The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1): A Post-Apocalyptic Series (63 page)
Read The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1): A Post-Apocalyptic Series Online
Authors: Tim McBain,L.T. Vargus
Tags: #post-apocalyptic
“I just peed in my pants a little bit,” Izzy whispered.
Erin sighed.
“Me too.”
Ray
North of Mt. Pleasant, Texas
2 days before
He brought another Twinkie wrapper to his mouth, ripped it open like a soldier pulling the pin out of a grenade with his teeth, and ate it. He didn’t know why. He felt nauseous from eating the first four, and they didn’t taste very good. He guessed that he must have liked them when he was a kid, and the desire for them lingered even after the affection for their flavor had faded.
The PT Cruiser hurtled down the road. As they moved, that quiver of anxiety in his chest finally let go. From what little he knew about nuclear weapons, they would now surely be far enough outside of Dallas to survive the initial blast and radiation no matter how big of a bomb got dropped. The long term fallout aspect was trickier, but not getting disintegrated was a nice first step.
His eyes stung, and when he caught glimpses of them in the rearview mirror, he couldn’t believe how bloodshot they were, little bursts of red like fireworks everywhere around each of the irises. He was tired as hell, but that was one thing the Twinkies helped with, at least. The sugar seemed to wake him up a bit.
Lorraine slept in the passenger seat. She smiled just faintly in her slumber. He always thought you could tell a lot about a person by their facial expression as they slept. Meek types frowned. Hostile people scowled. And the nice people all wore the slightest of smiles.
He pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the number again, listened to it ring. He knew she wouldn’t answer, and she didn’t. He put the phone away, and just as he looked back to the road, she spoke.
“Who have you been trying to call?”
He flinched. She’d startled him pretty good.
“What?”
“Every time you think I’m asleep, you make a call that no one seems to answer. You don’t have to tell me. Just curious.”
Ray didn’t say anything for a moment. His tongue flicked out to lick his lips a couple of times.
“My ex-wife. I’d still like to get a hold of her. Thing is, I can never really know if she is in trouble, or if she’s fine and just doesn’t want to talk to me. She’s not the biggest Ray Dalton fan out there. So I just keep calling whenever I get a moment alone.”
“Why so gung-ho to conceal that from me?”
Ray licked his lips a couple more times.
“I don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t want some lady I just met to know how cut up and bleeding I am about my ex-wife who I’ve been apart from for nine years.”
They were quiet for a while, watching the road signs and the dead grass flit by on the sides of the road.
And then a flash filled the sky, a burst of light that pulsed and seemed to hang there in the air for too long. Ray watched it shimmer in the rearview mirror, hearing a gasp and only realizing it was his own after the fact.
He pulled over to the side of the road as the flash gave way to a billowing cloud of smoke. They got out and stood on the shoulder, watching smoke fill the sky. The sound came upon them after a moment, a sizzling rush more than the thunderous rumble he’d anticipated.
“Airburst,” he said.
“What?”
“They burst it in the air to minimize the fallout. That’s why we can see it. If the fireball doesn’t touch the ground, the radiation will dissipate in the air over the coming days. The power of the blast itself is still enough to wipe out Dallas, even burst way up in the sky.”
“Wow.”
Her voice fluttered when she spoke. He realized she was shaking, her fingers rising to her lips and trembling there. He reached out for it, took her hand in his, and together they watched the mushroom cloud rise into the sky.
The Scattered and the Dead
Want to read more books in The Scattered and the Dead series? Check out Book 0.5 here:
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- Acknowledgements -
Thank you to our awesome band of Advanced Readers. They are the effing best, and we'd be nowhere without them.
- About the Authors -
Tim McBain
writes because life is short, and he wants to make something awesome before he dies. Additionally, he likes to move it, move it.
You can connect with Tim on Twitter at @realtimmcbain or via email at [email protected].
L.T. Vargus
grew up in Hell, Michigan, which is a lot smaller, quieter, and less fiery than one might imagine. When not click-clacking away at the keyboard, she can be found sewing, fantasizing about food, and rotting her brain in front of the TV.
If you want to wax poetic about pizza or cats, you can contact L.T. (the L is for Lex) at [email protected] or on Twitter @ltvargus.
- Books by Tim McBain & L.T. Vargus -
The Scattered and the Dead (Book 0.5)
The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1)
Casting Shadows Everywhere
Bled White (Awake in the Dark #2)
Back in Black (Awake in the Dark #4)
