The Red Sky Series (Book 2): Blue Cloud
Page 1
Blue Cloud
A Post-Apocalyptic Novel
Kellee L. Greene
Contents
Books By Kellee L. Greene
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Final Note
Books By Kellee L. Greene
Mailing List
About the Author
Ravaged Land - Preview
Ravaged Land - Chapter one
Ravaged Land - Chapter two
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 Kellee L. Greene
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author.
First Edition September 2018
Books By Kellee L. Greene
Red Sky Series
Red Sky - Book 1
Blue Cloud - Book 2
Falling Darkness Series
Unholy - Book 1
Uprising - Book 2
Hunted - Book 3
Ravaged Land Series
Ravaged Land -Book 1
Finding Home - Book 2
Crashing Down - Book 3
Running Away - Book 4
Escaping Fear - Book 5
Fighting Back - Book 6
Ravaged Land: Divided Series
The Last Disaster - Book 1
The Last Remnants - Book 2
The Last Struggle - Book 3
The Island Series
The Island - Book 1
The Fight - Book 2
The Escape - Book 3
The Erased - Book 4
The Alien Invasion Series
The Landing - Book 1
The Aftermath - Book 2
Destined Realms Series
Destined - Book 1
One
I peered out of the window up at the sky. It was still stained red, but it was fading with each passing day unlike the bloodstains on the carpet of my small apartment.
It had been several days since Nick had killed the men who were trying to get answers we didn’t have about what was going on outside. The men that had killed Maggie just hoping to get Nick or Blair to talk. They’d gotten what they deserved as far as I was concerned.
The men had been hoping to find a cure… an antidote, something that would save them from the disease spread by the red sky, but they were foolish to think they could find it inside my apartment. Just because we somehow managed to fight off the illness unlike most of the population didn’t mean we had the answers. It had just meant that we had gotten lucky.
Nick and Bronx had gone through our bags countless times making sure we had everything we’d need to walk the seventy-five miles to my grandma’s house in the country. A destination we hoped to find safety. No one said it out loud, but I was sure it wasn’t just me that was worried about leaving the apartment after what we’d just gone through with the gas mask wearing men.
The men’s bodies were gone, but the gas masks were on my counter reminding me constantly of their evil. At a glance, I could swear that I still saw their eyes staring out at me.
There had been a sense of safety inside my apartment, but that had been shattered the moment the men had busted their way inside. Truth was, we were lucky to still be alive.
Nick, Blair, Jamie, Bronx, and I had to figure out what to do with Danny, the son of the man who’d tried to crush Bronx’s skull. That was the last thing we had to figure out before we left my apartment behind to embark on our long journey.
I’d be lying if I said we weren’t putting it off as long as possible. The journey, not the dealing with Danny. We were worried about taking that first step outside of the apartment after everything we’d been through.
We didn’t trust Danny. Couldn’t trust him. But he was just a kid, and he was just as scared as the rest of us, maybe even more so. He didn’t have anyone. We at least had each other.
“So, should we take a vote?” Nick asked as he twisted the handle of his pistol in his hand. He was casually leaning back against the counter where the five guns we’d acquired were lined up. One from each of Danny’s family members.
“Please!” Danny begged. “Don’t kill me. Please, oh, please don’t kill me.”
“Dan, Dan, Dan.” Nick clicked his tongue as he leaned forward. “Silly boy. You don’t get a vote.”
I crossed my arms and let out a heavy sigh. Nick knew it annoyed me when he tried to scare the poor kid more than he already was. Maybe he deserved to be scared, but it didn’t feel right. I was surprised Danny hadn’t pissed himself, and even though we were leaving soon, I didn’t think my carpet needed any more stains.
“Want to know what I think?” Blair said looking at her fingernails. She’d pulled her blond hair that looked two shades darker since returning into a tight ponytail.
“I think we already know your vote,” I muttered.
Blair didn’t talk much since she’d been back, and when she did speak, it was to say something negative about Danny. She hated him and didn’t mind making that clear every chance she got. She still wanted revenge for whatever she’d gone through. For what she saw Maggie go through.
“Since we’re leaving,” Nick said taking a step forward, “I’m going to do something I hope I don’t end up regretting.”
“You won’t,” Danny said with wide, hope-filled eyes. “Oh, you really, really won’t.”
Nick tucked his pistol into the back of his waistband and picked up a steak knife off the counter. He gripped it tightly, keeping it close to the side of Danny’s face.
Nick reached forward and grabbed the back of Danny’s chair, tipping it forward at a forty-five degree angle. Danny’s feet moved against the floor trying to regain his footing. Nick’s face was expressionless as he saw the rope behind Danny’s back. When it ripped apart, Danny flopped forward falling to the floor at Nick’s feet.
He quickly scrambled to get to his feet glancing at Nick repeatedly as he walked to the door. Danny’s eyes darted around the room connecting with each one of us. He definitely didn’t trust us not to change our minds and shoot him in the back.
“You know how lucky you are, right?” Blair said with a blank expression as she cocked her head to the side.
“Yes, yes I do. Thank you,” Danny said backing up closer to the exit. His body jerked as if he thought someone was sneaking up behind him when his back touched the door.
Danny wiped at the tears streaming down his cheeks as he turned and opened the door. He stared at us, looking as though he wanted to say something, but then he turned and ran down the hallway.
“Bye Dan!” Nick shouted, and it sounded like Danny moved his feet even
faster.
Blair grinned as Jamie closed the door. Nick crossed the floor to the window and stared down at the pool of water below. I listened, imagining his every step as he took the stairs down to the first floor, wading through the water, and climbing out of the broken window.
“He’s going back home,” Nick announced. “You know,” he said without turning around. “They have a lot of supplies there.”
“I’m not going back there,” Blair said almost before Nick had even finished his sentence.
“Right… right, I know,” Nick said.
It seemed as though he was trying to forget what they’d gone through. That was typically how Nick dealt with things, only in the past, he’d taken drugs to aid him in not dealing with things.
“We should have enough with what we’ve packed anyway,” I said glancing at the bags near the closet. They were lined up, ready to go… the bags had been ready long before we were. “And we can probably find more along the way, should we need to.”
Nick nodded. His eyes had glossed over. Either he wished he had some of that powder left or his mind had gone back to what had happened inside that house… thinking about whatever Danny’s family had done to them in search of answers. Something they still didn’t talk about.
Nick clapped his hands, and everyone in the room jumped at nearly the exact same moment. All of us brought back to the present with a sharp thwap.
“Tomorrow morning’s the day.” Nick grinned. “Rest up. We’re leaving this place no matter what.”
He looked at me as if he hoped I’d back him up. I exhaled loudly. “Yes, no matter what.”
Over the course of the day, I alternated between napping and eating, as did the others. We took turns at the window as if we expected something to go wrong at any moment, but nothing did.
There wasn’t anything out there, at least nothing that I could see. It was just us, the red-tinged sky, and the water that didn’t seem to be going anywhere even though the sun was shining brightly.
I didn’t say it to the others, but I didn’t believe help was ever going to come. If help had been out there, I’m sure they would have found a way to us by now. There would have been some kind of an attempt to get a message to survivors, a rescue of some kind, but there hadn’t been anything.
Whatever had happened to the outside world, some kind of chemical attack, an EMP, both… whatever it was, must have been significant. As I stared out of my bedroom window, I wondered if we’d ever find out exactly how significant the attack was.
It seemed as though time was moving in fast forward, and before I knew it, the sun was kissing the horizon. My bedsprings squeaked as I sat down on the edge of my bed. I twisted my fingers together nervously.
I needed to get rest, but I wasn’t sure how I was actually going to relax enough to get any. Each little nerve in my body was jolting like they had little bolts of lightning moving through them. It felt as though I had enough energy to run all the way to my grandma’s house right at that very moment.
I laid down and stared at my ceiling. It was the last time I was going to see the water stained tiles over my bed. My apartment hadn’t ever been anything special to me, just a place to stay while I figured out my life, but it had felt like my home. It had, up until recently, felt like my safe place in the world. Hopefully, I’d feel the same once I reached my grandma’s house.
Nick and I had spent lots of time there in the summer when we were growing up. At least a week every year for as long as I could remember. My mom would bring us there, and we’d spend the days wandering the farm, doing whatever the hell we wanted to, but that was a long time ago. It almost felt as though it was a story from another person’s life.
I smiled at myself remembering that it was behind the barn that I had my first kiss. I’d never told a soul because if I had, my grandma would have fired the slightly older boy who helped out on the farm, and likely his father too.
For a second, I wondered what had happened to him… where he’d gone, what his life had been like, but then the smile that had been tightening the muscles in my face vanished. I could make a pretty good guess as to what happened to him. The same thing that had happened to nearly everyone else.
I sighed and rolled over onto my side noticing Jamie standing in the doorway. I pushed myself up abruptly, and he cleared his throat.
“Sorry,” Jamie said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s okay,” I said with a smile, wondering how long he’d been standing there.
“I just wanted to see how you’re….” His voice faded as he looked over his shoulder into the living room. “Can I come in?”
My lips pressed tightly together forming an awkward smile as I nodded. “Of course. What’s up?”
Jamie stepped into the room leaving a small space between the door and the frame as he closed it. The small amount of light created a stripe that stretched across the floor and up the side of the wall.
I crossed my arms as Jamie walked over to the window and peered out. He slowly turned, and the light from the other room made his eyes glow like magical blue orbs.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re ready for this,” he said shaking his head as if the words hadn’t come out right. “I mean, it feels weird to be leaving our homes behind with everything that’s going on out there, right?”
“Yeah, it does,” I said, but it was probably worse for Jamie than it was for me. He was leaving his home to walk seventy-five miles to an unfamiliar place. “But there isn’t anything for us here. Besides, it’s not safe here. The building could collapse with a strong wind. We probably shouldn’t have even stayed here as long as we have.”
Jamie’s head was bobbing up and down, but his eyes were still focused on something outside. “You’re right… of course, you’re right, but it still feels weird.”
“I know what you mean,” I said, as Jamie made his way over to the bed. It squeaked as he sat down next to me. He turned and looked at me for a long moment before he smiled. “We’ll be okay.”
I smiled back. “Yeah, we will.”
“I always thought when I left this place it would be because I was able to afford something better. It was my dream to buy a two-story house with a fenced in pool in the backyard.”
“Well, we kind of have a pool in the backyard now,” I said trying to lighten the mood even though my attempt at humor kind of made me feel like an ass.
Jamie was sharing something with me. He was opening up about his hopes and dreams, and I was making a joke.
“I’m sorry,” I said wishing I would have said it quicker.
“No, it’s fine,” he said patting the back of my hand as he stood. He leaned closer, brushing my hair away from my cheek, and tucking it behind my ear as he placed his lips closer. “I’ll just have to figure out something else I want.”
My heart was pounding. I turned slightly, our faces inches apart. My lips parted, but before I could whisper his name, he stood.
“I should let you get some rest,” he said over his shoulder as he walked to the door. “Good night.”
“Good night,” I murmured.
I stared at the door for several minutes waiting for my heart rate to return to normal. With a heavy breath, I flopped backward onto my mattress and returned to staring at the ceiling.
In a few hours, the sunlight would filter through the blinds and stripe the walls. And when it did, we’d be gone.
Two
Out of the five of us, I was noticeably the most nervous. It felt like there was a volcano about to erupt inside my stomach. I couldn’t even hold my fingers straight.
I’d slept terribly. My body already ached, and we hadn’t even stepped outside of my apartment.
Nick kept looking at me every forty seconds, but he didn’t ask me what was on my mind. The last thing I wanted was for him to talk to me about my nerves in front of everyone else. I was trying to appear brave, but no one was probably buying it anyway.
The others were all calm an
d ready to go trudging through several inches of water. I could still remember in the back of my mind exactly how cold the water had been. I was probably lucky I hadn’t gotten hypothermia when I’d fallen into the icy water over my head. Hell, maybe I had and just hadn’t realized it at the time.
No one said much as we slipped our backpacks on. In a way, it felt very ceremonial, especially when Nick passed us each our own gun.
“No thanks,” I said holding up my palms as I shook my head.
“What are we going to do? Leave it here?” Nick asked, squeezing his eyebrows together as he thrust it toward me.
“I have no idea how to use that thing and knowing me, I’ll probably end up hurting myself of one of you,” I said with a frown. “It’s not a good idea.”
Nick smiled brightly and pushed the gun against my body. “You’ll be fine, and first chance I get I’ll show everyone who needs to know, how to use them properly.”
That probably was all of us, with maybe the exception of Bronx. Not that I had any reason to suspect Bronx knew how to shoot.
“And in the meantime?” I asked.
“Just act like you know how to use it,” Nick said adjusting it on my shoulder. “And how to carry it.”
I sighed, and Blair rolled her eyes. I wanted to roll mine right back at her, but there wasn’t much of a point considering she was already looking away.