Countdown to Zero by Adrianne Lemke

Author:Adrianne Lemke [Lemke, Adrianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Soon was apparently a bit of a stretch. “I’m sorry, we have to stop,” I said. “Riding like this is definitely not the most comfortable thing in the world.”

“Right, break time,” Rex agreed. We’d checked every possible turn off for marks from our friends, but had yet to come up with another mark. “We should have caught up to them by now.”

I sighed and nodded. “Yeah. We probably should have. I honestly can’t tell you why we haven’t.”

The bird drawing we’d seen should have been placed near their stopping point. If they confidently believed Rex and I would be following behind, the mark would have been left, then they would have traveled to the nearest empty house or abandoned building to stop and wait for us to catch up. Not continued moving with no further signs.

“Did we miss something?” Rex asked, pulling at a piece of grass and tossing it to the ground. “Where are they?”

“I have no idea,” I said. “Do we keep going this way, or backtrack to see if we missed something?”

Rex grabbed at the grass again and shook his head. “I don’t know what would be best,” he said. “But I think we keep going.”

I sighed, hating the idea of not catching up with the others. Even if I had brought up the possibility earlier, I hadn’t relished the idea of being separated from our friends. “You’re right. We don’t have time to backtrack.”

Slumped on the grass by the side of the road, I had to struggle to keep the tears at bay. I could see Rex raise his arms as if to give me a hug, but he stopped himself.

Instead he spoke gently. “We will find them, Z. I don’t know when or where, but we will find them again. We’re family. We won’t be separated forever.”

I gave him a weak smile. His words sounded good, but all I could think about were the others I’d lost during this outbreak. There were no guarantees. All of us had lost people we would never see again. I dreaded the idea that this would end that way.

The name of the game was hope. I could hold on to Rex’s words, and at least part of me could believe we’d find our friends. I chose to focus on that part.

“I know,” I finally answered him. “We will find them. They know where we’re headed. It’s possible they took an alternate route to the same location.”

He grinned. “That’s the spirit! And in that spirit, we should probably get going.”

The thought of riding double any more made me groan. “I miss Freedom. It was so much better when we each had our own horse.”

Rex took my hand and helped me off the ground. “I don’t know. It’s not so bad having you close.”

Heat rose in my cheeks, and I looked down at our still-entwined hands. I gave a shy smile. “Yeah, okay. That part’s not too bad.”

I mounted and slid back behind the saddle. When he got on, I let myself lean on him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.