In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

low rumble of the engine running and I cracked the window further, much to Mandy’s complaint.

Her surprised call rose high behind me when, coming alongside, a plump figure walked from around the other side of the van with his fingers at his trouser’s fly.

36

The smile spanning the width of the stranger’s round face caused me to ignore Mandy’s command and I pushed my foot at the brakes and not the accelerator. Tensing against the seatbelt as we lurched to a stop, I peered his way with my interest piqued at the great rucksack on his back, laden with equipment hanging on the outside.

The red bobble on top of his woollen hat rocked back and forth as he nodded and raised his palm to wave.

“Hey,” I said, pushing open the door much to Mandy’s continued complaint, but I paused half-way through the arc when I saw what looked like a small pick with a bright yellow handle tucked in his belt.

“Howdy,” he replied in a classic English accent, either Kent or somewhere similar, with no hint of an American twang, despite the greeting.

Keeping my gaze fixed in his direction and to the sound of the van’s stuttering engine, I pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped to the road.

The guy’s smile faltered for a moment, but as Shadow pushed past me through the opening and raced off to explore, his eyes lit again.

The van’s engine stuttered and didn’t recover, leaving just the low rumble of the pickup.

“Car trouble?” I said, nodding to the van.

The guy nodded back with his smile so wide as if pulled with hooks. Looking past him to the sound of running water, Shadow cocked his leg against the front wheel.

“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head, but the guy turned, laughing when he saw the dog finishing up and rushing to explore the side of the road.

Copying my gesture, he turned around as I spoke again. “Where you headed?”

Instead of replying, the guy’s smile dropped as he peered through the pickup’s windows. Following his look, I watched as all, even Cassie, leaned toward the glass, staring at the stranger.

“Is that...?” the stranger said; looking back I saw it was Jess he stared at. “Jessica Carmichael. You’re alive!”

Hefting his bag from his shoulders, he settled it to the road as Jess opened her door, looking across the horizon as she stepped out. Alex came around from the other side.

Wiping his chubby hands on his combat trousers, he licked his lips and stood to his tiptoes.

I turned to Jess, raising an eyebrow, watching as she nodded in his direction, seemingly used to this kind of reaction.

“Have we met?” she said, but he spoke before she’d finished, shaking his head.

“No, but I’m your biggest fan. Well, since the broadcast. But they said...”

Glancing between Jess and the guy, I shook my head.

“I saw the news this morning,” he said, then his gaze stopped on my face. He took half a step back as he studied me. He then looked to Cassie in the car and then found Shadow with his nose in the grass and looked back. “Are you the guys from the roof?”

But before I could answer, he peered past Jess to the back seats of the pickup, looking to Mandy and then Cassie with her eyes closed.

He nodded and looked back to Jess. “You broke the story. You broke the story of my life. I’ve been preparing for this forever.”

“Wait,” I said, holding my palms out and glancing between Jess gazing at the stranger. “Where’ve you come from? How far have you travelled? What’s it like out there?” I stopped myself as he nodded at each question.

He took a deep breath as I leaned forward, eager for the answers.

“Chertsey, in Surrey,” he said with a wide smile.

I held back the questions continuing to form in my head, like how he’d got here in such a brief time.

“Everything’s fine until you hit Somerset.”

“Fine? What do you mean fine?” Jess cut in before I could.

“Other than some Foot and Mouth epidemic in the South West, you’d have no idea any of this was going on.”

“What?” Jess said, her brow lowering as she turned to Alex then back to him. “But you saw my broadcast? There’s no Foot and Mouth.”

The bobble on his hat nodded as he replied. “I know. That’s why I’m here.”

The questions kept coming as he spoke, but I held myself back.

“They didn’t show everything. The footage was so disjointed, badly edited, and the feed cut before it seemed like it had finished. We saw you on the roof, but they blurred out most of the rest.”

“What happened after they showed it?” Alex cut in with the same question on my lips.

“The government discredited the report, calling it an act of domestic terrorism to spread mass panic. They said the BBC had been hacked, and they arrested some editor.”

Jess pulled in a sharp breath, her brow bunching with anger at the edge of my vision.

“No one believed me?” she said after a moment.

“Some people did. I did.”

“Why didn’t they believe me?” Jess said, stepping back to let the pickup take her weight.

“They pixilated most of the footage and said you weren’t well. You’d had a breakdown. But the energy, the emotion in your words, it was obvious you believed what you were saying.”

“A breakdown,” Jess said, looking to Alex with a furrowed brow.

“I don’t get why they’re trying to completely cover this up,” Alex said, turning to the guy.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” he said, glancing to Alex then Jess when she shook her head. “Over the last ten years the government has been slowly taken over by the Chinese and now they’re deliberately being slow to react. Yes they’ve cut the