by T. K. Malone
“You never said why Briscoe had to die.”
“Briscoe? Because he’d never change. He’s a prepper, and preppers prep. Either you’re army or you’re not; either you’re a prepper or you’re not—certainly in Briscoe’s eyes.” Jake swung around and looked out at the valley. “That’s got to change. Can’t be all insular-like, now, can we, eh?”
Teah wondered if she’d ever work Jake out: one minute a loner, the very next concerned about everyone. “So, you’re going to be king?”
He laughed at that. “Nope. First off: I like being alone too much. So, nope, nope, nope…and nope.”
Max’s cabin was just over the other side of the ridge, but “just over” made a world of difference from the preppers’ side. It was certainly greener, and certainly cooler, and his cabin was certainly more luxurious than Teah had expected. It was set back into the folds of a narrow valley, a bubbling brook clearly its architect. With Trip’s help, Max set about making a fire; Trip had decided to spread the word about his smokeless twin pit.
“So,” Teah said, taking a spot close by them, “they were from the correctional?”
“One guard and three cons,” Kelly said, sitting next to her. “Looks like not all the guards ran. Seems some have teamed up with the inmates.” She looked up as Jake came out of the cabin, a couple of bottles in his hand. “So, you finally got to kill Briscoe,” she said to him. “If I were a betting woman, I’d have you two colluding.”
“Two?” Jake said. “And I just put him outta his misery.”
“You and Teah. Seems she killed Morrow, you killed Briscoe, and now the valley needs a leader. Teah, here, says you ain’t up fer it.”
“Nope,” and Jake slumped to the ground.
“So you’re just going to let them go to hell?”
“Can’t do that, either.”
“So what are you gonna do?” Trip asked.
“Me? You mean we, don’t you, Trip? Seems we’ve got ourselves a little team here.” Teah looked up, but Jake avoided her gaze. “There’s the army,” Jake said, “and then there’s everybody else.”
“You fixing a bargain with Black City Correctional?”
Jake laughed. “There ain’t no way on earth I could make that bargain stick, but it’d make sense. With Christmas, that’d give us three valleys’ worth of produce, but three heads to defend. Need an army fer that. Cornelius Clay’s coming anyway, his dead scouts point to that.”
“What about Clay?” Teah asked.
Jake shrugged. “You got your team. I take it we are a team now?” and he looked around at everyone. No one said, “no”. “Good. So, there you are, Teah, you got your team.”
“So we can rescue him?” but only silence answered her, and Teah shifted in her seat. She’d already made her mind up she was going to ask Kelly to help her—but all of them? That would be too good to be true.
“After,” said Jake.
“After?”
“After you strike a deal with his grandfather.”
End of book 2
Next up – the penultimate book in this story arc – Captive.
Can Teah forge a deal with Cornelius that will allow her to rescue Clay?
Who is Laura Meyers, and what part will she play?
Will Banks storm Project Firebird?
Free World Apocalypse – Captive – is out Dec 1st – Pre Order available now.
Thank you for reading
I hope you enjoyed Citizen. We’re getting into the bones of the story now. So, what do you think happens next? Did you like a particular bit? There are two books left, what do you want? More in the world? A whole new scenario? You’re the reader, join the Facebook Group and let me know.
Hey! You read books, right? Found a great Post-Apoc author? Read a mind blowing dystopian? Let me know about that. I love to read too.
Captive is the third book in the series, it focus’s on Connor, but trust me, Zac goes through the mill and Teah has some choices to make. It’s all brewing up nicely.
Well, I’ve got to go think up stuff, write it down and hope it makes some sense. If you want to know what’s happening…
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Cheers,
T.K.
Free World Apocalypse - Captive
Apocalypse – from Ancient Greek – literal meaning ‘an uncovering’
When you need allies, sometimes you can’t be too choosy, and the choices are coming thick and fast for Teah. She needs to get Clay back, and with explosion after explosion coming from over the valley she needs to get him back yesterday. She’s remembering, and remembering slowly, but nothing makes any sense—she just knows there’s a spider at the center of the web and suspects his name is Josiah Charm.
Connor discovers the true purpose of the compound. Is the world’s new currency intelligence? With Banks knocking at The Hell’s Gates with a seemingly limitless amount of C4, will the compound fall?
Switch is dead, but what are Laura Meyers’ father and grandfather up to, and what do they want Zac to do? When he finds out, Zac has to reach inside himself and try a pull courage from every cell in his body.
Captive is the penultimate book in the Free World Apocalypse series with just Free World Apocalypse – Genesis to go. Things are warming up nicely.
