Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) Read Free Page A

shoulders. “I was tired, but I couldn’t sleep.”
    “I know the
feeling. And this alien invasion isn’t helping matters.”
    Surprised, Lucy
poked her head up and looked into his eyes. “I didn’t know you still got those
nightmares.”
    Logan hesitated. “I
was going to tell you on our wedding day, but you know how that turned out.”
    Lucy sighed.
“Yes, that was a day I’ll never forget.”
    “Do you want to
talk about what happened?” Logan asked. Lucy didn’t say anything, so he continued talking. “I’m here
for you, you do know that, right?”
    Lucy smiled and
kissed him. “Yes. And I’ll tell you. Just not here. Not now. I fought so hard to get rid of those memories that I don’t want to
revisit them just now. I want things to get back to normal.”
    Logan squeezed her
tight. “Normal. That’s a word I never used to use.”
    “You never
realize how good something is until you lose it,” Lucy said.
    “That’s for
sure,” Logan replied, running a hand through Lucy’s blonde hair. “I knew I loved
you, but I didn’t know how much.”
    “How much?” Lucy asked, grinning.
    Logan grinned back.
“I’ll show you later when we’re all alone. But here’s a taste of what to
expect.” He leaned forward and, holding her head in his hands, kissed her on
the lips.
    ~*~*~
    Kenneth awoke to
raindrops pelting the ground. Sitting up, he glanced at the sky. A storm had
moved in during the night and clouds covered most of the sky. The sun, just
above the horizon, poked out from behind one especially dark cloud.
    He had meant to
stay awake as much as possible in case any more wild beasts came back, but the
exhaustion must have overcome him. Luckily, it didn’t look as though any animal
had returned. He glanced at the teens, who’d just
woken. “We’ll need to move if we want to stay dry.”
    The three of them
quickly put on their shoes and put their stuff back into the backpacks. Then,
with the rugs from the boat slung across their shoulders, the group left the
campsite.
    Five minutes
later, with the rain still coming down, Kenneth kicked open the back door of a
run-down house. It was the first one that they had come across. Not wasting
time, they climbed up onto the back porch and hurried to the door.
    Dropping their
backpacks in the entryway, he led the search of the house. It wasn’t much to
look at, pretty messy and unkempt, but whether or not it was due to vandals or
if that was how the homeowner had lived, he didn’t know.
    With the rain
really pounding down now, the group made their way to the two bedrooms and lay
down, Kenneth taking one bed and the teens taking the other. Their fatigue and
the early hours had them all sound asleep inside ten minutes.
    Two hours later,
as the rain ceased and the sun shone through the bedroom windows, Kenneth awoke.
He sauntered to the window and gazed up at the sky. Most of the clouds had
dissipated, but the ones that remained looked pretty dark. Not wanting to
travel in the rain, Kenneth decided that they’d start the trek to Sparks .
    After walking to
the other bedroom, he awoke the teens. While they prepared to leave, he went to
the kitchen to see if he could find some breakfast. Food had been pretty sparse
lately, and it wasn’t that much different in this house.
    There was a
crusty loaf of bread and that was all. He broke the loaf into three pieces and
gave a piece to Molly and Derek.
    “Thanks.” Molly
sat down and chomped on the bread.
    Derek was halfway
through eating his piece when he paused, swiveled his
head, and hurried to the window.
    “What’s wrong?”
Kenneth asked, strolling over.
    “Look!” Derek
pointed to where three army trucks were rumbling down the nearby road.
    Kenneth took one
look at the trucks before he raced to the front door, swung it open, and rushed
down the path.
    The teens
followed Kenneth but at a much slower pace. By the time they joined him by the
side of the road, he had managed to attract the attention of someone