Darkest Days Read online

  Darkest Days

  N.W. Harris

  Contents

  Title Page

  Also by N.W. Harris

  Content Disclosure

  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

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Also by N.W. Harris

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Catalyst

  Subscribe

  Darkest Days

  * * *

  The Last Orphans, Book IV

  By N.W. Harris

  Also by N.W. Harris

  The Last Orphans Series

  Book 1: The Last Orphans

  Book 2: The Harvest

  Book 3: Enslaved

  Book 4: Darkest Days

  THIS book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  * * *

  NO part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  * * *

  Darkest Days

  Copyright ©2017 N.W. Harris

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 978-1-63422-256-3

  Cover Design by: Marya Heidel

  Typography by: Courtney Knight

  Editing by: Cynthia Shepp

  For more information about our content disclosure,

  please utilize the QR code above with your smart phone or visit us at

  www.CleanTeenPublishing.com.

  To Amanda, for sticking by me on the long journey of creating this series

  “Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.”

  * * *

  RONALD REAGAN, address to United Nations general assembly, Sep. 21, 1987

  Chapter One

  “Power’s out in the cafeteria,” Steve yelled, pushing the metal door open. “It’s dark as hell in there.”

  Shane directed his tired gaze toward his big friend, and then back to Anfisa. She guarded the transport with six Anunnaki holed up inside.

  “Keep your finger off the trigger,” Shane ordered. “For now.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Anfisa replied, patting the side of the massive gun she sat behind. “But they deserve a couple of rounds from this pretty lady.”

  He welcomed her humor as a sign that her fortitude had not diminished. The Russians and his team had endured the cruel reality of the apocalypse and still stood strong. He shook his head and pleaded with his expression for her to hold off. Then, he headed toward the linebacker who stepped out onto the tarmac.

  After the strange green haze had vanished, a relative peace settled over the base. He knew the hellish nightmare that had begun with animals and insects killing the adults hadn’t ended, but the sudden liberation of the kids who’d been enslaved by the Anunnaki infused him with hope. Every human on the base was now free, and he guessed that freedom had spread across the entire planet. It seemed the green entity rendered the Anunnaki powerless, but the terrifying idea something far more advanced than them might watch from above kept Shane from celebrating.

  The Russian girl wasn’t the only one who wanted revenge. Shane managed to divert Tracy and Jules from their murderous rage, having turned their attention to corralling the hoard of kids into a long chow line.

  Their gaunt faces and sluggish movements led him to conclude most of them hadn’t eaten much since their slave gene took over, and they didn’t seem to have the strength to appreciate their new freedom. He doubted any of the scraggly kids really understood what they’d endured. He hadn’t talked to them yet, still not completely convinced that they wouldn’t try to kill him and his friends and cut their faces off.

  Hundreds crowded onto the tarmac and more spilled in from between the buildings to the south, all wearing lost expressions. It made him dizzy to behold them. They needed help, and Shane knew if he and his friends didn’t offer it, things could slip into the violent chaos that ensued after the adults died. Sighing, he tried to ignore the weight on his chest. The number of people under his charge had just increased a hundredfold.

  “You look like shit,” Steve said casually when Shane stopped in front of him.

  “Thanks,” Shane replied, returning his sarcastic grin. “You’re pretty as a pickle.”

  “Well, that’s nothing new.” Steve smiled, running his hand across his short crop of blond hair.

  The linebacker was freshly showered and shaved. He must’ve cleaned himself up right after they arrived at the base, while Shane and Tracy had tried to free Kelly and Jules. Still, he carried his big shoulders low and his eyes conveyed weariness. Steve glanced at the long line of kids forming up to eat, his brow furrowing even more. His right hand rose to the black strap holding his gun over his shoulder. After all they’d been through, Shane knew it was hard not to look at these kids as the enemy.

  “What do you want me to do?” Unwavering resolve in his eyes, Steve wouldn’t rest until Shane told him he could.

  Before he could respond, Shane saw Jones come out of a hangar.

  “Captain,” he called. “We need some help over here. The power’s out.”

  “It’s out everywhere,” Jones replied, frustrated. His scarred features expressed the usual stoicism, but when he glanced at the transport, Shane saw his eyebrows twitch. “And we can’t get the generators to start.”

  “Might have something to do with that voice,” Jules said, sounding exhausted. She nudged the barrel of her rifle toward the sky.

  Shane rubbed his aching forehead. He’d barely recovered from being ripped from his body and shoved into Kelly’s, and then he’d had to join the fight to defend the base.

  The terror she’d endured during her enslavement still resonated through him. It pained him to remember how she’d backed herself into the darkness of her own subconscious. When she did regain control, she’d gone berserk. How could anyone recover from such an experience? He wanted to slip away and be alone with Kelly to make sure she was all right, but his burgeoning responsibilities wouldn’t allow him that luxury.

  Jules seemed okay, though he worried about her too. She stayed near the transport, a rifle held across her chest. She gazed toward him, and he searched her eye
s. He couldn’t guess how jacked up she was from the enslavement, but she seemed in control now. She nodded at him as if to say she was okay and turned her attention away, perhaps uncomfortable with his scrutiny.

  A disabled Anunnaki transport sat in the center of the tarmac. Alien soldiers imprisoned inside took turns looking out with worried expressions. They worked feverishly, disassembling the control panel in an attempt to get the vessel restarted or perhaps to bring its weapons online. Unable to find a way to break into the transport and take the aliens prisoner, he’d had Petrov and Anfisa roll out an old antiaircraft gun from one of the hangars and point the gaping end at the transport’s windshield. Swinging herself up before anyone else had the chance, Anfisa maintained the seat behind the massive gun’s trigger. He’d ordered her to shoot if they managed to get the craft started and tried to take off.

  “That’s no good.” Shane glared at Jones, wishing the rebel offered a solution and not just more problems. He turned to Rebecca, who squatted next to one of the freed kids, wrapping a gash on his arm with a roll of gauze. “Are the stoves gas?” She’d spent more time in the kitchen than any of them.

  “No,” she replied. “All electric.”

  “We’ll have to start some fires and cook out here,” Tracy said, glancing at her girlfriend with concern in her otherwise-spent expression. He didn’t have to worry about Jules; Tracy was already doing enough of that. “There’s plenty of firewood.” She pointed at the forested mountain rising behind the base. They’d climbed the steep slope so many times in the flag-capturing games during training, back before the Anunnaki arrived and before Hell’s gates opened.

  “Can’t even see enough in there to find my way around,” Steve said. “And the battery-powered emergency lights aren’t working either.”

  It seemed everything that ran on electricity, even the watch on Shane’s wrist, had ceased to function.

  “We’ll have to make some torches so you can see to get the food,” Shane concluded. “But keep them small, so we don’t choke on the smoke or burn the place down.”

  “We should cook the stuff in the freezers before it goes bad,” Rebecca suggested.

  The red-haired girl he’d rescued in the Leeville High gym had grown up a lot since he’d been gone. Shane reckoned all the younger kids had been forced to mature beyond their years, their childhoods stolen from them.

  “Shane,” Jones growled. “We need to talk?”

  Shane’s brow crinkled. He had too much to worry about and wanted to get everyone on task so he could go to Kelly, and now the captain wanted to have a chitchat?

  “Y’all should get to it,” Shane said to his friends, hoping he didn’t sound too bossy. “Those fires need to be lit before sunset. It doesn’t look like we’re going to figure out the power problem anytime soon.”

  He never wanted them to think he felt superior, because he didn’t. They’d chosen him to be the leader, though it took a long time for him to fully accept the role. He blamed himself for the Russian kid who had been shot on the way to the hidden base from Charleston and was determined not to allow moments of hesitation to kill anyone else.

  He nodded to Tracy, signaling her to take charge. They all looked grumpy, in need of rest as much as the grimy kids crowding onto the tarmac. But his friends seemed willing to take an equal share in the burden of caring for their growing flock. She barked orders at Steve, Maurice, Rebecca, and a few of the new kids who she chose to help. As usual, Steve raised an eyebrow, showing offense to her tone, but he did what he was told.

  Eyeing the building where Kelly rested, Shane wanted to go to her bedside. After she collapsed, he’d scooped her up and taken her to her old bunk. He wished he could stay by her side until she came around. Tracy had called him away to help with the new kids, telling him they needed him. He knew Kelly was safe, but it didn’t make it any easier to be separated from her again so soon after finding her. He’d asked Laura, the most nurturing of his trusted friends, to tend to her.

  Shane walked toward Jones, reluctant but also determined to tend to everyone’s needs so when he did slip away to be by her side, they wouldn’t bother him for at least a little while.

  “You know we don’t have enough food on this base to sustain all these people for more than a couple of days,” Jones said in a faint voice.

  “Yeah,” Shane replied. “But what do you propose we do? Let them starve? Turn them away?”

  “No, of course not,” Jones returned, his tone telling Shane he didn’t appreciate his aggression. “But we can’t stay here. We need to move them to a more sustainable location.”

  “Have any place in mind?” Shane looked over his shoulder, trying to keep his irritability in check. The kids rushed on and off the tarmac, starting to bring firewood in from the forest and metal cooking pots from the cafeteria.

  “I’m afraid it’ll be an unpopular idea,” Jones said, raising his black eyebrows. “We should head south.”

  “South?” Shane snapped. “Toward Atlanta? Did you get hit in the head?”

  “Your federal government maintained secret food reserves in various locations around the country to help feed the population in case of a crisis,” Jones explained. “The closest one is hidden under Dobbins Air Force Base.”

  Shane studied Jones’ face for a moment. He had no desire to ever see Atlanta again.

  “Back there,” Shane said, shaking his head as he recalled the tornado they’d endured at the military base. “That’s too close to where the Anunnaki ship went down.”

  “I believe the ship landed further south,” Jones replied.

  “Isn’t there another reserve?” Exhaustion crushed Shane, and Jones sounded like he wanted to risk another fight with the Anunnaki.

  “Yes, but it’s near Washington D.C.,” Jones said. “I don’t think these kids can make it that far.”

  Shane followed his gaze toward the line of sunken-faced kids. Returning his attention to Jones, he shook his head. “No,” he replied. “The green thing said the Anunnaki must die. I’m not taking these kids down there to find out how it plans to make that happen.”

  “So what do you propose?” Jones donned a stern expression.

  Shane pinched the top of his nose and closed his eyes, feeling sick from sleep deprivation. He’d been in this situation before, right after they shut down the limbic manipulator. Then, he’d planned based on the assumption that the kids following him would need a long-term solution to the food and lodging issues. His earlier strategy made sense for the current situation as well.

  “We’ll head northwest,” he decided. “We need to get these kids to farm country where we can feed ourselves and not have to rely on some temporary food reserve.”

  “These kids might starve to death before you can grow any food,” Jones objected.

  “If we go to Atlanta, they’ll die fighting the Anunnaki or others who want access to this food reserve you’re talking about.” He looked across the base at the kids who gathered around the cooking fires with hungry expressions. “There’s plenty of livestock and grain reserves out there. We’ll find food.”

  Chapter Two

  “People of Anu,” a delicate feminine voice said.

  Athos spun around, searching the dark corners of the bridge with his pistol aimed. He guessed the owner of the voice had somehow freed the slave who murdered his boy. He wanted revenge, but he couldn’t find a target.

  “Your planet is destroyed. Those you’ve oppressed across this dimension have been freed. You are the last survivors of your wicked species. Your children will punish you.”

  “Who are you?” Athos demanded.

  The voice did not respond.

  Their control panels dark, the sailors looked at the general, and then around the bridge at the glowing bulkheads. They held their breaths, and it seemed the silence would asphyxiate them. He’d been on the ship when it was docked and had minimal crew, and even unoccupied, the bridge had never been so quiet. No reconditioned air hissed through the vents,
and the floor didn’t vibrate with the eternal low frequency sound emitted from the reactor. The view screen flickered, the last wisp of the Pegasus’ life about to be snuffed.

  General Athos watched the earth approach, clawing with his mind at the eroding situation. Having battled hundreds of species during his time in service, he’d never encountered an alien who rivaled the Anunnaki technologically or militarily. He wasn’t ready to accept this entity that the ship’s scanners couldn’t see was even real.

  Walking to the emergency hatch leading up to the ship’s city, he decided this could be an illusion. Perhaps the rest of the vessel was unaffected. This could be a diversion to keep the general and admiral on the bridge while rebels attacked the ship’s vital systems.

  He tried the control for the hatch, not surprised when it didn’t function. Opening the panel on the right side of the exit, he found the manual release, pulled it down, and then slid aside the unlocked blast door with ease.

  A curse hissed between his lips, his hope dashed. The green glow continued into the staircase leading away from the bridge, and he could only assume it encompassed the entire vessel. Admitting to himself he knew all along this attack couldn’t be the rebels, he returned his attention to the view screen. The ship had already completed its descent, an impossible feat under her own power in such a brief time.

  The city where he’d sent Pelros passed beneath them, and they came over a large airport to the south. The enemy intended to set them down gently, in an area populated with human slave soldiers who may or may not still be under Anunnaki control. It wanted them alive, but he’d yet to determine what it meant when it said their children would punish them.

  He could only hope the attacker hadn’t annihilated the Pegasus outright because it didn’t savor the idea of killing them in cold blood. Such compassion would be a weakness that he could use against them. Regardless, the entity had made a mistake. As long as he had breath in his body, he’d search for a way to deprive this thing of the same luxury.