A Town Called America (38 page)

The explosion was massive; smoke and fire shot into the sky as each deck of the cruise ship burst into flames, one after another, as it struck the oil rig. All that was left was a twisted mass of steel that slowly sank into the ocean below.

The remaining people aboard the refuel vessel were headed toward shore. Chris and Robbie sat in the lower deck in the darkness, avoiding the sun.

“I…I need the truth about something,” she told Robbie. “I know you won’t lie to me. When I was underwater, Rick—well, he saved my life, but when I looked at him, I’m not sure…but his eyes…I think they were black. I need to know the truth. Was Rick a vampire?”

Robbie laughed. “A vampire? Really? You know he’d be the last person to be a vampire.”

“Well, if Rick was human, then he’s dead now, and I’ll have to live with that. But if he was a vampire, then he’s not dead—he’s just trapped—and if that’s the case, maybe we can find a way to help him. I need to know, Robbie, if he was still human.”

“Chris, it was cold, and I’m sure it was dark underwater. If anyone was human, it was Rick.”

“OK,” Chris said, knowing she’d lost the one person who’d been with her since the beginning, the one person who’d rescued her from herself. Despite their differences Rick always had been a man of integrity, strength, and kindness.

Although Robbie didn’t want to lie to Chris, it was the only way Chris would be able to cope and eventually move on. If Rick were alive, Robbie knew there was no way they’d be able to find him, but if Chris thought he was alive, she’d never stop trying to reach him.

As the boat moved through the calm waters, Chris and Robbie sat in the darkness, reminiscing about the times they’d shared with Rick. They both laughed and cried that morning, remembering the joy he had brought to their lives.

“Remember that stamp collection and how much crap Rick gave Billy for it? Or the time we all fought over a lighter?” Robbie asked.

“Yeah, and what about his stupid obsession with Elvis?”

“Hey, now, that’s the one thing Rick did have right,” Billy yelled from the cabin above them. “There’s nothing wrong with Elvis. But who would’ve thought that a man obsessed with Elvis as much as he was would have gone on to lead an army?”

“You’re right,” Chris said. “He always managed to surprise me.”

EPILOGUE

I
n the following years, Chris returned to her beach home with Billy. When she arrived she wasn’t surprised to find that Mick wasn’t there.

She had hoped Mick would be waiting there with Jessica and Egan, and they could move on with their lives. She had thought perhaps Mick would apologize for abandoning her; just maybe he would tell her he had been wrong to take the children from her.

Reality is seldom what people play out in their minds, and Chris knew it the moment she and Billy arrived and found the beach house empty.

For years Chris stayed in that beach house with her father. Billy had the daughter he always wanted, and Chris had the father she needed. As the years passed, whenever they had visitors, they spoke about life before the global collapse as well as how four friends had saved the world from nine evil vampires. Their guests, however, always believed the stories to be tall tales.

On a number of occasions, Chris went in search of her children but always returned home more disappointed. Finally, when her children would have been in their midsixties, Chris stopped looking for them and accepted the fact that sometimes bad things happen to good people, and sometimes good things happen to bad people. That’s just how life is.

Robbie and L.J. helped establish the new Free States Union, a people’s government that functioned as the founding founders of the United States had envisioned. They stayed on for years, working tirelessly, until their successors were appointed. Once the new leaders were able to function without oversight, Robbie and L.J. stepped back for a time to ensure stability, and then they were gone. At the time no one was sure where they went or whether they planned to return. After a decade it was clear they were gone for good, so a statue was erected in their honor. Its inscription read,
GOOD MEN OF HONOR WHO RISKED THEIR LIVES FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF MANKIND
.
YOU BOTH WILL FOREVER BE REMEMBERED AS HEROES OF THE LAST AGE
.

For a time the country was better; new officials were appointed, and new laws were established. But as history has shown so many times, nothing can last forever. The years turned into decades, and eventually what Chris had warned Rick about came to pass.

In the process of gaining freedom for humanity by destroying the M.M. and the Nine, Rick had made a mistake that inevitably would lead to the destruction of the human race. He had given the order to free all the slaves on the M.M. bases, unaware that what he thought to be human slaves were vampires. The Nine were dead and had been the only means to control the vampire population. After being released from their cages, the vampires grew in number faster than anyone could imagine.

Within forty years they outnumbered the human population by three to one. They multiplied by feeding on humans and changing them just because they could. They were lawless and reckless, and with no balance, human civilization disappeared from the face of the earth as the vampire population rose from its ashes.

Eventually the vampires starved themselves out of existence. With the demise of humans and vampires, great cities, buildings, dams, and all other structures slowly crumbled, as nearly all intelligent life had disappeared. Vegetation swallowed up any hint that life on earth ever had existed. Soon not even memories were left, only the remnants of a civilization long extinct.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A
ndrew Alexander is a first time author who has served on active duty in the United States Army for fifteen years, and has deployed in service of our great nation three times. Andrew grew up in Alaska and attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks before enlisting in the army in 1999 as a Military Police Soldier.

Writing and becoming a published author has always been a dream and passion that Andrew wanted to pursue. With the end of a twenty-year career in the military quickly approaching, he has done just about everything he could possible want to do, from serving as a Drill Sergeant to deploying. Finally after a decade and a half Andrew buckled down and took the necessary steps to accomplishing his one remaining goal.

A Town Called America was initially wrote while Andrew was deployed in Afghanistan in 2012. Writing between missions on scrap paper, and when time allowed, eventually what started out as a short story to pass time turned into a grand adventure that not only allowed Andrew an escape reality of the war, if only in his own mind, it set him on a journey that would lead him on a completely new path in life.

Andrew is currently stationed in Alabama. He lives with his wife Lisa, three children, two dogs, fish and a frog.