Death's Awakening

Chapter Forty-Four: Karmen

Karmen kept her eye on the house where she grew up for as long as she could until the van turned a corner and the house was gone.

So many memories to leave behind. Some of them nightmares for her.

Parrish had said she thought Karmen's life was perfect. She had no idea what Karmen had been through in her life. What her father had made her do.

Karmen shuddered, then pulled her backpack closer against her chest, hugging it like a teddy bear. The end of the world was both a blessing and curse. It had brought her out of one nightmare and straight into another.

But now things were going to be better.

The Army was going to take care of them. And she didn't care if Parrish wanted to go off on her suicide mission to rescue her sister. Let Noah go with her for all she cared. As long as Karmen could be safe and taken care of at the evacuation zone, that was all she cared about.

At least that's what she kept repeating to herself over and over.

But the truth was that she had really grown attached to Noah and Parrish. She acted like they annoyed the crap out of her, and sometimes they did, but she loved them in some weird way. She felt like herself when she was with them. Like she was complete.

Which was ridiculous.

Anyone in their right mind would rather be in a safe zone where they didn't have to worry about rotters or electricity or where their next meal was coming from. That should be what Karmen wanted more than anything in this world.

And yet, the thought of separating from the other two made her feel like her heart was being torn from her chest.

She stared out the window as they made their way toward the hospital. They had planned to take the highway since it was faster, but when they got to the spot where they would normally pull on, the ramp was trashed. Four cars were piled up in a horrible crash, the bodies of the dead still inside.

Karmen looked away as Parrish pulled the van over to the side of the road.

"Which way should we go?" she asked.

"Can you pull up GPS?" Karmen asked. Noah had brought her cell phone from her house, but the screen was cracked pretty badly and it wasn't working right.

"I tried," Noah said. "The cell service is down. I can't get it to come up at all."

"I kind of know how to go," Parrish said. "But I might need help navigating."

"Maybe we should stop somewhere and grab a map," Noah said. "Just in case."

"There's a gas station over there, across the street." Karmen pointed toward the one with the blue sign. She'd been there a thousand times with Aaron to pick up cigarettes. There was a guy named Boone who used to work there. He was always hitting on her when Aaron wasn't looking.

Karmen had made out with him a couple of times.

Boone was probably dead by now, though. Like most of everyone else. She just hoped he wasn't dead and still hanging out at the gas station.

"They have all kinds of maps beside the cash register."

The car jerked as Parrish ran the van straight over the median and across to the gas station. Even though there was no one around, it still felt strange to be breaking the rules. Karmen felt like she should be looking back to see if anyone noticed what they'd just done.

Of course, no one had.

They had gotten a later start than they'd intended, but they had yet to see a single car or person on the road.

When the van stopped, Karmen jumped out. "I'll grab the map," she said. "What do we need? Just the city?"

Parrish shrugged. "Just grab one of everything," she said. "Be careful."

Karmen jogged inside, so glad to have her tennis shoes now instead of just those flip-flops she'd been wearing. The bell over the door dinged as she entered. Gosh, how many times had she heard that sound? A million?

It had never felt eerie until today.

The station had windows all around the top half, so there was plenty of light inside. She walked up to the counter and imagined Boone behind it, smiling and winking at her, asking if she wanted to meet up with him when he got off work.

It had seemed fun and naughty to do stuff like that back then, but now she felt guilty. If she had known what would happen to Aaron, maybe she would have treated him better.

Or maybe she would have never strung him along the way she did.

Karmen sighed and grabbed a couple of lighters from the display up front. She also reached behind the counter and grabbed all the medicine she could find. Aspirin. Ibuprofen. Stuff like that. She put them all in a paper sack, then walked down the aisles and quickly snatched up some candy bars and a couple sodas.

Outside, Parrish honked the horn.

"I'm coming already," Karmen muttered.

She took one last look at the shop, thinking how she'd taken so much for granted before all this.

Then she shook her head. Now who was being the emo one?

She quickly picked up one of each type of map, then ran back out to the van.

With the help of the new maps and Noah's navigation skills, it only took them another two hours to get to the hospital. They were lucky the van had plenty of gas. Karmen never would have thought it could take so long to go just ten miles or so, but the roads were wrecked. Literally. Cars and debris were everywhere.

There must have been several fires, riots, and general freaking out going on. They had been lucky to be sheltered from it on their quiet street.

But when the sign for McLean Memorial finally came in to view, Karmen started tapping her toes.

This was it. No going back. Everything was about to change, one way or another.

Thank you for reading! I sincerely hope you're enjoying this book so far. I appreciate your votes!