Taken Over (The Ravening #2)(4)
Author: Erica Stevens

We reached the top of a crest, the large boat warehouse we had discovered a week ago came into view. When I had first been rescued by the ragtag group of survivors, they had been holed up in a lobster warehouse, but that had been three housings ago. We didn’t have homes anymore, we couldn’t; we just had buildings that sheltered us until it was time to move on. Time to head into areas that the aliens had already cleared of the Frozen Ones, to move further away from the dangerous zones, though I doubted there were any safe zones out there. Not anymore.

I hated moving further away from the last place I had seen Cade, but I knew location had no meaning in my attempt to find him. For all I knew, he might not even be on this planet anymore, let alone still in the Cape Cod area. It was foolish of me to resent moving further inland, but I couldn’t stop the feeling. It was constantly with me.

I resented being forced out of the only home I had ever known, the only place I had ever known. Even if it never could be home again. I did not kid myself into thinking that I would ever have a home again, that anything would ever be the same, but I wasn’t ready to let it all go either. I was like a stubborn child clinging to my pacifier, unwilling to relinquish it even though it was time. Everything I had ever known was gone, it was time to move on, but I was having a hard time doing so. There was no way to stop what had happened, at least not one that any of us could think of, and to stay still was to die. All we could hope for was to survive every day and to keep hold of the few loved ones we had left. I was more fortunate then most to still have Bret, and my brother and sister. There were others that still had family with them, but not many. Most had no one left. We made our own families now.

I sighed softly as we moved slowly down the hill. The only good thing about all the moving was that Dr. Bishop had to leave behind all of the frozen bodies he’d collected. He still had one, but the roomful of unmoving people had been abandoned in the lobster warehouse. I thought I should feel more guilt over that decision, but I found there was little room for emotion, or compassion, within me anymore. Those things had to be suspended in this new and deadly world, they would eat me alive if I dwelt on them too much.

There had been nothing that we could do for those people; Dr. Bishop had tried everything he could think of to rescue them. To reawaken them from their frozen state. Nothing had worked. I’d disliked leaving them behind, I wasn’t completely dead and hard inside, but if we were to survive losses had to be cut. And I could not dwell on those decisions. Not if I wanted to keep my sanity anyway. We had not happily abandoned the frozen people, we had simply moved on because we’d had to survive.

Survival was the number one concern now. It was what drove us all.

As we approached the warehouse a few people emerged from the shadows. They were holding guns, prepared to defend the people within if necessary. More emerged as it became clear who we were, and what we carried with us. Silence came over the group as we slipped into the darkness of the cavernous building.

Most of the people were asleep, scattered about on makeshift beds. The dim light of lamps flickered over the room, casting shadows over the metal walls. There were no windows within this part of the building so the lights were allowed. There had originally been sixty people within the group; there were only thirty or so left. Some had left to go out on their own, some had wanted to search for family members, or had refused to move on. Others had been killed.

My younger sister, Abby, made her way toward us. She moved swiftly and gracefully through the people sprawled on the floor. Her resemblance to our mother never failed to amaze me, from her long dark hair, to her gleaming dark eyes, and petite stature. Our mother may be gone, but there was no denying that she lived on in Abby.

She was almost to us when she stopped, her eyes widening in horror as her hand flew to her mouth. She fixated on the thing between Bret and I. “What happened!?” she cried.

“Long story,” I muttered, wanting to find some place to put our load down.

“Are you ok?”

I managed a nod, but I knew she didn’t buy it. Who could with what we held between the four of us? “Where’s Bishop?” Bret asked quietly.

“Where else would he be?” Abby retorted.

Bret and I carried the thing toward one of the back rooms. Dr. Bishop set up a laboratory and medical area in every new place that we moved into. His main area of interest had been research; unfortunately with The Freezing I had become his prime target. In the few weeks I had known him I’d been stuck with more needles than in my entire seventeen years. If I’d been a dog I probably would have bit him by now, but I’d actually come to like Bishop, needles and all.

The doctor appeared in the darkened doorway of his newest laboratory area. Even in the dim light I could clearly see the excitement that filled his gaze as he stared at the thing we held. “You’re a strange man,” I informed him. “Where do you want this thing?”

He hurried in behind us, a surprisingly bright spring in his step. He shoved papers off a long counter that had been used for equipment repairs before the aliens, and The Freezing, had left all sense of a normal life nonexistent. “Up here! Up here!” he said excitedly before flitting quickly away.

Bret rolled his eyes and shook his head. I had grown to like the seemingly frantic and discombobulated doctor, but most still found him a little creepy and annoying. Bret also didn’t like the extra attention that Bishop focused on me, even if it was only because I was his favorite pin cushion, and specimen.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I dropped the damn thing on the counter, grateful to be rid of the weight of the hideous creature. I walked over to the sink to wash my hands and arms in the large metal basin. I scrubbed vigorously, using the small scrub brush to clean the blood from under my nails. “This is amazing! Amazing!” Bishop muttered excitedly. “Maybe we can find a live specimen.”

I shot him a dark look, while Bret gaped at him incredulously. “Count your blessings with this one doc,” I informed him.

Bishop wasn’t listening to me though as he peered closely at the strange creature before him. His grey eyes were narrowed behind his glasses as he bent close to the thing. It appeared that I had been replaced as Bishop’s favorite thing to poke at, for the time being.

“It’s true.” I turned slightly, I hadn’t heard my older brother Aiden approach, but there he was in the doorway.

“Yes, yes,” Bishop said quickly. “We are very lucky. Lucky indeed.”