The Survivor Chronicles: Book 1, The Upheaval

• Title Page
  
• CHAPTER 1
  
• CHAPTER 2
  
• CHAPTER 3
  
• CHAPTER 4
  
• CHAPTER 5
  
• CHAPTER 6
  
• CHAPTER 7
  
• CHAPTER 8
  
• CHAPTER 9
  
• CHAPTER 10
  
• CHAPTER 11
  
• CHAPTER 12
  
• CHAPTER 13
  
• CHAPTER 14
  
• CHAPTER 15
  
• CHAPTER 16
  
• CHAPTER 17
  
• CHAPTER 18
  
• CHAPTER 19
  
• CHAPTER 20
  
• CHAPTER 21
  
• CHAPTER 22
  
• CHAPTER 23
  
• CHAPTER 24
  
• CHAPTER 25
  
• CHAPTER 26
  
• CHAPTER 27
  
• CHAPTER 28
  
• CHAPTER 29
  
• CHAPTER 30
  

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Copyright 2013

Also from the author

The Captive Series

Captured (Book 1)

Renegade (Book2)

Refugee (Book 3)

Salvation (Book 4)

The Kindred Series

Kindred (Book 1)

Ashes (Book 2)

Kindled (Book 3)

Inferno (Book 4)

The Ravening Series

Ravenous (Book 1)

Taken Over (Book 2)

The Survivor Chronicles

Book 1: The Upheaval

This book is dedicated to Eric and Steve.

Thank you for bringing so much joy and laughter into my life.

You are still loved and missed every day.

Special thanks to my husband and best friend, and

my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews who make life more interesting and fun.

The Survivor Chronicles

Book 1: The Upheaval

Erica Stevens

Copyright Heather Cox 2013

Published by Gilmour-Cox Publishing at Smashwords

CHAPTER 1

John

Cape Cod, Mass.

7:22 am

John hit the blade switch on the mower, threw the safety locks and turned the key off. The grass of the large field was blowing gently in the breeze, the heads of the uncut dandelions dipped and bowed. The scent of fresh cut grass permeated the air from the three passes with the mower he had just made. He frowned as he searched the clear blue sky. Birds had taken flight, but that meant nothing. They were always taking to the air in search of some fish, new clams, or fresh roadkill. The tops of the trees swayed, and fortunately there was a sea breeze that helped to ease the oppression of the humid July day.

“Did you feel that?”

Carl was leaning against the hood of the work truck; the cigarette dangling from his mouth caused smoke to trail lazily up into one of his eyes. Years of smoking had inured him to this small annoyance however. Beneath the brim of his beaten Red Sox hat, Carl’s weathered face was scrunched as he worked. The ends of his light brown hair, already damp with sweat, curled against the bottom of his cap.

“Feel what?” he inquired as he pulled on the string of the weed whacker and popped the head back on with the ease of an expert.

“I think the ground just shook.”

He looked up at John in disbelief before bursting into laughter. Pulling the cigarette from his mouth, he flicked off the growing ash before propping it back between his lips. “Are you high?”

“No.”

“Still drunk from the weekend, then?”

Annoyance coursed through John as he shook his head and released the handles of the mower. He was tired; it was Monday morning, the start of what was going to be a long, hot workweek. He wasn’t in the mood for Carl’s sarcasm, and John knew he had just felt something. He didn’t need Carl laughing at him for it. “No man, I’m telling you I felt the ground shake. Like a tremor or something.”

“What do you think this is, California? Last time I checked, earthquakes weren’t all the rage in Mass.”

John didn’t think anything was all the rage in Mass, but he bit back that retort. Carl was a good guy, they had been working together for almost two years now and got along well enough, but Carl gave life to the term Masshole, and anyone that knew him would agree. Carl was set in his ways and he didn’t like to have his world shaken in any sense, regardless of what John was certain he had felt or not.

It wasn’t the end all and be all of the world. Earthquakes had happened before in Mass, but it was the first time John had actually felt one, and though it had been disconcerting, it had also been kind of cool. That was what he was trying to get across to Carl, but he wasn’t about to start the week off on a bad note by arguing with the guy over it. They’d done so before, and they were both stubborn enough that it had only ended up making the week far more miserable than it had to be. Otherwise, Carl was good to pass the time with. They had enough in common that the conversation never got old, and they had enough original stories to keep each other laughing through the repetitive days of mowing lawns. But whenever they argued the week was uncomfortable and boring, and John really wasn’t in the mood for one of those weeks. The impending heat wave was going to make it bad enough as it was.

“Whatever. You’ll see. It’ll be on the news later,” John told him.

“I’m sure it will. Now how about you get that mower fired back up and let’s get this place done already. There’s a cold beer calling my name.”

John sighed. Seven in the morning or not, he would’ve loved a cold beer right now. It would taste great on this already hot day and help ease the lingering headache he had from late Saturday/early Sunday morning. He’d spent most of yesterday sleeping, but he could still feel the effects of too much booze in his partially dehydrated body.

John was just reaching for the key when he felt it again. A strange shuddering in the earth, but it wasn’t an actual shaking. It was almost as if the ground was vibrating, building toward some cataclysm that he couldn’t even begin to fathom. For a second he thought that perhaps there was a ship passing by, since they were close enough to the canal to hear them as they passed. But then he dismissed the idea. There wasn’t a boat big enough to give off these vibrations from such a distance. He looked down, expecting to see the earth jumping and lurching beneath his feet like it did in the movies. Instead it seemed to be shimmering as it pulsated with a vibrant force that wasn’t exactly an earthquake, but didn’t quite fit into any other term he’d ever heard used for natural phenomena.

Awe and shock fading, true terror burst through him as he realized that this wasn’t cool, and it also wasn’t stopping. He jumped away from the mower as it also began to shudder, the motion of the earth causing the machine to twist on its wheels with a small groan. It wasn’t running, but it was heavy and he definitely didn’t feel like getting run over by the thing. John scurried to get out of the way, struggling to keep his balance as he staggered over the pulsating ground. The land was flat, but it was suddenly an intense effort to make it the few feet to where Carl was clinging to the work truck, his mouth gaping and his face ashen as he gawked at the earth beneath his feet.

Birds soared high, cawing and shrieking loudly as the trees began to shake forcefully. Something snapped loudly to his left, perhaps it was a branch, perhaps a tree, or perhaps it was the ground itself. The sound beat against his eardrums, then continued to echo throughout the air. The truck began to make an awful, twisting metallic sound that caused Carl to release his death grip on it.

He was only twenty four years old, he wasn’t ready to die. Yet as the ground continued to make any escape near impossible he was consumed with the certainty that this would, in fact, be his last day on this planet.

And then, just when he thought that he couldn’t stand anymore, as he prepared to scream like a girl and tear his hair out...

...it stopped.

The ensuing silence was nearly as unnerving as the turbulent quivering had been, but it was also blessedly wonderful. He staggered forward, nearly falling to his knees as he strained to stay upright. The world had stopped shaking, but his balance had been thrown off by the upheaval. Taking a deep breath, he focused his attention on Carl. John was about to tell him I told you so, and inform him of just what a Grade A dick he was, when a rending occurred.

John was never entirely sure if there actually was a sound, if he actually heard the tearing of the Earth or just felt the jolt of it in the marrow of his bones, perhaps all the way to the center of his soul. He felt something drain out of him, maybe it was his blood dropping to his toes; maybe he even pissed himself.

All he knew for certain was that he would never again know the world as he had known it before that moment, that very instant. He knew that everything would be forever changed, and not in a good way.

The noise seemed to echo throughout the sky. It rolled for what seemed like an eternity. When it was over the ensuing hush proved to be almost as unnerving as the rending and shaking had been. For a few seconds, nothing moved or made a sound as the entire world seemed to hold its collective breath.

Then it erupted in a clamor. Car alarms began to blare, echoing through the day as horns and beeps pierced the profound silence. Birds shrieked in distress as squirrels darted crazily through the trees. John took a startled step back as one of them suddenly came shrieking across the lawn toward him. It jumped and bounced wildly, chattering shrilly as it dashed forward. John just managed to avoid the creature as it screamed past him and ran headfirst into a tree.

He stood still and watched in horrified fascination. The dazed creature staggered around a moment, righted itself, and then slammed head first into the tree once again. Blood sprayed from the wounded animal’s battered skull. It fell but gathered its remaining dregs of strength and slammed into the trunk again. Finally, thankfully, the creature lay still.