After: Whiteout (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 4) Read online

  The Zapheads had brought an army. This war was over before it even started.

  DeVontay considered dumping the child in a dark, swirling pool of the creek.

  The child grinned at him as if reading his mind.

  Damn it. Why did I have to be so goddamned human?

  “Go now go?” DeVontay asked.

  The baby clapped with delight. “Go now go.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Dawn sent its red fingers reaching across the snowy landscape just as Rachel reached the town.

  Her shoes were wet and her coat heavy with perspiration, but after two days of nonstop walking, she had arrived. The first night she had passed through the battlefield in the forest, not mixing with the Zapheads who collected both the human dead and the New People that had fallen. At one point, she’d come upon a creek where the snow was churned and stained a deep scarlet.

  She stooped and picked up a small object that reflected the light of many stars and the single sliver of moon.

  She held the glass orb aloft and measured it against the sky as if it were a planet.

  It seemed familiar, but she didn’t know why.

  She put it in her pocket and went on.

  Over fences, down muddy streets, across frothy waterways, past rows of silent houses, driven by instinct like a salmon thrashing upstream to spawn. Night became day became night and then became now.

  The snow wasn’t as deep here in the valley, and the air was clean.

  She sensed them long before she heard them.

  But soon the sound filled her head and drowned out all the other noises.

  It was faint at first, but as she headed for the gleaming dome of the courthouse on the hill, the murmur gradually swelled into a mighty chorus.

  “WHEE-ler! WHEE-ler! WHEE-ler!”

  There were thousands of them.

  She didn’t need a map. Her people already knew this place, so she knew it, too.

  Rachel. My name was Rachel.

  That was turbulence she would happily leave behind.

  Time to be new.

  She reached the school as the chants swelled to thunder, jubilant voices that reverberated off the bricks and glass of Newton.

  “WHEE-LER! WHEE-LER! WHEE-LER!”

  The thing that had been Rachel Wheeler headed for the football stadium.

  THE END

  Get After #5: Red Scare for Kindle!

  Amazon US Amazon UK

  In a post-apocalyptic world, Rachel Wheeler is caught between who she is and who she's becoming. A bizarre mutation has her humanity hanging by a thread, especially when the Zaphead inside her wants to kill her friends and lover.

  As the mutant Zapheads form a social order and shape a new world in the wake of catastrophic solar storms, the few remaining humans band together in a struggle for survival. But not everyone shares the same goal: a rogue military unit plans to attack the mutant settlement while Rachel’s group seeks a remote, peaceful life beyond their notice. And the Zapheads have a special role for her that could save the human race at the cost of her own identity.

  Torn between two possible futures, will Rachel sacrifice herself to prevent the extinction of her kind?

  Get Red Scare at Amazon US or Amazon UK

  Other books in the After series:

  After #0: First Light: Amazon US Amazon UK

  After #1: The Shock: Amazon US Amazon UK

  After #2: The Echo: Amazon US Amazon UK

  After #3: Milepost 291: Amazon US Amazon UK

  After #5: Red Scare: Amazon US Amazon UK

  After #6: Dying Light Amazon US Amazon UK

  Next #1: Afterburn Amazon US Amazon UK

  And the spinoff series ZAPHEADS:

  Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder Amazon US Amazon UK

  Zapheads #2: Scars and Ashes

  Zapheads #3: Blood and Frost

  Scott Nicholson is the international bestselling author of more than 20 thrillers, including The Home, McFall, Disintegration, Liquid Fear, Speed Dating with the Dead, and the After post-apocalyptic series. His books have appeared in the Kindle Top 100 more than a dozen times in five different countries. Visit his website at www.AuthorScottNicholson.com, Facebook, or his Amazon Author Central page

  Sign up for Scott’s Tao of Boo newsletter for giveaways and book news.

  OTHER KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON

  Novels

  After #0: First Light

  After #1: The Shock

  After #2: The Echo

  After #3: Milepost 291

  After#4: Whiteout

  After #5: Red Scare

  After #6: Dying Light

  Next #1: Afterburn

  Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder

  Zapheads #2: Scares and Ashes

  The Scarecrow (Solom #1)

  The Narrow Gate (Solom #2)

  The Preacher (Solom #3)

  The Home

  McFall

  Creative Spirit

  Disintegration

  The Red Church

  Speed Dating with the Dead

  The Skull Ring

  Drummer Boy

  The Harvest

  Kiss Me or Die

  Liquid Fear

  Chronic Fear

  Cursed (with J.R. Rain)

  Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)

  Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)

  Spider Bite (with J.R. Rain)

  Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)

  The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)

  Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)

  Playin’ Possum (with Milton Bagby)

  October Girls

  Crime Beat

  The Dead Love Longer

  Fangs In Vain

  Burial to Follow

  Story Collections

  Curtains

  Flowers

  Ashes

  The First

  Zombie Bits

  Head Cases

  Gateway Drug

  Missing Pieces

  These Things Happened

  American Horror

  Children’s Books

  If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)

  Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)

  Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)

  Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)

  Bad Day for Balloons (with Sergio Castro)

  BOX SETS

  Ethereal Messenger

  Mystery Dance

  Horror Movies: Three Screenplays

  Ghost Box: Six Supernatural Thrillers

  Mad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set

  Bad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set

  Odd Stacks: Short Stories Box Set

  VIEW U.K. KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:

  Next #1: Afterburn

  After: First Light

  After #1: The Shock

  After #2: The Echo

  After: #3: Milepost 291

  After #4: Whiteout

  After #5: Red Scare

  After #6: Dying Light

  The Scarecrow (Solom #1)

  The Narrow Gate (Solom #2)

  The Preacher (Solom #3)

  Zapheads #1: Bone and Cinder

  Zapheads #2: Scars and Ashes

  Zapheads #3: Blood and Frost

  McFall

  Liquid Fear

  Chronic Fear

  Creative Spirit

  The Home

  The Gorge

  Disintegration

  The Red Church

  Speed Dating with the Dead

  The Skull Ring

  Drummer Boy

  The Harvest

  Kiss Me or Die

  Cursed (with J.R. Rain)

  Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)

  The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)

  Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)

  Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)

  Spider Bite (with J.R. Rain)

  Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)

  Playin’ Possum (with Milton Bagby)

  October
Girls

  Crime Beat

  The Dead Love Longer

  Burial to Follow

  Fangs In Vain

  Collections

  Curtains

  Flowers

  Ashes

  The First

  Zombie Bits

  Head Cases

  Gateway Drug

  Missing Pieces

  These Things Happened

  Children’s Books

  Bad Day for Balloons (with Sergio Castro)

  If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)

  Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)

  Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)

  Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)

  Writing

  Write Good or Die

  The Indie Journey: Secrets to Writing Success

  Omnibus editions

  Ethereal Messenger

  Mystery Dance

  Horror Movies: Three Screenplays

  Ghost Box: Six Supernatural Thrillers

  Mad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set

  Bad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set

  Odd Stacks: Short Stories Box Set

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to Sharon Stogner of Devil in the Details Editing and beta readers Frank Pero, Pamela Mullins, Steve Lowe, Don Cranford, and Meghan Gurley.

  CONTENTS

  After: Whiteout

  About the Author

  Other Books

  UK Kindle Links

  Table of Contents

  After: Whiteout

  About the Author

  Other Books

  UK Kindle Links