by Lukens, Mark
“Yeah, they’ve got something good here,” Ray said. “But I still want to go to Avalon. I think we still need to go. But I would understand if you didn’t want to go.”
Josh shook his head. “Emma thinks we should go, too.”
“I’m not asking you two to go with me, but I think we should all try to stay together.”
“Yeah,” Josh said. “I agree.”
*
Later, they selected tents to sleep in. Ray and Mike slept in one tent, Josh and Emma in another tent, and Luke and Gil each had a tent to themselves.
Ray wasn’t sure he would be able to sleep, but weariness overcame him, his body surrendering to it. And for the first time in what seemed like such a long time, Ray slept without dreams. If he had dreamed, he couldn’t remember them.
He woke up early. Mike was still asleep. He let him sleep.
Ray crept out of the tent, trying not to wake Mike. He got up and stretched. He knew some of the other people were up, some of them on the roof keeping watch. He walked toward Luke’s tent. The flaps were open. He wasn’t inside.
He found Luke seated in a lawn chair close to the non-food supplies on the other side of the store. Luke had his weapons with him, cleaning them, using a battery-powered lantern and a flashlight so he could see. The store was lightening up with the morning, the daylight pouring down through the skylights, some of them shattered now from the gunfire from yesterday. The sounds of rippers could be faintly heard from outside, herds of them still around the front of the building, still waiting and hoping for more food to drop to the sidewalks below. But Jo was right, at least the rippers kept the Dark Angels away for a while.
“Can I sit down?” Ray asked Luke.
Luke nodded, gestured with his head at the other lawn chairs folded and stacked up on a shelf.
Ray grabbed a lawn chair, opened it and sat down close to Luke. “I still think we should go to Avalon. That’s where we were headed all along, and I think we should still go.”
Luke nodded. “I agree.”
Ray exhaled a held breath, worried for a moment that Luke wouldn’t want to go.
“But I have to go get Petra. Max is already going, and I can’t let him go alone. He said a guy named Phil volunteered to go with us.”
Ray sighed.
“You could come with us,” Luke said. “Come with us and save Petra. We’ll defeat the Dragon. End this war. After that, we’ll be free to go where we want. Yeah, the rippers will still be out there, but at least we won’t have to worry about the Dragon and the Dark Angels.”
“I just think if we could get to Avalon, there might be people there who could help us fight the Dragon. Government. Military. Maybe there’s a cure there.”
Luke didn’t look like he believed that. “If you want to go, you should still go.”
“Emma thinks we should go,” Ray said, hoping Emma could sway his decision.
Luke just nodded.
“I don’t know if we should split up right now,” Ray said.
“Maybe it’s the best idea. Divide our forces. I just think we need to go get Petra and kill the Dragon. If we wait too much longer, the Dragon will just get stronger. The Dark Angels will never stop attacking.” He hesitated for a moment like he wanted to say something.
“Go ahead, spit it out.”
“What if you get to Avalon and nothing’s there? If we all went, wasted time looking for this place, then Petra might die. The Dark Angels will attack this store again. Jo’s right, we need to protect this store.”
Ray could see that Luke had made up his mind. He stood up and folded his chair back up, set it on the shelf. “When you get to the Dragon, make sure you kill that motherfucker.”
“Oh, I plan to.”
Ray left. He walked back to the tents. He walked past them and climbed the ladder up to the roof. He figured Jo would be on watch.
Jo was hunkered down near the knee wall with a rifle and a pair of binoculars. The sound of the rippers was much louder on the roof. Hundreds of rippers milled around the parking lot, some screeching and yelling, some pushing and shoving, a few fighting. They looked like something from a zombie movie, so ragged and thin now. Starving.
Ray sat down next to Jo. The sun was up on the horizon. A few other spotters were on the roof with their weapons and binoculars. The mannequins Jo had put in place weeks ago lay exposed, the tarps and nets fallen off of them, the metal pipes meant to look like guns on the floor of the roof. They hadn’t been posed to look like shooters again—they weren’t fooling anyone anymore.
“Thank you for all you’ve done for us,” Ray told Jo.
“But you’re going to be moving on.”
“Probably in a few days, when this group of rippers dies down.”
Jo nodded. She was trying to hide her disappointment.
“Luke is going with Max to get Petra,” Ray told her. “The rest of us are going to Avalon.”
“I hope there’s something there. I really do. We could all use a bit of good news.”
“We’ll be back either way,” Ray promised. He figured Jo couldn’t feel the pull of Avalon like he could, like Emma could. She couldn’t sense it. She hadn’t had the same dreams that he and the others had shared. She hadn’t been around Emma very long, and maybe she didn’t totally believe in Emma’s abilities.
“You’ll still be here for another day or two,” Jo said, glancing down at the rippers roaming around the parking lot. “And you’re welcome to anything we have.”
“And we’ll help in any way we can.”
Jo nodded. “We’ll do our best to defend the store while you’re gone. I hope it will still be here when you get back. I hope we’ll still be here.”
“You could go with us,” Ray said. “All of you. We could all go.”
Jo seemed to think it over for a moment, but then she shook her head. “Sorry. My place is here for now.”
Ray understood; Jo wasn’t going to risk something she knew for something she didn’t. But Ray was sure about Avalon, as sure as he’d been about anything in his life. And Emma was sure too—that was enough for him. He stood up and walked back to the skylight to get back down to Mike and the others, to begin preparations for leaving.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
Thank you so much for reading my book. I hope you’ll keep a lookout for Book 8 of the Dark Days series, the last book of this series. You can follow my blog or subscribe to my newsletter to get updates about upcoming releases and sales.
Being an author is a dream come true for me, and it only happens because of readers like you. Thank you!
Blog: https://www.marklukensbooks.wordpress.com
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mark Lukens has been writing since the second grade when his teacher called his parents in for a conference because the ghost story he’d written concerned her a little.
Since then he’s had several stories published and four screenplays optioned by producers in Hollywood. He’s the author of several bestselling books including: The Ancient Enemy series, Devil’s Island, Sightings, The Exorcist’s Apprentice, The Dark Days series, Followed, and many others. He’s proud to be a member of the Horror Writers Association.
He grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida. But after many travels and adventures, he settled down near Tampa, Florida with his wonderful wife and son . . . and a stray cat they adopted.
He loves to hear from readers! You can find him on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Mark-Lukens-Books-670337796318510/
You can follow him on Twitter here: https://www.twitter.com/marklukensbooks
You can follow his blog here: https://www.marklukensbooks.wordpress.com
He can be reached via email at [email protected] and [email protected]
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