Jim Thorn - Arrival - A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

“Mom!”

Page moved out of the way and Maya kneeled next to her mother. She flipped the woman’s frail body over to see a gash in her head. The wound wasn’t bleeding, but blood had pooled on the floor around her. Luckily, her mother was breathing.

Maya rolled her over and the woman’s eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Mom, it’s me, Maya. I’m here.”

Her mother groaned, her eyes opening all the way as she looked around the room. Then she focused on Maya, her chin dropping.

“Maya?”

Maya pulled her mother into a sitting position. She grabbed the back of Maya’s shirt, gripping it tightly. After a long embrace, Maya pulled away.

“What happened? Where’s Laura and Aiden?”

Her mother’s eyes went pale. Tears flowed as she shook her head.

“What is it?” Maya asked. “Where are they?”

Sniffling, Elizabeth said, “I couldn’t stop him. He showed up and broke through the back door. I tried, Maya. But he took them. He took the kids.”

Maya’s jaw fell open as the realization struck her. That familiar crooked smile, the slicked-back hair.

“I said, ‘Gerald, please don’t do this. Let them stay here.’ But when I tried to stop him, he hit me with his gun.”

“He came in here with a gun?”

Elizabeth nodded. “I am so sorry, Maya. I tried to stop him. But I just—”

Maya embraced her mother again.

“It’s okay, Mom. There was nothing more you could have done.”

Maya groaned, tasting the anger rising in the back of her throat.

Maya sat on the top step of the front porch, staring at the house across the street. She should have known he was capable of something like this. Now, after everything, Maya would have to put aside her rage and think of a way to find Gerald, in order to get her kids back.

The porch door opened behind her.

“Mind if I sit?”

Maya shifted to the side and Elizabeth sat next to her on the step. She had changed into clean clothes, and the bandage Maya had wrapped around her head was still in place, a dark red spot over the wound where it had absorbed the blood.

“How’s that feeling?” Maya asked.

“Better. I’m a little lightheaded, and it still throbs.”

“It’s going to leave one nice scar.”

“I’m alive. That’s all that matters.”

Maya nodded. She was thankful for that, too. Her own headache had intensified, and swallowing several ibuprofen hadn’t helped. Whatever it was, she knew that passing through the dome had hurt her in ways she couldn’t understand, but it wouldn’t help to share that worry with her mother now.

“How did you get out from beneath the dome?”

“I had help. A new friend may have revealed a weakness, but it’s going to take more than one determined mom to fight back against the aliens.”

“What do we do now?” Elizabeth asked.

“I’m going to figure out where Gerald took my children. Did he say where they might be going? Did he say anything?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “He yelled a lot.”

Maya exhaled. “Is your phone charged? I guess I finally need to talk to him.”

Her mother didn’t reply. She turned her head sideways and raised her eyebrows.

“What?” Maya asked.

“You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Phones aren’t working—no internet. We don’t even have power. It all went out days ago. Well, not all of it. Phones went first. Power went a day or so later. And radio signals faded out yesterday.”

“What? How can that be? It doesn’t make sense! I mean, it was like that inside the dome, but I don’t understand why it would be like that out here.”

“The radio was saying yesterday that it’s been like that under the other domes, too. But I don’t know—”

“Hold on,” Maya said, standing up. “What did you say?”

“I was just saying that I don’t know if—”

“No. Did you say, ‘other domes?’”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, ‘domes.’ You didn’t know that the dome over Nashville wasn’t the only one?”

Maya walked down the stairs and halfway to the curb before turning around and looking at her mother. She put her hands on her head then, and screamed, the sound reverberating through the empty neighborhood.

“The domes are everywhere, Maya. The aliens have arrived everywhere.”

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We want to send a special ‘thank you’ to authors Colin F. Barnes and Chris Fox who took time out of their own busy writing schedules to help us with some of the science shit in this book.

J. Thorn is a Top 100 Most Popular Author in Horror, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure and Fantasy (Amazon Author Rank). He has published over one million words and has sold more than 170,000 books worldwide.

He is an official, active member of the Horror Writers Association and a member of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers. J. is a contributor to disinformation.com and a staff writer for HeavyPlanet.net as well as a founding board member of the Author Marketing Institute.

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Zach Bohannon is a horror, science fiction, and fantasy author. His critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic zombie series, Empty Bodies, is a former Amazon #1 bestseller. He lives in Tennessee with his wife, daughter, and German shepherd. He loves hockey, heavy metal, video games, reading, and he doesn’t trust a beer he can see through. He’s a retired drummer, and has had a beard since 2003—long before it was cool.

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