From the window, Emily could see out across the edge of town and back in the direction she had travelled the previous day. Rolling waves of battleship-gray smoke covered most of the area, pushed along by a light breeze towards whatever this town was called. At their furthest edge—Emily estimated that to be about three miles or so—she could see a partition of flame moving within the smoky shroud.
The wind was gradually pushing the fire closer to the house and she expected the quaint home, along with the surrounding neighborhood she had taken shelter in to be little more than ashes by this same time tomorrow morning. For now though, she was in no immediate danger. As long as she kept her word to Jacob and left soon she felt confident she could quickly outdistance the fire.
Emily made her way back down the stairs and readied the backpack, repacking the few things she had used the previous night. A quick reconnoiter of the kitchen cupboards turned up two more cans of soup, a can of green peas and a jar of hearts of palm. Emily added them to her stock. She also decided to keep the blanket she had found. She rolled it up and tied it off with a piece of string she found in a drawer before securing the blanket to the bottom of the bergen using the two loops there.
“Okay, doggy,” she said to Thor, as she gingerly pulled the bergen up onto her shoulders and gave one final look around the living room to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. “Let’s go.”
Once outside, Emily could see the smoke had already grown thicker. It collected in the street and seemed to cling to the air, refusing to move. Emily coughed as she inhaled the smoke and Thor gave a couple of snorts then sneezed loudly, shaking his head and spraying drool in all directions. She pulled the bike from the hedge where she had left it, wiping a sheen of dew from the seat; the last thing she needed to start her day was a soggy butt. The bike’s metal frame was cold against her hands.
Emily wheeled the bike down to the main road, mounted and began pedaling along the small side street until she hit the main road. Making a right at the junction Emily began riding away from town, north towards her future.
EPILOGUE
Emily and Thor crested the rise of the hill.
In front of them, the freeway lay clear and empty, stretching out toward the horizon. Behind them, several miles distant now, Emily could see the town they had left behind, almost entirely hidden within a swirling bank of smoke. Beyond that, she could see the fire stretching away into the distance, a glowing arc of flame consuming everything in its path, alien and earth bound alike. It did not discern between either.
Emily looked down at her dog and then back to the open expanse of blacktop leading north into the distance. “Well boy, are we ready to do this?” Thor gave a loud bark and began padding his way forward along the road.
“Talkative mutt, aren’t you.”
Emily set off after the dog. Whatever lay before them was in the future and right now, in this moment, as strange as it sounded even to her ears, Emily couldn’t have been any happier.
The past, where the old Emily lived, well, that was gone, swept away forever. The future was unknown, nothing more than potential and full of unpredictability. There were very few certainties left. Emily found that oddly comforting.
The one truth she could clearly see was this was no longer
her
world, it belonged instead to the invaders who had wiped humanity from the planet in a single day. She, and all the survivors left on this rock they called home, were now the aliens.
And it was going to be up to her and whoever was still left alive out there to try to take it back.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Follow the adventures of Emily Baxter in book-two of the series EXTINCTION POINT: EXODUS, coming Summer 2012. Join my mailing list at
www.DisturbedUniverse.com
to receive early notification of its release
.
Afterword by the author
Dear reader,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read
Extinction Point
. As you’ve probably guessed, there’s a lot more of Emily and Thor’s story to tell. I expect there will be at least three —probably four—books in total before we are done with their journey. I’m aiming to release two books a year; depending on how well this first book in the series sells.
So, if you’re interested in hearing the rest of their story, I’d encourage you to sign up for my mailing list at
www.DisturbedUniverse.com
. I promise the only time you will hear from me will be to tell you about a new book release.
As an independent author, I don’t have the kind of resources at my disposal that authors signed to a publisher have. So, I have to (happily) rely on my readers and fans to spread the word. If you have a second, I’d like to encourage you to leave a review (good or bad, don’t hold back) at Amazon and let others know what you thought of the book. You will have my undying gratitude and help ensure that Emily’s story continues.
I’ll be starting on the second book
Extinction Point: Exodus
sometime in April, and I hope to have it ready for release in August. Things are about to get a lot stranger and a lot more dangerous for dear old Emily. I’d love to hear what you thought of my book, so please feel free to post comments on my blog or send me a message via my Twitter account, @PaulAntonyJones.
As an added thank you for taking a chance on an unknown author, I’ve included the first twenty-chapters of my first novel Towards Yesterday. You’ll find it on the next page.
PAUL. JONES
TOWARDS YESTERDAY
PAUL ANTONY JONES
~ A Novel ~
© 2011, Paul Antony Jones
Self publishing
email:
[email protected]
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
For Karen, with love
PART ONE
NEW YEARS EVE - 2042
One
Do I dare disturb the universe?
T.S. Elliot
– New Orleans -
The noise from the street was deafening. Shouting and singing blended with the occasional burst of raucous laughter, which in turn combined with the happy squeals of drunken women. The
whoop
of a police car’s siren clamored to overcome the combined voices of thousands of inebriated revelers. Instead, it became a counterpoint to the melody of yelling and singing rising from the mass of dancing bodies as the squad car slowly pushed its way through their midst.
Jim Baston, his eyes red and tired, tried to concentrate on the paragraph he was writing, but the blare of the rowdy crowd below his window was just too distracting.
“
Save tonight’s work and forward a copy to the house’s inbox, please
,”
he said quietly
.
“Yes Jim.
” The female voice of the computer’s AI was soft and comforting. “
I’ve done as you requested Jim,”
the AI said a second later.
“Is there anything else you would like
?”
“No thank you. You can shut down. I won’t need you for the rest of the night.”
“
Very well. Oh! And Jim…
”
“Yes?”
“
Happy New Year.”
“You too,” he whispered.
For the past ten years, he had been coming to this same hotel. Same room, every time. On first name terms with the owners (a pleasant couple from North Carolina), he didn't even have to tell them his name when he called two months ahead to confirm his arrival. His reservation for the following year penciled in each time he ended his stay.
This was the quiet part of the city, too; he could only imagine what it would be like in the more popular areas. He felt like throwing open the windows and screaming at the crowd to
shut the hell up
! Couldn't they see he was trying to work? Didn't they know how important this book was to him?
Of course, who could blame them? It was, after all, New Year’s Eve, and if he had even half a life he would be out there too, welcoming in the New Year in as much of a drunken stupor as the rest of the city.
Instead, he stood, stretched his aching arms - careful to avoid the ceiling fan that twirled almost noiselessly overhead - and walked stiffly to the window, pulled up the blinds, pushed open the French doors and stepped out onto his balcony.
The noise that had been a grumbling rumble now became a cacophony, bolstered in part by Jazz and Salsa bands scattered throughout the city.
The sound swelled up like a wave over the balcony, washing over him.
From his third story vantage point, Jim looked out over a significant part of the city, its incandescent glow helping the full moon to fight back the darkness. Far off to the south a thick roll of thunderheads, black and roiling, threatened a damp end to the year. But Jim didn’t think a sudden soaking was going to do anything to squash the spirits of the thousands of revelers walking the streets this night.
Resting a shoulder against the doorjamb, he pulled an already opened soft pack of Marlboro's from his shirt pocket. Tapping out one of the remaining cigarettes, Jim lit it with an antique Zippo, sheltering the fragile flame from the light breeze gusting over the rooftops with a cupped hand.
He took a long drag, held the smoke in his lungs for a few moments before exhaling it into the cool evening air in one long, slow breath. He was trying to give the things up, weaning himself off them by using them as a reward. When he completed five pages of the book, he got to have a smoke. Of course, he had been using the same excuse for the last ten years or so - didn't look like his technique was working too well.
At twenty dollars a pack, it was amazing that anybody could still afford to smoke the damn things. Countries and presidents, ideologies and industry; they all came and went, but cigarettes outlived the lot of them. Jim wasn't sure whether that was a testament to the resilience of people's freedom of choice or just to the obscene amount of money that tobacco companies still threw into their marketing and advertising campaigns.
He hadn't completed his five-page quota today; it wasn't for lack of trying on his part, and he'd be damned if he was going to take a ride on the guilt-trip-express just because he fell down this once.