Apocalypsis: Book 1 (Kahayatle) (43 page)
Read Apocalypsis: Book 1 (Kahayatle) Online
Authors: Elle Casey
My hands flew up to my face in horror.
I felt my stomach contents churn and I had to force myself not to look at her severed arm.
I knew if I did, it would be all over for me and that meal I’d just eaten.
Coli stood up, her face pale.
“No!” she yelled.
“That is
not
happening!”
“They … they …,” Celia was trying to get the words out but she couldn’t.
She was almost hysterical now.
“There were … kids … there were kids … they didn’t … they were … there were
kids without legs!”
she screamed.
“All they had left were their heads!”
Several people backed away, many to vomit in the nearby bushes.
It was too much.
Too much horror.
Too much violence.
But we only had to hear it.
She had to see it and personally experience it.
She grabbed her brother’s arm with her one remaining hand, staring at him with fiercely maddened eyes.
“Kill me!
Kill me,
please!”
she begged.
He jerked his arm away from her and stood up suddenly.
“No!”
he cried.
“I can’t do that, CeeCee.
Don’t ask me to!”
“Coli,” she begged more softly now, looking at her cousin.
“Please.
For me.
Just end this for me now.
I can’t do this anymore.
I just can’t.”
Coli turned her back on Celia, sobbing, unable or unwilling to speak.
I scooted over and took Celia’s hand in mine.
I couldn’t stand by and let this girl just lay here and beg her people to murder her.
“Celia?
Listen to me.
You can’t ask them to do that to you.”
“But I can ask you,” she said in a rush, desperation in her voice.
“Bryn, please kill me.
If this happened to one of your friends, and they asked you, you would do it.
I
know
you would.”
I shook my head.
“No way … I wouldn’t.
We are going to get through this.
You
are going to get through this.”
“I can’t,” she whispered, “I just can’t.”
“Yes.
You can.
You want to know why?
Because we need you to show us where that house is.
So we can go rescue those kids and exterminate those monsters.”
I squeezed her hand hard.
“Do you hear me?
We
have
to do this and we can only do it with your help.”
She just shook her head, her whole body trembling with anguish.
“Don’t say no to me.
I know you enough to know that you value family.
Those kids deserve to have a family like you have.
We can’t let them sit there and be slaughtered like that.
Without you, Celia, they’re all going to die.
Slowly, painfully, and horrifically.”
She tipped her head back and said, “God … why?
Why did this happen to me?”
Then she whipped her head sideways to look at me.
“And why did you have to put this white girl here in my face and ruin my chances of escaping this hell hole?”
She wasn’t joking.
She was turning her anger on me; but I was totally okay with that.
Anger I could deal with - anger would keep her fighting to stay alive.
“Because you have terrible taste in art,” I said.
“Anyone can see that but you and your mother.”
Coli nudged me, a look of shock on her face.
I winked at her where Celia couldn’t see me, and she visibly relaxed, nodding her head once.
“Did you just … did you just insult my mother’s shell work?”
“God, yes.
Are you kidding me?
Horrible stuff.
Just horrible.”
Celia struggled to get up.
I jumped back and got out of Coli’s and Trip’s way.
They were holding Celia’s shoulders and legs down.
“Let me up.
She’s gonna pay, that bitch!”
Trip looked up at me and mouthed the words, “Thank you,” before turning back to his struggling sister.
I nudged Bodo and said, “Come on, let’s go.”
Let these kids figure this one out for themselves.
There’d be plenty of time later for us to weigh in with our opinions and offers of help.
We went over and pulled Peter up by his armpits, supporting his mostly limp form between us.
We walked through the woods until we got to our huts, and didn’t stop until we reached our mattresses.
I helped Peter lie down and put the blanket next to him on the floor with a bottle of water nearby.
Bodo and I laid down on our mattresses on our sides facing each other, talking softly.
“Today wass a terrible day,” said Bodo.
“Yes and no,” I said.
“What do you mean?
How did I miss da good parts?”
“Well, I think we can assume that the tribes will come together, now that they have a common enemy.
Celia’s back home and out of danger.
And we’ve found out about a bunch of kids that need rescuing.
The tribes can do this, I know they can.”
“I can’t belief da zombies were keeping kids like cattle.
Dat’s just insane.”
“It is insane.
But it makes sense that this would be their next level of insanity, doesn’t it?
Now they can settle down in one place - go out on raids to find more … food.
I hate to say it, but if I was a mentally ill but smart zombie, it’s what I’d do.”
“Sometimes you scare me, Bryn.”
“Sometimes I scare myself, Bodo.”
“So what do we do now?” he asked.
I thought about it for a second before answering.
“Well … I think we help these kids to get their act together, get them trained in combat using the krav maga and George’s war journal, and then we figure out how to get those other kids to safety.”
“And den?”
“And then?
We figure out how to live together.
We make our home here.
We take care of Peter and help him get over this crisis … I don’t know.
You tell me.
What then?”
“I like your plan.
Dare’s just one thing missing.”
“What’s that?”
He leaned in closer to me … so close I could feel his breath on my lips, and said, “Just this.”
And then he kissed me.
CLIFFHANGERS
Do they make you crazy?
If you are not a fan of cliffhanger endings (so sorry all my books have them - I can’t seem to help myself), you can go to my website
If the second and/or third books of the series have already been published, you can go to Amazon.com and click on the “Look Inside” feature of those books and read the first chapter or more for free.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In her spare time she writes women’s fiction and young adult novels (you can find her Women’s Fiction work under the pen name
A personal note from Elle …
If you enjoyed this book, please,
please
consider leaving positive feedback on Amazon.com or any book blogs you participate in.
More positive feedback means I can spend more time writing!
Oh, and I
love
interacting with my readers, so if you feel like shooting the breeze or talking about books, please visit me.
You can find me at …
OTHER BOOKS BY Elle Casey
Apocalypsis: Book 2, Warpaint
Apocalypsis: Book 3 (available August 30, 2012)
A 4-book YA Fantasy series featuring potty-mouthed teen Jayne Sparks and her friends as they leave their normal lives behind to enter a place that lies hidden from the world, accepting their fate to become Changelings and caught in the middle of the War of the Fae.
4.8 stars on Amazon, described as “a cross between Karen Moning’s Fever Series and Hunger Games”.
A YA Fantasy novella, featuring female protagonist Iona Candella, an American girl spending the summer in Sommières, France who plans to read a hundred books on her Kindle to pass the time, but meets an interesting neighbor who changes the course of her life instead. Books, intrigue, romance, danger and more ... all in a convenient novella-sized package. 4.8 stars on Amazon.
If you liked The Breakfast Club and The Swiss Family Robinson, you'll love WRECKED!
An ill-fated Caribbean cruise and four teenagers: a nerd, a jock, a mouse, and a beauty queen...an island, a treehouse, some nefarious interlopers...life and death...fear and loathing...love and laughter.
Follow Jonathan, Kevin, Candi and Sarah as they find their typical high school lives and their worlds totally WRECKED. 4.5 stars on Amazon.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Readers!
Where would I be without you?
Not where I am today, which is working at my dream job and having a ball.
So thank you from the bottom of my heart.
You guys are the best.
Thank you also for your encouragement and all the laughs on Facebook, Twitter and my website.
I love getting up every day and knowing I have you guys to interact with and messages waiting in my inbox.
Aidan, thank you for all the cover work and hilarious tweets.
This book is for you!
To my editor, Margaret.
Thank you for that bold red pen you dash and slash across my work.
Without you I’d really be sunk (in typos, especially).
To my beta readers this time around Aidan, Margaret, Theresa, Seth, Craig … thanks so much, not only for giving me valuable feedback, but also for being so dang fast about it!
I’ve incorporated everything you mentioned in one way or another.
I hope I did you proud.
To Derek and Heather Emmons, the cover artist/photographer and his gorgeous model/wife.
I could not have found a more perfect cover for my book.
Thank you so much for allowing me to use the image.
To Lady O and Sir Richard, again, my wonderful, generous friends.
At least half of this book was written in your apartment in Paris.
You’ve given me a wonderful haven where I can let loose and be creative, and a place where I feel welcome and loved.
You have my eternal gratitude.
To my fellow writers who I’ve come to count on for support, laughs, sounding boards, and midnight chats - especially Amber Sweetapple, Jack Sheppard, and Jason “Muskrat Head” Brant. You guys kill me.
Some day, I wanna party with you guys.
Thank you also to Dannika Dark for my gorgeous Facebook header.
You are so sweet (and incredibly talented)!
Thank you to the Miccosukee and Creek indians who reside in Florida.
Your incredibly rich history and beautiful artwork and customs were great inspirations for this book.
I hope I have accurately depicted them and given your people and communities the respect they deserve.
To my family, who supports me and loves me and finds ways to work around my crazy writing schedule.
It’s for you that I do all of this.
A special thank you to my husband who will surely attain sainthood after he moves on to the Overworld for putting up with me all these years.
