by Amy Cross
I shake my head. Spotting movement nearby, I watch as a man comes around from the other side of the truck, with several rifles hoisted over his shoulder.
“We should get moving,” he says sternly.
“In a moment,” Patterson replies, keeping his eyes fixed on me. “Tell me about the helicopters, Thomas.”
“They came to... where I was staying,” I reply, still not certain when or not I can trust him. “There were three of them. We thought they were going to help, but then they opened fire. They killed almost everyone. Hundreds of people...”
“They were sent to Mitchfield as well,” he says. “I believe they'd also been to at least one other location where large numbers of people had gathered. We had forty-odd people at Mitchfield, and now there are only twelve of us left. Believe me, Thomas, we've all witnessed some horror over the past few days, and that's why...” He pauses for a moment. “Well, that's why we're going to Boston.”
“But I thought you said -”
“We have weapons,” he continues, interrupting me. “We talked about it amongst ourselves, and we unanimously agreed that this situation can't be allowed to stand. What's happening in Boston is wrong, and if we don't stamp it out now, it'll just get worse and worse until...” Another pause. “I'm fairly certain that there are only around eight people in the city at the moment, so we figure that we have a good chance of surprising them. We're going to take that city and we're going to stamp out the cancer at its heart. We also need everyone we can get out hands on to come and help.”
“I don't think I -”
“Let me be clear,” he adds, interrupting me again. “You have every right to refuse to come with us, but you also can't stop us stripping this town bare before we move on. Now that accent of yours is pretty strong, and I'll be damned if you're not from Oklahoma. Am I right?”
“Sure,” I reply, “but -”
“And that truck over there,” he continues, pointing at my truck, “has Oklahoma license plates. So I'm gonna put two and two together here and say that you came into town on that thing. Am I right, or am I right?”
“What if you are?” I ask cautiously.
“We're taking it with us.”
“No!”
“You can't stop us,” he replies firmly. “We're going to strip this town of everything we can use, and then we're going to take that truck with us when we head off and continue our journey to Boston. You're welcome to stay behind, Thomas, but you'll be completely stranded.”
“You can't do that!”
“We can and we will. Or, you can play nice, come with us, join our little group and help out, and then we'll extend every possible hospitality to you, not only during the journey but also after you've helped us to liberate Boston. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like I'm being blackmailed,” I reply bitterly.
“Blackmail is such an ugly word,” he replies. “Think of it as friendly persuasion. Are you any good with weapons, Thomas?”
“I... I can get by.”
“We'll train you up along the way,” he tells, me holding out his hand again. “A lot of people here have scores to settle when we get to Boston. We're thinking this whole mess can be dealt with pretty fast, they've got defenses there but no real soldiers. The helicopters are the biggest problem, but we have something to take care of them. So what do you say? Are you going to do the right thing and join our little army? I can assure you, by the time we get to Boston we figure we'll have picked up quite a few people.”
I stare at his hand for a moment, before finally shaking it.
“But then I'm going to Lake Erie,” I tell him. “I'm not staying in Boston.”
“That's fine,” he replies with a smile. “We'll even give you some supplies to help you on your way. Now, I think its' about time we start picking this town apart and seeing what we can find.” He turns to the man with several guns slung over his shoulders. “Toad, maybe you can help Thomas get settled.”
“Sure,” the guy replies, clearly not too keen on the idea.
“Okay, people,” Patterson says, turning to the soldiers, “let's get this town stripped to the goddamn bone and roll out by sunset!”
As they start getting ready, I turn and look back over at my truck. I might be getting forced to take a detour to Boston, but I'm still heading back to Lake Erie as soon as possible. Back to Melissa and Katie.
“Come on,” Toad says, tapping my shoulder. “We've got work to do.”
Coming later in 2015
MASS EXTINCTION EVENT:
THE COMPLETE FIFTH SERIES
(DAYS 99 to 106)
Arriving on the outskirts of Boston, Thomas and the soldiers discover a grim sight waiting for them. Dead bodies have been left everywhere, as a warning to everyone who tries to go further. A large electric fence has been erected to keep out intruders, and there are snipers and helicopters poised to pick off anyone who dares venture too close. Refusing to turn back, however, General Patterson devises a plan that he hopes will get the team into the city. Before long, however, they find that traps have been laid, and that the people of Boston are willing to fight to the death.
ALSO BY AMY CROSS
Horror
Asylum
The Girl Clay
3AM
The Prison
American Coven
The Night Girl
Devil's Briar
Ward Z
Ward Z: Revelation
The Devil's Photographer
The House We Haunted and Other Stories
Darper Danver series 1
The Writer (13 Nights of Horror)
The Disappearance of Rose Hillard (13 Nights of Horror)
The Fan (13 Nights of Horror)
Hugo: The Lockton Downs Haunting (Novella)
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
The Hollow Church (Abby Hart 1)
Vampire Asylum (Abby Hart 2)
Dead Souls Volume One: Parts 1 to 13
Dead Souls Volume Two: Parts 14 to 26
Lupine Howl series 1, 2, 3 & 4
Grave Girl
Graver Girl (Grave Girl 2)
Ghosts
The Library
Journey to the Library (The Library Saga 2)
The Ghosts of London
The Vampire's Grave
The Werewolf's Curse
Thriller
Ophelia
The Dead City (Ophelia 2)
The Girl Who Never Came Back
The Dead and the Dying (Joanna Mason 1)
The House of Broken Backs (Joanna Mason 2)
The Pornographer's Wife
Other People's Bodies
Dystopia / Science Fiction
The Shades
Finality series 1
Mass Extinction Event series 1, 2 & 3
Erotica
Broken Blue
Broken White
Also by Amy Cross
THE GIRL CLAY
Ten years ago, a scared little girl was supposed to lead a doomsday cult to a new level of spiritual awakening. Today, that same little girl is on the run, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of a vengeful minor deity.
Rebecca 'Clay' Layton knows that one day the past will catch up to her. Ever since her mother took her to live with the Cult of Attaroth, something has been different about Clay: not only does she have a striking ability to communicate with the dead, but she has also drawn the attention of a dangerous, unstable entity that wants to use her as his instrument.
Attaroth is both a god and a demon, all rolled into one. He has Clay in his sights, and he's determined to draw her back into his game. When he forces her to travel to the remote town of Silverglade, however, it becomes clear that Attaroth's plans are far darker than anyone could ever have expected. After ten years, a horrific prophecy is about to be put to the test, and Clay's blood is required.
The Girl Clay is the story of a little girl who was pushed too far, and a woman who
finally has to stop running and face the demon from her childhood.
Also by Amy Cross
ASYLUM
After killing her younger brother, Annie Radford is sent to Lakehurst Psychiatric Hospital. But Lakehurst hides some dark secrets. Patients are regularly subjected to 'special treatment' in the basement, while the cruel Nurse Winter rules the hospital with an iron fist.
As Annie struggles to retain her sense of identity, she finds herself being drawn deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Lakehurst. Suffering under the horrific conditions imposed on her at Lakehurst, Annie starts to doubt her own sanity, especially when she once again starts to hear the voices that plagued her when she was younger.
Who is the strange old man in the attic? What does Jerry keep in a jar in the basement, and why is he so keen to continue with his macabre and vicious experiments? Where did the husks come from? And how is this all linked to mysterious radio signals being monitored in a forest hundreds of miles away?
Also by Amy Cross
THE PRISON
One hundred years ago, a horrific mass murder resulted in the permanent closure of Hardstone Women's Prison. Now the prison is being re-opened, but as a new generation of prisoners arrive to fill the cells, something evil is waiting in the shadows.
Amanda Weir doesn't remember killing her children. All she knows is that she woke up with their bloody bodies in her arms. Sentenced to life in prison, she arrives at Hardstone and tries to adjust to her new life. All she wants is to forget her old self, and to find some way to live with what she did. After all, there's no way she could be innocent...
There's something else at Hardstone, however. Something lost and alone, something angry. The ghost of a little girl has been spotted several times, and the prisoners have learned a valuable lesson: whenever the ghost is seen, anyone who looks into its eyes will be dead within a matter of days. But what does the ghost want, and exactly how far has its influence spread in the lives of the prisoners?
Also by Amy Cross
THE NIGHT GIRL
When she starts her new job as a night shift assistant, Juliet Collier has no idea that she's about to meet a mysterious entity that lurks in an abandoned part of the building.
Soon, Juliet finds herself granted a gift that means she can kill indiscriminately, and apparently without consequences. Meanwhile, eleven years earlier, a young Juliet makes a terrible mistake that sets her on a dark course.
The Night Girl is the story of a girl whose decisions lead her to a devastating end-point, as she struggles to reconcile the voices in her head with the reality in front of her eyes.
Also by Amy Cross
DEVIL'S BRIAR
In the remote wilderness of Colorado, Bill and Paula Mitchell discover an entire lost town.
Devil's Briar was abandoned many years ago, and has fallen into disrepair. But it soon becomes clear that the town contains some special and highly unusual qualities, and that elements of the past are seeping through into the present. As she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, Paula finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the bizarre time loop that keeps the entire town trapped in eternity.
Soon it becomes clear that nothing in Devil's Briar will ever be the same again, and that two time periods are merging with horrific consequences.
Also by Amy Cross
WARD Z
It began with a strange new kind of cancer, born on the other side of the world. Eventually, it erupted on a British hospital ward...
When a new cancer patient is brought into his care, Dr. Andrew Page assumes it'll just be another case of battling against the odds. Soon, however, he realizes that this new patient has been infected by a type of cancer that shows signs of intelligence. As the ward is put into lock-down, Dr. Page struggles to understand the nature of the disease. More and more people start to become sick, until finally Dr. Page has to face the horrific truth: a new strain of cancer has emerged, taking control of its victims' bodies and turning them into zombie-like creatures.
For Dr. Page, this is a terrifying but fascinating new development. For the military, however, it means only one thing: the ward must be sealed, and the entire building - including everyone trapped inside - must be studied, observed... and then killed.
Ward Z is a medical horror novel about a deadly new disease that emerges from a particularly virulent form of cancer. Also available - Ward Z: Revelation, in which the deadly infestation spreads to a holiday camp.
Also by Amy Cross
AMERICAN COVEN
He kidnapped three women and held them in his basement.
He thought they couldn't fight back.
He was wrong...
Snatched from the street near her home, Holly Carter is taken to a rural house and thrown down into a stone basement. She meets two other women who have also been kidnapped, and soon Holly learns about the horrific rituals that take place in the house. Eventually, she's called upstairs to take her place in the ice bath.
Over time, however, Holly learns about a mysterious power that exists in the basement, and which the three women can use as they struggle to escape. When they finally manage to get through the metal door, however, the women have no idea that their fight for freedom is going to stretch out for more than a decade, or that it will culminate in a final, devastating demonstration of their new-found powers.
Also by Amy Cross
THE DEVIL'S PHOTOGRAPHER
As she investigates a series of strange images, photographer Kate Logan finds herself drawn closer to a mysterious church that seems to hide a number of secrets. However, just as she seems to be getting somewhere, Kate's shocked to learn that the church has burned down.
Meanwhile, she starts spending time with a man named John Dagwood, who has an unusual interest in medieval medical techniques. Following some bad news about her own health, Kate starts to consider taking extreme action in order to get her body back under control.
As she gets closer to the truth, Kate discovers that her entire life has been affected by a dark promise made many years ago. By the time she learns about the sinister forces operating behind the scenes, it might be too late for her to escape her destiny.
Also by Amy Cross
DEAD SOULS
When Kate Langley arrives on the island of Thaxos for a vacation she never wanted in the first place, she has no idea that she's about to be drawn into an ancient and deadly struggle.
Before long, Kate learns that she's not the only recent arrival. Edgar Le Compte has come to Thaxos in order to reclaim his family's long-abandoned ancestral home. Many of the locals are dismayed by the return of the Le Compte name, and it seems as if the entire island is gripped by paranoia.
When Kate finally meets Edgar, she's surprised by his friendliness. But dark secrets lurk in the shadows, and when Kate receives an unexpected job offer that could keep her on the island, she's forced to decide whether or not she believes some of the wilder and more fantastical claims about the Le Compte family.
Dead Souls is an ongoing, weekly paranormal horror serial. Each 15,000 word installment ends on a cliffhanger. As of February 2015, the serial is up to part 27.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Day 54
Day 55
Day 56
Day 57
Day 58
Day 59
Day 60
Day 61
Table of Contents
Day 54 (Mass Extinction Event 4.1)
Day 55 (Mass Extinction Event 4.2)
Day 56 (Mass Extinction Event 4.3)
Day 57 (Mass Extinction Event 4.4)
Day 58 (Mass Extinction Event 4.5)
Day 59 (Mass Extinction Event 4.6)
Day 60 (Mass Extinction Event 4.7)
Day 61 (Mass Extinction Event 4.8)
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