Read Online Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode Two (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 2) by Douglas Wayne - Free Book Online

 
     
    Chapter One
     
     
    Mobile, Alabama
    September 12th, 2013
     
     
     
    "Nate?" the man's voice shouted, echoing across the empty store. Marcy ducked closer to the floor while Tyler got as low as he could while remaining in the wheelchair.
    Tyler cursed the day's luck. What was supposed to be a routine day had long since turned into one where he found himself constantly battling for his life. Around every turn the world had degenerated into a place where chaos ruled the day. Already he'd found himself mugged, beat up, truck stolen, and was inches from losing his life thanks to the thug tied up and unconscious on the floor.
    As if surviving that wasn't enough, one of the downed man's friends had come into the store looking for him. The man told Tyler he had others waiting for him outside, but figured it was a load of crap. Just a way to get Tyler to lower his guard long enough for the man to strike.
    But it wasn't a bullet that got his friend's attention, it was that he'd taken an excessive amount of time. With everything else wrong in the world, Tyler guessed they figured the dash and grab would be quick. They didn't plan on hitting the one store where someone was willing to fight back.
    "Is there another way out?" Tyler whispered.
    "Yeah, there's a door back in the storage area where we take out the trash."
    Great, so it leads to the dumpsters. Just my luck.
    "Any others?"
    She shook her head. "That's it. Something wrong with the back?"
    Tyler told her about what happened earlier in the day though he left out the part about the guys telling him Mark was dead. He hadn't had the guts to go back to the dumpster and check it, both because he didn't want to see the body and he didn't want to get attacked again if they created another ambush. Or if they never left.
    "That explains your head." She got behind him and pushed the wheelchair towards the back of the store. "This is the only way."
    A trickle of fear threatened to flood over him as she pushed him to the back. He wanted nothing more than to stop her before they got outside, but the sound of the new man inside the store reminded him one direction was already blocked. If he wanted to escape he had no other choice than to brave the rear exit.
    The pair made it to the steel doors leading into the storage area when the new man yelled out. "James. Ryan. Get in here."
    This time Tyler didn't hear the door open, but he knew the odds just got worse by the sounds of the displays near the front of the store being knocked to the ground. The new man had to have found the body they'd left tied up in the middle of the store. Again, Tyler wished he'd been able to move on his own. He could've dragged the body back to the bathrooms or even to the back room so it wouldn't be so easy for his friends to find.
    The situation was well beyond the realm of 'should've.' Traveling down that line of thought wouldn't get him anywhere. He had to focus on getting away from them.
    Marcy backed into the metal door and pushed it open with her backside then pulled Tyler through the door behind her. As Tyler passed through the door, he grabbed it and eased it shut, not wanting it to make a noise. For now, they held a slight advantage in that the men didn't have a clue they were here. Tyler wanted to keep that advantage long as possible, ideally until they were well away from the store.
    Despite Tyler's attempt to do things the quiet way, the door made a muffled click that echoed through the back. While the sound was louder back here where the music didn't play in the background, he hoped the natural sounds of the front, namely the destruction on the two guys who'd just entered the store, covered the sound.
    Marcy wheeled Tyler around the maze of boxes, discarded cardboard displays, and the piles of extra fixtures in the back. Other than the tire catching on the outstretched board of a broken wooden pallet, they made it to the back door without any trouble. When they reached it, one thing stood out to