Friday Snippets: The End of the Line at Omega

I changed my mind. Iris gets a snippet next week to finish this section. Figured she needed another and I like her so far - she has potential to be a great contrast to Dell.

I identify much more with the Dell character, so naturally, it's the easier for me to write. Who do you see yourself as? Are you a Dell or an Iris? An Andrew or Caleb? If any of you are Corleones (Dell's cat), you rock so hard.

Anyway, this week picks up from the last snippet. Journeying from Andrew's farm in Greenville, they are robbed of one of their horses and very nearly their lives. But they do learn Ashville has been nuked. After Iris rescues Andrew from the thieves, they flee into the night. So, this week...

Let me know what you think and please leave a link to your own Friday Snippet!

Copyrighted, do not reproduce, material liable to change. Etc.

Iris stirred, dew heavy in her hair. She dreamed fire and mushroom clouds, bones bleached under the sun and oceans burned to ash. She dreamed of home and the long summers after graduation when she sat on the beach alone.

Half-awake, she felt for the silver chain around her neck, hidden below her shirt. The smooth metal against her fingertips and the pendent over her heart were reassuring. She opened her eyes in the dark before dawn. Andrew’s jacket covered her but the place beside her where he should have lain was cool. She sat, shouldering into the over-long sleeves.

Andrew sat across from her, his face a blur of shadow. She shrank back when she saw the long gun across his knees.

“What’s wrong?”

“Iris,” he said. His face was very pale. When they stopped their mad ride from the thieves on the road, both had agreed to sleep the night through and continue in daylight. His hair was ruffled and wild. He looked as if he hadn’t slept.

“Iris, there’s something you need to know. While you were sleeping, I saw–” He cleared his throat. He wouldn’t look at her. “I saw others on the road.” Iris felt something cold settle against her heart. Her fingers clenched around the sweat-stiff fabric of his coat. “They were burned, Iris. From head to toe. And they didn’t speak. I don’t think they could.”

He shivered, his face twisting horribly. She could smell his sickness and her stomach turned. She wrapped her arms around herself, imagining ghostly figures slurring out of the fog. Andrew’s voice dropped. He seemed to look through her. “They didn’t see either. They just walked. We can’t stay here.”

“Jesus, Drew.”

“They’re coming from the Traveler’s Rest,” he said. “I just wanted you to know when we ride down there…I wanted you to know what may be waiting for us.” She nodded, swallowing nothing but fear, like freezing fire. He mounted and pulled Iris up behind him; when they stepped tentatively onto the road, her eyes widened.

Through the morning mists and dawn shadows, a large track tank crouched like a nightmare in the street.

As their horse reared, Iris clung to Andrew; she could feel his heart thundering through his back. Through the morning mists and dawn shadows, a large track tank crouched like a nightmare in the street. Behind concrete barricades and sandbag hovels, men in olive drab sighted down machine gun barrels. A voice, thin with stress called out in the dusky morning shadows.

“You are under orders to turn back. No civilians are allowed past Checkpoint Omega. Return to your homes!”

“We’ve come for news,” Andrew called. “Our power’s been out for about three days and nothing – not cars or cell phones or computers – nothing works. We’re from Greenville. What’s going on? Has the governor called out the national guard?”

And that was when the man behind the barricade began to laugh.

So say we all.
Bri