Werewolf Suspense (Book 2): Outage 2 (The Awakening) Read Free Page B

shouted.
    He ran to the driver's door of the SUV and squeezed the unlock button on his keychain. He ripped the door open and leapt inside. As he inserted the key in the ignition, he prayed the vehicle would start. It did.
    He searched for Lorena, who was already at the passenger's door, opening it and jumping inside. His head snapped to the garage. The creature was in the bay, hurtling toward them. Tom reversed. He gunned the accelerator, flinging his arm over the seat, narrowly avoiding the front wall of the garage and the generator, his only intention to get out and away from the madness.  
    Lorena screamed. Her shriek sounded far away, as if she were across a canyon rather than sitting in the seat next to him.  
    Something crashed into the hood of the vehicle, but Tom kept going, steering backward until he reached the road. He heard a thud as something fell off the vehicle. He switched into drive and hit the gas. In the rearview, several more creatures emerged from the houses, carrying bodies covered in gore. The neighborhood Tom had known was gone, replaced by a sickening mixture of red and white.  
    Tom gritted his teeth. He kept driving.
    He didn't stop, not even when he hit the main road.

Chapter Three

    Holy shit, holy shit…
    Tom struggled to control his breathing. He and Lorena drove through the snow-ridden streets, searching for signs of life. The houses around them were dark, the driveways empty. It looked like most of the occupants had left before the storm got bad.
    "What's going on?" Lorena whimpered.
    "I don't know, honey. I don't know."
    Tom barely felt coherent. His mind spat images of what he'd seen. Without the creatures in front of him, he questioned his vision and his sanity. Was he living some nightmare, some twisted hallucination? For a few moments, he entertained the possibility that he was still in bed, that he'd imagined the bloody scene.
    Was he having a night terror? God knows he'd had plenty of them after Jeremy died. But Lorena was here next to him, and she'd seen it, too.
    If it was a nightmare, they were in it together.
    He patted his pocket, searching for his cell phone. It was still there. Thank God he'd grabbed it . He pulled it out and swiped the screen, waiting for the phone to spring to life. He kept one eye on the road as he dialed. He hit speakerphone. The phone was silent. He dialed again, thinking he must've done something wrong, that he'd punched the numbers incorrectly.  
    But he hadn't.  
    There was no service.
    The storm had probably interrupted it. Tom's cell phone reception was shoddy, even on a good day.
    "Shit," he whispered.
    The tires skidded over the slippery snow. The steering wheel jerked in his hands. Tom tossed the cell phone to Lorena. "Keep trying the police." Even as he said the words, he wasn't sure what the police would do.  
    "Okay," she said vacantly.
    Tom looked over at her. Lorena's whole body was shaking, as if the gravity of what they'd seen was threatening to pull her under.
    "It'll be all right, Lorena. We'll make it through this," he said, though he was far from sure. He'd spoken the words so many times over the years that they felt empty, meaningless. It was one thing losing a son to an accident.  
    It was another explaining this .
    "Did you see the Smiths? Did you see what happened to Desmond and Tori?" Lorena whimpered.
    "I saw them, honey. Try to calm down."
    "What if they're still alive? What if we could've helped them?"
    "They're dead, Lorena." Tom shook his head. "I'm sure of it. Even if they were alive, we wouldn't be able to do anything. I shot that thing in the kitchen, and it didn't stop. Did you see it? Whatever the hell these things are, we won't be able to stop them. I'm not even sure the police will."
    He clenched the steering wheel, trying to quell the pit in his stomach. In spite of the irrational, unbelievable things they'd seen, they'd made it out alive. Somehow, they'd survived.
    "Any luck with the phone?" he asked.
    "Nothing,"