The Last Day On Earth (Book 1 of The Galaxy Series)

Chapter 5

Some time after French Lick, my mind still wandered back to the unsettling feeling from that place. What was going on there? Should I go back? Maybe someone was in danger.

Of course, if someone was, what could I do? I had no fighting skills or a weapon to speak of. It was probably a good thing I got out of there when I did.

Sighing, I looked up from the pavement to see...shacks? Was this an Outlier that had been set up on the an old bridge? Odd, but okay. The lake the bridge crossed was still there and very beautiful, so I guess this would be a good spot for an Outlier.

"Hey!" I stopped looking out over the lake at the voice, which belonged to a kid. A kid who was glaring at me.

"Oh. Hey." I smiled, trying to seem friendly, but I don't really think it worked because his glare just deepened.

"You came from that city, didn't you?" That was an accusatory tone if I had ever heard one, but he wasn't wrong.

I nodded. "I passed through there, yes."

"No one just passes through there," a man emerged from behind a shack with an old gun pointed at me, "so tell the truth."

My hands went up out of some deep ingrained instinct, unsure if this would help or even deter him from shooting me. "I am. Look, I'm heading to Evansville to join the people leaving the planet. I walked through French Lick to get to this point." I thought for a moment and then decided to add, "Someone was definitely watching me right before I left though. I can say that. But I never saw anyone myself."

The man lowered the gun. "You're gonna walk all the way to Evansville?" When I nodded, he asked, "Where did you start at?"

"Indianapolis." No reason to lie about that.

He chuckled and approached me, prompting others to come out from various hiding spots behind the shacks lining the bridge. "As much as I admire the fact that you walked this far, and that you somehow just got through French Lick without dying, I don't think you're gonna make it to Evansville in time."

Now I glared. "What makes you say that? I've made great time."

"Not saying you haven't, but that ship leaving the planet is going at first light tomorrow and you still have a hell of a trek." He put in his gun the holster at his hip. "Some of the path isn't even walkable."

What? "How do you know?"

"We trade supplies with the people at Evansville." He gestured to the lake around them. "Mostly fish, since, well, lake." He finally held out his hand for me to shake. "I'm Matt, second in command of this little village."

I shook his hand, glad that he had decided I was no longer a threat. "I'm Tiffany. Second in command though?"

Matt nodded. "My wife is in charge." He gestured for me to follow him through the small herd of people looking nervous at my arrival, including the kid who initially greeted me.

Up close, the shacks didn't look as haphazardly put together as the shacks in the other Outliers I had been through. These actually had been built with the purpose of housing people to live in, not just huddle together and hope for a bit of sleep in. They looked...secure. Like living in them was nice.

If this had been at Outlier at some point, they had done extremely well fixing it up.

A woman, who I didn't see join us as we walked, must've seen my look because she said, "This wasn't the Outlier." I jumped at the sudden voice, but she just continued, "The Outlier was over there, where some houses stood before the invasion."

I looked up a steep hill where she pointed, seeing some people working. Some as lookouts and some clearly building something. "What are they doing up there?"