across from me.

I heard a whimper coming from
deeper inside the truck.  I looked, my eyes growing used to the
shadows.  Sitting on top of a folded canvas in a dark corner was a little
girl.  She was thin and her clothes dirtied.  I smiled at her gently.

“Hi,” I said.

She shrunk back as if trying to
hide.

“We’ve been calling her Jane,”
said one of the men.  “We picked her up a couple of hours before your
little house fire attracted us.  She won’t talk.”

“Picked her up from where?” asked
Gus.

“An old gas
station.
  She was hiding in one of
the bathrooms,” answered the man who had spoken to Susan.

“Hi darlin’,” said Gus.  “Do
you want to come out and sit by us?”

The little girl shook her head
back and forth.  She looked cold.

I looked over at the two
men.  “Do you have any blankets I can take to her?”

The more talkative of the two men
shook his head no.  “We put her on the canvas hoping it’d help.”

I squeezed Boggs hand then stood. 
I walked carefully, battling the movement of the vehicle, until I was near the
little girl.  I crouched down.  “Honey, is it ok if I sit by you to
keep warm?”

She looked at me with big brown
eyes, obviously scared.  I crept closer.

“I promise I won’t bite.”

It was hard to tell with the poor
lighting but I thought she might have hair even redder than Emilie's.  She
was maybe six years old.  I sat a few feet away from her.  The truck
bed was cold against my bottom. 

“It’s really cold here,” I whispered. 
“I bet it’s warmer on the canvas you’re sitting on.”

She watched me carefully.  I
looked back at her.  Eventually she scooted over, slowly.  I followed
her lead and scooted toward her at a snail's pace until I was on the
canvas.  After several minutes she was leaning against me for
warmth.  I wrapped an arm around her.

We continued on in silence. 
I took comfort from the warmth of little ‘Jane’ against me.  Time passed,
although it was hard to judge just how much.  I had an ominous feeling in
the pit of my stomach.