The Summer the World Ended (45 page)

Riley grasped the skull. The man rolled a rubber stamp over the back of her hand, tagging her a ‘minor’ in big, red letters.

Kieran offered a resigned chuckle and held out his arm. “Sixteen.”

The bouncer pulled a black curtain aside after stamping him. Kieran ducked through, pulling Riley along by the hand. Skeletons, skulls, and loose bones clung to every possible surface. Far to the right, a bar sat behind a cluster of tables. A stage dominated the central area, already containing Black Chakra’s equipment. Their mascot, a skeleton in lotus pose with green flames in its eyes, adorned the drum kit.

They wandered through the seats in the rear, past the standing area/mosh pit closest to the stage, to another section of tables on the left side where Camila, Lyle, and Luis sat. Riley tensed, expecting to relive the awkwardness of her last meeting with these people. Luis noticed her first, and smiled. He seemed much more sober than before. His still-dazed grin didn’t strike her as menacing at all anymore.

Camila’s hand bore no stamp, and humor lit her eyes when she noticed Riley’s. “Hey,
kiddo.
”

“Hey.” Riley sat in the chair Kieran pulled out for her.

“Yo.” Lyle looked her over. “Sorry to hear about your old man. Rough. Glad to see you’re okay.”

“Thanks,” mumbled Riley.

“Aww.” Camila drifted over to give her a hug. “Sorry if we were like… insensitive about him before. We didn’t know he was like, legit crazy.”

“Neither did I.” Riley felt her back muscles tensing, but relaxed when Kieran sat close enough to keep an arm around her. “I probably shoulda realized.”

“Yah.” Luis nodded in slow motion. “You guys wanna hang after the show?”

“I gotta go home right after.” Riley offered a weak smile. She almost wanted to stay and hang out, but pulling something like that the first time her foster parents trusted her seemed like a bad choice, and she’d had enough of bad choices for a while.

“Hey, it’s cool.” Luis nodded.

Jaime wandered out from a hidden curtain, a guitar on his back. He approached Luis, but looked at Riley. “Hey, kid. Glad you got away alive.”

Riley squinted. “I wasn’t kidnapped. Dad thought the world ended. We were hiding. He almost shot a cop.”

“Yo…” Luis snapped his head up as if startled. “How come your Dad never lost his shit before when they did an exercise before? He’s almost on top of the bomb range.”

Camila threw a handful of napkins at him. “Ass. Try to be a little more sensitive.”

“It’s okay.” Riley fidgeted with a plastic straw, spinning it on the table. “I dunno. I guess it was just ‘cause everything that was going on. He freaked when I told him about the convoy we saw. Maybe it put ‘nukes’ in his head or something. It kinda felt like we were scaring the shit out of each other and it kept getting stronger.”

“Yah.” Luis gestured at the stage. “Like a feedback loop.”

Wayne, drumsticks in hand, emerged from the same curtain. “Yo, we gotta half hour before we need to prep.”

“Aww, damn.” Jaime reached across the table, making a fist.

Riley looked confused for a second, then touched her knuckles to his.

Jaime pressed his fist into hers, smiled, and lowered his arm. “Not the greatest way to wind up here, but welcome to New Mexico. There’s reasons to everything that happens. The trick is learning what they are before it’s too late.”

The Chinese kid with the lip rings appeared on the stage. He waved at the table, pointed at Riley, and gave a thumbs-up before kneeling to fiddle with some of the sound gear.

“Don’t mind fortune cookie,” said Wayne. “He’s sucked up too much nag champa.”

“Such aggression.” Jaime brought his hands together like a meditating monk. “You must learn to release your anger.”

“Uh, okay.”
Whatever that is.
Riley draped herself over Kieran’s shoulder and smiled at her new friends.

When she looked up at his smile, he leaned in and their lips touched. Riley gave in to the kiss, holding on as if the two of them were the only people left alive. They gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment after. Lyle and Camila took their cue and embraced. A twinge of nerves rattled through Riley’s arms as she watched them wrestle with their tongues. Kissing Kieran on the lips had been awkward, scary, thrilling, and wonderful… but having his tongue inside her mouth? A wave of light-headedness swept over her. As gross as it sounded on the surface to think about, she found herself looking up at him and considering it.

Kieran caressed her cheek. “I love your smile. It’s nice to finally see it.” He kissed her again, but she chickened out on the tongue. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Riley smiled at him. “I survived the apocalypse, right?”

I’d like to thank Sam Hunt (author of the
Outlaw King
series) for providing an initial concept cover that gave me the inspiration for this book. I had asked him about what he would do for a cover for another one of my novels (Caller 107) and rather than give me an opinion, he sent me an image. While it was amazing, it didn’t work out as a cover for that book. I resolved to write something based on it. Many hours of staring at the image eventually produced the story you’ve just read.

Much gratitude to Lisa Gus for being a huge help editing this book.

Additional thanks to (in alphabetical order):

• Tony Baker (author of
  Survivors of the Dead
  ) for his assistance and advice about police related tactics and information.
  
• Joseph Cautilli, Ph.D. LP, LPC, LBS, BCBA-D, BCIS for help with information regarding mental health issues.
  
• Dr. Darin Kennedy (author of the Mussorgsky Riddle) for assistance with medical information.
  
• Eugene Teplitsky for the beautiful cover.
  
• Merethe Najjar for proofreading.
  
• Ann Anderson Noser (author of How to Date Dead Guys) for invaluable critique feedback.
  
• The Curiosity Quills team for making it possible.
  

Special thanks (beta reading, feedback, and support) go out to:

• Mark Junk
  
• Denise Kalicki
  
• Amy Spitzley
  
• Nerissa Spitzley
  
• Wilbert Stanton
  
• Leslie Whitaker
  
• James Wymore
  

Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973,
Matthew
has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.

Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.

He is also fond of cats.

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