ZOMB-POCALYPSE BOOK 2

Chapter One

I stare out at the water as it beads and runs down my window. Rain is pouring from the sky, and the gray depresses my mood even more.

"How much farther?" I ask from the backseat, and Ryan and Silas send me twin looks of annoyance.

"Ten minutes different than the last time you asked," Silas complains, and I frown at him. I'm a little resentful that he's finding my personal tragedy so inconvenient.

"Jane, it's only been one day. I told you it will take three to get us to the cabin," Ryan rephrases what Silas said, a little bit nicer, and I sigh. All this driving is making me anxious. There's nothing to pass the time. Silas and Ryan aren't the best conversationalists, so there's nothing to keep my mind from dwelling on Abby.

I refuse to give up on her, out of all the people I've lost—Abby cannot be another name on that long list.

The rain increases, pounding harder against the truck like a hundred zombie fists, and Ryan starts to slow down. He's leaning forward and squinting ahead. The wind is buffeting the truck, and the result is a lot like I'd imagine driving in a hurricane might be like— a small hurricane.

"I can't see a thing," he admits after five minutes. The truck is practically crawling now. "We're gonna have to stop."

I sit upright in the seat. "No," I blurt out, causing Silas and Ryan to give me a look.

"I know what you're going through, Jane. I want to find out if Megan and Abby are okay too, but it won't help anything to kill ourselves getting there. If she's there, she will still be there..." He trails off and doesn't say the rest. If she isn't there, she's dead and we left her back at the camp.

"What's that up ahead?" Silas asks, pointing to the outline of a large building on the side of the road.

Ryan shakes his head. "I can't tell... we'll have to get a little closer." I bite back my sigh as we pull into the parking lot.

Ryan rolls down his window and rain drops pound in and hit my cheek. I lean forward anyway to read the signs.

"It's a mini mall," Ryan says in surprise as he looks around.

"Why's it in the middle of nowhere?" I ask, and the boys shake their heads.

"Maybe there's a town somewhere around here?" Silas suggests as he pulls out the map.

Ryan rolls the window back up and sits for a minute with the truck in park, idling.

"It could be risky," he says at last, causing Silas to nod his head.

"Yep."

"We could just wait in the truck for the rain to stop and then keep going," I suggest, but both the guys shake their heads at me again.

For two people that don't get along, they sure seem to agree on a lot lately, I can't help thinking spitefully.

I know I'm being awful. I'm not myself; I haven't been since I found out that my parents weren't on Liberty Island. I knew it was a long shot going in, but it was one of those things where it's so crazy you expect it to work.

"We should check it out," Silas says in his deep, southern drawl.

Ryan turns to me. "You can stay here, Jane. We'll go scope it out," he offers, making me frown.

I've practically been a zombie these last few days. I've been nitpicking the guys, complaining, whining, bitching—you name it. I'm ashamed of myself. These two are with me for no other reason than to help me out, and I've been treating them like crap.