Ravenous

   Panic worked its way through my body; I didn’t need to see what was coming to know that it was not going to be good. I turned, fleeing back down the pile, slipping and sliding, skidding and tripping through the disgusting mess. My feet skidded out from under me, I cried out, losing complete control of my body as I plummeted, rolled, and bounced painfully through the disgusting filth.

   Hands grasped hold of my arms, rescuing me from being buried within the mound as they pulled me from the filth cascading upon me. Crap was pulled off of me, brushed away, thrown to the ground in a useless attempt to clean me a little. “What is it?” Cade demanded his hands surprisingly gentle on my skin as his gaze trailed back up the mountain. “Bethany, what is it?”

   “I don’t know,” I panted, trying hard not to think about the filth and bugs that I had just rolled and squished through. “It’s not good though. I think they’re still tracking us. We need to move faster. Now.”

   Cade grabbed hold of my arm, ru

   Rationally I knew that the trash heap did not have thoughts, and was not actually on the side of the aliens, but right now it seemed as much of an enemy to me as the monsters hunting us. I was convinced that it wanted our bodies to feed it, and it was doing everything it could to make sure we were trapped here to nourish it.

   And then, suddenly, the garbage released us. I stumbled forward, nearly falling to my knees as the waste gave out and pavement rushed up to meet us. Abby gave a startled cry but helped to pull me back to my feet. “This way,” Cade panted finally releasing me as he darted toward the right.

   I didn’t know where we were going; I had never been here before. I didn’t ever want to return either, and I sure as hell did notwant my final resting place to be here. I was surprised when we turned a corner of the mountain and a giant warehouse came into view. One of the massive garage doors was open, revealing the shadowed, barely visible interior. I balked against going inside as Cade plunged into the darkness. The last thing I wanted was to go in there, the last thing I wanted was to be cornered and trapped, and killed amongst the giant walls of darkness.

   “Bethy,” Abby breathed when I hesitated. “Bethany please.”

   Fear of imminent death outweighed my fear of being trapped within the cavernous building. I darted through the open doorway as Cade began to pull some ropes, rapidly lowering the massive garage door. “Wait!” I gasped, terror spurting through me.

   “It needs to be done,” he grated, his jaw clenched tight and a muscle jumping in his cheek. He had been lowering the door so swiftly, and rapidly, that I hadn’t realized it was heavy and he was struggling not to let it crash down. It settled quietly into place with only a small clatter of metal on pavement. “This way.”

   “How do you know where we’re going?” Abby asked quietly.

   “I don’t.”

   I shuddered at Cade’s words but followed silently behind as he led us through the building. There were small windows up high in the lofty walls, but they didn’t light much of the massive structure. It was hard to make out much within the shadowed interior. I could still smell the rotten stench of trash, but I saw no sign of it within the building. It was the four of us that were bringing that scent with us, a scent that would be easily traceable within these deserted walls. If I thought it would help to rid ourselves of our clothes, I would have gladly stripped from the offending garments, but the disgusting odor was engrained into our skin and hair by now.

   We reached an area that had steel piping around five gaping holes in the ground. I leaned over the pipe railing, peering into the shadowed deaths. Something glinted within the sunlight, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. “Recyclables,” Cade explained.

   That was why this building didn’t reek, I realized. Unfortunately the fact that this was where the recyclables were brought did little to aid our cause. It would have been better if they were giant bins of trash instead of non-smelly recyclables. Cade moved swiftly past the bins, heading toward the shadowed back wall. Abby’s hand was tight in mine, her grip nearly bone cracking as Cade vanished from sight. Je

   It was apparently the workers break room as there were two tables with five chairs crammed around them. A microwave, TV and radio, and four different vending machines were against the wall. Cade stopped, his head tilted as he studied the machines with narrowed eyes. Moving swiftly he tore his shirt off. I blinked in surprise as he wrapped it rapidly around his hand. I was confused by his actions, but I couldn’t help but admire the flex and play of his lean muscles and hard stomach as he stalked toward the glass fronted machine.

   I didn’t quite process what he intended until he began to punch out the glass. I jumped in surprise, wincing as the glass trickled to the ground. It sounded as loud as gunshots to me, but I tried to assure myself that it was not nearly as loud as I thought it was. That, in fact, it was relatively quiet considering the circumstances.

   He grabbed hold of the bag of guns, dragging it toward him. I hurried to help him as he unzipped the bag and we began to stuff it full of the chips, cookies, and candies stored within the machine. It wasn’t the healthiest assortment, but it was much better than starvation.

   Cade zipped the bag tightly closed and sat back. I knew I should stop staring at him, stop watching the smooth play of skin over his lean muscles, but I couldn’t bring myself to tear my gaze away. There was no smug male pride in his gaze as he caught me admiring him. Instead, a fierce longing blazed to life with such intensity that I found I could no longer breathe. In fact, I could no longer recall anything exceptfor him.

   It was the feel of Je

   Maybe I had only imagined that something was moving toward us over the garbage heap, but I didn’t think so. I knew what I had seen, and the complete and utter lack of animals was too hard to ignore. Animals knew things we didn’t. They sensed the impending approach of many different things and fled from them long before we did. I was begi

   “Bethy.”

   Abby’s soft whisper alerted me to the fact that we were ready to move on. Thankfully Cade had do