by Ashley Nemer
THE ONES WHO LIVED
By
Ashley Nemer
THE ONES WHO LIVED
Cover Design by Ashley Nemer
Photo Credit: Rain By Isoga
Edited by Andrea’s Proofreading
Format by Ashley Nemer
Copyright © Ashley Nemer 2018
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced except small excerpts for review purposes without the expressed written consent of the author. This includes any reproductions by forms including but not limited to electronic and mechanical. Any similarity to actual people is a coincidence. This is a story of fiction and not meant to depict actual events.
ISBN 13: 978-1-941194-12-6
A product of the
Art of Safkhet
Published September, 2018
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Author’s Note
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prequel - The Day Before Death...
Chapter One - And So It Begins ... August 28th, 2017
Chapter Two - Reality Hits
Chapter Three – A Father’s Final Gift
Chapter Four - The New Reality
Chapter Five - Things Change
Chapter Six - And Then There Were More...
Chapter Seven - One Year Later, Let There Be Light
Chapter Eight - When You Rebuild, They Will Come
Chapter Nine - Times Are Changing
Chapter Ten - Christmas Came Early
Chapter Eleven - Testing Boundaries
Chapter Twelve - Coming To Terms
Chapter Thirteen - He Who Casts Stones
Chapter Fourteen - The Witch Hunt
Chapter Fifteen- You're Never Too Prepared
Chapter Sixteen- How Life Settles and Changes
Epilogue - How It All Began - August 27, 2017
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Further Reading: Maverick Touch The Cat
Also By Ashley Nemer
About the Author
About the Publisher
Dedication
TO AARON AND SIERRA - my two amazing children. You both provide more love in my life than I ever could imagine.
This story is for you ... I hope one day you both will have the courage to do what is right, especially if odds aren't in your favor. As long as you stick together, anything is possible.
Never give up, Never surrender, Never quit.
Author’s Note
DYSTOPIAN STORIES ALWAYS are critiqued and compared to epic stories like The Hunger Games and 1984. What I have always thought was missing was the beginning. The start. People at some point wake up and realize life has changed and now we have to deal with the consequences. This story starts at that point, the point where The Ones Who Lived realize they are now on their own and life will forever be changed.
This story doesn’t have the epic battles and strife that seventy-five years of wars bring out to the surface. It doesn’t have the tyranny of leaders that are scared of an educated populace. This story has death, the death of family. The death of hope, the death of a future.
My story has the beginning. I hope that as you read about Anthony and Amelia you look at it from that mindset. Put yourself in their shoes, seventeen and frightened. What would you do? How would you handle it?
Enjoy The Ones Who Lived and make note, one day, maybe you will have to perform these tasks yourselves.
Ashley
P.S. For an easy reference point, this books starting point takes place in August 2017 right after the Solar Eclipse, Hurricane Harvey and the wild fires in California.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREQUEL PAGE 5
Chapter One Page 11
Chapter Two Page 27
Chapter Three Page 44
Chapter Four Page 58
Chapter Five Page 69
Chapter Six Page 81
Chapter Seven Page 90
Chapter Eight Page 100
Chapter Nine Page 114
Chapter Ten Page 129
Chapter Eleven Page 142
Chapter Twelve Page 153
Chapter Thirteen Page 165
Chapter Fourteen Page 176
Chapter Fifteen Page 187
Chapter Sixteen Page 202
Epilogue Page 214
August 21st, 2017.... The World Darkens
When the earth becomes dark for minutes at a time
When the waters pour from the sky with no end in sight
When the fire engulfs the land and trees
Death will be here
When the ocean opens up and pours itself on land
When the forests burn all in its path
When the sun vanishes from everyone's eyes
Death will be here
Death will be here to all who are missing the trait
Death will be here to all who are not defining the fate
Death Death Death becomes everyone
Death to all who stand in the way
Death
Prequel - The Day Before Death...
THE SOUND OF THE DING from his phone alerted him to a notification. Anthony peered down at his cellphone and saw his sister had finally responded to the AP test question he had asked her two hours ago. There can be times when she drove him nuts! She wouldn't intentionally give him the answer to the exam they had both studied for together. Amelia's high moral ground tended to get under his skin, but that didn't matter. The next day their dad will be home from his week away, and they had planned before he left to spend this weekend fishing.
Being the son of a pilot didn't wield a lot of advantages, except when it came to vacation season. Consistent and hard work were the tools he used to gain his father's attention. His father seemed too busy most of the time to help.
Amelia seemed like she belonged in a different lifetime. She looked at her relationship with her father as if it’s a grain of salt. One where kids weren't as dependent on their parents for every little detail. Anthony thought of his sister as superior, never requiring the constant need for approval. At the same time, she missed out on a lot of the bonding that he and their dad got during his off days, unless they were out hunting. Amelia and her dad loved to hunt together..
Being a twin brought along many advantages, like always having a best friend. But even still, sometimes Anthony and Amelia gave off the perception like they were separate beings. His sister did all sorts of things he never would consider fun, but then again, she was a girl and he was a guy.
Without thinking about the consequences of the room he was sitting in, he pulled his cell phone back out from his pocket and shot Sam, his best friend, a quick text.
Hey man, tonight you want to come over, dad's coming home we need to get the gear ready.
Seconds ticked by, and Anthony waited for the delivered message to be read.
"Anthony, can you tell me the answer?"
He quickly brought his head forward and acknowledged his math teacher while she spoke to him. She was pointing to the quadratic equation on the front white board and wanting him to solve it.
"Um, sure, yes ma'am."
With a pen and paper in hand, he took to working out the problem using the formula on the board, but when the bell rang he obtained instant relief, because he was fairly positive he was doing it wrong. Without much thought, he gathered his papers and books up, and walked to the front of the classroom where he bumped Sam on the shoulder.
"You see my text?"
Sam moved his head back and forth, "No man, I kept it in my locker. My mom's gonna skin me alive if she gets one more phone call about me and my cell during school hours."
"Can't, I'm babysitting my little cousin today and then tomorrow after school. My aunt and uncle are going out on the town two nights in a row. My mom says her sister is reclaiming her youth, whatever that means."
"Dang bro, hope they are paying you."
"No, but that's alright. She isn't too bad to be around. And it makes me appear awesome too, and since Christmas is right around the corner I figure the good will couldn't hurt anything."
"Ha, right on man. Okay, well, possibly this weekend we can do something."
"Will Amy be there?"
"Duh, she lives there doesn't she?"
Anthony snapped his head around to observe his friend for a split second and thought he desired to get with his sister, but he let those images pass, no way would he break that guy code.
With a sensation of nostalgia, Anthony gazed around at the bricks racing down the corridor, the halls in his high school were narrow and long. Lots of twists and turns, the freshman always got lost. This was their senior year, soon they would be free of the confines of adults and his life would take on a whole new start. Amelia, Sam and he talked about it frequently, life outside of Hill Tree High.
"Anthony, you're going to be late for class." The principal said to him as he walked up beside him in the hallway.
"No sir, heading there right now!" He brought his arm up and pointed to the open doorway ten feet ahead of him.
"Good job son make sure you focus."
Exemplifying how a father should be, Principal Jones was always trying to be a role model to everyone. Sometimes it was cool, other times like today it was just annoying. "Yes sir. Bye!"
Without a second thought Anthony rushed into the classroom and took his seat right as the bell was starting to ring.
Anthony glanced at his watch on his left wrist and grinned, the day was almost over, forty-five minutes remaining, and he would be heading home.
THE CAR RIDE HOME WAS a snooze fest. Amelia essentially ignored Anthony the whole way home from school. She had one thing on her mind and one thing only, Sam. Today in biology class they had touched hands twice while doing the experiment and that had never happened before. Her mind wouldn't let it go, she kept thinking about it.
Amelia's feelings for Sam were jumbled, unable to determine if she truly liked him like that. He was her brother's best friend and her friend. Friends didn't touch hands. Did they?
"Amy! Are you paying attention?"
Anthony's voice brought her back into the present and she shook her head back and forth. "Sorry bro, lots on my mind, long day."
"Yeah long day for me too, considering that test in class today. Which by the way, thanks for giving me the heads up on the AP History test."
"I told you I would refuse to cheat, and besides, you knew the answer."
"Not the point, sis. You're supposed to help a brother out."
"Expressions like that just aren't applicable in these situations, but I will make a noted for next time."
"I hate AP History. I don't see why I have to take it, I'll never use it."
"Because mom knows you're smart enough, don't you love learning about all the interesting things from our worlds past?"
"Not really it will never even be used."
"Sure it will, I imagine you've heard the saying that history always repeats itself."
Anthony peered over at Amelia as he pulled their car into the driveway. "Alright smarty pants, when are we ever going to need to apply the Middle Ages knowledge in modern times?"
Amelia smiled, "Simple, if we want to keep the Black Death away we will always pay our sewer usage fees."
Anthony rolled his eyes at her and got out of the car, Amelia lingered for a second or two longer than she needed, before joining him at the front door. "I worry about you Anthony."
"And I worry about you too Amelia. Come on let's go inside and see if we can sneak some of the desert for tomorrow that we know mom is hiding from us."
"Deal."
Every issue has a silver lining supposedly, well having a twin always meant one thing, there was a partner in every crime that could be trusted.
"Hey Anthony, did you notice anything strange about the weather today?"
Wind whirled past Amelia when she began looking up at the clouds, they formed clusters to make different mountainous swirls in the air in a pattern she had never seen before. She wasn't sure why this bothered her so much, but something about it made her stomach feel like it had just survived a roller coaster.
"I don't know, what do you mean strange?"
"Look at the clouds, that doesn't seem strange to you?"
"You are aware that hurricane season is here. We just had a huge storm here, of course the clouds are going to be weird."
"I suppose so, maybe you're right."
Chapter One - And So It Begins ... August 28th, 2017
AMELIA AND ANTHONY were on their way home from school when out of nowhere Amelia noticed an airplane out of the passenger side window plummeting to the Earth. The two teenagers never before had witnessed a car crash let alone a plane barreling down to the earth. The sound and sight of the explosion that occurred off to the right side of their view took the siblings’ breaths away.
“Dad wasn’t on that plane right?” Amelia asked her brother.
“No, he was supposed to be home hours ago. Mom said he would be home before we got back from school.” Anthony’s words were reassuring but his tone was saddened. No one could watch lives plummet to their death and not be struck by the horror and sadness of that.
“You’re positive right Anthony?”
“Yeah Amy I am, I’m positive Dad’s at home.”
Obvious signs developed in the sky, it turned black and the air became dense, the humidity was sweltering, the temperature rose at an exponential rate. Thunder rumbled through the air and lightning swarmed the sky. The storm brewing was fiercer than any others that Saint Pete had experienced before. The storm developed so briskly that Anthony and Amelia made it home in time to seek shelter out of the storm. The neighborhood traffic seemed eerily quiet. The streets held cars on either side, yet no one was driving. The green lawns were empty, not even the neighbors in their yards, and the sense of doom hung overhead as they pulled into their driveway and got out of their car.
"Mom, you home?" Anthony called out, as he and his twin sister ran into the house from the garage. Dinner was set out on the table as well as every light flipped in the on position.
"Momma you won't believe what Anthony did!" Amelia shouted, while she dropped her purse and jacket on the kitchen table.
"Where do you think they are, mom left us food?" Anthony questioned his sister.
"Who knows maybe they made plans together. Let's eat and enjoy a movie."
His sister never cared about the innate details all her focus centered on the end result. Anthony worried about everything. His levels of anxiety always bothered his parents, but they never found a solution for his tendencies to carry the world on his shoulders.
"She made Dad's favorite." The lasagna smelled amazing and both twins’ stomachs growled with hunger. The last meal they consumed was lunch, while at school near eleven this morning. Supper time being six hours later, they anxiously awaited dinner.
In a sarcastic tone Anthony said, "Dad came home today from his trip don't you remember?" Anthony pulled two plates out of the cupboard and set them down on the kitchen table. "Wonder how long he will be staying home this time. Dad made his job appear like he is always flying away overnight. He promised me a weekend fishing trip so hopefully that means he will be here until Monday."
"He’s a pilot Anthony, what do you expect Dad to do, fly only eight hours a day?" Amelia grabbed the silverware their mom had left on the kitchen island and set them next to the plates her brother had set out.
"Yes, precisely, that’s I expect." His response was simple and straight forwar
d.
An exaggerated sigh left her lips and the eye roll that Amelia gave her brother made him go into a tirade over this topic. It became an ongoing conversation in their household between their parents. Mom wanted their dad home more and their dad wanted their mom to enjoy his high paying salary and to enjoy life.
"Where are they?" Anthony said while he walked around the living room and dining room. "Mom's purse is sitting in her chair in the living room, she wouldn't have left without it."
Amelia walked toward the hall closet and opened the door, she recognized her father's brief case. "Anthony! Dad's brief case is in the closet, and his wallet is on the table. He’s home!" Her voice was more of the volume of a scream than a loud comment. The twins were now frantic and running through the house calling or their parent.
"I found them!" Anthony hollered from their bedroom closet. His voice contained a level of fear and panic that Amelia didn't know how to process. Her heart sped up, increasing the thumps she detect inside her head.
The stairs moved quickly under her shoes as she took them two at a time. Amelia came running into the room and the second she viewed her brother's face she understood whatever he found would end poorly. Tears began to form in her eyes as she shook her head back and forth. "No, no, Anthony no!" She started to cry and fell to the floor. Her brother crossed the room and wrapped his arms around his sister and pulled her close.
"Their dead. I don't," he stopped talking to catch his breath and take in what he was about to say. "I don't know how." Tears streaked his cheeks while he rocked back and forth with his sister, holding her close. Neither of them spoke, they simply sat, motionless as if they had died too. The air in the room had not come to a point where the smell of a dead body was evident, but Amelia didn't want to risk that being the next phase.
"We need to call the police. They must have been murdered but I didn't see any blood." Anthony protested to his sister.
"Perhaps they aren't dead, did you check for a pulse?" Amelia's anxiousness picked up as she stood and walked towards the closet.