Aftermath (After the Fall Dystopian Series Book 1)

  AFTERMATH

  Tom Lewis

  This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material, other than excerpts or quotes contained in blogs or reviews, is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author/publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015, Tom Lewis

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One: The Birds

  Chapter Two: Day One

  Chapter Three: Aftermath

  Chapter Four: The Implants

  Chapter Five: The Crazies

  Chapter Six: The Shield

  Chapter Seven: Day Three

  Chapter Eight: The Guards

  Chapter Nine: Trish

  Chapter Ten: The Tunnels

  Chapter Eleven: A New World

  Chapter Twelve: The New LA

  Chapter Thirteen: Enforcement

  Chapter Fourteen: Valerie

  Chaper Fifteen: The Outlaws

  Chapter Sixteen: The Summons

  Chapter Seventeen: The Best Laid Plans

  Chapter Eighteen: A Calm Before the Storm

  Chapter Nineteen: Into the Lion's Den

  Chapter Twenty: The Belly of the Beast

  Chapter Twenty-One: The Pods

  Chapter Twenty-Two: The Invaders

  Chapter Twenty-Three: The Games

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Return to the City

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Setup

  Chapter Twenty-Six: The Escape

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Chase

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Militia

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: A New Home

  About the Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Birds

  Destiny can be defined as a series of events that will necessarily happen to us. As inevitable as it is unpredictable, it’s a journey we’re all thrown into. Along the way it defines us, and shows us what we’re made of. And when we reach the end, we often find that it’s taken us in a direction we never could have imagined. This is one girl’s journey.

  ***

  It started on a crisp spring day in the foothills of Los Angeles. The Westwood High Panthers’ girls soccer team took the field to a small audience of students and family members scattered throughout the wooden bleachers.

  In the back row, as far away as possible from the other spectators, sat Paige O’Connor and Shelby Johnson. To anyone watching them, it was pretty obvious they weren’t there for the game. It was just an excuse to get out of their houses, soak up some sunshine, and get drunk on the rum Paige was pouring into a giant Big Gulp cup.

  Paige had just turned sixteen, the legal driving age in California, but at the rate she got into trouble, it would be a long time before her parents let her get her license. Riding a bike everywhere sucked, but then so did listening to parents and teachers.

  She was strikingly pretty and petite, and hated that things were expected of her because of that. She was going to hang out with who she wanted, dress the way she wanted, and look the way she wanted. So midway through her freshman year, she had chopped her long brunette hair down to shoulder length, and painted several blue streaks through it. Her mom nearly fainted, and of course it got her grounded, but then what else was new.

  As for clothes, don’t even get her started. It was usually cargo pants, and a t-shirt, or sweatshirt on those rare cold days. And the more people complained, or rolled their eyes at her, the more dingy were the clothes she sought out.

  Shelby had been her BFF since they were kids, and they shared everything together. Movies, gossip, sleepovers, secrets, clothes… you name it, and they shared it. And that’s what they were doing today.

  Paige steadied her hand, as she emptied the rest of the rum into the cup. Shelby kept watch, while going on about her favorite topic - boys. And at the moment, that boy happened to be Paige’s older brother.

  “I’m just saying, pretend for a minute Brad’s not your brother,” Shelby went on.

  “We’re not having this conversation, Shelbs,” Paige replied, trying not to spill the rum.

  “But he’s cute.”

  “He’s my brother,” Paige grumbled back, capping the cup. “No hitting on him.” She took a deep swig through the straw, shuddering at the taste.

  “That good?” Shelby smiled.

  Paige nodded, passing her the cup.

  “So who do you think is cute?” Shelby asked, ready to get the conversation back on track.

  “Nobody.”

  “Oh, come on,” nagged Shelby. “If you had to pick someone.”

  “Okay, fine. Liam Hemsworth.”

  “Someone you could actually meet,” Shelby clarified.

  “Then we’re back to nobody,” Paige grinned, taking back the cup.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yup.”

  “You, Paige O’Connor, are going to make such a pretty little spinster,” Shelby teased.

  “I’m sixteen, Shelbs,” Paige laughed. “I don’t think they let you become a spinster till you’re at least like sixty.”

  Shelby just shook her head. “Better start practicing those knitting skills, girl.”

  Paige had to laugh. She loved Shelby to death, but man that girl could get annoying at times.

  “Okay, new topic,” Paige jumped in. “What would you rather have during a zombie apocalypse? A gun, or a cross bow?” The topic of zombie apocalypse planning was always a favorite with the two girls.

  Several rows down, a group of five girls glanced back at Paige and Shelby. Paige caught them staring. The girls turned back to each other, giggling in that way where they want you to know they’re giggling.

  “Hands down, a gun,” Shelby replied, ignoring the girls.

  “So you want every zombie in the area to hear you?”

  “I wanna make sure they’re dead. Plus, it doesn’t take forever to reload,” Shelby responded.

  “But a cross bow just looks so bad ass,” Paige countered, catching the group of girls staring again. This was getting old.

  “You just wanna look like Jennifer Lawrence,” Shelby continued.

  “I wanna look like Norman Reedus,” Paige grinned back.

  Then that group of mean girls was at it again. Glancing back, then turning to each other in annoying giggles. Paige had had it.

  “You got a problem?” Paige hollered at them.

  Cindy Willis was the tallest of the girls. Captain of the girl’s volleyball team, and at least seven inches taller than Paige, she shot Paige a glare. “Yeah. You, O’Connor,” Cindy snorted.

  “Screw you!” Paige shot back.

  “What was that?” Cindy was on her feet, stalking up the steps towards Paige and Shelby. Cindy’s minions followed behind.

  Paige rose to her feet, followed by Shelby. Both stood their ground. “You heard me,” Paige responded.

  “Yeah,” said Cindy, “I heard you trying to be tough in front of your girlfriend here.”

  “Fuck off,” Paige snorted.

  Cindy shoved Paige in the chest, knocking her back on the row behind her. Paige hopped to her feet, and lunged at the tall volleyball player, tackling her onto the bench, and pummeling her. Cindy squirmed and struggled beneath the blows, but Paige was just too quick.

  “Break it up!” came a shout from the field. It was an all too familiar voice for
Paige. She backed off of Cindy, and looked towards the field. The school’s principal was storming their way. Several of the girls grumbled beneath their breaths.

  “What the hell’s going on?” demanded the principal as he reached the girls.

  “This freak attacked me for no reason!” Said Cindy, wiping a trickle of blood from beneath her nose.

  “She did not! You pushed her first,” Shelby jumped in.

  “Is that alcohol on your breath?” asked the principal. Shelby and Paige both closed their mouths, looking more than a bit suspicious.

  “Check their cup,” said Cindy’s minion, Stacy.

  “You five, get back to your seats,” said the principal, turning to Cindy and her friends. “I’ll see you all on Monday.” The mean girls grumbled beneath their breaths, but knew better than to argue. They stomped back to their seats. The principal turned back to Paige and Shelby.

  “What the hell’s your problem, O’Connor,” he asked, more out of disappointment than anger.

  Paige just shrugged. “Nothing.”

  But he wasn’t going to let it rest. “No, I’m serious,” he continued. “How is it that your brother’s an honor student, class president, and actually has a future. And here you are, this… mess?”

  “Maybe I just don’t feel like sucking up to people,” she replied.

  “Or maybe you’re too scared to even try. Afraid you might not cut it.” He knew he was hitting a nerve with this one, but he also knew he had to go there.

  “Go to hell!” she shot back.

  “You’re coming with me. Both of you,” he demanded, motioning to Shelby as well.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Paige replied, folding her arms across her chest.

  “Oh, yes you are,” he insisted. “We’re calling your parents.”

  “They’re not home.”

  “Then I’ll call their cells.”

  That’s when a loud groan filled the air. Like an enormous metal object bending under stress. The principal and girls barely had time to look around, when suddenly the ground shook with a violent jolt. The principal stumbled, trying to maintain his balance. Down on the soccer field everyone had stopped, waiting to see if more jolts would follow.

  “What was that?” asked Shelby, a startled look on her face.

  “Look!” Paige shouted, pointing to a transformer mounted to a nearby telephone pole. Sparks showered from the side of it down onto the dirt track circling the field.

  Then a static charge filled the air, causing their skin to tingle. The girls brushed their hands down their arms.

  Suddenly something large and black dropped to the bleachers beside them. The girls leaped back with a startled yelp. A dead raven lay there, its feathers sizzling with smoke.

  “Look out!” the principal shouted, seconds before another bird crashed down. This one also sizzled with smoke. Then came another, and another. They were raining down on the bleachers and field.

  Then came a loud crack! The transformer broke off the telephone pole, and crashed down onto the dirt track in a shower of sparks.

  “Keith! Get everyone in the locker room!” shouted the principal, as he hurried down the bleachers towards the sidelines.

  Paige turned to Shelby. “Let’s go!” she said, hopping to her feet. The girls raced down the bleachers, and over to their bikes parked along the track.

  ***

  Everything was in complete chaos, Paige noted, as she and Shelby pedaled their bikes down the sprawling boulevard.

  Alarms blared from cars parked along the curbs, and neon signs fizzed in store windows. Street lights flashed, and radios blasted static. It was like everything electronic had gone completely haywire.

  A large transformer had crashed down in the street up ahead, and showered sparks in a fifteen foot radius. Traffic had jammed up in both lanes behind it, and pedestrians were scrambling away.

  “It kinda felt like an earthquake,” remarked Shelby, as they maneuvered past cars and pedestrians.

  “But that doesn’t explain the birds. Or this crazy static,” Paige responded, brushing her hands down her arms. They still tingled from the static discharge that filled the air.

  “So what do you think it was?” Shelby asked.

  Paige just shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “Are you worried?” Shelby asked.

  Paige shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe. I mean, look around.”

  And Shelby did. Something was definitely going on.

  The girls approached an intersection, when Paige noticed the traffic light. It was dangling loosely on its cable, flickering from green, to red, then yellow, then back.

  “Woah, Shelbs, stop!” Paige said.

  “What?” Shelby asked, skidding to a stop next to Paige.

  Paige nodded at the light.

  Suddenly a car skidded past them across the intersection, colliding with another car that also had a green light.

  “Ho-ly smokes,” exclaimed Shelby. That was about as much of a swear as you were going to get from her.

  “We should get off this street,” suggested Paige.

  Shelby just nodded, staring at the wreck.

  ***

  The quiet drive wound up the side of the steep mountains overlooking the San Fernando Valley. In stark contrast to the concrete jungle surrounding it, this area was wooded, and mountainous, with sharp, winding turns curving past steep slopes.

  It was as out of place in this urban sprawl, as Paige was in her private school.

  The girls pedaled up a section of the drive where luxurious homes and thick woods lined one side, and a steep slope plunged down into the valley on the other.

  From here, Paige had a bird’s eye view of everything. The city, its lights, the studios, the traffic, and the maze of streets and freeways winding through it all. It was just too big, Paige often thought.

  The girls panted hard, as they pedaled the last dozen yards towards Paige’s home. It was a fancy two-storied craftsman, nestled at the back of a circular drive. She had her dad to thank for that.

  Following a distinguished career in the Army, her dad and several of his Ranger pals had started a construction company, which had grown to be one of the largest developers of shopping malls in the State. It had kept her family in nice houses and cars, and Paige and her brother in private schools.

  And more importantly, to Paige’s delight, it kept her parents away on business trips, and vacations. Which was where they were at right then. And which was also why Paige was able to make her little excursion into the city that day.

  The girls pedaled up the driveway, parking their bikes next to a sports car out front.

  “Wait here,” signaled Paige, as she crept over to the large front window of the house. She crouched just beneath it, sneaking a peek inside. Then she hurried back to Shelby.

  “Brad’s in there with his buddies. We’ll go around back,” she said, hurrying off around the side of the house.

  ***

  The bedroom was a disaster. Posters, clip art, and drawings layered over each other across the walls. A desk was barely recognizable beneath scattered papers, a laptop, books, and food wrappers. There was also a bed, with the sheets and blankets on the floor, along with a mountain of clothes and magazines.

  This was Paige’s bedroom, and despite the disarray, she knew where everything was. And she liked it that way.

  The window against the back wall squeaked open. Paige poked one leg through, then ducked as she pulled the rest of her body through. She came down on a magazine.

  “What are you doing?” The voice came from across the room. Paige spun around, and there stood her brother, Brad, watching her from the doorway. This was the guy everyone loved. Two years older than Paige, and a world apart in behavior. He was the honor student, student body president, wide receiver on the football team, and already had acceptance letters from a dozen colleges for next Fall.

  “Geez, man. What are you doing in my room?” Paige growled.

  “What
were you doing outside?” Brad demanded.

  “Nothing,” she responded, trying to compose herself.

  Shelby, who’d just finished squeezing through the window behind her, looked up at Brad with a shy smile. “Hey, Brad.”

  “Shelby,” Brad acknowledged her, before turning back to his sister. “You’re supposed to be grounded.”

  “So what are you, playing dad now?”

  “No. But he called while you were out.”

  Paige froze. Oh crap. She had been grounded for ditching class, and from the sound of things, that was about to be extended. Again.

  “What did you tell him?” Paige finally got up the courage to ask.

  Brad let her sweat a few seconds, before finally adding. “I told him you were in the shower.”

  Paige just stared. Did she hear right? “You did?”

  Brad nodded, before adding, “you’re welcome.”

  Paige looked at him, then down at the ground. She was actually regretting the way she acted. She finally managed to look him in the eye, giving him a sincere, “thanks.”

  Brad nodded. This sibling bickering had become more frequent since Paige had started high school last year. He knew he cast a pretty big shadow, and had overheard some of the complaints directed at her about why couldn’t she be more like him. But despite the bickering, she was his sister, and he would always have her back.

  “Can you come downstairs and give us a hand with the TV,” he asked.

  ***

  Paige and Shelby followed Brad downstairs, and into the living room. Across the room, two boys had the large flat screen TV pulled out from the wall, and were fiddling around behind it. The screen showed a scrambled mess of static.

  “Oh, geez, you let them try to fix it,” Paige remarked.

  One of the boys turned, shooting her a grin. “Look who decided to show up for her own grounding,” he cracked. This was Chad Harding, her brother’s best friend since they were kids. Lean and athletic, with surfer good looks, washboard abs, and a killer smile. Every one of Paige’s friends crushed on him; that is, when they weren’t crushing on her brother.

  “Bite me, Harding,” she shot back. It was all part of the playful banter they’d always had between them. “What’d you guys do to the TV?”