2nd Earth: Shortfall by Edward Vought Read Free Book Online Page A

leader, although most if not all the people look to Tim and me for guidance. We don’t take that responsibility lightly. We have both led missions with our SEAL team and know the importance of having someone willing to take charge when a crucial decision needs to be made. We have been discussing some possibilities with Dayna and Charity and of course we have also included Dayna’s father, Billy and his mother and some of the others that are their family’s leaders. We feel that we are going to have to make a very big decision soon and we want to make sure everyone can stand by what we are proposing.
    On the third day of the rains we have our fighting practice. Dayna and Charity are enjoying using Tim and me for punching bags just a little too much. I have fought men that didn’t hit as hard as they do. Maybe when she sees the bruises she will take it easy on me. Today I am looking out the window at a truck that is parked across the street from the building. It reminds me of a truck that Gunny and I rebuilt when I was fifteen. I remember buying that truck for twenty dollars from a junk dealer and was so proud when I took Gunny to see it. He never said a negative thing about that beat-up old truck other than to ask me if I realized how much work it was going to be to get it in driving shape. We rebuilt that engine from the bottom up and with Gunny’s supervision I restored the body and rebuilt the suspension on that truck. Gunny was gone most of the time, but he left me detailed instructions of what to do and I followed them to the letter. When he would come home from a mission or whatever he was doing for the Marine Corps, we would go over what I had accomplished and I was so proud that he was pleased with the work I was doing.
    Dayna comes over and asks me if I’m staring at a pretty girl outside. I tell her the prettiest girl in the world is right here next to me. Why would I even want to look at any others? She slips in front of me on the chair I am sitting on and wraps my arms around her. We really enjoy sitting like this even if the others tease us telling us to watch where we put our hands, there are impressionable young people around. This is really beginning to feel like what I imagine a family would feel like. It’s a good thing it quits raining during the night, we are starting to run low on some of the food items we have. When I can go out in the morning the first thing I do is check out that truck. I can’t believe I haven’t noticed it here before this. With four flat tires I don’t think anyone drove it here recently though. Tim, Billy, and I decide when we get back from getting food we will take a look at the truck and see if there is any way we can get it running again. We go back to the store a little farther from home and it is just like we left it. We gather as much of the food as we can load into our wagons and grocery carts. While we are here I decide to do something smart for a change and see what may be in the stock room.
    We are all glad we did because canned goods are piled in cases from the floor to the tops of the racks in here. It looks like enough food to feed the family for the entire winter or summer, whichever season we are coming up on. The truck has to wait because we spend the rest of the day making trips and hauling cases of canned goods back to the home. We meet another small family and invite them to join us. This group has only four people in it. The leader is a woman of probably twenty-five and has three younger girls with her. She says they had a young man staying with them for a while, but she thinks he either joined the predators or they captured him. Either way she says they came looking for the four girls and they were smart enough to hide. They haven’t been able to find food in a couple of days because of all the rain so they are more than happy to join us. We only get a little while before it gets dark to check out that truck, it is in mint condition, but it has been