Copyright © C.A. Rudolph 2019.
Cover Art by Deranged Doctor Design
Editing by Sabrina Jean
Back cover editing by Felicia Sullivan
Proofread by Pauline Nolet
On the cover: Darja Filipovic of Deranged Doctor Design
Kindle edition 092019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Also by C.A. Rudolph
Prologue
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
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
The Story Continues
Bonus Content
Until Nothing Remains - Chapter One
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Endnotes - a list of gear and equipment with links
ALSO BY C.A. RUDOLPH
THE GUN PLAY SERIES
UNTIL NOTHING REMAINS
EVERYTHING I DIE FOR
THE WHAT’S LEFT OF MY WORLD SERIES
WHAT’S LEFT OF MY WORLD
THIS WE WILL DEFEND
WE WON’T GO QUIETLY
DIVIDED WE STAND
WORLDS APART
INDIVISIBLE
THE WILL TO SURVIVE: A CHARITY ANTHOLOGY FOR HURRICANE RELIEF
THE WORST CASE SCENARIO (short)
For Stefanie, Delaney, Tristen, and Emma.
Though I’ve come to learn it was never in the stars, my intention has always been for this family to be closer than we’ve become. I realize much of the cause for division falls on me, and while no man is perfect, I’ve strived to make the best of things. Failures aside, nothing will ever change nor lessen the magnitude of my love for all of you.
Just as this series of books depicts in nearly every chapter, nothing is more uncertain than what our future holds for us. Still, I find myself having high hopes for it, and for us, all the same.
“A family doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be united.”
anonymous
Prologue
The hilly pathway on which Butch had chosen to lead Alan and Jade was barely wide enough to travel. All told, it wasn’t much of a path of any kind, but the terrain was proving no match for the massive Marauder armored APC. It hobbled about the snow-covered forest in stride, bouncing over everything it stumbled upon while paving its own path. It broke apart low-hanging tree limbs with ease, crushed full-grown fallen trees, and toppled live ones. It even fractured jutted-up portions of rocks it rumbled over. Its suspension system was doing a modest job of managing the ride, giving the impression it was built for this type of abuse, but the interior compartment wasn’t exactly providing the most relaxing ride for its passengers.
Alan tightened his seatbelt and arranged himself in the passenger seat while holding tightly to the APC’s ‘oh-shit handle’, a common nickname for the hand brace typically located inches above the side windows of most motor vehicles, to include exotic armored personnel carriers.
Jade’s expression carried both looks of excitement and uncertainty. She was thrilled at the prospect of seeing Ken and Walter again after having presumed them dead. Evening had already begun to set in, and the pair had been on the ‘road’ for hours. Butch seemed to quite literally be leading them along the proverbial path to nowhere, and she was beginning to wonder if the choice to follow him and defer Alan’s plan had been a mistake. It certainly hadn’t been the best-laid plan in Alan’s case, whom she looked upon with worry between bumps. “Hey, are you feeling okay? You’re starting to look really pale.”
Alan held his breath momentarily as his body tensed. “I don’t know. For a minute there, I thought I had a…handle on it. Now I’m not so sure. We might have to stop, Jade.”
“Motion sickness?”
“Yeah, I thi—”
Jade pushed hard on the accelerator, forcing the Marauder overtop a thick, petrified stump on her side, causing the enormous vehicle to pitch, then roll hard before leveling. “Uh…sorry about that,” she said nervously. “I don’t know where we are or how much farther we have to go to get to this White Rock place, but I wish it would hurry up and get here.”
“From where I’m sitting, every rock I see looks white,” Alan jested, doing what he could to will his stomach to settle. The ride itself was making him queasy, but Jade’s nervy driving habits were exacerbating his ailment.
While she piloted the APC through the darkening, hilly forest under falling snow, with one hand on the wheel and barely half her attention, Jade fiddled with a unique digital touchscreen bounded by multicolored buttons. On each button was etched an indecipherable symbol, and the screen itself was mounted to a pivoting steel frame above a duo of ergonomic control levers near the center of the Marauder’s dashboard.
Every so often, her eyes would jolt away from the screen, to the windshield, and back again, while Alan scrutinized her multitasking efforts, growing more unsettled as time passed. “Jade? I don’t mean to…bug you or add another distraction, but what exactly are you doing?”
“Why? Isn’t it obvious to you?”
“The only thing obvious is how it looks,” Alan said, his stomach churning.
“And how does it look, Alan?”
“To me? It looks like you’re struggling.”
“Looks can sometimes be deceptive. And for the record, I’m not.”
“I wasn’t insinuating anything. But it might…benefit us both if you let me drive.”
Jade sent along a snide glance. “Really? So soon? After what happened to Butch’s other priceless indulgence?”
Alan leaned away, recalling the old vet’s reaction to his accident scene. “Yeah, good point. Forget I said anything.” He gestured to the device Jade was toying with. “What is that?”
“It’s the UI for the Katlanit.”
“The what?”
“The UI…the user interface for the remote weapon system mounted to this thing,” she explained. “The one that runs the big machine gun.”
“Oh.”
“I’m trying to familiarize myself with the software and I’m not having any luck with it, which is frustrating. I’ve never seen anything like it before…the entire operating system is completely proprietary. I’m starting to think our new buddy is some kind of evil genius.”
“You think he designed it himself?” Alan asked. “As in, Butch might also be a programmer?”
“Based upon what little we know about him and what he’s divulged thus far? My money’s on hacker.”
Alan chuckled. “He did mention having more surprises. Maybe that’s one of them.”
Jade raised a brow. “Maybe. Any
way, since we’re sashaying around in this monster, I reason it’s best we know all there is to know about it.”
“Yeah, another good point. You never know who or what we may encounter along the way. And a big machine gun could prove useful.”
“Peace through superior firepower is always useful,” Jade mused as they bounced hard over another obstacle. “Sorry.”
Alan tensed again, reaching for his abdomen. “It’s…okay.”
“I’m seriously not trying to torture you,” Jade said with kind eyes. “There’s a first aid kit in that compartment above your knees. I probably should have told you about it earlier.”
“Torture me some more, why don’t you,” jeered Alan, pointing ahead. “By compartment, I take it you mean this overengineered glove box?”
“That’s the one. If you’re lucky, you might find some Dramamine in there.”
Alan opened the compartment door and extracted the first aid kit. As he did, a black nylon drawstring bag came along with it and tumbled to the floorboard under his feet. He retrieved it and gave the foreign manuscript printed on it a once-over.
“What’s that?”
“It definitely isn’t Dramamine.”
Jade reached for it and Alan handed it over, resuming his search for antiemetics.
“What do you think it is?” he asked.
“Not sure.” She jostled the bag’s contents. “But the script looks like Hebrew.”
“Hebrew? Like that thing you’ve been so distracted with? The catatonic?”
Jade smirked. “Katlanit.”
Leaving the unmarked forest trail, Jade swerved right to follow Butch along a much wider, more exposed powerline right-of-way. She pondered for a second if it had been the identical one she and Alan had passed under along the Appalachian Trail the day before.
Both vehicles struggled to maintain traction along the snow-slickened uphill slope until the right-of-way intersected with another, this one appearing to be a snow-covered surface road. Taking another right, they travelled along the passage for a time until Butch signaled a left up ahead.
Alan pointed to a standard green sign with white lettering marking the turn. “Now, I’m no expert, but I’m going to assume this to be the final leg of our trip.”
Jade squinted her eyes and the title ‘White Rock Road’ came into view. “Now that’s marking your territory. Why not bother posting another one denoting ‘Butch’s fallback position’?”
“Probably overlooked it. He is a little…eccentric.”
“Yeah. Just a little.”
They followed Butch along the road, up a gradual incline and around a single mild switchback before coming to a stop at an in-ground reinforced barricade with diagonally painted white and black lines blocking the entrance. Butch hopped from his vehicle and entered the guard shack situated on the left-hand side, and a few seconds later, the barricade sank into the snow to become level with the pavement underneath.
Both vehicles pulled forward into a narrow parking lot. Butch hung his arm out and motioned for Jade to continue, so she pulled the Marauder forward to the reinforced entry door, which appeared to be held in place by the earth itself.
Jade shifted into park. “It isn’t much to look at, is it?”
“Too soon to judge,” Alan said. “Not enough daylight left for an accurate assessment.”
“Maybe its beauty lies on the inside,” Jade remarked. “Wonder how the other half of our team is getting along?”
A knock came before Alan could infer. He opened his door to find Butch standing below, his boots buried in snow.
“What do you all think?” Butch asked. “Home sweet home, for the time being, anyway. Jade, wait one or two while I motor open this herculean wretch of a door. You can pull the APC inside the bay; parking spots are a dime a dozen.”
Once parked, Butch secured the door and led Alan and Jade through a spacious alcove with tall ceilings, mutedly illuminated by sporadically placed fluorescent lighting. Nearly every bulb in the ceiling flickered while ballasts within the fixtures retaining them buzzed a tune, either due to age, deterioration, or lack of suitable heat. Through a doorway, they followed him into a climate-controlled, carpeted hallway of furnished offices. Passing a kitchenette on one side and a lounge area on the other, they turned a corner into an office and found two familiar faces.
Ken and Walter were seated beside one another on a couch augmented with supplemental cushioning, mostly in the form of assorted pillows. A flat-screen television was mounted to the wall opposite them, and the pair were immersed in a two-player video game, each punching buttons on a joystick controller in their hands.
Butch, having entered first, presented them with an open hand. “Just like you ordered. Two marginally damaged, medium-rare roughnecks, right in time for Kwanzaa.”
Jade beamed at them and darted into the room before either could make a move. “You two gave me a heart attack!” She dove between and embraced them, an arm encircling each man’s neck.
“Hey there! Sorry ’bout that, fam,” Walter said, patting Jade’s back and struggling against her arm strength. “We surely di’n’t mean nothin’ by it. Not like we was tryin’ ta git our butts burnt on purpose.”
“Nice to see you, too. Both of you,” Ken said, sending Alan a glance over Jade’s shoulder. “But I don’t get it…what are you doing here?”
Jade slid away, holding back tears as Alan moved in to shake hands.
Ken took Alan’s hand first. “Seriously, what gives? I mean, I’m just surprised. What about the plan? Getting home and finding your family?”
“I made it home,” Alan said flatly. “But everyone was long gone by the time we got there.”
Walter reached for Alan’s hand and shook it, a solemn expression befalling him. “What’s that mean, bud? Somethin’ happen to ’em? Think they might’ve vamoosed on their own?”
“Both,” replied Alan. “Something did and they left a little over a year ago. My wife outlined it in a letter she left me. It filled in a lot of the blanks, even indicated where next to look for them.”
“Welp, I’m sorry you didn’t find ’em, bud. I truly am. But at least you picked y’self up some intel on where you’ll be headin’.” Walter winced in pain, attempting to sit up. “Point at issue is, why the heck did the y’all two come here ’stead of goin’ there?”
Alan looked away to hunt for a convincing answer, only to have Jade provide it for him. “Because we wanted to. And the decision to do so was all Alan, so don’t look at me. He didn’t want to leave either of you behind.”
“You don’t say. Well, shit, Alan. I’m flattered,” said Walter. “I truly am flattered to pieces. I mean, I knew you liked us a li’l, but I never woulda guessed me and ole Kenny here stacked so high up on yer list of priorities.”
Ken reached for a beverage on the end table beside him and sipped from it. “I don’t know, Walt. This might go somewhat beyond priorities. Maybe even deeper than, so to speak.”
“Eh, how do you mean, deeper? And don’t git gross, neither.”
“It’s not gross, Walt. Furthest thing from it, actually.” A pause. “I think or, rather, I feel…that Alan’s actions might be indicative of…love.”
“Love?”
“Sure,” said Ken. “Our man here could’ve very easily kept on going, but he didn’t. Because he couldn’t. He knew we were hurt and he felt for us, wanted to be with us. And then he came back for us. He couldn’t let us go. It plays out like a love story. Alan loves us, even if only a little.”
Butch let out an exhaustive sigh. “And this right here is where I smartly take my exit,” he griped, disappearing through the doorway. “Off to bed I go. Marines…and their…marineness.”
Jade giggled at the banter. “I never thought I’d confess this, but it’s good to hear you two act like a couple of idiots again.”
“What’re you talkin’ ’bout?” Walter unpaused the game. “Only idiot present in this here room is the likes of Kenny. Prolly somethi
n’ we can all smoke the peace pipe ’bout…besides Kenny, of course. ’Cause he’s an idiot.”
“Shut up, Walt.”
“You shut up.”
Alan laughed. “All jokes aside, guys, one can’t help notice all the extra padding beneath you. What’s the extent of your injuries?”
“Extent of our injuries?” Ken mocked, pressing pause again. “All jokes aside there, high speed, but have you ever been shot in the ass?”
Alan shook his head. “Not…that I recall. But I believe I’ve taken some shrapnel in that vicinity before.”
“That’s right, but you were unconscious and couldn’t feel anything, so it doesn’t count.” Ken grinned. “When those tacticool Timmys blew Butch’s house all to hell, shards of burning plastic and liquified metal hit Walt and me directly in the goddamn buttocks, going Mach 1. Hurt worse than a steel-toed kick in the balls and burned hotter than the most offensive roasting yeast infection I ever caught. Then it festered too, like a—”
“Jesus, Ken, stop.” Jade covered her mouth. “You’re going to induce vomiting.”
Alan reached for his stomach, gauging the remnants of his bout with motion sickness.
“Fine. I’ll tone it down a little. But all that pain, burning, festering, scabbing, pus secretion and swelling aside, wasn’t shit compared to bending over and doing a facedown ass-up in front of someone like Butch while he played medic and extracted the shrapnel.” Ken leaned back and stared at the ceiling musingly. “A serviceman in combat can oftentimes see and experience horrifying things, events, and such. Some of these matters are so horrifying, they simply cannot be unseen. I know now the same holds true for that which he’s unable to see. Those matters can be haunting. And I have no doubt that mortal jolt of an ordeal will haunt me for the rest of my natural life.”
Indivisible Page 1