“We’ll probably need new wheels,” Clara said.
“I never liked that bus anyway.”
I recognized Darwin’s voice, and turned to find him sitting a few feet away on a fallen tree trunk.
He looked like he’d gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. His eyes were swollen, and there was a gash on his cheek. His jeans were torn at the knees. When he spoke, I saw that his lip was split. “Damn thing made me feel like I was back at school. Next time let’s find a sweet sports car, a Ferrari or something.”
“I think we can find something a bit roomier than that.” I was relieved that he was still alive.
“What’s the point of being the last people alive if we can’t have some fun with it,” Darwin replied.
“Fun can wait.” I remembered what Meadows had said, that I should lead the survivors to New Haven. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the phone, hoping there would be a message on it, some sort of confirmation that my encounter with the doctor was real, but the screen was shattered, a spider’s web of cracks creeping over the surface. The phone was broken, useless. I threw it to the ground. “I guess my phone fared worse than I did.”
“Who cares,” Clara said. “We’re all safe. That’s what matters.”
“Not too safe.” I remembered Gary and the other morons in the truck. “What about–”
“Darwin took care of it,” Clara replied.
“He did?” I looked at him surprised.
“Yeah.” Darwin held the sawn off shotgun aloft. “Me and Betsy went and had a little chat with our friends in the truck.”
“You killed them?”
“I did what was necessary.” Darwin placed the gun back on the ground at his feet. “They were pretty banged up after their truck hit that tree trunk. You scored a direct hit on the driver, put a hole the size of a grapefruit in his head. The other two were just sitting there, trapped in the wreckage. Man, they were in a bad way. It was more of a mercy killing really.”
“You shot them while they were defenseless?” This didn’t sound like the Darwin I knew.
“Yeah.” He fixed me with a cold stare. “Just like you shot Emily.”
“That was different.”
“No, it wasn’t.” He bowed his head, looked down toward the gun. “Seems this little trip of ours has made us all into killers in one way or another.”
“We’ll talk about this later.” I tried to stand, but I still felt shaky.
“You need to rest.” Clara moved close to me, put her arm around me. “We can stay here awhile.”
“Not too long.” I looked toward the wreckage of the truck pushed up against a tree several feet away, imagining the grisly sight inside.
“No, not too long.” She rested her head on my shoulder. “Just until we get our strength back.”
I closed my eyes, grateful for a minutes rest. There was a hard journey ahead of us, one which we might not all survive. I didn’t know what new horrors we would face before we reached New Haven, but for now at least, everything was calm. We were safe, we were together, and we had a purpose.
I put my arm around Clara, leaned down and kissed her, my lips lingering on hers, and for the first time since it all began, just for a moment, I was happy.
THE END
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
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Copyright 2016 ANTHONY M. STRONG
West Street Publishing
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Anthony M. Strong is a British writer living and working in the United States. When he’s not writing he spends most of his time watching documentaries, and waiting on three raucous pooches named Gidget, Tiki and Hayden.
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