Samantha Sharp Chronicles 2 Read online

  The Samantha Sharp Chronicles

  Book Two

  C.C. Roth

  Copyright © 2020 C.C. Roth

  All rights reserved

  ISBN-13: 979-8-6489-7487-6

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  1 A Way In

  2 A Home For Everyone

  3 Better Alone

  4 Icebergs Don’t Emote

  5 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

  6 Always Here

  7 Fractured

  8 Here We Go Again

  9 Shattered

  10 Afterlife

  About The Author

  Thank You

  1 A Way In

  We careened down the highway doing at least 80. Our stolen Honda was swerving all over the place and with me driving we would’ve been dead already had there been any traffic in the area. But, you know, with half the population being wiped out there weren’t a lot of cars around to get in the way. Except for the one chasing us with a bunch of angry, hairy men hanging their guns out the windows.

  Idiot rednecks.

  Okay, so it’s possible they weren’t rednecks exactly, but they were idiots and they were wearing more than four plaid clothing items between the three of them, so my presumption couldn’t be that far off. They were definitely mad as hornets…and I was loving every second if it.

  I looked over at Navin who was gripping the car door so tightly I thought he might rip it off. No, I was not the best driver and no, I didn’t have much experience, but he was being a bit dramatic about it. I laughed at his terrified expression and pushed the gas even harder. Revving the engine and pulsating with pure joy, I struggled to control my impulse to flip the car over just so I could count the somersaults. Absently I wondered, was this my second time driving or third? A barrage of bullets sprayed the back of our car and Navin jumped in his seat.

  “Ooooh, they are pissed!” I laughed.

  “You’re freaking crazy!” he yelled at me. “Turn here! Turn here!”

  I wiggled my eyebrows at him, having way too much fun, and jerked the car onto an off ramp which lead back into the town of Weston. It was just outside our next destination near Toledo and a perfect spot to lie low and get some rest and supplies before moving on. Or so we had thought. Turns out “lying low” isn’t my jam.

  “They’re slowing down. Turn again, maybe we can lose them,” Navin said with relief.

  “But if we lose them then I won’t get to have any more fun.”

  “God dammit, Sam! Just pull into that lot behind the dumpster.”

  I obliged with a groan and quickly yanked the wheel, skidding violently into the lot. The fields of tall grass surrounding us blocked our turn from our pursuers. We were in a depressing factory parking lot with not much else around except the enormous dumpsters that would hide us from view of the main road. As I pulled behind them, less than imaginative graffiti scrawled along the grimy metal sides told us to, eat shit and die. The poop emoji underneath it however, deserved a gold medal in artistry. Behind us sat two large delivery trucks but other than that we were alone. I put the car in park and looked over at my unwilling partner in crime. He was not happy with me. Judging by the look on his face he was picturing some sort of slow torturous death for me.

  “What?” I asked innocently.

  He shook his head trying to compose himself. “No. Just no. I can’t talk to you right now.”

  “Oh, come on, you have to admit that was a little fun, right? Kind of like a roller coaster.”

  “I hate roller coasters. And roller coasters don’t shoot at you, by the way.”

  “Yeah that’s true. But you can hardly fault them for that.” I gave him an exaggerated smile with jazz hands which finally won him over and he laughed in spite of his anger.

  “I never should have gotten in this car with you. What was I thinking?”

  An engine revved and tires squealed as the truck came down the off-ramp and around the corner. We watched the men creep by slowly as they passed the parking lot then speed up to continue down the road. He was right, they couldn’t see us back there. Navin was smart and turning out to be a pretty handy guy to have around. He looked like he wanted to smack me half the time, but he was really fun to mess with.

  “Okay, Crazypants. Let’s sit for a minute and talk about how not to get killed. Next time we’re in a strange place talking to people we don’t know, maybe you don’t steal potato chips off the shelf right in front of the owners.”

  “Check.”

  “And if for some reason you aren’t capable of controlling yourself maybe you just hand it back and apologize instead of holding everyone at gunpoint and bolting out of the store.”

  “Got it. Potato chip urges under control.”

  “I worry about you.”

  “I was bored. Sue me. Besides we’re fine.”

  I hopped out of the car we’d borrowed, with no intention of returning, and slung my rifle over my shoulder. The familiar weight resting against my back as I walked was a comfort and I’d started to feel naked without it. In fact, I hadn’t been without it since I left the cabin to go after Mike. I was beginning to feel a little like Gollum with his precious, but I figured the odds of me turning into a creepy, human-like cave creature were far less likely than me getting caught in a crappy situation where I’d need to protect myself. So, against my back it rested, ready and waiting.

  Navin scrambled out of the car and caught up. “Where are you going? We need to get out of here while those guys are headed the other way.”

  “That would be the smart thing to do. But look at those trucks!” I said pointing to the big rigs. “Haven’t you always wanted to climb up in one of those cabs?”

  He furrowed his brow, “Not particularly. But now that you mention it there could be something useful in there. We should check it out.”

  “Nice! I call dibs on the radio.”

  “Sam, we are not driving one of these. We need to get back to the others before your brother freaks out.”

  I rolled my eyes as we approached the cab door of the bigger truck.

  “Wait!” Navin jumped in front of me, “Put your gloves on first. You don’t know how long it’s been since someone drove this thing. It could be crawling with X.”

  I did as I was told and slid on my gloves. “Ha! They have steps, that’s nice.”

  At five-foot three I appreciated every leg up I could get. I climbed up and grabbed the door handle. It opened easily and I let myself in as Navin joined me on the passenger side.

  “Hey, this is kind of cool. I wonder how hard it is to figure out.” He searched the knobs and controls, inspecting everything.

  “So, what do you think? Can we take it for a drive?” I asked hopeful. I was already having visions of me rolling down the road crushing everything in my path.

  “Yeah, not happening. You can barely drive as it is so I’m guessing you don’t know how to shift gears?”

  “Nope. Not a clue. You?”

  “Sorry, I missed big rig day in driver’s ed.”

  “Too bad, this would be badass.”

  “Badass yes, but harder to outrun the randoms you seem intent on pissing off.”

  “Fact.”

  “C’mon. Let’s check the trailer.”

  He jumped out and ran around to the back before I was able to surrender my dreams of becoming a trucker. Nothing but me and the open road, my rifle by my side and my cold friend in my head to keep me company. It didn’t sound so bad. I quickly picked up the radio and fiddled with the speaker thingy.

  “Breaker, breaker what’s your twenty? Whatever, I could totally drive this.” I jumped out of the cab to join Navin. “Anything good back here?”


  He was standing in the truck compartment with an enormous grin on his face surrounded by jugs of water and boxes of what appeared to be food.

  “Holy shit!”

  “Yes, Sam. Holy shit indeed.”

  “And you were mad at me for playing chase with the big bad bumpkins,” I teased.

  “Yeah I still am but this kind of makes up for it. Here, give me the keys. I’ll bring the car over so we can grab some of this and go. Everyone is going to flip out when we get back.”

  We’d been hanging out in an empty warehouse in Weston while we decided on our next move. Most of the kids from the train had stayed with Mr. Chey, the Train Man. He’d promised to get them back past Bloomfield and arrange a drop through Cecil and Frank. A lot of them still had families searching for them and the ones that didn’t, Mike and I had agreed to send to our cabin. It was only a handful and they didn’t have anywhere else to go that was safe, so we figured with Frank and Ellen close enough, they could keep an eye on them. It was like we were running our own little covert operation. The Train Man would raise Cecil on his radio and make a plan, then Cecil would contact Frank to fill him in so Frank could meet them at the drop and take the kids to the cabin. I would have done anything to see Ellen’s face when she heard Noah was still alive and we were going after him. I just hoped I’d be able to deliver him. Every day that passed made it seem less likely we’d find him still breathing.

  Also thanks to the Train Man, we knew the location of the lab facility and we’d already scouted it out. So, we knew where Noah would be if he wasn’t dead yet. The problem was this place, Quantum Medical Research, wasn’t anything like the place we found in Freemont. For starters, it had 12-foot fencing surrounding it, security systems in place, and not to mention armed guards at every entrance. They weren’t just an unorganized bunch of randoms, they were serious, trained military. And there were a lot of them. My impulse control issues told me it wasn’t a problem and we’d probably figure it out if we just jumped in. But Mike had called a timeout saying we needed rest, food, and a real plan.

  Ugh, planning.

  So, there we were. Squatting in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of fuck-all nowhere, scrounging for leftovers in dust ridden, plaid wearing, chip hoarding bumpkin-ville. Thus, the excitement at finding an enormous truck full of food. No food equals cranky and brain no worky, which equals Sam flipping out of control and causing a damn mess. So, I knew Mike would be pretty pumped to have everyone’s appetite satiated for the moment.

  Navin and I loaded up a couple enormous jugs of water and two boxes of food into our tiny car. The car just wasn’t big enough for everything so the rest would have to sit tight in the semi until we could come back for it. There were five of us total now. Mike had stayed behind with the others that day and they were all starving, thirsty, and starting to whine. We’d gone through the small amount of supplies quickly when there were thirty or so of us on the train and I was regretting being so generous with my sharing. But they needed something to make the trip back and I knew we wouldn’t have trouble finding supplies to get us by. I closed the back door on the blue Honda and stopped short when I saw Navin sitting behind the wheel.

  “Hey, aren’t you in my seat?”

  “No. Your license has been revoked.”

  I cocked an indignant hip in his direction. “Are you serious? What, for having a little fun?”

  “Sam, I mean no offense so please don’t shoot me but…you’re a homicidal maniac and I don’t want to die today. So yes, I’m driving us back to the warehouse.”

  He faced straight ahead with both hands planted firmly on the wheel. Apparently, he was holding his ground.

  Cute.

  “Fine. But I get first dibs on the food.”

  “After what I witnessed today, I wouldn’t dream of getting in between you and your snacks.”

  I huffed and pouted my way into the passenger seat and was immediately bored.

  “Ugh, you drive so slow this is going to take forever.”

  “I just turned the car on. Chill out.”

  With a loud sigh I turned and hung over the front seat so I could dig through one of the food boxes.

  “If you’re bored you could navigate or help me keep an eye out for your new enemies. Or maybe look for somewhere else useful we might want to stop.”

  “Nope. I’m good.”

  “You’re such a baby.”

  “Yep. Oh look! There’s goldfish!” I flopped back in my seat triumphantly and devoured a whole bag in record time.

  The guys were thrilled to see us unloading our stash of goodies and everyone dove into the boxes before we could even get inside the building. We were far enough off any main roads so no one would see us when driving past, but we still needed to be careful. There were a few other buildings around, all commercial and out of use post-Avian-X, but you never knew who could be out there. I stood and scanned the area as the guys devoured snacks and took turns gulping from the jugs of water. We hadn’t eaten since we found this spot a day ago, so I didn’t blame them.

  We were secluded and surrounded by corn fields which felt both secure and a little creepy at the same time. The Train Man had told us about this area and pointed us in the right direction before heading back to Bloomfield with the others. The three guys that stayed behind with us seemed okay so far except one of them talked too much. Navin, who was I getting to know pretty quickly, was funny and super fun to mess with. And of course, he had been an awesome help back in Freemont when we snuck into the lab together. The other two, Luis and Wyatt were cool enough. Luis kept giving me nervous smiles but other than that he’d been helpful with lookouts and seemed to know how to handle himself. Wyatt was the jabber box and had an opinion on everything and a story to go with it. It had only been 48 hours and I wasn’t sure I could keep up being polite about it. He was yammering away right at that moment, inexplicably eating and talking at the same time without taking a breath. Mike, sensing my annoyance, came over and rested a hand on my shoulder just as I was about to turn around and snap at the kid… or shoot him, I hadn’t decided.

  Shoot him, shoot him.

  “Take a deep breath, nerd. He’s harmless.”

  “That’s not true, he’s attacking my ears.”

  “Yeah, he’s a lot to take but nobody’s perfect, right?” He raised his eyebrows accusingly and elbowed my ribs.

  I returned a mean right hook with total failure which only encouraged him. He jumped around the parking lot making fun of me.

  “Swing all you want, kid. Unless those arms grew three inches last night you’re screwed.”

  He landed a harmless slap on the top of my head, easily dodging my defense.

  “God, you’re annoying,” I huffed.

  “C’mon, T-rex, show me what you got!” He pulled his arms inside his shirt so only his hands were visible, giving a pretty spectacular T-Rex impersonation.

  I was about to start swinging but his tiny dino-arms were too funny, and I just couldn’t stop laughing.

  “No point,” I said through my giggles. “I’ll just let you wear yourself out with all that dancing. You look awesome by the way.”

  It was good to laugh. Just two days before I didn’t know if I’d ever see Mike again but there he was, pretending to be a flipping dinosaur just to make me smile. He was the best. I choked back tears from laughing so hard but then suddenly remembered that nothing is permanent, not in our world. Mike could still disappear from my life and it would be my fault all over again. On the train he’d basically accused me of being too murder-y and I knew it wouldn’t be long before my cold friend reared its frosty head once more. Mike was my fearless protector and constant defender. He wouldn’t be able to live with me this way, the way I felt I was truly meant to be. He wouldn’t be able to live with me… broken. And so, for that moment I was grateful for It’s silence and my goofy brother’s mad dino impersonating skills. Moments like that were fragile.

  The guys were all seated around the food boxes li
ke they were warming themselves in front of a campfire of sugar, maltodextrin, and blue number one. I surveyed the damage and scowled at all of them. There was enough left for breakfast but not much after that. Geez these guys ate a lot.

  “Huh. Well. We’ll go back tomorrow and get as much as we can. We don’t know how long we’ll be here, and we might need it all.”

  Luis perked up. “There’s more? Where?”

  Navin wiped the Cheetos from his face. “We found a couple of trucks parked in back of a factory. Enough food and water for a month or more.”

  “Why don’t we go now? Someone else might take it,” Luis asked.

  “We could, but we should probably hideout the rest of today.” Navin regretted saying it when he saw the death stare I was giving him.

  “Why do we need to hideout?” Mike asked cautiously, staring us both down.

  Navin smiled awkwardly, “Um, no big deal. Just some unfriendly locals.”

  Mike wasn’t buying it. “Sam, what happened?”

  “I’m fine. We’re fine. Nobody died. And we have food so nothing bad happened. Just maybe some of the local yokels got a little angry at me.”

  “Sam, c’mon. We said we’d be quiet and not attract any attention. That’s the safest thing to do. Be invisible. Remember?”

  “Well maybe I’m not good at invisible.”

  “She’s not,” Navin chimed in. “She’s really not.”

  I sent him another frigid glare and he went back to eating his neon orange puffs.

  “Sam, I thought—” Mike started.

  “Don’t, okay. Just don’t. I don’t want a lecture. Let’s just eat so we can figure out where we’re headed.”

  We silently called a truce, and both flopped down on the ground with the others to pick through the remaining treats.

  Navin eyed both of us then suddenly blurted out, “You should see her driving, I mean I thought I was going to die.”

  “Navin! What the hell?”

  “Sorry, I suck at lying. But you’re not a good driver.” He took a bite of gummy worms then threw up his hands in surrender.