The Survivor Chronicles (Book 3): The Forsaken Read Online Free PDF Page B

when Carl reemerged from the bathroom. He gave them a thumbs up sign before heading down the back aisle again. John hurried after him. Riley and Xander followed them along the front of the rows until they spotted Carl standing in the middle of the store by a set of black swinging doors.
    Riley's heart plummeted and then shot into her throat. Those doors seemed like a yawning abyss straight into the devil's belly. God has forsaken us, ran through her mind as she flashed back to the man outside of the church.
    "Carl," the name came out of her in a croak that didn't travel past her or Xander as Carl cautiously pushed the door open. Her shoulders hunched as she braced herself for demons, or hell hounds, or even Satan himself to come bursting through the door.
    The store remained so still that she could hear the faint drop of something dripping onto the floor. She wasn't breathing as Carl stepped through the door and disappeared. John grabbed the door before it could swing completely shut and poked his head inside.
    Riley had to force her head to turn as she looked toward the fifteen-foot high glass windows at the front. The glare of the sun gleamed on the glass and made it difficult to see the car from this angle. She didn't care about the car right now though, she was simply looking for a distraction from the fact that Carl hadn't reemerged yet.
    Movement in her peripheral vision drew her attention back to the doors as Carl reappeared. Relief filled her as the doors swung shut and John and Carl made their way down the aisle toward them. "There are a lot of boxes and supplies back there, but it looks pretty clear. I couldn't get the back door open though."
    "Why not?" Riley asked.
    "I don't know. This area is in relatively good shape, but it still sustained some shocks. The door could be warped from the quakes or something may be blocking it."
    "Would it be faster if we just took the boxes from the back?" John asked.
    "I don't know what's in any of them; it would probably take more time to go through them than to just grab stuff," Carl answered.
    Riley grabbed one of the carts at the end of the self-checkout aisle and an armload of the cloth bags displayed by the front door. "Good to see you're doing your part to save the environment," John said.
    She couldn't help but grin at him. "What's left of it anyway."
    He smiled as he turned away. Xander slid his cart over beside hers and grabbed some bags for himself. Without a word they split off and she and Xander went toward the bread aisle on one end well John and Carl headed toward the fruit and deli aisle.
    "You've become good friends with them," Xander commented.
    Riley nodded as she began to shove loaves of bread into one of her bags. "They're really good guys. The first time we met them was right after the stadium and they were protecting Rochelle from three men that were trying to take her." Riley finished stuffing the bag and turned to put it in the cart. "I was only trying to scare them away, but I shot one of the men. It was the first time I killed someone."
    Now wasn't exactly the time to discuss what had happened with Lee, but those words had popped out of her mouth before she could stop them. Xander froze in the act of filling his bag and lifted his head to meet her gaze head on. "I killed a teenage girl when she turned into whatever those people are out there and tried to attack us. Her name was Molly; I helped rescue her from the school with Peter and Josh and then I bashed her head in with a metal pole."
    Riley winced and placed another bag in the cart. The words were blunt, but she sensed the anguish behind them in the terseness of his tone, the pinched corners of his mouth, and the abject look in his eyes. "That must have been awful," she whispered.
    "It was." Riley couldn't meet his gaze again as she began to pull more rolls from the shelves. "We've all done things Ri, that girl, she was just a child, but it had to be done. What you did to that man had to be done.