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

of miracles . . .” Félix backed up from the
bus a couple of steps. “Where is the alion?”
    “Huh?” Maggy asked.
    “There was an alion running alongside us,
remember.”
    We all backed up, slinked around to the
other side, and paused. “You see what I see?” I asked.
    “Yep, bromigo.” Maggy crept closer to the
back wheel well. Two tawny paws stuck out, crippled, visibly
shattered. “The rest of the body must be under the bus.”
    I edged up next to her. “How did I miss it?
I walked all the way around.” I was stunned, but relieved. No more
hunters, no more alions to worry about, or at least, one less. I
could barely take it. “I’m going to go check on Jacob.”
    Félix nodded. “Good idea.”
    I crawled through the hatch and checked
Jacob’s vitals again. I tossed some water on him, since it had
worked so well on me. It worked on him too, kind of; he was already
waking when the water hit his face.
    “What’s going on?” Jacob squinted at me with
cloudy eyes.
    “You’ll be all right. Just take it
easy.”
    “Do you have any gin?”
    I laughed. “No, dude. I don’t have any gin.
Do you want some water?”
    “What’s water ever done for me? Do you have
any vodka?”
    I shuffled through a bag that had spare
water bottles. “Yeah, I do.” I offered him the water.
    He snatched it up and drank it. “Damn that’s
good . . . that’s good. Never had vodka taste so clean, so
smooth.”
    “Well, make it last,” I told him. “Here take
this.” I handed him an inhaler. He took it. “I’ll be right back.
Just relax. I’ll be right back.” I straightened up as much as I
could, found the hatch, and crawled out. As cozy as it was in the
bus, it was nice to be out in the open, breathing the untainted
air. When I walked around the bus, I came upon something I didn’t
want to see, ever. Maggy had her arms around Félix, staring at him:
my best friend. She rose up on her toes and kissed him. I twirled
around as fast as my feet could handle and strode away.
    “They were just friends yesterday . . . what
is this? They were just friends . . .” I stomped around in the
dirt. I had never really drank before, but I could go for some of
Jacob’s magical vodka, the real stuff. My world was spinning,
around and around. I puked my heart out a few meters from the
bus.
    Félix and Maggy came running up. “You all
right?” Maggy asked.
    “Oh, yeah, fine. I’m fine. Just a sour
stomach or something, probably just needs to come out.”
    Félix grabbed a towel out of the bus and
handed it to me. “Thanks,” I said. He nodded. I found a water
bottle and sat down, slouched against the bus. “What a
nightmare.”
    “A little worse than a nightmare, that’s
certain,” Félix said, his voice shaking. “We have some guns, some
food, some water . . . but how far can we make it? It’s a long road
south.”
    I sucked down the water. “And we don’t know
anything about conservation. Every time I put a bottle to my lips,
I drink half the container.”
    He smirked. “Yeah, me too, bromigo. Me
too.”
    “But we have to try,” Maggy said, her tone
full of hope. “We all know it. Even that melted drunk knows that.
We’re stronger than you guys think. We’ll persevere. That’s what
it’s about, isn’t it? The perseverance of the human race, that’s
our quality. It will be the alions downfall.”
    “We don’t know anything about the alions,” I
countered. “Except that they have spaceships, they’ve taken about
99% of the population, they’re smart, they’re fast, and they look
like lionesses. That’s all we know.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “We know they bleed just
like us, red blood and all; we know they can die.”
    “I—”
    “No, we’re going south. Together. That
melted head, too. He’ll make it.”
    I looked up at her. “He’s already awake.
He’s fine, or should be fine. He thinks his water is vodka.”
    They both laughed.
    “I bet he does,” she said, chortling. She
kneeled down