Valley of Death (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 2), page 1
Apocalypse Gates
Book Two:
Valley of Death
Daniel Schinhofen
Copyright © 2018 Daniel J. Schinhofen
No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form by an electronic or mechanical means – except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews – without the written permission from the publisher.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2018 Daniel J. Schinhofen
All rights reserved.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter One
Gazing at the monstrosity that flew overhead, Alvin felt a sinking sensation in his gut. “Fuck me. Dragons? Really?” The words were harsh in the silence as everyone kept their gazes locked overhead. “Jarvis, can you explain this?”
Jarvis blinked into existence with a sigh, “It seems the Apocalypse Gates have opened. They open onto different worlds with different races and customs, many of them from myths or legends. I never thought the Draconian Gate would be among the first to open.”
“Is there a way to shut them?” Bill asked as he watched the giant dragon and the smaller ones fly west.
“I can’t answer that question,” Jarvis’s voice was a mechanical monotone.
“Great,” Alvin huffed. “I bet we’ll have to cross into the other worlds to find our answers.”
“That is a decent hypothesis, sir,” Jarvis replied, his voice back to normal.
“Dad,” Susan said, her voice loud in the hush, “we need to focus on defenses for the next little bit, especially if things like that are going to show up.”
Those words snapped people out of the stupor they had all fallen into. A cacophony of voices rose as almost everyone began to talk at once. Fear at the thought of a dragon descending on them spread among the group, causing general panic. Alvin was reminded of sheep, bleating in a field, afraid of the wolves in the woods. He listened to the rising panic, even as Bill tried to get people to calm down.
“People!” Bill shouted multiple times, but his attempts were drowned out by the crowd.
Alvin rolled his eyes, then willed his handgun to appear in his hand from his glove. Pointing it up and away from the buildings, he fired a single round. The sharp crack of the gunshot instantly quieted the crowd, and all eyes went to him. With a snarling smile, he looked to Bill, who gave Alvin a grim nod.
“Thank you, Alvin,” Bill said, before turning to the crowd. “Now, I want y’all to not panic. The beasts flew west, which means they’re likely headed to Hollywood to be in the movies.” No laughter greeted his joke. Shrugging, he continued, “The point being, they ain’t here right now. We will be focusing on defensive upgrades starting now. So y’all need to take a few deep breaths and calm the fuck down.”
“You still leaving?” Susan asked Alvin.
“Yeah. I need to find more survivors, and see what the fuck else we’re going to have to contend with. If we find another Settlement, we’ll be borrowing Jarvis for a bit. I’m going to need him to jump start whatever we find out there. Once we get it up to speed, he’ll spend a little time at each Settlement and can relay messages between them.” Alvin turned his attention to James, “They went west. I hope your family knows not to fuck with giant flying lizards.”
With a strained smile, James replied, “Dad ran a game of Dungeons and Dragons when I was thirteen. My family knows that dragons aren’t a joke. As scary as the big one is, I’m actually more worried about the squadron of smaller ones.”
“Do you think they were baby dragons?” Barbara asked with a worried tone.
“They aren’t,” Justin spoke up, holding up a pair of binoculars. “A few of them might be, but I think others were drakes and wyverns. Their body structures were different from the giant one.”
“Can you add anything, Jarvis?” Alvin asked the Hologram.
“I cannot, sir. I am sorry,” Jarvis replied with an undertone of frustration.
“Fair enough,” Alvin sighed with a nod, “I thought you might be constrained about that.” He looked at Becky, who was watching him with a level gaze. Willing the gun back into his glove, he looked around at the crowd, who were watching him with mixed expressions. “Okay. It’s time to hit the road.” Digging the keys from his pocket, Alvin’s eyes flickered to the few people that he wouldn’t mind seeing again when he came back— Susan, James, Terry, Bill, and David. “We’ll return, eventually.”
“I’ll drag him back if need be,” Becky added, her eyes on Alvin and her lips curling into a smile. “But I don’t think I’ll have to. He’ll come willingly enough, for me.”
A reflexive snort escaped Alvin, “Get in the car. We’re going for a drive.”
Becky chuckled as she moved to the Mustang and got in. Before Alvin could follow, David stepped in his way. “You’ll do your best to keep her alive, right?”
Alvin’s cold eyes softened a fraction as he replied, “That dragon that flew by is probably the only thing big and scary enough to make me doubt my ability to do so. I’ll bring her back or die trying.”
Bridget caught David’s hand and drew him out of Alvin’s way, “I’ll watch over her brother for her while you’re away.”
Nodding to the nurse, Alvin made his way to the sleek muscle car. He briefly made eye contact with a haughty Claudia and a sneering Randy, his lips twitching into a smirk before he opened the door. He turned to address the Settlement residents a final time.
“Keep scrapping everything you can. If you find a way to demo the houses and drag the remnants up here, do it. Susan and Bill will lead you all, and they’ll do their best to keep you safe. However, you each need to be aware and ready to defend yourselves and each other. We’re no longer the apex predator, the giant flying lizards made that point. Earth is no longer going to belong solely to humanity. All of you represent a chance for the Human race to survive and rebound, so don’t fuck it up.”
Not waiting for a response, he slid into the driver’s seat. The car roared to life with a hungry growl. James opened the gate for them, his expression a mixture of hope and worry. Becky smiled at him as Alvin drove the car out of the yard. Once they were down the road a little, Alvin opened the Mustang up, letting it pick up speed down the dirt road. They were silent until they hit the paved road.
“Still sure you want this?” Alvin asked, his eyes on the road.
“Are you sure you can handle me?” Becky countered.
“I’m sure I can’t, but I’ll give it my best shot,” the laughter in his voice warming Becky.
“I want this, Hero,” Becky replied her hand coming to rest on his thigh. “Or are you starting to doubt me?”
Letting the Mustang slow, he turned his head to meet her gaze. “Not one bit. I’m happy that you’re here. Now let’s see what the world has to offer us.”
Eyes sparkling, Becky grinned at him, “If we kill the dragon, can we skin it to make boots?”
Shaking his head while laughing, Alvin replied, “We’ll make you an entire outfit out of it.”
“Won’t we need a vorpal sword or something?” Becky egged him on.
“That’s for Jabberwockies, and I didn’t think you were the roleplaying nerd in your family,” he commented.
“I’m not, but I listened to David when he needed someone to talk to.” She let silence fall between them for a moment before she continued. “This is a twelve-hour drive according to the map.”
“That was before the apocalypse,” Alvin reminded her. “Who the fuck knows what the roads, or the towns, are going to look like now? Even taking the less traveled route, it’s going to take longer than that.”
“Fair enough.” Becky looked thoughtfully out the window as he made it to the I-70 on-ramp, “Do you expect many survivors?”
“I think the small towns we’re planning to drive through have a chance. The Western U.S. is home to a lot of well-armed households. That doesn’t include California, the land of firearm bans. Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and a few others are heavily armed, even more so in the rural towns that we’ll be seeing. The bigger question is just how social they’re likely to be by the time we show up. If James’s father is the s
As they picked up speed down the interstate, Becky went back to looking out her window. “Do you think we’ll find one of the Gates that Jarvis was talking about?”
“No idea,” Alvin shrugged. He was relaxed for the first part of the drive, having already driven it a few times now. “When we hit the road that we haven’t traveled yet, things will probably get interesting.”
“Define interesting,” Becky asked.
“Oh gods, oh gods, we’re all going to die?” Alvin quipped.
“Huh?” Becky looked back at him, confused.
“You missed Firefly,” he paused, “no, it hadn’t aired before the Apocalypse had it?”
Becky eyed him speculatively, “That makes it sound like you’re from the future.”
“I was born about the same time as you,” Alvin hedged, knowing he was older than her in the game.
“Spill,” Becky said evenly.
“I died in the year 2021,” Alvin began. He told her his story of how he came to be in the game, finishing it just as they passed the exit to the gas station he had spawned at during the first day of the game.
Becky eyed him, “So, you were born the same year as me, but you were older when you died. Then when they uploaded you, they made you younger than you were, but not as young as me?”
“Yeah,” he nodded as he kept his eyes on the surroundings.
“The more I get to know about you, the more intriguing you become,” Becky finally replied.
“I’m trying to keep you on your toes.”
“Toes, knees, back, whatever works best,” she laughed.
Snorting, Alvin shook his head. “You going to have sex on the brain all the time, or is this just new relationship craziness?”
“Maybe both,” Becky chuckled, “we’ll find out, won’t we?”
Alvin looked toward the truck stop he’d first appeared at as they passed the Moore Cutoff exit. The first hour of the drive was slow, if steady, as they cruised down I-70. The windows were down, letting the cool autumn air wash over them as Alvin maneuvered around the wrecks that littered the road. Alvin was growling under his breath as he once again had to backtrack to a point where he could cross over the median in order to go forward.
“It’s not like we’re on a timeline,” Becky told him as she took another potshot out the window at a zombie.
“It’s frustrating,” Alvin replied as he passed the roadblock that had made him cross over. “A fun, fast car like this, and here I’m doing thirty while occasionally having to backtrack due to stalled cars and wrecks.”
“It’s a major interstate,” Becky pointed out, “and I-15 will probably be worse.”
“I’ll be happy when we can hit the back roads,” Alvin said as he crossed back over to the right side of the road. “Devil’s Canyon viewing area is just up ahead.”
“Seen it,” Becky told him. “Stop whenever you need to, or want to. We can clear the area and take a bit of time for us.”
Chuckling, Alvin glanced at her, “We’ll have time for us when we find a safe building to barricade and not before. Neither of us has extra lives, at least not yet, and I don’t want to chance it.”
“Planning on getting extra lives soon?”
“I want to, but I also think we should be increasing stats,” Alvin replied.
“Do we have an overall goal?” She asked the question just before she pulled the trigger again, killing yet another zombie.
“The priest at the start of this told me to save as many people as I can.” He slowed as he angled past a Nissan that was stopped across two lanes and a Ford that was facing the wrong way. “The guys who uploaded my brain just want me to draw in as many people to watch for as long as I can, so far as I know. So, I don’t think there’s a real overall end game for me, besides surviving.”
“It’s just about the money for them?” Becky asked.
“No idea,” Alvin shrugged. He was accelerating after getting past the last two cars when a zombie popped up next to the Mustang and hit it with a crowbar. “Motherfucker!”
Becky swiveled in her seat, her jaw dropping open as she stared behind them as Alvin sped off. “There were four of them waiting in ambush behind the Nissan.”
“Fuck, that means they’re getting smarter,” Alvin grunted. “I should have realized it when they started carrying weapons during the last few days in Green River. From brain dead to at least animal intelligence,” he sucked at his teeth as he considered that. “If they keep on at this rate, we’re going to start being shot at by zombies soon.”
Chapter Two
The backtracking continued off and on after they passed the Devil’s Canyon rest area. Even that proved to be problematic in spots, where the road split apart due to the rough terrain. In some cases, they wound up traveling a couple of miles to find a spot where they could cross to the wrong side of the road to get around wrecked cars and trucks. Each time they went backwards Alvin ground his teeth slightly in frustration, never having considered how the American obsession with automobiles would clog the roads after an apocalypse.
Miles later down the road, they approached the Willow Sprigs Wash exit, which had an overpass. As they approached it, Alvin slowed as he caught glimpses of movement on the high road. “Gothy, eyes up,” Alvin told her as he glanced at the exit, debating going that way before he came to a stop.
“I see movement. Zombies, I think,” Becky replied as she checked her shotgun. “Are we going to kill them?”
“The gasoline tanker above the interstate worries me,” Alvin pointed it out to her. It was right against the railing facing them and seemed to be leaning in a way that hinted at it falling if pushed.
“We can go up the exit and probably get back on, on the other side,” Becky suggested.
“True,” he agreed. “But I don’t like that these things have started plotting ambushes, and this is way more complicated than I was expecting.”
“So, what do you want to do about it?”
Alvin put the car into reverse, backing up a couple of hundred yards. “I want to watch the world burn,” Alvin chuckled darkly as he got out of the car. Summoning his rifle to his hand, Alvin used the roof of the car to steady his aim.
“You light up my life,” Becky quipped as she stepped out of the car and leaned against her door.
Snorting at her pun, Alvin squeezed off three rounds. The echoes of the gunshots were followed quickly by three metallic pings. Frowning at the lack of reaction from the tanker Alvin fired off another three rounds. One of those was enough to spark the gasoline that was pouring out of the tanker from his first shots. Thick black smoke began to billow up from the tanker as burning fuel continued to pump out of it.
Primal screams of pain could be heard from ahead of them. An evil grin spread over Alvin’s face as he noted the burning, thrashing figures on the bridge. He laughed when one of them tumbled over the railing, “That’s better. You ready to go?”
“Getting them all hot and bothered then leaving them to cool off on their own,” Becky laughed as she got back in the Mustang. “I guess I should have expected that of you.” His eye roll at her statement made her smirk, “How are we going around it?”
