Page 133 of Walking in Darkness

The violent thrumming that thrashed within us.

It only increased when the exit came into view and Dani flicked on her blinker. Five cars exited in front of us. It was then that the train of headlights and taillights on the same route came into view.

A slew of cars barely creeping along as we merged onto the other freeway.

Dani didn’t let it sway her. She pulled out around the traffic onto the left shoulder, and she sped up the freeway to where there was a gap in the cars. She cut into it and sped across two lanes to the second exit.

The traffic was fully stopped there, and Dani slammed on her brakes behind a pickup truck.

Her attention darted back and forth, searching for a clear path. “What do we do?”

“Since you’re no stranger to off-roading, I’d suggest right there.” Timothy pointed at what looked to be a pasture off to our right, down a steep incline and surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.

Dani hesitated for a beat before she threw her car into reverse, pulled back enough so she could make it out from behind the truck, then shouted, “Hang on!” as she rammed it into drive and floored it.

Pax curled himself around me as we flew, barreling down the sharp embankment. A shout ripped out of Dani as we raced toward the fence.

Metal pinged as we busted through the barrier.

Our gasps were harsh as we jolted forward, the tires peeling out and flinging dirt as we wheeled over the field.

We’d made it halfway across when Dani slammed on her brakes. We all stared, panting, the engine running and the headlights spearing the darkness that had crawled over the earth.

A forged eclipse.

None of us were able to move.

Frozen beneath the sight that writhed right over the very center of the town in the distance. Maybe a mile away.

The clouds boiled and seethed. Churning and twisting with depravity.

Whirring and whirring in a vicious cyclone that gusted across the land.

And in the middle of it was a crack.

The same fissure Pax and I had stumbled on last night.

And every sort of Kruen crawled out from it, clinging to the clouds before they dropped to the ground below.

Chapter Forty-Two

Aria

All four of us clicked our doors open at the same time and climbed out of the car.

Frigid air gusted across the field. It was a chill that sank straight to the bone as spikes of razor-sharp rain pelted our flesh.

Each of us hung on to the top of our door as we peered up at the calamity that had been waiting for us.

This reality was something I’d prayed would never come to fruition. But I think I’d known the entire way here that we were going to be met with the impossible.

With the horrible.

I could feel the disbelief radiating from my family as we gaped up at where the sky was split open over the center of the small town in Idaho that I doubted many had even heard of, though now it would earn the most significant title.

The birthplace of the end of the world.

Because hopelessness shuddered through my being as I looked up at the onslaught of Kruen that continued to pour into this plane.