A New Dawn_Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series Read online

  A NEW

  DAWN

  Surviving the Fall Series

  Book 12

  By

  Mike Kraus

  © 2018 Mike Kraus

  www.MikeKrausBooks.com

  [email protected]

  www.facebook.com/MikeKrausBooks

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Author’s Notes

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  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to all of my awesome beta readers who make every book I write all the better. Thank you to Al, Caroline, Claudia, Glenda, James, Jonathan, Jonna, Julie, Karen, Laurel, Lynnette, Mark, Marlys, Mayer, Robin, Sarah, Scarlett and Shari!

  Preface

  Last time, on Surviving the Fall….

  The final battle lines have been struck, for both Rick and Dianne. As Jane lays dying in a secret bunker in Washington, D.C., Rick has to face down two Spetsnaz officers in an effort to salvage his and Dr. Evans’ plans to stop Damocles. In Virginia, meanwhile, Dianne has been reunited with her children and friends, but the joy is short-lived as Nealson shoots Tina to help make good on his escape. As he seeks revenge for the blow Dianne’s group struck to his gang, Rick must fight against the clock—and an unexpected enemy—to stop Damocles before it can destroy everything he holds dear.

  And now, the final chapter in Surviving the Fall.

  Chapter 1

  Washington, D.C.

  Dying alone, in the basement of a secretive bunker in a foreign country far from home had never been on Ostap Isayev’s bucket list. As the finality of darkness overtook his senses and he let the pain ferry him away, he sensed the figure standing over him move back. He couldn’t remember who the figure was, why he was there or anything at all, really. Nothing except the swirling void mattered as the last breath of life passed out from between his lips.

  Scooping up the mask he had ripped from Ostap’s face only a moment prior, Rick slipped it on and tightened the straps. The smell of the bunker had come rushing back at him after hearing Ostap’s final words. Don’t you want to know where your precious Dr. Evans is at?

  Jane’s death was a fresh wound, but the words spoken by Ostap pointed to an even darker possibility. If Dr. Evans was dead, as the Spetsnaz officer seemed to imply, Rick wasn’t sure what the next step in putting a halt to Damocles could be. He cast a glance over to Jane’s blood-soaked body, hoping for a brief second that she might start moving again. She was still gone, though, and as Rick picked up Ostap’s rifle, he took hold of the pain and anger that was building within him and held firm to it. It, like the rifle in his hands, was a weapon, and a potent one at that.

  With a final look at Jane, Rick turned and trotted down the hall, heading in the direction that Ostap had come from a few moments prior. The basement levels of the building that had housed the staff responsible for Damocles went on at least one more floor down, and it was from there that Ostap had come. As Rick got to the end of the hall and saw a doorway leading to another staircase to his left, he suddenly questioned what he was doing. Ostap and Carl—the two Spetsnaz officers and the most direct threats to him, Jane and Dr. Evans, were gone. The only Russians left alive in the building were the technicians, and unless Rick had missed something big with one of them…

  Don’t you want to know where your precious Dr. Evans is at?

  Ostap’s last words echoed through Rick’s mind as he slowly walked down the stairs, holding the rifle loosely in both hands. The door at the bottom of the stairwell was ajar, held in place by an office chair that someone had jammed in between the door and the wall. Rick pushed the chair out of the way as he eased the door open, then swung the chair back into place with his left foot.

  The sound of his own breathing was loud in Rick’s ears as he peered down the hall with his rifle light, looking for Dr. Evans, the technicians and any potential threats. Unlike the floors above that were now dark since no one was on them, the very bottom floor had a glow at the far end that did not come from Rick. As he moved toward the glow he passed more offices, glass-walled conference rooms and an increasing number of server racks stacked high in the corner of each room.

  The room with the glow was large, with glass walls like the others, but instead of being devoted mostly to space for individuals to work, it had obviously been designated as the server room for the project. A single, small table and pair of chairs sat at the far back wall while the rest of the room was filled from floor to ceiling with rows of dark racks of servers. Cables from the servers twisted and wound their way into the low ceiling where a mesh cage kept the wires contained and out of the way.

  A pair of lanterns and a couple of flashlights were balanced on the table and the edges of a couple of server racks, all of them angled to offer the most illumination of the table and chairs at the back of the room. A pair of figures sat in the chairs, Dr. Evans and Oles, their backs facing the hall where Rick stood. He watched them as they pointed at an obscured screen in front of them, Oles tapping away on a keyboard while Dr. Evans gestured and spoke in a voice that Rick couldn’t hear from out in the hall.

  After watching the pair for a moment, Rick stepped through the broken door into the room, his shoes crunching broken glass. Dr. Evans stiffened in his seat but didn’t turn around, though Oles managed a half turn of his head before straightening back up.

  “Dr. Evans?” Rick felt his stomach tighten, the feeling of impending doom growing, though he still didn’t know why.

  “Drop the gun, Rick.” Rick froze, the voice full of nervousness and trepidation coming from behind him. His fingers played across the trigger guard of the rifle as he tried to pinpoint exactly where the voice came from. “Don’t do it. Just drop the gun. Now!” The last word was spoken harshly, with a bark.

  “What the hell are you doing, Jacob?” Rick slowly lowered the rifle to the ground with his right hand, dropping it the last few inches and wincing as it clattered against the glass on the floor.

  “Raise your hands and walk forward. Slowly.” Jacob sounded even more nervous after being called out. Rick sighed and did as he was told, stepping across the last of the glass and toward the desk where Dr. Evans and Oles were seated. Dr. Evans stole a look back at Rick, his eyes wide and full of fear.

  “What’s going on?” Rick whispered to Dr. Evans, but a sharp jab on his back made him close his mouth.

  “Keep quiet. No questions. Get the chair from over there, to your right. Sit down, face the wall next to the others and stay still.” Jacob’s voice was audibly shaking and he nearly stuttered a few times. Weighing his options, Rick chose to turn instead of
obeying the instructions, though he kept his hands in the air. As he turned, he saw Jacob standing between a pair of server racks, a pistol grasped so tightly in his shaking hands that his knuckles had turned white.

  “Jacob.” Rick shook his head. “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t make me shoot you, Rick.” Jacob swallowed hard. “I don’t want to, but I will! I swear!”

  A grunt of pain came from the other side of the room and Rick turned to see Dr. Evans slumped over, hand on his shoulder. “Did you shoot Dr. Evans, Jacob?”

  “He wouldn’t listen to me! I told him to listen but he wouldn’t. He’s fine, though!”

  “No he’s not, you idiot!” Oles turned in his seat, his face covered in worry and stress. “He’s losing a lot of blood!”

  “Shut up!” Jacob screamed at Oles, waving the pistol around with one hand. Rick winced at the action, nearly ducking down, but stood firm.

  “Jacob, just tell me what’s going on. I can help you, I promise.”

  “No you can’t. Only the decryption codes will help me right now.”

  “The codes?” Rick’s eyes narrowed and confusion clouded his expression. He swiveled his head to look over at Oles and Dr. Evans. “Can one of you three please tell me what’s going on down here? There’s a pair of dead Spetsnaz upstairs, Jane’s dead too and it looks like Dr. Evans is going to bleed out!”

  “Jane is… dead?” Jacob’s eyes widened and his weapon-laden arms dropped slightly. Rick nearly made a move on him, but Jacob noticed Rick’s tensing muscles and pulled the weapon back up. His hands were still shaking, even more so than before, that he inadvertently squeezed the trigger in the process. Even though Rick’s ears were still ringing from the gunfire mere moments ago, the shot still sounded deafeningly loud in the confines of the small room. He winced, expecting to feel a lance of searing pain pass through his chest.

  Instead, there was a scream from behind as Oles dropped from his chair and rolled on the ground, clutching his arm in pain. “Ublyudok! Why?!”

  Rick swiveled his head back around to see Jacob’s arms drop yet again, a look of shock crossing his face as he realized that he had inadvertently shot his friend. Taking advantage of the distraction, Rick wasted no more time. He charged at Jacob, colliding with him in a full-body tackle that brought both men to the floor and sent Jacob’s pistol skittering off into the darkness.

  Chapter 2

  Outside Ellisville, VA

  “Tina!” The scream was shrill, hoarse and raw, filled with agony and desperation, with an unspoken plea for the word to somehow affect reality and change what had already transpired. The gunshots from Mark and Jason’s rifles were distant thumps as Dianne knelt down, scooping Tina’s body into her arms and pulling the older woman back into the community center.

  Tina had been shot for no more than a few seconds, but her form already seemed incredibly small and frail to Dianne as she lay Tina down on a pallet inside the door. Tina’s groans and cries of pain continued even as Dianne began tearing at her shirt, pulling it off and away to get a clear picture of where the shot had landed.

  “You’ll be okay, Tina! I promise!” She turned to Sarah, who had followed her inside. “We need bandages and compresses; something to stop this bleeding!”

  “I’ll check their supplies.” Sarah fought the panic in her voice as she stood and ran to a pile of boxes and duffle bags stacked on a wall inside the center.

  “Tina, stay with me, okay?” Dianne finally cleared away Tina’s jacket and shirt, revealing a mess of blood that was steadily pouring from a large wound in the upper right quadrant of her chest. “Sweet mercy,” Dianne whispered, her hands frozen over the wound as her eyes danced back and forth.

  “It’s bad.” Tina whispered through the pain, groaning out the words. “Isn’t it?”

  “Don’t talk, okay? Just stay awake.”

  “Gauze, and lots of it!” Sarah fell to her knees, dumping a large pile of individually-wrapped packets of gauze rolls onto the ground.

  “Lung.” Tina gasped, her eyes rolling back from the pain. “Hole. Chest. Have to… seal it. Fast. Got to get… air out…cavity…”

  “What’s she talking about?” Sarah furiously unwrapped the gauze and passed it to Dianne, who used it to clean the blood from around the wound before pressing layers of it down in an attempt to stop the flow of blood.

  “No!” Tina gasped again, putting her hand on Dianne’s arm. Her grip was furiously strong and her nails dug into Dianne’s flesh. “Seal it. Quickly. Air getting in.” Dianne glanced down to Tina’s chest, seeing bubbles in the blood as Tina gasped again, and felt a wave of recognition wash over her. Her first responder class had been so long ago, but one of the few things that had stuck in her brain was bubbles in the blood—a sure sign of a sucking chest wound.

  “I need tape!” Dianne looked at Sarah.

  “What kind?”

  “Something big, just tape that’ll hold tight to form a seal.”

  Sarah nodded and got up, hurrying off to try and pull yet another rabbit out of a hat. Dianne began removing the bandages from around the wound and placed her hand directly over the hole in Tina’s chest as she spoke. “You’ll have to walk me through this, hon. I need to seal off the wound to keep air from going in, though, right?”

  Tina nodded, a slight smile passing across her increasingly pale face. “I think the bullet… went into… collarbone or shoulder. Hurts… like the dickens.” Another breath, though this time with Dianne’s hand forming a seal over the wound, there were no bubbles.

  “So, I need to seal this up. Then what?”

  “Not much to do. Hope it clots. Pray… it went around the lung.” Each word and breath was accompanied by a pained expression, and it was all Dianne could do to not wrap her arms around Tina and hug her as tight as possible.

  “All I could find is this,” Sarah knelt back down, holding out a roll of duct tape with a shrug and an apologetic expression.

  “This can’t be sanitary.” Dianne looked at the roll for a moment before nodding. “All right, fine. Get me some bandages, then tear off strips of tape about a foot and a half long. We’ll cover the wound with bandages, then seal it off with tape to keep it airtight.” She looked down at Tina. “Will that work?”

  Tina’s eyes were closed but she nodded and licked her lips before replying in a whisper. “Yeah. Should. Once it’s on… wait a while… then you need to use a needle… suck out the air.”

  “Needle to the chest to suck out the air.” Dianne gulped hard and closed her eyes. “Oh boy.”

  Chapter 3

  Washington, D.C.

  When Rick tackled Jacob, he had thought in the back of his mind that subduing the technician would be relatively straightforward compared to battling against the pair of Spetsnaz. His assumption that Jacob would be naturally weak and ineffectual in a physical struggle was not borne out by reality, though, as the technician refused to be taken out without a fight.

  Jacob rolled his body and pushed Rick off before pushing and pulling himself forward deeper into the darkness between the server racks, feeling with his hand on the ground for the pistol. Rick clambered after him, grabbed hold of Jacob’s pant leg and pulled sharply, sending the technician’s head slamming forward against the ground with a sharp crack and a cry of pain. Jacob, in turn, kicked with both his feet, causing Rick to see stars as the heel of one boot collided with his head. He refused to let go of Jacob’s leg, though, and instead pulled harder, dragging the lighter man back toward him and away from the firearm that Jacob was so desperate to locate.

  With a quick heave, Rick pushed himself off the floor and landed back on top of Jacob, though this time he was more prepared. Taking Jacob’s face in both hands he slammed the technician’s head back against the floor, first once, then twice, each time cringing at the sound of cracking bone and the muffled cries of pain beneath his hands. He nearly stopped attacking Jacob both times, but the image of Jane’s body and the knowledge that both Dr. Evans an
d Oles had been shot spurred him on.

  “Rick!” The voice was distant and hazy, and Rick didn’t register it until he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Rick!!”

  Rick turned, grabbing for the hand to try and fight off his attacker, but found himself staring into the pained eyes of Dr. Evans instead. “Leave him be, Rick! You got him!”

  Rick looked back down, realizing that Jacob had stopped fighting back more than a few blows earlier. He released the technician’s head and it dropped to the floor with a sickening thud, then he stood up and slowly backed away from Jacob’s body.

  “I—I didn’t mean—”

  “Yes you did. And it’s a damned good thing you did it, too.” Dr. Evans groaned as he put his hand on Rick’s shoulder again. “He would have killed us all. Oles! You okay over there?”

  “Hurts like hell but he just barely nicked me.”

  “Nice acting there.” Dr. Evans snorted approvingly. “You did good on distracting Jacob.”

  “I was hoping Rick would take advantage.” Oles smiled as he approached Rick, then his smile turned sour as he looked at his former friend. “I just wish it hadn’t come to all this.”

  “I hate to be the odd man out,” Rick said with frustration, “but would you two please explain to me what’s going on?!”

  Dr. Evans nodded. “Let’s sit down, though. I don’t need this to start bleeding again.”

  “You need medical attention, Dr. Evans.” Oles took him by the arm and helped ease him into a seat.

  “Later. Once we’ve finished this.” He cast a glance over at Jacob’s body, then looked up at Rick. “Is Jane truly… gone?”

  Rick felt his stomach twist into knots and nodded solemnly. “She is. Gunned down by Ostap as he was running upstairs. She never had a chance.”