Resurrection of the Fallen (Book 1): Surviving New York by Misti Vanhoy Read Free Book Online Page B

But I’m not naïve… I know she’ll come away with scars, but at least she won’t wonder when her last day will be. My dad would go back to the jolly old ranger he used to be, or so I hoped. We would pick up the broken pieces of our family together and we would move forward with our lives. We would finally part ways with Reagan and Brantley for good without a moment’s thought about them. It would be wrong to have their bad attitudes ruining the rest of our lives. Life would go back to resembling what it once was, although lacking the overcrowding issue. No more starving families. No more fights… The only other difference was there would be a lack of an education for me. My dream had died with the people of this planet.
    I caught myself contemplating what would happen to Reagan for a moment. Knowing her, she’d find someone, piss them off, and get herself murdered. Her influence upon this earth would be extinguished forever. I hoped for a moment’s time that she wouldn’t be so idiotic as to do that, but I knew it was foolish. She was the closest thing I had to a friend over the years and to know how she’d met her doom… I shook my head, trying to fight the thoughts and feelings that surged through me. She was the type of person that I could never be: cocky, ignorant, stubborn, snarky, daring… But she was gorgeous with her auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail, bangs framing her face, her ever-rosy cheeks, and full lips…
    OK! Being stuck around the same five people for so long was turning me into something that I wasn’t. I needed to find a good stock of depression or psychosis medicines before it was too late and I did something I would regret and never forget. There had to be a man out there somewhere that was decent compared to what I’ve been around. This wasn’t all I would know until I died or the world became right again. I have not and never will be a lesbian if I had to kill myself before I allowed the temptation to take over! I would break not only my dad’s heart, but also my own.
    I rolled over to face the door to the balcony and conjured up images of the end of the apocalypse before sleep. I found pure solace in the idea that I might live to see the end of it all. I thought about how I would go to the park to see the trees and the flowers in the spring with Samantha next year. The colors of the flowers would range from yellow to red to purple and line the gates within the park. Even though the grass would be overgrown, it would still be a breath-taking sight. I dreamt of how I would hunt through the city for some bicycles that weren’t chained up to ride with my family through the streets on sunny days. I imagined being able to enjoy the fall leaves gently falling down all around me once again as I walked through the park and finally tasting a fire-cooked pizza that I longed for as much as a hot shower. I would find some gas somewhere and hotwire a boat once I learned how; just so I could go deep sea fishing or swimming in the channel. I smiled as I thought about sunbathing on the bow of a boat in the harbor wearing the first bathing suit I could find in a store that would fit me. The final thought that flashed through my mind before I welcomed the dark folds of sleep was Reagan sunbathing beside me in the most flattering bathing suit that looked like it was a size too small. Resting on her elbows with her head tilted back and one knee bent up to the sky, she glowed under the sunlight like a blooming lily caught in the first morning sunrise after a long, hard winter.

Chapter 6
    I rose early the next morning to gather in the living room with the others. We had noticed two days ago that our fortress of bodies was starting to lose its defenses to the elements and the accelerated decay that the virus caused once the host died for the final time. We needed to send out a party to gather up more corpses to add to the pile outside. Only thing was we had to travel a little ways off so we didn’t