Under a Fallen Sun: Chapter 2
Early Chapters Series
Author’s note: Welcome to another installment of my Early Chapters Series. This is where I post chapters included in the Amazon free sample for each of my novels. First on deck is Under a Fallen Sun — my science fiction thriller I first released through Samak Press in 2019. I’ll share the first four chapters of this companion prequel novel to the Alien People Chronicles through the next four weeks.
Missed chapter one? Catch up here:
Chapter 2
Steam rushed out once Jason popped the hood. He waited a few seconds for it to dissipate, then hunched over and unscrewed the radiator cap.
Jason gave a low whistle.
“Bone dry.”
This wasn’t news Paige wanted to hear. Her idea of celebrating spring break with her boyfriend and their friends did not involve breaking down on an isolated Texas highway.
“How dumb do you have to be to let a radiator run out of coolant?”
Jason raised his head and peeked over his shoulder. He greeted the question posed to him with a frown and a squint.
“Piss off, Rich.”
Rich laughed.
“Not exactly a gear head, are you?”
Paige pushed back a blond lock from her eyebrow and took a turn greeting Rich with eye daggers.
“You heard, Jason. He said, ‘piss off.’”
Rich threw up his hands and smirked. “Fine. You tell me what we’re gonna do now with an overheated car besides marinate in the sun.”
As much as Paige hated to admit it, Rich had a valid point.
The high plains heat already beat down on her, extracting every last drop of water from her exposed arms and legs in real time. A half-full water bottle would only last so long in this situation. Her crop top and shorts didn’t keep Paige as cool as she hoped and expected.
Jason continued to lean over the radiator. He stared at it as though fluid would suddenly condense and fill the radiator if he thought about it long enough. Paige joined him in front of the bumper and draped her arm over his shoulder.
“Anything I can do to help fix it?”
Jason shook his head.
“Not really. There’s not a whole lot anyone can do now except call someone to come give us a tow.”
Paige toyed with his cropped red hair. She trailed her fingers in a circular pattern on the back of Jason’s head.
“It’ll be okay,” she said. “We’ll figure this out and get back on the road soon enough.”
Her reassuring tone did not line up with Paige’s actual feelings. She couldn’t help wondering if they created some serious trouble for themselves here.
“I don’t think we’re gonna find anyone out here who can tow us.”
Heather poked her head out of an open backseat window. She brushed back an ebony curl matching her glistening skin and held up a smartphone.
“I can’t pick up a signal in these parts.”
Paige wiped beads of sweat from her forehead and squinted at the plains stretching endlessly before her on the horizon. She wondered how far away Las Vegas was from their current location. Hell, she wondered how long crossing the border into New Mexico would take at this point. They couldn’t even make it out of West Texas without running into trouble.
Looking at the surrounding vista didn’t raise much hope of finding help. Dry grasses, pockmarked with scraggly bushes and sandy patches, lay in all four directions. Only a fence running parallel to the highway, along with intermittent electrical poles, interrupted an endless sea of grass on either side.
Paige turned to Jason again as her boyfriend slammed down the hood.
“How far do you think that highway goes before it reaches the next town? If we start walking now —”
He shook his head more emphatically this time.
“I’m not dying to find out what dying from heatstroke feels like.”
“Didn’t we pass a gas station a while ago?” Heather asked.
Paige’s eyes followed the sound of a car door opening. Heath er crawled out of the backseat, adjusted her bra strap, and walked toward them. She glanced down at her smartphone and then out at the stretch of highway extending into the horizon behind Paige and Jason.
“I could have sworn I saw one a couple of miles back there,” Heather said. “If we start now, maybe we can reach it inside of an hour.”
Jason turned and gazed in the same direction. A frown became etched on his face with a depth equal to cracks in the white and yellow lines running down the asphalt.
“I think it’s a lot further back than a couple of miles,” he said, turning and facing the girls again. “Staying with the car is the best call.”
Rich barely held back a laugh as he leaned against the side of the car.
“Best call? Not hardly. I don’t see anyone around here coming to the rescue, do you?”
Paige pursed her lips tight for a moment and released them into a deep sigh.
“This is I-40. People do travel this highway, you know. I’m sure a trucker or someone else will come along to help sooner or later.”
“I wouldn’t count on one of those people stopping to help us.”
Paige glared at Rich. He pushed away from the car and held up his hands in a defensive position.
“I know. I know. ‘Piss off, Rich’,”
Rich’s tone parroted how he thought Paige’s voice sounded when she was angry. It only made her angrier whenever she heard him do his impression.
Heather glanced back at Rich as well and shook her head. A deep frown also carved out a spot on her face. She turned to Paige and shrugged.
“As much as I hate to say it, Rich has a point about one thing. We can’t just stick around here and take our chances, hoping some kind soul will come along to save us.”
Jason closed his eyes and rubbed his hands down his cheeks. They popped open again and he fixed his gaze on Heather.
“I don’t like the idea of abandoning my car to chase down mirages.”
“Do you have a bottle of coolant lying around in the trunk?”
“No.”
“That settles it. This car isn’t going anywhere until we fill the coolant tank back up. Even then, you might be spending a few hundred bucks to get that radiator fixed.”
Jason gnawed on his lower lip. His fingers tapped the back pocket of his jeans holding his wallet.
“Thanks for bringing that up. Obvious information always makes me feel so much better.”
Heather flipped him off.
“No need to be an ass about it.”
She turned and stomped down the asphalt toward Rich. Paige licked her lips and gazed at the lonely highway. Her eyes trailed yellow and white lines, first in one direction and then the other. Her hopes some traveler would miraculously appear on the horizon, to save them in their hour of need, dimmed as the sun grew hotter and brighter.
Enjoying the story so far? Under a Fallen Sun is available in hardcover, paperback or eBook formats at booksellers worldwide. You can also check out the audiobook on Audible or Apple.
I can feel the heat in the air.