Finding Nova Read online

  FINDING NOVA

  SEEKING EDEN BOOK ONE

  BELLE HARPER

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Nova

  2. Ezra

  3. Noah

  4. Nova

  5. Colton

  6. Nova

  7. Ezra

  8. Noah

  9. Nova

  10. Nova

  11. Noah

  12. Ezra

  13. Nova

  14. Ezra

  15. Noah

  16. Colton

  17. Nova

  18. Ezra

  19. Nova

  20. Colton

  21. Nova

  22. Ezra

  23. Nova

  24. Noah

  25. Nova

  26. Colton

  27. Nova

  28. Ryker

  29. Ezra

  30. Colton

  31. Nova

  32. Ryker

  33. Noah

  34. Nova

  35. Ezra

  36. Nova

  37. Ryker

  38. Nova

  39. Colton

  40. Nova

  41. Ryker

  42. Adam

  Protecting Nova

  About the Author

  Finding Nova by Belle Harper

  Edited by Finishing Touch Editing

  Cover design by Amy Queau at QDesign

  Copyright 2019© Belle Harper

  All Rights reserved.

  This book is protected under Copyright Laws. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means. Without the written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by Copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are either products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  For my amazing husband, my biggest fan.

  I love you.

  Prologue

  In 2041, the world experienced the largest solar flare in history…

  Fourteen years after…

  1

  Nova

  The landscape never seemed to change from desert, although this was not originally a desert. It was created from the storms we got after the flare. When the weather became unpredictable and deadly. I had no idea where we were, but I was hoping we were close to water. We had not seen any fresh water in a week. Our bottles were now empty; our food ran out three days ago. The sun was unforgiving. Luck just wasn’t on our side.

  “Chin up, Nova.” Kevin nudged my arm as the wind stirred the dust around our bodies, sprinkling us lightly with another layer of red. I didn’t mind so much; it made us blend into the horizon. No chance the Red Raiders would see us. They are the last group you want to run into. They had no care for human life, they took what they wanted and killed those who got in their way.

  Kevin was my dad's business partner. We were at his place when the flare first hit. And he had been with us ever since. Well, with me. I had been only six years old, but I still remembered that day like it was yesterday. But that had nothing on every day after. Gone was my childhood. The flare had taken out all the power grids and accidently unleashed the NEX virus, killing millions of people in the first few weeks. Everything good in the world replaced with death, pain, and hunger.

  “We need to find shelter. This heat will kill us faster.” I pointed to a large cluster of rocks to our left. They looked big enough to shelter us from this unforgiving sky. Even if it was only for a few hours.

  He nodded as we started our way over. Dragging our feet across the desert floor. I looked up and saw we were halfway to the rocks when I saw it. A flash of light. I froze and scanned the horizon until I saw it again. It was reflecting off something. Maybe that was where the city was. The one we’d heard about when we were back in Bakersfield. Before we fled with nothing but the clothes on our backs and a few protein bars.

  All because of me.

  “Kev,” I called out to him. He stopped and turned back to me, squinting to where I was pointing. Maybe I was seeing things, but I wanted to see things, real things. Dehydration was already upon us, and there was no turning back to where we came from. We would never make it and if we did, I wouldn’t want to.

  “Maybe it was nothing,” I said as I dragged my feet through the cracked, dry earth as the wind picked up again. I froze. Looking in the direction we came, I could see a storm coming. We needed to find shelter now, or that storm would likely kill us. Ever since the flare, the weather had turned deadly, seas rising, storms that lasted weeks, tornadoes and even acid rain were what we had to deal with on top of everything else.

  “Kev,” I squeaked this time. He turned and saw the storm front approaching. Grabbing my hand, he started us walking at a quickened pace to where I saw the light. I hoped it was the city. Somewhere with water would be even better, but just some shelter from the storm would suffice.

  We were so close, so close I could almost touch it before the exhaustion won out. Kevin tried to lift me, but I protested. I didn’t want to bring him down with me. It was my fault we were here. I did this. He needed to go on, find shelter, and ride out the storm. The winds were strong now and visibility was bad. But I could see it, about five miles away. A house—no, more than one. There was a small town up ahead.

  My head was pounding. The headache was so strong it felt like my head would explode. I got on my hands and knees and started crawling. So close. We are just so close.

  “Please,” I whispered into the wind. Kevin stumbled next to me as he leaned down and picked me up. I protested but my voice was lost on the wind. The hat I wore to cover my hair was threatening to come loose. I held onto it as long as I could. Closing my eyes, I felt the movements of Kevin as he stumbled and staggered toward the town.

  “Hey,” he called out. I opened my eyes to see him looking down at me.

  “Don’t you go on me. Don’t you leave me.” He dropped to his knees.

  I never wanted to feel like this; I was always the strong one. But that was before, when my father was still alive. Before a new sickness spread through Bakersfield and wiped out more than three hundred people in the first week. We thought we were okay, that the worst of it was over, but then Dad got sick and within three days he was dead. That had been a year ago, but it still hurt. A lot of people had lost loved ones. But I wasn’t prepared for that. I thought the worst was over after NEX.

  I survived the NEX virus, whereas millions of women around the country— maybe even the world didn’t—women like my mom. When we both got sick, the hospitals were overrun. My dad and Kevin looked after us at home. I was one of the lucky females who survived; not many did. I had been only six years old.

  My body started to shut down as my arm dropped from my head. The wind finally caught my hat, and it was ripped from my head, my hair spilling out and danced around in the storm.

  “What the fuck?” A deep throaty voice boomed though my head. I squinted up to see one pale blue eye and one dark one, peering down at me. Then everything went black.

  2

  Ezra

  I could see someone. I was keeping a lookout on the top floor of the house we called home for the last six months. As I watched the approaching storm, I saw the figure of a man carrying something—a small man, maybe. When I scouted the area and saw it was only them, I called out to Noah.

  “Hey, there is someone out there. Cover for me.”

  I wrapped my face
up to keep the dust out of my mouth, exposing only my eyes. I grabbed my pistol and headed out to meet whoever was dumb enough to come across what we call the “Red Plains.” It was virtually a death trap.

  Out in the street, I ran down past the few houses left standing and out to where the struggling man was holding a thin man.

  “Hey,” he called out as he fell to his knees, still cradling the small figure. As I approached, I recognized the look in the man’s eyes. Hope. I looked down to the man he was carrying. His arm dropped from his head, and his hat blew off instantly. And what I saw shocked me more than words could express.

  Long, pure-white hair danced with the wind, I think my heart stopped for a moment. It was a female, a young woman. Not a man he carried.

  I moved to get a closer look. Females were rare; I hadn’t seen one for two years. But right there in front of me was a woman. She had the tell-tale sign of pure white hair, which meant she had survived NEX.

  “What the fuck?” I muttered. It was all I could say as any other words eluded me. I didn’t know what to think. A female here—not an illusion.

  But then she looked up to me, and I fell into the depths of her doe-like, deep-brown eyes. And her body went limp.

  “Help me, please help save her. I beg you.” The man raised his arms to offer her, he trusted me with the most precious jewel on earth. I quickly took her from his arms. I tried my best not to jostle her too much. Even though she was unconscious, I wanted to make sure nothing hurt her.

  “How long have you been here?” I yelled over to him. The wind had picked up more, and I knew the eye of the big storm was approaching fast.

  “Come, come now the storm will kill you,” I called to him.

  He looked up at me and shook his head. “Take care of Nova. Promise me no harm will come to her.”

  I shook my head. There was still time for him to outrun the storm. He could make it if he just stood up. “You can still make it. Come now.”

  He shook his head again and motioned for me to leave him. I couldn’t carry them both. I didn’t have the strength. I would have to come back. “I will come get you. Wait for me. I promise I will take care of her, then I will return for you.”

  Without hesitation I cradled her small body close to mine as I turned on my heel and sprinted as fast as I could to the house. I could just see Noah through the dust as I shouted to him for help.

  I looked down to the unconscious woman in my arms and picked up more speed. Noah opened the door and I charged into the house. He slammed the door shut to keep the dust and storm out.

  “Need. To. Go. Help,” I all but choked out. I used a lot more energy than I should have. Noah glanced to the door and then back to the woman in my arms.

  “I will go,” he announced as he pulled up his neck piece over his mouth and rushed out of the house at speed.

  I ran up the stairs and into the room we sleep in. There wasn’t much in here. A chair in the corner, three dirty mattresses on the floor, worn sheets laid around in a crumpled mess. I placed her down, with the only pillow we had to support her head. I sat back and really had a look at her. She was covered in dust and dirt, but that hair stood out no matter how much the storm had tried to coat it. Her lips were plump but dry and cracked.

  Water. She needed water.

  Just as I got up to get some from my canteen, I heard the front door bang open. Noah stomped up the stairs. It had me frozen in place. When he came around the corner, the look on his face said it all.

  “I couldn’t find him. I called out. I tried. The storm got too close, so I came back.” He hung his head down. Noah tried to save everyone, and when he couldn’t, it always ate at him. It was one of his best qualities but also one of his worst…in a post-apocalyptic world. Helping someone else could mean death to you or your whole family.

  The house groaned and shook. Shit. The storm was bigger than I thought.

  “It’s okay, just grab a mattress. We have to ride this one out in the basement. Grab everything and head down. I will take her down.” I turned to go back to the woman. She laid in the same position as I had left her. I didn’t expect her to wake, but I needed to get water into her.

  “What? Um, her?” Noah stumbled to get the words out as he stood next to me, looking down at the woman. “Oh, my God, it’s a her, a she. How is there a girl in here? I thought they were all but dead?”

  I quickly scooped her up in my arms and pushed my way past a shocked Noah.

  “Hurry.” I told him as I made my way down into the dark basement. The air was stuffy and cool down there. Much better than the heat of upstairs. I hoped he would bring enough down for us to ride out the storm. We hadn’t had one in almost a month. But they were unpredictable. We kept our food stored down there as it lasted longer out of the heat. But I hated the basement. It was too dark for too long. And sometimes we could be there a day or a few weeks. We had been planning to move on from this house. But it also was the perfect distance to trade with different cities, and far enough that they wouldn’t come to us. And that’s where Colt was right now. Trading with products we looted from an old hardware store last week. We go where no one else will go. So, there is plenty of loot to be found still.

  “I will set up the bed here. Can you see? Do we use the flashlight?”

  I heard Noah bang the mattress into a few cans, they dropped off the shelves and slammed into the cold concrete floor, the sound bounced around the room. I nodded and then realized he couldn’t see me.

  “Yes, I need to get water into her. She is dehydrated.” Noah stumbled and muttered a few curse words, and then a small glow from the solar-powered flashlight lit up the room enough to see.

  I placed her gently down on the mattress again. Cradled her head with my forearm as I opened my canteen with my free hand. Noah just stood there with the flashlight on her face. She reminded me of an angel. Maybe she was.

  I opened her mouth gently with the edge of the canteen and poured a small amount into her mouth. I didn’t want to give her to much, it could go into her lungs. Just small bits at a time. She swallowed so I gave her more. Who was she? Where did she come from?

  “Shit, you think she needs food too? How does she eat like that?” Noah asked me, breaking me from my thoughts of this woman. A woman in my arms. I didn’t want to let her go now that she was here.

  “Ah, fuck. Um…you know Colts chocolate stash?” I asked. And without any further explaining, Noah was up and ran over to the drawer that held his stash. It was his chocolate; he found it, and he only had a small bit left now. We never touched it—that was the rules between us. It was what kept us together. We were a family. We didn’t steal from each other and we took care of each other no matter what.

  Noah passed me a small wrapped bar. “I got the smallest one. Just in case it doesn’t work.”

  I took off a very small amount and placed it on her tongue, hoping it would melt fast and give her a small amount of sugar to wake up. I watched her for a long time. The light on the flashlight started to dull and flicker, so Noah turned it off.

  “How long do you think it will take for her to wake?”

  I shrugged, forgetting he couldn’t see me again. “I’m not sure. Let’s get some rest now and hopefully she will wake up sooner rather than later. I will take first watch”

  3

  Noah

  I couldn’t sleep. I was too excited and curious who this girl was. Oh, my God, we have a girl. I had seen older ones before, like really old girls. But not like this one. This one was young. Much younger than I had ever seen before, and we were the lucky ones who got to have her in our house, in our family.

  I’d made sure I grabbed the double mattress before shutting the basement door. If we were to stay down here, then I wanted to make sure I had somewhere comfy to lie. And Ez didn’t say anything when I lay down next to her. He lay next to her too. I wanted to make sure she was warm enough, so I placed my body close enough to give her warmth, but I didn’t want her to wake up and freak out.<
br />
  Colt usually shared a bed with me. He wasn’t the best sleep partner, but I didn’t like being alone, and he was more than happy to be with me. Ez, on the other hand, liked his space. He wasn’t the kind to express his feelings openly. Not like me. But with Colt and me, it was different.

  I must have fallen asleep because I woke to Ez telling me to get up.

  “It passed us. It’s time to go back upstairs. I need to give her more water now too.”

  I rolled over on the mattress and onto the cold concrete floor. The basement door was open, and the light that poured though lit up the room enough to see. I bent down to pick her up and Ez dove for her.

  “Hey, I want to carry her.” I slid my arms under her body the same time Ezra did. “Ez, you got to do it before. Now it’s my turn. I have never held a girl before. Please,” I pleaded with him.

  His face was so close to mine. His one pale blue and one deep-brown eye bore into me. I didn’t think he was going to let go, but he surprised me.

  “Fine, but be very careful. Don’t drop her.”