Promise Me Once

  Nathan didn’t care. He took the stairs two at a time, hauling me with him. I tripped and almost fell. The hot cement burned the bottoms of my bare feet. I didn’t have time to cry about it or whine that he was being too rough. I heard voices. Lots of them.

  Then I saw the madness.

  Chapter Twenty–Two

  Cat

  The apartment’s parking lot was full. Not of cars. Of people.

  I missed a step and almost fell down the stairs when I saw all the students. They milled around aimlessly. There had to be a hundred of them. Some were in their pajamas. Others were dressed in t-shirts and shorts. They all looked confused, hot, and tired.

  A group of blonde-haired sorority lookalikes were standing in a small circle nearby. They were talking a mile a minute as they studied their phones. Their shrill voices rose higher and higher as they disagreed about something. One looked close to tears. Another seemed angry.

  Then there was the small group of guys. They were looking under the hood of a beat-up yellow Ford Escort with confusion. A couple of them were arguing. One of the guys started gesturing across the parking lot with his oil-smudged hands, arguing with another kid.

  I could feel the tension in the air. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t an impromptu block party. It was trouble.

  I gaped at everyone as Nathan hauled me across the parking lot. I didn’t care if he left bruises on my arm. I was too confused on what was happening.

  “I don’t know what I’m talking about, huh sis?” he said with hostility, letting me go when we got to his car. “Well, check this out.”

  He pulled his keys from his pocket and hit the unlock button. Nothing happened. He gave me a told-you-so look then shoved the key into the keyhole and unlocked the car.

  The fancy leather driver’s seat creaked when he slid behind the wheel. I watched with a sense of unease as he inserted the key into the ignition and turned it. The engine didn’t start. The deep rumble of his sports car didn’t fill the air. He tried again. Nothing.

  Removing the key, he got out of the car and faced me.

  “It won’t start, Cat. None of these cars will,” he said, gesturing around us. “How’s that for screwed?”

  I glanced at the other vehicles, feeling panicky. He can’t be right. Not everyone could have a dead vehicle. But then I saw a guy trying to start his motorcycle. He turned the key and stomped on the gas pedal. There was no loud roar. No badass sound coming from the motor. He became frustrated and climbed off, kicking one of the tires.

  A few yards away, I saw a girl in bright yellow SpongeBob pajamas sitting on the trunk of her Corolla. She was crying into her hands as some guy tried to start her car. The same thing was happening again and again everywhere – people were trying to start their vehicles.

  But nobody was driving away.

  That’s impossible, right? What are the chances that everyone’s car won’t start on the same day?

  Tate and Keely were beside me, staring at the chaos too. Tate grabbed the keys out of Nathan’s hand. “Let me try,” he mumbled.

  He pushed Nathan out of the way to slide down into the driver’s seat. Tate had been driving on the old, dirt roads near our house for the past year. With his typical attitude, he now thought he knew more about vehicles than we did.

  Jamming the key in the ignition, he tried to start the engine, wanting to prove Nathan wrong. But again nothing. The car’s engine stayed quiet.

  Nathan reached inside and grabbed the key. “Told you it didn’t work. Believe me now?”

  Before Tate could answer a group of guys started racing toward us. They shouted something about looters and needing to protect a store.

  Nathan reached out and grabbed Keely, pulling her out of the way just as the guys ran past us. I recognized a few of them. One was the star basketball player for UT. A few of his teammates were with him, looking angry and ready to fight. They were heading around the corner of the apartment complex, their gym shorts loose and their hair wet with sweat.

  I knew where they were going. On the other side of the apartment building was a rundown convenience store that had been there forever. It was old and needed some TLC, but underage students could buy beer there without an I.D. I should know. I had been a customer many times over the past year.

  A little Asian man ran the store. He was friendly and easygoing, always ready with a cheerful hello. He didn’t mind when students hung out in his store, zapping cheap burritos in the ancient microwave or rehashing the loss of a football game over slushies. He didn’t even mind giving away a few free candy bars or bags of chips to down-on-their-luck kids until they got their next paycheck.

  The store and owner were legendary around campus so if someone were messing with either, the students would fight to protect them. But who would loot it? Looting was something I had only seen on TV. It didn’t happen in quiet college towns. So what was going on?

  I turned in a slow circle, different scenarios popping up in my head. If a cell tower had collapsed, people would be antsy. God knows we couldn’t live without our phones and the Internet for very long. But that wouldn’t explain the dead cars. A small solar flare could fry quite a bit. It was an outlandish idea – one you might only see in the movies - but it was possible, according to my science teacher.

  Suddenly, I remembered the conversation with my dad. He had said the government was on high alert and we needed to stay alert.

  I turned to Nathan. “Dad said—” I never got a chance to finish. Gunfire erupted.

  POP! POP! POP!

  It sounded like a car backfiring, but it was louder. Closer. Screams erupted, followed by another gunshot.

  POP!

  We ducked next to Nathan’s car, our instincts telling us to take cover. The palms of my hands scraped against cement. Little pebbles dug into my skin. It was the least of my worries. Someone was shooting, for Christ’s sake.

  Keely grabbed my arm, kneeling by me. “Oh shit! Oh, shit! Was that gunfire?” she whispered, her eyes the size of saucers behind her glasses.

  I started to answer, but saw Tate climbing to his feet.

  “Tate!” I shouted, scrabbling past Keely to get to him.

  Nathan was faster. He grabbed a handful of Tate’s shirt and yanked him down.

  “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he roared, ramming Tate up against the car. “Stay down!”

  I peeled Keely’s hold off me and crawled over to Tate.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered, grabbing his arm in a death grip. But I was lying. It wasn’t okay. My heart was pounding and my ears were ringing. Someone was shooting and we were out in the open. It was not normal or okay.

  I glanced at Nathan as he started to stand up. I instantly knew what he was going to do.

  “No! No!” I shouted, reaching over Keely to grab Nathan’s arm. I had already lost Luke and Jenna. I couldn’t lose my brother too!

  My fingers caught his shirt but it didn’t stop him.

  “Take care of them,” he said, nodding at Keely and then Tate. “I’ll be right back. I want to find out what’s going on.”

  I fought my panic as Nathan tore from my grasp and took off. I had not prayed since the night Luke died, not even when the priest spread dirt on his coffin and said the last rites over his grave. I didn’t believe in God or prayers or hope or miracles anymore. Life just didn’t work that way for me. But in that moment, as I kneeled on the hot pavement and watched my brother run toward trouble instead of away from it, I prayed.

  I clutched Tate tightly and closed my eyes, shutting out the sounds of crying nearby and the screams in the distance. I didn’t open my eyes when Keely grabbed a handful of my shirt. I didn’t force them open when I thought of Cash, hoping whatever was happening here was not happening where he was. I just prayed and prayed until I couldn’t pray anymore.

  But when the screams around me grew louder, I opened my eyes. I could see people running around, looking for cover or safety, but I couldn’t see Nathan. I let go of Tat
e and moved past Keely to look around the car. He had been gone too long.

  “Do you see anything? Who’s shooting?” Tate asked, easing behind me.

  I sat down, careful to keep the rear tire at my back for protection. “I don’t know.”

  I wrapped my arm around Tate’s slim shoulders and pulled him closer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Keely shaking, her knees tucked up under her. Over the roaring in my ears, I heard running feet and the sound of someone shouting. I squeezed my eyes shut and held on to Tate, wanting to block out everything. Maybe I was just dreaming, a weird side effect of all the alcohol in my system.

  Or maybe I was finally in hell.

  My fingers tightened on Tate’s shoulder, squeezing him to me. I heard the skidding of shoes on asphalt a second before I heard the voice.

  “Come on! Come on!”

  I snapped my eyes open. Nathan was standing over us - panting, sweating, and motioning for us to get up. His gaze darted around, watching for trouble, as he reached for Keely.

  She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up. Nathan tucked her against him and reached for me but I was already on my feet, tugging Tate up too. The sound of gunfire hit again, closer this time.

  POP! POP!

  Screams burst around us but it wasn’t going to stop the four of us. Nathan pushed Tate and me ahead of him.

  “RUN!” he shouted.

  He didn’t have to tell me twice.

  We took off, sprinting across the parking lot. The hot pavement blistered my bare feet. Glass tore into my arches and cut my toes but I didn’t let it stop me. I ran.

  Students were running in all directions, unsure where to go. We dove into the madness, fighting the crowd to get to safety.

  I was jarred a couple of times as I headed for the apartment stairs, but I reached back and grabbed Tate’s arm. No way was I going to lose him. My feet felt raw and my lungs burned but I pushed on, knowing the only safe place was behind the brick walls of my apartment building. Two more steps and we would be to the stairway. Three flights of stairs and we could slam the door on whatever craziness was going on outside.

  But I never got there.

  A loud boom shook the ground. It sounded like a bomb exploding. My eardrums popped and my head felt like it would burst. I covered my ears and turned in the direction the explosion had come from.

  “Oh, shit! Oh, shit!” I said between numb lips.

  Everett Dorm, the student housing across the street, had exploded in fire.

  A black cloud of smoke rose in the sky. It looked menacing against the innocent puffy clouds floating by. Bright orange flames licked up the sides of the student building. The roof was one big fireball, the flames almost too bright to look at. Windows burst and shattered as the heat touched them.

  People rushed away from the burning building. There were screams and cries. I stood in shock. This is not real. Not real. I needed to move but I couldn’t. What was going on around me was too surreal to be believable. Too terrible to understand.

  Nathan pushed Keely toward Tate. “Get to the apartment! Lock the door and don’t open it for anyone. I’ll be back!”

  Tate caught Keely with one arm, looking at his older brother like he was crazy. Maybe he was. Before I could ask what he was doing, Nathan turned and took off running.

  “NATHAN!” I screamed, holding Tate back when he tried to follow his older brother. “NATHAN!”

  Nathan either didn’t hear me or wasn’t paying attention. He sprinted across the parking lot quickly. I watched, my heart in my throat, as he disappeared into the crowd near the burning building.

  “What is he doing?” Tate cried, trying to detangle himself from my hold. “What the hell is he doing?”

  “He’s helping,” I said, sounding calmer than I felt. I knew what I had to do.

  “Watch him,” I ordered Keely, pushing Tate toward her.

  She nodded and I took off. Tate shouted for me to stop and Keely yelled that it wasn’t safe, but I took off anyway.

  My feet were bleeding but I didn’t let it slow me down. If my grandmother were there she would have scoffed at the idea of a little brat like me helping others. My dad would have been grinning, proud of his princess. My mother would have looked down her newly constructed nose at me for sweating. But for once in my sucky life, I did what I knew was right. I ran.

  The heat from the flames burned my face as I got closer to the burning building. Someone yelled at me to not go any closer, but Nathan was somewhere nearby. We always stuck together no matter what. This time would be no different.

  I shoved past people. I avoided falling when someone jostled me.

  “NATHAN!” I screamed, getting as close as I could to the flame-filled building.

  “Get back! Get back!”

  He was running toward me, motioning for me to get away.

  The crowd surged around me. The world spun at a dizzying speed. Suddenly, strong hands grabbed my arms.

  “Get out of here, Cat!” Nathan yelled. His face was blackened and his hair looked singed. I wanted to ask him if he was fucking crazy. Didn’t he know if I lost him, I would die too?

  He started dragging me away, muttering again and again, “There’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing we can do.”

  He pulled me across the street and through the parking lot. I became a robot, going into the dark place where nothing inside me lived or breathed. I was too terrified. Too scared.

  Focus on something else. My feet hurt. I wanted to stop and see how damaged they were, but Nathan wouldn’t let me. He kept pulling me along, unwilling to let me give up. He did the same thing after Luke died.

  He made me go on.

  By the time we reached the apartment stairway, the scent of smoke was filling my nostrils and burning my lungs. A breeze brought with it the smell of the fire.

  And of death.

  I choked back a cough and started up the stairs. Other people rushed past me on the narrow steps, trying to get to some sort of safety. Craziness was everywhere – from the burning building to the muted sounds of gunfire off in the distance. The world seemed to be going insane.

  It seemed to take forever to reach the third floor landing, but when Nathan and I did, a sudden burst of energy exploded in me. I sprinted for my apartment like the fire across the street was licking at my heels.

  Tate and Keely were standing in the doorway of my apartment. They both looked afraid and frantic.

  “Hurry! Get in!” Keely shouted, motioning to us as another gunshot ripped through the air.

  I had only a few more feet to go. I could feel the blood oozing out of the small cuts on my toes and heels. I didn’t have time to assess the damage to them. Nathan snagged a handful of my shirt and pulled me the rest of the way into the apartment.

  My toes sunk into the soft cushion of my apartment’s carpet as soon as I hit the threshold. Nathan slammed the door closed behind me then locked it. He grabbed a small chair from the corner of my living room and dragged it back to the front door, wedging it under the door handle tightly.

  “Extra security,” he explained. “It stays there at all times, understand? He looked from me to Tate then to Keely.

  I nodded. My chest rose and fell quickly. I felt sick and scared and hyped up with adrenaline at the same time.

  “What’s going on?” Keely asked wide-eyed, standing close by Nathan. “Oh, gawd! What’s going on?”

  No one answered her. I wasn’t sure we knew what to say. Nathan stood in the middle of the room, blackened and shaken. Tate was pacing back and forth between the sofa and the dark TV, fidgeting with the edge of his shirt nervously.

  I was barefoot, scared, and still wearing my clothes from last night. Beads of sweat had broken out along my hairline yet I was shaking. It started in my bones and moved outward to my fingertips. Every muscle in my body shook. Every inch of me shivered. I knew it was from shock, a product of my mind, but I couldn’t control it. I knew it too well and it knew me.

  I wrapped my arm
s around my middle to stop the trembling but just like everything else in my stupid life, there was no stopping it. My teeth chattered and the tips of my fingers turned icy. I felt all the blood rush from my head, leaving me weak and feeling empty. My eyes watered. I swiped at the tears, cursing the smoke that caused it and hating the fear that made them worse.

  Nathan shot across the room, snagging the shades of the window open.

  I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear shouts and shrieks of terror. It was enough to make my blood go cold all over again.

  He dropped the shade back in place and swung around to look at us. “Stay away from the window,” he ordered, hurrying to the kitchen.

  No one questioned him. Nathan had always been a born leader and now was no different. If he said jump, I would jump and not argue. Not when my life or Tate’s depended on it. And right now I had a feeling they did.

  Tate, Keely and I rushed to follow Nathan into the little kitchen. I reached for the light switch as soon as I walked in - an automatic response to a dark room. With just a touch of my finger, I should have light. But the ugly florescent light fixture didn’t turn on. The room stayed dark, the shadows thick. It sent a chill down my spine.

  Tate moved behind me, watching me try the light switch again and again.

  “Ain’t working, sis,” he mumbled as he bit his thumbnail.

  The thwack of a cabinet drawer made me jump. Nathan was opening and closing them, looking for something and growing aggravated when he couldn’t find it.

  He swore under his breath as he rummaged through a drawer. “You have any flashlights, Cat?” he asked, shoving the drawer closed when he didn’t find anything.

  I shook my head. “No. I…I don’t think so.”

  Nathan slammed the cabinet door shut with a bang and a loud curse. It made me flinch and Keely back away. I couldn’t blame her. My brother looked angry enough to spit nails and rip off heads. I wanted to stay out of his way too.

  He gripped the back of one of the kitchen chairs. His knuckles turned white as he struggled to calm down. His chest and shoulders rose and fell as he drew in deep gulps of air. He hung his head and tightened his hands on the chair, making his biceps go tense.