The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire

Apocalypse of Fire

The Charred Lands,
Volume 1

By Josh A. Murphy

Published by Josh A. Murphy, 2014.

This is a work
of fiction, any similarities to real people, places, or events are
entirely coincidental.

Apocalypse of
Fire

First Edition. July 27
^th
, 2014.
Copyright © 2014 Josh A. Murphy

Written by Josh
A. Murphy

Also by Josh A.
Murphy:

Unfortunate
Friends

More information at
Josh A. Murphy’s Facebook page

Table of Contents

Special Thanks
Chapter
One
Chapter Two
Chapter
Three
Chapter Four
Chapter
Five
Chapter Six
Chapter
Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter
Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter
Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter
Thirteen
Chapter
Fourteen
Chapter
Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter
Seventeen
Chapter
Eighteen
Chapter
Nineteen
Chapter
Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Author’s
Note
Contact

Special thanks
too
:
Everyone who’s shown an interest in the progress of this book, it’s
with your support that I’ve had the motivation to get this thing
done!

Chapter
One

It’s a harsh
world that I live in. I’ve always known fear, loss and death, but
for the most part the earlier years of my life have been
comfortable. I’ve always known where my next meal was coming from.
I could trust those around me, and most importantly I’ve had a
permanent home. These few simple things may not have seemed like
much a few decades ago, but that was a different world. I didn’t
know that world. All I’ve ever known is destruction and fire: for I
am a child of the Charred Lands.

The stories
that Grandpa told me of life before the Rise always seemed more
like fairy tales than reality. Grandpa was the oldest man I had
ever met. He seemed like some kind of an ancient relic, one of only
a few who still lived with memories of the Old World. Growing up I
would beg that he tell me stories of normality before my bedtime.
My favourites were always those which revolved around simple
things; like what computers were, what cars did and other things
which at the time were everyday utilities. To me, these forgotten
technologies seemed alien, it always fascinated me hearing what
Grandpa Graham’s life was like before The Rise.

The year was 2056, The Rise happened forty-two years before.
Of the eighteen people living on my father’s farm, only four had
been alive to see it. My father himself was only two years old at
the time and his memories of the earlier years were non-existent,
he remembers very little of anything directly after The Rise. But
my Grandpa came with forty-two years of experiences
before
The Rise - exactly
half of his life. He was eighty-four and still going strong, though
he bore plenty of scars from the Charred Lands - scars which he had
earned whilst fighting to make a safe community for him, his wife
and his infant child. It took less than a year for Grandpa Graham
to stumble across what we now know as Haven, and that’s where he’s
remained ever since. This is where he’s raised a family and where
he’s grown old.

With the help
of my Nan, Grandpa was able to build something safe in a world full
of death and destruction. It’s thanks to their struggles that our
family are able to live in peace, right here in Haven. It hasn’t
all been plain sailing. Shortly after they settled down, my Nan
fell pregnant with their second child, Timothy. This was apparently
quite a stressful time, but my Nan was able to give birth without
any complications. There have also been several attacks from
various groups of bandits, usually we were able to fend them off,
but one time a small group of Charred Lander’s attacked Haven, we
managed to defend the place but we took on one casualty. Her name
was Kylie. She had stumbled across Haven in her teens and soon came
to marry my uncle, Timothy. A stray bullet hit her in the head
whilst she guarded the children. I still remember the way she hit
the floor, completely still and limp. I had nightmares for months,
but I overcame the emotional trauma of seeing a loved one shot down
in front of me. The same can’t be said for Timothy, however. Not
only did he lose his wife, but also his unborn child. Kylie was six
months pregnant at the time of her death. This is perhaps the
darkest chapter in Haven’s history. We don’t talk about it
much.

Last week I
turned sixteen, soon my father will start to train me on how to
survive in what we know as The Charred Lands. I’ve scarcely ever
stepped a foot out of Haven, and have very little first-hand
experience of the outside world. But I’ve heard the stories.
Occasionally weary travellers will pass through our home. With them
they bring supplies and tales to trade with us for a warm bed for
the night. They bring stories of unspeakable things, things which
seem a world away from our relatively peaceful little homestead.
Men come and talk of murder, cannibalism and rape. They told us of
a harsh land where only the fittest survived, where one mistake can
lead to death, and what frightened me the most; where the monsters
lived.

I knew I wasn’t made for this world, not outside of Haven at
least. I was a book worm, a coward, nothing like my older brother
or my dad. I looked up to them, but I knew I could never be like
them. Whilst my older brother, Brandon was out hunting with my
father, I would be at home reading or writing. Going out and
learning the ways of the land with my dad scared me to the core,
but I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I was going to
have to stand up and face my duties like a man. The only way small
communities like Haven can last, is if all of the residents stick
together and work to
make
it work. That is why we have lasted so long whilst
other communities in the area have fallen.

I’ve decided
that I might not be the best scavenger, strongest fighter, or
quickest runner - but I do have some very unique skills which are
hard to come across in this harsh, hateful world. A sharp mind, an
eagerness to learn and a passion for teaching; this is exactly why
I’ve started writing this. Maybe if I can document our struggles,
others can learn from our success, or even our short comings. If
mankind is ever going to rise up and become the dominant species in
this world again, then somebody needs to teach new generations how
to do it. Techniques need documenting, and laws need making. That
is my goal.

Chapter T
wo

The red haze
in the skies above always made me feel eerie whenever outside.
Something, somewhere in the Wasteland was always burning. Clear
blue skies above were rare – usually everyone in Haven would come
out to enjoy the infrequent unfiltered sun rays. These occasions
were always a highlight of mine. Everyone around the farm had their
own jobs, so it was nice when the entire family came out and got
together to soak up some sun and clear skies. Something about those
days seemed to make everyone happier and raise their spirits, all
be it temporarily.

However, today
wasn’t one of those days. I couldn’t help but notice that the smell
of burning hung unusually heavy in the air today, more so than
usual. The ever lingering smoke from the great fires clouded above
our little community just as they always did. I can’t remember a
single day in which the smell of smoke didn’t linger in the air, I
doubted anybody alive had since the start of The Rise either. I
could only imagine what fresh, untainted air would feel like in my
nostrils.

“
Finally, he awakes!” my dad called as I trotted across the
open field between the main farm house and our protective walls. In
truth, I was relatively surprised to find that he had let me sleep
in. Today was an important day. Today I was to go on my first
mission outside of Haven. Usually, my father and Timothy would take
out the trainees for a simple routine maintenance check on Havens
walls. During this they would be briefed on standard protocol for
being outside in The Charred Lands and other simple things like
that, but not today.

“
Brandon has all of your gear ready for you in the barn,” My
dad said as I finally reached him. I noticed that my father was
already fully equipped for the mission.

“
Worried?” he added, sensing my apprehension. I couldn’t help
but let out a sigh, I had been planning on trying to hide my nerves
as best I could, but clearly my dad had seen through my disguise.
He had a knack for picking up on things like that; I should have
known he would suss me straight away.

“
A little. Especially after what’s happened to Tony and such,”
I said. Nodding, my father placed a hand on my shoulder.

“
Look Zachary, you don’t need me to tell you how dangerous The
Charred Lands are. You’ve heard it a thousand times before. I know
we need to put on a brave face for Tony’s wife, but in all honesty
this is a recovery mission. I’m not too confident that we’ll be
finding these guys alive out there. It’s our job to work out
exactly what happened to them.” He said.

Up until that
moment my Dad had shown nothing but optimism about finding the
missing citizens. I guess it made sense to keep up appearances for
Tony’s wife, Andrea. After all, she had lost almost everything she
held dear in this world.

Three days
ago, Tony Olsen, his oldest child Kyle and his middle daughter Amy
had set off to scout out an area about a mile away from Haven. They
hadn’t returned. Ever since then Andrea and her one remaining
child, Laura have been an emotional mess. Nobody could blame them,
so I figured doing our best to try and remain positive for their
sake made sense.

Our mission,
and my first real venture outside of Haven was to try and find
exactly what happened to them. Ideally, we wanted to find and
rescue them, but as my father had finally openly admitted, the most
likely scenario was that the three missing Olsen’s were dead. Even
finding any evidence of this was asking a lot. Anything could have
happened to them. For all I knew, they could have been kidnapped
and be a thousand miles away by now. Literally anything was
possible out there.

With that, I
said goodbye to my father and headed off to the barn were Brandon
was waiting for me with my gear. Despite my nerves, I didn’t stall
in making my way over.

“
For a while there I thought you’d chickened out on us.” My
oldest sibling, Brandon smiled as I entered the barn. It was abuzz
with activity, as usual. The barn served as out main base of
operations – it was rarely calm and collected in here, especially
if people were heading out into The Charred Lands.