The End of the World Series | Book 3 | Survive The Destruction

by McDonald, Clyde

  Survive the Destruction

  A Post Apocalyptic Survival Thriller - End of the World Series book 3

  Clyde McDonald

  Contents

  1. Aby

  2. Jake

  3. Aby

  4. Megan

  5. Aby

  6. Jake

  7. Aby

  8. Jake

  9. Aby

  10. Megan

  11. Aby

  12. Jake

  13. Aby

  14. Jake

  15. Aby

  16. Megan

  17. Aby

  18. Jake

  19. Aby

  20. Megan

  21. Aby

  22. Jake

  23. Aby

  24. Megan

  25. Getting Out by Ryan Westfield Preview

  Copyright © 2020 by Clyde McDonald

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  One

  Aby

  Aby tried to sit up, but her head was swirling. She felt nauseous as the dizziness she was experiencing caused her to crash straight back to the ground. She lay there for a moment, forcing herself to remain very still and try to make sense of her surroundings. She could feel the slightly damp ground against her face and the wind rushing through her hair. So she was outside...but how had she got there?

  With her head throbbing, she tried her best to remember where she’d been before she blacked out. She thought that information should be automatic access for her, but it was like she’d been drunk and completely forgotten the events leading up to then.

  “Jake…” Aby croaked, but she barely managed the sound. She couldn’t understand how he would leave her alone outside, lying in the dirt. How did she end up there? She lived in the middle of a city, for goodness sake…

  Except she didn’t anymore. That realization dawned on her slowly as her memories began to claw their way back to the forefront of her mind. She didn’t live in the city anymore. In fact, she didn’t live anywhere. She was on the road all day every day. She was always running from something. The EMP had changed everything. It had destroyed the life they’d once known in a single second as it swept the nation, maybe even the world. Aby had no idea how it had happened or if things would ever work again. But she knew one thing. Wherever she was, she wasn’t safe.

  And if she couldn’t hear Jake, then it was likely he wasn’t safe either. She remembered that they’d been traveling with others too...Derron...Abigail...John...Perry. Derron was dead, she knew that much...but the rest, she couldn’t be sure. But not one of them was there to fill the silence in the air. Their neighbor, Megan, seemed to be gone too.

  Aby was alone.

  She willed her eyes to open, but they didn’t seem ready. She wondered how long she’d been out cold. Logically, she assumed she had to have been out for quite some time if she was having this much trouble remembering where she was and what had happened. She felt tears squeezing out of her eyes involuntarily. The fact that her memories seemed locked away from her terrified her. What if something had happened to her friends that she couldn’t remember? What if she had been left somewhere to die deliberately? Her body was aching, her head throbbing. She raised a shaky hand to her head and felt for blood. She winced as her fingertips touched something sore and they came away wet. She must be bleeding…

  The Jake she knew would never leave her if he was alive. He’d be there at her side, making sure she was okay. Either he was dead, kidnapped, or injured...or he wasn’t the man she thought he was. Perhaps the new world that they’d been left in had changed the man she promised to marry when he got down on one knee in front of her. But she doubted that. If he could be there, he would be. If he was in as much trouble as she was, then she needed to get back on her feet and find him. Maybe he was usually her hero, but it didn’t mean that she couldn’t be his too.

  She waited a few more minutes before attempting to sit up. Her body groaned in protest. Everything seemed to hurt. She must’ve been in a pretty bad accident to feel as awful as she did. Her head was the worst, though. She was prone to headaches, but this was like nothing she’d ever experienced. The throbbing in her head seemed to match her heartbeat, and the nausea that came with it made her keep up and throw up the empty contents of her stomach. With bile dripping from her cracked lips and her throat on fire from the acidic liquid, she knew she’d never felt more awful.

  But she didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself. She needed to get out of there. She had to make sure Jake was okay. She tried to force herself to be patient with her broken body, but fear and anxiety drove her to try standing up once again. She was terrified that the longer she waited, the more likely it was that Jake was going to end up dead. Or maybe she would too, given that she was out in the middle of nowhere alone in a strange new world. Standing shakily on her own two feet for the first time since the blackout, she looked around her.

  There wasn’t a single other person in sight. All she could see was forest for miles and miles, but it was hard to tell how reliable her vision was with her pounding head. Plus, the sky was dark, making it even harder for her to see.

  Her heart sank. How had she managed to get so deep into the woods by herself? Unless someone dumped her here and was hoping she wouldn’t survive her injuries...when she looked down at her clothes, they were soaked with blood. It was hard to tell how much of it might be hers, but given her head injury, it was quite possible she had lost a lot of blood. Aby was no nurse, but she knew that head injuries - left untreated - were pretty serious. Especially when there was memory loss involved.

  She tried once again to search her brain for answers, but it only made the throbbing in her head more incessant. She took a few tentative steps and found that her legs were okay. She felt weak and she wasn’t sure how far her legs would carry her when she was swaying dizzily, but she figured she should try and get as far as she could before she blacked out again.

  With no evident sense of which direction to go in, she began stumbling through the darkness blindly. She had to keep stopping every few seconds as her body registered another injury. Within minutes, she was breathless and sweating even though the night was cold. She began to fear that she’d die out there in the dark, all alone. No one would ever know where she was or why she’d been there…

  It occurred to her suddenly that perhaps she should’ve stayed where she was. Maybe someone was coming back for her. But that thought was both comforting and terrifying. If Jake was going back for her then it would be okay. But if whoever had caused her to be so badly injured was coming back to finish her off, then she was lucky to have got away…

  She leant against a tree to try and catch her breath. Her ribs hurt as she took in big lungfuls of air. She experimentally lifted her shirt to see the damage underneath. The moonlight sliced through a space in the trees to illuminate her stomach which was battered and bruised. She couldn’t figure out what would do something like that…

  And then she remembered.

  She remembered how she’d been thrown out of a moving vehicle. She recalled how they’d been chased out of Dent by two men with guns. She remembered saving Jake from the flaming wreckage of the car, even as her own body was dealing with the effects of the crash. Megan had been there too. There had been so much blood...so much pain...so many flames reaching from the car up to the sky…

  And then her memory w
as blank.

  She couldn’t help letting a sob escape her lips. She’d felt so much pain - both physical and emotional - in the past few days and now it was catching up with her. How was she supposed to process all this grief alone? How was she supposed to be glad that she survived it all when she was alone and afraid, unsure of whether she’d actually make it? Looking around her, the darkness terrified her. There could be anything or anyone waiting for her out there. Her sobs turned to wails. She knew she should be quiet, but somehow, she couldn’t stop the sounds of misery escaping her.

  She cried for some time, her arms wrapped around herself. The night around her was the only thing she had for company. She began to whisper to a God she didn’t believe in, hoping for guidance, hoping for a way out. But if God existed, then she was certain he’d abandoned Earth. Why would he let something like this happen otherwise? It was too cruel an act to seem true, and yet it was.

  As she stopped crying, Aby managed to muster the energy for her own personal pep talk. She was whimpering as she began to talk to herself.

  “Come on, Aby...this isn’t like you,” she muttered, ignoring how raw her throat felt. “Pull yourself together...you’re no coward. You’re no idiot...if you get your head on straight you can find a way out of this.”

  She considered her options. She could retrace her steps and wait to be found...but what if she was found by a foe and not a friend? Not an option…

  She could stop and rest. She could try and sleep until the sun came up, and then she’d be able to see where she was going...maybe it would even give her body time to recharge. But she didn’t fancy lying back down on the cold hard ground and giving in...and she secretly feared that if she shut her eyes again, she might never wake up…

  Then there was the other option. To keep walking and hope that she found someone who could help her. Maybe she’d never find Jake or Megan, but if that was out of the question, she might find someone who could nurse her back to health. Maybe life wasn’t worth living without Jake...the love of her life...but she felt like the gaping mouth of death was going to swallow her whole at any moment, and she’d do anything to run away from it. It was survival instinct talking, but she couldn’t ignore it. She had to try...Jake would want her to, no matter what.

  She carried on through the dark. It was slow progress when every part of her body seemed to have alarm bells screaming, willing her to stop, but she pushed through the pain. She had to believe there was something worth fighting for at the end of her journey. She had to believe that since she’d made it that far that she could make it all the way.

  And then she saw it. The beacon of hope in the distance. At first, she thought she might be imagining it, but as she drew a little closer, she could see flames licking up toward the sky. Someone had made a bonfire. In fact, if she looked harder, she could see bodies huddled around it and hear the hum of voices talking in the distance.

  She held back for a while warily, trying to see if she recognized any of the voices, or if she could even tell what sort of people they were by the tone of their speech, but they were too far away. She knew that approaching them might be a matter of life and death. On one hand, they might offer her friendship and protection. On the other more sinister hand, they might kill her. That sort of thing was becoming all too common and she was scared of ending up dead after taking a risk like creeping up on them in the dark.

  But what other option did she have? She was growing even more weak and weary. She needed help. She needed a friend. She could walk for miles and not find anyone else before she finally keeled over...she didn’t know what to do.

  But she was running out of time.

  Two

  Jake

  Aby…

  She was the first thing he thought of as he came around to consciousness. He couldn’t remember falling asleep, or settling down to rest, and a feeling of fearful urgency was resting in his heart. Where was he? What had happened?

  His head was throbbing incessantly. It seemed that these days there was always something wrong with him. He couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t feel weary or hurt or full of fear. In fact, all of the emotions seemed to come hand in hand. But this time was different again, because he couldn’t really remember why he was feeling the way he was.

  Jake opened his eyes. There was a blanket of dark sky above him with stars twinkling down on him. It might’ve been peaceful if he could remember why he was there. Beneath his back there was something hard and cold. When he turned his head dizzily to the side, he saw that he was lying in the bed of a pickup truck. He couldn’t remember getting there at all. Was the truck even his?

  He turned his head to the other side and saw that Megan was out cold next to him. He couldn’t tell if she was sleeping or unconscious from pain, but she looked pretty beat up. Jake remembered that they’d been in trouble of some sorts, but the details felt hazy to him. He peered over her, trying to see if Aby was lying on the other side of her in the dark, but she was nowhere to be seen. The truck was stationary, though the world seemed to be spinning, so it wasn’t possible that Aby was driving them somewhere. Jake creased his forehead, trying to figure out what the hell was happening to make him so confused. Something must’ve gone very wrong to make him lose his memory…

  He had to try and find out if Megan remembered anything. That might be his only way of getting back to Aby. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. At first, she didn’t respond, her body limp as he shook her. For a terrifying moment, Jake wondered if she was dead. But then she gasped for air, waking up with a fright. She looked ready to fight him, but when she saw it was a friend, not a foe, waking her up, she breathed out in relief.

  “Jake...what are you doing?” she asked hoarsely. She sounded like she’d been asleep for some time.

  “Do you know where we are or why?” Jake asked urgently. He sensed that they didn’t have much time to figure out what was going on. If Aby was out in the wilderness alone, they needed to find her fast. Who knew how much time they’d wasted…

  Megan sat up with a groan, looking around in confusion. She shook her head.

  “I have no idea...I’ve never seen this place before. And this truck isn’t ours, is it? Jake?”

  He didn’t know. It was a question he couldn’t muster an answer to, for once. He was usually so sure of himself, even in the face of danger, but not now. He felt like someone had stolen his own thoughts from his head to prevent him remembering his own past. He rubbed his temple with his fingers, noting how tender his head felt. Had he sustained a head injury? Was he having some kind of migraine? Or was he waking up in a living nightmare, and the pain was just one side effect?

  “Aby’s not here,” Jake said, trying to ignore the fact that even having his eyes open was painful for him. Megan blinked in surprise.

  “She’s not?”

  “Not in the truck, at least...if I could remember how the hell we got here…”

  “Maybe she’s just gone to look for supplies...or for some help. My head hurts pretty bad, Jake...whatever happened has really thrown me off.”

  Jake didn’t want to admit that he felt the same. He knew Megan was prone to panicking and that was the last thing he needed. He needed her to be calm and rational if they were going to find Aby. Jake held his hand out to Megan, gesturing for her to stay put.

  “You wait here...let me see if I can find her nearby…”

  “Why don’t we call out to her? If she’s nearby, she will shout back.”

  “We don’t want to attract any unwanted attention,” Jake pointed out. They’d been in a fair amount of scrapes since the EMP began, and he was learning that they had a lot more enemies than friends. It didn’t appear to be anything personal...it was just everyone looking out for themselves and trying to survive alone in the new world.

  The new world happened to be spinning uncontrollably at that very moment, which made it difficult for Jake to clamber out of the truck bed. Megan tried to help him by offering a hand, but she was just makin
g it harder. Eventually, he half jumped, half fell off the truck and onto the tarmac. Pain shot up his spine and he suddenly realized that his whole body was hurting, not just his head. He began to wish that he’d just remained oblivious to the rest of his pain as he started hobbling around the car, looking for clues. He hoped that maybe Aby had left some sign of where she was, or where she’d gone...or whether she’d even been with them at all.

  Jake continued to massage his head as he walked around nearby. His memory wasn’t becoming any clearer, and neither was the situation. He couldn’t understand how he and Aby could’ve been split up unless by force. He’d never leave her on her own. He’d rather die than be split apart from her again. They were only just realizing how strong they were as a team. Now, Jake felt weak in her absence. Not having her around was like having a limb missing.

  Returning to the truck empty handed, he shook his head to Megan. She covered her mouth tearfully.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to find her,” Jake said firmly. He didn’t care how long it took him to find her. He’d carry on searching until they were back together. He still had no clue how long he’d been out cold, but surely it couldn’t have been that long? Surely Aby couldn’t have made it far, not on her own? Most people didn’t even have cars to ferry them around, so if for some reason she’d been taken in a car, it would still likely be nearby. It was all speculation, but Jake had to remain hopeful at least. He didn’t want to consider the possibility that he’d lost Aby forever.