All Chapters of Deadzone: Surviving The End of The World: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
10 chapters
Chapter 1
The night was calm at the Cascadia Hydro Facility. Caleb Cross sat at the main console, the hum of turbines steady beneath his boots. A mug of half-cold coffee rested by his hand. Nothing ever happened on the night shift. He liked it that way. The clock on the wall showed twelve fifteen when the first flicker came. The lights dimmed for a heartbeat, brightened, then died. Every monitor went dark. The hum stopped. The whole building seemed to hold its breath. Caleb looked at the control board. No response. He tried the backup switch. Nothing. He checked his phone. Dead. His watch too. He stood in the sudden silence, hearing only the river outside. A low vibration passed through the floor. It grew until the windows rattled. Then a blue light flashed somewhere below, followed by another and another. The smell of metal filled the air. He walked to the window that looked down at the valley. The town lights were gone. The river glowed faintly, as if something alive moved ins
Chapter 2
The river still glowed when morning came. Caleb stood at the window and watched the water move like liquid glass. The turbines beneath the floor turned slowly even though there was no power. He did not look at them for long. Every sound in the building now felt wrong. He found a backpack in the locker room, filled it with a flashlight, two bottles of water, a wrench, and a folded map. His phone was still dead. The batteries in the radios were drained. He tried one more time to start the generator. Nothing happened. The machine gave a single tired groan and went silent again. He told himself to breathe and to keep moving. If there were survivors in Rivermouth, someone would need help. He locked the plant doors behind him out of habit, though he knew it would not matter. The air outside was colder than it should have been. The forest along the ridge looked heavy with mist. The world felt empty, but not quiet. Somewhere in the trees, he heard a crack of branches and a sound tha
Chapter 3
Caleb followed the winding road higher into the forest. The air was thin and still. No insects. No wind. Only the slow creak of trees shifting in the cold. He had not eaten since the night before. His throat burned from running. Every few minutes he stopped to listen. The silence was never total. Far below, the river hummed in a voice that was not water. He passed a gas tanker on its side. The cab was crushed against a pine. The driver’s seat was empty, but the door was open as if someone had climbed out. The ground smelled of fuel. He moved carefully around it, keeping his eyes on the woods. A cry echoed from the next bend. It was human. Caleb lifted the wrench in his hand and moved toward the sound. A small bus had gone off the road and slid into a ditch. The front was buried in dirt. Smoke rose from the hood. He heard another voice, weaker now. He climbed down the slope and pulled the door open. Inside, three people huddled near the back seats. A woman in a
chapter 4
The forest seemed endless. The mist clung to the trees like smoke. Every branch that broke underfoot sounded too loud. Caleb led the way, moving slowly, watching the ground for roots and holes. The others followed close behind. No one had spoken for an hour. They had left the ranger station burning behind them. The smoke still rose far below. The hum of the river reached them even here, deep in the hills. It was weaker but constant, a low pulse that felt like it was inside their bones. Luke was the first to speak. “How long before we stop?” “Soon,” Caleb said. “When we find higher ground.” Dylan wiped sweat from his forehead. “You think the things can climb?” “They follow sound,” Nora said. “That’s all we know.” They moved again, careful, each step sinking into damp soil. The trees were thicker now. Moss grew on everything. The air smelled of rain and rot. After another mile, the ground dropped into a shallow valley. In the middle of it stood a truck half-buried in dir
Chapter 5
They followed the narrow trail north until the trees thinned and the ground turned rocky. The climb was hard. The air smelled faintly of smoke from the valley behind them. Each time Caleb looked back, he saw the blue haze rising from the river. It pulsed with the rhythm of a slow heartbeat. No one spoke for a long time. Every word felt heavy in the air. Nora kept close to Luke, her arm steadying him when he slipped. Dylan walked behind, scanning the trees with a broken rifle he had found in the bunker. Caleb led them uphill toward the ridge where the relay tower should be. By midmorning, the mist began to lift. The forest opened into a clearing covered in ferns and fallen branches. In the middle stood a chain-link fence, half buried under vines. A warning sign hung crooked on the gate: RESTRICTED AREA – FEDERAL COMMUNICATION SITE. “This is it,” Caleb said. They stepped through the gap in the fence. The ground was soft with ash and scattered bones of small animals. The tower ros
Chapter 6
The climb took most of the day.The sun hung behind the clouds, pale and cold. The forest had thinned to stunted pines and rock. Caleb kept his eyes on the ground, counting steps, listening for the hum that never truly stopped.They reached the hilltop near sunset. The observatory rose ahead of them, round and grey, half swallowed by vines. Its metal dome was split down one side like an open shell. A cracked road led to it, littered with rusted cars and pieces of broken fencing.Dylan stopped first. “The place looks empty.”“It’ll do,” Caleb said.They crossed the lot and pushed through the main doors. The air inside was dry and heavy. Dust hung in the light. Desks, monitors, and tangled wires filled the control room. Old coffee cups sat where they had been left.No bodies. Only silence.Caleb found a set of stairs leading upward. The dome above had collapsed, but part of the walkway was still intact. From there he could see the valley stretching south. The river glowed faintly, even
Chapter 7
They left the observatory at first light.The air was colder than before and smelled faintly of metal. The sky was grey but still, no wind at all. Every few minutes a low roll of thunder passed across the mountains, soft at first, then sharper, as if the sound came from underground.Caleb led them down the rocky slope. The path turned through old pine trees and broken fences. Far below, the valley spread wide and empty. Patches of mist clung to the ground like smoke.They walked until noon.The thunder grew closer. Clouds pressed together above them, layered and dark. The light on the ground changed from silver to blue.Nora stopped to drink from a canteen. “You think it’s safe to keep going?”“Not if we stop here,” Caleb said.Dylan pointed ahead. “There’s a road down there.”It led to a flat stretch of land where a handful of buildings stood close together. The roofs were dented from years of weather. A tall metal frame marked what had once been a loading yard. Beyond it, the mouth
Chapter 8
The road north started through a narrow pass. Broken rocks lined both sides, and the ground was soft from the storm. The group moved in silence. No birds. No wind. Only the steady hum seemed to come from under their feet. By midday, the light changed. The sun faded behind thick clouds. Caleb walked ahead, watching each step. He heard a deep crack before he felt it. The ground shifted once, then dropped away. He fell with the others. The noise of breaking stone filled his ears. Then everything went dark. When he woke, his head hurt. Cold air touched his face. He sat up slowly. A beam of pale light cut through a hole above him. Dust drifted in it like smoke. Nora was beside him, coughing. Dylan was farther back, pulling Luke out from under a piece of wood. Everyone was bruised but alive. They were standing in a tunnel. Metal rails ran along the floor. Pipes lined the ceiling. Water dripped from somewhere unseen. Dylan looked up at the hole they had fallen throu
Chapter 9
The forest grew thinner as they moved north.The air smelled sharp, like metal after lightning.Every few minutes the ground hummed, soft and steady, as if something deep below was breathing.They had walked since morning.The trees looked wrong now.Some had twisted trunks that bent toward the ground.Others grew in perfect straight lines.The pattern made Caleb uneasy.He stopped when he saw the smoke.A thin column rose above the trees a few miles ahead.It was not black like fire but grey and steady.“Someone’s burning fuel,” he said.Dylan looked through his scope. “Could be a crash.”“Or a camp,” Nora said.They followed the smoke.The closer they came, the stronger the smell of oil became.The trees opened into a clearing filled with old trucks and broken walls.Ahead stood a small complex of concrete buildings.The fences around it had collapsed in places.The sign on the gate was faded but still readable.FEDERAL RESEARCH SITE – RESTRICTED ACCESS.Caleb studied the symbol ben
Chapter 10
They didn’t go far from the research site.The air was cooler in the trees, but the hum still reached them from below.It never stopped, not even for a breath.They set camp near a dry creek bed where the ground felt solid.Caleb built a small fire. The light made a circle around them that faded into the dark.The forest was quiet.Too quiet.No insects. No birds. Only the soft hiss of the wind moving through dead branches.Dr Hale sat apart from the group with the laptop he had carried from the lab.A cracked battery powered it, the screen faint but readable.Lines of code and numbers filled the screen.He typed slowly, whispering to himself.Dylan watched him. “You think he can still pull something useful from that thing?”Caleb poked at the fire. “He’s the only one who understands what’s happening. Let him try.”Nora sat with Luke beside her, wrapped in a blanket.The boy’s eyes were half closed.Every few minutes he looked at the sky, then at the trees, as if expecting something t