"You appear to have been right. They came back. And they brought their friends. But it doesn't look like they have guns. We do, so we should be okay."

"You don't sound as convincing as I'd like."

"Well, I'm working on limited information at the moment. If I could see guns, I'd know they have them, but I can't, so I don't."

"How many guys are there?"

"At least a dozen. A few have knives. We can totally take them." He sounded confident.

Her head spun as adrenaline spiked in her system. "No way. That's too many. We need to go. Now. While we still can."

"We have guns."

"They might have some, too! And they have numbers. I'm a terrible shot with this and you can't mow them all down in a sea of bullets. Let's check the back and if it's clear, then let's get the h.e.l.l out of here and let them take what they want."

"No. This is my home and I'm not handing it over without a fight. If you want to leave, go ahead. I'll cover you as best as I can from here."

Sara's anger spiked as she tossed her gun and ammo into the main part of her backpack and the knife into the outside pocket were she could reach it easily if needed, then shrugged it onto her shoulders. She pulled on her shoes, lacing them tight. "You're going to stay here and fight, probably lose, and for what? Four walls and a fireplace? A bed?"

The voices outside grew louder. Closer. But as far as she could tell, all of them came from out front, which meant the back should be clear.

"Don't be stupid, Dane. These people are dangerous. Come with me."

"I can't leave."

She threw her hand up, frustrated to still be talking about this. "Why?"

"Because I don't have anything else. This is it. This cabin is everything to me. My life, my memories of my family, everything is here. There's nothing out there for me."

Sara cupped his face in her hands, forcing him to focus on her. "You'll have me. My family made me swear never to bring anyone to the bunker with me, but I don't give a s.h.i.t anymore. I can't leave you here. Come with me. Now. You'll have me and you'll still have the memories of your family. You don't need the cabin for that."

The door handle rattled behind them. Sara pulled Dane toward the back door, away from the mob of men gathering in the front.

As they reached the kitchen, a rock crashed through the front window landing with a thud on the hardwood floor in a mess of shattered gla.s.s. The voices outside cheered as something big banged against the door.

Dane's look of determination fell as he heard his home about to be invaded.

"Come on," she pleaded, pulling him away from the chaos. She stopped long enough to retrieve her bucket of food supplies before continuing on to the kitchen. "We have to go now or we won't be able to get away."

"Where's that pretty set of t.i.ts I met the other day? Come out, come out wherever you are."

The voice of the tall man who'd grabbed her a couple of days before crept through the house like smoke, choking her with fear. At the sound, Dane instantly snapped out of whatever daze he'd been in. He slipped into the boots at the back door and quickly laced just the top two eyelets, knotting them. She hadn't even noticed the backpack waiting on the table until he threw it on his back.

He handed her the bow and quiver she'd left there earlier, then grabbed his own. He peeked through the window for a second before throwing open the door and pushing her through into the night air. Dane paused, glancing back into the cabin.

Sara stood shivering in the cold as it settled around her thin sweater. Her shivers stilled at the feel of a hand grabbing her arm and her body pressing against someone big and solid.

"You weren't trying to get away from me now were you, sweetheart?" a man whispered in her ear. His tongue darted out, licking her, making her cringe. "I thought we got along rather well the last time we spoke. And I certainly wasn't finished with you."

Bile rose in Sara's throat at his words and at his hand as it tightened on her arm. She dropped the bucket and clawed at him. Her a.r.s.enal of weapons poked into her back so hard she thought she might actually be bleeding.

"Dane!" she yelled, managing to call out before the tall man behind her clasped a hand over her mouth, pressing her even harder against him.

Anger flared to life in Dane's eyes as he started toward her and the man holding her captive. "Let her go or so help me, I will kill you."

"Big words coming from someone completely outnumbered," he sneered and took a step back, dragging Sara with him.

"Didn't I make myself clear? Let her go or you die. Simple. Make your choice because we're leaving, one way or the other."

Dane took his bow off his shoulder and loaded it with an arrow, aiming it at Sara and her captor. She shook uncontrollably. How could he take out the man without also hitting her? It wasn't that she didn't trust he was a good shot, but it was dark, tensions where high, and at any second, someone else could come and join the fight and take Dane down. She fought her nerves, calming her body until it stilled. If she couldn't fight her way free, then at least she could attempt to make Dane's job easier by becoming as small an obstacle as possible.

"Who knows what kind of women we'll have left after this disease wipes out half the world. I think I'll keep this one."

Sara gritted her teeth together. No way. She wasn't about to let herself become some kind of commodity that could be looted, traded, or sold.

Taking a deep breath, she stomped her heel onto his foot as hard as she could, simultaneously grabbing his fingers and wrenching them backward. He called out and staggered, relaxing his hold enough for her to wiggle out of his arms.

She froze as an arrow whooshed pa.s.sed her head, lodging itself into the man's upper chest, just below his collarbone. He looked down at the wood sticking out of his body then fell to the ground.

Sara's knees turned to liquid at the sight of her a.s.sailant slumped in the dirt, groping at the stick in his body.

"Run!" Dane pulled her by the arm toward the woods. "The others are coming."

Sara grabbed her bucket of food from where she'd dropped it and attempted to find her footing, but every step felt as if she ran in waist-high mud instead of in the woods. Her mind swirled as she replayed the last few minutes.

Dane had shot someone with an arrow, right before her eyes. He'd saved her.

Dane shot someone with a f.u.c.king arrow.

The men at the cabin called out for help as they found their friend on the ground. The sound of angry yells cleared the fog from Sara's head and she ran faster, hoisting her bucket of food into her arms. She staggered under the weight as it threw her off balance. But she didn't care. There wasn't a chance in h.e.l.l she'd leave so much food behind when she still didn't know what awaited them.

Dane led the way through the bushes and trees off-trail so it was harder for her to follow. That probably meant it would be harder for others to follow them too.

"You okay?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Sure. Fine. Great."

"You don't sound very convincing."

"I'm sorry if I'm a little on edge. People attacked your house, then attacked me, and then you killed someone with an arrow." Her voice cracked, giving away her emotions.

He paused and pulled her into his arms, kissing her forehead. "I didn't kill anyone. I put an arrow in his shoulder. At worst he'll get an infection and not be able to hold a big stick for a while. At best, he'll heal completely. But if someone threatens you again, and killing him is the only option for saving you, I'll do it without hesitation."

He kissed her lips quickly, then took the bucket of food from her arms and stalked off into the woods again.

Walking was a little easier, but she was still weighed down by her pack and the bow. She trekked on as best she could, trying not to stumble. The moon was full in the night sky, helping to light the way a little.

Even hours later, as the sun began to rise and her footsteps began to falter, every time she heard a branch snap behind her, she startled, expecting one of the men from the cabin to grab her.

Chapter Ten.

Dane kept a steady pace until he saw the old quarry come into view. It was the best place he could think of to stop and rest for a while. He didn't suspect anyone from the cabin had followed them so far into the woods, but he wanted to wait it out for a little while to be sure.

They pa.s.sed by the run-down shack that used to be an outpost for the quarry, not bothering to stop or check it out. He'd looked inside it long ago on one of his walks and hadn't found anything but rotting wood and cobwebs. That wasn't a good spot to stay. Even if it sheltered them a little, the roof could cave in at any second.

"We'll stop here to rest for a while," he said, setting his things down at the base of a large oak tree. A short stone wall ran behind the tree in both directions for as far as he could see. It wasn't much for shelter or protection, but it was the best he could do. Hopefully, the tree and wall together would provide enough protection from the elements and anyone or anything pa.s.sing by.

They leaned against the wall and each other for support while they caught their breath. It had been a long, fast-paced hike through the woods and all on no sleep. He wished more than anything they'd had time to prepare for this trek instead of being forced from his home with little more than the clothes they wore and the weapons on their backs.

"There's a stream fifty feet or so past this wall. I'll try to find something to put water in later and wander down there. It should be pretty clean. Hopefully the outbreak isn't transmitted through water."

Sara set her backpack in front of her, opened it, and pulled out a blue water bottle. She twisted off the lid, pulled something from inside, fiddled with it a couple of seconds then rea.s.sembled the whole thing. "Use this. It will filter the water from the stream."

"Will it even filter out viruses?"

"So it claimed." He took her bottle to the stream and filled it, took a few long drinks through the filtering straw to satisfy his own thirst, then filled it again and returned to Sara. "It tasted clean and cold. Can't ask for more than that."

She drank heavily then set the bottle aside. "So what now?"

"Now we wait a bit to make sure we weren't followed, then you go the rest of the way to the bunker and I go...somewhere. I don't know where, but I'll find a place."

Her hand felt good in his. He would miss it. She squeezed tight.

"You're coming with me." It was a demand, not a question. He could already tell the difference in her tone after only knowing her a short time.

"No. I'm not. Your family is expecting you alone. That's what they should get."

"I don't care what they expect. I want you with me." She wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled against his side. Her chest expanded with a deep yawn.

"Why don't you rest a bit and I'll keep watch? I'll make sure no one followed us."

Without agreeing verbally, she lay down on the ground next to him, resting her head in his lap. Stroking his fingers through her hair, he only counted to about twenty before her breaths evened out and her body relaxed.

Dane watched Sara sleep, looking so peaceful and calm. And beautiful. He was tempted to take her up on her offer to go to the bunker, but should he? Did he want to deal with the fallout from her family over her breaking her word? Or would it make it easier on her if he got her to the bunker and then disappeared?

Of course, that would mean he'd have to leave her. Could he do that?

For a girl he'd only known a short time, she'd sure made a huge impression on him. He'd go so far as to say she'd found a way into his heart, and that wasn't an easy thing to do. Few had tried over the years since he'd been on his own, but none had succeeded.

Until Sara came along.

He hadn't thought he was lonely at the cabin these last five years, but seeing how much more life there had been in his place with Sara there proved to him he had been. The place had been downright empty before her. He'd been empty before her, too.

But he didn't feel empty anymore.

With Sara around, he felt...hopeful, which was really saying something given the state of the world at present. Any hope was worth holding on to. Especially if that hope was Sara.

Sara woke to find her head on Dane's wadded-up shirt instead of his leg, which she distinctly remembered falling asleep on. He moved around the outskirts of their little clearing, wearing nothing on top but his gorgeous, bare chest.

"What're you doing?" she asked, sitting up.

"Gathering wood," he answered, not looking up from his mission.

"Why?" She yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. How long had she been out? The shadows already looked way shorter than she'd expected them to. Her stomach growled. "How long did I sleep?"

"Because I'm going to make a small fire and kill us something to eat. And I think you were out about four hours or so. It's somewhere near lunchtime."

He dropped a pile of wood near her feet. Her gaze flittered across his naked chest. She vividly remembered their activities from the previous night, before the ambush and subsequent fleeing happened. But as much as she'd like to dwell on her memories of being in his bed, she couldn't.

"I guess you want your shirt back," she said, offering it to him reluctantly.

"Do you have matches in that bag of yours?" he asked, slipping his shirt over his head and tugging it down into place.

"I can do better than matches." She pulled out the tiny stove she'd packed and opened it to unwrap one of the fuel disks as well as a container of waterproof matches. A minute later, she had the disk burning in the stove and the included cooking surface inserted above the flames.

"I'm not going to lie," Dane said, smiling. "I'm impressed and sort of turned on by your preparedness."

"You haven't seen anything yet." Next she opened her bucket of food and pulled out a pot that fit perfectly on the stove and a couple of packets of freeze- dried meals. "Would you care for chicken la king this fine afternoon or perhaps a tasty beef chili? Or maybe a broccoli-and-cheddar soup would be more to your liking."

"So many choices of fine cuisine. I don't know what to choose. You pick."

"Chicken it is," she said, selecting the packet she needed. Dane took the others from her hands to examine them while she got busy making their meal. She poured the contents of the food pouch into the pot, added clean water from the filtered bottle and stirred until it was warm.

"Can you hand me a couple of bowls and sporks from the bucket?" she asked.

When he handed her the bowls, she poured the chicken into them and stuck a spoon/fork combo utensil into each. "Lunch is ready."

Dane accepted the proffered bowl and they sat side by side on the low, stone wall. "Not bad," he said after a few bites.

Sara had to agree. It wasn't a gourmet meal by any stretch, but it was easier than attempting to cook something else in the middle of nowhere. When they finished eating, Dane lay down where she'd slept earlier, using his arm as a pillow while she took their pot and dishes down to the little stream to clean them.

As she swirled water into the dishes, rubbing them as clean as she could with her hands, she hoped she wasn't infecting herself with whatever virus had caused the outbreak. She didn't feel sick and Dane didn't look sick, so maybe the world had gotten lucky and the outbreak had been contained. Maybe the virus never reached pandemic proportions at all. It wouldn't be the first time the news media had overreacted to a situation.

Of course, the power and communications systems were still down and that was not a good sign. Whatever had happened, whatever was still to happen, their best bet was the bunker. Now she had to figure out where it was relative to their current location.

After everything had been cleaned, she put it all back into the bucket of food. They could survive out here like this for a month with the supply she had, but she prayed they didn't have to.

Sara sat a few feet from Dane with a map spread out in front of her, one she'd had stashed in a pocket of her backpack. On it, a series of tiny symbols of various shapes and colors decorated numerous parts of the depicted area. If someone didn't know what they were looking at, they wouldn't know what any of the symbols meant, nor which one was actually important.

But she did.