A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead Novels & Stories

THE RETURN The drive back was quiet. Not the tense quiet of the drive out — that pre-dawn silence loaded with everything that hadn't happened yet. This was a different quality of quiet entirely. The kind that follows something completed. The kind that doesn't need to be filled because it isn't empty.

she said softly, awe and nerves tangling together, “no more hiding.” Behind them, the road stretched long and quiet. Ahead, light and truth waited in stone.

"Hartley place." "Kill the lights before we're all the way up the drive." "If I kill the lights I can't see the drive." "You know this road. Kill them." She did, and the dark swallowed us whole for three long seconds before my eyes adjusted, before the house resolved itself out of the black, and Martha eased the truck up alongside it and cut the engine, and the silence that followed felt worse than the noise had, thick and listening. "Everybody out, quiet as you can." I was already moving, already had my door open before the words finished leaving my mouth. "Zara, get the door open for Petra. Martha, watch the drive."

We pulled out of the drive, and I noticed Brodie pulling his phone out and putting it to his ear as he continued to stare down the street. That was weird. Loose dog, my ass, I looked around, trying to find what he saw as Wyatt drove us out of the neighborhood but I didn't see anything of concern. I bit my thumbnail. I don't think Rob would show up and cause problems but he always seems to surpass how far I think he'll go. Wyatt's phone rang and he answered. He looked in his rearview and said "Gotcha. Yep. I'm on it, okay man, later," I turned around and saw a black escalade pass the car behind us and come in behind us.

11-BEING HIM Athena woke up in an unfamiliar room, her senses immediately assaulted by an eerie silence. She lay there quietly, keeping her eyes closed, trying to gather her bearings. The beeping of the machines that surrounded the bed matched her breaths, the only indications of her heartbeat, her existence in this strange place.

If I puked, I’d be aiming for Bravo. Driver Dude drove down the winding road, the only way in or out of Orbit Valley, while I drummed my fingers on my bare knees. The vehicle was built for luxury, or at least, I'd heard such from the young men in my clan who dreamed of lavishness. But the pothole-ridden path was meant to disBravery visitors, so I relaxed and let the movement rock me, lulling me into semi-lucidity. As soon as we hit the paved street, my heart lurched.

The clinic always felt too quiet in the mornings, as if silence seeped down from the ceiling tiles and settled over everything. Lola Smith could hear the hum of the lights, the slow whir of the automatic doors, even the soft scrape of her own shoes across the polished floor. She didn’t mind the quiet, not really. But on certain days, when her thoughts were too loud, she wished for more noise—anything to drown out the feeling that her life was idling in neutral.

He turned to look at her, her eyes glazed and breathing ragged, and his Adam's apple bobbed hard. Then he lifted his hand and ended the call that was still ringing. It was my call. He gently scooped Liliana up in his arms and laid her back in the middle of the bed, then drew the covers up to her chin. His voice, low and restrained, filtered through the video. "I'm here for you. Just until the meds wear off." Then the screen went black, leaving only a vague grunt and Liliana's soft, smug giggle. I sat in the dark hospital room, shivering, feeling like I had been plunged into an icy pond.

"Uncle Adam, let me introduce myself again." I took a file from Alfie's hand and lightly slapped it against Uncle Adam's pale face. "I'm the chief auditor sent by the HQ, codename Grim Reaper. You were asking earlier what I could do? Well, this is my answer, Uncle Adam."

“All of it. The complete version.” The road was quiet around us. The grey afternoon light held. “Okay,” I said. The word came out smaller than I intended. He stepped forward and I held my ground and we stood in the middle of a road I didn’t know the name of, in a territory between things, and I waited for the truth I’d been walking toward for four years to finally reach me. M