Lightning in The Twilight Sky: Prologue and Chapter One

Lightning in The Twilight Sky- book 1: The Beginning of The End trilogy

 

Prologue

 

The road is long. I can see the sun peaking over the dusty, shadowed path. After losing everything, everyone, I'm walking in these dirty old clothes, sunglasses, a low battery iPod and headphones in my ears, a rucksack over my shoulder, and a hand gun in my pocket.

This place is desolate, worn down, like the rest of this God-forsaken world. Here, in this nuclear winter, the cold seems to make my bones stronger. I'm done crying, done whining like a small child over things I couldn't stop from happening. I couldn't stop those murders, couldn't stop those injections, viruses, fumes...

I hold my head up high and choke down the last of my tears. A long, dark ponytail sweeps across the back of my jacket. Crickets, frogs, birds. I remember the sounds that used to haunt the days and nights. But, there are no more trees, no more sounds. I sweep these now useless memories into the back of my head and move on in the silent and dirty air, a scarf over my nose and mouth.

And down the road I walk, alone; ready to kill anyone who crosses my path. And here, I start to feel the young girl I used to be crack open like an egg shell and fall to pieces at my feet.

Now, here is a woman; Tough and ridged from the years of loss and pain; ready to fight.

 

Chapter 1

 

The end of this world. It has happened so quickly, like in the blink of an eye, but we aren’t surprised….the world. People are still dropping off the Earth like flies. Hopeless animals lay down on the side of roadsides waiting to die, knowing that the air is contaminated. The Third World War has only been the beginning. Diseases spread like wild fire. There are new diseases of all kinds, from sexual to cardiac to brain damage, but seventy times worse than the original infections. The billions of humans on the Earth along with the countless animals drop dead where they’re standing. These things happen, but we were warned. We were warned.

Everyday, of course I would like to end, but I feel as though something keeps me from ending. My dead family, my friends, everyone I've ever loved, perhaps… I carry their souls in the back of my mind l as if carrying their remaining memories in my rucksack.

For seven days, I walk across roads torn apart from bombings. I wind myself around old mine fields. I walk until I must sit down and drink from my canteen of water. Every place around me was a battle ground several years ago. Dust is all around me: in the air, what's left of the water, my lungs, covering the decaying bodies and dry skeletons scattered across the miles and miles of dessert. This place used to be Arkansas, I believe. I lived in Florida and I have no idea how long I've been walking. I just started walking when the last of my family dropped dead like the last drops of water on parched lips.

I turn up my iPod volume at these thoughts, to keep my family and friends fresh spirits from talking to me, from drilling into my sanity, my strength, my spirit, my survival. "We're all born to broken people on our most honest days of living." states the singer in my worn- out headphones. He sings of God and faith. I try not to doubt God, but it's hard not to when He seems to have just up and left us.

I try to keep my sanity by listening to music, but the battery is extremely low. It reminds me of my goal. Find a building, find something... That means food, water, shelter...

I see a wrapper of candy on the road I'm on. Half of a child's old Barbie doll is not far from it. I can't help but smile because this means I'm not far from some kind of civilization.

 

Reviews

[Brooklyn]

Great chapters. I can't wait to see what happens next.