Storm Orphans: The Beginning Read Online Free

Please don’t go!”
    Jenny clung to both her parents as desperate sobs wracked her thin frame. Renee started to tear up herself as she looked to Curt for a solution. There was no way she could leave Jenny like this, but she was terrified of Curt going out on his own too.
    Curt took a deep breath to calm his self as he hugged his family close. He knew there was no good answer. Leaving either one of them behind felt like he was abandoning them; taking either or both with him was leading them into horrible danger. The world had become a nightmare and no matter what he chose, he could lose everything.
    “Jenny if something happened to you…” he began , but his daughter interrupted him before he could finish.
    “Then you’d be there to protect me,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “Which is why you can’t leave without me. I need you, daddy.” She looked up at Renee. “And you too, mommy. Please don’t leave me alone.”
    And that settled it. As much as Curt wanted to do this on his own, he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving them petrified that he’d never return. The truth was, he might not. CVS was over a mile down the road and god only knew what they might run into along the way.
    Half an hour later, the three of them stood in front of the barricaded door to their apartment and looked at each other for confidence.
    “Remember,” Curt told them, “Move quickly but quietly. Watch where you put your feet and no talking. We go straight down the hall to the stairs, then directly down the stairs to the lobby. When I give the signal, we leave through the front door and go down the sidewalk to the right. It’s a long walk, but we can make it if we’re careful.”
    Curt shoved the sofa that was blocking the door to one side and then turned to look at his wife and daughter one more time before he unlocked the deadbolt.
    “Stick close and no matter what happens, don’t panic,” he said. “If anything comes after us, follow me. They’re deadly, but they’re stupid.” He smiled at Jenny in an attempt to boost her confidence. “And we’re faster.”
    The three of them reached the lobby without a problem. The hallway was empty as was the dimly lit and stiflingly hot stairwell that led to the first floor. As they readied themselves to leave the building, Curt looked first at his wife and then Jenny. They were clearly scared, but they looked determined as well. He momentarily swelled with pride as it dawned on him how they brave they were. It was time to go.
    He pushed open the heavy door and was immediately blinded by the sunlight. As his eyes adjusted, he scanned the street in all directions. As he’d seen from the window upstairs, wrecked and abandoned cars littered the two-lane road, but nothing was moving. The storefronts were dark, many of their display windows broken or covered in hastily nailed-up plywood. The formerly busy city street was a ghost town.
    He moved at a pace just short of a jog, glancing backward every 10 or 15 steps to make sure Renee and Jenny were keeping up. Before the plague, at this hour of the morning, this street would have been packed with shoppers, joggers, and people walking their dogs. Cars would have been honking as they impatiently waited for the gawkers and the drivers that had the audacity to make a left-hand turn in front of them. Now there was nothing but silent rot everywhere he looked. Cars baked in the same spots they’d sat in for years, blocking both lanes of traffic. The street lights that hung from their limp wires were colorless, their bulbs long burnt out. The sidewalk beneath his feet was cracked, weeds growing everywhere they could take root. When Curt had moved his family here in the fall of 2010, this was one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Now it was all but gone. The plague had taken everything except the two people he cared about the most.
    They crossed the first side street they came to, weaving between the vehicles that blocked their path.