Free The Survivor Chronicles (Book 2): The Divide by Erica Stevens Page A

Carl told her.
    "Unless it was just nuked," Lee reminded them.
    "Well if a third eye sprouts in my forehead just put me out my misery ok?" John asked.
    "No problem," Rochelle assured him.
    Al walked around the desk and headed for the door behind it. He barely registered the fact that the knob was hot before he heard the sizzle of his skin. A startled cry escaped him, he jerked his hand back but it was already too late, a layer of his skin remained on the knob. His eyes were already watering, and it was taking everything he had not to vomit as he held up the blistered mess of his hand.
    Rochelle staggered back and crashed into a rack containing brochures of local attractions, and places to eat. The rack tumbled to the floor and the brochures scattered across the ground in a glossy array of pictures. Riley leapt over the counter and grabbed hold of his arm, he heard her speaking but he couldn't quite register the words as she peered up at him from a face streaked with black. John had been right behind him, but he took an abrupt step back now.
    Al had been through a lot in his seventy two years, more than most, less than some, but for the first time he was left completely dumbfounded as he continued to stare at his blistered hand. Riley's face was beginning to blur, and even beneath the black coloring of his face John was the color of a ghost.
    Carl shoved past John and seized Al's forearm from Riley. He turned it over before him and then barked out a command to John. John stumbled back and bolted for the door of the office. Al watched him scramble and fall in the rain as Riley and Carl spoke with each other. "Radiation," Lee was saying and Rochelle was starting to take on the look of someone that had seen Frankenstein's monster coming at her.
    "No," Al managed to choke out before complete chaos took over and they scattered like dandelions in the wind. He swallowed as Carl focused on him and clutched his forearm a little tighter. "Steam. I think one of those steam holes are behind that door, it would explain the smell if there were people back there also."
    "Are you sure?" Lee demanded.
    Al nodded. "Yes." He managed to hold up his other arm, the one that had been burnt earlier in the day. The damage hadn't been as bad as his hand, but the blisters were still present. He just hadn't thought of them in awhile.
    "But…"
    "It's steam," Riley interrupted briskly. "Get your mind off the nukes Lee, it is steam. It's what happened to Karen, it's what happened in the coffee shop, and it's what happened here. I hope," she added in a mutter that only Carl and Al could hear.
    She turned away to dig underneath the counter. She came back with a pair of scissors; he nodded his agreement to her unspoken question as she bent forward and cut back the sleeve of his shirt. She rolled it away from the blisters at the base of his hand.
    "I don't understand, wouldn't it have been in the whole office," Rochelle said as she came toward them. "Or wouldn't it be on fire or something."
    Carl moved to the side, blocking Rochelle before she could get a good view of Al's disfigured hand. Riley moved closer to the door, she knelt down and tried to peer underneath the crack, but she shook her head in frustration and sat back. "Weather stripping," she muttered.
    "Think of it like a sauna," Al said. "It's been trapped within that room but it won't set fire to anything."
    Riley rose back to her feet and briefly pressed her fingers to the wood before jerking them back. "It must just be the knob," she told them as she held her untouched fingers up for them to inspect.
    Al winced as Carl turned his arm a little to the side. He was pretty sure there were blisters on top of blisters, and they were red. He'd never seen blisters like them before, and though he didn't think it was a third degree burn, it was the worst second degree he'd ever seen or experienced. It was a good thing he hadn't had much to eat as his stomach heaved and rolled.
    John stumbled back into the