Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure by Mark Tufo Read Free Book Online

, Max moved forward, gesturing her to follow him, at least that’s what it looked like . When she tried to move quickly enough to walk side by side with him , he quickly put his hand up to stop her.
    “What the hell, Max , you just told me to follow you ,” she said , exasperat ed .
    “Lady , you have at least two rifles pointing at you, if you make any kind of threatening move, they’ll open fire.” Beth halted the second she heard ‘ rifle ’ . “I’m going to walk in slowly, you follow me about ten feet behind.”
    Beth stood st ock still , not yet knowing whether she should leave this twi sted N everland or continue on down the rabbit hole. Just then , a small breeze rippled through the barren tree top s, the cold cut through her ill- prepared clothing. Her mind made up, the rabbit hole suddenly seemed inviting.
    Beth walked slowly , hands held high for all to see, she had no desire to find out how accurate a kid could be with a rifle, if in fact it was a child. She had not heard Max say anything about the inhabitants of his sanctuary. She just assumed, there was the boy who had diverted her stalker and Max . S he couldn’t imagine any sane parent letting their kids out unescorted these days . As she neared the opening of a large culvert , she saw as many as three youngsters make their presence known, each one standing to garner a cleaner shot if need be. When Max reached the mouth of the opening , he must have given the signal for the all clear. The three guards melted back into their stations, they looked young , but Beth didn’t think they’d hesitate a moment if the threat was real.
    “Come on , lady, you stand out there any longer and they might just use you for target practice.” Max snorted when Beth jumped and headed briskly into the corrugated steel opening. Max had to dip hi s head a little, Beth was uncomfortably stooped over , the strain on her back was unbearable. Just when she thought her mild claustrophobia and lower back pain might get the better of her , the culvert pipe ended and opened up into what could only be described as a child’s slice of heaven. Toys and stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes were scattered about ; S tar W ars posters, H ulk flashlights, Spider-M an action figures were everywhere in direct contrast to the wall of small fire arms lining the far side .
    “What is this place?” Beth nearly stammered.
    “It’s Fort One, of course , ” Max an swered smugly, letting his new guest soak it in.
    “But what exactly is it?” Beth asked , looking for clarification. The room was vast for something underground, possibly fifty yards to the far wall and twenty-five yards from side to side. Bunk beds and air mattresses where pushed up against the wall to her immediate right. She looked closer and noticed some of the beds were occupied with kids that may have been previously sleeping but were now staring raptly at her.
    Beth’s attention snapped back as Max began to answer her. “Our best guess is that it is some sort of pump house for the Quabbin reservoir. There are other rooms back there ”. H e pointed to a door past the ‘armory’ . “ M ostly they are filled with machinery, we sometimes use them as offices when we don’t want some of the younger kids to hear what we’re talking about, we don’t want to scare them any more than they already are.”
    “Where are their … yours … all of your parents?”
    Max seemed to show the first real display of emotion with Beth’s words, but he did his best to dismiss it with a wave of his hand.
    “Most of us here are orphans — well , I guess all of us are now , ” Max said a little lower. “Wait — let me start over. Us original twelve were in an orphanage when the aliens attacked, we made it through that part fine . I t was what happened afterwards that made us no longer wards of the state. Our orphanage was attacked by a huge gang of militia wannabes looking for food. They killed our head mistress and any adult