The Hole — Chapter 2

A Novel of Supernatural Apocalypse

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Evajean rolled down the window. “Jesus,” she said.

“Is this the farthest out you’ve been?” Elliot asked.

Evajean shook her head. “I went to Walmart before Henry got sick, but once he started — Once things got bad, I didn’t go out again, I stayed home.” Evajean rolled the window up and leaned back in her seat. She closed her eyes. “I didn’t know things were this bad.”

Elliot weaved around an empty car. He drove sixty feet and pulled sharply right to avoid another. Beyond dense suburbia, the smell was gone. It was a smell he hadn’t realized he’d grown used to. Out here, the bodies were too dispersed to maintain the stink. But the roads were clogged with vehicles. Some had their doors open, their passengers missing. Others were closed, the windows fogged with the evaporation of rot.

Charlottesville was hell — burned buildings, burned trees, gouged lawns, smashed street lights, limp power lines. Elliot drove past a pet store. He got a domestic feeling, backtracked, stopped, and got out. He told Evajean he wanted to check. She nodded and laughed, humoring him.

They broke the store’s front window and searched cages, scoring a puppy — black…