The Next World (Book 1): Existence by Olah Jeff

Author:Olah, Jeff [Olah, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Infected
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2018-05-27T04:00:00+00:00

24

The sun had dipped behind the low cloud cover, fading more with each passing minute. The room was cool, the temperature hadn’t risen more than a few degrees in the last eight hours, and it smelled faintly of mold. How they arrived here and what it had taken from them was mostly a blur now, but every now and again, he got a flash, a snapshot of the past few days, darkened images of things his fourteen-year-old daughter should never have had to witness. The kinds of things that at the moment were almost too much for him to handle.

Owen Mercer sat with his legs crossed and his back up against the cold drywall. He stared out through the broken window that sat along the northeast corner of the damp third-story apartment and tried to imagine a time before the world went all to hell.

In the opposite corner, near the door, Ava sat with her knees pulled into her chest and continued to cry. She hadn’t wanted to talk much today, although over the last few hours, he could sense that something was coming. She slowly sucked in a breath, paused like she was going to speak, but then didn’t.

Owen curled his hands into fists and bit into the side of his mouth. He couldn’t see her face, and didn’t need to. The pain was evident, and now he was starting to come to terms with the fact that he may not be able to help her.

“Ava, are you—”

“Dad?” Her voice shot from the corner at nearly the same time, hoarse and dry.

He strained to see her through the fading light inside the tiny apartment. “I’m here.”

“That man.” She sucked in through her nose. “The one in the driveway, the one who tried to get into our house …”

“Yeah?”

“That wasn’t … uh … that wasn’t Mr. Tompkins … was it?”

Owen wanted to spring from the floor, run to the opposite side of the room, take her in his arms and hug her. He knew what she was doing, why she was asking, and after all that she’d seen, all that she’d been through, what she needed from his answer.

“No sweetheart, I think Phil, uh Mr. Tompkins, he and his family left the city. By the time your mother and I got home, both of their cars were gone and the garage was pretty much empty.”

She was quiet for a moment. Appeared to be thinking it through.

“Ava?”

“Did you know him?”

He didn’t like the change in her voice. It was slower than before, and now held a hint of cynicism. Owen knew what she was asking, and why. However, he also knew what she needed him to say, even if he wasn’t being completely honest. “Did I know who?”

“That man, the one you shot in the driveway.”

He figured that if he couldn’t see her, then she’d have the same disadvantage. Owen then dropped his head back against the wall, peered up at the ceiling, and breathed out slowly. “I didn’t. He was just a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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