by Schow, Ryan
Logan turned and looked at the old woman who ran into the back of his bike, then at the guy yelling at him for being an accident victim thrown into his car. He sat up and spit on the car. Lots of nasty blood.
“What the hell?” the jerk growled.
“Get any closer and the next one’s in your face,” he said as he slid off the trunk lid and landed on unsteady legs. His heel suddenly caught on something, pitching him backwards over his motorcycle’s front tire. When he fell down, he remembered hitting his head, but he didn’t remember passing out. When he woke back up, the old lady was standing over him saying, “I gave you mouth-to-mouth, was that right?”
“I think so,” he said, the back of his head hurting more than ever.
“I saved his life!” she announced. “He’s breathing again!”
“Did I stop breathing?” he asked, astounded.
“I don’t think so,” she whispered. “But I think I just saved your life.”
“I think you did, too,” he said, getting up and wondering just how long her mouth was attached to his.
“I’m sorry about your motorcycle,” she said.
It was crunched, ruined.
The part of him, that barely-hanging-on part of him, was flat out horrified and more than a little pissed off.
The jerky guy was up talking with the lady in front of him and everyone was out of their cars carrying on about what might have happened. The EMP happened, he thought.
And it happened three days early.
“Dammit!” he swore so hard, the pressure of his outburst pulled together in a knot on the back side of his head, making him a bit woozy. He grabbed the car in front of him for support, thankful that he hadn’t passed out again, but worried that he might anyway.
“I have insurance,” the older lady said.
He pulled her into a hug and said, “I will always remember what you did for me.” And then he started walking into the traffic…only to stop and remember something. Turning around, he walked back to the bike, popped open the seat compartment, withdrew the weapon and the spare mags, and then he headed in the direction of home.
He marveled at the chaos, feared for what was to come next, realized that if they were going to survive, he’d need to get Kim to safety, hope to God Skylar was at home with Kim, and then find some way to get back to Oregon.
Five Falls was their best shot at living. Maybe their only shot.
When he got home, however, he saw his door had been kicked in. “Mother of God,” he grumbled.
Pulling out his weapon, he entered his house the same as if he were clearing rooms. When he got inside, he saw three dead Chicom police and one nearly dead Chicom sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, bleeding.
He barely looked up when Logan came in.
Logan walked over, patted the guy down, made sure he had no weapons, and then he said, “Shhh,” before doing a whole house sweep.
He fought the urge to call out to Kim, needing to clear the hall closet, the bathroom and the bedrooms first. He cleared everything but his own room. When he set foot in there, he saw Kim face down on the bed. Her back was red with welts, and some cuts. There was a small hole in her side, right about where her kidney was. He stopped, watched her body, and then he started to shake inside.
She wasn’t moving.
Sitting down beside her, he gently rubbed her back.
“Kim, it’s me.”
She didn’t move. Her skin was cool to the touch, but…he’d just left her! How could she be dead? He rolled her body over. The front of her had barely any warmth, but it was not anywhere near as cold as it should be for a dead person.
That’s when he saw the sheets. Where she was laying, they were soaked in her blood. It was the kidney shot. She’d bled out from that.
Tears gathered in his eyes, his heart hurting worse than ever.
He brushed strands of loose hair away from her eyes and mouth. Her face was a few angry lumps, a split lower lip and two broken teeth. Her jaw wasn’t lined up right. Looking down at her hands, he saw knuckles that were both mushed and cut, like she’d beat the hell out of something before she died.
He gazed into her lifeless eyes and he started to cry. Not because he wanted to, or because he knew her all that well. He cried because these men came in here looking for him or Skylar, and she was here. She was a victim of circumstance.
A wrong place, wrong time murder.
Wiping his eyes, he looked down at her one last time, then he glanced out into the living room where the dying intruder was sitting.
Stalking in there, he knelt down in front of him and said as calmly as he could, “Why are you here?”
“Blue Lark,” he muttered.
“Why is everyone so interested in her?” Logan asked.
“Head of the Resistance,” he coughed, blood and spittle spraying out, his eyes wincing under the pain of such an outburst.
“No, she’s not the head. She’s only a spy. An infiltrator.”
“Who are you?”
“The guy who’s going to take your pain away.” He got up, walked to Skylar’s bedroom, he ejected the mag from his pistol, thumbed out the rounds, and jammed it back in.
He returned to the living room, knelt down and said, “One round. This is the easy way out. I’m going to sit here with you so you don’t have to die alone.”
“What if I shoot you?” he said.
“You won’t.”
He tried to lift his hand. Logan slid him the gun. He looked at it, turned it over in his hand and said, “This is one of ours.”
“I have lots more like it,” Logan said, his heart tremors now infecting his voice.
The policeman looked at the gun, then he worked a little strength into his arm and tried to lift it to his head.
“My spine,” he said.
“Here, let me help,” Logan said, raising his arm and turning the gun toward his face. “When you’re ready, just pull the trigger and it will all be done.”
“So much pain,” he said, his eyes shiny.
“Good.”
With his finger on the trigger, and the barrel of the gun now moved into his mouth, he sat there, shaking, and then he started to cry. Logan said nothing, and he didn’t take his eyes off the man. Then the Chicom worked the courage back up again, really finding that little extra something, but then he backed off again.
“It’s okay,” Logan said. “This is inevitable.”
Finally he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. All he heard was a dry click. The man opened his watery eyes, blinked twice, then watched as Logan took the gun from his hand and said, “You didn’t think I’d let you off easy, did you? After what you did to my friend?”
With the gun in hand, he stood and said, “You don’t get the easy way out. You get the hard way out. The blow-by-blow way out.”
That’s when he started kicking this man as hard as he could, taking out years of rage on him with each and every impact. It felt good, and then it felt terrible, but still he kept kicking. Even as his shocked knees started to ache, to stand weak, to wobble, he kicked this man. He didn’t know how long he’d been dead by the time he stopped, but Logan didn’t know when he’d started sobbing, either.
Before he could completely go to pieces over everything that had gone wrong getting to that point, he opened the living room window, pushed out the screen and dumped the man over the edge. He landed with a meaty thud, his body broken and laying in ways that were unnatural.
Using the last of his strength, he grabbed the other three bodies, dragged them over to the window and wrestled them over the edge, too.
They all sat there in a pile.
Four pieces of shit.
He finally closed the window, took a shower, iced his knees and ate something. When he was done, he went and got Kim, carrying her dead body with him down the hallway to Skylar’s room where he tucked her in bed. He then took off his clothes down to his briefs and got in bed beside her, holding her unresponsive ha
nd and apologizing to her for not getting back in time.
Had he left Five Falls earlier, he could have saved her. She would still be alive.
As it was, she was dead, he was exhausted, and tomorrow he would wake up to a new world. A hostile world. A world unlike any he’d ever known.
Tomorrow marked the beginning of the dark days of the after.
End of Book 1
The story continues in Dark Days of the Surge…
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Dark Days of the Surge: A Look Ahead
THE NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT of the Dark Days of the After series by the best-selling author of The Last War Series, The Age of the Embers Series and The Swann Series is coming soon! Pre-order your copy now and have it delivered to your Library the instant it releases!
THIS IS THE NEW AMERICA. The lights are out, the grid is fried and war between two monstrous armies is breaking out all along the coastal states. Logan, Skylar and Harper thought they were prepared. They thought time was on their side. They even thought they were tough enough to survive, a notion they’re about to put to the test…
THE EMP MARKS THE START of a new post-apocalyptic world war in this cross between 1984 and The Man in the High Tower. Nothing is easy, the best laid plans are faulty, and murderous forces put ordinary citizens to the test on every level. Get ready for post-apocalyptic fiction like you’ve never read before. Tons of action, characters you’ll come to love and root for, the kinds of stakes that will have you wondering, if this really happened, would I survive?
Well, would you?
The Dark Days of the After series is a hard hitting post-apocalyptic EMP survival series featuring ordinary people trying to survive in an extraordinary world under the most difficult of situations.
Books in the Dark Days of the After Series:
The Last Light of Day (Prequel)
Dark Days of the After
Dark Days of the Surge
Dark Days of the Apostasy
Dark Days of the Enclave
Dark Days of the Purge
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The Complete Last War Series
Check out the Amazon All-Star Award Wining series that put USA Today Best-Selling author Ryan Schow on the map as one of Post-Apocalyptic fiction’s most influential writers!
The EMP hit. Society collapsed. America now sits on the precipice of a new dark age…
When a breathless assault on California hammers the power grid and lays waste to much of the population, an EMP strike might be America’s only salvation. But will this bold, almost hopeless attempt to preserve the nation trigger something far more devastating? An extinction level event perhaps? Who is behind this attack, and what is their endgame?
Ripped straight from the headlines, this edge-of-your-seat, post-apocalyptic EMP thriller will usher in humankind’s last war, an epic tale of survival like no other. This groundbreaking new series follows a ragtag group of ordinary people through the ravages of war, a post-apocalyptic wasteland and a dark new world where only one question remains: if you manage to survive, is your future even worth living for?
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WHAT READERS OF THE SERIES ARE SAYING…
“Wow! I love this author! This is an awesome series...amazing characters, both good and bad...the action never stops plus the scenarios are incredible! I just didn't want it to end!”
– Mama Who, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
“This is the best so far. The focus is not just survival but the description of human behavior, thoughts and ethical conundrums. Character development is very strong and the book addresses all the male/female issues being struggled with today.”
– Christopher La Londe, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
“An epic tale of human fortitude! When the worst happens, some give up, some prey on the weak and then some stand up and become more. The series will stay with you beyond the last page!”
– Robert V, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
“What a story! The author managed to weave a tale of action, depth of personality and realism around an apocalyptic event that grabs you by the throat and does not let go to the very last page!”
– Dusty, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
“This series is one of my favorites! I can’t bear it to end; I need to know what happens with AI. Such a wonderful cast of characters with real life feelings and needs. This series won’t disappoint!!!”
– Johnnie L. Ritchie, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
ORDER OF BOOKS IN THIS COMPLETE BOX SET:
The Last War
The Zero Hour
The Ophidian Horde
The Infernal Regions
The Killing Fields
The Barbarous Road
The Terminal Run
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