Fall of the Seven Cities Saga (Book 1) by Jay Brenham Page A

Was there any order left? Was there anyone alive who wasn’t infected?
    Matt slept deeply once Jenna took over the watch. When he woke Jenna had pulled out a chart of the surrounding area.
    “Mobjack Bay. It looks like a good place to anchor,” she said, pointing to an empty part of the map, just north of where they were.
    “Mobjack Bay it is,” Matt said. He didn’t care where they went, as long as it was away from here.
    They set a course, leaving Virginia Beach behind.
     
    The End
    But don’t stop reading! This may not be the last you see of Matt. The adventure continues on the next page in EXODUS FROM THE SEVEN CITIES.
     
     

 
     
     
     
    EXODUS FROM THE SEVEN CITIES
    CHAPTER ONE
     
     
     
    It was a bright, hot day in June. Khalid Abdul Rahman shielded his eyes from the sun’s reflection as it bounced off the water of the Chesapeake Bay. There wasn’t much time left, but he sipped his coffee slowly, enjoying the taste while he gazed down the Virginia Beach oceanfront like he had his whole life ahead of him. He’d been told American coffee was a poor substitute for the rich flavors he was used to in Yemen, but he savored the taste anyway; coffee was one of the few things in America that reminded him of home.
    The outlying area of Virginia Beach was known as Hampton Roads and it was comprised of a number of cities that had merged over time. The heat and humidity were overwhelming. Most people associated Yemen with oppressive desert heat, but Khalid was from Sana’a, the capital, known for its comfortable temperature year round. Khalid missed it.
    The temperature had been just as hot three weeks ago when Khalid was smuggled, along with fifteen other men, through a tunnel across the Mexican border. His childhood friend Ali had been with him then. The tunnel had been cool, like air conditioning, but as they stepped into the corrugated metal shed that covered the tunnel’s exit, he’d felt the Texas sun beating down. Still, the heat hadn’t tempered his eagerness. It had been a long journey and he was finally in the land of opportunity.

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
     
     
    Sam Connor walked past the armed guard and out the front gate. Five long years . He inhaled deeply, savoring the moment just like he’d promised himself. The air tasted sweeter as a free man, he was sure of it.
    Jill was waiting in their beat-up Hyundai Elantra. Their son, Grant, sat in the backseat, his dimpled legs sprawled out of his almost-outgrown car seat. When they first brought Grant home from the hospital the car seat had seemed impossibly large; it was hard to believe he was nearly two.
    Jill smiled up at him. “Glad to be free at last?” She glanced at the dashboard clock. “You’re half an hour early. I wasn’t expecting you ‘til ten.”
    “Glad doesn’t even begin to describe it.” He kissed her cheek and glanced over his shoulder with mock nervousness. “Let’s get out of here before someone changes their mind.”
    Sam always gave the same scripted response when people asked him how it felt to be getting out of the Navy: “I’m glad I had the opportunity to serve my country. Not knowing where my next paycheck will come from is a little nerve-racking, but I'm excited for the future.”
    This wasn’t a lie, per se, but if Sam had been completely truthful, he’d say he felt ecstatic, like he’d just been granted parole.
    The air was warm as it blew through the car window and onto Sam’s smiling face. He’d been so excited about today that he’d already removed the base decals from both of their cars. As a result, Jill had had to wait for him outside the front gate, but she was in such a good mood she hadn’t minded. He wondered if this was how he would feel when he hiked the Appalachian Trail in a few days. It had been a dream of his for years, but his work schedule had been too strict to attempt it while he was still enlisted. Now, however, his time was his own.
    Fifteen minutes later, Jill