Aftermath by Azalea Moone

Author:Azalea Moone [Moone, Azalea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

We’d traveled back to his bunker, but Preston told me not to get too comfortable. He meticulously gathered up a round of supplies from all over the bunker: two shovels—one broken and the other with a fine crack down its wooden handle—a long string of shredded rope, and a pack of clouded bottles and glasses salvaged from across the land. After packing it up on the back of our cycles, he took off again, and I followed, unsure of where we were going.

After the conversation at the survivor camp, I’d rather not speak. He wore a scowl the entire drive off to wherever, and he didn’t say a peep. He drove slowly as so I could keep up with him, at least. I wasn’t sure if I upset him, or maybe Cathleen did, but like usual, I didn’t want to anger him anymore.

We drove east, along the side of a dust storm blowing west. Preston must’ve known where he was going. He didn’t veer off the invisible path until we were at least fifty miles in to our drive. Suddenly, he turned north. Or was it south? Without my GPS unit, I could never be sure exactly where we were. The trip took forever, with nothing around us but the howl of the winds sweeping sand into dunes, and broken logs and buildings popping out of the dirt.

I pulled back my sleeve—the sun catching the chrome of my wrist brace and glinted in my eyes—and spoke into the computer, “Location.”

As expected, the GPS unit came back with, “No location found.”

“What is that?” Preston asked beside me.

I pulled my sleeve back over my wrist. “Just the satellite unit. Doesn’t detect us out here.”

“No need to. We’re almost there.” Preston glanced up ahead.

He slowed near an ordinary sand dune in the middle of absolutely nowhere and put his foot down to stop his cycle. Sand drifted from the dune’s peak. Made a circle, then blew downward, almost disappearing in an invisible crack.

Preston jumped off his bike and grabbed his pack. “Come on.”

I did the same, hauling the pack of bottles over my shoulder, and following him to the side of the sand ridge. There, hidden behind another mountain of dirt was a blackened opening. Preston struggled in the knee-deep hill, and dug with his shovel. It wasn’t long before he revealed a man-sized hole he could fit through.

“What’s in there?”

He kept his attention on the inside of the cave. “Hopefully? Something good.” He disappeared into the cave. I chased after him, stopping when the flicker of the oil lamp lit up my surroundings.

From there, it wasn’t nothing but a dirty old cavern, maybe once used by survivors. But to Preston, it must’ve been something special, because he continued down the darkened path with the oil lamp and shovel at his side. Why was I working as the pack mule?

“How did you know of this place?” I asked.

“Passed by here the other day,” he answered.

The cave went on forever. Dirt fell from the sides of its otherwise empty shell.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.