The Resurgent

by Blake Wilbanks

  THE

  RESURGENT

  ALSO BY BLAKE

  The Lost Hours Series

  Ash and Bone

  Standalones

  I’m Not Broken

  The Resurgent

  THE RESURGENT

  A NOVEL

  BLAKE WILBANKS

  Broken Masterpiece Books

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and used any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.

  Wilbanks, Blake

  The Resurgent: a novel / by Blake Wilbanks

  “The Resurgent” copyright © 2018 by Blake Wilbanks, LLC.

  Copyright © 2018 by Blake Wilbanks

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

  The text for this book is set in Times New Roman

  First Printing: 2019

  ISBN: 978-1-7249-8040-3

  [1. Science—Fiction. 2. Apocalyptic. 3. High School—Fiction. 4. Friendship—Fiction. 5. Extraterrestrial Beings—Fiction. 6. Survival—Fiction.]

  Broken Masterpiece Books

  P.O. Box 2792, 38835

  DEDICATION

  ADEN SKYLER DOBBS

  May You Dream Colorful

  Dreams That Inspire.

  "Anticipating the end of the world is humanity's oldest pastime"

  - Dave Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

  THE RESURGENT

  PREFACE

  Xavier’s breath mystified and puffed like smoke around him. It ghosted his skin with a gold chill and sent a shiver up his spine. He tried to hold in the shivers that threatened to rack his body, but they were stronger than his will to conceal them.

  His mother and father turned to look at him and gave him a small smile. They knew that he was cold, but also knew that he’d do anything to be able to stay outside and see the stars. It was a tradition of theirs—stargazing. They did it often. It was their way of spending time together without having to say anything. Their enjoyment for the stars was enough and that was all they really needed.

  They stared into the void of darkness, staring up at the bright twinkling stars. The cold nipped at their skin with its menacing bite, but it didn’t deter them. It never did. Their love for the stars was greater than their care for their own well-being.

  Xavier stared longingly up at the sky. His eyes twinkled a mirroring image of the stars glowing gleam and he smiled up at them.

  His nose was red from the bite of the cold, but he didn’t mind. For the stars and their beauty was much greater than his worries of the cold and the threat of getting sick.

  “Look!” he exclaimed, pointing an eager finger to the sky at a constellation that he didn’t quite know the name of. But he knew its shape and he knew that it was a work of enduring beauty

  It was ethereality in its purest form.

  That night when his mother and father lie him down for bed, he dreams of watching the stars, smiling up at them with the biggest grin on his face, and they smile back down at him too.

  PROLOGUE

  THE RIPPLE IN the sky should have been the first sign of the apocalypse. It should have been something that alerted more people than it did, but it didn’t. If anything, it didn’t really matter to anyone. No one thought more of it.

  That probably had something to do with the very convincing reassurance from multiple Scientists that were paid to go on live television and lie to the world, telling everyone that the ripple in the sky was just a rare phenomenon that only happened every few thousand years.

  They went on TV to set the world that had fallen into a state of panic, at ease, not even caring that their false theory would give so many people so much false hope.

  Scientists would say anything if the pay was higher than their impeccably low standards.

  The ripple was a “phenomenon” that never went away. And it wouldn’t return in the coming thousand years either.

  There would be nothing for it to return to.

  Darkness would come and take over what the light once had. And the world would surge into a darkness so severe that there would be nothing but fear and the prickling feeling of nothingness.

  And one must find their way out of the darkness and find the light.

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  XAVIER DUN SAT on a stool, his father—Andrew—stood behind him trimming his hair. He was trying to make it look good for Xavier’s first day of school. Which was tomorrow.

  Xavier’s father always cut his hair before the first day of school, to make sure that he looked presentable. It was something that he had always done, ever since Xavier was a little boy starting Kindergarten. Now he was a teenager in the tenth grade. A lot of time had gone by, but not much had changed.

  After a few more minutes, Xavier’s father put the scissors that he had been using down on the counter of the bathroom, and patted Xavier on the shoulder. It was a way of telling him: Okay, son. I’m finished.

  Xavier pushed himself to his feet and turned to his father, who was fairly young, from his parents having him at such a young age. His father and mother were just in their mid-thirties.

  Xavier pulled his father in for a short embrace and told him “thanks” for cutting his hair. After a few moments, he pulled away and stared his father in the face. He looked young because he was, but there was always a hint of worry and weariness etched into his features.

  Even though it was subtle, Xavier could see it as plain as day. In the bags under his eyes. In the pale color of his skin. And the way he could never get a full night’s sleep. He was a restless person in nature, but it never seemed to bother him all that much.

  “Are you okay, dad?” said Xavier, his lips pulled into a thin line. “You look like you could use some rest.”

  Andrew shook his head and said, “No, I’m fine. It’s nothing that I can’t handle.”

  Xavier didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded his head for a lack of anything else to do.

  “You have a big day tomorrow. Are you excited for your first day of school?”

  Xavier shrugged. “I guess. I don’t really know.”

  Andrew looked out the window of the bathroom. The moon was shining brightly in the dark starlit sky. It brought back some memories of when Xavier was younger. When he, his father, and his mother—Eliza—would all go outside and wait for the first few stars to appear, then they would stay for hours trying to name as many constellations as they could. It had been a few years since they had done it.

  It was a childhood tradition that had somehow faded away with time and Xavier didn’t know if he should insinuate in some way that he wanted it back. He just didn’t know how he would.

  He didn’t want his parents to think of him as childish if he did. Because he was beyond that. He knew that. He just wanted to spend time with them like they used to.

  Was that so much to ask?

  Xavier thought of things like that fairly often. He was a thinker. He thought way too much and he didn’t know why.

  * * *

  The next day, Xavier was jolted awake by the sound of his name being yelled and then the sound of the two giggling voices that followed.

  It was his mother and father. They were standing at the end of his bed. His father Andrew was holding a store bought cake in his hands, and his mother Eliza held a wrapped gift in her hands and a bright smile was etched into her lips.


  She looked just as tired as Andrew did, but it didn’t seem to matter to her. Her eyes had bags under them and were bloodshot from lack of sleep.

  “Happy birthday, Xavier!” Their voices were laced with so much excitement, but Xavier couldn’t bring himself to feel the same way.

  He groaned. He had forgotten about today being his birthday. He had been so caught up in all of his planning for school, that the thought of his birthday had just been some sort of burden.

  It wasn't something that was important to him, but it was to his parents. They thrived for anything that could be remotely exciting.

  Xavier rubbed at his eyes with the palms of his hands. He lowered them when he felt a dip in the mattress and looked up to see his mother sitting at the end of his bed.

  “Here, sweetie,” she said, handing him the present and ushering for him to open it. “If you don’t like it we can always take it back and get something else.”

  He sucked in a deep breath of air and tore both ends of the wrapping paper open, careful not to make a mess. It was a camera, one that he had always wanted, but could never get because it was something that they could never afford. Money wasn’t something that they had a lot of lying around just for their enjoyment.

  Xavier looked back up at his mother. “This is great,” he said. “But it’s too much. It must have cost a lot.”

  “No,” said Eliza, shaking her head. “I got it on sale for cheap.”

  Xavier nodded, pushed himself forward, and wrapped his mother in a warm embrace. “Thank you,” he said.

  “You’re welcome, sweetie.”

  There was a moment of silence before any of them spoke. Xavier just looked around his room filled with awkward silence, trying to wake himself up some more.

  “Would you like a piece of cake before you have to leave for school?” asked Andrew. “You still have a little time before you have to leave.”

  “No,” said Xavier looking at the clock on his wall. “I should be getting ready so that I can leave at a proper time.”

  “Okay. Well, we’ll save you a slice.”

  Xavier nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll see you downstairs before I leave.”

  “All right,” said Andrew and Eliza in unison, and then left, shouting a loud ‘I love you’ through the door.

  A small smile etched itself upon Xavier’s lips.

  He pushed himself up onto his feet and grabbed the pair of clothes that he had set out for himself to wear, the night before. He had chosen to wear a black V-neck shirt, a pair of black skinny jeans, and for shoes, he decided on a simple pair of white converse shoes that he had drawn on with a black sharpie.

  At the time, he was going to use a variety of different colored sharpies but had thought better of it and just kept to black instead. The white mixed with the different colored sharpies would have looked tacky, and Xavier was glad that he had caught that himself before he had put ink to material.

  “Okay!” yelled Xavier making his way down the stairs. “I’m ready for my first day of hell.”

  “Ah,” said Andrew, taking a sip of hot coffee from a plain white mug with the words ‘World’s Best Dad’ written in bold black letters. A large smile etched into his features. “But is hell ready for you?”

  “It should be,” Xavier replied. “And if it isn’t, then it is in for a hell of a treat.”

  “Do you have time for breakfast?” said Eliza.

  Xavier shook his head in reply. “No, ma’am. I’m actually headed out now.”

  CHAPTER

  TWO

  THE STREET THAT Xavier lived on was littered with potholes.

  Xavier’s mother had started a petition to try and get the Government to fix them. She had gotten all of the signatures that she needed within two weeks, but no one really cared, and subsequently, they knew that the roads would never get fixed.

  It didn’t take long for Xavier’s mother to realize that the Government either didn’t care or they simply just didn’t feel like funding the cost of having all of the potholes patched up. Which would most likely be a small fee to pay.

  Xavier drove slowly so that he didn’t ruin his car.

  Whenever Xavier drove it was when he thought the most. He thought of anything and everything, especially about school.

  As he drove onward, getting closer to school, the farther he drove, he could feel his stomach twisting and turning in displeasure.

  He thought of all the different types of people that went to his school, and how much he came far from actually fitting in with anyone. He wasn’t popular, and he never would be. He didn’t fit in with anyone at school, not even the band geeks that he had thought that he would fit in with, but didn’t.

  His school was filled with many snobby kids, but the snobbiest were the bible hugging ones that judged anyone before they could even get within ten feet of them. If you weren’t holding a bible and praying to God every few minutes, you were considered worthless to them.

  A sinner like no other.

  Xavier and his family weren’t that religious, but they believed in God, and they served him well.

  Xavier only had one friend, and her name was Demetria. And he didn’t feel like he fit in with her most of the time either. She was fairly popular, and he wasn’t. Sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder why she wanted to hang out with him most days, but she did.

  After a few more minutes, he had made it to school. All of the good parking spots that were closer to the entrance were already taken, so he had to park a pretty good ways away from the entrance. But he didn’t mind the walk, in fact, he could use it.

  As he made his way to the entrance of the school, someone jumped on his back from behind. The only thing that didn’t cause him to throw the person off of him was the soft laugh that followed after the weight of the person had settled on his back.

  It was Demetria.

  Her long black wavy hair was cascading down her shoulders. She was wearing a thin gray sweater, a pair of ripped blue jeans, and a pair of white sneakers. Her dark skin glowed beautifully in the sun.

  “Hey!” she said. Her voice was laced with unneeded excitement, jumping off of Xavier’s back and moving to stand in front of him.

  “Hi,” replied Xavier, with less excitement then Demetria had, which caused her to pout in mock offense.

  “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

  As excited as I’ll ever be,” said Xavier with a sigh. “But I think the excitement has kind of gone away. You and I spent almost every moment of summer together. If we weren’t at the beach, we were in the woods behind my house hanging out in the tree house my dad built when I was little, or we were taking photographs of anything and everything.”

  “Really?” said Demetria. “Everyone is excited when I come around.”

  A thoughtful look took up Xavier’s features for a second, and then it was gone the next. “I think that that’s all in your head.”

  Demetria shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe so,” she said. “But you have to admit, I have a great imagination.”

  “Sure, you do.”

  Demetria rolled her eyes. “Shut up,” she said. “Let’s get to class. We have to get our books before the bell rings.”

  Xavier’s first class was Advanced Math with Mrs. Tartt, a fairly young Korean-American woman in her early thirties.

  She stood in front of the whole class at a wooden podium, going over a series of intense math problems that Xavier didn’t think he would ever be able to understand.

  It was only the first day, and Xavier was already feeling stress creep deep down into the pit of his stomach. It was only first period, so he could only imagine what the rest of the school day was going to be like.

  The only period that he was looking forward to was lunch. Only because it was the easiest period of the day, and there was no way that anything could go wrong. Or at least that is what Xavier thought.

  There was fifteen minutes left of math and Xavier
was barely hanging on by a thread. A sense of tiredness had ghosted over him and all he wanted to do was sleep, even if only for a few minutes. He rested the weight of his head on the palm of his hand and closed his eyes.

  After a few minutes sleep overcame him, and he fell into what was supposed to be a land of dreams painted vibrantly with colorful imagery but was really just a blank canvas of nothing.

  Xavier was jolted awake by the loud ringing of the school bell. He sucked in a deep breath of air and looked around the room to see everyone scrambling to get their things together and leave.

  Xavier did the same. He scrambled to his feet and gathered his things up in his arms and left the room as fast as he could.

  The halls were filled to the brim with students grabbing their things for their next class. Demetria met Xavier by his locker. She had her textbooks stacked together in her right arm and the key to her locker on a lanyard around her neck.

  Demetria met Xavier by his locker. She had her textbooks stacked together in her right arm and the key to her locker on a lanyard around her neck.

  “What class do you have next?” she asked, looking down at her very creased and mangled looking schedule. “I have Mr. Lahey for Gym.”

  “For Gym?” asked Xavier in reply. “Gym second period sounds like the worst kind of hell.”

  “Eh,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “When do you have Gym?”

  Xavier pulled his schedule out of his locker and examined it with intent. “Uh,” he said, pursing his lips. “Fourth period, right before lunch.”

  Demetria gave a low chuckle in reply. “Well, that’s lucky,” she said. “At least you don’t have it after lunch, because you’d probably blow chunks everywhere, otherwise.”