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

spaceships on TV,”
Tortilla said. “And we thought we would come here and use your
telescope to see if it was true, you know, because your dad works
for NASA and all.”
    “I have no idea what happened to my
telescope, probably sold it in a yard sale.”
    “That’s okay,” I spoke up. “We know it’s
true now.”
    “So what are you going to do now?”
    “Not we ?” I asked. “You don’t plan to
stay with us?”
    “Hell, I don’t plan on living another day. I
got a hundred bottles waiting for me upstairs. I thought I drank
enough last night, but I’ll be damned if I don’t tonight.”
    “Actually, you don’t,” Jelly said.
    “What do you mean, I don’t.”
    “You don’t have any more booze upstairs.
Really, you don’t even have an upstairs anymore.”
    Jacob ground his teeth. “What’s that suppose
to mean?”
    We all glanced at each other, nervous. “They
were breaking into the house—the alions—so we lined up those green
propane tanks from the kitchen to the Apocalypse room, put one in
the oven, and well, you don’t have any more booze.”
    “Fuck! You blew up my booze!”
    “And saved you,” I added.
    He looked at me as though he were thinking
of strangling me. He jumped out of his chair and started pacing
back and forth on the lawn, muttering curses. He really wanted to
die, wanted to drink himself to death.
    We left Jacob alone to calm down, outside on
the grass. I gathered up our things in the Apocalypse Room, while
Jelly and Tortilla looked at the food supplies on the shelves and
hidden away in deep cupboards spaced along the back wall. “We
should see where his dad is, maybe he could help us,” I said,
squatting next to our backpacks.
    “I don’t think he’ll tell us, he’s pretty
lit.” Jelly shuffled some canned goods around. “He doesn’t want to
help us.”
    “I never said I didn’t want to help you.”
Jacob stood by the door, arms folded across his chest. “I just said
I didn’t want to be a part of your plans. My dad is in Pasadena, or
at least he was in Pasadena. He was working at the Jet
Propulsion Lab there, but I haven’t talked to him in a few
weeks.”
    We all turned to him. “You think he would
help us?” I asked.
    “Help you, how?”
    “Help us get to somewhere safe. He might
know somewhere we could go, to get away.”
    “I don’t think there is anywhere to get away
from these things. You’ve been outside, you traveled, have you seen
anyone else?”
    “We’re alive, so others must be too. Why
would the four of us be the only people who have not been taken?” I
countered. “I don’t know of anything else to do.”
    “We should go to a military base. That makes
more sense. They are armed and trained,” Jacob said.
    “ We ?” Jelly said. “I thought you
didn’t want to be a part of our plan.”
    “I didn’t, when I said that, but I thought I
had a ton of fifths then. Now I don’t,” he growled. “Now I
don’t.”
    “Can’t you get more?” Jelly asked.
    Jacob laughed. “Are you serious? I was part
of the raiding on the first day; the liquor from all the stores was
cleaned out, the grocery stores and the electricity stations, all
of them. I think a few others had the same idea. I went to seven
stores to get what I had. That was on the first day . . .”
    “So you’re coming with us now?” Tortilla
asked.
    “Look, I can drink myself to death, but I
can’t shoot myself. I can’t hang myself . . . I can’t . . . so
yeah, I’m coming with you. I don’t want to wait around to die.”
    “Sounds good to me,” I said. “But there is a
flaw in your plan, the military bases will be primary targets,
don’t you think. Yeah they are trained, and yeah they are armed, so
why wouldn’t the alions hit them hardest?”
    Jacob shook his head. “I didn’t think of
that. I suppose you’re right. These things seem smart?”
    “Smart and tough, incredibly tough.” I
snatched up the saw that I had used on the alion; it was slightly
bent.