Final Dawn: Season 1 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series) by Mike Kraus Page A

the highway’s condition improved. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a completely positive thing. While it meant that Rachel had a smoother walk, the number of intact cars was growing, forcing Rachel to pick her way through them, and occasionally having to walk through the center median of the highway just to get past them. Rachel didn’t bother to check and see if any of the cars would work, not wanting to waste valuable travel time. Most cars manufactured since the late 1980’s had computer chips integrated into their designs, which meant all modern vehicles were disabled by the EMP unless they were properly shielded.
     
    The only thing that’s going to have that type of shielding is a military transport , Rachel thought, as she and Sam continued down the highway, slowly winding their way north.

1:18 AM, March 30, 2038
    Marcus Warden
     
    As Marcus slept, he dreamed. In his dream, he was back on the mountain, laying in the dirt and watching the strange man-like creature running across a field. As he watched it through his binoculars, the light glinted off of the silver lines across the creature’s body, creating flashes in the afternoon sun. Instead of leaping a fence and disappearing into the trees like it had earlier, the creature stopped this time, right in the middle of the field.
     
    Marcus felt himself press his body closer to the ground, trying to make his outline as small as possible. The creature stood still for a moment, its head tilted slightly, almost as if it was smelling something. Marcus felt his stomach twist into knots as the creature slowly turned to its right, facing towards where he was hiding. Its head was still pointed upwards, the nose moving up and down rapidly.
     
    Before Marcus could make out any details, the creature’s head snapped down and it stared straight at him, the eyes peering directly into his. Marcus’s entire body went numb and he felt his hairs stand on end as a chill traveled down his spine. He closed his eyes and lowered the binoculars, willing the creature to stop looking at him. It can’t know I’m here. I’m miles away. There’s no way it knows I’m here!
     
    Before Marcus had the time to open his eyes, he heard a faint rustle and low, slow breathing coming from directly in front of him. He slowly opened his eyes and found his worst fear standing no more than ten feet away. Somehow the creature had traveled several miles in a matter of seconds, all without even creating a sonic boom as it passed the speed of sound.
     
    Marcus looked at the creature’s feet, his eyes slowly moving up the body to stare it in the face. Half of its toenails were gone, ripped out at the roots with dried blood and a silver substance covering the unprotected nail beds. The creature’s legs, torso and arms were in similar condition, with large scrapes partially covered with a silver substance mixed with dried and slowly oozing blood. The face, though, was the true horror. Half of the creature’s head was gone; part of the jaw, the nose and a large piece of its skull had been replaced by a glittering sheet of silver. While the strange substance almost covered the wounds, it had a slow rhythm to it, pulsating slowly and revealing pieces of mangled flesh in spots where it didn’t quite cover them up. The creature stared at Marcus with its… whatever they were. Where the eyes used to be, there were now deeply sunken pits, the pupils of the eyes replaced with the silver substance. It stared at Marcus, unmoving save for the slow, steady breathing.
     
    Marcus met the creature’s gaze, his heart beating so fast he was sure it would launch him up into the air from the force of it hitting the ground. Several seconds passed with the two looking at each other. With a loud crack, the creature’s mouth opened, and a shimmering cloud erupted from it, rising into the air and descending down onto Marcus.
     
    Marcus screamed as the cloud enveloped him, feeling the biting and stinging of whatever the