Gods of the Dead (Rising Book 1) by Ward Tracey

Author:Ward, Tracey [Ward, Tracey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-26T07:00:00+00:00

***

The decision to go with them is not mine to make. It was already decided somewhere between my tree and the ground when I first leapt down to talk to them. It’s never a topic that’s discussed. It’s a fact that simply is. When Ryan is finally strong enough to hike, we pack up my gear and go. We divide up everything between the three of us, Kevin and I careful to give Ryan the least of it, but even so I’m surprised when I lift my portion onto my back.

The load is lighter than it’s ever been.

We walk for over a week. If it were only me I would walk all day until I was too tired to keep going. Until I had to sleep. Then I’d get up and do it all again. Ryan is still weak, though, and we make several stops along the way to Seattle. We have to take time to hunt because I won’t go inside the buildings in the cities we pass through. I grudgingly walk the outer rim of each one and my body is on edge the entire time. Cities along the coast are small but they’re everything I’ve told myself to avoid. Everything my dad warned me against.

“What is that?” Kevin asks me as we pass through an abandoned residential area.

I glance around, unsure what he’s referring to. “What is what?”

“That thing you keep saying.”

“I was talking?”

“Yeah,” he chuckles. “You didn’t know? You do it a lot. I thought it was on purpose.”

It dawns on me what I must have been saying. I shrug. “It used to be.”

“What is it?”

“Advice my dad gave me before… from before,” I finish awkwardly. “Go to the woods. Stay clear of people.”

“Hide with the animals,” Ryan recites drolly.

I smile at him. “I really must say it a lot.”

He smiles in return. “Only when you first wake up. And when you go to sleep.”

“When you clean a kill,” Kevin adds.

“When you tie your shoes.”

“When you take a sh—“

Kevin’s words are drowned out by the sound of an engine roaring. It’s so foreign to me that it stops my heart for a beat. I drop to a crouch, into a fighting stance, as my eyes survey the area. I can’t see it but I can definitely hear it nearby. It reminds me of the boat on the beach that I heard and felt before my eyes could find it, and I feel weak in my stomach at the thought.

“Where is it?” I ask them. “Do you see it?”

Kevin shakes his head tersely, his eyes searching the area as well. “No. But it’s close. Let’s get inside.”

Ryan leads the way. At his brother’s words he immediately takes off at a run for the nearest house. All of the windows on the bottom floor are boarded up tight, exactly like the rest of the homes up and down the block. Scratch marks and black blood smears across the honey colored surface tells me why.

Ryan leaps up onto the peeling white front porch and tries the door handle, but it won’t open.

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