How We Survive | Book 1 | How We Survive by Casey Ryan

Author:Casey, Ryan [Casey, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | EMP | Survival | Thriller
Publisher: Higher Bank Books
Published: 2021-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Six

Mark stared at the rising sun as he stood on the road towards Kendal.

It was a crisp day. He didn’t think he was going to get any sleep after the incident last night, but he’d woken up to the sound of birdsong and footsteps crunching through the snow. At first, he’d felt an immediate jolt of fear. But when he lifted his head, stepped out of the tent, he saw Ava out there, playing with Seb, throwing snowballs at him.

He wanted to tell her off. Wanted to tell her now wasn’t the time for playing around. That she needed to stay close. That was the most important thing.

But instead, he’d just let her. The kid had been through a lot, after all. What kind of a tyrant would it make him if he tried to stop a little innocent fun amidst all the horror?

They were walking now. They’d been walking for an hour already. Got up right at the crack of dawn. They hadn’t spoken much, but it wasn’t like yesterday. Ava just seemed like she was occupying herself. Although whenever Mark looked at her, he caught her glancing at him. Like she was curious about something. Then kept on turning away whenever their eyes met.

“Something bothering you, kid?”

Ava glanced at him, red-faced. Shook her head.

“It’s just you keep on looking at me.”

“It’s nothing.”

Mark wanted to dig his heels in. Wanted to be stubborn himself.

But in the end, he felt his view towards this girl softening a bit. His feeling about her. “You know… if there’s anything on your mind, you can like, talk, you know?”

She looked up at him, then. Frowned, like the suggestion itself, was absurd. “Talk about what?”

“I don’t know. Just if there’s anything bothering you. Especially after what happened yesterday.”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk.”

He saw the look in her eyes, then. One of victory. He wanted to tell her to watch it. Little bugger.

But in the end, he just laughed a little. “Looks like you got me there.”

Ava sighed. “I guess I just… I’m a kid. And I want to be strong. But I don’t know anything. So if anything happens to the people around me… I’m useless..”

Mark frowned. He wasn’t expecting that. “That’s not true.”

“It is,” she said. “Don’t lie. I was lucky to find you, or I’d be toast. It’s made me really think. I don’t know what I’m doing out here. I’m just a dumb kid. And if anything happened to Mum or Dad, or…”

She stopped. And Mark knew why, right away.

She was about to say, “or you.”

He looked away from her. Turned to the road ahead. Truth be told, this kid’s inadequacies at surviving weren’t really his goddamned problem. It wasn’t his problem to deal with. To resolve.

His only job right now?

Get this kid back to her family. And hope to God they didn’t run into Carter’s thugs again. Hope to God he’d seen the last of them.

But he could tell this whole survival thing was really weighing down on the kid.

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