The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen by Erica Stevens

piece of the curtain. "There!" Riley said excitedly
and thrust her finger at the glass. "By that truck!"
    Carl's shoulders slumped; Mary Ellen could
feel the relief radiating from him as he leaned closer to the
window. Carl had sent them out there, he'd told them to move those
vehicles. Mary Ellen couldn't imagine what the weight of that must
have been like as they waited for the three of them to come
back.
    "There's something moving toward them."
Riley's hands fisted in the curtain as her nose nearly touched the
glass.
    Carl lifted his gun and pointed it at the
window. "Wait! Don't," Jim said as he stepped away from the
counter.
    "One of those things is after them!" Riley
hissed.
    "You can't shoot through that window," Jim
growled. "You'll bring them right to us."
    "Our friends are in trouble." Riley shot a
deadly look over her shoulder.
    "My son is
in here," Jim said.
    Riley's eyes darted to the young boy
cowering by the register in his mother's embrace. Sadness tugged at
Mary Ellen's heart when Riley's lower lip began to tremble and she
closed her mouth. Al kept his hand on Riley's arm as she turned to
look at Carl. His face was strained with indecision but he lowered
his weapon.
    "I won't shoot unless I absolutely have to,"
Carl promised.
    "Unless they come this way," Jim said.
    "Unless they come this way," Carl agreed but
Mary Ellen wasn't so sure she believed him. She didn't think he
would be able to stop himself from helping the others if it became
necessary. "Step away from the window Ri."
    "No," she responded instantly.
    "Riley…"
    "I'm not… no," she choked out.
    "Leave her be," Al said.
    Mary Ellen couldn't take the tension
anymore; she had to know what was happening out there. Grabbing
hold of Rochelle's arm, she steered her daughter to the window. She
nudged Rochelle to the side before moving to stand beside Carl. Her
eyes narrowed as she searched the night, it took her a minute to
spot the others leaning against a pickup with gigantic tires that
were a little extravagant to her. She also spotted the sick person
falling on the ground before them.
    She turned away, unable to watch, as Donald
leaned forward with his knife. Taking a few deep breaths, she
steadied herself before looking back at the parking lot again. The
three of them were working on getting the body into the back of the
truck.
    "They're not going to make it across that
road," Riley murmured.
    As the words left her mouth, the three guys
slipped underneath the truck again. Mary Ellen wasn't sure what
their intentions were until they remained beneath the vehicle. The
tires that had seemed so extravagant before now provided a haven
for them, how much of one she didn't know, but at least they had a
place to hide.
    "What do we do?" Riley asked.
    "There's nothing we can do," Al responded.
"They're safe right now and they have a decent spot to keep watch
from."
    "It might be better if you moved away from
the window miss," Jim said. Riley glanced questioningly at him over
her shoulder. "Like I said, sometimes they come at night. If they
see you, you won't have to worry about your friends."
    Mary Ellen didn't think Riley was going to
listen to him but she took a deep breath and released the curtain.
Riley didn't walk away from the window, but moved to lean against
the wall beside the glass. Carl glanced at Mary Ellen before
turning back to the room. Mary Ellen gave one final glance at the
three huddled under the truck, if she hadn't known to look for them
there, she never would have seen them. She prayed it stayed that
way as she dropped the curtain into place.
    "Do you just stay in this room?" Carl
inquired of Jim.
    "For the most part. There's a bathroom off
the office through there." Jim pointed to the door behind the cash
register. "We don't flush the toilet at night but they don't come
around in the daytime. There's also a storage room around the back.
It's mostly dead flowers now, the stench of them is overwhelming
but it masks our odor in here, I