Crumbling Dawn: After the Impact Book 2: (A Post Apocalyptic Survival Thriller) by Kenny Soward

Author:Kenny Soward [Soward, Kenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 853 Press
Published: 2024-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

14

Gabby Alvarez, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Gabby drifted in a light, airy dream of being back home in Louisville, standing on the back deck and looking out across their inground pool. Floats had been stacked poolside, and reclining lawn chairs were neatly spaced along the edges. The water was crystal clear, glinting in the sunlight. At the deep end, a pool sprinkler sent gentle arcs of water through the air to splash on the glistening surface.

She stood at the deck rail in a pair of cargo shorts and her black bikini top, her strip of multicolored hair pushed back over her head as she watched horses play out in the fields beyond the pool. Sunshine, her white mare, was bounding and leaping as she romped with the other ponies out in the vivid green bluegrass, play-bowing with splayed hooves before sprinting off across the field into the shade of the nearby woods. Gabby raised a cold iced tea to her lips, the glass sweating with moisture, the liquid cool and sweet as it slipped across her tongue.

The ground shook beneath her, and her glass slipped from her hand and shattered on the hard decking. She recoiled, her whole body thrown backward as she looked up into the dark blue sky. The world around her shook, sending the stack of pool floats tumbling into the water. Earthquake vibrations rattled the lawn chairs on the concrete patio where they skittered and scraped. She sank to her knees in the iced tea puddle and shards of glass, crying out for mercy, though she couldn’t fathom why. The sun swelled in the sky, the heat so intense it burned the tops of the bluegrass and sent the pool boiling, the pungent aroma of singed hair stinging her nostrils.

Whipping her head back and forth, Gabby writhed against something pressing hard against her spine. She tried to throw her arms up, but they were locked tight behind her. Her feet were bound in the same way, making it impossible to move.

A man’s voice sifted to her ears as easily and gently as a whisper, followed by a hand lightly patting her cheek. “Hey, there you are. Wake up...”

“Knock it off, Mike...” Gabby turned away from the man’s touch. “Leave me alone.”

A light chuckle drifted into her ears followed by a harsher cheek patting. “Mike’s not here, but you should wake up. You’ll want to be conscious for this.”

The voice was ice cold, calculating, and touched with a hint of darkness that brought Gabby fully awake. Her eyes flew wide, and she jerked her head backward to whack on the hard object she’d been squirming against, leaving vibrating metal ringing in her ears. Groaning, sucking a breath of air through her teeth, she stopped her writhing and settled down, surprised to find herself blinking at a thin man with slicked-back, black hair, the combed locks captured in perfect form except for a few short strands that fell across his forehead. His eyes were icicles staring back at her, a sideways grin tilting up one side of his mouth.

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.