Free The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 by AJ Rose

night.”
    “Oh, don’t give me that bullshit.” This time she did snarl. “Don’t get me wrong, I respect them for their service, but they left a hell of a mess in their wake. I’m proud of Dad, but it took me a long time to forgive him. Both of us grew up before we had to.”
    Ash snorted, moving beside her to throw the empty juice can in the trash. “That’s because you went and got yourself knocked up by Evan Christianson at sweet sixteen. Not because Dad died the year before.”
    The resounding crack of her palm on his cheek was more in his head than in the room, but it was still loud.
    “Died fighting someone else’s fight,” she said fiercely.
    He pinched the bridge of his nose, swallowing his anger and contrition for having said something so hurtful as to earn a slap. “They brought the fight to us. They used our planes as missiles, brought down our buildings. How many times do we have to go over this? What Dad did, putting off his retirement after 9/11, was the bravest, most selfless thing he could have done. It was how he looked after us and more.”
    “Look, you can hero-worship Dad all you want, but do not leave me the way he did, by getting caught up in all these crazy end-of-the-world scenarios Uncle Marvin cooks up. That little boy may have been an accident,” she hissed, pointing defiantly at the back of the house where Ash hoped like hell Riley was busy trying to wow Elliot with his Lego collection, “but he’s one of the best things to happen to me. He’s my reason to keep going and try to do Mom and Dad proud, even if they’re not here to see it. I can’t afford to screw up now, and that includes not going on half-cocked adventures across the country. His future depends on it.”
    Ash spread his hands, hating the pleading note in his voice. “Don’t you get it? The future we planned for is very possibly over . My degrees won’t mean shit because there will be no jobs, there will be no companies left to work for after society falls to pieces. We have to get to Uncle Marvin so we can ride out the shitstorm and maybe have any kind of future at all.”
    “Will you listen to yourself?” The more upset she got, the more shrill she became. “I swear, Ash, I appreciate you looking out for us, and we’re in this together, same as we’ve always been, but if you’re going off the deep end, I need to help you, not the other way around.”
    He was getting nowhere, and the needle on his temper rapidly approached the red zone. Gusting out a frustrated breath, he glared at her. “I’m not leaving you to deal with this.”
    “What about your classes?”
    “I don’t think they’ll be having them. City was dark, too. It’s not just Auburn that went out, Char.”
    “Oh,” she said, as though the information surprised her.
    “Yeah. The whole state is out. The drive up here was black as ink. Jersey and Pennsylvania, too, at least what we saw of them. Twenty million people, Charlotte. It took a month to restore power to eight million after Hurricane Sandy. Now do you get it?”
    She chewed on her lower lip and moved to the back door, which reminded him to check their breakfast. He stepped around her. Flipping meat with tongs, he hoped it was finally getting through her thick skull the danger they faced.
    “About five more minutes,” he said, coming back inside. She stared blankly across the tiny backyard with its neatly trimmed grass and freshly stained fence. He had to hand it to her—she didn’t have much, but she took good care of what she did have.
    “I want to see what happens, Ash,” she finally said, looking at him as he pulled the trash liner from the can and tied the handles in a knot. “I’m not saying you’re right, but I’m open to the possibility you are. Can you give me time to be more sure before I drag my son away from everything he’s ever known?”
    Keeping the cringe off his face was difficult, but he nodded. “The sooner we go, the safer the trip will be, but we