Reclamation (Book 3 The Ravening Series) Read Free Page B

there was no such order now. They were haphazard and askew, and appeared to be waiting for their final crushing at a junkyard. I gazed in incredulity at the vehicles tossed here and there, the shattered windows, and the twisted metal remains. Abby was shaking as she pressed closer to me and gawked at the wreckage.
    It didn't take a genius to know what had caused this much carnage and destruction. The octopus/jellyfish/tick/crab monster things that the aliens had unleashed upon us had obviously been through here. Though it had to have been some of the smaller ones; the larger ones, the ones full of human blood, wouldn't have fit through the tunnel. It didn't matter the size though as they were all deadly, and the small ones had developed the uncanny ability to mimic a human being.
    Everyone stopped moving as Darnell, Lloyd, Bret and Mick moved cautiously toward the next bend in the tunnel. Cade's nostrils flared with his inhalations, he glanced rapidly at our surroundings as the four of them disappeared from view. I found myself unable to breathe as I awaited gunfire or screams of death. I took a deep breath as Bret returned and gestured for us to come forward to join them.
    The next bend in the tunnel didn't reveal any less destruction. It did, however, offer an exit ramp that led to somewhere else in the city. In front of the exit was a large gap with mutilated cars shoved to both sides of it. These vehicles appeared to have already gone through the crusher as they were twisted to the point that they were almost unrecognizable.
    "What happened?" Abby breathed.
    "Someone tried to use the cars to block the ramp so that nothing could enter the tunnel from above," Cade answered. He pressed closer to me, his head tilted back to study the ceiling. A chill of trepidation coursed through me as I tilted my head back too. I was petrified I would see one of those things hanging above us waiting to pounce. Relief coursed through me when I discovered nothing but concrete and shadows.
    I turned back to the mangled vehicles as my throat went dry. "People tried to blockade themselves within the tunnel," I croaked.
    I couldn't wrap my mind around such a notion. They had tried to keep themselves safe within these concrete walls, beneath the ground, trapped like rats. They'd had no hope if those things ever managed to get in here, which they apparently had.
    "They must have repeatedly gone above to steal cars; they had to have been down here for awhile before they were discovered," Cade answered.
    "They could still be down here," Molly whispered. She seemed more frightened by that notion than the one that they were all dead as her gaze flitted over the tunnel and she took a step closer to Aiden.
    I had to admit that the idea of running into anyone that had been living down here for the past couple of months wasn't that appealing to me either. "Those things broke through though," Abby breathed.
    "They did," Cade agreed flatly. "There are other things that could still be down here, besides survivors."
    I hated this tunnel more and more with every passing second. Whatever had been so awful up above seemed to have seeped into this underground world of shadows and destruction. I didn't plan to stay down here for one minute longer than we had to, but they had spent weeks, if not months, living beneath the earth and skulking through these tunnels like rats.
    Cade took a step closer to me. "I don't smell death," he stated.
    My head turned toward him as I inhaled deeply. The air was dank and reeked of mildew, gas, oil and something musky and feral, like rodents or other wild animals, but there was no cloying odor of decay within the tunnel. I imagined that within these confines the scent would be overpowering and sickening.
    "You're right," Lloyd said.
    "Do you think they survived?" Abby asked hopefully.
    "Maybe," Cade murmured.
    There was something he wasn't saying, something bothering him as he took a step closer to me and Abby. I wanted to ask him