Final Awakening (Book 1): Dawn
Page 23
Dax spotted one of his broom handle stakes on the ground, just as Isaac’s eyes went to it. The teenager kicked the broom handle into the burning boxes.
Monica screamed, and Dax looked over his shoulder. She stood there, jumping up and down and waving at Dax. The black smoke now filled the top half of the hallway, and he realized he’d die from inhalation long before the fire would get him.
“You’re staying here.” Isaac grabbed Dax by the arm. “I told you I was going to kill you.”
Dax pulled back. Isaac’s face was now two inches from his own. He could taste the rot coming from the kid, an odor like wet mold. Isaac’s eyes flashed, the orange no longer perceptible in the fire ravaging the hallway.
“Maybe,” Dax said. “But not today.”
He used all of the energy he had left to throw his weight into Isaac. They flew forward, into the fire. Dax used Isaac’s body to shield himself from the heat and flame which had now burnt through the drywall and was eating the wooden studs of the warehouse.
Isaac’s shirt caught fire, and his hands went to his head. Dax rolled and pulled back, slapping at the flames that had begun burning holes in his clothing. Isaac’s body had shielded Dax’s from most of the flames.
Dax scurried backward on his heels and palms. The black smoke hovered three feet off of the ground and was close enough to fill Dax’s throat with a bitter burning.
Isaac screamed, the flames spreading over his entire body.
Dax turned around and crawled toward the end of the hallway where Monica and the boys waited for him. As he approached the doorway at the opposite end of the hall from the stairwell, Dax turned and saw Isaac. The boy was sitting on the ground, legs beneath him as if he was meditating. Isaac’s eyelids had been seared off. He stared at Dax, a long slow smile spreading on his face. Dax shivered despite the fiery furnace the hallway had become.
“They hate the fire, so we have a chance as long as this place doesn’t collapse with us inside. Let’s go.”
Monica nodded and took Kevin and Darius by the hand. They raced through the door, down to the end of another hall, stopping at a closed entryway. Smoke billowed through the hallway and loud, sudden snaps shook the building.
Dax placed his hand on the door which felt cool to the touch. He pushed it open to find a room filled with metal shelving holding stacks of books. On the right side of the room, Dax saw another door with an exit sign hanging above it.
The building shook, and he heard the Screamers. Dax thought Isaac was calling his name.
“Dax?”
He looked at Monica and smiled. It didn’t matter what those beasts were doing—the warehouse was coming down, and they needed to get out.
Dax opened the door and shielded his eyes from the sunlight. They waded through the water. Darius and Kevin had to hold onto Monica, as the water was over their heads. They turned a corner, and Dax saw his boat.
“Come on. We’re outta here.”
58
The warehouse imploded. Flames reached up into the sky while the fire near the base of the building hissed when it came into contact with the floodwater. Black smoke crawled into the air and joined the expanding haze created from other fires raging throughout the city.
Dax looked twice, almost expecting to see Isaac chasing him, his body engulfed in fire. But he hadn’t seen Isaac, or Serafino, or any of the Screamers in pursuit. They had either escaped or been destroyed by the fire, although he doubted the latter was the case. He would have to be cautious now.
Dax steered the boat through the streets as the kids sat with blank stares on their faces. Even though they’d seen Isaac’s transformation and heard what he had done to Chloe, they didn’t ask any questions. Even Monica simply sat in the boat—quiet, content and happy to be alive.
Dax searched the streets as he guided the boat around piles of automobiles and dead bodies. An occasional explosion would puncture the silence, but otherwise, he hadn’t seen a living person—or a Screamer. The night air reeked of decomposing flesh and gasoline. Dax tried not to even look at the rancid water as the boat carried them through it.
Now what?
He had been focused on getting them out of the warehouse, free of roaming gangs or Screamers. And now that he had, Dax had to consider what was next. Isaac was one of them. Chloe was dead. He looked at Monica and the two boys—not exactly a commando unit.
Dax remembered what Neil had said about the tunnels. He knew where they were, as well, but given the rising floodwaters, those tubes would have been underwater by now. He looked to the east where the I-10 Causeway rose above New Orleans. He could see cars on it. Dozens. If Dax could drive the boat along the Causeway, they’d eventually reach an onramp where he could get them out of the flood and into a truck or SUV.
And then what? West to Texas?
He thought about what had happened to New Orleans. More importantly, he extrapolated the situation out to the rest of the South, the entire United States. Dax had not seen a cop or a National Guardsman in days. The skies appeared to be free of helicopters and aircraft of any kind. He shivered, not wanting to think of the ramifications. Instead, Dax decided to set a more reasonable and immediate goal—getting Monica and the boys into a car and driving west. He’d figure everything else out later.
Dax thrust a hand into his pocket and felt a crumpled piece of paper. He pulled out the picture of Gabby and her kids, the colors warped and bleeding from the floodwaters. He smiled and used his thumb to trace the outline of Gabby’s face on the photograph. She was gone, and it seemed unlikely he’d ever see the kids again. Dax dropped the photo overboard and watched it float away into the distance.
He began to cry. Dax turned away from Monica so she wouldn’t see it. He felt another ache in his chest, a different kind of broken heart.
Chloe.
It had been years—decades—since they’d been together. But being around her again had made him remember how much he’d loved her. Some part of Dax had thought they’d get back together, move north to Mississippi and start over once the world was right again. But that wasn’t going to happen. Isaac had taken her from him. Serafino had taken her from him. The Screamers had taken her from him.
They’d taken everything.
Dax sighed as he looked at his city, mourning New Orleans in the same way he mourned Chloe. It was gone. All of it. And it wasn’t coming back.
He had to do something. Whatever the Screamers were, and whatever they planned on doing, he would fight them. The Screamers may not have caused The Blackout, but they’d exploited the opportunity. And they dealt in agony and suffering—merchants of death. There would be no future in that, at least not one that Dax wanted to be a part of.
First, get these kids to safety. And then, we fight back.
Dax cranked the throttle on the boat. He looked at Monica, and the boys, who stared back at him with their eyes set deep, their chins out and up. They might not have been soldiers, but they were fighters. Dax felt a flutter of hope in his stomach. If they had survived to fight the Screamers, then surely others had, as well.
The sun appeared on the eastern horizon, turning the sky from black to shades of purple.
Like the dawn of this new day, the war was only beginning.
Want to know how Dax made it to New Orleans?
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ABOUT J. THORN
J. Thorn is a Top 100 Most Popular Author in Horror, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure and Fantasy (Amazon Author Rank). He has published over one million words and has sold more than 170,000 books worldwide.
He is an official, active member of the Horror Writers Association and a member of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers. J. is a contributor to disinformation.com and a staff writer for HeavyPlanet.net as well as a founding board member of the Author Marketing Institute.
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ABOUT ZACH BOHANNON
Zach Bohannon is a horror, science fiction, and fantasy author. His critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic zombie series, Empty Bodies, is a former Amazon #1 bestseller. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, daughter, and German shepherd. He loves hockey, heavy metal, video games, reading, and he doesn’t trust a beer he can see through. He’s a retired drummer, and has had a beard since 2003—long before it was cool.
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Table of Contents
Copyright
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
Free Book
Coming Soon
Review
About J. Thorn
About Zach Bohannon