Read The Battle: Alone: Book 4 Online
Authors: Darrell Maloney
As usual, he’d removed his clothing in anticipation of her arrival. He was naked, sitting on the bed with his back against the headboard, fondling himself while waiting for Sarah to fix his bump and inject it.
But not everything was as usual.
His eyes widened when he noticed the 9mm pistol in Sarah’s hand.
“Holy crap. Where in hell did you get that?”
“It’s funny that you should mention hell, you son of a bitch. Because that’s where you’re headed.”
Sarah planted her feet, raised the weapon and went into a two-handed shooter’s stance.
She expected him to cry like a scared little girl and to beg for his life. Or to plead with her to give him one more chance, so he could change and be a better man.
But he did something totally unexpected.
He laughed at her.
And it caught her off guard.
“You won’t shoot me, Sarah. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Her curiosity was piqued.
“Why in hell do you think I won’t?”
“Because you love me. You’ve always said you don’t, but I can see it in your eyes. You’ve loved me for a very long time. Perhaps you still believe you don’t. But in time you will.”
“Wrong, asshole. I have never loved you. I never could because you’re an animal. And you’re wrong about something else too.”
He was unmoved.
“Oh? And what’s that?”
She fired two rounds into his bare chest. One pierced the left side of his heart, the other pierced the right.
As blood poured out of both holes, his head slumped forward against his chest.
“I
will
shoot you. And you
will
go straight to hell. Bon voyage, you son of a bitch.”
With that, she fired five more rounds into his dead heart. It was unnecessary, she knew.
But it sure made her feel better.
Spent, she dropped her hand, then turned and walked toward the bedroom door.
Dave met her outside the door and held her.
For several minutes neither said a word. No words were necessary.
It was over. After a long and tortuous year, it was finally over.
They might have stayed there forever, gently rocking back silently in each other’s arms. But Sarah suddenly remembered that Lindsey and the others were downstairs, waiting to learn what had happened and probably worried sick that something had gone wrong.
She took her husband’s hand and hurried down the stairs.
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Thank you for reading
ALONE, Part 4: The Battle
Please enjoy this preview of
ALONE, Part 5: Her Name is Beth
ALONE, Part 5: Her Name is Beth
will be available worldwide in April, 2016
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Dave stormed out of the room, inconsolable. He’d just asked Sarah where his “little sweetheart” was… his Elizabeth.
Beth had always been his baby. He’d spoiled her rotten from day one. Sarah and Lindsey sometimes got jealous over the attention he gave her. He knew he doted on her, but he couldn’t help himself. She was just so tiny, so dainty, so…
precious
.
And now, when he asked for her, he realized she was gone. He knew because of the pain his question brought to Sarah’s face. And when his jaw dropped and he looked to Lindsey, she turned away. She couldn’t bear to look at him. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
Lindsey started to chase after him, but her mother put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
“No,” she said softly.
“This is my job.”
Sarah was only a few seconds behind him. But those few seconds were all Dave needed to rip the boards away from the front door and walk onto the front porch and then into the yard.
By the time she got to him he had collapsed on the ground beneath a huge oak tree.
It was the same oak tree where he’d pushed little Beth on an old tire swing when they’d come to the farm to visit three years before.
The swing was still there, slowly twisting in the wind.
Beth was long gone.
Sarah went to him, there on his knees crying uncontrollably. She went to her knees as well, and wrapped her arms around him.
“Why? Why? Why did I wait so damn long to come for you? I could have braved the winter months. Should have braved them. I should have been here months ago. Maybe I could have prevented it.”
Sarah’s tears started to fall too. Not for little Beth, for she was beyond that. But for Dave, because she knew the way he felt. As though someone had plunged a dagger deep into his heart.
“No, honey. Even if you’d have been here months ago, you wouldn’t have been able to change a thing.”
No other words escaped either’s lips for several minutes.
Finally he composed himself enough to ask, “How did she die?”
It wasn’t until that moment that Sarah realized: he didn’t know. Then she felt incredibly stupid and cold. Of course he didn’t know. How could he have known?
“Honey, you don’t understand. Beth isn’t dead. She’s still alive.”
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If you enjoyed
ALONE, Part 4: The Battle
You might also enjoy
RED: The Adventure Begins
RED: The Adventure Begins, is available now from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble Booksellers, and at darrellmaloney.com
Here’s a preview…
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Red had a worried look on her face.
And Red never worried about anything.
“Dad, I don’t like this. This isn’t just a typical blackout. This is something worse. Much worse.”
“Now, honey, don’t jump to conclusions. It’s only been a little more than a day. We’ve had blackouts that lasted longer than this before.
“Look at it like an unearned vacation. We didn’t ask for it, but it’s here. Let’s take a day off and go fishing. Heck, we can’t do anything here anyway.”
But Red was adamant.
“No, Dad. You aren’t listening. Haven’t you noticed we haven’t had any traffic since the power went out? I mean,
none.
In a day and a half we haven’t had a single car roll into town. You know why? Because the cars are all dead, that’s why.
“Bonnie and I rode up to the highway this morning. I wanted to see if I could find which transformer blew, and whether they had a crew out there replacing it.
“What I found instead were abandoned cars, as far as the eye could see, in either direction. Many of them had their hoods up, like their owners had been trying to get them running again.
“There are people up on the highway just wandering around, not knowing what to do. People sleeping in their cars. People in shock.
“Dad, what in the world could possibly cause all the cars to stop working at precisely the same time all the power went out?”
Her father’s face suddenly turned ashen.
He stumbled over his words.
“A nuclear blast at high altitude could have caused it. But only a few countries have the capability of doing that. And they have no reason to. It would harm them as much as us.
“There’s only one other thing I know of that could cause such chaos.”
He didn’t want to go on.
But she needed to know.
“One of the things pilots study is the affect the other planets and sun can have on our own planet. How their gravitational pulls can affect our compasses and such.
There’s a phenomenon that can occur during a massive solar storm. If the storm is large enough, it can send electromagnetic pulses toward the earth. Those pulses can short out anything that runs on electrical power.”
“Dad, please tell me it’s just temporary. That things will start working again once the solar storm has passed.”
“No, honey. I’m sorry. If that’s what’s caused this, then it’s permanent.”
He held her close before finishing.
“And we’re all doomed.”
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If you enjoyed
ALONE, Part 4: The Battle
You might also enjoy
FINAL DAWN
Available now at Amazon.com, darrellmaloney.com and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.
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What would you do if you finally found the love of your life, and were making plans to spend eternity together - and then found out that eternity was only two years? Mark is a romantic and carefree young engineer, and a bit of a cornball. His beloved Hannah is a beautiful scientist. Pragmatic, intelligent and analytical, she longs for the family she never had, and a change from her horrific childhood. Mark offers that change, and her life is finally complete.
Then Hannah discovers that mankind is doomed. Suddenly their lives become a mad scramble, to find a way to save themselves and everyone they love.
An excerpt from FINAL DAWN:
Sometimes the gods of fate smile upon you, and bestow on you a treasure of such magnitude, such wonder, that you pinch yourself over and over until you finally believe it’s really real.
And sometimes those same gods bestow upon you a bowl of smelly, steaming crap.
They seldom do both within the same week.
Mark Snyder finished the breaker box tie in just before losing his daylight. He’d been working in an empty house for days, all alone in his thoughts. He hated jobs like this. No one to talk to, no other voices to listen to, other than the ones in his head. The house was only about eighty percent complete. Not far enough along yet to have power.
The electricians were supposed to button everything up by the end of the week. And yes, he could have waited until then to start installing the security system. But he had several other jobs going on at once, and he was trying to maintain his good reputation for coming in on time. So while most people would have taken Sunday off to watch the ball game and relax, he was here instead installing security cameras.
He’d come back on Saturday and check all the cameras to make sure they were working, then install the operations console.
But for now, he’d done everything he could do without electricity. He loaded his tools back into his Explorer and headed home. Enough is enough.
Mark picked up his cell and called Hannah.
“Hey, Babe. I’m on my way. Is the game still on?”
“Hi, honey,” she said. “No, it’s over, but you’ll be proud of me. I recorded it for you so you can watch it when you get home. The Cowboys lost at the last second when Washington kicked a field goal.”
Mark winced and bit his lip. He resisted the urge to tell her it’s not so much fun watching a close game when you know how it turns out.
Instead, he praised her. Because after all, she was the light of his life and the best thing that ever happened to him.
“Well, thank you, my love.” He said. “Are you trying to out-sweet me again?”
Hannah replied “Nope. Not trying. I won that contest a long time ago. I just wanted to show you how much I love you.”
She went on. “If you want some beer you’ll have to stop and get some. Bryan came by to watch the game with you. I told him you were working and he asked if we had some beer. I told him to check the fridge. He took all we had and left. Said if we weren’t going to watch the game, then we wouldn’t need it. He said he’d take it to someone who had the game on.