As gunfire rang out in volleys behind and around us, Chloe, Shelly, Crenshaw, Arsenault and three more men in biohazard suits clamored in. Tom and Jerry did not wait for more runners to catch up. The hatch rose and shut with a metallic thud. They might have saved one or two more humans had they waited a moment. That was not to be.
In the passenger compartment of the LAV, Alphonse was surprised to see me. “Back from the dead?”
“I got delivered from Evil,” I said.
“You got away from us.”
“I’m back with a vengeance and ready to party, laughing in the face of death, living on the razor’s edge, this time it’s personal — ”
“Somebody shut him up,” Crenshaw said.
“You’re going to want to talk to me while I’m still sort of me,” I said. “I don’t know how long I’ll last. When the AI figures out what it wants to do … well, I don’t know what will happen, actually.”
“I’m more interested in your cerebrospinal fluid, right now,” Chloe said.
“Take me out to dinner first?” I suggested.
“I’m not on the menu, Mr. Harmon.”
“You could be the dessert menu. Please be careful around me. I bite but, like I said, it’s not me. It’s just my teeth. It’s the AI telling me what to do. It’s irresistible. I’m programmed — ”
Shelly yanked a black bag down over my head. Then somebody took a cheap shot and slammed his fist into the left side of my head. It had to be Crenshaw. What Crenshaw didn’t know was the nanites were busy shutting down pain signals from my nociceptors. I didn’t know the word nociceptors, but somehow they did.
I was aware of my jangled nerves but I felt no agony as Crenshaw targeted the joint of my jaw with another hard right hook. Thanks to the AI boiling through my head, pain was just a signal now, easily dismissed. I was not myself and becoming even less so. Little by little, my humanity was slipping away. I never thought I would miss pain, but now its absence worried me.
The action continues in Book Three
AFTER Life
P A R A D I S E
completes the NEXT Apocalypse trilogy.
Available September 3, 2018
Also by this Author
IN THIS SERIES:
AFTER Life
INFERNO
PURGATORY
PARADISE
~ DYSTOPIAN AND APOCALYPTIC FICTION ~
This Plague of Days, Season 1
This Plague of Days, Season 2
This Plague of Days, Season 3
This Plague of Days, Omnibus Edition
Robot Planet, The Complete Series
Haunting Lessons, Book 1 of The Dimension War
Death Lessons, Book 2 of The Dimension War
Fierce Lessons, Book 3 of The Dimension War
Dream’s Dark Flight, Book 4 of The Dimension War
~ TIME TRAVEL ~
Wallflower
~ CRIME THRILLERS ~
Brooklyn in the Mean Time
Bigger Than Jesus, Book 1 of The Hit Man Series
Higher Than Jesus, Book 2 of the Hit Man Series
Hollywood Jesus, Book 3 of the Hit Man Series
~ COLLECTIONS ~
Murders Among Dead Trees
Self-help for Stoners
~ NON-FICTION ~
Do the Thing: The Last Stress-busting Book You’ll Ever Need
About the Author
Robert Chazz Chute is a former journalist and winner of eight writing awards. He pens suspense of all kinds, from apocalyptic tales of plagues, zombies and killer robots to gritty, funny crime thrillers. There’s a sprinkle of time travel and aliens in the mix, too.
He writes full-time in Other London when he’s not hosting the Excellent Not Perfect podcast.
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The NEXT Apocalypse (Book 2): AFTER Life: Purgatory Page 18