Read In The End: a pre-apocalypse novel for Free Online

They’re my friends.”
    “That ash falling like snow is
poison. It could kill you. It looks like your friends are already suffering
from severe exposure. They either got out of their SUV somewhere, or it got in
through the windows or vents.
    Outside, Josh slowly got out of the
vehicle and held onto the ski rack with his left hand, trying to steady
himself. Both of them were slowly getting coated with falling ash.
    “They’re getting more on them. I
have to get them out of it.” Angela tried to pull away from Terry who was still
holding onto her.
    “Angela, you can’t go out there.
You’ll get sick and probably die. I’m sorry, honey. There’s nothing you can do.
It’s too late for them. Their only hope would be if they took off their clothes
and were completely rinsed off before they came in, and that’s not even remotely
possible. I think it’s far too late anyway. They still wouldn’t stand a
chance.”
    “How do you know? You’re not a
doctor! Let me go!” Angela struggled but Terry held her firmly and looked to
Jim for help. Jim came over and put his arms around Angela. Terry let go.
    “Angie. He’s right. They’re so far
gone, there’s nothing we can do.”
    Angela wrapped her arms around Jim,
buried her head in his chest and cried. She knew he was right. She just
couldn’t stand seeing her friends dying outside right in front of her eyes and
not doing anything to help them. Terry walked over to the door and turned the
handle of the dead-bolt, locking Josh out, just in case he made it that far.
    Josh slowly made his way to the end
of the car and continued walking toward the cabin door, stopping once to vomit.
As he slowly staggered forward, Jim saw dark liquid running out of the bottom
of Josh’s pants and onto his white shoes.
    “He looks— “ Jim started to say.
    “What?” Angela asked.
    “Nothing.” He was going to say that Josh looked like a zombie, but he figured that would
probably just upset Angela even more.
    Josh eventually made it to the door
and collapsed onto the welcome mat.
    “Help!” he cried out. “We need
help.”
    “Oh, God. I can’t stand this,” Angela said. Jim moved away from the window and led her to
the kitchen.
    “Help! Please!” They could still hear Josh calling out from the other side of the door
until they entered the kitchen and Jim shut the kitchen door. Terry stayed
where he was, thinking that Josh might try to break a window to get in, but
then considered that to be unlikely as he heard Josh go into a coughing fit,
followed by terrible vomiting. Then he was silent.
    Terry looked over at the
ash-covered heap lying next to the SUV. Hailey hadn’t moved once since falling
out of the vehicle. He was pretty sure that she was dead. Just then she started
to cough and then she stopped as her throat and mouth filled with vomit. Her
body spasmed briefly, causing ash to tremble and fall
away from her clothing and hair, and then she was still again.
    “Now she’s dead,” Terry said.
     
     

 
    " L'Enfer , c'est les autres ." -
Jean-Paul Sartre
    “Hell is other people.”
     
     

Part 2
Hell on Ice

Chapter Eight
     
    It rained the night that Josh and Hailey died and it continued
almost non-stop for the next three days. Terry said it was exactly what they
needed to wash away the radioactive ash that coated everything. They did not
have a Geiger counter to see if it was safe to go out after the rain stopped,
but they assumed and hoped that it was because they needed to do something with
Josh’s and Hailey’s bodies.
    When the rain ended, it was
followed a short time later by a light snow. Terry drove his truck over to the
maintenance building and came back with shovels, tarps, plywood, hammers and
nails.  Jim went out to help him, saw the supplies and asked, “Are we
seriously going to make coffins?”
    “We’ve got two immediate concerns:
Dead bodies and food preservation. So…”
    “So we’re gonna eat them,” Jim
deadpanned.
    At first Terry