Free Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, Book 2) by Samantha Durante Page B

there was a little too much to do.”
    Isaac remembered feeling relieved when
he was finally assigned to menial labor, working with the crews
completing the walls around the compound – at least it was
something to keep his mind off everything that had
happened.
    “ So then Janie and I just
settled in, starting rebuilding our lives like everyone else, and
Joe and I got to know each other. He was…” she looked a little
wistful, “the best friend I had, besides Janie. It would have been
a lot harder without him.”
    “ They closed the gates a
few months after we got there, right?”
    “ Yeah, I think so. That
was after we’d stopped receiving radio and internet broadcasts from
outside,” Alessa recalled.
    “ Were there other
quarantine zones?”
    “ You know, ours is the
only one I ever remember hearing about. I could be wrong, though –
it’s not like anything I heard really sunk in that year after the
outbreak. Maybe they just had different messages on the radio or
whatever depending on your region, so we only ever heard about
ours. But I would imagine that other countries at least would have
had them.”
    It was funny, but Isaac couldn’t
remember hearing about any other quarantine zones, either. That
seemed a little odd to him, but maybe he just didn’t remember like
Alessa said.
    “ You think there’s anyone
left out there, Less?”
    Alessa sighed. “I don’t know, Isaac. I
can’t imagine that there’s not. But then again, I couldn’t have
imagined any of this ever happening, so maybe I’m not the best
person to ask.”
    She leaned her head against his
shoulder once more, and Isaac reached with his opposite hand to run
his fingers through her hair. They stayed that way for a while,
each lost in their own thoughts.
    Before long Alessa’s breathing had
ebbed to the rhythmic cadence of sleep. Isaac switched off the
lantern and closed his eyes, saying goodbye at last to this taxing
day.
    The next morning, Isaac and Alessa
woke early, the morning sunlight coaxing them from their cramped
little sanctuary.
    Isaac pressed upward on the mangled
lid of the dumpster, carefully checking the surrounding lot for any
sign of intruders. The coast clear, he reached his hands through
the gap and unfastened the lock.
    Throwing the dumpster open, Isaac
stood tall and stretched his limbs, relieved to breathe the air of
a fresh new day. He hadn’t realized how stuffy it’d become in that
noxious garbage bin. Springing over the side of the dumpster, Isaac
steeled his footing and offered a hand to Alessa as she swung her
legs gracefully to the ground, slipping her pack over her
shoulders.
    They scanned the tree line for any
signs of yesterday’s visitors, but all was clear.
    “ Should we check to see if
there are any supplies left in the mini mart?” Alessa
asked.
    “ Good idea,” Isaac agreed,
following a few paces behind.
    As his footsteps crunched once again
on the broken glass, Isaac thought of something – maybe the
creatures had left tracks?
    The blacktop was devoid of snow, but
the grassy areas leading towards the surrounding forest still had a
dusting of white, and Isaac knew that whatever was following them
had come from the woods.
    “ Less, I’ll catch up with
you in a minute. I want to check something out.”
    “ Okay, love, I’ll be right
here if you need me,” she replied, stepping through the remains of
a large window.
    Isaac continued past the convenience
store heading for the edge of the pavement.
    What he found there stopped him in his
tracks.
    “ Alessa,” he
called.
    She poked her head out, “What is it,
babe?”
    “ Come here.”
    She stuffed something in her open bag
and jogged over, pulling up at his side. Isaac just pointed at the
imprints he’d found in the remnants of snow, unable to form any
other explanation.
    Alessa gasped. “Isaac. Are
those –” she looked up at Isaac, her eyes searching, “– are
those human footprints ?”

10. WAITING
    The now-familiar scrabble of