After: Red Scare (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 5) (18 page)

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Authors: Scott Nicholson

Tags: #science fiction, #military, #horror, #action, #post-apocalyptic, #dystopian

BOOK: After: Red Scare (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 5)

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CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

The jail was quiet, and with the sun sinking fast, DeVontay raced through the facility as quickly as he could, figuring to check the deepest recesses first and working his way back toward the better lighting.

When he reached the cell block, he found seven dead bodies sitting propped against the cold steel bars, bearing dark holes of congealed blood. They’d obviously been there for hours.

This wasn’t the work of Zapheads. Then who…?

“Rachel? Are you in here?”

His shouts echoed off the masonry walls of the cell block, and a quick search showed the remaining cells were empty. Returning to the suite of law enforcement offices, he kicked open doors, leading with his rifle barrel as he probed each room.

He was pretty sure the building was free of Zapheads, but how could anybody be sure of anything in After?

The restrooms stank but were unoccupied, and likewise he found the offices cluttered and ravaged but otherwise empty.

He returned to the lobby and the last remaining office and a door marked “SHERIFF.”

He shoved his way inside.

“Rachel?”

The room was windowless, and the air was stagnant but carried a definite sweet stench. One he’d become all too familiar with in the last five months.

There were indefinable heaps on the floor—small heaps.

And one
large
heap.

A Rachel-sized heap.

He threw his rifle aside and dropped to his knees, grabbing for her hand. Her skin was cool and dry.

He whispered Rachel’s name as he shook her, avoiding looking at the raw, wet gash in the center of her chest, although its gravity pulled at his lone eye like a massive sun sucking at a comet.

She breathed something, her lips working together twice:
“Niiii…”

DeVontay wanted to scream,
Don’t speak, just hold on, hold on, don’t leave me
. Instead, he moved his ear closer as she repeated it.

“The night?” DeVontay wondered if she already felt the oppressive black hand of permanent darkness pushing down on her and squeezing her out of this world, along with the memories of joy and beauty and love.

He looked into her eyes and listened hard, knowing this might be her final message to the world, and to him.

“The…ninth…,” she sighed, clearly articulating the fricative at the end of the word, despite the effort it must have taken.

“The ninth?” DeVontay repeated, bewildered, racing to assign it some cosmic significance and only coming up with a stupid analogy to the last inning of a baseball game.

Then he pushed all thoughts from his mind and looked into her as fully as he could, hoping she could draw one last measure of comfort to carry with her on her journey.

Her lower lip quivered, and a soft December wind carried away her breath.

Her eyes were open, unseeing, as the last liquid fire leaked out of them.

Now her eyes were glass, and DeVontay’s good eye did the work of two in pouring forth his grief and desolation.

He didn’t even hear Franklin enter the room, nor anything the man said for the next half hour, except for three words that rattled the stony husk of his heart:

“War is over.”

THE END

Look for the thrilling conclusion to the After series!

After #6: Dying Light

After a bloody battle with mutant Zapheads, Rachel Wheeler’s life hangs in the balance as the world falls apart around her.

To save Rachel, a small group of survivors must find a missing baby, a hyperintelligent Zaphead with mysterious healing powers. The remaining Zapheads have reverted to mindless, violent savages who want to wipe out the human race. Only Rachel holds the key to understanding them and ending the devastating war.

But even if they succeed, a rogue military leader is determined to impose his fascist vision of the future. And Rachel and her friends will defend their freedom and humanity at any cost.

Get it at
Amazon US
or
Amazon UK

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
or his
Amazon Author Central
page