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    Away from Home: Short Story
    Away from Home: Short Story
    Away from Home: Short Story
    Ebook51 pages47 minutes

    Away from Home: Short Story

    By James Loscombe

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    About this ebook

    The Road Ahead Will Be A Hard One

    When New Haven loses contact with the distant colony of Lambda they turn to Rachel for help. As a Rider she is used to travelling on the dangerous highway that winds through the desolate wastelands. As a Survivor she knows only too well the dangers that lay in wait. She isn't sure what she expects to find when she reaches the colony, the best she can hope for is that she will arrive in one piece.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames Loscombe
    Release dateMar 29, 2019
    ISBN9781386884033
    Away from Home: Short Story
    Author

    James Loscombe

    James Loscombe has been publishing under various pen names for the last five years. He lives in England with his wife Tamzin and their sons Jude and Oscar.

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      Book preview

      Away from Home - James Loscombe

      If you would like to read more by James then check out http://jloscombe.com/books/ where you will find a complete list of releases.

      If you would like to be the first to know when new titles are available (and receive copies of all James’ short stories for free, then click here http://jloscombe.com/subscribe/ to register.

      She could hear the bar from down the hall as she approached. The big open space used to be a warehouse, but now it was the worlds biggest pub.

      When she could help it Rachel didn’t go near the place. Sitting around with a bunch of drunks wasn’t exactly her idea of a good time. She would much rather have been in her room with a bottle of red and a good book. Or a bad book come to that.

      She stopped at the door and braced herself. She wouldn’t have come at all except it was Marty’s favourite spot and he’d sent a message that he needed to speak to her. She wished he kept office hours, but nobody did anymore. He had a job for her, and the only way to find out what that was, was to find him.

      The bar was full to bursting. Just about everyone in New Haven seemed to be there. Men spoke to each other in loud deep voices, spilling beer on the concrete floor as they toasted something or other. The women weren’t much better; wearing clothes that were too small for them and heels that were clearly too tall. They lined the bar sipping silly drinks waiting to be picked up.

      Rachel squeezed past the obnoxious men and lined up next to the bar skanks. In her black combat trousers and t-shirt she wouldn’t easily be confused with one of them. She wore her red hair up and out of the way. She hadn’t touched makeup since she was sixteen, almost half her life ago.

      She ordered a beer and turned around to face the room. The bar was as big as two football pitches and full of people, he could have been anywhere. She took a swig of her beer and set off into the scrum of heaving bodies in search of her boss.

      The room had divided itself neatly so that each group had its own area. The miners, the plumbers, the builders and the machinists were in one area: the scientists, the planners, the managers were in another. She looked around for someone in security or the army but she didn’t see them. Her lot were good at hiding though, those who weren’t didn’t stay alive for very long.

      Rachel circled the room and began to make her way inwards in a loose spiral. She clutched her drink and ducked out of the way of people who didn’t notice her.

      Open drinks sloshed from bottles and she had to sidestep to avoid getting drenched. She worked her way to the middle of the room and circled an argument between a miner and a plumber that was threatening to erupt into a full blown brawl. There was no sign of Marty and she was beginning to think he might not be there at all. Maybe this was all part of his plan to get her to have the social life that she didn’t want.

      ‘Hi there Red,’ said a familiar voice.

      Rachel turned around and found herself face to chest with Billy Fletcher, a greasy mechanic who took too much of an interest in her. She smiled and tried to move on but he blocked her path.

      ‘Don’t often see you in here,’ he said. He was slurring his words and wobbling from side to side. He was drunk, but still a foot taller than her and surrounded by his friends.

      ‘I’m looking for Marty.’ She was reluctant to talk to him, but figured she didn’t have much choice and he might be able to do some good. ‘Have you seen him?’

      Billy rubbed his stubbly chin while he pretended to

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