“Oh yeah, how so?” Nathan asked.
“You said that, so that means you had it memorized,” Jasmine said. Then a curious thought hit Jasmine. “Where is the rest of Nathan’s storage, Amanda?”
“He has three forty-foot shipping containers buried forty feet to the right of his house for food storage. On the left, forty feet away, are two more. One holds a machine shop, the other tools and a woodworking area. Right past those is the chicken coop and his two greenhouses,” Amanda said.
“I rest my case,” Jasmine said lying back down.
Nathan laughed as he pulled her close. “Okay, I’ll admit to the firecracker.”
Everyone sat in silence, waiting for Nathan to give the word. When just the last edge of the sun was above the horizon, Nathan sat up. He never said a word as everyone ran to their buggies, climbing in. “Guess I don’t have to say let’s go,” he said, sliding off the hood.
“Come on, Nathan,” Natalie moaned.
“Very well,” Nathan said. “John, stay fifty yards behind me. I know these roads like the back of my hand.”
“We’re over two hundred miles away,” Jasmine said.
“So? I hunt and ride these roads on ATVs and horses,” Nathan said, climbing in.
Amanda leaned out her door toward John. “Don’t make me have to come and find you.”
“Amanda!” Nathan snapped as he started the buggy. “Guys, just because were almost home, don’t drop your guard.”
“Someone gets in the way I’m cranking the gat on their ass,” Amanda said, lifting her rifle.
“Will you relax?” Nathan said looking over at her.
Amanda shook her head. “I don’t care if it’s an old lady with a walker, she gets smoked.”
Giving up, Nathan dropped the buggy into drive and pulled out onto the gravel road. He steadily picked up speed as the excitement hit him, and he shoved the pedal to the floor. Every face had a smile as the group raced down the road.
When Nathan turned off the gravel road onto the mountain roads he slowed because of the blind curves, but they were still moving along. But when they came off the mountain roads, Nathan tried to put his foot through the floorboard.
Behind him, John never missed a beat, hanging right with Nathan through every twist and turn. At times Jasmine just closed her eyes on the mountain roads. On one side was rock, and the other, a thousand-foot drop. When Nathan pulled onto a blacktop, Jasmine sighed. Then she freaked as Nathan started dodging elk.
When they blew through a small town going under the interstate, Jasmine wanted to cheer. Then Nathan pulled onto a gravel road, still booking it, throwing up a cloud of dirt and rock. Jasmine could feel her skin tingling as Nathan turned onto a mountain, road slowing down.
It almost one a.m. when Nathan keyed his radio. “Slowing.” Nathan coasted to a stop and turned the buggy off.
“What are you doing?” Amanda asked.
“Come on, get out,” Nathan said.
“I don’t have to pee, and even if I did, a toilet is just down there,” she moaned.
Nathan climbed out and reached back to get Emma, who was playing with Woof. “Come on.” Stepping back, Nathan waved the others up. They all ran over to him, standing in the road.
“What are we doing?” Jasmine asked.
Nathan pulled out his radio. “Calling home,” he said, changing the channels. Everyone held hands as Nathan pulled out the ear bud connection so the others could hear. Nathan pressed the key. “This is Rocky calling Mickey.” Amanda mouthed the words silently with him.
Everyone waited for anything, then the radio went off. “Rocky, this is Mickey, run traffic.”
Cheers erupted as they hugged, then quieted down as Nathan pressed the key. “Mickey, request entry into Wonderland. Rocky is bringing drinks in containers, over.”
“Copy, Rocky. How many drinks and containers? Over.”
“Two containers, and eight drinks request the red carpet, over.”
“Rocky, you have a Looney Tunes on the carpet and Wonderland is waiting, over.”
Nathan looked at the group. “Let’s go home.” Everyone ran to their buggies, cheering, not caring about noise, and Nathan couldn’t tell them otherwise. He was cheering too.
Unlike before, Nathan drove very slowly on this road. “Why are we going slow now?” Natalie asked.
“This road is booby trapped, and I want to make sure they are all disarmed,” Nathan said.
Amanda looked at him. “They cleared eleven miles of road that fast? Because I don’t see anyone.”
“No, I’m sure they disarmed them today. In the radio broadcast I let them know I would be home in days,” Nathan said.
Amanda didn’t say anything and stood up in the seat as they crested the mountain and started down into a small valley. “Home,” Amanda said as Natalie stood up beside her. Up ahead they saw a building light up, shutting down the NVGs.
But everyone was looking at all the people waiting at the building. Nathan slowed, stopping in front of the group, and got out. Tears sprang to his eyes, looking at the front of the group. Four men and four women with some kids ran and wrapped their arms around Nathan.
Nathan’s group watched, smiling, as Nathan’s friends welcomed him home. Nathan stepped back from his friends and looked back at his family. He waved for them to get out, and all of them stood behind Nathan shyly. “This is the family I found and didn’t know I had.”
Nathan pulled Amanda in front of him. “The first one I found was a daughter. This is Amanda.”
Amanda walked over. “You’re Rusty,” she said, giving him a hug. She turned to the woman beside Rusty. “You’re Libby, his wife,” Amanda said, giving her a hug. Amanda moved down the line, letting each one know she already knew them from Nathan. She stopped at the end. “You’re Tim and Sherry and that’s little Nolan,” she said with tears pouring down her face. Amanda launched at them with wide-open arms. She cried when they returned the hug just as hard. When they let go, Amanda stayed beside them.
Nathan pulled John up next. “This is my son. I found him second. His name is John, Big John.” John walked down the line, giving and receiving hugs.
Jasmine was stunned when Nathan didn’t pull her up next but pulled up Tom, Natalie, Casey, and Emma. “Next I had quadruplets, another son and three daughters. This is Tom, Natalie, Casey, and Emma.” The four moved over and hugged everyone, moving down the line.
Nathan turned around, taking a smiling Chip from Emma. “This was the last of my children I found. His name is Chip. Some really bad things happened to him and he doesn’t talk yet, but he will.”
Chip ran over to the line. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he knew hugs. Rusty picked him up, giving him a big hug, and passed him down the line.
Nathan turned around, holding out his hand for Jasmine. “I found her early in my journey, but I didn’t know who she was at the time. This is who I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. May I present Jasmine?” The four couples walked up to Jasmine, and she could feel them studying her. Jasmine fought the urge to hide behind Nathan as they stopped in front of her.
Sherry stepped forward and looked Jasmine up and down. Jasmine, like the rest of the group, was dressed in tactical gear. Fighting the urge to tell Sherry she was freaking her out, Jasmine just smiled. Sherry opened her arms, falling on Jasmine, crying. “You have a brain! Thank you God, you have a brain.”
In total shock, Jasmine slowly returned the hug, feeling like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Then the other women dove on her, mumbling the same thing.
“Ladies, my girlfriends weren’t that bad,” Nathan said. Sherry extracted herself from the group.
“Bullshit! When even the guys are saying a woman is a stupid ass even if she’s pretty, she’s a dumbass,” Sherry said, wiping tears off her face. She turned back to Jasmine. “You have a brain!” She hugged her again.
“Sherry, we are going to talk about those girlfriends,” Jasmine said, wiping her eyes.<
br />
“Whatever you want. You couldn’t talk to them. Nolan carried a better conversation,” Sherry said, squeezing Jasmine tightly.
“That can’t be good,” Nathan said as the guys came over, picking Jasmine up and hugging her.
Billy picked Jasmine up, holding her up. “You and these kids took that lost look from him. We will love you forever.”
The rest of the group came over and, to their surprise, Amanda named them as well. They moved into the dining hall and talked, just getting to know the extended family. When Nathan walked into the bathroom, he bowed his head to the toilet and sat Emma on it. She promptly fell in. Pulling her out, Nathan held her on the edge.
It was dawn when Nathan and Amanda led them to the house. Amanda chose the girls’ room after looking at two identical room on each side of the hall for twenty minutes. Nathan laid Emma on the couch and headed to the shower. Leaving the cold off, Nathan stepped in and just stood. When he got out, Jasmine passed him. “I’m taking a shower. Go tell the kids good night.”
“It’s dawn,” Nathan said. Not seeing Emma on the couch, Nathan freaked and started looking around.
Hearing banging, Sherry came out of their room. “Nathan, what are you doing?”
“I can’t find Emma. We need to start looking outside,” he said, running for the door.
“She climbed in bed with us. She’s curled up next to Nolan,” Sherry said.
Nathan sighed and smiled at Sherry. “Okay, but keep an eye on her.”
Walking down the hall, Nathan peeked in the rooms, telling everyone good night. Then he headed back to his bed. Not the ground or saddle, a bed. When he walked in, Jasmine stepped out, wrapped in a towel. “A bed,” Nathan said, and Jasmine walked past him.
“Yes, I know,” she said, walking to the door. Nathan pulled the covers back. Hearing the door lock, Nathan looked up.
“What are you doing? What if the kids need us?”
Jasmine spun around. “I told you what was going to happen,” she said, and lifted her hand from behind her, holding up Nathan’s spurs. “I wasn’t kidding, cheap bicycle.”
About the Author
Thomas A. Watson lives in Northwestern Montana, but grew up in Doyline, Louisiana and Grenada, Mississippi. He moved to Shreveport, Louisiana to start a family. He graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelors in Science. Watson’s love of reading, which was instilled in him at a young age by his parents, inspired him to begin his writing career.
Working currently as an RN in an emergency room in Missoula, Watson loves the outdoors and taking time off of work.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my readers. To all those who provided support, read, wrote and offered comments. I would not be where I am today without all of you.
To my family: Thank you all for giving me the courage and strength to pursue my dreams. I love you very much. Nick, Khristian, and Phillip, you three make my days brighter.
To Monique Happy: Thank you. You have been a pleasure to work with, and your work is amazing. Thanks for the recommendation, Shawn Chesser, she truly is the best.
And finally to my wife, Tina. Thank you for putting up with me and keeping my side of the bed warm on the long nights I was clicking away at the keyboard, for all your insightful input, and for just being there for me. I would have never made it this far without all your help and encouragement.
The Worlds of Thomas A. Watson
Thomas A. Watson has created an exciting and often terrifying array of worlds, including The Blue Plague series and Dark Titan: Journey, both available from Winlock Books in 2015.
Learn more about The Blue Plague
More about the Dark Titan series can be found on Dark Titan: Journey
… and you can stay in touch with Thomas and all his work at
Thomas A. Watson on Facebook
and
Thomas A. Watson on Twitter
Other Winlock Books You’ll Love
Winlock Press has a stunning range of post-apocalyptic adventures for fans of Thomas A. Watson. Be sure to click on the links below and enters the worlds of
David Lund’s Winchester: Over,
first in the Winchester Undead series!
The detonation of multiple nuclear warheads high in the atmosphere above North America destroys all the tools and devices of our modern lives, leaving the country in chaos. Next, an ancient virus is unleashed that steals death from humanity. Bexar Reed and his family, along with their lifelong friends and fellow preppers, were prepared for the end of the world as we know it. They thought they were prepared for nearly every possibility, but they never thought the dead would rise to hunt the living.
J Rudolph’s The Reanimates: The Complex,
first in The Reanimates series!
It took no time at all for Shelton’s Disease to spread from an ugly rumor on the internet to the end of the world as Cali Anglin, RN, knew it. Now the half-abandoned gated community that she has taken for granted is all that stands between her family and the endless, ravenous hordes of reanimates. And with the government gone, electricity extinguished, and the food supply dwindling, she has to face questions she’s never asked herself before: just how far would she go to save her family, her friends, her rapidly collapsing community? Would she kill for them? Would she die for them? She’s about to find out.
In the terrifying tradition of George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Mira Grant’s Feed, Julie Rudolph gives us a fresh and frightening look at the zombie apocalypse from the ground level, when ordinary people like you and me are forced to face extraordinary evil… and survive.
Tristan Vick’s Bitten: Resurrection,
first in the Bitten apocalypse series!
Rachael Ramirez has always been tough. Raising a son on her own in Newcastle City has made her that way. Alyssa Briggs, a Newcastle veterinarian, has always shown a gentler side. But when the world went crazy, and she literally ran into Rachael Ramirez as the risen dead overran them, everything changed. Now these bright and beautiful women will build a team of strange, courageous survivors, including a schizophrenic nymphomaniac, a narcissistic playboy, and a ragtag group of hardened soldiers: just what they need to stay alive in this weird new world. And none of them know that Rachael holds a shocking secret to the Resurrection Virus that may be the key to humanity’s salvation… or prove to be its worst curse.
Strong women and smart men in hand-to-hand combat with the walking dead, deep in the Big City. What more could you want in an apocalypse?
Table of Contents
Contents
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
About the Author
Acknowledgments
The Worlds of Thomas A. Watson
Other Winlock Books You’ll Love
Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home Page 37