Page 7 of Shattered World

“Declan! Holy shit, where have you been? We need to be at the train station like five minutes ago.”

The two men walked up to Declan, clapping him on the shoulders, their grins slowly fading as their buddy stayed silent, his eyes wide.

I didn’t give them a chance to ask him what was wrong. To inquire more about where he had been. Stepping out of the shadows, I placed myself behind the man, the sound of the safety clicking off audible in the silence.

Two sets of shoulders tightened at the sound, their heads slowly swiveling until they saw me. Holding up their hands, the braver of the two spoke.

“We don’t want any trouble. Anything in here is yours.”

A dark chuckle sounded at my side, and I knew Warner had joined me.

“Take off your clothes,” I instructed, eyeing the name badges hanging off their shirts. The badges were like a beacon, our golden ticket out of here.

“We can’t do that,” the other man stuttered, but I stood my ground.

I was getting my hands on those uniforms and badges one way or another, and I knew they realized that when they both swallowed roughly.

“Please. Don’t do this,” Declan finally begged from behind his two friends.

Sliding my gaze to him, I cocked a brow. “It’s you or them. That’s the only option here.”

It didn’t take long for Declan to make the decision and within minutes, Warner and I were dressed in the uniforms, Declan at our side as we left the building.

And an hour later, as Warner and I sat inside a train, easily sliding past the pleading crowd of people begging to get on, I tried not to think of the two men whose spots we had stolen. Or the thousands of people who had been left behind.

It was us or them. And every time I had to make that choice, it was a fucking easy one.

Chapter Four

The buildings towered over us as we entered into the city. We had been walking since the sun had risen, the streets as empty as the day before. But the further we walked, the more people I began to see.

People littered the sidewalks, our worn and grimy clothing standing out amongst their fresh outfits. Multiple stares found their way to us, their noses scrunching up in disgust or their brows raising in confusion.

I knew my face must have looked the same as I stared at them. It was like I was thrown back in time to eight months ago, before everything had gone awry. Cars honked down the streets, shops and restaurants open as people filed in and out.

“What’s going on here?” Mina whispered when we passed a significantly busy area, people in dress clothes streaming past, clearly dressed for work.

“It’s like they have no idea what’s going on,” Aiden added on.

The sight should have been a relief. How many times had I wished for everything to go back to normal? But instead of relief, tension tightened my shoulders, my hand squeezing Murphy’s tighter.

“We need to figure out what’s going on,” I said to Murphy, and he nodded in agreement.

In any other situation, we would have immediately ducked into an abandoned building, giving ourselves the privacy and safety to figure out our next steps. Unfortunately, that obviously wasn’t going to happen.

Murphy pointed ahead of us, nodding toward a sign that boasted a hotel. “We’ll have to stay somewhere.”

I didn’t bother mentioning that none of us had money to pay for a hotel room, Murphy knew that already. But given we didn’t have many other options, I agreed, passing on the information to the others as we all headed toward the tall building.

Walking inside, I immediately felt out of place. Elizabeth pulled the kids to the side, having them sit on a couch in the corner of the spacious room, admonishing them when their dirty shoes hit the polished cushions of the couch.

A younger man, not possibly older than twenty, stood behind the front counter, his head tilted toward a computer screen. As we approached, his head snapped up, a friendly and practiced smile on his face.

As he took us in, the smile slowly faded. I couldn’t even imagine how we looked. Knotted hair, dirt covered clothes that only somewhat fit. And that was simply our physical appearance. I knew that if someone looked hard enough, they could see the exhaustion in our eyes. The fear and uncertainty that followed us around like a shadow.

“Hello, welcome to the Starlight Inn. Do you need rooms for the evening?” He asked, the small smile back on his face, but his eyes stayed pinched as he glanced us over.

I knew one of us needed to speak up, but I couldn’t find the right words. How did I convince him to give eight people free rooms for the unforeseeable future?

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