The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End

Table of Contents

• Characters of Note
  
• Acronyms
  
• Prologue
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Chapter Nineteen
  
• Chapter Twenty
  
• Chapter Twenty-one
  
• Chapter Twenty-two
  
• Chapter Twenty-three
  
• Chapter Twenty-four
  
• Epilogue
  
• Afterword
  
• Works Cited & Interesting Links
  
• Excerpt From The Dying of the Light: Interval
  
• About the Author
  

THE DYING OF THE LIGHT

End

By Jason Kristopher

Text and illustrations copyright ©2011 by Grey Gecko Press.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. This book is a work of fiction; Any resemblance to real persons (living or dead) events or entities is purely coincidental.

Published by Grey Gecko Press, Katy, Texas.

www.greygeckopress.com

Printed in the United States of America

Design by Grey Gecko Press

Illustration / cover art by Oliver Wetter / Fantasio Fine Arts —
http://fantasio.info

Additional illustrations by Dennis Fanning / Fanning Creative — fanningcreative.carbonmade.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kristopher, Jason

The dying of the light: end / Jason Kristopher

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011928806

ISBN 978-0-9836185-1-5

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

First Edition

To my family and friends
who always believed
And most especially to my grandmother
Margie Warhol
who was always my biggest fan

prion (noun):
a protein particle that is believed to be the cause of brain diseases such as BSE [“Mad Cow” disease], scrapie, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Prions are not visible microscopically, contain no nucleic acid, and are highly resistant to destruction.

— Oxford English Dictionary
⁽¹⁾

“…much more science is needed. There are many things we don’t understand, and the whole science of how prions propagate and cross species barriers is developing as we speak.”

— Dr. Neil Cashman, University of Toronto’s Center for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases
⁽²⁾

“We were amazed at how efficiently they spread.”

— Adriano Aguzzi, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
⁽³⁾

“The bottom line is, if we don’t tightly control these diseases, we’re going to regret it big time.”

— Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti, Director, National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center
⁽²⁾

Characters of Note

Military Personnel

Col George Maxwell, Army Ranger, AEGIS CO

Cmdr Frank Anderson, Navy SEAL, AEGIS XO

First Team

Alpha Squad

Maj Kimberly Barnes, Army Spec. Forces, CO

David Blake, XO

Gunnery Sgt Dalton Gaines, USMC MSOR

Cpt Tom Reynolds, USAF 1
^st
Spec Ops Wing

Sgt Rachel Eaton, Special Forces

Cpt Angelo Martinez, Ranger

Bravo Squad

Lt Jake Powell, SEAL

Petty Off 2
^nd
Class Edward Ames, SEAL

Sgt Desmond Jones, Ranger

Sgt Victor Roberts, USMC MSOR

Sgt Arkady Ivanovich, Special Forces

Second Team

Charlie Squad

Maj Shawn Carver, Special Forces, CO

Lt Manuel Ramos, USAF 1
^st
Spec Ops Wing

Cpt Lawrence Greer, Special Forces, XO

Delta Squad

Cpt Janet Turner, USAF 1
^st
Spec Ops Wing

Third Team

Echo Squad

Maj Terrance James, USMC MSOR, CO

Foxtrot Squad

Corpsman 1
^st
Class Lucia Santos, USN, XO

Fourth Team

Golf Squad

Lt Malcolm Dagger, USMC MSOR, CO

Hotel Squad

Sgt Gordon Tremaine, Ranger, XO

Seventh Team

Mike Squad

Lt Adrian Masters, SEAL, CO

Non-Military Personnel

Dr. Mary Adamsdóttir, Research, AEGIS

Rebecca Campbell, fianceé of David Blake

Eric Campbell, adopted son of David Blake

Morena Forrest, survivor of Laramie, WY

Michael Forrest, survivor of Laramie, WY

Henry Gardner, AEGIS Government Liaison

Harry Stafford, survivor, Washington Territory

Acronyms

AEGIS

Advanced Experimental Genetics Intelligence Service

ACU

Army Combat Uniform, standard Army uniform

CDC

Centers for Disease Control (and Prevention)

CO

Commanding officer of a unit or group

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

ICV

Infantry Combat Vehicle

IED

Improvised Explosive Device

OSS

Office of Strategic Services (precursor to CIA)

REAPR

Real-time Enemy Assessors and Physiology Readers

USAMRIID

United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases

XO

Executive officer, second in command of a unit or group

Prologue

Fall Creek, Colorado — 1 year ago

I didn’t see Rebecca die the second time.

Or the first, for that matter.

I knew that I didn’t want to be out on the street right now; not this close to nightfall.
Night is
their
time
, I thought, and realized I was whispering to myself. If I kept this up, I was going to go as bat-shit crazy as old man Feldon had been even before it all hit the fan.

He only ended up ranting and raving in the street, not eating people; he got off easy.

The waning Colorado sunlight fell across the street below me, and I could see more than a few of the bastards milling around, looking for a meal. I hid behind the roof sign for the small grocery store, my rifle across my back and my pistol in hand.

As I looked across the street, I could see my goal: Monty’s Sports & Outdoors. Ten rounds in the pistol and a few in the rifle wasn’t going to do it; I needed some more ammo if I was going to survive getting out of here. Unfortunately, there were about 30 walking death machines separating me from my next step on the road to Splitsville.

I sighed and checked my pistol’s magazine once more, shifting the weight of the rifle.
Maybe if I move down the street I can find a quieter place to cross over.

Suddenly, my eye caught on one of them wearing a sundress and standing apart from the others. Despite the rips and tears in the dress, I could see the pattern of flowers and pale yellow fabric. My vision tracked upwards, catching other details, like the silver watch and the simple necklace, framed by the long blonde hair, the bite and claw marks evident on her shoulder and upper arm. I knew what I would see as I raised my gaze to the thing’s face, and as much as I hoped I was wrong in those few seconds, I wasn’t.

It was Rebecca, my fiancée.

It had taken me most of two days. I’d grabbed the only guns I had in the house and went out looking. When she wasn’t waiting at the house like I’d asked, I’d headed back there each night when my search yielded nothing. I couldn’t leave without knowing — not guessing, but knowing for certain — that she was either dead or… something else.