by Amy Cross
“The phones have stopped,” she said, with more and more fear in her voice. “What does this mean? What's happening?”
He opened his mouth to reply, but then he turned and looked back toward the shore. If anything, the panic seemed to be getting worse and the screams were getting louder. The gunfire wasn't quite so frequent, but there were more fires burning around the edge of the plaza.
“I know what it looks like,” she continued finally. “It looks like the end of the world. It looks like the apocalypse.”
As if to underline that point, the huge sign from the Apocalypse nightclub was still just about visible in the distance, although a moment later it toppled down and disappeared into a cloud of smoke and dust.
“I really thought I saw my mother,” Emma said. “I think I might be losing my mind.”
“I'm sure you're not the only one,” he replied, as his eyes were drawn to the jetty. He could just about make out the shape of Merrie's corpse on the ground. “We've all seen things today that we'd rather not see.”
“So what do we do now?” Emma asked. “The whole world's falling apart. I don't know how much fuel we've got in this boat. We don't have any supplies. Everyone's dead. What do we do, Javier?”
He paused, before turning to her.
“We do the only thing we can,” he replied finally. “We find a way to survive.”
Epilogue
Two weeks later
They came from far and wide, from all over the world.
The journey up the mountain was arduous. Too arduous for some, who fell by the wayside and died next to the path. Conditions became worse and worse as the path rose higher, and by halfway there was a thick blanket of snow all around. Still more travelers began to fall, leaving only the strongest or the best-prepared to make the final part of the journey. And even they struggled.
They'd left the madness behind. The falling cities. The fires. The panicked mobs, the screams and the collapse of civilization. They'd left the rest of the world to die, because they knew none of it mattered anymore. They knew where they had to go instead.
Soon the winds began, beating back yet more of the pilgrims. Some were literally blown off the path and sent hurtling down steep gorges; others froze as they walked, finally ending up as icy figures blocking the way for the others. Only a small number made it any further each day, and even these travelers were beginning to weaken. There was not one person on that journey who did not experience excruciating pain.
And then, on the eighth day, the terrible storm passed and the path became less steep, and the survivors found themselves on the edge of a plateau. Sun was streaming down from the clear blue sky, and some of the travelers actually began to feel a little warm. Nobody wanted to say the word 'miracle', but too all of them it seemed as if their harsh journey had finally ended with their arrival in a small haven. They felt energized and rewarded, and they made their way across the rocky landscape until they reached a chunk of dark rock that rose from the ground and stood tall like a giant hand.
Mr. Ford told the new arrivals to stop and rest, to contemplate both the journey they had taken and the journey yet to come. He told them to ignore any pains they might be feeling in their bellies, and he promised them that it was their very purity – their refusal to kill the new lives in their bodies – that had guaranteed them safe passage to this moment. And so they all sat and marveled at what they saw.
“You all sensed this moment,” Mr. Ford explained, with a hint of awe in his voice. “All around the world, it was sensed. They rose up as one, to begin the first stage of their domination. The future is here. Bow down before its magnificence.”
So they all bowed.
At the base of the rocky hand, Judy Carter sat wrapped in the tendrils of the creature that had grown in her body. Just as Andreas Velucci had predicted, she was smiling the smile of someone who found themselves in a serene state of grace. And in her lap, a mass of black tendrils lay squirming and writhing. It had arrived, and it was going to take its place at the lead of a new age.
The Pure One had finally been born.
BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
Ward Z (Ward Z book 1)
Terror at Camp Everbee (Ward Z book 2)
Apocalypse (Ward Z book 3)
COMING SOON
Hideaway (Ward Z book 4)
Also available
WARD Z
(WARD Z BOOK 1)
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.
Also available
TERROR AT CAMP EVERBEE
(WARD Z BOOK 2)
Forced against her will to attend a summer camp for sick children, Lizzie Miller is already expecting to have a bad time. But when she discovers that Camp Everbee has been used to dump toxic waste from a hospital, she realizes that forced cheeriness and paddling excursions are the least of her problems.
Something deadly is lurking in the forest at Camp Everbee, something that has already begun to infect new hosts. Soon, Lizzie and her new friends are facing a fight for their lives. As the infestation spreads, however, it quickly becomes clear that Camp Everbee might just end up being the first stage of a terrifying new organism that wants nothing less than total world domination.
Coming soon
HIDEAWAY
(WARD Z BOOK 4)
Having escaped Mallaca, Javier and Emma find themselves in a cabin in a remote forest. With no idea what's happening to the rest of humanity, they decide to hunker down and hope that the crisis passes. But what dangers lurk in the darkness? How can they escape an enemy that has the ability to start growing inside their bodies? And why has Emma started to see ghostly apparitions of her long-dead mother?
Also by Amy Cross
THE FARM
No-one ever remembers what happens to them when they go into the barn at Bondalen farm. Some never come out again, and the rest... Something about them is different.
In 1979, the farm is home to three young girls. As winter fades to spring, Elizabeth, Kari and Sara each come to face the secrets of the barn, and they each emerge with their own injuries. But someone else is lurking nearby, a man who claims to be Death incarnate, and for these three girls the spring of 1979 is set to end in tragedy.
In the modern day, meanwhile, Bondalen farm has finally been sold to a new family. Dragged from London by her widowed father, Paula Ridley hates the idea of rural life. Soon, however, she starts to realize that her new home retains hints of its horrific past, while the darkness of the barn still awaits anyone who dares venture inside.
Set over the course of several decades, The Farm is a horror novel about people who live with no idea of the terror in their midst, and about a girl who finally has a chance to confront a source of great evil that has been feeding on the farm for generations.
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
Stephen
The Farm
The Haunting of Briarwych Church
The Horror of Briarwych Church
The Ghost of Briarwych Church
The Haunting of Hardstone Jail
Asylum (The Asylum Trilogy book 1)
The Madness of Annie Radford (The Asylum Trilogy book 3)
The Devil, the Witch and the Whore (The Deal book 1)
Like Stones on a Crow's Back (The Deal book 2)
The Devil's Blade
Haunted
Devil's Briar
The Night Girl
Last Wrong Turn
Friend From the Internet
The Haunting of Caldgrave House
The Haunting of Blackwych Grange
The Bride of Ashbyrn House
The Ghosts of Hexley Airport
The Curse of Wetherley House
The Haunting of Marshall Heights
The Ghosts of Lakeforth Hotel
The Body at Auercliff
The Soul Auction
Perfect Little Monsters and Other Stories
The Ghost of Longthorn Manor and Other Stories
Room 9 and Other Stories
Fantasy / Horror
Grave Girl
Raven Revivals (Grave Girl book 2)
The Gravest Girl of All (Grave Girl book 3)
Dark Season (book 1, 2 & 3)
The Hollow Church
The Vampires of Tor Cliff Asylum
Dead Souls (book 1 to 13)
Lupine Howl (books 1 to 6)
Dystopian / Apocalypse
Ward Z (Ward Z book 1)
Terror at Camp Everbee (Ward Z book 2)
Days 1 to 4 (Mass Extinction Event book 1)
Days 5 to 8 (Mass Extinction Event book 2)
Days 9 to 16 (Mass Extinction Event book 3)
Days 46 to 53 (Mass Extinction Event book 4)
Days 54 to 61 (Mass Extinction Event book 5)
Day 100 (Mass Extinction Event book 6)
The Dog