Free A New World: Untold Stories by John O'Brien

a matter of time until they find him.
    Looking at figures emerge from the interior, their size diminutive at this distance, his excitements turns to disappointment as he notes they are staring into the valley…in the exact wrong direction. Unshouldering his rifle, he fires three shots into the air, levering a new shell into the chamber between each one. Raising the binoculars, he sees that no one has turned in his direction.
    He fires three more times and observes the same reaction from those far away; which is to say, there isn’t one. With a heartsick feeling, he watches them load back up and drive farther into the valley. Bill stares after them until they vanish from view on the far side.
    There’s no way he’ll be able to get to wherever they may be heading. They’re already miles distant and he’ll be lucky if he can make it back to his cabin, which lies nearly a mile away through rough terrain. Feeling depressed, he stows his gear and turns, hobbling toward his cabin, still wondering if he considers himself fortunate or not.
     
    # # #
     
    Bill recovered and made his way to one of the survivor settlements. His headaches increased until one day, he went into a coma that lasted a little over two weeks. He emerged on the other side with increased strength, hearing, and oddly, the ability to see in the dark.

Olympia, Washington
     
    Carole stumbles and falls to the ground. On her knees, she grabs her head and folds forward into a ball. The pain inside is sharp and blinding, threatening to split her very bones. The agony subsides to the extent that she is able to look up. In the darkness, with the horizon beginning to lighten with a coming dawn, she sees the dim outlines of six others a few yards ahead. Apparently having stopped from a run, they are looking at her with feral expressions. A couple of them raise their heads to the night sky and emit ear-piercing howls.
    With the remnants of pain still pounding in her head, she watches, stunned, as the snarling group starts toward her. After a few steps, they hesitate, looking toward the eastern horizon which is growing lighter by the minute. With a shriek, which rolls across a lake stretching beside her, they turn and resume their run along a paved road that circles the expanse of water.
    The sharp pain in her head is now a mere echo of what it was just moments ago. A chill breeze blows across the surface of the lake, whipping its normally calm surface into an expanse of choppy water. Rising, Carole looks to the sky, growing brighter over the tops of several trees adjacent to a road she finds herself kneeling in.
    How long have I been gone? she thinks, confused.
    The last memory she has is heading out for a run. Her husband had come down with the flu that had also infected a lot of her friends. He finally managed to fall asleep, so she decided it was a good time to go for a jog. It had been several days since she had been able to get out for one, and she was behind with her training schedule. Telling the kids that she would be back shortly, she had donned her running gear and headed out. They were on the Xbox and probably wouldn’t even notice that she was gone.
    But that was early in the evening, just after sunset?
    Memories continue to surface. She had been almost three miles into her jog, with two more to go. She had been thinking that her long run would have to be a greater distance if she was to stay on track with her weekly mileage. That’s when the pain hit, just like it did moments ago. The headache came on suddenly and dropped her to her knees. She thought this one was her recovering, but the rising sun tells her that too much time has passed for that to be true.
    Maybe I blacked out , she thinks, thankful that no one messed with her while she had been lying on the ground.
    The fact that she may have blacked out for so long scares her, more so than thinking about lying alone in this little-traveled area.
    Who were those other people? Were they some early