Out of the Dark: An apocalyptic thriller by Ashlei Hawley Read Free Book Online

minimal. Two changes of clothes, the rest of the contents of his mother’s first aid kit, simple things like a toothbrush, other sanitary supplies including deodorant and a very few miscellaneous items Austin packed for himself without Sam’s direction or input.
         The last thing Sam saw Austin grab was a framed photo from the wall, a picture of his family together. Sam didn’t debate the necessity for Austin taking it, nor did he say anything about the photo at all. Austin didn’t say anything about it, either, merely slipped it into the bag he had previously used for school supplies along with all the other things he planned to take with him.
         “Car keys?” Sam questioned after they had everything prepared to leave.
         “They’re on a rack by the garage door,” Austin answered. “Or at least they should be. Mom’s bad about putting things where they go.”
         The comment made Sam think about his own wife. Laura was the opposite in that respect. It seemed she knew where everything you needed to know was, even if she didn’t see where you put it. Organized was putting it lightly for Laura.
         He wanted to get back to her, and to their kids. Every thought that concerned them made the desire stronger.
         The keys were on the rack as they should be. Austin made sure to leave his note in a prominent place on the kitchen table, though Sam got a good sense of how futile the boy thought the measure was.
         “You put my address on there,” Sam reminded the boy as a way of reassuring him as they entered the garage. “Best case scenario is we never have to leave my place until all of this blows over and they’ll meet us there in a couple of days. A week at most.”
         Austin nodded, but didn’t otherwise respond to Sam’s attempt at reassurance. His lost little boy expression softened Sam’s heart toward him even further.
         “Well, hop in,” Sam said as he clicked the automatic lock button to unlock the doors. “It’s not far to my place but I’m definitely glad I don’t have to walk it.”
         Austin put his pack in the backseat and silently buckled himself into the front passenger. The look he gave the garage as Sam opened the door with the automatic opener was so morose and full of loss that Sam couldn’t focus on the kid without beginning to feel desolate and hopeless himself. 
         In that moment, Sam began to understand the new darkness in a way he hadn’t before. It was not a simple lack of light, it was lack of hope. Not the dark of a quiet night, but the shadows that filled a widower’s empty room at midnight. It was the darkness of not only losing, but also of forgetting good things altogether. The thoughts were frightening to Sam, and he shivered because of them as he put the car in gear and backed out of the garage.
         Sam backed the silver Aveo out from the garage and was grateful his large black truck with its extended cab and four wheel drive was waiting for him at home. Driving through whatever sort of catastrophe was happening in the tiny Aveo didn’t seem merely unsafe, but completely emasculating, as well.
         Out of innate courtesy, Sam pushed the button to close the garage door of Austin’s family’s home. The falling of the door seemed to seal the home in a forgotten dimension, one Sam and Austin would never be able to return to.
         Hoping the boy didn’t feel that same bleak sense of loss and abandonment, Sam checked the street before he reversed into it. Clear, as he knew it would be. The Aveo slid smoothly into the street and they drove away.
         Less than three minutes into the drive, when Sam was now hoping they wouldn’t see anyone else and would therefore be allowed to proceed to his home without incident, Sam encountered the second living person of the day. To Sam’s discomfort, this one seemed in much worse condition.
         With a deepening sense of disquiet weaving