CATACLYSMOS Book 1 Part 2: Night Fires of the New World: A Post-Apocolyptic Serial Thriller Read online

  about cataclysmos

  Thank you for giving the post-apocalyptic world that is Cataclysmos a try. I really appreciate you taking this journey with me. Cataclysmos is a serial thriller with new parts being published on a regular basis.

  For more information about Cataclysmos and for notifications of new installment releases, sign up for the Cataclysmos Communiqué by clicking here.

  Don’t miss a single thrilling episode of Cataclysmos!

  Click here to sign up today!

  Post a review and join the Cataclysmos Communiqué and I'll send you the next installment of CATACLYSMOS FOR FREE! Click here.

  The end.

  This is the way the world ends!

  When the end comes it comes with astonishing speed.

  It has been a slow build to the brink, but once the point of no return has been breached, night falls fast.

  Disasters, avoidable and not, and the inhuman responses to humanity’s existential crises, every tipping point tipping us over the ragged rim, into a black abyss from which there is no return.

  One man walks alone on a lonely road in search of his loved ones in a wasteland that used to be the world.

  Though danger lurks around every bend of the desolate landscape he is undaunted and will be undeterred. His mission is simple if nearly impossible – find his family and friends who are still alive.

  Encountering survivors who range from colorful characters to deadly adversaries, his journey is as much inward as it is outward, revealing as much about himself and the other survivors as the bleak new world they now inhabit.

  Warned to stay away from the coast, he heads directly into danger, choosing death over a world without his remaining loved ones in it.

  But is he too late? And if he’s not, is he up to the task of saving them?

  books by michael lister

  (Cataclysmos)

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 1: This is the Way the World Ends

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 2: Night Fires of the New World

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 3: The Deacon

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 4: Perish Twice

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 5: The Long Dark Night

  Cataclysmos Collection Book 1 Parts 1-3

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Complete in 5 Parts

  (John Jordan Novels)

  Power in the Blood

  Blood of the Lamb

  Flesh and Blood

  (Special Introduction by Margaret Coel)

  The Body and the Blood

  Blood Sacrifice

  Rivers to Blood

  Innocent Blood

  (Special Introduction by Michael Connelly)

  Blood Money

  Blood Moon

  Blood Cries

  Blood Oath

  (Jimmy “Soldier” Riley Novels)

  The Big Goodbye

  The Big Beyond

  The Big Hello

  The Big Bout

  In a Spider’s Web (short story)

  The Big Book of Noir

  (Merrick McKnight / Reggie Summers Novels)

  Thunder Beach

  A Certain Retribution

  (Remington James Novels)

  Double Exposure

  (includes intro by Michael Connelly)

  Separation Anxiety

  (Sam Michaels / Daniel Davis Novels)

  Burnt Offerings

  Separation Anxiety

  (Love Stories)

  Carrie’s Gift

  (Short Story Collections)

  North Florida Noir

  Florida Heat Wave

  Delta Blues

  Another Quiet Night in Desparation

  (The Meaning Series)

  The Meaning of Jesus

  Meaning Every Moment

  The Meaning of Life in Movies

  Sign up for Michael’s newsletter by clicking here or go to www.MichaelLister.com and receive a free book.

  about cataclysmos

  Thank you for giving the post-apocalyptic world that is Cataclysmos a try. I really appreciate you taking this journey with me. Cataclysmos is a serial thriller with new parts being published on a regular basis.

  For more information about Cataclysmos and for notifications of new installment releases, sign up for the Cataclysmos Communiqué by clicking here.

  Don’t miss a single thrilling episode of Cataclysmos!

  Click here to sign up today!

  Post a review and join the Cataclysmos Communiqué and I'll send you the next installment of CATACLYSMOS FOR FREE! Click here.

  The end.

  This is the way the world ends!

  When the end comes it comes with astonishing speed.

  It has been a slow build to the brink, but once the point of no return has been breached, night falls fast.

  Disasters, avoidable and not, and the inhuman responses to humanity’s existential crises, every tipping point tipping us over the ragged rim, into a black abyss from which there is no return.

  One man walks alone on a lonely road in search of his loved ones in a wasteland that used to be the world.

  Though danger lurks around every bend of the desolate landscape he is undaunted and will be undeterred. His mission is simple if nearly impossible – find his family and friends who are still alive.

  Encountering survivors who range from colorful characters to deadly adversaries, his journey is as much inward as it is outward, revealing as much about himself and the other survivors as the bleak new world they now inhabit.

  Warned to stay away from the coast, he heads directly into danger, choosing death over a world without his remaining loved ones in it.

  But is he too late? And if he’s not, is he up to the task of saving them?

  books by michael lister

  (Cataclysmos)

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 1: This is the Way the World Ends

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 2: Night Fires of the New World

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 3: The Deacon

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 4: Perish Twice

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Part 5: The Long Dark Night

  Cataclysmos Collection Book 1 Parts 1-3

  Cataclysmos Book 1 Complete in 5 Parts

  (John Jordan Novels)

  Power in the Blood

  Blood of the Lamb

  Flesh and Blood

  (Special Introduction by Margaret Coel)

  The Body and the Blood

  Blood Sacrifice

  Rivers to Blood

  Innocent Blood

  (Special Introduction by Michael Connelly)

  Blood Money

  Blood Moon

  Blood Cries

  Blood Oath

  (Jimmy “Soldier” Riley Novels)

  The Big Goodbye

  The Big Beyond

  The Big Hello

  The Big Bout

  In a Spider’s Web (short story)

  The Big Book of Noir

  (Merrick McKnight / Reggie Summers Novels)

  Thunder Beach

  A Certain Retribution

  (Remington James Novels)

  Double Exposure

  (includes intro by Michael Connelly)

  Separation Anxiety

  (Sam Michaels / Daniel Davis Novels)

  Burnt Offerings

  Separation Anxiety

  (Love Stories)

  Carrie’s Gift

  (Short Story Collections)

  North Florida Noir

  Florida Heat Wave

  Delta Blues

 
; Another Quiet Night in Desparation

  (The Meaning Series)

  The Meaning of Jesus

  Meaning Every Moment

  The Meaning of Life in Movies

  Sign up for Michael’s newsletter by clicking here or go to www.MichaelLister.com and receive a free book.

  a post-apocalyptic serial thriller

  cataclysmos

  night fires of the new world

  book 1 / part 2

  by

  michael lister

  table of contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  1

  Slowly.

  So very slowly.

  He helps his injured friend across the yard, past the rubble remnants of the house he once called home, down the slope of damp dirt and coiling, climbing kudzu vines, through the dense, dark forest, to the treehouse he had started so long ago for amusement and had so recently finished for sanctuary.

  —The men who attacked Gracie, Michael says. Who are they? Will they be back tonight? Can they get into the treehouse?

  —We’ll be safe up there. They’re . . . I’m not exactly sure what they are. I’m not certain there’s much that’s human left in them. They’ve been altered by . . . something. Infection? Radiation? Maybe it’s just trauma.

  —Seems like more.

  —Whatever it is . . . they can’t climb.

  The ladder is dropped down by a grateful daughter.

  And together they climb.

  Rung by rung.

  Slowly.

  Gingerly.

  Lynn’s arm around Michael’s shoulder, his wounded leg dangling down. Both men pulling up with all their might.

  Stretch and strain and creak of rope and wood.

  —It will hold, Lynn says, his soft voice prayerful.

  Michael nods. Takes a breath. Continues.

  Beyond depleted. Beyond drained. Utterly wrung out.

  Reserve strength. Reserve energy.

  No way he’s not accomplishing this one last task for today. Helping lift his friend to safety.

  The arduous, precarious process calls to mind a poem Lynn wrote many, many years before called The Heavy Lifting.

  In the insightful poem, Lynn lifts his young daughters, carrying them from car to bed after they fall asleep on the way home. He injures his back lifting a drunk paraplegic vet who has fallen out of his wheelchair. He reflects on not lifting his father at the end, how that task fell to strangers, paramedics.

  Random lines come to mind.

  Men can lift things, heavy things,

  can on average run faster, longer

  but have advantage in little else.

  I wonder what all the lifting

  will come to, how little it

  has to do finally with being

  a man, though it seems so

  important at the time.

  By the time they reach the top, their bags are waiting there for them.

  Water. Food. Medicine. Supplies.

  Augustus, who has spent a lifetime doing such things to farm animals, sets Lynn’s broken leg.

  Lynn passes out from the pain, Gracie from the sight of it.

  —I was wrong about you, Michael says to Augustus. I’m sorry.

  —May take me a while to get somewhere, Augustus says with an extra twinkle in his eye, but by god I’m worth the wait.

  —Yes you are. You’re far more suited to this world than I am, far more useful.

  —You’re doing just fine.

  2

  Small spartan space. Up above the fray. Cardboard boxes. Random canned goods. Bottled water. Depleted first-aid kit. Unlit Coleman lantern. Burning candles. A few books and keepsakes.

  Sleep.

  Dreams.

  Four humans—three men and a young woman. One animal—a very brave Catahoula Lab mix named for Florida’s first military governor.

  Inside—snoring, breathing, mumbling. Outside—unearthly sounds from down below.

  Waking.

  Flickering candlelight.

  An open book lying across his chest. Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy. He holds it like a lover.

  Augustus, supposed to be on watch, is fast asleep.

  Seeing Lynn rousing.

  Administering water and more pain pills from his pack.

  —Thank you, Lynn says.

  Michael shakes his head.

  —How’re you feeling?

  —A lot better. Gracie okay?

  —Yeah. Just been through a lot from the looks of it.

  —All have, Lynn says.

  —Did you think we’d ever witness a world like this?

  —Seemed inevitable.

  He often thinks the earth is merely fighting a toxic infection that just happens to be the virus of humanity.

  —We reaped the whirlwind, Michael says.

  —It’s what happens when you sow the wind.

  —Sudden, once it started, once we breached the brink.

  Jackson sniffles and snorts and adjusts his bandaged body.

  —What’re y’all still doing here? Michael asks.

  —Gracie’s been sick, unable to travel. Too dangerous anyway. Joy’s in Tallahassee—or was when it happened. Jill was over there too, but they weren’t together. I’ve wanted to go there and to Panama City to check on my mom, but . . . have been unable to do either. And they say Blountstown is completely underwater now, impassable.

  —We’ll figure out our next steps tomorrow. Get some sleep.

  —What book do you have?

  He tells him.

  —Have another? Lynn asks.

  —Of course. Would you like A Widow for One Year, The Hours, Oracle Night, Open Secret, Rabbit Run?

  —Surprise me.

  He hands him Mariette in Ecstasy.

  The book is received in the same manner it is given. Carefully. Reverentially. Like two curators handling the last known art object of its kind.

  —Either they no longer matter at all, Lynn says, or they matter more than they ever did before.

  —I’m giving myself permanent back, shoulder, and neck issues because I believe it’s the latter.

  —Thanks for that. For this. Glad you’re here. It’s good to see you again.

  —You too.

  3

  Morning.

  He’s had very little sleep.

  Spent the solitary hours of the night thinking, figuring, planning.

  —I’ve been trying to figure out what to do next, Michael says softly, his mouth dry.

  Only Lynn and Augustus are awake and he’s trying not to disturb Gracie and Jackson.

  —Come up with anything? Augustus asks.

  —Gracie said Meleah left before everything started, he says. I have no way of knowing where she was headed or if she got there before it all began. I need to continue toward Wewa.

  Lynn nods.

  —But you can’t travel and won’t be able to do much for a while.

  —Doesn’t matter, Lynn says. You’ve got to look for her. Find her and the others.

  —I think I might have a plan.

  Michael turns to Augustus.

  —Would you be willing to stay here for a while and help Lynn and Gracie? he asks. I’d leave food, water, and weapons for y’all.

  —I’ll be up and around in no time, Lynn says. There’s no need—

  —I’d be happy to, Augustus says.

  —I was thinking I could go to Wewa and help get whoever’s still alive out, then come back here. That’d give you time to heal. Then we’d figure out how to get to Panama City and Tallahassee.

  —You’ve got to go, Lynn says. But you can’t leave supplies and your partner behind. We’ll—

  —All I do is slow him down, Augustus says.

  —All he does
is slow me down, Michael says, smiling at Augustus.

  —I want to stay, Augustus adds. You kidding. You have a house—a shelter to sleep in. My old bones much prefer this to walking fifty miles in treacherous, hostile, toxic territory. Let me stay. Please. You’d be doing me a favor.

  Foraging.

  Gathering.

  More heavy lifting.

  Preparing.

  Securing.

  Thinking. Always thinking.

  Is this the right the thing to do? If not, what is? How can I know?

  Both men know this could be the last time they ever see each other.

  —I’m so glad I got to see you, Michael says.

  He has spent much of the morning foraging for food and getting them set up with everything they need to survive.

  They’re in good shape and its far safer here than what he’s about to attempt, but he still feels conflicted.

  —Your friendship has meant more to me than you’ll ever know, Lynn says.

  Michael blinks a few times.

  —I hope to be back in less than a week, he says. But I feel bad for leaving.

  —We’ll be fine. You’ve seen to that. Just look out for yourself out there.

  Michael nods.

  —Everything is different now, Lynn says. Everything. Don’t hesitate. Deliberation was for the other world. Now there is only time to act. Don’t hesitate to do what needs to be done. Find your family. Get them out of there.

  —Thanks.

  He steps over and hugs Gracie.

  —Find Micah for me, she says. Bring him back with you.

  —I will.

  He moves toward the hatch.

  Augustus opens it and drops down the rope ladder.

  —Couldn’t’ve done this without your help, Michael says. So glad we met up on the road. Thank you for everything.

  —It was a grand adventure. I look forward to others with you.

  —Take good care of them.

  —Count on it. Just hurry back so you can see for yourself just how good.

  4

  Alone.

  Again.

  He had adjusted to having the companionship of Augustus and Jackson, and is now adjusting back.