Final Dawn: Season 1 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series) by Mike Kraus Read Free Book Online

pressing her body as low to the ground as possible while still keeping the object in sight. The sickening feeling she had at the first sight of the object was growing as she began to realize what it really was.
     
    As the object passed in front of her, no more than a hundred feet away on the opposite side of the highway, it came to a sudden halt. It sat there for a moment, bobbing up and down, back and forth, shimmering and buzzing. Rachel eyed it coldly, betraying no emotion as the object held steady. She felt as though it was gazing at her through invisible eyes, even though there were no discernible features anywhere on its form. Then, as suddenly as it had stopped, it sped up again, moving back and forth between the highway wreckage on its original path. Rachel kept still, not daring to move until the object was long out of sight. Once it was gone she stood slowly, eyes glued to the horizon where the object had vanished. Rachel shook her head grimly, her worst fears confirmed.
     
    "They did it. So that's it, then. Those bastards really did it. And now we have to pay the price."
     

Final Dawn: Episode 2
     
     
     
     
    7:32 AM, March 29, 2038
    Rachel Walsh
     
    Rachel sat down on the edge of the highway, her mind still reeling with the consequences of what she had just seen.
     
    "I don't believe it."
     
    Yet there it had been, plain as day, not a stone's throw away from her, proof that one of her deepest fears had come to life.
     
    As Rachel’s mind churned through the scenarios and consequences of what she had seen, a noise from behind her made her jump, whirling around defensively. Sam, her dog, came slinking up behind her, his deep brown eyes staring off in the distance where the “thing” had disappeared. Sam was normally quite brave, unafraid of larger dogs and thunderstorms. Yet that thing had spooked him so much that he had stayed behind, cowering in the ruins of her house until long after it passed.
     
    Rachel knelt beside Sam and stroked his head softly. "It's okay, boy. Nothing to worry about. They won't hurt you. They're gone now." Sam visibly relaxed as she comforted him and he eventually became his normal self again.
     
    As Rachel walked back towards what was left of her house, she continued to take in the damage to the neighborhood — or what little of it still remained. The streets were half destroyed. Large pieces of asphalt were either cracked or had been torn from the earth and flung to who-knew-where. Aside from an even scattering of debris, the only evidence left of most of the homes were bits and pieces of foundations and basements. Her house, situated at the end of a cul-de-sac (better for defense, Jeremy had once claimed) had fared best of all.
     
    When Rachel and Jeremy moved to the area, it was nothing like it had turned out to be. Instead of a neighborhood filled with homes, it was merely construction sites and empty lots. Though a neighborhood association was still being formed, Rachel and Jeremy had purchased their home before it was completely formed. This gave them certain leeway with how they built their home and Jeremy took full advantage of this leeway.
     
    The foundation had been infused with a new space-age carbon nanotube variant which gave the concrete immense resilience against outside forces. The extra-deep basement had been built from this same material and enlarged to cover nearly double the floor space of the main floor of their home. Most of this work was against the neighborhood association’s guidelines, but they had managed to sneak it past thanks to some clever paperwork and more than a few dollars’ worth of palm-greasing.
     
    Despite this and other unique building techniques, most of Rachel's house had been obliterated, but at least she was able to make out a complete outline of the foundation. After seeing the damage firsthand, she was convinced about what had happened. The sight on the highway, though, had pushed her over the edge, proving that what had