This is the End 2: The Post-Apocalyptic Box Set (9 Book Collection)

by J. Thorn

  “Hot Latino?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t. What does calling him hot have to do with anything?”

  “Just saying …”

  “Doesn’t matter. You believe him.”

  Alex looked at Mack. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

  Mack shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought it would take a bit more convincing than saying, ‘I’m an angel, look it rained and have some bad bacon.’ Then again, this is coming from the woman who keeps her rosary beads in her left front pocket and wraps them around her wrist like a bracelet when she fights.”

  “Seriously?” Alex shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re making fun of me. Whatever gives me faith and hope, Mack … Whatever it is, is my choice. You never said anything about that before. Maybe you’re so irritable and miserable because your beliefs are being tested right now.”

  “No, Alex, I slept in the rain. And now we’re headed West. Where to out West, we don’t know.”

  “We didn’t know where we were headed when we chose South, either.”

  “At least I was in control.”

  Again, Alex shook her head. “That’s exactly what it is. You lost control.”

  “Maybe.” Humbly, Mack glanced at her. Then his eyes lifted to the roof of the truck when he heard the triple-bang.

  “Dokes?” Alex asked.

  “That’s the signal.” Mack guided his foot to the brake.

  “Or we hit dry land.”

  “Doubtful, Del’s on the lookout with Padre.”

  No sooner did Mack stop the truck, he received the signal again.

  “All right, all right,” he barked, then turned around to Billy. “Stay put. You know the drill.”

  “Yes, Mack.” Billy nodded.

  Mack opened the door of the truck. “Stay close,” he said to Alex.

  She nodded and Mack peered up. “What’s going on?”

  “Dude, we should have gone South. I’m lost at what we should do,” Del told him.

  Mack was puzzled, he looked up to the road ahead and saw nothing. It was then he decided to climb to the roof, to the lookout peak. He did so hurriedly, grabbed the binoculars and looked. “Shit. I knew it.”

  Justification for insisting on going South. There it was.

  A sea of Dokes moved down the highway in their direction.

  “What do we do?” Del asked. “We can back up, turn around. But they’ll eventually catch us when we stop.”

  “Apparently Mr. ‘Know All, See All’ Angel, didn’t foresee this.” Mack began his decent down the lookout ladder. “We’ll set explosives, back up, and hit them as they roll by.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Nicole,” Mack called for her as she stood outside her vehicle. “Get the explosives. I wanna set them fifteen feet apart, on this highway.”

  Alex spoke, “Mack, if we set them, we’re destroying this road.”

  “Then we head South as planned.” Mack moved to the back of the truck.

  “Mack.” Raphael approached him.

  “Not, now,” Mack said. “I have things to get ready. We have Dokes. Lots. They’ll be over that crest in thirty seconds.”

  “I can use an arrow.”

  Mack smiled and shook his head. “No.”

  “Mack!” Alex called out. “They’re getting closer.”

  Arms full, Mack walked around to the front. “Del, back Billy and the padre out of here.”

  Raphael continued, “There are many …”

  “No shit.”

  “Easy to eliminate many.” Raphael followed him.

  Mack ignored him. “Rick. Take your bait position.”

  “One arrow …”

  Mack grumbled and looked down the highway. He no longer needed binoculars to see the horde. “We gotta move, people.”

  “One arrow …”

  “Raph.”

  “That’s all it would take.”

  Mack huffed. “Fine. Shoot your arrow.” Mumbling under his breath, Mack, with explosives in arms, met up with Alex a few feet away as the truck backed up.

  Through the corner of his eye, Mack saw Raphael pull an arrow. Mack crouched down with his explosives. “Can’t do a timer—”

  Alex whispered his name, “Mack.”

  “Have to trigger it. I don’t know if I can—”

  “He’s walking right to them.”

  Hating to take the second, Mack looked up. “Finish this. He’s gonna get killed.” Mack stood.

  Raphael yelled, “Everybody down!” Crossbow in hands, aimed and ready, he fired.

  Like a normal arrow, it sailed.

  Mack raced Raphael’s way—in his mind, calling him an idiot—believing the arrow would bounce off a Doke and they’d charge Raphael.

  Could he get to Raphael before the massive amounts of Dokes? Just as Mack charged ahead, the arrow sailed into the horde of Dokes.

  It wasn’t what Mack expected—visually or physically.

  He didn’t see the arrow land or how it landed, but he saw and felt the results. It made a sound first, not a thud, but a Boom! more like a tympani drum, so loud that it caused all the blood to rush to Mack’s ears. He couldn’t hear. A split second later, a bright white-and-blue pulse of an explosion formed. It ballooned and mushroomed like a dome, then bellowed outward silently, knocking Mack off his feet and ten steps back.

  He felt the ground create a brush-burn on his back as he slid across the concrete and slammed into the truck. He never lost focus though. He tried his hardest and succeeded in seeing what was happening.

  A fierce, warm wind kept him from moving. All Mack kept thinking was, What was the arrow? What was in them? A small nuclear device perhaps? The blast winds felt as if he were caught in some sort of atomic explosion.

  Mack tried to stand, to move, to reach for Alex who rolled across the grass on the side of the road, but he couldn’t. He kept his wits, feeling the truck against him and knowing at least Billy was safe.

  It lasted thirty seconds and then it stopped.

  The oddity was, Alex rolled, while Mack couldn’t move, yet Raphael was in the same position—the winds of destruction did nothing to shake him from his stance.

  When it stopped, Raphael lowered his arm and turned. He glanced at Mack.

  Mack immediately stood and looked in the truck. “You OK, Billy?”

  “I’m fine. What was that?”

  “I don’t know.” Mack walked to Alex and helped her to stand. “You OK?”

  “I wasn’t expecting that,” Alex said in shock as she stood. “But I’m fine.”

  “Everyone OK?” Mack yelled out, and checked his people.

  Del was suspended from the widow’s lookout peak, hanging on for dear life. Nicole didn’t look too shaken. Fr. Owens was fine. Mack finally spotted Rick a good distance away, in the grass. Had he been blown that far back?

  Immediately, Mack spun and stormed to Raphael.

  “The path is clear, we can move forward,” Raphael said.

  “What … what was that?” Mack asked with an edge to his words.

  “I shot an arrow. I told you. I warned you to get down.”

  “They are not just arrows. What are they?”

  “God arrows.”

  Mack grumbled. “Bullshit! What are they made of? What are we exposed to? I never seen a weapon like that.”

  “And you never will, this is not a weapon made by man, Mack,” Raphael stated. “Do you see fire, destruction? Do you see Dokes?”

  Mack took a step from Raphael.

  “Mack … Only the intended targets are gone. What weapon of man does that?”

  Mack could think of a few, but none of them achieved the level of success that the arrows did.

  There wasn’t any fire or destruction; there wasn’t even a single sign of Doke remains. Nothing.

  Just a clear path.

  Mack didn’t understand it, nor did he pretend to. He just wasn’t accepting it as a God weapon so easily.


  Sore and shaken, Mack gathered everyone, ordered them in the vehicles, and moved forward.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  It set a few miles off the highway and was easily spotted on the journey. Land so green, it stood out like an oasis; in fact, the entire area around the farm was alive. The green of the corn stalks waved to them as if a welcoming flag, calling out “Sanctuary is here.”

  The large trees offered shade, and the house was cool, isolated from the heat that plagued the country.

  Late afternoon, Fr. Owens napped on the sofa, the lace curtain flapped out constantly from the breeze.

  To Nicole, it was perfect.

  The rebel wore a dress. Never one to be feminine in the post-apocalypse world, she found a sundress. It felt good on her body, which was clean and fresh from the stand-up bath she took with the well water.

  She stood on the staircase, watching Fr. Owens. He looked so peaceful, his arms folded tight to his body, probably chilled by the breeze. She ran her hand down the wooden banister. Walking barefoot, she knew she’d probably be teased by everyone about the way she was dressed, but she didn’t care.

  Voices carried to her from the kitchen, and she sought them out—across the living room, through the dining room and into the kitchen by way of the swinging old door.

  Raphael stood, back against the sink. Del and Rick were at the table, and Alex was at the far end of the huge wooden kitchen table, shucking corn.

  That made Nicole smile. “Oh, can I help?”

  Everyone looked at her … then looked again.

  Rick stood up. “You look beautiful.”

  “Thank you. Thank you very much. I feel it. I know it’s silly.” Nicole tilted her head. “But it’s been so long since I felt …”

  Raphael finished her words, “Human?”

  “Yeah.” Nicole tucked her hair behind her ear and moved to Alex. “Can I?”

  “Absolutely and I agree. I wish I could take on that look. You look very refreshed.”

  “I feel it.” Nicole looked at Alex, in her typical Alex get-up. Tee shirt, cargo-style pants that looked more like military fatigues, pockets stuffed, a knife strapped to her leg, CRK hooked to a holster. She wondered how Alex dressed before everything happened. Then again, she heard that Alex was a dogcatcher, so she was a uniform person and probably never feminine. “You can, there are more dresses upstairs.”

  Alex passed a gentle smile to Nicole. “I’ll leave that to you. Mack wouldn’t survive the heart attack, if he saw me dressed like that.”

  “Is he OK?” Nicole asked, grabbing an ear of corn. She brought it to her nose and inhaled the smell of it.

  Alex tilted her head. “I guess. He seems in debate. Torn.”

  Raphael spoke up, “We will all talk this evening. I have a lot to explain.”

  Del shook his head in confusion. “So, why now are you talking to us? Mack is gonna say you had to think of what to say.”

  “That’s after …” Rick interjected, “he says that you were probably a terrorist and have this weapon the Russians designed for you.”

  Raphael smiled. “Mack is Mack, but he knows.” Making a fist, Raphael brought it to his chest. “Deep in his soul he knows.”

  “Knows what?” Alex asked.

  “About what I will say tonight.”

  Exhaling, Nicole grabbed another ear of corn. “I love this place. This is amazing. I can’t believe we haven’t run into anything like this.”

  Alex shrugged. “That’s because we have been on the East Coast and all cities. I think we would have eventually. We are in Ohio. Or were.”

  “Mack’s thrown,” Del said. “Seriously, dudes, he is really not himself. After the arrow thing … he snapped.”

  “Where is he?” Nicole asked.

  “Oh, he’s out with Billy,” Alex replied.

  Shucking his ear of corn as if he were peeling a banana, Del spoke nonchalantly, “You don’t suppose he took Billy out to kill him do you.”

  “What?” Alex blasted. “Really? What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you say that?”

  “Because I think something made him snap.”

  Raphael held up his hand. “Mack did not take Billy out to kill him. He is fine. Ask Alex, she knows him.”

  Nicole turned her head to the sound of the screen door slamming. Alex was gone. “She does know him and knows him the best. So why did she run out?”

  ++++

  It was a good walk down the small dirt path, and like Nicole could smell the Dokes, Mack could smell the water. After walking without being questioned by Billy, Mack smiled when they got to the end of the path and saw it.

  “Perfect,” he told Billy.

  And then they set up. Mack knew it had to be there, why else would there be so much fishing equipment in the shed next to the house. When he saw it, he gathered it, then grabbed Billy.

  Male bonding.

  At the end of the pier, they sat. Big and little. It wasn’t a long pier, it extended ten feet out toward the small lake and not very high.

  Mack’s feet soaked in the water, but Billy’s little legs were far above. He kicked his feet.

  “No,” Mack said gently. “Cast. Don’t let the line sit. The fish will catch on.”

  “Isn’t that the point?” Billy asked.

  “Not catch on the hook, catch on that you’re trying to catch them. Get it? Cast.” He brought back his arm and with a side toss, cast his line. It sailed and landed far out.

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah.” Mack smiled. “Then you reel it back and do it again.”

  Billy tried to cast but it didn’t work. Mack aided him.

  The lure plopped into the water.

  “Gently reel it back. Turn it.” Mack helped.

  “Why did you bring me out here?”

  “Like I said, male bonding.” Mack shrugged, then helped Billy cast again.

  “Did you take your son fishing?”

  “Yeah, I did.” Mack kissed Billy on the head. “We didn’t keep the fish. We threw them back.”

  “Are we throwing them back?”

  “No. No. We’re catching dinner.”

  “How come you brought me?”

  “You’re special, Billy. I have a feeling about how special I think you are. And if I’m right, and lately I haven’t been, then you may have knack for bringing lots of fish.”

  Billy just looked at him.

  “Bad joke, sorry … and …” Mack felt the line tug. “You got one.”

  “I got one?”

  “Yep. Careful now. It’s all yours. I’ll get it off the hook.”

  “Will it be all right to eat?”

  “Better than the bacon.”

  “No one got sick off the bacon.”

  “Not yet. And pay attention,” Mack finished off, bringing in the fish. “Look at the size of this one. Good job!” He rubbed Billy’s hair. “You not only are talking well now. But fish well.”

  “I couldn’t talk before.”

  Mack paused in removing the fish. “What do you mean?”

  Billy shrugged. “I don’t know. No words would come out. I tried but what came from my mouth wasn’t what I heard in my head. So I stopped.”

  “Did you hit your head, maybe?” Mack asked. “When we found you, you didn’t know how you got there.”

  “I do now.”

  “You know how you got in the jeep? When did you remember?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “How?” Mack asked. “How did you get there?”

  “I don’t remember where I was. I just know I was holding some guy’s hand and he walked me to the jeep. He said to stay and a woman and man would find me, protect me, and get me home.”

  “Wow, that’s progress. We’re breaking through. You’re healing. Pretty soon you’ll remember it all and—” Mack pulled his fishing rod. “I got one, too.” He grinned widely. “We’re having a feast tonight, that’s for sure.”

  No sooner did Mack bring in the fish, he turned to the hard, doub
le thumps on the pier.

  Alex stood there; she looked flustered.

  “Everything OK?” Mack asked.

  “No. Mack, I was worried. I couldn’t find you guys.”

  “I told you we were heading out for a walk. What did you think? I left?”

  Alex shook her head. “Or got hurt. There are Dokes.”

  “Not around here, they’re not,” Mack said. “Green for miles. Look we have dinner.”

  “Holy crap, they’re huge.”

  “Lake is hopping,” Mack said. “Care to join us for a little relaxation, serenity, and normalcy?”

  Billy asked, “Do you fish?”

  “I do not,” Alex answered. “I can catch a dog, but not a fish.”

  Billy tilted his head in question.

  Alex waved out her hand. “Never mind.” She exhaled. “I won’t fish but …” she said to Billy, walking from the other side of the pier, “I’ll join you.”

  After casting out his line, Billy glanced at Alex. “Look, your feet don’t reach the water either.”

  “Only Mack’s. He had long legs, and his feet need to be in the water. They stink.” She crinkled her face and brought her nose to Billy’s. Her eyes lifted to Mack.

  He genuinely smiled at her, then his expression changed to a gleeful one when he saw the tug on Billy’s line. “Little man. Holy cow. You’re a natural.” After a kiss of pride to Billy, Mack assisted Billy in bringing in an even bigger fish.

  Dear Garret,

  Things are weird.

  I don’t know what to believe anymore.

  It makes me angrier. But I love and miss you.

  Dad

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Mack smoked a cigarette and folded his letter, placing it in the envelope. He lifted his glass and took a sip. “I could live right here, right now, like this,” he said to Alex.

  “Me too. You can smell the grass, the fresh air.”

  “I know. I don’t get it.”

  “Maybe, Mack, the Dokes are only on the East Coast. Maybe they migrated there.”

  At that moment, Rick walked into the kitchen. “Or are somewhere else waiting.”

  Curiously, Mack looked at him. “What makes you say that?”