His tone is full of disapproval and I feel a flare of anger that he thinks he has the right to judge anything in my life, but Gigi takes the shot and lobs it right back at him before I open my mouth.
“Well, Mr. Two Houses Down, why don’t you keep your nose on your face and out of our business. We don’t need you pressing it up against our windows in…” she throws her hands up into air quotes, “concern. We are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. I also know for a fact those men you mentioned would not be happy to know you’ve been looking in their girl’s windows.”
Mr. Tanner’s eyes bug out of his head at Gigi. I'm not sure if it is because Gigi just told him off or that she is implying that I’mwith all four of the guys. Either way, his mouth puckers up like he just sucked on an entire lemon.
“How rude! I was merely looking out for my good friend’s daughter! You make it sound like I was being creepy.”
Now I'm done. I’m too tired to deal with this right now, so even though my parents taught me to be respectful to my elders, I snap out, “You weren’t good friends with them. And I don't think you are concerned about me. Don’t lie. You haven't spoken to me since the funeral, so don't feel like you have to start now. Just get lost.”
He glares at me and gives up the ruse entirely by pointing at the garage door.
“Why do you have so many supplies in there? It looks like you have a grocery store in your garage. Did you loot all of it? Why do you think you’ll need all of that? What do you know that the rest of us don’t?” He’s red-faced and huffing by the end of his ranting accusation.
“Who the hell do you think you are to question us and accuse us of looting? We went shopping last night and stocked up in case this… whatever… lasts for a while. None of this is any of your business! Go tend to your own home and get off our property. You won’t like what happens if you come back!”
His mouth gapes open and closed a few times before his expression settles into one of outrage and anger, and then he turns and stomps away. Gigi and I watch him go, but instead of walking back to his house, he crosses the street and meets with another neighbor standing on his lawn looking our way. The two have a heated discussion with Mr. Tanner throwing his hands around and a shiver of unease snakes down my back. Gigi takes my arm and turns me away from looking at the men who are clearly talking about us.
“Luna, do you still have your dad’s guns in the safe?”
I swallow hard and nod.
“Good, let’s take a few out and place them around the house for easy access… just in case.”
I glance over my shoulder to see the two men still looking our way and bite into my bottom lip as my shoulders tense up even more.
“You think they might…”
“Better safe and ready to defend than not, is all. Come on, let’s just take the canning stuff out for now. We need to keep processing all the fresh food while we still have power. We can unload the rest after, when there are fewer eyes on us.”
We pop the hatch on the SUV and grab what we need to keep putting up the food, leaving the rest for now. As soon as we put it all in the kitchen, I go straight to the master bedroom that Jules and Reid share now and open the gun safe that is still tucked in the back of the huge closet. When the door swings open and reveals the two rifles and one shotgun in it, I close my eyes tightly for a moment and pray that the guys will get home soon. I reach for the shotgun and beg the universe and any God listening that I won’t have to use it.
Chapter 44 - Gage
I run longer than I should have been able to run with my injuries, but oddly, the ache in my ribs has almost disappeared. Now I'm being slowed down by thick brush that I have to battle through. I’ve checked my phone multiple times in the last few hours, hoping for an updated map, but still nothing. All I can do is keep heading south. The problem is just how fucking big Alberta is. I could be passing small towns on either side of me within miles and never know it. My province is almost the same size as Texas, with only a fraction of the population. With just shy of five million people living here, there’s a lot of unpopulated nature to get lost in.
I tear apart a prickly bush in my way and wish for the hundredth time that there had been a pair of work gloves or a fucking machete in the plane’s storage compartment. When I finally stumble through the tangled vegetation, I fall forward into a cleared space. My chest tightens in relief at my first stroke of luck. I’m in a cut line, a wide lane of forest that has been cleared, probably for a pipeline right of way. Not only willI not have to fight my way through the bush, but this cut line should lead me to some type of civilization. Hopefully, a staffed maintenance yard or at least to a lease road.
I take a minute to guzzle down another bottle of water and tuck the empty plastic bottle away in my pack. I’ll need to refill it at a stream if I don’t find help or more supplies in the next day. Tightening the spare t-shirt I’ve tied around my nose and mouth, I set off at a slow jog south. The smoke in the air has gotten heavier in the last hour. Forest fires have been an annual thing over the last few years but we had above-average snowfall last winter and the prediction was a better fire season this year. Looks like they were wrong.
The day goes by in a blur as the cleared terrain lets me move faster and easier. I let my mind zone out to stop myself from getting lost in the worries and stress of what’s happening with Luna and the others. I don’t worry about myself at all. I have full confidence that I’ll find my way out of here and make it back to her.
It’s late afternoon when there’s a loud crash of broken branches in the forest ahead of me that has me coming to a quick stop. I pull the rifle sling over my head and bring the gun up to my shoulder in case it’s a bear charging my way. What plows through the bush about five feet ahead of me is a huge bull moose instead. It shakes its long head and then stands stock still when it spots me. I breathe in, ready to pull the trigger on my exhale if it steps my way but luck is still with me when it tosses its head again and bounds away in the same direction I’ve been traveling. I lower the rifle and roll the tension from my shoulders before slinging it again. While less dangerous than a bear, a moose can still kill you. This one was around seven feet tall and had to weigh at least fifteen hundred pounds. They’ve been known to charge people, stomp on them, even spear themwith their antlers. I’m just thankful that apparently, he had somewhere to be.
I’ve only taken a few steps to resume my trek when a pair of deer flies past me. I jump to the side in surprise and feel another animal brush past me. My heart starts pounding hard when I spin around and see a herd of deer and three other moose galloping towards me down the cut line. They have to be running from the fire.
They’re coming at me faster than I can move out of the way back to the trees. I’m in the middle of the cut line now and there is no way I’ll make it to cover before they reach me. Shit! I’m going to be trampled over. My mind goes into panic mode as I throw my arms wide, hoping to look bigger than I am so that they’ll steer away and miss me. There’s a rushing in my ears and a tingling races across my skin as I yank my arms up to avoid a deer that swerves too close to me. There’s a grinding sound in front of me when the earth erupts into a solid wall in front of me. What the fuck is all I can think over and over as I dive for the barrier and tuck myself up against the base of it as animals race around it and continue to the south.
My breathing is harsh as I try to make sense of what just happened. I turn and pat at the earth wall protecting me from the stampede. Where the fuck did it come from? How did it just erupt like that? It's real, I can touch it. The animals went around it. I sit there huddled behind it long after the last deer has charged past, trying to process and get my pulse back down. I yank down the t-shirt around my face and use it to mop the sweat from my face, finally ready to stand and get moving again when all the hair on my body stands on end. A flicker of movement to the left has me slowly turning my head and my pulse skyrockets again.
Standing to the side of the earthen wall is the biggest damn wolf in existence. Scratch that, there’s no way this beast shouldexist outside of fairytales or mythical stories. At six foot four, there’s very few men I need to look up to, but standing here in this surreal moment, I have to tilt my chin up a fraction of an inch to meet the predatory eyes pinning me in place. I swallow past the dryness in my throat and think for a half second about reaching for the rifle on my back. As if the beast can read my mind, its teeth peel back in a snarl and its eyes start to glow gold.
Chapter 45 - Torrin
I try hard not to throw my cell phone at the closest wall when my latest attempt to text Luna and the group chat shows undeliverable. Instead, I slide it into my pocket and scrub both my hands over my face. Exhaustion is hitting me hard. Between the hard gym mats and the stress of not knowing what’s happening at home or with the guys, I didn't sleep. After piling garbage cans, chairs, and anything else we could find to barricade the glass doors at every entrance to the stadium, we sat around for a few hours listening to a radio with growing confusion and horror at what was being reported. The natural disasters happening from the moon issue was hard enough to hear about but it’s all the crazy shit being reported that has all of us on edge.
I keep flashing back to last night when this all began and that weird moment I was standing on second base when the air rippled and the stadium disappeared, leaving an open field of swaying grass and miles of empty prairie as far as I could see. That had to mean something. I keep going back to that momentlike it’s the clue to what’s happening out there. Especially with the shit coming through the radio about entire towns disappearing like they were never there to begin with. Add on the reports of strange buildings showing up where there wasn’t any before, of weird animal sightings, and the worst part, people suddenly having insane abilities that sound an awful lot like fucking magic, and I feel like I’m in a different dimension.
My head snaps up at that thought and I look over at Lanny with a frown. He’s scowling down at his useless phone just like I have been. I slide over on the wall we are sitting against so I’m closer to him and keep my voice low so only he can hear me.
