And It Arose from the Deepest Black (John Black Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

is the point when my heart leapt into my throat. Then it bounced around and nearly choked me to death. I couldn’t breathe. Carrie Mc-Freaking-Gregor was waiting for me to ask her out.
     
    No. It was a trap. I would ask and she would say no again. I knew it. I couldn’t proceed.
     
    But I had to. I mean, otherwise, what? Say sorry and shuffle away down the hall? Believe it or not, that would actually be more embarrassing.
     
    It was time.
     
    “Carrie, I was wondering if you’d like to go on a picnic with me this Saturday afternoon. I know a nice place by the lake in Underly Park. I can bring everything, the food, the plates, napkins, utensils. You just need to show up. There are some tables there, I can make sure we get one. I’ll get a tablecloth, you know the red-and-white-checked kind, and —”
     
    She held up one finger. “John. Enough. Yes. I’d love to.”
     
    My mouth, which milliseconds before couldn’t seem to shut up, failed me. I couldn’t speak. Not one. Single. Word. I think I opened and closed my mouth several times. Nothing happened.
     
    Then the bell rang. We were supposed to be in class.
     
    Carrie looked concerned. “Oh no, my class is upstairs. I have to go — talk to you later, John.” She smiled and waved as she left. I think my mouth opened and closed a few more times, like a fish on dry land.
     
    I couldn’t believe it.
     
    I was going on a date.
     

6
    The military response to the Gorgol was probably just what you’d expect: Kill the thing before it did too much damage. Some people had died, but they seemed mostly to be wrong-place/wrong-time tragedies. The Gorgol itself didn’t appear to have an active desire to kill people or even to crush buildings. But that’s what it did. And so in response, guns blazed, tanks fired, even aircraft zipped overhead, sending missiles into the stony scales of the Gorgol. None of it seemed to do much good.
     
    The military had to be careful. As it was, the creature had smashed up most of the town where it landed. Now the counterattack was beginning to produce collateral damage. Given that our weapons weren’t having any significant effect on the Gorgol, people were getting pissed that the few homes that remained standing were being blown up.
     
    Watching footage of the Gorgol was baffling. The creature seemed to wander in circles. Sure, it smashed the heck out of everything it encountered, but why was it doing that? Some of the talking heads on TV speculated that it was looking for something. Maybe being drawn to something. Seeing the military bounce bullets and projectiles off its hard armor while the Gorgol just kept doing its thing… well, it reminded me of my dad, from some past summer. Single-mindedly grilling burgers while absently swatting away the hundreds of mosquitoes that were dive-bombing him. Only now, we were the mosquitoes.
     
    For days, the Gorgol plodded around, looking for who knows what. I don’t think it ever slept. Hell, maybe the Gorgol’s biological clock had a much longer cycle than our human one. It would make sense, given the size of the thing.
     
    The monster consumed every news channel, every commercial break, every pixel online. To avoid it, Bobby and I played more video games. In which we, too, blew things up.
     
    “Johnny, this is it, you know?” Bobby sat beside me on the couch, mashing buttons on the controller as he ducked his character behind a wall, then lobbed a grenade overhead. There were multiplayer modes, of course, but we liked taking turns at the game, one spectating and commenting while the other dove headfirst into chaos. Ostensibly, the nonplayer was supposed to be watching and figuring out tactics for his next turn, but really we just practiced our sarcasm.
     
    “This is what?”
     
    Bobby didn’t pause the game or even look over, just talked matter-of-factly as he continued to play. “This is the thing we need to do. The Gorgol.”
     
    “What about the Gorgol?”
     
    “We