For the first time in her life, she felt the question was issuing forth into the deep vacuum of endless, empty space. A phone call with nothing on the other end of the line.
She had never been so frightened.
“Here, honey, I have something to make that cough go away,” she said, somehow managing to keep the tremor out of her voice, although her fingers shook as she twisted open the pill bottle.
“Where’s DeVontay?” he asked.
“He’ll be here in a minute. Take this, honey.”
She gave him the antiemetic, which he swallowed with a grimace. “Yuck. That’s gross.”
“Drink this.” She handed him the glass of water and he drank.
She was about to give him three of the pills when she looked into his face, hoping to see some sign of peace and acceptance. Instead, she saw Chelsea’s funeral face, the pale and powdered baby-doll skin with eyes forever closed.
She tightened her fist around the pills and then flung them toward the corner of the bedroom, where they rolled across the hardwood floor.
“You’re right,” she said. “Medicine’s yucky.”
Downstairs, the door slammed, and DeVontay called up the stairs.
“How long do I get to sleep in the boy’s bed?” Stephen asked, drowsy now.
“For a few days,” she said. “Then we’re heading to the mountains where it’s safe.”
“I thought we were going to Mi’sippi.”
“We’ll get there,” she said. “We’ve still got a long way to go.”
Afterword:
Aside from doomsday capitalists, hellfire evangelicals, and certain nihilistic madmen, most of us are not all that eager for the world to end. But the sun doesn’t care. It is a ticking time bomb that is likely to belch a fatal stream of radiation at us when we least expect it. And we never expect it, do we?
But the heat is on. Just check out a few of my research links:
A solar storm captured by NASA cameras
“Light bulb” solar storm
Electromagnetic storms carry risk
Michio Kaku on solar flare threat
Best-case scenario, the sun lives to a cranky old age and dies out, turning into a frozen iceball before the universe collapses. Worst-case scenario is…the After series. I hope you will join me for more. Because it can get worse.
Speaking of which (although hopefully it is not my writing that gets worse!), be sure to look for the sequel, After: The Echo, as well as the prequel, After: The Storm.
I am also inviting writers to create their own stories set in my fictional world and I will publish the best of them in related ebooks (Ground rules: non-exclusive use and all rights to the characters, world, and intellectual property remain with me while you own your work. The stories will either be made freely available or any proceeds go to charity—these won’t be for-profit endeavovers.) If interested in writing an AFTER story, please email graveconditions@yahoo.com.
About Scott Nicholson:
I’m the international bestselling author of more than 30 books, including The Home, The Red Church, Liquid Fear, Chronic Fear, The Harvest, Speed Dating with the Dead, and many more. I collaborated with bestselling author J.R. Rain on Cursed, The Vampire Club, Bad Blood, and Ghost College. I’ve also written the children’s books If I Were Your Monster, Too Many Witches, Ida Claire, and Duncan the Punkin, and created the graphic novels Dirt and Grave Conditions. Connect with me on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, my blog, or my website, or view my books on Nook. I am really an organic gardener, but don’t tell anyone, because they think I am a writer and occasional survivalist nutjob.
Feel free to drop me a line anytime at hauntedcomputer@yahoo.com.
Some of my favorite book sites:
http://www.freedigitalreads.com
http://onehundredfreebooks.com
http://www.facebook.com/EreaderBonanza
http://www.digitalbooktoday.com
http://www.facebook.com/indiebookpromo
Read these other thrillers because it beats going back to the real world:
THE HOME
By Scott Nicholson
Experiments at a group home for troubled children lead to paranormal activity—and the ghosts are from the home’s past as an insane asylum. In development as a feature film.
Learn more about The Home or view it on Amazon US or Amazon UK.
CREATIVE SPIRIT
By Scott Nicholson
After parapsychologist Anna Galloway is diagnosed with metastatic cancer, she has a recurring dream in which she sees her own ghost. The setting of her dream is the historic Korban Manor, which is now an artist’s retreat in the remote Appalachian Mountains.