Blood Moon by Gwendolyn Harper (best sales books of all time .TXT) 📗

Clasping their palms together, Caitlin’s feet flew across the ground.

Run, run, run, as fast as you can…

“Nicole!” She screamed, unable to see her friend through the cars.

The Jeep was so close, but so were the other dozen Geeks all rushing at them.

“Caitlin?”

She could hear her, but Nicole was nowhere in sight.

“Get to the car,” Booker told her, pushing her ahead.

“Jack, where’s Nicole?”

A Geek stumbled in front of them, bloody hands outstretched, and teeth bared.

Caitlin didn’t hesitate. Raising the revolver, she took one shot, hitting it straight between the eyes.

As the corpse fell to the ground, she leapt over it and continued running.

Just as she was about to scream for Nicole, an engine turned over and something close to relief flooded her system.

“Guys, come on!” Nicole cried.

Booker pushed her forward. “Go, Cae, run!”

Reaching back, she grabbed the first thing on him she could—the front of his shirt—and hauled him with her.

Together.

They ran together.

The passenger side door swung open just as half the herd crossed the road, circling the Jeep.

“Come on, come on!” Nicole screamed.

Caitlin thought she’d fallen at first, but then realized falling was a downward motion, and she was definitely being lifted.

In one motion, she was off the ground and being slung into the Jeep. With a pained yelp, she smacked the dash but was otherwise unscathed.

“Drive, drive,” Booker ordered, hanging onto the roll frame of the Jeep and the door.

Nicole hit the gas, striking two Geeks as she turned the wheel and drove them back out of the lot.

Twisting, Caitlin pulled herself into the backseat before turning and grabbing Booker’s belt.

“Jack!” She called out, trying to get him inside.

As they sped away from the converging herds, Booker maneuvered into the vehicle, careful not to fall.

The red gas tank thunked on the passenger side floorboards.

Caitlin’s mouth hung open. “You didn’t drop it?”

“After all that trouble?” He said, finally seated and slamming the door shut. “Like hell I’d let it go t’waste.”

“Jesus, Booker,” she exhaled, smacking him on the shoulder.

Once the car lot and herds of Geeks were out of sight, Nicole eased off the gas and looked to both of them.

“Uh, I think someone else should do this,” she said, gesturing to the steering wheel.

“Why?” Booker asked, giddy and flushed.

She let the Jeep roll to a stop.

“’Cause I don’t know how to drive.”

A beat of silence was shattered by riotous laughter.

Booker shook his head, continuing to chuckle.

“Yankees.”

* * * * * * *

Parked underneath a Welcome to Arkansas sign just off the road, they regrouped and started counting their options.

Unfolding a map across the hood, Nicole uncapped a pen and started marking states with bright red X’s.

Georgia. Alabama. Mississippi.

They decided against the south east entirely, and Caitlin watched as red ink covered state names one by one. North and South Carolina. Florida. Virginia.

“We could try cutting up through Tennessee,” she offered, pointing to the border on the map. “I know the cities will be dangerous, but if we stock up on fuel we won’t have to stop for long and avoid Memphis altogether.”

Booker shook his head. “There’s a Naval base just outside the city,” he said. “Even if we don’t find ourselves in a sea of groaners, we’ll be nose to nose with a goon squad before we can blink.”

“I thought the military was spread thin,” Nicole said, looking up from the last X she’d drawn.

New York.

It was official. They’d never be able to go home again.

“It is, but they wouldn’t leave a base abandoned,” Booker said, tracing one of the blue lines along the paper. “If I had t’guess, they’ve got a perimeter set up prob’ly around here.” He pointed to the corner of Tennessee just after the Memphis dot. “Plenty of eyes on the main roads, maybe even surveillance. They’d take us out before we could even see ‘em.”

Caitlin sighed and leaned against the Jeep. “Okay, so Tennessee is out.”

As Nicole was about to mark off the state with her pen, she glanced up at Booker.

“You were a Marine.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “That just now sink in?”

Scolding him under her breath, Caitlin jabbed him in the side with her elbow.

Nicole was unfazed. “You’d know where they’d take refugees. The protocols for evacuation. If an Ark camp in the north east was overrun, or overcrowded, where would they ship people?”

The bright gleam of hope in her eyes was almost too much for Caitlin to bear.

Booker scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, darlin’, I think you might be overestimatin’ my insight.”

“Or you’re underestimating yourself,” Nicole countered.

Caitlin smiled softly. “He does do that occasionally.”

Booker started to shake his head. “Y’all, now look…”

“An educated guess,” Nicole urged. “If you were in charge—”

He laughed sharply. “Cold day in hell.”

“Just give it a shot. Where would you send people?”

After a moment, Booker inhaled deeply and planted both hands on the hood, framing the map.

“Alright… If it were up t’me…” He said, squinting. “The north east would be outta the question. Too many cities with high populations, and the further north you go the less land there is to work with. I’d start heading west. Ohio, maybe… Indiana. Iowa even.”

“That’s not too far from here,” Nicole murmured. “Relatively speaking.”

Straightening, Booker frowned at them both. “Y’all’re assuming the government, who turned the military against their own citizens, would be benevolent enough to move people to a safer location after the first had to be abandoned.”

Crossing her arms, Caitlin thought a moment.

“When did you say the city got overrun?” She asked, turning to Nicole.

“A week or so after the outbreak? The first group I was with said they heard it on the emergency broadcast that