Condemn (BUNKER 12 Book 2) (43 page)

"They made me scout ahead," he said,
his face white with pain. "I'm sorry. They said they would kill
Maria if I didn't."

Finn stood back and watched as
everyone greeted each other. There were tears of relief and
hugging. Only the elder Abramsons held back.

Seth glared accusingly at Finn. He
refused to lift a finger to help. Kaleagh Abramson stared into the
corner, as if deeply ashamed. Finn was too angry at Seth to feel
bad for her.

Bix stood off to the side, explaining
to his father and Jonah how he'd used a small fire to set off one
of the pistol rounds at the beginning, then a handful after he'd
emerged from his hiding place.

"It was Finn who took out the driver,
though. I don't think I could have made that shot
myself."

Finn did not feel heroic at all. He
didn't feel relieved. He didn't even feel lucky. Instead, he just
felt restless, like there was unfinished business. And he felt like
they were all sitting ducks in the middle of the road.

Kari and Harrison Blakeley returned in
the pickup truck from the other side of the hill and declared that
it was, indeed, clear. They'd found the bodies of the two dead
horsemen and one dead horse. The claymores had done a job on them,
but from their description, Finn knew that one of them had been
Billy.

He pulled Bix away. "Why wasn't Adrian
here?"

"He must've chickened out."

"The man in charge?" Bren said. "He
left us before we even left the bunker. They told us he was going
to get ready for when you arrived."

"That doesn't make any sense," Finn
said. "All of this, this charade, it was done to lure me and Bix
back to his ranch. He was using you as bait. He wanted to sacrifice
us all. Why wouldn't he be here to make sure it worked?"

"Because he screwed up," Bix said. "He
didn't expect us to win. We did. End of story."

Finn scanned the landscape, looking
for any sign of the man.

"The guy can wait forever, for all I
care," Bix said. "We've got better things to do."

Finn turned to the others, looking for
answers. "This doesn't feel finished."

"It is. You got Bren back."

"But—"

"Can't you just be happy it's over?"
Seth spat. He jumped out of the back of the truck and approached
Finn. "It's over."

Finn stared at him for a moment before
realizing that it really was. He let out a breath, which seemed to
deflate him, and he crumpled to the road. Bren came to him and held
him.

The others dragged the bodies off the
road, then took stock of their supplies. A small argument broke out
between them, as they discussed the merits of returning to the dam
versus going to the army base.

Finn ignored them. He didn't care
anymore where they went. Harper was gone, and Bren was safe. He was
done making decisions. He just wanted to crawl into a
hole.

"Back off, Seth!" Eddie's shout
snapped Finn out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw Missus
Abramson cowering beneath her husband's glare. "Let her have her
say."

"She's got nothing to say! Kaleagh,
get back on the truck. Sit down and shut up!"

"No," she screamed, and slapped her
husband across the face. "How could you not tell him?"

"So he can drag us all through hell
again? That's what started this, remember?"

"Tell who what?" Eddie demanded.
"Kaleagh?"

"Keep your mouth shut," Seth
growled.

"Mom?"

The woman pushed herself away from
Seth. "How could you? I'm so ashamed."

"We are going back to the dam and
nowhere else!"

Harrison and Jonah stepped forward and
grabbed an arm each. Together, they pulled Seth away from her. "Let
her speak."

Finn stood up and walked over to her.
"What is it?" he asked. "What is he not saying?"

"We have to keep going," she said,
sobbing. "You can't go back."

"Keep going where?"

"Stop it!" Seth shouted.

"He deserves to know,
Seth!"

"Know what?" Finn asked.

"That man you call the reverend,"
Missus Abramson said. "He didn't care if you got Bren back. He knew
you'd have to go after him anyway."

"Why?"

"You bitch! You'll get us all killed!"
Seth roared. "Is it worth it?"

Finn stepped closer to Missis
Abramson. "Why do I have to keep going after him?"

"Because he has your
brother."

‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡

[END OF
CONDEMN
]

Keep reading to check out an excerpt of the companion
series
THE FLENSE

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CONDEMN
(a
BUNKER 12 novel)

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(companion series to BUNKER
12)

S
ERIES
D
ESCRIPTION

Hundreds die in a fiery
train crash in northern China. A cargo ship smuggling refugees is
lost to calm seas off Libya. Entire villages in Ghana are abandoned
overnight.

Contracted by a prepper group to investigate a series of seemingly
disconnected global tragedies, a young freelance reporter,
Angelique d'Enfantine, uncovers a disturbing pattern: each event is
preceded by the sudden spread of a mysterious ailment and is
followed by the appearance of a man dressed in silver and black who
witnesses claim is the devil himself.

Each event is more grisly than the last. As the risk to her life
grows, Angel begins to doubt that the tragedies are harbingers of
an impending biblical catastrophe, but are rather practice runs
conducted by a fanatical organization bent on global annihilation.
Could her sponsors be using her to advance their own paranoid
agenda?

THE FLENSE
consists of 12
installments scheduled for limited release beginning July
2015.

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exclusive access to new releases, giveaways, and a free 4-book
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EXCERPT

A gasp behind her made her duck instinctively, pressing her face
against the lifeless chest, forcing the stale air from his
collapsed lungs. A moan burped through the dead man's lips. Blood
gurgled from the wound in his neck and dripped thickly onto the
floor.

Something was there in the hallway
with her.

The dark man it's the dark
man it's—

"Where is it?" she
whimpered.

Hands sunk into the mounds of cooling
flesh, swept across, down his legs, checking pockets. Frisking. She
could feel the presence in the hallway getting closer, could hear
its strangled breath. It was—

Jamie!

—
the dark man. It was the
dark man!

She slid her hand beneath Aston's
lower back until her fingers hit the metal of the pistol. She tried
to pull it out, but it wouldn't come.

The thing behind her lurched against
the wall, startling a yelp from Angel's throat. She pushed against
the corpse, trying to move it off the gun, but he was too large,
too heavy, too dead. She could feel the thing getting closer, could
feel its breath on her neck. Who are you? she wanted to yell. What
do you want?

She knew it wasn't the dark
man. She knew it couldn't be. Not Norstrom, either. She knew what
it was, who it was, and yet she refused to accept it.
No. No no no!

And then she felt it rest its dead
hand on her shoulder and she nearly fainted. She cried out, pulling
one last time, wrenching the pistol free from beneath the corpse.
She turned and fired, and in the lightning flash of the gunshot she
saw the sum of her fears, saw what she had done, saw the entrails
of the walking corpse like bloody ropes.

‡ ‡ ‡

If you like
post-apocalyptic and dystopian worlds, check out S.W. Tanpepper's
epic cyberpunk series GAMELAND:

http://www.tanpepperwrites.com/gameland

Books 1 and 2 are
free!

Golgotha
(prequel)

The Series:

Episode One:
Deep Into the Game

Episode Two:
Failsafe

Episode Three:
Deadman’s Switch

Episode Four:
Sunder the Hollow Ones

Episode Five:
Prometheus Wept

Episode Six:
Kingdom of Players

Episode Seven:
Tag, You’re Dead

Episode Eight:
Jacker’s Code

Velveteen

Infected: Hacked Files from
the GAMELAND Archive

Signs of Life
(
Jessie’s Game
Book One)

A Dark and Sure
Descent

Dead Reckoning
(
Jessie’s Game
Book Two)

AVAILABLE IN DIGITAL AND PRINT

My thanks to the devoted staff of Brinestone Press, who helped put
this book together and get it out to you.

Saul Tanpepper is a writer of speculative fiction for teens and
adults. A former molecular geneticist originally from Upstate New
York, he now calls Northern California home.

If you enjoyed
Condemn
(Book 2 of the BUNKER 12 series), then you'll want to check
out the companion series, THE FLENSE, which follows the events
leading up to the outbreak. You can read an excerpt
here
. You may also enjoy
the GAMELAND series, an epic cyberpunk adventure through a
post-apocalyptic world in which zombies are used as avatars in a
live action game for the rich and privileged. You can find out more
about all of Saul's titles at his:

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‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡

Condemn (Bunker 12, Book 2)
by Saul
Tanpepper
Copyright © 2015 by Saul Tanpepper
All rights reserved.

Nov 11, 2015 by Brinestone Press, San Martin, CA 95046
Cover credit K.J. Howe Copyright © 2015
Bunker photo licensed from Depositphoto.com
Soldier photo licensed from Bigstock.com
PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This book is a work of
fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and
any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business
establishments, events, or locales is entirely
coincidental.

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