by E S Richards
“Is there no other way around?” Len asked, shaking his head slightly at the state of the road ahead of them.
“I don’t know,” Harrison responded, taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at Len. “Is there? I imagine you know this place better than I do.”
“No,” Len spoke after a pause, “I don’t think there is.”
“Well then. Looks like we’re going to be walking again.”
Harrison pulled the Dodge over to the side of the road, parking it several feet away from the nearest vehicle. He let the engine tick over for a few seconds longer after he took his foot of the gas, listening to the sound of the old truck and making sure everything was still running properly. Finally satisfied he turned the key in the ignition and let silence fall over the five of them.
“We’re going in there?” Max spoke up from the backseat, paying much more attention to the conversation now that the truck had been shut off.
“Yep,” Harrison nodded. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But I made a deal with this man that I’d help him find his family, and that’s where they are.”
Silence yawned out between them for another minute before the sound of someone unfastening their seatbelt from the back seat filled the air.
“Let’s get going then,” Justin spoke up behind Len. “No point waiting around in here.”
Len sprang into action quickly, overjoyed by the fact they were about to walk into South Haven and hopefully find his son. He was surprised to see Justin and Max joining them; even Harrison’s statement had caught him slightly off guard. Now that they had reached the city, it wouldn’t have shocked Len if Harrison wanted to continue driving up to Canada and had simply dropped Len off and bid him farewell. He was glad though, to have Harrison by his side. The two of them had been through so much together and for some strange reason Len wanted to finish his journey with Harrison standing next to him.
“Whereabouts does your ex live?” Harrison asked as the five of them started walking, he and Len taking the lead while Justin, Max, and Aubrey walked slightly behind them.
“On the north side,” Len replied after a moment, “just over the river.”
“All right then,” Harrison nodded. “Shouldn’t be too long.”
Harrison’s words echoed through Len’s head as they trudged closer toward the center of the city. The mess of cars continued to increase and the sights that surrounded them were more harrowing than Len could have imagined. The fact that Amy had given up driving offered him the smallest modicum of comfort as he saw the shape of people who were trapped inside their cars. Most of them looked like they’d been burned alive, their skin charred or, in the worst cases, completely burnt away.
For all the people trapped inside their cars however, Len couldn’t find any way of reasoning with himself that Amy and James wouldn’t have been walking alongside them. Human body parts and remains were scattered all amongst the vehicles, limbs that had been torn from bodies from the force of all the explosions crunched underfoot as the five of them tried to avoid them. After a while Len was unable to look at them anymore. Each time he saw a piece of human flesh he was haunted by the fact that it could belong to his ex-wife or son. He had never been a religious man, but despite that as they walked he desperately prayed that his family had been inside.
The carnage only continued to increase the longer they walked and before long each of them was stunned into complete silence. Buildings had completely collapsed—presumably from the force of the explosions—and rubble, dirt, and debris covered literally every surface.
As they moved through the center of the city and started heading toward the bridge which led to the north side, Len was forced to focus only on his two feet. Whole streets had been wiped out and left in complete disarray, not a single living person present in the whole city. Hundreds of bodies surrounded them though and the more they passed, the louder Aubrey’s whimpering came from behind him. Len didn’t have the strength to look round and try to comfort her anymore; he had to keep his mind focused and try as hard as he could to keep the thought of his son being dead out of his head.
South Haven was a ghost town. Even when the destruction started to lessen as they crossed the bridge, there was still not a single soul they could see. The area gradually started to become more recognizable to Len and he noticed a café that the three of them had eaten at once when he came to visit James. Somehow the café remained standing, although several of the other small businesses on the same street were already falling apart.
“Which way?”
Harrison’s voice was softer and more considerate than normal when he spoke, coming to a halt at a fork in the road. Len didn’t respond, he simply led their small group to the right and down the street that would eventually end at Amy’s home. With each window that he passed, Len forced himself to look inside, to check if there was anyone still alive. There had to be someone. Anyone. Even a single person would do. But it was useless. They moved down the street at a faster pace than he would have liked and, before he knew it, Len was standing in front of Amy’s new home. The small semi-detached bungalow that she shared with their son. Two bedrooms. One bathroom. And hopefully, two of the most important people in his life.
Solar Crash Book 4
Available Now!
Other Post-Apocalyptic Books from Mike Kraus
Final Dawn: The Complete Original Series Box Set
Clocking in at nearly 300,000 words with over 250,000 copies sold, this is the complete collection of the original bestselling post-apocalyptic Final Dawn series. If you enjoy gripping, thrilling post-apocalyptic action with compelling and well-written characters you’ll love Final Dawn.
Final Dawn: Arkhangelsk: The Complete Trilogy Box Set
The Arkhangelsk Trilogy is the first follow-up series set in the bestselling Final Dawn universe and delivers more thrills, fun and just a few scares. The crew of the Russian Typhoon submarine Arkhangelsk travel to a foreign shore in search of survivors, but what the find threatens their fragile rebuilding efforts in the post-apocalyptic world.
No Sanctuary
A nationwide terrorist attack has left the country in shambles and the country's transportation capabilities are crippled beyond repair. Frank Richards barely escapes with his life when he watches his truck explode in front of his eyes. As chaos descends across the country, Frank's home-grown survival and preparedness training and the help of a mysterious stranger he meets are the only things he can rely on to see him safely across the thousand miles separating him and his loved ones.
Surviving the Fall
Surviving the Fall is an episodic post-apocalyptic series that follows Rick and Dianne Waters as they struggle to survive after a devastating and mysterious worldwide attack. Trapped on the opposite side of the country from his family, Rick must fight to get home while his wife and children struggle to survive as danger lurks around every corner.
Prip’Yat: The Beast of Chernobyl
Two teens and two Spetsnaz officers travel to the town of Prip’Yat set just outside the remains of the Chernobyl power plant. The teens are there for a night of exploration. The special forces are there to pursue a creature that shouldn’t exist. This short thriller set around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster will keep your heart racing right through to the very end.
Other Fantasy Books from Mike Kraus
The Makeshift Wizard: Death Magic
The Makeshift Wizard series is a new action-packed urban fantasy series from bestselling post-apocalyptic author Mike Kraus writing as MJ Kraus.
My job was supposed to be easy. Investigate a bleed farm, find the a-hole vamps who've been kidnapping Normals and bring down some street justice. Now I've got a relic in my hands that was created with the blood and death magic of an elder Vampire and a whole lot more questions than answers.
THE
RUIN
SOLAR CRASH
Book 3
By
E S Richards
; Mike Kraus
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