Cataclysm Epoch (The Valkyrie Chronicles Book 1) by Heingarten Paul

Author:Heingarten, Paul [Heingarten, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Decatur Media
Published: 2017-11-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23 (Nelson)

W e walked along broken roads and around chunks of debris. I looked around at faint reminders of the city I once knew, with way more decay and atrophy than I could’ve ever dreamed. Patches of stone and broken concrete littered our way.

The stone we walked over was full of jagged fractures, like the whole place was pounded with a giant hammer. Overgrowth and decay hid a lot of details, but a few things registered.

I stumbled over a thin sheet of metal and gawked when I realized what it was... a street sign for Decatur Street. It was rusted for the most part but the words were still the slightest bit legible. The sight of it made me gasp, but that gasp faded into a light chuckle. My mind went to Harvey, how we got together and talked about how crazy Ana probably was and how her story was ridiculous.

Ha. Right.

I trudged behind Ana. She stepped slow and deliberate over the broken ground and rubble, her rifle poised. She craned her head about; this time her gaze stared through me when she looked my way. She looked like a lioness on a hunt. Her gaze covered the area about her and behind us. Her eyes returned to me again after a few minutes. “You OK?”

“Oh, great. Never better. Nothing like knowing everyone I ever knew is dead and my hometown is rubble along with the rest of the world.” I kicked a rock.

She stopped short and faced me. “Not all of it.” Her lips drew taut. “I'm sure you're thinking a lot right now. And you don't even know what to ask or even how to feel about this.”

Her eyes softened, but she held her weapon up as a guardian over us. Over me. Even if I had never believed what she said before, she hadn't fed me any other stories or faked who she was like Bruel did. She also never cuffed me or knocked me out. Knocked me for a loop maybe, but I’d worry about that later.

“I'm gonna trust you,” I said.

She nodded and smiled for a moment. Then, in an instant, her gaze hardened and darted behind me. A scowl popped onto her face and she murmured, “Behind me, now.”

I staggered back as I heard a mechanical whine that came from her weapon. She aimed it in the dark. Her face fixed in a scowl, like a hunter focused on her kill for the day. Her legs spread into a stance and she lowered herself, the rifle rock steady and poised in her grasp.

“Who's there?” she barked.

A weak voice in the darkness replied, “Deviant.”

Ana took a step forward. Her weapon made a beep sound and cast a cone of bluish light in front of us for about twenty feet. “Step out slowly.”

Ana was fixed in place; her weapon never wavered or even shook. A frail looking man shuffled into the light. His tattered clothes barely clung to his body. He wheezed, and his hand partly covered a wound that oozed on his head.

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.