Caleb and Derek slept more than usual. Enough that it worried Elizabeth. And when Lana slept as well, it left her alone with her thoughts which always drifted to Chester. His sacrifice for them, though she didn’t know for certain that he’d been killed, felt like another strange event she couldn’t explain. Like the miraculously placed chunk of hardened hail. Except, Elizabeth didn’t have a hard time being grateful for the ice.

  All she could feel about Chester was crushing guilt. He’d had a family of his own, whom he was waiting for. Maybe they’d have come for him, eventually. Maybe they still would, and they’d find his body there, left alone like the old man at the chicken farm had been. Except, Chester hadn’t been alone, in the end. They’d been there.

  They’d been with him, and he still ended up alone in his house, his body growing cold while he waited for some family or maybe some other strangers to come along and find him, and maybe bury him just so they didn’t have to look at his remains while they took shelter in the place he’d called home right up until the end. She found herself trying to remember his face, his voice. It seemed wrong to let him fade from her memory after what he’d done.

  When she wasn’t thinking about Chester, her mind drifted back to Lana, again and again, sitting on top of that Apex woman, choking the life out of her. Insisting that Victoria had to be killed. And when she worried about what that meant for Lana, for who she’d become, it just made her think about the reverend again. Was Elizabeth all that different? She hadn’t needed to kill the man. There was likely another way. But that’s what had happened. His blood on her hands.

  Like it or not, they were killers. They had been for a while, now. All of them.

  It was better when Lana was awake. They didn’t talk much, but Lana at least kept Elizabeth from sinking too deeply into her own thoughts. For two days, they drove somber and quiet, trying to be hopeful about where their road was leading, until, finally, they saw the first sign for Springfield. A little further along, and they came at least to a checkpoint that wasn’t Apex, or the military.

  It was just two women and two men, all dressed for the cold, sitting by a fire, who flagged them down as they approached and didn’t immediately raise their weapons. Elizabeth had Lana wake Caleb and Derek as she pulled up to them and said a quiet prayer.

  Three of the checkpoint guards busied themselves with looking into the car itself, while an older woman with thick black braids barely showing from under her hood approached Elizabeth’s window. She rolled it down and kept her hands on the wheel as the woman came close.

  “You folks look a little worse for wear,” the woman said critically. “Where you coming from?”

  “North Carolina,” Elizabeth answered. “And then... well, everything between here and there. We’re looking for Springfield?”

  The woman nodded and glanced up the road. “You’re just about there. And just in time, too. But you might not want to keep going.”

  Elizabeth’s stomach sank. “Did something happen? We’ve come a long way, and been through... well, we thought it would be safe, that we could...”

  She couldn’t finish. Her throat constricted. All this way, all of that trouble, and for nothing?

  The guard gave a disappointed grunt and shook her head. “It was safe for a while. Still might be, but... well, there’s four roads in. Three of them have barricades up. This one, we expect to be shut down in the next few days.”

  “You’re keeping people out?” Caleb asked from the back seat.

  The guard shook her head again. “No, sir. Not us. Military. And this Apex outfit, working with them. It’s been... tense, the last few days. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, a lot of us are nervous. You’re welcome to head on to the entry point, though. We’re still taking people in while we can. I just can’t promise it’ll be the same place it was tomorrow, or the day after. Depends on how things play out from here.”

  Lana leaned toward Elizabeth’s side, skeptical. “You’re just going to let us in? You don’t need to search the car, or question us or... something?”

  “We can search the car if you like,” the guard said. “But I know a hotwired car when I see one, and the four of you don’t look like much of a threat—no offense—and like I said, there might not be a Springfield to protect by this time tomorrow. So... may as well get some rest while you can and get out of the cold. You’ll see when you get there. It’ll be in your best interests to behave.”

  Elizabeth’s chest was still tight, but some of the grip around her heart loosened. She gave the guard a weak smile. “We won’t cause any problems,” she promised. “Thank you for a warm welcome.”

  “Don’t know that I’d call it that,” the woman chuckled mirthlessly, but dipped her head in a shallow nod. “But you’re welcome all the same. Just keep on this road. You can’t miss the next checkpoint. Just stop when they flag you down, and you’ll be fine.”

  With that, Elizabeth pulled forward. She watched in the rearview as the woman took out a radio and spoke into it, probably signaling ahead that they were coming. In just a few minutes, they drove up a steep incline in the road. Once at the top, Elizabeth’s breath caught as Springfield finally came into view.

  It wasn’t the city of Oz or anything. It wasn’t even all that pretty a place in the gray light. If anything, it looked rundown and ramshackle, a place cobbled together amid a golf course, maybe, that now only barely resembled what it had been before. But there were lights. Twinkling here and there, steady and electric rather than flickering.

  From the vantage point at the top of the rocky hill, they could see a row of long tents and a series of greenhouses, and evidence of produce being collected. At least a third of the total visible area was apparently dedicated to food production. Beyond the farm area was a wide pasture dotted with what looked from a distance like cows and sheep. And there were people there, moving around. Small vehicles, maybe golf carts, zipped along narrow roads between camps and small shed-houses and RVs.

  There was no sign of a military presence. No brooding, rifle toting militia like they’d seen further east. No one dressed all in white, and no Apex logos. It looked, at least from a distance, like it was more or less exactly what they’d hoped for. A functioning town, self-sufficient, and welcoming to outsiders. A place they might be able to settle down and start living again, instead of just surviving.

  And there was a strong possibility that it wouldn’t last.

  Elizabeth tried to put that out of her mind and drove down the hill to the obvious entry point ahead of them, where a small shack had been put together, along with a simple barrier of road cones and rolled out road spikes. The man who emerged from the shed was a little more than middle aged, had something of a gut, and wore a sheriff’s star on the breast of his winter coat. His hair was almost entirely white, save for a few peppered spots along his temples.

  She pulled alongside him, just shy of the cones and spikes. He gave them all an easy smile as Elizabeth rolled her window down again. “You folks must be the family Nicole radioed in about. Glad to have you. Looks to me like you all might need a bit of special attention. Once you go in, if you take the first left down a road between some of the RVs, at the end of that you’ll see a little sign with a red cross on it. That’s the hospital. They’ll get you patched up. What’s your name?”

  Elizabeth introduced them all, glanced up at the man as he grew more and more familiar to her. By the time everyone had a chance to be seen and give a quick greeting, it was an uncanny feeling. She’d seen him somewhere before. Maybe he was a Greensboro local she’d seen but never personally known? “And... What's your name?”

  The man gave a quiet laugh and reached up to brush the stubble on his jaw, grinning wide. “You know it’s always nice for someone to ask that. There was a long time there when I didn’t think I’d ever hear that question again. I’m Tom. Pleasure to meet you, Macherts.”

  It was a strange thing to say. He must have been famous, before all of this, she figured. After another round of nice-to-meet-you’s that seemed excessively, almost painfully normal at the end of a journey like her family had been through, Elizabeth waited for the other guard to roll up the spikes and move the cones to let them through. She stared at Tom the whole time, trying to place him.

  It wasn’t until they pulled away and drove into Springfield proper that Elizabeth’s memory caught up with her. She put the brakes on and stared in the rear-view. She did know the face. How could she not? And the name—Tom.

  “What is it?” Caleb asked, alarm in his voice as he twisted around to look for the threat.

  Elizabeth recovered and turned to look through the back window where Tom was giving them a friendly wave. She almost laughed. “That... I think... I think that’s President Daniels.”

  EPILOGUE

  Apex Headquarters, CO

  Sunday, July 22nd, 7:17 pm MST

  “Sorry to bother you, sir.” Rena flashed a tight smile as Alan Trusk approached after her urgent request for a meeting. “I know you don’t like being disturbed over dinner.”

  That was true and didn’t need to be remarked upon. He ignored the apology and waved her on, eager to get back to his wife and children before his dinner was cold. “What is it?”

  Rena cleared her throat almost inaudibly and handed him her tablet, where a report was on display. “I’d have sent it to you, but it seemed too urgent to wait. It’s from one of our field marshals. Well... from her subordinate. A laptop was compromised.”

  Trusk read over the report and his jaw hardened. Not just a laptop. The field marshal’s laptop. “Kill order?”

  “Sent,” she assured him, “but it hasn’t sent back a confirmation signal. It should be wiped the next time it connects to a network but... well, you can see the report, sir.”

  He could. The culprit was a young woman, Lana Machert, a potential Class S with some college background. Her father was more concerning, though. Caleb Machert, a former marine, working in communications. Depending on what his particular specialty, he might well know better than to let the unit reconnect to any network where it would get the kill order. Worse, he might have the kind of background that would lend itself to decrypting the information stored locally on the hard drive. If that were to happen...

  “Any idea where they are now?” Trusk demanded, handing the tablet back to his assistant.

  Rena’s lips thinned. “Only based on three points of contact and some short interviews. There’s a forty percent chance they’re headed to the northwest and a sixty percent chance they’re going to Springfield. But we don’t have much data on the father or mother. Just the young woman and her partner.”

  Trusk nodded absently as he clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace. “Retrieval is a top priority. Put a team on each possible route. Get them everything we know. And since I’m here—do we have an updated profile on Margaret Welcher yet?”

  “It’s coming along. We’re testing the model against intelligence from Cheyenne mountain. It’s trickier without social media to track, but it’s gradually getting more accurate.”

  “Good.” He stared out the wide windows of the office toward the glimmer of golden sunlight left in the evening sky. “Nuking St. Louis was unexpected. Not in such a narrow time frame. Something’s emboldening her. Making her more erratic.”

  “She’s asked for an update about Springfield,” Rena offered. “If you like, I could arrange a personal meeting? Give you a chance to speak with her directly?”

  He shook his head, dismissing the idea with a wave. “There’s nothing to learn from her directly. Anyone willing to drop a bomb like that is deeply insecure about their position. I couldn’t trust anything she said to me. No, we need to observe her actions. You can tell her that Springfield is settled.”

  Rena frowned. “Sir?”

  He glanced over at her, then his watch. He didn’t have time to get mired in the weeds over this. “Tell her it’s taken care of,” he repeated, heading for the elevator door back to his family’s private quarters. “Tell her... she’ll be receiving my proposal soon.”

  “That could be premature?” Rena asked—the sort of question she was hesitant to make into a statement.

  As the elevator door slid open, Trusk just smiled. “Never mind that. This will put her off balance a bit. And by the time she realizes it’s not true, it won’t matter. We’ll have control. We can’t give her a chance to start slinging nukes in every direction she feels is unstable. Tell her it’s done already. I’ll ask for an update tomorrow.”

  “Yes, sir.” Rena’s face wore a mask of worry as the elevator door slid closed.

  Trusk closed his eyes as the elevator ascended and took a deep, calming breath. Leave work at the office. It will always be there. But they may not be.

  By the time the elevator slowed and opened again, he was smiling and unburdened, ready to enjoy a meal with his family. His wife gave him a slightly annoyed but pleased look, and his two children picked up their story about the day’s lessons where they’d left off when he’d been called away.

  He listened to them and fed them back the story in pieces, reinforcing what they’d learned, while keeping an eye on his wife. Her profile said she was likely to be in the mood tonight, by around a 78 percent margin of accuracy. The way she was looking at him now, he adjusted that closer to 90, and noted that she’d only half-finished her glass of champagne by the time dinner was over. She was pacing herself carefully.

  When he’d put the children to bed, his butler had cleaned up the table and kitchen, and his wife was dozing and satisfied in the bedroom, Trusk reclined in front of the bay windows in his office. He thumbed through the profiles of the Macherts and their tag-along, learning everything he could about them. Building a model.

  They were no one. But then, so were most people. Variables in a larger equation they probably didn’t even know existed. Variables to be modeled, and tested, and solved for.

  Because he was too close to seeing his vision made real. He was too close to re-shaping the nation, and the world, to fail because of some marine and his kleptomaniac daughter to ruin everything now. They wouldn’t stop Apex from taking its place in the world. Not the Macherts, not Welcher, not anyone.

  And if any of them tried, well... an equation could be simplified. Variables could be eliminated.

  Subscribe to Harley’s newsletter to be notified when book five, the final book in Falling Skies, is released.

  www.harleytate.com/subscribe

  In the meantime, if you are new to my work and are interested in more, check out my After the EMP series:

  If the power grid fails, how far will you go to survive?

  Madison spends her days tending plants as an agriculture student at the University of California, Davis. She plans to graduate and put those skills to work only a few hours from home in the Central Valley. The sun has always been her friend, until now.

  When catastrophe strikes, how prepared will you be?

  Tracy starts her morning like any other, kissing her husband Walter goodbye before heading off to work at the local public library. She never expects it to end fleeing for her life in a Suburban full of food and water. Tackling life’s daily struggles is one thing, preparing to survive when it all crashes down is another.

  The end of the world brings out the best and worst in all of us.

  With no communication and no word from the government, the Sloanes find themselves grappling with the end of the modern world all on their own. Will Madison and her friends have what it takes to make it back to Sacramento and her family? Can Tracy fend off looters and thieves and help her friends and neighbors survive?

  The EMP is only the beginning.

  ALSO BY HARLEY TATE

  NUCLEAR SURVIVAL

  First Strike (exclusive newsletter prequel)

  Southern Grit:

  Brace for Impact

  Escape the Fall

  Survive the Panic

  Northern Exposure:

  Take the Hit

  Duck for Cover

  Ride it Out

  Western Strength:

  Bear the Brunt

  Shelter in Place

  Make the Cut

  AFTER THE EMP

  Darkness Falls (exclusive newsletter prequel)

  Darkness Begins

  Darkness Grows

  Darkness Rises

  Chaos Comes

  Chaos Gains

  Chaos Evolves

  Hope Sparks

  Hope Stumbles

  Hope Survives

  NO ORDINARY DAY

  No Ordinary Escape

  No Ordinary Day

  No Ordinary Getaway

  No Ordinary Mission

  Find all of Harley’s releases on Amazon today: www.amazon.com/author/harleytate.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you for reading book four of the Falling Skies series. I hope you are enjoying reading the story as much as I enjoyed creating it.

  As I’ve mentioned before, a few liberties have been taken, especially with place names and other minor details in writing this novel. I hope you don’t hold it against me!

  If you enjoyed this book and have a moment, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Every one helps new readers discover my work and helps me keep writing the stories you want to read.

  Until next time,

  Harley

  ABOUT HARLEY TATE

  When the world as we know it falls apart, how far will you go to survive?

  Harley Tate writes edge-of-your-seat post-apocalyptic fiction exploring what happens when ordinary people are faced with impossible choices.