The Last Flag
Race the Dead Book 1
by Wren Cavanagh
Genre: Dystopian Horror, Thriller
What would you do to pay the bills; to survive, or to just get rich, would
you compete against other teams in a quarantined town filthy with
zombies wanting to bite out your throat?
Emma and Lewis sign up for the race, they need the money to save his life.
But they won’t just be racing the dead, the surprise blizzard or the
other contestants.
Because anger and vengeance know no bounds and like everyone in the blighted
town they become pawns in a game of retribution.
The contestants become nothing more than live entertainment to viewers
who watch and judge their every move in the town of Prideful as they
race each other to arrive alive to a final flag. The team that makes
will get airlifted out alive and go back home richer for it, the
others walk back to a pittance and if they are not careful. They
won’t get out at all.
Wren Cavanagh, that would be me.
Also writes under the pen name Junior Sokolov.
An artist and writer from great North West.
I am grateful that I have this opportunity to share my work and
imagination with you. Growing up my head was always stuck in a book
or a comic book (before they got fancy and got the moniker “graphic novels”).
More often than not those books were filled with monsters, werewolves and
vampires.
Then the likes of Godzilla showed up along with their brethren, born from
the very justified fear of the atomic bomb and its consequences.
And that is what I love. Escaping into worlds of monsters and heroes, and
sometimes they are one and the same!
Letting my imagination run along and bring into the narrative what I see
around me everyday.
I hope that you will enjoy my stories. Find in them a temporary and
enjoyable escape of your own.
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He is right, I didn’t. I have never told him how I felt, or that I didn’t think I was going to make it without him. But I would have done anything to have him there that first couple of months. I can’t even count how many times I pulled up his number to call him, but it did get easier, and I made a couple of friends and made it through the four years.
Taking a step back, I turn my back to him. The artwork before me brings back so many memories. Looking at each image, I realize many of them I had watched him draw. I used to sit next to him on the bed and just watch for hours as those images came together. It used to fascinate me how anyone could make something look so real, with just the use of a pencil, but Micah’s talent was mesmerizing and relaxing.
On the counter is the snowflakes he drew for my tattoo. I run my finger over the paper, expecting to feel the coldness under my touch because of how realistic they look. It’s beautiful, but I expected nothing less from him.
“You know, the one thing I missed the most would be the nights I would lay there and watch you draw. It would take away the ugliness that I lived in every day.”
Turning with the picture of the snowflakes in hand, I run my fingers across it a couple more times. “This is beautiful, by the way.”
He doesn’t say anything, he just stands there, his arms now crossed over his chest, but he does nod his head. One thing about Micah I always envied, he never doubted himself. I always wished I had that kind of confidence. Maybe then, I would have been able to tell my father and brother where they could go. Instead of hiding behind Micah for two years and allowing him to risk so much just to take care of me.
“Why haven’t you been with anyone in the last four years, Aspen?”
I instantly feel my cheeks warm up from embarrassment. I never meant to admit that to him, but something about having this man wrapped around me makes the world a different place. Makes me a different person, and words just fly out. I’m still not sure how I never let it slip that I was in love with him. Actually, that’s a lie. I know why I didn’t, because I wasn’t sure if I’d make it back from that heartbreak I would have had, if he told me he didn’t share those feelings.
“I’m not going to take a shrug of your shoulders as an answer. I made the mistake four years ago of not making you talk to me, and it seems from tonight’s conversation, that was a very big mistake on my part. So now, I’m going to learn from those mistakes. Why Aspen?”
“Would you believe me if I said I buried myself in my school work, and just didn’t want to get misguided by throwing a relationship in there?”
Those brown eyes that I have had some very pleasurable dreams about bore into me. He isn’t buying it, but I really didn’t expect him to, either. My eyes focus on the snowflakes. I need to just tell him how I feel. It hasn’t changed in four years; tonight definitely didn’t change those feelings, and I’m no longer a stupid teenager. I’m a woman, with a degree and an amazing career ahead of me, I need to start acting like one.
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