Begin Again: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure (End Days Book 4) Read online

  Begin Again

  End Days Book 4

  EE Isherwood

  Craig Martelle

  Contents

  Connect With Craig Martelle

  Connect With E.E. Isherwood

  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

  Copyright

  Author Notes – E.E. Isherwood

  Author Notes - Craig Martelle

  E.E. Isherwood’s other books

  Craig Martelle’s other books

  Connect With Craig Martelle

  Website & Newsletter:

  www.craigmartelle.com

  BookBub –

  www.bookbub.com/authors/craig-martelle

  Facebook:

  www.facebook.com/AuthorCraigMartelle/

  Connect With E.E. Isherwood

  Website & Newsletter:

  www.sincethesirens.com

  Facebook:

  facebook.com/sincethesirens

  Copyright © 2019 by E.E. Isherwood & Craig Martelle

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 9781095217269

  Cover Illustration by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Editing services provided by Lynne Stiegler

  Formatting by James Osiris Baldwin – jamesosiris.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  We couldn’t do what we do without the support of great people around us. We thank our spouses and our families for giving us time alone to think, write, and review. We thank our editor (Lynne), cover artist (Heather), and insider team of beta readers (Micky Cocker, Kelly O’Donnell, Dr. James Caplan, and John Ashmore). It’s not who we are as authors, but who we are surrounded by that makes this all happen. Enjoy the story.

  One

  Sidney, NE

  “You’re awake, aren’t you?” Connie asked.

  Buck shifted in the Peterbilt’s sleeper. “Yeah. How could you tell?”

  At some point in the night, Mac had hopped off the bed, so he and Connie could have spread out a little. However, instead of using the extra space, the dog’s absence had made them move closer together. Now she was huddled against his chest, probably because she was always cold in the air-conditioned sleeper cab.

  “Your breathing changed when you woke up. Thinking about Garth?”

  He glanced at the digital clock next to the bed. The dim red LED numbers showed 4:44 in the morning. He’d gotten a few hours of sleep, which he desperately needed, but he had been up for a while already, stewing about what might have prevented Garth from calling him.

  “Garth. The world. Our convoy. You. Everything. I’ve been trying to pretend what’s going on outside is temporary, and that once we get to Garth things are going to return to the way they were, but I’m coming to terms with the truth. This is Day Four, and those scientists still aren’t saying shit about fixing things. Nothing is going back to the way it was.”

  Connie reached out in the darkness and draped her arm over his neck as if to hold him where she wanted him. “I’ve been thinking about my boy, too. He was in a dream of mine, in fact.”

  “A good one, I hope,” Buck remarked.

  “Not really. I haven’t had a good dream since I came to 2020. Well, there was that one time where I had a daydream about you and me…” She chuckled mischievously.

  “I’m listening,” Buck replied with great interest.

  “Oh, I shouldn’t have teased you at a time like this. It’s just I hate thinking bad thoughts, and that’s all my dreams seem to be about. Phillip is always fighting Saddam Hussein in a swirling sandstorm, so I never know if he makes it out of there alive.”

  He wanted to hear more about her pleasant dream, but family always came first.

  “I told you, we kicked Saddam and his army right in the nuts. It’s all good. You shouldn’t worry about that.”

  “Maybe you’re right. My maternal instincts are screaming that he has to be alive, but my tired brain has me convinced it is just the opposite.”

  “Go with the maternal side,” he suggested.

  “I try to, every moment I’m awake. There are times when I’m positive I sense him nearby, but it’s probably wishful thinking. Do you feel your son’s presence across the miles?”

  He laughed. “I’ve never stopped feeling a connection to him. From the day he was born, and no matter how many miles away from home I go, I always sense him. I even convinced myself I knew when he was getting into trouble, and I would sometimes call his friend Sam’s parents to check on him, but I stopped doing that when I figured out my Spidey senses weren’t as great as I thought. The reality was, he always got into trouble with that boy.”

  She laughed sympathetically, then continued speaking. “Well, I know we’re all in trouble with this time-travel shit, but my nightmares felt more vivid last night. I want to believe he is close.”

  “You want to try calling him, don’t you?” Buck pointed to his phone on the charger nearby. “I won’t lie, Connie. I’ve been thinking about ringing Garth no matter what the hour, too. Let’s get out of bed and hit the phone together.”

  She kept her arm over his neck a little longer.

  “Thank you, Buck. For everything. The ride. A place to stay. A friend in a land I barely understand. It’s been an effort to hold it together. I tear up at odd times, and for no apparent reason. I can’t imagine where I’d be if I had to do this alone. Finding my son will, I think, go a long way toward fighting off the waterworks forever.”

  “You’re welcome. You’ve complained about yourself before, but I’ve seen nothing but strength from you. You’re killing it in my timeline.”

  “I don’t like to be the weeping damsel in distress. I’m not that type.”

  He gripped her hand tightly. “No one would ever mistake you for a pushover, Connie. Besides, I have a good feeling about today. We’re going to reach Garth—I’m sure of that. Then we’re going to find your boy. He’s out there, too. If he’s your son, he has to be a survivor.”

  For the millionth time, Buck considered kissing her, but he didn’t want to ruin the tender moment. After waiting to see if she would say anything more, he hopped out of bed and put on his guns-and-grenades Hawaiian shirt.

  “You don’t have anything else to wear?” she taunted.

  “I washed this in the Great Salt Lake yesterday.” It smelled of salt water, but at least it wasn’t rank with sweat. “And I can’t get my maid to come in and do the laundry.”

  “Yeah, well, I know a Marine who buys me new clothes when my old ones get wet and dirty.”

  “Sounds like an awesome dude.” His words could have come out of Garth’s mouth. That boy and his friends all talked like surfers for some reason.

  “Maybe. I’m still not sure about him…” She left the wor
ds hanging. The day needed to start.

  “Want a water?” he asked, deliberately looking away from her. There were a few bottles in the mini-fridge. As he pulled one out, he remembered he’d stuffed the rabbit into the freezer section.

  I’ve got to cook it soon.

  “Nah, I’ll get something stronger when we go into the truck stop for breakfast.”

  “Suit yerself,” he drawled.

  He got situated in the driver’s seat as she slid into the passenger position. After a quick glance at his dash lights to make sure there were no problems, he turned to her. She, however, stared out the window.

  “It’s amazing,” she said with awe.

  The eastern horizon was aglow with the first hints of dawn, but the nighttime sky above was filled with translucent ribbons of green, purple, and yellow. The wavy shimmers of energy nearly filled the entire sky. Even the lights of the truck stop couldn’t wash out the beautiful swipes of color hanging up there.

  “That’s a new one,” he deadpanned.

  Connie craned her neck to look out the windshield. “Is that the aurora borealis?”

  “Maybe. I’ve seen hints of the aurora in some of the northern states, but I’ve never seen anything even close to this. The colors are incredible.”

  “The atmosphere must be really messed up,” Connie suggested.

  He absently turned on the radio, thinking the news might have something about it, but Mac nudged his leg before he could tune in.

  “I’ve got to take him outside. I guess we’re all waking up.” He had hoped the pup would sleep in for a few more minutes.

  “I’ll call the other trucks,” she replied. “Get everyone up and ready to roll out. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

  He smiled at her. “That is exactly what I want. The faster we run off some miles, the sooner we’ll reach Garth.”

  She reached over and put her hand on his thigh. “Buck, we will find your son. If he’s anything like you, he’s resourceful and strong. The energy waves may have made you black out a little, but they didn’t stop you, and I’m positive they didn’t stop him either. Bank on it.”

  He didn’t feel great, but he did feel better.

  It was time to get back on the road.

  Charleston, WV

  Garth’s body shifted like he’d been tossed out a window.

  “What the…” he blurted, grasping for the steering wheel. His heart pounded in his chest like a time bomb set to explode.

  He found himself in the front seat of the taxi, although it took a full second to realize it wasn’t moving. As he caught his breath, it became obvious he’d startled himself awake from a heavy slumber.

  “Are you okay?” Lydia asked with concern from the back seat.

  “Oh, yeah,” he replied, ordering his heart to defuse itself. “I dreamed I was falling. That’s all.”

  Lydia laughed quietly. “Sometimes wagon drivers would tumble to the ground when they fell asleep during the day. It made children burst out laughing. Pa never did that, but I did see him doze off now and then.”

  “That was why I pulled into this campground last night,” he replied. “I almost conked out a few times while I was driving, because I was exhausted. When my body fought off the sleep, it was like what I just experienced. It felt like falling.”

  “How do you feel now? You didn’t get much sleep, but the sun is up now so we can continue.”

  He sighed with a heavy heart. The sun poked through the trees of the campground, but it was only a few minutes past six. If he’d been at home, he could have easily gone back to bed and not woke up until noon. By contrast, the hardworking pioneer girl had been awake before him both mornings.

  “We made good time last night. I set the odometer on this car. We did almost five hundred miles. I was also able to stop at another gas station and filled up the whole tank. I don’t think we’ll have to use the two-gallon container again.”

  “You didn’t wake me up at the station?” she asked with surprise.

  “I wanted to let you sleep. Besides, there were no other cars there, so we didn’t have any threats to worry about.”

  Since he’d lost his pistol, the only defensive gun he had left was one of the AR-15s he kept in the gun case. He didn’t want to carry it around, however. He’d never seen his dad carry a rifle around town, and he figured he should follow the same rules. He was already inside a stolen taxi, although he’d painted the outside black to hide all the markings. Doing things at night, when there were few people, suited him just fine.

  “You missed a beautiful light show in the sky, though. I almost woke you up to see it, but I figured you probably saw the northern lights all the time since you lived under the stars.”

  “I would have enjoyed seeing it with you,” she admitted, “but I understand your reasoning. We must both get our rest so we can function inside this tack-see today.”

  “Agreed. And lucky for us, we don’t have a tent to break down.” Last night, he’d pulled into the little KOA campground to save money, instead of getting a room in a motel. However, after he’d paid for a spot and driven the final fifty yards, he’d had no energy to get out and set up a tent, so they’d slept in the car.

  “What time is it?” Lydia asked.

  “A little after six in the morning. I guess I got an hour and a half of sleep.” He said it while hiding the disappointment he felt. If he was going to drive all day, which was his plan, he wasn’t sure ninety minutes of sleep was enough.

  “Garth, we aren’t alone here.”

  He peered out his empty window frame.

  “Oh, shit. I pulled into the wrong space.”

  It was easy to see what happened. He’d parked alongside another campsite instead of pulling into the one he’d been assigned. Now, a man and woman broke down their tent just a few feet outside his window.

  The woman caught his eye. “Sorry, dear, we need you to move as soon as you can. We have to back out.”

  He felt like an idiot. Not only had he parked outside his own spot, but he’d blocked the neighbor campers into theirs.

  “Sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I was pretty tired last night when I got here.”

  “We heard you come in,” she responded while pulling apart tent poles.

  The couple were in their forties or fifties—older than his dad, but not old people. They were dressed in high-priced clothing like they had some money. He recognized the North Face windbreaker worn by the man as clothing the rich kids at school liked to wear.

  “Where you heading?” he asked.

  “Denver,” she replied. “It’s where the internet said to go, right?”

  The man shushed his wife.

  She shushed him back. “We have to be polite, babe.”

  “I know, babe, but we don’t want the whole world to go there, you know?”

  The woman turned back to Garth, apparently undeterred. “That man on the videos said the SNAKE lab was the only safe place in America, so that’s where we’re going. You should go there too.”

  “Denver?” Garth responded. He recalled his dad telling him to avoid that city, but he didn’t volunteer the information, because he didn’t know if something had changed. “I’m not going that far, but I am driving out west to meet my dad. We’ll probably go back to New York once we link up. First, though, I need to find a phone and call him to find out where he is.”

  The woman pulled out a phone. “You can use mine.”

  He felt elated to have the opportunity, but that faded with the speed of a shooting star. “Thanks, but I don’t know his number. We’re going to the first mall we find to look up his information at my cell phone company.”

  She tapped the phone and made like she was going to talk on it, but then she gave it an odd glance. “The network is down? It was working fine last night.”

  The woman shrugged. “I was going to dial information for you. They might know his listing.”

  “That only works for local numbers, babe,” her husba
nd said from inside the deflating tent.

  She looked at her partner for a few seconds, then put her phone away. “I guess we’ll never know. Going to the cell phone company sounds smart. I wish you the best of luck.” She continued in a quieter voice, so her husband wouldn’t hear. “And you should consider going to Denver. I bet most people in this campground are going there. You don’t want to be late.”

  “Late?” he asked in the same tone. “Late for what?”

  “The end of it all. End Times. The last page of human history. Aren’t you following in the news on the internet?”

  Garth’s anxiety came roaring back. If she was right and everyone at the campground was going west, he felt a compulsion to get a head start on them.

  “I am following it, yes. Thanks, and good luck.”

  He started the car.

  “Lydia, come on up to the front seat. I need you to keep me from falling asleep. We’re good on gas, but we’re going to make one unscheduled stop.”

  She scrambled out of the car and got into the passenger seat.

  “What do we need, Garth?”

  “Lots and lots of Mountain Dew. We aren’t stopping until I reach my dad.”

  Two

  Search for Nuclear, Astrophysical, and Kronometric Extremes (SNAKE). Red Mesa, Colorado

  Faith was roused from her fitful sleep by engine noises outside.