Final Dawn: Season 2 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series)

by Mike Kraus

  A noise from the back of the APC interrupted Nancy’s musings and she glanced back to see Leonard sitting up, blinking as he braced his hands against the rocking of the APC. The rising sun combined with the small digital clock on the APC’s dashboard shocked Leonard fully awake and he crawled into the passenger’s seat, his eyes darting around at the local scenery as he spoke. “Good lord, Nancy, you were supposed to wake me up hours ago!”

  Truth be told, Nancy had considered waking Leonard at the agreed upon time, but after a few hours had passed, she’d felt more energized than tired and had decided to give Leonard extra rest, a favor she was certain he would return later. “Sorry, I must have forgotten. Want me to pull over now?”

  “Absolutely. Have you eaten anything?”

  Nancy shook her head. “Nope, I could definitely do with a bite to eat.”

  After passing through a small city, Nancy pulled the APC out into the middle of an open field and cut the engine off. The pair jumped out of the vehicle and went to the back to begin digging through the boxes of food for a quick breakfast before they continued on their way. Leonard watched Nancy as she leaned against the back of the APC, eating quickly with large bites as she constantly checked their surroundings for danger. A sad smile graced Leonard’s face, which Nancy noticed and questioned.

  “What’s up?”

  Leonard swallowed the last of his food and threw the empty can as far as he could. He had never been big on recycling, and it seemed like there was no better time to start littering than right after the end of the world.

  “It’s just… you’re much different now than a few days ago, when you and Marcus ran into the police station.”

  Nancy mimicked Leonard’s throw with her empty can of food, nearly matching his distance. She was quiet for a few seconds, thinking through what Leonard said.

  “Before all of… this,” Nancy gestured all around her as she spoke, “I was just an office manager. I cut expenses, organized budgets, planned trips. The world now isn’t like anything I could have imagined. Staying alive now means you don’t have a choice about what you do. You either adapt and learn to kill first, or you die.”

  Leonard nodded slowly, admiring the person who accompanied him. While it was true that Nancy’s formal skills were out of place in the new world, she had already proved that she possessed enough resolve to see them through the turmoil ahead.

  Leonard patted Nancy on the shoulder and turned to move into the driver’s side of the APC. As he began to speak, the sound of a distant creature made him hurry his ascent. Blurs from the east reflected the sunlight as a group of creatures barreled in the general direction of the APC, howling and screaming as they ran through the fields and jumped over fences and other obstacles in their paths.

  Despite the heavy protection afforded to them by the APC, Nancy and Leonard weren’t keen on sticking around with the “muties” (a term sarcastically coined by Rachel during one of their radio conversations) in such close proximity. Leonard held his hand over the ignition switch for the APC, watching out the window at the group of creatures, which were no longer heading in the direction of the APC, but were instead following a path parallel to them, through a field on the opposite side of the highway.

  “What are they doing?” Nancy leaned over Leonard’s shoulder, squinting as she watched.

  Leonard flicked his gaze in front of the creatures, suddenly realizing what they must be doing. A second later, movement from the far end of the field caught his attention. “There!” He pointed out into the distance, to where another shape was moving rapidly away from the creatures. “They must be chasing that!”

  The APC’s engine roared to life and Leonard accelerated through the field, cutting toward the road and heading for the shape that the creatures were pursuing. Though they didn’t seem to notice the APC at first, Leonard’s grip on the wheel tightened as he slammed through the fence at the edge of the highway, causing two of the creatures to break off from the group and head toward the vehicle. The reinforced steel plates at the front of the APC were more than a match for the creatures as neither of them reacted quickly enough to get out of the way. A slight squeal of metal on metal came from the undercarriage of the APC and Nancy caught a glimpse of the tattered remains of the creatures in the side mirror as the APC smashed into and over them.

  The gap between the creatures and their target was quickly closing, but the APC’s superior speed – even through the thick grasses and soft dirt of the field – allowed Leonard and Nancy to quickly overtake them. Snarls and lunges from the creatures came from the side as the vehicle passed quickly by them. Up ahead, the target of the creatures was close enough to clearly make out, and Nancy’s eyes widened as she turned her attention from the creatures.

  A young man, no more than twenty, was hunched over a saddle on the back of a horse, holding the reins tightly and casting worried glances over his shoulder. Upon seeing the APC roar into view, his face grew more panicked and he spurred the horse to faster speeds. Though the animal was trying its best, its emaciated body was tired and foam dripped from its mouth as its chest heaved with exertion.

  “Get your window open and try to tell him we’ll help!” Leonard shouted over the din of the engine as he brought the APC around to the left of the horse and rider. Nancy opened the small porthole on the window and shouted out as loudly as she could, trying to make herself heard.

  “Quick, you need to get in! We can help you!”

  The man stared at her for a few seconds and then shook his head vigorously, fear etched across his face. Nancy recognized the look as one she had worn many times, but persisted in trying to break through the man’s refusal. “You can’t outrun those things on your horse! They’ll kill you if they catch you! Please, just trust us!”

  The mention of the creatures caused the man to glance back at them again, though this time it was not without consequence. An errant tug on the horse’s reins sent it maneuvering to the left, closer to the APC. Leonard reacted by jerking the wheel to the left, not wanting to collide with the horse and rider. This quick movement spooked the horse, which tried to move away from the APC, but caught one of its feet in a small dip in the ground. A combination of losing its balance and the rider not paying attention exacerbated the horse’s stumble.

  Nancy put a hand over her mouth as she watched the horse fall to the ground, sending the rider tumbling along in front of it. She grabbed Leonard’s arm, directing him to stop the APC near the rider’s still form. “Quick, let’s get him inside before those things get here!”

  Leonard shook his head nervously as he skidded the APC to a stop next to the rider. In the side mirror, the creatures were gaining ground faster than ever. “We’ve got ten seconds, if that. Quick, get out!” Leonard threw open the door of the APC and ran to the back of the vehicle where he pulled open the rear hatch. Nancy and Leonard each grabbed an arm of the man and pulled him into the APC, laying him in the small open space on top of their supplies. Leonard and Nancy bolted the back compartment and hurried back into their seats, closing their doors just as the creatures arrived.

  Leonard flinched as he watched the creatures reach the APC, expecting to hear them slam against the sides of it. He was surprised when, instead of attacking the vehicle, they moved on the twitching body of the horse that lay just feet away. They tore into the stocky animal, ripping it apart like they would a human, though to what end, Leonard wasn’t sure. Not wanting to wait and find out what the creatures would do once they finished with the horse, Leonard pressed down on the accelerator, digging the APC’s tires into the dirt as they sped away. Leonard mumbled to himself as he watched the creatures growing smaller in the distance.

  “New behavior. Avoiding us for some half dead horse? That’s not good.”

  A voice came from behind Leonard, young and shaking. “What’s not good?”

  Bering Strait

  March 27, 2038

  After finding nothing during their scouting expedition, Commander Alexeyev and h
is men spend a cold night huddled around portable space heaters inside hastily constructed tents a few miles from the village. The next morning they split into four groups and make their way toward the village along separate paths. The skies are clouded and dark, with slivers of light peeking through only the smallest of breaks in the cloud cover.

  Lying on a snow bank with three of his men behind him, Alexeyev’s breath fogs his binoculars as he studies the American village. No more than a quarter mile away now, a flash of movement catches Alexeyev’s eye in the dawn light. Darting between the buildings he sees a dark shape, barely visible in the thick shadows that hang heavily in the dim light. Aside from the unknown bit of movement, none of the team has seen any sign of life in the village, nor have they picked up on any radio or satellite transmissions. An outpost as remote as this would quickly wither and die without a constant lifeline to the outside world, and Alexeyev can’t help but ponder what could have caused this village to go silent so shortly after the rumblings that shook his vessel.

  “Squad C,” Alexeyev whispers into his radio, “Move forward down the main road and try to get someone’s attention.”

  From the tree line to his left, three men emerge and slide down a short hill to a dirt road leading into the village. Barely visible through the fresh snow, the path along the road into the village is angled such that the commander can see its full stretch from his current position. He watches anxiously as the men tread forward, waving their hands and shouting in broken English. One hundred feet from the village, the men stop moving and back up a few paces, shaking their heads and shouting in frightened tones.

  The lead man fumbles with his jacket pocket, pulls out his pistol and begins to fire wildly at the village, between the buildings where Alexeyev cannot see. Alexeyev’s eyes widen and he begins to radio for them to stop, but movement ahead of the men stays his hand on the microphone. A fluttering mass races out of the village, sweeping across the snow and enveloping the three men that try to desperately escape it. Their feeble movements are no match for the mass, though, as it swiftly tears through their clothing and flesh, reducing them to nothing but puddles in mere seconds.

  Alexeyev’s expression is one of shock and he is frozen in horror at the scene that has just unfolded in front of him. Another group of his men charges from the trees on the opposite side of town, screaming and firing their guns wildly at the mass, causing it to swirl toward them, unaffected by the gunshots. Alexeyev hisses into the radio for his team to remain hidden, but his warning is far too late for the group of men already out in the open.

  Alexeyev closes his eyes as the screams echo across the snow, then he quickly radios his remaining team members, instructing them to remain still and out of sight. One of his men next to him whispers in his ear, his voice trembling in terror from the sight they have just witnessed.

  “Sir, what do we do?”

  Alexeyev keeps his eyes locked on the silver mass as it hovers off the ground near the remains of the soldiers it has already finished tearing apart. “Shut up and keep still, you fool!” The soldier who spoke has never heard the commander speak in that tone before, and is properly cowed by the ferocity of Alexeyev’s voice.

  ‘Could this be some new American weapon?’ Alexeyev’s mind spins as he tries to determine what course of action to take. Finally, he signals to the soldiers closest to him to remain still and keep their eyes on the mass. Moving slowly, he crawls backward in the snow down the small slope until he can stand up without being seen by the mass. Cautiously he jogs away from the American village, moving a few hundred feet away before he kneels in the snow and pulls out the radio, hoping he is far enough away from the village that his voice won’t carry to the strange mass.

  Before Alexeyev can speak into the radio, it crackles to life, startling him into dropping it on the ground. The voice on the other end is panicked and Alexeyev brushes the snow from the speaker as he listens.

  “Arkhangelsk to Alexeyev! Come in, Commander!”

  “Alexeyev here.”

  “Commander! Thank God! Sir, something’s happened to the second team. They were in radio contact a few moments ago. We could barely hear them except… except for the screams, sir. Something’s happened to them all and we don’t know what it was.”

  Alexeyev’s chest tightens and he feels his head begin to spin. He closes his eyes and tries to focus on the situation as his second-in-command continues to speak. The voice sounds distant and hollow in the snowy field and Alexeyev can almost make himself believe that this entire disaster of a mission is nothing more than a bad dream.

  Marcus Warden | Rachel Walsh

  8:29 AM, April 8, 2038

  To say that the aboveground portion of the laboratory was a disaster area would be an understatement. Although it was not the only destroyed building in the local area, due to its uniqueness as the origin of the nanobots swarms, its destruction pattern was somewhat different. Nuclear weapons had torn the city apart in predictable patterns, with concentric rings overlapping each other, pushing buildings and foliage back at lengths dependent on how far they were from the center of the blast radius.

  Of all of the buildings Marcus had seen in his trek thus far, the laboratory building was the only one that appeared to have collapsed directly downward, despite the fact that the buildings next to it had been partially collapsed in the predictable pattern. “What’s up with this, Rachel? Did the nanobots keep this building standing for longer or something?”

  Rachel paused from her climb to see what Marcus was talking about. “Oh, that? No.” She continued climbing forward into the middle of the building. “The lab was one of the buildings in the city that got some serious internal structure overhauls.” She pointed to a steel beam next to Marcus who was climbing several feet behind her.

  “See those cut marks? That wasn’t a nuke. That’s from the nanobots.”

  Marcus examined the indicated beam closely. It had been sheared in half before collapsing upon itself, and although the steel was twisted from its original shape, Marcus could see that it had not bent, broken or melted to its breaking point, but had rather been cut, as if with a laser or saw. Though the power of the nanobots swarms had been demonstrated for him repeatedly already, each new symbol of their abilities made him all the more fearful.

  “Ok, we’re here.” Rachel leaned against a support column as she stared into the center of the laboratory. Marcus looked past her, astonished at the pit that lay before them.

  The main structure of the laboratory had been lightly damaged by the bombs, but much like the central section of the White House, the laboratory as a whole had remained intact. Immediately following the unleashing of the nuclear weapons, the nanobot swarms within the building exited into the surrounding area, pulling their place of birth down around them as they went. From their vantage point partway up one of the walls of the laboratory, Marcus and Rachel had a clear view of the interior structure and the extent of the damage they would be dealing with.

  The exterior walls of the laboratory had been left standing while the center of the building had collapsed inward on itself, forming a “pit” of sorts, the bottom of which was roughly at street level. Though the bottom of the pit initially looked solid, as Marcus looked carefully at the ruins he could make out several passageways leading down into the ground. Some of these passages were partially filled in or collapsed, but with numerous stairwells and elevator shafts at their disposal, Rachel and Marcus hoped that they would be able to wind their way down past the most extensive damage until they reached David.

  Marcus pointed at a wall near the street, next to where they parked the APC. “There, see that? If the outer wall holds up, we might be able to drive the APC straight through that concrete slab and make a nice easy entrance for ourselves.”

  Rachel nodded and turned back to descend to the APC. “You get up there to the roof and keep watch for the muties. I’ll try to break through with the APC.”

  Marcus nodded in agreement and pulled himself
up on a flat section of what used to be the roof of the building. From his perch, he could see for several blocks in each direction, giving him an edge over any of creatures that might try to ambush them. An excited yelp from Sam down below told Marcus that Rachel had arrived back at the APC, and the rumble of the diesel engine quickly followed suit. Bracing himself on the top of the building, he watched below as the small form of the APC backed down the street.

  Inside the armored vehicle, Rachel took a deep breath as she revved the engine. Speed would be required to break through the concrete, though getting the APC up to more than a few miles per hour would require driving straight down the street before making a sharp turn. Unsure of how the vehicle would behave in a slide maneuver such as this, Rachel ensured her seat harness was tight before she put the APC into gear. Sam was crouched low in the floor space of the passenger seat, his ears tucked back as though he knew what was coming next.