Dark Apocalypse: A Post-Apocalyptic Family Saga

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  PART TWO

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  DARK APOCALYPSE

  A POST-APOCALYPTIC FAMILY SAGA

  GABRIEL ALEXANDER

  COPYRIGHT©2020 GABRIEL ALEXANDER

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  In the scope’s lenses, the man’s head looked like a tennis ball topped with a ridiculous Mohawk. Sophie felt only disgust for him.

  The moon above and the fire from their torches were her only allies in her struggle to aim properly. She would have given anything for a pair of night-vision goggles, but the damn things were expensive. Some merchants were asking half a gallon of water for them. Way more than she could pay.

  She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. The poor bastard’s head blew up in a spray of blood, brain and skull. She lowered the scope and watched the chaos in their camp. Some ran and yelled, but the smarter ones ducked for cover.

  Sophie took another deep breath and fired again. Another rebel fell down to the ground.

  “It’s time to go,” Bill told her.

  “One more, honey,” Sophie said, still looking through the scope. “Just one more.” She squeezed the trigger, and her target spun in a circle, spraying his comrades with the blood from his neck.

  “Now it’s time to go,” Sophie said. “Where are the kids?”

  “Safe and sound on the road,” Bill answered.

  “OK! Let’s go!”

  They both stood up and started running toward the road, before the rest of the rebels, who were still yelling and losing the grip on themselves, could see them.

  They climbed the hill, which took them to the road. There, they headed toward a dirty, rusty old abandoned car and opened the back door.

  “Thomas! Julie! It’s time to go!” Sophie said.

  The two kids woke up with difficulty and got out of the car.

  “We need to hurry!” Bill told them.

  “I had such a nice dream,” Thomas said.

  “I believe you, but now we have to go,” Bill said.

  “What’s the time, Mommy?” Julie asked.

  “It’s two o’clock in the afternoon,” Sophie said. “One hour from now, we’ll have sunlight.”

  ***

  Drake Rim approached the body. His dark hair, blue eyes, and black beard were clearly visible in the light from the torches. He looked like the pirate, which, in a way, he was.

  He kneeled in front of the body and started crying.

  “Did you find the shooter?” he asked his second-in-command, who stood next to him.

  “No, sir, even though we searched the whole woods”.

  “Well, you didn’t search enough!” Drake yelled.

  “I think I know who did this to your brother, sir,” his second-in-command said. “It must be that family we attacked the day before yesterday in that abandoned town. Except for us, they were the only people for miles.”

  “Yeah,” Drake said. “You are right. It has to be them. And they will pay for what they did to my brother. I don’t care if we have to go to the end of the earth to search for them. We will find them and we will make them pay for what they did to my brother. Blood for blood.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  The four family members walked silently along the road. They hadn’t eaten anything for two days, hadn’t washed in four, and they constantly worried about attacks from wild animals or rogue rebels. They were starving, dirty, and always on the look-out. But at least they had each-other. At least they could say that all the family members were alive and together. They couldn’t say the same about everybody after The Alignment.

  No one will forget the day The Alignment happened. July 16th 2027 will live on in the memories of those who were lucky enough to live after it. That was the day the planets in our solar system aligned with the center of the Milky Way, causing no less than fifty thousand earthquakes in a single day. About four billion people lost their lives that day, in hideous ways. They were swallowed by the ground underneath their feet. Their house collapsed on top of them. The bridge they were walking on fell. After just one day, the planet was unrecognizable. San Andreas Fault was no longer there. Half of California was underwater. Mount Everest collapsed almost entirely, leaving Mount K2 to be the tallest in the world. About eighty percent of the peninsular countries and regions no longer existed, among them Italy and Spain. Japan and Oahu in Hawaii split in half, and many more alterations were brought upon our poor planet in just twenty-four hours.

  But the biggest modification was also the worst. Due to the high number of earthquakes which occurred in just one day, the Earth’s axis went berserk, shortening the day to just three hours and prolonging the night to twenty-one hours. Plants started to die, due to insufficient light, causing the animals to starve, which, in its turn, caused people to starve. Fruits and vegetables had to be kept in artificial light to grow, which did not provide the nourishing properties the sun light did, causing low immune systems to those who ate them.

  Taking advantage of the prolonged night, the scum of society became more daring, causing crime rates to go ski-high. Killers, rapists, thieves, pillagers and other low life of society were everywhere and whoever didn’t have a gun was as good as dead.

  This was the world in which Sophie, Billy, Thomas and Julie were now forced to live in.

  Sophie was the mother. At her thirty-eight years of age, she still looked like a teenager. Her brunette hair was waving in the wind, as she was walking, scouting the horizon with her blue eyes. Her scoped Winchester was resting on her shoulder, while her secondary backup, a Berretta, and a knife, to make the scene complete, were moving alongside her gracious hips. After so much time walking, the dirt started attaching to her otherwise decent clothes, making her boots brown, instead of black, like they used to be. Oil and dirt were also present on her white pants and beige coat, which they now looked like they were pulled out of the mud directly.

  Bill was the father. Although he was only two years older, he didn’t have Sophie’s luck when it came to beauty. His wrinkles like canyons on his face made him look ten to even twenty years older. His glasses enhanced his green eyes. He loved his family, but he also loved his only friend in need, a revolver, which was sitting in a holster on his left hip. He was no exception when it came to dirt. Instead of pure green, like it used to be, his sweater had small bumps of dry soil on it, so did his black boots and blue jeans. He would occasionally take his hand to his white hair, to remove it from his eyes.

  Thomas was the older kid. At his seventeen years of age, his dark hair and blue eyes made him look like quite the model. His clothes were somehow cleaner than that of the others, but not by much. His pink T-shirt was the cleanest cloth on him, but only because he was wearing it under his jacket which used
to be black, but now it was multi-colored. His sneakers have also seen better days, now being far from the white they used to be.

  Julie was his younger sister. She was just four. Obviously, she didn’t have a weapon. Her blonde hair and blue eyes were promising she will become quite a rare beauty when she’ll grow up. Everything on her was red. Despite all the clothes on her being once totally of that color, now they too were suffering from the long road’s effects. They were dirty as hell. Before The Alignment, if someone was to see such a dirty child, they would have clearly said the poor kid was clearly neglected. But that wasn’t the case anymore. That was now quite understandable.

  She also had another “friend” in her arms: her little bear Teddy, which gave her comfort and prevented her from getting scared in dangerous situations, like when they were attacked, for instance. Then, she would squeeze Teddy in her arms, as they both tried to comfort each other, saying that everything will be okay.

  All four of them were walking next to each other, on a road filled with abandoned cars, saying nothing while waiting for the Sun to make its appearance.

  At three o’clock in the afternoon, the sun eventually came up on the sky. The light stretched for miles on the empty, dry, depressing wasteland. It revealed more abandoned cars consumed by rust on the road, a house which was half collapsed on the right side of the road, next to an orchard with dead apple trees and an empty field on the left side.

  In front of them, a half-torn road sign indicated them three letters: CHA.

  “I’ll bet it leads to Charlottesville,” Thomas said.

  “Finally some food, water, and shelter,” Bill said.

  “And more people,” Thomas said.

  “People we don’t know anything about,” Sophie said.

  “Here we go again,” Bill said.

  “Yes, Bill, here we go again. Why do you think we all agreed to stay in one place for one week tops? Because we knew nothing about the communities we find. Or have you forgotten Buffalo?”

  “No, I haven’t forgotten Buffalo.”

  “See?”

  “The whole country is not like Buffalo.”

  “Yeah, you are right. But we don’t know who is and who isn’t. And I’m not willing to take any chances.”

  “No risk, no reward.”

  “This is the kind of thinking that almost got us killed.”

  “Guys, if I may intervene…” Thomas said. “Why don’t we just go to this town, ask for a bit of food, water and a few days of shelter and then we leave? Make some friends, in case we need some? And if we don’t like the place, we’ll simply avoid it in the future. Sounds about right?”

  Sophie thought for a few moments and then said:

  “Okay. But no more than a week.”

  “No more than a week,” Bill and Thomas said.

  “Okay. Let’s go! We’re wasting precious light.”

  ***

  The crowd gathered in the clearing. They were all sitting in front of the altar on which Drake’s brother was laid, waiting to be torched.

  After a few minutes of silence, Drake pushed through the crowd with a torch in his hand and set fire to the altar. After that, he turned his face to the crowd:

  “Those who did this are still alive. It could have been your family. We will have our revenge. We will look for my brother’s killers and we will bring them to justice. Our justice.”

  The crowd yelled an approval. Then, everybody jumped in their cars and they were on their way to search for the unfortunate family who pissed them off.

  ***

  The town’s walls were about twenty feet high. The gates were just as big. On the walls, six scouts watched the horizon. One of them saw four people approaching the walls. He pointed his gun at them.

  “Hold it right there! What’s your business around these parts?”

  “My name is Bill Covinson! This is my wife, Sophie and my kids, Thomas and Julie. We’re just looking for some shelter, that’s all.”

  “Stay exactly where you are while I send someone to talk to our leader. Move one inch and you will be fired upon.”

  A few minutes later, the gates opened. A woman who looked like a mountain of fat came out of it. She came close to them and asked them:

  “Is someone following you?”

  “No.”

  “Do you follow someone?”

  “No.”

  “Then you are welcome in our community. Come!”

  All five of them entered, and the gates closed behind them. But what the four saw inside absolutely horrified them. Almost all the residents of the community were extremely filthy. They were all wearing torn rags, and the stench their bodies spread was horrible. Most of the houses had their windows broken, and some were barely standing. The mud on the ground completed the medieval scenery.

  A beggar approached Sophie. “Do you have something to spare?” he asked.

  “Keep walking, Stuart! And don’t even think about disturbing my guests,” the fat lady told him, driving him away.

  The five kept walking down a muddy alley. To their right, three people warmed their hands over a fire made in a barrel. To their left, a prophet stood on an improvised pedestal and preached to a mob:

  “Repent, you sinners! Repent! For The Alignment was the seventh seal being broken. Our Savior is coming on a white cloud. He will judge our sins. Repent, for His second coming is near. Repent!”

  “Who is the lunatic?” Thomas asked the fat lady.

  “That’s Russell. He used to be a preacher before The Alignment. Hence his way of interpreting the disaster that struck the world. Ignore him. Most of us do.”

  They kept walking until they saw a big, grey cabin.

  They went inside and the fat lady took them upstairs. Once there, the fat lady seated them on four chairs, while she sat behind a desk.

  “My name is Lucille Smith,” she said. “I’m the leader of this community. And you are?”

  “My name is Sophie Covinson. This is my husband, Bill and my kids, Thomas and Julie.”

  “Hello,” everyone said, after being introduced.

  “And this is Teddy,” Julie said, pointing at the plush teddy bear in her arms, which has seen better days.

  “It’s an honor to meet you all!” Lucille said. “Where do you come from?”

  “From Boston,” Bill said.

  “Oh, my God!” Lucille said. “My sister lived in Boston. I waited eleven years for at least a rumor about it. Tell me, how bad is it?”

  “Well,” Thomas said, “half the city is under water. Or was. I don’t know. Maybe the waters receded a bit in eleven years. Who knows?”

  “Jesus Christ!” Lucille said, after touching her chest and shedding some tears. “She might have drowned.”

  “Look, Mrs. Smith…” Sophie said, “We were a very influential family in Boston before the world went to shit. We were so influential, in fact, that we knew almost everyone in the city. And after disaster struck, we helped at the survivors’ triage. So maybe we can tell you if your sister survived. What was her name?”

  “Zoe. Zoe Smith. She worked at a private clinic. You know her?”

  “What did she look like?” Bill asked.

  “Dark, short hair, brown eyes, very skinny and short.”

  “God Almighty!” Bill said. “Of course I know her. She was my employee. Small world.”

  “You were my sister’s boss?”

  “Yeah. And I must tell you she was a model employee. Everyone liked her and we were all open to her suggestions. And I have good news for you, Mrs. Smith: your sister did make it. We found her among the survivors at the edge of the city the day after The Alignment.”

  Lucille’s eyes sparkled with joy.

  “Thank you, God!” she said, looking up. “I knew she would make it.”

  “This information is eleven years old. Who knows what might have happened to her in the meantime,” Sophie said.

  “Knowing she at least might be alive is enough for me,” Lucille said.
>
  “We would like to know the rules of your colony, Mrs. Smith,” Thomas said.

  “Oh, please call me Lucille. Everybody does. Well, I try to keep it as democratic as I can, so I have only two rules: First, no guns inside my walls, which means you will have to give them to me. And rule number two… display good behavior among the rest of the community. No insults, no fights, unless provoked.”

  “That’s more than decent for a week,” Bill said.

  “What?”

  “Oh, we will be staying here for only a week tops. We’ll make supplies and some friends and then we will leave,” Sophie said.

  “Leave? You are welcomed to stay as long as you want. Hell, if you want to grow old here, you are more than welcomed to do so. With the condition, of course, that you will earn your keep.”

  “Yes, Lucille, we know and we appreciate the offer, but this is our family rule: we only stay in one place for a week tops,” Bill said.

  “May I ask why?”

  “An incident in Buffalo many years ago forced us to make this decision,” Thomas said.

  “Buffalo you say? I heard about Buffalo too. I won’t even ask. And I don’t blame you for this rule. On the contrary, you did very well.”

  Lucille looked at the clock on the wall to her left. It was 5:30 PM.

  “Well, it will be dark in half hour. Follow me to your accommodations.”

  Lucille took them to a dirty house with boards instead of windows and graffiti all over it, depicting phalluses and obscene writing.

  Lucille unlocked the door and gave them the keys.

  “Well, it’s not quite the Plaza, but it will do. Go ahead and make yourselves at home.”

  “Thank you!” they all said simultaneously.

  “Good night!” Sophie said.

  “Teddy said good night,” Julie said.

  “Good night to you too, Teddy!” Lucille said, while waiving at the bear in Julie’s arms.

  Sophie closed the door and looked around. The house was a mess. Cobwebs everywhere, dust, broken furniture. It was more than obvious that no one lived there for years.