Children of the After: Awakening (book 1) Read Free

hide his own emotions. Lifting
the cover to the keypad beside the door, he pressed the green unlock button and
keyed in the six digit code. His own birthdate.
    With a shudder and a hum, the LED lights of the shelter went
black as a loud metal on metal clang reverberated through the structure as dust
broke loose from the walls and ceiling and rained down upon them. Jack reached
out in the darkness and felt for the handle upon the vault door and, giving it
a tug, a hissing sound filled the air as he pressed the door outward. Little
did he expect what happened next.
    With unimaginable force, the door flung wide, ripping free
from his grasp as he was flung bodily out from the vault, crashing into some
unseen object beyond as light exploded before his eyes. Howling wind roared
through the darkness as the metal door groaned on its hinges and smashed back
into the outer wall of the vault over and over, before breaking free altogether
and falling to the floor, its hinges having failed.
    Jack scrambled to his feet, dizzy from the blow to his head,
and leaned into the wind whipping all about him, as the darkness was
momentarily replaced by dazzling light. It was night, not day as they had
presumed. With the familiar smell of rain in the air, an image of his
surroundings was temporarily etched into his vision as the light vanished, only
to be replaced by peals of thunder that shook everything around him. Gone. Their
home was gone, and in its place a desolate nightmare remained.
    Reaching up to his head he felt the cut and warm blood near
his temple and staggered back towards the vault, small arms and hands reaching
out of the darkness to grasp at him and drag him within once more. It was a
ruin. A wasteland.
    Collapsing within the open doorway of the vault, Jack looked
up with defeat in his face, his shoulders sagging as another flash of light
played across the horrified faces of both Sam and Will. They had the same
glimpse of outside that he did. They knew it was gone. Though none of them knew
the extent of the damage, they each had had hope destroyed and it showed
plainly on their faces. Seeking more information would have to wait until
morning, or at least until the storm abated. Jack leaned heavily against the
wall next to the now open door.
    “I’ll get some bandages,” Sam half yelled over the howling
storm outside before vanishing into the darkness.
    Will kneeled closely and looked at him with an odd stern
expression on his face, seeming to be working out some inner turmoil before he
spoke.
    “No alien monsters is good, but I don’t think I’m gonna get
my candy,” he said matter of factly.
    Jack couldn’t help but smile in the light of the situation. Their
shelter was no longer secure. Their home outside appeared destroyed. They had
no food. Yet Will was concerned about candy he had hidden in the pantry months
ago. Perhaps there was still some kid in him yet.
    It was only a couple of minutes before Sam returned with a
small first aid kit in hand that Jack recognized from the wall of the meager
bathroom within the security vault. Jack watched her carefully open the
container as she selected a small pump-style spray bottle of disinfectant which
she cautiously sprayed over his cut, before wiping away both blood and the
spray with a piece of sterile gauze. Just like their mother had done when he
skinned his knee as a child. Sam blew softly upon the wound to ease the burning
from the antiseptic spray, before opening a package of adhesive butterfly
strips which she used to pull the cut closed before covering the whole thing
with gauze and medical tape.
    Not wanting to disrupt her work or distract her, Jack sat
still in silence as she finished up, watching Will, who was watching them both
in return. When Sam finished she sat back, looking at him and their little
brother, before her look of concentration faded to once again be replaced by
worry. Jack knew her expression was much the same as his own but now, more than
ever, they