My gaze went back to the bridge. “We have to find my brothers.”
“We will,” Kobal said before turning to Caim. “You and Raphael stay ahead of us and stay close.Do notallow yourselves to be seen.”
“I don’t have a death wish, varcolac,” Caim replied before shifting and taking to the sky.
Kobal turned to the others. “Grab your weapons. We have to leave the vehicles here.” They all scurried to do as he commanded before joining us near the bridge. “Stay by me,” Kobal said to me.
“I will.”
Releasing my arm, Kobal moved in front of me and onto the tracks where he broke into a loping run. I followed behind him, my heart thudding with every step as my feet pounded over the railroad tracks. Hawk ran beside me, while the others followed us.
Through the slats in the tracks, I could see the deep blue water of the canal beneath us. The cool white spray dampening my cheeks reminded me I washome. I’d yearned to return, to see the ocean and my friends and family again, but this felt so wrong.
“This was never down before,” I panted to Kobal. “The Guard kept the railroad bridge up to prevent people from entering our side when they weren’t supposed to.”
“Members of the Guard were always posted on both sides of it too,” Hawk said.
Now, no one stood watch.
My feet landed on the asphalt of the bike path next to the canal, a place where I’d spent so much time over the years fishing to feed my family. Frowning, I tried to figure out what was wrong as I gazed at all the familiar things that felt so foreign to me now. The large rocks looked the same, small waves still crested in white peaks and the current still swirled throughout.
My stomach sank as I finally figured it out.Noone was here. No one stood on the rocks. There were no fishing poles, no laughter, no greetings called out to others. No one walked the water line, picking crabs from the rocks. There were no seagulls or heron perched on the light poles or bobbing on the water. No caws pierced the silence, no mussels or clams fell from the sky as the gulls dropped them in attempt to crack their shells. Remains of those shells littered the walkway, but nothing picked at them.
It didn’t matter what time of day it was, there was always someone here fishing, collecting crabs, or checking their lobster pots. There were always birds feasting on the bounty the canal offered them.
The absolute silence and stillness of it all made my skin crawl and frightened me more than being pinned to the seal had.
“Something is so wrong,” I whispered.
“Where do we go?” Kobal asked as he rested his hand on my shoulder.
Taking a deep breath, I turned away from the canal and focused on the bike path. “This way.”
He released my shoulder, and I raced down the canal path before veering off onto a trail that wound through the woods. My feet landed effortlessly between the tree roots breaking through the dirt of the pathway, but the others grunted as they were caught up in, or tripped by, them. I knew this trail as well as the back of my hand. I hadn’t traversed it in months, but I still recalled every detail of it and nothing had changed. Well maintained, not even vegetation crept in to reclaim it.
The last time I’d traveled this path, the birds had been singing and the squirrels chasing each other through the trees. Nothing moved now except for the leaves overhead as they swayed in the breeze of the early September day. Where did all the animals go? Something horrific had to have happened to chase them all away or scare them into hiding.
Gage. Bailey.
Their names ran on a loop in my mind, driving me faster. Turning a corner in the path, my fingers brushed against the trunk of a red maple tree. It was a tree I’d touched often while walking through here. Beneath my fingers, I felt the maple’s roots digging into the earth and the worms squirming through them. Before, I hadn’t known what it meant to experience this feeling, now the flow of life flooded every cell of my body.
I skidded to a halt when the pathway ended at the neighborhood where I’d grown up. I gazed over the sagging, weather-worn houses. Years of focusing on survival had left little time for people to worry about the upkeep of their homes. Many had paint chipping off them, sagging porches, missing shutters, and overgrown yards, but there had always been warmth here and a sense of welcome. There were always people milling about, greeting others, heading out to fish or coming back for the day. They’d be gardening or swapping supplies at the exchange Mrs. Loud ran from her house.
Now it felt like a graveyard, minus the headstones.
I strained to hear anything, but the silence stretched onward until I wanted to scream. Every breath became increasingly difficult to take.
Kobal gestured to those following us. They spread out through the trees with their weapons at the ready. Some knelt in the shadows as they focused their guns on the homes, others remained standing and ready to move into the town.
Raphael landed beside us. “There’s nothing amid these homes,” he said. “I did not go far beyond, but I will if it becomes necessary.”
“Not right now,” I said. “This is my neighborhood. We’ll search through here for an answer to what’s happened first.”
“Where is everyone?” Erin asked from behind me.
I was both desperate and terrified to learn the answer to that question.
CHAPTER 47
