Ravenous (The Ravening #1)(30)
Author: Erica Stevens

“Quiet!” he hissed, but it was too late. I heard the loud crunch of underbrush at the same time he did. I stared at Cade in horror, uncertain what to do. I wanted to bolt in a million different directions at once, but I didn’t know which way was the safest one. “Run Jenna!”

Then Cade was in front of me, grasping hold of my arms as he pulled me toward the woods. “Cade,” I breathed.

“Run Bethany. Run.”

I had picked my way carefully through all of the thorns on my way to the stream, now I dove into them with reckless abandon. I was scratched, bloodied and bruised but I didn’t care as I shoved my way through the trees and vegetation. I thought I should try to go with a little more ease, but I was too terrified to slow down right now.

I could hear Cade behind me, and although we were both traveling through the same crap, I was certain that he was a thousand times quieter than me. My foot became entangled in a mess of briars, tripping me up. I cried out as I tumbled to the ground in an ungraceful heap. Thorns tore into my flesh and dug into my palms.

Cade grabbed hold of me and lifted me swiftly up. I turned to run again, but he held me back. Before I knew what was happening he was pushing me against a tree. “Climb,” he breathed in my ear.

I drew on all the things I had learned as a child as I pulled myself up the tree. I glanced back at Cade; he was scurrying rapidly behind me as I moved higher and higher into the limbs of the giant oak. Then he was next to me, pressing me against the trunk of the tree. His breathing was loud in my ear; I could feel his heartbeat as he pressed flat against me.

“Stay perfectly still.”

That was easier said than done as every part of my body was trembling from apprehension and exertion. I was frightened of what was coming, afraid of the unknown, and consumed with terror for my brother and sister. Cade wrapped his arms around me and flattened himself against me. I didn’t know where Jenna had gone; I prayed that she was safe, that she had heard the approaching danger also.

“Jenna,” I whispered.

Cade rested his head in the hollow of my neck. "You’re the only one that matters Bethy.” My mouth dropped, he lifted his head to meet my disbelieving stare. The words were harsh, almost cruel in their detachment, but there was something heartwarming and reassuring in them that left me trembling and weak. “You’ve always been the only one that matters.”

Now how did I respond to that? How did anyone respond to that? I thought that I should protest, that I should tell him that of course other people mattered, and always would. I thought these things, but I didn’t say them, mainly because I was unreasonably pleased by the conviction behind his fervent words. My breath was robbed from me, I wasn’t certain I was ever going to breathe right again.

I thought that he was going to kiss me, but his eyes slid away. The noise of the forest was getting closer; it seemed as if a herd of deer were tromping their way through. For a moment relief filled me, maybe it wasn’t the aliens, maybe the wildlife was starting to move around again.

Cade pressed me back when I tried to move away from the trunk of the tree. He shot me a look, his jaw clenched as he shook his head briskly. The muscles in his lean arms bulged as they constricted around me. Even now, terrified, bloody, and cornered, I felt myself reacting to him. He must have sensed a change in my breathing, or in my body, as his gaze slid back to me. Those eyes were dazzling, liquid pools of onyx that gleamed in the light filtering through the leaves. I could see fear in his gaze, but there was also something far more intense that I couldn’t quite place.

He leaned close to me, his lips pressed against my ear. I reveled in the feel of him, of the breath whispering over my skin. “I’m not confused Bethany,” he whispered so softly that I barely heard him. “I never have been.”

I shivered in response as the woods suddenly erupted with motion.

CHAPTER 15

I gawked at the sight beneath us, too startled to react at first. “Cade…”

“I see,” he murmured.

I blinked as I tried to convince myself that what I was seeing was real. “They’re human.”

“Yes.”

I followed him back down the tree. The group of ten people spun toward us, drawing out the weapons they possessed as we landed on the ground. “Easy,” Cade said, using his arm to push me back from them as he shielded me with his body. I frowned at his back but he wouldn’t let me out as he kept his arm pressed against my chest.

They studied us skeptically before lowering their spears and one rifle. “What are you doing here?” a tall burly man demanded.

“The same as you I suppose,” Cade responded with more nonchalance than I would have managed under the circumstances.

The man eyed us warily. I was staggered by the hostility radiating from them, we weren’t their enemy. “Are they out here?” a woman asked tremulously.

“Not yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. Where did you come from?” Cade inquired.

“Mashpee.” The man responded, indicating the town next to ours. “We’re making our way to the bridges.”

“Are you going to attempt to cross them?” I blurted.

“We can’t stay on this side, we’re trapped here.”

I glanced at Cade; I wasn’t at all sure how I felt about that. It was true, on this side we were cut off from the world, separated from the mainland by the canal. The bridges were the only way off the manmade island, but nothing had moved over them in awhile, car or person. The thought of attempting to cross them on foot seemed like a suicide mission to me. They would be exposed, out in the open, high in the air and easily spotted from above. I thought I would rather jump in the canal and take my chances with the deadly current and cool water, rather than try and run across either bridge.

“They’re just gonna herd the survivors into smaller and smaller pieces of land, until they can’t herd us anymore. Until there is nowhere left for us to go. We have to get off,” the man continued.

I shuddered as I realized that the man was right. They would continue to push us where they chose, but the bridges were not an option, at least not to me. Neither was swimming across, and a boat would be an easy target on the open sea, or the canal. We were trapped here, stuck, and at the mercy of the aliens hunting us. “Have you met many other survivors?” I inquired tremulously.

“I met up with three others near the Sandwich line and we’ve picked up two others along the way.”

They hadn’t walked an overly long distance, but I thought they should have discovered more people in the area they’d covered. “We’ll walk with you,” Cade said.