End of days the complete.., p.1
End of Days-The Complete Series, page 1
END OF DAYS
THE COMPLETE SERIES
JB TREPAGNIER
End of Days © 2021
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means—by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission.
Cover by Hannah Sternjakob Designs
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
The Pale Rider
To my Family
The Pale Rider
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
The Black Rider
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
The Red Rider
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
The White Rider
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Epilogue
Afterword
THE PALE RIDER
TO MY FAMILY
If you downloaded this book because you think you found my top-secret pen name, it wasn’t me. It was other kids. I was dead at the time. Don’t make Thanksgiving awkward.
THE PALE RIDER
I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
ONE
I awoke to nothing but death. And a horrible smell. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know who I was. When my eyes fluttered open, I was dressed in a hospital gown in a white room. There was dust on the nightstand. I noticed that first. The place gave the appearance of some sort of long-term hospital room, but it didn’t look like anyone had checked in on me for a while. And what was that smell?
I swung my legs off the bed and gently took the IV out of my hand. I didn’t feel like I was in any type of pain to be needing drugs. Why was I here? Was I in some sort of coma? I tested my feet. I could stand. I was a little shaky, but I could walk. I made my way to the door. Where was everyone, and why was there dust in a hospital room? Could someone here tell me my name and why I was here? And for the love of God, what was that smell?
I managed to make it to the only door in the room. Locked. No one checked on me, but why did they lock me in this room? I pounded on the door and started screaming for someone, anyone to come to get me out of here. I didn’t know how long I’d been in this room, but it was starting to feel tiny now that I knew they locked me in.
I pounded and pounded. My throat was parched like I hadn’t drunk any water in months, but I kept screaming for someone to come get me. Was I alone in here? If this was a hospital, why wasn’t there a nurse on duty?
Finally, I heard it. Footsteps in the hallway. I heard a muffled voice through the door.
“Stand away from the door!”
I stepped back, and whoever was on the other side started trying to kick the door in. I was so confused. What kind of hospital was I in, anyway? Was there something wrong with the key? Or was there something horrible going on beyond the other side of the door that they had to lock me in and not check on me for so long? I was getting bad vibes about the entire situation.
The door flew open, and I saw a man in a beige hazmat suit. What the fuck was going on? He held his hand out to me.
“Come with me if you want to live.”
That line seemed so familiar, like I should know it, but at present, I didn’t even know my own name or what I looked like. I could see on my arms that I was fond of tattoos at some point, and the ends of my hair were pink like I was a bit of a rebel, but I couldn’t remember doing that. And if this guy really worked for some sort of search and rescue, why was he holding a baseball bat?
I shrunk back. I was noping all over this. I might not know much right now, but I knew not to trust strange men with their faces covered holding baseball bats. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a weapon that would beat a baseball bat or a place to hide. There wasn’t even an empty tray in here I could beat this guy over the head with.
My fight-or-flight instincts were kicking in from somewhere unfamiliar. I had no idea what in my gut wanted me to fight this guy. He was much bigger than I was and may have known more about me than I did about myself. The logical part of my brain was saying to run and not look back, and my instincts were telling me to boot up and beat the shit out of this man.
He held his hands up in surrender, then offered me the baseball bat. I just started at it. It was baby blue, and there was something etched on the end. Why was this man offering me something to bash his head in with? What kind of day was it today that I wake up to crazy men in hazmat suits gifting me with baseball bats?
“Are you insane?” I hissed.
There was nothing I could say to him other than that, and if he was a crazy mother fucker, we should probably clear the air about that upfront.
He whipped his helmet off, and I was shocked at what I saw. He was actually good looking, and when a crazy guy is offering you a baseball bat when you don’t even know your name, you probably shouldn’t be checking him out. His hair was such a pale color of blond, it was almost white, and his eyes were a startling shade of gray. He looked like some sort of angel.
“What do you remember?” he demanded.
“Not a damned thing. The only thing I know is that an insane man is trying to give me a baseball bat in the middle of a hospital.”
“Take the bat and see if you remember anything. It used to be yours.”
I didn’t take the bat. I wanted to know what the fuck was going on.
“Do you know me? What is my name, and what is going on in this hospital?”
He thrust the bat at me harder.
“Just take the bat.”
“Not until you tell me my name.”
He looked so irritated with me I wanted to take that bat and smack him upside the head with it. But then, I’d never find out my name.
“Your name is Ariel, but everyone calls you Speedy. Now, take the bat. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Why does everyone call me Speedy?”
This big brute of a man ju st straight up grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the hospital room. Now I knew where the smell was coming from. I knew why there was dust in my room. All the staff was dead. It looked like something killed them and ate them in the hallway. The smell hit me even harder in the hall, and I dry heaved.
“Look at that, kitten. It’s not pretty. See those teeth marks? The things that made them are swarming this building. I had to cut my way through them to find what I was after in this building. All I found was a girl without her memories in a hospital gown. Now, take the bat because you will need it to fight your way out of here. Even if you can’t remember a fucking thing when you touch it, you need protection to make it out of here alive.”
I might be confused, but I wasn’t stupid. I was looking at an entire hallway of decaying, mangled corpses. I looked him right in the eye and grabbed that bat from him. I didn’t know what was so important about that stupid, baby blue baseball bat, but when my hand wrapped around it, I felt this little surge, and I saw a flash.
I saw a crowd, and I felt a rush as they all cheered as I stepped up to the plate. I could see a field of women with tattoos like what I could see on my forearms, and they had colorful hair like the pink on my ends. I could hear a chant from the crowd. Speedy, Speedy. Was that me? The strange bat gifting man said people called me that. Why did people call me that? If I looked down, it was etched into the blue bat.
Just like the flash came into my mind, it was gone. I shook my head.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Did you remember anything?”
“A softball game.”
The man shook his head.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Rage Heads, and she remembers a fucking softball game.”
“Well, you could give me a little more fucking help than handing me a baseball bat. I don’t even know your name.”
I heard this unreal wail come from down the hall. It didn’t sound like it was alone, and it seemed like it was headed in my direction.
“Time to go, kitten, unless you want to get eaten.”
I didn’t know if I could trust this guy, and he was being pretty shifty about giving me information about myself and what he was doing in this hospital. I wasn’t stupid, though. He was my best chance of getting out of this hospital alive. He had one chance to explain himself when we got out of here, and then I would ditch him and seek answers on my own.
I heard the pounding of footsteps. How many of those things were in here, and how did they move so fast? The man grabbed my hand and yanked me down the hall. Don’t ask me where he got that fucking sword from.
“Aim for the head,” he yelled as we tore ass down hallways littered with half-eaten bodies.
Good to know. I wished he would have given me a few more helpful tips before we took off running in this corpse infested hospital. I saw a flash of a softball game, but did I actually know how to wield this thing? I didn’t even know my last name.
We almost made it out when the source of those wails popped out from behind a corner. There was no logical explanation for what was making those noises. They should have been dead and buried. Most of them had clothes that were hanging off their rotted frames. Their flesh was so nasty. It should have had maggots crawling out of it. The ones that still had eyes had this unnatural red tint to the whites of their eyes. I had no idea how they moved that fast, given the state of their decay.
There was way more of them than there were of us. There were worse things to have than a man with a sword who gifted you baseball bats and kept secrets when you were surrounded by walking corpses. I didn’t know how I knew, but I would need both hands on that bat if I were supposed to be hitting these things in the head.
He was the only one who knew where we were going, but my survival instincts kicked in. I wrenched my hand out of his and took the bat in both hands. As soon as one of those things came near me, I swung as hard as I could. I guess I did use to be a softball player at some point because when my bat connected with this thing’s head, it was like an overripe pumpkin. I was guessing it even sounded the same. I had to stop myself from vomiting.
I only had one goal here. Kill my way through these things. But was it any better outside? If the hospital was like this, what was the rest of the world like?
It seemed like endless swinging and squelching noises before that wailing and hissing noise stopped. The man and I were standing among a pile of bodies, and there was black blood pooled at our feet. He just grinned at me.
“Not bad, kitten. Let’s get as far away from here as possible.”
“Not so fast. What is your name, and do you have a car?”
“My name is Aeron, and no one has cars anymore. There’s no point. You can’t get gas anywhere. I’ve got something better.”
“Why should I trust you? You haven’t given me much to go on.”
“Because it’s not just the Rage Heads you need to worry about. Humanity has gone to shit. If you want to stay safe out there, you need friends and supplies. I’ve got both.”
“How do I know you’re not part of the humanity that has gone to shit?”
“You don’t. But you don’t remember shit, and I have answers. You’re just going to have to trust me, cupcake.”
“Are you actually going to give me more answers than what you have?”
“I can help you get your memories back, and I can explain to you what is going on. But not here. It’s not safe. I have a place we can go for the night, and there are separate beds in case you think I have any intention to rape you.”
“I’ll bash your fucking head in with this baseball bat if you tried.”
“Keep Smurfette on you at all times.”
“Smurfette?”
“That’s what you used to call your bat.”
I sighed and followed Aeron out of the hospital. The key to my past was in this grumpy ass, sword-wielding mother fucker who just showed up out of nowhere. I still didn’t know if I would stay with him, but if I would find out who I was, I needed to leave with him and hear him out.
TWO
“I’m not getting on that,” I said, looking at Aeron’s big fucking horse. That wasn’t a normal horse. It wasn’t white, but I couldn’t describe its color except pale. It was way bigger than any horse should be, and I swear its eyes flashed red at me.
“Meremoth is a champion stallion, and he obeys me. You just need to sit up there while I control him. You aren’t scared of a horse after you just killed all those Rage Heads, are you?”
