The Survivor Chronicles (Book 2): The Divide Read Free Page B

A lump formed in her throat but she refused to shed tears. She hadn't been brave enough to face what was in those rooms; she wouldn't allow herself to cry now.
    Bobby leaned forward and turned the radio on. That awful silence filtered across the waves, interrupted by a burst of static, followed by some squelching before silence again. He ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair as he continued to fiddle with the dials. "It doesn't work," she murmured.
    His hair was standing on end as his brown eyes briefly met her gaze, but he moved off the presets and onto other stations. Mary Ellen's head bowed as she listened to the hideous noises coming across the waves. "Turn it off," Xander said.
    "Hello."
    Mary Ellen jumped, her head shot up as the single road broke through the static a second before Bobby turned the radio off. They sat in stunned silence for a second before Bobby lurched forward and turned the radio back on. Static greeted them, then silence and then some strange other sound that Mary Ellen couldn't quite pinpoint.
    "I know I heard that," Bobby muttered.
    "Hello." Mary Ellen didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until it exploded out of her. Static buzzed over the airwaves before the voice broke through again. "Hello. Is there anyone out there?"
    "Is it real?" She didn't mean to ask the question, hadn't even realized she was thinking such a thing until the words burst out of her. She didn't feel crazy for saying them, though she felt like she should. Instead, they felt right. The disembodied voice coming over the airwaves reminded her of a Siren trying to beckon them somewhere that they weren't supposed to go and she was worried they wouldn't come back from it.
    Bobby glanced at her over his shoulder; she hadn't realized that Xander had stopped driving until he turned to look at her too. He gave a subtle shake of his head before turning the volume up a little. The static crackling beside her ear caused her skin to crawl, but she hated the silence even more.
    "Hello."
    "Where is this station?" Bobby inquired.
    Xander glanced at the radio display. "I don't know, it's AM. I know nothing about the AM frequencies. For all I know it could be coming from a high school gymnasium or someone's garage."
    "Maybe if they said something other than hello."
    "Is it real?" Mary Ellen demanded, hating the knot of panic that was growing in her chest and threatening to choke her. She was losing her mind, she was certain of it. She was going off her rocker, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was trapped in some awful episode of the Twilight Zone, and that the voice was just a figment of their imaginations. She couldn't shake the certainty that the voice would be their ultimate demise.
    They both looked at her, she'd expected them to laugh or to tell her she was crazy, instead she saw the same doubt and misgivings radiating in their eyes. "Hello."
    She started, a lump formed in her throat as her hands began to twitch in her lap. She wanted Bobby to turn the radio off, but that was also the last thing in the world she wanted. She sat immobile, unable to breathe as the static and silence intermittently crackled out of the speakers. "Hello. Hello."
    Xander turned away from the radio and shifted into drive. The static lessened as he continued down the battered roadway. A chill crept up Mary Ellen's spine, the hair on her arms stood up. She stared wordlessly at the radio as the words continued on. That awful rush of saliva that preceded vomit flooded her mouth.
    Was it a Siren calling to them? Were they being led toward something far worse than anything else they had encountered today?
    She couldn't breathe, she was half afraid she was going to have a widow maker in the backseat of the Caddy, and she wasn't entirely certain she cared anymore. The world had become a nightmare, a hideous nightmare that only death would set them free from. Rochelle , she reminded herself fiercely. If there was even half a chance her daughter was