Read Online At the End - a post-apocalyptic novel (The Road to Extinction, Book 1) by John Hennessy - Free Book Online Page A

levels up.
    I stared through the giant glass windows,
looking down at the earth, a big patch of wet soil beneath us. The
bus rolled in the air so that the right side would collide first.
Jelly, Tortilla, and Jacob held on to the overhead rails,
screaming. I gripped the steering wheel, every muscle locked up. I
didn’t want to die. I wanted to kiss Tortilla one more time.
    I closed my eyes and waited for my world to
end.

3
The Lonely Road South
    Darrel
     
    B OOOOM.
    The crash was so loud. I held on to the
overhead rail that spanned the distance of the bus. My body jerked
in the impact. My neck whipped back then forward. It felt like it
snapped. I released my grip and fell to the broken glass, landing
on the crumpled frame. I just lay there, unable to breathe. I
wanted to inhale but couldn’t, not even a short breath. I tried to
gulp in the air, but I felt like a fish out of water. Everything
was warm around me. My head swirled. It was nice. Then I saw
black.
     
    I came to as Félix poured water on me. It was
three times now that he had done that, three times in two days. I
choked in air, coughing and coughing. He handed me an inhaler. “I
shook it already.”
    I put it to my lips. The mist flew down my
throat and expanded my lungs as I held for thirty seconds. I
clicked down the silver tube again. The life-saving spray shot down
in sweet relief. “Thanks,” I managed.
    He nodded, wiping his spectacles. “Yeah,
bromigo. I’m going to check on Maggy.”
    “Uhrm. Yeah, okay.”
    He replaced his glasses and climbed over the
bus seats to the front where Maggy was strapped into the driver’s
seat. She looked unconscious. I could barely make out the chair in
front of me, everything was blurry, unfocused. I was so dizzy. So
damn dizzy. I put my hand to the floor and slid over some glass
that slit the outside of my palm. “AHH!”
    “You all right?” Félix asked, looking at me
as he crouched next to Maggy.
    “Cut my hand on some glass.”
    “Sorry.” His gentle voice was full of
sympathy.
    “How’s Maggy,” I asked. I pulled myself up
using the edge of the tilted seats.
    “I’m okay, Jelly. Everything is just
spinning, that’s all,” Maggy said, her voice high and grating.
Félix gave her some water, then an inhaler.
    “Yeah, same for me,” I said, rubbing my eyes
as I stood upright. My feet were planted where the window used to
be. I turned and searched for Jacob. He had been holding on to the
bar a few rows behind me, and I found him sprawled out on his back,
unmoving. He had dozens of scrapes, some bruises too. “Jacob is in
bad shape.” I reached down and checked his neck for a pulse. His
blood was still pumping. “He’s alive, though.”
    Félix walked over to me, hunched over. “If
he makes it I think I’ll try to make him a medal for being so
resilient.”
    I laughed. “I bet he makes it. I mean, he’s
trying to kill himself, but I’ll still bet that he survives longer
than all of us.”
    Félix smiled. “Yeah.” He turned and unlocked
one of the ceiling hatches, kicked it out after a few hits, and
crawled through. “Come on.”
    Maggy slowly made her way over and crawled
out. I followed after. We examined the wreckage. The bus had
crashed into softer soil, but it was bent and crumpled, really
scrunched together.
    “How did we survive?” Maggy spoke softly.
“How?” She looked over at Félix.
    He shrugged. “The wonders of neo-plastic.
People have survived way worse.”
    “Have they? With I-5 a level above the
ground, we fell five levels.” She paused calculating. “That’s over
20 meters.”
    It was hard to digest. I inspected the bus,
walking all the way around it. I shifted to peer up at the fourth
level of I-5. “I think we should be dead, too. It just looks
impossible.”
    “Don’t you remember that plane crash a few
years ago? All twenty-odd people survived because of neo-plastic’s
resilience and the way it compresses. No one was even critically
injured. It’s the stuff