Engulf

by C. L. Scholey

  Table of Contents

  NEW WORLD BOOK 5: ENGULF

  Published by

  WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT

  Other Books by Author Available at Torrid Books:

  D

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  For your reading pleasure, we invite you to visit our web bookstore

  NEW WORLD BOOK 5: ENGULF

  by

  C.L. Scholey

  TORRID BOOKS

  www.torridbooks.com

  Published by

  TORRID BOOKS

  www.torridbooks.com

  An Imprint of Whiskey Creek Press LLC

  Whiskey Creek Press

  PO Box 51052

  Casper, WY 82605-1052

  Copyright Ó 2013 by C.L. Scholey

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  ISBN 978-1-61160-465-8

  Credits

  Cover Artist: Gemini Judson

  Editor: Melanie Billings

  Printed in the United States of America

  WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT

  NEW WORLD BOOK 4: APPARITION

  “Doss was so lonely and so good at heart he broke mine. My favorite of the series.” ~ Night Owl Reviews

  Other Books by Author Available at Torrid Books:

  www.torridbooks.com

  New World Series

  Shield Book 1

  Armor Book 2

  Impenetrable Book 3

  Apparition Book 4

  Vampire Coven Series

  The Brethren of Tavish Book 1

  Dedication

  For Suzy

  Thank you for being the inspiration behind this story

  Prologue

  “Bye Abri, goodbye. We love you.”

  Abri didn’t answer. She couldn’t have formed the words and made them work. Her face was plastered to the shuttle window. Her nose squished to its cool hardness. Tears streamed down her cheeks from the dark green eyes she saw reflected back at her. She watched her mother and father wave to her, encouraging her to be strong. They would make a shuttle trip eventually. Soon darling, soon, we promise you won’t be alone for long. For now, only the young and healthy were being considered for the new planet, Ulsy. As well as the rich—Abri’s parents had sold everything they had to get their only child to safety.

  Earth had begun being plagued with terrible disasters. At first, sporadic occurrences had people oohing and ahhing over awful tragedies as one country suffered then another. The suffering intensified—the tragedies were reoccurring—everywhere. Their world was slowly losing communication between countries. Before long there would be none. There was no more denying the doomsayer rants.

  Flooding was rampant as was soaring heat. One side of the world burned while the other drowned. There was no rhyme or reason to Mother Nature’s numerous assaults. It was apparent global warming wasn’t at fault. There were many theories—none man made. It was as though they were entering into a new era, not unlike the ice age. Except there was no one to either claim or disclaim the concept.

  Food sources were being desecrated by drought. Prices soared into the thirty dollar mark for a loaf of bread. Bottled water was gold. Anarchy was at an all-time high. It was the death penalty to be caught looting. You were shot where you stood. Many took the risk, not having any other choice. The Bible was now found in the form of self-survival books. Weapons were being gathered at an alarming rate and hoarded away. A person became a casualty if they ventured forth into the streets unarmed.

  The government hastily deployed space vessels to search the galaxy. Long months passed before hope came. Thankfully, a wormhole leading to a new and flourishing planet was found. The wormhole was tricky at best to maneuver, but most opted to take the chance. What was out there? “You’ll see,” was the response. The words were eventually slung together and the planet Ulsy was discovered in the nick of time to save the suffering human race. Once the storms passed, humanity could return to Earth and pick up the pieces if they so chose.

  For now, a multitude of fertile, healthy women and strong, fit men were transferred on a daily basis to the new planet. The diseased and elderly were left to fend for themselves. Children were squeezed into crafts as long as the pilots were prepared to offer induced sleep. A six-day trip in a small, closed vessel was hell on a toddler or preschooler—and surrounding occupants. Similarly with animals that needed exercise.

  Abri continued to watch her parents waving; they became smaller as the craft ascended higher. A whirling sensation, a bump, and then the humming sound from the engines reached her ears. Her gaze remained filled with the sight of her mom and dad, hanging on until the last second. They were all she had, and now she felt strangely as though she had nothing. Her mother had laughingly referred to her departure as though she were merely college-bound. Abri took no comfort in her teasing when they wouldn’t be a phone call away—but an entire universe.

  Abri gasped as suddenly the earth beneath her parents’ feet shifted. Her mother stumbled and would have fallen if her father hadn’t pulled her to his chest. Abri cried out, her hands splayed against the window wanting to reach out to them. People below were running haphazardly. An earthquake rocked the ground. Horrified, she saw a car sucked into an opening sink hole taking a crowd of onlookers with it. A small, strangled cry tore from Abri’s throat.

  Buildings in the distance collapsed like stacks of toothpicks. Dust rolled up from the ground to billow in waves, engulfing people. Trees uprooted and fell like soldiers on a last march. Hell wasn’t fire and brimstone—Abri was seeing it for what it really was. Hell had many faces—all victims of this devil looked terror-stricken as they were destroyed or devoured.

  “Shit!” came a bellow. “Get us out of here, now.”

  Abri tore her gaze from the frightening scene below and looked to the front of the shuttle window. Her eyes grew round, widening in new terror. A massive wall of water was moving towards them. Abri blinked hard never having seen such a wave. A thought finally registered. Oh God, a tsunami. Abri gripped her chair arms so tightly her knuckles went white, no doubt matching the color of her blood-drained face. The shuttle pitched forward with a roar of the engines. Abri almost lost her breakfast. Her belly sunk into her guts and danced back up to fill her throat. She gasped and choked.

  A woman screamed when the sound of rushing water smashed the hull with a boom, driving them sideways, then sending them spinning until the captain gained control. Abri sucked in a tortured breath and looked back to the ground for her parents. She could see nothing but the bottom of the shuttle riding the tide like a crazy surfboard. Mom?Dad?

  “God damn it, pull it up,” the captain yelled.

  “I’m trying,” howled the co-pilot. “I can’t hold the fucking helm. I’m almost sitting on the throttle.”

  “Drop the ca
rgo. We need to break free.”

  “We’ll starve to death, Captain.”

  “If we don’t, we’ll die anyway. Do it, damn it.”

  A frantic swoosh was heard and Abri was flipped sideways. She found her voice and added her screams to the other five passengers’. The shuttle flew through the air, breaking free of the water at the last moment. Like a slingshot, they pitched forward—fast. Abri’s head smashed into the back of her seat stunning her. She groaned and almost blacked out. Her entire body was shaking as the vessel rocked under her like a wooden rollercoaster run amok. Higher, higher they climbed. There was a mechanical whine and the ominous sensation of an engine powering down. The craft shuddered and jumped.

  Breaking through the atmosphere was surreal. It became dark, cold. Absolute quiet followed. The shuttle was lazily spinning like a top, about to surrender to a motionless state. Abri could hear the expulsion of the Captain’s and co-pilot’s breath. She blinked, taking in her surroundings. She was met with devastation on each of the passenger’s faces. Around her, the sounds of crying began and steadily rose in tempo. Reality set in like a sledge hammer to Abri’s guts. They were gone—those on the ground waving them off, laughing and crying. Calls of, “See you soon,” would never be fulfilled.

  Abri couldn’t stand the ache in her chest. There was no way her parents could have survived that. She was alone. She never should have left; she had abandoned them. So much suffering was overwhelming. Abri lifted her hands to cover her face; she didn’t want to see the world around her—she wished she couldn’t hear it; she wished she could turn off her hearing forever.

  * * * *

  Deep fretful breathing woke Abri from her fitful slumber. Her dry tongue snaked across dryer lips. She was so thirsty. Her tummy gurgled, then quieted, as if it knew there was no sense in complaining—food wouldn’t come to offer her belly relief. She had no tears left to cry.

  The shuttle had been lumbering through the galaxy; an engine had stalled with the expulsion of the cargo and slingshot effect. The six day trip would now take nine, if not more. It had been four days since leaving earth. During that time there had been no food or water. The air was stale with the breath of so many others. The Captain had apologized to the six female passengers. Some of the shuttle’s valves weren’t working, broken during the tsunami and flooded. He couldn’t even offer them the relief of induced deep slumber. It was sheer luck they had air to breathe. They suffered in silence for the most part. They spoke little to conserve energy. Some found solace in sleep.

  Abri looked over at the large woman beside her; she didn’t even know her name. She didn’t really care. The shock was too raw, too recent for idle chatter. Each woman there had lost someone on the ground that terrible day. Speaking of it would make it real. Abri’s only consolation was in hoping her parents had witnessed her escape. Her heart began to ache as she realized if they had they would have died happy. It was too much. She wanted to turn off her thoughts.

  Glancing out the window, Abri could see floating debris every once in a while. Mangled metal pieces tumbled and rolled, and she wondered at it. The objects had obviously been vessels at one time. Some were charred as though fired upon. She wondered what had happened to them, to their passengers. Abri suppressed a shudder wondering what would happen if something were to breach their hull. What would it be like to be sucked out into nothingness? Would it match the ache in her heart?

  “Up ahead.”

  Abri heard the Captain’s words, they were dry and coarse. She turned her face towards the front and noted a dark object. Inky blackness lay before them. It was puzzling. Uninviting. Spooky. It seemed strangely out of place amidst the stars.

  “It’s too soon,” the Captain muttered, leaning forward to peer curiously. He ran a hand across his face in a weary gesture. “It can’t be the right wormhole. Get us out of here.”

  The co-pilot moved stiffly to oblige. The shuttle began to rattle—then shake. “It won’t back up,” the co-pilot ground out.

  “Damn it, without the extra engine we’ll be sucked in. Shit, everyone hang on. We need to…”

  Abri watched as the front of the shuttle slipped in before the rest of them. It vanished, so did the captain and co-pilot. What was happening? Darker and darker the vessel became, as it swallowed each individual in front of her. The woman sitting before her had her shriek abruptly cut off as she vanished. Abri struggled with her seat belt. She needed to escape before she too was nowhere to be found. But it was too late. She screamed as her feet disappeared and lost feeling. Blackness washed over her like the icy hand of death caressing her, claiming her. Abri’s hands curled to her chest as her calves, knees and thighs slipped from her view into the inky darkness.

  It’s so cold in here. But where is here? Where did I go?

  Abri felt as though she were falling. There was nothing anywhere. Everything, everyone was gone. Her breathing came out in deliberate puffs, in slow motion, ominous in the dead air. Her head turned with exaggerated sluggishness to her left then right. Her mouth was open in a soundless cry. It was suspended animation. Long endless moments passed, pounding along with the echo of her heart in her ears.

  Then, with a bang, they exploded through the wormhole. Everything speeded up. The shuttle was flipping through the air, ass over tea kettle. The noise was now deafening as sound intensified.

  “What the fuck is that?” screamed the co-pilot.

  “We’ve been slammed into another atmosphere,” the Captain yelled. “It’s too fast.”

  “None of the controls are responding. We’re losing our shield. Hang on, we’re gonna crash.”

  Abri saw bright blue. She heard a horrific crack. They were breaking up, descending rapidly, spinning through the sky. They were going to die. At the last moment a parachute deployed, tugging them heavenward for a brief second before deflating—killing their reprieve. The vessel hit something, snapping Abri back then forth; she bounced, clacking her teeth together. They bounced again, then again, then began to skid. The force was eating up the ground beneath them. The ship was suddenly stopped dead in its tracks by a sickening smash. They had collided with a mountainous tree. The cabin was crushed on impact, killing the Captain and co-pilot.

  The woman beside Abri and the woman in front of her were tossed to the far left side of the vessel, ripped from their seats, leaving Abri alone. Abri closed her eyes. She fainted as the sound of twisting metal reached back to implode closer and closer. An explosion sounded so near to her Abri’s ears popped. Everything went deadly silent.

  Chapter 1

  One year later:

  “Abri?”

  Abri pretended not to hear her name called. It wasn’t hard to do since she had lost most of her hearing in the shuttle crash a year previous. She remembered wishing she couldn’t hear in those first few days on the shuttle as the suffering became too much—irony should have been a bad four letter word. For days, Abri had heard nothing at all; it was terrifying. Something as simple as the sound of her own breathing she had taken for granted. Abri had felt locked within her mind. She stopped crying because she couldn’t hear her sobbing. But she had felt those first few tears as they had glided down her cheeks. Abri named them: regret, fear, aloneness. Heartache had a feel to it—it was wet, cold, and it slithered down her cheeks to drip from her chin as though escaping from her.

  Finally, as the days passed, tiny sounds caught her attention every once in a while. At first they startled her—scaring her. Noise had become foreign and then to be re-introduced to it was a cross between relief and terror. She found herself creeping closer to any sounds she heard. In the area of personal space, noise was excluded. For the most part she remained bathed in silence to the new world around her. Abri felt new—her body was a new world as well.

  For a long time, Abri had felt lost until her other senses heightened and she became more self-aware. When all you hear are your own thoughts you tend to listen to yourself. You feel your surroundings and become one with them. The sou
nd of your footsteps no longer guides you. When there is no crunch or snapping underfoot, you hear with your senses.

  Abri had once seen a blind person feeling around, searching with his fingers. The blind person couldn’t see his surroundings, but he knew they were there.

  Just because sound didn’t exist for Abri, it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. To Abri, sound was everything and yet nothing. She just needed to feel for it instead of listen for it.

  The shimmer of Sam’s reflection in the clear water was a dead giveaway, regardless, their eyes met for a second and Sam gave her a wry look. The woman knew Abri had heard her all along. Busted.

  Waves lapped at Abri’s bare feet, riding up her ankles in a tickling fashion. The gentle tug as they receded was like a teasing game of tag. Catch-me if-you-can. Abri had settled herself back against a soft rock a short time earlier, seeking solitude near a beautiful, clear blue lake. Sam, also barefoot, came to stand before her, ankle-deep in the water.

  As Sam’s feet connected with the soft lake bed, Abri watched the water ripple. Pools of wet dust rolled over Sam’s feet like an exploding sand storm. Though there was no sound—there was. Each movement seemed exaggerated. In Abri’s mind, the motion could resonate into anything she wanted it to. When Sam stood still the dust settled, sinking back from whence it came, the moment was broken.

  Abri looked up at the tall woman while shading her eyes against the glare of one of the planet’s suns. Sam, who was twenty-seven, was pretty in a rugged way. She had been a body builder on Earth—a good one. Sam’s muscles were well-defined. Her strength had come in handy. Much to Abri and the others’ amusement the powerful woman was as delicate as a wallflower at times. She had a sweet disposition and was a caring soul.