by Maxey, Phil
He looked back to the remaining Keller’s. “I’m sorry… the infection must have…”
Josh grabbed his mother, sobbing. She sat on her knees in shock. The world started to spin for Sam and she staggered backwards, looking for support and on not finding any, fell to the ground, laying on her back, looking up at a blazing blue sky.
In years to come she would have no idea how the idea came to her of what she did next. No idea that what Rackham did to her could also be used for good, despite the fact that as long as she lived she would spread his disease.
She scrambled to her feet, stumbled forward, then fell again to her knees, placing her hands on her father’s chest.
“He’s gone, child,” said Barker. “There’s nothing you can...” Words left him as her hands had dissolved into something else, something that flowed into Landon’s exposed chest. Her eyes were closed and her lips were muttering, but when she was done, Landon took in an almighty breath of air.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Five years, three months, one week and two days later. Galveston.
Jess looked out of the living room window to the cobalt blue ocean and frothy surf behind the white sandy beach. A seagull screeched and for a moment nightmares threatened to return, but her fear was quickly extinguished by Josh’s laughter. He was playing volleyball with Agatha, Toby, Brad and Landon. Her husband managing to do well even with one hand. Helen and Toby sat in a circle on the sand with Arlo, parked in his wheel chair nearby, all happily eating homemade ice cream.
Despite the joy the scene gave her, there was someone missing. She sighed just as Donnie barked from the hallway behind her. Someone was coming up the path to the front of the house.
She made her way to the front door, opening it and looking down at doc Barker at the bottom of the stone steps.
“Hey Jess!”
“Hi… I didn’t know we were due a checkup?”
“Oh, not here for anything like that.” He looked up at her. “Sanchez just got back from his run to Newhope.” He lifted an old ragged sealed envelope then walked up a few more steps so he was level with her. “Said another trucker who came down from the north gave him this. It’s got your name on it.”
Jess took the envelope from him, reading the front.
‘To Jessica Keller. Galveston, Texas.’ Her heart raced.
“I’ll leave you to it then.” He descended to the bottom then stopped, turning. “Oh, are you, Landon and Josh coming to the fair later?”
She nodded with a smile, words becoming stuck in her throat.
“Great, we’ll see you all there.”
She looked back down at the frail piece of thin card, turning, not being able to take her eyes from it and closed the front door then moved back into the living room. As she carefully pulled the top open, then pulled out the single piece of paper, something else fell to the ground. She bent down, picking up the black-and-white image of a young woman and a sob she had suppressed for over five years erupted from her as she put her hand to her mouth.
She opened the double folded piece of paper filled with a handwritten letter.
‘Hi Mom.
I hope this letter finds you. I don’t know what date it is as I write this, but I can tell you I sent it in the winter. I’m safe and happy with Lachlan. It was a tough first year but eventually we found a place in an abandoned mountain town in Wyoming. It has fresh streams (Lachlan tried fishing, but that didn’t work out, so I had to do it for him!) and lots of food from the old world, and we found a great place to call our home. I’m sorry I left. It was too much for me being so young and it took many years for me to make peace with what I caused to happen in Galveston and what I am. But now I accept being different and to be honest it has helped us many times in this ruined world. Do you like the photo? We found some books on photography and after many attempts with chemicals we found at the local pharmacy, managed to produce that photo from a pin-hole camera. I think I want to keep doing that. The new world needs to be documented just as the old one was.
I hope you, dad and Josh… ha, Josh must be really tall now! I hope you are all well. Maybe one day soon it will be possible for you to come here, but for obvious reasons I cannot ever leave.
Love you always.
Sam.
P.s. There is going to be a new Keller in about seven months.’
A commotion came from the back of the house. Landon walked up the stairs with Josh in tow, and pushed open the rear door, his laugher at Josh complaining about losing abruptly becoming concern at his wife’s red eyes and wet cheeks. He rushed forward. “What is it?”
As more sobs came, she handed him the letter and photo.
The end.
Thank you for reading the Extinction Gene series! I hope you enjoyed it!
Three other post-apocalyptic series are also available from me on Amazon (both in Kindle Unlimited). These are…(The links may not work on Apple mobile devices. Please copy and paste the link into a browser).
The Cascade - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084NHLZWJ
The Scourge - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089RT879S
The Glitch - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VVM79X7
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About the Author
Phil Maxey is an author who resides in the UK. Formally a game developer he now spends his time putting his love of sci-fi and the paranormal into words.
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Acknowledgements
Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com.
