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The Tracks 09/07/24 Freedom    “Jacob!”    He could hardly see, his frantic eyes finding terrifying shapes of imaginary men outlined in the tapestry of forest leaves flying past.    “Jacob, stop! ”    Her words didn't register. Time, that's what they needed. To put as much time and space between them and the creature as possible. The cold wind stung against the tears on his skin and his feet fell harder and faster as they fled further away from the empty city.    “Jacob — ”  

The Candle Of The Wicked 09/07/24 One hour to sacrifice    Jacob slipped out of the armory and obsessively checked his watch. Six o'clock exactly, almost time to move. His tense muscles trembled from nerves as he tried to look like he was walking as casually as possible through the sparsely-populated jail corridors towards the cell block, simultaneously sneaking his hand into his pocket and leaving the remote trigger he had just acquired safely inside.    As a building, Dawso

Recompense 09/06/24 One day to sacrifice    Every moment after was a daze. They ducked under the steel entrance to Dawson City Jail and separated almost immediately, leaving him standing solitary and outcast amidst the disorganized grounds as they dragged Diana Koh away to her waiting cell for slaughter.    Jacob Porter gradually moved about the campus, nearly invisible to the other inmates around him, his mind swimming in dreadful thought. He didn't want  to think, but the f

One Wrong Step 09/06/24 0 days until Ring inspection    The last day finally came, and they were getting out.    That late August morning was perfectly dreary for their plan. Diana woke Jacob before dawn, both of the wanderers weary and craving the fantasy of even a scrap of food, but the quiet knowledge that this was all they had been working towards kept their weary spirits as determined as they could be in their hungry fatigue. The rumbling gray clouds above them threatene

The Calm Before The Storm 09/02/24 Four days until Ring inspection    As much as they both wanted to get moving straight for the exit, their encounter at the train station had robbed them of all their supplies. Her notes, their meager stores of food, the lantern—everything that was in that bag had been ripped out on the asphalt a block away. That tiny solar panel tucked away in her jacket pocket was mockingly useless now without the lantern, but at least they still had the kn

What You Are 08/31/24 Six days until Ring inspection    “Diana? Diana!” He was shaking the woman violently but her eyes were not opening. “Diana!”    Smoke and dust from the explosion hid them from the city. Jacob crouched at her side in the haze, bruised from being thrown by the blast, but hurled into action by fear’s sharp sting. Splatters of food and smashed cans from her bag decorated the pavement along with the shredded body parts of the inmate who had unintentionally ta

King’s Street Station 08/31/24 Six days until Ring inspection    The city of Dawson lay silent, blanketed in a thick fog, every shape twisting into a monstrous silhouette in the haze. Two figures darted between spots of cover, their eyes locked on the clouds, the heavy mist making them second guess their every move.    “We're almost there.”    Jacob may not have visited these streets since the end of the world, but he had come into the city a few years before the meteors lit

Her Faith 08/27/24 Ten days until Ring inspection    “Ah!”    “Shoot,” she muttered, the touch of her hand cold on the burning flesh. “That's looking worse, don't you think?”    He nodded quietly, wincing from the tug of the ugly wound as she carefully re-wrapped it. Walking to her backpack with his old dried and bloodied bandaging in hand, Diana tipped the jug of water over the fabric, trying to clean it up as much as possible. Jacob scrunched his nose as he watched the prec

Cat and Mouse 08/24/24 Thirteen days until Ring inspection    Down the stairwell, through another floor, and down two more flights of stairs. Unfinished walls of chipped concrete mixed with rebar surrounded the pair as they wove through the abandoned office building. Jacob blinked in the light from glassless windows. They may not be in the open air yet, but that did not mean they were out of danger. If the crippled creature was stalking them as Diana suspected, it could be hi

“We need to get out of here.” 08/23/24 Fourteen days until Ring inspection    Over the next week Jacob learned only bits and pieces about the unusually charitable woman keeping him alive. Diana left before he woke every morning, carefully sneaking down from the relative safety of their high hiding place and scavenging the block all day to bring back what little food and supplies that were left to find before the disorienting darkness of nightfall made the streets too dangerou

The Plan 08/15/24 Twenty-two days until Ring inspection    A dull ache in his bones slowly dragged him back into consciousness. Jacob lifted his head from where he had been cradling it with a low groan, blinking the sleep from his weary eyes. Every muscle burned. The fall the night before had bruised him, sure, but the real hurt was coming from his leg. The injured man squinted down at it in the darkness of the unfamiliar room. No, it hadn't been a dream. The flesh was still

The Stranger 08/14/24    A gasp seized in Jacob’s throat, sending him lurching up and out of the weight of the ruins burying his body. He panicked as his breath caught up to his starved lungs and he clutched at anything and everything around him in a frightened rush of confusion and terror.     “Let go of me!”    He felt two hands connect with his shoulder as the woman who had rescued him shoved him away angrily, stumbling as she emerged from the pile of wreckage that engulfe

The Ring 08/10/24 7:21 AM    The Ring. A cordoned-off area, grown over four years to encompass nearly the entire bombed-out dead city. It...

(Don't forget to read the prologue first.) Job Done 08/09/24 Four years after the end of the world A shadowy figure stumbled on the uneven ground, desperately ducking and weaving through debris as thunder rumbled like a bomb above the silent city. The gasping breath of the frantic man was the only sound in the street that was louder than the storm. Discarded bones cracked under heavy footfalls as he scrambled through the rain for an exit, searching wildly through ivy-cove

Prologue 05/19/20 Two days after the end of the world One family in a sea of doomed survivors. Darkness lay heavy over the...