After the Blast (Soldiers of New Eden Book 1) Read online

  Noticing the weapon’s sight wavering slightly, I changed my position to prone and aimed again. The sight now steadied, I focused on my front sight and squeezed the trigger.

  The gunshot echoed through the mountains as one of the pickets crumpled to the ground. I shifted the sight to the next one and fired again. Another body crumpled to the ground. Again, I shifted and fired. This one had been lying on the ground, scanning around trying to fight the shooter. Instead, a round went in, his head dropped face first into the dirt.

  I got up and ran, making as much noise as possible. Sure enough, they gathered a small group and took off in pursuit. I didn’t make noise for long. I wasn’t trying to commit suicide. I just wanted them to come after me.

  After about a mile, I circled around as quickly as I could move and climbed on top of some boulders, still out of sight. The small group, about four men, were hot on my trail. At least, that’s what they thought.

  I fired at the man in the back first, dropping him, and then worked my way forward. The men were so intent on finding me that they never bothered to look back until just one man was left. When he looked back, he saw his dead companions. He had only a moment to contemplate it before a shot entered in skull.

  After searching the bodies, I had loaded up on more ammo and headed back. I approached the encampment from a different direction and took up a prone position again. The guards were a lot more vigilant this time. I guess seeing a few of their buddies get killed would have that effect on them.

  I steadied myself once again, focused on the front sight, and fired. Again, I took down three more of the guards and ran like hell. I still wasn’t making a lot of effort to hide my direction until I decided it was time to head back. At that point, I swung around and planned on hitting another part of the camp.

  As best as I could tell, they hadn’t sent anyone after me again. Maximilian wasn’t a complete idiot. Ten of his men were dead, and he had to know the first group to follow me wasn’t going to be home for dinner.

  I stood at the tree line and looked out at the camp. The tree I stood next to had a limb the right height to steady the rifle as I took careful aim once again. Just as before, I aimed and fired, taking down three more of the guards. This time though, I ran toward the camp.

  As I ran, I aimed at guards and fired. Unlike firing from a rested position, it took a lot more than one shot to drop a bad guy. They still died though, their shots in my direction going all over the place.

  Before they knew what was happening, I was inside the camp. My shots were causing confusion, which was even better. Every one of Maximilian’s men that crossed my sights got shots fired. I didn’t care how many rounds it took, I fired until they dropped.

  When a magazine was empty, I switched them out, putting the empty magazines into a pouch hanging on my left side. I didn’t know when I’d be able to get more magazines.

  With each step, the house loomed closer. Before long, I found myself on the front porch, the body of a guard lying in front of the door.

  I kicked in the door, my weapon in front of me like a sinister appendage. Maximilian had guards inside the house. However, they apparently never expected the unknown attacker or attackers to make it this close without them getting more warning. At this range, missing wasn’t easy.

  With the first floor cleared, I moved up the stairs. Before a target could present itself, a man walked out with his hands up at shoulder level. “Very nice,” he said. “If you’re looking for a job, consider yourself hired.”

  I stared down the barrel at this man. He carried himself with a smug self assurance that annoyed me for some reason. He wore a black button up shirt and black slacks, a stainless 1911 pistol sat in a leather holster on his right hip. “You must be Maximilian,” I said, my index finger tightening on the trigger ever so slightly.

  “I am. And you are?” he asked in his oily voice. I had him pegged as a used car salesman before the blast. Either that, or a lawyer.

  “I’m the guy who’s married to a woman you decided should be in your little harem,” I said.

  He cocked his head slightly to the side and shrugged. “It’s possible. I usually don’t worry about the marital status of the women I claim. Of course, if you come to work for me, you can have her back.”

  “So, I can have my wife back if you get something else you want? Is that how it works?”

  “Of course. You don’t actually think you’re going to get out of this alive, do you? You’ve put a pretty good dent in my men, but they’re getting ready to storm the house,” he said.

  He was probably right. I had killed quite a few, but there were still a lot of people left out there. Whether I liked it or not, they were still there. Most likely, they were doing just what Maximilian said.

  Before the blast, I might have actually given a damn. Then again, before the blast, I’d have been too scared to do anything like this.

  I dropped my rifle’s barrel down. “What if I don’t want to work for you, but decide not to shoot you?”

  “You’re under the mistaken impression that you have a choice. I guess you didn’t hear that the land of the free went up in a mushroom cloud,” he said.

  “I don’t work for you, so you don’t get a say in my life. You don’t get a say in my wife’s either,” I said. As the last word escaped my mouth, I felt my arms grabbed by two hands each. An arm also snaked around my neck as my rifle dropped to the ground.

  Maximilian stepped forward until he was just inches away from my face. “You were saying?”

  His eyes widened in surprise and he stepped back as I smiled. An insane inspiration hit me as I leaned my head forward as far as I could, then slammed it back. I felt the man holding my neck’s nose smash beneath the back of my head.

  In the same instant, I slammed my foot down on the instead of the guard holding my right arm. He yelped as he released my arm. As quickly as I could manage, I drew my knife and slammed it up from under the jaw, into the skull of the guard holding my left arm.

  Withdrawing it, I then dispatched the other two guards as quickly as possible, and then turned my attention to Maximilian.

  “As I was saying,” I said.

  Maximilian drew his 1911 and took aim, the gun shaking violently. As bad as he was shaking, I wasn’t sure he could hit me if he actually did have the balls to fire.

  “Jesse!” I called out. “It’s me, Jesse!”

  From behind one of the doors, I heard the voice of the woman I loved. “Jason?”

  “Yeah babe, it’s me,” I called back. I opened the door as my wife rushed into my arms, giving me a deep kiss. “Give me a minute, baby. I’ve got a little unfinished business to deal with.”

  #

  We walked out the front door, my wife and I, and saw the guards Maximilian had claimed would be storming the house soon. They were armed, yeah. They were pointing their guns at me, sure. None of them would fire though.

  I wonder if that had anything to do with having my wife in one arm, and Maximilian’s severed head in the other? Regardless, they let us pass.

  We walked back to Angie’s house, not needing to say a word. We would have plenty of time to talk about what the weeks had been like for one another, but now wasn’t the time. Right now, we just wanted to enjoy being close.

  In time, we had those conversations. They were usually late at night after Ricky had gone to bed. I told her about the men I had killed before the rescue. I wasn’t apologetic about it, but I told her that I hoped I’d never have to do it again. She told me about what it was like driving through what would become a complete wasteland and what life was like at Angie’s for two women and a little boy.

  Eventually, people came to find me. They had heard about my rescue. Maximilian’s gang fell apart after he was dead, the remaining harem members allowed to go home. The thankful people came to ask me to make sure another thug couldn’t take Maximilian’s place.

  I didn’t want anything but to be with my family, but I understood what they were as
king. Too many people had tried to remain who they were, and that was someone who lived in a world that didn’t need warriors for the most part.

  Eventually, I consented. I didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done. We created a militia that kept the area safe. More and more people came, asking for their areas to join with ours until our territory encompassed most of North Georgia and a good portion of Tennessee.

  Simon and the caravan came back. Norfolk was a bit of a bust. The transmission had been an attempt to lure people into ambushes. Unfortunately, whoever laid it hasn’t expected a unit of battle hardened Marines to answer. The convoy had seen what was left. The Marines were holding the area, but it wasn’t what the group had wanted.

  They had heard about what we were building in the mountains and wanted to be part of that. I couldn’t say I blamed them. We were formidable. Raiders and bandits stayed out of the mountains, and I never had to take another life.

  Different times require different attitudes. Luckily, I managed to hold onto enough of my humanity that I could come back. I wondered how many people never did make it back.

  About the Author

  T.L. Knighton began his love affair with science fiction in a dark movie theater in 1977. That was when he saw the opening scene to the original Star Wars. A ship crossing the screen, laser blasts rocking it. He was hooked.

  He had written off and on since early elementary school. As an adult, he served as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy. Honorably discharged in 1996, he returned to his home town of Albany, Georgia.

  After working a variety of jobs, Knighton took up his pen again (metaphorically) as a blogger. He attained a level of notoriety for his writing, then made headlines when he became the first blogger to purchase a newspaper.

  Through it all was a dream of writing fiction. While non-fiction was enjoyable for him, the allure of writing about fantastic world and the brave men and the women who tame them was too much to miss out on forever.

  You can find him at http://tlknighton.com or on Twitter: @Tomcat1066

  If you enjoyed this story, then check out this sample chapter from Bloody Eden, as it follows Jason as he attempts to make it in this new world.

  Chapter 1

  A young woman, her blonde hair dirty and greasy, cowered in the stained corner. The room stank of human waste. She muttered a prayer, barely audible, for the family recently thrown into her own personal hell.

  The man, woman, and boy had been beaten, their facial features masked beneath the bruises and cuts. She could only tell that they had dark hair and dark eyes. Their barely conscious bodies piled in the center of the room, what had once been a living room in a suburban home. Dark stains covered the once white walls.

  Two men, one short and thin while the other was a full head taller and heavily muscled, stood looking down at the three. Malevolence gleamed in their eyes.

  The thin man cackled, his yellowed teeth dotting his open mouth. "Come on Earl. Lemme cut 'em this time?"

  Earl snarled at the newcomers huddled together, the man wrapping his arm around the woman and child, his embrace a shield that would protect them.

  "Come on, Earl. You got to cut the last two."

  Earl slammed the back of his hand into the other man's jaw, snapping his head back.

  "Ow! Whatcha do that for?" the thin man whined.

  "I can't think with you jawin' in my damn ear."

  The thin man rubbed his jaw. "Ya coulda just said somethin'."

  Earl looked at the family huddled in the floor and smiled ominously. "You're just gonna have to forgive my brother. He gets a bit excitable come supper time."

  The man looked at the woman and child, then back at Earl. "You don't mean…?"

  "I do," Earl said. "But you shouldn't fret none. Some of us have to die so that others may live and all that."

  "You're sick," the woman barked, he flaming red hair a harbinger of her spirit.

  Earl slammed the back of his hand against her cheek, her head snapping around. "No, we're not. We're alive. That's a damn sight better than most folks we knew from back when, now ain't it?"

  The big man pulled out a large knife, wiping it menacingly across his sleeve.

  A whimper sounded from the corner. Earl shifted his gazed toward the blonde. "I'll be with you in a minute. Now shut the hell up and let me work."

  Earl turned back toward the family. "Now, where was I?" His lips started to curl into an evil grin and instant before the front of his head exploded.

  The family jumped as they found themselves coated in blood.

  The front door crashed down, bodies pouring in, each armed with rifles. Gunshots echoes against the walls as the thin man jerked from the rounds punching into his body before finally falling onto the hardwood floor.

  The invaders filtered throughout the house. From time to time, one would call out, "Clear!"

  One of the men, shorter than most of the others with salt and pepper hair and thin like most people these days, knelt before the family. His dark red shirt and dusty brown pants contrasted against the pooling blood on the floor. On his hip was a leather gun belt with knife sheath that looked like it belonged in the Old West, except for the dulled nickel semi-automatic pistol resting in the holster. The knife was also a modern style looking slightly odd in the old timey rig. "You're alright. We won't hurt you," he said in a soothing voice. "I'm going to get you some medical attention, alright?"

  The man nodded.

  The kneeling man turned his head, yelling over his shoulder, "Hector!"

  A large Latino man, probably in his mid thirties, ran through the busted door. "Yeah, boss?"

  "Can you check these folks out? Make sure they're good to go?"

  Hector nodded. "Can do."

  The man in charge stood up and looked toward the girl in the corner. "We're gonna need you over there next."

  Hector nodded while poking and prodding the family.

  The other man walked toward the girl. "Like I said to them, no one's going to hurt you, alright?"

  The girl tried to pull more into herself, as if willing her body to shrink.

  Recognition seemed to dawn in the man's eyes. "Katie? Katie Miller?"

  The girl jumped at the mention of her own name. He knelt down and craned his neck, trying to put his face in her line of sight. "Katie, it's me. It's Jason. Jason Calvin."

  She turned her head to look at his face, still not meeting his gaze. "M…mister Jason?" she asked, the pain of speaking distorting her words.

  Jason smiled softly. "Yep, it's me. We've been worried about you for a while now. You alright?"

  Katie shook her head. "I didn't want to. None of it. I know I can't help what they did to me. That ain't my fault. I know that. But the other…"

  Jason gently touched her shoulder. "We know that, darlin'. We all know that. I don't suspect they gave you a whole lot of choice. No one here's going to judge you, alright?"

  He stood and grabbed a man passing by. "Get these chains off of her as quick as you can, got it?"

  The man nodded and ran off as ordered.

  ** ** **

  Jason helped the woman, who'd introduced herself as Megan Hernandez, into the wagon. It wasn't much, just the back end of a pickup truck modified to be pulled by a horse and a bench up front for the driver, like most wagons these days, but it didn't involve walking. Her husband, Mark, and their son Xander followed.

  Katie, the blonde girl, was cowering in the front corner of the wagon. Her eyes darted around the overgrown suburb like a caged animal.

  "I'm sorry for the lack of comfort," Jason said with a soft smile.

  "We're not really in any position to complain, Mr. Calvin," Mark said.

  Jason shook his head. "It's just Jason, okay?"

  Mark nodded. "Jason. Got it."

  "Excuse me, Jason?" Megan asked.

  Jason raised his eyebrows in answer.

  "We're appreciative, you've got to know that," she said.

  "But?" Jason heard
this thing before, and was ready.

  "What's going to happen to us?"

  "To start with, we're going to get you all some food. Fill your bellies. Then we're going to talk to you a bit, find out what you do or did, and most likely ask you to stick around."

  Megan took a deep breath, her face troubled. "And if we say no?"

  This was the part that Jason enjoyed. "Then we try to outfit you as best we can so you'll be as safe as possible on your way," he said. "We don't keep anyone against their will. We aren't those kind of folks."

  Jason looked at Katie. He could barely imagine what all she'd been through, but figured it would be years before the smiling face he thought of as hers would show itself again. "If Katie decides to talk, she can tell you a bit about it," he said, adding, "but I wouldn't push it. As bad as you folks had it, I think she may have had it worse."

  Both adults nodded. Hector declared them all fit for travel physically, though Katie was less than fit psychologically. Jason decided to load her up anyways. He didn't figure sitting around the house of horrors would be any better.

  Jason, not being a horseman, finally mounted up on a brown horse on the third try. "I'll ride right beside you folks, so if you've got any questions or anything, you just ask."

  The couple nodded as Xander's eyes drank in the surrounding sights. The wagon bumped down what had once been a highway, now overgrown with weeds. Abandoned cars, now nothing more than rusting hulks, littered the sides of the road and the median.

  "Everywhere else, the cars are in the road," Mark commented. "Folks in Tennessee just more polite in the face of a nuclear war of something?"

  Jason chuckled. "Not quite. This is New Eden territory, technically. One of our projects has been to clear the roads. They pushed them out of the way so the roads can actually be used."

  "New Eden?"

  "Home," he said with a warm smile.

  The hours dragged on as the group, five men plus the recently freed prisoners, pushed on down the abandoned highway. Jason made small talk with the family as best he could. They admitted they were originally from Texas, but had headed out of there shortly after seeing a mushroom cloud over Dallas while out driving.