by R. A. Rock
“How did you know about Sheryl?”
“I overheard James and Carlynne talking.” I winced at the thought of how I had jumped to conclusions just like them. “They didn’t know you’d broken up with her.”
“Ah, so that was what all those weird looks were about.”
“I guess,” I said, feeling foolish. “I was about to ask you about your girlfriend just when those crazies showed up.”
“Zoe and Brett,” he said, and his face darkened.
I wanted to ask more about what had happened to him but he covered our linked hands with his own and kept talking.
“So, to finish answering your question… If you’re asking whether I’m in a relationship with her, then no I’m not. But if you’re asking about whether I’m in a relationship with you, then…” He paused, looking less flirtatious and more uncertain. “Then, I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me.”
“Oh…” I bit my lip. “Well, I don’t know either.”
He looked concerned.
“You don’t know because you don’t have feelings for me?”
Matt appeared to be holding his breath. I didn’t want to leave him hanging but neither was I quite willing to lay it all on the line first.
“I don’t know because I don’t know if you have feelings for me,” I said, honestly.
“Maybe it’s time we came clean, Miss Moretti,” he said, looking a little more sure of himself. “I really like you. I guess I’ve never stopped liking you since grade twelve.”
“Oh.” I blinked in surprise.
How had I missed that?
Hm, maybe because the end of the world had distracted me a little?
“Well… me too?”
He somehow managed to frown with a smile on his face.
“This is not a detailed answer, Miss Moretti. Could you elaborate?”
“I never stopped having a crush on you either,” I said, taking a shaky breath. “And in spite of everything being totally nuts right now, I would really like to do this. What do you think?”
“I think that sounds amazing, Ness,” he said, twisting to face me, his lips only inches from mine. “And I have an idea of something else I’d like to do right now.”
“Do you?” I said, my pulse speeding up.
“You bet,” he said, and covered my mouth with his. This kiss was even better than the last one. I loved his firm lips and how our bodies melded together. It didn’t take long to heat up and I really wanted to find out where this particular kiss was going.
But we were once again interrupted, this time by Cynthia walking in on us in a lip lock. My face felt so hot as we jumped apart, I thought it might burst into flames.
“Oh dear.” She put her hand to her mouth. Her eyes were wide with shock. “I’m afraid I’ve interrupted you.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Matt said, moving away from me a little bit but not getting up. “We’re…”
He glanced at me looking helpless.
“We’re… “ I trailed off too, not sure what to call what we were. We weren’t exactly dating or maybe we were? We weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend… yet. We weren’t anything more serious. But we couldn’t say that we were just friends because that certainly wasn’t true after that kiss.
“Together?” his mother offered and we nodded, latching on to that word.
“Exactly,” Matt said. “We’re together and we’re seeing where that takes us.”
“Gotcha,” his mother said, and winked at us. “I remember when your father and I got together, Matt. It’s a little confusing and unsure in the beginning. I understand.”
Matt had wrinkled his nose at the thought of his parents getting together and I didn’t blame him. I didn’t need the visual either.
“Oh my goodness, I forgot why I came in here.” Cynthia went to the window. “I wanted to see if Nessa was awake. I thought you two might want to go over and check her place. I think one of the windows looks broken and I’m afraid looters might have got to it.”
“Oh no.” I frowned, scooting to the edge of the bed. When I stood up in my borrowed jammies, my legs were a bit unsteady. Matt was there in a second, his arm around me.
“We’ll go check it out,” he said, his hand sliding to rest on my hip and pulling me to his side. “Thanks for letting us know, Mom.”
She nodded, smiling at us in a knowing fashion, and left.
“Don’t worry.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “We’ll get it sorted.”
“But I am worried.” I gazed up at him, an anxious feeling in my stomach. “That place is my refuge. It’s my plan. This is where I stop running and hide. It’s all I’ve got.”
A heartbeat later, I wondered if that was still true.
“Not anymore,” he said, and his eyes held only certainty. “Now you’ve got me too.”
And as he pulled me to him for another kiss, I thought that maybe, just maybe… for now… that was enough.
(Of the world as we know it.)
Hey there. I know the book just ended but are you wondering what the heck happened to Matt when he and Nessa were separated and what he’s hiding from the women he cares about?
I was totally wondering that, too, which is why I wrote his side of the story and decided to give it to you for free.
Matt’s Story isn’t published anywhere!
An excerpt from Matt’s Story:
Matt
Okay, so I underestimated the power of rage and grief, I thought as I grappled with the dark haired woman called Zoe, trying not to get shot. Adrenaline and anger had given her strength beyond her size and musculature. And she punched, kicked, and clawed at me mercilessly.
I didn’t really want to hurt her. I only wanted to keep her from chasing Nessa. And well, I didn’t want her to shoot me. But she was insane. And I needed to stop her.
First, I needed that gun out of her hand. As we struggled, a shot went off behind me and a blast of fear powered through my body.
Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
I pushed her hard and she fell backwards, her arms flying out to the sides. I leapt on the arm with the gun, landing on her bicep with my knee. Unfortunately, this caused Zoe to bend her arm and pull the trigger, whether on purpose or by accident is uncertain. Either way, the effect was completely certain.
My head exploded with pain.
And everything instantly went dark.
Do you want to get the exclusive bonus chapters telling what happened to Matt? Of course you do! So, go immediately to…
manitobalost.com/gravity-landing/mattsstory/
…to find out what happened!
Hey, I hope you enjoyed Run! It is very satisfying to me to be able to write this author’s note. I have had post apocalyptic stories rattling around in my brain for at least a decade. I read every Monica Hughes sci fi book she ever wrote and I particularly loved the post apocalyptic stuff — though it wasn’t called that at the time.
My first attempts at writing were post apocalyptic novels — two or three that were never published — then I got sidetracked and wrote and published a bunch of other stuff. Until I finally came back to my first love — post apocalyptic sci fi.
I’ve always wondered what the heck we would do up here in Northern Manitoba if the food trucks stopped running. It’s kind of a scary thought. I wish I was a prepper but I’m not. Yet, anyway. We’ve had gardens and there’s plenty of fishing and hunting around here, so we’d probably be okay. But we’re not as ready as I would like us to be. Hopefully, we’ll become more prepared as time goes on.
I wanted to write this first series of novels about people — like me — who were not ready for this to happen. People who had a cabin out of town to go to but no proper set up in place. Ordinary people. I wanted to write this first story about the beginning of the end.
Run is just the beginning of this world. I have four more books planned in the Survivors part of the series. Some of the other ideas I have are for the Homesteaders (these people would already be livin
g off the grid), the Cities (which would tell the story of how people were surviving in town and maybe in Winnipeg), the First Nations (this would tell the story of how the people on the reserves would survive), and the Californians (about a family that comes North to Canada to escape the chaos in the States). And there’s so many more stories in my head that I would love to write in this world. If you’ve enjoyed the book and would like to see more in the series, then please leave a review because that will help me judge how many people would like to see more stories about post apocalyptic Canada.
This series is also unapologetically Canadian. After writing over sixteen books that had me changing words to the American spellings and leaving out anything that sounded even vaguely Canadian, I decided to release my inner Canuck. Don’t be afraid. That just means there’ll be a lot of apologizing, maple syrup, and moose. :)
I wanted to write something distinctly Canadian and I hope that you kind of felt like you were here — experiencing the geography, language, and the unique culture. Because that was what I was trying for. To give someone who’s never been here a taste of what Northern Manitoba is really like. I thought it would be a unique twist on the usual post apocalyptic novels.
To that end, pretty much everything in the story is geographically accurate. I even had a part in the initial draft that wasn’t right but my sons soon pointed it out and I decided at that moment that from then on, I would make everything as correct and accurate as possible. So, in the story, those are real place names and the distances and even descriptions of the places are all as accurate as I could make them.
There’s a series that I love called Escape to New Zealand by Rosalind James that is fascinating because you get a little glimpse at New Zealand. That’s part of the charm of the books. And that’s what I was going for. This is a chance for you to escape to Canada like you always wanted to.
I so hope that you’ve enjoyed this first in what I hope will be a long series. If you have, be sure to let others know what you think by leaving a review. I would really appreciate it! And make sure you get Matt’s Story, which tells what happened to him when he and Nessa were separated. If you join my Rocks Reader Group, you’ll also get a cool desktop background with a picture of Pisew Falls and all sorts of other goodies and insider information.
Oh, and be sure to watch out for Hide, the second in the series that will be out soon.
Thanks so much for reading!
And I hope you’ve enjoyed getting lost in Manitoba!
Sincerely,
R. A. Rock
Please email me with other words that you didn’t understand from the book that you would like added to this list. Everything is all so familiar to me that I don’t exactly know what you might not understand!
(Send your words to [email protected])
Bush - forest
Cree - a First Nations group that lives throughout the Canadian shield
Eh - multipurpose syllable (somewhat similar to how huh is used in the US)
First Nations - current politically correct term for the people who were in Canada when the Europeans arrived (these people were formerly referred to as Native or Aboriginal)
Jack Fish - Pike
Ojibway - another First Nations group found mostly in Ontario and Manitoba
Pickerel — Sauger
Pisew - means lynx in the Cree First Nations language
R.C.M.P - Royal Canadian Mounted Police (The police force in many places in Canada, especially small rural or northern towns that don’t have their own police force.)
Tuque - tight fitting hat that’s worn in the winter in Canada
Thompson - a mining town in northern Manitoba
Whiskey Jack - Grey Jay
I was born and raised in Northern Manitoba and I’ve lived in the Thompson area for forty years, give or take a few years away for university. I always wondered what the consequences would be for the north if we were suddenly cut off from the rest of the world. The Manitoba Lost idea has been in my head for a decade at least and is my best guess at what would happen if the lights went out and the trucks really did stop running.
R. A. Rock
Copyright R. A. Rock 2017
Interior design and formatting by:
www.emtippettsbookdesigns.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Table of Contents
Dedication
About RUN
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Author's Note
Canadian Glossary
About the Author
Copyright R. A. Rock 2017