Read The Survivor Chronicles (Book 2): The Divide for Free Online

and she couldn't be here when it was done. Being determined to survive was one thing, but witnessing atrocities that she didn't have to witness was an entirely different matter. Besides, she was fairly certain there would be plenty more awful things to see soon enough.
    She grabbed hold of Rochelle's shoulders, and pulling the young girl against her side, hurried her toward the door of the coffee shop. Rochelle's thin shoulders were still heaving, but she remained calm as the bell rang above them. Riley's lip curled, she'd never heard a sound she hated more. It was far too cheerful under these hideous circumstances. Without thinking she grabbed hold of the thing and yanked down on it with all of her might. Plaster rained down around her as she tore it from the wall, and tossed it aside.
    The sound of it clattering across the floor didn't give her the sense of satisfaction she'd thought it would. She pulled the door shut behind her and hurried Rochelle toward the truck. Her shoulders were hunched as Riley braced herself for the shot she knew was coming. Even so, she still flinched and Rochelle let out a small moan as the shot echoed down the still street.
    It was a horror movie, I'm actually living in a horror movie right now , she realized. Except in this movie there was no slasher to fight, no monster to shoot, and no demon to exorcise. The only thing that would haunt them would be their conscience; she just hoped that their conscience didn't end up killing them in the end.
    Rochelle's eyes were shadowed and red as they came back to Riley. "Why don't you sit in the truck?" she suggested.
    Rochelle nodded and limply slid into the truck as the door to the coffee shop opened. Riley hated the broken air that seemed to envelop the four of them as they made their way to the truck. Al was the only that didn't have slumped shoulders. He wasn't walking proudly, but he didn't appear as if he wanted to crawl into the ground and never come out again either.
    John's jeans were covered in coffee, but he didn't seem to notice as he stepped off the curb and walked past her toward the truck. "Where are you going?" Riley asked him.
    "Anywhere but this freaking shit hole," he retorted.
    "We still have to go in the pharmacy."
    She was pretty sure she'd sprouted another head from the look he gave her. "Are you out of your mind!?"
    Riley gulped as she met Al's gaze over top of John's head. Fight or run, fight or run? She'd made her choice, now it was time for them to start making theirs. "No. There are things in there that we're going to need, things that may one day save our lives, and we can't simply leave this town without going in there to see."
    "There may be more of those people in there!"
    "John," Carl said as he lit a cigarette with a shaking hand. "We can all hear you."
    John took a deep breath and seemed to regain control of his unraveling composure. "We don't even know what caused that to happen, and I sure don't want it happening to any of us."
    "I think I know what happened," Riley told them. Now it was everyone else's turn to look at her like she was a walking talking teddy bear. "Or at least I've seen something like it before."
    They listened with hollow eyes and pale faces as she told them about what had happened with Kelly. "It must be some sort of gas," Al said as he rubbed his chin. "Something that the earth is releasing with the lava and the earthquakes."
    "Oh awesome, just wonderful. More fun." John threw up his arms and paced toward the car before spinning and coming back.
    "Yeah, and just like everything else we can't be sure when it's going to happen," Lee muttered.
    "Well it definitely happened in this town so I say we cut and run," John said.
    "We went into the coffee shop," Riley reminded him. "And we're fine. Beside's there were other customers that survived whatever happened in there this morning."
    "Did your crystal ball tell you that?" John demanded.
    "No, common sense did!" she retorted. "The quakes started after