Free The Ending Beginnings: Clara (An Ending Series Novella) (The Ending Series) by Lindsey Fairleigh, Lindsey Pogue Page A

seeds of our own destruction: a global pandemic.
    I regret to
tell you that as of midnight on the 10th of December, over eighty
percent of the world’s population has reported or is assumed dead. It is
estimated that the death toll will continue to climb. This news is devastating,
I know, but all is not lost.
    Some of us are
surviving. This is how we will fight our enemy—by not giving up, by being
resilient and resourceful, by surviving. We are not a species that will go out
quietly, so I task those of you who are still alive with one essential purpose:
live.
    Survive.
    Thrive.
    If you believe
in a higher power, ask for guidance. If you don’t, believe in your fellow man.
You, the survivors, have the chance to start over, to build anew. Learn from
our mistakes. Let the world remain big.
    And most
importantly, live.
    God bless you,
my beloved citizens of this great nation. God bless you, and goodnight.
     
    Hearing another
crash from down the hall, Clara started trembling. She couldn’t help it. She
didn’t care if it meant she was weak and pathetic. She didn’t want to die. She
didn’t want to lose herself to complete madness or get sick again. She didn’t
want to turn into whatever Alicia had become. She’d killed Devon. Clara had
been with him only days earlier, and now he was dead.
    Absently, she
walked toward the window, her mind racing with destructive, fearful thoughts of
what might happen next.
    Hurried footsteps
bounded down the hall, too heavy to be Roberta’s. Cautiously, Clara turned from
the reinforced window as a man rushed into the room.
    When his eyes met
hers, he straightened. “The nurse sent me in here…are you Clara?” He was
holding a shotgun at his side, and his chest was heaving.
    Reluctantly, she
nodded.
    “I need morphine and
antibiotics. She said you’d know where I could find them.”
    Clara continued
to stare blankly at him. Who was he?
    Taking an
assertive step toward her, he inhaled deeply and pointed out toward the road. “There’s
a man dying out there,” he said slowly. “I need meds.”
    Clara nodded and
showed him to Nurse Hadly’s office down the hall. As she suspected, the door
was locked. “I don’t have a key—”
    He kicked open
the door like it was made of cardboard.
    Clara flicked on
the light and couldn’t take her eyes off of the stranger while he rummaged
through the cabinets. He embodied strength and determination, and while she
thought she should distrust this stranger, a man who’d wandered into a
psychiatric ward, pleading for help and carrying a shotgun, she could only
admire him. There was an air about him that made her skin tingle with
excitement.
    He would keep her
safe, she realized. She just had to make sure that she stayed with him, no
matter what. Maybe he was her real Prince Charming.

 
     
     
    This concludes the fourth installment of 
The
Ending Beginnings. 
The fifth novella, 
The Ending
Beginnings: Clara
, will be released in May of 2014. 
     
    Carlos, Mandy, Vanessa, and Jake are also
supporting characters throughout The
Ending Series : (1) After The Ending , (2) Into
The Fire , and (3) Out Of The Ashes (TBR Summer 2014) .
     
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    ABOUT THE AUTHORS
     
    Lindsey
Pogue  has
always been a little creative. As a child she established a bug hospital on her
elementary school soccer field, wrote her first YA manuscript in high school,
and as an adult, she continues to express herself through writing. Her novels
are inspired by her observations of the world around her—whether she's
traveling, people watching, or hiking. When not plotting her next story line or
dreaming up new, brooding characters, Lindsey's wrapped in blankets watching
her favorite action flicks or going on road trips with