Tooth and Nail (Draft In Progress - Book One)

Chapter 13 - Ruins

"You should have told us immediately." Jezebel crossed her arms and paced the living room. The dim light provided by candles on the coffee table cast a glow on her face as fiery as her voice was chilly. "Why did you hold out all day?"

The sun was setting on the eleventh day of the Catastrophe, and Tamerlyn sat curled up in the brown arm chair under heavy persecution. She had not remembered to warn the others about the message from Alani on the radio. And now, eight hours later, they had little time before the Red Rivers would surely arrive at their door, and just as soon break it down, ending the lives of every Haven resident. Allen would stand face to face with Cornwallis. Jezebel cringed at the thought, knowing Allen would not match the tyrannical boy with rightly colored coat and equally fierce army of high schoolers. "I forgot, okay? The house was filled with dead people, I wasn't thinking about the supposed threat of kids from another city getting here. It is eight miles, you know. And those Walkers were only eight feet from us. They were priority."

"Sure, and once we had all of them tossed back outside, you should have told us about what you heard on the radio." Jezebel shook her head and scoffed. "I can't believe we're going to lose Haven."

She plopped down, straight down, onto the beige carpet, her legs crossed. She clutched her sides for comfort she knew she wouldn't get from Tamerlyn and Allen could never give. The security feeling of being about herself. Her mind was swimming with images of not so pleasant futures, waking up to the crashing of invaders who dont take prisoners or make allies. The sight of seeing Tamerlyn's crumpled body, or knowing Allen can't fight. Drew would tell Avery to hide, then run away himself. And Jezebel, she knew she was beautiful. She knew that a man like Cornwallis would keep her alive the longest, makng her watch her world burn around her. His goons would clear out the house of its resources, they would toss everything in the modified bus they drove, and then he would kill her. But not the way he did others, he would use no gun. No - the Lord and General Cornwallis would kill her intimately, tying her to a chair and leaving her to starve with the last memories of her friends and family being the greusome acts of the Red River gang.

Drew had his arm around Avery's narrow shoulders, but she sat resistant, not leaning into him, but upright, and merely letting his presence drape around her.  Allen kept his hands clasped in his lap, his legs pressed together, formally quiet. Tamerlyn whimpered in the arm chair. Jezebel stared at the loops in the carpet. They all listened to the whistling of wind down the fireplace shaft. One question hung over every downward facing head, every pair of sagging shoulders and woven into every graying shirt on the hunched backs of children running out of time and innocence.

The CB in Connor's room clicked and hummed. Tamerlyn retrieved it, and set it on the coffee table. Slowly, maybe unknowingly, every one of them moved closer to the lifeline, listening intently to the world speaking.

Red River hit another school today.

Dragon Nation getting stronger.

Austin police compromised.

San Antonio wiped out.

Bubble popped.

Walkers.

Every single one shuddered in turn, feeling the cold news spread through their body, every nerve coming alive, felt to the core. Jezebel could see the words running through her veins, reaching each cell, and vibrating every bit of bone and blood. "We need to get some sleep," she said. Tamerlyn stood up and walked from the room down the front hall and to Connor's wing. No one moved from the couch until they heard the door click, and Allen dismissed himself to the guest room, his room. Avery padded up the stairs, and Drew followed, slightly behind. Jezebel was the last to leave the din of the living room, and she clicked off the radio when she did.