The End Timers: The End Timers, #1

By Q Allen

Is Tammy losing her mind or is she uncovering a dark conspiracy?
In this sci-fi/horror/ thriller, doomsday prepper Tamara Umbra just bought a membership into a luxury fallout shelter called The End Timers. During a weekend visit to the shelter, an incident occurs, trapping her and her fellow members inside. Not able to take her medication, she hears a voice in her head. At first, she attempts to fit in with the others and ignore the voice. But the voice continues. It tells her that there is a conspiracy at work against her and everyone at the shelter is a part of it. It tells her to kill. Tammy struggles to decide if the evidence that the voice is showing her is real or imagined. Is Tammy the victim of a conspiracy, or is she just becoming a deranged mass murderer?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Q Allen
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780999594704

Q Allen

Q Allen served over 6 years in the U.S. Army taking part on multiple deployments. He graduated 2nd from his Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC) and took part in training with NATO in Norway. After separating from the military, he attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology and a security clearance and began working with secure data systems. He now uses his unique knowledge and experience to write science fiction. In the beginning, he was influenced by Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and the works of Edgar Allen Poe. After attending a performance of Canterbury Tales in elementary school, he wrote and performed in his first stage play. In high school, he wrote a graphic novel. The End Timers is his first published work. Check out The End Timers Series and follow Q Allen on social media.

Book preview

The End Timers

THE

END TIMERS

Q. ALLEN

All Persons Fictitious Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

For permissions contact: [e-mail] Copyright © 2017 Q. Allen

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 0999594710

ii

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife, Charlena.

Thanks for being there for me.

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CONTENTS

DEDICATION iii

CONTENTS v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii

Inauguration 1

The Reception

29

Suspicions Rising

49

Troubled Alliance

75

The Siege

103

Ramming the Door

125

Improvise and Overcome

141

Escape and Evade

165

About Q Al en 183

Sophia’s death 187

v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone out there who enabled me to write and publish this book. All of the family, friends, classmates, teachers, coaches, janitors, fellow soldiers, fellow Appriss employees, etc. who laughed at my plays, bought my high school comic book, and gave me encouragement along the way.

I’d like to thank my editor, Janelle. I know your eyes had to hurt after this. Above al , I want to thank my wife, Charlena, who supported and encouraged me all the way.

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1

Inauguration

RED LIGHTS FLASHED angrily as the siren sounded. It was ear piercing and unnecessary. It was annoying but did not seem to really bother anyone. People casually brought their overnight bags and loved ones into the two large front doors of the renovated underground military bunker. Engineer Paul Kemp had converted the old bunker from its previous state of dereliction into luxury survival condominiums.

Paul began as a civil engineer who made his fortune designing and constructing high-end neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and condominiums. For his End Timers’ project, he designed and constructed large three-and four-bedroom condominiums behind the nuclear-hardened steel doors of the old bunker deep underground.

On the outside, the facility appeared to be a quiet park with a large hill and an enormous parking lot in the 1

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middle of it. On the inside, it more resembled a private luxury yacht.

There were dark hardwood floors throughout the main common areas. Large canvas paintings in the halls on freshly painted walls. Beautiful glass chandeliers hung in the dining room and the main room. Elegant lighting filled every nook and corner of the facility.

The unseen part, which required special authorization to access, was the quarters for the security team, parking for their vehicles, the armory, and the main control room.

The elegant design of the facility kept these things out of plain sight.

Paul designed the End Timers’ with large open spaces, so that the people who were willing and able to pay the 5-million-dol ar purchase price and 1 hundred thousand dol ar a year maintenance fee did not feel constricted. The facility’s twelve-foot and twenty-four-foot ceilings made it feel ever more spacious. Strategically placed extra-large screens programmed to display outside views added to the open spacious feeling where windows would normally do the job.

He was sure to add certain other luxuries to the facility to make the entire structure feel more like a community than an old nuclear bunker. There was a thirty-thousand-gallon heated pool, an extensive gym, a hair salon and barbershop, and up-to-date medical facilities to name a few.

The units were equally lavish and luxurious. Every unit had a large master with over-sized en suite, whirlpool 2

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tubs, sliding doors, voice activated heating and cooling, unlimited television channels, and more. They also came fully furnished with luxury pieces: leather furniture, large mirrors, king sized beds, glass tables, massage recliners, and even stocked wine coolers.

To save room in the condominiums, Paul designed the facility with smaller kitchens inside the condos, almost kitchenettes, and one large restaurant style kitchen which was shared by the whole facility. There was a chef, a pastry chef, four stewards, and four servers who doubled as light medical support. These 10 people worked together to feed and take care of everyone living at the facility.

Paul would not discuss it openly, unless he had to, that one of the obvious, but disturbing, functions of the chef and their staff, in a time of crisis, would be to ration food supplies … maybe even help the facility manager decide who eats and who doesn’t. Only in a real life ‘stuff hits the fan’ situation.

Tiny details like that, Paul was wise to keep from the members. He wanted everything to appear as seamless and trouble free to them as possible. The perception of safety was his mantra. To everything he designed about the structure, from the grounds outside to the furniture inside, he applied this idea. Every upgrade and every luxury had first to pass the question, Does this make people feel safe?

Outside, there was a tall security fence around the entire 20-acre property. Every 400 feet, serious looking signs said NO TRESPASSING VIOLATORS WILL

BE SHOT. Beyond the fence, about 200 feet away, 3

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were dense woods. Inside the fence, sharply edged grass and well-placed plants, shrubs, and flowers framed and adorned the beautifully landscaped exterior.

People respect a facility that looks professionally kept, Paul told Jessie, the facility manager.

One long blacktop road lead from the main road up through the bulky barricades outside the fence where a small guard shed stood, making the place the feel like a military base. Tall trees stood on both sides like a thousand sentinels guarding the pathway.

From behind, the bunker just looked like a very large hill with a parking lot. One could only see the huge main entry doors from the front. Today, Paul had it decorated with flowers, balloons, and banners welcoming its new residents. He paid very close attention to every detail.

As meticulous as he was, this facility was not to be his crowning achievement. Paul aspired to repurpose several old facilities like this one all around the United States and around the world. His plan was to use the funds he raised from these smaller projects to reach his ultimate goal, the Željava Underground Airbase in Croatia.

The site was nestled between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina beneath the shadow of the Plješevica Mountain. Sitting near the city of Bihać, Bosnia, the base was one of the biggest underground airport and military air bases in all of Europe.

The compound was designed to withstand a direct hit from a 20-kiloton nuclear bomb, like the one that was 4

ThE END TIMErS

dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, making it a perfect candidate for Paul’s plans.

Several semicircular concrete shields lined this dream facility, set every 35 feet, to help decrease the damage done by incoming munitions. Inside, the complex incorporated an underground source of water, electric power generators, a 1000-person mess hal , quarters for staff and security, and other strategic military and medical facilities. While above ground, the facility boasted five runways.

Željava would be his definitive project, literally his crowning achievement.

Since he first heard of the large concealed facility, he visualized himself purchasing it, refurbishing it, and living in the airbase like a king.

In his lifetime, he had already accumulated wealth and renown around the world through his ambitious engineering feats and business acumen. He enjoyed the power and impunity that came with it: the ability to freely do things that most people would go to jail for doing.

There was nothing in the world like it. The ability to use, abuse, and dispose of people without fear of retribution or retaliation, without consequences from the law or his victims.

This was his secret desire. His secret addiction. The deep and dark passion that drove him ever forward in his quest for more and more money. More and more power.

This deep craving, he shared only with those within the innermost circles of his secret society. They all had it. To the rest of the world, he would only display his genteel 5

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face. His good side. Until the time was right.

When he could finally achieve his goal, he would operate Željava like his own private kingdom. He would be the ruler and the head of police. He would be the commander of his own militia. When the time came, anyone living within the facility would be his subjects to do with as he pleased.

He already owned a few smaller, similarly derelict facilities. However, End Timers was the first shelter of its size that he was able to complete. It was his inaugural shelter project, and this was its commencement launch.

***

Tamara Umbra, a casual doomsday prepper, walked unhurried into the facility alone. She drug her fingers through her slightly unruly hair. She rushed out the door and forgot to run a brush over it. She was searching her pockets for a pill she was supposed to take before she left home when she noticed a stain on her shirt … and that she forgot to put on deodorant.

Darn it, she mumbled to herself. Whatever…

Looking for something? a man’s voice asked from behind her.

Whipping her head around she almost forgot what she was looking for. Her hands still wandering back and forth between the front and back pockets of her jeans,

Nothing you should be worried about.

The man tucked his hands into his pockets, We’ve been waiting for you.

She eyeballed the well-dressed man, her red eyes 6

ThE END TIMErS

swollen from lack of sleep. He was familiar. It felt that she had met him before, but she couldn’t place him. A sticker on his expensive shirt said Hi! I’m PAUL.

Paul … it should say weirdo. I’ll get the bottle from the car once I get settled in, she thought. Get washed up, then, I can catch up on them over this weekend. I don’t think I’ve taken them for the last three days … maybe four. I feel ok. I should be ok.

She had no husband or any children. Not a boyfriend or even a best friend. That is how it has been for as long as she could remember. She remembered that her parents had passed away a few years ago. The inheritance they left for her was how she was able to afford one of Paul’s expensive condos. When they died, her parents left her millions of dol ars.

She thought back to when she could remember being younger, as far back as she could go, and, like most people, she had always dreamed of being rich. She didn’t consider herself greedy as she believed most other people to be.

I just want a few million dollars, a nineteen or twenty-year-old Tammy reasoned. Just so that I wouldn’t have to work or worry. Not billions, just a few million.

When Tammy reached her early twenties, both her mother and father died tragically in a car accident, as she recalled. She didn’t remember them being rich people, but they must have invested modestly, saved consistently, and each one had a healthy amount of life insurance. In their passing, they left everything to her.

Through this heartbreaking tragedy, she had received the money she had always dreamed of, but at the cost of her 7

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two best friends … as she remembered them. Though she was very grateful for the money, she missed her parents.

In some ways, she felt a little guilt about it. As if her wish for money caused their deaths. This weighty guilt affected the way she managed her wealth through the years. She needed to honor her parents in how she spent the money.

Every decision had to be at least reasonably responsible.

Why did I even buy a condo here? she pondered aloud. No-no. This is good. This is a good thing. I am preparing for an inevitable future. Protecting my assets and myself. With the way things are going around the world, it is only a matter of time. Besides, I will get to meet some people, maybe make a friend. Yeah, this is a good decision.

End Timers. What a dumb name. They should call this place Fallout Family or something like that. End Timers sounds like a bunch of old people sitting around waiting for death, Tammy thought as she walked beneath the large banner.

She moved her bags into the condo across the hal way from Doyle, Sarah, and their teenaged son and daughter Lucas and Aileen. Just a leather overnight bag and an old leather backpack.

Paul likes to call these things condos, but they are more like big apartments, right? Doyle joked passing Tammy in the hal . Do you get it? Apartments? Am I right?

Lucas slyly winked and smiled at Tammy before his sister, Aileen, caught his attention with a disapproving look.

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ThE END TIMErS

What are you looking at? Lucas said to his sister before smiling and jamming his earphones in. I don’t know why they have that stupid siren turned on. Everyone they want inside is already here.

Everyone they want? Tammy thought.

Pay no attention to this little cretin, a doctor diagnosed his as being clinically stupid, Aileen said to Tammy. "I do agree with