The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning

by Masters, A. L.

  “Dead,” he panted.

  They ran back toward the other advancing herd of biters and she desperately hoped they had a different plan. She didn’t think they would be able to take them all out before they were torn apart.

  They shifted to the right and Stewart stopped near an open doorway, unfortunately lacking a door, and motioned them through. Bradley grasped a metal bar and pulled himself up swiftly. She saw his feet disappear and she jumped on the ladder. She hoped Jared was right behind her because she couldn’t spare the time to look back. She heard them now, and they were coming fast.

  The crazies had found them.

  The dark was crushing as they pushed and crawled their way up the ladder. Her breathing was erratic, and she wondered how the hell she was letting herself get stranded on a roof again.

  The scrabbling mutants below rushed, shrieking and growling, toward the retreating group. She couldn’t see. The red lens of her light wasn’t strong enough. A man screamed as he was pulled away from the ladder and she prayed as she saw the violent motion of his red light flash across the walls.

  “Jared!” she screamed.

  “Keep going, Anna!” Faster!” he shouted from below her.

  The shifting, growling sounds of the chaotic mass below was loud and it spurred her on. Her sweaty hand grasped the next rung, almost to the top, and it slipped! She hung precariously by one arm and she kicked out with her feet. She connected with a solid object and she scrambled up faster, ahead of whatever thing could grab her in the darkness. A groan sounded from below.

  At the top, Bradley paused and fumbled with something. She climbed further, not wanting to stop, and the edge of his boot collided with her cheekbone. She cried out at the unexpected, violent impact and clutched her cheek. She paused only a second at the sharp pain before moving up. Bradley was out of the way and she scurried up. Jared urged them on faster. Another man below screamed, and it was dreadfully familiar.

  “Stewart!” she yelled as she climbed. “Stewart!”

  Her hysterical cries pierced the shrieking below.

  “I’ve got him!” Jared called up.

  Bradley reached down as she came into sight of the roof. He grasped her and hauled her up quickly, almost tossing her to the side as he reached down again. Up came the other soldier, his nose bleeding. Jared finally came into sight, with a white-faced Stewart clutching his shoulders and neck. Bradley yanked them from the hole. Stewart shivered violently as they fell to the side. His entire lower leg was soaked in blood and she was scared to look.

  Bradley slammed down the metal hatch and flipped the latch over the handle to keep it from lifting. Thuds on the bottom rang out into the night.

  God, they could climb!

  But they couldn’t get it open. Not yet. Not until they broke the latch.

  Bradley fell to his knees on the graveled roof and dug around in his waist pack. He pulled out a green package and tore it open. Jared ripped Stewart’s pant leg open and hissed at the wound. It was a terrible thing to look at. It looked like small shark had attacked him.

  A soldier off to the side scanned the roof with wide eyes.

  Bradley clicked his white light on and inspected the horrifying damage. He quickly packed it before bandaging it and tying it off. Blood soaked the bandage, but it wasn’t gushing. She thought that was a good sign.

  She crawled over to Stewart and put his head in her lap. She brushed his hair from his forehead. He was shivering and holding back his agony. She shushed him, hoping to calm herself as much as him. Bradley gave him some sort of medication from a kit, and he settled.

  “It’s not good. This isn’t good,” Bradley said in a low voice so Stewart wouldn’t hear.

  “There are too many of those down there to go back that way. We’ll have to go down from here. I don’t know how he’ll make it down,” Jared said.

  Anna watched solemnly as they tried to figure out how to save Stewart’s life, all their lives. She kept brushing her fingers over his hair, soothing them both.

  “The front entrance roof is lower than here. We’ll jump down from there. We can lower him down as far as possible. It’ll be rough, but not as bad as some things we’ve had to do. Right buddy?” Bradley said to Stewart with false cheer. His face was calm, but she heard the strain in his voice.

  They quieted for a moment, resting.

  Anna’s face throbbed and she hoped her cheekbone wasn’t broken. The soldier was clutching a piece of bloody gauze to his nose. The anarchic clamor from the ground was unsettling and she couldn’t seem to get herself to relax. The soldier whose name she didn’t know tossed aside the gauze and crawled to the machine gun placed at the edge of the roof. She wondered if they had ammo for it up here.

  Without warning, a deafening sound warbled through the night and made her jump. She jerked her head up and stared out into the dark. It wailed and increased in pitch and volume before peaking and lowering again. The ominous howl was disturbing. She whipped her head toward the men.

  “Tornado siren?” she asked. “It doesn’t sound right.”

  Jared frowned and shook his head.

  “That’s not a tornado siren! Hear the changing tone?” Bradley said looking alarmed. He listened for another moment; concentration warred with shock on his features. “That’s a fucking nuclear attack warning!”

  Her heart stopped. It had to be something else!

  They all looked up; the eerie siren screamed out its warning into the black city. The moon was bright enough to partially see the devastation around them. She reached for Jared and pulled him close. Her grip was tight, but he didn’t complain. She tasted blood and realized she was biting her cheek.

  Overhead, orange fiery streaks marked the skies.

  “ICBMs,” Stewart whispered faintly. She couldn’t tell if it was a question or a statement.

  “God help us,” Jared whispered.

  They could do nothing but wait…wait for dawn.

  Or wait for death.

  Epilogue

  Dawn

  Dawn came, and with it came their chance to leave.

  The nuclear attack siren had faded away after several repetitions. The small city seemed to hold its breath as the missiles arched overhead. They watched as one after another passed over, sometimes simultaneously on different trajectories. She had the terrible feeling that some cities were disappearing forever. They were in danger now from more than the draugs.

  The soldier, whose name she learned was Fletcher, gave the all-clear when the biters had scampered off. She thanked God for that.

  There were likely some still inside. Bradley decided they would climb down as planned.

  She watched as Jared jogged over to their SUV that was parked in the lot. She was anxious as he approached it, sure that something would dart out from behind it to tear out his throat. He hopped in and started the vehicle. She released a sigh of relief as it started without trouble. Fears of electromagnetic pulse had run through her head earlier, but she didn’t know much about it or if it would affect anything here.

  They would be jumping down to the roof of the SUV. She held her breath and lowered herself off the edge of the entry roof. When she couldn’t hold on anymore, she released her grip and fell. The distance seemed further than expected, and her landing was hard. She crouched on her hands and knees as she took inventory of herself.

  Nothing broken.

  Jared helped her slide down and gain her footing on the open door. She climbed in gratefully and made room for the others. She watched the shattered entrance to the armory fearfully. Fletch came next, and he and Jared helped catch Stewart. She heard his shout of pain when he landed, but they took the brunt of the force from his leg. They ushered him into the back to lay down. Bradley came last.

  Jared looked at them all and the expression on his face must mirror theirs. Shock, horror, exhaustion.

  “We need to hurry and find shelter,” Bradley said. “I don’t know what’s coming this way, but we need to be ready for it.
”

  “I’m going home to warn the others,” Jared told him definitively. “Either you can all come with me, or we can find you another vehicle.”

  He dove off and they saw the fencing around the road had been destroyed. It would have taken an exceptionally large force to do that, thousands of those things maybe. They were lucky to have made it out of the armory with their lives.

  “Stay together,” Stewart mumbled from the back.

  His face was white. Black rings circled his eyes, and he was sweating fiercely. She was worried about him. And he was right.

  “He’s right. We need to stay together.”

  Bradley looked at Fletch and nodded. “Okay. Let’s go. I don’t know if those were nukes, or what, but I don’t want to stick around and find out here. Make it fast Jared.” Jared missed the sympthetic look Bradley aimed at him.

  “Roger that,” Jared said.

  Bradley moved the large military vehicle from in front of the gate and they sped through the city. They saw nothing alive but that didn’t mean there wasn’t. She knew that well.

  She thought she saw clouds building up in the west before trees obscured the view, though she could have been mistaken.

  The wind picked up a little, and it followed them home.

  Thank you for reading the first book in the Salvation Plague series!

  Join my mailing list here to be notified when Book Two, The Mutation, is available for purchase. You’ll definitely want to stick around for the ride. It’s going to be insane.

  And please, if you liked this book, leave a review on Amazon! It makes my day!

  See you soon, A.L. Masters

  Acknowledgments:

  To my lovely readers and fans, many of whom loved my first zombie apocalypse series, Refuge from the Dead, and made it more successful than I ever expected— Thank you for everything! I love hearing from you guys!

  To my lovely readers who didn’t like (aka hated) my Refuge from the Dead series— That is completely okay! I listened to your comments and emails and I took them to heart. I hope you enjoy this more conventional series and find characters to love here in this world. Thank you for your feedback!

  Finally, to my family— Thank you for leaving me alone long enough to finally get this series started! *Wink*