The Age of Embers (Book 5): The Age of Defiance

by Schow, Ryan

  “He wasn’t telling us squat,” she said, swiping her hair out of her face.

  Shaking his head, he said, “And here I thought that between us, you were the nice one.”

  “I am the nice one,” she said. “Now go see about your kid while I check on the others.”

  “Be careful,” he said.

  “I’ll have Nick check the perimeter and then head up to Homestead Two,” she told him. “Wait, have you seen Macy and Atlanta? They were on interior patrol tonight.”

  “We’re good,” Atlanta said, just outside the door from where the body lay. Atlanta suddenly stopped, flicked the stolen zippo lighter, then said, “Oh…holy crap. Whoa!”

  “Tell me about it,” Cincinnati said as Jagger went in back to check on his family. “Is Macy with you?”

  “I’m here, Mom,” she said from behind Atlanta.

  Thank God.

  The three women came together in a fierce, bloody hug.

  “We need to check on Stanton and Rex,” Cincinnati said, terrified the intruders had killed them both on the way in. If they took her brother and her husband from her…she didn’t know if she could deal with that.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Carver heard the scuffle, the crying out, the banging of people into walls. Roused from a deep, tortured sleep he never remembered falling into, he slid his beaten body off the stinky mattress, felt his way through the impenetrable darkness, then shuffled to the door and cracked it open.

  The glowing red haze startled him. That’s when he saw through the half-opened door and jolted into action. The ferocious Guatemalan girl had just kicked Maria toward the window, but the hybrid nightmare didn’t go over. There was something jammed in her mouth and now someone was screaming for everyone to run.

  He knew what that was. Grenade. They won’t make it, he thought to himself.

  In that moment he took all the fears and failures stored up inside of him and dragged them to the front of his mind. His feet took off like they were on starting blocks. He burst through the door, past the others who parted for him and he sprinted right for her. He knew she’d be heavy, way too heavy, so he dropped his shoulders and hit her low, just under her armpits.

  The second he hit, he heard Draven scream, “No!” but it was too late.

  He slammed into her, and as they flew out the side of the room, he thought about his time with Ruby, how she showed him beauty in this horrible life before leaving. And he thought about Sally and how her innocence was taken too early from a world that needed her. Instead of celebrating the child’s wonder, Maria killed her parents, then got the child blown up.

  This cyborg nightmare took everything from everyone and he wasn’t going to let her do it again. As the cool air of night rushed past them, he realized he was going to be that guy. The guy who saved the world and got the girl.

  Getting the girl, however, meant something entirely different.

  Looking into her good eye, sneering as they raced toward the destroyed car below, he said, “We’re your off switch, bitch.”

  There was a sudden flash of light, an explosion that filled him with pain for only a second before his soul pulled away from his blowing-apart body.

  For a long moment he hovered there, airy and unimpeded by the flesh of a body. From where he was, he looked fifteen feet down, to the ruined car and the veritable meat stew coating it. Off to the left of the gruesome mess, a woman stood spellbound. Maria. She was a slight distance from the carnage, looking on as if not understanding. This was not The Silver Queen. He was looking at Antoinette. The young woman he met in Palo Alto. The woman who lost her life but could not get free so long as Maria held her captive.

  She looked up, saw him and said a heartfelt “Thank you,” and then she was gone.

  An incredible light hit him from overhead. He glanced up, felt himself bathed in its inviting warmth. The call to enter the light was hypnotic. He began drifting skyward, his troubles easing away, but then he stopped himself.

  What about Ruby?

  The second he wondered about her, he was hovering over her. She was in a house a few miles away, alone and asleep. He thought about being at her side, and then he was.

  Seeing her, getting a sense of the beauty that was her soul, and the conflict that resided in her heart, he reached into her chest and transferred everything good and beautiful that he had to offer into her. She stirred, but did not awaken. He then kissed her gently on the side of her face and wished her well.

  Just before he returned to the light, he felt her eyes open and saw her hand come to her cheek, and then he was gone.

  Fire, Eliana and Rock stood at the opening in the wall and looked down. Rider, Marcus and Indigo joined them. Draven was off to the side, fighting back the tears and losing. He was so tired of losing people, tired of the killing, wanting to scream inside, or jump to his death and end it all.

  Marcus hobbled over to him, pulled him in a big hug and said, “I think I might’ve cracked some ribs, but brother, you look like you need this.”

  Draven nodded, still tried to stall his tears, still failed miserably. He looked up, let go of the big man and thanked him. Looking past him, he saw Indigo staring down at the bodies. She was holding her bow at her side, a quiver of a few arrows on her back.

  “I told you he was good,” he said to her, referring to Carver.

  Indigo looked up at him, and seeing he was not doing well, she went and hugged him. Then in a soft, almost unexpected tone, she said, “Sometimes it’s hard to tell the heroes from the villains. And sometimes, even if we don’t mean it, we’re a little bit of both.” She stood on her tippy-toes and kissed his cheek, solid and long. “I’m so sorry, Draven.”

  “Gregor is in bad shape,” Rock said behind them. “We need to get him back to the homestead. Have him looked at.”

  Fire joined Draven when everyone else left.

  “I didn’t know your friend very well,” he said, “but I can tell you this. He did this so we could live. It’s time to live, Draven. It’s time to choose life. Besides, Brooklyn likes you and you like her. So maybe it’s time to love again, too.”

  Nodding his head, his tears rushing back, he right and truly began to break down. Thinking of Eudora and now Carver, along with everyone else who died, it just hit him. Fire pulled him in his arms and even though he wanted to protest all this attention, the kind of affection he wasn’t used to—especially by men—he let himself be hugged. Fire had lost Orlando after all. He lost Orlando and still he came to fight, to pull his weight, to forge on.

  Draven would do the same. If it killed him, he’d follow Fire’s example.

  Epilogue

  The sky was a perfect blue, the birds alive in the nearby trees, and a breeze so slight took some of the heat from the day. The survivors stood around two crosses and Stanton, who was giving the eulogy.

  Fiyero held Adeline’s hand through the entire service. She was a mess after Orlando died, as was Brooklyn. His family was smaller than when the war began, but at least he had two of his three treasures.

  And he had his brothers.

  Fire looked over at Rock who stood with Maisie, Ice and Eliana. Ice looked over, winked. Rock did the same, not knowing Ice had done the exact thing only moments ago. That’s how they were. Alive, together, thick as thieves again.

  Several days had passed since the attacks. Gregor and Marcus were on the road to recovery, but they both had cracked ribs from where Maria had blasted them. Rock said he’d help with rehab as he’d just gone through something similar when the building crumbled all around him.

  As for the women, their arms looked like Frankenstein limbs, all stitched together from where they’d been sliced up. A few of the wounds were infected, but they had antibiotics and so things were under control. The only person having a hard time recovering was Hagan. He was walking on secondhand crutches and sitting a lot with his leg elevated. He didn’t lament his situation though, because Macy had two black eyes that were turning a light yellow an
d green along the edges.

  “Some couple,” he said, taking her hand into his.

  “Sexy AF,” she said, smiling.

  When they were able to shake off the attack, the deaths, Stanton held the services for both Carver and Sally. Cincinnati told him he didn’t have to do it, but after the men who attacked everyone slipped by both him and Rex, he felt like he needed to do something to redeem himself.

  Rex felt the same way.

  Even though he was at Homestead Three when the men breached the compound, and Stanton was at Homestead One, Rex insisted on making the crosses the same as Stanton insisted on holding the service.

  Both offerings turned out beautiful.

  Rex even carved their names in the wood, saying it was the least he could do to honor them and their memories.

  After a lovely service, the group made their way up to the ever expanding dinner table where they would break bread and thank the Lord above for those who were able to come together and survive.

  After Rock gave the prayer, as they looked out amongst each other, it was impossible to not sit back in awe. There were four communities who had come together from all over the United States to live and survive as one. San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento and Chicago. They were strangers before the last war changed them, but now they were as close as family.

  The feast was monumental. Well, it was for how light they’d become accustomed to eating. As everyone finished up, Fire cleared his throat and asked to say a word.

  No one objected.

  Standing up, he said, “I want to thank Rock and Jill for creating this wonderful homestead, for your kindness and your hospitality. The day the drones struck, I was in a very bad, very dark place. I think I’d been going down that road for a long time, since the day I lost my father, my brother (head nod to Ice), my other brother (head nod to Rock), and then my wife, Adeline. Since then I have all of you back. I won’t lie, I’m truly sad about Orlando,” he said, his voice surprising him by choking up. “But I’m thankful for all of you.”

  Adeline took one hand, Brooklyn took the other. Eyes watering, consumed by love, by the need to protect his family and friends, by the desire to stand up and guard the things he cherished most, he continued.

  “We’ve all lost people along the way, and those who haven’t lost people have seen, suffered and endured some pretty horrific circumstances. We are changed people. Forged in the flames of a fire that has been burning much brighter, and much hotter than any of us could have ever expected. We’re also better people because of it. Stronger physically, mentally and spiritually. Able to cope with adversity on a deeper level. Part of a larger community where survival is a team effort and not an individual plight.

  “I don’t know a lot of you as much as I’d like to, but I know this community of ours will move forward into this uncertain future and we will prevail. I feel it in my bones. Rex and Indigo are already bringing forth the first baby in this new post-apocalyptic generation. This baby will be different, unique, the first, best part of us. There will be other babies, too, I suspect.”

  He paused a moment, took that instant to look into the eyes of everyone there, knowing he was a family of three, but he was also a part of something so much larger now. For a moment, in spite of the deep agony of loss, he felt blessed, with people he loved and would come to love, and at peace.

  And with that, everyone lifted a glass, toasted to their future, and drank deeply.

  Ruby watched them pray over their meal, listening to their kind, heartfelt words. She tried not to think about the people she didn’t have in her life, how if she died, no one would say anything kind or otherwise about her.

  Forcing herself to think of Carver, she missed him already. She would miss Sally, too, even though the girl was always quiet. There was a big spirit about her that was just aching to come out. Maria would never let that happen.

  Wiping her eyes, she watched the community from a distance, trying not to be envious, but failing on every level.

  So much of her wanted to join them, be a part of something, but she wasn’t ready for that many strangers. Not yet. In her heart, she was a loner. Getting close to people only brought her disappointment, and inevitably pain.

  When she ran into Aaron and Amir on the road, when they told her what happened, she guarded her emotions until they left, and then she broke down. After she was able to pull herself together, she followed the instructions Aaron gave to the Loomis homestead. There she saw the eulogy for both Carver and Sally, and all that pain she tried to protect herself from came roaring back at once.

  So now she was back on the road again, by herself once more, left to navigate this dark new world as a party of one.

  “It’s not that bad,” she said as she left the homestead.

  Ruby didn’t know how she was going to get where she was headed, or what she’d find when she got there. All she knew was that if there were survivors in Idaho and a way to live, she wanted to go there, see if maybe she could do something with this life.

  On the country road out of Loomis, she passed some charred and destroyed cars, cars with burnt corpses in them. This didn’t phase her. She’d been seeing this kind of thing for months now and was desensitized to it.

  Aside from remnants of the past, recollections of the destruction that changed everything, it was a beautiful day full of possibility and mixed memories.

  Kicking a rock down the road, the sun on her neck and a light sheen of sweat on her brow, she pulled her hair up into a ponytail and touched the side of her face where, in a dream, Carver had kissed her. He gave the ultimate sacrifice—his life to save the lives of many—and in that selfless surrender, she realized that for him, she would find a way to go on, to survive, to truly live.

  If he could die for her, for the survivors of this world, then someone like her could do her best to live, if anything, to honor him and his sacrifice.

  And with that, she let herself dream of Idaho.

  END OF BOOK 5

  Scroll down (or over) for a quick look at the first book in the new series, titled Dark Days of the After, then be sure to pre-order it for a very limited time for only $0.99! Doing this now will save you a TON of money (66%) and you’ll get the new novel delivered to you Kindle the second it’s released on Amazon (December 2, 2019).

  But before you go…

  Afterword

  Whew! This was a tough journey to take! Honestly, these last five books sent me through more emotional spirals as an author than I’m used to. I try to be as authentic as possible, not only in setting and story, but in what I imagine would be the emotions of my characters. Someone asked me if I have multiple personalities, and after creating over 100 characters for The Last War universe, the jury is still out on that one! As of this writing—locally to me and globally to our friends of the world—we are in trying times where uncertainty is one of the only things we consider “a constant.” It’s easy to write a series like the one you’ve just finished because so many of us are thinking of things like this, wondering how we might fare in a catastrophe such as that presented in this story. I’m not sure how I’d do, but I will tell you this, the world is indeed full of dark and scary monsters. Be it politics, psychopaths, nuclear warheads, or Artificial Intelligence, digging into any of these areas of interest will show you some rather shadowy corners. As a novelist, this truly excites me! But when it comes to research, I always tend to find more than I want, and much of it leaves me consternated and thinking about the real world. AI scares the hell out of me to put it mildly. The unpredictable nature of it—the push for more of it, the lack of regulation. When I started The Last War series, I did so because I saw an article that talked about one of the heads of Google leaving the tech giant to build an AI God. Elon Musk was just given $1 billion a few weeks ago (as of this writing) to build a complete AI brain, something that seems as horrifying to me as his Neuralink project. I will admit, I am scared for our future as it relates to AI. But I have faith in humankind to prevai
l, and to eventually find that which I deem the antidote to all the bad things in a post-apoc life: good people with big hearts who know how to love, be fierce, be protective and put a MF down when the time is right. That said, THANK YOU for taking this journey with me, for being a part of The Last War universe, and for the support that as an author I cherish from readers like yourself. If you haven’t read The Last War series, check out the discounted box set and see how all the characters from San Francisco and San Diego came to be at Homestead One. It’s a fantastic story, the series that really put me on the map as an author, a series that is still beloved by so many. Before you go, however, scroll ahead for a quick look at the new series, Dark Days of the After, then pop over to Amazon and grab your copy for the heavily discounted pre-order price of only $0.99 (for a very limited time)!

  Dark Days of the After

  Forces are mounting against the nation. The EMP has been unleashed. Are you ready?

  Logan Cahill could not breathe when he found the cryptic message leading him to a hidden countdown. After tracing the digital counter to its origins, the truth he found was so horrific, so terrifying, it changed his entire life in an instant. Was this the end of everything? Were they doomed? Logan’s panic turned to mania when he realized his girlfriend had disappeared and strange men were now staking out his home. Were they part of the conspiracy against America? Or were they part of the shadowy military class that had overtaken the nation under the new President? In that instant, all he knew was that the end was near, and he wasn’t prepared.

  With time running out, enemies closing in and polite society falling down around him, Logan sought refuge with a strategic ally, a brilliant programmer named Harper. Like him, she was in trouble. Perhaps even more trouble than he first suspected. What neither of them knew, however, was that an invasion of America was starting early, their hometown was about to be ground zero in the apocalypse, and that was just the beginning...