All Chapters of DAWN BEFORE DOOMSDAY : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

12 Chapters

CHAPTER 1 — THE MAN WHO LEFT ME TO DIE

On the thirty-seventh day of the apocalypse, Nora Vale's husband killed her for six cans of food.She just didn't know it yet.Nora crouched behind an overturned checkout counter, one hand pressed against her stomach.Hunger cramped through her again.She bit down on her sleeve before the sound could escape.Footsteps scraped through the darkness.Someone was searching the supermarket.“Check the registers.”“I already did.”“Then check again.”Two men.Maybe three.Nora tightened her arms around the cardboard box she'd found beneath a collapsed shelf.Six cans of beans.Two packets of crackers.One bottle of water.Three months ago, she would have walked past all of it without looking twice.Now people are murdered for less.The footsteps came closer.Nora glanced toward the shattered entrance.Twenty meters.If her leg weren't injured, she could make it easily.But blood had soaked through the makeshift bandage around her thigh.She had one chance.A shelf crashed at the opposite en

Last Updated : 2026-09-29

CHAPTER 2 — I'M BUYING EVERYTHING

At 8:03 that morning, Nora put a steaming cup of coffee inside the Survival Space.At 8:33, she took it back out.Steam still curled from the surface.Nora touched the cup.Hot.Exactly as hot as before.She took a cautious sip.Perfect.Her pulse quickened.just to be sure Next came ice.She dropped three cubes into a bowl and stored it.Thirty minutes later, she retrieved the bowl.The cubes hadn't melted.Not even slightly.Nora stared at them.Time didn't pass for stored items.That single discovery changed everything.In her previous life, people had wasted enormous amounts of food during the first week of the apocalypse. Refrigerators stopped working when the grid collapsed. Meat spoiled. Milk soured. Frozen food became garbage.But inside her space?Nothing would expire.Nothing would rot.She could store fresh meat, vegetables, medicine—anything she wanted.Nora grabbed her purse.She had twenty-nine days.There was no reason to waste another minute.By nine, she was pushing t

Last Updated : 2026-09-29

CHAPTER 3 — THE THINGS THEY STOLE FROM ME

Three years of marriage had cost Nora more than she realized.She discovered the exact number at six the next morning.$1,842,760.Nora stared at the spreadsheet on her laptop.Transfers.Loans.Investments.Property guarantees.Company expenses.Money had flowed from her accounts into Ethan Cross's life so gradually that she'd never looked at the total.There had always been a reason.The company needs temporary liquidity.Mom found a wonderful investment opportunity.My brother will pay you back.We're married, Nora. Why are you keeping score?So she hadn't.That had been her mistake.And the money wasn't everything.Nora opened another folder.Her grandmother's jewelry had been “temporarily” placed in Ethan's family safe.A piece of Vale family property had been used as collateral.Three suppliers she'd introduced to Ethan now worked almost exclusively with Cross Holdings.And the commercial redevelopment proposal everyone praised Ethan for?Nora had written half of it.He had acce

Last Updated : 2026-09-29

CHAPTER 4 — THE MAN WHO THINKS I'M CRAZY

Food could keep Nora alive.It couldn't stop someone from putting a gun to her head and taking it.That lesson had cost thousands of lives during the apocalypse.Nora had no intention of relearning it.She needed security.Not a bodyguard who looked intimidating in a suit. Not the guards Ethan hired for parties.She needed someone who understood what happened when laws stopped mattering.There was only one name she remembered.Adrian Kane.On Day Eleven of the apocalypse, Nora had seen him outside St. Vincent Hospital.People were rioting over antibiotics. Police had already abandoned the district.Adrian and six others had held the hospital entrance long enough to evacuate dozens of patients.Nora remembered him carrying an elderly man through gunfire.Later, survivors talked about Commander Kane as if he were some kind of legend.Then, around Day Thirty, he disappeared.Some said he died.Others claimed he'd left the city.Nora didn't know which was true.She only knew one thing.Wh

Last Updated : 2026-09-29

CHAPTER 5 — THE FIRST MAN WHO BELIEVED ME

Adrian Kane didn't believe Nora when she told him the world was going to end.But he believed in the bridge.For now, that was enough.“How long?”They sat inside Adrian's office at Blackridge, the door locked behind them.“Until what?”“Until whatever you're preparing for.”Nora looked at him.“Twenty-six days.”Adrian's expression barely changed.Only his fingers stopped tapping the desk.“You're certain?”“Yes.”“How bad?”“Power failure. Communications collapse. Food shortages. Contaminated water. Rioting.”“And the government?”“Overwhelmed.”“Military?”“Fragmented.”“Duration?”“I don't know.”That answer caught his attention.“You can predict a bridge collapse within two minutes, but you don't know how long the crisis lasts?”“My information has limits.”“What limits?”Nora hesitated.She wasn't going to tell him she'd died.Not yet.“I know the first thirty-seven days better than anything after that.”Adrian watched her carefully.“Why?”“I can't tell you.”“Then I can't trus

Last Updated : 2026-09-29

CHAPTER 6 — THE PRICE OF TRUST

“Someone else remembers the apocalypse.”Adrian stared at Nora.For several seconds, the warehouse seemed unnaturally quiet.Then his phone vibrated.He checked the screen.Whatever he saw made his expression harden.“What?”He turned the phone toward her.A local news alert filled the screen.ST. VINCENT HOSPITAL INVESTIGATING UNIDENTIFIED FEVER CLUSTER.Seven patients had been admitted.Four belonged to the same family.Exactly as Nora had predicted.Adrian read the article again.“The bridge could have been inside information,” he said. “Engineering reports. A structural defect somebody covered up.”Nora waited.“But this?”“You think I infected them myself?”“No.”“Good.”“I think I don't know what you are.”That almost made her smile.Twenty-two days before civilization collapsed, Nora had more important things to worry about than convincing one suspicious man she wasn't insane.“Come with me.”“Where?”“You wanted answers. I'll give you something better.”“What?”“A job.”* * *

Last Updated : 2026-10-01

CHAPTER 7 — SOMEONE IS BUYING EVERYTHING

Someone was asking questions about Nora Vale.Nora's first response was not fear.It was to make a spreadsheet.By midnight, every significant purchase she'd made since June 3 was listed on her laptop: vendor, quantity, payment method, delivery date, canceled orders and unexpected price changes.Adrian sat across from her at the farmhouse kitchen table.“You do this every time someone threatens you?”“I've had worse coping mechanisms.”He looked at the three screens she'd arranged beside each other.“You consider this coping?”“I consider it accounting.”Nora highlighted six suppliers.A pattern was taking shape.Generators had risen eighteen percent in four days.Bulk diesel storage tanks, twenty-two percent.Commercial water filters, thirty-one.A medical wholesaler had abruptly doubled the price of protective equipment despite no corresponding increase in public demand.The outbreak at St. Vincent hadn't made national news yet.Ordinary people weren't preparing.Someone else was.“

Last Updated : 2026-10-01

CHAPTER 8 — THE WAREHOUSE

By morning, Adrian had a location.“The anonymous number was disposable,” he said. “Prepaid SIM, false registration.”Nora looked up from her breakfast.“So nothing?”“I didn't say that.”He placed his tablet beside her plate.A map filled the screen.“The phone connected through three towers yesterday. I cross-referenced the signal windows with the timestamps on your messages.”A red circle surrounded an industrial district west of the city.Nora recognized it.Her appetite disappeared.“Continental Emergency Supply.”“Close. Their overflow warehouse is here.”Adrian tapped a building two streets away.Nora had visited the district while negotiating her shipment.“So our stranger was nearby when my supplies left.”“Possibly watching.”Nora stood.“I'm going.”“I knew you'd say that.”“You're coming.”“I knew you'd say that too.”* * *The warehouse district was quiet at noon.Too quiet.Nora parked across the street.Continental's overflow facility was a long concrete building squeez

Last Updated : 2026-10-01

CHAPTER 9 — THE MAN BEHIND THE ORDER

The list from the warehouse gave Nora seventeen names.Four were fake.Six belonged to legitimate companies.Three led to shell corporations registered within the last year.The remaining four were people.Adrian spent most of the night tracing them.By morning, one name kept appearing.Mercer Logistics.“No website,” Nora said.“Not a real logistics company.”Adrian turned his laptop toward her.Mercer Logistics rented two warehouses near the freight district. On paper, it imported machine parts.In reality, its money moved through private security firms, shooting clubs, overseas freight brokers, and businesses that dealt in equipment ordinary stores didn't carry.“Restricted gear?” Nora asked.“Among other things.”“Weapons.”“Likely.”That solved one of her problems.Unfortunately, it might also have created several new ones.Nora pointed to the screen.“Who owns it?”“Kai Mercer.”His photograph appeared.Thirty years old. Former competitive fighter. No convictions, although his n

Last Updated : 2026-10-01

CHAPTER 10 — SIX MINUTES

“You have six minutes.”Nora glanced at Adrian. “Six minutes until what?”Kai answered from the back seat.“Until eight hundred thousand dollars of equipment becomes someone else's property.”Nora pressed the accelerator.The SUV surged forward.Her phone showed 2:14 p.m.They had been expecting the shipment at four.Then the freight broker called.The truck had arrived early, the loading facility was clearing its floor for another consignment, and a second buyer had offered cash for anything Nora failed to collect immediately.“Why wasn't I notified sooner?” Nora asked.Kai sounded perfectly relaxed.“Because logistics companies are staffed by people who enjoy suffering.”“You arranged this.”“I arranged the equipment. I don't control traffic.”Adrian gripped the door handle as Nora took a corner.“Five minutes.”“Helpful.”“You asked me to track the time.”“I didn't ask for commentary.”Kai laughed.“I'm starting to enjoy working with you.”“We aren't working together.”“Whatever he

Last Updated : 2026-10-01

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