by Vince Byrd
Shadows of the Apocalypse
The Quiet
Book Two
Vince Byrd
Shadows of the Apocalypse
The Quiet
Book Two
Copyright © 2018 by: Vince Byrd
All rights reserved. No part or portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, printed or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters and events are fictitious. The author took artistic liberties with places, locations, towns, vehicles, items and buildings.
While places and buildings may be real, they were used in a purely fictional manner.
ISBN-13: 978-0-578-43557-2
Acknowledgements
First of all, I want to thank you the reader, because without you what would be the point? So, thank you. It was an honor that you gave me your time. I hope you enjoyed our journey together.
I am grateful to my wife Angie, for being everything I needed to get this project completed.
Thank you again Katie, for another fabulous cover design. You never disappoint.
Thanks to all of you who had a hand in bringing this work to completion.
Dedicated to all of you, who have a dream;
don’t let anyone steal your vision, because it’s yours.
Keep on chasing it until it’s real.
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Twenty-eight
Twenty-nine
Thirty
Thirty-one
Thirty-two
Thirty-three
Thirty-four
Thirty-five
Thirty-six
Thirty-seven
Thirty-eight
Thirty-nine
Afterword
About the Author
One
Paige Day 1
Paige Gibson rubbed her blue eyes, as the sunlight beamed through the curtains of her bedroom at the Crown Wellington Condo in Destin, Florida. She pushed her blonde hair back, reached for her phone on the nightstand and tapped the screen. It lit up, showing a selfie of her and Ethan in front of the ocean smiling with their faces pressed together. Ethan Lee was her boyfriend. He had an almost perfect smile, except for the tiny, horizontal scar in the corner of his mouth he had gotten from chewing on an electric cord as a toddler. He had short, black, wavy hair, brown eyes, and a tan from winter beach volleyball. They’d taken this trip to Destin together with his parents, David and Emily Lee, as a Christmas break getaway. David and Emily owned a fourth--floor condo, which David used several times a year for business and family vacations. Paige tapped the messages icon on her phone, typed, “Are you up?”, and sent it to Ethan with a yawning emoji. She dropped her phone down on the bed and covered her head with the sheet to block out the brightness of the morning.
Buzz, buzz, her phone sounded. She threw back the sheet and read his reply, “Just getting dressed. You?”
“Just woke up. What time did you leave the room last night?” she texted back.
“Around 1 a.m., you fell asleep on me. You missed the fourth Sharknado.”
“I’m so hungry. What are we doing for breakfast?”
“Dad’s in the kitchen now cooking bacon, eggs, and pancakes. I’m surprised you don’t smell it.”
“I do now. I’ll be ready in 20.”
“You better make it 15 if you want some bacon,” he answered with a smiling bacon emoji.
“I know your dad will save me some,” she sent back an “I’m watching you” emoji with two fingers pointing at angry eyes.
“I guess you’re lucky he’s here, then.”
“Don’t mess with my bacon Mr.!” she texted as she entered the en suite, and turned on the shower.
“15; or your bacon is up for grabs,” he responded.
Paige smiled stacking her two towels up on the vanity top as steam started to rise from the shower.
***
“You can cook the toast, if you want,” David answered. David met Emily when she came to his work to buy a new car and her water broke in the car she was test driving. He was not Ethan’s real father. He had opened a small car lot in Emily’s home town of Kokomo, Indiana, and that day he had rushed her to the hospital and stayed with her through the entire delivery. He had married Emily when Ethan was just one year old, and Ethan considered him to be his dad.
Ethan’s biological father had disappeared on his way home from work one day. They never really got any complete details on what exactly had happened to him. Emily had told Ethan that his dad was a heavy drug user, and he may have been killed by a drug dealer. She had already filed for divorce over his lies, refusal to get help, his shady deals, and the constant drug abuse. She was six months pregnant with Ethan at the time he had gone missing. The police found their car riddled with bullets holes. A critical amount of Ethan Sr.’s blood was found pooled in the seat of the car. Ethan’s dad was pronounced dead after fourteen months of investigation. His body was found in the trunk of another car at a salvage yard two counties over. David and Emily were married not long after Ethan Sr.’s funeral.
Emily kissed David on the cheek and rubbed a spot of shaving cream off his ear that he’d missed earlier in his morning routine. “The eggs look nearly done. I better hurry.” She washed her hands, spread out several pieces of wheat bread, buttered each, added some cheese to a few slices, and placed them in their double-decker toaster oven. She set the timer and said, “Five minutes.”
Ethan stood at the kitchen entrance, watching his parents cook and interact with each other. He noticed how his dad was starting to show his age with gray on the sides of his full head of dark and wavy hair. David was tall, but he was slowing down and the big breakfasts were starting to catch up to him, as his belly was getting rounder. Ethan’s mom also had dark hair, and it was short, cropped, and stiff from hairspray. With her thin face and slender body, he thought she pulled the do off well. It complimented her age. She turned around and saw Ethan watching her. She smiled at him and said, “Good morning, Little Man.”
“Mom, we talked about that.”
“I’m sorry! Ethan, I mean…but you’ll always be my ‘Little Man’. Will you help me set the table please?” she asked with her questioning amber eyes.
“No problem, Mom, whatever you need. Where’s the bacon?” he scanned the counter while reaching for some plates.
“I know you and Paige fight over the bacon, so I’m not putting it out until she’s ready,” David revealed.
“Come on, Dad, she’ll never know if you slip me a piece or two.”
“I heard that, ‘Little Man’,” Paige blurted as she entered the kitchen with a towel wrapped around her head.
“Uh oh, Mom! She heard you.”
“Sorry!
” Emily exclaimed.
“That’s right, buddy, and you’re going to hear it a lot more from me now,” Paige pointed her finger at him.
“Busted!” David declared.
“You know the bacon rule. We can only eat it when we’re both together,” Paige reminded.
“What’s the story behind your bacon rule anyway?” Emily asked.
Ethan opened his mouth and Paige stopped him by holding up her hand. “I’ll tell it. It was my second day of college. I was in the cafeteria with a plate of eggs and bacon, and I forgot orange juice. I went back up to the line to get juice, and when I returned, some weird guy was standing over my plate eating my bacon.”
“I’m the weird guy,” Ethan admitted.
“That’s right. I was already having a bad morning and some freak was eating my wonderful, make-me-feel-better bacon. He apologized, of course, while he finished downing the last of it,” Paige explained.
“What were you thinking, Son?” David asked. “Free bacon?”
“Actually, in my defense, the cafeteria was just about to close, and I was helping with the cleanup, since we had a fraternity meeting in there. I thought someone had left their plate, and I was hungry,” he argued.
Paige held up her hands, “But wait, that wasn’t the beginning of the rule. Ethan finally convinced me to go out with him after about two weeks. We agreed on breakfast since our schedules were tight, and we met off campus at a little ‘Mom & Pop’ diner that everyone said had the best food. It’s called Elmer’s Place, and they do have the best home-cooked food ever. Anyway, it was the same deal. I went to the bathroom, and when I returned to the table, bacon missing from my plate. Of course, I accused him right away, and he did confess to the crime. So, we agreed that if this relationship was going to go anywhere, there had to be a bacon rule.”
“I ordered the ham that morning and just wanted a piece of bacon. I was paying for the breakfast, and I didn’t think she would miss one piece. Most women I’ve dated didn’t even eat on the date. I couldn’t let my bacon cravings run off the most beautiful woman I’d ever come across. When she yelled at me that day in the cafeteria, I was awestruck. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t focus. I just had to get to know her. But she wouldn’t go out with me because I stole her bacon, and then I did it again. I agreed to only eat bacon in her presence. That is the bacon rule.”
David shook head and said, “Let’s eat; there’s plenty for us all.”
Paige and Ethan smiled and then kissed each other on the lips. “I knew you were there when I asked Dad for a piece,” he admitted when their lips parted.
“You did not! You better be glad you’re cute or I wouldn’t put up with you,” she joked.
“I’m so happy that you do. Hey, on another note, what time is your dad getting in?”
“His plane lands at 2:50 in Atlanta. What time are we leaving?” Paige asked.
“Dad?” Ethan watched his dad stuff his mouth full of eggs.
“Oh, we’re leaving at eleven,” David mumbled, adjusting the food to one side of his mouth, “If not sooner. Will you two be ready?”
“No problem, I’m already packed. I just have to fix my hair and eat this wonderful breakfast you’ve fixed for us. Thanks, Mr. Lee.” Paige dipped out some eggs from the bowl on the table.
“You’re very welcome, and please call me David. Mr. Lee makes me sound old.”
“You got it, David.”
“You are old, Dad,” Ethan sassed.
“Watch it, Son. We can still leave you behind. And, I’m only fifty-seven years young.”
They dug into the breakfast and laughed as they reminisced about their last few days they’d spent together. Paige got along well with David and Emily, who adored her. “What’s your dad do for a living, Paige?” David asked.
“He’s a carpenter. He builds houses, room additions, and does some remodels,” she explained.
“Wow, I could use him for our house,” Emily chimed in.
“He stays pretty backed up with work, but I could put in a good word for you.”
“That would be great,” Emily approved.
“Mom, Paige is quite handy as well if you need something small done,” Ethan added.
“My dad taught me a lot. I was doing some handyman jobs around college.”
“She has her own business, called Ms. Fix-It. She makes good money,” Ethan bragged.
“It’s true. Like I said, my dad taught me a lot. I do small jobs like replacing rotting wood on decks or window sills. I’ll hang a ceiling fan, do some painting, hang some frames, apply a wall paper border—small jobs that I can handle on my own. It gives me some spending money,” Paige explained.
“Ethan, this girl’s a keeper,” Emily announced.
“Oh, I know she is,” he agreed.
***
After helping clean up the kitchen and putting everything in its place, Paige went to her room to call her brother, Jacob.
“Hey, Scooter!” Jacob shouted as he appeared on her phone in full military gear.
“Hey, is this a bad time?” she asked.
“I can’t talk long, so listen; the brass has been crawling all over the base. Something big is coming. We’ve been loading old deuce and halves and a butt-ton of MREs and are shipping them to the States. They’re sending my logistics team to Texas, but they’re putting us on an old naval ship that they pulled out of retirement. We leave in like an hour headed for Jacksonville, Florida,” he explained.
“So, you’re coming home, then?”
“No, Scooter. Something major is happening in the States, and they’re sending us there to work it.” He made some hand motions to someone that was yelling at him in the background. He turned back to the phone, “I’m sorry, I gotta go!” He leaned in close to his phone, “Tell Dad something huge is about to happen. You two watch your six, this is big Scooter. Love you! Stay safe!”
“I love you too!” she said as the call ended.
Ethan entered her room and asked, “What’s up? I thought you were calling your brother.”
“I just did. He said he had to go. He said something big was coming to the States and to watch my six. They’re also putting him on a ship to Florida, then on to Texas.”
“That’s great. Maybe we can fly out to see him before school starts back. I hope it’s Texas. I’ve always wanted to see the Lone Star State.”
“Maybe,” she answered, pondering what Jacob meant by what he said.
“Come on, we have to load the van. Dad has to stop by the car lot before we officially get on the road,” Ethan coaxed, picking up one of her suitcases.
Two
“What’s taking Dad so long?” Ethan asked his mom.
“You know your Dad. When he starts talking shop, it’s hard to get him to stop. I’ll go in and hurry him along,” she answered.
“We’re going to look at the cars on the lot while we wait.”
“Okay, honey.” Ethan’s mom stepped out of their white Ford passenger van and walked into the showroom of Lee’s Auto. Paige and Ethan also got out of the van and started to peruse all the new cars on the lot.
“How convenient for your dad to own a car lot here, so close to the beach,” Paige stated.
“This will be all mine when I graduate college. I’ll be running this lot.” Ethan glided his hand over the fender of a new Ford Focus. “Dad’s going to hand it over to me.”
“Wow, that’s great, Ethan. Is that what you want to do?”
“I guess. It’s as good as anything, and I’ll be my own boss. So yeah, I’ll take it. I’ve already been working with Dad for years anyway. I know the business well enough. He’s been grooming me for it. I know he’ll call the shots for a while, but when he feels comfortable, he’ll let me run with it.”
“I thought you wanted to develop your banking app idea you’ve be
en working on. Tell me how it works again,” she inquired.
“It combines all of your finances into one app, in the palm of your hand. You’ll be able to pay bills, borrow money, send money, loan money, buy stocks, set up a 401K, retirement plan, buy insurance, buy a car, buy groceries, rent a movie…”
“You’re such a nerd,” she cut him off with a teasing coy grin.
“Yeah, but I will be a filthy rich nerd if it works out. I’m in the final developing stages, and my tech adviser said, I’m very close to a test launch,” he declared.
“What does your Dad think about the app?”
“He’s not that technical, so he isn’t interested. He just wants me to be his protégé.” They stopped in front of a red Thunderbird convertible with white racing stripes. “You would look so hot in this,” he said, pointing at the car with a smirk.
“I thought I would look hot in anything?” She looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“Oh, you would, definitely. I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t try to back track now, ‘Little Man’, it’s out there. You’ve seen me at my worst on this trip. Maybe you were disappointed with what you saw,” she implied.
“No, no! You would look hot in anything. I just meant the car would make you even that much hotter,” he groveled. “You are always beautiful, I mean...”
“I’m just razzing you. I know what you meant, and thanks. I would look good in that car, but anybody would. Razzing? Who says that?” she laughed at herself. “You like my new word? My professor said it in class the other day, and I guess it got stuck in my head.”
“You definitely don’t hear anyone saying it,” he admitted.
“Ethan, you don’t have to worry; I’m confident in who I am and how I look. You can pretty much say anything to me. You can say I look hot; you can say I look sexy. You can even tell me my butt looks fat in a certain dress or outfit. I prefer you to be honest and open with me. Don’t be hateful, though. Just be yourself. I didn’t mean to make you apologetic or uncomfortable. I was just kidding around with you. I am very comfortable in how God made me.”
“Thanks, I thought you might be, but I wanted to be sure. You’re not like any other woman I’ve met. You’re so direct and forthcoming. You are easy to talk to. A lot of women are so sensitive about certain subjects that I have to watch what I say around them. It seems as though everyone has an axe to grind these days. Why not you?” he asked.
