Revolution (Collide, #4)(37)

I backed the Jeep up, pulled it up to the warehouse entrance and put it in park. Leaving it running, because I didn't even know how to turn it off anyway, I got out and rounded the hood. The leg of the lady who had greeted us was sticking out of the large doorway.

I turned, feeling the gag in my throat. I didn't know if I could do this. But then I wondered if someone could be alive. That got me going and I found myself bolting through the door passed the lady and into the warehouse.

If one bloody body was enough to send me reeling, a whole warehouse of them was enough to make me scream. I looked. I didn't want to, but I looked. If there was someone alive, I needed to help them. I couldn't imagine just lying there, waiting for death…

I shook the thought away and made my way down the line. Every person there was lying still. "Hello?" I called hesitantly. My eyes continued to scan the people and found no signs of life. I felt like crying. I felt like bawling my eyes out.

The Lighters hadn't done this to us. We did this to us. Humans killed other humans for food.

I picked up the first box I found and looked around for food left behind by the murderers. They had taken all the breads and bags of flour, all the cereals and easy foods. I was beginning to feel the sting of despair once again until I came upon the last table. It was empty, too, and that made me think. There had to be boxes of food somewhere. They only brought out a little at a time to give the people what they needed, but there had to be a stash.

I opened the only door that I could see and gawked at my luck and the mountains of boxes. I knew I needed to hurry so I put my awe aside and opened the first box I found. Cans of fruit were inside. I almost burst into tears right there.

It would only be so long until all the can foods were gone from the world, too. Plants didn't grow so well anymore so there wouldn't be anything left to can. Same with canned tuna and chicken. Soon, they'd all be gone and I had no idea what we'd do then. But for now, I hoisted the massive heavy box of chunked pineapple, sliced pears, fruit cocktail and diced peaches and ran with it to the Jeep. I threw it in the back and ran back for another.

The next box I opened was macaroni and cheese. I grinned thinking of the kid's happiness all wrapped up into one stupid little box of cheesy noodles. I ran with that one, too, and loaded it on top of the others.

After I was finished, only seven boxes would fit in the Jeep and the last one sat in the passenger seat, so when I ran across Cain he'd have to hold that one. And it was full of canned Clam Chowder, the heaviest one. Poor guy.

I slammed the Jeep into gear without looking back and pressed the gas pedal as hard as I could. I was so ready to leave this place. I sped out to the main highway and then adopted a slower speed in case any Enforcers were out and about. And I was sure they were. Or at least I hoped they had some kind of alarm system. But then I thought back. I'd been there for almost an hour… No. There was no alarm system. I idly thought about how long those people would lay there before someone noticed. The next wave of people to come to the food maybe?

The highway was a long stretch of nothing. The grass was nonexistent anymore. Everything was dust and rocks and mud from melted snow. The trees were dead or dying. There was no life left at all. The planet was dying, we were dying. It didn't make any sense. Why would the Lighters destroy the planet that they wanted to inhabit?

Unless they were wiping everything out just to start over.

I made the slow and long ride, feeling the kink in my neck from leaning over the steering wheel for so long to start the car. I almost smiled. I did it. I got the food, hotwired a car and escaped unscathed, all by myself. I wasn't so helpless after all.

And right then, as if the universe wanted to show me how absolutely wrong I was, I saw green lights in my mirror. I could barely see over the boxes, but the lights were there. And I was alone, with a carload of stolen food, fleeing the crime scene where murder had just been committed….at the Need Warehouse.

I chuckled in desperation and disbelief. Could the odds be more stacked against me? "I get it!" I said in hysterics. "I get it, world! You want to put me in my place? I'm there, trust me. I'm being squished on the bottom of the totem pole as we speak!"

"Miss?" I heard muffled through the window. "Exit the vehicle please, with hands raised."

I took a deep breath and did what he asked. If he was going to take me to another enforcement facility, I'd have to just chance it and run. I refused to go back there.

My mind ran with ideas of how to escape when I was looking down the sights of his pistol. He leaned his head to the side and spoke into the radio on his shoulder. "This is unit thirty seven. I'm currently at my last radioed in coordinates. Send back-up, over."

Well…crap. This was it. A bullet in the back, knowing that I did everything I could do to save my family? Or back to the enforcement facility to be tortured and have to wait for rescue, knowing they were risking too much to come and save me?

I turned and ran.

Get A Wriggle On



Chapter 17


Merrick



"I don't know why you're doing that," I heard Jeff say from below me. "It's pointless, isn't it?"

I looked down at him from my perch on the ladder. I turned and went back to nailing the studs with my hammer into the stairs. "It gives me something to do. Though I guess it is kind of pointless." I sighed. "We did so much work at the store and look what happened? All that work for nothing. We just had to leave it there."