Free Monsters of the Apocalypse by Jordan Rawlins

never get
out. He’s dead - just let him die!”
    October struggled to gain control
as he processed the small woman's words.
    “You hear that, Nestor?
You’re going to die! You’re going to die!” October shouted.
    Nestor just laughed through the
blood. October tried to push past Miho and Flores.
    "Let me go, I'm gonna wipe
that look of his face! I'll kill him!"
    “Sir!”
    October could hear Nestor
laughing as they dragged him out.

Chapter 21
***
    "What
now, Jacob?" Arian asked as Jacob poured whiskey onto the ice that lay in
the base of the two crystal glasses.
    "Now,
you and the others, get some sleep if you can. Drink if you can't.
I want a word alone with Dr. Thomas."
    Arian nodded
and left the room as Jacob brought a glass over to Dr. Thomas and sat down in a
chair across from him. Jacob took a sip of his own whiskey and
smiled. In the floor to ceiling windows behind Jacob was a city that Dr.
Thomas had never seen. It stretched out for miles. He knew that at
any moment the missiles would fall, but somehow, Jacob seemed more frightening.
    "Are
you sure we're safe here?"
    "Yes I
am, Doc, this is one of October Carnegie's favorite apartments. He'll
make sure it's unharmed, untargeted and undamaged. And in addition, he's
made it fallout proof."
    "No, is
he really that crazy?"
    "Makes
sense really. He plans on coming back here one day. Of course, it
does let those of us who oppose him know where we can all meet up and regroup
safely. He had it fitted to resist radiation and all. This
apartment, this neighborhood, is in fact one of the most heavily protected
places in America. There are at least three different nuclear bunkers in
a square mile."
    Dr. Thomas
saw the sweat beading on Jacob's forehead.
    "Are
you nervous, Jacob?"
    "Nervous,
no. I have a fever. I have the fever," he smiled.
"Do you have anyone out there, Doc? Out in the world?"
    "A
daughter. On The Island."
    "Ah!
That's why you did it? To save your daughter - you killed
everybody."
    "You
don't understand a father's love, Jacob."
    "No?
You know me so well, do you?" Jacob leaned forward and glared at Dr.
Thomas with a violence that seemed to fill the room. In the silence of
the moment the ice hitting the sides of the glass in the shaking doctor's hand
was deafening. Jacob took a moment and then slouched back comfortably in
his chair, again the smile stretching across his face. "In fact, I have a
daughter myself. I had thought I was unlucky, in that I couldn't have a
second over the years, turns out it was a miracle I ever had one. When
she was born I held her in my hands and I loved her. I loved her in a way
that scared me. And, then I realized that this love was my
weakness. That all of the horrible men in this world, who wanted to use
me, stop me, kill me - they would use this love against me. Just like
with you."
    Jacob stood
up and turned away, his back slumped uncharacteristically, as if tired and old,
as he moved to look out the giant windows.
    "Oh
yes, Doc, I understand your love. But, you are a selfish man and you
wanted your love. I'm a disciplined man," Jacob sighed.
"So, I gave her and her mother, the woman I loved, to a friend to
hide. To hide away from me and everything else. To keep them
safe. My love never forgave me. My daughter grew up without me,
but… well, parenthood is selfish business and I… I'm a soldier."
    "Your
daughter is out there?"
    The man
watched as Jacob pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He
struggled to get a cigarette out of the pack as he stared out the window that
was filling with the bright flashes of explosion. Jacob became nothing
but a silhouette as the first missile hit close by. Dr. Thomas closed his
eyes against the flash. When he opened them it was bright, a manmade
daytime now out the window. Jacob had turned his back on the destruction
and was staring at Dr. Thomas, all signs of weariness and age now gone from his
face and replaced, once again, by the laughing smile.
    "I
don't understand. Is