The Zapheads had brought an army. This war was over before it even started.
DeVontay considered dumping the child in a dark, swirling pool of the creek.
The child grinned at him as if reading his mind.
Damn it. Why did I have to be so goddamned human?
“Go now go?” DeVontay asked.
The baby clapped with delight. “Go now go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Dawn sent its red fingers reaching across the snowy landscape just as Rachel reached the town.
Her shoes were wet and her coat heavy with perspiration, but after two days of nonstop walking, she had arrived. The first night she had passed through the battlefield in the forest, not mixing with the Zapheads who collected both the human dead and the New People that had fallen. At one point, she’d come upon a creek where the snow was churned and stained a deep scarlet.
She stooped and picked up a small object that reflected the light of many stars and the single sliver of moon.
She held the glass orb aloft and measured it against the sky as if it were a planet.
It seemed familiar, but she didn’t know why.
She put it in her pocket and went on.
Over fences, down muddy streets, across frothy waterways, past rows of silent houses, driven by instinct like a salmon thrashing upstream to spawn. Night became day became night and then became now.
The snow wasn’t as deep here in the valley, and the air was clean.
She sensed them long before she heard them.
But soon the sound filled her head and drowned out all the other noises.
It was faint at first, but as she headed for the gleaming dome of the courthouse on the hill, the murmur gradually swelled into a mighty chorus.
“WHEE-ler! WHEE-ler! WHEE-ler!”
There were thousands of them.
She didn’t need a map. Her people already knew this place, so she knew it, too.
Rachel. My name was Rachel.
That was turbulence she would happily leave behind.
Time to be new.
She reached the school as the chants swelled to thunder, jubilant voices that reverberated off the bricks and glass of Newton.
“WHEE-LER! WHEE-LER! WHEE-LER!”
The thing that had been Rachel Wheeler headed for the football stadium.
THE END
Get After #5: Red Scare for Kindle!
Amazon US Amazon UK
In a post-apocalyptic world, Rachel Wheeler is caught between who she is and who she's becoming. A bizarre mutation has her humanity hanging by a thread, especially when the Zaphead inside her wants to kill her friends and lover.
As the mutant Zapheads form a social order and shape a new world in the wake of catastrophic solar storms, the few remaining humans band together in a struggle for survival. But not everyone shares the same goal: a rogue military unit plans to attack the mutant settlement while Rachel’s group seeks a remote, peaceful life beyond their notice. And the Zapheads have a special role for her that could save the human race at the cost of her own identity.
Torn between two possible futures, will Rachel sacrifice herself to prevent the extinction of her kind?
Get Red Scare at Amazon US or Amazon UK
Other books in the After series:
After #0: First Light: Amazon US Amazon UK
After #1: The Shock: Amazon US Amazon UK
After #2: The Echo: Amazon US Amazon UK
After #3: Milepost 291: Amazon US Amazon UK
After #5: Red Scare: Amazon US Amazon UK
After #6: Dying Light Amazon US Amazon UK
Next #1: Afterburn Amazon US Amazon UK
And the spinoff series ZAPHEADS:
Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder Amazon US Amazon UK
Zapheads #2: Scars and Ashes
Zapheads #3: Blood and Frost
Scott Nicholson is the international bestselling author of more than 20 thrillers, including The Home, McFall, Disintegration, Liquid Fear, Speed Dating with the Dead, and the After post-apocalyptic series. His books have appeared in the Kindle Top 100 more than a dozen times in five different countries. Visit his website at www.AuthorScottNicholson.com, Facebook, or his Amazon Author Central page
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OTHER KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON
Novels
After #0: First Light
After #1: The Shock
After #2: The Echo
After #3: Milepost 291
After#4: Whiteout
After #5: Red Scare
After #6: Dying Light
Next #1: Afterburn
Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder
Zapheads #2: Scares and Ashes
The Scarecrow (Solom #1)
The Narrow Gate (Solom #2)
The Preacher (Solom #3)
The Home
McFall
Creative Spirit
Disintegration
The Red Church
Speed Dating with the Dead
The Skull Ring
Drummer Boy
The Harvest
Kiss Me or Die
Liquid Fear
Chronic Fear
Cursed (with J.R. Rain)
Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)
Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)
Spider Bite (with J.R. Rain)
Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)
The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)
Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)
Playin’ Possum (with Milton Bagby)
October Girls
Crime Beat
The Dead Love Longer
Fangs In Vain
Burial to Follow
Story Collections
Curtains
Flowers
Ashes
The First
Zombie Bits
Head Cases
Gateway Drug
Missing Pieces
These Things Happened
American Horror
If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)
Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)
Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)
Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)
Bad Day for Balloons (with Sergio Castro)
BOX SETS
Ethereal Messenger
Mystery Dance
Horror Movies: Three Screenplays
Ghost Box: Six Supernatural Thrillers
Mad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Bad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Odd Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
VIEW U.K. KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:
Next #1: Afterburn
After: First Light
After #1: The Shock
After #2: The Echo
After: #3: Milepost 291
After #4: Whiteout
After #5: Red Scare
After #6: Dying Light
The Scarecrow (Solom #1)
The Narrow Gate (Solom #2)
The Preacher (Solom #3)
Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder
Zapheads #2: Scars and Ashes
Zapheads #3: Blood and Frost
McFall
Liquid Fear
Chronic Fear
Creative Spirit
The Home
The Gorge
Disintegration
The Red Church
Speed Dating with the Dead
The Skull Ring
Drummer Boy
The Harvest
Kiss Me or Die
Cursed (with J.R. Rain)
Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)
The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)
Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)
Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)
Spider Bite (with J.R. Rain)
Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)
Playin’ Possum (with Milton Bagby)
October
Girls
Crime Beat
The Dead Love Longer
Burial to Follow
Fangs In Vain
Collections
Curtains
Flowers
Ashes
The First
Zombie Bits
Head Cases
Gateway Drug
Missing Pieces
These Things Happened
Children’s Books
Bad Day for Balloons (with Sergio Castro)
If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)
Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)
Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)
Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)
Writing
Write Good or Die
The Indie Journey: Secrets to Writing Success
Omnibus editions
Ethereal Messenger
Mystery Dance
Horror Movies: Three Screenplays
Ghost Box: Six Supernatural Thrillers
Mad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Bad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Odd Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Sharon Stogner of Devil in the Details Editing and beta readers Frank Pero, Pamela Mullins, Steve Lowe, Don Cranford, and Meghan Gurley.
CONTENTS
After: Whiteout
About the Author
Other Books
UK Kindle Links
Table of Contents
After: Whiteout
About the Author
Other Books
UK Kindle Links