Alex sat on Ryan’s bed and leaned back against the cinderblock wall, wondering if he could take a small nap. Just the thought of closing his eyes for a few moments caused him to sink down the rough wall to the mattress. He dug into his front pants pocket and pulled out a dark tab, ejecting a small pill directly through the foil into his mouth. Designed to release its contents upon contact with saliva, he held the P-STIM under his tongue for thirty seconds, kick-starting the amphetamine boost. It worked immediately.
He lay there calculating the time it would take him to reach Chloe’s apartment, no longer contemplating sleep. Moving cautiously, a 3.1-mile walk through the back streets of Brookline shouldn’t take him more than an hour and a half. Two at the most. His watch read 2:37.
Plenty of time.
He took the family picture from the desk and removed the picture from the silver frame, straining to see the image in the dim red aura. He knew it well enough. The four of them in cushioned wicker chairs, on the wide porch at the Chebeague Island Inn. He stared at the picture, unable to put it away.
“Nobody’s coming for us?” said a girl standing in the doorway. “You’re really just someone’s dad?”
The gravity of the situation came into sharp focus, weakening his knees. He’d been so single-minded kicking his way into their lives that he hadn’t stopped to consider their predicament. The kids were stranded, waiting for a rescue that would never arrive. He folded the picture and tucked it into the pouch holding his license.
“You need to seriously consider leaving this place,” said Alex, brushing past her.
“And go where? What happened out there?” she said.
Alex stopped outside of Ryan’s room and glanced around the hallway at the flashlight-illuminated faces. They were just children. He swallowed hard, barely able to meet their stares. How many had shown up for early orientation? Hundreds? Thousands? His thoughts drifted to the parents experiencing the ultimate nightmare just days after sending their babies into the world. They’d said goodbye this weekend, unaware that some of them would never see their children again. The odds were long against most of these students surviving. Without food and water, they would have to venture into the city.
“What’s going on in the city? What’s wrong with you?” she demanded.
“Nothing,” he said flatly. “Has anyone here been outside of the towers? I mean outside of the building?”
“We didn’t think it was a good idea. The shooting started yesterday afternoon and got worse all night. That’s why we blockaded the stairwells. We figured we’d wait for the military or police to start evacuating us,” she said.
“Taking their sweet-ass time, too,” said a kid holding a baseball bat over his shoulder.
“You guys don’t know, do you? Holy shit,” he whispered.
“Know what? What don’t we know?” said the young woman, directing her flashlight in his face.
“The power outage isn’t confined to Boston. It’s everywhere. We’ve been hit by an EMP,” said Alex, pausing. “Nobody is coming for you.”
THE END
The Perseid Collapse: Event Horizon, Book Two in The Perseid Collapse Series, will be available in the spring of 2014.
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Steven Konkoly is the author of The Jakarta Pandemic, Black Flagged, Black Flagged Redux, Black Flagged Apex, and Black Flagged Vektor
Go back to Contents
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About The Perseid Collapse
PART I “RED DRAGON”
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
PART II “DURHAM ROAD”
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
PART III “ROADS LESS TRAVELLED”
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Part IV “JUST A WALK IN THE PARK”
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
The Perseid Collapse (The Perseid Collapse Series 1) Page 36