Life After: Episode 1 (3 page)

“Where are the boy and the man?” Clark whispered.

Before Jeff could reply, they heard the woman’s
voice. “Try to find dry pieces, dear. We need to get the fire
started. Don’t want to eat them raw.”

Clark’s eyes opened wide. Eat them? Though he heard
of reports of cannibalism from fellow soldiers, he had no idea that
it would be at the hands of a woman so gorgeous as the one who
wielded the ax. He knew people sometimes got desperate, but
resorting to cannibalism was out of the question as far as he was
concerned.

From the cracked door, Clark heard a muffled whimper.
The boy!

“We have salt left, right?” the man asked. “We need
to preserve some of their meat in case no others come around in a
while.”

“That’s enough,” Clark said, reaching for his
rifle.

Clark lifted his firearm and pointed it at the man.
The man reacted by lifting his shotgun, but before he could fire,
Clark squeezed off a shot that hit him square in the chest. The man
tumbled to the ground with a thud.

The woman shrieked as she ran towards the open door.
Clark sprang from the brush and aimed his rifle at her back. The
first shot grazed her left leg. She screamed out in terror as the
second shot hit her in the back of the knees. She smacked her face
off of the forest floor and scrambled to get back to her feet,
though her attempts were futile.

“Keep an eye on her, Jeff,” Clark said, running past
the wounded woman.

At the door to the shelter, Clark peered in. A
kerosene lamp sat on a table near the center of the room. He
entered the space and saw the boy and the man tied to two chairs
near the table. Both were bleeding from blows to the head. The boy
looked up, but from the gag in his mouth, was unable to speak.
Clark removed the gag and heard the boy’s voice for the first
time.

“They were…they were going to kill us,” the boy said
faintly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Clark saw the man’s
head rise slowly.

“Let me get that off of you,” Clark said, removing a
gag from the man’s mouth.

The man looked at the boy to make sure he was okay
and turned to look at Clark.

“Are you okay?” Clark asked.

“As far as I know. Thomas, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” the boy said.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Clark said, pulling a
knife from his pocket. He used the knife to cut both of them
free.

Outside the cave, the woman still lay on the ground,
writhing in pain. Jeff aimed his rifle at the back of her head.

“What are we going to do with her?” Clark asked.

“I’ll take care of her,” Jeff said. “Start heading
south. I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.”

Clark removed his compass and determined which way
was south. “This way,” he said to the man and the boy.

They walked through the woods and heard a few birds
chirping in the trees. Clark heard the man’s voice from behind.

“Thanks again,” he said.

Before Clark could speak, a gunshot rang out from
behind.

Clark cleared his throat. “Don’t mention it.”

“So where are we headed?”

“To meet up with the rebellion down south.”

“And then what?” the man asked.

Clark turned around to look at the man. “Fight to get
our country back.”

# # #

TO BE CONTINUED…

IN EPISODE TWO

About the author:

JJ Holden lives in a small cabin in the middle of
nowhere. He spends his days studying the past, enjoying the
present, and pondering the future.

Contact JJ Holden at [email protected]

For more information on this series, go to
jjholdenbooks.blogspot.com

Be sure to check out an excerpt from Maxwell
Cunningham’s Spells Murder (A Todd Williams Story) at the end of
this ebook!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO…

…to help this writer, anyway.

Thank you for reading
Life After - Episode 1.
You’ve already made
your way to the top of my Favorite People list, along with George,
Paul, John, Ringo, Dean Koontz, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, and
Stephen Colbert.

But
there’s one more thing I’d appreciate if you have a few
minutes.

If
you enjoyed
Life After – Episode 1
(even if you kinda liked it), please LEAVE
A REVIEW TODAY.

For a
new writer like me,
reviews make a huge difference
between finding an audience and
writing in obscurity. I would write if I only had one reader. I’m a
writer and writers write. It’s in my blood. But the better my books
do, the more I can write for readers like you.

Please consider writing a review today.

Thank
you,

JJ
Holden

Enjoy the following excerpt from Maxwell
Cunningham’s
Spells Murder (A Todd Williams Story)
:

A Todd Williams Story

by

Maxwell Cunningham

Todd Williams’ retirement is cut short when he
discovers a mutilated corpse near his beachside home in Myrtle
Beach. In a note left on the body, the killer vows to strike again
each day. As the bodies pile up and body parts go missing, Todd
teams up with a local detective to put together the pieces of a
puzzle that will lead them to a shocking discovery about the
killer’s true intentions.

* * *

Day 1

Todd Williams wiped the sweat from his face and
listened to the squawking of the seagulls that flew overhead. His
body baked in the sun, and the smell of the salt water filled his
nostrils. He looked out at the crashing waves that glistened in the
afternoon sun. It was the end of March, and North Myrtle Beach was
still relatively void of vacationers.

As he looked out at the ocean, only a few people
blocked his view as they strolled past, mostly people who owned the
few houses that were not rental properties. Even some of the owners
of the beachside rental houses would occupy their houses before the
offseason had concluded and peak season hit. Even with the lower
rates they offered, most people chose to vacation over the summer.
As a beach-side homeowner, Todd did not plan to rent his house out
during peak season. He wanted to stay there all year long,
regardless of the astronomical rents that such houses commanded
during peak season. Besides, it was his only residence, and he
couldn’t imagine himself being anywhere else.

Todd left out a great sigh and turned to face his
wife, Melinda, who sat to his left in a blue and white striped
beach chair identical to his. “I know I say this every day, but
moving down here was a fantastic idea,” he said.

Melinda smiled. Her brown eyes matched her wavy hair
that flowed down past her shoulders. “It sure was.”

Todd returned his gaze to the Atlantic and could
practically feel the stress drip from his body. He had learned from
his most recent visit to his new doctor that his blood pressure was
much lower since he arrived to the area. Though memories of his
past lingered, he found solace in his new life.

They lay in their reclined chairs until their
beachside home behind them hid the sun and they were left in the
shadows.

“Let’s pack it in,” Todd said.

Todd folded up his chair, stepped into his sandals,
and secured the straps around his ankles. Melinda did the same, and
they walked the seventy-odd paces to their back doorstep. The warm
sand tickled his toes as he walked towards the two-story house that
they had recently purchased. A single flight of wooden steps led to
the back porch that sat about nine feet above the rocks below. The
wood of the porch was cracked from years of sun exposure. Todd knew
the house was a fixer-upper, but now that he was in retirement, he
was able to tackle one project at a time. He told himself that the
back porch was the first thing to fix. He knew a coat of sealant
would do the trick, but every time he was ready to start the job,
he looked out at the calming scene, and every time, decided that
the project could wait another day.

As they walked towards the sliding screen door that
led to the kitchen, he saw Melinda’s hand point towards the
chipping wood. “When are you going to—”

“—Tomorrow,” Todd said, smiling. “I’ll get to it
tomorrow.” He was unsure if he would actually do what he had
promised. In his mind, he was in retirement, so it can always wait
till tomorrow. He had spent years doing today what could be pushed
off until tomorrow. Now he would revel in the fact that he could do
the opposite. He could procrastinate if he wanted to and nobody
would die as a result. Nobody’s lives were in his hands, and he was
glad.

Once unlocked, he slid the door to the left.

“After you,” he said.

“I’m going to take a quick shower,” she said.

“Go get started,” he said. “Maybe I’ll join you…”

Melinda giggled. “Todd, you’re so bad.”

He smiled and looked into her eyes before she turned
around and entered the kitchen.

“I try,” he said.

He heard her sandals clap against the Pergo flooring
in the kitchen as she walked to the refrigerator. Outside, he heard
the occasional gust of wind and the chatter of seagulls. He took a
deep breath and thought for a moment of how happy he was.

His thoughts of happiness were stopped cold by a
horrifying scream. Todd raced to the edge of his porch and peered
down the beach in the direction from which the scream came. His
heart raced at the sound that reminded him of the horrors of his
old life, the one he had left back in Edinboro.

For a moment, he thought his symptoms of post
traumatic stress disorder were reemerging. Perhaps the scream was a
figment of his imagination. He had come so far in his treatments
and meditation, but perhaps a small sliver of his past had come
back into his mind in the form of a sickening scream.

Then he heard Melinda’s voice behind him. “What was
that noise?” she asked. “Is someone in trouble?”

The fact that she heard the same sound confirmed that
it wasn’t an auditory hallucination. Someone was in danger.

Todd turned around and looked at Melinda, who had a
concerned look on her face. “Lock the door,” he said. “I’ll be
right back.”

Her voice was quelled with fear. “Be careful,
Todd.”

Todd returned to the warm sand and surveyed his
surroundings. His arm instinctively moved towards his side where he
normally holstered his beloved .38 Smith and Wesson Special though
it was not there. He reached into his pocket, but all he found was
his cell phone. He knew there was no time to waste in running up to
their bedroom and grabbing his gun from the lockbox. No time when
someone was in trouble.

The beach was empty since most beach-goers were
fixing dinner after a long day of uninterrupted sunshine. Before he
could move, he heard a second scream, this one more blood-curdling
than the first. He ran in the direction of wretched sound, unsure
of what he’d discover. In his mind, he thought of all of the
possibilities. He prepared himself for an atrocious scene, one out
of the nightmares he used to have on a nightly basis. The
nightmares that had been becoming more rare.

He expected to hear a third scream, but it did not
come. As he ran, he looked for any sign of life, but there was
none. A few people ran onto their back porches and looked around,
but none joined Todd to search for the source of the terrible
screaming.

On his left, large dunes separated the beach from the
sandy street. He alternated his gaze between the vacant beach and
the dunes. The beachgrass swayed in the increasingly hostile wind.
Perhaps a wicked storm was brewing, appropriate for the storm in
his mind that had been pacified for so long. Part of him hoped the
scream would be from a couple who was fooling around, maybe from a
day of drinking too many martinis on the beach. He knew that was
wishful thinking. He knew that it wasn’t as innocent as that.

He continued to scan the dunes, and noticed something
dark in the sand. He ran closer and saw a dark human form lying
amongst a plethora of beachgrass. A body.

He ran towards the body and, in seconds, realized it
was that of a woman facedown in the sand. Her right foot was buried
in the sand, with only the top of her pale ankle visible.

Todd spoke with caution. “Ma’am. Are you okay?”

No response.

He stepped closer.

“Ma’am?”

Still no response. He crouched down next to her and
saw blood dripping from a gash in her throat. Drop by drop, it
reddened the sand below.

He studied her face and saw something sticking out
from her closed mouth.

His voice was quiet. “What in the world?”

He stood up, retrieved his cell phone from his shorts
pocket, and dialed 911.

After a single ring, the operator answered. “Is this
an emergency?”

Todd looked at the woman who lay motionless on the
sand. Then he quickly turned his gaze to the dark clouds near the
horizon. “I found a dead woman along the dunes,” Todd said.

“Are you sure she is dead? Please use your—”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Todd said. “Her throat is slashed.
Blood is everywhere.”

“We’ll send someone right away. Please stay where you
are.”

Todd pocketed his cell phone and waited. He looked at
the body, hoping to see any sign of life from her. No movement from
her torso from breathing. No twitching from her extremities. She
was motionless, and he knew she would remain that way. There was no
doubt in his mind.