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

  “What now?”

  She’d spent the night across the hall from her old office. Now that General Smith was dead, she could probably take it over again, except that all the windows were broken. She had gone in there to get a look at the heavy machinery on the parking lot, although she thought twice about it when her feet crunched on glass.

  The sunrise over the high plains of Colorado shone in through the empty window frames, and it reflected off millions of shards of glass on the floor, on her desk, and on all the shelves and cabinets. The car bomb had knocked down all her knickknacks, thrown her computer on the floor, and punched out most of the ceiling tiles.

  The only thing missing from the crime scene was a long strand of yellow police tape.

  While staying low to avoid being seen, she peeked outside.

  “Is this the help you said was coming?” she muttered sadly, thinking again of Smith.

  Several tanks scooted around the parking lot like roaches through the woodwork. These were real tanks, not the Humvees she had seen the day before. Huge guns poked out of the turrets of the tracked monsters making them appear far more menacing up close.

  On the far side of the parking lot, beefy military tractors shoved civilian cars into the brush.

  “Assholes!”

  Her Jeep was somewhere on that side.

  “There better be a damned good explanation for this!” she grumbled as she walked into the hallway.

  Bob ran into the office where she’d spent the night.

  “Hey, Bob. I’m over here.”

  He popped his head back out and smiled a little when he saw her. “There you are. We have to get out of here. More soldiers are arriving, and they’re trying to round us up again.”

  She took it in stride. “The military was already here. NORAD, remember?”

  “Yeah, but these guys have lots of guns, and they aren’t fucking around like last time. Faith, they’re being rough with our people. I don’t think they’re going to let anyone leave. That’s why we have to go.” He waited for a second, as if unsure what she was going to do. “Right now!”

  “Yeah, okay,” she allowed.

  They jogged down the hallway toward one of the many emergency exits. Because the SNAKE facility was almost entirely underground, the designers had been overly cautious about providing exit routes. She’d used one of them last night to escape the collider tunnel after the explosion, and now they were going to save her again.

  “Where will we go?” She thought of her Jeep being tossed around outside. “I don’t know what they’re thinking, but the first thing they did was shovel my Jeep off the parking lot.”

  “My Audi is probably scrap now too. We’ll worry about that when we get outside. Come on!”

  Screams echoed from other hallways, and she expected Army men to appear around every corner, but they made it to a metal door with the EXIT sign above it. Bob went through and held it open, but she stopped at the threshold.

  “We have to help others escape,” she said urgently. There weren’t any other scientists close by, but there were some milling around down the hall.

  “Faith, listen to me. The NORAD security guards are gone. They were chased away. I’ve been trying to tell you. These new guys aren’t going to be as accommodating as General Smith. They might even be here to punish us.”

  She squinted at him as if he’d just told a huge fib. “Come on, the military doesn’t do that. General Smith was very clear about their role.”

  “Yeah, and you said he was bringing in the people responsible for the experiment. What if they couldn’t find them? What if the military got sick of the whole waiting game and they’re just going to eliminate the people who know mistakes were made?”

  Faith saw beyond his words. “And since you were part of the group that started this whole disaster, you think they are out for you, right?”

  “Believe me, I only knew what little I needed to run the experiment, but there are multiple levels of the military, Faith. The grunts who kick in doors and the generals who tell them what to do, and then there are the eggheads who design and test the superweapons.”

  “That’s still not—”

  He continued, “Then there are the bosses who decide which superweapons get made and which ones get scrapped. If they are scrapping this, we all might be collateral damage.”

  “That’s a lot of ifs.”

  Bob propped open the door as wide as it would go. “I’m leaving, Faith. I want you to go as well. They have tanks and guns. I want nothing to do with all that.”

  She walked through the door as if she were in a dream. Deep down she didn’t believe any bad could come from having the military around, but she had to admit that General Smith might have spoiled her with his straightforward honesty. These new soldiers had tanks, guns, and bulldozers, and didn’t seem to have any problem flaunting them.

  They killed my Jeep!

  General Smith’s people never would have done that.

  “Come on. Hurry!” He started up the stairwell, waited for a second to see if she would follow, and then kept going.

  The main administration wing of SNAKE was built into solid rock, as was the rest of the facility, but there wasn’t much earth above it because it was near the surface. They had three or four flights before reaching the exterior door leading out into the forest.

  Screams floated up from the lab below, like her people were being hurt as they were rounded up.

  “This doesn’t feel right,” she said with uncertainty. “We could have gotten some of them out with us.”

  Bob seemed to ignore her. “I’m leaving through this door and heading to freedom. You need to come with me right now.”

  Faith took a step back. “I was able to negotiate with General Smith. I helped prevent a disaster by stopping him from shutting down the Four Arrows boxes at the same time. What if I leave and no one is there to stop the next calamity?”

  “You can’t be sure that’s what will happen. There’s only one box left. Whatever they screw up, we have to be far away from here when it happens.”

  “No, I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going.” She said it with all the bravado she was able to muster.

  Bob pressed the latch of the fire door and chuckled. “I’m surprised I got you this close to freedom, actually. You care too much about your work. I can see now that you did deserve the lead role more than I did.”

  He offered his hand, which she shook briefly.

  “Take care of yourself, Faith, okay? I won’t go far, I promise. I might talk to some colleagues up in Boulder and get a better read on what’s going on outside of SNAKE. Sound good?”

  “I suppose. Don’t think we’re done, though. You owe me an explanation for how you set up this illegal experiment in the first place, but for now, I hope you get to safety. It can’t hurt to have allies on the outside.”

  He looked surprised. “You consider me an ally? After all I’ve done to you?”

  She ran her fingers through her hair, surprised at herself for having used the word.

  “For now, let’s just agree we have the same enemies, okay? Being my ally will depend on what you share with me, got it?”

  “Deal,” he agreed with his usual smug look.

  He pushed through the door, but when he turned to go outside, something slapped his face. Bob’s head was flung back, and blood splattered on the door, and on her blouse.

  He crumpled to the concrete a second later.

  I-80, NE

  Buck and his convoy were back on the interstate. Sparky had tipped over his truck last night, so he rode with Eve, the trucking recruiter. Mel “Monsignor” Tinker drove the third truck and stayed far at the back. He preferred to be alone with his flammable tanker because he was terrified he was going to blow up with it.

  “Sure is pretty,” Connie remarked, looking forward. The sun crept up over the flat prairie of high plains Nebraska.

  “Don’t let it fool you,” he shot back. “You’re going to get sick of
this state before you know it.”

  She chuckled. “I’m already sick of it, but I’m trying my best to pretend. Otherwise, I might start asking you if we’re there yet. My boy was a master at making trips like this seem like an eternity. It was murder getting him to be quiet and read a book.”

  Buck turned her way. “You would like having a kid today. All you have to do is give them a digital tablet, and it babysits them for the entire trip. You have to struggle to get them to put it down so you can feed them.”

  Connie expressed disgust. “That sounds horrible. I don’t want some gadget watching my son.”

  “Amen, sister,” he replied, “but that’s the way of the world. Garth plays games on his phone all the time. Sometimes I think about taking it away from him so he has to talk to his friends with a standard telephone, but that’s a hard battle to wage when I’m always out on the road. I did manage to lay down the law so he can’t play games during the school week.”

  He sighed.

  “I should have been there more.”

  Connie grabbed his phone out of the cradle. She’d tried to call both of their sons once since they hit the highway, but she hit redial on Garth again.

  “Buck, I promise you we’ll get in touch with him, and eventually we’ll get you two back together. Then you can tell him whatever you want. In person.”

  He waited while the phone rang. It went to voicemail, which he took as a good omen. At least it was connecting with something on the outside.

  She handed him the phone.

  “Hey, Garth. It’s Dad. We’re on our way to meet you, but we need to know where you are, like we discussed, so we can meet up. Call me as soon as you get this. Love you. Talk soon.”

  He hung up, and she started to dial again.

  “Phil?” he inquired.

  She nodded. “I can’t stop trying. I’m sure he’s out there.”

  “Come on, boys,” he said with determination. “Pick up for your parents.”

  The phone rang over and over as he put more miles on his Peterbilt.

  On the horizon far ahead, the sky went from light blue to thunderstorm green in a split second, but it wasn’t a typical weather front. It was as if a storm had been teleported into existence with the snap of a god’s fingers.

  A strong gust of wind bashed against the front windshield like a shockwave from an explosion.

  “Hang that up. We’ve got trouble.”

  He didn’t want the distraction of a ringing phone.

  The darkness of the storm spread out on both sides of the center point.

  And it was getting closer.

  Red Mesa, CO

  Phil took charge of the three NORAD airmen because he outranked them, but they seemed anxious to have the leadership. They’d been run ragged since they drove to SNAKE from Peterson Air Force Base, and they didn’t have nearly enough guards to watch over the entire facility. That was how the terrorists with backpacks of C-4 had been able to walk in and push them out the door into the woods.

  “Sir, it looks like every exit is being watched now. We saw some scientists try to escape, and one of the guards used the butt of his rifle to break the guy’s face.”

  Overnight, Phil and the three airmen had crept through the hilly forest until they reached the main offices of SNAKE. From their vantage point above the facility, they had a good view of the parking lot, the main office, and some of the concrete bunkers that served as exit doors.

  For most of the night, Phil had been convinced he was part of an elaborate prank to make him think he’d been transported across the world in one second. However, when the sun came up and he saw the flat expanse of the city of Denver, he grudgingly admitted he wasn’t in Switzerland anymore.

  “Why would they hurt the scientists?” he asked his men.

  Private Sanchez replied. “I don’t know, sir, but if I did that to a civvy, I would expect to get court-martialed in half a second. The man wasn’t a threat. They struck him for the hell of it as he walked through a door.”

  “I don’t suppose any of you have radios?” he asked without much hope.

  “We left one in the tunnels,” Sanchez answered. “The terrorist wouldn’t let us take weapons or anything else.”

  Phil’s radioman, Corporal Barry Grafton, had last been seen in Geneva, Switzerland. He had no idea if any of his men had come to Colorado with him, but he was beginning to think he was going to have to scour the forest looking for them.

  He pulled out his disposable phone, intending to call the Ranger headquarters at Fort Benning, but the phone was completely dead. The LED screen was blank.

  “Son of a bitch,” he groused. “I know this was charged when I left on our mission. Something depleted it.”

  “Maybe it was the trip from Switzerland,” one of the men joked.

  Phil didn’t bother arguing. It might have been true.

  He was about to ask if any of the three airmen carried personal phones, but the sounds of footfalls and low voices came from behind them.

  “Shit!” he hissed. “Find cover.” He was the only one with a weapon, so he tried to position himself between the voices and the unarmed guards. A tall pine provided a good hiding spot.

  Phil caught glimpses of military uniforms through the pine saplings around the trail. Approximately four men, all armed.

  He had about five seconds to decide if all of this was real. If this was America, the units had to be friendly. That meant pulling a gun on them could possibly be career-ending.

  Yet, he was still on his original mission. In that respect, he had a duty to avoid capture until he understood what happened to Ethan and the rest of his unit.

  This is America, dammit. It has to be.

  Three

  I-80, NE

  “What’s going on out there?” Monsignor asked over the CB. “Another storm?”

  Buck peered ahead, not sure what it was. The darkness was like an infection inside the baby blue of the normal sky. The sun was blotted out by part of the anomaly, but it wasn’t because of any clouds.

  A chill clung to his spine from the base of his skull to the middle of his back.

  He let off the gas a little.

  “It isn’t a storm,” Connie said with fear in her voice. He watched as she reached down to pet Mac, and she seemed surprised when he wasn’t there.

  “He’s in his crate,” he said after seeing her look around.

  “I don’t blame him. I also feel like curling up back in bed,” she replied. “I don’t know why.”

  Buck got on the CB. “It doesn’t matter what it is. We’re going to punch through it.”

  “I’m behind you, Buck,” Eve responded. “Sparky says he agrees with you.”

  Buck drove for a few more miles as he studied the roadway ahead. A fine mist forced him to flip on his windshield wipers, although there were still no clouds ahead.

  “There!” Connie declared. “What’s that?”

  She pointed to a building next to the highway a few miles down the road. There were no cities in this part of Nebraska, so he guessed it was a large grain silo, but he soon crossed that off the list because the shape was completely wrong.

  “It looks like a skyscraper lying on its side,” he replied.

  “This feels wrong,” he said slow and mechanically, “like the darkness doesn’t belong here. That shouldn’t be here.” He pointed to the huge monotone gray structure.

  Buck strained to decipher what it was as he drove the lonely interstate through the grasslands. They were a mile from the structure when the grass changed, almost as if he’d crossed a property line. On one side it was green and healthy. On the far side, closer to the object, the grass had been stripped away and replaced with mud. An intense rain had scoured away grass and clawed ditches down the small, rolling hills, and pools of water gathered in every low point.

  “Oh, hell, no. It can’t be.” Buck was close enough to the shape to recognize the lines and the proportions.

  “You know what it is
?” Connie asked.

  He waited another twenty seconds as they came alongside the mystery object.

  “Buck?” she pressed.

  “Yes. It’s a ship. An aircraft carrier, to be precise.”

  “Here?” she said with surprise. “In Nebraska? That’s impossible.”

  “I’m positive that’s what it is, and I don’t think the locals built it as a tourist attraction.”

  The eerie atmosphere seemed to dissipate as they approached, a lot like a fog that went away when they were inside it. As they got closer, the shape came into focus, and he was certain what it was. He figured the darkness was because of the evaporating water around the ship. The hull of the metallic beast was also soaked, like it had been pulled from the ocean and dropped in Nebraska as part of a giant claw-grab arcade game.

  Sparky spoke on the CB. “Buck, do I need to get my eyes checked? Did that ship sail over a thousand miles of farmland to get out here?”

  He picked up the handset but took a moment to think about it. “We’ve seen storms pop out of nowhere. We’ve heard of planes and people coming from the past. It looks like bigger things are coming through now.”

  The ship’s hull was covered in barnacles and sea slime, but it was also crumpled and damaged as if it had been dropped into position alongside the highway. It wasn’t a modern American aircraft carrier, he knew that much, but he had no idea where or when it might have come from.

  “Aw shit, here we go again,” he said when the traffic jam became apparent. “Gawkers. We can’t avoid them. There are almost no cars for a hundred miles either way on the interstate, but when we get to crap like this, there is nothing but rubberneckers.”

  Connie laughed. “Maybe they came out of the past too? What if these people were plucked from traffic jams in Los Angeles or New York City? Wouldn’t they be surprised to end up in Nebraska with this ship to look at?”

  Buck engaged the Jakes and slowed the Peterbilt to a crawl. There were maybe fifty cars and trucks pulled over on both sides of the highway. Lots of people were on foot, taking pictures.

  “Can we get out and look at it?” Eve requested. “I would love to get some video for my promotional material. Truckers see some of the most interesting shit on the road, that’s for sure.”