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The Remnants of Yesterday

Page 21

by Anthony M. Strong


  “We’ll probably need new wheels,” Clara said.

  “I never liked that bus anyway.”

  I recognized Darwin’s voice, and turned to find him sitting a few feet away on a fallen tree trunk.

  He looked like he’d gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. His eyes were swollen, and there was a gash on his cheek. His jeans were torn at the knees. When he spoke, I saw that his lip was split. “Damn thing made me feel like I was back at school. Next time let’s find a sweet sports car, a Ferrari or something.”

  “I think we can find something a bit roomier than that.” I was relieved that he was still alive.

  “What’s the point of being the last people alive if we can’t have some fun with it,” Darwin replied.

  “Fun can wait.” I remembered what Meadows had said, that I should lead the survivors to New Haven. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the phone, hoping there would be a message on it, some sort of confirmation that my encounter with the doctor was real, but the screen was shattered, a spider’s web of cracks creeping over the surface. The phone was broken, useless. I threw it to the ground. “I guess my phone fared worse than I did.”

  “Who cares,” Clara said. “We’re all safe. That’s what matters.”

  “Not too safe.” I remembered Gary and the other morons in the truck. “What about–”

  “Darwin took care of it,” Clara replied.

  “He did?” I looked at him surprised.

  “Yeah.” Darwin held the sawn off shotgun aloft. “Me and Betsy went and had a little chat with our friends in the truck.”

  “You killed them?”

  “I did what was necessary.” Darwin placed the gun back on the ground at his feet. “They were pretty banged up after their truck hit that tree trunk. You scored a direct hit on the driver, put a hole the size of a grapefruit in his head. The other two were just sitting there, trapped in the wreckage. Man, they were in a bad way. It was more of a mercy killing really.”

  “You shot them while they were defenseless?” This didn’t sound like the Darwin I knew.

  “Yeah.” He fixed me with a cold stare. “Just like you shot Emily.”

  “That was different.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” He bowed his head, looked down toward the gun. “Seems this little trip of ours has made us all into killers in one way or another.”

  “We’ll talk about this later.” I tried to stand, but I still felt shaky.

  “You need to rest.” Clara moved close to me, put her arm around me. “We can stay here awhile.”

  “Not too long.” I looked toward the wreckage of the truck pushed up against a tree several feet away, imagining the grisly sight inside.

  “No, not too long.” She rested her head on my shoulder. “Just until we get our strength back.”

  I closed my eyes, grateful for a minutes rest. There was a hard journey ahead of us, one which we might not all survive. I didn’t know what new horrors we would face before we reached New Haven, but for now at least, everything was calm. We were safe, we were together, and we had a purpose.

  I put my arm around Clara, leaned down and kissed her, my lips lingering on hers, and for the first time since it all began, just for a moment, I was happy.

  THE END

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  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

  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

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Also by Anthony M. Strong

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  A Novel

  John Decker left Wolf Haven, Louisiana, to escape the memories of his troubled past, believing he would never return. But after twenty years working for a big city police department, he suddenly finds himself back in Wolf Haven, taking the reigns as the town’s sheriff. Expecting to spend his time dealing with the trivialities of small town life, the occasional drunk, cats stuck in trees, and domestic altercations, he instead finds a vicious killer picking off the residents one by one. Scrambling to find answers before anyone else dies, Decker stumbles across an age-old superstition, a terrifying creature conjured from the depths of hell to seek revenge.

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  A spine chilling ghost story to keep you up at night.

  Jack Brannan thought the fifth floor apartment in New York City would be a great place to finish his latest novel. It seemed like the perfect arrangement, free room and board in exchange for looking after the rambling old apartment building while its owner was out of town. He soon comes to realize, however, that there is much more to the former Roosevelt Hotel than meets the eye, and that nothing is ever free.

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  Fearsome Things

  Five Short Tales of

  Horror and Suspense

  Are you afraid of ghosts? Draw the covers over your head and step out of the light into a place where monsters lurk, the banshee howls, and the spirits of the dead walk in restless eternity.

  Evil Eye - Jack Fletcher learns the hard way that revenge comes with a price.

  Cry of the Banshee - John O'Bannon returns home to his native Ireland and encounters a creature of myth and legend, with terrifying results.

  Luck of the Irish - An age old talisman bestows luck on whomever owns it, but there's always a price to pay.

  The Frequent Visitor - During a long train ride, a man recounts his terrifying encounter with a ghostly apparition.

  Whiter than White - Barbara Porter's obsession with cleanliness means she'll stop at nothing to scrub away those pesky germs, especially now she has a tub of Whiter than White - the miracle cleaner of the hour.

  Five short tales of horror and suspense to keep you up at night.

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  Copyright 2016 ANTHONY M. STRONG

  West Street Publishing

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  Anthony M. Strong is a British writer living and working in the United States. When he’s not writing he spends most of his time watching documentaries, and waiting on three raucous pooches named Gidget, Tiki and Hayden.

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