Crucible: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Next Book 5)
Page 19
The massive tubes that pumped plasma beneath the city folded and tore, radiating wide beams of blue light across the horizon. Despite the full daylight, the sky darkened for a moment as if some terrible eclipse had come to pass. Then the world split open with a terrible, grinding roar.
The blast wave hit him, warm and toxic, before the first bits of dirt and shards of alloy went whistling past.
He shouted a warning to K.C. and Squeak inside the house, diving to the ground as a projectile shattered a window. More debris and shrapnel rained down as the earth shook, and a hickory tree fell against the house. A bowl of smoke rolled out of the center of the city, gaining momentum like an avalanche before it billowed into the air. It rose in an odious, twisting pillar of silver, blue, and gray before topping out half a mile overhead in a mushroom cloud.
The cloud continued spreading as grit and metal flakes dribbled from its turbulent blossom. Franklin was nearly deaf and concussed from the blast’s impact, but he could hear the faint whistling as the heat created friction against the cooler air of the forest. Seconds passed before the tumult eased, and he lifted his head, ears ringing.
A huge gash in the soil remained where the city had been, although haze veiled the worst of the damage. Pockets of fire danced in the wasteland. Black pools of water shimmered with instant fallout, and here and there lay crumpled wads of metal and scorched pieces of concrete. The air carried a bitter, acidic odor that promised ill health.
Murray.
She did it.
He stood with wobbly knees and stared at the dead, defeated city. Zaps had reached into the future and perverted the science of this world, but humans had beaten them the old-fashioned way.
In absolute defiance and rejection of those who would make men slaves.
A powdery snow began to fall. The ashes drifted down and dusted his shoulders. When he lifted his face to look at the soft debris, some of the ash clung to his beard.
He stuck out his tongue and let a flake settle there and dissolve.
This was poison, he had no doubt, but it was also the taste of victory.
K.C. and Squeak dashed out of the house and called to him with great concern. He could barely hear them.
“Go back inside,” he said. “A storm’s coming.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
When the chopper made its reconnaissance flight the next day, they discovered the gaping hole in the earth where the Blue City had once stood.
The alloy lay in great rippled sheets like hardened lava. The depression was a hundred feet deep, a puddle of muddy water in the bottom. Aside from some cracked and blackened chunks of concrete, there was little left to mark either the Zap buildings or the former human neighborhoods. As Rachel stared down at the devastation, she could only hope that Franklin was mercifully incinerated before he felt any pain.
Torgeson asked Ziminiski if he wanted to set down, but Ziminski told the pilot to keep flying. The ash had reached all the way to their camp a hundred miles away, even though they were to the west and against the prevailing winds. The sky was still thick with the gray-white flakes, and the veiled sun glowered in mute scarlet. The camp’s engineers had detected high levels of radiation, and since only a couple of protective hazmat suits were available, Ziminski ordered them held in reserve for researchers.
In addition to DeVontay and Rachel sitting on a hard bench, two other soldiers were in the cargo bay, both grim-faced and depressingly young. The camp housed a hundred soldiers at most, and given the proven power of their enemy, Rachel saw little use in planning a future.
“I’m sorry, Rachel,” DeVontay said. His good eye brimmed with a tear he could barely restrain, his other socket covered by a makeshift black patch.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Rachel said. “Franklin would be okay with this. Anything’s better than being a slave.”
“That’s what you were trying to tell me yesterday. Some things are bigger than one person’s life.”
“And poor Squeak,” Rachel said, nearly numb to pain and loss. “At least she doesn’t have to grow up in this terrible world.”
“We’ll come back tomorrow and drop the engineers,” Ziminski shouted over the noisy engine. “See if we can learn anything else from this mess.”
“No sign of activity, sir,” called one of the soldiers scanning the blast zone from the opposite window. “No survivors.”
“Godspeed, President Murray,” Ziminski said to a ghost. “You gave your life fighting for what we believe. I’ve never know a better woman.”
“Does this mean you’re promoted?” asked Torgeson, who wasn’t a sentimental man.
“Not unless I want to go back to Virginia and battle Gen. Alexander for Luray Caverns. But we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Murray had already initiated orders for Operation Free Bird. Now that we know we can destroy these cities, we’ll deploy our nukes where they will inflict the most damage.”
Rachel lowered her voice. “That doesn’t sound good.”
DeVontay gripped her hands in his. “You know what Franklin told me when he thought he’d killed you along with Kokona?”
“What?”
“We always knew this is how it would end.”
Rachel closed her eyes to the scarred and scorched and wasted ground below.
Doomsdays sucked.
Especially if you survived.
The chopper cut its way toward the blood-colored haze hanging in the west, where a final tomorrow waited.
THE END
Sign up for Scott’s Tao of Boo newsletter for exclusive giveaways and book news.
Get the thrilling conclusion to the Next series!
After a post-apocalyptic showdown with a race of advanced mutants, Rachel Wheeler has lost everyone she loves in a hostile, contaminated land.
A half-mutant herself, she searches for the few remaining survivors with a dream of building a new civilization. But the survivors reject her strangeness, and the mutants don't trust her loyalties. Meanwhile, control of the world’s nuclear arsenal hangs in the balance as both sides pursue extermination.
Rachel is torn between two mighty forces, but she might be the key to altering a terrible, ruthless force that will destroy them all.
See it at Amazon or Amazon UK
See how it all started
FREE!
Amazon or at Amazon UK!
AFTER: THE SHOCK
Book 1 in the post-apocalyptic series
By Scott Nicholson
A massive solar storm erases the world's technological infrastructure and kills billions. While the remaining humans are struggling to adapt and survive, they notice that some among them have...changed.
Rachel Wheeler finds herself alone in the city, where violent survivors known as "Zapheads" roam the streets, killing and destroying. Her only hope is to reach the mountains, where her grandfather, a legendary survivalist, established a compound in preparation for Doomsday.
Other survivors are fleeing the city, but Zapheads aren't the only danger. Rogue bands of military soldiers want to impose their own order in the crumbling ruins of civilization. When Rachel discovers a 10-year-old boy, she vows to care for him even at the risk of her own life.
And the Zapheads are evolving, developing communal skills even as they lay waste to the society they will eventually replace.
Get After #1: The Shock free at Amazon US or Amazon UK
FREE!
Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder
An After spinoff series
By Scott Nicholson and Joshua Simcox
When Mackie Dailey survives a cataclysmic solar storm that wipes out civilization and mutates others into violent killers, he seeks out the one person he cares about most.
But when he returns to a college campus looking for Allie, he discovers she is a Zaphead—nearly unrecognizable as the human he once loved. Mackie becomes caught in a power struggle among a small group of survivors who turn the campus into a stronghold against the Zaphead threat. His old nemesis, Lucas Kride
r, has taken charge, but Krider’s vision of a new world is just as horrifying as the extinction they all face.
Will Mackie sacrifice himself so the group has a chance to survive, or will his demons turn out to be more dangerous than the strange, rampaging creatures that nature has unleashed?
Get Bone and Cinder free at Amazon or Amazon UK
***
About the author:
Scott Nicholson is the international bestselling author of more than 20 thrillers, including The Home, Disintegration, Liquid Fear, and Speed Dating with the Dead. His books have appeared in the Kindle Top 100 more than a dozen times in five different countries.
Visit his website at AuthorScottNicholson.com or view his Amazon Author Central page. Sign up for the Tao of Boo newsletter for giveaways and book releases.
Thanks to Sharon Stogner at Devil in the Details editing, as well as proofreaders Meghan Gurley and Frank Pero, and technical advisor Steve Lowe, SSRG (R).
VIEW OTHER KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:
Novels
After #0: First Light
After #1: The Shock
After #2: The Echo
After #3: Milepost 291
After#4: Whiteout
After #5: Red Scare
After #6: Dying Light
Next #1: Afterburn
Next #2: Earth Zero
Next #3: Radiophobia
Next #5: Crucible
Next #6: Half Life
Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder
Zapheads #2: Scars and Ashes
Zapheads #3: Blood and Frost
The Scarecrow (Solom #1)
The Narrow Gate (Solom #2)
The Preacher (Solom #3)
The Home
McFall
Creative Spirit
Disintegration
The Red Church
Speed Dating with the Dead
The Skull Ring
Drummer Boy
The Harvest
Kiss Me or Die
Liquid Fear
Chronic Fear
October Girls
Crime Beat
The Dead Love Longer
Fangs In Vain
Burial to Follow
Cursed (with J.R. Rain)
Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)
Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)
Spider Bite (with J.R. Rain)
Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)
The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)
Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)
Playin’ Possum (with Milton Bagby)
Story Collections
Curtains
Flowers
Ashes
The First
Zombie Bits
Head Cases
Gateway Drug
Missing Pieces
These Things Happened
American Horror
Children’s Books
If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)
Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)
Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)
Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)
Bad Day for Balloons (with Sergio Castro)
VIEW U.K. KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:
Next #1: Afterburn
Next #2: Earth Zero
Next #3: Radiophobia
Next #5: Crucible
Next #6: Half Life
After: First Light
After #1: The Shock
After #2: The Echo
After: #3: Milepost 291
After #4: Whiteout
After #5: Red Scare
After #6: Dying Light
The Scarecrow (Solom #1)
The Narrow Gate (Solom #2)
The Preacher (Solom #3)
Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder
Zapheads #2: Scars and Ashes
Zapheads #3: Blood and Frost
McFall
Liquid Fear
Chronic Fear
Creative Spirit
The Home
The Gorge
Disintegration
The Red Church
Speed Dating with the Dead
The Skull Ring
Drummer Boy
The Harvest
Kiss Me or Die
October Girls
Crime Beat
The Dead Love Longer
Burial to Follow
Fangs In Vain
Cursed (with J.R. Rain)
Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)
The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)
Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)
Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)
Spider Bite (with J.R. Rain)
Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)
Playin’ Possum (with Milton Bagby)
Collections
Curtains
Flowers
Ashes
The First
Zombie Bits
Head Cases
Gateway Drug
Missing Pieces
These Things Happened
Children’s Books
Bad Day for Balloons (with Sergio Castro)
If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)
Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)
Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)
Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)
Return to Table of Contents