World of Ashes II Read Free

their best to calm passengers and deployed the emergency slides lest they be trampled too. Daniel stayed in his seat, not wanting to be caught up in the clusterfuck when he saw the plane was in no immediate danger of exploding. The girl who’d been leaning over him unbuckled and slid closer, she was staying put too. They waited together until the path was clearer and those losing their minds were out of sight. The crew gathered the cooperative passengers in the trees they’d crashed through and waited for rescue for what seemed like hours, distributing what food and water was left on the aircraft after the pilots said it was safe. Despite the repeated radio calls and passenger trying to get through on their cell phones, no one ever came. Police cars and fire trucks passed them in a hurry for the first hour, but after that hour the emergency vehicles they saw became fewer and were traveling faster. One ambulance covered in blood flew by with no lights on, Daniel was by the side of the road and made eye contact with the driver. It was a terrified child that was nowhere near the age to drive. He didn’t stop for them at any rate, and who could blame him? Race, creed or religion didn’t matter now. The human race was just another rat fleeing the sinking Spaceship Earth. The only question was why? How had a bunch of unarmed hippies sent the capital of the United States into complete and utter chaos? The British made less of a mess two centuries ago, and they burned the damned White House.
    From the time the plane evacuated everyone could see the smoke plumes of the cities around them. They saw one jetliner after another try to land with varying degrees of success in every available, or semi-available stretch of land. Fireballs mushroomed from one crash or another, at least one plane was shot down by surface to air batteries stationed in the DC area. The sound of the rocket engine was audible before it hit the jet, Daniel counted the seconds between the impact and when they heard it. Four seconds, the old wives tale was that meant four miles, but that was probably bullshit. The fear of the riots was soon replaced with the fear of invasion, otherwise why would the military shoot down a passenger jet?
                  “I’m Lea, by the way.” The girl said while they were standing around, watching the pilots pretend to speak to someone on a walky-talky. They wouldn’t let anyone near the plane for long, claiming it was in case of fire, but it was probably to keep people from knowing there was nobody on the other end of the radio. Not anymore.
                  “Daniel Sawyer, PFC type.”
                  “You’re in the Army? My uncle was too.” Lea smiled, feeling safer around him already.
                  “Well, don’t ask me if I know him. I can’t tell you how many people ask me if I know their relatives. It’s a big Army.” Daniel tried to be funny.
                  “Never underestimate the stupidity of others.” Lea smiled. “So what are we gonna do?”
                  “Sit tight for now. But if the fires get closer, I’m bugging out.”
                  “Can I come with you? I don’t know anyone else, and you’re the only one who’s spoken to me…” Lea tried to hold back how nervous she really was.
                  Daniel looked Lea over. “Yeah, sure. Is this your first time being away from home?”
                  “No. Do I look like a child?”
                  “Kinda. Take it as a complement, you look younger than you are. When you’re forty that’ll really mean something.” At least Lea thought that was funny. “I’ll stick with you, though. Maybe we can find a refugee area.”
                  Some of the passengers slipped by the crew as it started to get dark and broke open the cargo hold to get their stuff. Daniel didn’t have any weapons but a pocket