Earth: Book One (Elemental Series) by Taeya Adams

someone was following him or watching him.
    Ben goes in the bathroom and put the rifle on the counter, turning on the sink. Ben bend down and splashed water in his face. When he stood up, Ben saw someone in the somewhat foggy mirror and the person raised a gun.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Twenty-One
     
    Day One: March 27 th , 2020; 8:26pm
    Zander never shot out of bed so quickly in his life.
    “Zander?” He heard Eleanor’s small voice came. “What was that?” Eleanor sat up. Even in the dark, Zander could see her eyes rimmed with red. Zander had gotten out of bed and grabbed his guns. He threw one to Eleanor. She caught it in her hands.
    “Gun shots. Stay here with Forres!” Zander ordered as he ran out of the bed store. His bare feet got a cold sensation and as did his bare chest. Chills ran down his spine at the thought of zombies coming in. He had fallen asleep like Eleanor and was woken by two gunshots like Eleanor was too. Zander had gone to the place where he thought he had heard the gun shots at.
    Austin ran towards him. “Was it coming from here?” Austin pointed to the men’s bathroom.
    Zander gave a nod. “That’s what’s I think,” Zander and Austin entered the bathroom together.
    Zander’s heart ceased to beat as well as his body ceased to move. His body goes stiffs. Zander’s jaw tightened with anger as some of the others came in.
    Ben and Beatrice were dead on the floor; Ben’s rifle was on the sink, and a pistol was in Beatrice’s dead hand.
    Austin took off his cowboy hat and put it over Ben’s face for everyone’s sake.
    Chyler saw something on the mirror. Stepping over Ben’s lifeless body, she grabbed the yellow sticky note from the mirror. It read: “I wanted Ben to myself. We will be happy. ~Beatrice.”
    Anger raged throughout Zander’s body. He couldn’t hold it; he was going to burst as if he was a water balloon with too much water. Zander balled his hands. He turned and passed through the crowd of gasping people.
    Someone grabbed his arm, following him. “Are you okay? Do you need comfort?” Rayne asked. Zander glared at her before yanking his arm from her grasp. He couldn’t tell if Rayne had come to the terms that people will die in the apocalypse or if she had no heart.
    Zander had broken heart from losing loved ones and now it was filled with rage. When he broke loose, he goes straight to a sport store. “Zander, what are you going to do with that?” Austin asked, following him to a jewelry store. Zander had a bat
    Enraged in his heart, crazy in his eyes, Zander swung at the glass doors of the jewelry store. Glass fly, making Austin back up and the group to crowd around at a distance. Zander stepped into the store with his bare feet. He didn’t care about the pain of glass digging in his feet. He gave a hard swing at a case full of necklaces but it only cracked.
    “Zander!” Eleanor gasped when she came to the crashing noise.
    Zander looked at her. “My best friend is dead. Murdered, to be exact, by a psycho,” he told her. Eleanor opened her mouth but then closed it. “Thought so,” Zander swung again and again at the case until it broke. Glass flew from the now shattered necklace case.
    “Beatrice wasn’t a psycho,” Rayne stated before Zander could hit another glass case. “How do we know you didn’t do it instead of her?” Rayne crossed her arms over her chest, sassily.
    Zander slowly turned to Rayne and started to the door. Rayne had to admit, Zander looks pretty good without a shirt. He was lean and a bit broad. His skin was pale with tattoo ink on it: in his inner elbow was an arrow and drawings of butterflies climbing up his right arm and around to the tip of his shoulder. Zander looked at Rayne with his olive tiger eyes. “Why would I do that?”
    “You did it because you were jealous,” Rayne explained. “You love Forres.”
    Rayne could see Zander’s jaw tighten as well as the muscles in his body. “I do not like Forres, let