Scattered Read online

  “We’ve got to move buddy,” I said as I peeked over the counter. The pack was gone, their feast on the muumuu woman over.

  Taking care to be stealthy, we slipped out of our hiding spot and into the downtown core of Nanaimo. With every shadow that shifted, every crow that cawed, I flinched and pulled Dustin against the buildings we were already hugging.

  Leaning against the rough bricks of an old storefront, I stood, panting. The adrenaline had left my system and I was running on fumes.

  “Annie, I’m tired,” Dustin said, his hand squeezing mine. I looked down at him, really looked instead of just acknowledging that he was still there and not snagged by a Nevermore. Bags under his haunted blue eyes, skin an ugly sallow pallor, his brows drawn into what looked like a permanent frown. He did not look fourteen.

  I gave him a half hearted smile and nodded because I was too damn tired to even say a simple yes.

  There were lots of buildings, but I wanted one that afforded a little more protection and I had one in particular in mind. Down near the harbour front, where all the boats docked, were several hotels. I’d dated one of the bellhops from the Dorchester and he’d shown me how to get in through the back door with the key the employees kept hidden for when they locked themselves out. We could sleep a little, then grab a boat and get out of here.

  I prayed that no Nevermores would pop out while we headed that way, because at the point I was at, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t just lie down and let them kill me. My feet stumbled, Dustin’s head drooped and we pretty much dragged our asses to the hotel.

  The key was still where my ex had shown me it was, and then we tried the door. I knew why the employees struggled with getting locked out. The door was incredibly heavy and the second we stepped through into the semi dark hotel, it slammed shut behind us. Neither of us even jumped.

  Being old school, the Dorchester didn’t have those fancy key cards, but instead still had rows of keys lined up behind the concierge’s desk. I grabbed #208 and we headed for the second floor.

  As soon as we were in the room, we dropped onto the king size bed, curled up around each other and fell asleep.

  Something shook the bed. Not hard, just a vibration that I felt through my whole body. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt better, rested. Another vibration with a distant boom. What was that? I stood and stretched as I walked to the window.

  “Holy Crap!” I yelped. The harbour was in flames and even as I watched, a boat exploded. What the hell was going on? Below me, there was movement and I stared in shock as men in army fatigues ran past, guns held loosely in their arms. One of them held up his fist and the group paused. The leader glanced over his shoulder, straight at me. I froze, our eyes making contact and a shiver of anticipation ran through me. It wasn’t all together bad. He frowned and took a step toward the hotel when one of the other men grabbed his arm, stopping him. Heart pounding and blood flowing to areas I’d thought were long asleep, I placed my hand on the glass.

  He lifted his hand in return, then spun and led the group, disappearing around the block, heading south.

  “What is it?” Dustin mumbled from the bed.

  I took a sharp breath in and tried to settle my suddenly raging hormones. What the hell was that all about? The last thing we needed was to get involved with more gun-toting humans. Look at what happened with the last one.

  “I don’t know,” I said, “but I think we’d better get out of here.” No point sticking around if the boats were all gone.

  He grumbled, but got up. His muttering made me smile. That was more like the teenager I was used to. It didn’t take us long to pack our meagre belongings, and though Dustin wanted to dawdle, I hurried him along. I had a really bad feeling about all these vibrations that felt like earthquakes but weren’t.

  We ran downstairs and out the back door just as the earth shook and a massive boom filled the air. I looked up to see the Coast Bastion Hotel sway above us, all twenty five stories of it.

  Oh shit, this was not good, not good at all!

  We spun and ran deeper into town, heading north, our eyes on the water’s edge as we searched for a boat. There was nothing but the rumbling booms behind us and the empty road in front.

  “Why would they blow the ships up?” Dustin asked.

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. There were men with guns; maybe they were fighting over territory or something. Maybe they were the ones setting off the bombs.”

  The faint sound of a vehicle reached my ears and I put a hand on Dustin to stop him. “Listen.”

  “Wait here.” I patted his shoulder and ran down one of the side streets, pacing the Jeep.

  The driver was a woman, her long dark hair tousled; her eyes focused on the road, and then scanning over me. I leapt out of the side street, nearly colliding with the Jeep. The woman started, slamming on the brakes as she sucked in a gasp and turned to me, her dark brown eyes wide.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just was so excited to see you and I thought you saw me too. You looked right at me.”

  She let out a big breath before answering. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded. “My name is Annie, my brother Dustin is just over there, I was wondering . . .” I got a good look inside the Jeep. There was a large man, no, Nevermore passed out in the passenger’s side. What the hell was she thinking?

  I backed away from the Jeep, my eyes wide, my jaw dropping open. “You’re crazy. He’s going to eat you!” I yelped as I spun on my heel and sprinted away from them.

  Dustin grabbed me as I leaped around the corner.

  “No good?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  We started back out, eating the cereal and peanut butter as we walked. I tightened the backpack. Walking, we made it to the far end of Nanaimo by evening, stopping only to search for water bottles coming up with three in total. It was better than nothing, but not by much.

  Along the water’s edge there wasn’t a single boat left behind. Damn.

  Dustin spoke my thoughts out loud without knowing it. “They’ve taken all the boats and now we’re stuck here.”

  Even though inwardly I agreed with him, I snorted. “We aren’t stuck here. We’ll find a boat.”

  Behind us came a sharp, short, howl. It was a scout from a Nevermore pack. We lunged into a flat out run without a word between us, careening down the rocky beach. From our left came another howl and the crashing of bodies running through the bush as they kept pace with us. A quick glance over my shoulder showed me four Nevermores about twenty feet behind us. This was not good.

  The beach took a wide corner around a point and we skidded around it; stumbling to a stop. The Nevermores had herded us into a trap. Waiting on the beach ahead of us was a huge group of them all focused on one thing.

  Us.

  I did the only thing I could think of. I ran into the water, propelling Dustin ahead of me, despite his screech of fear.

  The Nevermores ran toward us.

  “Faster!” I yelled, the water now up to our knees and slowing us down. But there was no splashing behind us. I turned to face them; surely they would be right on top of us.

  The entire pack, which looked to be about forty or so Nevermores, was standing on the beach, jumping away every time a wave splashed toward them. They were afraid of the water.

  “Wait,” I said, putting my hand on Dustin’s shoulder.

  He spun and fell into the water, dousing himself completely. The pack screamed as a unit and flailed away from the ocean as if it was them who’d fallen in and not Dustin.

  He stood up sputtering. “Why aren’t they chasing us?”

  “They’re afraid of the water. This is good buddy.” I said, grinning at him. He didn’t get it right away, why this was so good. But as we walked parallel with the shoreline, the Nevermores didn’t make a single move other than to match our pace on shore. Dustin quickly grasped what I meant. As long as we stayed in the water, we were safe.

  An hour slid by, and then
another and another. The sun started its descent, and what I’d thought was a godsend was now looking to be a very large problem. We couldn’t walk forever, we’d gone through two of our three water bottles and the food would run out soon too. I had no doubt that the pack would pace us until we broke and had to come in.

  Dustin seemed to sense my mood as it sunk with the sun and he refrained from asking me anymore questions.

  I stumbled on a rock and went to my knees which soaked me almost to my waist.

  “Son of a bitch!” I yelled, venting my frustration. I picked up a rock and threw it at the Nevermores, scattering them. Dustin took my lead and we threw rocks, hitting a few of the pack members, but mostly missing.

  I bit down on the tears that crept forward; a sob long buried busting out of me before I could stop it. Dustin didn’t say a word, just wrapped his arms around me as I choked back the fear and grief that threatened to overwhelm me.

  “It’ll be okay, Annie. I just know it,” he said, taking my hand in his and leading the way. I let him, seeing the man he could become if we could get off this rock.

  I gripped his fingers, gave them a squeeze, and he looked back and smiled.

  “You’ll see, Annie. I’ve got a good feeling about this. I bet you a jar of jam there’s a boat around the next corner,” he said, his eyes lighting up with belief in what I thought was impossible.

  But I nodded and smiled back. “You’re on.”

  I could only hope he was right.

  Turn the page for an excerpt from Sundered, A Zombie-ish Apocalypse Book I available now at Amazon.

  1

  I walked slowly, my hands above my head to keep from touching the scotch broom. My eyes watered, my throat and nose itched, and the patches of bare skin the plant leaned in to kiss were bright red and swelling. Fanny Bay was famous for a lot of things, but when we moved here three months ago I didn’t realize it was a breeding ground for my most hated nemesis.

  “You coming babe? I really am sorry; I didn’t know the trail was full of broom.” Sebastian, my sweet and usually thoughtful husband yelled back to me. He wasn’t allergic to the brilliant yellow plant, so he didn’t have to worry about the branches that hung on all sides, and he made good time on the trail. I could just make out his broad back and dark brown hair over the tops of the broom ahead of me. At 6’4” he towered over most people and living things, noxious weeds included.

  I grunted a reply, not wanting to take in any more air than I had to. The walk through the tunnel of broom wouldn’t kill me—it wasn’t that bad an allergy—but hell, it wasn’t something I was enjoying either. Breaking out in a rash and blowing my nose continually for the next few hours would be what I had to look forward to after this little excursion. But the bottom line was, and even I could admit it, I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air. I’d been holed up for far too long grieving, and this little hike and visit with the neighbours would get me moving. God love the man, Sebastian knew me better than I knew myself sometimes and this excursion had been his idea.

  “Mara?”

  “I’m coming Bastian, don’t expect me to run through this crap,” I said, shifting sideways to slip between two overhanging branches.

  A stick jabbed me in the belly and I snapped it off with a quick twist. “Stupid plant,” I muttered thinking of all the things that had been jabbed into me of late; it was the least painful, both to my body and my heart.

  I blinked away tears that threatened, and wiped my hands across my eyes to my immediate regret: they were covered in pollen from pushing the broom out of my way.

  “Son of a bitch I’m an idiot,” I muttered, blinking furiously, trying to keep the tears flowing to rinse my eyes out.

  The doctors didn’t know why we were having such a hard time getting pregnant, and the miscarriage only confirmed that it was something wrong with me. I sneezed and rubbed my nose with the back of my hand, the minor explosion jarring me out of my depressing thoughts.

  “Hurry up woman, I told Dan we’d be there ten minutes ago. Last thing I want to do is upset the new neighbours.” Sebastian’s voice was even further ahead of me now.

  “Yeah, I’m coming O white knight of mine who considers a walk in the broom a nice time out for his highly allergic wife!” I yelled back. I wasn’t angry with him; this was part of the way he dealt with his grief. It was the same when his father and brother died in the boating accident; at least, that was what his mother had shared with me. His motto was buckle down and move on; push forward and don’t look back. Although even with that attitude he sweated the whole way across the Georgia Strait, despite the fact that the ferry we were on was the size of a cruise liner.

  A rustle in the bush stopped my feet before I thought about what I was doing. “Sebastian?” He had a nasty habit of scaring me; jumping out from the place I least expected him. The rustling drew closer and I pulled away, pressing my back against a wall of yellow and green, my heart picking up speed. I didn’t think it was Sebastian. A musky odour floated past my nose, and whatever was making the noise, it was an animal. A flash of black in the bush across from me and I nearly wet my pants. Bears were more than common on this part of Vancouver Island; they were considered pretty much part of the neighbourhood and one of the few things I was truly terrified of.

  Crap. Mouth dry, I tried again, whispering as loud as I dared. “Sebastian!”

  The black thing in the bush that I was sure was a bear, grunted and shuffled closer and I slid my way towards the spot where I’d last seen my husband. Maybe the bear wouldn’t attack us if we were together? Sweat popped out on my forehead and I no longer cared how much the broom brushed against me, I just didn’t want to be eaten. I pushed my back against the wall of plants, not caring as they scratched across my bare skin as I slid sideways up the trail keeping my eyes trained on the rustling behind me.

  One step forward and something grabbed me from behind sending me into a flailing mass of arms, legs, and grunts as my heart threatened to burst out of my throat.

  “Whoa, whoa babe, settle down,” Sebastian said, laughing at me, his blue eyes dancing, his hands resting on my shoulders.

  I didn’t care he’d scared me. Not this time. I gulped in a breath. “Bear,” I said, pointing down the trail, my hand shaking.

  “Really?”

  I nodded. Then the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen that man do happened right in front of my disbelieving eyes. Sebastian started back the way we’d come, towards the bear.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed, my fear turning to anger as I thought of myself widowed before I’d even turned thirty.

  “I just want to see it. I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” he said.

  “There’s a first and a last time for everything,” I snapped and then contrite at the thought of my last words to him being snotty I changed tactics. “Please come back, we need to keep going, I thought you said we were almost there.”

  Sebastian didn’t answer me except to wave backwards. As if I was going to get any closer to the bear, yeah right. He kept moving forward, his movements slow and steady as if he was afraid to spook the animal. I didn’t think that was going to be a problem.

  I wanted to scrub my hands over my face with frustration but had to settle for gripping the edges of my shorts. There had to be a way to get him to come back.

  “Sebastian, I’ll divorce you if you keep looking for the bear.” Maybe this would work.

  “You’re too poor to pay a lawyer.”

  I snorted. “So are you.” I thought a moment more, knowing I had the answer. “I’ll tell your Gran on you.”

  He stopped and turned to face me. “You wouldn’t.” The look on his face said it all and a twitch started in the corner of my lips. I knew I had him. I let out a sigh of relief and put my hands on my hips.

  “I would, just you wait and . . .”

  A huge black bear burst out of the bush behind Sebastian with a roar and I bit down on a scream, my worst nightmare unfolding before m
y eyes. Sebastian stumbled back towards me and fell over a rut in the ground. I grabbed a rock and cocked my arm to throw it, when a hand dropped on my shoulder and shoved me to the ground. The smell of cigar smoke curled through the air, slicing through the sweet musk of the broom and the heavier musk of the large predator ready to eat my husband.

  “Stay down girl,” a throaty voice said and I looked over my shoulder to see our sort-of-crazy neighbour Dan above me, a gun levelled at the bear. “You too boy, stay down.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to Sebastian or the bear.

  We both stayed low on the ground and Dan walked towards the bear, his gun never wavering.

  “Come on Bob, you know you aren’t allowed to be eating the locals. Specially these city folk so new here, they’re practically a biohazard with all the toxins and chemicals they’ve been living in.”

  “Hey, we eat healthy,” I said, then thought about the situation and shut my mouth. A crazy man with a gun and a bear in the middle of a forest trail that no one knew we were on. Quiet Mara, you’ll live longer.

  I watched in disbelief as the bear—Bob, I guess—dropped to all fours and let out a long low snort.

  “Yeah,” Dan said, “I feel the same about these imports, but we got to give them a chance before we run them off.”

  The bear grunted and pawed at the ground a mere foot away from Sebastian’s bare legs. I whimpered in fear, wishing I had the gun in my hands. Why wasn’t Dan shooting the bear? He wasn’t truly having a conversation with the animal; he had to know that, didn’t he?

  “Go on now, Bob. Come around back of the house later tonight and you can have one of the salmon I thawed out this morning.” Dan said as he lowered the gun. Bob gave one last snuffle and turned away from us, heading back down the trail towards the ocean.

  I scrambled to my feet and ran to Sebastian, catching him in a, dare I say it, bear hug.

  “I’m okay babe,” he said into my hair.

  “No you’re not.” I stood up and kicked him in the shin, pleased with the wince it produced. “You idiot! I told you not to go back. That bear could have killed you!”