A Long Road Back: Final Dawn: Book 8 Read online

  Final Dawn: Book 8

  A LONG ROAD BACK

  By Darrell Maloney

  This is a work of fiction. All persons depicted in this book are fictional characters. Any resemblance to any real person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Copyright 2016 by Darrell Maloney

  This book is dedicated to Roxanna Holliman Jared:

  My friend, my muse, my significant other, whom God put in my life to help keep me on course.

  T he story thus far…

  Mark and Hannah didn’t seem well suited at first. He was the class clown. She was the beautiful Mensa candidate. He couldn’t decide on a major. Hers was clear from the start.

  It was strictly by chance that they both ended up at Baylor University in Texas.

  Mark had a serious side too, but few people saw it. He had a passion for engineering, although he had trouble making up his mind which discipline to delve into.

  Hannah wanted to be an astrophysicist since she was a young girl, gazing up at the stars on her grandmother’s ranch.

  “Someday,” she told her grandmother, “I want to go up there. I want to fly to the stars and see them up close. I might even build myself a house on one and live there.”

  She’d given up on her star house long before. But she was still passionate about the heavens, and her dream of becoming an astrophysicist came true.

  She’d never had any doubt that it would.

  Hannah and Mark met by accident in front of Baylor’s administration building.

  Hannah happened to be walking past when Mark exited the building after changing his major for the third time. Electrical Engineering had caught his fancy, and he’d rearranged his course schedule to dive into it.

  It was Hannah’s beauty which turned his head as she walked past.

  Turned his head and prevented him from seeing the three steps until it was too late.

  Mark tumbled down the steps, his papers and books flying in all directions, and Hannah couldn’t help but smile.

  It would have ended then and there if Hannah had just kept walking.

  But she was as sweet as she was beautiful, and she just couldn’t leave Mark sprawled all over the sidewalk. So she helped him up and helped him gather his papers.

  “I’ve got to know,” Mark told her then and there. “What’s your name?”

  “Hannah Jelinovic.”

  Mark had never been one to hide his feelings. Even with someone he’d just met.

  “My God, you’re gorgeous. You’re going to marry me someday.”

  She smiled.

  “I am? You sure about that?”

  “As sure as I’m standing here.”

  She winked at him and said, “Maybe you should learn to walk down steps before you try to walk me down the aisle.”

  Mark’s prediction eventually came true.

  But they wouldn’t have a fairy tale ending.

  A year later Hannah discovered that a meteorite, designated Saris 7, was on a collision course with earth some two years into the future, and immediately reported it to her superiors.

  But they already knew, and swore her to secrecy.

  “But why?”

  “Because we have plenty of time to divert it or destroy it. If we tell the public about it, there will be worldwide panic. Mass suicides. Economic collapse. There will be no collision. So there’s no reason for the public to even know about it.”

  It took Hannah and her coworker Sarah several months to see that their superiors were lying to them. NASA had evaluated their capabilities and determined they had no means of destroying or diverting Saris 7. Perhaps if they had a few more years to develop such a capability, they said…

  But they didn’t have the time.

  It so happened that two days before Hannah discovered Saris 7, Mark had purchased a PowerBall ticket.

  And against all odds, he hit the jackpot.

  They were suddenly millionaires, but had only two years to spend their new fortune.

  Before Saris 7 came crashing to the earth and ended life as they knew it.

  Mark said, “We might as well blow it. Quit your job and we’ll sail the world. We’ll live like royalty and then go out in a blaze of glory.”

  “No,” Hannah countered. “We’re going to use this to prepare. To save the ones we love.”

  The couple purchased an abandoned salt mine near the city of Junction, Texas. For two years they secretly renovated it into a comfortable place to live for their family members and closest friends. At the same time, they had a secret compound built just adjacent to the mountain.

  To use when the world thawed out again.

  Then they stocked the mine with everything they’d need to ride out the chaos. Livestock, seeds, food stores, water and fuel.

  For six and a half long years they isolated themselves in the mine, while the world changed around them.

  On the outside, few survived.

  The world became a harsh and evil place. Survivors grew accustomed to taking what they wanted by force.

  When the world warmed enough to allow the group to transition from the mine to the compound, they weren’t aware of the evil outside their gates.

  And although they took many precautions to keep their existence a secret from the outside world, word got out.

  The evil came to them.

  For they had been successful in keeping their animals and their plants alive.

  They had things others didn’t have.

  Things others wanted.

  The group of forty one successfully fended off a brutal attack which thinned their numbers and hardened them. It brought home the point that they’d always have to be on their guard. There would always be men who saw nothing wrong with taking from others at gunpoint.

  They avoided a war with the United States Army by agreeing to donate half their livestock to the ongoing relief effort in nearby San Antonio. And in the process, they made a friend of an Army colonel named Montgomery.

  In the last installment, Colonel Montgomery took John and Hannah in his helicopter to witness first-hand the good their animals were doing.

  John had flown in helicopters in Vietnam. Hannah had never been in one, and was as excited as a child on her way to a fair.

  John’s daughter Sami had a premonition that something bad was going to happen.

  On the way back from San Antonio, the chopper’s pilot suffered a massive heart attack while at the controls.

  He had a co-pilot. But they were flying at treetop level at sixty nautical miles an hour when the pilot slumped forward against the stick.

  The chopper nose-dived into the forest and there wasn’t time for the co-pilot to stop it.

  John didn’t survive the crash.

  Hannah did, but barely. She and the only other survivor, a crewmember named Joel, kept each other alive while they waited to be rescued.

  Meanwhile, back at the compound, Sarah went for a walk in the woods, to pick some wildflowers.

  She never returned.

  The same Army team that went to the compound to help in the search for the missing helicopter also joined in the search for Sarah.

  A bloodhound was brought in, and followed Sarah’s scent through two miles of dense forest, only to lose track of her.

  “This is where she left the ground,” the dog’s handler explained to an anguished Bryan.

  “This is where she either got onto a horse or into a vehicle.

  “From here, she could have gone anywhere.”

  While Bryan and the others desperately searched for Sarah, Hannah continued her slow recovery in a military hospital. Her homecoming was dampened by a horrific pall which hung over the compound and its occupan
ts: the knowledge that too much time had passed and Sarah had probably perished in the woods.

  But while everyone else gave up, Bryan didn’t. And Sarah didn’t die. She survived, and as the dog’s handler had claimed, had left the forest alive.

  But not on her own. She was attacked and knocked unconscious by a brutal man who’d stumbled across her and decided to take her home with him.

  He stripped her naked and carried her to a stolen pickup truck where he tossed her into the back as though she were game.

  Then he took her to be his slave.

  The blow to the back of Sarah’s head took away her memory.

  Her captor, Nathan Martel, was a most brutal man.

  He was also a man who liked to play games with peoples’ minds.

  Sarah’s amnesia played perfectly into his hands. Instead of keeping her bound to prevent her escape, he convinced her they were husband and wife. And that she lost her memory during an accident.

  Martel called her Becky, and claimed she was his bride.

  And she believed him. She believed not only were they very happily married, but were also all alone in the world.

  That all of their neighbors were hostile and jealous because Nathan, in his great wisdom, had prepared for Armageddon better than anyone else around.

  That those same neighbors were so jealous of Nathan and Becky, were so hostile, that they’d shoot them on sight.

  And that was why they stayed to themselves. Seldom strayed from the farm, unless Nathan was going out to gather supplies.

  Sarah… Becky… was content. After all, staying at the farmhouse wasn’t a bad thing. It was big and comfortable and had most everything they needed.

  Eventually Bryan found her and broke in to rescue her. A battle was waged between her true husband Bryan, and the evil man who’d claimed her as his own.

  Sarah, knowing no better, sided with Martel.

  There was fire in her eyes.

  She started pummeling Bryan with her tiny fists, one right after another against his chest.

  He didn’t understand. Not at all.

  He succeeded in catching her hands and held them both tightly by the wrists.

  “Sarah, honey, what are you doing?”

  She screamed like a banshee.

  “Why? Why are you doing this?”

  “Doing what? Sarah, what’s the matter?”

  “Who are you and why did you kill my husband?”

  Bryan said, “What are you talking about? Honey, you and I were married seven years ago.”

  The other men burst into the room as Bryan released his wife’s wrists.

  She went running to Martel’s side, sobbing hysterically every step of the way.

  Bryan was confused. Sarah was inconsolable. It took some doing to convince her that Martel was an evil man who had only his own best interests in mind.

  Sarah eventually returned home to the compound. But her long journey back was only beginning.

  And now, Book 8 of the series:

  A LONG ROAD BACK

  -1-

  Bryan had been with a group of three others who were scouting out the farmhouse to try to determine whether Sarah was actually there. And to devise a plan to rescue her if she was.

  But Bryan had always been a bit of a hothead. And a man who was prone to act on impulse. Even when his head told him to relax and think things through, his heart frequently drove him to act.

  So his three compadres weren’t really surprised when Bryan went rogue and assaulted the farmhouse without them. Rather, they were concerned that he would get himself or Sarah killed by going into a place where he might be outgunned and outnumbered.

  They hadn’t seen what Bryan saw. He saw a very frightened and very vulnerable Sarah open the curtains in an upstairs window. He saw the concern on a face he knew was beautiful, but which was now covered by ugly bruises.

  He saw a need to rescue the woman he loved, before the brutal thug in the house did her more harm.

  So while the other three were searching for him in the woods surrounding the house, Bryan had gone in alone through an unlocked back door. He’d heard Sarah scream from an upstairs bedroom, and Nathan Martel threatening her. He was up the stairs and on Martel in a flash.

  Both men were bloody. Bryan from a knife wound to the ankle. Martel from Bryan’s endless flurry of blows. Both men went to the floor and Bryan, with right on his side, won the battle.

  Martel was unconscious and severely injured as Bryan drove his fists like pile drivers over and over and over again into Martel’s face.

  Finally, the rage subsided.

  The threat was over. Sarah was free from the brutal man who’d hurt her and then taken her as a slave.

  She was safe.

  But Bryan’s problems weren’t over yet. Sarah rushed across the room toward him, screaming and beating him with her tiny fists.

  He didn’t understand. Not at all.

  He succeeded in catching her hands and held them both tightly by the wrists.

  “Sarah, honey, what are you doing?”

  But he couldn’t reason with her.

  The injury had left her in a vulnerable state. She’d been carefully groomed and manipulated, and led to believe she inhabited a world that didn’t really exist. At least not the way Martel had described it.

  She’d been brainwashed.

  David, Brad and Bryan Too stepped into the room at that very moment, and saw a naked Sarah tending to Martel as Bryan stood over her, tears in his own eyes now, trying to reason with her.

  She didn’t listen. Instead, she cursed him.

  “Get the hell away from me, you animal! I ought to kill you with my bare hands! Why in the hell did you do this? Who are you?”

  She looked across the room at the new arrivals.

  “Who are all of you? Get the hell out of my house! How dare you?”

  She appeared to feel no shame in standing stark naked in front of four men she professed to not know. But David, the dentist and the oldest of the four, picked up a blanket from the bed and handed it to her.

  She gave him a puzzled look, then threw the blanket aside. She had better things to worry about than modesty. Before her, for all she knew, her husband lay dying. And she didn’t have a clue what to do to save him.

  She seemed to sense that the man who handed her the blanket was a kind and decent man. She looked directly at him and her voice changed. The rage was suddenly gone, replaced with a little girl’s plea.

  “Please, mister. Is there something you can do to help him?”

  David was as confused as everyone else. But he was the most level headed of the bunch and was extremely calm under pressure.

  “I will do what I can for him, Sarah. But first, we’re going to bind his hands and feet. He is a very dangerous man.”

  She started to argue, but saw something on David’s face. Something akin to fear. She held her tongue.

  “Please, sir. He’s bleeding to death. Please save my husband’s life.”

  David said, “Sarah… honey, this isn’t your husband. The man over there is. His name is Bryan. Do you really not remember him?”

  Fire suddenly appeared in her eyes and she appeared ready to lash out again. But she held herself in check.

  “You’re mistaken, sir. My name is Becky. This is my husband Nathan. This is our home. We were arguing, and that man came flying into the room and attacked my husband. Is he going…”

  She choked up while looking down at Martel, who was coughing blood onto the bedroom’s brown carpeting.

  “Is he going to die?”

  “No ma’am. But when he comes to and heals, he certainly has a lot to answer for.”

  Brad finished tying Martel’s hands behind his back with a belt. Bryan Too used a second belt to bind his ankles.

  David barked out orders to no one in particular.

  “Bring me water. And something I can use for bandages. Help me roll him over on his side. We need to clear the blood from his airway.”r />
  Sarah was sobbing almost uncontrollably. Brad picked up the blanket she’d cast aside and draped it over her shoulders. This time she didn’t refuse it, and wrapped it around herself.

  “Please, sir. Are you a doctor? Can you heal him?”

  “It’ll be okay. I’m not a doctor, but I’ve had some medical training. I’m actually a dentist by trade. And he’ll be fine. Head wounds always bleed a lot, even when they’re not particularly serious. He’ll recover completely, I can almost guarantee it.”

  Sarah looked across the room at Bryan, who was afraid to speak or interfere and risk setting her off again. He was in a state akin to mild shock.

  They locked eyes for a few seconds. In his eyes, she saw confusion.

  In hers there was hatred and the last vestiges of the rage she’d felt. But there was something else as well. There was uncertainty. As though she was no longer confident that this man was her enemy. Could they be telling her the truth?

  -2-

  They were a very odd sight, the six of them. An hour after the battle ended, Martel had been moved onto the bed to make him more comfortable.

  Sarah sat at his side, on the edge of the bed, but had shed the blanket and was dressed in one of Martel’s oversized flannel shirts. He’d long before removed every stitch of women’s clothing from the house as part of his plan to keep her from escaping. The flannel shirt went down to her knees and gave her the privacy she needed. It wasn’t flattering by any means, but she couldn’t have cared less.

  Martel, his head now bandaged, was drifting in and out of consciousness. In his conscious state, he cursed God and every man and woman on earth. He demanded, through frothy blood and broken and missing teeth, that the sons of bitches set him free. So that he could kick the crap out of every damned one of them.

  Even Sarah was not immune to his wrath. When she rubbed his bruised and swollen face and begged him to calm down, he turned on her and said, “Shut up, you stupid bitch. This is all your fault. I oughta kill you too.”

  Sarah was confused. She still believed this man was her husband. She had to believe, for he was the only man in her world. As venomous and vile as he was, he was the only man she knew. The only man whose face she could attach a name to. There were no other women around. No children either. If the one and only other human she knew and trusted was suddenly taken from her, where would she be?