Deadlocked 7 by A.R. Wise Read Free Book Online Page B

dead.
    “Are you okay?” asked Arthur after he was certain the raider had passed.
    “Yeah, you got here just in time.”
    “Where’s Kim?”
    “I thought she was with you.”
     
    *   *   *
     
    August 24 th , 20 years after the apocalypse
    Arthur is in the church, just after Kim died and before the helicopters arrived.
     
    Arthur had stopped David from going outside when they heard his mother’s name being shouted, but the boy was determined to see what was going on and had slipped away during the chaos. Arthur heard Kim and Laura speaking, but hadn’t been able to see his wife until she was running back up the hill, towards the fire and into the horde. That’s when the explosion occurred, and he lost the mother of his child.
    The loss crushed him, and he stood staring at the destruction, unable to comprehend what had happened. For a moment, he was certain the explosion had occurred closer to the camp and that Kim was probably a safe distance away. He stared at the mass of shredded body parts, expecting to see his wife running away from it. Perhaps she’d thrown a bomb back behind her and was now safe. Arthur kept up hope until he heard Laura’s pained wails. That’s when he knew Kim was dead. He cried out her name and started to sob, and then he turned to reach out for his son only to find him gone.
    The horror that swelled through Arthur upon realized that his son was missing teetered on madness. Kim’s death, and his inability to grasp it, seemed to confuse his reaction to his son’s disappearance. For a moment, it felt like David had evaporated when his mother died, and Arthur was unable to breathe as he stood in the vestibule of the church.
    He panicked, and started rushing through the throngs of people inside of the church, screaming for David. He was using a crutch that Jill had given him, his right leg still useless after the accident in the field. Clyde tried to stop him, but Arthur refused to calm down until he knew David was safe. Clyde agreed to help search for the boy, and headed to the stairs that led to a room above the vestibule, under the steeple.
    That’s when the helicopters could be heard swooping in, and the survivors of Vineyard inside of the church were familiar with the sound. The crowd grew fearful, some wailing and others clutching their loved ones, all while Arthur continued to push through them in search of his son.
    Annie’s expert aim took out one of the helicopters, and Arthur recalled training with the young girl with The Department in southern Colorado. She’d always been a remarkable shot, and he could see the result of her aim as one helicopter fell to the road and rolled into the camp’s perimeter. The calamity of its crash caused the survivors in the church to scream out, but the chaos was stilled when they heard another helicopter’s chain gun start firing.
    The attack devastated the psyche of the group, and no one thought they would survive. They had no way of knowing how many helicopters were out there, and most of them assumed a squadron had come to finish what they started in Vineyard. Arthur tried to scream out his son’s name, but his voice was muted by the cries of terror as the thudding explosions of gunfire echoed through the sanctuary.
    That’s when Arthur figured out where his son had gone. He knew that Annie was in the steeple, and David would’ve tried to get a view of his mother. Arthur was near the dais of the sanctuary, past the pews and the crowd of people. There was a door in the back that led to the area where the wounded pilot had been taken, and Arthur was headed there when he realized he was going the wrong way. He gazed back at the church’s entrance just as the steeple fell. His heart seized, and his breath was all but stolen as he tried to make his way back. It was almost impossible to hop through the crowd, and he started to scream at them for help. They did what they could, but there were so many of them that they had trouble moving