by Lukens, Mark
“I knew there was something wrong with this basement,” Josh said. “I knew it was too small for the size of this cabin. I knew it. And the pipes and wires, they didn’t make sense.”
Josh was rambling and Ray ignored him.
“Are the supplies in there?” Emma asked.
“I think so,” Mike said, answering her.
Josh shot across the room and hugged Emma. “Everything we need is in there,” he told her.
“Medicine?” she asked with hope.
“We’ll see,” Josh said. “But I’m sure there is.”
Everyone else’s voices faded in Ray’s ears as he entered the room, barely able to believe what he was seeing, even wondering for a second if this was part of a dream.
“Dad, look at all this stuff,” Mike whispered. He was now a few steps behind him.
Ray nodded, still feeling too awestruck to talk. He stared at the boxes labeled: rice, flour, baking powder, sugar, beans. There was another shelf full of MREs. Another shelf held boxes and boxes of canned goods: soup, vegetables, tuna, evaporated milk, fruit. The room was as big as the basement, maybe even bigger. There was a shelf full of canned drinks and drink mixes, at least twenty cases of bottled water. There were extra blankets and sheets folded up neatly. There was another shelf full of bathroom and kitchen supplies.
“Weapons over here,” Luke called out. He stood in front of a six-foot-tall metal storage locker bolted to the wall. He opened the door revealing rifles, shotguns, and handguns stowed inside. The bottom of the storage locker had boxes of ammo stacked up. On the shelf next to the guns were two tackle boxes full of fishing supplies. At least six fishing rods and three bows and a quiver of arrows were shoved in between the guns and the shelf.
“I found medicine over here,” Josh said. “First-aid kits.”
Another shelf held radio equipment, radios, and boxes of batteries along with a solar-powered battery recharger. There were gas masks hanging from a hook on one wall with shelves below that which held radiation detectors, a solar-powered stove, water purification tablets and LifeStraws. There were shelves of camping equipment and cooking supplies, a fire starter kit. A collection of hand tools and toolboxes were on another shelf. There was a shelf full of books crammed together, and there were board games, DVDs, and CDs on the shelf above that one.
“They have music for you,” Mike told Emma with tears in his eyes. “And books you can listen to.”
Ray felt the tears welling up in his own eyes; he knew Mike had felt so bad because they had to leave the CD player and CDs behind that he’d taken from Craig’s house. Ray shook his head in disbelief. Doug had thought of everything. They could stay here through the winter now if they wanted to. They wouldn’t need to go anywhere for a long time unless they wanted to.
But there were still things to be done. They would need to chain the gate on the trail back up. Maybe set up some booby traps or some kind of alarm system.
“Look at this,” Luke called out from the far end of the room. “It’s a door to a tunnel. I bet this tunnel leads to either the garage or the sheds. Alternate escape routes.”
Yes, it seemed like Doug had thought of everything. And at least they were going to be okay for a while. But this was going to make their decision about leaving for Avalon even harder. But at least something good had finally happened, something finally going their way.
Ray looked up at the ceiling, not sure where Doug might be right now. Dead? Roaming the streets of a bombed-out Washington D.C. as a ripper? “Wherever you are,” Ray whispered, “thank you, Doug.”
CHAPTER 51
Ray
Five days later
They’d had plenty of time to think things over. Josh had done well on the antibiotics, and he hadn’t touched any of his pain pills. There was other pain medication down in the basement, and bottles of liquor, but so far it hadn’t seemed to tempt Josh. He told Ray one night when they were alone that Kyle, his nephew, used to be his rock, the person he needed to stay clean for. Now he said he had them.
The weather hadn’t been too bad so far. It had actually warmed up over the last few days. Ray had made a list of things to get done, and one of the first things was to secure the gate a mile down the driveway with a new chain and padlock, which they found in the supplies down in the basement. The idea of learning to hunt and fish was still a good idea, Ray thought, but impractical at this time. There were books on those skills, and Ray would study them. He would study those books like he had studied in college to become an accountant—survival would be his new career now.
They had eaten well over the last five days, and rested, building their strength back up. But they still never let their guard down. Luke went on a patrol of the perimeter of the property every morning and every evening, bringing his handgun with the silencer attached to it and the M-16 that Ray had gotten from the paralyzed Dark Angel in the classroom.
Ray still had nightmares, but they weren’t as bad as before, not as organized, more like flashes of people he’d seen. He’d had some dreams of Kim and Vanessa, just dreams of when they were a family, doing boring family things. But he wanted those boring days back more than anything in the world. He usually woke up crying with an inconsolable ache inside of him.
They had decided to stay through the winter, and Ray agreed that it was the wisest decision at this moment. He wanted to get down to Avalon; he wanted to find the answers he knew were waiting down there. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Helen had sent him to get Emma the second day after the collapse. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Craig had told him to come to his house, telling him that the answers and Avalon were waiting there. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that they ended up in the same town as Josh, and then the same town as Luke. No, there was something to all of this. Ray had never been a person who believed in anything supernatural, but he couldn’t deny that something was going on here, like mysterious forces were pulling the strings behind all of this. And he was sure that the other four people who haunted his dreams would be with them eventually, just as he had no delusions that at some point they would come face to face with the Dragon Lord. Luke said he hoped so, because he meant to kill the Dragon Lord for what he’d done to Wilma, and to others.
But at least they’d have a few months to rest and get stronger. To learn more. And maybe the winter would kill off a lot of the rippers, many of them freezing or starving to death. Or maybe the rippers might kill more of the Dark Angels. Of course, as Luke had pointed out, these months could give the Dark Angels more time to get stronger and more organized.
Yes, things had been going well. Ray had been suspicious of their good luck, bracing himself for a calamity coming.
And maybe it was coming, but for now Ray was going to try to stay positive, and try to bask in their good fortune for the moment.
A THANK YOU
Thank you so much for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you’ll check out the other books in this series. Being an author is a dream come true for me, and it only happens because of readers like you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mark Lukens has been writing since the second grade when his teacher called his parents in for a conference because the ghost story he’d written had her a little concerned.
Since then he’s had several stories published and four screenplays optioned by producers in Hollywood. He’s the author of many bestselling books including: The Ancient Enemy series, Sightings, Devil’s Island, Followed, The Exorcist’s Apprentice, and many others. He’s proud to be a member of the Horror Writers Association.
He grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida. But after many travels and adventures, he settled down near Tampa, Florida with his wonderful wife and son . . . and a stray cat they adopted.
He loves to hear from readers! You can find him on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Mark-Lukens-Books-670337796318510/
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He can be reached via email at: [email protected] and [email protected]
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