A Wilderness Within

Chapter 1

1

@CDC: The virus in Beijing has been identified as a new disease named Hydra-1. The World Health Organization (The WHO) is monitoring the situation closely. We believe it is contained and there is no cause to worry.

—Centers for Disease Control Twitter Feed

November 10, 2019

March 2020

Caroline Kelly crouched in the shadows outside the old supermarket on the outskirts of Omaha. Night was creeping closer. Usually she hated the dark, but tonight it was her friend. Whenever she entered a store or any dwelling, she knew she ran the risk of running into survivors. Ever since H–Day, as she called it, the day everyone truly realized there was a contagion sweeping over the world, people went insane.

Common decency and the humanitarian spirit had been destroyed. Knowing they had nothing to lose, many had reverted to barbarism, violence, greed, and lust. The last legacy of a dying species. And those few who had survived hadn’t been much better.

Caroline shuddered and pulled her coat tight around her body. She scanned the darkened entrance to the grocery store. The chances that anything edible was in there were slim, but she had to look. She would eat just about anything right now. Last week she had found a stash of canned sardines in someone’s house and had a feast that any cat would envy. Then she had thrown up because the oily texture of the tiny fish had made her nauseous. She’d never been into seafood, but starvation was still starvation.

She checked the straps on her backpack, making sure they weren’t loose. Whenever she had a chance to fill up with supplies or food, she needed to make sure that the bag stayed tight to her body. She had already lost one bag when she was running from a man who tried to corner her inside a drugstore last month. The bag had been too loose and heavy. When she rounded a corner too fast, the momentum from the bag swung so hard it knocked her onto her ass. The man caught up with her and tried to grab it. She had to abandon it or risk him catching her. She knew all too well what would have been next if that had happened. In the early days of the contagion, she’d tried to trust other survivors, believing that they could work together to survive. That had been a mistake, a nearly fatal one. She still believed deep down that humanity could survive this, but as the dark days stretched on, her hope was dying, like a candle sputtering in a violent wind. All too soon it would be snuffed out.

The store had been quiet for the last hour. She had been hiding in the shadows across the street, and once darkness fell, she inched her way toward the store, using abandoned cars as cover. But she didn’t go inside, not yet. Someone was out there. She could feel their presence somehow, like a sixth sense warning her of danger. She couldn’t wait forever. Hunger and desperation would force her hand sooner or later. If she was being watched, she would have to brave it and just go.

Caroline moved toward the door. The glass had shattered long ago, and all that remained was a metal frame laced with jagged edges. She didn’t bother to open it but instead slipped through where the glass had once been. Her boots crunched on the broken shards, but she couldn’t help that. Some things were unavoidable. She squinted at the signs hanging overhead, trying to see what was in each aisle.

If she had been more certain she was alone, she would have pulled out her flashlight, but that would be a shining beacon to anyone close by. So she wandered down each aisle, careful to avoid any shelves that had toppled over. The stench of rotten produce a few aisles over made her eyes water, so she stayed closer to the center. The majority of the edible food was gone, but not all of it.

When the virus had swept through the major cities like this one, it had killed so many so quickly that people didn’t have time to loot stores. People were too busy dying to steal TVs. There had been some looting, but not as much as she had expected. Not that it mattered without electricity. She couldn’t benefit from most of the things left behind. She would love a giant flat-screen as much as the next girl, but what would she do with it?

Caroline passed by the empty canned food aisle. The items that could last the longest had been taken first. So she focused on other items like cereal. The easily reached shelves were bare, but she thought she saw something up top. She carefully scaled the shelves, praying they wouldn’t fall down and crush her. She reached her hand along, trying to search for anything that might’ve been left behind. Her fingers brushed along the dust-covered surface of the shelf. They bumped into something. She reached, clawing at the object, and closed her hand around it.

It moved. The furry thing squeaked and bit her hand.

Caroline screamed and toppled backward, landing hard on her back. The air whooshed out of her lungs, and she choked on a sob. It was a damn rat. She hated rats. Pain radiated through her as she struggled to catch her breath. She’d missed landing on a bunch of broken jars by mere inches. After a long moment, she stifled a whimper as she rolled onto her side. She got up and wiped the dirt and debris off her jeans and checked her bag. She’d been smart enough to put it down while she’d been searching the shelves. She knelt down and caught sight of several boxes of granola bars at the back of the bottom shelf.

“Yes!” She grinned as she pulled them out, squinting at them in the dim light. Peanut butter and chocolate. Her favorite. She opened the boxes and dumped the bars in her bag to save space. Then she zipped the bag shut and slung it over her shoulder before searching the other aisles. She passed by the frozen foods section and saw the now hardened pools of melted sugary liquid that once had been ice cream. In the shadows they were dark, like blood, and the sight made her stomach churn.

The pharmacy was mostly cleaned out, but she did find some Tylenol and multivitamins. She also discovered a few small bottles of Pedialyte. The salty liquid didn’t taste that great, but she could power through days of little to no food with it. Her personal record so far was four days. Not that she wanted to brag about that.

She was almost done browsing the pharmacy when she heard the faint sound of glass beneath boots. But not her boots.

Oh God.

Her unseen watcher had decided to show his or her face, but Caroline had no plans on sticking around to see who it was. She waited, listening to the sounds around her, ears straining to pick up every little sound. There was a distant scrape from the opposite end of the store. Caroline exhaled slowly, her heart pounding. They were moving away from her. She still had time to escape. She crouched over, using the shorter shelves in the store’s pharmacy section to shield her while she slipped her backpack back on. The harsh grinding sound of the zipper teeth locking into place seemed far too loud to her. Then she swung it over her shoulders and secured it to her waist with straps.

The sound of a can rolling in the distance made her tense. When she peered around the edge of the nearest shelf, she saw a tin of baked beans flash in the moonlight that poured into the grocery store’s high empty panes. That was too good a find to ignore. There might be a way to grab the can as she left the store. Whoever was here was still in the far end of the store and might not see her.

Already tasting the beans in her mind, she left her spot behind the shelf and started to crawl forward slowly on hands and knees toward the can. She bumped against some broken glass and stopped. She was only inches away. She reached out, her hand brushing the metal rim of the can when a booted foot materialized from the shadows. It stepped on the can, pinning it in place.

A scream froze in Caroline’s throat, and she threw her head back to look up at whoever had discovered her.

A tall, well-built man with broad shoulders stared down at her. He was wearing a thick gray sweater, one that looked military, and he had a thick beard that covered his chin and mouth, making his expression impossible to read, but it leaned toward menacing.

“Easy, beautiful.” His deep voice was a little rough, as though he hadn’t spoken in days.

She knew all too well what that sound was like. How long had it been since she’d actually talked to someone? Shouting at them to leave her alone while she ran away didn’t count. It had been at least two weeks. The rare times she came into contact with other survivors, it was a hard scramble, like animals fighting for survival. A person had but a few seconds to measure up the other survivor, to see if they were friend or foe. Could they be trusted, or would they be dangerous? She’d always tried to talk to them and try to calm them down. It never worked. A woman she’d run into last month had pretended to be nice, but then she tried to stab her when Caroline turned her back to help her lift a box of bottled water off the ground. Caroline had the scars to prove that trusting people wasn’t worthwhile, no matter how much she wanted to.

She glanced up at the man looming over her. “You can have whatever’s left in the store. I don’t want any trouble.” She released her hold on the can and slowly sat back on her heels. This guy, whoever he was, was definitely not someone she could trust. He was a mass of muscle and intimidation. A mountain man who likely only thought of base instincts. If she could get him to think she was helpless and weak, she could buy herself time to attack and escape because he’d lower his guard. In seconds, she could rock up fully into a standing position and run, but he didn’t know that. Speed was one of her advantages. She had gotten really good at running since the virus had spread.

“What if I want you?” Rather than menacing, the man’s deep voice sounded gentle and melodic. Hell, in another world she would’ve called it seductive.

But luxuries like love and other complex emotions had perished in the night, along with baser feelings like hope. She was going to die, not from Hydra but from this man.

Her hand by her knee brushed against a piece of glass. She curled her fingers around it as she met his gaze. His eyes were black in the darkness. He seemed in that moment more shadow than mortal flesh. Nightmare rather than reality.

I don’t want to die. I want to live.

Even this cold, empty world still called to her. She would not go down without a fight.

“Go on and stand up,” he said more brusquely, as though frustrated by her silence. “I want a better look at you.” At first she thought he’d reached out to grab her, but he didn’t. He just held out his hand, a gesture so normal in this abnormal world that she nearly laughed. She rose, her knees knocking as she tried to control the surge of adrenaline inside her. Every sound, every breath, every move seemed slower in time. Caroline kept the shard of glass loosely balanced on her partially curled fingers to conceal it, waiting.

When she raised her gaze to his face again, she could now see the handsome features partially hidden behind the mountain man beard. He was a little older than her, early thirties maybe? The beard made it hard to tell.

“f**k, you’re gorgeous,” he growled. “I couldn’t tell when I first spotted you a few hours ago. I only saw you from behind and at a distance.” He seemed to be talking more to himself than her.

Shit…he wanted her. That wasn’t good.

“Just let me go,” she said again.

“No can do.” He bent to pick up the can of beans and slipped it into the pack on his shoulders. Caroline almost made a run for it, but he was too close and would easily grab her before she got far.

“I’ll give you my bag,” she offered, hating that she would do just that if it saved her life. She had gotten far too used to starting over. Losing everything she had the moment she started to get ahead.

The man sighed. “I don’t want your bag.” He held out his hand to her again. “Now, come on. Let’s go someplace safe to talk.”

Caroline knew her chances were better if he never saw the attack coming. She placed her hand in his. The flare of heat between that single connection rocked her to her core. She hadn’t touched another person in so long, she was surprised by the warmth she felt. For a moment she imagined that this wasn’t the end of the world and she was just walking hand-in-hand with a sexy man.

I cannot be feeling anything. It’s just shock from touching another person after so long.

He led her toward the front of the store. She walked along beside him, still holding his hand. When they were within feet of the exit she lunged, stabbing him in the shoulder with the glass shard. The glass cut her hand, but she pushed harder. He grunted and released her as he tried to pull the glass out of his shoulder.

She sprinted around him, running for freedom, but with a panicked cry she twisted her right ankle, coming down on it hard as she collided with a shelf. The structure wobbled, and she looked up in terror as the metal shelves teetered and fell right on top of her. She blacked out and crumpled to the floor in sheer agony as the metal hit her body. A moment later, she was conscious again. She breathed in heavy pants as she tried to claw her way out from under the shelves, focused on the only thing that mattered—escape.

Metal creaked and groaned as it came off her body, and she dragged herself free of it. Then the metal crashed back down, and the bearded man stood there, breathing hard as he watched her. She closed her eyes, praying death would be swift if that was her fate now.

A pair of hands slid under her body, lifting her up effortlessly. She cried out in fear, clawing at the man as he held her against his chest.

“Easy, beautiful, easy,” That gentle rumbling voice of his made her restless panic ease, but only for a fraction of a second. The pain in her ankle was so great she could barely think. She closed her eyes, breathing in and out, her hands fisted in his thick sweater.

Stay alive. That was all that mattered. Whatever he wanted to do to her, he wouldn’t do it here and not right now. She could fight him off and escape as soon as her body stopped hurting.

He stepped through the doorway and carried her into the street, bold and unafraid. She’d run from car to car to get here, hiding like a mouse. But he strode out like a god of war. For now, she belonged to him. That seemed to be the way this dead new world was going to work. Ten thousand years of civilization was gone in less than four months. Whatever rules humans made now would be hard and cruel. Caroline shivered as that burning hope for mankind shrank even more.

Even with his wounded shoulder, the man carried her half a block as though she weighed nothing at all. Then he stopped in front of a black Ford SUV. He shifted her in his arms as he opened the back door and settled her into a passenger seat. Fresh pain shot through her ankle, and she lay uncomfortably on top of her backpack, like a turtle flipped onto its shell.

“Please… Don’t…” She whimpered as she saw him digging around in his own backpack. She couldn’t escape; she couldn’t fight him off.

He pulled out a syringe with a mean-looking needle and ripped the cap off.

“No!” She kicked at him, but he anticipated the blow. Her foot barely made contact.

“Stop it. I’m not going to hurt you.” He grabbed both of her legs with one hand and pinned her down. Caroline screamed in pain. The man hissed and pulled up her sweater, jabbing the needle into her side just above her hip.

She moaned and thrashed. Her leg hurt so badly that she had no strength left. She rolled onto her stomach, trying to drag herself through the vehicle, her fingers scraping over the nice leather. Whatever he’d given her was moving through her veins, dulling her senses, numbing her all over. Tears leaked out of her eyes as she struggled and fought. Strains of the last address on the radio by the final president of the United States came back to her.

“We shall not go quietly into the night. Stand together, stand strong…”

And just like the radio, the lights around Caroline went dark.