The Darkness After: A Novel
Page 19
“It’s okay,” Mitch said as they all stooped to lay their guns down. “Just do it. We’ll be right here. Just walk slowly, like he said. They’re pretty nervous. They must have already had a lot of trouble.”
Mitch and Lisa could do nothing but watch and wait. They saw April walk up to the row of vehicles, where she was apparently told to stop and keep her hands up, while one of the guards disappeared around the corner. The name Greene definitely registered with these guys, or else they wouldn’t have let her get this far. But the minutes dragged by and nothing happened. Mitch was starting to get anxious for April when all of a sudden one of the big front doors swung inward and a small crowd of people rushed out. At the forefront was a slim young man with dark hair, and in his arms was a little girl. April ran forward with unbridled joy and took them both in her arms.
Mitch felt a lump rising in his throat as he realized his journey with her had come to an end. He could no longer ignore what she had said about having a family of her own or pretend it might not be real. April was indeed the mother of a beautiful baby girl, and there in front of him was the father, the three of them locked in an embrace that seemed to never end. Mitch and Lisa picked up their weapons along with April’s carbine and bow, and slinging them over their shoulders, walked the rest of the way to the edge of the church grounds, where they stood quietly to one side to await introductions.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank acquisitions editor, Keith Riegert and the rest of the staff at Ulysses Press for taking a chance on my fiction last year with the publication of The Pulse, and for suggesting this parallel story. I would especially like to thank developmental editor, Katherine Furman, for patiently working with me to help make this story better than I envisioned and for providing exceedingly helpful feedback. I also want to thank my long-time friend, Mike Jones, game warden of Lawrence County, Mississippi, for providing insight into a difficult and dangerous job, and for showing me some of the equipment used by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SCOTT B. WILLIAMS has been exploring wild places and seeking adventure on both land and sea for most of his life. At the age of twenty-five, he embarked on an open-ended solo sea kayaking journey from his home in Mississippi to the islands of the Caribbean. His nonfiction book On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean is a narrative of that life-changing journey. His pursuit of adventure travel led him to further develop his wilderness survival skills that began with hunting and fishing while growing up in rural Mississippi. After his Caribbean kayak trip, he spent years testing his skills in a variety of environments throughout North America, using both modern and primitive methods, and traveling both on foot and by canoe and kayak. His enthusiasm for travel by water fueled an interest in a variety of boats and led him to learn the craft of wooden boatbuilding. In addition to building boats, paddling small craft, and offshore sailing, he enjoys backpacking, bicycling, martial arts training, dual-sport motorcycling, and photography. He maintains several blogs related to these pursuits and occasionally writes for magazines, including Sea Kayaker and SAIL. His most popular blog is Bug Out Survival (www.bugoutsurvival.com), which expands on his books Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It’s Too Late and Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters. His first work of fiction, The Pulse: A Novel of Surviving the Collapse of the Grid, was published in 2012. More information about Scott can be found on his main website, www.scottbwilliams.com. He lives in Prentiss, Mississippi.