The Lola Chronicles (Book 2): A Day Without Dawn by Jillian Eaton

dull roar. Maybe then I’d be able to swallow my pride and go back and apologize.
    Hunter hadn’t deserved the things I had said to him, and neither had anyone else. The thing was I didn’t even know why I had said them. If Hunter wanted to go off on a suicide mission that was his choice. I wasn’t his mom or his girlfriend or his keeper. I was his friend – or at least I had been up until five minutes ago – and it wasn’t my job to tell him what to do, it was my job to support him.
    Even if he was being a stupid jackass.
    I stopped when I reached a chain link fence. It wrapped around the back of the lot, dividing it from the next house over, a two-story bungalow with cheerful yellow shutters and a kid’s tire swing hanging from an oak tree out front.
    My throat unexpectedly swelled and tears burned in the corners of my eyes as I stared at the empty tire swing. I didn’t want to think about the child that should have been playing on it. Didn’t want to think about their parents. Didn’t want to think about Travis or Dad or all the other people I had lost. People I had taken for granted because I assumed they would always be there. People I had never taken the opportunity to get to know because I figured there would always be time.
    Time to fix old mistakes.
    Time to make new friends.
    Time to reinvent myself into the person I wanted to be.
    I wasn’t supposed to be this Lola. The angry Lola. The reckless Lola. The Lola who didn’t care about anyone or anything but herself.
    The chain link fence rattled as I leaned against it and sank to the ground. Drawing my legs to my chest I rested my head on my knees and stared blindly across the lot, blinking back tears.
    Damnit, I should have had more time. We all should have. Travis. Dad. Hunter. The little boy whose tire swing now sat empty.
    The drinkers had taken more than our friends and our families and our neighbors. They’d stolen Travis’ graduation speech. Hunter’s last football game. Hayley’s senior prom. Things we’d been looking forward to all of our lives…snatched away in the dead of the night by monsters we thought were make-believe.
    It wasn’t fair.
    Then again, life never was.
    Dragging my fists across my eyes I rocked up to my feet and dusted off the back of my shorts. Sitting around blubbering like a baby wasn’t going to fix anything. Neither was running away. Whether I liked it or not, the only friends I had left in post-apocalyptic Revere were back at the middle school. And that included Hayley. Sure, she was a total pain in my ass and yes, we despised one another. But that didn’t make her life any less important. If she was still alive – and no matter what Becca or Livy said that was a pretty big if – then I couldn’t just turn my back on her.
    Bitch, you are so going to owe me for this.
    I retraced my steps with determination, keeping my chin high and my eyes up as I walked across the middle school parking lot. Heat billowed up from the cracked asphalt, causing a wave of fresh sweat to drip down my face and between my shoulder blades.
    Sexy.
    There was no one standing out front of the school so I went around to the back door. They must have gone into the gym to regroup. No way they had left already. Not without any weapons or any idea where Hayley was.  They couldn’t be that stupid. Could they?
    I got my answer when I stepped into the gym.
    The completely empty gym.
    “Sonofabitch,” I cursed under my breath. My sneakers echoed on the wooden floor as I marched across the basketball court and looked in the locker rooms. The boy’s had been cleared out. So had the girl’s. Rose and Ms. Siegel had definitely done a good job packing everyone’s shit up. Now I just needed to find out where they’d taken it.
    At least I still had my gun. Ever since the grocery store debacle with Hayley I’d carried it with me day and night. It had become as much a part of me as my own arm. I just hoped the next time I used it I wouldn’t