Ravenous

   He gave me a sad, understanding smile. “A fish warehouse in Wareham.”

   “The aliens?” My eyes darted involuntarily back toward the door next to me.

   “They haven’t found us.”

   I heard the unspoken yet at the end of his sentence. Finally, I was unable to take it any longer. “What is going on in there?” I demanded.

   He quirked an eyebrow, then his gaze darted toward the door. “Oh. Well we’re trying to see what has caused The Freezing.” I frowned at him, my eyebrows drew sharply together. “Come.”

   I winced as he opened the door, revealing the horror within again. He moved swiftly into the room, apparently immune to the dreadfulness of what lay within. I stared into the room, fighting back the rising nausea sweeping through me. There were rows of people within the room, at least twenty of them from what I could see. They were all frozen in various positions, all of them trapped within their bodies. Though I knew it wasn’t true, I felt as if their eyes followed me when I moved hesitantly into the room.

   “Are they still alive?” I managed to croak out.

   He glanced back at me as he stopped by a child. A child. Of course I knew that children had been affected by this, I had seen them before, but not this close. The young girl, with her brown hair in a ponytail, her head tilted back, and her small hand reaching out toward something that was not there tore at my heart.

   Tears burned my eyes, but even more than that I could feel a swelling surge of fury growing within my chest. I walked slowly toward the little girl, taking in her i

   “We haven’t figured that out yet.”

   I glanced back toward the man, for a moment I had forgotten he was even there. “Have you figured out anything?”

   “We think we know how the people were chosen.”

   My eyes widened in surprise, my mouth parted slightly. “How?” I breathed.

   “The people that are still moving all have one thing in common.”

   “And that is?”

   “We all have type O blood.”

   I blinked in surprise, my eyes narrowed for a brief moment, my hands fisted at my sides. My mind flashed back to biology class three years ago when we had typed our own blood. I’d already known my blood type by then, as I’d received plenty of it when I’d been in the hospital after the car accident. My father had been O, my mother was A, and apparently everyone unmoving within this room was some other type too.

   Everyone, except for me.

   Swallowing heavily, I focused my attention back on the man. “How do you know this?” I asked softly.

   He shrugged, looking slightly frazzled as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “I’ve tested everyone within this building; they all have type O blood. The people trapped in this state do not.”

   His gaze was piercing as he studied me, his arms folded over his chest. “Are you a doctor or something?” I asked softly.

   “I am, though until this happened most of my work was focused upon research.”

   “What kind of research?”

   We both knew I was stalling but I was hesitant to meet his penetrating gaze. Hesitant to confirm what we both already knew. He was a doctor, he had probably saved my life, and yet I felt trapped. I felt pi

   “ Didyou learn anything about them?”

   “Not much more than we already knew.” I shifted slightly, my gaze turning slowly back toward the young child. “I have discovered that they do not immediately kill everyone they take.”

   My eyes snapped back to him, I took an involuntary step forward as excitement spurted through me. If he was right, if what he said was true then there was still a chance, no matter how small, that Cade was alive. I was tingling, alive with excitement, terrified to put too much hope into his words, terrified of what he would say next, but I could not contain the desire that tore through me. “How do you know that?” I demanded.

   “They drain some of them on sight.” I shuddered, nodding as I recalled the man on the street. “And some of the others they take with them. I believe they store them for later.”

    I was repulsed by the notion; my stomach heaved and flipped with nausea. But I was also tingling with excitement; hope was pulsing through my whole body. “Are you saying Cade could still be alive?”

   His eyes became sympathetic, but there was a steeliness in his gaze that left me slightly numb. “I believe that is highly unlikely.”

   “But it could be possible,” I pressed, unwilling to let the hope go.

   “It could, but you would do better to let that thought go. It would be better if you moved on.”

   I couldn’t look at him anymore. How could I simply move on? The thought caused a lancing slash of agony to tear through my heart. The action of doing so may very well destroy me. “If there’s a chance…”

   “How would you get to him? What would you do? You don’t even know where he is, where to begin looking for him. There is no chance that you will be able to find him.”

   I gaped at the man before me, hating his words, hating him for saying them, resentful of the fact that they may be true. And yet…

   I knew I wasn’t going to just give up. I neverwould. If there was even a small chance that Cade was still alive, then I was going to continue to look for him. He had sacrificed himself for me, and I was going to do everything I could to get him back. He would do the same for me.

   I focused on the little girl again, my mind churning as I tried to sort through the tangled thoughts and emotions jumbling it. If he was alive, what the hell were they doing to him? I was horrified by the thought, my head bowed beneath the weight of my emotions and fear. I could have saved Cade, if he hadn’t cut that line I could have saved him if he’d given me the chance. He had sacrificed himself for me; I had to save him now. There hadto be a way to find him.

   “Do you know what your blood type is Bethany?”

   I had to force myself to look at the doctor again. His watery grey eyes were focused, hard; there was an intense speculative gleam in them that made me feel like I was pi

   “But everyone here, that is still moving, has it including your siblings. I could be wrong, but the possibilities of this not being our uniting factor are very slim. Even if it is the most common blood type, there would be others here with a different type. There might be more than just the blood component involved, but it is the most significant tie that I have found. Doyou know your blood type?”

   I was well aware of my blood type, I had been for years. “Yes.”

   “You were hurt badly enough that you required a blood transfusion when you arrived here. I wasn’t going to type you because everyone else has been O. Even though you were still able to take your siblings blood, your brother informed me that you were not.”

   I leaned slightly back, rocking lightly on my heels. I refused to look away from him, I forced myself to meet and hold his steady gaze. “No, I’m not.”