by Lundy, W. J.
The Invasion Trilogy
WJ LUNDY
Contents
The Invasion Trilogy
The Darkness
Chicago Suburbs
Day of the Darkness
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
The Shadows
Global Joint Base Meaford
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
The Light
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Epilogue
Thank You For Reading
OTHER BOOKS FROM UNDER THE SHIELD OF
FIVE ROADS TO TEXAS
After the Roads
For Which We Stand
Convergence
Showdown at Chimney Rock
Labyrinth Royale
DEAD ISLAND: Operation Zulu
Invasion Of The Dead Series
THIS BOOK WAS FORMATTED BY
The Invasion Trilogy
W. J. Lundy
Phalanx Press
V1.62416
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental. All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
© 2016 W.J Lundy
The Darkness
BOOK I
Chicago Suburbs
Day of the Darkness, Plus 5
The city was a ghost town. Jacob’s co-workers jokingly called it a FEMA holiday, like a snow day in the summertime. Office buildings closed, the government declaring a national shutdown with only essential employees required to report. It was rumored that police officers and even medical professionals were starting to walk off the job, refusing to report for duty.
Jacob willingly agreed to working from home until the crisis passed, happy to avoid the traffic for a few days. A long break from the out-of-town travel would be nice, and he could spend some much-needed family time with his wife and young daughter. As the emergency progressed, internet connections and even the phones began to fail. He tried to call in to the daily meetings at the factory but received a fast-busy signal and dead phone lines instead.
Grocery stores sold out of everything as the mass hysteria slowly spread. Gas, milk, eggs, water… everything hoarded, or the prices raised beyond the average person’s reach. By the time Jacob figured out something real was going on, something that wouldn’t pass, it was too late. He drove by the local superstore and saw armed guards at the entrance of the parking lot where shoppers were required to show cash before they could enter. The store delivery trucks didn’t even bother to unload their goods as merchandise was being exchanged right out of the backs, like a shady underground marketplace.
The news just seemed so far away and foreign. It was something that happened in the third world, not here in the suburban neighborhoods of Chicago. Jacob sat on his living room sofa watching a looping satellite broadcast of the chaos in Atlanta. The anchors warned that the rioters had already breached the lobby. Stairwells were full of piled furniture and the elevators sat dead at the bottom of their shafts, but still the rioters came and destroyed everything in their path—nothing was left untouched. Not knowing what else to do, Jacob loaded his handgun and stared at the TV. The loop always stopped at the enraged face of a man with pearly black eyes; the image would freeze before the video re-started.
Jacob turned to watch her pace the room while she dialed the phone over and over, receiving the same steady tone as a response. He knew she was afraid; everyone was. She wanted to go to her parents’ home near the lake, north of the city. It was out of town and quiet there; maybe she was right, but how would they get there? He had seen then video feeds and knew the city wouldn’t be safe—even the outer areas of Chicago would be chaos—and he couldn’t risk it on the interstate, not with Katy. Laura suggested the trains, but that was the last place he wanted to be stranded if the lines went down.
He knew the phones were down, the circuits jammed, but she tried nonetheless. Once she realized she would have no contact with her mother, she would be devastated. Jacob didn’t want her to give up on him; he needed her to stay focused. He needed her and Katy to be strong. He could not do it alone. He watched the scrolling bar on the bottom of the TV. Emergency officials demanding calm, ordering civilians to shelter in place. He looked over his shoulder, she held the phone by her side, and tears were filling the corners of her eyes.
“Give it a couple days, Laura; if nothing changes, we'll try for the city, we’ll get to your folks.”
Day of the Darkness
Plus 7
“What happened?” Jacob muttered, pulling his head away from the airbag. He tasted blood from a broken lip and smelled oil dripping from a hot motor. Looking over the dash and through a broken windshield, he could see a second vehicle with steam still pouring from its radiator. Jacob could barely hear his daughter, Katy, screaming over the weather siren. In the side mirror, he caught a glimpse of a man in denim dragging his little girl from the car, then lifting her to his chest before turning to run.
Jacob strained and painfully pressed against the driver’s door, the metal screeching as he forced it open. Losing his balance, he rolled from the car and onto the street. His daughter’s screams faded. He felt anger rising, giving him strength; he scrambled to his feet and ran after the screams. His daughter fought, screaming and flailing her arms and legs while scratching at the man’s eyes and nose as she struggled. The man d
ropped her and put his hands to his face, but when he saw Jacob, he turned to lunge. The man’s black eyes locked on his, and he howled while reaching for him wildly with oily, blood-covered hands.
With his body shaking violently, Jacob raised his Ruger P89 pistol and fired quick shots from only feet away. The first rounds went low; the others, directly to the man’s chest. Jacob twisted away and dodged as the man's momentum carried him past before the body tumbled to the ground, landing on its stomach. Not waiting to see if he was dead, Jacob turned hard and stepped on the man’s back. Enraged, he fired one more shot into his head. The body stiffened before going slack. Jacob’s terrified daughter screamed from where she lay on the pavement; he scooped her up and ran back to the car.
On the passenger side, Laura was struggling with a second attacker. The large man was on top of her and almost had her pinned to the ground. Jacob sat Katy down, ran full speed, and then, leaping onto the man’s back, grabbed him under the arms. Rolling forcefully, they tumbled away from Laura and into the grass. The crazed attacker was able to gain position on Jacob. Having the advantage in strength and weight, he tussled and twisted until Jacob found his own back to the ground. The man now stared down into Jacob’s face as his hands grasped Jacob’s throat and began to squeeze.
Looking into the man’s dark eyes, Jacob saw no emotion that could be reasoned with. Like a rabid dog, the man seemed to have no regard for Jacob’s life. Jacob pushed against the man’s chest and gasped for air while struggling under the attacker’s weight. The man suddenly dropped and fell limp over Jacob’s chest, having taken a full kick to the side of the head from Laura.
Jacob hoisted the body up and rolled it off him. Grabbing at the grass, he pulled himself away and pushed up into a sitting position. He coughed and choked for oxygen as he looked at the unconscious man. His attention was distracted when he noticed Laura was on the ground, sobbing and pulling Katy into her lap.
The attacker let out a moan and stretched an arm, reaching for Jacob’s ankle. Jacob pawed at the grass until he found the pistol and then turned back to face the man. Leveling the weapon, he shot the attacker once in the face, snapping back its head violently, causing the girls to scream.
Staggering back to his feet, he looked in both directions. Jacob's focused tunnel vision faded enough to allow him to see everything. The sounds of the wailing weather siren seemed to come back even louder than before. It was over; the threat stopped. Suddenly exhausted, he struggled to stay on his feet as adrenalin pushed spasms through his legs and knees. Jacob turned and looked around him; his neighbors were standing on their porches, staring at him accusingly. He ignored them and reached down for Laura.
“Are you okay? Come on, get Katy back in the house,” he said, lifting Laura to her feet.
Laura looked at him in shock. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, get Katy back in the house, Laura!” he said over the sound of the siren.
Laura looked at the dead man at her feet. She asked again, “What happened?”
Katy began crying hysterically.
With his heart still racing, he lifted Katy and handed her off to Laura. “Please get her inside; I’ll be there in a minute.”
Laura turned her head to look at their neighbors before backing away toward the porch. She held Katy’s head to her shoulder in a belated attempt to shield the young girl from the horror of what lay on the ground.
He watched them move across the porch and waited for the door to close behind them. Jacob’s head ached, and the sound of the siren clouded his mind as he struggled to collect his thoughts on what had just occurred. He stepped to the house and wearily dropped to the porch steps.
They were trying to flee to the country, or at least get to Laura's parents north of the city—anywhere as far away from people as they could get. He remembered pulling out of the garage and barely entering the street before the speeding car collided with them. But the men… where did they come from? They must have been pursuing the other car. Why did they attack them?
Under the spiteful eyes of his neighbors, Jacob stood and went to the other car.
“Thanks for the help, guys,” he said under his breath.
He ignored their stares and opened the passenger-side door, stretched across the front seat, and checked the man’s bloodied wrist for a pulse. The driver was dead; the lack of a seatbelt had allowed his body to thrust partway through the windshield.
Looking in the backseat, he found it filled with luggage. He saw a plastic grocery bag stuffed with oranges and bottles of water. Jacob pondered them briefly before taking the bag and joining his wife back in the house. Ignoring his neighbors’ cold stares, he shut and locked the house door behind him. Even if the phones worked, the police wouldn’t come.
Moving across the room to a window, Jacob parted the curtains and looked into the street. The incessant wailing of the weather siren was better behind the plate-glass window. Even with the power out, it wailed. Why had it not been shut off yet? Jacob looked at the smoking vehicles in the street and saw his neighbors approaching the crash scene.
The anxiety built up in his chest; he was sweating, and he felt his heart racing. Jacob was fighting off panic… and losing. He had to do something.
“Laura, get everything and take it upstairs to our bedroom,” he said.
Laura was in the kitchen, handing Katy a glass of water and still trying to calm her. “Why? What are we doing?”
“Something is changing, I’m not sure what, but I think we need to get to the safe room. We need to lock ourselves in. I’m afraid they’re coming.”
“Those rioters we saw on the news? Here? Is that what that was?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Laura, those men… they looked through me, they had no fear, please get all the food and water upstairs. We don’t have much time. I’ll be right behind you.”
Jacob went to the garage and shut the overhead door before retrieving his cordless drill and a box of deck screws. He made a quick pass through his home, locking and bolting every door, closing every curtain.
By habit, he went to arm the alarm by the front door, his fingers nearly touching the buttons. With no power and the backup batteries long dead, the alarm was useless. Jacob shook his head before running up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
He joined his wife on the second floor and followed her into the master suite. Their bedroom was large and square; an antique armoire rested against an interior wall close to the door. A single, long window faced the street, opposite the entrance to the bathroom. A king-sized bed in the center of the room, with a nightstand on each side, filled the rest of the space. Jacob moved to the foot of the bed where Laura had placed everything and took a quick inventory of their belongings. He nodded before turning away to bolt the heavy hardwood bedroom door.
Jacob had always been security conscious… or paranoid, as his friends called it. He was on the road a lot for work, and he wanted his family safe when he was away. Laura shook her head at the idea of him tearing out their master bathroom to construct a state-of-the-art safe room. As a compromise—in Jacob’s mind, at least—he’d installed a heavy exterior door at the entrance to their bedroom. The heavy bolt he had added, to secure it further, effectively turned their master suite into a hardened shelter that could hold off any home invader.
Jacob stopped and looked at the door with the brass bolt lock, talking quietly to himself. “Better than that damn security alarm I spent all the money on,” he said. “More practical too… and passive, doesn’t require electricity like the alarm. Nothing to train or learn and no fancy monitoring companies… a one-time expense to install, and we have a barrier between us and them…”
He paused when Laura asked, “Who are you talking to?”
Jacob put his hand on the door again and rattled the knob. Checking the lock, he felt the clunk of the steel bolt riding into the two-by-six stud frame.
“Nobody,” he said.
Jacob lifted the drill and a handful
of screws. He drove the four-inch screws in deep—one in each corner, two in the top, and two on each side.
“What are you doing?” Laura, she asked.
Jacob stopped and looked her in the eye. He could see she was in shock and not fully comprehending the situation. She was still struggling with the thought of being attacked in the streets of their quiet neighborhood. Even having felt the violence firsthand in front of their home, she wasn’t fully grasping the urgency of the situation. This wasn't something that was happening far away, not anymore; the violence had reached their front yard. People were killing out there, and nobody was coming to save them. They would have to save themselves.
