Dawn's Light (2 page)

And I can't end this series without a huge thanks to Beth Runnels, Gayle DeSalles, and Ellen Tarver, who've all assisted me in various aspects of my work. Each one of these ladies is uniquely talented, and they all provide me with services that make my life much easier.

Finally, thanks to my readers who have hung in there with me through all four of the Restoration novels. I pray that God will use the books to strengthen, challenge, and bless you.

Prologue

O
N
M
AY
24,
CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT COMES TO AN END
. Plumbing doesn't work because the water treatment plants run on electricity. Trucks and trains don't run, so stores run out of food. Generators are rendered useless. In this major meltdown of life, people are stranded where they are, with no transportation, no power, and no communication. Crime runs rampant as evil fills the void, and desperation becomes the only moral guide many people recognize.

Eventually, word makes its way to Crockett, Alabama, that the event was caused by a star—a supernova named SN—1999—which is emitting electromagnetic pulses every few seconds. With no assurance of when the star might burn itself out and allow them to rebuild, people are left with a choice: will they hoard what they have until it all runs out, or will they share with those around them who are in need?

The Brannings, an upper-middle-class Christian family, who pride themselves on their righteousness, respond like everyone else at first: they hole up at home, hoarding their food, paranoid that interacting with others will force them to share the few provisions they have. The children are angry that their lives have been disrupted. They're bored without visual and audio entertainment. Deni, the twenty-two-year-old, is frustrated that she won't be able to get to Washington to start her new job and be with her fiancé, who lives there.

When Doug Branning finally comes to grips with the fact that this is not going to end soon, he breaks down before God, realizing that he's not equipped to function without technology. How will he support his family? How will he provide food? How will they survive? As he struggles to find answers, he begins to realize that God has a purpose for him and his family through this trial. People around him have great needs—physical and spiritual. The Brannings begin to understand that they have much to learn, and much to give.

When Deni's eyes open to the true character of Craig Martin, her fiancé, she breaks her engagement. She's begun to fall in love with Mark Green, a high school friend who lives in her neighborhood. But Mark is the son of a convicted killer, and when a neighbor is shot by an unknown assailant, people assume that Mark committed the crime. He's thrown into a dark and broken prison system. Deni and her family help to find the true killer and clear his name. As they do, Deni sees Mark's noble acts of forgiveness toward those who persecuted him, and falls more deeply in love with him.

The blackout continues for a year, and the Brannings learn to work together to survive, until God gives them their ultimate test …

Cast of Characters

Branning, Doug
—forty-eight, father of four and husband to Kay Branning. He's a successful stockbroker who's never known failure until technology come to an end and he's forced to provide for his family and protect them from the dangers surrounding them. Although the circumstances of life threaten to defeat him when the power goes out, he manages to find the character and strength to do what needs to be done. He commits to studying the Word of God and becomes the pastor of a home church for Christians in his neighborhood.

Branning, Kay
—forty-five, Doug's wife, mother to Deni, Jeff, Beth, and Logan. She was a spoiled soccer mom before the outage, living in a 4,000-square-foot home with all the bells and whistles, and driving a brand new Expedition. Now she faces a daily struggle to feed her family and help those around her who have less than she does. She takes much pride in being a good mother who protects and nurtures her children

Branning, Deni
—twenty-three, Doug and Kay's spitfire daughter. Just before the outage, she graduated from Georgetown University in Broadcast Journalism and landed a job as an intern at the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. She was engaged to Craig Martin, an attorney who worked for a prominent U.S. senator. Just before the outage, she comes home to Crockett, Alabama (a suburb of Birmingham), to take care of some wedding planning. When the power goes out and transportation and communication are shut down, along with all electronics, she feels trapped. And when she and her little sister happen upon two murdered neighbors, her depression escalates. Other murders follow these, and homes around them are pillaged. Deni becomes desperate to get back to Washington to be with her fiancé. The father of a high school friend offers her a ride east in his horse-drawn wagon, and she leaves secretly. But it isn't long before she realizes she's thrown herself into the arms of a killer. She finally calls out to God for help and begins to recognize his provision in her foolishness. Her father, whom she believed to be weak, moves heaven and earth to find and rescue her. But when things get violent, she is forced to kill her tormenter in self-defense.

Branning, Jeff
—seventeen, Doug and Kay's son. He was the star pitcher on his high school baseball team, a true jock and a popular kid at school. But he wasn't used to hard work, and he didn't much like it. He's a Christian kid but has moments of rebellion. Saddled with a lot of adult responsibilities since the outage, he finds the weight of the world on his shoulders as he tries to help protect his family from the evil surfacing around them.

Branning, Beth
—thirteen, Doug and Kay's daughter, who looks up to her older sister. She's with Deni when they find her teacher and her husband murdered. She's sensitive to the needs of those around her. To help the children of the neighborhood cope through the outage, she begins to write and produce plays that become major events for the families of Oak Hollow. But the violence that she's witnessed over the last year has taken its toll on her, and she lives in fear of the Next Terrible Thing.

Branning, Logan
—ten, Doug and Kay's youngest child, who was raised on Play Stations, computers, DVDs, and television, and finds their new way of life boring and unfair. But he's enjoying spending more time with his dad now that Doug is home most of the time.

Green, Mark
—twenty-three, Deni's friend from high school and a neighbor in Oak Hollow subdivision. He's in love with Deni and helps convince her that her fiancé is not the right man for her. He's good looking, strong, inventive, skillful, and a strong Christian. He skipped college and went to work in construction. He's disliked in the neighborhood because his father was a convicted murderer. When a kid in the neighborhood is shot, Mark is accused and thrown into a broken and violent prison system. When the prisoners escape after killing two deputies and wounding the sheriff, Mark stays behind to help them. He's released when the other deputies walk off the job. But when he returns home, some of the neighborhood men beat him. His charges are finally dropped, and he winds up going to work as a volunteer deputy to help protect the community. When he has to care for the prisoners—including the men who beat him—he learns that forgiveness is not a emotion, but a choice. With the help of God, he manages to perform acts of mercy toward his enemies and, in doing so, proves to Deni and her family when he's made of.

Martin, Craig
—twenty-eight, Deni's ex-fiancé. He's an attorney who graduated at the top of his class from Georgetown University Law School. He works for a U.S. senator and considers himself a mover and a shaker. When the Pulses began, Deni didn't hear from him for weeks. He finally showed up to see her but had an aversion to the hard work they were doing to help the community. Deni almost agreed to go back to Washington with him, but at the last moment, she changed her mind and broke off the engagement. He's been writing her ever since, begging her to marry him.

Caldwell, Brad
—the Brannings' next-door neighbor and Doug's best friend. He's a good man, but not a Christian. An attorney who has a strong sense of justice, he set up a “neighborhood watch” in Oak Hollow and took the protection of the subdivision personally. An African American, he was initially blamed for the murders and robberies in the neighborhood and was beaten up and almost killed. He's the father of two boys and the husband of Judith Caldwell.

Caldwell, Judith
—wife of Brad, a nurse, who begins to attend Doug's house church with her two boys, even though her husband won't attend with her.

Caldwell, Drew and Jeremy
—Brad and Judith's sons, nine and seven, who are friends with Logan. Both children are traumatized when their father is beaten up, so he pretends he's fine to keep them from worrying.

Horton, Chris
—twenty-two, Deni's best friend from high school, a nurse.

Rowe, Amber
—twenty-five, the Brannings' other next-door neighbor. Her husband left her two weeks before the outage with three children under three, and she's having a terrible time managing. The Brannings try to help her as much as they can.

one

B
ETH
B
RANNING SAT ON HER BIKE A BLOCK UP THE STREET
from Alabama Bank and Trust and watched the hungry mob waiting in the rain. The violent May thunderstorm pounded and cracked like special effects on a Hollywood set, drenching those who waited to get their money. If her parents saw her they would freak. It was no place for a thirteen-year-old, they would say.

Even from a block away, she could feel the tension and thrill of those who would go from poverty to plenty in a matter of minutes. Armed deputies surrounded this bank and all the others in Crockett, along with the few running vehicles in town—sheriff's department patrol cars, ambulances, fire trucks. Clearly, they expected violence. The banks had been closed since the power outage began a year ago, crushing the economy and leaving even Beth's family poor. With the poor and homeless so desperate, no one with cash would be safe today.

The newspaper warehouse was on the other side of Crockett, so she turned her bike around, careful not to tip the bike trailer she pulled. Rain or shine, she had to deliver papers. Raindrops pricked her skin, soaked her softball jersey, and made her shiver. It would take longer to prepare her stacks today, since she'd have to wrap the papers in plastic to keep them from getting wet. She might as well get it done.

As she turned the corner onto a less populated road, a bolt of lightning flashed in front of her, thunder cracking instantly. Her heart kicked through her chest.

People got struck by lightning riding bicycles all the time. A great-uncle of hers had been fishing in a boat when lightning struck him dead. She had to get to shelter. She looked around for a safe place to wait it out, and saw the Cracker Barrel up ahead. It, too, had been closed for a year—since the power outage began—but its rustic porch would shelter her until the storm passed.

She pulled her bike onto the parking lot and rolled it up toward the porch, wishing they'd left their famous rocking chairs out. Lightning burst and thunder crashed again, making her jump.

Her clothes were soaked, and beads of water ran from her long blonde curls into her eyes. She shivered, wishing she'd listened to her parents. There were probably tornados coming, and the winds would pick her up and blow her away, like Dorothy and Toto.

Leaving her bike and trailer in the rain, she sat on the porch floor. Hugging her wet knees, she heard a sound from somewhere behind the building. A garbled cry, a muttered curse.

“Don't shoot!”

She sprang up and crept to the end of the porch.

“Please … I'll give you the money!”

Her breath caught in her lungs as she peered around the side of the building.

Two men—one on his knees, facing her. The other stood behind him, holding a revolver to the kneeling man's head.

Beth's knees went weak, and she crouched, making herself smaller. The man with the gun wore a black raincoat with the hood pulled up. She couldn't see his face. But the one on his knees looked young—no more than twenty-five. His wet hair strung into eyes squeezed tightly shut.

She watched, frozen, as the gunman bent and pulled a stack of bills out of the other man's pocket. He shoved it into his, then cocked the pistol against the back of his victim's head.

The gun went off …. the victim thudded forward.

Beth's scream drew the killer's cold gaze.

Get away! Get help
! She lunged for her bike, picked it up. Her necklace caught on the handlebars, breaking the chain. The cross pendant fell, and the bike tumbled into the mud. She heard pounding footsteps behind her—no time to right the bike. She would have to run.

As she leaped over it, the gun fired again. Hot wind whizzed past her calf, and she fell over the bike, flipping quickly onto her back to defend herself. She screamed again as the killer came closer, aiming for her chest.