After Darkness Fell (30 page)

Was it Reed’s voice? Or was it just my gut telling me what I wanted to hear?

Did it matter?

Actually, only one thing mattered. I knew then that I had to stop questioning everything and just get moving again.

Just as I let my foot lower onto the gas pedal, I glanced in the rearview and saw a familiar truck pulling up behind our van. It was Gresch, but he wasn’t alone. An old man with gray hair and a thick gray beard sat beside him, grinning and waving.

It was Walter.

“Who’s that with Vaughn?” Fields asked, squinting at her side mirror.

“That’s Walter.” More tears filled my eyes.

“The old man you told us about? The one who helped you? Gave you his son’s car?”

“That’s him. I really glad Vaughn went back and picked him up. He deserves this, too. Besides, he wanted to meet you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He said you sound a lot like his wife.”

“What did you tell him about me?”

“Just the truth.”

“Think he’ll forgive you for letting those kids destroy the car?”

The beaming grin on Walter’s face told me the answer to her question.

“I think he already has.” I wiped my eyes. A wave of warm relief shimmered through me, and all doubts and fears scurried away in an instant.

As we went down the next hill, I realized that even though death and destruction had once covered our world in heavy darkness, all that was about to change. As long as there were some of us still left with the desire to start living again, together we’d be strong enough to stand tall and lift the shroud.

Fields put her hand over mine and we both knew right then that the darkness had indeed lifted, and that daylight had finally returned.

David Berardelli was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Gibsonia, an agricultural and mining area north of the city. Formerly a jazz musician, he studied music at Duquesne University before being drafted into the U.S. Army. There, he served as a member of the 80th Army Band at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, and performed in the Third Army Soldier Show at Fort McPherson in Atlanta. He also served as a bugler at nearly two hundred military funerals between 1970 and 1971. He has also been a caricaturist, a nightclub musician, and a data-processing associate.

He lives on a thirty-acre horse ranch in southern Mississippi with his wife Linda and their horses and dogs, along with a variety of birds, squirrels, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, and deer.

After Darkness Fell
is the sequel to his apocalyptic novel
And Darkness Fell
. Berardelli’s other published novels include
The Apprentice
,
Wagon Driver
,
Demon Chaser
,
Demon Chaser II
,
The Funny Detective
,
Just a Simple Errand
,
Stepping Out of My Grave
,
Escape Clause
,
Fatal Innocence
,
Colors
,
Working for a Mob Boss
, and
Demon Chaser III
.