by Al Ewing
Cade being Cade, he loaded the damned thing anyway.
And then he spent a couple of days sleeping, drinking any whisky he could find and getting ready to find the gasoline.
Another week, or near as. Five and a half days of trudging from gas station to gas station, all over San Francisco, trying to find ones that hadn't burned to the ground, ones that still had gas in pumps or in cans, and the right kind of gas for an eighteen-wheeler at that. And on those rare occasions he found it, Cade had to drag it back to Frederick Street in the hot sun, with every muscle screaming at him.
Hell with it. Cade figured he could rest when he got back to Muir Beach.
In the end, he got most of the gas he needed from the Pastor's people, or what was left of them. It was just women and children now, as well as a couple of shaky-looking fellas, the people who'd cracked during the battle with the cannibals. When Cade limped back into the supermarket parking lot, he was greeted like some kind of returning royalty, and they pretty much let him take what he wanted. Things were changing a little - they had clean mattresses now, and he saw one kid with a colouring book, and another with a GI Joe figure. A woman named Emily was the head of the community, and she was talking a lot about planting seeds and raising some kind of crop. And about Jesus, too. Cade figured it was better than nothing at all.
After he'd fueled up the rig, and checked the engine over, and loaded the trailer, and gotten a couple days rest to make sure he wasn't going to pass out on the way back to Muir Beach, Cade figured it was about time to go. He'd seen enough of San Francisco, and he had a strong feeling San Francisco had seen enough of him, given that he'd killed about ninety-eight per cent of it with his own two hands.
He threw the eighteen-wheeler into gear, coaxing the engine into life and feeling the vibration of it rush through the leather seats of the cab and into his body. It was painful, sure - pretty much anything was going to be painful for at least the next year - but it felt pretty damned good, all the same. Gave Cade the feeling of a job well done. The roar of that engine was as good a note as any to end on, at least the way Cade figured it.
Still, there was an itch in him - something that went deeper than the crawling feeling of his burned skin as the hot leather hummed underneath him.
It wasn't like he'd had fun, exactly. He'd been carved up, staked out, damn near fed to a bear, blown up, drugged and had his shoulder cried on a couple times, which he wasn't used to.
But.
Cade thought about the routine of life in Muir Beach. Whittling down wood. Screwing the Duchess every day. Playing solitaire. A beer with Woody once a week.
It could be a lot worse, Cade figured. That wasn't a bad routine at all for a man to have.
Cade sighed.
No killing, though.
He'd have to get used to that.
Halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge, Cade realised he owed Woody a new pickup truck and he was going to have to go get one from somewhere.
He figured San Diego.
THE END
Al Ewing's written a mess of stuff over the years. He wrote a couple of novels before - El Sombra and I, Zombie, they were called. Mainly, though, he writes for comic books. He's one of the fellas who write that Judge Dredd - never much cared for it myself, though I did see the film once. He's not much of a man, or much of a God, come to think of it. But he tries, and I guess when all's said and done that's the important thing.
He made a stand against the end of the world...
The Blight arose from nowhere. It swept across the bickering nations like the End of Times and spared only those with a single fortuitous blood type.
Hot-headed religion and territorial savagery rule the cities now. Somewhere amidst the chaos a damaged man receives a signal, and with it the tiniest flicker of hope. The chance to rediscover the humanity he lost, long ago, in the blood and filth and horror of The Cull.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
We all go a little crazy sometimes...
Jasmine has spent five years underground, locked in a secret government bunker. Outside, the world has gone to hell, a mysterious virus killing all but 1 in 20 of the world's population.
It's enough to drive anyone mad - but Jasmine's crazier than most. The cure she was working on had an unexpected side effect, psychotic symptoms which only powerful drugs can suppress. Jasmine's rescuers, the pirate rulers of the New Caribbean, don't care. They need Jasmine's help to discover what it is that has turned the inhabitants of Cuba into rabid killers. Jasmine's quest to find a cure for this new plague, as well as for her own madness, draws her across the fractured continent of America and into the darkest recesses of her own past.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
A War is Coming!
As America lies bleeding, Native American Chief Hiamovi seeks to unite his people into a single nation capable of reclaiming the US from the white man. His growing army is on a collision course with cult leader Samuel Colt, who intends to put the country back in the iron grip of the once mighty Neo-Clergy. The two men are set for a showdown at Little Bighorn, once site of Custer’s legendary last stand, now a twisted, nuclear landscape. The fate of the battle may just be decided by Anna Bontraeger, rescued from a brothel by rogue scientist Matthew Greaves and taken on a perilous road trip across a devastated continent. Greaves and his small band have to get Anna to Little Bighorn before Colt or Hiamovi, so she can unlock the secrets which will save what remains of humanity and bring about a new dawn over Doomsday!
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
As the world dies screaming a legend is reborn!
In the years following The Cull England has reverted back to the Middle Ages, ripe for invasion by the Frenchman De Falaise and his group of mercenaries. They enter through the Channel Tunnel and work their way up the country. Ex-policeman Robert Stokes lost everything to the virus that ravaged these isles. Along with his wife and his son, it took Robert's whole reason for living. Retreating into the woods and forests near Nottingham, he has become a hunter, living off the land and avoiding any form of human contact -until now. Pockets of survivors are attempting to build up small communities in the region, bartering at makeshift markets and forming tentative connections. But when De Falaise arrives at Nottingham - proclaiming himself the new 'Sheriff' - Robert finds himself drawn reluctantly into the fight, using the famous legend of a Hooded Man as his guide!
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
A LEGEND REBORN IN THE FLAMES OF WAR!
More than a year has passed since Robert Stokes defeated De Falaise, the self-styled Sheriff of Nottingham. In that time, The Hooded Man has been training a new force to police the area: The Sherwood Rangers. But cracks are beginning to appear in this fledgling system - the men are overstretched and a new threat has appeared in the shape of a dangerous Satanic cult.
Meanwhile, an old enemy has persuaded 'The Tsar', the Emperor-like ruler of Russia, to move against Robert. Soon The Tsar's armies are landing on these shores, determined to wipe out The Hooded Man and his band for good.
But there are also more personal aspects at stake: Robert and Mary's relationship, for one, placed under threat by a beautiful newcomer - as Robert himself struggles with his living legend status. Can The Hooded Man and his friends survive all of this, or will everything be broken for good?
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed
gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
“After the world died we all sort of drifted back to school. After all, where else was there for us to go?”
It's never easy being fifteen, but when your teachers are killing each other, the prefect who loves to bully you is experimenting with crucifixion, and the rival gang from across town have decided that ritualistic cannibalism is the way to go, spots and BO don't seem like such big problems after all.
These are the final days of St Marks' School For Boys, and the punishment for disobedience is death!
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
"I celebrated my sixteenth birthday by crashing a plane, fighting for my life and facing execution, again."
Lee Keegan travels to Iraq on the trail of his missing father, only to find himself caught between desperate rebels and a general who wants to strap him into an electric chair.
In England, Jane Crowther, one time matron of St Mark's School for Boys, attracts the wrong kind of attention and has to fight to protect her new school from unlikely enemies.
And in a bunker underneath Washington, a madman issues orders that will tip two devastated countries into total war.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
Extract
Indicia
Title Page
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
Chapter 27
About the Author
'The Culled' by Simon Spurrier
'Kill or Cure' by Rebecca Levene
'Dawn Over Doomsday' by Jaspre Bark
'Arrowhead' by Paul Kane
'Broken Arrow' by Paul Kane
'School's Out' by Scott Andrews
'Operation Motherland' by Scott Andrews
Table of Contents
Indicia
Title Page
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
Chapter 27
About the Author
'The Culled' by Simon Spurrier
'Kill or Cure' by Rebecca Levene
'Dawn Over Doomsday' by Jaspre Bark
'Arrowhead' by Paul Kane
'Broken Arrow' by Paul Kane
'School's Out' by Scott Andrews
'Operation Motherland' by Scott Andrews