No Ordinary Day by Tate, Harley (best large ereader .txt) 📕

happy Tank beside him. She ushered Holly forward and as soon as the girl glimpsed the occupants, she clapped her hands and almost squealed.

Chapter Twelve

Emma

No one asked where John found the vehicle and he didn’t volunteer. With Holly over the moon at their return, and Raymond begrudgingly thanking him for the extra cargo room, they took an extra hour to load more supplies into the Jeep, finishing as the night set in around them.

With two vehicles, they split up. Holly, Tank, and Emma rode in the Jeep with John, and Gloria, Pringles, and Raymond took the Ford Explorer. Emma didn’t love separating, but giving the only married couple in the group some space seemed like the best idea.

Thanks to Raymond’s map, they avoided most major highways through North Georgia, bypassing the large cities of Ellijay and Calhoun. As they neared a divided, four-lane state road, Raymond turned on it. John straightened up in the driver’s seat. “Keep your eyes out for a gas station or a car dealership. Somewhere we might be able to fill up.”

Emma squinted out the passenger window, barely making out the trees as they whizzed by in the dark. “Do you have any kind of tube? Something we can siphon with?”

John thought it over. “Not that I know of. Did you all pack any?”

Emma shook her head. “If we can find an older mechanical gas pump, I should be able to get it working.”

John raised an eyebrow.

“We had an old pump from the fifties on the farm in Idaho.”

“Is that where you grew up?” Holly leaned forward between the front seats, wiping sleep from her eyes.

“Sorry if we woke you.”

The teenager waved her off. “Tank was snoring like a buzzsaw right in my ear.” Holly propped her forearms on the console. “You don’t strike me as the farm type.”

Emma smiled. “My parents have a couple hundred acres. They wanted me to take over the family business, but you know how that goes.”

Holly nodded. “Are you worried about them?”

“Of course. But my mom and dad are a bit like Irma and Gil. I don’t know how much the lack of power will impact them, to be honest. My mother cans all winter and my dad uses an old-fashioned tractor to prep the fields. They had talked about retiring, decreasing the amount they farmed every year, but I’m sure they are thankful now. With so many unused acres all around, and no neighbors for miles, they are as safe as they can be.”

She smiled. “Besides, my dad can shoot a bottle cap off a fence post. I’m not too worried about him.”

Holly perked up. “I hope Irma and Gil are hanging in there. When it’s quiet, I like to imagine the pair of them bickering about the laundry or the chores.”

Emma laughed. “I’m sure that’s exactly what they are doing.” She hadn’t thought about the older couple who took them in when they first escaped Atlanta in days. Nor had she allowed herself the indulgence of thinking about her parents. They were safer thousands of miles away, with no contact from her at all. If Dane suspected she went home… Emma shook her head.

Don’t go there. She turned back to Holly when Raymond’s brake lights flashed in front of them. The Explorer shimmied on the road before banking hard to the curb.

John slammed on the brakes and Holly fell forward, narrowly missing the dash as the Jeep shuddered to a stop.

“What’s going on?” Emma leaned toward Holly, checking to make sure she suffered no injuries.

John shook his head, expression grave. “Not sure.”

“Maybe they popped a tire?” Holly rubbed her chin where she’d bumped it on the console.

Emma stared out into the darkness. “I didn’t see anything in the road, did you?”

“No.” John pulled up behind the Explorer and shifted into park. “You two stay here, I’ll check it out.”

Emma cast a wary glance at the Explorer before turning back to John. She knew Raymond would be furious with what she was about to do, but despite his misgivings, she trusted John. He wasn’t going to kill her today.

She dug the handgun belonging to one of the dead men they left behind at the cabin out from beneath her waistband, exhaling as the pressure of the cold metal against her back eased. She held it out to John. “You should take this.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Are you sure? If Raymond—”

She waved him off. “Raymond can disagree all he wants. This is my decision. I don’t want you going out there defenseless.”

John opened his mouth as if to argue, but stopped himself. “Thank you.” He took the gun, released the magazine, checked the chamber, and counted the rounds before reassembling the weapon. He racked the slide and reached for the door handle. “Like I said, stay here.” He opened the door and eased out into the night.

As the door shut behind him, Emma hit the lock. Holly wasted no time with John out of the vehicle, scrambling up and over the console before flopping into John’s empty seat. Tank climbed up in her wake, front paws resting on the console as he sniffed the air.

“I don’t like this. Not one bit.” Holly craned her neck first to the left and then the right, frowning at the darkness. “We can’t see anything out there.”

Emma agreed. “I don’t like it either, but John’s right. We’re not going to do any good out there. I trust him.”

“So do I.” Holly reached out to Tank, running her hand down his fur for comfort.

Emma counted down first one minute and then another, trying in vain to tamp down her growing worry. “If he doesn’t come back soon—”

A knuckle rapped on the glass and Holly jumped half out of her skin in the driver’s seat. John stuck his face up to the glass. “I need a flashlight.”

Holly cracked open the door as Emma popped the glove box. She fished around inside, before finding a small, black flashlight. She reached across Holly to hand it