The Dead Years - ORIGINS - Book Zero (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) Read Online Free PDF Page B

call you later.”
     
    Mason pulled the phone from his pocket and looked down remembering he had put April on ignore. “Great,” he said.
     
    Opening April’s text, it read: Check the news, I am really scared – PLEASE CALL ME!!!
     
    Mason sat in front of his locker and dialed April. Being the only remaining soul inside the gym felt a little creepy and not just because of the earlier images he had seen on the news. He always hated being here alone, especially when it was dead silent, and being here mid-afternoon with the place empty was just weird.
     
    “Mason!” April answered on the forth ring.
     
    “I’m just leaving the gym now,” Mason said.
     
    “Where are you headed?”
     
    “Home… why?”
     
    “Can you come here?” April asked. “I’m really scared and I need you.”
     
    “Where is Justin?” Mason asked.
     
    “He’s in school; I just checked out the window and everything is quiet.”
     
    Mason had never heard April this worried. He figured he would try to set her mind at ease. “I’m on my way to your place. Stay put and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
     
    “I will,” April said, sounding a little less stressed.
     
    “Mason?”
     
    “Yeah?”
     
    “I just spoke to my Dad.”
     
    “Oh yeah, what did HE have to say about this?”
     
    “He didn’t say very much, although he made me promise him that we would get out of the city. TODAY!”

2
 
    April hung up the phone and walked to the oversized bay window in her master bedroom. The home she had purchased eight years ago with Mason was supposed to be her dream home. Instead, it now reminded her of how hard she had been on him and how much she had let her father influence those bad times.
     
    Thinking back to the better memories they shared, she remembered that they had decided on this home in particular because it overlooked not only the elementary, but also the middle and high schools. She persuaded Mason that if they stuck to the budget she outlined, they could literally watch their son grow from kindergarten to high school. She was sure her being overprotective did nothing to help their marriage. Mason would constantly let her know she needed to “loosen the reigns,” especially since Justin was only a few months shy of his fourteenth birthday.
     
    She desperately hoped Mason would arrive soon as she was freaked out after watching the news all day and talking to dear old dad.
     
    “I guess we were spared,” April said aloud as she looked out the window surveying both campuses, half trying to convince herself that she had nothing to worry about. No frantic people running around; in fact, the area seemed overly calm.
     
    April made her way downstairs and into the kitchen just as the phone rang. She was sure it was Mason with some sort of an update, although upon checking the caller ID she noticed the call was coming from Justin’s cell.
     
    “Hello?” she quickly answered, trying to sounds as if she had not a care in the world.
     
    “Mom, something weird is happening.”
    “What’s going on?”
    “All the teachers and staff were called to an emergency meeting and they haven’t been back to the classrooms. It’s been almost an hour now.”
    “Where are you?” April said.
    “I walked out into the gym because the rest of the school is too loud. The other students are kind of just running around the halls. Mom, some of my friends are saying that there is a war that was started.”
    “Justin, I think they’re just trying to scare you.”
    “Well, what IS going on? Why are all the teachers gone? Why haven’t they come back?”
    “I’m sure it’s nothing. Just go back to cl…”
    “Mom they’re coming back, I gotta go.”
     
    April set the phone down and leaned back against the counter. She wanted Justin home and had to talk herself out of walking across the street to get him. She knew it would embarrass him and probably her as well.
     
    April decided she would head back to the bedroom and