Safe In Your Arms Read Free Page B

basically ignored her.
    She looked about her with a feeling of gloomy fear. He’d left her all alone in his bat cave. She was weaponless, defenseless, and unsure where she was, yet he’d just left her by herself. Hugging her knees to her chest, Mina tried to calm her pounding heart. She was alone. Though she’d seen countless classmates and friends killed and turned into the monsters lurking all around her, she’d never been left alone to take care of herself. Her cousin, Daren, jerk that he was, had found her in her dorm room hiding in the closet.
    Daren took her with him, met up with a group of friends who were armed to the teeth, and made it out of the city as fast as they could. She covered her ears as the screams and sirens of the city vibrated in her mind and memory. The horror of seeing human beings biting and tearing at the flesh of their own species made her feel sick to her stomach. She yanked the blanket up over her shoulders and stared at the flickering flames of the fire. The cave was getting warmer, but she couldn’t be much colder with the fear of isolation.
    She was on her own now. Daren was gone. She’d seen his look of disbelief as the zombie knocked his gun from his arms and bit into his neck. The zombie had worn the torn and dirty uniform of a state trooper. The flash of a watch wouldn’t leave her as its hand plunged right into Daren’s chest to yank out a bloody mess before they fell to the ground, other zombies joining in on the feast. She opened her eyes, tilting her head back as her mouth opened on a silent scream of horror. Tears wouldn’t come; she hadn’t cried since the first day of the attacks, dubbed Z-Day. Gasping a shaky breath, Mina covered her lips with a trembling hand. She focused her mind on the cave holding her safe within its darkened mouth.
    She turned her attention to her situation and the immediate future, veering away from the tragedy of her past. There was still the plan. The last text from her father had been an order to go straight to their summer house on the river. She was to meet her mother and sister, Callista, there. The plan was still in effect. If her father made it out of Washington, then the summer house was where he would go. She just had to get there. They had been so damn close. Last night she’d begged Daren to keep going farther up the coast. The Bradys’ summer house was on the peninsula of Alex Bay, a tourist spot for anyone in love with stories of pirates and buried treasure. She’d been struck with the romantic ambience of the small town herself when she first caught sight of famous Bolt Castle, sitting on historic and beautiful Heart Island. Who wouldn’t think of romance in an area filled with tales of love?
    She’d even experienced her first crush there at the age of twelve. He was the son of the contractor her father hired to remodel their summer house’s plumbing. School was out and every day the boy came to work with his father. Gabe was his name. She found her lips wanting to pull up in a smile as she remembered the way his dark hair curled up at the back of his neck. She couldn’t picture his face clearly, but she did remember his eyes were bluer than the river during a sunny summer day. His smile never failed to flush her body with heat whenever he caught her looking at him. And the way he laughed with his father, well, it was the happy pleasure in the sound that made her want to melt in a pile of goo. He was her first crush, the unattainable male who didn’t see her. He did, however, have no trouble seeing her little sister.
    At first he’d tried to ignore her and her sister, Callie, as they tried to get him to talk to them. He’d always say he was too busy to go swimming with them, or too old to play childish games. Then one day she had to stay in bed with a summer cold. The following day she was late getting up and when she went downstairs to the kitchen she found him lying beneath the kitchen sink laughing at something Callie was