Breathe: Reverse Harem Pandemic Romance (Love Versus World Book 3) by Alexander K.R

Author:Alexander, K.R.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Six Wolves Press
Published: 2020-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

We walked all day, reached Moses Lake, where we were able to boil more water, and made our camp beside an ashy brown maintenance building in Blue Heron Park, which backed up to the lake.

Among clusters of old-growth trees and a rolling lawn of the large park that was not so thick in ash we couldn’t see some green, we pitched our tent, side against the wall of the building to sleep sitting up. Repeat arrangement not because we felt we needed to shelter against bears, but because Jackson and I could hardly breathe lying flat.

I don’t remember much else about that whole day and night, a haze of fever, coughing, and headaches, chest hurting even upright.

A bit better in the morning, clear-headed, if miserable, while Trent coughed but seemed no worse off than having a cold. Jackson’s brow beaded in sweat, his face brick-red, breathing a bit easier than Trent and I. Ramak also coughed, with little, if any, fever. He was the one, as he groped in early morning gloom for our things to keep moving when no one could pretend to sleep any longer, who saw a light.

He froze, my backpack in his hands, getting ready to help me put it on. I glanced at him, followed his gaze across the water to the town of Moses Lake, and held my breath.

At last, the wind had faded away. The predawn morning was still and sooty, but visibility better than it had been since the eruption. Not even a bird called. Across the lake, however, a yellow house light gleamed.

Trent finished rolling a sleeping bag, straightened up, also turning his head. Then Jackson joined us. In perfect silence, without even a cough, we gazed as one while a second light came on far off—a whole other neighborhood.

We did it, right? So why was no one hugging, jumping around, even saying a word? Was it the fever that left me dazed? Was it relief that felt like emptiness? Was it fatigue or disbelief that kept joy at bay?

Ramak lowered the backpack onto the picnic table seat that we’d used to stash our gear below. He bowed his head along with it, leaving his chin tipped down as silence grew with the morning. Was he praying? Thinking? Overwhelmed with delight and gratitude?

I looked to him, waited, because I couldn’t think what I was feeling, much less anyone else—or say what to do.

“No virus in a little town like this,” Jackson said softly.

I shut my eyes. That was it.

“No virus and we’re just beyond the disaster zone at last,” he went on. “Most around here didn’t even lose their windows. They’ve got power, blinds drawn, don’t go outside for the ash, all closed off and shut down, share all they’ve got for as long as they’ve got it, until regular traffic starts coming from east or west again. Little communities like this … they’re waiting on rescue efforts just as much as we are. No one left to look after them.

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