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91 pages

English

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Description

After a global apocalypse, a young woman fights for survival against the savage land the world has become. Shattered, torn, and inhabited not only by the infected but the most notorious criminals that now run free, the world is against her every step of the way. But she will fight until the end.

Sujets

Adventure (Guyana)

Science fiction

Adventure

Informations

Publié par	First Edition Design Publishing
Date de parution	01 janvier 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781622874972
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0360€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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This Land We Once Knew
Gracie Brown

First Edition Design Publishing
This Land We Once Knew
First Edition Design Publishing
This Land We Once Knew
Copyright ©2014 Gracie Brown

ISBN 978-1622-874-96-5 PRINT
ISBN 978-1622-874-97-2 EBOOK

LCCN 2014930281

January 2014

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ─ electronic, mechanical, photo-copy, recording, or any other ─ except brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author or publisher.
This Land We Once Knew

by
Gracie Brown
One
Sparrow Jacobs looked down at the body beneath her feet.
It was a woman, a woman with raven black hair and beautiful sea glass eyes. Or at least they had been sea glass eyes. Film had gathered around the edges and they stared up at her, unseeing. A little pocketknife lay atop her hand, thrown behind her; blood pooled underneath her head.
Sparrow blew out a breath and, trying not to breathe in, reached down and snagged the pocketknife from the corpse. Wiping it on her jeans, she tossed it into her backpack and slung it back over her shoulder. She stepped over the body carefully and continued down the street, gripping her shotgun tightly in her hands.
Chicago was completely deserted. Pieces of building were chipping away, streetlights were out or completely gone, cars clogged the streets and sidewalks, and worse of all, it smelled. Awful. She tried not to gag as she weaved in and out among the cars, some still containing the poor souls who had gotten trapped or had frozen in fear. Well, at least that’s not me , she thought as she past one such car, its driver slumped over the wheel.
Eight months. That’s how long those bodies had been sitting there. Eight months since this disease had turned most of the population into disgusting, flesh eating… things . During the initial onslaught, the reporters had called them zombies for five minutes before the satellites went out, but Sparrow had come up with a different name: Hybrids. It was more appropriate; they weren’t decaying or anything, and she could kill them any way she could think of. But she hadn’t seen any since entering Chicago (any live ones, at least), and that was making her nervous. She glanced around anxiously for any signs of movement, but there was none. She swallowed.
Squish! Sparrow looked down and swore heavily; she had trodden right on one of those dead Hybrids that were lying around. Her boot was covered in all sorts of gross matter and she kicked the tire of a nearby truck, trying to get it off. She eyed the Hybrid as she worked. It looked like it had been shot in the chest; it shirt was stained red. Its eyes were closed, but Sparrow knew what they really looked like, all veined with a red tinge. Its skin was dusty from lying in the road for so long and blue veins snaked their way from the tips of its toes all the way to its cheekbones. A discolored blouse and shredded slacks partially covered its body. Sparrow stopped her task, having gotten off most of the filth, and bent down. A little lighter was nestled between the folds of the blouse near its waist. She grabbed it quickly and threw it into her pack.
“Don’t think you’ll be needing this,” she said, glaring at it; it didn’t respond. She hurried around it and continued on her way.
She was lucky her sister, brother, and sister’s boyfriend had been with her when the disease had spread. Her father was already dead, having drank too much one day, and her mother was on a business trip, and she didn’t know what had happened to her. True, her sister was a wimp, boyfriend a jerk, and brother only three, but it was better than no one. But now she had no one; her sister and her boyfriend had changed into Hybrids and attacked her. She was forced to kill them, but they had already gotten her brother, she couldn’t save him. That was two months ago.
She whirled around to her left, shotgun up, sure she had heard something. A few minutes passed, but there was no sound. She lowered her gun and started walking again.
“C’mon Jacobs, loosen up. Not a great place to start hearing things,” she scolded herself. A sharp wind coasted down the street and she shivered, pulling her black zip up closer to her. She had managed to lift it from a local Macy’s back in South Bend, along with her jeans, boots, and black tank top, but she had nearly gotten overrun. She wasn’t going to be stopping by a store anytime soon.
She came to a junction and looked up; State Street, one of the signs flashed. Her mother had said their Aunt Victoria lived on State Street, just across from the Chicago Theater. Sparrow could see it now, all the lights broken, but still very bright. She jogged down to the building across from it and cautiously slipped in.
There was so much dust that she sneezed severely, causing clouds to float up and settle back down. She sniffed and wiped her nose, trying to remember what her mother had said. She had either said Floor two, apartment 1B or Floor five, apartment 5E. Better try both, just in case. She walked over to the elevator and pressed the button. She waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing happened. She groaned, walked back reluctantly towards the stairs, and started to climb.
Luckily, apartment 1B turned out to be correct, as Sparrow recognized all the rotting garlic her Aunt had placed in the nooks and crannies of her home. Her Aunt had been convinced the vampires were coming for her and wanted to be safe at all costs; she had even stopped going outside for the past two years. Sparrow tried to breathe through her mouth as she waded through all the junk scattered on the floor.
“Aunt Victoria?” she called out softly back towards her Aunt’s room, “It’s Sparrow. Are you okay?”
There was no answer. She bit her lip, but didn’t call out again. Instead, she went into the kitchen, opened the pantry, and stuffed all the dry food she could find into her pack. Stuffing her mouth full of a lone Debbie snack cake, she went back to the door and grabbed the keys to her Aunt’s Volkswagen Passat from their bowl. She hoped it was still there.
“Bye Auntie,” she whispered before closing the door behind her, not noticing the arm jutting out under the overturned sofa. The arm was pale white and thickly veined.
Sparrow raced outside and clicked the car opener button; the Passat’s lights flickered right in front of her. Breathing a sigh of relief, she bolted in, snapped herself in, and pulled out into the road. Weaving through the jumbled mess, she headed toward the sign Highway 88 .
*****
“EE-van! Don’t want to go!”
Evangelia Jacobs grunted something unintelligible and glanced down her nose at little Ben. “I didn’t want you here either, Ben, but Sparrow insisted you came.”
“Don’t put this all on me,” Sparrow snapped, crossing her arms, “You’re the one who was too lazy to get a babysitter.”
Evangelia spared her a withering look as the cabbie coughed, impatient for his money. She dug around in her wallet for loose change as Sparrow took Ben’s hand, squeezing it affectionately.
It was a bright Wednesday morning in Philadelphia. There were quite a bit of people out and about on a workday; the streets, usually crowded, were over-crowded, people honking at others to move forward or at jaywalkers after barely avoiding them. The sidewalks were a little bit better, but not by much; a couple college frat boys wolf whistled at Sparrow, but she ignored them. Evangelia argued in a low voice with the cab driver, apparently not liking his price; he didn’t budge, firmly crossing his arms and leaning against the door. Sparrow sighed and tugged impatiently at her shirt, eager to get this over with.
Her sister was ecstatic that her long distance boyfriend, Rob, was flying in to stay with them for two weeks; Sparrow was less enthusiastic. Since their mother was on a business trip down in Florida, Evangelia could do whatever she wanted, as long as their mother didn’t find out. Rob was charming, polite, romantic, and just oozing charisma, and she loved him. But he was also selfish, egotistical, and a jerk, at least in Sparrow’s eyes. She had caught him with several other girls multiple times, but it was just her word against his. He always won, and he knew it.
She hated it that he was staying a couple weeks with them, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She secretly wished he would fall into a fiery hole and stay there, but she pretended to look at least slightly happy as she watched Evangelia hand the cabbie his money. He snatched it, and was at the driver’s side before she could blink. He slid in and slammed the gas; the cab jumped forward into traffic and disappeared behind two UPS trucks. Her sister turned to her and she smiled, but it felt like a grimace.
“Well, let’s get this over with,” she muttered to herself as Evangelia brushed past her, her face already shining. Sparrow tugged Ben’s hand and they followed her toward the entrance of the Philadelphia National Airport. She was immensely glad it wasn’t as crowded as she had thought it would be. If she slapped Rob, nobody would even see, even though she’d probably be grounded for a month.
“Sparrow,” Evangelia said and she started, “I’ve said your name like three times. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, shaking her head a little, “I’m fine. Just spacing.”
“Well, you almost took out the old geezer at the doors, so try to pay attention,” her sister flounced past her in a whirl of skirts; she was wearing her new bohemian dress. Sparrow unenthusiastically trudged after her, pulling Ben behind her.
The lady at the front counter squinted as they drew near. “May I help you?”
“Yes, I was wondering if you’d seen the most honest, gorgeous man ever,”