Exodus: Book Two: Last Days Trilogy Read Online Free Page B

wall.”
    “Damn it.” Marcus closed his eyes, and then smiled weakly. “At least we have oxygen.”
    “But we’re low on food. We have to find a way out.”
    “Yeah, and it won’t be long before they send wrecking crews in here.”
    “How long do you think?”
    “A few days.”
    “Can’t we survive that long?” Reggie asked.
    “Yeah, we can. But the wrecking crew won’t be looking for survivors.”
    Reggie was speechless.
    “The crew digging must’ve made some progress.” Marcus stepped away. “God! If we could just get a break.” Frustrated, Marcus kicked at an empty soup can, sending it rattling across the floor to the stairwell. Marcus turned to Reggie. “I’m sorry I...”
    Clink-clank-clink-clunk... SPLASH!
    Marcus’ head jerked toward the stairwell, then back to Reggie. “No.”
    “Yes.”
    Like little kids racing for the ice cream truck, Marcus and Reggie bolted for the collapsed stairwell, nudging each other out of the way for position. They dropped to their knees and saw it: at the bottom of the collapsed stairs, a triangular opening about a foot wide.
    “That wasn’t here before,” Marcus said.
    “No way. We were both here a million times.”
    “It must have opened last night in all that shifting.” Marcus’s eyes scanned the room, then stopped at a piece of concrete. He picked it up and tossed it into the hole. Silence, then another splash. Marcus grabbed Reggie’s cheeks and kissed her. He smiled, peered at the hole, caught his breath and calmed down. “All right. It goes down. But... how can we fit through there?”
    “We have to make it bigger.”
    “Any suggestions?”
    Reggie hesitated, then placed her hand inside the triangle formed by the staircase and felt the hole. “Wait.” She stood up, raced into the room and returned with a large piece of concrete. She handed it to Marcus and repeated her actions, coming back with a second chunk of wall.
    “Why do we need more concrete?” Marcus asked.
    “It’s heavy. It’s sturdy enough to pound the hell out of the floor, to chisel away at the hole until it gets big enough for us to slip through.”
    Marcus stared for a second. “Will it work?”
    Reggie shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”
    “But if the floor’s too weak, it may break through. We could crash down.” Marcus said.
    “Yeah but at least we’ll be down there,” Reggie nodded. “So what, we break a bone. At least we’ll be out.”
    Chuckling, Marcus adopted Reggie’s attitude, picked up his piece of concrete and started to pound on the floor.
     

Fox Lake, Illinois
     
    Kyle had wasted too many hours and too much daylight to get north to highway twelve. He had tried every smaller road for access. He also had trouble finding an open gas station. He finally gave up on the smaller roads. Their closings seemed inconsistent anyway. Kyle was so frustrated he decided to try a main thoroughfare. At least that might get him close enough to Chicago to walk in. Once there, he wouldn’t have any problem ‘borrowing’ a car. By now Chicago was a ghost town.
    Nevertheless, it was sooner and not later that Kyle ran into another roadblock. But Kyle didn’t stick around to hear the millionth ‘Sorry, road’s closed.’ Before he could be stopped, Kyle pulled his truck off to the side of the road, turned it off, grabbed his keys and gear, and got out.
    He started to walk, muttering that the grass and the shoulder were free country, even if the highways weren’t. He passed a long line of cars on his way to the barricade, then kept going.
    “Sir!” A soldier, a sergeant, called out. “Stop!”
    Kyle turned around.
    “Sir, where are you heading?”
    “Into Chicago,” Kyle answered.
    “Chicago is being evacuated. No one gets in.”
    No shit, he thought, then smiled. “I thought everyone just had to get out.”
    “Sir, I have to ask you to return to your vehicle.”
    Kyle huffed. “And I have to find my daughter.” He looked at the name tag. “Sergeant