Frozen Dawn

by Logan Keys

  And that’s when she saw a still figure in the snow behind Bob. “Donny,” Michelle breathed, letting Bob go. “Oh no,” she said as she rushed to his side.

  Bob was there in an instant. “No. No no no. My boy. No.”

  Donny had been struck in the chest by a bullet from when the crazy woman had tried to shoot Bob. He was still alive, but blood was pooling outward in a steady trickle.

  “You’ll be okay. You’ll be all right,” Bob said, cradling his son’s head in his lap.

  Donny moved his mouth, but no sound came out. He sighed, and blood gurgled up instead, and then he was silent.

  “No. Nooooo,” Bob cried, frantic, lifting Donny higher to hug him. “Not my boy. God, please. Not my boy!”

  Michelle began to cry. Big fat tears burned her skin through the cold as she watched Bob rock his son back and forth, back and forth, begging him to wake up. He just got Donny back—his family back.

  Blood made the snow a rust color at her feet. It seemed like far too much for one person.

  He was truly gone.

  Bob’s eyes shuttered and he glanced up at Michelle like a lost soul. “Why,” he uttered, and she bent down and pulled him into her arms.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered.

  Michelle only knew that they would have to return to the house once more. They had another funeral to give.

  And buried along with Donny’s body, they’d possibly also be burying a part of Bob as well.

  Chapter Eleven

  Just Outside of Chicago, Illinois

  “Rise and shine,” Paige said. And she held a giant mug of coffee that Brittany felt like she could drink in one gulp, she was so desperate for some caffeine to jumpstart her slow rising. Her tongue felt like sandpaper. Her brain was mush. Her body…she tried not to even think about how much pain she was in.

  “Let’s get on the road. You ride with me today. Chuck doesn’t get to have all the fun with the newbie.”

  Brittany nodded and tried to smile, but she was sure it looked as bad as she felt.

  Paige added, “Plus, then you get front row, so you can look for your van. I have a feeling about today. We’ll find it. Don’t worry.”

  They loaded up and everyone got in their separate rides. Before that, Brittany learned a bit about each person. There was George, who seemed suspicious of her as if she had found them and not the other way around. Paige and Chuck seemed to be the “leaders” if you could call them that, and they’d picked up stragglers along the way or teamed up with others who were heading south to get away from the freeze. Apparently, New York was hit with ice so badly that they were expecting half the city to perish without aid.

  There was Daphne and Kevin, an older couple in the RV who had let them use it for the night. Sarah and Lacy, two women who had been in a traumatic house fire before this and who were nursing injuries.

  Dick, Kelly, and Laura, two parents and a daughter.

  The rest sort of blurred together, but Brittany had met no less than ten others of every race, age, and relationship status. They were all friendly…for people who were being tortured by the weather enough to have to flee their homes, that is.

  “Buckle up for safety,” Paige said and then cringed. “I’m sorry. Was that insensitive? I have that ability to like…ya know…blech. No filter.”

  Brittany chuckled. “No. Really. It’s fine.” She pulled her seatbelt into place.

  Paige grabbed the radio. “Chuck. We just got our first smile.” She laughed when he cursed on the other end and Brittany stared at the woman. “We made a bet on who would get you to smile first,” Paige explained. “Sorry. Chuck is all about positivity, and so I sort of poke fun at him about it. Also, I mean…five bucks.”

  Brittany smiled again.

  Paige picked up the radio. “Make that ten.”

  That got an entire laugh, although the pain cut it short. “My ribs. Stop it. How much does he owe you for a laugh?”

  Paige grinned and shifted the truck’s gears into drive and lead out the entire group.

  “Thank you,” Brittany said, close to tears. She was up then she was down. Without her full memory, everything was an emotional rollercoaster. “Thank you both.”

  “I’ll make sure to tell him, but you don’t have to thank me. We girls got to stick together. You look like you’ve been through the ringer. I’m a ‘through the ringer’ type of gal. I’ve got your back. You understand?”

  The woman gazed across the truck at Brittany, even while driving, until Brittany nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Good. Now let me put on some music because no doubt Chuck made you listen to that country crap all of yesterday.”

  She put on the Eagles and Brittany smiled again.

  “Oh! I need to start keeping track,” Paige joked. “I can see me paying off all my bills with…” she trailed off and Brittany thought that perhaps Paige had just remembered how irrelevant all of that was now, but instead, the woman was staring at something across the opposite lanes of travel. “Do you see what I see?” she asked.

  Brittany looked to where Paige was looking and there it was. The van.

  Her heart beat fast and she had to keep herself from flinging the door open while they were still moving and rushing across in front of traffic. “Bro,” Paige said into the radio. “Van on your left.”

  Paige pulled over and the entire group followed suit. Brittany got out of the truck with a leap, and then she barely checked both ways before she started across the first few lanes. Once it was clear, she darted across the ones on the other side despite the pain in her side.

  Brittany hit the other edge of the road at a run. She rushed across the field aware that Paige and Chuck followed closely behind. This all looked familiar and she was exhilarated, nearly light headed with it, imagining that she’d be with Benton and Lily in just a few moments once again.

  Brittany saw a line of trees that seemed to be right. She made a bee line for them as fast as her stiff legs would carry her. “Slow down,” Chuck called. “You are gonna bust a stitch!”

  But she kept going, her senses were picking up something strange. It was as if her body knew what her mind did not, and she was growing more anxious by the second.

  The farmhouse, where was it? “It was right here?” she accused, glancing around wildly. That was when she noticed the familiar smudge off in the distance.

  “Oh no!” Brittany cried. “Oh, no! Help me, please help me!” She rushed towards the smoldering house, across yet another field. “No!” she screamed approaching what was left of the farmhouse. “Please don’t be inside. Please.” She flew across the threshold until she was at where the door used to stand. Now, somewhere beneath a pile of roof shingles and burnt wood that was still warm and smoking.

  “Help me look,” she choked, her emotions and the smoke keeping her from breathing right. “They must have left. They aren’t here. They aren’t.” But she kept looking anyway. “They had to have gotten out.” Her voice cracked with anguish. Brittany tripped across rubble, burning her hands as she grabbed onto pieces of the house that still were on fire. She dropped to her knees, not caring at the heat burning through her clothing.

  Chuck and Paige rushed to her side, each grabbing an arm and dragging her back.

  Brittany pulled away, fighting them both off, and she spun in a circle, her thoughts turning fragmented. She stopped spinning to see that the barn too, had burned down.

  There was a path of fire from the house to it and on to the surrounding trees.

  “They left,” she whispered, pushing a hand through her hair. Chuck nodded at her, but he couldn’t know that. He was just trying to calm her down.

  “They left, right? They got out in time?” Her voice was robotic, hollow.

  Paige was digging through the rubble on the opposite side of the house. Some of the group members had come to help. “You won’t find anyone,” Brittany said, shaking her head, refusing to believe it.

  “You won’t,” she cried as Chuck pulled
her tightly into his arms.

  She balled up her fists and pulled away. With a sob, Brittany stalked off for the trucks. She couldn’t face it. She just couldn’t. Tears streamed down her face and she found the pills in Paige’s truck and she took two for the pain, some of it non-physical. Then she got inside the truck and sobbed until she finally couldn’t anymore.

  Is this why she couldn’t remember? Because they had all died and she had blocked it out? Is this what happened that made her forget?

  “Brittany,” Paige said, opening the door.

  Chuck was there too. “What is it?” she demanded. They both wore expressions of sadness.

  “They found bodies in the farmhouse. They aren’t sure, but one appeared to be a child.”

  “What!?” Brittany flew from the truck, and she rushed through the field for the farmhouse. She reached it just as they covered someone small enough to be Lily. Everyone turned toward Brittany with regret. “There are more in the farmhouse. A man, I think, maybe one woman.”

  “A woman?” Brittany repeated, knowing she sounded hysterical. “There can’t have been a woman. This isn’t them then. It can’t be them.”

  When she turned around she saw Paige pulling something from the rubble that had not burned. It was her own sleeping bag.

  She fell to her knees weeping. She then screamed so loudly that the birds flew from the surrounding trees in a cloud of avian freedom.

  Chapter Twelve

  Outside of Chicago, Illinois

  Justice limped the entire way to the truck. He complained the whole time. The other gang members let him go without a fight as he didn’t seem to have many friends. Not that Colton was surprised. A shark like “Rick” aka Justice, was always alone for having eaten way too many unnatural prey.

  Colton focused on the fact that Justice could be wrong about Brittany. He focused on the fact that the guy was a monster, but not too bright. He could be lying, too. All these things mean there was still a chance that the dark place inside his chest, the empty spot that was currently frozen and hard as a rock, could melt once more under the light of hope.

  It was all he had now for fuel. He was exhausted, and he was running on pure adrenaline.

  “Get in,” he said with a hoarse voice. Colton was losing steam. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to press on much longer, but this was a must. If Brittany was dead, he needed proof, or he’d never let go.

  Justice told them to take the highway back the way they’d come. “She thought maybe you were coming for her,” he said to Colton. “Some guys followed us.” Justice chuckled, and Colton had a flash in his imagination of him beating the guy to a pulp.

  They all sat in the truck except for Rex who was forced to the back due to lack of room. If Colton wasn’t worried about him getting away, he’d have made Justice ride in the back, but as it stood, he was pressed up tight against Brittany’s possible murderer.

  As they drove, Colton was glancing at the corn fields with anxiety. Did Justice murder her and leave her in one of these fields? Is that where he was taking them?

  It was soon revealed as a crash site came into view. He could see the SUV at the bottom of the ravine, a hunk of twisted metal. Colton felt as if he time warped. He didn’t remember getting out of the truck or even walking over to bend down and climb into the wreckage. Every step he expected to see Brittany’s body somewhere, limp and cold. Abandoned.

  He fought tears imagining the fear and pain as she died wondering about all of them.

  But now he was inside the SUV and nothing was left but blood. Animals? No, not this fast and even so, he’d have found the smear of them having drug her body out…to eat. He swallowed hard.

  “Where did you last see her?” Colton asked as he backed out of the wreckage.

  Rufus had Justice by the side of the Ravine, the pistol pointed between his shoulder blades. “She was right here, man. She was. I swear it.”

  “Was she hurt?” Colton asked, his anger growing.

  “I thought she was dead, but maybe…Hey, man. She was the one who wrecked the car.”

  “Good,” Colton said looking at Justice’s bum leg. “She was trying to get away from you and I guess…I guess she did.”

  Rufus met Colton’s gaze with a sad expression. There was so much blood at the wreck but no body. Still, a lot of the blood must be Justice’s and Colton was glad that Brittany took her pound of flesh before she got away. He just hoped she was okay.

  “What next?” Rufus asked, and Colton shook his head.

  “We go to the farmhouse, I guess. That’s where she would be.”

  “Okay, you guys do that. I’ll just be on my way.”

  “No,” Colton said quietly. “You won’t.”

  He couldn’t let him go. He didn’t have time to keep a prisoner either. He knew the guy was bad news for all who came across him. He knew someone would suffer for his naivety if he let that happen.

  “I want you to start walking into this field of corn here.”

  “What…what do you mean?”

  “I said march.”

  Rufus watched Colton for a moment and then he turned and went back to the truck. He understood, but he didn’t have to agree to it.

  Justice began to limp down into the ravine and up the other side. Colton held the rifle on him. “Keep going,” Colton said when Justice paused at the edge of the corn.

  “You won’t do it,” Justice said with a shrug and kept on going.

  It was true. Colton, the one everyone had known before, the one who had only been in the military a short time. The one who would never have gone AWOL. He wouldn’t shoot Justice in the back. He wouldn’t keep marching the man who’d almost murdered his friend through the rows of corn and then execute him.

  But Colton wondered about who he was right now.

  Justice limped onward, and he turned and glanced at Colton and smiled. “You ain’t got the stones.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Keep walking,” Colton said. His voice was level, but subdued. He wasn’t angry anymore, just resigned.

  They must have gone an acre one way, but Colton needed time to think.

  “How long you gonna keep me walking out here?” Justice said, his leg getting worse.

  Colton shrugged. “Keep going.”

  “It’s gonna be a long way back too.”

  Colton didn’t answer that.

  “But if you’re trying to scare me. It worked.” Justice turned around to face Colton, hands out to his side. “Okay. You win. I’m scared. Please don’t shoot me.”

  It wasn’t a convincing speech. The man was rotten to the core, and even his own life mattered very little to him. It was as if he had been living life half alive as it was.

  Colton kept the rifle up, but Justice crossed his arms and sighed.

  “I got all the time in the world, kid,” he said. “But if you think it’s fair to shoot an unarmed man.”

  “What’s fair is shooting you in the leg and leaving you to die like you left Brittany.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  Justice cracked his neck. “Then you gonna do what’s fair?”

  “No.” Colton trained the rifle …

  “So, what happens now?”

  …and Colton squeezed the trigger.

  The man dropped like a stone to his knees, his head half blown off, and then he fell face forward without a sound.

  “Justice,” Colton said.

  The Long Fall Book 6:

  World Apart

  Other Books from Mike Kraus

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  Final Dawn: Arkhangelsk: The Complete Trilogy Box Set

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e Arkhangelsk Trilogy is the first follow-up series set in the bestselling Final Dawn universe and delivers more thrills, fun and just a few scares. The crew of the Russian Typhoon submarine Arkhangelsk travel to a foreign shore in search of survivors, but what the find threatens their fragile rebuilding efforts in the post-apocalyptic world.

  No Sanctuary

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  Surviving the Fall is an episodic post-apocalyptic series that follows Rick and Dianne Waters as they struggle to survive after a devastating and mysterious worldwide attack. Trapped on the opposite side of the country from his family, Rick must fight to get home while his wife and children struggle to survive as danger lurks around every corner.

  Prip’Yat: The Beast of Chernobyl

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  Authors’ Notes

  May 26, 2018

  Dear Readers,

  You’ve made it half way! Epic! The best is yet to come. With this story, you probably are noticing the connections finally coming to fruition. The characters definitely intertwine and all of the stories collide with what we hope will be extra entertaining and gripping. Thanks to all of you awesome readers for following along with The Long Fall series and your feedback in reviews makes it easy to push onward towards the next awesome scene, so make sure you drop a line (even a short one) and let us know what you thought. It’s how we know that we need to make sure the next one gets out very fast.