Read Online (Book 2)What Remains by Nathan Barnes - Free Book Online

but quickly conceded to a tender touch. The sensation of her
soft, curly hair dancing over my fingertips was like a riding a
gust of fresh air through billows of smoke. “We’ll leave in two
days. Today we enjoy ourselves as much as possible. Tomorrow we
prepare to leave this place behind us.” As the words left my mouth
we both realized that soon the home in which we’d started our
family would be nothing more than a memory.
    Light beamed through the propped open window.
Outside, a parting in the clouds allowed sunlight, something I’d
nearly forgotten about, to bathe the ruined land for a brief
moment. Daylight glimmered off of my wife’s cheek in tears that
escaped her tired eyes.
    “You barely made it here from downtown… how are
we supposed to make it across Hell with two kids? What if we
somehow make it and your parents aren’t there? We could be headed
to someplace even worse than here.”
    I hated how right she was - the odds were not in
our favor. We had already defied the odds with our survival to this
point; she and I both knew that, and there was no need to
acknowledge it. Potential plans of action had run through my mind
for weeks. I knew from the very beginning that somehow we would
need to make it to my parents’ farm. Originally, that end goal
seemed like it would be as simple as loading up the car and driving
there. After the time I spent on out in the virally ravaged world I
knew all too well that it wouldn’t be as easy as embarking on a
family road trip.
    “But I did make it,” I said. “I also learned a
lot in the process.”
    She scoffed at me. “Only you could turn the
apocalypse into a fucking learning experience.”
    “Joke about it if you want, baby. I’m not going
to patronize you by saying any of that ‘everything happens for a
reason’ bullshit. But I did learn; I learned a lot about what we’re
fighting and what the world has become. We have a chance to get
somewhere, anywhere that is safer than here.” I moved from
behind her seat to crouch beside her. It had been a while since I’d
bent in such a way so my joints fought the motion with grinding
disapproval.
    “How can you be so sure?” Another tear attempted
to flee her fatigued face only to be thwarted halfway by a light
brush of my hand.
    “Because I also learned that I’d happily butcher
anything that gets in the way of me and my family.”
    She immediately smiled. If there was ever
evidence that this woman was my soul mate, smiling in response to
my maniacal devotion definitely qualified. Her response came in the
form of a gentle kiss. She started to speak when a shriek from
outside broke the fragile silence. We both leaped to our feet.
Sheer panic blanketed Sarah’s face as she immediately knew what I
knew – the scream came from Calise.
    All sensation in my body instantly became numb;
every action impetuously flowed from instinct, magnified tenfold by
the shriek my precious daughter let out from beyond the safety of
our walls. I went into an automated call to arms that hadn't
existed in me before the world fell. If I'd heard such a sound
before the pandemic my reaction would have been simple irritation
at the assumption that the kids were fighting. Now, I've been so
justified in paranoia that I didn’t even register the Kukri as it
entered my grip. When I awkwardly landed after the jump through the
trap door the ground felt no different than the cushioning mattress
I had just left. My muscles obeyed all commands without their
typical protest. The mere thought of something attacking my
children quelled all of the crippling dread I should have felt from
a headfast rush into danger. A second later my tunneled vision
locked onto the pink of Calise’s puffy coat.
    “Calise! Where’s your brother?!” Sarah said with
panicked breaths as she chased immediately behind me.
    I had been so focused on the pink target that
Maddox’s absence from direct view escaped my notice. Calise stood
at the corner of the mini fence