Falling Stars by Kyla Stone

Author:Kyla Stone [Stone, Kyla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781945410123
Publisher: Paper Moon Press
Published: 2017-12-16T22:00:00+00:00

21

Amelia

Amelia pressed her spine against the steel beam behind her. It was the only thing keeping her up. Her breath came in shallow pants, the front of her shirt drenched with sweat from the fever burning through her. The headache hammering her skull brought waves of dizziness with it.

If not for Micah, she’d be lost. He stood several feet in front of her, aiming his rifle at a black Labrador prowling only two yards away.

He pressed the trigger. The dog staggered, whimpering. Blood dripped from its haunches. “Get out of here!”

A Chow-Chow turned toward them, sniffing the air. The Labrador fled, lurching on its wounded hind leg, but the Chow-Chow reached it and brought it down.

Amelia looked away, her empty stomach heaving. It wasn’t just the sight of the fighting dogs. Lightning pulsed harsh and blinding. She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain spearing through her eye sockets.

Micah frowned. “Amelia! What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, forcing her eyes open. He turned toward her, forgetting in the chaos that she was infected, that she was as dangerous as the dogs. Even with her mask and gloves, she was still a threat to him, to everyone she cared about. “Stay away!”

He took a step back, shifting his concerned gaze from her to the dogs and back again. They were busy with the Labrador, for a moment at least.

Near the entrance, Jericho stood back-to-back with Silas, defending Amelia’s mother, Finn, and Horne from a pack of five. Gabriel fended off three dogs in front of a forklift with Benjie and Nadira safely inside. She didn’t see Willow anywhere.

“What’s wrong?” Micah asked again, his face creased with worry.

She saw it reflected in his eyes. She looked as bad as she felt. The fever that started two days ago was worse, along with the irritating tickle in the back of her throat that made her cough constantly. She knew what it meant. She hadn’t told anyone, not yet. She couldn’t bear to see the look on Silas’s face, or her mother’s. Her mother still hoped.

The fever flared, flushing through her body with a white-hot fury. Her skin melted off her bones. Her vision blurred and wavered, flames licking the corners of everything. Dizziness washed through her in waves.

“You’re sick,” Micah said dully, answering his own question.

She coughed into her mask, pain blazing behind her skull. Sweat dripped down her forehead. She wiped it away furiously. “A migraine.” As if that could deceive him.

“When it rains, it pours,” he said with forced lightness, but she knew him enough now to recognize the tremor of dread in his voice.

She grunted. “It doesn’t matter if we’re going to die here anyway, does it?”

A mutt locked eyes on them and snarled. Micah aimed his rifle. He fired and this time the dog went down without a sound. Two others sprang at it. “We’re not gonna die here. I promise you that.”

The sound of engines roared over the thunder and pounding rain. Before Amelia could form a coherent thought

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