Aftermath (After the Fall Dystopian Series Book 1) Read online

  She just shrugged. “I guess.”

  Then he looked over at Jeff. A pool of blood was spreading from beneath his head. He leaned over, feeling for a pulse. It was just as he’d suspected. Jeff was dead.

  “I was just trying to make him stop,” Paige muttered.

  Chad turned back to her. The girl looked devastated. “Paige,” he said softly, looking her in the eye. “You didn’t have a choice.”

  She just shrugged again, and Chad couldn’t tell if she was buying it or not.

  “No, Paige. I’m serious. You did what you had to,” he tried to reassure her. “He wasn’t going to stop.”

  She looked up at him, and finally nodded.

  Then Chad noticed something. “Where’s Shelby?” he asked.

  At that, Paige’s head sank.

  “Oh, shit,” he muttered. “I’m sorry, Paige.”

  Then a flurry of screams echoed from several houses down. Paige looked up, snapped momentarily from her grief. Chad was scanning the neighborhood, as those screams were followed by howls and cries from other houses.

  “It’s happening everywhere,” Paige uttered.

  Chad nodded, looking down the block as more and more howls erupted from that direction.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said, climbing to his feet, and helping her up.

  “We’re just gonna leave them?” she asked, looking down at Jeff’s body.

  “We don’t have a choice,” he replied, looking around. He spotted Paige and Shelby’s bikes, parked by the garage. “We can take those,” he said.

  Suddenly the front door to the house across the street shattered outward, as Paige’s neighbor barreled through it.

  “Go!” Chad shouted. He and Paige scrambled onto the bikes, and took off across the grass.

  The raged out neighbor spotted them, and sprinted off after them.

  Paige and Chad jumped off the curb and onto the street, pedaling like mad as more and more of these raged out people poured from their houses after them.

  Soon there were dozens of those people Paige was labeling the “Crazies” barreling after them from behind, and pouring out from houses along their sides. They had diverted their attention away from killing other Crazies, and were now hell bent on killing these kids on the bikes.

  Paige would’ve expected the bikes to give her and Chad an advantage, but on this narrow drive, perched so perilously along that steep drop to their left, that advantage was small. Her bike’s real advantage would come on the relatively flat streets of the valley. That’s where they had to get.

  Chad seemed to sense this, as he hollered, “Turn left!”

  Paige spun her bike into a sharp left turn, and was now plunging down a winding side street that lead to the valley.

  This new street, which curved sharply to the left, and then the right, was lined on both sides by houses. Like those back on her street, they had somehow escaped the devastation that had ravaged the valley.

  Paige had no idea why, but maybe it had something to do with the mountains they were built on. She had no doubt those things could have easily leveled this span of mountains which cut through the middle of Los Angeles, but for whatever reason they hadn’t. Who knows, maybe they just decided to let these humans kills themselves. And that’s what these humans were doing.

  As if sensing Paige and Chad’s approach, Crazies were now pouring out of houses on both sides of this twisting, winding street. And much to her horror, they had no fear of being hit by her bike, as they charged right at her.

  She dodged them, being careful not to swerve too sharply. Gravity had taken over her descent, accelerating her faster and faster, and any sudden move might spill her across the street.

  This also meant she couldn’t brake for corners. Like the one coming up. She could see the street curve sharply to the left, and if she missed the turn, she’d end up planted face first in the front wall of the house in the center of the bend.

  She was so busy planning the turn, and calculating the amount of lean she’d need to pull it off, she missed the Crazy that had run up beside her.

  It grabbed for her arm. Paige felt it at the last second. She barely had time to yank her arm free, while keeping the wheel steady, before she was banking hard into the turn.

  It was like an insane slalom ride, as the houses whipped by on her right. She could feel the inertia pulling her out of the turn, but she kept her bank, leaning further and further, and trusting the tires on her mountain bike to hold their traction. And somehow they did.

  As she came out of that left hand turn, she was suddenly plunged into a right hand turn. Could these streets suck any more! She must have been going thirty miles per hour at this point, as she banked sharply to the right, leaning at almost a forty five degree angle.

  This was insane, she thought, but as she pulled out of that last turn it looked like the street was more or less straight the rest of the way down the mountain.

  But she still had to deal with this speed. She was going about twenty miles per hour faster than was safe. And her arms rattled with the jagged cracks and pot holes LA’s streets were so notorious for. But she couldn’t take a chance at slowing down, so she continued this crazy free fall acceleration she was on.

  She hoped Chad was still behind her, but didn’t dare to look back. Just one missed pot hole, and she’d be thrown across the pavement. And even if she survived that fall, she’d soon be torn apart by the Crazies.

  “Turn right at the bottom!” she heard Chad holler from behind. She nodded in relief. At least she still had her travel companion.

  ***

  Paige banked a hard right onto the broad street at the bottom of the hill, braking as little as possible so she could keep the momentum from her descent.

  She took a quick glance back as she came out of the turn, and was relieved to see Chad following behind. He’d also survived that insane plunge down the hill. But now she had new obstacles to worry about.

  The attack had happened on a Saturday afternoon, and that meant most people had either been outside enjoying the day, or had been in their cars driving somewhere to enjoy the day. And Paige found the four-laned street jammed with the charred bodies of cars, inside of which were the charred bodies of their occupants.

  She maneuvered her bike between lanes, dodging the charred car parts that littered the street, and chunks of rubble that had been blown out onto the street from the surrounding buildings.

  Those buildings, which one day ago had been cozy restaurants and shops lining this major boulevard, were now jagged piles of concrete. A few of them still had the bottom halves of their walls, but the top halves were gone, reduced to giant blocks of cement clogging the sidewalks and street.

  “Where to?” Paige hollered back to Chad, swerving around one of the many charred bodies laying in the street.

  “Keep going East,” he hollered back.

  “Got it,” she replied, pumping her legs harder to pick up speed. At least for the moment, there were no more Crazies. Or, at least none she could see. Maybe they’d lost her trail as she sped down that narrow neighborhood street leading to this boulevard. Whatever. She was grateful for the relief. But that was short lived.

  “Woah, hey Chad, stop!” she hollered.

  She’d come up to a deep chasm, slicing across the entire width of the street, and extending into the surrounding buildings. Chad skidded to a stop behind her.

  “Let’s go north, and see if we can get around it,” he offered.

  They pedaled back to the last intersection, then took a right onto what had once been another major street. It too was jammed with charred cars. A broken water main along the side spouted a geyser into the air.

  They passed a gas station that had been completely leveled. This had probably been one of the explosions Paige had seen.

  Up ahead was the freeway overpass - or what had been the freeway overpass. It had completely crumbled, and massive chunks of concrete and metal now blocked the street. They pulled up t
o it. Paige shot Chad a look.

  Chad looked up and down it. “Take the on ramp. We can cut across it.”

  Man, this blew, Paige grumbled, as they pedaled up the on ramp past the wrecked heaps of cars. They reached the freeway, which was split across its width by a deep chasm. Paige noticed that the section of freeway on the far side of the chasm was no longer aligned with the part they were on. The entire freeway had shifted over thirty feet.

  They weaved their bikes between charred cars, crossing the freeway parallel to the chasm.

  And then came the howls. The Crazies were back, and they were storming their way.

  “Shit! Go!” Chad hollered.

  Paige and Chad had just reached the middle divider, separating the two lanes of traffic. They lifted their bikes over the divider, then weaved them as fast as they could through the junkyard of cars on the opposite side.

  The Crazies were barreling across cars, and leaping the divider after them, as that rage fueled them past the breaking point of a sane person. Paige had no idea if they would ever tire or stop.

  Paige and Chad reached the railing on the far side of the freeway, and quickly hoisted their bikes up and over it. Then they hopped on their bikes, and scrambled down the rough embankment to the street below.

  The Crazies were almost on them, pouring over the rail, and racing down the embankment.

  Paige had never pedaled as hard as she was now. She could hear those howls and screeches closing in from behind.

  She and Chad turned a sharp right onto the next street, as more Crazies came at them from the left side of the street. Paige guessed there were probably fifty, or even a hundred of them now. They were coming at them from behind, and from their left. And her bike wasn’t giving her the speed advantage she had hoped. Those things seemed super charged, sprinting at a continued pace she could maybe manage for a fifty yard dash.

  It was like being in one of those nightmares where something was chasing you, and you couldn’t outrun it.

  They were coming up on their right to a massive shopping mall, like the ones her dad built. The kind with national chain stores, and food courts. Crazies were swarming at them from the street ahead, so they had no choice but to veer into the huge parking lot of that mall.

  Most of the mall had been obliterated, with only a few portions of the walls still standing.

  “Don’t stop!” she could hear Chad hollering.

  They pedaled past the burnt bodies of cars that filled the parking lot. It had been packed when the attack had hit, and Paige had no doubt there were hundreds, if not thousands of bodies that had been buried in the rubble of the mall.

  “Where to?” she hollered back.

  “Around back!” he shouted. “We’ll go in there!”

  Paige and Chad spun their bikes around the backside of the mall. They were just far enough ahead of the Crazies to not be seen.

  “Go! In there!” Chad hollered, as he skidded to a stop. Paige joined him, as they dropped their bikes, then dashed over to where the wall of a department store had completely crumbled.

  They scrambled over the rubble, and into the ruins of the store. The entire top half of the walls and ceiling were gone, and they were now scrambling across that rubble. Paige guessed it had to be at least fifteen feet deep, as none of the clothes racks or shelves, or counters were visible. It was all buried.

  “Find an opening to hide in,” Chad said, scanning through the massive concrete chunks.

  “There,” Paige said, racing over to where a large slab of concrete was propped against another.

  They scrambled beneath the slab, and squeezed several feet deeper between adjacent chunks. And it was just in time, as the howls closed in fast from outside.

  And then the Crazies came barreling in that opening in the wall.

  From beneath the concrete, Paige could hear their growls, and heavy footsteps as they rampaged through the store. Concrete blocks were being knocked aside, and rubble was shifting. It was like hiding beneath the ground, as a herd of cattle stampeded overhead. She was afraid to even breath.

  All she could do was listen. And pray.

  ***

  Sometime after sundown those prayers were answered. From beneath the rubble, Paige could hear what sounded like the last of the Crazies racing off. Its howls echoed off into the distance.

  Those things had been constantly moving all day, and the sudden calm, while welcome, felt odd. Paige was hearing silence.

  She and Chad lay there for another hour after the noises had ended. They were cramped, and sore, but neither of them was in any condition for another chase. So they waited it out in the relative safety of their little burrow beneath the rubble.

  But they finally had to move. As they crawled out from beneath the rubble, the pins and needles of their returning circulation was excruciating. Their limbs had been bent, and twisted, and held in position for so long, it was like learning how to walk all over again.

  “We need to get out of the city,” Chad finally whispered, massaging his legs.

  Paige nodded in agreement. “Where to?” she whispered back.

  Chad shrugged, thinking. “The mountains?” he suggested.

  “On our bikes?”

  “It’s not like we’ve got a lot of choices,” he shrugged.

  Again, she nodded along. “We’re gonna need some supplies,” she added.

  The two of them looked out over the mall. It was a sea of rubble, with anything they could use for supplies buried deep beneath it. It would take a salvage team, with heavy equipment, weeks to dig through it.

  “I know a place we can check,” she finally added. “It’s not too far away.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Crazies

  The bell over the door tinkled, as the door slowly pressed open. Paige and Chad froze, holding their breaths. Finally she peeked inside.

  The place Paige had taken them to was a sporting goods store, located in a small strip mall about five blocks from the mega mall they’d hidden in.

  That part of the journey had been relatively Crazy-free, but it hadn’t been free of their carnage. The torn, dismembered bodies of their victims had been scattered everywhere, serving as a constant reminder of the danger they were under.

  As she scanned the inside, she found the store cluttered with debris, but it wasn’t buried the way everything had been at the mall. And most importantly, it was Crazy-free.

  “I think we’re good,” she whispered to Chad, as she eased through the doorway.

  The two of them practically tip toed through the store, afraid to make any noise. Chad was searching every shadow and corner, just watching for anything that moved.

  “Let’s make this quick,” he whispered. “I don’t like being boxed in like this.”

  He eased back to what was left of the camping section, and began rifling through boxes of freeze dried food and water purification tablets stacked on some shelves that had escaped the onslaught.

  Suddenly WUMP! An arrow planted in the wall across the store. Chad spun around at the sound, and saw Paige standing there with a bow.

  “Sorry,” she whispered with a cringe. She hadn’t realized it would make that much noise.

  Chad pressed his finger to his lips. Shhh.

  She nodded. No argument there.

  “See if you can find some back packs, so we can load up on food.”

  “And weapons,” she added, grabbing a handful of arrows.

  Paige found a pair of back packs, and brought them over.

  Chad was busy scanning a shelf. “You ever try these?” he whispered, pointing to a box of Meals Ready to Eat, or MRE’s as they were commonly known. AKA, military food.

  Paige snatched the box off the shelf, ripped it open, and dug into one of the individual packs with her fingers. She sank down on the floor, devouring the entire pack before Chad had a chance to even open his. The last time she had eaten had been some time yesterday, and after the marathon chase they’d been on earlier, she was famished
.

  “You were asking?” she smiled, tossing the empty pack aside.

  “It’s actually not that bad,” Chad commented, shoving a handful of food in his mouth.

  “Oh, it’s that bad,” Paige shook her head, “but we’re just that hungry.”

  Chad let out a chuckle. When they were finished, he shoved several boxes of MREs in their back packs, while Paige went off exploring some more.

  She found a roll of duct tape on the floor, and shoved it in her pack. Chad shot her a puzzled look. “Tape?”

  “You break it, and this stuff can fix it,” she whispered in response. She headed over to a section of the store containing maps. She found one for Los Angeles, and another for California, and shoved both in her back pack.

  “Be sure to grab some water,” Chad whispered, shoving several bottles in his pack. “We’ve got a lot of desert to cross.”

  “Which mountains should we head to?” she asked.

  “Whichever ones are closest,” he replied. “And the least populated.”

  This made her think. “You know there’s a good chance we’re the only two people in this city who aren’t like that,” she remarked.

  He nodded, as he continued shoving supplies in his pack.

  “What if we’re the only two people in this country, or this world, that aren’t like that?”

  “Kinda like ‘I Am Legend,’” Chad nodded.

  “Exactly,” replied Paige.

  “Bring lots of arrows,” he grinned at her.

  This actually got a chuckle from her.

  Then the bell over the front door tinkled. Paige and Chad froze, holding their breaths. Chad motioned to a clothes rack in the center aisle. The two of them slipped over to the rack, and ducked behind it. There they waited, as the sound of movement came from the front of the store. Someone was definitely inside.

  Paige spotted a concave security mirror in the upper corner of a wall which was more or less in tact. She tapped Chad on the shoulder, and pointed to the mirror. There, they could see a crazed out looking woman scanning the store. She was crouched over, and seemed to be sniffing the air.

  Paige reached into her back pack, and retrieved an arrow. She attempted to slip it in her bow, when the arrow dropped, clinking on the floor.