Free The Survivor Chronicles: Book 1, The Upheaval by Erica Stevens

workers. He was certain that eventually answers would come, but judging by the look in Riley’s eyes she was determined to go. “Why don’t we wait till tomorrow at least,” he suggested.
     
    He thought she would fight him on it, just for the sake of disagreeing with him, but instead she simply nodded. “You’re right." Xander was pretty sure Hell had just frozen over and he almost looked at his feet to see if it had. "I’m exhausted, and it’s not even eight in the morning. At least, I don’t think it is. Hopefully there’s some food around here somewhere.”
     
    “I’m sure there is.”
     
    She turned away from him but didn’t make it one step before the ground began to shake again. Xander seized her arm and pulled her back as the earth began to fracture around them.
     

CHAPTER 7
     

     
    John
     
    Cape Cod, Mass.
     

     
    John had one foot braced against the dashboard and his hand wrapped around the handle above his head. He didn’t really know why he bothered, if the bridge collapsed beneath them there was nothing one braced leg, and an ‘oh shit’ handle were going to do for him. In fact, he was fairly certain all he would accomplish was breaking his leg before he died, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t bring himself to release the handle or drop his foot as Carl edged the truck onto the bridge.
     
    John’s teeth were locked so tight that his jaw ached. He silently pleaded for Carl to just hit the gas and race over the bridge; at the same time he prayed he wouldn’t. They were going to die, he was certain of it.
     
    “You don’t have to do this with me,” Carl muttered around the cigarette he was chewing on, literally chewing on instead of smoking as it had stopped burning.
     
    John knew that he could have stayed on the safe side; he could have kept his feet firmly planted on the land that he’d been born and raised on, but he couldn’t shake the feeling Carl was right. That leaving was the best thing they could do right now. It was strange to realize that his home no longer felt safe. He could stay behind, but he felt it was the wrong decision to make, and he wanted to see his parents, to make sure they were safe.
     
    “I know I don’t,” he said. Carl’s knuckles had turned white from his death grip on the steering wheel. “But I’m going with you.”
     
    “Then could you please stop with the ‘Jesus’’ and ‘what the hell’s’?” John blinked at him in confusion. “It’s all you’ve been saying for the past half an hour.”
     
    John fell silent as he thought over Carl’s words. He shifted uncomfortably as he realized that it was all he had been saying. “Yeah, whatever,” he muttered.
     
    “Seriously, it’s driving me nuts.”
     
    “Oh, and this whole mess is keeping you sane?”
     
    Carl snorted. He seemed to finally realize that he was massacring the filter of his cigarette and tossed it out the window. “Hardly.”
     
    John’s hand clenched around the handle, he was ashamed by the small tremor working through his arm. He hated this.
     
    In the large mirrors, on the side of the truck, he could see the people gathered at the edge of the bridge behind them. They were all staring, all motionless, all breathlessly waiting to see if they would survive. If he would die. “Jesus,” he muttered. His face reddened as Carl glared at him. “Sorry, but I feel like we’re the lambs for the slaughter; like they’re just waiting for us to die.”
     
    Carl’s hands twisted on the steering wheel. “They are, sort of.”
     
    “Why did you agree to go over first, again?”
     
    “Would you prefer to be the fifth car over? After even more weight has been added to this possibly damaged structure?”
     
    “I suppose not.” John didn’t want to be the first either though. “I just wish they wouldn’t stare like that. I can’t tell if they’re rooting for us to make it or not.”
     
    Carl barely glanced in the driver’s side mirror. “I’d like to