by Dawn, M. K.
She shook her head and refused to move.
“Come on!” Archer raced for the vehicle with Britney, Axel, and Sloan close on his heels. The Hummer came to a skidding halt as they dove for the driver’s side, using the vehicle as a shield.
As much as Britney wanted to help Mia and the others, she had her kids to worry about.
The driver’s side door swung open. Carson’s small frame shook as he handed over a stack of guns.
Archer and Axel each took the weapons and fired on David’s men.
“Are you okay?” Britney grabbed Carson’s face. “Where are the others?”
Carson nodded and pointed to the back seat. Sloan yanked open the back door and climbed inside. “They’re all here and okay.”
“Thank God. Now move over and get down.” Britney climbed into the driver’s seat, careful to keep her head down.
“What about Axel and Archer?” Sloan asked.
Concerned about the wellbeing of her children, Britney hadn’t noticed that they’d taken off. “Do you see them?”
“They’re taking out the guards and heading for David and Juliet. Our people are fighting back with the weapons of their dead. No one seems to be paying attention to us. But there are more coming.”
“Shit. Hold on.” Britney punched the gas and sped off to help Archer and Axel, hitting several of David’s men.
Britney swerved and slammed on the brakes. “Get in! We have to get out of here.”
“Go!” Archer shoved Axel to the Hummer. “I got your back.”
Axel threw open the door and climbed in the backseat, aiming his gun out the window. “Archer, your turn.”
Archer spun around and sprinted toward them, throwing himself into the seat next to Axel. “Go!”
Britney floored it in the direction of the fields.
“What about everyone else?” Sloan asked, arranging each of the kids in one of the adult’s lap. “We can’t leave them.”
Britney looked at Archer, and he sighed. “There’s nothing we can do, Slash. We go back now and we’re all dead.”
“What about my mom?” Tyler asked. “And Terrance?”
Tears burned Britney’s eyes.
“Need me to drive?” Axel asked
Britney barreled through a barbed wire fence, not bothering to slow down. “I’m okay. We need to put as much distance between us and them as possible.”
Tyler cried as Sloan quietly explained what happened.
Britney glanced over at Carson, who hadn’t spoken a word since she took over the wheel. His eyes were closed and sweat beaded his forehead. “Baby, are you okay?”
Carson’s eyes fluttered, but he said nothing.
Britney tried to keep a look out for the upcoming fence, but her motherly instincts told her something was wrong.
“Carson?” She shook him. “Look at me, baby.”
Axel reached over and tried to sit him up. “Shit.”
“What’s wrong?” Britney shouted, trying her best to keep her eyes on the field.
Axel held up his hand. “Blood. Pull over, Brit, he’s hurt.”
Britney hit the brakes, throwing everyone forward. “Carson, can you hear me? What happened?”
Carson moaned.
Britney ran a hand over his head, and a handful of hair came out. Her entire body shook as she turned to her sister. “Sloan?”
Molly whimpered and buried her face into Axel’s chest. Blake and Tyler huddled together.
Sloan and Archer both climbed out of the vehicle. Sloan rushed to the front passenger seat while Archer kept watch.
“Carson, honey, I’m going to roll you on your side,” Sloan said.
Britney watched in horror as Sloan pulled up Carson’s shirt and revealed a bullet wound to the rib. Sloan grimaced as she traced the black lines with her fingers. “He’s infested. Probably shot by the same bullets that killed Jesus.”
“Carson’s infested?” Molly cried.
Sloan looked up at Britney. “He doesn’t have much time. For some reason, these bullets accelerate the process. I have some medication in the back that wil—” a sob broke through her lips.
“Oh God! No, no, no!” Britney climbed over the center console and pulled Carson to her chest as she sobbed. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry. It’s going to be okay. I’m right here.”
Archer climbed in the driver’s side; his face wet with tears. “We have to go. They’re heading this way.”
Sloan returned a second later with a full syringe. “Here.”
Britney took it with a shaky hand. How could a mother ever be ready for something like this?
As soon as Sloan slammed the backdoor, Archer gunned it through the fence line and took a sharp left toward the road.
Britney held Carson close, rocking her oldest child, whispering in his ear how much she loved him and how he saved them all. She’d never felt so much pain, felt so numb, in her entire life.
As his breathing slowed, she pressed her lips to his forehead, cherishing the final moments she’d ever spend with him.
“Go be with your daddy, baby. I’ll see you again.”
With his last breath, Britney closed her eyes and jabbed the needled into his chest, killing the monster that took her son’s life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Sloan watched the flames dance against the night sky. Relief washed over her as the hospital burned to the ground along with the Children of the Apocalypse’s supply of the infested.
After Carson’s death, they couldn’t think of a better way to seek revenge without facing them directly.
Only three others had escaped that day besides them: Sam, Angie, and Maria. They had somehow made it to the rendezvous point in town, badly injured but alive.
Even with them, there was no way they would risk taking on David and his people again. No matter how badly they all wanted to see him dead.
Axel and Archer had taken it particularly hard, both feeling like they should have been able to take David out during their escape. But what was done was done, and there was no turning back. They were alive, and that’s all that mattered.
“Are you okay?” Archer asked as he came up beside her.
Sloan sniffled. “I think so. How’s Brit taking all this?”
“Pissed.” Archer sighed, running his tongue over his still bruised and swollen lip. “She doesn’t understand why we have to leave.”
They’d gone over this a dozen times in the week since the ambush. “If they weren’t after us before, they will be now. We have no choice. We have to get as far away from here as possible.”
“What we need to do is find a safe place to hunker down for the winter. Last thing we need is to be stuck in the open when a big storm hits with limited supplies.”
“You guys ready?” Axel called from the Hummer. “Tanks are full and the extra gas cans are tied to the roof.”
Archer draped his arm over Sloan’s shoulders. “We’ll find something. For now, we have to keep moving. Maybe we’ll stumbled across a town that hasn’t been picked over.”
“Do you really thing a place like that exists?” Sloan asked before climbing into the Hummer.
Archer cupped her chin. “We escaped a bunker crawling with infested and took a plane across country and found your sister, alive and still living in your childhood home. What do you think the odds of that happening were?”
Sloan couldn’t help but smile even though she felt nothing but pain. “Astronomical.”
Britney stuck her head out the back window. “You guys riding with us? Or are you hitching a ride with Sam, Angie, and Maria?”
Britney hadn’t bothered masking her pain, and who could blame her? Her son had died in her arms. How any mother moved on from that, Sloan had no idea.
Archer held the back door open. “After you.”
Sloan scooted to the middle seat and smiled down on the three sleeping children. They’d been so brave through all of this and so resilient.
Axel threw the Hummer i
nto drive and took off down the road, Sam following close behind, until they came to the highway. “North or South.”
“The infested don’t do well in the cold,” Britney said.
Archer clicked his tongue. “Neither do we.”
“What we need is an island,” Archer said with a chuckle. “Or a house with a really big wall surrounding it.”
Axel put the Hummer into gear. “West coast it is.”
“West coast?” Sloan asked confused.
“L.A.,” Axel grinned. “Big houses with high fences designed to keep people out. And if we can’t find one of those, we’ll find ourselves a boat and maybe an island.”
“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” Sloan said.
Archer patted Sloan’s thigh. “You got a better idea, Slash?”
Sloan leaned her head against the seat and closed her eyes. “No, I guess not.”
“All right, then!” Axel punched the gas. “Hollywood, here we come.”
Thank you so much for reading!
If you have time to spare, a short review would be greatly appreciated.
Follow me at or sign up for my newsletter:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mkdawnauthor/
Website: http://mkdawnauthor.com/
Instagram: M.K. Dawn Author
Other Books by M.K. Dawn:
The Immortal Wars Trilogy
The Immortal Plague (Book 1)
The Immortal Deceit (Book 2)
The Immortal Affliction (Book 3)
The Nysian Trilogy (Fantasy)
The Nysian Prophecy (Book 1 is FREE)
The Nysian Prophecy Revealed (Book 2)
The Nysian Prophecy Fulfilled (Book 3)
The Decay of Humanity Series (Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)
Dusk of Humanity (Book 1)
Descent of Humanity (Book 2)
Demise of Humanity (Book 3)
Dawn of Humanity (Book 4) – Coming 2020
Contemporary Romance
Under the Texas Sky – A How We Met Novella
About the Author
M.K. Dawn was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She now lives south of town on a cattle ranch with her husband, two kids, seven dogs, and a rabbit. When she's not writing, she can be found driving her kids around to after-school activities, decorating cakes and watching as much
