After: Whiteout (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 4) (28 page)

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Authors: Scott Nicholson

BOOK: After: Whiteout (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 4)

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They
copy our behavior. So the more these soldiers fight, the longer and bloodier
the war will be.

Judging
by the less frequent screams and the diminishing gunfire, DeVontay figured only
two or three soldiers remained. The Zapheads were “making peace” with ruthless
efficiency. Already the guns sounded more distant, as if the men were
retreating and simply spraying cover fire. But cover fire wouldn’t work on
Zapheads. They didn’t duck because they didn’t care if they got hit.

The
baby seemed unperturbed by the battle raging around them. She almost seemed
happy, and at one point she yawned, putting a little brown fist to her mouth.
With her eyes closed, she was even crushingly cute. But when those eyes were
open, they served as reminders of the solar storms that had wiped the slate
clean and pushed Zapheads to the top of the food chain.

DeVontay
heard a wet
splat
, and he thought a clump of snow had fallen from a high
branch.

A
dark red dot appeared in the center of Lisa’s forehead, the entry wound evident
in the spotlight of the baby’s gaze. She sagged forward as her eyes rolled up
as if to see what had given her such a sudden headache, and as she collapsed,
the infant bleated a pathetic wail.

The
bark on the tree behind Lisa was splotched with blood, brains, and bits of
skull. The swaddled infant slid from her grasp and skated several feet across
the snow.

DeVontay’s
horror turned to a rush of triumph.

The
creepy little shit doesn’t look so omnipotent now, does it?

The
blanket that swaddled the baby had unfolded upon impact with the ground, and
two little arms flailed at the air. “Whaaaaa,” the baby cried, and the noise
was mimicked by five or six Zapheads within earshot, creating an eerie soundtrack
to the battle’s end.

DeVontay
took three strides forward, slipping in the snow. He lifted a boot to crush the
mutant and dowse those fiery eyes forever.

He
hesitated and a clump of mud fell on the baby’s cheek. She wriggled her head
and blinked, bunching up her nostrils.

If
only it would speak, he could crush its head.

But
the baby batted his hands together, helpless fingers curled.

It’s
just a baby.

She
lifted her arms up toward him. A helpless, innocent creature seeking a porter.

A
father.

DeVontay
knelt and lifted the child from the ground, brushing snow from the blanket
before it melted and caused discomfort.

“Dah-dah,”
she said.

“I’m
not falling for that. I’m just not the monster you think I am. That you think
all of us humans are.”

“We
have much to explore. In Newton.”

“I’m
not going to Newton.”

The
baby grinned. “Of course you are. You want to see Rachel.”

“How
did—”

“She
was an accident. We didn’t know what we were doing. That’s why she isn’t
finished yet.”

“She
got better.” DeVontay found himself whispering as the last gunshot rang out,
followed by a choking groan of agony, mimicked and mocked by a dozen voices
that sounded like the gibbering ululations of chimpanzees.

“Not
as better as she is going to be soon,” the baby said. “What is your name?”

DeVontay
thought about lying, or ignoring her, but he told her.

“Dee-von-tay.
I like that.” The baby appeared to concentrate a moment, tiny face scrunched,
and then she said, “They are all dead now. We shall gather them and go home.”

The
baby drew a breath and tensed her muscles as if trying to stand in DeVontay’s
arms. Then she let out a high, piercing cry that seemed to fill the forest: “Go
now go.”

“Go
now go!” The call was repeated by two, four, dozens, and then hundreds of
voices along the slopes.

The
Zapheads had brought an army. This war was over before it even started.

DeVontay
considered dumping the child in a dark, swirling pool of the creek.

The
child grinned at him as if reading his mind.

Damn
it. Why did I have to be so goddamned human?

“Go
now go?” DeVontay asked.

The
baby clapped with delight. “Go now go.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

Dawn
sent its red fingers reaching across the snowy landscape just as Rachel reached
the town.

Her
shoes were wet and her coat heavy with perspiration, but after two days of
nonstop walking, she had arrived. The first night she had passed through the
battlefield in the forest, not mixing with the Zapheads who collected both the
human dead and the New People that had fallen. At one point, she’d come upon a
creek where the snow was churned and stained a deep scarlet.

She
stooped and picked up an object that reflected the light of many stars and the
single sliver of moon.

She
held the glass orb aloft and measured it against the sky as if it were a
planet.

It
seemed familiar, but she didn’t know why.

She
put it in her pocket and went on.

Over
fences, down muddy streets, across frothy waterways, past rows of silent houses,
driven by instinct like a salmon thrashing upstream to spawn. Night became day
became night and then became now.

The
snow wasn’t as deep here in the valley, and the air was clean.

She
sensed them long before she heard them.

But
soon the sound filled her head and drowned out all the other noises.

It
was faint at first, but as she headed for the gleaming dome of the courthouse
on the hill, the murmur gradually swelled into a mighty chorus.

“WHEE-ler!
WHEE-ler! WHEE-ler!”

There
were thousands of them.

She
didn’t need a map. Her people already knew this place, so she knew it, too.

Rachel.
My name was Rachel.

That
was turbulence she would happily leave behind.

Time
to be new.

She
reached the school as the chants swelled to thunder, jubilant voices that reverberated
off the bricks and glass of Newton.

“WHEE-LER!
WHEE-LER! WHEE-LER!”

The
thing that had been Rachel Wheeler headed for the football stadium.

THE END

Preorder After #5: Red Scare for Kindle! Releases Jan.
20, 2015

Amazon US

Amazon
UK

Other books in the After series:

After #0: First Light:
Amazon US

Amazon
UK

After #1: The Shock:
Amazon US

Amazon UK

After #2: The Echo:
Amazon US

Amazon
UK

After #3: Milepost 291:
Amazon
US

Amazon
UK

And the exciting new spinoff
series ZAPHEADS:

Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder (with
Joshua Simcox)

Amazon
US

Amazon
UK

Scott Nicholson
is the international bestselling author of more than 20 thrillers, including
The
Home, McFall, Disintegration, Liquid Fear, Speed Dating with the Dead
, and
the
After
post-apocalyptic series. His books have appeared in the Kindle
Top 100 more than a dozen times in five different countries. Visit his website
at
www.AuthorScottNicholson.com
,
Facebook
, or his
Amazon Author Central
page