The Survivor Chronicles (Book 3): The Forsaken by Erica Stevens Page B

could see whatever was in there that was causing her gag reflex to kick into hyper drive, her eyes to burn, and her nose to wrinkle. Her hand flew to her nose as she took an abrupt step back from the rotten smell of whoever remained in that car.
    She blinked back the tears burning her eyes as she turned toward the others. Carl was biting on his inner cheek to keep from laughing as he watched John from the side of a Jeep that had rolled onto its side. She could barely hear John's muffled curses as his feet kicked in the air out of one of the back windows.
    Xander was watching her from the edge of the road where he stood with Bobby beside a pickup truck. She shook her head and pinched her nose as she indicated the car. He gave a brief nod and turned away. Al gave up inspecting a car with a flat tire and joined her. "This is some slim pickings," he said.
    "It is," she agreed.
    They walked down the road together to the next set of cars. Riley opened the door, pulled the visor down and searched the floor and glove box for keys but she came up empty. She retreated from the vehicle and took a step back from it. Al was standing by the hood; his hand was against his forehead as he tried to shade his eyes from the sun beating down upon them. Riley tugged at her shirt as she attempted to peel it from the sweat coating her body.
    Her parents had taken her to Florida during summer break when she was twelve. They'd intended to explore the state and go to all the parks. They'd spent more time trying to get inside, and away from the oppressive heat, than they had doing anything else. She'd sworn she'd never go back there in the summer again, but now, standing on the side of this road, she knew she would have taken a hundred summers in Florida over this as steam rose from the baking asphalt.
    She tried not to think about the fact that there was almost no way they'd ever be able to grow anything in this hostile environment. There was no way that anything could thrive anymore she realized as she closed the door on the car. That was something they could attempt to figure out later though, when they weren't stranded on a highway. Besides, she was sticking to the possibility that any day now they would wake up to find the weather stabilized again. It didn't seem likely but then it hadn't seemed likely that lava would run through her hometown or that she would see someone commit suicide right before her eyes either.
    "There was a girl." She glanced over her shoulder to where Donald, Mary Ellen, Peter, Josh, and Rochelle had moved in the opposite direction in search of supplies. "With Donald. She ah... She killed herself Al."
    Al's hand dropped to his side. The lines in his face seemed even deeper as he turned toward her. "You saw her do it?"
    Her gaze drifted toward Xander as he jogged across the road with Bobby to join Carl and John. She started walking with Al again to the next set of cars. "We all did."
    "That had to have been awful."
    She didn't think those words were enough to cover what it had been like, what it still felt like. She'd never be able to get the image out of her head or understand what had driven Debra to do what she did. Had Debra really believed the words that she had spoken before ending her life? Is that what had driven her to pull the trigger? Riley shuddered at the thought and wrapped her arms around her middle as her stomach began to twist. That woman had only been feet away from her when she'd killed herself and yet none of them had been able to stop it. They'd been helpless to save Debra and she still felt helpless now, a feeling she was struggling to shake off.
    "It was," she agreed as she stopped next to another car.
    Peering in the windows she was relieved to see that this car was empty. She popped the trunk latch before leaning inside to search through it. She came up with a few lint balls and a couple of hairy breath mints but nothing she would eat or that they could use. Pulling down the glove box, she sorted