Page 6 of Demon Shock

“Here,” I said, pointing to a town along the lake Will called “Superior,” even though it wasn’t the largest lake on the maps I’d seen.

“We should make it there before dark,” Will said. “Hopefully, we’ll find a place with the heat still on.”

“And a freezer full of steaks,” Zach said, hopeful anticipation adding an extra bounce to his step.

Unfortunately, we didn’t find either of those things in Silver Bay. However, we did find fresh tire tracks in the snow.

“What do you think?” Will asked as he rolled to a stop. "People looking for supplies or trouble?”

“They didn’t stop,” I said. “No footprints are leading away from the marks.”

“What does that mean?”

“If they wanted supplies, they would have stopped and checked the houses. I think they were looking for something else.”

I searched for any sign of what they might have wanted.

One of the snow piles in the yard closest to us moved then settled.

“Stay here,” I said.

I left the vehicle and jogged to the mound. The infected under the snow was still alive, but its clothes had frozen to the ground. I removed its head so that, once the weather warmed and it thawed, it wouldn’t be a danger to anyone.

Will turned off the engine and got out. “We might as well do a full sweep before we follow those tracks back to whoever left them.”

I looked up at the darkening sky.

“We need to hurry. It’ll snow soon.”

CHAPTER THREE

AVA

It tooktwo hours and a lot of cat snuggles for my hands to stop shaking. And another two hours to figure out what I should do. I’d never hated being single more in my entire life. Screw serenity. I wanted someone to tell me everything was okay and not as fucked up as it had looked.

I set another bag by the door and went to my computer. It was the last thing I needed to pack before I buried myself under a pile of blankets and crashed.

The stress of the day and my whirlwind thoughts were catching up with me. I just wanted to forget everything and finish packing so I could head out at first light.

However, scenes from earlier kept replaying in my head. The undisturbed, snow-covered roads as I’d left. The quiet town. The broken door. The dead man. But what I kept coming back to was the writing on the wall.

Evacuations. Don’t trust anyone.

What did it all mean? What had happened?Whenhad it happened?

The only way to figure any of that out was to leave the cabin and head somewhere that might have news. Silver Bay had beenthe closest town. Duluth was the nearest big city. After that, the twin cities.

While I knew I could drive to Duluth and back in a day, I wasn’t sure what I’d find. What if Duluth was empty like Silver Bay? Even as I told myself that wasn’t possible, part of me feared it might be.

Don’t trust anyone.

“Is there anyone even left to trust?” I asked Pete.

He did his little questioning “mrr” back at me.

“I know I only checked Silver Bay, but you didn’t see what I saw, Pete. There weren’t any tracks on the roads, and that guy…he’d been like that for a while. Someone would’ve found him if there were more people around. And the evacuation message on the wall really makes me think there aren’t.

“If Silver Bay was evacuated, a clean-up crew should have come in to help fix whatever caused the evacuation. The only disaster I saw was the missing people. It wasn’t like there was ten feet of snow or a blizzard or anything. It’s just a normal Minnesota winter out there. That means it wasn’t a natural disaster, Pete. And if it wasn’t that, then what was it? How far out does it go? Duluth? The cities? I hope Kylie is with Mom and Pops.”

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