Hour of Impact [Impact Series, Book One][An Apocalyptic Survival Thriller] by Harley Vex

Author:Harley Vex [Vex, Harley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

TESSA

She stood back as Reem motioned for their group of survivors to continue past the frat house with the collapsed roof. They walked along the fence line, across the dry grass, as the shouts of the fraternity faded onto campus.

Tessa hoped no one had been sleeping in the attic when the air blast hit, or they’d be dealing with yet more bodies. She didn’t look at the collapsed portion. Her eyes had adjusted too much to the rust-colored twilight gloom to filter out the horrific details.

She and the others had to stay sane somehow.

“It can’t be too much longer,” Louie said beside her. “And if those guys were walking and lucid, more people will be back in that neighborhood. It was more sheltered than all those tall buildings back on campus. We might encounter a lot of cuts and bruises in the people who are still alive, though.”

“You seem to know a lot. And that’s a compliment.” Tessa forced a smile at her.

“Thanks? I try.”

They had spent little time together, but it was clear Louie had impressive medical knowledge for someone who had no formal training. Like her, bad luck and life circumstances had thrown her onto a path full of roadblocks. Someone like Louie should already be in a prestigious program, not still scraping for a GED. Perhaps she would have been friends with someone like Louie if her life were normal.

Perhaps she would have had friends, period.

Alex? She couldn’t figure him out. He seemed to have life made, and yet, he didn’t.

She just knew that something had happened. Reality changed for those who had something happen. Alex saw it through the same lens she did. He just reacted differently.

Alex walked in silence beside them, and Reem took the lead around the next frat house.

“An opening? Anywhere?” Bethany asked, studying the fence.

Reem kept looking. “There has to be one.”

They had a stretch of open grass to walk on. But the debris and damage on the frat house row formed a wall that seemed too dangerous to cross. Fallen trees littered the ground everywhere, and almost everything but the evergreens had ignited when the ejecta fell. Broken glass lay on the ground, the remains of broken-out windows, and cars sat in a rear parking lot with busted windows and sometimes bubbled paint. A figure sat inside one with that stiff posture that Tessa now associated with death by heat.

Another young life.

Stomped out.

The universe didn’t care. And Tessa wanted to scream at it each time they turned a corner.

Fallen trees and even a power line blocked the way around the next three-story house, and the next. Just as Tessa was about to shout that they should turn back and find another way around, Reem pointed. “There’s an opening. I hear voices.”

The echoing sounds of guys floated from between two houses ahead, one of which was still mostly intact save for some busted windows. The one beside it had blackened from fire and stood only as a skeleton. Smoke rose from the rubble, and Tessa’s stomach turned at the smell of burned wood.

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