Rewriting the Apocalypse novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: First Rewrite

The service lift opened onto a loading dock, and the dock door was shut.

A steel shutter, twelve feet high, locked from the outside.

"Kessling's sealed the building," Eli said. "Every exit but the front. The front has six guards."

"Then we make a new exit," Jo said.

She heard the engine before she saw the truck.

It was a low, furious roar growing louder on the other side of the shutter.

"Get back!" Eli yelled.

He dragged Jo and the stranger against the wall.

The shutter buckled inward with a scream of metal, and Sam's truck came through it with the bumper bent and the windshield cracked.

It slid to a stop in a cloud of dust.

Sam shoved the passenger door open.

"Somebody's pulled a fire alarm!" he shouted. "I've been circling for twenty minutes! Get in!"

"You drove through a wall," Jo said.

"I drove through a door. The wall's still there. Get in!"

She shoved the stranger onto the bench seat and climbed in after him, with Eli squeezing in beside her.

Sam hit the gas.

Behind them, a gray van burst from the loading bay with its lights flashing.

Sam took a corner on two wheels and a curb on none.

He ran a red light, cut across a bus lane, bounced down an alley and came out onto the interstate ramp.

The van stayed with them for six blocks, then caught the edge of a delivery truck and spun out sideways.

Sam whooped.

Jo did not.

The man between her and Eli had begun to shake.

It started in his hands and moved up his arms until his whole body jolted against the seat.

His eyes rolled back, and his jaw locked, and a thin line of spit ran down his chin.

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