Read Werewolf Suspense (Book 3): Outage 3 (Vengeance) for Free Online

while I try to start it," he said to Rosemary.  
    Tom opened the door, brushed the snow from the driver's seat, and jumped in. Rosemary kept guard, aiming her pistol at the landscape. The temperature of the car was as frigid as the air outside. All the heat had escaped out the open window. The dash was lit with multi-colored lights, indicating the vehicle had shut off. The fuel gauge showed half a tank. Tom bit his lip, turned the key, and prayed the vehicle would start.
    It did.  
    The engine protested but turned over. Tom felt a surge of relief. He hit the windshield wipers, but they wouldn't budge. The snow was too thick.  
    "We'll need to clear off the windows," he said. He exited and handed Rosemary an ice scraper he found in the backseat.  
    After clearing off the car, they made trips into the house to carry out the ammunition. Before leaving, Tom shut the front door of Colton's house. There was a chance they'd be back. Between the weather and the beasts, nowhere was safe, and no plan was certain.
    Rosemary settled into the passenger's seat as Tom took the wheel.
    "You sure about this?" he asked Rosemary.  
    She nodded. Her eyes were laced with fear, but she showed no signs of changing her mind. "Yep."
    "Keep a lookout. Warn me if you see anything."
    Rosemary managed a smile. "Will do, Tom. Thanks. You didn't have to do this."
    "Yes, I did," he said.  
    He gave her a faint smile, then put the vehicle into reverse.

Chapter Seven

    Tom kept the lights off as they backed out of Colton's. The motion of the vehicle was enough to betray them, but Tom didn't want to attract any more attention. The tires struggled over the thick snow, as hesitant now as they'd been when he arrived. He put his arm over the passenger seat and stared behind them, watching the street get closer. When he reached the road, he did a U-turn.
    Tom stuck his head out the window, surveying the empty driveways around them. There were no other cars in view. Several of the houses had garages, but he was unsure if they contained cars. The engine sputtered slightly as they pulled down the street.  
    "Is the car working all right?" Rosemary asked.  
    "It seems like it," Tom muttered. "The engine's probably just cold, like we are."
    Rosemary shivered in agreement.
    Tom nodded and kept driving. They passed the quiet, deserted houses. Tom surveyed each of the windows, expecting to see something peering out at them—a face, a flashlight pointed in their direction; worse yet, the glowing eyes of one of the beasts. They saw none of those. Tom wondered if any residents were still in their homes, terrified and confused. He saw several shattered windows that he hadn't noticed on the way in. The door of one house hung off its hinges, a gaping hole marking the threshold. He pictured a resident waiting in his home, gun in his lap, waiting to blow a hole in the first person he saw.  
    Frankly, he wouldn't blame him.  
    He kept driving.  
    At the end of the road, he turned to Rosemary.
    "Which route did your kids take to the shelter?" he asked.
    She looked left and right, catching her bearings. "They'd have been coming from the opposite direction, from the highway. We should go directly there. We wouldn't have passed them."
    Tom nodded. "That makes sense. If we don't find them, we can backtrack to the interstate."
    Rosemary agreed. She craned her neck as they pulled out of Colton's neighborhood. The prospect of finding her children seemed to have rejuvenated her, temporarily staving off her fear. She pointed down the road toward a row of houses that were as dark as the ones they'd passed.  
    "That's where I ran off the road," Rosemary stated, pointing toward a barely visible street sign. Despite her remark, she made no suggestion of returning. Both her car and its possessions were lost—at least for now.  
    Tom rolled out onto the main road, grateful to be out of the neighborhood. After a few turns, they entered a commercial thoroughfare. The road was wide and