7 Hours Novels & Stories

He gave in and I started dragging him away to the car I had parked not far from the gas station. "How... how much longer do I have left?" "Seven hours..." I said, knowing that getting to Lycan territory would take five. "You have seven hours left.”

We wave to each other as Alex starts the truck, and we start on our drive. Travis climbed in the back, so I had climbed in the front with Alex driving. "So, how long is the drive to your pack?" "It's a little over seven hours if we make good time." "Dang, I didn't realize it is that far," I tell him when I think about the ride. I guess that gives us plenty of time to talk. Before I can even think of something to talk about, I yawn, and Alex laughs.

We both stand there in the middle of the living room listening to it fade down the street and then there’s silence and I press both hands over my face and try to remember how to breathe normally. “That wasn’t him,” Edmund says. “I know.” “We have time.” “I know.” I drop my hands and look at the couch and start fixing the cushions because I need something to do with my body right now or I’m going to lose my mind. “How much time do you think we actually have?” He checks his phone. The cracked screen lights up. “He said six. It’s just past four.” Two hours.

“I want a truce. Just for the remainder of this trip. Until we get back to Crown Point.” Her eyes narrow. “A truce,” she repeats. Skeptical little thing. “Just believe that I’m actually being nice.” I scoff. “It’s not completely foreign to me.” “It is to me,” she says under her breath. Still, she seems intrigued. The clock is ticking. It’s almost three-thirty, and my alarm is set for nine. The bus leaves at noon, and we’ll be back by mid-afternoon. It’s not a lot of time. It’s doable.

Seventy-two hours to prove humanity deserved to exist. He'd better get started.

She liked him in every way, to be honest, but this is her favorite. “So, the sunset happens around seven thirty today,” says Brent drinking his juice, “it would be nice to reach the top at least fifteen to twenty minutes before that and because we are traveling like humans,” he smiles, “it would take us about four hours. So, we can leave around two thirty in the afternoon, drive to the base of the hill and start hiking from there. Does that sound okay to you?” It sounded way more than okay to Esther but she kept a casual tone and said, “Yeah, sure.”

Even the wind felt hesitant. Samuel stood still, arms wrapped tightly around himself—not from cold, but from the quiet realization settling deep into his bones. There was no more running. No more delaying. No more pretending they could outlast this. Behind him, Adrian spoke. Not softly, Not gently,But clearly. “We have less than seventy-two hours.” Samuel didn’t turn. “Before impact?” he asked. “Before launch,” Adrian corrected. That got his attention. Samuel glanced back. Adrian stood a few feet away, already different.

Kept his eyes on the road and thought about the academy gates ahead and Drax's office and whatever came after, and let his wolf finish settling in its own time. They pulled through the academy gates at twelve forty-seven in the morning. Fifty hours and thirteen minutes remain on the seventy-two-hour window. They had not needed a single one of them.

A week, a month max. ***