Jacqueline Druga - Fallout

Someone on the bus told Cal that if they had driven straight through they would have arrived in about seven hours. But it wasn’t that easy. Just after six in the morning, the yellow school bus arrived. There were two people already on the bus when Cal and another man boarded.

There was a sense that they were no longer prisoners. They were given food for the trip, beverages. There were two soldiers on the bus, but they were told it was for their safety, especially with all the rebel activity.

They travelled south, then north again, hitting various camps and towns to pick up people. All of whom were going back home. It was a United Nations bus. By the time they picked up the final passenger in Charleston, West Virginia, there were twenty-five people in all. Not all were from the UK, some were from Spain, Germany, France.

Cal wondered with each stop they made, Would this camp be hit? Would this one be liberated?

He started to get worried as it pushed toward noon. He knew there was going to be a coordinated attack, he just didn’t want to get caught in it.

But when it was announced Charleston was the last stop, Cal relaxed.

With every mile covered, the mood on the bus lifted.

Cal wondered what he was going home to. Surely, somehow, his home had to be affected by what happened in America. Were they on the brink of war or would Cal sail across the ocean to an unscathed UK?

He didn’t have any details and no one offered much of an answer as to what the voyage would entail or how long it would take. Just that when they arrived, they would board the ship. He spent a lot of time staring out the window, watching the mile markers as they cruised down a barren highway.

A part of Cal was excited. He felt as if he had been rescued from the nightmare. He couldn’t wait to get home, find his family and friends. Hold them in gratefulness. He didn’t look the same as when he left. In the short time he was gone he’d not only lost weight, he’d lost his hair. The doctor at the camp told him it would grow back.

Someone on the bus shouted out, “Just saw a sign. We’re almost there.”

The bus cheered, then in a few seconds, came to a grinding and screeching halt. The stop was so fast that the tires squealed, the bus slid sideways, and items and people flew about.

Cal shot out his hands catching himself before he plowed face first into the seat before him.

Everyone shouted, questioning what was happening.

Cal looked up and saw the driver and the soldiers running from the bus.

“What the hell?” Cal said outload.

“Where are they going?” a person shouted.

“What are they doing?” people asked.

Cal stood, as he made his way up front, and looked out the window. The soldiers and the driver were running fast and into the wooded hillside.

Cal pushed his way to the front and followed three others off of the bus. The others followed.

There wasn’t a car around, not a soul or sound. Cal stood in the middle of the road, baffled. The others surrounded him and were behind him.

Cal was in his own thoughts, one world, trying to figure out what to do.

“They keys are on the bus,” someone said. “Maybe we should take it.”

“They ran for a reason,” said another voice.

“He was on the radio,” someone said behind Cal. “I couldn’t understand a word of it.”

“Were they warned about something?” asked another.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t understand.”

“Maybe it’s a trap.”

“Oh my God. Look.”

Cal heard that and spun around. When he did, everyone was staring up.

The moment Cal lifted his eyes upward, his soul felt as if it left.

The cloudless blue sky was the perfect canvas to the white chemtrails of the rockets that streamed in perfect unison westerly above their heads.

There was no way to tell where they were headed and where they would land. All Cal knew was that he wasn’t going home.

It wasn’t over. Not for him, not for America, and not by a long shot.

Jacqueline Druga is a native of Pittsburgh, PA. She is a prolific writer having penned over a hundred titles. Her works include genres of all types but she favours post-apocalypse and apocalypse writing.

You can find more about the author:

Facebook: @jacquelinedruga

Twitter: @gojake

Website: www.jacquelinedruga.com

When Leah and Calvin found out they were expecting, they were over the moon. That day would be one to remember forever…but for more reasons than one. That was the day the world changed. That was the day joy turned to fear. A deadly virus broke out, with many of those infected becoming violent and uncontrollable. And it was spreading fast.

Copyright © Jacqueline Druga 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the publisher.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any person or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No affiliation is implied or intended to any organization or recognizable body mentioned within.

Published by Vulpine Press in the United Kingdom in 2018

Cover by Claire Wood

ISBN: 978-1-912701-15-5

www.vulpine-press.com