Chapter One “Hey Amanda, let’s stop for coffee at that new place downtown,” Amanda’s partner Evan said as
she navigated the patrol car onto West St.
Looking over at him, she smiled and nodded. It felt damn good to have him there. Then she remembered, he was dead. A whacked out meth cook had killed him six months ago as they helped a swat team serve a warrant.
“What the hell are you doing here man? Why aren’t you watching over our little corner of Heaven?”she asked him as she pulled to the side of the street. To say she was in shock was an understatement.
“You’ll find this hard to believe, but I am here to look out for you and a bunch of others. Just listen to me and you should be fine…at least at first. I’m going to give you some numbers to play on the lottery for this weekend, play them and collect the money first thing Monday, I know you start your vacation next week, so that will give you time to get a lot done. After you win, you need to get to work real quick. Hire John Walter’s brother Jake, he can get a crew to your place up on that mountain really quick. Have them start on a good thick concrete wall to surround your land, every inch of it.”
“What the hell are you talking about? My folks left me that land, you want me to wall in a hundred and fifty acres? With concrete? Are you nuts? Wait a minute, why am I even talking to you, you’re dead Evan, what the hell is going on here?”
“Just play the numbers, you’ll believe then, I’ll come and see you after you win. Now here they are, 14-27-8-24-36 and 18. The jackpot is up there, what can it hurt to spend a buck?”
she looked out the side window and sighed, when she looked back, he was gone. ” What the hell, coffee sounds good right now anyway, and he’s right, it’s only a dollar.”
Putting the car in gear, she pulled back onto the road.
……………………………………………….
Saturday night came quickly. she couldn’t shake the feeling that something big was going to happen, butshe really didn’t believe that she would win the lottery. Heck, five hundred million would change anyone’s life, but she knew it wouldn’t be mine. She was a cop, that’s all. she had been with Sheriff’s Department for ten years,and loved her job. Amanda loved being able to help people, and, well, it was kinda fun to put the bad guys behind bars.
Thinking of this,Amanda looked out her front window to catch the sun setting over the mountains to my west. smiling as she looked around, everything in sight was hers. Her parents had both passed away, within a month of each other from injuries they received in a car accident.She missed them, but felt their presence whenever she looked at the land from this very window. They had chosen the site for the house well, and had slowly purchased land around them as it became available. Now, the property was surrounded by National Forest on all sides. Her folks had set up a campground on the back thirty acres, they charged next to nothing for people to stay there. Her Dad had said that all he wanted to do was share the beauty, there were three spring fed wells on the property, and her Dad had made sure that there was self sustaining power, some hydroelectric and some solar. All in all, she now pretty much only had to pay Sam Green, the caretaker, and taxes, the rest was extras, satellite television and internet, and the phone. She smiled again, so Dad, Mom, what do you think, am I gonna win the lottery tonight?
Amanda jumped as I heard a woman’s voice, “Of ourse you are Dear, Evan gave you those numbers for a reason.”
Spinnig around she could not believe her eyes, “MOM!!!! What the heck are you doing here?”
” Sit down sweetie, I need to tell you something, and you are not going to like it. The gates of Hell are about to open, at least in the sense that it will feel like that to you and others. There is a great battle to come, but first, you have to prepare. Listen to Evan, he knows what he is talking about. We can only give advice, there are rules we must follow ourselves. You will have a five months to prepare. At this time, I can only say stock up on everything you can, weapons, food ammunition, livestock and feed, seeds, fuel, well the list will seem long but follow your heart and your instincts. Bring in friends, people you have no doubt you can trust, get things started, as your Grandfather used to say, get your ass in gear, time is wasting. This part of North Carolina will survive, but it will feel like almost hell. The rest of the world will not be so lucky. You know what to do, do it!”
Amanda watched my mother fade away with the light. As the last of the sulight gave way to darkness, she wondered if maybe her Mom was right. Time was wasting, but five months? What was going to happen? Who could she trust? And most importantly, was she losing my mind? She decided to go to bed early. laughing softly to herself, she wondered if she was going to be rich when she woke up in the morning.
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” Wake up sleepyhead.” her Dad called from the bedroom door. His smile was infectuous. He was always a morning person.
“What time is it?” she asked as she sat up and stretched.
“It’s time to get up, is what time it is. Now get your butt up and get moving. Daylight ain’t gonna wait for you. By the way, congratulations, you can retire early from that job of yours if you want. But it’s not nearly as dangerous as the job you have coming up in the future. I wish it was different, but, it ain’t. You need to start making some calls and planning some serious work.”
“Not before my first cup of coffee I don’t,” she told him as she walked to the bathroom. Amanda was happy to know that the coffee maker should be chugging away on it’s timer by now. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
After throwing on an old pair of jeans and some boots, she walked into the kitchen. If she was losing her mind, at least it was people she loved that guided her into her insanity, both of her parents and Evan were sitting at the table. “Morning everyone,” Amanda said as she poured a cup of coffee and walked over to the only empty chair. Sitting down,she looked around. Wondering what was going to happen next.
“Dad,Mom, Evan, just what the blue blazes is going on here?” Amanda finally asked.
“the dead will be rising in a few months,” Evan finally answered. “It is our job to guide you. To make sure you survive the beginning. After that, we will help when we can.”
“Okay, this has all got to be some weird dream.”she finally blurted out.
“Sweetie, I wish it was,” Mom said sadly. “We saw what was happeneing and just had to warn you. Here are some plans for the land, put everything into motion as soon as possible. We will be back the day it all begins. Help who you can, prepare for saving yourself first, when the dead begin to walk, you need to be ready. Remember, we love you and we will be back.” With that, Mom pushed a sheaf of papers her way.
She looked down at them, then looked up, all three of them were gone.Amanda knew it wasn’t a dream as she took another sip of coffee,her gut instinct told mher to prepare.She decided to check that lottery ticket. Somehow, Ishe knew that she was the only winner of that jackpot. She knew thatshe had a lot of work to do, and very little time to do it. Five months.
grymmycat 