Taken Over (The Ravening #2)(16)
Author: Erica Stevens

“Scary,” Bret muttered.

I seconded that. Barney sat at my side as I crouched down, resting my fingertips on the ground. The scent of dirt and rotting leaves assaulted me. I inhaled deeply savoring in the raw scent of the earth. My earth. “That’s my aunt’s house,” Jenna breathed pointing at a cheery yellow house with soft blue shutters. The potted plants hanging from the porch beams were swaying gently in the soft September breeze. They were beginning to die from lack of water. The whole thing was so damn eerie that I wanted to turn and bolt back into the forest. This air of pristine perfection didn’t seem right. Not at all.

I glanced at Barney, but he wasn’t nervous about the strange road. “The dog seems to thinks it’s ok,” Lloyd muttered.

“Barney.”

“What?”

“His name is Barney,” I told him.

Lloyd rolled his eyes as he turned his attention back to the road. “Barney thinks it’s ok.”

We stayed perched by the side of the road studying the house for a moment longer. “Then let’s go,” Jenna said forcefully.

“Wait.” Lloyd held out a hand, his eyes narrowed as he glanced first one way and then the other. “This whole thing…”

“Is just wrong,” I finished for him.

His eyes came slowly toward me. He nodded once, briskly. “It appears safe and we can’t stay here,” Bret said. “We either move now or we stay here until…”

“Until we know it’s not safe,” Jenna retorted sharply.

I rested my hand on her arm, looking to calm the simmering tension radiating from her. Her patience was obviously wearing thin and I didn’t blame her. “We’re going,” I assured her. “It may not feel right but it’s not going to get any calmer than this road. We have to go.”

Lloyd nodded, but his eyes were distant, weary. I rose slowly, if he wasn’t going to go first, then I would. I took a deep breath, drawing on my courage as I prepared to plummet into the calm streets of what had the eerie appearance of Mayberry. I bolted forward before anyone could stop me, racing across the street with more speed than I would have possessed a month ago. I bounded up the porch steps, feeling the thump of the rifle against my back as I took them two at a time in leaping bounds. I didn’t hesitate at the door, didn’t even stop to think it might be locked (no one lived here anymore, why would they bother to lock it), as I grasped hold of the knob and flung it open.

In my hectic pace I nearly fell into the house as I tripped and stumbled over the doorframe. I just barely managed to catch my balance before I slammed into the kitchen table with enough noise to raise the dead. “Graceful,” Lloyd commented as he swept into the kitchen behind me. He surveyed the room in sweeping motions with his rifle aimed and ready.

That’s probably the way I should have entered the house, instead of my frantic pirouetting ballerina move that had left me with a bruised hip and an even more bruised ego. “Whatever,” I muttered, fighting against the urge to rub my throbbing hip.

Bret and Jenna entered with the same reserve and caution that Lloyd had exhibited. Bret shook his head at me, his disapproval and censure obvious. Jenna didn’t look at me as she eagerly scanned the kitchen. She lowered the pistol she had been holding as she raced from the room. “Jenna wait!” Bret said sharply but she had already disappeared from view.

“Mom! Dad! Aunt Lucy!” her soft cries became distant as she disappeared into the bowels of the house.

Lloyd nodded to Bret. “Follow her. We’ll check out the lower floor. You going to actually get your gun ready?”

I glared at him, but took his advice and pulled my rifle forward as Bret disappeared. I followed Lloyd swiftly through the house, sweeping swiftly through the rooms as we searched for anything out of place, but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. A soft thump issued from above. I tilted my head back, holding my breath as I stared expectantly at the ceiling. No shouts rang out; I could make out the sound of their soft footfalls as they moved across a room.

“Did anything even happen on this street, or did they all take off? Did they somehow escape The Freezing?” I whispered.

Lloyd did not look at me as he stroked the dying stalks of a spider plant between his fingers. The baby offshoots had already fallen off and dropped to the floor. There was a look of longing on his face that I didn’t understand but that left me breathless and aching for things lost. “I don’t know.”

“None of this seems right. It’s like we’re trapped in an alternate universe, we’re the ones stuck on the side where there’s no one left. The other side is still moving, still alive and they either don’t remember that we even ever existed or they’re baffled by the sudden disappearance of so many.”

“I had one of these as a child. I would have taken it to boot camp but they wouldn’t let me. I don’t know what became of it.” Or his family, I heard the unspoken words even though he didn’t say them. I understood the longing and sadness that aged his youthful face. Lloyd cocked one reddish eyebrow at me as he finally released the plant and turned toward me. “An alternate universe huh?”

“Or something like that,” I managed to whisper, nearly broken by the sorrow in the solider.

“It’s nothing like that,” he said gently. “Jenna is still moving; it only makes sense her aunt would be the same. There is no alternate universe here, only lucky people, and the highly unlucky.”

“Which side do we fall on?” I inquired dryly.

He grinned at me, but the smile did not reach his eyes. “I haven’t decided yet, graceful.” Though I tried hard not to, I couldn’t help but grin back at him. “This is a creepy road though.”

“Whole damn town has been creepy so far.”

“It has,” he agreed, idly turning his attention back to the plant.

I left him to his memories. I needed a moment to gather my thoughts, and regain some of my courage. I could feel it waning in this strange land of seemingly utter calm and tranquility. I knew better than to think that things were just as they seemed. There was something going on in this damn town and I couldn’t help but think we’d just wandered straight into the spider’s web and that it was just waiting to spin us into a cocoon and drain us dry.

I walked back into the kitchen. Barney was lying on the floor, his front paws crossed before him, and his head resting on them. He cocked one ear and opened one eye to watch as I walked slowly around the room. I opened cabinets, looking for food but looking more for a distraction from my thoughts and this world. They seemed to have been completely picked over. Someone had survived The Freezing, whether it was Jenna’s aunt, her parents, or other survivors I didn’t know, but the only thing left in the cabinet’s were a box of baking soda and a thing of vanilla.