Before Dawn: Book 1

By J. D. Wilson

Can they make it home before dawn? Six friends try to stick together in this apocalyptic tale of love, loyalty, and survival.
Aria Porter is the one woman in the world prepared for what’s happening today. Today is the start of a new world and she’s stuck behind a slow-moving school bus making its rounds in the heart of suburban Atlanta.
In a new city with new people around him, Trent Bryant is not a stranger to adjusting to a new situation. After relocating to help out his best friend, he’s excited to start something new away from the city of his birth.
In the city he loves, Paul is finally surrounded by all of his best friends and his mom. As prepared as he’ll ever be for the next stage in his life, His day is phenomenal.
Allie Peters was a no-nonsense nurse with a work ethic that required her to put away her younger self’s behaviors for a more mature outlook on life. She took one day off to help her friends through another milestone without their parents. Who knew that that day would be a new beginning for them all?
Trina Porter-Dixon was a mom with a purpose. After her parents lost their lives three years ago, she lost herself in grief and activities. The grief was inevitable, and the active lifestyle pushed her husband away. Is it too late for happiness?
Carver Dixon was ready for love and life. He started the day with a spring in his step and a smile for everyone he met. Carver never expected what happens next. Can they make it to the safety of home before dawn?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312698680

J. D. Wilson

Pastor J.D. Wilson has twelve years’ experience leading small groups. His experience is expansive, to include leading small groups that help men who are struggling with addiction (sexual and relational) to small family fellowships that focus on holistic discipleship experiences. He has helped hundreds of men and women on their journey out of sexual addiction and emotional recovery from fatherlessness. He is ordained through Hope Community Church in Newport News, Virginia, where he completed a five-year apprenticeship in church planting and leadership development. He is currently the director of small groups at his home church, Communities of Hope, Inc. who are devoted to being a “movement of disciple makers.” He loves spending time with his family, reading nonfiction, watching inspiring movies, and enjoying a fun family board game. He is married to Ruth, and they have four beautiful children that they are called to disciple and love deeply.

Book preview

BEFORE

DAWN

By J. D. Wilson

Copyright 2023© Jenaye Wilson

All rights reserved.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to those superheroes in my life who inspired me to follow my dream to write. Thank you all.

Table of Contents

cHAPTER ONE: a gOOD mORNING

A ring of radial lines

Aria

Ughhhh!!!!! Aria screamed into the emptiness of the cabin as she resisted blowing the horn.

Today started as any other day since the death of her parents. It was just another 4 a.m. alarm blaring which came too early as she rolled out of the bed in the master bedroom of her childhood home. It was just another shower and a quick breakfast bar on the way out of her kitchen door. She had to be at the base by 6 a.m. and out of the gate by 6:30 a.m.

Hey Tris, good morning. One of the benefits of having an early assignment was the chance to bypass Atlanta’s famous traffic while talking to her sister Trina. Aria pulled into the base at thirty minutes before many people even thought about leaving home.

Morning, what time is it? Trina never opened her eyes before the light of the sun peeked through. You would think as a nurse she would be easy to wake up. Such was not always the case.

Time to get up idiot they did this every morning.

So, we meet there around three, right?

Right, save my spo…

Before she could finish Aria interrupted. uhn uhn, the point is for you to beat me there remember. I’m probably going to be a little late, so you get the table. Remember.

O.K. O.k. don’t abuse me this early in the morning. I’m on it. I’ll be there on time early to get the right table. Got it.

That’s the reason you have to be early. It has to be their table.

I said I got it. Dang Aria. I remember now. So, I also remember we are supposed to let go of all this pain we’ve been carrying too. Today is the let go day. You promised me and I promised you. So, when we see each other that’s the end of it. No more carrying this baggage mama and daddy wouldn’t want us to be toting. Got it?

Got it. Leave the pain behind today. Remember the joy for the rest of our lives. Got it. Aria said in a deadpan voice as she crawled up into the trailer.

Aria it’s been three years. They raised us better than this.

You’re right. It’s past time. I’m tired of feeling buried under a weight of sadness.

Same, we got this. I’ll see you this afternoon then. Try to be on time.

O.K. O.K. I’ll be there asap. Love you.

Love you too Ria.

Her parents had been her world. Her father was a strong and silent man. He moved through the world as a solid support for his small family. Firm in his belief in self-reliance, he made sure that Aria and her sister Trina were beyond prepared for anything that was to come. Anything that is, other than his not being there at the end of the world. Who is prepared for that at thirty when your parents are so young?

Her mother was his polar opposite. She was a people person who loved life. Someone who had never met a stranger. Anywhere they went they made friends. How is it fair that good solid people like them were taken away in such a stupid accident?

Today marked the anniversary of the accident from hell, during the height of lockdown, Mama Rose and Pop’s Porter were in a stupid, avoidable, and senseless car accident. While she was asleep in a spare hospital bed, camped out because she couldn’t even go home, her parents were in a ditch for six hours with no one to help them. Exposure and blood loss were their rewards for being loving people. How is that fair?

Today was shaping up to be as gray as yesterday. Her life was changed in the blink of an eye by a driver too sick to drive and a cigarette. Because every healthcare worker was at the point of collapse and overwhelmed that day, the delay in getting help to the accident site cost the Porters their lives and took away her phenomenal parents. Every anniversary of the accident took Aria into a depressive episode that took weeks for her to fully recover from.

Well, at least I’ll get to see my baby Melissa today. Aria’s sigh was filled with acceptance and mourning, as she made the first right off the freeway. Melissa was the light of the Porter lives. As the only child in the new generation, she was loved by everyone.

I can’t believe that freeway has me 10 minutes late. That’s why I hate being routed on 20. This school bus always beating me damnit. Aria’s mood was as fluid as water. Of all the damn days to be stuck on the freeway. I can’t stand being late. Ughhhh, come on!!!

Every time I take this fuckin’ assignment. No, not the one day I have somewhere to be damnit. With a slap to the steering wheel, the cab became silent as Aria rolled to a stop.

Looking at the clock on the dashboard Aria hit the steering wheel again and yelled out the window Now I only have 15 minutes to drop this load, you are makin’ me late! Aria was in the middle of a very loud argument with herself, father time, and the school bus driver who could care less. It was pointless.

Three more minutes and she was finally free after the driver turned into a subdivision off of the two-lane street from hell she was trapped on. Before, this would not have happened. Before the disaster of a lifetime Aria would not have been caught dead screaming in a car, let alone driving a truck. But life is different these days.  She took a deep breath, rolled her eyes at the departing bus, and took off as fast as she could with a speed governor on the truck. Just barely making her appointment by the skin of her teeth with only two minutes to spare, after that, she was onto the drop. The last thing on Aria's mind right now was what would happen the rest of the day let alone the week.

After barely keeping her track record of on-time deliveries, she was focused on the job at hand.  But a question was still nagging away at the back of her mind. Why did the sky still look purple like dawn was on the horizon in the late morning sunlight?

Trent

Bruh, stop giving me this bend-over-backward treatment. I am glad you offered me the job instead of someone else. I appreciate you giving me a reason to leave my hometown. Plus, I get to help you solve some problems. It’s a win-win. Thank you for opening your home to me over these last few weeks too. I would still be running my shop and living in moms’ house feeling sorrier for myself by the minute, eating lonely meals. Plus, you know I love hanging with you in your city. Man, thank you for saving me from myself.

Trent shook his best friend’s hand as they stood in the office above the maintenance garage at P and P Transportation. Paul’s business had quadrupled over the last five years. But it turned out that managing people and reading them were two different skill sets. Over the past year, he had noticed the cost of running his trucking company’s maintenance department had risen faster than his company was growing, and it didn’t show any signs of coming down. Something was wrong. After going through five managers, he was at the end of his patience when a call to his friend became the answer he was looking for.

He had started with three trucks and a vision. His game plan of taking the industry by storm had been put on steroids because of the Covid lockdown. Thanks to his inheritance and his investments while he was in the service, He had been in a unique financial situation that allowed him to take advantage of the open lanes left by overextended companies and sick drivers.  He was also able to purchase additional rigs through auction. The demand for dependable trucking companies continued to increase as the years went by. Thanks to the connections he valued and luck he was able to remain in the growth lane of the industry. With his success, he needed someone he could trust to run the garage. It was extremely costly to pull his friend away from his own successful garage in upstate New York but, it was worth it. Now he could breathe easy and handle the day-to-day business and growth of his company in peace. No more short-lived managers who looked good on paper but always fell short of a job. Now he had a strong leader over here. And maybe he could finally get to the bottom of the finances of this department, all praises to God.

O.K. I won’t say another word about it. I swear this is the last one. THANK YOU, BRUH!!! Paul yelled the last part showing Trent a hint of the guy known as Playa back in the unit.

Their deep rumbles of laughter rang out causing mechanics in the bays to raise their heads. They were all excited to hear the boss laugh. It was common knowledge that the boss was fed up with the managers for the garage, and the management turnover was outrageously high.

Leading the way, Paul pulled Trent from the office down to the garage floor introducing him to his team.

"Attention everyone, this is our new head of mechanical operations, Trent Bryant. I know many of you were wondering who was going to fill the spot left by Phil and here he is. I want you to know this guy here