America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere by Lindsey Rivers Read Free Book Online Page A

She was hopeful.
    “ Jesus, is it ever,” Susan
answered through chattering teeth.
    “ Oh well,” Lilly said.
    “ We need to get
one of these Brainiacs to figure out how to get us hot water,” Sandy said. “I may
never warm up again.”
    “ Oh, I doubt that,” Susan said
dead pan.
    Lilly laughed and headed down the trail,
leaving the two of them walking slowly, arm in arm, up the
trail.
    When she arrived, Molly, Annie, Arlene and
Sharon, along with Kate and Patty were already there.
    “ I heard it's really cold,” Lilly
said to no one in particular.
    “ It really, really, really is,”
Arlene said. She was standing in the stream, water up to her waist,
shivering.
    Kate dove under the water, bobbed up in the
middle of the stream and swam downstream. “It's not bad. Keep
moving,” she called back, “Keeps you warm!”
    Lilly peeled her clothes quickly and looked
doubtfully at the water, “Okay, if you say so, here goes!” She ran
into the water and dove under. She surfaced next to
Kate.
    “ It's so cold. You lied,” she
laughed. She splashed Kate who giggled and splashed her back. A few
seconds later everyone was involved in the water fight.
    “ Now that warmed me right up,”
Arlene said a few minutes later as the water fight came to a
close.
    “ Yeah, me also,” Lilly said. She
was out of the water on the grassy bank drying herself off and
getting dressed.
    Kate sat close by with Patty. The two of them
working to brush each others hair out.
    A few minutes later, Janet Dove came down, “I
Thought I'd better get down here while I had the chance. Dinner's
going. I have a little time to myself,” she said.
    “ I can't believe how well you run
stuff,” Patty told her.
    “ Yeah, for real,” Lilly said. “You
so much have it together. I wish I did,” she said.
    Janet looked embarrassed. “Oh, it's just
helping out. If I didn't do it, somebody would,” she
said.
    “ That's true,” Kate said, “but I
doubt they'd do it anywhere near as well as you do.”
    Janet blushed again. “Thank you, Katie,” she
said.
    Lilly smiled. Janet Dove was about the only
person she knew of who could call Kate Katie. She meant to ask her
why that was someday, but she was pretty sure she already knew why.
Janet was like everybody's mother. She was the ultimate nurturer.
And a mother could get away with things no one else ever
could.
    A few of the women were still in the water.
They all waited for each other and left as a group.
    ~
    Mike sat on the sun warmed rock and looked out
over the water. Jeff came and sat down next to him.
    “ You have things running pretty
smoothly,” Jeff told him.

    Mike laughed. “Not me. I don't lead... not
really.”
    Jeff raised his eyebrows. “Maybe you don't
realize it, but you do.”
    Mike sighed. “Yeah... Okay, I guess I do. Not a
job I asked for though. I hate to say it out like that. Makes me
responsible.” He laughed. “Guess I'm responsible anyway
though.”
    Jeff nodded. “I found myself in the same
situation” He looked out over the water for a few moments. “Listen,
I wanted to talk to you.”
    Mike turned from the water. “Sounds serious.”
His eyes focused on Jeff's own.
    “ It sort of is... it is. Hell, I
just don't know.” His eyes came up and focused on Mike. “Have you
had any problems with the dead? I mean people who are supposed to
be dead?”
    Mike looked at him for a few seconds, thinking
he must have missed some other part to the conversation, or
possibly heard him wrong. “Uh... I have to say, Jeff, you lost
me.”
    Jeff sighed. “Yeah... Okay... This
will sound like bullshit, or crazy.” He took a deep breath. “Okay,
so we're going through this small town. What it was is, I came upon
this body. Well, it seemed to be a body.” He shook his head. “No...
Look. I came upon this
body . It was a body. No doubt at all. And
then the goddamn thing got up and took off. Scared the shit out of
me. Okay, I know that sounds crazy. But, well, I wondered if