“That’s the last of them!” Andy calls.
“Guys… Look!” Dan calls.
They look to see the figure’s hat appear through the barbed wire.
“How can that be?” Simon whispers, horrified. He rushes to the back of the roof, watches Eliana exit, coughing. “Dad, are you checking in with the others?”
“Yeah, hold on. North house, come in.” Rob listens.
“North here,” harsh coughing, “got one down, lots of smoke.” More coughing. “We’re vacating.”
“North can you still fight?”
“We’ll come around from outside.” North responds.
“North roof, come in!” My dad listens again to crackling.
“North roof, we’re on the ladder. Where do you need us?” It’s Justin’s voice.
“Come around to the north side of the house. See if you can see them inside. You have infrared?” Dad asks.
“That’s affirmative,” Justin assures him.
“South house, come in!” More crackling as dad listens. I keep my infrared focused on the back of the house. We’re coming down, moving between the house and the shop, staying in the shadows.
“We’ve got smoke in here, but have exited the premises. No one hurt. We’ll come around through the yard. No one came in the house here yet,” Jonathan reports.
“How many with you?” Dad asks.
“Two. Two more coming off the roof. All are accounted for,” Jonathan confirms.
Suddenly, there’s the staccato of machine gun fire. Simon runs around the back of the shop, trying to escape the shots. They’re coming fast and close. It sounds like two sets. He runs around the west side of the shop, looking for protection. There’s none here. It’s wide open. There’s nowhere to hide. More automatic rounds come from the house. There’s no way to fight these guys with their automatic weapons, smoking us out, and dead men who rise again.
“This is bad, let’s head for the truck!” Dad urges and they run, knowing the terrain well which could save them. They race through the vegetable garden, crossing to the back yards behind them. There are old trees for cover and they dash between trees, arriving at the truck.
Once in the truck, Justin fires up the truck, a rumbling of the diesel engine, coming to life. “Do you think he’ll find us at the farm?” Maddie asks.
“We can’t stay here,” Simon says, “and we need to bring him down!”
“And recover our home,” Eli insists.
Acknowledgments
First, I want to thank my husband and children for their support. They were generally very understanding of the considerable amount of time spent writing. Only a few times did I hear the complaint, “Mom, all you ever do is write!” by my twelve-year-old daughter. Of course, I promptly set aside my writing and played a game with her except in those last two crunch weeks. I also want to thank my husband for reviewing and correcting the Spanish for me. I can speak it, but my writing skills aren’t very good! I give special thanks to Sebastian and Elias, two of my boys, (young men) who actually read part of my book and gave me feedback.
Second, I want to give extra special thanks to my dear friend, Gabriel. She was there every step of the way, talking with me about the book, reading, editing, and giving me feedback, helping me build on the intensity of the scary scenes. She has been crucial, impacting my writing, editing blog posts, essays, books, and encouraging me all along the way. One day she came with a silly gift, but it meant a lot to me. It was a sign, reading, “Caution, novelist at work, bystanders may be written into the story.” It was a clear message that she believed in me, while few others did.
I also must thank Sarah Lyons Fleming for writing her End of The World series and City Series. Honestly, I got the first book, never having read an apocalypse book before, certainly not Zombies! I wanted her feedback on my blog https://ericalhernandez.com and on my non-fiction novel: My Life’s Honor, which will be out soon. I figured I could force myself through one Zombie book, but I was hooked by the second page. I sucked all her books down in rapid succession, eventually asking her when the next one would be out! As I finished her books, this story began to take shape. I kept reading other apocalypse books for research, but none of them could hold a candle to Sarah’s books, which I reread, 3 times in total. I’ve never read another book that many times!
I also thank my good friends, Billie and Brandess, who read my book and raved about it, encouraging me to keep working on it. Brandess even read it to her twelve-year-old son, who loved it and wanted to hear more. These things kept me going.
I also thank my son, Shawheen, though deceased for nearly four years because he got me writing again after giving it up as a young adult. As my spiritual guide, he kept encouraging me and telling me I would get published and that people would benefit from my writing. That has always been my goal, to help more people.
I also thank Roseanna Smith, an accomplished photographer, who agreed to design my cover. I firmly believe a great cover attracts people to read a book and I knew she could create a beautifully magnetic cover.
About the Author
Erica Hernandez is a licensed clinical social worker, blogger, and writer who lives in Oregon. She has published at http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers and authored a research article on Dark Therapy, regulating circadian rhythms. She loves to write, help people learn to feel better, spend time with her kids, and dance. This is Erica’s first published novel. https://ericalhernandez.com
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Considerable Destruction Series (Book 1): Evasion ( Page 38