The Alt Apocalypse (Book 4): Affliction by Abrahams Tom

Author:Abrahams, Tom [Abrahams, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Dystopian
Publisher: Piton Press LLC
Published: 2018-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

DAY 14

Infected Zone A4

The knocking startled Danny from his uncomfortable sleep. He opened his eyes, not remembering where he was, and tried to focus. Maggie was even slower to react. When she did, at the second round of measured raps, she snarled and started barking. Her sharp reports filled the small space and Danny recognized his surroundings.

He was in his car, in the parking garage where he’d been for the better part of four days. He’d tried escaping from Infected Zone A4 multiple times. Each failed attempt had resulted in Danny and Maggie returning to his VW and sleeping for as long as they could. They’d scavenged water and bits of food from other parked cars and trash cans. They’d also, by happenstance, found other supplies that might be useful when the time came. They were stuffed into the door pockets and hidden in the glove box. Most of it was junk, but Danny kept it anyway. Just in case.

Nonetheless, the last four days had been miserable. Misery had ensured, however, that they’d remained undetected and free of a trip to wherever it was the endless parade of transport vehicles were taking people. Until now.

Danny hushed Maggie to a low, grumbling growl and found the source of the knocking. A trio of Tyvek-suited soldiers stood outside his car, one of them aiming a rifle at the window.

Maggie’s growl erupted into a cascading bark. Danny calmed her but didn’t sit up from his awkward sleeping position in the cramped back seat of the VW.

“You need to get out of the vehicle,” said one of the suited soldiers.

Danny didn’t respond but pushed himself up onto his elbows. When he did, he saw there were three more soldiers behind him on the other side of the car, and one was standing at the back of the hatchback. He was essentially surrounded.

There was no escaping this.

“Can you hear me?” asked the soldier in the now familiar muffled command voice. All of the soldiers sounded the same behind the protection of their hooded masks.

Danny stretched his neck, tilting his chin to one side and then the other. For some inexplicable reason—fear, resignation, or a combination of the two perhaps—he said, “I don’t think I’m coming out.”

The Tyvek soldiers stiffly eyed one another from behind their tinted visors. It reminded Danny of confused storm troopers at Mos Eisley Spaceport.

One of them tapped the window again. “I don’t think you understand that we’re not asking you to come out of the car. We’re telling you. This area is under martial—”

“I know,” he cut in, “martial law. Blah, blah, blah. You have the right to take me and my dog and do whatever you want. I do understand. But I’m not leaving my car.”

He was surprised by how emboldened he felt. It was as if he’d awoken a different person, someone confident and defiant. Maybe it was the four days in hiding, or his anger that in a time of crisis during which he’d done nothing wrong, he was a fugitive who couldn’t return home.

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