My stomach heaved and rolled. I wanted to vehemently deny his words, but the second I heard them I knew he was right. Those things were focusing on the streets because they needed to clear them, and the frozen people were obstacles right now. I hadn’t been sick since I was a kid, but I was fairly certain that by the end of today I would end up losing my breakfast. If not my life.
A chill raced down my spine. The hair on my neck and arms stood on end. There was a very good chance that I, that we, would not survive this day. This attack was methodical, well planned, deliberate, and brutal. The aliens would not want survivors, they would not tolerate them, and that is exactly what Cade and I were.
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to ease the numbness slipping through my body but I failed miserably. “I can’t stay here,” I whispered. “My family. I have to get to them.”
Cade nodded. “We have to wait a little bit.”
“My sister…”
“We’ll get to them Bethany. I promise we willget to them.”
I found that I believed him. I didn’t know why I did, or why I felt that he would do whatever he could to help me, but I knew that he would. My head bowed, tears of frustration, anger, and misery burned my eyes. I would not shed them though; I had not cried in years, I would not cry now.
“Why are we still moving while everyone else is, well…”
My question trailed off, I didn’t know how to describe these people right now. Frozen? Mannequins? Corpses? The living dead? Whatever they were, and no matter what they were called, they were the freakiest things I had ever seen. “I don’t know. I imagine that somehow we were all given something, whether through food or water, medicine or surgery, or even simply the air we breathe. It seems that for some reason it did not work on us though.”
“Not yet.”
Cade’s eyes were dark and hooded. I swallowed heavily, hating the words I had just uttered, but we both knew that they were true. Just because we were not statues now did not mean that we weren’t going to become them. At any moment we could freeze and become trapped within the confines of our own bodies. That thought did nothing to ease the constriction in my chest that being within this room had started. In fact, it took all I had not to completely fall apart. Took all I had to keep on breathing even though it was suddenly very painful, and hard. I didn’t know if those people were consciously aware of the fact that they were frozen, about to be killed, but I preferred to think that they weren’t. I couldn’t bear the thought that they knew they were stuck like that and about to be devoured. If they did know…
I shut the thought abruptly off. It was too awful to even begin to contemplate. I couldn’t take that if it were to happen to me. I would rather die first.
“They may simply be taking us in stages,” he agreed. “Or it may never happen to us. We are all different; we are all made of different DNA. There is no way that everyonewould react in the same way to whatever it was they gave us. I’m sure we’ll be fine Bethany.”
I wanted to believe that, wanted to believe that we would stay mobile, that we would not freeze at a moment’s notice, but I was still filled with terror. I had a feeling that if the aliens discovered whatever they had done hadn’t worked on us, the consequences for us would be even worse than what the people on the street were going through. They would not be happy to learn that they were not perfect, and that things had not gone exactly as planned. We would be punished.
Horribly.
I swallowed heavily, frightened by the realization. We could not be caught. But what the hell were we supposed to do? Where were we supposed to go? I struggled to keep my mounting panic contained. First things first, I had to get out of this room and find my family. I prayed that they were safe.
“I never trusted them,” I whispered.
“I know.”
My attention turned back to Cade. He had moved deeper into the room, his midnight hair blended seamlessly in with the dark shadows surrounding him, hugging him. He was examining a few of the boxes, but he didn’t try to open them, and he didn’t appear to be truly interested in their contents. I had the feeling that though he wasn’t looking at me, his concentration was still solely focused upon me. “How did you know that?”
He lifted a large box with surprising ease and placed it on top of another. “It’s been written all over your face for the past year.”
Though I had caught him watching me, I hadn’t realized he’d been scrutinizing me so intently, but apparently he must have been watching a little more keenly than I had realized. “Oh.”
“You don’t hide things very well.”
“I see.” Though I didn’t see, and I was more than a little confused by this conversation. I wanted a change of topic. “How did you know about this room?”
“I’ve been working for Peter for two years now.”
“Peter?”
“The man outside.” I frowned, my hands clenched tighter on my arms. I hadn’t known that about Cade. In fact there wasn’t a whole lot I did know about him anymore, other than rumors. The girls at school called him the black devil due to his cold demeanor, midnight hair and onyx eyes. I had never given much thought to the nickname, I’d thought it was silly and that they were absurd for saying it. Standing in his presence now though I completely understood it, and couldn’t shake it from my mind. “He keeps the most valuable things secured in here.”
I just nodded. I didn’t know what else to say. I was so confused, frightened, and disoriented by this abrupt change in our lives that I couldn’t think straight. I wasn’t sure if I was reading too much into this conversation, or if I was completely missing something. Either way, I was beginning to feel like an idiot.
I had not been expecting any of this when I’d woken up this morning. But then, it could be worse, I could be one of those people in the street. I was lucky to still be moving, I was lucky to have someone else with me now. Especially Cade, as he seemed remarkably calm and competent considering the way our lives had been abruptly turned upside down.
I needed to pull myself together; it was the only way I was going to survive. “Sit.”
My attention was drawn back to Cade. He had settled himself onto one of the boxes; his arm was draped over his bent leg as he watched me. I didn’t want to move away from the door though. I did notwant to go deeper into this room. The very idea of it was enough to make my heartbeat excel and my skin crawl. I shook my head.
He sighed softly, climbed to his feet, and carried one of the boxes over to me. “Sit Bethany, relax. I have a feeling we won’t be getting many more opportunities to do that anytime soon. We had better take advantage of it now.”
I stared up at him, momentarily lost in his onyx eyes as he gazed at me. I had always tried not to let how attractive he was effect me. We were totally different people and he was way out of my league. He had always been a strange enigma that was fascinating, but nearly impossible to solve. He could have any girl he wanted, probably most women too. And I was… well I was just me. Not awful, but nothing overly remarkable either.
But now Cade was only inches from me and his presence was overwhelming in the small room. I felt like a fool, but I couldn’t stop myself from admiring the sheer magnificence of him. He was perfect and beautiful, if a man could be considered beautiful. I realized that he smelled wonderful, like spices and fresh air. I shifted self consciously. I didn’t want to move away from him, but I didn’t want him paying too close attention to me either. He could see that I was a mess, but he didn’t have to smell me on top of it.
I didn’t think I could relax, but I slid limply onto the box because I didn’t know what else to do. He watched me for a long moment before moving back to his own box. We didn’t speak for a long while, the light bulb swayed slowly back and forth, shaken by the vibrations of that thing making its way slowly down the street, draining its victims.