BOOK TWO
Six months have passed since Arryn's world went to the dogs. Six grueling months of searching for her betrayer and the friends he took with him.
Taking shelter in a small house, Arryn and Austin develop a routine. But all that changes one...
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Emerging from the underground with Austin by her side, Arryn gulped an eager breath of fresh air, drinking it in like water from an oasis. Though they'd been down in the tunnels for no more than an hour, it'd felt like days had passed since she'd breathed air without a musty scent to it. Her lungs felt light and airy with each breath she took, chasing away the heavy sensation that weighed her lungs down this past hour.
Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the brightness. Beams of sunlight shone down, peeking from behind the grey, puffy clouds that blanketed the sky. The rays kissed her skin but did little to keep her warm. They were as cold and bitter as the world they lived in now. A world where the dead walked and the living hid away in nooks and crannies, fighting daily for survival.
She glanced over at Austin after her eyes adapted to the light as they took the final stair out from the underground and onto the zoo's concrete pathway. It may have been the lighting, but Austin looked a bit pale to her. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her after the Rabid encounter in the tunnels, but her thoughts couldn't help but race as thousands of what-ifs infiltrated her mind. She pushed them to the back of her mind. He would be alright. He had to be.
"Where to almighty zoo expert?" Austin asked.
She smiled and shook her head. "Just because I wrote a paper on the zoo does not make me an expert."
She looked around, trying to get a feel of her surroundings. It'd been ages since she'd been here, and even more since she wrote her paper.
In the distance, a wooden post with several arrows attached to it stood erect at a four-way intersection in the path. She walked closer to the sign, wanting to find which direction to travel for the gift shop. Where there was a gift shop, there was an exit. Businesses were clever that way, placing a shop full of cute plushies and other knickknacks as a mandatory exit. That way parents couldn't avoid it, and neither could their wallets. One time, her parents took her to a pizza buffet in a city known for its tourism. To exit the restaurant, you had to walk through an arcade. She'd begged and begged her parents to buy her tokens so she could play. Twenty dollars and several games later, she had enough tickets for a bouncy ball, a pencil, five pieces of gum, and a green apple scented eraser. All of which she either ate within an hour of obtaining or lost within the next few days.
