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End of Days | Book 5 | Beyond Alpha
End of Days | Book 5 | Beyond Alpha Read online
Beyond Alpha
End Days Book 5
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
The End
Author Notes – E.E. Isherwood
Author Notes - Craig Martelle
Thank You
Other Series by Craig Martelle
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Connect With E.E. Isherwood
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www.sincethesirens.com
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facebook.com/sincethesirens
Copyright © 2021 by E.E. Isherwood & Craig Martelle
All rights reserved.
Cover Illustration by Heather Hamilton-Senter
Editing services provided by Lynne Stiegler
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.
Created with Vellum
One
Buck’s Rock
“Hey, sleepyhead.” The female voice was melodic, with a touch of Southern twang. The tone was motherly and emotional as if the woman cared deeply for him. Buck had not heard anything so warm since decades earlier when his mother woke him up for school. She was not his mother, however, nor was it a school day…
The world is ending!
He opened his eyes.
“What the—” he blurted.
“It’s okay.” Connie put a hand on his chest.
Buck Meadows remembered who he was, who he was with, and most importantly, that he had already survived the end of the world.
He looked up at the attractive blonde woman he’d asked to marry him.
A wide smile shone back.
Despite her plea for calm, he sat up, then slowly got to his feet.
“What happened?” he asked.
“After you introduced me to my son, you talked to us for a short time, then you said you needed to sit down for a minute.”
“Don’t say it…” he begged.
“Yep.” Connie helped him stand. “You fell asleep.”
He searched the area for Connie’s son Phil. To his surprise, the younger man was helping some teenagers clean bugs off Lorraine, his big rig. Those were the youngsters he’d picked up at the bridge, the ones who thought they’d gone to Amarillo. The man in the uniform had them work together to scrape off all the dead carcasses, which Buck greatly appreciated. Still, it didn’t smooth over his ill feelings about falling asleep when work needed to be done.
“I guess that’s what I get for trying to outdo the Army.” He chuckled to show he wasn’t serious.
“That’s what you’re worried about, mister? Inter-service rivalry?” She crinkled her eyebrows in mock anger. “You just drove God knows how many miles over the past several days with no real sleep. It’s a miracle you got us here at all, but then you went ahead and saved all these people without a second thought. Compare yourself to the Army, Navy, Moon Rangers, whatever, but I’m here to tell you that you’ve earned a few hours of sleep.”
He wanted to argue the point, but he accepted a warm hug instead.
“Besides, Marine,” she teased. “Phil is cleaning your truck, not the other way around. I’ve gotten to catch up with him while you were sleeping. I assure you he is way past any friendly rivalry. He’s now your second biggest fan—after me, of course.”
They separated, which gave him a chance to study what had been going on while he slept off his exhaustion.
“It’s been like this the whole time?” He pointed at the broken fence line and what little remained of the town of Sedalia. The people sat in the wide grassy area between his namesake rock and the downed fence, but it didn’t look any different from when he’d fallen asleep. No organization. No rally points. Nothing.
She put her arm around his waist and faced east with him.
“Yes. As you can imagine, people are unsure what to make of the events of the past few hours. They came here to get safe from the big science experiment, but I daresay none of them expected they wouldn’t be able to go back home. That’s why some of them are beyond the fence, looking at where their cars used to be. Most, though, have stayed on this side of the fence, where they feel safer.”
As she’d described, hundreds of people had gathered by the tall deer fence that traced the sixty-two-mile circular path of SNAKE, which was the underground facility they’d been instructed to go to. The fence seemed to have a magical property that kept people about ten feet away on both sides since very few in the crowd got close to it.
Buck’s military past crept up.
“Do you know who’s in charge?” he asked. In disaster situations, it was important to establish a chain of command, or there would undoubtedly be problems. If he’d needed to share leadership with other members of his convoy, he might still be out there on the road, wherever the road ended up. If there was one thing he didn’t do well, it was being wishy-washy or suffering under the guidance of those who were.
“Our first task will be to find out who’s running this shitshow.” He pointed behind him at the foothills, where he assumed the scientists were stationed. “All those people out there are going to tire of poking around that fence. They’re going to have lots of questions. They’re going to have lots of needs. I can already see they don’t know proper etiquette for using outdoor shitters.”
He pointed at one of the nearest buildings in Sedalia to focus her attention. “That toddler just punched one out against the wall of that damned building, and his mother is standing there letting it happen. That’s not cool.”
“Ew. I didn’t even think of that.”
“You will,” he remarked. “We all will and too soon.”
Building proper sanitation trenches was a key Marine skill he was going to need, but before things broke down to that level, he hoped to make contact with those mysterious people in charge. If they’d invited survivors to come to SNAKE, perhaps they’d anticipated the need for portable toilets, food, medical supplies, and a million other things a group that size would require.
He spotted Garth sleeping next to the pioneer girl he’d been traveling with. His
son was dead asleep to all appearances, but she squatted next to the campfire, tending it with a long stick. He really wanted to talk to her but didn’t want to wake Garth. The boy had almost killed himself and the girl the previous night by driving too far on too little sleep.
For a second, he was glad there were no mirrors around since he would look in one and see a man who’d done the same thing as his son. Connie had been spot-on when she’d said it was a miracle they’d all made it. He’d gone a little nuts behind the wheel, too.
“Well, I guess I ought to go thank your son and those kids for helping clean off my truck. I’m not sure it matters since there aren’t going to be highways out there.” He motioned toward the blue waters of the sea where eastern Colorado used to be. When he looked closer, he noticed there was one strip of pavement left. “Except for that one.”
It looked as if Highway 85 headed east out of Sedalia and went directly into the sea. However, another highway went due south of the city along the fence line, half a mile from the edge of the water. Buck pulled Connie a few yards toward his truck, which gave them both a better view.
“That highway goes well beyond SNAKE. Look how far you can see it.”
“What does that mean?” she asked with wonder.
“I’m just a crayon-munching Marine, but to me, it looks like parts of the world outside our safe zone are still intact. I don’t see Denver anymore, and farmers in Kansas are probably going to have to harvest kelp, but maybe there are some survivors out there.”
“That would be wonderful. Things maybe aren’t as bad as we thought.”
He wondered about that.
“Yeah, it looks—” He was interrupted by distant engine sounds. Humvees, if his ears were still reliable. “It looks like we’re about to get some answers.”
They looked at the winding road leading into the hills.
“The cavalry is coming.”
He prayed it would be the US Marines.
Buck’s Rock
“Garth, wake up.”
Someone poked the bottom of his shoe.
“I’m awake,” he replied.
He sat up to find Lydia bumping a long stick against the sole of his sneaker. Once he showed signs of being with it, she resumed using the branch to poke around in the fire. While her methods might have been impersonal, her crooked smile made him forget about them in mere seconds.
“Hey, Lydia,” he said with caution.
“I had to wake you up, sorry. Your dad and mom are gathering us all together.” She pointed at his dad and Connie over by the truck.
“She’s not my mother,” he replied in a kind way. “She’s my dad’s girlfriend.”
“They travel together but are not really together?” She twisted her lip while thinking. “Are they planning to court, like we are?”
“Oh, I bet they are,” he teased.
“That is nice,” she replied.
“Yeah, I guess it is. She seems to really make my dad happy, even with everything else going on.”
“I know the feeling,” she blushed before returning her attention to the fire.
Garth was only able to catch up with his father for a short time before Connie’s son came along and shook up the whole campfire area. To Garth’s surprise, that was when his dad fell asleep. His intention had been to stay awake and poke fun at Buck when he woke up, but his own lack of sleep had made him slip off to la-la land too. Now it was too late since Dad was up and about.
When he turned to his frontier girlfriend, she’d stopped with the stick and was using one part of her dress to wipe some grass stains off another part.
“You don’t have to worry about your dress. Now that you’re in my time, I can get you any kind of new clothes you’d like. Remember that mall we went to in Kentucky? Places like that have more types of clothing than you can wear in a whole lifetime.”
“Like owning a flock of sheep?”
“Um, I’m not sure what you mean. Basically, there are fifty different stores with fifty different ways to dress. Most of them are for girls, so I’m not completely sure what’s in them, but I know that’s where girls from my school always shop. I’d be happy to buy you something nice, as long as it’s not too expensive.”
“I could dress like the girls in your era? Will I look as pretty as them?”
He rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what he should say. “Well, you don’t have to worry about being pretty.”
“You don’t find me pretty?” She slumped.
“No!” He sat up straight. “I mean, yes. Yes, I find you pretty. No, you don’t have to worry. Clothes have nothing to do with it. Does that make sense?”
It was a lot easier saying flattering things to a girl in his head. Lydia was pretty, no doubt about it, but getting the compliment out there was a lot of work for some reason. It was almost as bad as when he’d accidentally asked her about getting married because he thought that was how things worked in the 1840s. She’d countered that it was only proper for her to accept how courtships worked in Garth’s time instead. That was when they’d formally started to date, though he hadn’t had a second of peace to flatter his girlfriend until their shared moment at the campfire.
“I think so,” she replied after a brief pause.
“Come on, let’s go see what my dad wants.” He held out his hand to help her up, and she accepted with a smile. To his surprise, his hand was wet and clammy as if he’d been sweating bullets.
“Sorry,” he said as he wiped his hand on his shirt. “My buddy Sam would tell you I get tongue-tied around girls in our class that I like. I suppose there’s some truth to that because I’m, uh, talking in circles around you all of a sudden.”
When they had been on the road and flying along at insane speeds, he hadn’t had time to look at Lydia as a girl his age. For days she had been the transplant from the 1800s or the navigator keeping watch from the passenger seat. They’d briefly kissed after reaching safety, but that was the only moment when he’d felt like they were a couple. Now, he was out of his element on how to proceed.
The sound of multiple vehicles grew louder.
Dad was getting closer, too.
After putting his foot in his mouth, he intended to make things right with Lydia, but a spark of lightning caught his attention far out over the sea. A storm was building to the north and east, about where Denver had been a few hours ago, and the sight made him stop in his tracks.
Lydia noticed his reaction.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I was wrong about something.” He pursed his lips in deep thought.
“I do not understand,” she stated dryly.
Garth turned from the brewing storm to the safe harbor in Lydia’s big green eyes. On a whim, he wiped a smudge of ash she’d likely gotten from her fire-tending stick off her cheek.
“What is it, Garth?” she repeated with concern.
“I told you we could go to the mall and get you some nice clothes, but I already forgot what’s out there.” He directed her attention to the expanse of water. “The whole Earth has changed, and not for the better if you ask me.”
“It’s a beautiful ocean. I do miss my friends back in my time, but they would be so jealous to know what I am seeing. The biggest water I’ve ever seen was the Mississippi River.” Lydia gazed at the watery horizon as if that were their destination instead of the ground under their feet.
Several Humvees pulled up to the edge of the gathering crowd. They parked on a curve of the two-lane road, putting them slightly above the grassy field.
“Come on, guys,” his dad said as he walked by. “I want to be at the front of the crowd, so I know what these yayhoos are going to do.”
Connie trailed behind his dad, with Big Mac on a leash.
“You coming?” the older woman asked Garth.
“Sure,” he answered. “We’ll be right there.”
Connie had penetrating eyes like she knew he and Lydia had been talking about relationship-type things while th
ey’d been alone. He wasn’t embarrassed but proud to get what he took as a look of approval. Almost as if he’d passed a checkpoint, and she was happy to see it happen.
“All right,” he said with resolve. “We might not have malls and cities handy right now, but we’re safe and with my family and friends. Lydia, since we’re courting, I want to start things off on the right foot, you know?”
“Both your feet look correct to me.” She’d looked down to check.
“No.” He laughed. “I only want to say how glad I am to be with you. I think you are totally pretty no matter if you dress in your clothes or stuff from today. I just want you to know that whatever my mouth messes up when I talk, you are actually the best thing that ever happened to me.”
He stepped forward to kiss her.
Among a million swirling thoughts, he had no doubt about his feelings for her. That was a good foundation for any relationship, even one at the end of the whole Earth.
Too soon, however, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
His moment of peace was over.
Two
Search for Nuclear, Astrophysical, and Kronometric Extremes (SNAKE). Red Mesa, Colorado
Faith hopped into the backseat of the Humvee with the sense of dread she assumed had been carried by women throughout history on their way to the gallows. After seeing the total shutdown of the Four Arrows Project, the entire facility went into panic mode. Doctor Johnson had disappeared in a flash. She’d been able to go outside and look at the new world they’d created, but after their moment of celebration, she and the other scientists had been shuffled back into the main auditorium.