The End: The End, #1

By Stephanie Albright

We all have it. That feeling that something bad is about to happen, something really bad. We don't like to think about it and we never talk about it, but still, we worry about it. Sometimes we can almost feel the Earth holding its breath and waiting. We are all preparing in our own ways. Some have built bunkers and gathered supplies, some have a contingency plan on paper or maybe just in their head but nothing concrete. Then there are those of us who are in the middle, we don't have a well supplied bunker but we have a stash of things we might need when that day comes and a sort of plan to go with it. We think about how much we will miss things like chocolate bars, wine and coffee and brainstorm about ways to preserve the things we will miss the most. We decide where to go, if leaving is possible and consider the pros and cons of each possible location. The more pessimistic at heart are checking things off their bucket lists before it's too late and maybe even devising an exit strategy.

When Lucy and her sons wake up to a living nightmare on the last morning of their weekend camping trip, they must make the most of the people and resources surrounding them to endure. Along the way, Lucy finds romance during the end of the world as they fight to survive and discover the truth about the attack that has forever changed their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephanie Albright
• Release date: Mar 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215926444

Book preview

Chapter 1

As I walk down the beach on the last day of the Columbus Day weekend, I wonder if I am the only one who feels it. Maybe I’m just crazy, but then I see the fear in the eyes of those I pass. Even if they are smiling, it is there, the fear. We all feel it, every person on this planet, but if we don’t talk about it maybe it will just go away. Who would want to be the first to mention it? People would call you crazy, even if in their hearts they know you are right. So we all just keep working and going on as if nothing is wrong but waiting for it to begin and wondering what will happen when it does.

We are all preparing in our own ways. Some have built bunkers and gathered supplies, some have a contingency plan on paper or maybe just in their head but nothing concrete. Then there are those of us who are in the middle, we don’t have a well-supplied bunker but we have a.....stash of things we might need when that day comes and a sort of plan to go with it. We think about how much we will miss things like chocolate bars, wine, and coffee and brainstorm about ways to preserve the things we will miss the most. We decide where to go, if leaving is possible, and consider the pros and cons of each possible location and what to take with us, and what to leave behind. The more pessimistic at heart are checking things off their bucket lists before it’s too late and maybe even devising an exit strategy.

It’s sad really, this thing that should be uniting us is not. It is driving us more and more inward, making us keep secrets even from those we have rarely kept them before. We tell ourselves that our fear is irrational, but we know it is not. When the lights blink, we wonder has it begun. Every storm or drought or sinkhole or earthquake could be the tipping point, so we silently go over our plans and gather those we love around us under the guise of movie night or dinner or painting the den. Whatever it takes to have those we want with us near, just in case.

Some days, I am so tired of my job and my life that I wish for it to begin, most Mondays as a matter of fact. Maybe it will be a good thing, a time to hit reset. A chance to make things better. Sometimes out of the rubble something beautiful emerges, something wonderful. But, then again, it could just be a slow painful death.

We can’t stop it. The signs are there to see if we only look, but we don’t like to look. There are too many of us living too well for the Earth to sustain and the Earth seeks balance. It will come one way or another, the Earth will get her way and we are powerless to stop her. She’s done it before and she will do it again, the black plague, the ice age, tsunamis, floods, and droughts. Which tool will she choose this time?

Everyone scoffed about the ending of the Mayan calendar and made fun of those who were ready for the end that day, but we were secretly relieved when that day came and went without incident. We patted ourselves on the back for not holing up in a shelter or stockpiling food, water, and ammo while at the same time, we knew we had dodged a bullet.

There will likely be no warning. It will probably begin innocently enough. Some people will get sick and we will think that the epidemic is contained but it won’t be, or a drought will make our already overtaxed water supply insufficient. We will be encouraged to conserve and told it will be okay, but it won’t. Things that we thought we had conquered will return to exact revenge, things like cholera, dysentery, smallpox, and the plague. Or maybe it will be a large catastrophic event that will change everything in a moment.

I didn’t realize how long I had been walking, as I turned to head back I saw the sun was just about to set. I stood still and watched until that magical moment when dusk began, then I hurried back up the beach before it got dark. Tomorrow I was going back and it made me sad because I felt more at peace somehow at the beach, more alive.

Chapter 2

Everything non-essential was packed up before we went to bed that night. We were all sad to be leaving the beach and reluctant to go home. We had one last campfire and too many last s’mores, then crawled into the tent to sleep. The next thing I heard was all hell breaking loose.

The ground was shaking and there were explosions going off in all directions. Transformers and gas lines and God only knows what else were going off like fireworks on the Fourth of July. People were screaming and running in circles.

My first thought was ‘Oh my God, this is it!’ My next thought was of my boys. Only one of them was awake, they had their father’s ability to sleep through anything. I used to say they could sleep through the end of the world and now maybe they really were.

Jamie, the youngest at ten was awake and looking at me to see if he should be scared or not. I could sense his fear and shock, so I smiled at him and he smiled back. I don’t know what is happening, but we need to stay calm and think things through before we do anything, okay? He nodded.

I grabbed my cell phone and tapped my news app. Nothing. I Googled CNN and checked their website. All they seemed to know was what I already knew. Something bad was happening. The only new info I got was that it wasn’t just here. It seemed to be most of the east coast and even into the Gulf of Mexico.

I opened the flap of the tent cautiously and looked around. The sun was just starting to peek above the horizon and I could see other campers frantically packing. There was so much yelling, screaming, cussing, and crying, it was total chaos. I wondered where they were planning to go. The little info I had gotten on my phone, made me doubt that travel was even possible. It seemed that underground gas lines were blowing through streets and roads at an alarming rate. I went to check on the food, there were still two boxes nearly full in the back of the Expedition. Thank God I always overpack. We still had enough food for a couple more days, maybe three or four, if we were careful, and a brand new case of bottled water that I had in the car for lunches when we got home.

Jamie came out of the tent and went to the bathhouse. When he came back, he said that the men in there had been talking about a terrorist attack. I told him I didn’t think that it was that, but I had no idea what was going on. He grabbed a pop-tart and a bottle of juice and sat down at the picnic table. The sun was up now and more people were milling around. Some of the families that had packed up and left were coming back now, looking pale.

I walked over to one of the families we had been friendly with during the week and I asked what they saw and they shook their heads. It’s bad. We only got around four miles from here before the road was impassible. We turned around and went ten miles in the other direction and it was just as bad. We tried a few side roads, but we had no luck at all. Some of the roads had big holes in them, big enough to drive your car into and they are deep. I stopped and we got out to look at one. We couldn’t see the bottom. There seems to be no official response happening, no firetrucks or police cars, nothing and it is so quiet out there. We decided that the safest thing would be to come back here and wait.

The rest of the boys were up now and I shared what I had learned. I told them to take it easy on the food, just in case we couldn’t get more for a while and I walked down to the beach. What I saw made me cry. There were dead fish, all over the beach. Thousands of them. The gulls were having a field day.

Chapter 3

As I walked back to the campsite, I started to think about all the weird things that had happened in the past few months. All the bears going into towns and people’s homes, coyotes boldly wandering city streets, now it all made sense. Just the night before, a raccoon had grabbed a chip from under my chair while I was sitting in it. Other campers had commented on how bold the raccoons had been this week. The animals knew it was coming.

There had been other things too. All the sinkholes swallowing homes and people. Earthquakes in places that no one could ever remember having them before, the insane floods and devastating droughts. Even the Earth had known it was coming. Whatever ‘it’ was.

For now, there was still power at the campground. That in itself seemed odd, but then someone mentioned that the park generated its own power with a combination of wind, solar, and surf. That made sense. I tried calling some of my uncles and cousins in Wisconsin, but all I got was that really fast busy signal or no answer, so I never got through to anyone.

I walked to the ranger station to use the wifi, there were several people already there. Most news sites were no longer updating, what little news there was seemed to indicate that this ‘thing’ had happened all over the country and maybe even the world.

For now, it seemed we were better off staying where we were. Food was going to become an issue though. The camp store didn’t have much real food. Mostly stuff for s’mores and condiments and the card readers didn’t work, so they could only take cash. I decided to save my cash for real food and hoped I wasn’t making a mistake.

The guy at the site beside ours, David was going to try to get to the store a couple of miles away. There was a guy named Kevin who lived nearby and was going to go with him to help him get around the gaping holes in the roads. I gave him half of my cash and hoped he would make decent choices if he got there. I was going to be really pissed if he came back with a bunch of junk food. His wife had given him a list and she assured me that he would look for ‘real’ food.

THEN, MY PHONE RANG. It was my grandma and she sounded scared. Lucy? Is that you?

Yes, Grandma it’s me! I shouted into the phone, her hearing was really bad.

Something is wrong here. My power is off and no one will answer their phones. Do you know where your dad is? I can’t find anyone!

Just stay inside, Grandma, I will find someone to come help you, I said as tears poured down my face.

What?  

With all the strength I had, I repeated the words that I knew were a lie as loudly as I could. I didn’t think that I could make myself repeat the lie again. I didn’t like to lie period, but especially not to her. She was my rock, one of the few who had ever been securely in my corner. The one person that I always knew would take me in even if no one else would. She was home to me.

Okay, thank you. I will just sit here and wait then.

I love you, Grandma. Be careful and stay put.

I love you too. See you soon, she said. She had believed that I could help her.

I walked into the woods a little way and cried until I could cry no more. I hoped that God would forgive that lie and judge me on the intentions of my heart, to give hope and peace to the person who had always given them to me. The fact that three of my uncles lived close enough to see her house and hadn’t been there to get her or at least check on her scared me more than anything else had so far. My grandma would be 90 in just a few weeks and she still lived alone. What had happened to them to keep them from checking on her?

David and Kevin, came back two hours later with a story to tell. When we got there, no one was working. The glass had been broken on the door and the store had already been looted. Whoever looted it was really stupid though, they left all the dried beans, rice, and canned goods. We loaded up all that the car could hold, David said as he handed my cash  back. We got all the dried meats and fruits we could find too.

The pharmacy had been broken into already too. But they left all the really useful stuff, like the antibiotics and allergy meds, Kevin added. I also grabbed all the first aid supplies they had. We don’t know how long it will be before things settle down, we have to be able to take care of our own emergencies.

We went by Kevin’s house while we were out. It was creepy, all the homes were quiet and dark and no one came out even though they had to have heard the truck. We got all Kevin’s guns and supplies. He has quite a collection, David said, grinning.

Davids SUV was filled from the back to the backs of the front seats floor to ceiling with their efforts. I felt really dumb for worrying about what they would bring back. They thought of things that I never would have.

It took us hours to unload and stash all the stuff they brought back in an organized manner. Kevin had us load each vehicle with a little bit of everything, just in case we had to leave and were separated for some reason. The man was meticulous. Every nook and cranny of space was stuffed with their