Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series)

Chapter 11


I gaped at the sight beneath us, too stunned to react at first. “Cade…”
“I see,” he said softly.
I continued to stare for a moment longer, blinking as I tried to convince myself that what I was seeing was real. “They’re human.”
“Yes.”
I followed him swiftly back down the tree. The group of ten people spun toward us, drawing out the weapons they possessed as we reached the ground. “Easy,” Cade said, using his arm to push me back from them and his body to shield me.
They stared at us for a moment longer before slowly 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 wearily. I was stunned by the hostility radiating from them, the anger they had toward us. We were not 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?”
“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 in surprise.
“We can’t stay on this side, we’re trapped here.”
I glanced sharply at Cade, not 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, 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 need to get off,” the man continued.
I shuddered in dread, knowing that the man was right. They would continue to push us where they wanted us, 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. We’ve picked up the rest along the way.”
I bit my bottom lip. They hadn’t walked an overly long distance, but I thought they should have discovered more people in the area they’d covered, or at least I had hoped they would have. That hope vanished. The number standing across from me was depressing, and defeating. “We’ll walk with you,” Cade said softly.
“Cade,” I whispered, dread filling me at the thought. They were the first people we had seen in a long time, I should be ecstatic to see them, and yet their plan terrified the hell out of me. I was weary of them and their intent. I didn’t even like driving over the bridges, never mind running across the damn things.
“We’ll go with you for a little while,” Cade amended squeezing my arm gently. “If that is ok?”
They exchanged quick glances. “Strength in numbers,” the man agreed.
“Yes.” My heart was hammering, panic clawed at me. “There are others of us nearby.” Cade turned to me and gently clasped hold of my shoulders. “I have to find Jenna; there is no way to know how far she ran. Wait for us.”
“Cade…”
He was already moving away though, disappearing swiftly into the woods. I marveled over his grace, agility, and ability to move with such speed and ease. I focused my attention back on the group to find them watching me intently. They looked as beaten and terrified as I felt. I found my defenses crumpling; I managed a small smile for them. One that was only halfheartedly returned. “This way,” I said softly.

***

It had taken Cade nearly a half an hour to find Jenna and bring her back to the tree house, by that time it was almost dark. The group became divided on if it would be best to keep moving, or wait until daybreak. A majority vote had us packing up our meager supplies. I preferred to keep moving, we had stayed here too long and I felt we would be pushing our luck if we continued to do so.
Bret worried over me as he cleaned my wounds with some of the water we had left. One of the members of the other group had bandages. I wanted to tell Bret to stop, wanted to tell him not to worry about me. I was certain that if he knew the truth about me, the last thing in the world he’d want to do was touch me. And I wouldn’t blame him in the least.
But I let him worry over me; I could sense the fear and anxiety tightly wound within him. Helping me with my injuries was easing some of that tension. I forced myself not to turn away from him, none of this was his fault, it was all mine; I could not deny him the comfort he sought. I felt like a mummy with my hands wrapped up, but apparently my dive into the thorns had done more damage than I’d realized. “You have to be more careful,” Bret muttered as he finished tying the bandage.
He looked at me in amusement. We both knew that was a near impossibility. After all, I was the girl who had tripped over her own feet and sprained an ankle last year. A fact that, until all of this happened, Aiden and Bret had found highly amusing. “I’m fine Bret,” I assured him softly.
His clear green eyes were warm and caring as he squeezed my hand lightly. “You’re a train wreck, but I love you.”
Guilt coiled through me, I shied away from the words. I wished he would stop saying them. It took all I had not to jerk away when he bent to kiss my cheek. I could feel Cade’s gaze burning into me from across the clearing, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. I felt like the lowest form of life at the moment, and I wasn’t ready to deal with the fact that I was now a cheater. Ok well maybe I wasn’t a full blown adulteress, it had only been a couple of kisses, but I was still a horrible person and I knew it.
I just wished that Cade wasn’t so damn irresistible, or that I wasn’t so damn weak.
I went to grab the bag of food but Bret beat me to it. “Let your hands heal.”
I wasn’t going to argue, there was no need. I fell into line beside Abby; she slid her hand through my arm. “I’m glad we’ve found others.”
“Yes.”
Though I still wasn’t certain how all of this was going to work out. Heading toward the bridges meant heading toward higher populated areas. Areas that would have a higher concentration of frozen people, and aliens. And crossing the bridges? We couldn’t, we simply couldn’t. Unfortunately, I knew that some people were determined to do just that, and I was a little scared that Jenna was completely for it. She was nearly hysterical after Cade had brought her back, she was wide eyed and terrified, and hell bent on getting off of Cape Cod.
I didn’t realize I was staring at her, and Cade, until I caught him staring back at me. I blinked in surprise, my face colored, and I ducked my head quickly. Abby giggled softly beside me. “I think he likes you.”
“He’s just a friend,” I responded quickly, perhaps a little too quickly.
Abby stared up at me, her eyes widening slightly. She had only been teasing but my reaction to her, and my focus on Cade, had not escaped her attention. Abby might have written off the kiss she had witnessed earlier as the heat of the moment, temporary insanity, curiosity, or simple fear, but I could see the dawning realization in her gaze. “Bethy,” she whispered in horror.
“How are you doing?” I asked softly trying to change the conversation.
“Bethany what are you doing?”
“Nothing Abby. How are you holding up?”
She stared at me for a moment longer, her dark eyes wide and caring. I could tell she wanted to say more, but eventually she decided to go with my change of subject. “Surviving, just like everyone else.”
I wondered how we were surviving at all. How we were still moving and going and carrying on through all of this. I could barely think of our mother, I was afraid I would turn into a sobbing mess if I did think about her for too long. We were all exhausted, hungry, beaten, and terrified, and yet we continued to move on, continued to fight and struggle for our lives no matter how frightening, uncomfortable, and uncertain they had become. Abby leaned against my side, her head against my arm. She was strong, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to take much more. I wasn’t so sure any of us could.
“We’re going to survive though.”
I turned my attention back to Abby, forcing a smile to my face. “Yes we are.”
I hoped that I wasn’t lying to her, but deep down I felt I was. We moved through the woods, skirting the roads, staying within the shadows. As we approached the Sagamore bridge I was surprised to see that all of its lights were still on, and blazing brightly. For a moment I stopped to stare, recalling all of the times that I had seen the bridge lit up like this. It was a beautiful, sweeping, glowing beacon against the dark night. Yet, even though it looked much the same, it was completely different.
It was the middle of the summer and the bridge was completely deserted. Last summer the bridge had been packed with traffic, the sound of cars had filled the night as tourists came and went at a slow pace. Now there was nothing there except for the lights, and almost certain death.
“The lights are on,” Jenna said softly. “We can’t go across if the lights are on. They’ll spot us instantly.”
“We’ll try the Bourne bridge,” one of the members of the other group said.
“The lights will be on there too,” I told them.
“You can’t know that,” a woman retorted sharply.
No, I couldn’t know it for sure, but it was more than likely true. They just didn’t want to believe it, yet.
“We’ll go to the other bridge,” Cade said reasonably. “It’s not that far. If we stick to the edge of the woods and move quickly, we can get there before daybreak.”
I licked my lips nervously. We hadn’t discussed if we were going to attempt the crossing. I knew that Jenna was for it, but what did everyone else feel? I didn’t want to split up our group, I didn’t want to stay on this side, but I didn’t want to cross. I looked to Aiden, but he was quietly conversing with one of the men.
I thought of the other bridge, and then I thought of something else. “What about the military base?” I asked quietly. They all turned to me, frowning as they stared at me in the night. Their eyes were oddly lit by the moonlight filtering through the trees. “I know it’s closed. I know the aliens kicked everyone off of it, but it’s big, and it’s wooded. There are a lot of places to hide there, a lot of buildings we can sneak into. And there might be weapons still there, or maybe even food.”
They were silent for a long moment as they thought over my words. “I don’t know the base very well,” one man said.
“The aliens could be out there,” another woman replied. “Wouldn’t it make sense for them to take over that place, and use it as their own?”
I couldn’t argue with that, it would make sense, but I doubted the aliens were on the base. I didn’t think they would want to take up any sort of permanent residence down here. They hated us; they thought nothing of us, which was very obvious by the fact that they were hunting us like rabid animals and putting us down without hesitation. And now that I had thought about the base, I wasn’t ready to let it go. There could be weapons out there still; there would be places to hide. There may even be places that we could make a stand, places we could defend ourselves from. We couldn’t run forever, we wouldn’t survive long doing that. Our supplies were limited.
The bridges were a terrifying thought, and one that I did not want to commit to.
But as much as the base was taking root in my mind, I could tell that they were dead set against it. “We need to get to the mainland,” another man in the group said.
I sighed softly, Abby’s hand tightened on my arm. There was no reasoning with them, no arguing with them. They had their minds set. I looked toward Aiden, but he wasn’t going to argue, I could see that on his face. He felt the mainland was the best option also. Terror rolled down my spine, they were going to get themselves killed, and they were going to take my friends and family with them.
I didn’t argue as we fell into step with them. Though it was almost five miles, we arrived at the Bourne bridge far faster than I would have liked. I stared at the impressive metal structure arching gracefully over the canal, it was the twin in many ways to the Sagamore. It was utterly eerie and frightening. I kept waiting for the Twilight Zone music to start playing, kept waiting for something to happen. I suddenly felt as if we were the only people left on earth, as if we had been sucked into some strange time loop or perhaps were even being punked. I kept waiting for someone to jump out and yell, ‘Surprise, or Gotcha!’
Neither of those things happened.
The lights of the bridge blazed brightly, lighting up the dark night sky. It was hauntingly beautiful, achingly empty. The roadway leading to it was as bright as day to me. It almost seemed as if the lights were trying to entice us forward, trying to lure us onto the soaring structure like a mouse to cheese. I was certain we would be snapped up the minute we stepped out of the shadows of the forest.
Abby stood on tiptoe, pulling me closer to her. “I don’t want to cross it.”
I shook my head, pressing my finger against my lips for her to keep quiet. The others gathered together, talking softly amongst themselves. Abby and I stayed back. I didn’t want to separate, it was the last thing I wanted to do, but I was not going to cross that bridge, and I was not going to let them make Abby cross it either. I didn’t know what we would do if we were left behind, but I was willing to take my chances on this side rather than step onto that death trap.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Cade was shaking his head firmly, his arms crossed over his chest. Abby clung tighter to me; I could feel small tremors running through her petite frame. Jenna was behind Cade, nodding as he shook his head. Cade looked troubled and worried as Jenna eagerly followed the conversation. Aiden was hanging slightly back, looking unsure of either option while Bret was listening to each argument intently, trying to decipher which course of action he felt would be best.
“I need you to stay here Abby.”
I tried to free myself from her grip, but she only clung tighter to me. “No.”
“Abby…”
But it didn’t matter; the group was beginning to break apart. Aiden was coming toward us. I could tell by the set of his shoulders, and the determination in his eyes, that I was not going to like what he had to say. I braced myself, my jaw clenching tightly.
“We’re going to go over in groups.”
“I’m not going over.”
“Bethany…”
“No Aiden, I am not crossing that bridge. It’s suicide to do so.”
“It’s suicide to stay here.”
“Crossing that bridge is instantaneous suicide and you know that. Why would you even want to try it? We still have a chance over here; we can come up with a different plan if we just think about it reasonably.”
“The aliens might not have considered the bridges.”
The sheer stupidity of that statement caused my mouth to drop as I gaped at him. They somehow had the technology to navigate galaxies with ease, and freeze a good chunk of the population, but they wouldn’t have the foresight to monitor the only two ways off of Cape Cod? I had no idea what anyone was thinking, but they sure as hell weren’t using their brains to do so. “Aiden…”
“We can’t stay here Bethany.”
“There has to be another way.”
“What way?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. The canal was known for its dangerous currents, and to swim it would be almost as obvious as running across the bridge, but even that seemed a better option to me than this. And then I knew. I knew exactly how we could get to the other side. “What if I have a better plan Aiden?” I asked softly.
He stared at me for a long moment. “What is it?”
“We can swim across. If we find some diving gear, we could use it to swim across. We could stay under water, stay out of sight. It could work.”
He was silent for a moment; Abby stared up at me in wide eyed awe, while Cade seemed to be thinking it over. “None of us know how to use scuba gear, and where would we even get it?”
I didn’t care if none of us could scuba dive. I was far more willing to take my chances with it than I was with the bridge. “Someone here might know how, and there’s a rental place a few miles away. They have all kinds of beach supplies in there; they may have something that we could use.”
The other group had moved closer to us, but none of them spoke out when I mentioned scuba diving. “We can figure it out,” I whispered.
“It’s not something you just figure out Bethany.”
I glared fiercely at him. “I would rather take my chances with that instead of running across something over a hundred feet in the freaking air Aiden!” I snapped, unsure why he was so stubbornly clinging to this crazy notion. He was one of the smartest people I knew, but he was being adamantly stupid right now. My idea wasn’t without risk, and possibly death, but it was still better than this absolute insanity. Yet I could tell that few people even wanted to consider what I had to say.
“She has a point,” Cade said softly. “We can swim around the canal, avoiding the currents, and come up somewhere more sheltered on the other side.”
“We don’t know how to use scuba gear,” one of the other group insisted firmly. “We would never be able to do it.”
“And we are never going to be able to do this!” I insisted.
“I know how to scuba dive.” My attention was drawn to a young woman in her late teens or early twenties. Her long reddish hair, so dark that it was nearly brown, hung in thick curls to the middle of her back. Her cat green eyes were bright as she surveyed the group. “My father and I used to go lobster diving. I’m not an expert, but I do well enough with it. I could help.”
Hope sprang through me, I looked eagerly to Aiden, but his jaw was clenched and I could tell he was still against it. “We don’t know for sure that the store will have rental gear.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Abby said softly.
“There may not even be enough for all of us, and then what?” another woman in the group inquired.
I sighed loudly, growing impatient and frustrated. “Then we come back here tomorrow night, but at least we would have tried,” I said sharply.
“You can stand here and debate this all you want. I’m not waiting any longer. The closer it gets to dawn, the less likely our chances of getting across are going to become,” a man amongst the group insisted. “And we may not have another night. This may be our only chance to escape, and I am not going to blow it.”
“But this isn’t a chance, this is death!” I insisted angrily. “Please don’t do this. It’s foolish.”
I didn’t understand their absolute instance upon this course of action. Was it because it was the only plan they believed in? Was it because they believed the other side of the bridge was magically better? Or was it simply because they finally had something to do, something to cling to and hope for other than fear and uncertainty? Because they finally had a firm plan, and a course of action?
Whatever it was, I knew that I was not going to be able to stop them, and I was terrified that I would not be able to talk sense into Aiden either. Would he leave Abby and I here just to do this? Just to prove a point?
“You’ll see Bethy, when we get to the other side, you can join us.”
“No Aiden, please no.”
My heart was hammering. Abby was shaking even more, her fingers dug painfully into my arm. “Aiden don’t,” she pleaded.
He looked at her in surprise; apparently he’d thought that she would be eager to go across too. “Why don’t we just think over what Bethany is saying,” Cade said softly.
“What is there to think about?” The burly man shoved his way through the group to us. He hoisted his spear higher as he swung his pack onto his back. “This is the plan.”
My heart was hammering, my mouth was completely dry. There didn’t seem to be any way to stop this. They were fixed on their course. “At least stay with us,” I urged Aiden. “If they make it to the other side then maybe we’ll consider going.”
Aiden looked torn; he glanced back at the group of four that was starting to gather near the road. “We are in the third group, we’ll go then.”
Apparently I had already been divided without my knowledge, or approval. “Why are we even splitting up?” Abby asked softly. 
“Smaller groups will be harder to notice.”
“Yeah, that’s gonna help,” I retorted angrily.
“You know I love you Bethy, but optimism has never been one of your stronger qualities,” Aiden said quietly.
I glared at him, fighting to keep control of my rising temper as my hands fisted at my sides. He may be my brother, and one of my best friends, but there were times when our personalities completely clashed. Unfortunately this was one of those times, and his stubborn insistence may very well get us killed. No matter how much I did not want to cross that bridge, I knew that I would not let him go alone. I couldn’t. “Realism is not the same as pessimism. You’re being foolish Aiden; you’re not even listening to reason.”
“This is a good plan.”
I bit my lip, arguing with him was getting me nowhere. He wasn’t listening; he wouldn’t listen, not until something bad happened. I looked toward Cade, but his attention was focused upon the people already leaving the woods. I closed my eyes, made a silent plea for their safety, and then forced myself to watch. I couldn’t keep my eyes closed against this; I had to know what was going to happen no matter how awful it might be. I couldn’t pretend that it wasn’t going to happen.
“No, it’s not,” I whispered.
Bret stepped closer to me and slid his hand into mine. “I’ll keep you safe.”
I managed a tremulous smile for him, but we both knew that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to stop the kind of murderous intent that we had seen earlier. His hand was warm in mine, gentle and strong. I knew every callous on it, every small scar that marked it. It was familiar, well loved, and so very trusting. Yet as I held his hand, I didn’t feel the strong pull, the strong need that tore at me whenever Cade was near.
The next group stepped forward, entering the street as the first group reached the far side of the rotary. They were only five feet from the beginning of the bridge, just passing the entrance of the IHOP. They stepped onto the bridge, moving slowly as they began the climb up. There was a sidewalk along the side of the bridge, but they stayed on the empty roadway. They weren’t quite over the water yet, but still above the concrete walkway, and sharp rocks below, that marked the side of the canal. I shuddered at the thought of something happening to the bridge now, not like falling into the canal would save them, but it seemed somewhat more pleasant than concrete and rocks.
“Ok, let’s go.”
Bret took a step forward; apparently he was in our group while the other man and woman would be the last ones to go with Jenna and Cade. “Wait!” Abby said anxiously as Cade stepped toward us.
My heart was hammering, I could hardly breathe. My hand tightened around Bret’s. The second group was almost at the beginning of the bridge. The first was almost in the middle of it; if not for the lights they would no longer be visible. I could sense Aiden’s growing excitement; he really believed that this was going to be ok. I wanted him to be right, they had gotten further than I’d expected, but I was still unable to accept it.
“We have to go Abby, it’s the plan,” Aiden seemed slightly annoyed by the fact that we were not adhering strictly to the plan. My heart ached for him; I understood his need to control something, to feel like he ruled his own life again. I just wished that he had chosen something a little less deadly, like our food supplies maybe.
“Just wait until the second group gets a little further Aiden, please,” Abby whispered.
I decided to let her try to persuade Aiden, he had a harder time saying no to her than he did to me. He looked hesitant but he waited until the second group was already on the bridge. The first group was only twenty feet from the end, and beginning to fade from sight. Then, without further speaking to us, Aiden began to move from the woods. I glanced franticly back at Cade.
He started moving forward, his jaw locked. The fierce determination in his gaze was a sign of impending trouble. I knew he wasn’t going to make me cross that bridge if I really didn’t want to. I shivered in response to the fire burning in his coal dark eyes. “Aiden wait,” he ordered coldly.
Aiden spun back toward him, but the other two members of Cade’s group were also coming forward. One of them was the girl who had claimed to know how to scuba dive. “Molly,” she said, thrusting her small hand forward to shake ours. I took hold of her hand, surprised by the strength in her firm grip as I introduced myself.
“We’ll go now instead. You’ll see, we’ll all be fine,” the man said. He shot Abby and I a sympathetic look that aggravated the hell out of me and set my teeth on edge.
“Fine,” Aiden said. “Let’s go Bret.”
“Wait,” Bret protested instantly. “Bethany…”
“It’s ok Bret, I’ll be fine. I want to stay with Abby.”
“Cade can go over with Aiden.”
Hope sparked in Jenna’s eyes; it was obvious she wanted nothing more than to be with Bret. Abby looked franticly back and forth between the two groups. I was ashamed by the spurt of disappointment that shot through me, ashamed by the fact that I did not want to be separated from Cade. “Let’s just go,” Aiden said impatiently.
“It’s ok Bret, I’ll be fine.” I hated the deception that made those words come from my mouth, but I hated the thought of not being with Cade even more.
“I don’t want to leave you here.”
“Bret come on,” Aiden interjected, practically bouncing on his toes in his eagerness to move.
“Bethany?”
I forced down the lump in my throat. “I’ll be fine.” 
“Do you want me to stay?” he inquired.
I wanted them all to stay, but it didn’t seem to matter what I wanted right now. “Its fine,” I managed to choke out.
He smiled tremulously at me, squeezed my hand, and kissed me gently on the lips. I did not recoil from him, did not push him away. In fact I kissed him back because I was fairly certain I would never see him again, and I did love him. He hurried to join Aiden as Cade swiftly took Bret’s place at my side. I stared sadly up at Cade, struggling not to cry as Abby began to sob softly.
The first group reached the other side of the bridge; I could almost feel their relief. They were not out of the woods yet, they were still in the middle of a highway, completely exposed and out in the open, but they had made it that far. It was much further than I had thought they were going to make it. Hope began to fill me as I realized that perhaps I had been wrong after all, perhaps we were all going to make it across. Perhaps the bridges were the answer.
I suddenly wanted to run across the bridge, race over to the other side and kiss the ground of the mainland. I glanced eagerly at Cade, Abby’s tears began to dry up, Jenna looked like she was about to start jumping for joy. The second group was more than halfway there; Aiden was almost to the IHOP. “Let’s go,” Jenna said eagerly.
Cade nodded at me, I managed a wan smile for him. Jenna stepped out of the shadows, making her way toward the road. I swallowed nervously, gathered my courage, and followed Jenna forward. Abby clung tighter to me, but she was no longer crying, and she was moving with us. Cade stayed close to my side, little shivers of pleasure shot through me every time his arm brushed against mine. I didn’t feel so awful about us right now, I couldn’t. I needed him.
It was just that simple right now.
Aiden was at the foot of the bridge. The second group was almost safely to the other side when light blazed forth. For a moment I was blinded, and completely confused. I thought something had happened with the lights on the bridge, that perhaps a power surge had somehow caused them to blaze even brighter.
Then, I heard the screams.