Red Sky - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel Read online

  Red Sky

  A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

  Kellee L. Greene

  Contents

  Books By Kellee L. Greene

  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

  Final Note

  Books By Kellee L. Greene

  Mailing List

  About the Author

  Ravaged Land - Preview

  Ravaged Land - Chapter one

  Ravaged Land - Chapter two

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 Kellee L. Greene

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author.

  First Edition August 2018

  Books By Kellee L. Greene

  Falling Darkness Series

  Unholy - Book 1

  Uprising - Book 2

  Hunted - Book 3

  Ravaged Land Series

  Ravaged Land -Book 1

  Finding Home - Book 2

  Crashing Down - Book 3

  Running Away - Book 4

  Escaping Fear - Book 5

  Fighting Back - Book 6

  Ravaged Land: Divided Series

  The Last Disaster - Book 1

  The Last Remnants - Book 2

  The Last Struggle - Book 3

  The Island Series

  The Island - Book 1

  The Fight - Book 2

  The Escape - Book 3

  The Erased - Book 4

  The Alien Invasion Series

  The Landing - Book 1

  The Aftermath - Book 2

  Destined Realms Series

  Destined - Book 1

  One

  There hadn’t been any warnings leading up to the catastrophe, at least none that normal people like myself had been given. I hadn’t been prepared for the day it happened. But then again, no one had been.

  I shot up in my bed bending forward at my waist, gasping for air. My fingertips gripped the floral bedspread my grandma had bought three years ago for my twenty-second birthday.

  Sweat dripped down the sides of my face, landing on the pretty purple and pink carnation print. The room spun as if I was on a merry-go-round.

  My heart raced as I tried to suck oxygen deep into my lungs. It felt as though my upper body had been stuffed with cotton, and my throat was being sewn shut.

  I swung my legs over the side of the bed, placing my feet firmly on the floor. My fingers dug into the side of the bed as if I was afraid the swirling motion was going to throw me off the mattress and onto the floor. I lowered my head, taking slow breaths in a desperate attempt to calm myself.

  A panic attack? It wouldn’t be the first one I’d had, and it would unlikely be the last. But somehow this was different.

  I couldn’t remember my dream, but it must have been pretty terrible to send my body into the hell I was currently inside of. It must have been a nightmare, so bad my body was refusing to let me recall it.

  The dreams had seemed to be happening more and more, especially with my ever-increasing bouts of insomnia over the last few weeks. And I knew I shouldn’t have watched the news before bed. That always puts my mind in dark places.

  Ever since I’d lost my job, things had been rough. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay my next month's rent, not to mention my dinner had been junk off of the dollar menu. The last thing I wanted to do was to have to call my grandma and beg her for money… again.

  I drew in a shaky breath as I looked over at my phone on the nightstand. The light was blinking, but as I was about to reach over and check the message, a sharp pain shot through my gut. It felt like my stomach was being squeezed in a vice. Sourness bubbled up in my esophagus, and my eyes widened.

  At first, I tried to swallow, hoping to force everything back down, but my body was refusing to comply. I covered my mouth with my hand and tried to breathe, but it felt like I was going to explode.

  I charged across the bedroom floor and stumbled my way into the bathroom. There hadn’t even been enough time to put the light on before I bent at the middle and held my own hair back. My stomach lurched and emptied itself into the white porcelain bowl.

  The coolness of the tile floor on my feet was a welcomed relief. I was tempted to lay down next to the toilet.

  “Ugh,” I groaned as I placed my palms on the counter and leaned over the sink. I turned on the faucet and splashed water on my face. My eyes shifted up, and I caught the reflection of my pale skin that almost seemed to be glowing in the dark.

  I stepped out of the bathroom and crossed the floor, making my way into the tiny kitchen of my small apartment. The worn carpet felt rough against the bottoms of my bare feet.

  I reached inside the fridge and pulled out a bottle of cold water. My fingers shook as I unscrewed the cap. I swallowed down a big gulp of water in an attempt to wash down the putrid taste that felt stuck to the back of my throat.

  My clothing clung to my body as more beads of sweat accumulated on my forehead. I placed the back of my hand to my head to feel if I had a fever, but the only thing I could tell was that I was so hot that I was sweating.

  The air in my apartment felt thick, like a fog caused by dense summer humidity. Somehow, I was managing to take in breaths even though with the pressure in my chest, it was a bit of a challenge.

  I leaned back against the wall, pressing the bottle of water to my forehead and noticed through the curtains that the sun was starting to come up. Great. Of course, it felt as though I hadn’t slept at all.

  The glow around the edges of the curtains seemed different from usual. It was brighter… more orange. Even though I probably should have crawled back into bed to get more rest, I walked over the window and pulled back the curtain.

  When I saw the red color that covered the entire sky, my mouth dropped wide open. Every inch was a shade of red much like blood, and unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

  “What the hell?” I said, looking at the trees in the yard. Was I still dreaming? The leaves and grasses were varying shades of dark red, colored by the unusual sky.

  I drew in a breath that pinched my lungs as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. The air got stuck in my throat forcing me to release a harsh, painful cough.

  Something wasn’t right.

  In fact, a lot of things didn’t seem right.

  I reached over for the remote to check the TV and it felt like a volcano was about to erupt inside my stomach. The local news station was showing nothing but rainbow-colored lines up and down the screen.

  “What the….”

  As I was about to flip to the next channel, a severe,
ice-cold shiver ran down my spine. My bones felt cold even though my apartment felt like it was preheating to cook a pizza.

  My fingers trembled as I checked the next channel, and then the one after that. Both showing the same rainbow-colored stripes. Maybe if I would have had cable, there would have been something useful.

  I remembered my phone in the other room. With my arms wrapped around my stomach as if I was holding myself together, I dashed into my bedroom. My fingers shaking as I picked the phone up off of the nightstand.

  The redness from the sky peeked through the blinds making red stripes across the wall. It looked as though my bedroom had been turned into a darkroom for developing photos.

  I pressed the button on my phone, instantly noticing that I only had three percent battery remaining. There were two text messages.

  The first was from my friend Molly asking where I was and why I wasn’t answering my phone. She should have known I’d be trying to sleep in the middle of the night.

  The second message was from my brother Nick asking me to call him which was followed by three exclamation points.

  My brother?

  I looked toward the window and then back at my phone. It had been at least two years since I’d talked to my brother. Maybe even longer.

  The last time I had talked to him had been at our mother’s funeral.

  After Nick was kicked off the police force, he spiraled out of control in a way no one could have seen coming. It was much different from the way I was currently spiraling.

  Nick had gotten into drugs, he’d had an affair with a prostitute which led to a divorce, and so much more. His coin had completely flipped whereas I was still sitting on the edge of my coin trying to keep in balanced.

  I reached down toward the plug to charge my phone. Even though I didn’t want to, I should at least text him back.

  Just as I inserted the plug, the phone shut off and the familiar hum of electricity in my apartment disappeared. There was no sound coming from the TV in the other room, just an eerie silence hanging in the air.

  Before I could even press the button to turn my phone back on to check the internet for information, my stomach sloshed like a broken wash machine on spin cycle. There was no way I was going to make it to the bathroom.

  I dropped to my knees and threw up in the small trash bin next to my nightstand.

  After I finished, I hovered over it for a few minutes before I could gather up enough energy to pull myself back into the bed. I rested my head down on my squishy pillow and closed my eyes, begging my stomach to settle.

  Nick could wait. So could Molly.

  It took several minutes before my body relaxed and I was brave enough to move. I raised my hand up to my forehead and wiped the sweat away.

  My eyelids felt heavy, but I wanted to check my phone. There had to be something about the red sky, it was too odd not for some news site to be reporting on it.

  I clicked the button to turn it on, but nothing happened. The electricity was out… my phone was dead… and the sky was the color of a vampire’s cocktail. Something was most definitely wrong.

  What a great time to get sick. But none of it really mattered. I was far too ill to worry about the phone or the electricity. Hell, I was far too sick to even worry about the bizarre red sky.

  As for the electricity, I probably hadn’t paid the bill. And without power, I wouldn’t be able to charge my phone to call the electric company.

  Wonderful.

  My pillow, t-shirt, and shorts were drenched in sweat, but all I could do was lay there staring at the wall hoping to God I didn’t throw up again. There couldn’t have even been anything left inside of me.

  I shivered as the world outside brightened. The sun was rising higher, but whatever was causing the redness was still out there.

  My body wouldn’t stop shaking. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d felt this sick. Maybe never. If I could have afforded a doctor bill, this maybe would have been the time to go see one.

  I think I started to dream, or maybe I was hallucinating, but my mother was suddenly alive. She was inside my apartment, in the kitchen, making me chicken noodle soup from scratch. Deep down inside, I knew she wasn’t really there. It wasn’t possible no matter how badly I wanted to see her again.

  Maybe I’d died. But what kind of afterlife would it be if I continued to feel so sick?

  Her footsteps tapped softly against the old linoleum floor. I saw her shadow through the door as she moved from one side of the kitchen to the other.

  “It’s almost ready, sweetheart,” she called out to me. Her voice soothed me more than the chicken soup ever would.

  I wanted to respond… to see her close up… to hug her, but my voice wouldn’t work. I couldn’t beg her to come into the bedroom before I woke.

  My eyelids fluttered rapidly, bringing me back into my now red bedroom. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what was real and what was a dream. I listened for her footsteps, but the apartment was silent. Too silent. Hauntingly silent.

  As I stared at the red lines on the wall, I heard a woman scream somewhere outside. It was far away, but I could still tell it had been there. Moments later, several pops from a gun erupted, and my body shuddered with each one.

  Guns? Maybe I was still dreaming.

  When there was a sharp knock at the door, my eyes widened. It was definitely real. The world I could reach out and touch wasn’t the dream.

  How long had I been asleep for?

  “Gwen!” the voice called loudly before urgently pounding three more times. “Hurry up! Let me in!”

  Two

  I wobbled as I got myself onto my feet. Somehow, I managed to walk through my apartment to the door. Whoever was out there didn’t seem like would stop pounding until I did.

  “Hang on,” I muttered, but surely, they wouldn’t be able to hear my weak voice through the door. And I wasn’t even sure if I had wanted them to.

  I twisted the deadbolt and unlocked the door just barely stepping to the side as the guy from down the hall pushed past me and closed my door. He looked as though he was just as pale and sweaty as I was.

  “You should look before letting someone inside,” Jamie said looking me up and down. “You’re lucky it was me and not some creepy rapist.”

  “How do you know I didn’t?”

  “Did you?”

  I shook my head.

  I didn’t know Jamie all that well, only from a few random chats when we’d pass each other in the hallway. He could have been a creep for all I knew, but he seemed like a nice, normal guy for the times I had talked with him.

  What I did know about Jamie was that he worked for a package delivery company and that he brewed his own coffee. He had his own disposable cups that he carried on his way to work. I also knew that he left early in the morning for his job and that he was extremely good-looking. It didn’t seem as though he was aware of that fact, but I definitely was.

  His brilliant blue eyes looked purple-ish in the red glow of my apartment.

  “Can I help you with something?” I asked, my voice groggy. I tried to hide the fact that I kind of wished he wasn’t seeing me at my worst.

  In all the time I’d lived in the same apartment building as Jamie Bennett, not once had he knocked on my door. He wasn’t the type to borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d wager he drank his coffee black.

  His mouth dropped open as he stared into my eyes. He slowly cocked his head to the side. “Did you not see what’s going on out there?”

  “I saw, but then I got really sick, and honestly that’s mostly all I’ve been thinking about so far this morning,” I said, placing my hand on the wall to help steady myself. My legs were weak, and they were starting to shake. If I didn’t sit down soon, I’d probably crash to the floor.

  “Yeah, you look far worse than I do,” Jamie said.

  “Thanks? I hope that’s not all you stopped by to tell me.”

  Jamie shook his head. �
�That came out much worse than I intended. Anyway, something is going on out there. Something happened. There was some kind of… attack.”

  “An attack?” I questioned, my voice flat. It was almost as if it were the first time I’d ever heard the word.

  “Yeah before the power went out, I caught a quick warning one of the news channels just as I was stepping out of the shower.” Jamie ran his hand through his wavy hair. “They said it was some kind of attack, stay indoors, wait for more information, but then the station went out.”

  Jamie started pacing, twisting his fingers as he moved quickly back and forth. He stopped abruptly and wiped the back of his hand across his brow.

  “It was still dark when I first woke, but it wasn’t long after that I passed out. I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I do know that you are the first person to answer their door,” he said.

  “Maybe everyone is still asleep,” I said placing my hand on my stomach. “Ugh, I’m so sorry, but I think I’m going to be sick again.”

  “This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but I think whatever it is… I think it’s in the air. Some kind of chemical, or poison.”

  “What makes you think that?” I asked.

  “The color of the sky.”

  I winced as my knees threatened to give out. Jamie dashed over to me and grabbed my elbow. He carried most of my weight as he helped me to the sofa.