The Land of the Shadow by Lissa Bryan

Author:Lissa Bryan [Bryan, Lissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Romance, New Adult & College, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Dystopian
Amazon: B00MQ5J0IK
Goodreads: 19035328
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop
Published: 2014-08-20T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Carly was in the train station again. She stepped through the doorway with slow, reluctant steps, because she knew she had been here before. Something bad had happened, but as hard as she tried to remember what it had been, the memory dangled just out of reach, like a word that danced on the tip of her tongue but just wouldn’t come to mind.

The air was hot and stuffy and smelled of dust. The floor felt spongy beneath her feet, and it creaked with every step. She didn’t want to go through the door in front of her, but every step propelled her inexorably toward it. Her hand reached for the knob, and it was cold as ice beneath her palm.

A shaky breath rattled from her as she pushed open the door. The hinges screeched loud enough that she might have jumped, but her feet seemed to have sunk down into that spongy floor. She looked down to see the top of her flower-decorated sandals disappearing beneath the floorboards.

There was a sound and Carly’s head jerked up. In front of her was an office covered in a thick blanket of dust. A computer screen flickered, green and black, and she thought of how long it had been since she’d seen a computer monitor like that—

“The black cowboy says you’re the seventh.”

Carly tried to scream, but all that came out was a choked moan. He was there. The man she’d shot. She remembered now, now that it was too late. Plump and friendly-looking, the man could have been a bank manager or an elementary school principal in his former life, but now he was someone else. Someone with hateful glee shining in his eyes as he swung a board at her head.

She ducked but could not run. Her feet were sunk into the thick pudding of the floorboards and Carly couldn’t free them. On his chest, she saw the three red blossoms her bullets had made, but she didn’t have a gun this time. But he still had the board, and he was ready to swing.

“Carly?”

Carly bolted upright, sucking in a gasping breath and began coughing again when the air caught in her throat. Her hand sought out Dagny and found empty space where the car seat had rested. That woke her fully, and she found Justin seated beside her on the makeshift bed. She tried to calm her breathing as she took stock of her surroundings and remembered how she came to be here.

“Dagny?”

“I’ve got her,” Mindy called. Mindy and Stan were seated over against the back wall of the hayloft, and Dagny was on Stan’s lap plucking at his shirt buttons. Pearl sat on the edge of the haymow beside the ladder. Kaden was below, unhooking Shadowfax from the wagon. He waved up at her and Carly waved back, still a little dazed. She must have been deeply asleep not to have awoken when they drove that rattling thing inside.

Carly hugged Justin tight. “I’m glad you’re home. I

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