Dark Days | Book 7 | Hell Town Read online

  HELL TOWN

  DARK DAYS BOOK 7

  A post-apocalyptic series by

  MARK LUKENS

  Contents

  OTHER BOOKS BY MARK LUKENS:

  AUTHOR’S NOTE:

  PART ONE

  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

  PART TWO

  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

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  PART THREE

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  AUTHOR’S NOTE:

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

  Hell Town: Dark Days Book 7 © 2019 by Mark Lukens

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reprinted without written permission from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (or in any other form), business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by: Extended Imagery

  Special thanks to: Jet, Ann, Kelli, Valerie, and Mary Ann—your help is immensely valuable to me, and I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it.

  OTHER BOOKS BY MARK LUKENS:

  ANCIENT ENEMY – www.amazon.com/dp/B00FD4SP8M

  DARKWIND: ANCIENT ENEMY 2 – www.amazon.com/dp/B01K42JBGW

  HOPE’S END: ANCIENT ENEMY 3 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07G1MS6RK

  EVIL SPIRITS: ANCIENT ENEMY 4 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07L8KLXVB

  ANCIENT ENEMY BOX SET – www.amazon.com/dp/B084TSK32N

  DESCENDANTS OF MAGIC – www.amazon.com/dp/B00FWYYYC

  SIGHTINGS – www.amazon.com/dp/B00VAI31KW

  DEVIL’S ISLAND – www.amazon.com/dp/B06WWJC6VD

  WHAT LIES BELOW – www.amazon.com/dp/B0143LADEY

  NIGHT TERRORS – www.amazon.com/dp/B00M66IU3U

  THE SUMMONING – www.amazon.com/dp/B00HNEOHKU

  THE DARWIN EFFECT – www.amazon.com/dp/B01G4A8ZYC

  GHOST TOWN – www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEZRF7G

  THE VAMPIRE GAME – www.amazon.com/dp/B07C2M72X9

  FOLLOWED – www.amazon.com/dp/B078WYGMJN

  THE EXORCIST’S APPRENTICE – www.amazon.com/dp/B00YYF1E5C

  POSSESSION: THE EXORCIST’S APPRENTICE 2 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07NCZQTNR

  A DARK COLLECTION: 12 SCARY STORIES – www.amazon.com/dp/B00JENAGLC

  RAZORBLADE DREAMS: HORROR STORIES – www.amazon.com/dp/B076B7W252

  SLEEP DISORDERS – www.amazon.com/dp/B07XX9WVGM

  COLLAPSE: DARK DAYS BOOK 1 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07SCPL6QB

  CHAOS: DARK DAYS BOOK 2 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07TVYNW19

  EXPOSURE: DARK DAYS BOOK 3 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07TY5S1S8

  REFUGE: DARK DAYS BOOK 4 – www.amazon.com/dp/B07VR8KNJ6

  AFTERMATH: DARK DAYS BOOK 5 – www.amazon.com/dp/B0821PWVH5

  SURVIVORS: DARK DAYS BOOK 6 – www.amazon.com/dp/B0821QWTGB

  AUTHOR’S NOTE:

  Hell Town: Dark Days Book 7 picks up right after Book 6.

  I hope you’ll look out for Book 8, the final book in this series. It should be available soon. Thank you for reading!

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER 1

  Ray

  They had barely escaped the burning cabin. Rose had been a mole; she’d led the Dark Angels right to their cabin. The Dark Angels had almost killed them. She’d also led the Dragon to their cabin, letting him see the food and supplies hidden in the bunker under the cabin through her eyes . . . through her dreams.

  Ray thought about the food and supplies as he drove away from the cabin. He wondered if the supplies in the bunker were still good, some of it still salvageable after the cabin finally burned all the way down into the basement and the bunker. He even thought they could go back to collect the supplies.

  And do what with them? There wasn’t enough room in the van and the Jeep to load those supplies. And it would take days for the logs to burn down, days before it would be cool enough to sift through the wreckage and ash, to dig down into the bunker. And in that time more Dark Angels would come back, if the rippers hadn’t already sniffed out the supplies first.

  No, all of the food and water, all of those supplies, were gone, lost to them now.

  Ray was certain that more Dark Angels were on their way, a new battalion to replace the ones they had killed. The Dragon, after seeing what was in the bunkers through Rose’s eyes, wouldn’t give up on all of that.

  They had fled the cabin in the two vehicles they had, Josh and Emma in the old Dodge van, and Ray, Luke, and Mike in the new Jeep they’d found parked in the garage when they’d first gotten to Doug’s cabin. Ray drove the Jeep now, his eleven-year-old son (only a few days away from twelve years old) Mike riding shotgun, and Luke in the back with the weapons he’d taken off the Dark Angels he’d killed and the two metal boxes of ammo and the few hand grenades left. Luke had killed most (or more likely all) of the Dark Angels by himself, which had allowed all of them time to flee the cabin. Luke had also picked off many of the rippers rushing toward them from the woods, trying to block off their escape through the open gate on the dirt drive that led to the seemingly endless dirt roads that wound their way through these woods deep in the mountains of southern West Virginia. Luke had thrown a few of the hand grenades, blowing some of the rippers apart, but more importantly driving the rest of them back, halting their progress just long enough for Ray to speed through the metal gate the Dark Angels had smashed open with their military trucks less than an hour ago. Josh had followed Ray through the open gate, the old van right on the Jeep’s rear.

  After they had gotten through the gate and away from the horde of rippers coming at them from the woods, Luke had laughed like a maniac—an eerie laughter that he hadn’t seemed to be able to control. And that laughter had been infectious, spreading to Mike. Ray had laughed too, though he wasn’t sure now what he’d found so funny at the time. Maybe it was the idea that they had escaped almost certain death; maybe it was just the joy of being alive for the moment, unhurt and alive.

  But that joy had passed quickly by the time they’d gotten to the end of the dirt drive, turning onto the dirt road they drove now. A silence blanketed them, the melancholy of the “real world” suddenly hitting them.

  Yes, they were alive, and that was good. Yes, they were unhurt for the most
part. Ray’s ankle still throbbed, and they all had bumps and bruises, scratches and cuts, and Ray wasn’t even sure if Luke was hurt, but if he was it couldn’t be too bad because he wasn’t complaining about anything. Yes, they were alive and mostly unhurt, but they still had this nightmare world all around them, this world of rippers—humans infected with some kind of plague that had turned them into flesh-eating monsters. And there were still the gangs, the Dark Angels being the worst of them. And there was still no food, no clean water, no medicine. Nothing anymore.

  Reality was coming back to Ray hard, weighing him down, crushing any of the laughter and joy out of him that had been there moments ago. They had their lives, their two vehicles, the few packs of supplies and collection of weapons they’d managed to save from the bunker. And that was it. Nothing else. They’d found a paradise at Doug’s cabin, a bunker stocked with several years’ worth of food, water, and supplies. But the Dark Angels had found them and destroyed it, and now they had nothing.

  Ray gripped the steering wheel even harder, trying to fight the sudden anger that threatened to overwhelm him. But at least the anger pushed away the sadness a little, the hopelessness. He could still smell the smoke on his clothes, in his nostrils, the smoke from the cabin fire spiraling up into the sky above the trees behind them. And it wasn’t just the smell of the smoke that clung to him, but also the stench of death.

  He’d been driving for almost an hour now on the dirt roads. Everything looked the same, nothing but dirt roads and woods with another dirt road branching off from the one they were on every once in a while. It felt like they were trapped on the same never-ending trail road in an unescapable nightmare.

  “You okay, son?” Ray asked Mike, glancing at him. It was the first he had spoken in forty-five minutes.

  Mike nodded.

  “You’re not hurt? Burned? Sometimes you don’t know at first if you’re hurt. Shock.”

  Mike shook his head slowly, looking down at his hands and arms, then his lap and legs like it was the first time he’d really thought about checking to see if he was injured. He looked ready to burst into tears at any moment. “No,” he said softly. “I’m not hurt.”

  “Good.”

  “You?” Ray looked into the rearview mirror at Luke who sat in the back seat staring out the window.

  “I’m okay,” Luke said without looking away from the window.

  “Thank you, by the way,” Ray said to Luke, still watching him in the mirror. “You saved us. All of us. Killing all of those Dark Angels. Those rippers.”

  Luke said nothing.

  “I’m sorry,” Mike said. His face crumpled, tears threatening. “I . . . I shouldn’t have trusted her.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Ray said. He grabbed his son’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “We’re alive. That’s what matters. We’re all alive and well.”

  “But if I hadn’t taken her down to the bunker, if I hadn’t trusted her . . .”

  “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know she was with the Dark Angels—they were going to find us sooner or later.” He realized that the tone of his voice had a sharpness to it, like he was snapping at Mike. “Really, Mike,” he continued, struggling to soften his voice. “It’s not your fault.”

  But Ray knew deep down that some of this had been Mike’s fault. Some of what had happened had been Josh’s fault for wanting to let Rose in when they’d found her on the front porch. And Ray figured he shared the blame when he had defended Rose even though Luke had begun to believe that her story was filled with lies. Yes, maybe they all shared some of the blame. But what did it matter now? What good would it do to blame each other now?

  Mike looked out the passenger window.

  Ray slowed the Jeep down, parking in the middle of the dirt road, keeping several feet away from the edge—he knew better than to get too close to the woods. There could be rippers in those woods. The memory of stopping for the little girl in the middle of the road before they’d gotten to the town of Heaven came back to him with a shocking clarity. The rippers had been hiding in the woods, waiting to ambush them, using the little ripper girl as bait—the girl ripper who had sat in the middle of the shadow-speckled road with her back to them, waiting for them to get out of their truck.

  You had to be careful now in this new world . . . always so careful.

  They’re getting smarter; they’re evolving. Josh’s voice echoed in his mind, repeating words written down by a man named Isaac who had hidden in an attic after his wife had turned and killed their sons. Isaac was dead now—he had taken his own life rather than carry on in this bleak world.

  “What are we stopping for?” Mike asked. He was suddenly tense, his eyes darting to the woods; he was like a soldier trying to spot the enemy among the trees.

  His son, a veteran of war already.

  “Is the Jeep okay?” Luke asked, hunching forward from the back seat. “We out of gas?”

  “No, we’re fine,” Ray said. “But we don’t even know where we’re going. We need to map out a route. Take an inventory of what we’ve got. How much gas we have.”

  Ray glanced at the rearview mirror and saw that Josh had parked his van a few feet behind the Jeep. Leaving the Jeep running for a moment, Ray rolled down his window and listened to the woods. He didn’t hear any rippers—no sounds out there except for the freezing wind ruffling the leaves of the trees and the rumbling of their vehicles.

  Luke had his M-16 ready in his hands, tense and on guard.

  Ray got out of the Jeep.

  CHAPTER 2

  Josh

  Josh slowed down and parked behind Ray’s Jeep.

  “What are we doing?” Emma asked. She had moved up from the back to the passenger seat once they’d gotten onto the road from Doug’s long driveway—one dirt road leading to another in this maze of dirt roads cut through the vast forest.

  “Ray’s stopping.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Ray got out of the Jeep and made a slashing gesture across his throat.

  Josh rolled down the driver’s window and turned off the van’s engine. Everything was quiet, but Josh was still tense. He had his shotgun and a pistol within easy reach from the driver’s seat.

  Ray came up to the window as Mike and Luke got out of the Jeep. Luke had an assault rifle in his hands, one of the two weapons he’d taken off the dead Dark Angels. He waited by the open back door of the Jeep, on guard and ready to shoot.

  “Something wrong?” Josh asked when Ray got to the window.

  “No. I just wanted to stop in a relatively safe place so we could gather our thoughts and route out where we’re going. Get a little to eat and drink. Stretch our legs. Inventory what we have.”

  Josh almost made a joke about Ray’s obsession with inventories and lists, but he didn’t. He had to practically clamp his mouth shut again after it almost opened on its own, spilling out some jackass comment. Instead he said: “Okay.”

  “It’s safe?” Emma asked.

  “So far,” Ray said. “I think we need to stop while we can.”

  Emma nodded, staring toward Ray like she was looking at him through her dark glasses, like she could see him with her blind eyes. She opened the passenger door and got out.

  Ray backed away so Josh could get out. Josh was around the front of the van in a flash to help Emma, getting her cane for her, the one he had carved from a thick tree branch.

  “Thanks,” she whispered to him.

  Ray went back to the Jeep and opened the back. He rummaged through the packs for a moment. He came to the side of the van with Mike and Luke. Josh already had the two packs from the back of the van at the open side door for Ray to inventory.

  “How much gas do you have?” Ray asked.

  “A little over half a tank. I’ve got the two five-gallon gas cans strapped in the back of the van.” They’d put those gas cans there the first day they’d stayed at the cabin, getting the vehicles stocked in case they ever had to leav
e in a hurry. Now those plastic gas cans were a godsend.

  “Jeep’s still practically full of gas,” Ray said. “And with the packs, we have about two to three weeks of food. I packed some blankets, some medical supplies, soap, bathroom stuff, extra socks and shirts in the packs.”

  “Good,” Josh said. “That’s better than getting out of there with nothing.”

  “The map to Avalon,” Ray said with an ominous tone to his voice. “The one I made in Craig’s office from his laptop, it was upstairs in my room when the Dark Angels hit the cabin. It’s gone.”

  Josh thought of the other things they’d lost in the cabin fire. He thought of the photos of his sister and nephew that he’d taken from Marla’s apartment.

  Gone.

  The notebooks he’d taken from Isaac’s attic with all of Isaac’s notes written in them.

  Gone.

  His extra clothes. Emma’s extra clothes and shoes. Mike’s comic books that he’d managed to hold onto all the way from their home until now, including one of Kyle’s comic books he had given to him.

  Gone.

  So much gone. So much burned up. So much food and so many supplies that Doug had gathered were now left behind in the bunker. Maybe they were going to burn up if the fire managed to get down there. At least the heat and smoke might damage a lot of it even if the fire didn’t get to them, cooking the supplies and boiling the tanks and jugs of water, the bunker turning into one gigantic oven.

  What a waste. The Dark Angels had wanted the supplies, but apparently killing them was worth more than a bunker full of supplies.

  Even though Ray didn’t have the map to Avalon, he had a map of the eastern United States from one of the packs spread out on the floor of the van just inside the door. He used a ballpoint pen to draw a route from southern West Virginia down through the sliver of Virginia, then into North Carolina, and then a small section of South Carolina, and then into northern Georgia. But then he stopped, tapping his pen on the stretched-out map.

  “What is it?” Josh asked him.

  “I don’t know where Avalon is. It’s somewhere around here in northern Georgia, but I can’t remember exactly where.” He threw the pen down. It slapped the map. “Damn. I should’ve had that map on me. I should’ve had it in my pocket at all times.”