Skull's Shadows (Plague Wars Series) Page 22

  Nathan stopped and slowly looked at his son. “Why on God’s earth would you want to do something like that?”

  David stepped back and crossed his arms angry, “Whatever. Just trying to help. I did shoot them after all.”

  “Just go get those other two bodies and then clean the blood off the floor,” said Nathan as evenly as he could.

  “Fine,” said David as he turned and walked away into the approaching twilight the shotgun slung low over his back.

  Nathan paused and watched the boy stride up the hill. If someone had told him three months ago that he would have to suffer teenage attitude from his seventeen year old son because he did not allow the boy to finish killing two people, Nathan would have thought them crazy, but that was exactly what just happened. David gave him the same reaction when told he could not stay at a friend’s house or watch a late movie on a school night. Nathan had known a few men in combat who took to killing, but none as readily and easily as David. It wasn’t that David was homicidal; he just did not seem to feel any empathy for those in his way. Killing was just a chore to him similar to taking out the trash or doing the laundry.

  Nathan bent back over to the man who was, thankfully, already dead. No such luck with the poor woman. Her eyes followed him like a wild horse, but there was no hope for her; it was a wonder she was alive at all. The buckshot had taken off part of the side of her head, leaving a portion of the brain exposed.

  Nathan wanted to tell her he was sorry. Even so, he knew that was his weak effort at trying to alleviate his own guilt. Even if there was, by some miracle, a way for this woman and her friends to let him off the hook, he knew they were dead because of him. Folks just like us, he'd told Joshua and it was probably true.

  Nathan clenched his teeth and reached down to gently turn her head so the pleading eyes faced away. He neatly sliced open her carotid artery, allowing the blood to gush into the snow before standing up and moving away from the horrific sight and nauseating odors of death.

  He stretched his squat muscular frame tense with painful exhaustion. He wasn’t exactly short, but his fireplug physique made him appear shorter than he was. Nathan walked stiffly a few feet away to breathe in the cold dead air. He watched the sickly yellow sun set over the snow-covered hills. The quiet and stillness felt more ominous than peaceful. There were suddenly no sounds, even the wind stopped. The whole vastness of the earth is a gigantic open grave, thought Nathan and shuddered.

  Nathan sagged down against a tree in sudden grief. Did I save his family for this? Is the world nothing but a rotting corpse? Are we fooling ourselves?

  He climbed slowly back to his feet brushing the slimy snow off his body. I might be a fool, he thought, but I know no other way. The choice is simple and will be decided each day and each moment. Death or life? Despair or hope?

  A gust of wind brought the sound of his boys talking. He could tell by the tone the open animosity was gone and they were brothers again, just like in days past. Maybe only for a little while, but it was something.

  Nathan felt strength and purpose flow into him. I must keep them alive. I must maintain hope, however pathetic it might prove.

  Nathan turned and resolutely climbed up the hill to his family and the awaiting light and warmth.

  The End of the Glimmer of Hope excerpt. You can find Ryan King's many works on Amazon.com.

  Plague Wars series:

  The Eden Plague Book 0

  Reaper's Run Book 1

  Skull's Shadows: A Plague Wars Novel

  The Demon Plagues Book 2

  The Reaper Plague Book 3

  The Orion Plague Book 4

  Cyborg Strike Book 5

  Comes The Destroyer Book 6

  Look for them at your favorite book provider or visit www.davidvandykeauthor.com

  Ryan King's Land of Tomorrow series:

  Glimmer of Hope

  Children of Wrath

  Paths of Righteousness